The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-09-07
Current Literature.
FoLLE- FARISE. By Ouida. Philadelphia: Lip
plucott & Co. 1871.

Farine means, LOU Lie "ueat itoei, no'
seven 30 much as the chaf; only the dust
.sfrom the corn.n 1t is borne by girl of SIX
or eight years ''with limbs moulded like
sculpture and brown as the brook water
"great lustrous eyes. half savage and hall
sssoft; a mouth like red pomegranate bud
"and straight dark brows-the brows OF the
"friezes of Egypt. RENE Flamma. the mother
of Folle.Farine, was "the most beautiful
woman in Calvados, and the most wretched.'
One fine morning Refine was not to be found
All that her father, Claudis Flamma, said,
was "She was a saint God took her," Six
years later child stood at the miller's door.
The letter she bore was written by the dead
Reine; her welcome was blow which felled
her to the gronnd. Grandfather Claudis
looked at her where she lay, "she was a
ssaint Ia saint. And the devil begot her
shat" Taric, the strongest and feetest, and
s'most well favored" of tribe Of gypsies
who had pure Eastern blood in them, with all
the grace and gravity Of the Oriental, had met
Door ReiRe in the wood one summer night.
he tells the tale:
She was pure and straight of life; she believed
in heaven and hell; she was innocent as the
child unborn; 1t was tempting 10 ELI all inat.
| II is so easy to kill it when woman loves you.
They wandered North and South. Taric,
firing OF his toy, wanted to get rid Of her; but
sshe never said rough word, you know, and
..that makes 8 man mad" When "a woman
'Is quiet and only looks at you with great sad
sssoft eyes, when you strike her-what is one
s.to do?" The mother dies, the child lives.
ssLet it 60 to He'll |" And these were the only
words Of baptism spoken over the nameless
.'daughter OF Taric the gypsy and OF Refine
"Flamma." In her sixth year Taric proposed
to sell the child:
I will make dancing dog of her for the
peasants pastime, and in time che will make
dancing dogs Of the mobiles and the princes for
her own sport. 1t is 9 brave lfe-none
better. ......
The deformed Phratos fees with the child,
leaves her at Flamma's door and dies in the
drifting snow. His wanderings, bis self-saori-
fee, his mute fidelity are painted with loving
hand.
Folle- -Farine, In the house OF her mothers
father, wonders why "the devil (her father)
"had not been good enough to give her skin
"that would not feel, and veins that would not
"bleed" For Flamma "dashed holy water on
"her many times; and used stick to her
"without mercy" Marcellin, one Of the aven-
pers nf TharmIdnr. 10 tho only nirnu VI rVlle-
Farine, now in her sixteenth year. This is the
usual style of their conversation:
"The possible then is only-the worse J"
che said slOWly.
' NAV ; our friends, the priests, say there is
a possible which will giye-one day.the
fowler, who kills the lark, the wings g. .ne
lark and the larks power to sing LduS Dec IN
heaven. do not say-they do"
"The priests" All the scorn Oh Wnlcn . neI ed
q deep hate gathered In her eyes-a hate that
was unfathomable and mute.
"Then there is no possible for me-" she
said bitterly, 'if so be that priests hold the
%Yes, there is,n he said curtly. "You are q
woman-child and have beauty; the devil will
give you one" ms
"Always the devilw repeated Marcellin.
ssFor the world Is always Of men,"
NIt men be devils, they are my brethren"
she said suddenly; "why do they, then, 30
because Fraternity is Hate. Cain said so
out GOQ WOulQ uOL ueucFc ulm.
Now Folle-Farine was Stunned by the COM
munity in which she lived as sorceress, a
creature of evil. She was cursed when she
did her duty, and driven away when she tried
to do good. Marcellin continues his lessons IN
ethics until he dies and is buried in ditch. At
the mill she is lashed as hound is lashed.
The miller mutters that, work is the only
.sthing to drive the devil that begat her out OF
"her :" for 'he believed that the devil had
spolluted his daughters body and soul, and
"that it was by the foul fiend, and by no earth
sly lover that she had conceived and borne the
s'creature that now abode with him." new
character appears on the scene. Folle-Farine
enters q tower, whose walls are covered with
drawings of the dead of that fair time when
all the earth was young. On the stone floor
lies man whom the gods slew "because he
'sdared to be too like themselves"
An old man had an ugly daughter, who was
stair to sight" One day she fed. Months
afterward, woman drags herself to the Nor
wegian valley, gives birth to male child and
dies. They named the child Arslan. In his
twentieth winter he left the valley, and for
many years devoted himself to the study of
art. So entirely did his art possess him that it
seemed to have left him without other pas
sions. With humanity he had little sympathy.
But his labors avsiled him nothing. His works
were great, but they were such as the public
mind deems impious. They were penetrated
with an acrid satire and an intense despair.
The world, (which only cares for honeyed
"falsehood and a gilded gloss in every art,
would have none of them" Envy and ar
tipathy closed, to him, all ways to fame. For
seven days without food, he had lain him
down to die, when le-Farine-this other
child OF sin-discovered his abiding place.
Food and fire must be had. Filling basket
with bread and wine and oil, she hurries back
to the still insensible Arslan. On her way she
stumbles against cross, whereupon 0uida re-
marks:
For the name of Christ Is used to cover every
crime, by the peasant who cheats his neighbor
of a copper coin, as by the sovereign who
massacres nation for throne.
Folle-Farine has stolen; but Arslan, awaking,
is saved. cursing the unknown charity which
saves him. In secret the girl watches him,
stealing in and out of the old granary, when
he is away. For the first time ''she had her
| 10y and fear; tor the first time she became
"human." One evening that she had been
stoned and wounded by the mob, FOlle-Farine