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+{"text":"\n\n\n\nProduced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Louise Pryor\nand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp:\/\/www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Library of Early\nJournals.)\n\n\n\n\n\n{Transcriber's note: Spellings are sometimes erratic. A few obvious\nmisprints have been corrected, but in general the original spelling has\nbeen retained. Accents in the French phrases are inconsistent, and have\nnot been standardised. Greek phrases have been transliterated, and are\nenclosed in + signs +autochthones gaias+.}\n\n\nBLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.\n\nNo. CCCXLVII.    SEPTEMBER, 1844.    VOL. LVI.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n  M. LOUIS BLANC,                                           265\n\n  A NIGHT ON THE BANKS OF THE TENNESSEE,                    278\n\n  THE EXECUTION OF MONTROSE,                                289\n\n  THE WITCHFINDER. PART I.,                                 297\n\n  NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN,                                   312\n\n  POEMS BY COVENTRY PATMORE,                                331\n\n  MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XIII.,      343\n\n  IT IS NO FICTION,                                         364\n\n  THE BURNS' FESTIVAL,                                      370\n\n  STANZAS FOR THE BURNS' FESTIVAL. BY DELTA,                399\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  EDINBURGH:\n  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;\n  AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.\n\n_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._\n\nSOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.\n\nPRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.\n\n\n\n\nBLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.\n\nNo. CCCXLVII.    SEPTEMBER, 1844.    VOL. LVI.\n\n\n\n\nM. LOUIS BLANC{A}\n\n\nM. Louis Blanc, a democratic journalist, with all, and perhaps more than\nthe usual talents of the Parisian journalist--with all, and more than\nthe usual faults of one--has undertaken to write the history of his\ncountry, during and since the revolution of 1830. What can we expect to\nbe the result of such an undertaking? What can we expect from a man who\nsits down to a task of this description, animated with all the party\nvirulence which gives zest to a democratic newspaper? It is not a\nhistory, but a scandal, that he will write. M. Louis Blanc has distilled\nthe bile of journalism; he has paused over the hasty sarcasm which\npolitical animosity deals forth, not to correct, or moderate, or abate,\nbut merely to point and envenom it. His appreciation of men, their\ncharacter, their talents, their designs--all bear the hue of the\natrabilious journalist. There is this difference only between his\nhistory and the daily portion of envy and malignity which a democratic\nnewspaper pours forth, that the dye is more deeply engrained. In the\nmind of the author, the stain of his party has become ineffaceable.\nThose who are pleased--and the number is not few--with having high names\nand established reputations laid at their feet, soiled, trod upon, will\nmeet here with ample gratification. To be sure they will be occasionally\nrequired, in lieu of such as they have thrown down, to set up the bust\nof some democratic celebrity, whose greatness, or whose genius, they\nwere not previously aware of. But, not to say that the justice of party\nrequires this substitution, it is a penalty which writers of this\ndescription will invariably impose upon them. It is the common trick of\nthe envious, and the mock magnanimity with which they seek to conceal\ntheir true nature--to exalt the lowly, while they debase the exalted.\nSince some idol there must be, let it be one of their raising. Even\nwhile helping to raise it, they enjoy, too, the secret consciousness\nthat it is of brittle metal.\n\nBut in the composition of a history, the spirit of party, however eager\nit may be, cannot always guide the pen. The mere interest of the\nnarrative, the strangeness and peculiarity of circumstances, will claim\ntheir share of the author's mind. The politician must sometimes be\nabsorbed in the chronicler; and so it happens with M. Louis Blanc. His\nnarrative often interests by its details; and if it has the partiality,\nit has also the vivacious colouring, of a contemporary. It possesses,\nalso, a richness of anecdote--the fruit, probably, of his position as a\njournalist; add to which, that M. Louis Blanc is not without a species\nof off-hand, dashing eloquence. He can say daring things in a daring\nmanner, and give the pungency of epigram to his political paradoxes. He\nhas a full share of that rhetoric of journalism which is so well\ncalculated to make an impression on the careless reader, but which\nrequires that the reader should continue careless, in order to retain\nthe impression he has received. It results from all this, that while we\nconstantly distrust our guide, while we perpetually refuse the\nappreciation he offers to us of men and events, we still read on with\ninterest a work which is, at least, relieved from the charge of\ninsipidity or dulness; and indeed, if we had not derived some\nentertainment from its perusal, we should not have thought of bringing\nit under the notice of our readers. To have engaged ourselves merely in\ncombating its errors and misrepresentations, would have been a dreary\nand an endless task.\n\nTo enable the reader at once to judge of the tone and temper of M. Louis\nBlanc's politics, we present him the following passage. It is the object\nof the long Introduction which precedes his history, to show that the\nevents which have transpired in France since 1793, have had, for their\ngreat result, the establishment of the government of the middle classes\nthrough a Chamber of Deputies--a view which we think is incontestably\nright. That France has its House of Commons, is the great fruit of all\nits struggles, its calamities, and its victories. It must not be\nsupposed, however, that this is a result in which M. Louis Blanc\nrejoices. Nothing he so much detests as this government of the middle\nclasses; nor is there any portion of society he vilifies more cordially\nthan the _bourgeoisie_. Hear how he speaks of them. After relating the\nhistory of the Carbonari, who troubled by their plots the reign of Louis\nXVIII., he says:--\"This _Carbonarism_ never descended into the depths of\nsociety; it never moved the lower strata. How, then, could it be\npreserved from the vices of the middle class--egoism, littleness of\nideas, extreme love of a mere material happiness, gross instincts!\"--(P.\n115.) So that he finds Carbonarism to have lacked in virtue, because it\nhad not descended, for its disciples, sufficiently low in the scale of\nsociety!--to have grown corrupt, by reason of its not having penetrated\nto the \"lower strata!\" And yet the duties of the Carbonari seem to have\nbeen precisely calculated for these lower strata. These were, he had\nalready told us himself, \"to have a gun and fifty cartridges, to be\nready to devote one's-self, and to obey blindly the orders of unknown\nleaders.\"--(P. 101.)