[469] The introductory address to Count Robert of Paris bears the date October 15th, 1831.

[470] Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 3.

[471] See Moore's edition of Byron's Works, vol. vii. pp. 43-44, note.

[472] Scott's views received strong confirmation a few days later at Bristol, where the authorities, through mistaken humanity, hesitated to order the military to act.

[473] At Malta, accordingly, we find Sir Walter making inquiry regarding this Arabian conjurer, and writing to Mr. Lockhart, on Nov. 1831, in the following terms:—

"I have got a key to the conjuring story of Alexandria and Grand Cairo. I have seen very distinct letters of Sir John Stoddart's son, who attended three of the formal exhibitions which broke down, though they were repeated afterwards with success. Young Stoddart is an excellent Arabian scholar—an advantage which I understand is more imperfectly enjoyed by Lord Prudhoe and Colonel Felix. Much remains to be explained, but the boldness of the attempt exceeds anything since the days of the Automaton chess-player, or the Bottle conjurer. The first time Shakespeare was evoked he appeared in the complexion of an Arab. This seems to have been owing to the first syllable of his name, which resembled the Arabian word Sheik, and suggested the idea of an Arabian chief to the conjurer. A gentleman named Galloway has bought the secret, and talks of being frightened. There can be little doubt that, having so far interested himself, it would become his interest to put the conjurer more up to the questions likely to be asked. So he was more perfect when consulted by Lord Prudhoe than at first, when he made various blunders, and when we must needs say falsum in uno falsum in omnibus. As all this will come out one day, I have no wish to mingle in the controversy.... There are still many things to explain, but I think the mystery is unearthed completely."

See also Lane's Egyptians for an account of what appears to be the same man in 1837. Also Quarterly Review, No. 117, pp. 196-208, for an examination of this "Magic Mirror" exhibition.

[474] A hoard of seventy-eight chessmen found in the island of Lewis in 1831. The greater number of the figures were purchased for the British Museum, and formed the subject of a learned dissertation by Sir Frederick Madden; see Archæologia, xxiv. Eleven of these very interesting pieces fell into the hands of Scott's friend, C.K. Sharpe, and afterwards of Lord Londesborough. More recently these identical pieces were purchased for the Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, where they now are. See Proc. Soc. Antiq., vol. xxiii.

[475] Sir John Malcolm, who was at this time M.P. for Launceston. His last public appearance was in London, at a meeting convened for the purpose of raising a monument of his friend Sir Walter, and his concluding words were, that when he himself "was gone, his son might be proud to say that his father had been among the contributors to that shrine of genius." Sir John was struck down by paralysis on the following day, and died in May 1833.

[476] The celebrated Brahmin philosopher and theist; born in Bengal about 1774, died at Stapleton Grove, near Bristol, September 27, 1833.

[477] Sir Walter's fears for the country were also shared by some of the wisest men in it. The Duke of Wellington, it is well known, was most desponding, and he anticipated greater horror from a convulsion here than in any other European nation.

Talleyrand said to the Duke during the Reform Bill troubles, "Duke of Wellington, you have seen a great deal of the world. Can you point out to me any one place in Europe where an old man could go to and be quite sure of being safe and dying in peace?"—Stanhope Notes, p. 224.

[478] See Mr. Charles Cowan's privately printed Reminiscences for Scott's recollections of his visit to Portsmouth in 1816, and his stories, of the wonders he had seen, to the little boy at his side.

[479] Compare Froude's History, vol. iv. p. 424.

[480] Mr. Horace Smith, one of the authors of Rejected Addresses.

[481] An anonymous novel, published some years earlier in 4 vols. 12mo.

[482] Cowper's Monody.

[483] See Sailor's Song, Cease, rude Boreas, etc., ante, p. 402: "The Storm."

[484] See ante, vol. i. p. 253, note.

[485] Lasting from 21st June 1779 to 6th February 1783.

[486] Compare the reflection of the Chevalier d'Arcon, the contriver of the floating batteries. He remained on board the Talla Piedra till past midnight, and wrote to the French Ambassador in the first hours of his anguish: "I have burnt the Temple of Ephesus; everything is gone, and through my fault! What comforts me under my calamity is that the honour of the two kings remains untarnished."—Mahon's History of England, vol. vii. p. 290.

