The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-17 00:00:00

LITER AT URE.

The Countess de Bonneval, her Life and _Lettera:-
By Lady Georgiana Fullerton. 2 vols. Hurst
and Blackett.
The rematk of M. Guizot, which is prefixed to
this work, is cer airily a very applicable one, for no
novel could chronicle a more romantic devo-
tion, and few fictions pre cut such touching
sensibility, such love made strong by suffering, as
are te be found in the records of this historical
heroine. If the peculiar attributes of her cha-
racter shine out more conspicuously from the ago
io which she lived, she is also entitled to praise
from praceising them alone and unaided. She is
not singled out as one of a spotless company of
aassaa cloiguhttraisnt
herto hdear.rwkeanntehdder,s,ineg.
spisutreer tweta maidens and honourable matrons, but rather
exemplifiedo
pn
ierriantgi ofina,
mslei
se iso u
theas. a vestal
altars
onfy nymph
tiufean rung
devotee ee x
r-
who lingered to pray at its neglected
tt as a
shrine.,
and to present the incense
oectfooteleantehl e
oss ffended
holiest
ois ed
Bon-
neval sacrifice, a pure heart, and a devoted spirit,
jettiespeac e offeringof bayfton. for hert country,
sucht m try b
the
must ever have a claim on the respect
of all who can appreciate the high,;st
ex-
cellence, who regard the standard of mo-
rality as society'a stronghold, and consider
the barriers raissd against vice as bulwarks of de-
fznce from the inroads of the worst of enemies. It
is a mournful interest which appertains to the life
of the fair daughter of the De Birons. From her
cradle to her grave she was solitary, misunder-
stood, and neglected. She passed her childhood
in dreams never to be realised ; her you-. 11 was
given t ) a love whose blossoms never saw the
flower, and whose light was early extinguished, as
the sun eclipsed at noonday ; her after years were
devoted to prayers which charity will hope might
plead for her unworthy husband at the footstool of
Mercy, but in this world she never saw them an-
swered. It seems strange that one so refined and
elevated in mind, and sen'iment, should have so
sacrificed herself fir one so different in tone and
feeling, but then it was the idea more than the
reality. The Count De Bonneval was intertwined
with her earliest associations ; lie was the theme of
wonder to her childish intelligence, the dream of
her youth's unfolding fancy. In a material and
selfish society, her glowing and ardent spirit hailed
the thought of a being, in some form superior to
those around her. Unhappily for her, she pos-
sessed no friend to warn her from the fatal fascina-
tion that had spell-bound her, and, indeed, after
some years all conspired to favour the delu-
sion, fer, from motives of family intere-t, a
marriage de co n venance was arranged be-
t Ween Judithe de Goutaut and her cousin, the
hero of her romantic youth, the object of her ie.
voted homage. Tee Count, himself, was not so
much to blame for the misery that afterwards en-
„,,d as might be supposed, for he was inveigled
into the marriage, and, according to the custom of
the country, felt bound in honour to fulfil the con-
tract. He was of a d ireerous class, one who pos-
sessing rate powers of fas:ination, was tot ,11y de-
void of principle, and entirely swayed by the pas-
son and prejudice of the hour. He obttiued a
great Marlene: over all with whom he came in con-
tact, and those who least approved him came under
the sway of his attractions. "He is certainly very
wild, but he has such a good heart, they would ex-
claim." The authoress ably expresses the danger
of such an argument in these words :—" Ala, how
many hearts have been broken, how many destinies
t.lighte‘l, how much affection trodden under foot by
g sod hearts of this fatal description, by m n who
know how to combine the charm of sensibility with
the most degrading vices and the most withering
selfishness." fhere is sometimes no danger more
great, no trial more severe, than to have one's ear'
nest wishes realised, one's fondest hopes fulfilled,
nothing more clearly proves the fallacy of heman
judgments, and the vanity of mortal desires, than
the sudden aajuiaition of a coveted treasure.
