to continuous writing. _The Adventures of Ernest
Alembert_ is a booklet of this date, and _Arthuriana_, _or Odds and
Ends_: _being a Miscellaneous Collection of Pieces in Prose and Verse_,
by Lord Charles Wellesley, is yet another.

The son of the Iron Duke is made to talk, in these little books, in a way
which would have gladdened the heart of a modern interviewer:

'Lord Charles,' said Mr. Rundle to me one afternoon lately, 'I have
an engagement to drink tea with an old college chum this evening, so
I shall give you sixty lines of the _AEneid_ to get ready during my
absence. If it is not ready by the time I come back you know the
consequences.' 'Very well, Sir,' said I, bringing out the books with
a prodigious bustle, and making a show as if I intended to learn a
whole book instead of sixty lines of the _AEneid_. This appearance
of industry, however, lasted no longer than until the old gentleman's
back was turned. No sooner had he fairly quitted the room than I
flung aside the musty tomes, took my cap, and speeding through
chamber, hall, and gallery, was soon outside the gates of Waterloo
Palace.'

_The Secret_, another story, of which Mrs. Gaskell gave a facsimile of
the first page, was also written in 1833, and indeed in this, her
seventeenth year, Charlotte Bronte must have written as much as in any
year of her life. When at Roe Head, 1832-3, she would seem to have
worked at her studies, and particularly her drawing; but in the interval
between Cowan Bridge and Roe Head she wrote a great deal. The earliest
manuscripts in my possession bear date 1829--that is to say, in
Charlotte's thirteenth year. They are her _Tales of the Islanders_,
which extend to four little volumes in brown paper covers neatly
inscribed 'First Volume,' 'Second Volume,' and so on. The Duke is of
absorbing importance in these 'Tales.' 'One evening the Duke of
Wellington was writing in his room in Downing Street. He was reposing at
his ease in a simple easy chair, smoking a homely tobacco-pipe, for he
disdained all the modern frippery of cigars . . . ' and so on in an
abundance of childish imaginings. _The Search after Happiness_ and
_Characters of Great Men of the Present Time_ were also written in 1829.
Perhaps the only juvenile fragment which is worth anything is also the
only one in which she escapes from the Wellington enthusiasm. It has an
interest also in indicating that Charl