"Things are going on very well,but are very,even frightfully near;only be quiet!Pray would you,in case of necessity,take a free passage to Holland,next week or the week after;stay two or three days,and come back,all expenses paid?If you write to B----at Cambridge,tell him above all things to hold his tongue.If you are near Palace Yard to-morrow before two,pray come to see me.Do not come on purpose;especially as I may perhaps be away,and at all events shall not be there until eleven,nor perhaps till rather later.
"I fear I shall have alarmed your Mother by my irruption.Forgive me for that and all my exactions from you.If the next month were over,I should not have to trouble any one.
"Yours affectionately,"J.STERLING."
Busy weeks indeed;and a glowing smithy-light coming through the chinks!--The romance of _Arthur Coningsby_lay written,or half-written,in his desk;and here,in his heart and among his hands,was an acted romance and unknown catastrophes keeping pace with that.
Doubts from the doctors,for his health was getting ominous,threw some shade over the adventure.Reproachful reminiscences of Coleridge and Theosophy were natural too;then fond regrets for Literature and its glories:if you act your romance,how can you also write it?
Regrets,and reproachful reminiscences,from Art and Theosophy;perhaps some tenderer regrets withal.A crisis in life had come;when,of innumerable possibilities one possibility was to be elected king,and to swallow all the rest,the rest of course made noise enough,and swelled themselves to their biggest.
Meanwhile the ship was fast getting ready:on a certain day,it was to drop quietly down the Thames;then touch at Deal,and take on board Torrijos and his adventurers,who were to be in waiting and on the outlook for them there.Let every man lay in his accoutrements,then;let every man make his packages,his arrangements and farewells.
Sterling went to take leave of Miss Barton."You are going,then;to Spain?To rough it amid the storms of war and perilous insurrection;and with that weak health of yours;and--we shall never see you more,then!"Miss Barton,all her gayety gone,the dimpling softness become liquid sorrow,and the musical ringing voice one wail of woe,"burst into tears,"--so I have it on authority:--here was one possibility about to be strangled that made unexpected noise!Sterling's interview ended in the offer of his hand,and the acceptance of it;--any sacrifice to get rid of this horrid Spanish business,and save the health and life of a gifted young man so precious to the world and to another!
"Ill-health,"as often afterwards in Sterling's life,when the excuse was real enough but not the chief excuse;"ill-health,and insuperable obstacles and engagements,"had to bear the chief brunt in apologizing:and,as Sterling's actual presence,or that of any Englishman except Boyd and his money,was not in the least vital to the adventure,his excuse was at once accepted.The English connections and subscriptions are a given fact,to be presided over by what English volunteers there are:and as for Englishmen,the fewer Englishmen that go,the larger will be the share of influence for each.The other adventurers,Torrijos among them in due readiness,moved silently one by one down to Deal;Sterling,superintending the naval hands,on board their ship in the Thames,was to see the last finish given to everything in that department;then,on the set evening,to drop down quietly to Deal,and there say _Andad con Dios_,and return.
Behold!Just before the set evening came,the Spanish Envoy at this Court has got notice of what is going on;the Spanish Envoy,and of course the British Foreign Secretary,and of course also the Thames Police.Armed men spring suddenly on board,one day,while Sterling is there;declare the ship seized and embargoed in the King's name;nobody on board to stir till he has given some account of himself in due time and place!Huge consternation,naturally,from stem to stern.Sterling,whose presence of mind seldom forsook him,casts his eye over the River and its craft;sees a wherry,privately signals it,drops rapidly on board of it:"Stop!"fiercely interjects the marine policeman from the ship's deck.--"Why stop?What use have you for me,or I for you?"and the oars begin playing.--"Stop,or I'll shoot you!"cries the marine policeman,drawing a pistol.--"No,you won't."--"Iwill!"--"If you do you'll be hanged at the next Maidstone assizes,then;that's all,"--and Sterling's wherry shot rapidly ashore;and out of this perilous adventure.
That same night he posted down to Deal;disclosed to the Torrijos party what catastrophe had come.No passage Spainward from the Thames;well if arrestment do not suddenly come from the Thames!It was on this occasion,I suppose,that the passage in the open boat to St.Valery occurred;--speedy flight in what boat or boats,open or shut,could be got at Deal on the sudden.Sterling himself,according to Hare's authority,actually went with them so far.Enough,they got shipping,as private passengers in one craft or the other;and,by degrees or at once,arrived all at Gibraltar,--Boyd,one or two young democrats of Regent Street,the fifty picked Spaniards,and Torrijos,--safe,though without arms;still in the early part of the year.