The hand of the trembling girl was clasped in his, for she had no strength to withdraw it from his hold; and her eyes were fixed upon him, but it was easy to see that she was unconscious of what she looked on. For an instant the crimson blood flooded over her cheek and brow, but in the next it receded and left her as pale as though she had been a figure hewn in marble; and, meanwhile, the indignation of the widow kept her also silent. "Are you still obdurate?" he urged after the lapse of a moment, during which he had waited anxiously for some sound of assent from the pale lips of the shrinking girl, who, while she would fain have flung herself upon his bosom and murmured out all the tenderness of her young heart, felt that she must contend bravely against the impulse of her own affections in that time of trial, or that she was lost for ever. "Nay, then," and he cast himself passionately upon his knees, and looked up imploringly into her face, " only tell me once more before you condemn me to misery and ruin, that you did love me; do not let me depart in the belief that you only sported with my passion. Surely this, at least, is asking but little in return for a love like mine; and then I will leave you-leave you, Félicie, to win a more worthy heart and then break it, as you have done mine!" "Sir," said the quailing girl, as she rose from her seat and disengaged herself from his embrace, "all this is worse than mockery. You found me innocent and happy; poor, perhaps, very poor I but still not wretched, for I had then to learn that poverty, besides its deprivations, was the rude and open path to insult. You talked to me of love, and I listened; for I knew not that the passion which you urged implied disgrace. I did love you! I will not deny this poor triumph to your heartless vanity. Oh! why-why, M. Jacques," she added more tenderly, as the hot tears streamed down her pallid cheeks, and the pure and simple eloquence of an innocent nature rose spontaneously to her lips, "why did you sport with a heart so fondly won and so rudely broken? for my heart is broken, M. Jacques, and all for which I now hope is an early death and a quiet grave!" "Félicic, listen to me!" pursued her pertinacious lover; "I am not what I seem. Had I, indeed, been what the friend of M. Vigeron might well be supposed to be, then should I have sought you in marriage without one thought of the social compromise by which you have been so deeply wounded, but it is not so. My name would inform you of nothing which you can care to know; but I owe it both to you and to myself to tell you that I do not ask you to share with me a life of hardship in a mansarde, divided between labour and deprivation. I can give you all, sweet Félicie, that your innocent vanity can crave and your beauty claim from a devoted heart. I can pour gold and jewels into your lap, and make your existence one long dream of luxury and pleasure. Think of this, Félicie! I swear to you that I have told you but the truth!" "I thank you, monsieur," said the fair girl, with a proud disdain which gave a new and striking character to her loveliness, and which at once negatived the hope that might have found food in the hoarse querulousness of her voice," I thank you for having by this information enabled me to overcome the last feeling of weakness which still linked my heart to your fortunes. Could I, indeed, have sacrificed to my affection the principles in which I have grown up from girlhood, it would have been in the consciousness that by sharing your poverty I might lessen it; that by toiling for your subsistence I could render it more happy. I received your vows in the belief that we met on equal terms, but you say that it was not so. You have not understood me, and I forgive you. Let us part without further parley. Spare me the shame of replying to offers which only go to prove that even when I won your love, I failed to secure your respect." "And your mother, Félicie! will you see her want, when you can secure the comfort of her old age ?" "I can work to do so!" was the firm reply. "She could not subsist on the wages of her child's disgrace." "Once more," exclaimed the young man, energetically, "I beseech you to reflect! You are almost penniless! two helpless women, without friends and without means. Work has failed you, as I know. Whence do you expect to derive your future support ?" Félicie raised her fine eyes to heaven, and the conscience-stricken young man buried his face in his hands, and flung himself upon a chair. For a moment there was silence in that squalid chamber; but once more it was broken by M. Jacques, who, turning towards the window, said earnestly, "You, madame, you know the struggles and sufferings of poverty, and can estimate their bitterness. May I not appeal to you? I will surround you with comfort and enjoyment!" "And I should purchase them at a price which would turn your bread to poison!" interposed the mother, sternly. "I should buy them with my pure