The Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK™

by Robert Reed

to river and mountain or fair district, birth-place of the wise and

  good, to Windsor Forest and its antique castle, farewell! themes for

  story alone are they,—we must live elsewhere .

  Such were in part the arguments of Adrian, uttered with enthu-

  siasm and unanswerable rapidity . Something more was in his heart,

  to which he dared not give words . He felt that the end of time was

  come; he knew that one by one we should dwindle into nothing-

  ness . It was not adviseable to wait this sad consummation in our

  native country; but travelling would give us our object for each

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  day, that would distract our thoughts from the swift-approaching

  end of things . If we went to Italy, to sacred and eternal Rome, we

  might with greater patience submit to the decree, which had laid her

  mighty towers low. We might lose our selfish grief in the sublime

  aspect of its desolation . All this was in the mind of Adrian; but he

  thought of my children, and, instead of communicating to me these

  resources of despair, he called up the image of health and life to be

  found, where we knew not—when we knew not; but if never to be

  found, for ever and for ever to be sought . He won me over to his

  party, heart and soul .

  It devolved on me to disclose our plan to Idris . The images of

  health and hope which I presented to her, made her with a smile

  consent . With a smile she agreed to leave her country, from which

  she had never before been absent, and the spot she had inhabited

  from infancy; the forest and its mighty trees, the woodland paths and

  green recesses, where she had played in childhood, and had lived so

  happily through youth; she would leave them without regret, for she

  hoped to purchase thus the lives of her children . They were her life;

  dearer than a spot consecrated to love, dearer than all else the earth

  contained . The boys heard with childish glee of our removal: Clara

  asked if we were to go to Athens . “It is possible,” I replied; and her

  countenance became radiant with pleasure . There she would behold

  the tomb of her parents, and the territory filled with recollections of

  her father’s glory . In silence, but without respite, she had brooded

  over these scenes . It was the recollection of them that had turned her

  infant gaiety to seriousness, and had impressed her with high and

  restless thoughts .

  There were many dear friends whom we must not leave behind,

  humble though they were . There was the spirited and obedient steed

  which Lord Raymond had given his daughter; there was Alfred’s

  dog and a pet eagle, whose sight was dimmed through age . But this

  catalogue of favourites to be taken with us, could not be made with-

  out grief to think of our heavy losses, and a deep sigh for the many

  things we must leave behind . The tears rushed into the eyes of Idris,

  while Alfred and Evelyn brought now a favourite rose tree, now

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  a marble vase beautifully carved, insisting that these must go, and

  exclaiming on the pity that we could not take the castle and the for-

  est, the deer and the birds, and all accustomed and cherished objects

  along with us . “Fond and foolish ones,” I said, “we have lost for

  ever treasures far more precious than these; and we desert them, to

  preserve treasures to which in comparison they are nothing . Let us

  not for a moment forget our object and our hope; and they will form

  a resistless mound to stop the overflowing of our regret for trifles.”

  The children were easily distracted, and again returned to their

  prospect of future amusement . Idris had disappeared . She had gone

  to hide her weakness; escaping from the castle, she had descended to

  the little park, and sought solitude, that she might there indulge her

  tears; I found her clinging round an old oak, pressing its rough trunk

  with her roseate lips, as her tears fell plenteously, and her sobs and

  broken exclamations could not be suppressed; with surpassing grief

  I beheld this loved one of my heart thus lost in sorrow! I drew her

  towards me; and, as she felt my kisses on her eyelids, as she felt my

  arms press her, she revived to the knowledge of what remained to

  her . “You are very kind not to reproach me,” she said: “I weep, and a

  bitter pang of intolerable sorrow tears my heart . And yet I am happy;

  mothers lament their children, wives lose their husbands, while you

  and my children are left to me . Yes, I am happy, most happy, that I

  can weep thus for imaginary sorrows, and that the slight loss of my

  adored country is not dwindled and annihilated in mightier misery .

  Take me where you will; where you and my children are, there shall

  be Windsor, and every country will be England to me . Let these

  tears flow not for myself, happy and ungrateful as I am, but for the

  dead world—for our lost country—for all of love, and life, and joy,

  now choked in the dusty chambers of death .”

  She spoke quickly, as if to convince herself; she turned her eyes

  from the trees and forest-paths she loved; she hid her face in my

  bosom, and we— yes, my masculine firmness dissolved—we wept

  together consolatory tears, and then calm—nay, almost cheerful, we

  returned to the castle .