It was s ) pre-eminently with Judithe de
Gowan'. She was united to the chosen of
nor he trt. For a :hort moment all seemed to
smile upon the fair young bride, her hush ind
' seemed all she desired. He hal returned crowned
with glory to a country that revoked her former
s decnnen against her gallant soa, that s ieme
to forget his ftiults, pardon his errors, and let him
feel that admiration, fir his !.rare-y li .d cancelled
ill f .riner shorcornings—" For Fiance could bear
the prime of him of whop herself was proud '
All aroun•l her seemol to whisper the same sweet
words of hope, and the very seas in of the year
r,ee:ned like her hear, to sing with joy. Ttie wed-
ding was celebrated during the "joyful exhiliration
of the early days of spring, when tue horse chC3flute
of the Tuileries were putting forth their rich spiral
idoseoins, the lilacs of the Luxembourg exhaling
their sweet perfumes." This was, indeed, a beau-
tiful illusion, for a more dreary union could not
have beet devised than that which saw Judithe do
Gaut tut and the Count de B inneval jollied at the
altar "to be parted from that t me till the awful re-
union that shall take place" when time shall be no
meee, and when marriage and giving in marriage is
• over. The letters that the young wife wrote to her
husband are, very paMful to perue. With all the
sen,e of want e f proper knowledge of the actlfra
feelings, that existed in tho mind of their writer;
none can help being impressed with the idea that
this was a true and faithful heart that was I)reak.-
ing, while it poured forth its sentiments, that
the love of which they are the record would,
under happier ausp;o?s, have been mighty to save
from peril, and strong to endure ad suffering.
Judithe de Bouneval is a striking example of the
danger of setting the affections on one exclusive ob•
ject, to the neglect of o' her interests on earth, and
the desertion of holier hopes in heaven—
" And to make idolr, aid to find them clay,
And tai bewail that worship, therefore pray,"
might truly have he a urged ou her ; she ha 1 need
with her euthusiastic self-devotion, with her warm
imaeieation, and her tender heart, of the sustaining
power of self-c Athol, and the elevating influence
of unworldly aspirations. It was not till every 1 ope
was rudely shattered, every promise for ever de-
stroyed, and every ray of sunshine vanished from
the darkened pathway, that she at last confess.'d
the impotence of her idol, and the unworthy hold
it had obt tined over a life destined for better
things. Tile ill-fated hero of her youth be-
came at last a renegade, and bitter must
have been the news to the faithful heart of
the mourning wife. The sighs at the couch of
suffering, the tears at the deathbed, the chill
that strikes the heart at the grave of the beloved
one are as nothing t ) the agony which attends the
discovery of his guilt. It was so with Judithe when,
shelearned that tier husband, who n vicissitudes had
uninjured, and battle fields had spared, had not
earthlybiith a
d sovereigndesert ed
Duly
under
betrayed
whose
bannersh
from the standard of his heavenly Master. " The
tecauhsee served,ofthe
Count de Bonneval abjured the faith of a Christian,
the honour of a genicinan, he became the follower
of Mahomot, a turbaned renegade, a vile apes-
tite." Surely no more startling waking front
her long dream, could have been devised in the
language of fables, than was at hand in real life for
the excited woman, who had given up her thought's
to what did not exist, to a creation of the fancy,
more than a real existence. The only true
and actual attributes of Judithe's long attachment
way be summed up in sin and suffering. These
were the attendant spiels on its course, and they,
after hope had laded as a flower, and even faith'a
star had sit in the gloom, survived to its cl• se. It
is mournful to reflect that this is not a fictitious re-
presentation ably narrated, as a warning, or an
imaginary sketch, vividly penned to illustrate a pur-
pose, but the record of an actual existeforcoem—atnhce
chronicle of a living soul. The shadows
e
y oas twilight
sensibilities are
seem eino\t,oernedigbhyt,thaenddatriki
onsees sllo,hforsedea
might spare
pathos, the nova's touchntrgueg
tragedy here regis-
tered, and leave unfelt
aroused by the display of) thescenes,rama's truthful
their sympathies for
of the sad daughter of
their tears over the story
France.
the
errows nnregretted to shed