The Evil Star; or, the Tide and the planet. A novel

Front matter

THE EVIL STAR; 0E, THE TIDE AND THE PLANET. A NOVEL. By E. COLBURN, Esq. " Publicans and sinners I " such did He prefer before the com pany of pharisces and hypocrites. These latter, however, have beeu in great request ever since ; and, for my part, I see no end to their being pronounced for ever the choice society of the world. Companions of my solitude. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: CHARLES J. SKEET, PUBLISHER, 10, KING WILLIAM STREET, CHABING CROSS. 1854. LONDON : PRINTED BY Jt W. GBOVE, HARP LANE, TOWER STREET, CITY. DEDICATION. My dearest Mother, Duty and inclination do not so often coincide as not to render their union happy — if only for its rarity. The happiness derived from that union it is my lot to experience in noAv dedicating these volumes to you; since, in doing so, no incentive Avhich either could supply is Avanting.

As while one suggests that to my first instructress is due the tribute of my first work; the other whispers that from no other can it hope to meet the same indulgence to faults — an equal Avillingness to believe in merits.

Preface

. It is possible that I may be expected to explain the title of my book. It is also natural that to a first work I should wish to premise a sentence or two of introduction. With those who choose to be addressed only as critics, I have nothing to plead. From their leniency I have no right to hope anything. From their justice I may have to fear much. A few words will suffice to explain both my book and its title. It has been my wish throughout these pages, to shoAv the progress of a struggle against those influences of our life, which i may ha\"e somewhat too fancifully designated the " Tide " and the " Planet." That in this struggle, Adversity to some so blessed, is to others indeed that Dis-aster that

PREFACE.

. " Evil Star," Avhich shines balefully over their career, and goes down redly on the shipwreck of happiness, is one — and the chief — of the lessons I have sought to inculcate. _ Necessarily then I address myself more to the inflictors of— than to the sufferers from — adversity. Rather to the imposers — than to the bearers — of the heaA'y burdens of care and trial. Adversity is the fate of the latter — its infliction is the choice of the former. It has been remarked in reference to the ill-fated artist, " Haydon," that " all failures result from the non-adaptation of constitution to conditions." And strikingly was that assertion verified in his career, whose misfortunes it Avas used to illustrate. From the commencement the " Tide" of his life swayed under a hostile " Planet," and though it is certain he lacked not energy to battle against difficulties ; yet that very energy seemed to work beneath some disastrous wdiich gave it more the character of desperation, rendering every struggle Avhich in another would have been healthy and robust, in him only wild and fevered.

How far I may have succeeded in depicting such a struggle and its results, rests with the public to determine. For myself, I do not dare to anticipate success. It will be enough for me if I have written anything Avhich may touch and soften the human

PREFACE.

. V heart — which may teach it to feel for those doomed to contend with the adA'erse circumstances of life ; not alone with the petty annoyances of daily difficulties, but Avith the far bitterer malignity of hostile and tyrant natures — of worldly and little minds — those, perchance, to Avhom it has been said, and said again, that they need only press on and they will succeed; but who feel that these trumpet-notes — this ringing cheer to victory are for the unbroken spirits and the fresh springing hope, while they, too worn — too weak to struggle longer, can but resign themselves to their destiny, and so float hopelessly down the dark " Tide" over whose angry surface flashes the lurid light of their ill-boding Star. Succeeding in this, I shall have done all I dared to look for. Doing this, I shall not have done ill. More than fame — more than success, is the working some good to our fellow-creatures. THE E Y I L STAR.

Chapter I

It was an eve when June was calling The red rose to her summer state, When dew-like tears around were falling, Such tears as upon pity wait. L. E. L. Et quoiqu' une couverture de chaume soit en toute saison la meilleure, je prefererais magnifiqueinent, non la trlste ardoise, mais la tuile, parce qu'elle a l'air plus propre et plus gaie que le chaume. — J. J. Rousseau. It was a fair night in June, such night as June has, scarcely deserving the name, near ten o'clock, and the moon that had just risen was shining over a thatched cottage — Reader \r0L. I. B start not — it was neither cabin nor peasants' abode, but rather some graceful freak of the owner had covered it with thatch, as more country-like, and in better keeping with other country things, than hard gray slates, or even the gay tiling that Rousseau so much admired.

