Life and Letters of Robert Browning [108]
this house, -- just over the way of the water, --
shines every night the light-house of Havre -- a place I know well,
and love very moderately: but it always gives me a thrill as I see afar,
EXACTLY a particular spot which I was at along with her. At this moment,
I see the white streak of the phare in the sun, from the window where I write
and I THINK. . . . Milsand went to Paris last week, just before we arrived,
to transport his valuables to a safer place than his house,
which is near the fortifications. He is filled with as much despondency
as can be -- while the old dear and perfect kindness remains.
I never knew or shall know his like among men. . . .'
==
The war did more than sadden Mr. and Miss Browning's visit to St.-Aubin;
it opposed unlooked-for difficulties to their return home.
They had remained, unconscious of the impending danger,
till Sedan had been taken, the Emperor's downfall proclaimed,
and the country suddenly placed in a state of siege.
One morning M. Milsand came to them in anxious haste,
and insisted on their starting that very day. An order, he said,
had been issued that no native should leave the country,
and it only needed some unusually thick-headed Maire
for Mr. Browning to be arrested as a runaway Frenchman or a Prussian spy.
The usual passenger boats from Calais and Boulogne no longer ran;
but there was, he believed, a chance of their finding one at Havre.
They acted on this warning, and discovered its wisdom
in the various hindrances which they found on their way.
Everywhere the horses had been requisitioned for the war.
The boat on which they had relied to take them down the river to Caen
had been stopped that very morning; and when they reached the railroad
they were told that the Prussians would be at the other end before night.
At last they arrived at Honfleur, where they found an English vessel
which was about to convey cattle to Southampton; and in this,
setting out at midnight, they made their passage to England.
Some words addressed to Miss Blagden, written I believe in 1871,
once more strike a touching familiar note.
==
`. . . But NO, dearest Isa. The simple truth is that SHE was the poet,
and I the clever person by comparison -- remember her limited experience
of all kinds, and what she made of it. Remember on the other hand,
how my uninterrupted health and strength and practice with the world
have helped me. . . .'
==
`Balaustion's Adventure' and `Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau' were published,
respectively, in August and December 1871. They had been preceded
in the March of the same year by a ballad, `Herve Riel',
afterwards reprinted in the `Pacchiarotto' volume, and which Mr. Browning
now sold to the `Cornhill Magazine' for the benefit of the French sufferers
by the war.
The circumstances of this little transaction, unique in
Mr. Browning's experience, are set forth in the following letter:
==
Feb. 4, '71.
`My dear Smith, -- I want to give something to the people in Paris,
and can afford so very little just now, that I am forced upon an expedient.
Will you buy of me that poem which poor Simeon praised in a letter you saw,
and which I like better than most things I have done of late? --
Buy, -- I mean, -- the right of printing it in the Pall Mall and,
if you please, the Cornhill also, -- the copyright remaining with me.
You remember you wanted to print it in the Cornhill, and I was obstinate:
there is hardly any occasion on which I should be otherwise,
if the printing any poem of mine in a magazine were purely for my own sake:
so, any liberality you exercise will not be drawn into a precedent
against you. I fancy this is a case in which one may handsomely
puff one's own ware, and I venture to call my verses good for once.
I send them to you directly, because expedition will render
whatever I contribute more valuable: for when you make up your mind
as to how liberally I shall be enabled to give, you must send me a cheque
and I will send the same as the "Product
shines every night the light-house of Havre -- a place I know well,
and love very moderately: but it always gives me a thrill as I see afar,
EXACTLY a particular spot which I was at along with her. At this moment,
I see the white streak of the phare in the sun, from the window where I write
and I THINK. . . . Milsand went to Paris last week, just before we arrived,
to transport his valuables to a safer place than his house,
which is near the fortifications. He is filled with as much despondency
as can be -- while the old dear and perfect kindness remains.
I never knew or shall know his like among men. . . .'
==
The war did more than sadden Mr. and Miss Browning's visit to St.-Aubin;
it opposed unlooked-for difficulties to their return home.
They had remained, unconscious of the impending danger,
till Sedan had been taken, the Emperor's downfall proclaimed,
and the country suddenly placed in a state of siege.
One morning M. Milsand came to them in anxious haste,
and insisted on their starting that very day. An order, he said,
had been issued that no native should leave the country,
and it only needed some unusually thick-headed Maire
for Mr. Browning to be arrested as a runaway Frenchman or a Prussian spy.
The usual passenger boats from Calais and Boulogne no longer ran;
but there was, he believed, a chance of their finding one at Havre.
They acted on this warning, and discovered its wisdom
in the various hindrances which they found on their way.
Everywhere the horses had been requisitioned for the war.
The boat on which they had relied to take them down the river to Caen
had been stopped that very morning; and when they reached the railroad
they were told that the Prussians would be at the other end before night.
At last they arrived at Honfleur, where they found an English vessel
which was about to convey cattle to Southampton; and in this,
setting out at midnight, they made their passage to England.
Some words addressed to Miss Blagden, written I believe in 1871,
once more strike a touching familiar note.
==
`. . . But NO, dearest Isa. The simple truth is that SHE was the poet,
and I the clever person by comparison -- remember her limited experience
of all kinds, and what she made of it. Remember on the other hand,
how my uninterrupted health and strength and practice with the world
have helped me. . . .'
==
`Balaustion's Adventure' and `Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau' were published,
respectively, in August and December 1871. They had been preceded
in the March of the same year by a ballad, `Herve Riel',
afterwards reprinted in the `Pacchiarotto' volume, and which Mr. Browning
now sold to the `Cornhill Magazine' for the benefit of the French sufferers
by the war.
The circumstances of this little transaction, unique in
Mr. Browning's experience, are set forth in the following letter:
==
Feb. 4, '71.
`My dear Smith, -- I want to give something to the people in Paris,
and can afford so very little just now, that I am forced upon an expedient.
Will you buy of me that poem which poor Simeon praised in a letter you saw,
and which I like better than most things I have done of late? --
Buy, -- I mean, -- the right of printing it in the Pall Mall and,
if you please, the Cornhill also, -- the copyright remaining with me.
You remember you wanted to print it in the Cornhill, and I was obstinate:
there is hardly any occasion on which I should be otherwise,
if the printing any poem of mine in a magazine were purely for my own sake:
so, any liberality you exercise will not be drawn into a precedent
against you. I fancy this is a case in which one may handsomely
puff one's own ware, and I venture to call my verses good for once.
I send them to you directly, because expedition will render
whatever I contribute more valuable: for when you make up your mind
as to how liberally I shall be enabled to give, you must send me a cheque
and I will send the same as the "Product