After The Storm | Page 2

Abercrombie's army and received the medal for war service. His career in
India lasted six years and gave him occasion to visit the three presidencies and Ceylon. In
1814 he returned on furlough to Europe and was in Brussels during the Waterloo
campaign. The subsequent years--1815 to 1819--he employed visiting Western Europe,
as appears from his reminiscences. I have read letters of his which prove that he lived in
Paris from 1830 to 1832. Later, about 1848, he took an apartment in Saint Germain, and
died there in 1858.
Major Frye was a very distinguished linguist; besides knowing Greek and Latin, he
understood almost all European languages, and was capable of writing correctly in
French, Italian and German. The Misses G---- have shown me a rare book published by
him at Paris in 1844 under the following title:
"Trois chants de l'Edda. Vaftrudnismal, Thrymsquidal, Skirnisfor, traduits en vers
français, accompagnés de notes explicatives des mythes et allégories, et suivis d'autres
poèmes par W.E. Frye, ancien major d'infanterie au service d'Angleterre, membre de
l'Académie des Arcadiens de Rome. Se vend à Paris, pour l'auteur, chez Heideloff & Cie,
Libraires, 18 Rue des Filles St. Thomas. 1844" (In 8vo, xii, 115 pp.)
At the end of that volume are translations by Major Frye of several Northern poems--in
German, Italian and English verse--from the Danish and the Swedish; then come two
sonnets in French verse, the one in honour of Lafayette, the other about the Duke of
Orléans, whose premature death he compares with that of the Northern hero of the Edda,
Balder. A part of Frye's translation of the Edda, before appearing in book form, had been
published in l'Echo de la Littérature et des Beaux Arts, a periodical edited by the Major's
friend, M. de Belenet.

Frye loved poetry, though his ideas on the subject were rather those of the eighteenth
century than our own. It is interesting to find an English officer reading Voltaire, Gessner,
Ariosto, and quoting them from memory (which explains that some of his quotations had
to be corrected). The sentimental vein of Rousseau's generation still flows and vibrates in
him, as when he says that he has never been able to read the letters of Wolmar to St Preux
in Rousseau's Nouvelle Héloïse without shedding tears. German minor poetry, now quite
forgotten, attracted him almost as much as the great pages of Schiller, Bürger, and
Goethe. The Misses G. possess a manuscript translation in three volumes, in the Major's
own hand, of Wieland's Agathodemon done into English. This he evidently intended to
publish, as he had written the title-page which is worded as follows:
"Agathodemon, a philosophical romance translated from the German of Wieland by W.E.
Frye, member of the Academy degli Arcadi in Rome, and of the Royal Society of
Northern Antiquarians of Copenhagen, ex-major of infantry in His British Majesty's
service."
Frye describes with accuracy, and shows much appreciation of fine scenery and
architecture. His judgements in painting and sculpture are sincere, though often betraying
the autodidact and amateur. He loved music, especially Rossini's operas which were then
beginning their long career of triumph. Theatricals of all sorts, especially ballets, had a
great attraction for him and elicited his enthusiastic comments. In comparing tragedies
and comedies which he had seen performed in different countries, he gave repeated
proofs of his knowledge and critical insight. We can take him as a good example of that
intelligent class of English travellers whose intercourse with the Continental litterati has
so well contributed to establish the good reputation of British culture and refined
appreciation of the arts.
The chief interest of Frye's reminiscences lies, however, in quite another direction. He
was a friend of liberty, a friend of France, an admirer of Napoleon, and a hater of the
Tory régime which brought about Napoleon's downfall. "France's attempts at European
domination, in the Napoleonic era, are graciously described as but so many efforts
towards spreading the light of civilization over Europe." These words, written about a
quite recent work and à propos of the "Entente cordiale," apply perfectly to Frye's
reminiscences. Travelling immediately before and after the Emperor's collapse, he found
that everywhere, excepting in Tuscany, the French domination was regretted, because the
ideals of liberty and equality had shone and vanished with the tricolour flag. He admires
the French people, though not the Ultras and bigots, and has fine words of praise for the
French army: "Yes, the French soldier is a fine fellow. I have served against them in
Holland and in Egypt, and I will never flinch from rendering justice to their exemplary
conduct and lofty valour." He takes trouble to refute the exaggerated reports which were
then circulated all over Europe about the cruelties and vandalism practised by the French:
"If the French since the Revolution