The brilliant Frenchman, who more than he, would have admired the scene surrounding this cottage? Over the fresh cut grass and rich green hedge rows, where nestled the early wild roses, and the late lingering patches of hawthorn, shone the calm moonlight of an English June. From the winding country road, half-lane, sheltered and retired, the white paling of a rustic gate led into the cottage garden — a fairy spot by night; the air was steeped in fragrance from the white and the red rose trees that skirted the Avalks, were scattered over the flower knots, and clustering on the cottage walls overhung the windows; while, in the moonlight, looked the red rose Avhite as her paler sister, or even as the pure cups of the lilies, whose heavier perfume mingled with the rich scent of the rose ; later in the season would come other flowers, the spicy carnation, and the gorgeous orange and crimson dahlias in the livery of autumn ; but these roses and lilies had the hues of early summer, of the youth of the year, and their fresh odors mingled deliciously with those from the fields and hedges, the hawthorn, and the new mown hay ; Avhile the summer night, with its warm tAvilight and soft moonshine, seemed to surround and bathe the cottage in an enchanted atmosphere, and made it meet for Avhat it that night was meant for — a bridal home !

See, there are symptoms of preparation within — light streaming from under the blinds of what, from its position on the right of the hall door, is probably the draAving room, and candles flitting by AvindoAVS at the back of the house, and moving impatiently to and fro ; a moment visible in one AvindoAv, then disap pearing, perhaps round to the other side, then coming back and again flitting by ; and now it has struck ten, and the hall door has been opened, and a woman's figure has come out and stood on the steps, and looked anxiously around in a listening attitude; in the pale B uncertain light she looks sufficiently pictu resque, but were it day, you would see it was only Mrs. Selby, the housekeeper of Mr. Raymond, who is the owner of this abode and its appurtenances ; and now the door is closed again and a brighter blaze of light darts from under the bottom of the blind, giving you the idea that a fire has been stirred by a vigorous hand; and now, over the barking of Avatch dogs and the croak of the corn bird, and other sounds of the night near and distant, comes the sound of carriage wheels, and the door opens again quickly — the same figure appears and listens, and then catches the sound, each moment louder and nearer ; a hasty run into the house, a last look to see that everything is right for the bride's reception — it is all she has time for — for now they have turned out of the public road, and the carriage comes furiously driven up through the quiet hedges, and stops at the cottage gate.

A few moments more and the young husband has led his wife across the threshold, and has paused to press her to his heart and bid her welcome to her home, and Mrs. Selby has THE E\rIL STAR. curtsied her welcomes and thrown open the draAving room door and they enter. How bright and pleasant everything looked, though somewhat belying the promise of the simple thatched and flowered exterior ; fastidious and fault-finding people would have said it was out of keeping, but the two who now advanced into it were not (especially at this moment) of that class. The cottage belonged to a wed-to-do bachelor friend of Harry Vernon's who, while he passed the summer on the continent, had willingly let his residence, including Mrs. Selby, to his friend, who had seized on it with delight, as offering a pleasant (where could be a pleasanter) summer residence for his bride ; and consequently was it furnished as a wealthy bachelor might furnish his castle; that is to say, richly, and even luxuriously, and so Catherine paused in amazement, for here were all those elegancies not usually found in thatched cottages; the foot on entering fell on a rich Persian carpet, and the brilliant light from lamps of all sizes and dimensions ( Mrs. Selby had illuminated in honour of the event) and hung on all manner of graceful stems and statues, brought out its gorgeous tint in full splendour, while this rich carpeting, and the crimson and gold striped satin cur tains but matched the chairs, couches, and ottomans, many sized and shaped, of every new and curious device, and the numberless objects of vertu that lay scattered in rich abundance.

All were costly and lavish as money profusely expended could procure ; true, all was not in the most perfect harmony, either with the season or Avith Avhat the room was intended for, and an expensive, rather than a pure taste Avas manifest through the entire apartment, but this only evidenced that the presiding hand and quick perception of woman was wanting ; Avith ad its faults, the tout ensemble was admirable, as the pearl-like globes of the lamps, and the many groups in alabaster and parian, and the snow-heaped vases of white roses were thrown out in doubled beauty from this rich and glaring frameAvork, over which in turn they shed their brilliance, and lent coolness and relief. And noAv, Avhile the bride has gone up stairs (seven or eight steps) to lay aside her travelling apparel, and the bridegroom having delivered his hat and coat in charge to Mrs. Selby, is walking up and down the room as though too happy to sit quietly anywhere, and Avhile the fragrant aroma of coffee stealing up from the loAver regions tells us that Mrs. Selby is about to present her guests with that meal which, albeit, it may consist of coffee or cho colate, or any other thing, is yet technically called " tea."

