Full download ebooks at https://ebookmeta.

com

Monte-Carlo Simulation: An Introduction for

Engineers and Scientists 1st Edition Alan
Stevens

For dowload this book click link below

https://ebookmeta.com/product/monte-carlo-simulation-an-
introduction-for-engineers-and-scientists-1st-edition-alan-
stevens/

OR CLICK BUTTON

DOWLOAD NOW
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

An Introduction to Python Programming for Scientists

and Engineers Johnny Wei-Bing Lin

https://ebookmeta.com/product/an-introduction-to-python-
programming-for-scientists-and-engineers-johnny-wei-bing-lin/

Machine Learning with Neural Networks: An Introduction

for Scientists and Engineers Bernhard Mehlig

https://ebookmeta.com/product/machine-learning-with-neural-
networks-an-introduction-for-scientists-and-engineers-bernhard-
mehlig/

Noncooperative Game Theory An Introduction for

Engineers and Computer Scientists João P. Hespanha

https://ebookmeta.com/product/noncooperative-game-theory-an-
introduction-for-engineers-and-computer-scientists-joao-p-
hespanha/

Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and

Engineers Second Edition Karl Johan Åström

https://ebookmeta.com/product/feedback-systems-an-introduction-
for-scientists-and-engineers-second-edition-karl-johan-astrom/
Introduction to Scilab: For Engineers and Scientists
1st Edition Sandeep Nagar

https://ebookmeta.com/product/introduction-to-scilab-for-
engineers-and-scientists-1st-edition-sandeep-nagar/

Introduction to Octave: For Engineers and Scientists

1st Edition Sandeep Nagar

https://ebookmeta.com/product/introduction-to-octave-for-
engineers-and-scientists-1st-edition-sandeep-nagar/

Monte Carlo and Quasi Monte Carlo Methods MCQMC 2020

Oxford United Kingdom August 10 14 Alexander Keller Ed

https://ebookmeta.com/product/monte-carlo-and-quasi-monte-carlo-
methods-mcqmc-2020-oxford-united-kingdom-august-10-14-alexander-
keller-ed/

Quantitative Bioimaging: An Introduction to Biology,

Instrumentation, Experiments, and Data Analysis for
Scientists and Engineers 1st Edition Raimund J. Ober

https://ebookmeta.com/product/quantitative-bioimaging-an-
introduction-to-biology-instrumentation-experiments-and-data-
analysis-for-scientists-and-engineers-1st-edition-raimund-j-ober/

Quantum Monte Carlo Approaches for Correlated Systems

1st Edition Federico Becca

https://ebookmeta.com/product/quantum-monte-carlo-approaches-for-
correlated-systems-1st-edition-federico-becca/
 Monte-Carlo Simulation

Monte-Carlo techniques have increasingly become a key method used in quantita-

tive research. This book introduces engineers and scientists to the basics of using
the Monte-Carlo simulation method which is used in Operations Research and other
fields to understand the impact of risk and uncertainty in prediction and forecasting
models.
Monte-Carlo Simulation: An Introduction for Engineers and Scientists explores
several specific applications in addition to illustrating the principles behind the meth-
ods. The question of accuracy and efficiency with using the method is addressed
thoroughly within each chapter and all program listings are included in the discus-
sion of each application to facilitate further research for the reader using Python
programming language.
Beginning engineers and scientists either already in or about to go into industry
or commercial and government scientific laboratories will find this book essential. It
could also be of interest to undergraduates in engineering science and mathematics,
as well as instructors and lecturers who have no prior knowledge of Monte-Carlo
simulations.
Monte-Carlo Simulation
An Introduction for Engineers
and Scientists

Alan Stevens
First edition published 2023
by CRC Press
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
and by CRC Press
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and pub-
lisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use.
The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in
this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been
obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may
rectify in any future reprint.
Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or here-
after invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.
For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, access www.copyright.com
or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-
750-8400. For works that are not available on CCC please contact [email protected]
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data

Names: Stevens, Alan (Mathematician), author.

Title: Monte-Carlo simulation : an introduction for engineers and scientists / Alan Stevens.
Description: First edition. | Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Monte Carlo techniques have
increasingly become a key method used in quantitative research. This book introduces
engineers and scientists to the basics of using the Monte-Carlo simulation method
which is used in Operations Research and other fields to understand the impact of
risk and uncertainty in prediction and forecasting models. It explores several specific
applications in addition to illustrating the principles behind the methods. Beginning
engineers and scientists either already in or about to go into industry or commercial and
government scientific laboratories will find this book essential”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022014193 (print) | LCCN 2022014194 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032280776 (hbk) | ISBN 9781032280806 (pbk) | ISBN 9781003295235 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Quantitative research. | Engineering mathematics. | Monte Carlo method.
Classification: LCC T57.64 .S74 2023 (print) | LCC T57.64 (ebook) |
DDC 518/.282--dc23/eng/20220701
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022014193
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022014194

ISBN: 978-1-032-28077-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-28080-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-29523-5 (ebk)

DOI: 10.1201/9781003295235

Typeset in Times
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
 Dedication

To Sandra, for times gone by and those still to come.

Contents
Preface.......................................................................................................................xi
About the Author.................................................................................................... xiii

Chapter 1 The Basic Idea....................................................................................... 1

1.1 Introduction................................................................................ 1

Chapter 2 Buffon’s Needle.....................................................................................3

2.1 Background.................................................................................3
2.2 Computer Simulation.................................................................. 3
2.3 Features of the Simulation..........................................................5
2.4 Precision..................................................................................... 6
2.5 Physical Simulation....................................................................7
2.6 Buffon’s Formula........................................................................ 8
2.7 Exercises.....................................................................................9

Chapter 3 Areas and Integrals............................................................................. 11

3.1 Temperature Profile.................................................................. 11
3.2 Simulation................................................................................. 11
3.3 Sample Mean Method.............................................................. 13
3.4 Higher Dimensions................................................................... 15
3.5 Exercises................................................................................... 15

Chapter 4 Thermal Radiation.............................................................................. 17

4.1 Radiation View Factor.............................................................. 17
4.2 Simulation................................................................................. 17
4.3 Precision................................................................................... 19
4.4 Exercises................................................................................... 21

Chapter 5 Bending Beams................................................................................... 23

5.1 Neutral Axis Offset.................................................................. 23
5.2 Simulation................................................................................. 23
5.3 Precision...................................................................................25
5.4 Exercises...................................................................................26

Chapter 6 Torus Segment..................................................................................... 27