[487] Nothing like these Bristol riots had occurred since those in Birmingham in 1791.—Martineau's History of the Peace, p. 353. The Tranent (East Lothian) and Bonnymoor (Stirlingshire) conflicts took place in 1797 and 1820; the Manchester riot in 1826.

[488] Afterwards Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker, so long in command of the Turkish Navy.

[489] See long letter to Mr. Skene in Life, vol. x. pp. 126-130.

[490] In the memorable siege of 1565.

[491] Manuel de Vilhena, Grand-Master 1722-1736.

[492] An example of the rigour with which the Quarantine laws were enforced is given by Sir Walter on the 24th:—"We had an instance of the strictness of these regulations from an accident which befell us as we entered the harbour. One of our seamen was brushed from the main yard, fell into the sea and began to swim for his life. The Maltese boats bore off to avoid giving him assistance, but an English boat, less knowing, picked up the poor fellow, and were immediately assigned to the comforts of the Quarantine, that being the Maltese custom of rewarding humanity."—Letter to J.G.L.

[493] High Admiral of the Turkish fleet before Malta, and slain there in 1565. See Dragut the Corsair, in Lockhart's Spanish Ballads.

[494] The dates are not to be absolutely depended upon during the Malta visit, as they appear to have been added subsequently by Sir Walter.

[495] Wife of the Lieut.-Governor, Colonel Seymour Bathurst.

[496] In 1790 the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem consisted of eight "Lodges" or "Languages," viz.: France, Auvergne, Provence, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Anglo-Bavaria.—Hoare's Tour, vol. i. p. 28.

[497] John Hookham Frere, the disciple of Pitt, and bosom friend of Canning, made Malta his home from 1820 till 1846; he died there on January 7th. He was in deep affliction at the time of Scott's arrival, having lost his wife a few months before, but he welcomed his old friend with a melancholy pleasure.

For Scott's high opinion of Frere, as far back as 1804, see Life, vol. ii. p. 207 and note.

[498] Grandmaster of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and defender of Malta against Solyman in 1565.

[499] By "Board of Literature" Scott doubtless means the Royal Society of Literature, instituted in 1824 under the patronage of George iv.; see ante, vol. i. pp. 390-91. Besides the members who paid a subscription there were ten associates, of whom Coleridge was one, who each received an annuity of a hundred guineas from the King's bounty. When William IV. succeeded his brother in 1830, he declined to continue these annuities. Representations were made to the Government, and the then Prime Minister, Earl Grey, offered Coleridge a private grant of £200 from the Treasury, which he declined.

The pension from the Society or the Privy Purse of George iv., which Mr. Hookham Frere told Sir Walter he had made up to Coleridge, was one hundred guineas.

[500] Afterwards Lord Berwick.

[501] The travellers established themselves in the Palazzo Caramanico as soon as they were released from quarantine.

[502] A brother of Malcolm Laing, the historian.

[503] An account is given by Sir William Gell of an excursion by sea to the ruins of such a Roman villa on the promontory of Posilipo, to which he had taken Sir Walter in a boat on the 26th of January.—Life, vol. x. pp. 157-8.

[504] For a picturesque sketch of Naples during the insurrection of 1647 see Sir Walter's article on Masaniello and the Duke of Guise.—Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. iv. pp. 355-403.

[505] See Appendix iv.: "A former Empress." Sir Walter no doubt means the mother of Conradin of Suabia, or, as the Italians call him, Corradino,—erroneously called "Empress," though her husband had pretensions to the Imperial dignity, disputed and abortive. For the whole affecting story see Histoire de la Conquête de Naples, St. Priest, vol. iii. pp. 130-185, especially pp. 162-3.

[506] A variation of the lines on Alphonso's capture of the city in 1442:—

—Lockhart's Spanish Ballads, "The King of Arragon."

[507] Sir William Gell styles him "Archbishop," and adds that at this time he was in his ninetieth year. Can this prelate be Rogers's "Good Old Cardinal," who told the pleasant tale of the Bag of Gold, and is immortalised by the pencil of Landseer seated at table en famille with three of his velvet favourites? See Italy, fcp. 8vo, 1838, p. 302.

