The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-19 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
CON VICTIOP,i, a Tale. By B. Clarke, Esq. 3
Vole. London : T. C. Newby.
The scene of this novel is laid in England at the
tune of the cival war between Charles I. and the
Parliament. I: opens in August, 1645, and concludes
with the battle of Marston Moor, between which two
periods the reader is presented with a series of
graphic pictures of the state of the country during
that melancholy contest. The hero of the tale is
Trenton Dauhigny, an orphan, who has been brought
up under the care of Colonel Dornford, an adherent
of the King, and who has joined the Royalists, with
his protector. Albert, the son of Colonel Dornford has,
however, joined the Parliainentari ins ; but before the
battle of 'Marston Moor, prevailed upon by an old
friend, Herbert Endsleigh, the son of the vicar of
Chaveley, he assists Trenton Daubigny, who has been
taken prisoner and condemned as a spy, to escape
with Herbert, who is also a prisoner, and with
them goes over to the Royalists. There are
two heroines, Helen Endsleigh and Edith Dornford,
the former beloved by Daubigny and the latter by
Herbert Endsleigh. Edith has been confided by her
father, at the commencement of the civil war, to one
Vavasour, a Romish priest, who has induced her to
embrace the Roman Catholic faith. Helen has been
immured in an English convent, by means of an in-
triguing Italian Jesuit,who plays the part of aspy alter-
nately in the Royalist and Republican camps, as best
suits his purpose. She undergoes many hardships in-
flicted on her tor the purpose of making her become
a member of the Roman Catholic Church ; but even-
tually escapes, and joins her friends and her lover.
Edith also is at last made to perceive the error she
committed in abjuring her first religion. In the
course of the tale Trenton Daubigny takes a journey
to London, and witnesses one of the tumults which
were then of such frequent occurrence in the city. It
is thus described :
" At length they emerged from the narrow street upon
the open space of Smithfield, where the greater light
enabled them to distinguish a number rapidly congre-
gating before the hospital of St. Bartholomew. The
boisterous expression of an ungovernable mob occa-
sionally broke out, and while the few minutes elapsed,
during which the travellers waited to allow a band of
adherents to pass, who were making their way through
the bars from the precincts of Clerkcnwell, they had an
opportunity or scanning the visages of these rough par-
tizans of peace and loyalty.
" The long continuance of the war bad so grievously
affected the trade of the country that that class, which is
generally the last to feel the misery and farthest re-
moved from the brunt of civil warfare, were now endur-
ing the plague in all its severity. Surge after surge had
rolled on upon each other, each overwhelming wave
being overtopped by its successor, till, breaking through
the land-mark, by which its tide had hitherto been con-
fined or restrained, the mighty flood of discord and dis-
tress bad covered the heights, and was now absolutely
hanging over, and about to sweep down upon the
very vales of society. The spirit of proud independ-
ence, and almost scorn of the power of their rulers, by
which the Londoners had ever been distinguished, urged
on by the wild insinuations of those by whom the rest-
less disorder of a few hundred people were used to fur-
ther their own dark designs, for whose operations the
multitudinous population of a great city offered an ample
and desirable field, had led them to coalesce readily with
the Parliamentary faction in the commencement of their
struggle with the King. They took up the cause as one
in perfect coincidence with their feelings, and exactly
adapted to their prejudices. Every appeal that was
made to their understanding came from persons whom
they were ready to acknowledge as champions of free-
dom, and was strongly backed by their passions. As to
the justice on which these appeals were grounded, they
took no time for consideration. They conceived only
that their own present interests would be advanced and
the bounds of liberty enlarged, and did not look forward
enough to perceive how much suffering must be endured
to accomplish their ends, and how surely despotism
would result from license. But the dawn of a new day
bad broken around them. The expectation which bad from,
the first been so profusely held out by the Parliament,
that the power which they had extorted, by wily diplo•
macy, from the weakness of the King, would speedily
enable them to crush him, by whom it had been given,
had proved fallacious. Defeat had followed defeat; re-
striction had come upon restriction, until circumscribed
in their bounds, cut off from their supplies, thwarted of,
their object, wasted in their means, they felt the success
which from month to month they had been taught to,
think was within their grasp, had receded farther than
ever, and they began, with the same pertinacity as they
had called for war, to clamour for peace.
" Already a large crowd bad assembled on the south-
west side, and the stream which was pouring past the end'
of King-street, added greatly to swell its numbers.,
Above their heads they held a number of torches, which!
served to show the ghastly countenances and tattered;
garments of the various multitude, and exhibited all the
squalidness of the miserable wretches, who hurried on
beneath and about them.
" A man whose excited, yet ascetic countenance,
evinced even more plainly than his long dark cloak, fas-
tened at the throat, his plain garments and straight
white collar, that he was of the number of those enthu-
siasts who, gifted with the power of fluent delivery,
without the facility of correct reasoning, to see whither
their flight tended, or the discretion to restrain them,
was mounted on a cask, surrounded by at least a dozen
fiamteaux, wildly haranguing the people upon their suf-

