Part 1

LADY EUREKA; OR, THE MYSTERY: A PROPHECY OF THE FUTURE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "MEPHISTOPHELES IN ENGLAND."

IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II.

LONDON: LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1840.

CONTENTS

I. A CONVERSATION UPON THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE. II. AUSTRALIAN CIVILISATION. III. POSTHUMOUS AND HIS MUSEUM. IV. A CONVERSAZIONE. V. THE PHILANTHROPIST IN TROUBLE. VI. CHINA, ITS LAWS, CUSTOMS, AND PEOPLE. VII. A CHINESE POET. VIII. THE MONSOON. IX. GAME LAWS IN INDIA. X. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DANGER OF GOOD INTENTIONS. XI. ATHENIA.

EUREKA;

A PROPHECY OF THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER I.

A CONVERSATION UPON THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE.

"Now, doctor, you know my secret, and the whole of it," said Zabra, at the conclusion of a long and interesting narrative he had communicated to Dr. Tourniquet, upon one of his professional visits. "Let not a word pass from your lips concerning what I have told you, for it would do me irreparable mischief. Be in your behaviour to me exactly as you have been. The slightest alteration would create suspicion, and that I am most anxious to avoid. May I rely upon you?"

"Rely upon me!" cried the surgeon, while his good-natured countenance was glowing with benevolence. "If you ever catch me saying a word, I'll allow any body to make a preparation of me before I'm dead. I'd sooner demonstrate upon my own skeleton, don't you see, than betray your secret. By all that's good, you're an extraordinary creature--a more extraordinary creature than ever I met with in the whole course of my practice. I always thought there was something strange about you, don't you see--a mystery I could not exactly understand--but now every thing appears as simple as the first rudiments of medicine."

"You gratify me exceedingly by this assurance," observed the youth, "and I am delighted by your ready acquiescence with my wishes. How can I best express my gratitude?"

"Tush, tush--don't talk about that," replied the other kindly. "Knowing what I do of you, I would do any thing in the world to serve you, don't you see. Consider me from this time as your father, your brother, or your friend, and whenever my advice or assistance can be useful, apply to me, and I will do all in my power to forward your interests."

"You overpower me with your goodness," said his young companion, returning the cordial pressure of the hand he had received. "Can I ever repay----"

"Tush, tush, never mind repaying," hastily rejoined the doctor. "I am well repaid by the pleasure it gives me to assist in your noble intentions, don't you see. But if I may be allowed to give you a little advice, I should strongly recommend you not to be so careless of your life as you have been. You are not formed for fighting, don't you see. You are not strong enough; but notwithstanding that, to my certain knowledge you paid off many of the piratical rascals pretty handsomely, and showed them to what profit you could apply the lessons they had given you. When I think of you finishing some of the scoundrels so dexterously as you did, I am filled with wonder. However, it is not right. You stand no chance in the midst of a set of strong ferocious men intent upon destroying all who oppose them. Your escape is a miracle; but you should remember that you cannot be spared."

"Ah, doctor!" replied his patient, with a languid smile, "what made you join in the conflict? Consider if _you_ had been killed, what would have become of the wounded."

"True, true," responded Tourniquet; "I never gave that a thought. But I had no time to think. I saw every one preparing to fight, and I knew we should all be massacred if we didn't succeed. Although it was a sort of trade to which I was quite unused, the examples I saw before me made me valiant, and when I got fairly into the fray, I found myself obliged to cut away as hard as I could, don't you see. Fortyfolios, too, didn't do amiss. It's wonderful how the prospect of being cut to pieces, if one don't fight, _makes_ a fellow fight. The professor went at it as if he was at one of his old arguments; and I must say this for him, he convinced his opponents then much more perfectly than he does in his verbal disputes."

"He is not hurt, I hope?" inquired Zabra earnestly.

"No, but he had a narrow escape," replied the doctor. "A ball grazed his ear, and a cutlass has scratched his ribs. I should have been sorry if either had taken the effect intended; for although he is somewhat dogmatical and intemperate in his manner of arguing, he possesses no ordinary share of learning, don't you see."

"How are the rest of the wounded getting on?" asked his patient.

