Volume Ii Part 10 (1/2)
”Good-morrow too, sweet and most lovely Lady Adelaide; permit, fairest lady, your lowly servant a _beso las manos_!”
Here the d.u.c.h.ess thought it decorous to withdraw, and her Grace retired to her cabinet.
”Hail, fairest gem of Erin, bright star of Belgium, and the brilliant sun of Brussels! at sight of thee every eye is enamoured, and every heart takes fire; in witness whereof behold me your lowly servant abroad at this most unfas.h.i.+onable hour, thus prevailing upon myself to come forth and throw my person and my fortunes at your feet, even before that Phoebus hath mounted his meridian car, and the world has become well warmed, to place myself and coronet thus lowly at your feet!”
”Oh rise, my Lord, from that----what, kneel to a mere mortal! I pray you be seated, and I shall endeavour to reply to all the compliments with which your Lords.h.i.+p is so prodigally pleased to overpower me. I must, my Lord, acknowledge, that your Lords.h.i.+p indulges somewhat too freely in mixed metaphor; and I must needs add, you deal somewhat too superabundantly in rhapsodies.--Well, my Lord, let us see what I am like unto? 'A gem of Erin!' pray what is that? Oh, no doubt whatever but it must mean a simple piece of Kerry crystal!--oh, vastly pretty indeed; and almost as nearly transparent as your Lords.h.i.+p's flattery. Well, good, my Lord! what comparison comes next?--Oh, I am 'a Star!' in this I cannot confess that your Lords.h.i.+p's wit s.h.i.+nes superlatively.--Pshaw, my Lord, a star is merely a minor light, and visible only at night! Nay now, after all, this simile is only but just so, so. However, I am amply repaid by that which so brilliantly succeeds, 'the Sun of Brussels!'
Well, come, that I must needs admit is a resplendent metaphor; but the sun of Brussels I must fain likewise confess I have found too often to my cost, to be a very warm and burning sun. What comes next?--Oh, quite portentous!--I blaze, burn, and destroy, setting eyes in a flame, and hearts on fire, and so forth, in a most formidable comet-like fas.h.i.+on!
What this can actually mean, unless it prove a sort of periphrasis, and be slyly intended for a Salamander, I cannot indeed divine. Then if my conjectures prove correct, only think, O glorious Apollo, after the complete extinction of all the tropes, figures, flowers, and poesies, culled from amid the verdant valleys of thine own lofty Parna.s.sus, for thy votary-like Icarus to tumble from the Olympian sky, and to suffer his divine G.o.ddess, the object of his idolatrous veneration, to degenerate into a fire-loving earthly Salamander! Oh, by prose and verse, but this is vastly funny!”
”Ah, cruel, cruel, remorseless Lady Adelaide, is it thus you sportively jest at my pains, and mock my misery!--I die for you!”
”Really, my Lord, this is all so very sudden--the symptoms too so very alarming, I feel quite agitated--dejected! Pray, let me advise you, my Lord, to call in the advice of Sir Patricius Placebo, whose skill is undisputed!”
”No, fair torturer! you, Lady, and you alone, who caused the malady, can cure it!”
”My Lord, seek out one more deserving of the honour which you so n.o.bly proffer me, but I never can be yours; nor shall I ever give my hand unless I also can give my heart. And now, my Lord, farewell, accept my humble grat.i.tude and sincerest thanks for the high distinction which you have so graciously paid me, and which I shall ever remember with the utmost respect and grat.i.tude.”
Having so said, Lady Adelaide deeply courtesied, and withdrew.
”Odds my life now,” exclaimed the disappointed peer, ”but this is most pa.s.sing strange, supersingular, and not to be matched! What, refuse the heir apparent of an earldom, (and with modesty let me express it,) with my person and qualifications! Insufferable! It is not to be endured!”
As Lord Eyrecourt, much discomfitted, departed from the _Rue Ducale_, he met the Duke d'Aremberg going in that direction; they saluted as they pa.s.sed, while he continued his sorrowful soliloquy:--
”The Lady Adelaide is downright mad to refuse me; but it seems she soars at higher game, and looks to 'the pride of place.' She said she would never give her hand without bestowing her heart, doubtless then this honour she has already conferred upon the youthful d'Aremberg.--It is but too fatally evident! Oh, woe is me to come out in the cold air of the morn, before the world had become well warmed; and finally thus to be so totally eclipsed! Oh, some ominous morning I shall be found hanging from the top of Saint Michael's Tower, or my unfortunate corpse be seen floating in the Antwerp ca.n.a.l!
Ne'er gallant peer more miserable was undone, Like extinguish'd star I set 'fore the rise of sun!”
CHAPTER VIII.
Aligera BRUXELLA volans super aethera fama, In laudes solui non pet.i.t ora novas.
Cerne urbis faciem; cultasque Heroibus aulas: Non est invidiam dignior ulla pati.
Cerne hortos, fontesque, et priscis aemula Tempe: Elysium Credas te peragrare nemus.
JACOBUS EYCKIUS.
LETTER II.
THE d.u.c.h.eSS OF TYRCONNEL TO MRS. CARTWRIGHT.
_Dated_, Brussels, _September_, 169--
MY DEAR MADAM,
”Oh, give me joy!
for yesterday my beloved husband, to our unexpected happiness, returned to my arms! Oh, how it delights me he has returned; and has received permission from the higher powers to remain at Brussels. My Adelaide is wild with joy, and so am I.