borings.
"He pointed with his arm to a party at the
moment approaching from Clerkenwell, and a
cheer of demoniac fierceness greeted their arrival,
which was responded to by a cry of equal energy, and
as the two parties closed,
.the air was again rent by
their unnatural and tumultuous assertions of fealty and
good will. Again silence prevailed, and the voice of the
orator was heard above the din of the multitude. A few
words from the apprentice who had accosted him sufficed,
to explain to Trenton the cause of the assemblage, and
as the expressions occasionally fell upon his ear, he
could not but acknowledge that the force with which,
they were uttered, as well as the purport of them, wail
well calculated to louse all the passions of a mob pre-1
viously disposed to violence. At length .his object was
declared to be the demolition of the Houses of Parlia-
ment, and as he went on to enforce his project by cogent
arguments, all appealing to their hatred of those above
them, and pointing out the probability of spoil, the people
began to flourish the various arms with which they were
supplied with increased frenzy.

. •
" The heavy and measured tread, as of a numerous
and disciplined body, came faintly along the ground.
behind them, and then rapidly increased, till on turning
their heads the body of the advancing columns of hal-
berdiers was seen turning up the steep rise of Snow-hill.
Trenton and his party immediately retreated to the
obscurity of the shaded portion of the field behind the
coping of a large hostel on the west.
" Tnerecould not, according to Trenton's calculation, be
less than four or five hundred halberdiers, who steadily
wound up, in a column of six abreast, to the scene of'
action. They were preceded by an officer, whose
sheathed sword and steady quietness showed him to be.
well used to times of conflict. After an interval of two
feet followed two or three squadrons of cavalry, armed
to the teeth, and prepared for any encounter.
" At the moment of their approach the wild multi-
tude was at its very height of excitement, and the shouts,
cries, and groans were truly terrific. Onward, how-
ever, the military went, and their appearance was only
perceived by the endeavour of their leader to force his
horse into the thickness of the dense mass. For a mo-
ment he was resisted, but putting spurs to his steed, the
animal absolutely leaped amongst the multitude, bearing;
down by his weight alone all beneath him, and severely
injuring several. An opening once made, the soldiery'
penetrated as a wedge into the trunk of some great tree;!
they appeared to make little opening, and yet they ad-'
vanced, the commander urging his horse forward as
before.
" At length, when about a fourth of the column had
entered the crowd, the whole multitude appeared to have
become sensible of their presence, and a terrible heaving
to and fro among the tremendous crowd immediately
ensued. Shoulder to shoulder, and foot to foot, not an
inch did they seem to yield, and for a while the passive
resistance of mere weight was all they opposed to the
progress of the soldiery."
" But this could not long continue; their absorption
in the words of their orator gave place at last to indig-
nation at the cries of those who had been hurt by the
officer's charger, and the hands of several powerful men
were stretched to unseat him. lie was, however, appa-
rently only intent upon his object, and as they vainly
endeavoured to lay hold of the polished surface of his
caress, a prick with his heel caused his horse to make
another bound which placed him beyond the grasp of his
assailants, whilst the body of his followers effectually
closed up the track against them.
" Again, and with a bound, his steed placed his fore
feet upon their breasts, but a hundred hands wer4
stretched out to throw him, and his utter destruction
must have immediately followed, had not, at that mo-
ment, a deafening peal of firearms rattled from the
sible
car-
bines of the cavalry. A momentary panic was vi
among the multitude, and the instant was seized by the
leader to take advantage of the little space they had left.
"' Forward!'
" The word was obeyed, and the crowd Yielded liki)
waves of the sea before the advancing weapons of the
soldiery, For a moment there was a silence, and the
ivighty mass heaved to and fro like a huge monster
agitated by its death-throe. Then a wild cry of despair,
rage, and terror seemed to break from every side, and, as
ifob
jsepcatcaenlidaaddibfieeernentswudadyetnolygof.od, every individual of
that immense multitude appeared to have a different
and
aAgaintleas
least
t
more bodes lay p
thatwentteyrrible report.- pealed through the air,
earth. Onward the cavalry dashed to whartolistardatbeeeehn the
centre of the mass.
escape were riddenTcliltw3n.i,e log multitude
before them, while such as were not quick enough to
ground." fielding
laywrithinggavoen v4O

Mr. Clarke has been peculiarly successful in his de-
scriptions, not only of such scenes as the above, but
also of old country houses, which were so often the
theatres of sanguinary conflicts between the Royalists
and Parliamentarians. Although, as will be seen by
the extract, he thinks the Parliamentarians were in the
wrong, he gives them credit for conscientiousness,
and for believing in the principles, that they advocated.
In the same manner, when speaking of the Roman
Catholics, although the principal portion of the tale
consists of descriptions of the intrigues of the Rowish
priesthood, there is one person, Vavasour, or Father
Hildebrand, whose character is drawn as that of a
good and high-principled, though mistaken man. All
the characters are well drawn. Besides thugs we
. . . .