Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume Ii Part 9

"My wife continues still so ill that, though I am wanted at Spezzia, I cannot go down. I hope, however, that to-morrow or next day she may be well enough to let me leave without anxiety.

"Perry, a consul-general at Venice, has just promised me a photo of Flynn, taken by the Austrian authorities during his imprisonment at Verona. I'll send it to you when it comes.

"Did you ever see the notice of O'D. in 'The Daily News'? It was most handsome, and the D. U. M. was also good. All the London papers have now reviewed it but 'The Times,' and the stranger [this], as Lucas, is very well affected towards me.

"Once again, and from my heart, I thank you for responding so generously to my request."

_To Dr Burbidge._

"_Tuesday, [? Oct.]_ 23, 1864.

"I had believed I was to be at Spezzia before this, but my wife still continues in a very precarious way, and I was afraid to leave her.

"I am, besides, hard at work closing 'Tony,' and getting another vol. of 'O'Dowd' ready for 1st of January. I have worked very steadily and, for me, most industriously the entire month, but my evenings are always lost, as people are now pa.s.sing through to Rome.

"Hudson has taken a house near Florence, and Labouchere come back, so that _some_ talkers there are at least.

"I mean to run down so soon as I finish cor-rectings, &c., at eight or ten days at furthest."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Villa Morelli, _Oct_. 27,1864.

"How strange a hit you made when you said, 'I knew L. N. as well as if we had drunk together.' I was a fellow-student with him at Gottingen in 1830,* and lived in great intimacy with him. There was a Scotchman there at the same time named d.i.c.kson, a great botanist, who has, I believe, since settled in London as a practising physician in Bryanstone Square.

L. Nap. went by the name of Ct. Fattorini. He never would know d.i.c.kson, and used to leave me whenever D. came in. It was not for two years after that I learned he was 'the Bonaparte.' Our set consisted of L. N., Adolph V. Decken (who afterwards married the sister of the d.u.c.h.ess of C------, who now lives in Hanover), Beuliady the Home Minister, and Ct. Bray the Bavarian Envoy at Vienna; I, the penny-a-liner, being the complement of the party. I have had very strange companionships and strange turns in life, and when I have worked out my O'Dowd vein I'll give you an autobiography.

* The date is incorrect. Lever's Gottingen period was 1828.

"I now send you a political O'D. on L. N., not over civil; but I detest the man, and I suspect I _know_ him and read him aright. Banting I did without waiting for his book; but if it comes I will perhaps squeeze something out of it.

"I am crippled with gout, and can scarcely hold a pen. The bit on doctors is simply padding, and don't put it in if you don't like; but the No. for December will, I think, be a strong one.

"Sir Jas. Hudson is with me, but I am too low even for his glorious companionship--and he has no equal. Wolff is here, and all to stay for the winter.

"What do you think of my advertising O'D. at the end of the Banting paper? Does it not remind you of the epitaph to the French hosier, where, after the enumeration of his virtues as husband and father, the widow announces that she 'continues the business at the old estab., Rue Neuve des Pet.i.ts Champs,' &c. &c.?"

_To Dr Burbidge._

"Florence, Nov. 3, 1864.

"Bulwer the Great has stayed here, and will not leave till to-morrow, and if you see Rice, will you please to tell him so. I am so primed that I think I could write a great paper on the present state and future prospects of Turkey.

"He has been very agreeable, and with all his affectations--legion that they are--very amusing.

"Layard I don't like at all; he is the complete stamp to represent a (metropolitan) const.i.tuency--overbearing, loud, self-opinionated, and half-informed, if so much. Bulwer appeared to great advantage in his company.

"In my desire to see how far you were just or unjust to Georgina, I set to work to read over again the scenes she occurs in, and went from end to end of 'Tony Butler,' and at last came in despair to ask Julia to find her out for me! So much for the gift of constructiveness, and that power of concentration without which, Sir E. B. Lytton says, there is no success in fiction-writing."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Villa Morelli, _Nov_. 6, 1864.

"I have just received your cheques, and thank you much for your prompt.i.tude. You certainly 'know my necessities before I ask.'

"I cannot tell you the pleasure, the complete relief, it is to me to deal with a gentleman; and the cordial tone of our relations has done more for me than I thought anything _now_ could, to rally and cheer me.

"I have been so long swimming with a stone round my neck, that I almost begin to wish I could go down and have it all over. You have rallied me out of this, and I frankly tell you it's your hearty G.o.d-speed has enabled me to make this last effort.

"Aytoun's 'Banting' is admirable. Mine is poor stuff after it: indeed, I'd not have done it if I'd thought he had it in hand. In one or two points we hit the same blot, but _his_ blow is stronger and better than mine. Don't print me, therefore, if you don't like.

"Before this you will have received L. B., and I hope to hear from you about it. The address of this will show that my poor wife is no better, and that I cannot leave her.

"Gregory, the M.P. for Galway, is here, and it was meeting him suggested my hit at the lukewarm Conservatives. We fight every evening about politics. I wish to Heaven I could have the floor of the House to do it on, and no heavier adversary to engage....

"Henry Wolff is here full of great financial schemes,--director of Heaven knows what railroads, and secretary to an infinity of companies.

He dined with me yesterday, and I'm sure I'd O'Dowd him. He means to pa.s.s the winter here. He pressed me hard about 'Tony,' and I lied like an envoy extracting a denial."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Villa Morelli, _Nov_. 9, 1864

"All the railroads are smashed, and Spezzia is now, I understand, on an island, where I certainly shall not go to look for it. Here I am, therefore, till the floods subside.

"I knew you would like the O'Ds. I believe they are the best of the batch, but don't be afraid for 'Tony.' I have a fit of the gout on me that exactly keeps me up to the O'D. level; and I have one in my head for Father Ignatius that, if I only can write as I see it, will certainly hit. If Skeff is not brave it is no fault of mine. Why the devil did Wolff come and sit for his picture when I was just finishing the portrait from memory?

"The reason L. N. hated d.i.c.kson was: he (D------) was an awful skinflint, and disgusted all us 'youth.' who were rather jolly, and went the pace pretty briskly.

"D. is not the [? ] of the Faculty man, but a fellow who was once Professor of Botany (in Edinburgh, I think). He once made me a visit at my father's, but I never liked him.

"I must not O'D. L. N., because one day or other, if I live, I shall jot down some personal recollections of my own,--and, besides, I would not give in a way that might be deemed fict.i.tious what I will declare as _fact_.

"If I can tone down M'Caskey, I will; but Skeffs courage is, I fear, incorrigible. Oh, Blackwood, it is 'not _I_ that have made him, but _he_ himself.' Not but he is a good creature, as good as any can be that has no _bone_ in his _back_--the same malady that all the Bulwers have, for instance,--and, _take my word for it_, there is a large section of humanity that are not verte-brated animals. Ask Aytoun if he don't agree with me, and show _him_ all this if you like; for though I never saw him, my instinct tells me I _know_ him, and I feel we should hit it off together if we met."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Villa Morelli, _Nov_. 11, 1864.