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Chronicles and Characters

By Robert Lytton (Owen Meredith): In Two Volumes
Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (1831-1891)
  
[dedication]

collapse sectionI. 
VOL.I
  
PRELUDE.
 I. 
I.OPIS AND ARGE.
 II. 
II.CROESUS AND ADRASTUS.
 III. 
III.GYGES AND CANDAULES.
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BOOK II.
  
THANATOS ATHANATOU.
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BOOK III. ROMANCES.
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LICINIUS.
 I. 
PART I. THE TIME.
 II. 
PART II. THE MAN.
 III. 
PART III. THE GODS.
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PART IV. THE PAST.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
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PART V. THE PRESENT.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
 VI. 
PART VI. THE FUTURE.
  
GENSERIC.
  
IRENE.
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BOOK IV.
  
THE SCROLL AND ITS INTERPRETERS.
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BOOK V. LEGENDS AND ROMANCES.
  
MOHAMMED.
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THE ROSES OF SAADI.
 I. 
I.MOSES AND THE DERVISH.
 II. 
II.THE BOY AND THE RING.
 III. 
III.THE EYES OF MAHMUD.
  
THE APPLE OF LIFE.
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BOOK VI.
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THE SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
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PART I.
 I. 
I.THE EMPEROR ISAAC.
 II. 
II.IS SAD.
 III. 
III.AND SO IS HIS BROTHER ALEXIUS: WHO PROPOSES
 IV. 
IV.A PARTY OF PLEASURE.
 V. 
V.WHICH ENDS UNPLEASANTLY.
 VI. 
VI.OUT OF THE LIGHT, INTO THE DARK.
 VII. 
VII.ALEXIUS THE YOUNGER FLIES FROM ALEXIUS THE ELDER.
 VIII. 
VIII.AND TRIES HIS FORTUNES AND HIS FRIENDS.
 IX. 
IX.A GREAT MAN.
 X. 
X.AND SOME NOTABLE MEN.
 XI. 
XI.LE VALET DE CONSTANTINOPLE.
 XII. 
XII.A BLIND MAN SEES FAR.
 XIII. 
XIII.QUOT HOMINES TOT SENTENTIAE.
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PART II.
 I. 
I. THE EMPEROR MAKES A PROCLAMATION.
 II. 
II. AND RECEIVES THE AMBASSADORS.
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VOL. II. BOOK VI. (Continued.) THE SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
 I. 
I.HOW THE EMPEROR PICKED UP WHAT THE DEVIL LET FALL.
 II. 
II.GAVE AWAY WHAT HE NO LONGER POSSESSED.
 III. 
III.WHAT WAS SHOWN TO THEOCRITE, THE MONK.
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PART IV.
 I. 
I.JUSTICE
 II. 
II.ARMED
 III. 
III.BY SEA AND LAND
 IV. 
IV.IS TRIUMPHANT.
 V. 
V.SICUT FUMUS.
 VI. 
VI.TWO BLIND MEN.
 VII. 
VII.THE DOGE IS OBSTINATE.
 VIII. 
VIII.VERTIGO.
 IX. 
IX.A DARK DEED.
 X. 
X.THE FULNESS OF TIME.
 XI. 
XI.THE HORSES OF LYSIPPUS.
 XII. 
XII.AND THE LION OF ST. MARK.
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BOOK VII. LEGENDS, BALLADS, AND ROMANCES.
  
FAREWELL TO THE HOLY LANDS.
  
DOGE ORSO'S NIGHT'S WORK.
  
SALZBURGENSIS VAGABUNDUS.
  
A KING AND A QUEEN.
  
FAIR YOLAND WITH THE YELLOW HAIR.
  
TRIAL BY COMBAT.
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RABBI BEN EPHRAIM'S TREASURE.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
 V. 
V.
 VI. 
VI.
 VII. 
VII.
 VIII. 
VIII.
 IX. 
IX.
 X. 
X.
 XI. 
XI.
 XII. 
XII.
 XIII. 
XIII.
 XIV. 
XIV.
 XV. 
XV.
 XVI. 
XVI.
 XVII. 
XVII.
 XVIII. 
XVIII.
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CATTERINA CORNARO.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
  
JACQUELINE,
  
THE DIRGE.
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BOOK VIII. NARRATIVE, DRAMATIC, AND LYRICAL.
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THE DEAD POPE.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
 V. 
V.
 VI. 
VI.
 VII. 
VII.
 VIII. 
VIII.
 IX. 
IX.
 X. 
X.
 XI. 
XI.
 XII. 
XII.
 XIII. 
XIII.
 XIV. 
XIV.
 XV. 
XV.
 XVI. 
XVI.
 XVII. 
XVII.
 XVIII. 
XVIII.
 XIX. 
XIX.
 XX. 
XX.
 XXI. 
XXI.
  
THOMAS MÜNTZER TO MARTIN LUTHER.
  
ADOLPHUS, DUKE OF GUELDERS.
  
THE DUKE'S LABORATORY.
  
VANINI
  
JOHN PETER CARAFA.
  
PICAROONS.
  
CHRISTIAN, THE DOL-HARTZOG.
  
ELISABETTA SIRANI.
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RICHELIEU.
 I. 
I. THE POETS.
 II. 
II THE THREE ESTATES.
 III. 
III. WALLENSTEIN'S DEATH.
  
THE DAUPHIN.
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BOOK IX. HERE AND THERE.
  
ATLANTIS.
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MISERY.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
 V. 
V.
 VI. 
VI.
 VII. 
VII.
 VIII. 
VIII.
  
MELANCHOLIA.
  
LAST WORDS
  
A BEATEN ARMY.
  
A POOR MAN
  
A MAN OF SCIENCE
  
A GREAT MAN.
  
MABEL MAY.
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[section]
  
EPILOGUE.

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XIV.

Yonder comes
83

A thorn-tree with a desperate arm
Flung out fierce in wild alarm
Of something which, it madly feels,
The night to plague it yet conceals.
No help it gets tho'! An owl dash'd out
Of the darkness, steering his ghostliness thither,
Pry'd in at the boughs, and pass'd on with a shout
From who-knows-whence to who-knows-whither:
The unquiet Spirit abroad on the air
Moved with a moan that way, and spent
A moment or more in the effort to vent
On the tortured tree which he came to scare
The sullen fit of his discontent;
But, laughing low as he grew aware
Of the long-already-imposed despair
Of the terrified thing he had paused to torment,
He pass'd, pursuing his purpose elsewhere,
And follow'd the whim of his wicked bent:
A rheumy glow-worm, come to peer
Into the hollow trunk, crawl'd near,
And glimmer'd awhile, but intense fear,
Or tame connivance with something wrong
Which the night was intending, quench'd ere long
His lantern. Therefore the tree remains,
For all its gestures void and vain,
Which still at their utmost fail to explain
Any natural cause for the terror that strains
Each desperate limb to be freed and away,
84

In sheer paralysis of dismay
Struck stark,—and so, night's abject, stands.
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