CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
THE DROLLERIES OF FALSE POLITICAL ECONOMY.
'WHARE'ER THERE'S A WILL THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 421. NEW SERIES. | SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1852. | PRICE 1½d. |
THE WOLF-GATHERING.
One winter evening some years ago, I sat with a small circle offriends round the fire, in the house of a Polish gentleman, whom hisacquaintances agreed in calling Mr Charles, as the most pronounceableof his names. He had fought in all his country's battles of theunsuccessful revolution of 1831; and being one of the many who soughtlife and liberty in the British dominions, on the failure of that lastnational effort, he had, with a spirit worthy of an exiled patriot,made the best of his unchosen fortunes, and worked his way up, througha thousand difficulties and privations, to a respectable standing inthe mercantile profession. At the period mentioned, Mr Charles hadbecome almost naturalised in one of our great commercial towns, was amember of a British church, and the head of a British household; butwhen the conversation happened to turn on sporting matters round hisown fireside, he related in perfect seriousness the following wild andlegend-like story of his early life in Poland:—
The year before the rising, I went from my native place in Samogitia(Szamaït), to spend Christmas at the house of my uncle, situated inthe wooded country of Upper Lithuania. He was a nobleman who boastedhis descent from one of the oldest houses in Poland, and still heldthe estate which his ancestors had defended for themselves throughmany a Tartar invasion—as much land as a hunting-train could courseover in a summer's day. But ample as his domain appeared, my uncle wasby no means rich upon it. The greater portion had been forest-land forages; elsewhere it was occupied by poor peasants and their fields; andin the centre he lived, after the fashion of his forefathers, in ahuge timber-house with antiquated fortifications, where he exercisedliberal hospitality, especially at Christmas times. My uncle was awidower, but he had three sons—Armand, Henrique, andConstantine—brave, handsome young men, who kept close intimacy andright merry companionship with their nearest neighbours, a family