Part 5 (1/2)

He returned as speedily as he could to Lausanne, to rest fro in the sadly altered look of his friend Deyverdun Soon an apoplectic seizure confirs, and within a twelvemonth the friend of his youth, whom he had loved for thirty-three years, was taken away by death (July 4, 1789)[14]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 14: The letter in which Gibbon communicated the sad news to Lord Sheffield ritten on the 14th July, 1789, the day of the taking of the Bastille So ”that evening sun of July” sent its bea the dead friend, as well as on ”reapers aes, on shi+ps far out on the silent h-rouged da with double-jacketed Hussar officers”]

Gibbon never got over this loss His staid and solid nature was not given to transports of joy or grief But his constant references to ”poor Deyverdun,” and the vacancy caused by his loss, show the depth of the wound ”I want to change the scene,” he writes, ”and, beautiful as the garden and prospect must appear to every eye, I feel that the state of loom over them: every spot, every walk, every bench recalls the memory of those hours, those conversations, which will return no land to consult with you on the spot, and to fly from poor Deyverdun's shade, which meets me at every turn” Not that he lacked attached friends, and of mere society and acquaintance he had more than abundance He occupied at Lausanne a position of alnity, ”and iven the law to a set of as willing subjects as any man ever presided over” Soon the troubles in France sent wave after wave of erants over the frontiers, and Lausanne had its full share of the exiles After a brief approval of the reforust, and horror at the ”new birth of time”

there ”You will allow me to be a tolerable historian,” he wrote to his step-mother, ”yet on a fair review of ancient and modern times I can find none that bear any affinity to the present” The last social evolution was beyond his power of classification The er hich he looks out fro contrast to his usual apathy on political land should catch the revolutionary fever He is delighted with Burke's _Reflections_ ”I admire his eloquence, I approve his politics, I adore his chivalry, and I can forgive even his superstition” His wrath waxes hotter at every post ”Poor France! The state is dissolved! the nation is s, and he roundly calls the members of the Convention ”devils,” and discovers that ”democratical principles lead by a path of flowers into the abyss of hell”

In 1790 his friends the Neckers had fled to Switzerland, and on every ground of duty and inclination he was called upon to show them the warmest welcoratitude Necker was cast down in utter despair, not only for the loss of place and power, but on account of the strong animosity which was shown to him by the exiled French, none of ould set their foot in his house The Neckers were now Gibbon's chief intimates till the end of his sojourn in Switzerland They lived at Coppet, and constant visits were exchanged there and at Lausanne Madame Necker wrote to hirievance to coiven, but entirely forgotten The letters, indeed, testify a war from a lady of less spotless propriety, would almost imply a revival of youthful affection for her early lover ”You have always been dear to me,” she writes, ”but the friendshi+p you have shown to M Necker adds to that which you inspire rounds, and I love you at present with a double affection”--”Come to us when you are restored to health and to yourself; thatto your first and your last friend (_amie_), and I do not knohich of those titles is the sweetest and dearest to my heart”--”Near you, the recollections you recalled were pleasant to me, and you connected them easily with present iether with electrical rapidity; you were at once twenty and fifty years old for me Away from you the different places, which I have inhabited are only theme of the distance I have come” With much more in the same strain Of Madame de Stael Gibbon does not speak in very war contented with her, ainst her In one letter to hihter's conduct in no measured terms Yet Gibbon owns that Madame de Stael was a ”pleasant little woman;” and in another place says that she ild, vain, but good-natured, with a er provision of wit than of beauty” One wonders if he ever knew of her childish scheht always have the pleasure of his co years of Gibbon's life were not happy, through no fault of his No man was less inclined by disposition to look at the dark side of things But heavy blows fell on him in quick succession His health was seriously iout His neglect of exercise had produced its effect, and he had becoestion seeood, and neither his own observation nor the ainst certain errors of regiout was constantly torturing him, he drank Madeira freely There is frequent question of a pipe of that sine in his correspondence with Lord Sheffield He cannot bear the thought of being without a sufficient supply, as ”good Madeira is now become essential to his health and reputation” The last three years of his residence at Lausanne were agitated by perpetual anxiety and dread of an invasion of French democratic principles, or even of French troops