[508] This is the last notice in the Journal by Sir Walter of his dear friend. James Skene of Rubislaw died at Frewen Hall, Oxford, in 1864, in his ninetieth year. His faculties remained unimpaired throughout his serene and beautiful old age, until the end was very near—then, one evening his daughter found him with a look of inexpressible delight on his face, when he said to her "I have had such a great pleasure! Scott has been here—he came from a long distance to see me, he has been sitting with me at the fireside talking over our happy recollections of the past...." Two or three days later he followed his well loved friend into the unseen world—gently and calmly like a child falling asleep he passed away in perfect peace.

[509] John Hugh Lockhart died December 15, 1831.

[510] Sir W. Gell relates that an old English manuscript of the Romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton, existing in Naples, had attracted Scott's attention, and he resolved to make a copy of it.

The transcript is now in the Library at Abbotsford, under the title, Old English Romances, transcribed from MSS. in the Royal Library at Naples, by Sticchini, 2 vols. sm. 8vo.

[511] See Appendix v. for Mr. Andrew Lang's letter on this subject.

[512] The forty-shilling gold piece coined by James V. of Scotland.

[513] Sword-blades of peculiar excellence bearing the name of this maker have been known in Scotland since the reign of James IV.

[514] Altered from Wordsworth.

[515] The editor of Reliquiæ Antiquæ (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1843), writing ten years after this visit, says, that "The Chevalier de Licteriis [Chief Librarian in the Royal Library] showed him the manuscript, and well remembered his drawing Sir Walter's attention to it in 1832."

[516] Sir W. Gell records that on the morning he received the good news he called upon him and said he felt quite relieved by his letters, and added, "I could never have slept straight in my coffin till I had satisfied every claim against me; and now," turning to a favourite dog that was with them in the carriage he said, "My poor boy, I shall have my house and my estate round it free, and I may keep my dogs as big and as many as I choose without fear of reproach."—Life, vol. X. p. 160.

[517] Viz, Faldonside, an estate adjacent to Abbotsford which Scott had long wished to possess. As far back as November 1817 he wrote a friend: "My neighbour, Nicol Milne, is mighty desirous I should buy, at a mighty high rate, some land between me and the lake which lies mighty convenient, but I am mighty determined to give nothing more than the value, so that it is likely to end like the old proverb, Ex Nichilo Nichil fit."

[518] Probably Pauline; married to Hon. Augustus Craven, and author of Récit d'une Sœur.

[519] Daughter of Colonel Hugh Duncan Baillie, of Tarradale and Redcastle.

[520] Of this visit to Pompeii Sir W. Gell says—"Sir Walter viewed the whole with a poet's eye, not that of an antiquarian, exclaiming frequently, 'The city of the Dead!'"

He examined, however, with more interest the "splendid mosaic representing a combat of the Greeks and the Persians."—Life, vol. x. p. 159.

[521] The places are now known as Nocera Superiore and Nocera Inferiore.

[522] Paese dei Marsi or Marsica.

[523] Jerome Bonaparte, ex-King of Westphalia.

[524] The sea marsh "Cameria" is not indicated in the latest maps of Italy, but it would appear that some such name in the Pontine Bogs had recalled to Sir Walter the ancient proverb relating to Camarina, that Sicilian city on the marsh "which Fate forbad to drain."—Conington's Virgil (Æn. iii. 700-1).

[525] Porta St. Giovanni, rebuilt by Gregory XIII. in 1574.

[526] It is much to be regretted that Scott and Carlyle never met. The probable explanation is that the admirable letter now printed in extenso, coming into a house where there was sickness, and amid the turmoil of London life, was carefully laid aside for reply at a more convenient season. This season, unfortunately, never came. Scott did not return to Scotland until June 3d, and by that time Carlyle had left Edinburgh and settled at Craigenputtock. He must, however, have seen Scott subsequently, as he depicts him in the memorable words, "Alas! his fine Scottish face, with its shaggy honesty and goodness, when we saw it latterly in the Edinburgh streets, was all worn with care—the joy all fled from it, and ploughed deep with labour and sorrow."

Mr. Lockhart once said to a friend that he regretted that they had never met, and gave as a reason the state of Scott's health.

[527] This purpose Goethe seems to have carried out, for in the "Chronologie" which is printed in the two-volume edition of his works, published at Stuttgart 1837 (vol. ii. page 663), the following entry is found:—"1827. Ueber neuere französische Literatur.—Ueber chinesische Gedichte.—Ueber das Leben Napoleon's von Walter Scott."