stination; more often I was
sorry that the voyage drew so early to an end; and never once did I lose
my fidelity to blue water and a ship. It is plain, then, that for me my
exile to the place of schooners and islands can be in no sense regarded
as a calamity.

Good-bye just now: I must take a turn at my proofs.

_N.B._--Even my wife has weakened about the sea. She wearied, the last
time we were ashore, to get afloat again.--Yours ever,

R. L. S.

TO MARCEL SCHWOB

_Union Club, Sydney, August 19th, 1890._

MY DEAR MR. SCHWOB,--_Mais, alors, vous avez tous les bonheurs, vous!_
More about Villon; it seems incredible: when it is put in order, pray
send it me.

You wish to translate the _Black Arrow_: dear sir, you are hereby
authorised; but I warn you, I do not like the work. Ah, if you, who know
so well both tongues, and have taste and instruction--if you would but
take a fancy to translate a book of mine that I myself admired--for we
sometimes admire our own--or I do--with what satisfaction would the
authority be granted! But these things are too much to expect. _Vous ne
detestez pas alors mes bonnes femmes? moi, je les deteste._ I have never
pleased myself with any women of mine save two character parts, one of
only a few lines--the Countess of Rosen, and Madame Desprez in the
_Treasure of Franchard_.

I had indeed one moment of pride about my poor _Black Arrow_: Dickon
Crookback I did, and I do, think is a spirited and possible figure.
Shakespeare's--O, if we can call that cocoon Shakespeare!--Shakespeare's
is spirited--one likes to see the untaught athlete butting against the
adamantine ramparts of human nature, head down, breech up; it reminds us
how trivial we are to-day, and what safety resides in our triviality.
For spirited it may be, but O, sure not possible! I love Dumas and I
love Shakespeare: you will not mistake me when I say that the Richard of
the one reminds me of the Porthos of the other; and if by any sacrifice
of my own literary baggage I could clear the _Vicomte de Bragelonne_ of
Porthos, _Jekyll_ might go, and the _Master_, and the _Black Arrow_, you
may be sure, and I should think my life not lost for mankind if half a
dozen more of my volumes must be thrown in.

The tone of your pleasant letters makes me egotistical; you make me take
myself too gravely. Comprehend how I have lived much of my time in
France, and loved your country, and many of its people, and all the ti