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THE DUC DE MALAKOFF.

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to me. I looked into Comte once; found him to be one of those men who go up in a balloon, and take a lighted candle to look at the stars.'

"Lewes mentioned that he had given up literature for Natural Science.

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"Carlyle likes Lewes, and was so pleased with him that in the evening he said to his wife, Well, I don't know why you shouldn't call on Miss Evans.

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"Mrs. Carlyle alluded to the sudden death of Lady Clementina, who was very beautiful but getting passé. At a party at which that brute, the Duke of Malakoff was present, conversation turned on our regrets for the past. Lady Jersey foolishly boasted she did not understand them; she had no regrets. Ce n'est pas vrai, Madame: you regret your youth, and you regret the fading beauty of your daughter.'"

[The Duc de Malakoff was the Maréchal Pelissier, who commanded the French troops during the Crimean War, and who not only beat the Russians, but got on well with the English, which no doubt influenced the Emperor in giving him the exalted civil appointment which he afterwards held-that of Ambassador to the Court of St. James.]

"He affects the brutal and brusque in his style. The Duke of Malakoff and 'Skittles' [the courtezan] ‘a lady I hope you do not know, Mr. Gilchrist?'

"I had heard of her.

"A very pretty and very wicked lady who rides about the Park—'

"Here Carlyle entered at last, and stopped the anecdote about Skittles,' to my regret.'

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26 November, 1859. "Carlyle gave an explanation of Gilchrist from a place near a church;' Christ Kirk. Mrs. Carlyle gave a curious account of Dr. Gilchrist who lived in Edinburgh when an old man ; married a beautiful young girl. Madly jealous of her; suspecting every man about her: once picked up a card in her drawing-room, of a gentleman; taxed her with it. She knew nothing about it. Dr. Gilchrist challenged the man; who denied all knowledge of Mrs. Gilchrist. It turned out he had left a card of his in a circulating library book, which had passed on to Mrs. Gilchrist. The friends on both sides interfered and would not allow the duel!"

28 December, 1859. "Carlyle again asked me about the Blake; what I was doing with it. I stated that I had delivered his letter to Chapman, but was giving my MS. a last revisal before sending it in. He talked of the difficulties of a book, of getting it done, of reducing chaos to order. The whole world seems against you;

but it is not so. Other men knock against you who are simply thinking of themselves, not of you at all. Carlyle's difficulties lately as to maps,-sent for some to Germany; certain towns, battle-fields of Frederick's he wanted; reads maps very ill now to what he used to; obliged to use spectacles for them, though then cannot see quickly.

"I mentioned Bradbury and Evans having given a hundred guineas for Tennyson's poem-a guinea a line.

'Ah! they won't go on paying Alfred at that rate ; just to say he wrote for it.' Like Barnum's story (as

CARLYLE RECITES FROM BURNS.

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Barnum told Carlyle) of a Yankee newspaper at a low ebb, bribing Everett, a man much respected in the States, with a fabulous sum of dollars, first offering ico, then 200, at last 2,000; he in an evil moment consenting; and then their advertising throughout the length and breadth of the Union that the great Everett had been paid 2,000 dollars to write an article in it; and the newspaper went up to a great circulation.

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"Carlyle took his seat on the footstool by the fire as usual to smoke. Talk fell on the dog Nero, now very ailing. Mrs. Carlyle has had it ten and a half years; six months old when Nero was brought to her. Carlyle said, 'Never dog had given trouble more disproportionate to its use and worth than Nero had to him.' (Mrs. Carlyle) It had been worth it all.' He denied it, and reiterated the absurdity of its existence. It would be a kindness to kill it.

(Mrs. Carlyle) If he is to be believed, he shouldn't make affectionate speeches to Nero in the garden when he thought no one heard.'

"Carlyle regretted not to have been taught music or at least singing.

"When a boy at school, the class was singing once, the master remarked on the beautiful voice of that boy (Carlyle), which boy was destined never to turn his voice to any account. Liked Scotch tunes much : 'Robin Adair,'' Gilderoy' very plaintive and melodious. Carlyle was also fond of Irish airs.

"Gilderoy showed a soul bathed in melancholy. 'Rude music, probably first performed, as Burns said, on cow-horns, these old Scottish airs; but came from

the heart. That old tune to which Bruce led his men at Bannockburn, for instance. Carlyle recited Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled'; the whole poem, with measured emphasis, the right stress on each word. Recited it with great fervour, repeated some passages, in particular the

and

'Lay the proud usurpers low!

'Liberty's in every blow!
'Forward!-let us do or die!

"Remarked on the practical character of the song. Burns hit the nail on the head at each blow; not a blow lost. Rude, but not a word too much or little, or to be altered.

"Burns sat down and strummed the air for an hour, and then, possessed of the spirit of it, wrote, 'Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled.' No such song-writer as Burns. Some of the songs in Shakespeare alone equal to them. Beranger not to be compared. Whatever theme Burns took, the same qualities shown.' Carlyle recited'Had we never lov'd sae kindly, Had we never lov'd sae blindly, Never met

Oh, had we never met,

Oh, had we never met and never parted,
Never parted,

We had ne'er been broken-hearted,'

"This Jessie, a very nice girl, the daughter of a neighbouring exciseman: Burns married at the time. No princess had ever had such a song written of her. Some of the Jacobite songs fine, about a dozen genuine.

JACOBITE SONGS.

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'Bonnie Prince Charlie' the finest, breathing devotion and love.' Carlyle recited this also:-' Quite carries you along with it into readiness for the time to join the cause'; expatiated on the swing and lilt and picturesqueness of it. Another humorous one, "There was a German laddie,' breathing entire contempt of the German laddie, but hoping the world would have justice on him yet, 'through the sow's tail he had caught hold of,' meaning fat Kilmansegge (?), his mistress. One of the coarsest of songs.'

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"At parting Carlyle again kindly asked about the book, and wished me a happy deliverance of it. Manner kind throughout, and his face looked kind."

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