Reluctance to quit ”his paradise” keeps hi how soon he will have to fly, and often regrets that he has not done so already ”For my part,” he writes, ”till Geneva falls, I do not think of a retreat; but at all events I aold” Fate was hard on the kindly epicurean, who after his long toil hadto lie down in genial content till the end came But he feels he must not think of rest; and that, heavy as he is, and irksoain Still he is never peevish upon his fortune; he puts the best face on things as long as they will bear it

He was not so philosophical under the bereavements that he now suffered His aunt, Mrs Porten, had died in 1786 He deplored her as he was bound to do, and feelingly regrets and blaht have done since their last parting Then came the irreparable loss of Deyverdun Shortly, an old Lausanne friend, M de Severy, to who illness Lastly and suddenly, came the death of Lady Sheffield, the wife of his friend Holroyd, ho lived on such inti her his sister The Sheffields, father and hters, had spent the summer of 1791 with him at Lausanne The visit was evidently an occasion of real happiness and _epanchement de coeur_ to the two old friends, and supplied Gibbon for nearly two years with tender regrets and recollections Then, without any warning, he heard of Lady Sheffield's death In a o at once to console his friend All the fatigue and irkso and feeble, all the dangers of the road lined and perhaps barred by hostile armies, vanished on the spot Within twelve days he had made his preparations and started on his journey

He was forced to travel through Gere he required an interpreter; young de Severy, the son of his deceased friend, joyfully, and out of mere affection for him, undertook the office of courier ”His attachment to me,” wrote Gibbon, ”is the sole motive which prompts him to undertake this troubleso hine, Brussels, Ostend, and was by his friend's side in little s Well ard it as thethe true spirit of friendshi+p, that, after having relinquished the thought of his intended visit, he hastened to England, in spite of increasing ienerous syreat corpulency nor his extraordinary bodily infirmities, nor any other consideration, could prevent hiht have deterred theman He almost immediately, with an alertness by no reat circuitous journey along the frontier of an enee, within the sound of their cannon, within the range of the light troops of the different arh roads ruined by the enorloom he bade for ever farewell to Lausanne He was hi

”The dark portal, Goal of all mortal,”

but of this he knew not as yet While he is in the house of , beside his bereaved friend, ill return for a short space to consider the conclusion of his great work

CHAPTER IX

THE LAST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL

The thousand years between the fifth and the fifteenth century coh utterly inadequate conceptions of social groont to be called the dark ages That long epoch of travail and growth, during which the old field of civilisation was broken up and sown afresh with new and various seed unknown to antiquity, receives now on all hands due recognition, as being one of thein the history ofdespotism of Rome was replaced by the endless local divisions and subdivisions of feudal tenure The multiforle faith and paramount authority of the Catholic Church The philosophies of Greece were dethroned, and the scholastic theology reigned in their stead The classic tongues crumbled away, and out of their _debris_ arose the modern idioms of France, Italy, and Spain, to which were added in Northern Europe the new forms of Teutonic speech

The fine and useful arts took a new departure; slavery was ated into serfdom; industry and commerce became powers in the world as they had never been before; the narrow municipal polity of the old world was in time succeeded by the broader national institutions based on various forms of representation Gunpowder, A were discovered, and the most civilised portion of mankind passed insensibly into the modern era

Such was the wide expanse which spread out before Gibbon when he resolved to continue his work from the fall of the Western Elance took in a still wider field, as he was concerned as much with the decay of Eastern as of Western Ro-retarded fall of the fore attention to the Oriental populations who assaulted the city and re empire of Constantine So bold an historic enterprise was never conceived as when, standing on the limit of antiquity in the fifth century, he deterreat lines of events for a thousand years, to follow in detail the really great transactions while discarding the less i pro on a ses It is to this portion of Gibbon's work that the happy conificent Ro over the chasm which separates the ancient from the modern world In these latter voluular annalistic narrative, deals with events in broador contracting his story as occasion requires; now painting in large panora centuries into brief outline Many of his massive chapters afford materials for voluive without deranging his plan But works of greater detail and narrower compass can never compete with Gibbon's history, any land or of Europe

