Hawthorne was so busy with these soldiers, and with trials in the
police courts; so that he could not leave his post." [Still later.]
"As to shipwrecked sailors, there seems no end to them; and for all
Mr. Hawthorne's costs for them he is, of course, repaid. His hands are
full all the time. But in the history of the world, it is said, there
never were so many shipwrecks as there have been this last winter. The
coasts of Great Britain seem to have been nothing but stumbling-blocks
in the way of every ship. . . . I have seen, in an American paper, a
passage in which the writer undertakes to defend my husband from some
dirty aspersions. It seems that some one had told the absolute
falsehood that he had shirked all responsibility about the shipwrecked
soldiers, and his defender stated the case just as it was, and that
Mr. Buchanan declined having anything to do with the matter. The
government will make the chartering of the steamer good to Mr.
Hawthorne. . . . He has been very busily occupied at the Consulate
this winter and spring,--so many disasters at sea, and vagabonds
asking for money. He has already lost more than a hundred pounds by
these impostors. But he is very careful indeed, and those persons who
have proved dishonest were gentlemen in their own esteem, and it was
difficult to suspect them. But he is well on his guard now; and he
says the moment he sees a coat-tail he knows whether the man it
belongs to is going to beg! His life in the Consulate is not charming.
Pages:
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275