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THE   BRONTES                      99
hereafter. I am quite contented for myself: not
as idle as formerly, altogether as hearty and having
learnt to make the most of the present and long
for the future with less fidgetiness that I can-
not do all I wish ; seldom or ever troubled with
nothing to do, and merely desiring that everybody
could be as comfortable as myself and as un-
desponding, and then we should have a very
tolerable world of it."
The earlier part of the note, after the charac-
teristic chronological opening, is about a two days*
expedition Anne and Emily had made together
to York, a month previously, during which ex-
cursion they were " Ronald Macalgin, Henry
Angora, Juliet Augusteena, Rosabella Esmaldan,
Ella and Julian Egremont, Catherine Navarre
and Cordelia Fitzaphnold, escaping from the
palaces of instruction to join the Royalists who
are hard driven, at present, by the victorious
Republicans." " The Gondals still flourish bright
as ever," wrote Emily. " I am at present writing
a work on the First War." But, according to
Anne's memorandum of the same date, she was
also writing some poetry and it was in the autumn
of this year, 1845, Charlotte tells us, that she
" accidentally lighted " on a manuscript volume
of verse in Emily's handwriting. Miss Romer
Wilson has taken Charlotte severely to task for
this discovery and accuses her almost of treachery
for reading the poems and getting Emily to agree
to publication. Such an accusation seems un-
justifiable. Emily had an iron will and could not
be coerced. She may have been furious with