Tracks of a Rolling Stone

dragons ofthe prime, are not more remote from us than is our earliestchildhood. It is not so long ago for an

stheredity - an epitome of our race and its descent? At anyrate THEN, if ever, our lives are such stuff as dreams aremade of. There is no connected story of events, thought

me pain, some fright, some accident, but the vivid does nothelp us to chronicle with accuracy. A year or two makes avast di

s between three and four yearsold. My recollection of the fact is perfectly distinct -disti

news. In a few minutes four or five servants -maids and men - came running to the stables to learnparticulars, and the peg-top, to my sorrow, had to beabandoned for gossip and flirtation. We we

oubtless we have muchearlier remembrances, though we must reckon these by days, orby months at

stinct vision of it. I cannot see the crowd -there was nothing to distinguish that from what I have sooften seen since; nor the court dresses, nor the soldierseven, who always attract a child's a

te kerseymere breeches, and pink silkstockings, and buckled shoes. He took me

aid I, with bra

death of Nelson - eh?

g a mental inventory of

keta capacious gold box, and opened it with a tap, as though

aid

on, and with my smallfist clutching the

orm's sake, I thought; and

te sure of Her Majesty's identity - I hadnever heard there was a Queen - I naive

she told her story to another lady in thesupper room, I fancied I had said or done something veryfunny. I was rather disconcerted a

ordAnglesey was a great dandy. The cut of the Paget hat was anheirloom for the next generation or two, and the gallantMarquis' boots and tightly-strapped trousers were patterns ofpolish and precision. The limp was perceptible; but of whichleg, was, in spite of careful investigation, beyond

nded to my test, I am persuaded they were abnormallytender o

for me atleast, a 'record': it happened at Quidenh

afoot, which needed

aturally, Lady M.'s husband, also in bed andfast asleep. At first I could hardly believe my senses. Itwas within the range of my experience that boys of my ageoccasionally slept in the same bed. But that a grown up manshould sleep in the same bed with his wife was quite beyondmy notion of the fitness of things. I was so staggered, solong in taking in this astounding novelty, that I could notat first deliver my grandfathers message. The moment I haddone so, I rushed back to

accidents - in the logical sense ofthe term: his silky milk-white locks, his Spanish servantwho wore earrings - and whom, by the way, I used to confoundwith Courvoisier, often there at the same time

gthe siege of Mantua by the French, in 1796. For brevity'ssake, it were better perhaps to give the outline in the wordsof Alison. 'It was high time the Imperialists should advanceto the relief of this fortress, which was now reduced to thelast extremity from want of provisions. At a council o

ow, eludedthe vigilance of the French patrols, and, after surmounting athousand hardships and dangers, arrived

onel Graham, afterwards victor at Barrosa, and the firstBritish

lient features were iceperils, and the no less imminent one of being captured andshot as a spy. The crossing of the rivers stands outprominently in my

- the avoidance of the bridges, whichcourted suspicion, and the thin ice and only partially frozenriver, which had to be traversed in the

ardington, in Bedfordshire, that my brother Leicestermarried his fi

t of place here, although itis co

r were more pious thantheir neighbours,

or the mostpart the original sin of disobedience, rooted in the love offorbidden fruit in all its forms of allurement. Moseshimself could not have believed more faithfully in the directand immediate intervention of an aveng

of other children I cannot say, but certainly, as achild, I was in

eous plumes. As I huntedunder and amongst the shrubs, I secretly prayed that mysearch might be rewa

ch helps so many of usto support the sorrows to which our stoicism is unequal? Whothat might be te

uldnot quote a hundred instances of such a soothing delusio

rieved who seekvengeance, of the ugly who would be beautiful, of the old whowould appear young, of the guilty who would not be found out,and of the lover who would

compliment to many - mostof her friends; and the friends (as is their wont) confidedin one another. Poor thing! her case was a sad one. Whosecase is

nner. He was young, he washandsome. It was love at sight, accentuated by muchmeditation - 'obsessions [peradventure] des imagesgenetiques.' She told

imilar prayer on her behalf. Alas! poor soul,poor body! I should say, the distinguished officer, togetherwith the invoked Provide

is, andon every day? What difference is there, in spirit, betweenthem and the child's prayer for his feather