6.1 Volume of a Segment of Torus................................................. 27
6.2 Simulation................................................................................. 27

vii
viii Contents

6.3 Precision................................................................................... 31
6.4 Exercises................................................................................... 32

Chapter 7 Radiation Shielding............................................................................. 33

7.1 Diffusion................................................................................... 33
7.2 Gamma-Ray Shielding............................................................. 33
7.3 Build-up Factor and Energy Distribution.................................34
7.4 Simulation.................................................................................34
7.5 Build-up Factors....................................................................... 38
7.6 Exercises................................................................................... 38

Chapter 8 Stressed Cylinder................................................................................ 41

8.1 Buckling Probability................................................................ 41
8.2 Simulation................................................................................. 41
8.3 Precision................................................................................... 43
8.4 Wilks’ Method.......................................................................... 43
8.5 Exercises................................................................................... 45

Chapter 9 Linear Resistive Networks.................................................................. 47

9.1 Circuit Analysis by Random Walk........................................... 47
9.2 Single-Node Simulation........................................................... 49
9.3 Unit-Resistance Cube Simulation............................................. 51
9.4 Heat Conduction Simulation.................................................... 53
9.5 Exercises................................................................................... 57

Chapter 10 Magnetic Phase Transitions................................................................. 59

10.1 Ising Spin Model...................................................................... 59
10.2 Physical Properties...................................................................60
10.3 The Gibbs and Metropolis Algorithms.................................... 62
10.4 Simulation................................................................................. 63
10.5 Exercises................................................................................... 67

Chapter 11 Polymer Chains................................................................................... 69

11.1 Polymers................................................................................... 69
11.2 Simulation................................................................................. 69
11.3 Precision................................................................................... 72
11.4 Exercises................................................................................... 72

Chapter 12 Solutions To Selected Exercises.......................................................... 75

12.1 Exercise 2.7.4............................................................................ 75
12.2 Exercise 3.5.2............................................................................ 76
Contents ix

12.3 Exercise 4.4.1............................................................................ 77

12.4 Exercise 5.4.2............................................................................ 78
12.5 Exercise 6.4.2............................................................................ 79
12.6 Exercise 7.6.2............................................................................80
12.7 Exercise 8.4.2............................................................................ 82
12.8 Exercise 9.5.1............................................................................ 83
12.9 Exercise 10.5.3..........................................................................84
12.10 Exercise 11.4.3..........................................................................84
Appendix A: Random Numbers........................................................................... 87
A.1 Introduction.............................................................................. 87
A.2 Uniformly Distributed Random Numbers................................ 87
A.3 Normally Distributed Random Numbers................................. 88
Appendix B: Variance Reduction......................................................................... 91
B.1 Introduction.............................................................................. 91
B.2 Importance Weighting.............................................................. 91
B.3 Antithetic Variates.................................................................... 93
B.4 Control Variates........................................................................94
Index.........................................................................................................................97
Preface
The purpose of this book is to introduce engineers and scientists to the basic ideas
underlying the Monte-Carlo simulation method. It does this in the first instance by
exploring a number of specific applications, which you, the reader, are encouraged
to try for yourself. In addition to illustrating the principal ideas behind Monte-Carlo
simulation these applications generate questions about the accuracy and efficiency of
the method, which are also addressed.
Most of the applications considered here are drawn from the world of science
and engineering, albeit in simplified form, in order to provide a concrete context,
which, it is hoped, will ease your task in assimilating the essential elements of the
Monte-Carlo process. The first example – the calculation of the number π in chapter
2 – is drawn from the world of mathematics rather than science or engineering, but
is included as a demonstration of the principle of Monte-Carlo simulation that is
particularly easy to grasp whatever your background might be.
Computer programs are well-nigh essential for performing Monte-Carlo calcula-
tions (one exception is noted in chapter 2), so simple program listings are included in
the discussion of each application. The listings are given here using the open-source
Python programming language, making use of the NumPy (NUMerical PYthon)
library. I have made no attempt to generate the most efficient Python programs, as
the focus of this book is on Monte-Carlo simulation, not programming. However,
explanatory comments in the listings and the text should make it easy to translate the
coding into other programming languages, such as Matlab, Mathcad, Maple, Visual
Basic, etc. without too much difficulty.

xi
About the Author
Alan Stevens spent his working life at Rolls-Royce as a mathematical modeller,
dealing mainly with design, safety and performance calculations for nuclear reac-
tors. Rolls-Royce designs and manufactures the nuclear reactors that power the Royal
Navy’s submarines. This included engineering heat transfer and fluid flow, reactor
physics and whole plant modelling. In retirement, he has sat on several commit-
tees of the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications (IMA) in the UK, includ-
ing its Executive Board and governing Council. He spent four years as its VP of
Communications.

xiii
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chambers's
Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art,
fifth series, no. 142, vol. III, September 18,
1886
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and

Art, fifth series, no. 142, vol. III, September 18, 1886

Author: Various

Release date: July 28, 2024 [eBook #74146]

Language: English

Original publication: Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers,

1853

Credits: Susan Skinner, Eric Hutton and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S