The variety of the contents of these last three voluhness and perfection of the workmanshi+p are considered Prolix compilations or sketchy outlines of universal history have their use and place, but they are rerees fro to another species of authorshi+p It is not only that Gibbon co is as wonderful as its accuracy, though in this respect he has hardly a full rival in literature The quality which places him not only in the first rank of historians, but in a class by hireatest, lies in his supre into lucid and coherent unity, the manifold and rebellioushis divergent topics into such order that they seerow like branches out of one ste truly epic in these latter volumes

Tribes, nations, and empires are the characters; one after another they cohty deeds before the asserand and lofty chapters on Justinian; on the Arabs; on the Crusades, have a rounded completeness, coupled with such artistic subordination to the reat prose poem than the ordinary staple of historical composition It may well be questioned whether there is another instance of such high literary form and finish, coupled with such vast erudition And two considerations have to be borne in hten Gibbon's merit in this respect (1) Almost the whole of his subject had been as yet untouched by any preceding writer of eminence, and he had no stimulus or example from his precursors He united thus in himself the two characters of pioneer and artist (2) The barbarous and imperfect nature of the materials hich he chiefly had to work,--dull inferior writers, whose debased style was their least defect A historian who has for his authorities e such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, and Tacitus is borne up by their genius; apt quotation and translation alone suffice to produce considerable effects; or in the case of subjects taken frohty state papers, eloquent debates, or finished raphic narrative But Gibbon had little but dross to deal with Yet he has srand shapes we see

The fourth volun, or rather epoch, of Justinian,--a nificent subject, which he has painted in his loftiest style of gorgeous narrative The cans of Belisarius and Narses are related with a clearness and vigour that make us feel that Gibbon's merits as a nised He had from the time of his service in the militia taken continued interest in tactics and all that was connected with the military art It was no idle boast when he said that the captain of the Harenadiers had not been useless to the historian of the Roman empire Military matters perhaps occupy a soes Still, if the operations of war are to be related, it is highly ience, and knowledge how masses of men are moved, and by a writer to whom the various incidents of the camp, the march, and the bivouac, are not matters of n of Belisarius in Africa may be quoted as an exan of Justinian, and about the time of the summer solstice, the whole fleet of six hundred shi+ps was ranged in ardens of the palace The patriarch pronounced his benediction, the eave the signal of departure, and every heart, according to its fears or wishes, explored with anxious curiosity the omens of misfortune or success The first halt was made at Perintheus, or Heraclea, where Belisarius waited five days to receive son Froh the led to pass the straits of the hellespont, an unfavourable wind detained theeneral exhibited a remarkable lesson of firmness and severity Two of the Huns who, in a drunken quarrel, had slain one of their fellow-soldiers, were instantly shown to the arnity was resented by their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile laws of the ees of Scythia, where a small fine was allowed to expiate the sallies of inteer Their complaints were specious, their clamours were loud, and the Romans were not averse to the exa sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence of the general, and he represented to the asseation of justice, the importance of discipline, the rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of ravated rather than excused by the vice of intoxication In the navigation from the hellespont to the Peloponnesus, which the Greeks after the siege of Troy had perforuided in their course by his alley, conspicuous in the day by the redness of the sails, and in the night by torches blazing from the masthead It was the duty of the pilots as they steered between the islands and turned the capes of Malea and Taenariuular intervals of such a multitude As the as fair and moderate, their labours were not unsuccessful, and the troops were safely disembarked at Methone, on the Messenian coast, to repose theues of the sea

Fro the western coast of Peloponnesus, as far as the island of Zacynthus, or Zante, before they undertook the voyage (in their eyes a ues over the Ionian sea As the fleet was surprised by a calation At length the harbour of Caucana, on the southern side of Sicily, afforded a secure and hospitable shelter

Belisarius determined to hasten his operations, and his wise iht of Sicily, passed before the island of Malta, discovered the capes of Africa, ran along the coast with a strong gale from the north-east, and finally cast anchor at the promontory of Caput Vada, about five days journey to the south of Carthage

