Do not fear your enemies. The worst they can do is kill you. Do not fear friends. At worst, they may betray you. Fear those who do not care; they neither kill nor betray, but betrayal and murder exists because of their silent consent.
Henceforth Mrs Gaskell's life belonged to Manchester. She and her husband lived first in Dover Street, then in Rumford Street, and finally in 1850 at 84 Plymouth Grove. Her literary life began with poetry. She and her husband aspired to emulate George Crabbe and write the annals of the Manchester poor. One poetic "Sketch," which appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_ for January 1837, seems to have been the only outcome of this ambition. Henceforth, while in perfect union in all else, husband and wife were to go their separate literary ways, Mrs Gaskell to become a successful novelist, whose books were to live side by side with those of greater masters, Mr Gaskell to be a distinguished Unitarian divine, whose sermons, lectures and hymns are now all but forgotten. In her earlier married life Mrs Gaskell was mainly occupied with domestic duties--she had seven children--and philanthropic work among the poor. Her first published prose effort was probably a letter that she addressed to William Howitt on hearing that he contemplated a volume entitled _Visits to Remarkable Places_. She then told the legend of Clopton Hall, Warwickshire, as she had heard it in schooldays, and Howitt incorporated the letter in that book, which was published in 1840. Serious authorship, however, does not seem to have been commenced until four or five years later. In 1844 Mr and Mrs Gaskell visited North Wales, where their only son "Willie" died of scarlet fever at the age of ten months, and it was, it is said, to distract Mrs Gaskell from her sorrow that her husband suggested a long work of fiction, and _Mary Barton_ was begun. There were earlier short stories in _Howitt's Journal_, where "Libbie Marsh's Three Eras" and "The Sexton's Hero" appeared in 1847. But it was _Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life_ that laid the foundation of Mrs Gaskell's literary career. It was completed in 1847 and offered to a publisher who returned it unread. It was then sent to Chapman & Hall, who retained the manuscript for a year without reading it or communicating with the author. A reminder, however, led to its being sought for, considered and accepted, the publishers agreeing to pay the author £100 for the copyright. It was published anonymously in two volumes in 1848. This story had a wide popularity, and its author secured first the praise and then the friendship of Carlyle, Landor and Dickens. Dickens indeed asked her in 1850 to become a contributor to his new magazine _Household Words_, and here the whole of _Cranford_ appeared at intervals from December 1851 to May 1853, exclusive of one sketch, reprinted in the "World's Classics" edition (1907), that was published in _All the Year Round_ for November 1863. Earlier than this, indeed, for the very first number of _Household Words_ she had written "Lizzie Leigh." Mrs Gaskell's second book, however, was _The Moorland Cottage_, a dainty little volume that appeared at Christmas 1850 with illustrations by Birket Foster. In the Christmas number of _Household Words_ for 1853 appeared "The Squire's Story," reprinted in _Lizzie Leigh and other Tales_ in 1865. In 1853 appeared another long novel, _Ruth_, and the incomparable _Cranford_. This last--now the most popular of her books--is an idyll of village life, largely inspired by girlish memories of Knutsford and its people. In _Ruth_, which first appeared in three volumes, Mrs Gaskell turned to a delicate treatment of a girl's betrayal and her subsequent rescue. Once more we are introduced to Knutsford, thinly disguised, and to the little Unitarian chapel in that town where the author had worshipped in early years. In 1855 _North and South_ was published. It had previously appeared serially in _Household Words_. Then came--in 1857--the _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, in two volumes. Miss Brontë, who had enjoyed the friendship of Mrs Gaskell and had exchanged visits, died in March 1855. Two years earlier she had begged her publishers to postpone the issue of her own novel _Villette_ in order that her friend's _Ruth_ should not suffer. This biography, by its vivid presentation of the sad, melancholy and indeed tragic story of the three Brontë sisters, greatly widened the interest in their writings and gave its author a considerable place among English biographers. But much matter was contained in the first and second editions that was withdrawn from the third. Certain statements made by the writer as to the school of Charlotte Brontë's infancy, an identification of the "Lowood" of _Jane Eyre_ with the existing school, and the acceptance of the story of Bramwell Brontë's ruin having been caused by the woman in whose house he had lived as tutor, brought threats of libel actions. Apologies were published, and the third edition of the book was modified, as Mrs Gaskell declares, by "another hand." The book in any case remains one of the best biographies in the language. An introduction by Mrs Gaskell to the then popular novel, _Mabel Vaughan_, was also included in her work of this year 1857, but no further book was published by her until 1859, when, under the title of _Round the Sofa_, she collected many of her contributions to periodical literature. _Round the Sofa_ appeared in two volumes, the first containing only "My Lady Ludlow," the second five short stories. These stories reappeared the same year in one volume as _My Lady Ludlow and other Tales_. In the next year 1860 appeared yet another volume of short stories, entitled _Right at Last and other Tales_. The title story had appeared two years earlier in _Household Words_ as "The Sin of a Father." In 1862 Mrs Gaskell wrote a preface to a little book by Colonel Vecchj, translated from the Italian--_Garibaldi and Caprera_, and in 1863 she published her last long novel, _Sylvia's Lovers_, dedicated "to My dear Husband by her who best knows his Value." After this we have--in 1863--a one-volume story, _A Dark Night's Work_, and in the same year _Cousin Phyllis and other Tales_ appeared. Reprinted short stories from _All the Year Round_, _Cornhill Magazine_, and other publications, tend to lengthen the number of books published by Mrs Gaskell during her lifetime. _The Grey Woman and other Tales_ appeared in 1865. Entry: GASKELL