"Famously," said the surgeon cheerfully; "I think they are all doing well. I may add, as well as it is possible for them to do. Two or three of them have been severely used; on one I shall be obliged to perform an operation. Climberkin's wounds are beginning to heal; Ardent has returned to his duty. Many have received but trifling hurts, and Hearty, Boggle, and Master Porphyry have escaped without a scratch. This is rather surprising, considering that the old man Hearty--Captain Hearty we must call him now, I suppose--fine old fellow! hacked his way through the pirates with a cool, steady, determined courage that nothing could withstand; and as for Oriel Porphyry, he fought like a hero. I never saw such a change in any man, don't you see. He looked as if he'd been born a conqueror, and for the first time in his life had ventured into his right element. There was such a fire in his eyes, and such a grandeur in his appearance. It was extraordinary. His very looks seemed to kill; none could resist him."

"Is he not a noble creature?" said Zabra, his eyes again glowing with all their accustomed animation.

"Indeed he is," replied Dr. Tourniquet, with emphasis: "I don't wonder at your enthusiasm, don't you see. I shall begin to look upon him with a similar admiration myself. I never could have supposed that the mere appearance of daring valour was so grand and imposing; but there is something of the cause of this in his tall manly figure, and handsome countenance, don't you see."

"Hush! there is his footstep," exclaimed the youth earnestly, as he arranged with his unwounded arm the bed-clothes closely around him. "This place is too dark for him to see very accurately, which is what I require. There! be feeling my pulse when he enters."

"How is he now, doctor," inquired Oriel Porphyry, advancing towards the hammock near which the surgeon stood, seemingly intent upon his professional duties.

"His pulse is getting more firm," said Dr. Tourniquet, assuming an air of great seriousness, "and his wound is suppurating healthily. He cannot be doing better. But you must apply to the patient for further information, as I am obliged to go my rounds, don't you see." So saying, the doctor departed.

"Are you better, Zabra?" affectionately asked Master Porphyry, seating himself by the hammock of his wounded friend.

"Much better, Oriel," replied the youth, as he held out his hand to clasp that of his patron. The merchant's son felt that the small hand within his own was dry and hot, and that the flesh had lost much of the roundness by which it had previously been distinguished.

"Your skin feels feverish," remarked his companion. "But not so much so, I think, as it was yesterday; and your eyes look more brilliant. I shall be delighted when you recover, not only because I miss the rich melody of your voice, and the stirring eloquence of your conversation, but because I know the confinement and inaction consequent upon this indisposition can scarcely be endurable to such a nature as yours. But when you do recover, which I hope will be speedily, I will take care you shall not again run into such risks. Who could have supposed that you were planning such an admirable scheme! I had not the slightest idea of such a thing. Far from it, I thought, and I blame myself exceedingly for having entertained a suspicion to your prejudice, that you had some sinister intention in your behaviour to the pirates. It is only an act of justice on my part to acknowledge that I have thought unworthily of you, without a cause; but I am too well aware that such an avowal forms an inadequate reparation, you must therefore allow me to express my regrets for the injury I have done you, in a manner more in accordance with my own sense of right. I am indebted to you not only for life and liberty, but for all that render them in my case more than usually endurable; for this I can never be sufficiently grateful: and when my father comes to know, as know he soon shall, how much you assisted in rescuing his ship from the pirates, and his son from their weapons, I am quite sure that he will rather seek to increase than diminish the measure by which I would show the extent of the obligation you have rendered. But, besides this, I have a natural affection for you, which has been created by a knowledge of your amiable disposition and noble character; and I should wish you always to be with me, that I might as much as possible profit by the example of your good qualities; therefore you must submit to the necessity of sharing my fortune, and of becoming in every respect the equal of myself."

"This cannot be, Oriel," said the other mildly. "Allow me still the same opportunities I have enjoyed of watching over your safety; and if, through my care and attention you are enabled to return unharmed to Eureka, and your sentiments in my favour remain the same, and she shows no disinclination to their indulgence, I will offer no further opposition."

"This is very strange of you," remarked Oriel Porphyry. "Very strange: I cannot account for it, except I imagine that there is a sort of pride in your nature that cannot accommodate itself to any thing in the shape of favours from another."

"It is not that," replied the youth languidly. "Indeed, it is not that. Your kindness has made upon me so deep an impression, and your friendship has become so intimately commingled with all my sympathies, that now I should find it a difficult matter to exist without them. But there are causes which I cannot explain, that prevent my accepting your generous proposals, independently of which there is nothing in what I have done that deserves such a return. Remember that my duty here is to endeavour to preserve you from every danger by which you may be threatened. I have accepted an office, and I am bound to fulfil its duties. In the part I played to effect your escape out of the power of those wretches, I only performed what I had engaged myself to do; and although my efforts to deceive your captors were repugnant to my feelings, I continued the deception because I saw that there was no way of effecting your liberation, but by practising deceit. Again, I assure you, that Eureka will amply reward me (if a reward be necessary) for any service I may be so fortunate as to be able to render you."