\n\nWhen we describe M. Louis Blanc as a democrat, it is rather for want of\na better and more accurate title, than because this exactly describes\nhim. A democrat is generally understood to be one who has a large faith\nin the lowest class of the people, such as they really exist; our author\nhas a faith only in the future of this class. He does not fail to give\nvent, when the occasion prompts him, to his compassion or contempt for\nthe ignorant mass of mankind. The democracy he worships is one to be\nestablished in some distant age, by a people very different, and living\nunder some modification of the law of property, which he has not thought\nfit to explain. It is a democracy which has nothing distinct but its\nhatreds--a shadowy monster, peculiarly disagreeable to deal with. Our\nhistorian writes with overflowing gall against kings, against\naristocracies, against the middle class. You would say he is a stanch\nrepublican, and that the people are to be his depositaries of power. But\nno; a lamentation, which escapes him from time to time--as bitter as any\nwhich Tory or Legitimist would utter--over the _blindness_ of the\npeople, their passions and their ignorance, contradicts this conclusion.\nWhere is the power, and in whom lodged, that M. Louis Blanc would\nwillingly obey, or see obeyed? It exists nowhere. Society is corrupt, is\nchaotic; nor can it, by any organ it possesses, exercise a sound or\nrational power. A new era must arise--how, whence, when, we are not\ninstructed.\n\nIt is the peculiar characteristic of French democracy, that there is\nalways mixed up with it the principle, more or less distinctly avowed, of\nthe community of goods. Perhaps the vagueness we complain of in M. Louis\nBlanc, is dictated by mere prudence; perhaps there is no vagueness to the\neye of a propagandist. One sentiment of French democracy he certainly\nexpresses with sufficient hardihood. It is not often we meet with the\nprinciple of intervention between state and state, asserted in these days\nwith so much boldness as in the following passage:--\"Men have stigmatized\nthe war in Spain, calling the principle of intervention an oppressive\nprinciple. Puerile accusation! All people are brothers, and all\nrevolutions cosmopolite. When a government believes that it represents a\njust cause, let it make it triumph wherever a triumph is possible. This\nis its right; it is more--it is its duty.\"--(_Introduction_, p. 120.)\n\nHow exactly analogous to this is the reasoning which leads to\npersecution in religion--to the Holy Inquisition, and all its\nphilanthropic schemes _of intervention!_ The conviction in a good cause\nallowed to overrule the fundamental principles of justice between man\nand man--to overrule them, not occasionally and by way of exception, but\nsystematically--this is the very essence of persecution. But let no one\nthink that, by any such representation, he would gain an advantage over\nthe republican propagandist. He no longer fears religious\npersecution--it is a thing past: he braves it. He would adopt his\nfavourite principle, and all its consequences. He would probably admit\nthat it was the duty of the priest, according to his priestly\nintelligence, to ban and persecute. Not mutual toleration, but\nreciprocal compulsion, would be his principle. Combat thou for thy\ntruth--let me fight for mine; such would be his formula.\n\nIn a writer bent upon startling and surprising us, there is often a sort\nof premeditated haste, a voluntary forgetfulness, which it is curious to\nremark. One who weighs his matter well before he speaks, will often end,\nalas! in having something very tame and moderate to propound--something\nwhich, after all his turmoil and reflection, may sound very like a good\nold commonplace. Now this approximation to commonplace is the great\nhorror of shallow writers; and the way to avoid it appears to be\nthis:--Proclaim your thought at once, in all its crude candescence,\nbefore it has had time to cool and shape itself; then, in order to save\nyour credit with the more captions and scrutinizing, give, at some\nconvenient interval, such an explanation or modification as will show\nthat, after all, you were as wise as your reader. State your paradox in\nall the startling force of unmitigated diction, and refute it yourself\nafterwards, or say enough to prove that you could have done so. This,\nwell managed, gives two occasions for brilliant display; a sober\nstatement has been converted into a couple of bold and glancing\npropositions. Truth, it is well proved, like the diamond, shines the\nmore by being cut into surfaces.\n\nM. Louis Blanc, for instance, makes a startling remark on the\nincompatibility of royalty and a representative chamber. The two powers\nare represented to us as flatly irreconcilable. \"Can society,\" he asks,\n\"have two heads? Is the sovereignty divisible? Between the government of\na king and the government of an assembly, is there not a gulf which\nevery day makes wider? And wherever this dualism exists, are not the\npeople condemned to fluctuate miserably between a 10th of August and an\n18th Brumaire?\"--(_Int._, p. 64.) And a little further on, speaking of\nthe times of Louis XVIII., he writes--\"Meanwhile Europe began to be\ndisquieted on the state of things in France. Foreign sovereigns had\nthought to establish peace in our country, by establishing the empire of\nthe charter, and the political dualism which it consecrates. The error\nwas great, and they ended by discovering it. M. de Richelieu, who had\nbeen present at the congress at Aix-la-Chapelle, brought back with him a\nvery lively apprehension of the future fate of the monarchy in France. A\nchange of the electoral law was proposed. Unhappily, it was not in the\nlaw of the 5th February that lay the danger which occupied the congress\nof Aix-la-Chapelle. To consolidate the throne, and raise it above the\nstorms which threatened it, not this or that electoral law, but the\nelectoral power itself, should, if possible, be abolished. For in\nwhatever hands this formidable lever was placed, it was impossible that\nroyalty could long resist its action. To shift the elective power was\nonly to give the monarchy other enemies, not to save it. * * * The aim\nof the new ministry was to preserve the electoral law; which amounted to\nthis--the monarchy chose ministers whose programme was the destruction\nof monarchy.\"\n\nOn reading such passages, we naturally set about recalling certain\nold-fashioned political truisms, bearing on the character and interest\nof that middle class of society in which the electoral power is\ngenerally lodged. We recollect that the middle classes have been held to\nhave an interest as well in preserving, as in checking and controlling\nthe monarchy. Alone, they could not govern society; and they have a\nlarger share in the government, as partners with the monarchy, than if\nthey were absorbed in the general mass of the population. They have\nevery thing to lose by the abolition of a royalty which they have ceased\nto fear, and which they have bound by laws. Such a royalty, with its\nsway over the imagination of the multitude, with its strong hand of\nmilitary power--hand in which the sword is allowed always to rest, as\npomp in time of peace, as weapon in time of war--such a royalty they\nfeel to be their best protection. Why, then, should they, in their\nelectoral capacity, be thrust on by a blind rage to destroy it? But all\nthis train of reflection we might have spared ourselves. M. Louis Blanc\nknows it all, and, if you will wait a reasonable time, he will show you\nthat he knows it. He will put it to you very forcibly--in another place.