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  The first cold weather of an English October, made us hasten our

  preparations . I persuaded Idris to go up to London, where she might

  better attend to necessary arrangements . I did not tell her, that to

  spare her the pang of parting from inanimate objects, now the only

  things left, I had resolved that we should none of us return to Wind-

  sor . For the last time we looked on the wide extent of country visible

  from the terrace, and saw the last rays of the sun tinge the dark

  masses of wood variegated by autumnal tints; the uncultivated fields

  and smokeless cottages lay in shadow below; the Thames wound

  through the wide plain, and the venerable pile of Eton college, stood

  in dark relief, a prominent object; the cawing of the myriad rooks

  which inhabited the trees of the little park, as in column or thick

  wedge they speeded to their nests, disturbed the silence of evening .

  Nature was the same, as when she was the kind mother of the human

  race; now, childless and forlorn, her fertility was a mockery; her

  loveliness a mask for deformity . Why should the breeze gently stir

  the trees, man felt not its refreshment? Why did dark night adorn

  herself with stars—man saw them not? Why are there fruits, or flow-

  ers, or streams, man is not here to enjoy them?

  Idris stood beside me, her dear hand locked in mine . Her face was

  radiant with a smile .—“The sun is alone,” she said, “but we are not .

  A strange star, my Lionel, ruled our birth; sadly and with dismay

  we may look upon the annihilation of man; but we remain for each

  other . Did I ever in the wide world seek other than thee? And since

  in the wide world thou remainest, why should I complain? Thou and

  nature are still true to me . Beneath the shades of night, and th
rough

  the day, whose garish light displays our solitude, thou wilt still be at

  my side, and even Windsor will not be regretted .”

  I had chosen night time for our journey to London, that the change

  and desolation of the country might be the less observable . Our only

  surviving servant drove us . We past down the steep hill, and entered

  the dusky avenue of the Long Walk . At times like these, minute cir-

  cumstances assume giant and majestic proportions; the very swing-

  ing open of the white gate that admitted us into the forest, arrested

  my thoughts as matter of interest; it was an every day act, never to

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  occur again! The setting crescent of the moon glittered through the

  massy trees to our right, and when we entered the park, we scared

  a troop of deer, that fled bounding away in the forest shades. Our

  two boys quietly slept; once, before our road turned from the view,

  I looked back on the castle . Its windows glistened in the moonshine,

  and its heavy outline lay in a dark mass against the sky—the trees

  near us waved a solemn dirge to the midnight breeze . Idris leaned

  back in the carriage; her two hands pressed mine, her countenance

  was placid, she seemed to lose the sense of what she now left, in the

  memory of what she still possessed .

  My thoughts were sad and solemn, yet not of unmingled pain .

  The very excess of our misery carried a relief with it, giving sublim-

  ity and elevation to sorrow . I felt that I carried with me those I best

  loved; I was pleased, after a long separation to rejoin Adrian; never

  again to part . I felt that I quitted what I loved, not what loved me .

  The castle walls, and long familiar trees, did not hear the parting

  sound of our carriage-wheels with regret . And, while I felt Idris to

  be near, and heard the regular breathing of my children, I could not

  be unhappy . Clara was greatly moved; with streaming eyes, sup-

  pressing her sobs, she leaned from the window, watching the last

  glimpse of her native Windsor .

  Adrian welcomed us on our arrival . He was all animation; you

  could no longer trace in his look of health, the suffering valetudinar-

  ian; from his smile and sprightly tones you could not guess that he

  was about to lead forth from their native country, the numbered rem-

  nant of the English nation, into the tenantless realms of the south,

  there to die, one by one, till the LAST MAN should remain in a

  voiceless, empty world .

  Adrian was impatient for our departure, and had advanced far in

  his preparations . His wisdom guided all . His care was the soul, to

  move the luckless crowd, who relied wholly on him . It was useless to

  provide many things, for we should find abundant provision in every

  town . It was Adrian’s wish to prevent all labour; to bestow a festive

  appearance on this funeral train . Our numbers amounted to not quite

  two thousand persons . These were not all assembled in London, but

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  each day witnessed the arrival of fresh numbers, and those who re-

  sided in the neighbouring towns, had received orders to assemble

  at one place, on the twentieth of November . Carriages and horses

  were provided for all; captains and under officers chosen, and the

  whole assemblage wisely organized . All obeyed the Lord Protector

  of dying England; all looked up to him . His council was chosen, it

  consisted of about fifty persons. Distinction and station were not the

  qualifications of their election. We had no station among us, but that

  which benevolence and prudence gave; no distinction save between

  the living and the dead . Although we were anxious to leave England

  before the depth of winter, yet we were detained . Small parties had

  been dispatched to various parts of England, in search of stragglers;

  we would not go, until we had assured ourselves that in all human

  probability we did not leave behind a single human being .