JOURNAL OF POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, FIFTH
SERIES, NO. 142, VOL. III, SEPTEMBER 18, 1886 ***
 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND
ART
 CONTENTS
MASSAGE.
BY ORDER OF THE LEAGUE.
ULSTER PROVINCIALISMS.
IN ALL SHADES.
A LEOPARD HUNT.
A TALE OF TWO KNAVERIES.
BIG UNDERTAKINGS.
AUTUMN DAYS.
No. 142.—Vol. III. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1886. Price 1½d.
 MASSAGE.
A MODE OF MEDICAL TREATMENT.
Massage as a hygienic agent was practised from the earliest times,
and is probably as old as surgery itself, or, as it would be more exact
to say, as old as mankind. The word is derived from the Greek to
knead, and the Arabic to press softly. A Chinese manuscript, the date
of which is three thousand years before the Christian era, contains
an account of operations similar to those of the present day: friction,
kneading, manipulating, rolling—all the procedures now grouped
together under the name of massage. The translator of this curious
record, a French missionary at Pekin, finds it to include all the
characteristics of an ancient scientific mode of treatment; and it has
been wittily remarked, that however it may rejuvenate those who
submit to its influence, the wrinkles of time cannot be removed from
its own ancient visage.
With the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, a form of massage was
the common accompaniment of the bath, and was used as a luxury,
as a means of hastening tedious convalescence, and to render the
limbs supple and enduring. Rubbing and anointing were sometimes
done by medical practitioners themselves, or by the priests, or
sometimes by slaves. Herodicus, one of the masters of Hippocrates
in the fifth century b.c., first proposed gymnastics as a cure for
disease. He was the superior officer of the gymnasium at Athens;
and by compelling his patients to undergo various exercises and to
have their bodies rubbed, is said to have lengthened their lives,
insomuch that Plato reproached him for protracting that existence, in
which, as years advanced, they could have less and less enjoyment.
He himself, by the practice of his own remedies, attained the age of
a hundred.
The earliest definite information regarding massage comes from
Hippocrates, who says: ‘The physician must be experienced in many
things, but assuredly also in rubbing; for things that have the same
name have not always the same effects, for rubbing can bind a joint
that is too loose, and loosen a joint that is too rigid.’ He also used
the word anatripsis, the process of rubbing up, and not down,
although not understanding the reason of it, as it was not till five
hundred years later that Galen pointed out that the arteries were not
filled with air, as their name would seem to imply. Asclepiades was
probably not far wrong when he founded his school at Rome on the
belief that diet, bathing, exercise, and friction should keep the body
without disease; and Cicero affirmed that he owed as much of his
health to his anointer as he did to his physician. Plutarch tells us that
Julius Cæsar had himself pinched all over daily, as a means of
getting rid of a general neuralgia. Celsus, at the beginning of the
Christian era, advised that rubbing should be applied to the whole
body, ‘when an invalid requires his system to be replenished;’ and
Pliny availed himself of a mode of treatment which was evidently
much in fashion in his day, and derived so much benefit from the
remedy, that he obtained for his physician, who was a Jew, the
privileges of Roman citizenship. It is related of the Emperor Hadrian
that one day seeing a veteran soldier rubbing himself against the
marble at the public baths, he asked him why he did so. The veteran
answered: ‘I have no slave to rub me.’ Whereupon, the emperor
gave him two slaves and sufficient to maintain them. It is quaintly
added to this story, that the next day several old men rubbed
themselves against the wall in the emperor’s presence, when,
perceiving their object, he shrewdly directed them to rub one
another.
The works of Plato abound in references to the use of friction; and
numberless passages might be cited from celebrated writers
describing the hygienic exercises of the gymnasium, and the manner
in which children were led by degrees to execute the most difficult
evolutions without fear or risk of fracture. In describing the course
pursued, friction, pressure, malaxation, are all in turn noticed by
different authors, and strongly recommended. The Egyptians were
probably the first among civilised nations to put the system into
practice, and they were copied by the Greeks and Romans. Savary,
in his Lettres sur l’Egypt, describes part of the process: ‘After the
bath and a short interval of repose, whilst the limbs retain a soft
moisture, an attendant presses them gently, and when each limb has
become supple and flexible, the joints are cracked without effort; il
masse et semble paîtrir la chaire sans que l’on éprouve la plus legère
douleur.’
In the fifteenth century, Henry II. of France decreed that a treatise
should be written upon the hygienic exercises of ancient Rome. Six
years later, Mercurialis took up the question from a medical point of
view; after which, Ambrose Paré, the most renowned surgeon of the
sixteenth century, dilated on the value of the works of Oribasius,
written in the time of the Emperor Julian; and he described three
kinds of friction and the effects of each, and was thought so skilful,
that although a devout Huguenot, he was spared at the massacre of
St Bartholomew.
To Peter Henrik Ling is given the credit of having instituted the
‘Swedish movement cure.’ He was even thought to have invented it;
but he simply founded his system on the Kong Fau manuscript,
which is not only the Chinese system, but that of the Brahmins, the
Egyptian priests, and the Greek and Roman physicians. M. Dally has
characterised his theory and practice as nothing more than a
daguerreotype copy of the Kong Fau of Tao-ssè, and called it a
splendid Chinese vase with its Chinese figures clothed in European
colours. Estradère, moreover, proves that in the San-tsai-tow-hoei,
published at the end of the sixteenth century, there is to be found a
collection of engravings representing anatomical figures and
gymnastic exercises; amongst these are figured frictions, pressures,
percussions, vibrations—massage itself, in fact. These movements
the Pekin missionaries affirm to have been in use from time
immemorial, and were employed to dissipate the rigidity of the
muscles occasioned by fatigue, spasmodic contractions, and
rheumatic pains. The operators who practised this calling had no
fixed dwelling, but used to walk about the streets, advertising their
presence by the clanking of a chain or by some sort of musical
instrument.
Lepage, in his historical researches on Chinese medicine, relates that
massage was a particular practice borrowed from the Indians, and
that it was by such means that the Brahmins effected their
miraculous cures. The word shampooing is of Hindu origin; but it
must be borne in mind that these Old-world practices were only a
faint foreshadowing of the present scientific method. In his
Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales, Piorry remarks that the simplest
form of massage prevails wherever the people have least outgrown
their primitive state; and travellers describe it as universally common
in countries where nature alone dictates the remedy for accident or
disease. Captain Cook, in his voyage to Tahiti, describes that on
arriving they were hospitably received, and that in the corner of a
