Sybil, Or, The Two Nations Read online

  Produced by David G. Johnson

  SYBIL, OR THE TWO NATIONS

  By Benjamin Disraeli

  I would inscribe these volumes to one whose noble spirit and gentlenature ever prompt her to sympathise with the suffering; to one whosesweet voice has often encouraged, and whose taste and judgment have everguided, their pages; the most severe of critics, but--a perfect Wife!

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  The general reader whose attention has not been specially drawn to thesubject which these volumes aim to illustrate, the Condition ofthe People, might suspect that the Writer had been tempted to someexaggeration in the scenes which he has drawn and the impressions whichhe has wished to convey. He thinks it therefore due to himself to statethat he believes there is not a trait in this work for which he has notthe authority of his own observation, or the authentic evidence whichhas been received by Royal Commissions and Parliamentary Committees. Butwhile he hopes he has alleged nothing which is not true, he has foundthe absolute necessity of suppressing much that is genuine. For solittle do we know of the state of our own country that the air ofimprobability that the whole truth would inevitably throw over thesepages, might deter many from their perusal.

  Grosvenor-Gate, May Day, 1845.

  BOOK I

  Book 1 Chapter 1

  "I'll take the odds against Caravan."

  "In poneys?"

  "Done."

  And Lord Milford, a young noble, entered in his book the bet which hehad just made with Mr Latour, a grey headed member of the Jockey Club.

  It was the eve of the Derby of 1837. In a vast and golden saloon, thatin its decorations would have become, and in its splendour would nothave disgraced, Versailles in the days of the grand monarch, wereassembled many whose hearts beat at the thought of the morrow, and whosebrains still laboured to control its fortunes to their advantage.

  "They say that Caravan looks puffy," lisped in a low voice a youngman, lounging on the edge of a buhl table that had once belonged to aMortemart, and dangling a rich cane with affected indifference in orderto conceal his anxiety from all, except the person whom he addressed.

  "They are taking seven to two against him freely over the way," was thereply. "I believe it's all right."

  "Do you know I dreamed last night something about Mango," continued thegentleman with the cane, and with a look of uneasy superstition.

  His companion shook his head.

  "Well," continued the gentleman with the cane, "I have no opinion ofhim. I gave Charles Egremont the odds against Mango this morning; hegoes with us, you know. By the bye, who is our fourth?"

  "I thought of Milford," was the reply in an under tone. "What say you?"

  "Milford is going with St James and Punch Hughes."

  "Well, let us come into supper, and we shall see some fellow we like."

  So saying, the companions, taking their course through more than onechamber, entered an apartment of less dimensions than the principalsaloon, but not less sumptuous in its general appearance. The gleaminglustres poured a flood of soft yet brilliant light over a plateauglittering with gold plate, and fragrant with exotics embedded in vasesof rare porcelain. The seats on each side of the table were occupied bypersons consuming, with a heedless air, delicacies for which they had noappetite; while the conversation in general consisted of flying phrasesreferring to the impending event of the great day that had alreadydawned.

  "Come from Lady St Julian's, Fitz?" said a youth of very tender years,and whose fair visage was as downy and as blooming as the peach fromwhich with a languid air he withdrew his lips to make this inquiry ofthe gentleman with the cane.

  "Yes; why were not you there?"

  "I never go anywhere," replied the melancholy Cupid, "everything boresme so."

  "Well, will you go to Epsom with us to-morrow, Alfred?" said LordFitzheron. "I take Berners and Charles Egremont, and with you our partywill be perfect."

  "I feel so cursed blase!" exclaimed the boy in a tone of elegantanguish.

  "It will give you a fillip, Alfred," said Mr Berners; "do you all thegood in the world."

  "Nothing can do me good," said Alfred, throwing away his almost untastedpeach, "I should be quite content if anything could do me harm. Waiter,bring me a tumbler of Badminton."

  "And bring me one too," sighed out Lord Eugene De Vere, who was ayear older than Alfred Mountchesney, his companion and brother inlistlessness. Both had exhausted life in their teens, and all thatremained for them was to mourn, amid the ruins of their reminiscences,over the extinction of excitement.

  "Well, Eugene, suppose you come with us." said Lord Fitzheron.

  "I think I shall go down to Hampton Court and play tennis," said LordEugene. "As it is the Derby, nobody will be there."

  "And I will go with you, Eugene," said Alfred Mountchesney, "and we willdine together afterwards at the Toy. Anything is better than dining inthis infernal London."

  "Well, for my part," said Mr Berners. "I do not like your suburbandinners. You always get something you can't eat, and cursed bad wine."

  "I rather like bad wine," said Mr Mountchesney; "one gets so bored withgood wine."

