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 marinepoliceman, drawing a pistol.--"No, you won't."--"I

will!"--"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.
CHAPTER XI.

MARRIAGE: ILL-HEALTH; WEST-INDIES.
Sterling's outlooks and occupations, now that his Spanish friends were

gone, must have been of a rather miscellaneous confused description.
He had the enterprise of a married life close before him; and as yet

no profession, no fixed pursuitwhatever. His health was already very
threatening; often such as to disable him from present activity, and

occasion the gravest apprehensions; practically blocking up all
important courses whatsoever, and rendering the future, if even life

were lengthened and he had any future, an insolubility for him.
Parliament was shut, public life was shut: Literature,--if, alas, any

solid fruit could lie in literature!
Or perhaps one's health would mend, after all; and many things be

better than was hoped! Sterling was not of a despondent temper, or
given in any measure to lie down and indolently moan: I fancy he

walked briskly enough into this tempestuous-looking future; not
heeding too much its thunderous aspects; doing swiftly, for the day,

what his hand found to do. _Arthur Coningsby_, I suppose, lay on the
anvil at present; visits to Coleridge were now again more possible;

grand news from Torrijos might be looked for, though only small yet
came:--nay here, in the hot July, is France, at least, all thrown into

volcano again! Here are the miraculous Three Days; heralding, in
thunder, great things to Torrijos and others; filling with babblement

and vaticination the mouths and hearts of all democratic men.
So rolled along, in tumult of chaotic remembrance and uncertain hope,

in manifoldemotion, and the confused struggle (for Sterling as for
the world) to extricate the New from the falling ruins of the Old, the

summer and autumn of 1830. From Gibraltar and Torrijos the tidings
were vague, unimportant and discouraging: attempt on Cadiz, attempt

on the lines of St. Roch, those attempts, or rather resolutions to
attempt, had died in the birth, or almost before it. Men blamed

Torrijos, little knowing his impediments. Boyd was still patient at
his post: others of the young English (on the strength of the

subscribed moneys) were said to be thinking of tours,--perhaps in the
Sierra Morena and neighboring Quixote regions. From that Torrijos

enterprise it did not seem that anything considerable would come.
On the edge of winter, here at home, Sterling was married: "at

Christchurch, Marylebone, 2d November, 1830," say the records. His
blooming, kindly and true-hearted Wife had not much money, nor had he

as yet any: but friends on both sides were bountiful and hopeful; had
made up, for the young couple, the foundations of a modestly effective

household; and in the future there lay more substantial prospects. On
the finance side Sterling never had anything to suffer. His Wife,

though somewhat languid, and of indolent humor, was a graceful,
pious-minded, honorable and affectionate woman; she could not much

support him in the ever-shifting struggles of his life, but she
faithfully attended him in them, and loyally marched by his side

through the changes and nomadic pilgrimings, of which many were
appointed him in his short course.

Unhappily a few weeks after his marriage, and before any household was
yet set up, he fell dangerously ill; worse in health than he had ever

yet been: so many agitations crowded into the last few months had
been too much for him. He fell into dangerous pulmonary illness, sank

ever deeper; lay for many weeks in his Father's house utterly
prostrate, his young Wife and his Mother watching over him; friends,

sparingly admitted, long despairing of his life. All prospects in
this world were now apparently shut upon him.

After a while, came hope again, and kindlier symptoms: but the
doctors intimated that there lay consumption in the question, and that

perfect recovery was not to be looked for. For weeks he had been
confined to bed; it was several months before he could leave his

sick-room, where the visits of a few friends had much cheered him.
And now when delivered, readmitted to the air of day again,--weak as

he was, and with such a liability still lurking in him,--what his
young partner and he were to do, or whitherward to turn for a good

course of life, was by no means too apparent.
One of his Mother Mrs. Edward Sterling's Uncles, a Coningham from

Derry, had, in the course of his industrious and adventurous life,
realized large property in the West Indies,--a valuable Sugar-estate,

with its equipments, in the Island of St. Vincent;--from which Mrs.
Sterling and her family were now, and had been for some years before

her Uncle's decease, deriving important benefits. I have heard, it
was then worth some ten thousand pounds a year to the parties

interested. Anthony Sterling, John, and another a cousin of theirs
were ultimately to be heirs, in equal proportions. The old gentleman,

always kind to his kindred, and a brave and solid man though somewhat
abrupt in his ways, had lately died; leaving a settlement to this

effect, not without some intricacies, and almost caprices, in the
conditions attached.

This property, which is still a valuable one, was Sterling's chief
pecuniary outlook for the distant future. Of course it well deserved

taking care of; and if the eye of the master were upon it, of course
too (according to the adage) the cattle would fatten better. As the

warm climate was favorable to pulmonary complaints, and Sterling's
occupations were so shattered to pieces and his outlooks here so waste

and vague, why should not he undertake this duty for himself and
others?

It was fixed upon as the eligiblest course. A visit to St. Vincent,
perhaps a permanentresidence there: he went into the project with

his customary impetuosity; his young Wife cheerfully" target="_blank" title="ad.高兴地，愉快地">cheerfully consenting, and
all manner of new hopes clustering round it. There are the rich

tropical sceneries, the romance of the torrid zone with its new skies