While these three persons are thus, all innocently it is to be hoped, and one at least usefully engaged, reader, let me make you acquainted Avith Harry Vernon and his bride.

Like most people who marry for love, they are a very foolish and, for the present, a very happy pair ; he the son of a gentleman Avho is joint partner in a respectable mercantile house in the City — a little before my story commences, Harry had entered the army, his regiment being shortly afterwards quartered at Ipswich, he there met and fell in love with Catherine Per cival ; I do not wonder that he did so, for a more lovely or innocent creature, I believe, has never existed than Catherine at the age of twenty ; though, like every person who is more innocent and pure minded than those around her, she did many things that the prudent Avorld thought exceedingly strange, odd, and even improper; and one, and the most con siderable of these strange, odd, and improper things was the marrying Harry Vernon against the advice of her friends and the consent of her father; nor do I at all mean to defend Catherine, or to say that such marriages are not very improper, all I do mean to say is, that she Avas really, what others only seemed, very simple and inexperienced in the world's Avays ; that Harry Vernon was very handsome and very captivating, and that Catherine loved him most Avholly and devotedly in one week from the day she first met him — loved him so that had she never met him again, I think even then, that love had seized her heart so Avholly, that it would never have been effaced by any other, and, if she could not have married Harry, Catherine Avould have lived and died unmarried: so that, these things considered, I can make allowance for Catherine's thinking that she could not tear that passionate fondness, of such short but quick growth, from her heart, and fancying that there was much stronger and clearer argu ment in her lover's eloquent persuasions (to which truth gave eloquence) than in her father's stern objections; and, at all events, blame or praise cannot avail much noAv, for the deed is done, and Catherine Percival is Catherine Vernon, and I do not think she ever looked so well (I must tell the truth, though every wise father and mother were to caution their daughters from my book, as " most silly and dangerous,") when bearing her maiden name, as she does now that her travelling costume thrown off she enters the room in an evening robe of white muslin, with her soft broAvn hair falling in ringlets round her face, so fair and bright, and blooming in the rich light and colouring of the room, and the richer light from her heart of blissful, true. and tender love.

Simple and unostentatious as had been the wedding that morning, few as were the friends or relatives avIio stood near the bride in that B solemn touching hour, Avhen she bids them and all former things adieu, cold as was the father's blessing, all this had been, not unfelt, but forgotten in the long day's journey that had intervened; happy, very inexpressibly happy, were the hours of that journey, SAviftly had the hours sped, quickly the miles had been got over; yet very foolishly I dare say had the time been passed in that travelling carriage ; and I Avould tremble for the reader's patience, and for my story's sake, were I to write doAvn all that was said on either side, many silly phrases and unmeaning repetitions, I fear, there would be, and at ending he would say: " What a pair of fools !" and so they were, just as much, and no more or less, than any other neAv married pair, who, loving as they did, and innocent as they were, take a similar journey on their wedding day.

And now, reader, do you not envy them ; you must, or you and I shall not agree, as they sit in that beautiful room, rich, Avarm, and glowing with light, and costly furniture on the first evening of their married life. See, Mrs. Selby has brought in the coffee, it enters in no humble guise — chased silver, and SeVres china are its appendages, with the more useful, though less magnificent accom paniments of cold ham and fresh rolls, and cakes, plum, seed, and Sally Luns; for Mrs. Selby rightly guesses that the travellers have had no dinner, and wisely judges that some substantial fare will not be amiss with the coffee; but Mrs. Selby did not know what, I blush to tell, that during their journey, Harry and Catherine had finished a prodigious lump of wedding cake that had been sent in the carriage with them ; yet such is the fact, as also that when it was finished, some of the crumbs had attached themselves to Harry's mustachios, and there remained till, in some unaccountable way, a short time after, they came on Catherine's lips, and instead of brush ing them away in disgust, she suffered herself to SAvallow them ; and, strange to say, thought they tasted sAveeter than any she had ever eaten before; but still they are able to enjoy the meal Mrs. Selby has spread before them, and I knoAv, had I been there, I should have enjoyed it too, and they sit very near each other, and do not eat very fast, and interrupt the progress of the meal in a very foolish and tiresome manner, by continually looking into each other's eyes, as if they expected to find something new there, and so perhaps they did ; or, if not, they were equally content; it was the same to them.

