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Lockhart the mode in which the Talisman was to be used, and the uses to which it might be put. The water in which it was dipt operated as a styptic, as a febrifuge, and possessed several other properties as a medical talisman." "It is a stone of a dark-red color and triangular shape, and its size is about half an inch each side." It is set in what is supposed to be a shilling of Edward I. The story represents it to have been a nuptial present sent by Saladin, on an occasion described at the end of "The Talisman "

XLVII.

"COUNT ROBERT OF PARIS."

Twenty-eighth Novel of the Series; Written 1830-31; Published November, 1831; Author's age, 60; Time of action, 1096.

A FIRST, or an early suggestion or design of this work oc

curred to Sir Walter Scott, while, during the winter of 1826, he was reading old chivalrous chronicles,— particularly those of Jacques de Lalain. A romance, such as he then fancied, he deemed "would be light summer work." The composition of it was, however, delayed for nearly five years, until the period when his gigantic struggles against misfortune had impaired his wonderful powers; when the radiance of his genius was sometimes obscured; when his work elicited hitherto unused comment; when sometimes he "showed a momentary consciousness that, like Samson in the lap of the Philistine, 'his strength was passing from him, and he was becoming weak like unto other men.'" "Then came the strong effort of aroused will; the cloud dispersed as if before an irresistible current of purer air; all was bright and serene as of old, and then it closed again in yet deeper darkness." But, as Lockhart added, “who dares to say that, had he executed the work when he sketched the outline of its plan, he might not have achieved as signal a triumph over all critical prejudices as he had done when he rescued Scottish romance from the mawkish degradation in which 'Waverley' found it?" Farther insight into the original conception of this work is perceptible in his "Essay on

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Romance." The epoch of action chosen was "one that brought ... the childish forms and bigotries, the weak pomps and drivelling pretensions, the miserable plots and treacheries, the tame wornout civilization of those European Chinese," the Byzantines of the eleventh century, "into contact with the vigorous barbarism both of western Christendom and the advancing Ottoman." After various interruptions, the work was completed in September, 1831,on the twenty-third day of which he left Abbotsford on his last tour. It was published at the close of November, with "Castle Dangerous," as the Fourth Series of "Tales of My Landlord;" and, with the latter, formed the last issue of those immortal fictions named from the first of their number, and the last work, also, given to the world by the marvellously industrious, comprehensive, and fertile imagination of their author. It consequently must always possess interest apart from its intrinsic merits, that, although less than of his earlier works, rise above those of most other writers who have attempted to illustrate the affairs of the Capital and the people of the Eastern Empire.

This story, like "The Talisman," is to be read for its general portrayal of people and affairs, rather than of particular incidents and individuals associated with certain places. In both works, the two of Scott's chief prose fictions most remote in time and locality of scenes from his own days and home, the actual hero is represented to have been a fellow-countryman. The action of the story opens at Constantinople, to which Austrian and French steamers readily convey travellers from Jaffa, and at once introduces this person, Hereward, one of the Varangian Guard of the Emperor Alexius I., - a body of picked foreign mercenaries in his Majesty's more personal service. Hereward was strolling near the triumphal arch, decorated and gilded by Theodosius the Great, and hence called the Golden Gate. He there experienced the sentiment with which his corps was regarded by the people, and by men in other departments of the military service, who were jealous of its privileges and full of hatred for its personal prowess; for there, at an unguarded moment, he narrowly escaped assassination. Thence, he went with his officer, Achilles Tatius, to the Blacquernal Palace, and was conducted into an extensive black-marble hall, — apparently the vestibule of correspondingly extensive imperial dungeons. His doubt whether these were to be the end of his unwonted visit to the edifice, was dispelled, only to be replaced by wonder, when

he was at length introduced into a principal apartment dedicated to the special service of the Princess Anna Comnena, authoress of the "Alexiad" and historian of the reign of her father, the Emperor Alexius Comnenus. There he had the delightful honor and profit of hearing the learned and exalted lady read her account of military operations at Laodicea, where he had been in the thickest of the fight, of which he, as a faithful witness, had been summoned to give evidence. The passage read is described by the author of the romance as "a curious fragment, which, without his exertions, must probably have passed to the gulf of total oblivion." During the recital, Hereward listened to an account of the death of his brother Edward, who fell bravely fighting for the Emperor. In acknowledgment of Hereward's relation to one so faithful, and of the interest he expressed in the history, the Princess gave him a precious ring. Next day, at an Imperial Council assembled in the Blacquernal, the arrival of the Crusaders-of the First, and perhaps most triumphant, Crusade — was announced. The event, like many descriptions and episodes of the story, is historical, and fully described in records of fact. The more imaginary action of the story leads to a ruined temple of Cybele. There Hereward beheld some impressive remains of early Egyptian sacred architecture. He was then with Agelastes, a Cynic philosopher, who afterwards, at the same place, appeared with Achilles Tatius, engaged in a conspiracy that became ultimately of no small importance. This scene was succeeded by one of historical character and significance, enacted outside the city upon a terrace above the shore of the Propontis, in which the leaders of the vast armies of the First Crusade, thus far in their march to the Holy Land, paid homage to the Emperor, who, surrounded by his splendid court and brilliant guards, received, with Oriental stateliness, the representatives of the partially civilized and wholly impassioned hosts of Western Europe. Conspicuous among the latter appeared, for the first time, the bold, insolent, half-savage Frank, whose name forms the title of this work. Seizing an opportunity, when the Emperor had stepped forward from his throne to do distinguished honor to one of the Crusading chiefs, Count Robert of Paris rushed to the vacant seat and defiantly occupied it, until he was withdrawn, quickly as possible, by a fellow-soldier. Affairs were such that Alexius, with politic restraint, "resolved to let the insult pass, as one of the rough pleasantries of the Franks." The Count cared

