Alice Lorraine: A Tale of the South Downs

								

young Artemise was likely to be run away with by some bold adventurer.
A peninsula was the very thing to suit his purpose, and none could
be fairer or snugger than this of his own, the very site of ancient
Cnidos, whereof Venus once was queen.
Undeterred by this local affection, or even the warnings of Delphi,
the learned prince exerted himself, and by means of a tidy hedge of
paliure and aspalathus made the five stades of isthmus proof against
even thick-trousered gentlemen, a fortiori against the natives all
unendowed with pantaloons. Neither might his fence be leaped by any of
the roving horsemen--Turks, Cilicians, Pamphylians, Karamanians, or
reavers from the chain of Taurus.
This being fixed to his satisfaction, with a couple of sentries at the
gate, and one at either end, prompt with matchlocks, and above all,
the young lady inside provided with many proverbs, Prince Agasicles
set forth on a visit to an Armenian sage, reputed to be as wise as
himself almost. With him he discussed Alhasen, Vitellio, and their own
contemporary, Kepler, and spent so many hours aloft, that on his return
to his native place he discovered his own little oversight. This was so
very simple that it required at least a sage and great philosopher to
commit it. The learned man appears to have forgotten that the sea is
navigable. So it chanced that a gay young Englishman, cruising about in
an armed speronera, among the Ægæan islands, and now in the Carpathian
sea, hunting after pirates, heard of this Eastern Cynosure, and her
walled seclusion. This of course was enough for him. Landing under the
promontory where the Cnidian Venus stood, he fell, and falling dragged
another, into the wild maze of love.
Mazed they seemed of course, and nearly mad no doubt to other folk. To
themselves, however, they were in a new world altogether, far above the
level and the intellect of the common world. Artemise forgot her pride,
her proverbs, and pretensions; she had lost her own way in the regions
of a higher life; and nothing to her was the same as it had been but
yesterday. Heart and soul, and height and depth, she trusted herself to
the Englishman, and even left her jewels.
Therefore they two launched their bark upon the unknown waters; the
damsel with her heart in tempest of the filial duties shattered, and
the fatherland cast off, yet for the main part anchored firmly on the
gallant fluke of love; the youth in a hurry to fight a giant, if it
would elevate him to her.
Artemise, with all her rashness, fared much better than she deserved
for leaving an adoring father the wrong side of the quickset hedge. The
bold young mariner happened to be a certain Hilary Lorraine, heir of
that old house or castle in the Southdown coombe. Possessed with the
adventurous spirit of his uncles, the famous Shirley brothers, he had
sailed with Raleigh, and made havoc here and there, and seen almost as
much of the world as was good for himself or it.