\nAccordingly, some ninety pages off, he tells us:--\"At bottom, the middle\nclass (_la bourgeoisie_) sees in the monarchy a permanent obstacle to\ndemocratic aspirations: it would have subjected royalty, but not\ndestroyed it.\"\n\nFor the enlightenment of those who may wish to write history in the most\ncaptivating manner, and at the least possible expense to themselves, we\nwill reveal another fruitful expedient. There are two ways of writing\nhistory. You may either deduce its great events from certain wide and\nsteadily-operating causes, as the growing wealth or intelligence of a\npeople, or you may raise a vulgar wonder by describing them as the\nresult of some quite trivial incident. In the one case, you appeal to a\nphilosophic taste; in the other, to a popular love of the marvellous. A\nrevolution may be represented as the inevitable outbreak of the\ndiscontent and misery of the people; or it may be traced, with all its\ndisasters, to the caprice of a courtier, or perhaps the accidental delay\nof a messenger. For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a\nshoe, the horse was lost; for want of a horse, the man--and so all was\nowing to the want of a nail!\n\nThe two manners seem incompatible. Never mind. Use them both--both\nfreely, independently--just as occasion prompts, and the effect\nrequires. Flatter the philosophic taste that delights in generalities,\nand please the childish wonder which loves to fancy that the whole\noak--trunk, branches, leaves--lay in the acorn. M. Louis Blanc has\ncertainly no idea of forfeiting either of these attractions by laying\nclaim to the other. Observe the ease and boldness with which he embraces\nthem in his narrative of the fall of Napoleon, and the restoration of\nthe Bourbons. He commences in the generalizing mood.\n\n\"The fall of Napoleon lay in the laws of the development of the middle\nclasses. Can a nation be at the same time essentially commercial and\nessentially warlike? Napoleon must have renounced his great part of\nmilitary chieftain, or he must have broken with the spirit of\ncitizenship and commerce. It was madness to think of reigning by the\nsword, and continuing the Constituent Assembly. France could not have,\nat the same time, the destinies of Rome and Carthage. Napoleon\nsuccumbed, and must have succumbed, to the Carthaginian party of the\npeople of France. But if the necessary development of the middle classes\ncalled for the overthrow of the empire, it demanded also the return of\nthe Bourbons. To prove this, we have only to present, in its instructive\nsimplicity of detail, that narrative of the restoration which so many\nhistorians have distorted.\"--(_Int._, p. 18.)\n\nWell, he proceeds with this simple and instructive detail; and his\nfirst object is evidently to deprive Talleyrand, to whom on all\noccasions he manifests a singular bitterness, of the credit generally\ngiven him of having aided materially in the recall of the Bourbons in\n1814. But does he effect this by showing, as from this exordium we might\nexpect, that his countrymen of the middle class, wearied of the costly\ntriumphs and disasters of the empire, had begun to sigh for peace and\ntheir old kings? Not at all. He transfers the personal share in the\ndrama from Prince Talleyrand to Baron de Vitrolles. The Duke d'Alberg\nhad introduced the baron to Talleyrand, whose intention was to employ\nhim merely to sound the views of the Allies. Talleyrand was to have\naccredited him by some lines of his own writing, but ultimately refused\nto commit himself. How was Baron de Vitrolles, who by no means limited\nhimself to the subordinate part designed for him, and on whom it will be\nseen so much really depended, to get accredited to the Allies?\n\nThe Duke d'Alberg was intimately acquainted with the Count de Stadion,\nrepresentative of Austria at the congress. Now these two friends had\nformerly, at Munich, had a certain tender intimacy with two young girls,\nwhose names the Duke d'Alberg remembered; he wrote them on the leaf of a\npocket-book, and they served as a letter of credence to the adventurous\nambassador. \"Such,\" exclaims our lately generalizing historian--\"such is\nthe manner in which God disposes of the fate of nations!--_Voila de\nquelle sorte il plait a Dieu de disposer du sort des peuples!_\"\n\nThe Baron de Vitrolles, we are told, found the Emperor Alexander\npossessed with a strong repugnance against the Bourbons. It cost him\nthree hours' conversation to gain him over. But he succeeded. It was he\nwho did gain him over. On the 31st of March, when the Emperor of Russia\nentered Paris, Talleyrand stepped forward to receive him.\n\n\"Well,\" said Alexander, \"it seems that France recalls the Bourbons.\"\n\nThese words occasioned M. Talleyrand a profound surprise, which,\nhowever, he was too skilful a diplomatist to betray. From that moment,\nhe was a convert to what he considered the successful cause. \"Thus,\"\ncontinues our historian, \"this restoration took place contrary to the\nwill of the people, to whom the Bourbons in 1814 were unknown; contrary\nto the sympathies of Alexander, who feared the dangers of a reaction;\ncontrary, in fine, to the opinion of M. Talleyrand, who had never\nthought it possible, and had desired only the regency of _Marie\nLouise_!\"\n\nWhat particle of truth there may be in this narrative, we do not stop to\nenquire; we refer to it only as an example of the bold union of the two\nhistoric manners. The restoration of the Bourbons was \"in the laws of\nthe development of the middle classes!\" It was all owing to the Baron de\nVitrolles, and that lucky little intrigue at Munich!\n\nIt is one of the boasts and privileges of history to reverse the\njudgment that contemporaries have formed of the character of the actors\nin it. This privilege M. Louis Blanc, since he writes history, is\ndetermined at all events to seize upon; and he can boast, perhaps, of\nhaving reversed more judgments of this kind than any other historian,\nhowever voluminous. M. Talleyrand has obtained his reputation for\nability--his moral reputation it would be too commonplace a matter to\nattack--by \"speaking in monosyllables one half his life, and saying\nnothing the other half.\" M. Guizot is a man \"whose talent consists in\nconcealing, under the solemnity of expression and the pomp of _formulae_,\nan extreme poverty of views, and sentiments without grandeur.\" M. Dupin,\nthe elder, is \"skilful in concealing, under an affectation of rudeness,\nthe pusillanimity of his heart.\" Cuvier, whose scientific reputation is\nuntouched, probably because no motive led him to assail it, is \"_homme\nplus grand par l'intelligence que par le coeur_.\" Of Metternich he\nwrites--\"A lover of repose from selfishness, he sought it also from\nincapacity. He wished to enjoy a reputation easily usurped, the\nfalsehood of which the least complication of events would have exposed.