"But why am not I to be allowed to acknowledge the obligation according to my own sense of your merit?" asked his patron.

"Because it is Eureka's chief pleasure," replied Zabra, with a faltering voice, "to reward after her own fashion those whom she employs to serve him to whom she is devoted; and surely you would not wish to deprive her of a gratification to the enjoyment of which she puts forth, as you acknowledge, so good a title."

"Well, well, I must reserve my gratitude for her then, I suppose," said Oriel Porphyry. "But, of course, you will remain with me as you have hitherto done."

"Till there shall be no longer any occasion for my stay," responded the other. "While you love Eureka, there will always appear to me to be a necessity for my remaining with you; but when your love for her disappears, there will be no longer occasion for my presence."

"Love her I always shall, for I always must; so if your stay with me depends upon the duration of my affection for her, we are not likely to separate in this life," observed the young merchant.

"I would I were certain of it," murmured his companion.

"Of nothing ought you to be more assured," replied Oriel. "Were I entirely to forget the dazzling beauty of her features, there is an earnestness of purpose in her character which will make itself remembered at all times. The nobility of her sentiments I honoured, by endeavouring to become worthy of her greatness, and the confidence with which I was treated excited in me a desire to act in such a manner as should give her no cause to withdraw it. In her person there appeared to me the avatar of all things noble, fond, and beautiful, and I did it homage with so earnest a devotion that my respect soon became an idolatry. I had no enjoyment except in her presence; I could find no excellence from which she was absent. I honoured her above all honour. I regarded her as the best as well as the dearest of human beings. I was eloquent in her praise, and devout in her worship; and thus from day to day passed the joyous time, teeming with happiness, and prodigal of honours, till there seemed in the eyes of each to be no wealth and no distinction worthy to be desired, which the other did not possess. Truly was Eureka all the world to me. An empire was in her love, and all honourable things were in her gift."

Zabra had listened attentively, but nothing save a brighter glow in his lustrous eyes expressed the interest he took in the conversation. He did not attempt to interrupt the speaker, and when the last sentence was concluded he made no reply.

"Can you add nothing in her praise, Zabra?" asked Oriel Porphyry, after a pause of a few minutes.

"She requires no praise, Oriel, certainly none from me," replied the youth. "Your applause is no doubt gratifying to her--for the heart that truly loves cannot exist but in the estimation of the lover. But there is an eulogy beyond mere praise, for which the devoted are ever desirous--the strong and earnest love, whose voice is action, and whose language is sympathy."

"And that does she possess," rejoined his companion earnestly. "My sympathies are with her at all times, and at every place, and there is no act that I perform in which I do not consider the interpretation I would have it bear in her affections. I am afraid, Zabra, this encounter with the pirates has stirred up again all those ambitious notions I have fostered with the design of achieving a renown worthy of her greatness. Certainly my first efforts in traffic, among such mean scoundrels as Boor and his brethren, did not give me so exalted an opinion of my father's profession as he and others possess. But any opportunity like the one which has thus accidentally fallen in my way will throw my blood into a ferment, and make my spirit yearn after a fair field in which to develope its energies, as they now exist. Yes, I feel as if I could only live in a life of enterprise. Inaction seems to chain me down into a slavish bondage; but when the weapon is in my grasp, and the motive within my soul, an atmosphere of freedom breathes around me, and I rise above the herd into something nearer the superiority to which I aspire."

"From what I saw of you in our late affray, I cannot help acknowledging your capability for a leader," said the youth. "You looked as if you were born to conquer. Your bearing was such as would induce thousands to follow in your footsteps--and your weapon flashed annihilation in your path."

"Pooh! it was a paltry enemy," replied Oriel disdainfully, "and they were easily crushed; but let me be at the head of armies; let my battle-field be a kingdom, and my enemy a tyrant, and then I will show of what spirit I am made."

"That cannot be, Oriel," added the other. "You must be satisfied with what you are; and as that condition is sufficiently honourable in the eyes of Eureka, you ought not to indulge in more ambitious aspirations. The risk you run in this life of enterprise should also be considered. Remember that you would hourly be in danger of immediate death, and if that were to happen where would be your ambition, and where would be Eureka's happiness? No! it is a subject of congratulation that there are no armies for you to lead, and no tyrants for you to conquer."