hut, carefully closed over with reeds, a large piece of matting was
spread on the ground for them, and that their legs and arms were
rubbed and the muscles softly pressed until all signs of fatigue had
disappeared. The Gazette des Hôpitaux, in 1839, relates how
massage is practised in the island of Tonga: ‘When a person feels
tired with walking or any other exercise, he lies down, and his
servants go through the various operations known under the names
of Toogi-toogi, mili, or fota. The first of these words expresses the
action of beating constantly and softly; the second, of rubbing with
the palm of the hand; the third, of pressing and tightening the
muscles between the thumb and fingers. When the fatigue is very
great, young children are set to tread under their feet the whole
body of the patient.’
The lomi-lomi of the Sandwich Islanders is much the same thing: the
process is spoken of as being that of neither kneading, squeezing,
nor rubbing, but now like one, and now like the other. Dr N. B.
Emerson relates that the Hawaiians are a famous race of swimmers,
and to a foreigner seem amphibious. When wrecked, they
sometimes swim long distances; and if one of their number becomes
exhausted, they sustain him in the water and lomi-lomi him. When
perfectly refreshed, they proceed upon their watery way.
Baudin, in his Travels in New Holland, relates that the individuals
who have the greatest influence amongst the savages are the
mulgaradocks, or medical charlatans. A mulgaradock is regarded as
possessing power over the elements either to avert wind and rain, or
to call down tempests on the heads of those who come under their
displeasure. In order to calm a storm, he stands in the open air,
spreads out his arms, shakes his mantle, made of skins, and
gesticulates violently for a considerable time. In order to effect a
cure, he proceeds much in the same way, but with rather less noise:
he practises a mode of rubbing, and sometimes hits the patient with
green rods which have first been heated at a fire, stopping at
intervals to let the pain pass away. The Africans follow the same
fashion; and with the Russians, flagellation and friction by means of
a bundle of birch twigs are resorted to. After the subject has been
well parboiled in a vapour bath, a pailful of cold water is then
dashed over him, the effect of which is described as electrifying.
After this, he plunges into the snow, and thus prepares himself to
endure the rigour of the climate with impunity. The Siberians and
Laplanders also are said to indulge in these luxuries.
To France belongs the credit of giving to modern medicine a
scientific system of massage; and yet, in spite of many able works,
and various discussions at the Academy of Sciences and other
learned societies, it remained a sort of secret practice, almost wholly
under the domain of empiricism; but with the waning interest of
French physicians, the Germans and Scandinavians took up the
subject; and about ten years ago, Dr Mezger of Amsterdam brought
massage to be acknowledged as a highly valuable method. He
placed it upon the basis of practical knowledge, thus taking it out of
the hands of ignorant charlatans. He did not write much about it,
but simply employed the teaching of facts. To physicians who wrote
to him for an explanation of his treatment, he only said, ‘Come and
see.’ To Professor von Mosengeil is owing the present accurate and
scientific knowledge of the subject; by his careful and painstaking
observations he has brought massage into high esteem, so that it is
now acknowledged as a special branch of the art of medicine.
There is, however, a pitfall to be avoided. Dr William Murrell, in his
recent practical work, Massage as a Mode of Treatment, gives a very
necessary warning to those who would use it ignorantly. He admits
that it is not free from the taint of quackery, and that the so-called
massage practised in some of our hospitals and under the auspices
of some nursing institutions is a painful exhibition of ignorance and
incompetence, being simply a degenerate form of rubbing or
shampooing. Having lately witnessed the progress of a number of
cases under the care of Professor Mosengeil in Germany, he remarks
that the massage of ‘medical rubbers’ is not massage at all, as the
term is understood on the continent, and has little or nothing in
common with it. It is quite a mistake to think we can take John from
the stables and Biddy from the washtub, and in one easy lesson
convert either into a safe, reliable, or efficient manipulator. Dr
Murrell has found it successful in various kinds of paralysis; in
writers’, painters’, and dancers’ cramp; and in the cramp of telegraph
office operators, who, just as they have attained to the highest point
of dexterity, find that every movement is performed with effort and
pain, until at last no movement is possible at all.
The chief advocates of massage have been men of note; and
although it is only recently that it has gained an extensive scientific
consideration, it is gradually but surely obtaining a wider circulation
and a higher place as a worthy therapeutical agent.
 BY ORDER OF THE LEAGUE.
CHAPTER II.
Without the city walls, hidden by the umbrella pines, and back from
those secluded walks where young Rome takes its pleasure, stood
the Villa Salvarino, almost under the shade of the walls, and hard by
the gate of San Pancrazio. In the more prosperous days of the
Eternal City, it might have been, and indeed was, the residence of
some great Roman family; but aristocracies decline and families pass
away; and the haughty owners were by no means averse from
making a few English pounds by letting it to any traveller who had
the inclination or the means to spend a few months there. The
present tenant at this bright Easter-time, Sir Geoffrey Charteris, of
Grosvenor Square, London, W., and Haversham Park, in the county
of Dorset, Baronet, Deputy-lieutenant, and Justice of the Peace, was
a man of long descent. The pale azure fluid in his veins was not the
blood of us poor mortals; his life-giving stream had been transmitted
through succeeding generations from a long line of gallant warriors
and gentle dames; from fearless ancestors who followed their
sovereign at the call to arms, marched with Richard of the Lion-heart
to the Holy Sepulchre, and maybe crossed swords with the doughty
Saladin himself. The title, conferred upon a Charteris by the Black
Prince in person after the glorious field of Creçy, had known no
tarnish as it passed down the long line of great and good men,
soldiers, statesmen, and divines, to the present worthy
representative of all these honours. Not that he had greatly
distinguished himself in any field, save as an Under-secretary in a
short-lived inglorious Ministry, where he had made a lasting name as
the most incompetent individual ever appointed to office, though he
dated every subsequent event and prefixed every after-dinner story
by an allusion to the time when he was in the Earl of Muddleton’s
Ministry.
The reception rooms of the villa were crowded when our friends
arrived. It was a kind of informal after-dinner reception, attended by
most of the English visitors lingering after the Carnival, with some
sprinkling of the resident aristocracy; for Sir Geoffrey liked to gather
people round him, birth and genius being equally welcome. Sir
Geoffrey looked every inch an English gentleman, standing there
among his guests. He was apparently about fifty years of age, tall
and straight, thoroughbred from his stiff gray hair to the small
shapely feet, as yet untroubled by the family gout. His eyes were