\"\nAnd the picture he gives throughout of Casimir Perier is that of an\n\"illustrious charlatan,\" in whom nothing was genuine but his pride, his\nhate, and his physical infirmities.\n\nThe ministers of Charles X. meet with a much fairer appreciation than\nthose of Louis Philippe. Towards them, one might even say that he is\nindulgent. This is easily accounted for: in the war of party, those with\nwhom we come into the closest and most frequent collision, must, of\ncourse, excite the largest share of our animosity. M. de Polignac seems\nto have been aware that he had little to fear from the fierce democrat:\nhe has not disdained a sort of literary participation in the work,\nhaving contributed some manuscript notes of his own, explanatory of his\nshare in the transactions of 1830. Altogether, we may presume that the\nhistory, so far as it relates to the ministers of Charles X., is not\nunfairly written. Let us approach the narrative by this quarter.\n\nIt is a singular picture that M. de Polignac presents to the\nimagination, with his unruffled serenity, his extreme audacity, his\nviolent measures, his negligent preparation, his strong will, his weak\nintelligence. The minister is always smiling, and, in the midst of\ndisaster and ruin, is still beaming with self-confidence; he seems to\nhave thought that self-confidence wrought like magic, or like faith, and\ncould of itself remove mountains. If difficulties occurred, his resource\nwas to be still more self-confident. He was well aware of the hostility\nhis ordonnances would create; he was well aware that the army must be\ntheir veritable support: yet observe with what a sublime air of\nnonchalance he prepares himself for the subjection of a people. \"How\nmany men,\" asked M. d'Haussez, as the ministers sat round the\ncouncil-table, \"can you reckon on at Paris?--have you twenty-eight or\nthirty thousand?\" \"More,\" said the premier; \"I have forty-two thousand;\"\nand, rolling up a paper which he held in his hands, he threw it across\nthe table to d'Haussez. \"But,\" said the latter, as he looked over the\nstatement that had been given to him, \"I see here only thirteen\nthousand. Thirteen thousand men on paper--that amounts to about seven or\neight thousand actually ready to fight your battles. And the other\ntwenty-nine thousand to complete your number, where are they?\" M. de\nPolignac assured him that they were spread about the neighbourhood of\nParis, and in ten hours, if it were necessary, could be assembled in the\ncapital. The ministers felt, adds our historian, that they were entering\ninto a dreadful game blindfold.\n\nM. de Polignac appears to have relied upon the army, much in the same\nway that a speculative writer, theorizing upon government, rests upon\nhis great abstraction, the military power. He treated it as if it were a\nprinciple, an idea, that developed itself without his aid, and not a\npalpable fact of there being a certain number of armed men, then and\nthere, to fight for his ordonnances.\n\nThere is no virtue so much applauded in the present day as\nresolution--_will_; and there are who regard a strong will as the\nessence of all virtue. But the history of M. de Polignac proves, (if\nthis needed proof,) that the weak can have will enough. Your strong will\nmay be purchased at the sole expense of reason. Let there be one idea in\na brain that cannot hold two, and you have a strong will. M. de Polignac\nnever wavered once; he was always seen with a smiling countenance, calm,\nradiant with hope and self-approval. When others around him began to\ndespond, when the Duke of Ragusa, commander of the forces, writing to\nthe king, said that it was not a riot, but a revolution, and advised him\nto retreat while he could still retreat with honour, the minister had,\nfor all answer, but one word--\"Fire!\" It was still, Fire! But what if\nthe troops, it was asked, desert to the people? \"Then fire on the\ntroops!\"\n\nOn the publication of the ordonnances, the members of the Chamber who\nwere in Paris met at each others' houses to discuss measures of\nresistance. But it was not from the members of the Chamber that the\nmovement was to emanate. Those who had any position to compromise looked\non, for the most part, with anxiety and astonishment, waiting to see\nwhat current the disturbed waters would finally take. \"On the evening of\nthe 27th, a man, name unknown, appeared on the Quai d'Ecole, and\nparaded the banks of the river with the tri- flag, which had\nbeen folded up and hidden away for fifteen years.\" The symbol was\nadopted by the people. The revolution had commenced.\n\nThen followed all those strange scenes of levity and blood, buffoonery\nand heroism, which the history of Parisian revolutions has familiarized\nto the imagination, but which, nevertheless, have an inexhaustible\ninterest. The people arm themselves wheresoever and howsoever they can.\nOne brings into the Place de la Bourse two large hampers, full of\nmuskets and accoutrements. They come from the Theatre du Vaudeville,\nwhere a piece had been played, a few days before, which required that a\nnumber of actors should be armed. To command men thus equipped there\nwere extemporary generals, whose epaulets were obtained from the\nwardrobe of the Opera Comique. The students of the Polytechnic were, as\nusual, on the alert to practise whatever they had learned of military\nscience; the younger sort entering into the war with the same spirit\nthat other schoolboys partake of any minor mischief that is going\nforward. A student of the Polytechnic is standing on the left bank of\nthe river; he has a musket, but no ammunition. A fellow-student, a lad\nof fifteen, has a packet of cartridges, but no musket: \"You shall share\nthem,\" said he, showing his treasure, \"if you will lend me the gun to\nshoot my half.\" A party of the royal guard were coming over the bridge.\nHe started with the gun _to have his shots_. He was swept off with\nothers by the fire of the military.\n\nOn one side comes a party led by a violin, women applauding. But the\nwomen do more than applaud. They carry great paving-stones to the top of\nthe house, to be thence precipitated on the heads of the soldiers; they\ntend the wounded, they bruise charcoal for gunpowder.\n\nThere was, no doubt, some severe fighting during the Three Days; but,\ngenerally speaking, the military seem to have entered into the contest\nwith reluctance. Some instances are here given of singular forbearance\non their part. At a time when, in certain quarters of Paris, each house\nwas converted into a sort of fortress whence the military was assailed,\nthree men had placed themselves behind a stack of chimneys, and had,\nfrom this shelter, directed a destructive fire on the troops. They were\nat length discovered, and a cannon was levelled against the chimney.\nBut, before firing, the gunner made signal to the men to escape,\ncontenting himself with demolishing their breastwork. As another company\nof soldiers, led by its officer, was marching through the streets, one\nof the mob rushed forward, and, with a mad audacity, struck the officer\non the head with a bar of iron. He staggered, and his face overflowed\nwith blood; but he still had strength enough to raise his sword to put\naside the muskets of his men, who were in the act of firing on the\nassailant.