and angel child, and share them with a hopeless and a blighted thing, upon whom I could never again look save with contempt and loathing. Go, sir! that weeping girl has well told you that you did not understand us. Be you who you may, you have yet to learn that even poverty has its pride!" "Félicie!" exclaimed the young man, as he once more fell at her feet, "you have conquered! Forgive my selfish vanity, and the insult that I have offered to your innocent and pure affection. Forget that I have ever sought you in aught save honour. I cannot live without you; and here I swear that if you will pardon what is past, and take me once more to your heart, I will make you mine by those holy vows which death only can annul. Plead for me, mother !" he continued, beseechingly, as the averted face of Félicie, and the quick sobs of the widow, rendered him still more earnest. "Bid her forgive and trust me. My foolish pride is prostrated by her purity. I will be as a son to you in your declining years: and to her-oh, Félicie! need I say what I will be to you?" In another moment the trembling girl was in the arms of her repentant lover, and the mother was weeping tears of joy which mingled with the blessings that she invoked upon them both. Six weeks afterwards the comptoir at the Temple was occupied by a lingère, of whose history we are wholly ignorant; and the elder son of the haughty Marquis de having made a mésalliance which drew down upon him the indignant displeasure of all his aristocratic relations, was on his way to Naples with his beautiful young bride, there to remain in no unwilling exile until his lordly father should have secured for hini a diplomatic appointment at the court of St. Petersburg. The married lovers passed two years in the dominions of the Czar, and then they returned to Paris on the death of the old marquis; where, having taken possession of his estates, the husband of our gentle Félicie accepted the offer of an embassy at in which distinguished position he served his country with honour to himself, and became as celebrated for the talent and skill with which he fulfilled his mission, as his young and beautiful marquise for the elegance and dignity which characterised her bearing in the difficult role of ambassadress. LIFE OF SIR MURRAY MAXWELL. CHAPTER XV. THE VICEROY OVER AWED RETURN OF LORD AMHERST. THE forts that defend the entrance of the Canton river were now practically silenced. The Alceste lay at anchor beside the second bar, and the total inability of the Chinese land and sea forces to cope with one of his majesty's third-rate frigates was demonstrated. Moreover, the effect produced upon the viceroy and his advisers was not slow in appearing. Repeated efforts were made, through the Hong merchants and the committee of supercargoes, to open a communication with Captain Maxwell; but the supercargoes very properly declined to act in the matter, while Captain Maxwell refused to listen to any proposals which should emanate from any other quarter than the viceroy himself. He took care, however, to require in a very becoming manner that the governor would put a stop to the insolent bearing of the rabble, who used to amuse themselves by throwing stones at the ship's boats as they passed :— "Should your excellency not deem it expedient," said he, "to put an immediate stop to these disgraceful and dangerous proceedings, I must endeavour to act under such unlooked-for circumstances as 1 think will best merit hereafter the approbation of my sovereign, who always estimates the honour and dignity of his crown by the safety and protection it affords to his people in every part of the world.” There was no need to reiterate a request conveyed in such perfectly intelligible terms. The viceroy quite understood the sort of remedy which his correspondent might be expected to apply; and, with as much of prudence as of good feeling, he caused the annoyance to cease. Though he did not venture to issue any edicts about the matter, the viceroy was well known to be sensitively alive to the necessity of keeping the Alceste from approaching nearer to Canton than the anchorage at which she then lay. If he could manage to bring this about, he would still be able to persuade the people that Lord Amherst's embassy had received a different treatment at his hands from that which Lord Macartney had received at the hands of his predecessor; for Lord Macartney had embarked at Whampoa, whither the Lion ascended to meet him, whereas the second bar was at a considerable distance below Whampoa. On the other hand, the English residents, though they do not appear to have spoken to Captain Maxwell on the subject, were much chagrined at the idea that such an arrangement might take place. They felt that the great advantage which had been gained would be wholly wasted, should he whose courage bore him past the Chinese batteries fail of pushing his triumph to the uttermost; because he was dealing with a people on whom truth imposed