one of the most picturesque, and at the same time instructive stories, that we are, or are ever likely to be, acquainted with. Indeed, thus led as we are to name Harriet Lee, for the first time, in these pages, we cannot allow the opportunity to pass without saying, that we have always considered her works as standing upon the very verge of the very first rank of excellence in the species to which they belong ;— that is to say, as inferior to no English novels whatever, excepting only those of Fielding, Sterne, Smollett, Richardson, Defoe, Radcliffe, Godwin, Edgeworth, and the Great Known. It would not, perhaps, be going too far to say, that the Canterbury Tales exhibit more of that Species of Invention which, as we have remarked a little above, was never common in English literature, than any of the works even of those firstrate novelists we have named, with the single exception of Fielding himself. Suppose almost any one of the Canterbury Tales to have been put in MS. into the hands of Miss Edgeworth, or the Known, and suppose the work to have been re-written with that power, and the various excellence which these two great living writers possess, and there can be little question that we should have had something worthy of casting even NIGEL OF THE ABSENTEE into the shade, that is to say, in so far as these books are to be considered as serious delineations of human feeling and passion. For example, take this LORD BYRON. Ulric. I think you wrong him, (Excuse me for the phrase); but Stralen heim "the very tale of "Kruitzner," or Landlady's Story:"-Considering them merely as fables, we have no hesitation in saying, that they are far better fables than any original and invented one that can be found in any of the works of any of our living poets or novelists. This is high praise; but we feel that we are doing no more than justice in bestowing it. After speaking in such terms of Miss Lee's fable, we shall not, of course, be so daring as to attempt an analysis of it here. Let it be sufficient to say, that we consider it as possessing mystery, and yet clearness, as to its structure: strength of characters, and admirable contrast of characters; and above all, the most lively interest, blended with and subservient to the most affecting of moral lessons. The main idea which lies at the root of it is, the horror of an erring father, who, having been detected in vice by his son, has dared to defend his own sin, and so to perplex the son's notions of moral rectitude, in finding that the son, in his turn, has pushed the false principles thus instilled to the last and worst extreme, in hearing his own sophistries flung in his teeth by a-MURDERER. The scene in which the first part of this idea is developed in Lord Byron's tragedy, is by far the finest one in it; and we shall quote along side of it the original passages in the novel, in order that our readers may be enabled to form their own opinion. MISS LEE. does He "Stralenheim,' said Conrad, not appear to me altogether the man you take him for :-but were it even otherwise, he owes me gratitude not only for the past, but for what he supposes to be my present employment. I saved his life, and he therefore places confidence in me. has been robbed last night-is sick--a stranger-and in no condition to discover the villain who has plundered him: I have pledged myself to do it and the business on which I sought the Intendant was chiefly that.'" "The Count felt as though he had received a stroke upon the brain. Death in any form, unaccompanied with dishonour, would have been preferable to the pang that shot through both that and his heart. Indignantly had he groaned under the remorse of the past, the humiliation thus incurred by it he would hardly have tolerated from any human being; yet was it brought home to him, through a medium so bitterly afflicting, as defied all calculation. At the word villain, his lips quiver me ?" "It is not necessary to know the person of a ruffian,' replied Conrad indignantly, to give him the appellation he merits :-and what is there in common between my father and such a character 3' "Every thing,' said Siegendorf, bit. terly for that ruffian was your father!"" "Conrad started back with incredulity and amazement: then measured the Count with a long and earnest gaze, as though, unable to disbelieve the fact, he felt inclined to doubt whether it were really his father who avowed it. "Conrad,' exclaimed the latter, interpreting his looks, and in a tone that ill disguised the increasing anguish of his own soul, before you thus presume to chastise me with your eye, learn to understand my actions! Young and inexperienced in the world-reposing hitherto in the bosom of indulgence and luxury, is it for you to judge of the force of the passions, or the temptations of misery? Wait till like me you have blighted your fairest hopes-have endured humiliation and sorrow-poverty and famine-before you pretend to judge of their effect on you! Should that miserable day ever arrive-Should you see the being at your mercy who stands between you, and every thing that is dear or noble in life! Who is ready to tear from you your name-your inheritance-your very life itself-congratulate your own heart, if, like me, you are content with petty plunder, and are not tempted to exterminate a serpent, who now lives, perhaps, to sting us all! He was within my power-my knife was raised Withdrawn-and I'm in his :-are you not so? MISS LEE. "You do not know this man,' con. tinued he with the same incoherent eagerness, and impetuously silencing Conrad who would have spoken- I do! I believe him to be mean-sordid-deceitful! You will conceive yourself safe because you are young and brave! Learn, however, from the two instances before you, none are so secure but desperation or subtilty may reach them! Stralenheim in the palace of a prince was in my power! My knife was held over him! a single moment would have swept him from the face of the earth, and with him all my future fears: I forbore-and I am now in his-Are you certain that you are not so too? Who assures you he does not know you? Who tells you that he has not lured you into his Who tells you that he knows you not? Who society, either to rid himself of you for Will you be Made venial by the occasion, and temptations Ulric (looks first at him, and then at Jo- My mother! now Only one parent. I have lost alike (Werner rushes out of the chamber. I had not follow'd? Ulric. I obey you, mother, ever, or to plunge you with your family human fortitude to master or endure.' The "Conrad, whose lips and