Across the Zodiac

Across the Zodiac

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Title: Across the Zodiac
Author: Percy Greg
Release Date: November 21, 2003 [eBook #10165]
Language: English
Chatacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ACROSS THE ZODIAC: The Story of a Wrecked Record
DECIPHERED, TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY PERCY GREG
AUTHOR OF "THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE" ETC.

"Thoughts he sends to each planet, Uranus, Venus, and Mars; Soars to the Centre to span
it, Numbers the infinite Stars."
Courthope's Paradise of Birds

CONTENTS
I. SHIPWRECK.

II. OUTWARD BOUND.
III. THE UNTRAVELLED DEEP.
IV. A NEW WORLD.
V. LANGUAGE, LAWS, AND LIFE.
VI. AN OFFICIAL VISIT.
VII. ESCORT DUTY.
VIII. A FAITH AND ITS FOUNDER.
IX. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
X. WOMAN AND WEDLOCK.
XI. A COUNTRY DRIVE.
XII. ON THE RIVER.
XIII. THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT.
XIV. BY SEA.
XV. FUR-HUNTING.
XVI. TROUBLED WATERS.
XVII. PRESENTED AT COURT.
XVIII. A PRINCE'S PRESENT.
XIX. A COMPLETE ESTABLISHMENT.
XX. LIFE, SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC.
XXI. PRIVATE AUDIENCES.
XXII. PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS.
XXIII. CHARACTERISTICS.
XXIV. WINTER.
XXV. APOSTACY.
XXVI. TWILIGHT.

XXVII. THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.
XXVIII. DARKER YET.
XXIX. AZRAEL.
XXX. FAREWELL.
CHAPTER I
- SHIPWRECK.
Once only, in the occasional travelling of thirty years, did I lose any important article of
luggage; and that loss occurred, not under the haphazard, devil-take-the-hindmost
confusion of English, or the elaborate misrule of Continental journeys, but through the
absolute perfection and democratic despotism of the American system. I had to give up a
visit to the scenery of Cooper's best Indian novels--no slight sacrifice--and hasten at once
to New York to repair the loss. This incident brought me, on an evening near the middle
of September 1874, on board a river steamboat starting from Albany, the capital of the
State, for the Empire City. The banks of the lower Hudson are as well worth seeing as
those of the Rhine itself, but even America has not yet devised means of lighting them up
at night, and consequently I had no amusement but such as I could find in the
conversation of my fellow-travellers. With one of these, whose abstinence from personal
questions led me to take him for an Englishman, I spoke of my visit to Niagara--the one
wonder of the world that answers its warranty--and to Montreal. As I spoke of the strong
and general Canadian feeling of loyalty to the English Crown and connection, a Yankee
bystander observed--
"Wal, stranger, I reckon we could take 'em if we wanted tu!"
"Yes," I replied, "if you think them worth the price. But if you do, you rate them even
more highly than they rate themselves; and English colonists are not much behind the
citizens of the model Republic in honest self-esteem."
"Wal," he said, "how much du yew calc'late we shall hev to pay?"
"Not more, perhaps, than you can afford; only California, and every Atlantic seaport from
Portland to Galveston."
"Reckon yew may be about right, stranger," he said, falling back with tolerable
good-humour; and, to do them justice, the bystanders seemed to think the retort no worse
than the provocation deserved.
"I am sorry," said my friend, "you should have fallen in with so unpleasant a specimen of
the character your countrymen ascribe with too much reason to Americans. I have been
long in England, and never met with such discourtesy from any one who recognised me
as an American."

After this our conversation became less reserved; and I found that I was conversing with
one of the most renowned officers of irregular cavalry in the late Confederate service--a
service which, in the efficiency, brilliancy, and daring of that especial arm, has never
been surpassed since Maharbal's African Light Horse were recognised by friends and
foes as the finest corps in the small splendid army of Hannibal.
Colonel A---- (the reader will learn why I give neither his name nor real rank) spoke with
some bitterness of the inquisitiveness which rendered it impossible, he said, to trust an
American with a secret, and very difficult to keep one without lying. We were presently
joined by Major B----, who had been employed during the war in the conduct of many
critical communications, and had shown great ingenuity in devising and unravelling
ciphers. On this subject a somewhat protracted discussion arose. I inclined to the doctrine
of Poe, that no cipher can be devised which cannot