no restraints, and who would, of course, act, so soon as they could do so with safety, in the spirit of the boastful proclamations which they would be sure to issue. But Captain Maxwell never for a moment contemplated the commission of so serious a blunder. He kept his own counsel, it is true. He was not desirous of interrupting the sort of harmony that prevailed, far less of affording an opening to the series of intrigues with which, had his real designs been prematurely divulged, he would have been tormented. He, therefore, remained perfectly quiet, the Lyra being at anchor near him, and the trade going on as briskly and as profitably as if no acts of hostility had occurred between the two nations. Such was the state of affairs when intelligence came that the arrival of the embassy at Canton might from day to day be expected. This was on the 29th of December; yet the sun went down on the Alceste and the Lyra riding where they had heretofore done, and affording no ground for the assumption that any forward movement would be made. Meanwhile, however, Captain Max well had made his own arrangements. These he communicated only in the course of that day to Sir Theophilus Metcalfe in a confidential letter, and to Captain Hall, whom he summoned on board by signal. From every other British subject, whether merchant, officer, or supercargo, they were hidden. The astonishment of all on shore may, therefore, be conceived, when the return of daylight shewed them the ships, not anchored beside the second bar, but riding high up in the roadstead of Whampoa, about half a mile above the station which the Lion had occupied in 1793. The step which Captain Maxwell thus took was as bold as it was judicious. He was determined that no tarnish should fall upon the British name so long as the care of upholding its dignity rested with him; and he knew that under the peculiar circum-' stances into which he had been cast, a spirit of daring was a safe spirit. Indeed it is impossible to rate too highly those qualities of firmness and discretion of which, throughout the whole of the embarrassing operations then carried on in the Chinese waters, he shewed himself to be possessed. Not only was he prepared to incur any amount of responsibility, as was demonstrated by the promptitude with which he forced the Bocca Tigris, but there was about him a wise reserve, a habit of self-control and circumspection in all the intercourses of social life, for the absence of which no degree of genius can compensate, yet of which it may with truth be said that it is of rarer occurrence, both among sailors and soldiers, than any other of the ingredients which go to make up a perfect public character. Neither were his merits in these particulars overlooked by the ablest of the functionaries who had the good fortune to co-operate with him. The chief of the factory, than whom there could be no more competent judge, winds up a letter full of commendation on these heads by saying, "May you receive at home the thanks which you deserve for your judicious conduct here.' Captain Basil Hall has left on record his own opinion and that of his brother officers on the same head, while from Lord Amherst a communication was received in reply to an official report that had been sent in of the more important of the occurrences that befell during his lordship's absence, which was in every point of view gratifying to him who was the object of it. Of this latter document we conceive that we are called upon to subjoin a copy: "I have received," says his lordship in a letter dated Canton, January 14, 1817, "and read with great interest, the statement which you have been so obliging as to send me of the transactions which took place on the 13th of November last, on the occasion of your proceeding in the Alceste to the anchorage occupied by the Lion at the time of the embassy of Lord Macartney. It will be for my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to pronounce on the line of conduct which you pursued, when a hostile attack was made upon you by the Chinese armed boats, even before you had reached the limits at all times allowed to British ships of war. But if I may judge from the practical effect produced on the Chinese authorities at this place, I should not hesitate to say that you have successfully repelled an attempt on the part of the local government to degrade the honour of the British flag, and have, therefore, essentially contributed to maintain the system acted upon in our commercial relations with the Chinese empire. Our readers will doubtless recollect the terms in which Captain Basil Hall speaks of his friend and commander, and the following anecdote seems not undeserv ing of insertion here: "On the morning after the ship had passed the batteries, and reached the intended anchorage, Capt. Maxwell ordered his gig, a small four-oared boat to be manned, and without taking arms, or making any previous stipulations for his own safety, rowed straight up