bic,
the Persian, and the Turkish. If it be true, as his friend Hasfeld said,
that here was a poet who was able to render another without robbing the
garland of a single leaf--that would but prove that the poetry which
Borrow rendered was not of the first order. Nor, taking another
standard--the capacity to render the ballad with a force that captures
'the common people,'--can we agree with William Bodham Donne, who was
delighted with _Targum_ and said that 'the language and rhythm are
vastly superior to Macaulay's _Lays of Ancient Rome_.' In _The Talisman_
we have four little poems from the Russian of Pushkin followed by
another poem, _The Mermaid_, by the same author. Three other poems in
Russian and Polish complete the booklet. Borrow left behind him in St.
Petersburg with his friend, Hasfeld, a presentation copy for Pushkin,
who, when he received it, expressed regret that he had not met his
translator while Borrow was in St. Petersburg.

[Illustration: Title Page from "Targum"]

[Illustration: Title Page from "The Talisman"]

FOOTNOTES:

[103] Darlow, _Letters to the Bible Society_, p. 32.

[104] _Ibid._ p. 47.

[105] Darlow, _Letters to the Bible Society_, pp. 60, 61.

[106] Mr. Glen.

[107] The Manchu version--_i.e._ the transcript of Pierot's MS. of the
Old Testament and 1000 copies of Lipoftsof's translation of the
New--cost the Society in all L2600. Canton: _History of the Bible
Society_, vol. ii. p. 239.

[108] Darlow; _Letters to the Bible Society_, p. 96.

[109] Darlow: _Letters to the Bible Society_, p. 65.

[110] _Ibid._, p. 81.

CHAPTER XVIII

THREE VISITS TO SPAIN

From his journey to Russia Borrow had acquired valuable experience, but
nothing in the way of fame, although his mother had been able to record
in a letter to St. Petersburg that she had heard at a Bible Society
gathering in Norwich his name 'sounded through the hall' by Mr. Joseph
John Gurney and Mr. Cunningham, to her great delight. 'All this is very
pleasing to me,' she said, 'God bless you!' Even more pleasing to Borrow
must have been a letter from Mary Clarke, his future wife, who was able
to tell him that she heard Francis Cunningham refer to him as 'one of
the most extraordinary and interesting individuals of the present day.'
But these tributes were not all-satisfying to an ambitious man, and this
Borrow undoubtedly was. His Russian journey was followed by five weeks
of idleness in Norwich varied by the one