countenance had more than once announced an impatient desire to interrupt his father during the early part of his discourse. stunned by the wildness and vehemence with which it was pursued, had sunk towards the close of it into profound silence. The anxious eyes of Josephine, from the moment they lost sight of her husband, had been turned towards her son; and, for the first time in her life, she felt her heart a prey to divided affections; for, while the frantic wildness of Siegendorf almost irresistibly impelled her to follow him, she was yet alive to all the danger of leaving Conrad a prey to reflections hostile to every sentiment of filial duty or respect. The latter, after a long silence, raised his inquiring looks to hers; and, whatever the impression under which his mind laboured, he understood too well the deep and painful sorrow imprinted on Although reluctantly. My first act shall her countenance not instantly to conceal it. LORD BYRON. Ulric. These then are but my father's principles? My mother thinks not with him? Josephine. Nor doth he MISS LEE. "These are only the systems of my father,' said he, continuing earnestly to gaze on her. My mother thinks not with him!' "Josephine spoke not: there was an op Think as he speaks. Alas! long years of pression at her heart that robbed her of the grief Have made him sometimes thus. Ulric. Explain to me power. Conrad covered his face with his hand, and reclined it for a moment on her shoulder. 66 6 Explain to me,' said he, after a se More clearly, then, these claims of Stralen- cond pause, what are the claims of Stralenheim."" heim." If this be not enough, pass to the only other scene in the play which can be supposed to possess equal interest; that, namely, in which the unhappy father is reproached by the son, whose bloody guilt he has just learnt to believe-from whose countenance he is shrinking in the most exquisite of horrors. The supposed murderer stands before father and son; He has told the terrible truth, and dreads violence; the father re-assures him, and he goes on thus Siegendorf. I will be so.-- Gabor. I'll take it for so much. MISS LEE. 'Siegendorf opened a door that admitted to one turret of the castle, of which he knew all other egress was barred; the Hungarian started, and his presence of mind evidently failed him. He looked around with the air of a man who is conscious that, relying on a sanguine hope, he has ventured too far, and neither knows how to stand his ground nor to recede; yet he read truth and security in the countenance of Siegendorf, although not unmingled with contempt. By an excessive effort of dissimulation, he therefore reco. vered his equanimity, and made a step towards the spot pointed out to him. "My promise is solemn, sacred, irrevocable,' said Siegendorf, seeing him pause again upon the threshold. It extends not, however, beyond my own walls.' 46.6 I accept the conditions,' replied the other. His eye, while speaking, fell on the sabre of Conrad; and the Count, who perceived it did so, invited him by a look to possess himself of it; he then closed the Gabor (takes up the subre.) I will; and door of the turret upon him, and advanced • How much better is this look than its dilution into language in the opposite column !--but sie fere omnia. LORD BYRON. Ulric. Most true, father; And you did well to listen to it: what Siegendorf. Ay, with half of my domains; Ulric. It is no time His story's true; and he too lenced. Siegendorf. How so? I have said must be si MISS LEE. "You have done well,' said the latter, raising his head at the near approach of his father, to listen to this man's story.-The evil we cannot measure, we cannot guard against; but it would be fruitless to temporize further-He must be silenced more effectually.' The Count started. With you,' pursued Conrad, drawing nearer and dropping his voice, it would be unwise longer to dissemble-His narration is true. Are you so credulous as never to have guessed this?' added he, on perceiving the Ulric. As Stralenheim is. Are you so speechless agony of his father; or so dull As never to have hit on this before? Then summon'd, would the cry for the po- Been left to such a stranger? Or should I The object of the Baron's hate and fears, you Doubting if you were false or feeble; I Siegendorf. Parricide! no less Than common stabber! What deed of my life, Or thought of mine, could make you deem me fit For your accomplice ? Ulric. Father, do not raise The devil you cannot lay, between us. This Could I be calm ? Think you that I have This fellow's tale without some feeling? you 'tis working now. Ulric. Let it work on! the grave will Ashes are feeble foes: it is more easy neath you. yet weak as to tremble at the acknowledgment? Could it escape you, that, at the hour we met in the garden at M—, nothing short of a discovery during the very act could have made the death of Baron Stralenheim known to any but him who caused it ?— Did it appear probable,' continued he, with the tone of a man who is secretly roused to fury by a consciousness of the horror he inspires, that if the Prince's household had really been alarmed, the care of summoning the police should devolve on one who hardly knew an avenue of the town? Or was it credible that such a one should, unsuspected, have loitered on the way? Least of all could it be even possible that Kruitzner, already marked out, and watched, could have escaped unpursued, had he not had many hours the start of suspicion ? I sounded, I fathomed your soul both before and at the moment; I doubted whe ther it was feeble or artificial. I will own that I thought it the former, or I should have trusted you. Yet such has been the excess of your apparent credulity, that I have even at intervals disbelieved its existence!' "Father, father,' interrupted Conrad abruptly, and his form seemed to grow before the astonished eyes of the Count, beware how you rouse a devil between us that neither may be able to control!-We are in no temper nor season for domestic dissension. Do you suppose that while your soul has been harrowed up, mine has been unmoved? or that I have really listened to this man's story with indifference?—I too can feel for myself; for what being besides did your example ever teach me to feel? Listen to me!" he added, silencing the Count with a wild and alarming tone: 'If your present condemnation of me be just, I have listened to you at least once too often!-Remember who told me, when at M that there were crimes rendered venial by the occasion; who painted the excesses of passion as the trespasses of hu |