pale blue, and somewhat weak; his face, clear-cut and refined, with
an aquiline nose and a high white forehead, but the whole marred
by a mouth weak and nervous to the last degree. A connoisseur of
art, a dabbler in literature, and last, but not least, a firm believer in
spiritualism.
Enid Charteris, his only daughter and heiress, a girl about eighteen,
must be taken for granted. Imagine in all your dreams of fair women
what a golden-bronzed-haired girl should be, and you have Enid,
with all her charms of manner and person, with that perfect
expression without which the most classic features are cold. She
smiled brightly as the new-comers entered. It is not given to every
one to be able to disguise their likings and antipathies, and it did not
need a practised eye to see her cold greeting for Le Gautier, and the
instantaneous glance for Maxwell.
‘I really began to think you were going to fail me,’ she said; ‘and this
is the last of our receptions too. I shall always have pleasant
recollections of my visit to Rome.’
‘We have been dining with Maxwell, Miss Charteris,’ Visci explained.
‘Could we forget you, if we tried! And now, before you are so
engaged that you can have no word for poor me, I want to ask you
a favour. We are going to my country retreat on Friday, and my
sister Genevieve is dying to see you. Do persuade Sir Geoffrey to
come.’
‘Here he is to answer for himself,’ she replied, as the baronet
sauntered up to the group.—‘Papa, you must promise to take me to
see Signor Visci’s country-house on Friday.—Do you hear?’
‘Anything you say is law, my dear,’ Sir Geoffrey answered with comic
resignation. ‘Anything you desire.—Le Gautier, I wish to speak to
you,’ he whispered quietly; ‘come to me presently.—Salvarini, you
here? I thought you had forsworn gaieties of all descriptions. Glad to
see you are thinking better of your misanthropy.’
Le Gautier turned off with the baronet somewhat impatiently, leaving
the rest together. Salvarini, looking on somewhat thoughtfully,
almost fancied there was a look of relief in Enid’s face as the
Frenchman left; certainly, she was less constrained.
‘We shall look forward to Friday with great pleasure, then, Signor
Visci,’ she said. ‘I have heard you speak so much of the Villa Mattio,
that I am expecting to see a perfect paradise.’
‘With two Eves,’ Maxwell whispered in English. Visci was not a man
to misunderstand the meaning of true company, so, with a bow and
a little complimentary speech, he turned aside, taking Salvarini by
the arm, and plunged into the glittering crowd.
‘I do not understand the meaning there,’ Salvarini remarked as they
walked through the rooms. ‘If Maxwell means’——
‘Orange blossoms,’ Visci interrupted laconically; ‘and right, too.—Let
us get into the music-room. Le Fanu is going to play.’
Maxwell remained by Enid’s side, toying with her fan and discoursing
in their native language in a low voice. From the expression in his
face and the earnest ring in his voice, there was no doubting the
power of the attraction that chained him there.
‘When do you leave Rome, Miss Charteris?’ he asked, abruptly
changing the conversation. ‘This is your last reception, I know.’
‘We shall leave in the middle of next week for certain. I shall be very
sorry for some reasons, for I have been happy here.’
‘I shall probably return with you,’ Maxwell observed. ‘I have deferred
my departure too long already. It would be pleasant to leave
together.’
‘After learning everything that Rome could teach you,’ Enid put in
archly. ‘Then the Eternal City has no more artistic knowledge to
impart?’
‘Yes; I have learned some lessons here,’ Maxwell replied with a
tender inflection, ‘besides artistic ones. I have been learning one
lately that I am never likely to forget. Am I presumptuous, Miss
Enid?’
‘Really, Mr Maxwell, you are too mysterious. If I could understand
you’——
‘I think you do understand me; I fervently hope you do.’
For a moment, a little wild-rose bloom trembled and flushed on the
girl’s cheek, then she looked down, playing with her fan nervously.
No reason to say she did not understand now. Maxwell did not follow
up his advantage; some instinct warned him not; and adroitly
changing the conversation, he told her of his life in Rome, each
passing moment linking his chains the firmer. Gradually, as they sat
talking, a group of men gathered round, breaking in upon their tête-
à-tête, laughing and talking after the most approved drawing-room
fashion.
In a distant corner, Sir Geoffrey had button-holed Le Gautier, and
was apparently deep in conversation on some all-absorbing subject.
The Frenchman was a good listener, with that rare faculty of hearing
all that was worthy of note and entirely ignoring the superfluous. He
was not a man to talk much of himself, and consequently heard a
great deal of family history; details and information that astute
young man had found valuable on occasions. He was interested
now, Maxwell thought, as he idly speculated upon his face.
‘Yes,’ Sir Geoffrey was saying, ‘I am firmly impressed with that belief.’
He had got upon his favourite topic, and was talking with great
volubility. ‘There are certain gifted beings who can call spirits from
the vasty deep, and, what is more, the spirits will come. My dear sir,
they have been manifested to me.’
‘I should not wonder,’ Le Gautier replied, stifling a yawn in its birth. ‘I
think you are quite right. I am what people call a medium myself,
and have assisted at many a séance.’
‘Of course you believe the same as I. Let unbelievers scoff if they
will, I shall always believe the evidence of my eyes.’
‘Of course,’ Le Gautier returned politely, his thoughts wandering
feebly in the direction of nightmare, and looking round for some
means of escape. ‘I have seen ghosts myself, or thought I have.’
‘It is no imagination, Le Gautier,’ Sir Geoffrey continued, with all the
prosy earnestness of a man with a hobby. ‘The strangest coincidence
happened to me. My late brother, Sir Ughtred, who has been dead
nearly twenty years, manifested himself to me the other night.
Surely that implies some coming evil, or some duty I have
neglected?’
‘Perhaps he charged you with some commission,’ Le Gautier
observed, and pricking up his ears for any scrap of useful
information.
‘Not that I remember; indeed, I did not see him for years before he
died. He was an eccentric man, and an extreme politician—in fact,
he got into serious trouble with the authorities, and might even have
been arrested, had he not removed himself to New York.’
‘New York?’ queried Le Gautier, wondering vaguely where he had
heard of this Ughtred Charteris before. ‘Was he connected with any
secret society—any Socialist conspiracy?’
‘Do you know, I really fancy he was,’ Sir Geoffrey whispered
mysteriously. ‘There were certainly some curious things in his effects
which were sent to me. I can show you some now, if you would like
to see them.’
Le Gautier expressed his willingness; and the baronet led the way
into a small room at the back of the house, half library, half studio.
In one corner was an old ebony cabinet; and opening the front, he
displayed a multitude of curiosities such as a man will gather
together in the course of years. In one little drawer was a case of
coins. Le Gautier turned them over carelessly one by one, till,
suddenly starting, he eagerly lifted one and held it to the light.
‘Where did you get this?’ he asked abruptly.
Sir Geoffrey took it in his hand. It was a gold coin, a little larger than
an ordinary sovereign, and bearing on the reverse side a curious
device. ‘That came with the rest of my brother’s curiosities.—But
