The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 196: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oe ee ee ee eee ee eee eee eee a et — .:. ee meee eee eee ee eee es —_ no yr ate woes ee Oe ee Se ee Ee eee Oe ao ee ee ee eee, ee ae 183 Ee Sipe —e aos mo ne oe Gee eee Feel THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. . ‘the looks with which I was rewarded in the ducal - — eee eee EO | eee ng to the lowest flute-liko innotations, “is like- ; wise certain. On one occasion she, dropped ai chapel, and the occasional dropping of a flower un- flower from the ducal pew in the chapel at! perceived by all present save myscli,—-these were Brunswiqx. I picked it’ up, and placed it next ! the tokens that my verses had been read and were to my heart. No one beheld this little incident | acceptable—thege also were my re ward )"* —or at all events, no one gttached any im-| Here Baron Bergami paused for u few minutes, portance tu il, save herself; and in her looke— | durmg which ho paced the room in a moud of the in the blushes too, which rose up on her! deepest abstraction. He forgot who was present checks—did °T read the sentiment of plea- | —he forgot whereforo he had come thither—turgut sure which this proof of my devotion excited the nmportant topie of discourse whence his own in her heart. Without reflecting on the conse- ' feelings had hurricd him divergingly away—forgot quences—without pausing to remember that she . everything save the reminiscences which had heen never could be mine, and that this love- | thus conjured up, and which came crowding back worship on my part could only lead to! upon his soul, all absorbing, and with a tenderness misery, disappointment, and despair—I continued ' that was ineffable! Loftus could not interrupt to pursue my path of infatuation. I lived only for ehim-—dared not break in upon this reverie—for it the moment—and if that moment were filled with | was too solemn and sacred for intrusion; although the bliss of her image, and hghted by the soft glory | time was now of such importance and every of her smile, I cared not what change the next ! minute that was slipping away could be so il} spared night bring. When 1 say care no& 1 am wrong: | from carnest de®beration gr positive action in the 1 should have said thought not. I was fascinated—- | cause of the Princess of Wales. enchanted: 2 spell was upon me. It was not that; “This delicious dream,” continued Bergami, my vanity was flattered in being thus tenderly | slowly and muurnfully resuming the thread of' his noticed by a Princess. No—because I baasted of it ; discourse, “Jasted for nearly vighteen months: to no one: it was my own secret—I cherished it ; and will you believe that during this period never in my heart of hearts—enshrined it as the idol of | once did I speak to the Princess—never were we my worship in the sanctuary of my soul. Then—/ near cnough to cach other ty exchange a single 1 will not aay «with the folly of a youthful lover who | syllatde? I was but the secrctary to a second-rate fuacies himaclf a poet, because they can be no| diplomatic agent at a proud Court; and although fully where the sentiment is so pure, so refined, so; my rank is noble, yeb was t never invited as a devoid of selfishness ag that which 1 cherished— | guest to the decal table. Suddenly the intelligence ut {will say with the indiscretion of a young adorer | began to be whispered about in Brunswick that who pours forth a natural worship to his divinity, | negotiations had been opened with the British J embodied all I falt in rapturous glowing verse, | Court relative to the marriage of her Serene High- For, ah! poetry is the language of nature: it is‘ noes the Princess Carcline to his Royat Highness from every grand as well as from every pleasing, , the Prince of Wales. Then was I immediately interesting, anc teaching feature in the natural| ordered by fhe Prassian Govermnent to quit world that the poet drinks in his inpirations. Oh! | Brunswick and repair te Vicuna, to take thu post believe me, he could not create a world of, his own | of secretary to the Prussian Legation in thet city. from the efforts of imagination, unless he were; By some mans the romantie attachment which deeply ombued with a sense of all that is sublime, | had sprung up between mgysclt and the Vrinecss delightful, and lovely in the aapect of nature. | had becowe cither whispered about or else sus- Yor there is poctry in the heavens, when in the gorgeousness of its own light the sun proclaims in golden voice the power of the Eternal—or at night when the noon and star#give forth in silver accents the same adoring hymn. Thero is poctry in the seu when it speaks in the murmurs of its mppies, or thunders forth in the portentous voice af its sounding billows. There is poetry P the storm— there is poetry in the green fields, the waving woods, and the delicious gardens: and there is poctry of the sublimest and the loftiest character amidst the mountains that rear thoir heads to heaven—those heads that wear the coronals of eternal snow! Poetry, then, is everywhere: it is the voice in which naturo speaks—the mute clo- quence which has far more expression and gocs moro dceply down into the heart, than the chorus of ten thousand human tongues. No wonder, then, was it that in the voice of ‘poesy did I seck to con- vey all those feelings which are so ineflable other- wise. Besides, it was the only manner in which I could communicate with the Princess. Nor was it . even direct to her that the verses were sent: but gine eee Ce it was to one of her ladics-in-waiting that I en- closed mf tender effusions. I knew that tlis lady’s vanity would induce her to show the poems to the Princess; and T also knew that the Princess would not fail to comprehend them. Nor was | mistake: pected; and hence my sudden rerff€val to Vienna, Then did I awake from this long dream of bliss— awake to find that I had beemchnging to a shadow —imimolating my happiness on an ideal altar. bitierly did 1 curse my folly in having given way to such a delusion: and yot a delusion it scarcely can be called—for though I had loved so tenderly and had evidently been loved im return, I had not chérished any definite hope. Indeed, 1 had never thought of asking myself why I loved and to what I expected my love would lead. Thus I had got doluded xpyseli— and assuredly the Primcess had not deluded me. But I will not attempt to analyse the feelings which I experienced when thus abruptly removed from the Court of Brunswick. I may however mention that I ui once resolved to renounce ull idea of obtruding inysvlf upon the Princess’s notieo again. Indeed, I prayed—ferventlpprayed— that she might forget me, so as to be enabled to give up her thoughts wholly and undividedly to the hus- band whom expediency and diplomacy had selected for her. 1 oeard of her marriage: next heard that she was unuappy: then I heard that she had given * see Letter containing the particulars of this amour suppoeed tt have been sent from neorrespondeutat Ber ug wick to the Prince of Wales, in No. 75, of the First Series of “« Tok Mysreeies oF Trax Covxt;’’ namely, page 179, Vol, uu. | EGOMLGOOOKSHGOln