Transcribed from the 1889 Macmillan and Co. edition by DavidPrice,
A MODERN TELEMACHUS
‘Be still; I want to hearwhat they are saying.’—P. 2.
illustrated byw. j. hennessy.
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
and new york
1889
All rights reserved
First Edition (2 Vols.Crown 8vo) 1886
Reprinted 1887, 1889
PREFACE
The idea of this tale was taken from The Mariners’Chronicle, compiled by a person named Scott early in the lastcentury—a curious book of narratives of maritimeadventures, with exceedingly quaint illustrations. Nothinghas ever shown me more plainly that truth is stranger thanfiction, for all that is most improbable here is the actualfact.
The Comte de Bourke was really an Irish Jacobite, naturalisedin France, and married to the daughter of the Marquis deVarennes, as well as in high favour with the Marshal Duke ofBerwick.
In 1719, just when the ambition of Elizabeth Farnese, thesecond wife of Philip V. of Spain, had involved that country in awar with England, France, and Austria, the Count was transferredfrom the Spanish Embassy to that of Sweden, and sent for his wifeand two elder children to join him at a Spanish port.
This arrangement was so strange that I can only account for itby supposing that as this was the date of a feeble Spanishattempt on behalf of the Jacobites in Scotland, Comte de Bourkemay not have ventured by the direct route. Or it may nothave been etiquette for him to re-enter France when appointedambassador. At any rate, the poor Countess did take thisroute to the South, and I am inclined to think the narrative mustbe correct, as all the side-lights I have been able to gainperfectly agree with it, often in an unexpected manner.
The suite and the baggage were just as related in thestory—the only liberty I have taken being the bestowal ofnames. ‘M. Arture’ was really of the party, butI have made him Scotch instead of Irish, and I have no knowledgethat the lackey was not French. The imbecility of theAbbé is merely a deduction from his helplessness, but ofcourse this may have been caused by illness.
The meeting with M. de Varennes at Avignon, Berwick’soffer of an escort, and the Countess’s dread of thePyrenees, are all facts, as well as her embarkation in theGenoese tartane bound for Barcelona, and its capture by theAlgerine corsair commanded by a Dutch renegade, who treated herwell, and to whom she gave her watch.
Algerine history confirms what is said of his treatment. Louis XIV. had bombarded the pirate city, and compelled the Deyto receive a consul and to liberate French prisoners and Frenchproperty; but the lady having been taken in an Italian ship, theDutchman was afraid to set her ashore without first taking her toAlgiers, lest he should fall under suspicion. He would notventure on taking so many women on board his own vessel, beingevidently afraid of his crew of more than two hundred Turks andMoors, but sent seven men on board the prize and took it intow.
Curiously enough, history mentions the very tempest whichdrove the tartane apart from her captor, for it also shatteredthe French transports and interfered with Berwick’s Spanishcampaign.
The circumstances of the