Back in Paris.
I received, from my Patron, poverty, the love of the small and humble, compassion for animals; but my barren stick will not change into an evergreen oak to protect them. I ought to think myself lucky to have trodden French soil on my saint's-day; but have I a country? Have I ever, in that country, enjoyed a moment of rest? On the 6th of October, in the morning, I returned to my Infirmary. The gale of St. Francis was still blowing. My trees, the budding refuges of the miseries collected by my wife, bent before the anger of my Patron. In the evening, through the branchy elms of my boulevard, I saw the hanging street-lamps shaken to and fro, their half-extinguished lights flickering like the little lamp of my life[282].
[239] This book was written on the road from Padua to Prague, from 20 to 26 September 1833, and on the road from Prague to Paris, from 26 September to 6 October.—T.
[240] Columbus first touched land in America at Guanahani, one of the Bahama Islands, on the 12th of October 1492. The island is called "Watling's Island" on the English maps: it is possible to vulgarize most things; Christopher was content to christen it San Salvador.—T.
[241] Richard Lemon Lander (1804-1834) made several journeys of discovery in Africa, penetrated to the mouth of the Niger in 1831 and settled the question of its course and outlet. He returned to the Nun mouth in 1833, when he was fired upon by the natives and struck by a musket-ball in the thigh. He was removed to Fernando Po, where he died in February 1834.—T.
[242] Hazlitt's Montaigne: A Journey into Italy.—T.
[243] Chateaubriand: Tombeaux champêtres, 52-53, imitated from Gray's Elegy written in a Country Church-yard. Cf. 57-60:
"Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little Tyrant of his fields withstood,
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood."—T.
[244] Saint Rupert Bishop of Worms (fl. circa 700), known as the Apostle of the Bavarians from his missionary labours at Ratisbon, Salzburg, etc.—T.