\n\nWe have here a vivid description of the taking of the Tuileries by the\npopulace. Some amused themselves by mutilating the statues of kings, or\nby firing at the portraits of such of the marshals as they considered to\nhave been guilty of treason to Napoleon. A number of artisans installed\nthemselves in the chamber of the throne; they sat, each in his turn,\nupon the royal seat, afterwards they placed a corpse in it. Some of them\ndrew, over shirts stained with blood, the court-dresses which had\ncircled the waist of royal princesses, and strutted about in this\nmasquerade. Riot and destruction as much as you please, but no\ntheft--such was the order of the day. A young man was bearing off a hat,\ndecorated with plumes of a costly description. \"Where are you going,\"\ncried his companions, \"with that hat?\" \"It is only a souvenir,\" said he\nof the hat. \"Ha! good; but in that case the value is nothing.\" So\nsaying, they took the hat and trampled it under their feet, and then\nreturned it to him--doubly valuable as a souvenir. Many striking traits\nof honesty were exhibited. One man brought a vase of silver to the\nprefect of police, and did not even leave his name. Another found a bag\nof three thousand francs in the Louvre, and hastened with the money to\nthe Commune. The next day he was probably amongst the number who were\nwandering about Paris without bread and without work, driven out of\nemployment by the commercial panic of their own glorious revolution.\n\nA scene of a like grotesque description took place, at a later period,\non the return of the mob from Rambouillet, where they had gone in search\nof the unhappy Charles X. The king had left Rambouillet before the mob\nreached it, so that they had nothing to do but to return, unless any\nwork of demolition should invite them to stay. M. Degoussee, at that\nmoment the man in authority, in order to save the royal carriages from\ndestruction, bethought him of the expedient of offering a ride home in\nthem to the most violent and redoubtable of the mob. In a moment these\ngilded vehicles, blazoned with the royal arms, were filled with the\nlowest of the rabble, who projected their pipes and their bayonets from\nthe windows. These state carriages, drawn by eight horses, and driven by\nsilken postilions, were heaped up, inside and out, with this riotous\ncrew, who entered Paris in triumph, amidst the responsive jests and\nshouts of the populace. Driven up to the Palais Royal, they there\ndescended from their splendid vehicles, and delivered them over to their\nnew owner. \"_Tenez--voila vos voitures!_\" they shouted, as they alighted\nunder the windows of the Duke of Orleans.\n\nIt is curious to remark the contrast between the thoughtless, reckless\nbravery of the combatants of July, and the watchful timidity of the\npoliticians who were ultimately to profit by their courage and\ninfatuation. The soldiers had, at many points, fraternized with the\npeople--all was success for the popular party--and the drawing-room of\nM. Lafitte was full of distinguished men of that party.\n\n\"The court of the hotel,\" continues M. Blanc, \"was now full of soldiers.\nFive of the royal officers entered the saloon. M. Lafitte, who had been\nwounded in the leg, received them sitting in an arm-chair. He received\nthem with great blandness and dignity. 'Gentlemen,' said he, 'keep your\narms, but swear never to turn them against the people.' The officers\nextended their hands, as if to take an oath. 'No oath, gentlemen,' said\nM. Lafitte with much emotion; 'kings have dishonoured oaths. The word of\nthe brave is sufficient.' This was received with universal applause, and\nevery one present resigned himself to the excitement of the hour; when\nsuddenly a discharge of musketry was heard. How describe the tumult that\nin a moment filled the apartment! The royal guard was certainly\nvictorious--the enemy would be down on them--every one fled. They rushed\ninto the hall, they pushed, they struggled for egress. Some jumped\nthrough the windows of the ground-floor into the garden. Two deputies\nwere found hiding in the stables. In an instant, M. Lafitte was\nabandoned by all those who had besieged his arm-chair. His nephew was\nthe only person who remained with him. And what had happened? The\nsoldiers of the 6th had followed the example of their comrades of the\n55th, and, gained over to the cause of the people, they had fired their\nmuskets in the air!\"\n\nAlready, at the first outbreak of the revolution, some one had\nremarked--\"here were a good game for the Duke of Orleans, if he has the\ncourage to play it.\" Courage he had, but equal caution it seems, equal\nprudence. A deputation had proceeded from the house of Lafitte to\nNeuilly, the residence of the Duke, to invite him to the throne; but it\nwas the Duchess who received them. The Duke himself had taken refuge at\nRaincy. To Raincy messengers were sent. The Duke of Orleans ordered his\ncarriage. Those who were waiting his arrival at Neuilly heard the wheels\napproach--heard them suddenly recede. The carriage had turned, and was\nregaining Raincy with all the speed possible. The resolution was not\nquite taken, or the pear was not quite ripe.\n\nHis entry into Paris, according to M. Blanc, was made on foot in the\nevening, and he clambered like a common citizen over the barricades.\nArrived at the Palais Royal, he sent to notify his presence to Lafitte\nand Lafayette--representatives, the one of the Chamber, and the other of\nthe Hotel de Ville--and also to the Duke de Mortemart, minister of\nCharles X. The interview with this last took place the same evening, and\nhad for its apparent object to proclaim, in the presence of the\nminister, his attachment and unalterable fidelity to the elder branch of\nthe Bourbons. When De Mortemart arrived, he was ushered into a little\ncabinet on the right, which looks upon the court, not ordinarily used as\nan apartment of the family.\n\nThe Duke of Orleans was stretched upon the floor, lying on a mattrass,\nin his shirt. His forehead was bathed in sweat;{B} the glare of his\neyes, and every thing about him, betrayed a great fatigue, and a\nsingular state of excitement. On seeing the Duke de Mortemart enter, he\nbegan to speak with great rapidity. He expressed himself with much\nvolubility and ardour, proclaiming his attachment to the elder branch,\nand protesting that he came to Paris only to save the town from anarchy.\nAt this moment a great noise was heard in the court, and the cry was\nraised of _Vive le Duc d'Orleans!_ \"You hear that cry,\" said the\nminister; \"it is you the people call for.\" \"No, no!\" answered the Duke\nwith increasing energy. \"They shall kill me before I accept the crown.\"\n\nThe next morning the deputation from the Chamber presented itself at the\nPalais Royal; and so far was resolved, that the Duke of Orleans was\nproclaimed lieutenant-general of the kingdom.\n\nM. Louis Blanc gives several anecdotes respecting the King of the\nFrench, and his successive ministers, which we should be disposed to\nextract, but that his political antipathies lying exactly in this\nquarter, we have not felt sufficient confidence in their authority. For\nthis reason we will pass on abruptly to a portion of the work where the\npolitical bias of the writer is harmless, or where it may have induced\nhim to inform himself more accurately on his subject than the generality\nof persons.