to Canton, a distance of more than thirty miles from his ship. The news of the action had preceded his arrival, and immense multitudes were assembled to see the officer who had destroyed those fortresses, considered by the whole empire as impregnable. He was received on the wharf by the members of the British Factory with almost equal admiration. Gentlemen,' said he, I have felt it my duty to take a step of great importance, and one which may perhaps seriously involve not only the ambassador and his suite, but all of you; and as I am the person principally concerned, I have come here to share the risk, whatever it may prove."" "I am further convinced that the dig. nity of the embassy has been upheld by your having asserted a privilege to which it might fairly be considered as entitled by the former precedent; and it is a satisfaction to me to think that the system of intimidation attempted to be pursued by the Chinese government against the subjects of his Britannic majesty should equally have failed about the same time, at each extremity of the empire." With these facts before us, we must be permitted to express our surprise and regret, that of the services which he had rendered to this most important branch of commerce, and the courage with which he had asserted the dignity of the British name, Captain Maxwell never re ceived from the East India Company the smallest acknowledgment. He was thanked by his own government after he returned home. He had just cause to be proud of the notice which was taken of him by some of the most distinguished members of society; but, in Leadenhall Street, a profound silence prevailed in reference both to his exploits and to the effects that had resulted from them. Not that there were wanting among the proprietors men who were capable of discerning and rightly appre ciating his merits. One of the first to request an interview with him on his arrival in London was the illustrious and venerable Lord St. Vincent, whom he visited at Rochets, and who volunteered to support his claim to a gratuity of 10,000l. at the least. But the proposition to afford this gratuity was not only never brought forward, but two long years were permitted to elapse ere the paltry sum of 1500l. was awarded as a compensation for the expenses to which he had been put, and the losses which he had sustained by the wreck of the Alceste. The truth, indeed, is that every where, and especially at the India House, there prevailed in those days a ridiculously exaggerated notion of the power of the Chinese empire, and of the necessity rather than the wisdom of submission on the part of European traders to almost any sort of indignity which its rulers might impose upon them. Had it been otherwise, Captain Maxwell's far-sighted and manly hint must have been acted upon, and reparation formally de manded by the king's government for the insult offered to the British flag; in which case we may, without presumption, venture to assert that of Chinese insolence no more would have been heard for a while. But a war with China was something from the bare contemplation of which the bravest shrank. How has the lapse of a few years dispelled this illusion? We have been driven at last by a multiplication of outrages into the adoption of measures which ought to have been adopted, and would have proved equally efficacious, five-andtwenty years ago; only there is this marked distinction between the character of recent events and that of a war undertaken in 1817, that the former seems to the world to have arisen out of a nefarious traffic on the part of British traders; whereas the latter, if forced upon us, would have had for its ostensible object the vindication of the national honour, and the exaction of civilised usages from the power against which our efforts were directed. The advance of the Alceste and the Lyra to the anchorage of Whampoa completed the triumph of their commander over the insolence and chicanery of the faithless race with whom he had come into collision. He learned, indeed, that it had been resolved in Canton to withhold all marks of respect from the embassy on its return; that no guns would be fired, no gongs beaten, nor any procession formed either in the city or on the water. But even in reference to this comparatively unimportant point, he determined that the Chinese should have no gratifying reminiscences to look back upon. As soon as it was announced to him that Lord Amherst and his suite were approaching, he manned the boats of the fleet, thirteen in all, with crews dressed in new suits, of uniform colour, and form; and the officers, putting on their uniforms and hoisting many standards in the bows and sterns, the whole set off in procession order to meet the embassy. last act of malice of which the Chinese were guilty was to lay the route of Lord Amherst's procession, not along the great line that conducts to Canton, but by the minor branch which terminates at Macaoan arrangement which compelled The |