why do you ask? You look as if the coin had burnt you.’
For a moment, Le Gautier had started back, his pale face aglow with
suppressed excitement; but as he noticed the baronet’s wondering
eyes upon him, he recovered himself by a violent effort. ‘It is
nothing’—with a smile. ‘It is only the coincidence which startled me
for a moment. If you will look here, you will see that I wear a similar
coin upon my watch-chain.’
Sir Geoffrey looked down, and, surely enough, on the end of Le
Gautier’s pendant was the fac-simile of the medal he held in his
hand.
‘Bless me, what an extraordinary thing!’ the startled baronet
exclaimed. ‘So it is! Perhaps you do not mind telling me where you
procured yours?’
‘It was given to me,’ Le Gautier replied, with an enigmatic smile. ‘It
could not help you, if I told you.—Sir Geoffrey, may I ask you to lend
me this coin for a short while? I will tell you some time what I want
it for.’
‘Some other time, perhaps.’—Le Gautier threw the coin into its place.
—‘You see, I regard it as a valuable curiosity and relic, or perhaps I
might part with it. You will pardon me.—But I forgot all about our
spiritualistic discourse. As you are a medium, I will ask you’——
‘At some future time, with all the pleasure in life,’ Le Gautier
interrupted hastily. ‘Meanwhile, it is getting late—past eleven now.’
As they walked back to the salon, the Frenchman was busy with his
thoughts. ‘What a lucky find!’ he muttered. ‘It is the missing insignia,
sure enough, and the ill-fated Ughtred Charteris is mine host’s
brother. I wonder what I can make out of this? There ought to be
something in it, with a feeble-minded man who believes in
spiritualism, if my hand has not lost its cunning. Nous verrons.’
He showed nothing of his thoughts, however, as he parted from Enid
with a smile and neatly turned compliment. It was getting late now;
the streets were empty as the friends turned homeward, Salvarini
bidding the others good-night and turning off in the direction of his
apartments.
‘You had better change your mind, and come with us on Friday,
Hector,’ Visci urged Le Gautier. ‘The baronet and his daughter are to
be of the party. Throw work to the dogs for the day, and come.’
‘My dear Carlo, the thing is impossible. Do you think I should be
chained here this lovely weather, if stern necessity did not compel? If
possibly I can get over later in the day, I will not fail you.’
‘I am very sorry,’ Visci replied regretfully, ‘because this is the last
time, in all probability, our friends will meet together for some time.’
‘I am sorry too, Carlo, but I cannot help it. Good-night.’
Le Gautier watched his friend along the moonlit street, a smile upon
his face not pleasant to see. ‘Ah, yes,’ he murmured, ‘it is quite
impossible. Genevieve is a good little girl, but good little girls are apt
to cloy. It is getting dangerous. If Visci should find out, it would be a
case of twelve paces and hair-triggers; and I cannot sacrifice myself
yet—not even for Genevieve.’
 ULSTER PROVINCIALISMS.
The people of Ulster may fairly claim a larger share of public
attention than has usually been accorded to them: they have
rendered their province prosperous in a country which is a stranger
to prosperity; they have established and maintained great industries
in a country of decayed trade and ruined commerce. In the colonies,
they have risen in a remarkable degree to positions of affluence and
authority; and in all the British dominions, Ulstermen are found in
the van of commercial and professional life.
The Ulsterman comes of a very mixed descent. Just as the
Englishman was originally a compound of Saxon, Norman, and Dane,
so in the Ulsterman’s veins flows the blood of Irish, Scotch, and
English progenitors. The relative proportion of each element varies
much according to locality and religion. On the shores of Antrim and
Down, the population is in many places almost as purely Scotch as in
Ayrshire or Lanark. In Belfast, Scotch blood predominates; but there
was originally a large English element. In Donegal and Fermanagh,
the Celtic element is in excess. Everywhere, the Protestant derives
more from Scotch and English sources; the Roman Catholic, from
Irish.
From the earliest times, there has been a large emigration from
Scotland to the opposite Irish shore. During the reigns of Elizabeth
and James I. the chief settlements from England took place; and the
settlers from both countries gradually pushed back the original Irish
inhabitants to the mountains and into the interior. To this day, there
is a secluded district in County Antrim, known as the Glens of
Antrim, where the Irish language may still be heard, although it has
long departed from other portions of the same county. As we travel
westward, Irish more frequently meets the ear, and in many parts of
Donegal it is the prevailing tongue.
It is not surprising that in a province of such varied lineage,
provincialisms should be numerous and curious. To guard against
misconception, let it be understood that the educated Ulsterman
speaks like educated people elsewhere—namely, with perfect
correctness and scarcely appreciable accent. The peculiar words and
phrases about to be enumerated are heard almost exclusively among
the poorer ranks, or, if employed at all by the educated classes, it is
only in jest and with a recognition of their provincial character. The
majority of them are of Scotch origin; some are found in colloquial
and provincial English; while others are of Hibernian extraction.[1]
As might have been expected, proverbs and proverbial expressions
form a large class of these provincialisms. ‘All to the one side, like
Clogher,’ is an allusion to a town in County Tyrone where all the
houses and shops are on one side of the thoroughfare, the opposite
side being a private demesne. ‘That bangs (surpasses) Banagher’ is
an allusion to the great fair held at that spot. When the Ulsterman
wishes to imply that a certain event is extremely improbable, he says
that it will happen at ‘Tibb’s Eve,’ adding the mysterious information
that this is ‘neither before nor after Christmas.’ This expression is a
curiously exact counterpart of the Latin phrase about the Greek
kalends. ‘As blunt as a beetle’ refers to a species of heavy wooden
mallet to which Shakspeare alludes. ‘As busy as a nailer,’ ‘As clean as
a new pin,’ ‘As crooked as a ram’s horn,’ are common Ulster
expressions, which do not call for any explanation. A more
mysterious expression is the curious phrase, ‘As grave as a mustard-
pot’—used to express preternatural solemnity. People of bilious
complexion are often described with more force than elegance as
being ‘As yellow as a duck’s foot.’
The Ulsterman has no special repute for gallantry, yet his simile for
anything exceptionally simple is, ‘As easy as kiss.’ His favourite
phrase when about to impart some very confidential information is,
‘Between you and me and the post.’ A person whose sanity is open
to question is often described as ‘Wanting a square of being round’—
a curiously inexact expression. A person who gapes with wide-
mouthed wonder is said to look ‘like a duck in thunder.’ Similarity of
political or religious opinion is expressed in Ulster by saying that two
people ‘Dig with the same foot.’ ‘A dead man’s plunge’ is a peculiar
Ulster expression; it is applied to the short, sudden, and rather
hollow sound made by a smooth flat pebble when it is tossed into
the air and falls into water upon its edge.
A large class of provincialisms are made up of asseverative
expressions. The Ulsterman often prefaces his remarks by ‘Assay’ (I