" And so Catherine, you think you will not dislike your new house, and it seems to look proud of its mistress." " To say nothing of its master, Mr. Harry." " Yes, Kate, you may say something, you may say he is the very happiest man the sun has set upon this night." " Or the moon risen on, how beautifully it shone as we came up, and how enchanting the little place looked, I must have another peep at it Harry." And Catherine rose, and going to the windoAv pulled up the blind, while Harry followed and stood by her side, with his arm round her Avaist ; and there was the sight most lovely on earth to behold, but rarely, scarce ever seen, two hearts made one by a perfect and unclouded love. The pure holy light shone on the little garden and the white roses, and on these two as pure and stainless, and over the lovers hung the moon, their first honey-moon, casting round them its pale omens to whisper of a happy future.

And there they whispered more of those soft speeches so full of meaning to a lover's ear, and to no other; but long ere this — it may be that the reader is tired, and wishes this nonsense at an end — Avell reader, the sense and the shadows will come, the latter at least soon enough, and thick enough to all of us ; may we not be forgiven then, if Ave have lingered for a moment in the sunshine, that once having quitted, Ave knoAV not if we shall ever enter again.

Chapter II

Little Ellie, in her smile, Chooseth ' I will have a lover Riding on a steed of steeds — He shall love me without guile ; And to him I will discover That swan's nest among the reeds. * * * * * Ellie went home, sad and slow ! If she found the lover ever, With his red roan steed of steeds, Sooth', I know not ! but I know She would show him, never, never, That swan's nest among the reeds. E. B. Barrett. When Jack awoke the next morning, he was surprised to see his window darkened, and looking out, he saw that the bean he had planted the night before had taken root, and grown up into an immense tree, whose topmost branches were lost in the clouds. Jack and the Bean-stalk (from the Nursery Text). And truly in the history of the next few years the shadows came thickly, for Catherine, our young happy bride of the last chapter, the beams of the honeymoon have long since passed from her ; their omen unfulfilled ; she is lonely and a widow.

A year has not yet gone by since the bright smile and happy careless glance of Harry Vernon have vanished in the silence of the grave ; that smile Avhich was bright, that glance Avhich Avas happy and careless on his Avedding day ! but which ere a year of married life had passed over him, became darkened by a care and a shade Avhich daily deepened — a care and a shade, which, wherever they fall, and the cause from which they spring, if not at once remedied, must daily increase, and prey upon the heart, and sour the temper, till they reach that goal to which all extravagance, going beyond the means for its support, must finally come. Poor Harry ! it was a sad day for him when his friend proposed to let his residence, and that pretty cottage with its flowers and furniture was the beginning of Harry Vernon's ruin ; he could not bear to bring Catherine to a style of living so different from the elegance which surrounded them there ; and so, at all his quarters, he placed her in fashionable and hand somely furnished lodgings, and tried to make her feel no material difference in her abode and mode of life.

A few months of this experiment had impaired his finances ; his next step was to sell out, and the sum acquired by this rash act was used as though it were a mine of wealth ; it was a mine which proved soon ex hausted; not so the taste for extravagance which Harry had imbibed, he strove at the gaming table to retrieve the waste of his for tunes, and played with a varying success, which, during its progress, made wreck of health and spirits, and ended in utter ruin : in one day came her misfortunes on Catherine, in one day the picture was reversed, and the careless, gleeful, girlish life had to be ex changed for the hard struggle of poverty — a struggle which, hard to bear in all classes, is most difficult to those who have the sense of false pride, and the contrast of past luxury to deepen the gloom of adversity.

They went abroad to some continental refugium, peccatorum, she with her infant to console her under her load of grief, and he with the sense of degradation, and the un availing too late remorse that would admit of no consolation, none at least, till the grave's quiet had closed over the shattered broken re mains of the ruined gambler ! . Peace be to such in another world, for dearly have they expiated their rashness in this. And Catherine is again in her OAvn land with her boy, loved with that fond idolatry which we give to the thing that has been our only stay in the day of trial, the support Avithout Avhich we could not have lived, she has gone to hide her sorrows, not with her cold stern father, he too is in his grave, Avith an uncle, whose dwelling though homely, is open to her, and whose means though moderate she is yet Avelcome to share.

It is again a summer's eve where all is simple pastoral life. Far from towns or noble residences, in one of the agricultural counties, stood Henley Grange, the home of George Percival, an old building not altogether want ing in the picturesque, for it had on it the mark of age. Years ago it had been the residence of the last descendants of a timehonored race; however, years had by degrees taken from it all the indications of rank, and, changing its character, it had assumed a homely and farmer-like, yet a cheery and flourishing appearance ; and now as the setting sun fell on its red brick walls and old casements, that lost half that appearance of age from the gay blossoms of the creepers that hung around them, shone out bright and prosperous looking, standing at the top of a large garden, Avith trim kept hedge and arbour, and well weeded flower beds, half garden, half orchard, for there were many trees, apple, and pear, and cherry, and some of these were now in full blossom, and to me feAV things are more beautiful or pleasant to look at, than the snowy white, and fresh pink, and rich creamy hues of fruit-tree flowers.