little for any effect of his act, and at his own time left the place, and returned to quarters provided for him in the city. There he was accompanied by Brenhilda, his Countess, an Amazonian woman, fit to mate and hold her own with one of his ferocious character. The story gradually involves them in the plots against the Emperor that were then contrived. At length, the Count at an imperial banquet, drank from a drugged cup. He became stupefied, and was carried to a menagerie at the Blacquernal Palace and placed in the den of a tiger. His fierce courage and tremendous strength were not, however, subdued by the poison or by the conflict that naturally ensued between him and the hardly more savage animal, which he at once encountered and speedily killed.

Description of unremitting turmoil, that forms the succeeding action of the story, may be omitted here. Several of the most prominent actors in it have been mentioned, but the heroine, Bertha or Agatha, betrothed to Hereward, has not yet been introduced. She did not appear until a rather advanced period, when he was thoroughly startled by suddenly discovering her in peril in the gardens of the philosopher Agelastes. Her portrait-that of the last heroine delineated by Scott - may be reproduced here. When her lover discovered her, "she was arrayed in a dress which consisted of several colors, that which predominated being a pale yellow; her tunic was of this color, and, like a modern gown, was closely fitted to the body, which, in the present case, was that of a tall but very well-formed person. The mantle, or upper garment, in which the whole figure was wrapped, was of fine cloth; and the kind of hood which was attached to it, having flown back with the rapidity of her motion, gave to view the hair beautifully adorned and twisted into a natural head-dress. Beneath this natural headgear appeared a face pale as death, from a sense of the supposed danger, but which preserved, even amidst its terrors, an exquisite degree of beauty." The story of course shows how strange vicissitudes of the times brought her and Hereward together, and also what befell them. This sketch need not illustrate more of their affairs, and may be rendered sufficiently complete by a few words, stating that all the scenes of the story are laid in or near the capital of the Eastern Empire.

Constantinople retains few aspects or works that existed at the time of the story. The great landmarks of nature are, indeed, nearly the same; but those of art have experienced great change.

The most celebrated, and perhaps the best preserved, among the latter, is the huge church of Sta. Sophia, — huge both in real size and in the effect of its simply disposed parts, for it covers (says Mr. Fergusson) "nearly the average space occupied by a first-class French or English mediæval cathedral," being 237 feet by 284, an area of about 67,000 square feet. It was erected by the Emperor Justinian about the year 532, and was restored about the year 1850 by order of the Sultan, Abdul Medjid, under direction of the Chevalier Fossati. The interior is over a hundred feet wide and 182 feet high to the top of the central dome. The able critic just quoted says that "it may be safely asserted that, considered as an interior, no edifice erected before its time shows so much beauty or propriety of design as this, and it is very questionable whether any thing in the Middle Ages surpassed it . . . It is certain that no domical building of modern times can at all approach Sta. Sophia's, either for appropriateness or beauty. If we regard it with a view to the purposes of Protestant worship, it affords an infinitely better model for imitation than any thing our own medieval architects ever produced." The effect of this interior, in richness of detail and material,—in mosaics, gold, and precious marbles,—is similar to that of a more generally known but lesser edifice in nearly the same style, the church of St. Mark at Venice. Magnificent lithographic engravings by Mr. L. Haghe (London, 1852) give some of the best book-illustrations of this architectural glory of the Greek Empire, and of its Turkish preservers. Many remarkable scenes and events have occurred in it. The adventures of the belligerent Count Robert of Paris have, however, few associations with it. They have, very properly, many with the ancient walls on the landward side of the city, that extend nearly four miles, from the Propontis or the Sea of Marmora to the "Golden Horn," across the promontory on which Constantinople stands, and that date from various early imperial times, and "are so lofty, that from the road which passes under them the eye can scarcely catch a glimpse of the mosques and minarets of the city. This melancholy aspect is heightened by several cemeteries, with dark cypresses and white marble tombs, that lie outside of the walls." Portions of the walls are in tolerable order, while other parts "present such magnificent and picturesque specimens of mural ruins as probably no other city can boast of." Modern purposes have doomed them, it is said, to the destruction that has effaced many other military restrictions to

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