  "Do you want the odds against Hybiscus, Berners?" said a guardsmanlooking up from his book, which he had been very intently studying.

  "All I want is some supper, and as you are not using your place--"

  "You shall have it. Oh! here's Milford, he will give them me."

  And at this moment entered the room the young nobleman whom we havebefore mentioned, accompanied by an individual who was approachingperhaps the termination of his fifth lustre but whose general airrather betokened even a less experienced time of life. Tall, witha well-proportioned figure and a graceful carriage, his countenancetouched with a sensibility that at once engages the affections. CharlesEgremont was not only admired by that sex, whose approval generallysecures men enemies among their fellows, but was at the same time thefavourite of his own.

  "Ah, Egremont! come and sit here," exclaimed more than one banqueter.

  "I saw you waltzing with the little Bertie, old fellow," said LordFitzheron, "and therefore did not stay to speak to you, as I thought weshould meet here. I am to call for you, mind."

  "How shall we all feel this time to-morrow?" said Egremont, smiling.

  "The happiest fellow at this moment must be Cockie Graves," said LordMilford. "He can have no suspense. I have been looking over his book, andI defy him, whatever happens, not to lose."

  "Poor Cockie." said Mr Berners; "he has asked me to dine with him at theClarendon on Saturday."

  "Cockie is a very good Cockie," said Lord Milford, "and Caravan is avery good horse; and if any gentleman sportsman present wishes to giveseven to two, I will take him to any amount."

  "My book is made up," said Egremont; "and I stand or fall by Caravan."

  "And I."

  "And I."

  "And I."

  "Well, mark my words," said a fourth, rather solemnly, "Rat-trap wins."

  "There is not a horse except Caravan," said Lord Milford, "fit for aborough stake."

  "You used to be all for Phosphorus, Egremont," said Lord Eugene de Vere.

  "Yes; but fortunately I have got out of that scrape. I owe Phip Dormer agood turn for that. I was the third man who knew he had gone lame."

  "And what are the odds against him now."

  "Oh! nominal; forty to one,--what you please."

  "He won't run," said Mr Berners, "John Day told me he had refused toride him."

  "I believe Cockie Graves might win something if Phosphorus came infirst," said Lord Milford, laughing.

  "How close it is to-night!" said Egremont. "Waiter, give me some Seltzerwater; and open another window; open them all."
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br />   At this moment an influx of guests intimated that the assembly at LadySt Julian's was broken up. Many at the table rose and yielded theirplaces, clustering round the chimney-piece, or forming in variousgroups, and discussing the great question. Several of those who hadrecently entered were votaries of Rat-trap, the favourite, and quiteprepared, from all the information that had reached them, to backtheir opinions valiantly. The conversation had now become general andanimated, or rather there was a medley of voices in which little wasdistinguished except the names of horses and the amount of odds. Inthe midst of all this, waiters glided about handing incomprehensiblemixtures bearing aristocratic names; mystical combinations of Frenchwines and German waters, flavoured with slices of Portugal fruits, andcooled with lumps of American ice, compositions which immortalized thecreative genius of some high patrician name.

  "By Jove! that's a flash," exclaimed Lord Milford, as a blaze oflightning seemed to suffuse the chamber, and the beaming lustres turnedwhite and ghastly in the glare.

  The thunder rolled over the building. There was a dead silence. Wasit going to rain? Was it going to pour? Was the storm confined to themetropolis? Would it reach Epsom? A deluge, and the course would be aquagmire, and strength might baffle speed.

  Another flash, another explosion, the hissing noise of rain. LordMilford moved aside, and jealous of the eye of another, read a letterfrom Chifney, and in a few minutes afterwards offered to take the oddsagainst Pocket Hercules. Mr Latour walked to the window, surveyed theheavens, sighed that there was not time to send his tiger from the doorto Epsom, and get information whether the storm had reached the Surreyhills, for to-night's operations. It was too late. So he took a rusk anda glass of lemonade, and retired to rest with a cool head and a coolerheart.

  The storm raged, the incessant flash played as it were round theburnished cornice of the chamber, and threw a lurid hue on the scenesof Watteau and Boucher that sparkled in the medallions over the loftydoors. The thunderbolts seemed to descend in clattering confusion uponthe roof. Sometimes there was a moment of dead silence, broken only bythe pattering of the rain in the street without, or the pattering of thedice in a chamber at hand. Then horses were backed, bets made, and therewere loud and frequent calls for brimming goblets from hurrying waiters,distracted by the lightning and deafened by the peal. It seemed a sceneand a supper where the marble guest of Juan might have been expected,and had he arrived, he would have found probably hearts as bold andspirits as reckless as he encountered in Andalusia.

  Book 1 Chapter 2