On the evening air there was a delicious per fume from these, and from a whole regiment of double stocks; and on the window-sills, and on stands, placed in the garden, were pots of geraniums ; and up the old walls ran the tender green shoots and scarlet blossoms of the verbena plant, while at a table placed in the porch, sat the farmer and his Avife; he divided between the enjoyment of the beau tiful evening, and the perusal of the weekly paper, she intent on a piece of knitting; here through the quiet of the evening, came to their ears many mingled voices of the country, so familiar they scarce noted them ; the loAving of cattle, the bark of a dog, the rippling of the stream that ran by the end of the garden, the buzzing from the hives on one side of the porch, and the sound sAveeter than all, and rising over all, the prattle ]of young voices, and the gleeful laugh of children, the voice and the laughter are those of Catherine's boy, Walter, and his cousin Susan ; they are at the far end of the garden, on three sides surrounded by a formidable hedge of privet, at the fourth, forming an extremity, it is merely divided from the fields by a stream, so dried up by the Avarm Aveather, that the children have made a path across Avith stones, to facilitate a ramble into the adjoining fields ; on one side these are skirted by a Avood which sends down a feAV trees strag gling to the water's edge ; on the other they go off in a rich extent of meadow and corn district, to a short distance the property of the master of the Grange.

On this unsteady patlway stand Walter and Susan, he striving to assist her efforts to cross, and thereby endangering the fall of both ; however, they are over now in safety, and Susan is bounding through the field, stopping every now and then to gather some of the wild flowers Avith which it is so thickly covered, while Walter says somewhat impatiently, " Susan, let us go on as fast as we can over the field beyond, we shall have time before bed, and we have never been beyond the second field yet in our lives? " " Yes, yes, " was the reply, and off they set ; but, as often happens in such cases, when they had got beyond the second field, the little girl felt frightened at being so much farther from home than she had ever been before without her father and mother, and begged of Walter to return.

" Let us try and get on to those trees;" Walter rejoined, pointing to some on the summit of a gentle rise in front. " No, no, Walter, I'm sure they're a great way off, I'll go back, " and the little girl set off running towards home till she had once more reached the stream, and there paused to wait for Walter ; he came at length, but looked cross and discontented. " You need not have run away, Susan you are like a fool." " Oh, Walter, I was frightened, and I wished to get back." " Well, the next time I shall go without you, that's all, and go as far as I like, I Avould like to see what is behind that hill Avith the trees on the top." " Perhaps there is something dangerous be hind them," said Susan, timidly. " Dangerous ! no indeed, why should you think such nonsense, Susan ? I'm sure there's a beautiful country there, instead of this stupid old garden.

Do you remember, Susan," he continued, " in ' Jack and the Bean stalk,' the country Jack got to when he came to the top, perhaps it Avas something like that?" " But, then, the giant nearly killed him," said Susan. " Oh, but he wasn't able in the end," rejoined Walter, triumphantly ; " and Jack got all the giant's treasures." " I Avould rather not have the treasures, than meet the giant," said Susan. " I would'nt then," said Walter ; " besides I would like to see a giant ; I Avonder if there are any near here ; perhaps beyond the trees there might be a giant, Susan." " Mamma told me there were no giants now." " That's not true then for there are, John and Sally told me they both saw one at a show." " How tall was the one they saw, Walter? " " I suppose fifty or a hundred feet high; I dare say there is one behind those trees where the sun is setting, it looks like a giant country I think."

" I'll never go near them, then ; and don't you go, Walter, for though the giant didn't eat Jack, he might eat you." " I wouldn't let him any more than Jack ; and I Avill go there some day, and you needn't come if you don't like, only if you don't, whatever I get belongs entirely to me." I suppose at this announcement some vision of great treasure to be found in that distant land beyond the trees, came before Susan, for she suddenly looked very sad ; if so, however, her answer had no reference to it, as she merely said, " If you like, Walter, you may keep them all, unless you like to give me some, I Avould not care for them." Whether Walter ever went beyond the trees, and Avhether he found the giant there or not, does not concern us so much as from the conversation to mark Iioav far " the child is father of the man."