Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-07-29
From the Galaxy of August.
A Romantic Passage i'll a Notable
Life

Life.
BY r. H. HOWARD.
In the early Spring of 1889 the "a Duk
of Grafton" sailed for the South Seas, ant
in it the, as yet, " great unknown" WarreI
Hastings This celebrated parsonage, one
of the earliest and most distinguished gov
ernors of British India, and to whom, per
haps, more than to any other, Great
Britain is indebted for subjecting that por-
ton of the world to her dominion, was
born in England, A. d. 1882, and, at least
on one side, of noble blood but through
certain reverses Of fortune, he did not sue
ceed to the patrimony and estate of his
father His earliest and lifelong am
bition, through all his checkered and
eventful career in the East, was the re.
covery Of and his own rehabilitation in,
this ancestral home. While yet lad OF
only a dozen summers, he was wont to re-
cline on the green banks of one of those
pure streams that tertihzed its gardens and
parks, in full view of the old baronial
palace, and mature plans for realizing this
great object. He would procure a writer
ship in the East India Company, proceed
at once to Madras and press everything
4AitO HIS -ti lNt tAlil c tAl
/ success to his cherished enterprise. Ac-
cordingly, in January, 100 he embarked
for India Here he gave himself to the
study Of the native languages and was one
of the first to make himself acquainted with
the history and literature Of the people
among whom he now lived He soon at
tracted the attention Of Lord Give, and by
him was employed in various commercial
and diplomatic measures. He remained
IN India fourteen years, distinguished in
no remarkable manner, but acquiring
knowledge, and highly esteemed. In 1864
he arrived in England on a brief furlough
He has now. at length, once again taken
passage for the land Of his adoption
An uninterrupted voyage of fifteen thou
sand miles may be easily conceived as pre-
senting phase Of life sufficiently monoto-
nous. Cut off entirely from the great world,
to the limited community my i, uot, 9t perhaps
thousands Of those qualifications that give
variety and spice to life, and render an
enforced idleness tolerable These cir
cumstances, moreover, as will readily be
seen, were cminently favorable either for
contracting the most interesting connec-
ilOilH. VI, Oi tltC OiliCI biAN iiiOSl III
veterate and lasting dislikes.
Among the passengers III the Duke of
Grafton on this voyage, it appears, was
one imhoh, a German portrait painter and
his wife The latter Is described as being
a person of rare personal loveliness, intel
lectual br;lliancy, and engaging manners
With the German painters wife, Hast
ings very naturally soon came in contact
His acquaintance with her, under the cir
cumstanceS, ere long ripened into some
thing very ike intimacy and, strange 10
say. pretty much the first thing of which
he became fully satisfied concerning this
exceedingly Interesting lady, was that
She thoroughly disliked and despised her
husband and, but little later, what more
particularly concerned himself, that she
was rapidly, and in spite of himself. becom-
ing an object Of special favor and regard
in his own eyes-startling disclosure in
deed What was he to do Here he
was, completely hemmed in. Compelled
by the necessities Of his situation to asso-
ciate daily with one who-whether he
would or no-was surely stealing away the
only kingdom he had in the world-his
heart gradually but irresistibly becoming
the slave of the only person on board
whose society could in the least relieve the
tedium and moral irksomeness of that long
voyage enthralled by one whom he could
not innocently love, and vet unable to flee
from the object of his guilty passion
what, indeed, could the man do? Might
there not be some spot
some island far away
whittier he might fly from his lovely
temptress, or provided the hazardous ex-
pcdient Of an elOpement were determined
upon, some secret ocean cave that could
aITUru tho asylum Of u G.retna Green to the
enamOred pair?
At this juncture, events transpired cal
culated materially to precipitate matter:
in fact, to bring them to crisis. Hast
ings fell seriously i'll. Now, of all places
to be sick, the worst, we are told, is on
ship-board, where every lurch of the rec
ing, staggering vessel wrings a new parg
from the sufferer, and where the constant
motion affords never moment of perfect
and natural repose. Thus circumstance,
and constantly racked with pain, who, with
all a mothers assiduity and gentleness
watched over and administered to all tbs
lonely sick mans wants? ? Who, while
others slept through the long and wea,i
some watches of the night, patiently, tire
lessly, thus acted the part of his good
angel-with her own fair hand giving hm
all his medicines, preparing all his food,
soothing his aching head, g teaching lis
lone pillow to bloom" Yes, whose were
those lustrous eyes that, in the intervals
of his delirium, Hastings recognized as
beaming so tenderly upon him
All, the magical power OF kindness, par
ticularly when the object is poor hone
less, if not friendless wanderer, sick at sea,
and the benefactor woman whose looks
are so full of tenderness, and whose tones
so full of love John Howard, it will be
recollected, while sick at Stoke Newng-
ton, was not proof against the unremiting
kindness and devotion of his landlady,
Mrs Loidore but, as soon as he recovered
repaid her patient watchfulness over hlm
by the offer of his hand Accordingly, II
Warren Hastings was deeply interested IN
the beautiful Madame Imhoff before, how
natural that he should be hopelessly smlt
ten now and that long before the g Duke