He now became the evil genius of Charles, who had the incredible folly to follow his advice in preference to such men as Hyde and Falkland. In November he is recorded as performing "singular good service," and "doing beyond admiration," in speaking in the Lords against the instruction concerning evil counsellors. He suggested to Charles the impeachment of the five members, and urged upon him the fatal attempt to arrest them on the 4th of January 1642; but he failed to play his part in the Lords in securing the arrest of Lord Mandeville, to whom on the contrary he declared that "the king was very mischievously advised"; and according to Clarendon his imprudence was responsible for the betrayal of the king's plan. Next day he advised the attempt to seize them in the city by force. The same month he was ordered to appear in the Lords to answer a charge of high treason for a supposed armed attempt at Kingston, but fled to Holland, where he joined the queen, and on the 26th of February was impeached. Subsequently he visited Charles at York disguised as a Frenchman, but on the return voyage to Holland he was captured and taken to Hull, where he for some time escaped detection; and at last he cajoled Sir John Hotham, after discovering himself, into permitting his escape. Later he ventured on a second visit to Hull to persuade Hotham to surrender the place to Charles, but this project failed. He was present at Edgehill, and greatly distinguished himself at Lichfield, where he was wounded while leading the assault. He soon, however, threw down his commission in consequence of a quarrel with Prince Rupert, and returned to the king at Oxford, over whom he obtained more influence as the prospect became more gloomy. On the 28th of September 1643 he was appointed secretary of state and a privy councillor, and on the 31st of October high steward of Oxford University. He now supported the queen's disastrous policy of foreign alliances and help from Ireland, and engaged in a series of imprudent and ill-conducted negotiations which greatly injured the king's affairs, while his fierce disputes with Rupert and his party further embarrassed them. On the 14th of October 1645 he was made lieutenant general of the royal forces north of the Trent, with the object of pushing through to join Montrose, but he was defeated on the 15th at Sherburn, where his correspondence was captured, disclosing the king's expectations from abroad and from Ireland and his intrigues with the Scots; and after reaching Dumfries, he found his way barred. He escaped on the 24th to the Isle of Man, thence crossing to Ireland, where he caused Glamorgan to be arrested. Here, on this new stage, he believed he was going to achieve wonders. "Have I not carried my body swimmingly," he wrote to Hyde in irrepressible good spirits, "who being before so irreconcilably hated by the Puritan party, have thus seasonably made myself as odious to the Papists?"[2] His project now was to bring over Prince Charles to head a royalist movement in the island; and having joined Charles at Jersey in April 1646, he intended to entrap him on board, but was dissuaded by Hyde. He then travelled to Paris to gain the queen's consent to his scheme, but returned to persuade Charles to go to Paris, and accompanied him thither, revisiting Ireland on the 29th of June once more, and finally escaping to France on the surrender of the island to the parliament. At Paris amongst the royalists he found himself in a nest of enemies eager to pay off old scores. Prince Rupert challenged him, and he fought a duel with Lord Wilmot. He continued his adventures by serving in Louis XIV.'s troops in the war of the Fronde, in which he greatly distinguished himself. He was appointed in 1651 lieutenant-general in the French army, and commander of the forces in Flanders. These new honours, however, were soon lost. During Mazarin's enforced absence from the court Digby aspired to become his successor; and the cardinal, who had from the first penetrated his character and regarded him as a mere adventurer,[3] on his restoration to power sent Digby away on an expedition in Italy; and on his return informed him that he was included in the list of those expelled from France, in accordance with the new treaty with Cromwell. In August 1656 he joined Charles II. at Bruges, and desirous of avenging himself upon the cardinal offered his services to Don John of Austria in the Netherlands, being instrumental in effecting the surrender of the garrison of St Ghislain to Spain in 1657. On the 1st of January 1657 he was appointed by Charles II. secretary of state, but shortly afterwards, having become a Roman Catholic--probably with the view of adapting himself better to his new Spanish friends--he was compelled to resign office. Charles, however, on account of his "jollity" and Spanish experience took him with him to Spain in 1659, though his presence was especially deprecated by the Spanish; but he succeeded in ingratiating himself, and was welcomed by the king of Spain subsequently at Madrid. Entry: BRISTOL