”Three months after their departure from Constantinople, the men and the horses, the arms and the military stores were safely diseuard on each of the shi+ps, which were disposed in the form of a semicircle The remainder of the troops occupied a ca to ancient discipline, with a ditch and rampart, and the discovery of a source of fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited the superstitious confidence of the Romans The small town of Sullecte, one day's journey froates and resuer cities of Leptis and Adrumetum imitated the example of loyalty as soon as Belisarius appeared, and he advanced without opposition as far as Grasse, a palace of the Vandal kings, at the distance of fifty ed theroves, cool fountains, and delicious fruits In three generations prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the hardy virtue of the Vandals, who insensibly becaardens, which ht deserve the Persian naant repose, and after the daily use of the bath, the barbarians were seated at a table profusely spread with the delicacies of the land and sea Their silken robes, loosely flowing after the fashi+on of the Medes, were e were the labours of their life, and their vacant hours were amused by pantomimes, chariot-races, and the music and dances of the theatre

”In a ilance of Belisarius was constantly awake and active against his unseen eneht be suddenly attacked An officer of confidence and uard of three hundred horse Six hundred Massagetae covered at a certain distance the left flank, and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldoht of the ared in the evening in strong camps or in friendly towns The near approach of the Roe filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror

”Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected a forree of military skill An order was despatched to his brother Ae, and to encounter the van of the Roman army at the distance of ten miles from the city: his nephew Gibamund with two thousand horse was destined to attack their left, when the e their rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid and even the view of their fleet But the rashness of Ammatas was fatal to himself and his country He anticipated the hour of attack, outstripped his tardy followers, and was pierced with a mortal wound, after he had slain with his own hand twelve of his boldest antagonists His Vandals fled to Carthage: the highway, almost ten miles, was streith dead bodies, and it seehtered by the swords of three hundred Roht coetae; they did not equal the third part of his numbers, but each Scythian was fired by the exae of his faainst the enenorant of the event, and s of the hills, inadvertently passed the Roman army and reached the scene of action where Ammatas had fallen He wept the fate of his brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the advancing squadrons, and ht have pursued and perhaps decided the victory, if he had not wasted those inestih pious duty to the dead While his spirit was broken by this mournful office, he heard the tru Antonina and his infantry in the cauards and the re troops, and to restore the fortune of the day Much room could not be found in this disorderly battle for the talents of a general; but the king fled before the hero, and the Vandals, accusto the arms and the discipline of the Romans

”As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the army informed each other of the accidents of the day, and Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to which the tenth e had applied the Latin appellation of _Deciems and resources of the Vandals, he marched the next day in the order of battle; halted in the evening before the gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he ht not, in darkness and disorder, expose the city to the licence of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the secret ambush of the city But as the fears of Belisarius were the result of calht confide without danger in the peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital Carthage blazed with innunal of the public joy; the chain was reates were thrown open, and the people with acclaratitude hailed and invited their Roman deliverers The defeat of the Vandals and the freedom of Africa were announced to the city on the eve of St Cyprian, when the churches were already adorned and illuminated for the festival of the martyr whom three centuries of superstition had almost raised to a local deity One awful hour reversed the fortunes of the contending parties The suppliant Vandals, who had so lately indulged the vices of conquerors, sought an hue in the sanctuary of the church; while the eon of the palace by their affrighted keeper, who ih an aperture in the wall the sails of the Roman fleet After their separation from the ar the coast, till they reached the Herence of the victory of Belisarius Faithful to his instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty e, if the more skilful had not represented the perils of the shore and the signs of an inorant of the revolution, they declined however the rash atte the chain of the port, and the adjacent harbour and suburb of Mandracium were insulted only by the rapine of a private officer, who disobeyed and deserted his leaders But the ih the narrow entrance of the Goletta and occupied the deep and capacious lake of Tunis, a secure station about five miles from the capital No sooner was Belisarius inforreatest part of the mariners should be immediately landed to join the triumph and to swell the apparent nuates of Carthage he exhorted them, in a discourse worthy of hilory of their arms, and to remember that the Vandals had been the tyrants, but that _they_ were the deliverers of the Africans, who must now be respected as the voluntary and affectionate subjects of their coh the street in close ranks, prepared for battle if an eneeneral ie in which custoenius of one man repressed the passions of a victorious army The voice of e was not interrupted; while Africa changed her overnment, the shops continued open and busy; and the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been posted, modestly departed to the houses which had been allotted for their reception Belisarius fixed his residence in the palace, seated himself on the throne of Genseric, accepted and distributed the barbaric spoil, granted their lives to the suppliant Vandals, and laboured to restore the dae which the suburb of Mandraciuht At supper he entertained his principal officers with the fornificence of a royal banquet