say) or ‘A’m sayin’’ (I’m saying). ‘May I never stir’ introduces some
peculiarly solemn assertion. ‘A month of Sundays,’ and still more
strongly, ‘All my born days,’ are emphatic expressions for long
periods of time. ‘Dear help your wit’ expresses commiseration for the
innocence and simplicity of the person addressed.
Ulster adjurations are a curious medley, ‘Heth’ and ‘Feth’ being
frequently used. ‘By Jaiminie King’ is a curious expression often
heard in County Fermanagh. ‘Holy Farmer’ is another obscure form
of oath. ‘Hokey oh’ is a phrase implying astonishment and alarm.
‘Hoker’ is used by Chaucer to express frowardness, and ‘Hocer’ in
Anglo-Saxon meant a reproach. These words probably contain the
clue to the origin of this obscure Ulster provincialism.
Expressions conveying contempt or endearment are common. ‘Bad
scran to you’ is a phrase of angry contempt. ‘Skran’ in Icelandic
means ‘refuse.’ Milton used the word ‘scrannel’ (‘scrannel pipes’) to
express poor or mean; and ‘scranny’ still survives in provincial
English in this sense. ‘Bad cess to you’ is another Ulsterism of similar
meaning, of which the origin is more doubtful; possibly ‘cess’ is a
contraction for success. ‘Give me none of your back-talk’ is said by a
superior to an inferior, meaning, ‘Don’t presume to argue the
question with me.’ A ‘Tory rogue’ is still commonly used in Ulster in
the sense of a scamp; but it is often applied to children in a playful
sense. It is an interesting relic of the original meaning of the word
Tory—an Irish outlaw or freebooter. A ‘tongue-thrashing’ is a
vigorous phrase for a severe rebuke. ‘Carnaptious’ means
quarrelsome and fault-finding.
Some salutations are characteristic of the northern province. ‘How
do you get your health?’ often takes the place of the more vague,
‘How do you do?’ ‘The top of the morning to you’ is a cheery way of
saying ‘Good-morrow.’
As might have been expected, there is a long array of peculiar
botanical and zoological expressions characteristic of Ulster. Every
district has its local names for flowers, plants, birds, and animals,
and in these Ulster is peculiarly rich. Potatoes are known as ‘spuds;’
‘biller’ means water-cress; ‘daffydowndillies’ is a lengthened form of
daffodils; ‘mayflower’ is the marsh marigold or Caltha palustris. The
heads of the common plantain are called ‘cocks’ or ‘fighting-cocks,’
because children make a game of striking them off in mimic warfare.
The dock-plant is called the ‘dockan’ (Scotch), and its leaf is a
popular remedy for nettle-sting; the wood-sorrel is known as
‘cuckoo-sorrel.’
A still longer list of zoological terms might be made out. The bottle-
nosed whale is known as the ‘herring-hog;’ the pollack is called
‘lythe;’ the lobworm used by fishermen for bait is called the ‘lug;’ the
stickleback has its name corrupted into ‘spricklybeg;’ the gadfly is
known as the ‘cleg’ (which is also its Scotch name); ‘yilly-yorlin’ (also
Scotch) is the yellow-hammer; the ‘felt’ is the redwing; the ‘peeweet’
(Scotch again) means the lapwing; the ‘mosscheeper’ is the titlark;
the cormorant is known as the ‘scart.’
We now turn to some provincialisms which do not admit of a ready
classification. ‘Bis’ is often said for ‘is,’ and ‘bissent’ for ‘is not.’ Here
we have an instance of a very common phenomenon—an archaic
form surviving as a colloquialism or provincialism. A vast number of
our common vulgarisms which we are inclined to regard as breaches
of grammar are simply good grammar out of date; in this case, the
provincialism almost exactly preserves a very ancient form of the
verb. The Anglo-Saxon verb ‘to be’ present tense indicative mood
was ‘beom, bist, bith,’ whence no doubt come ‘bis’ and ‘bissent.’
‘Braird,’ often used in Ulster, as in Scotland, of the young springing
grain, is the Anglo-Saxon ‘brord,’ meaning the first blade. ‘Buffer’ in
the sense of ‘boxer’ is from the old French word ‘buffe,’ meaning a
blow.
‘Chew, sir,’ is a form of rebuke applied to a snarling dog. ‘Dwamish’
means faint and sick, from ‘dwam,’ a Scotch word signifying a swoon
or a sudden attack of illness. ‘Dunt’ means a blow, and is old English
and Scotch; Burns says, ‘I’ll tak dunts frae naebody.’ A ‘founder,’
according to our dictionaries, is a term in farriery to indicate
lameness caused by inflammation within the hoof of a horse. In
Ulster, the word is often used to express a chill or wetting followed
by illness. A man after being exposed to the vicissitudes of weather
becomes seriously ill without knowing what is the matter, and he
expresses his condition by saying that he has got ‘a regular founder.’
‘Head-beetler’ is used in the same vulgar sense as ‘Head-cook and
bottle-washer’ in some localities. The beetle was a machine for
producing figured fabrics by the pressure of a roller, and ‘head-
beetler’ probably means the chief director of this class of work. A
‘heeler’ is a cock which strikes out well with his heels. In Ulster, the
word is sometimes used for a bold forward woman.
When a child begins to nod and look sleepy, he is told that ‘Johnny
Nod is coming up his back,’ which is understood as a signal for going
to bed. ‘Potatoes and point’ is a curious phrase in which the poverty
of the lower classes in Ireland finds unconscious expression. The
idea is, that the potatoes before being eaten are ‘pointed’ at a
herring, which is hung up to serve as an imaginary relish to the
simple fare, but too precious to be freely consumed. ‘Dab at the
stool’ is another expression referring to eating customs: salt is
placed upon a stool, and each individual, as the potatoes are taken
out of the pot, takes one and ‘dabs’ it at the stool, to get a portion
of the salt. ‘Pouce’ and ‘poucey’ mean dust and dusty, but by a
common perversion of language, ‘poucey’ comes to mean a person
in a flax-mill who is exposed to the irritation of dusty particles, and
becomes in consequence short-winded and bronchitic. ‘Roughness,’
as in Scotland, means plenty. ‘Ruction’ signifies a row, a disturbance;
possibly it is a contraction of ructation, from the Latin verb ructare.
‘Skelly,’ to squint, is from the Scotch, and is found in Scott. The
Danish is ‘skele.’ ‘Smittle,’ also used in Scotland, means infectious,
and is connected with the verb to smite. ‘Think long’ means to be
homesick.
We thus see how much curious information and how many relics of
the past are found in the despised vulgarisms of a provincial patois.
They are the fossils of language, and speak to us of vanished
peoples and of ages long gone by.
 IN ALL SHADES.
CHAPTER XLVI.
The days went slowly, slowly on, and Mr Dupuy and Harry Noel both
continued to recover steadily from their severe injuries. Marian came
over every day to help with the nursing, and took charge for the
most part, with Aunt Clemmy’s aid, of the young Englishman; while
Nora’s time was chiefly taken up in attending to her father’s manifold
necessities. Still at odd moments she did venture to help a little in
taking care of poor Harry, whose gratitude for all her small
attentions was absolutely unbounded, and very touching. True, she
came comparatively seldom into the sickroom (for such in fact it
was, the crushing blow on Harry’s head having been followed by
violent symptoms of internal injury to the brain, which made his case
far more serious in the end than Mr Dupuy’s); but whenever he
woke up after a short doze, in his intervals of pain, he always found
a fresh passion-flower, or a sweet white rosebud, or a graceful spray
of clambering Martinique clematis, carefully placed in a tiny vase
with pure water on the little table by the bedside; and he knew well