  On our arrival in London, we found that the aged Countess of

  Windsor was residing with her son in the palace of the Protectorate;

  we repaired to our accustomed abode near Hyde Park . Idris now

  for the first time for many years saw her mother, anxious to assure

  herself that the childishness of old age did not mingle with unforgot-

  ten pride, to make this high-born dame still so inveterate against

  me . Age and care had furrowed her cheeks, and bent her form; but

  her eye was still bright, her manners authoritative and unchanged;

  she received her daughter coldly, but displayed more feeling as she

  folded her grand-children in her arms . It is our nature to wish to

  continue our systems and thoughts to posterity through our own

  offspring . The Countess had failed in this design with regard to her

  children; perhaps she hoped to find the next remove in birth more

  tractable . Once Idris named me casually—a frown, a convulsive

  gesture of anger, shook her mother, and, with voice trembling with

  hate, she said—“I am of little worth in this world; the young are

  impatient to push the old off the scene; but, Idris, if you do not wish

  to see your mother expire at your feet, never again name that person

  to me; all else I can bear; and now I am resigned to the destruction of

  my cherished hopes: but it is too much to require that I should love

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  the instrument that providence gifted with murderous properties for

  my destruction .”

  This was a strange speech, now that, on the empty stage, each

  might play his part without impediment from the other . But the

  haughty Ex-Queen thought as Octavius Caesar and Mark Antony,

  We could not stall together

  In the whole world.

  The period of our departure was fixed for the twenty-fifth of No-

  vember . The weather was temperate; soft rains fell at night, and by

  day the wintry sun shone out . Our numbers were to move forward

  in separate parties, and to go by different routes, all to unite at last

  at Paris. Adrian and his division, consisting in all of five hundred

  persons, were to take the direction of Dover and Calais . On the

  twentieth of November, Adrian and I rode for the last time through

  the streets of London . They were grass-grown and desert . The open

  doors of the empty mansions creaked upon their hinges; rank herb-

  age, and deforming dirt, had swiftly accumulated on the steps of the

  houses; the voiceless steeples of the churches pierced the smokeless

  air; the churches were open, but no prayer was offered at the altars;

  mildew and damp had already defaced their ornaments; birds, and

  tame animals, now homeless, had built nests, and made their lairs in

  consecrated spots . We passed St . Paul’s . London, which had extend-

  ed so far in suburbs in all direction, had been somewhat deserted in

  the midst, and much of what had in former days obscured this vast

  building was removed . Its ponderous mass, blackened stone, and

  high dome, made it look, not like a temple, but a tomb . Methought

  above the portico was engraved the Hic jacet of England
. We passed

  on eastwards, engaged in such solemn talk as the times inspired .

  No human step was heard, nor human form discerned . Troops of

  dogs, deserted of their masters, passed us; and now and then a

  horse, unbridled and unsaddled, trotted towards us, and tried to at-

  tract the attention of those which we rode, as if to allure them to

  seek like liberty . An unwieldy ox, who had fed in an abandoned

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  granary, suddenly lowed, and shewed his shapeless form in a narrow

  door-way; every thing was desert; but nothing was in ruin . And this

  medley of undamaged buildings, and luxurious accommodation, in

  trim and fresh youth, was contrasted with the lonely silence of the

  unpeopled streets .

  Night closed in, and it began to rain . We were about to return

  homewards, when a voice, a human voice, strange now to hear,

  attracted our attention . It was a child singing a merry, lightsome

  air; there was no other sound . We had traversed London from Hyde

  Park even to where we now were in the Minories, and had met no

  person, heard no voice nor footstep . The singing was interrupted by

  laughing and talking; never was merry ditty so sadly timed, never

  laughter more akin to tears . The door of the house from which these

  sounds proceeded was open, the upper rooms were illuminated as

  for a feast. It was a large magnificent house, in which doubtless

  some rich merchant had lived . The singing again commenced, and

  rang through the high-roofed rooms, while we silently ascended

  the stair-case . Lights now appeared to guide us; and a long suite of

  splendid rooms illuminated, made us still more wonder . Their only

  inhabitant, a little girl, was dancing, waltzing, and singing about

  them, followed by a large Newfoundland dog, who boisterously

  jumping on her, and interrupting her, made her now scold, now

  laugh, now throw herself on the carpet to play with him . She was

  dressed grotesquely, in glittering robes and shawls fit for a woman;

  she appeared about ten years of age . We stood at the door looking

  on this strange scene, till the dog perceiving us barked loudly; the

  child turned and saw us: her face, losing its gaiety, assumed a sul-

  len expression: she slunk back, apparently meditating an escape . I

  came up to her, and held her hand; she did not resist, but with a stern