\n\nThis last is evidently the case in his account of the doctrines and\npractices of the St Simonians. One who felt no sympathy with any portion\nof their creed, would not have taken the trouble to obtain accurate\ninformation, or an intimate knowledge on this subject. Not that M. Blanc\nis a St Simonian; to do him justice, he has argued with ability and\nclearness against their leading tenets or maxims; but being a man\ndevoted to a new order of things of some kind or other, he has given\nnaturally a more than usual attention to this sect, and we think our\nreaders will hold themselves obliged to us, if we abridge some portion\nof his account of St Simon and his disciples.\n\n\"The founder of the St Simonian school had been deceased five years when\nthe revolution of July broke out. He belonged to one of the noblest\nhouses of France, bearing the name and arms of that famous Duke de St\nSimon, the historian of the reign of Louis XIV., and the last of our\nveritable _grands seigneurs_. Yet it was the privilege of birth that he\nattacked, and the impiety of war that he proclaimed. He was a man of\nsingular independence of mind, and of extreme moral courage. Convinced\nthat, before dictating a code for the regulation of human life, it was\nnecessary to have attentively analysed that life as it actually exists,\nhe spent the first half of his days in studying society under all its\naspects; recoiling from no experience, practising, in the character of\nan observer, even vice as well as virtue; drawing a lesson from his own\nfrailties, and making a study of his own follies. He dissipated his\nfortune in premeditated prodigality, and terminated a studious opulence\nin excessive poverty; living on the miserable salary of a copyist, when\nin idea he was governing the world. In the estimation of some, a\nsage--of others, a madman; at one time sanguine to enthusiasm, at\nanother discouraged to the point of attempting suicide; reduced at last\nto the condition of a mendicant, after having so often united round his\ntable, in order to observe and judge them, the most celebrated men in\nart and literature. Such was St Simon in life and character: it remains\nto see what were the intellectual results he arrived at.\"--(Vol. III. p.\n96.)\n\nHis first project of a code for human life was sufficiently ridiculous.\nIn a work entitled _Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva to his\nContemporaries_, he addressed himself to the learned portion of the\nworld, inviting them to undertake the government of the human race. The\nprogramme was as follows. A subscription was to be opened before the\ntomb of Newton. Every one was called upon to subscribe according to his\nmeans, rich and poor, man and woman; and each subscriber was to have a\nvoice in the selection of--three mathematicians, three natural\nphilosophers, three chemists, three physiologists, three men of letters,\nthree painters, and three musicians. These several threes, amounting to\ntwenty-one, besides having the produce of the subscription, were to form\na council, called the _Council of Newton_, and undertake the spiritual\ngovernment of the world, directing the efforts of the several nations of\nthe globe towards one common end.\n\nThe learned portion of the world made no response to this invitation; he\ntherefore next addressed himself to the operatives, declaring that the\ntime was come to tear the crown from the brow of idleness, and establish\nthe reign of labour. The king was now to be the chief of artisans, his\nministers enlightened workmen; and the electoral right was to be so\nplaced as to transfer all power from the proprietor of the soil to the\ncultivator, from the capitalist to the journeyman. One would say that,\npiqued with the indifference of the most literate portion of mankind, he\nwas determined to offer the government of the world to the most\nilliterate. Since the Royal Society would not accept the ball and\nsceptre which he had placed at its disposal, he gave them over to the\nTrades' Union.\n\nBut neither would this satisfy him. He who appeals to the lowest order\nof minds must confine himself to what is intelligible to, and\ninfluential on the lowest; and this would hardly accord with one who, at\nall events, had led an intellectual life, of however wild an order. He\nagain reverted to the thinking classes, and to some modification of his\nfirst idea; and his _New Christianity_--his last and most complete\neffort--has for its object to erect an intellectual and spiritual\ngovernment of the world. Taking his analogy from the spiritual dominion\nof the church of Rome, but finding that that power was too restricted in\nits exercise, inasmuch as the material interests and scientific labours\nof mankind were not embraced by it, he called for the foundation of \"a\nreligious power, which, embracing humanity in all its interests, should\nconduct it towards a Christian purpose--the amelioration of the lot of\nthe great multitude of mankind; by their _sentiments_ employing\n_artists_, by their _reason_ employing the _learned_, and by their\n_activity_ employing the _operative_.\"\n\nWhatever may be the importance of this conception, it answered one\npurpose--it satisfied the builder's mind. St Simon died full of faith\nand hope. When he bade his eternal adieus to the few disciples who\nsurrounded his dying bed, he regarded his work as completed, his mission\nas fulfilled. \"The fruit is ripe,\" said he; \"you will gather it.\"\n\nThe disciples of St Simon still further elaborated and disseminated his\ndoctrines; and a school was formed which recognised MM. Enfantin and\nBuzard for its chiefs. It need hardly be said, that the new order of\nsociety was to be founded on universal benevolence--no war, and no\nrivalry--and the industry of mankind organized in such sort, _that to\neach man would be assigned according to his capacity, and to each\ncapacity according to its works_.\n\nWe quote with pleasure the remarks (tinctured though they are by his own\npeculiar opinions) which M. Blanc makes on this famous formula:--\"In\npreaching a universal association of men, founded on benevolence--in\ndemanding that industry should be regularly organized, and that she\nshould establish her empire on the ruins of a system of violence and\nwar, the St Simonians showed a thorough intelligence of the laws which\nwill one day govern humanity. But they overthrow with one hand the\nedifice they erect with the other, when they announce this famous\nformula--_To each according to his capacity; to each capacity according\nto its works_--a formula wise and equitable in appearance, but in\nreality subversive and unjust.\n\n\"If we say that a man, in virtue of his intellectual superiority, is to\nadjudge to himself a larger share than others of the goods of this\nworld, what right have we to censure the sturdy barbarian, who, in\nvirtue of his physical superiority, was wont to take the lion's share to\nhimself? We have changed the basis on which the tyranny rested--the\ntyranny remains. The St Simonians, it is true, justify their formula on\nthe grounds of public utility; it is well, say they, to stimulate talent\nby recompense. But is it necessary that the recompense of talent be of\nthis gross and material kind? that it be counted down in so much wealth?