whose dainty fingers had picked the pretty blossoms and arranged
them so deftly, with their delicate background of lace-like wild West
Indian maiden-hair, in the tiny bouquets. More than once, too, when
Aunt Clemmy wasn’t looking, he took the white rosebuds out of the
water for a single moment and gazed at them tenderly with a wistful
eye; and when, one afternoon, Marian surprised him in the very act,
as she came in with his regulation cup of chicken-broth at the half-
hour, she saw that the colour rushed suddenly even into his brown
and bloodless cheek, and his eyes fell like a boy’s as he replaced the
buds with a guilty look in the vase beside him. But she said nothing
about the matter at the time, only reserving it for Nora’s private
delectation in the little boudoir half an hour later.
As Mr Dupuy got better, one firm resolve seemed to have imprinted
itself indelibly upon his unbending nature—the resolve to quit
Trinidad for ever at the very earliest moment, when convalescence
and Macfarlane would combine to allow him. He would even sell
Orange Grove itself, he said, and go over and live permanently for
the rest of his days in England. ‘That is to say, in England for the
summer,’ he observed casually to Nora; ‘for I don’t suppose any
human being in his right senses would ever dream of stopping in
such a wretched climate through a whole dreary English winter. In
October, I shall always go to Nice, or Pau, or Mentone, or some
other of these new-fashioned continental wintering-places that
people go to nowadays in Europe; some chance, I suppose, of
seeing the sun once and again there, at anyrate. But one thing I’ve
quite decided upon: I won’t live any longer in Trinidad. I’m not
afraid; but I object on principle to vivisection, especially conducted
with a blunt instrument. At my time of life, a man naturally dislikes
being cut up alive by those horrible cutlasses. You and your cousin
Tom may stop here by yourselves and manage Pimento Valley, if you
choose; but I decline any longer to be used as the corpus vile for a
nigger experimentalist to exercise his skill upon. It doesn’t suit my
taste, and I refuse to submit to it. The fact is, Nora, my dear, the
island isn’t any longer a fit place for a gentleman to live in. It was all
very well in the old days, before we got a pack of Exeter Hall
demagogues, sent out here by the government of the day on
purpose to excite our own servants to rebellion and insurrection
against us. Nobody ever heard of the niggers rising or hacking one
to pieces bodily in those days. But ever since this man Hawthorn,
whose wife you’re so thick with—a thing that no lady would have
dreamt of countenancing in the days before these new-fangled
doctrines came into fashion—ever since this man Hawthorn was sent
out here, preaching his revolutionary cut-throat principles broadcast,
the island hasn’t been a fit place at all for a gentleman to live in; and
I’ve made up my mind to leave it at once and go over to England.’
Meanwhile, events had arisen which rendered it certain that the
revolutionary demagogue himself, who had saved Mr Dupuy’s life
and all the other white lives in the entire island, would also have to
go to England at a short notice. Edward had intended, indeed, in
pursuance of his hasty promise to the excited negroes, to resign his
judgeship, and return home, in order to confer with the Colonial
Office on the subject of their grievances. But before he had time to
settle his affairs and make arrangements for his approaching
departure, a brisk interchange of messages had taken place between
the Trinidad government and the home authorities. Meetings had
been held in London at which the whole matter had been thoroughly
ventilated; questions had been asked and answered in parliament;
and the English papers had called unanimously for a thorough sifting
of the relations between the planters and the labourers throughout
the whole of the West India Islands. In particular, they had highly
praised the courage and wisdom with which young Mr Hawthorn had
stepped into the breach at the critical moment, and single-handed,
averted a general massacre, by his timely influence with the
infuriated rioters. More than one paper had suggested that Mr
Hawthorn should be forthwith recalled, to give evidence on the
subject before a Select Committee; and as a direct result of that
suggestion, Edward shortly after received a message from the
Colonial Secretary, summoning him to London immediately, with all
despatch, on business connected with the recent rising of the
negroes in Trinidad.
Mr Dupuy had already chosen the date on which he should sail; but
when he heard that ‘that man Hawthorn’ had actually taken a
passage by the same steamer, he almost changed his mind, for the
first time in his life, and half determined to remain in the island, now
that it was to be freed at last from the polluting presence and
influence of this terrible fire-eating brown revolutionist. Perhaps, he
thought, when once Hawthorn was gone, Trinidad might yet be a
place fit for a gentleman to live in. The Dupuys had inhabited
Orange Grove, father and son, for nine generations; and it would be
a pity indeed if they were to be driven away from the ancestral
plantations by the meddlesome interference of an upstart radical
coloured lawyer.
In this dubitative frame of mind, then, Mr Dupuy, as soon as ever
Macfarlane would allow him to mount his horse again, rode slowly
down from Orange Grove to pay a long-meditated call at
Government House upon His Excellency the governor. In black frock-
coat and shiny silk hat, as is the rigorous etiquette upon such
occasions, even under a blazing tropical noontide, he went his way
with a full heart, ready to pour forth the vials of his wrath into the
sympathetic ears of the Queen’s representative against this wretched
intriguer Hawthorn, by whose Machiavellian machinations (Mr Dupuy
was justly proud in his own mind of that sonorous alliteration) the
happy and contented peasantry of the island of Trinidad had been
spurred and flogged and slowly roused into unwilling rebellion
against their generous and paternal employers.
Judge of his amazement, therefore, when, after listening patiently to
his long and fierce tirade, Sir Adalbert rose from his chair calmly, and
said in a clear and distinct voice these incredible words: ‘Mr Dupuy,
you unfortunately quite mistake the whole nature of the situation.
This abortive insurrection is not due to Mr Hawthorn or to any other
one person whatever. It has long been brewing; we have for months
feared and anticipated it; and it is the outcome of a widespread and
general discontent among the negroes themselves, sedulously
fostered, we are afraid’—here Mr Dupuy’s face began to brighten
with joyous anticipation—‘by the unwise and excessive severity of
many planters, both in their public capacity as magistrates, and in
their private capacity as employers of labour.’ (Here Mr Dupuy’s face
first fell blankly, and then pursed itself up suddenly in a perfectly
comical expression of profound dismay and intense astonishment.)
‘It is to Mr Hawthorn alone,’ the governor went on, glancing severely
at the astounded planter, ‘that many unwise proprietors of estates in
the island of Trinidad owe their escape from the not wholly
unprovoked anger of the insurgent negroes; and so highly do the
home authorities value Mr Hawthorn’s courage and judgment in this
emergency, that they have just summoned him back to England, to
aid them with his advice and experience in settling a new modus
vivendi to be shortly introduced between negroes and employers.’