"There I think you are mistaken," cried his companion eagerly. "If I do not misinterpret the signs of the times, there is a spirit stirring in Columbia which will soon make itself evident in appearances that will not a little alarm its weak and despotic ruler. There is a cloud over the face of the whole country, and it will not be long before it break out into a mighty storm. Then let them look to themselves. It will come with a rush that must sweep away every obstacle before it. The whole of our complicated machinery of misgovernment will be broken up into fragments so small, that no future tyrant shall be able to patch it together again--and then will come the day of reckoning for the people. The task-masters will themselves be brought to task, and have to con the lessons they have set others. I only wish to live to see that day. I only wish to put myself forward in the movement--and lead the way that shall give freedom to my fellow-citizens. I am confident of the result. No power on earth can resist a mass of men struggling to break the bonds by which they have been fettered, when the impetus by which they are set in motion is properly directed; and for their chief I know, I feel I have all the necessary qualifications. Then I should be in my proper place. Then would the energies which now render my nature restless and dissatisfied have ample scope for their developement--and then, Zabra, my friend and brother, you should behold me performing such actions as shall more worthily excite your admiration, than the inglorious one of destroying a few wretched pirates."

"You almost convince me of the desirableness of seeing your visions of glory realised," remarked Zabra, with increased animation. "I did not imagine it would be possible; but when I listen to you, I find myself wishing you to play the noble part for which you are so well fitted: but then the thought of the dangers to which you will be exposed fills me with dread. I know that in you Eureka has concentrated all her hopes of happiness; and when I reflect upon the perils of the sort of life you are desirous of leading, I fear that it will end in no good to either her or you. But we will talk of this again at a future time. In what state have you found the ship and her cargo?"

"The ship is as much changed as it is possible for any vessel to be," replied the merchant's son. "I scarcely knew the Albatross again. Externally she has not suffered, but her interior accommodations have been completely altered. She has been pierced for thirty guns, all of which are ready for immediate use--a powder magazine has been formed out of one of the cabins, which is abundantly stored with ammunition--weapons of every description are piled up in immense chests--and provisions for a long voyage have been carefully provided. The cargo has not been touched. It is evident to me, that that scoundrel Compass, or Death, or whatever his name was, imagined that I would join him in his nefarious scheme to entrap my father's vessels; and as he knew he could not find so good a market for his plunder by any other plan, he fancied that I could be induced to assist him in its disposal. Propositions of this nature he made to me; and although every time he spoke on the subject I felt an inclination to hack him into shreds, seeing the uselessness of any attempt at resistance, I concealed my indignation as well as I could, till you communicated to me your plan for our deliverance. I saw that it could not fail of success, if ordinary vigilance was used; and my hatred of the miscreants by whom I was detained led me to play my part in the deception, which was attended with all the result we anticipated. Your wound is the only drawback to the delight I feel at our escape."

"Oh, think not of that!" exclaimed the youth warmly: "it will soon be healed."

"I hope so," responded Oriel. "As for the captain of the gang, I am only sorry that I had not an opportunity of acknowledging to him my obligations. But I think I have spoiled his career of piracy, that is one subject for congratulation. His retreat is destroyed--he has no vessel--and one half of his men are as well provided for as if the hangman had done his duty. But he was a bold villain. If what he has said of himself be true, he was fitted for better things; and from what I remarked in him, I conclude his narrative was true, at least a considerable portion of it. It appeared to me as if he only affected the vulgarity of his associates; for there were times when his conversation rose into something much superior to his ordinary language. It is evident that his intention was to put to sea almost immediately, and commence a new career of plunder and violence--happily we have been enabled to disappoint him; and I intend, at the first port we touch at, to add to our crew a sufficient number of able-bodied seamen, as will not only work the ship effectively during her voyage, but will defend her with resolution in case she should be attacked. Although I have not more inclination for a mercantile life than when I first came on board this vessel, I will not, in any way, unless it be unavoidable, diverge from the path my father wishes me to pursue, until I return, and then I shall expect to be allowed to follow my own inclinations, and choose my own road to distinction."

"It must be so, I suppose," remarked Zabra. "Any opposition on my part would be fruitless--nay, if it were not for the dangers which you must encounter in a life of active warfare, I should be among the first to approve of your ambitious desires--I should love to see you the creator of your own glory--I should delight in the honours you would achieve--I should rejoice in your renown--but I must think of her whom I serve, who, although she would equally admire your greatness, could not avoid thinking of the perils of the path by which only it can be acquired, and must live in a state of constant anxiety while you were pursuing your dangerous career. You do not think sufficiently of her feelings. Why can you not be satisfied with inheriting the fame and wealth of your admirable father, and the happiness which must surely be your own as long as you prove yourself anxious for its possession?"