\nThank Heaven! man has other and more energetic motives. With a piece of\nriband to be attached to the buttonhole, Napoleon could make an army of\na million of men rush forward upon danger and death. The word _glory_,\nwell or ill understood, has always decided the destinies of the world.\nWhat is amply sufficient when the work of destruction is in hand, by\nwhat disastrous fatality does it become incompetent when the task is to\nproduce and to create? Is it not true that great men have always sought\nand found their principal recompense in the very exercise of their high\nfaculties? If society had wished to recompense Newton, it would have\nbeen utterly powerless to do so; there was for Newton, in all the world,\nno other or sufficient recompense, but the joy he must have felt when\nhis genius discovered the laws which govern the planets. * * * The\ngreater the intelligence, the greater the sphere of action; but not\nnecessarily the greater the material recompense. The inequality of\ncapacities can legitimately conduct to the inequality only of duties.\"\n\nThe revolution of 1830 gave a wonderful stimulant to the little society\nof St Simon. It extended rapidly, and adjourned its sittings from a\nprivate house to an ample theatre, where three tiers of boxes held the\nadmiring or ironical auditory. Fetes, and the presence of charming\nwomen, increased the number of proselytes; artists, physicians,\nadvocates, poets, flocked to share in the generous hopes of the new era.\nThe capital and the provinces were portioned out into new departments,\nto accord with the new administration of affairs, and St Simonism had\nalso its map of France. The two chiefs, or fathers, took upon themselves\nthe ambitious title of popes. They already cast their eyes upon the\nTuileries. Louis-Philippe was summoned by letter to yield his place to\nMM. Enfantin and Buzard. St Simonism was already a government destined\nto replace the authority of the Catholic church.\n\nBut there were schisms in this new church--Pope Enfantin thinking one\nthing and Pope Buzard another; and that, too, on the important topic of\nmatrimony. The principal adepts of the sect met together, and held\nstrange fanatical discussions for the discovery of the truth on these\ncontroverted points. It is worthy of remark, that St Simonism, as well\nas Irvingism or Mesmerism, could boast of its convulsions and its\nprophecies.\n\n\"At this time there passed in the Rue Monsigny, in the midst of this\nsceptical and mocking France, scenes so extraordinary, that, to find\ntheir parallel, we must revert to the history of the Anabaptists. Those\nwho had hitherto resisted the extreme doctrines of Father Enfantin, felt\nas if impelled against their will to the borders of some immense abyss.\nWith the rest, it was an accession of fervour altogether indescribable,\nan exaltation which ended in delirium. There, in a room, the doors of\nwhich were carefully closed, and whose thick walls betrayed no sound,\ndiscussions were continued whole days and whole nights without\ninterruption, without relief, without repose. It sometimes happened that\na young man, incapable of sustaining these consuming vigils, reeled and\nfainted; they removed the apparently lifeless body without suspending\nthe discussion. M. Caseaux was in an ecstasy for an hour, and began to\nprophesy. Another day, M. Olinde Rodrigues was struck as if by apoplexy;\nbecause, asking each of the members in turn whether it was not true that\nthe Holy Spirit was in him, (M. Olinde Rodrigues,) one of the persons\ninterrogated had the temerity to answer by certain expressions of\nincredulity. The fit was extremely violent, and Dr Fuster, in order to\nsave the patient, had recourse to a formal retractation from the\ninconsiderate respondent, who, on his part, was full of affliction for\nthe mischief he had occasioned. Such, even on men of serious thought and\nelevated understanding, may be the effect produced by a belief carried\nto a certain point of excitement.\"\n\nSuch, too, may be the danger of contradicting a prophet; and we intend\nto take the hint, and never be guilty of so great an imprudence. These\ndissensions, accompanied with certain financial difficulties, led to a\nrupture, and the family of the Rue Monsigny were compelled to dissolve.\n\n\"In this crisis, the profound calm of Enfantin never deserted him. He\npossessed, at Menilmontant, a house and garden; here he resolved to seek\na place of retreat, of study, and of labour, for himself and his more\nfaithful disciples. Forty of these followed him to this retreat, and\nthere commenced the life in common, combined always with a just\nsentiment of the true hierarchy of society. Poets, artists, officers,\nmusicians, all devoted themselves in turn to the rudest and coarsest\nlabours. They repaired the house, they swept the courts, they cleaned\nthe chambers and polished the floors; they dug up the uncultivated soil,\nthey covered the walks with gravel, extracted from a pit which they\nthemselves had excavated. To prove that their ideas on the nature of\nmarriage, and the emancipation of women, were pure from any selfish or\nsensual calculations, they imposed upon themselves the law of celibacy.\nMorning and evening they nourished their mind with the words of the\nfather, or, in the lives of the Christian saints read aloud, they found\nexample, encouragement, and precept. Hymns, the music of which one of\ntheir members had composed, served to elevate their minds and charm\ntheir labours. At five o'clock, dinner was announced by the sound of a\nhorn. Then these philosophic workpeople piled up their tools, arranged\ntheir wheel-barrows symmetrically, and took their place, after having\nfirst sung 'the prayer before repast.'\"\n\nIn this retreat they adopted a distinctive dress, of which one portion,\nthe waistcoat, was symbolical; it was so made that it could not be put\non without the help of a brother--and thus was calculated perpetually to\ncall to mind the necessity of mutual aid. On the day of the institution\nof this habit, Enfantin declared that he and his followers had renounced\nall rights to property according to the existing law, and had duly\nqualified themselves to receive \"the honourable wages\" of labour.\n\nBut this fantastical experiment was cut short by the interference of the\nlaw. A public prosecution was instituted against the St Simonians; and\nPere Enfantin, and other chiefs of the sect, were brought before the\ntribunal at Paris. It will be easily understood that the court that day\nwas crowded with spectators, eager to see the St Simonians, especially\nEnfantin, who appeared in a violet- robe, with the words LE PERE\nwritten in large letters on his breast. When asked by the president,\nwhether he did not style himself the Father of Humanity--whether he did\nnot profess to be the Living Law--he answered, \"Yes!\" with perfect\ncalmness and assurance. The discourse he delivered in his own defence\nwas chiefly remarkable for the long pauses he made from time to time,\noccupying himself with looking steadfastly at the president, or the\nadvocate-general. He said he wished to make them feel \"the power of the\nflesh.\" But this species of animal magnetism appears to have had no\nother effect than that of irritating the court. He and some others were\ncondemned to pay a fine, and suffer a year's imprisonment. The family\nwas dispersed. For the present there was an end to St Simonism.\n\nA history is hardly complete without a plague, or pestilence, or famine,\nor some such wide-spreading calamity, on which the historian can spend\nthe dark colours of his descriptive eloquence. Considering that M. Louis\nBlanc had but the space of ten years under him, he must have regarded\nhimself as very fortunate in meeting with the cholera, which figures\nhere as a very respectable pestilence. The carrying forth the dead,\nnaked and uncoffined, in open carts, is an image often presented to us\nin descriptions of this nature; but it is perhaps surpassed in terrible\neffects by the one here offered to us, of the bodies of those who had\ndied of the cholera piled up in carts and tumbrils, in coffins so\nhastily and slightly constructed, that, as they rattled over the stones,\nthere was constant danger of their horrible contents being poured upon\nthe pavement. But the strange reports that were afloat amongst this\ncredulous and passionate populace, form the most striking feature in the\npicture. It was reported in Paris, as our readers will probably\nremember, that there was, in reality, no cholera, but that poison had\nbeen poured into the fountains of the metropolis, and had been mingled\nwith the wine and the flour; and thus it was that the people were dying.\nIt was dangerous to be found with a phial in the hand, or to be seen\nsitting, without any ostensible cause, near one of the public fountains.\nA young man was looking into a well; he was massacred. Another met the\nsame fate, who was leaning over the door of a dealer in wine and\nspirits, in order to see what o'clock it was. A Jew in the market-place\nwas thought to have a sinister laugh; they searched him, found a packet\nof white powder--it was camphor--they killed him, and set on the dogs to\ntear the body.\n\nAnd then that insurrection against the mud-carts--what an insight does\nit give into the wide-spreading and tangled interests of a modern\ncapital! It was impossible to touch the mud of Paris without periling\nthe subsistence of eighteen hundred persons. What more fit, what more\ninnocuous to all parties, it would seem, than to clear away the mud from\nthe streets--to clear it away as soon as possible, that it should not\nlie there, exhaling pestilence during the heat of the day? But\nstop--there are in Paris some eighteen hundred persons who gain their\nbread out of this mud, groping in it, and extracting from it every\narticle of the least commercial value. With a basket slung upon their\nback, and a crook in their hand to facilitate their search, these\n_chiffoniers_ are to be seen in every quarter of the city, congregating\nwherever there is dirt. And now, if all that is thrown out of the houses\nof Paris is taken away before these industrious persons have had time to\nsearch it, what is to become of the whole profession of _chiffonerie_?\nThese new mud-carts, with their ruthless sweepers, traversing the city\nat dawn of day, must be broken up and thrown into the Seine; and it was\ndone so accordingly.\n\nThere is a peculiar charm, we think, in having related to us, for the\nfirst time, in the shape of history, what we remember to have read and\ntalked over as the news and gossip of the day. We seem to be present at\nthe making of history. We see facts, as the death of princes, which made\nso much stir and confusion, sink into the commonplace of the historical\nrecord; while anecdotes, which were repeated and forgotten, may stand\nforward as instructive proofs of the temper of the times, and the spirit\nof the past age. More than one such anecdote we think we could select\nfrom the pages before us; but it is possible we might draw them from a\npurer source than the work of M. Louis Blanc, to which our readers will\nperhaps think that we have already given more than sufficient space.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n{A} _Histoire de Dix Ans_, 1830-1840. Par M. LOUIS BLANC.\n\n{B} As well it might, if he had been clambering over barricades in those\nhot days of July; for the three glorious days were remarkable for their\nheat.\n\n\n\n\nA NIGHT ON THE BANKS OF THE TENNESSEE.\n\n\n\"Can you tell us how far we are from Brown's ferry?\" said I to a man,\nwho came suddenly and silently upon us from a narrow side-path.\n\nWe were on the banks of the Tennessee: the evening was drawing in; the\nfog, that hung over land and river, was each moment thickening. The\nlandscape had a wild chaotic appearance, and it was scarcely possible to\ndistinguish objects at five paces distance.\n\nThe horseman paused some moments before answering my question. At last\nhe replied, accompanying his words with an ominous shake of the head--\n\n\"To Brown's ferry? Perhaps you mean Cox's ferry?\"\n\n\"Well, then--Cox's ferry,\" said I, rather impatiently.\n\n\"Ay, old Brown is dead,\" continued the man, \"and Betsy has married young\nCox. Ain't it him you mean?\"\n\n\"That we know nothing about,\" replied I; \"but what we wish to learn is,\nwhether we are far from the ferry, and if this is the right road to it.\"\n\n\"Ah! the way to the ferry--that's the rub, man! You're a good five miles\noff, and might just as well turn your horse's head another way. I guess\nyou're strangers in these parts?\"\n\n\"Heaven preserve us!\" whispered my friend Richards, \"we are in the hands\nof a Yankee; he is guessing already.\"{A}\n\nMeantime the horseman had drawn nearer to us, in spite of the thorns and\nof the wet boughs, that each moment slapped and slashed him across his\nface; and he was now close to our horse. As far as we could distinguish\nthrough the rapidly-increasing gloom, he was a middle-aged man, bony and\nlong-legged, with a sallow unprepossessing physiognomy surmounting his\nlong ungainly carcass, and metal buttons upon his coat.\n\n\"And so you've lost your way?\" said the stranger after a long pause,\nduring which the thick fog had had the kindness to convert itself into a\nclose penetrating rain. \"That's queer too, seein' that the ferry ain't\nfifteen paces from the road, which runs right along the side of the\nriver. A very queer mistake to be goin' up the stream, instead of\nfollowin' yer nose and the run of the water.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" cried Richards and I in a breath.\n\n\"That you're goin' up the Tennessee instead of down it, and are on the\nroad to Bainbridge. That's all!\" replied the supposed Yankee.\n\n\"On the road to Bainbridge!\" repeated we, in voices in which\nastonishment and vexation were tolerably evident.\n\n\"You hadn't a mind to go to Bainbridge, then?\"\n\n\"How far is the infernal place from here?\" asked I.\n\n\"How far, how far?\" repeated the man with the metal buttons. \"It's not\nto say very far, nor yet so very near, as I may guess. Perhaps you know\nSquire Dimple?\"\n\n\"I wish you and Squire Dimple were at the devil!\" muttered I. But\nRichards, who took things more quietly, replied--\n\n\"No, we have not the honour of his acquaintance.\"\n\n\"Humph! And whereaway may you be goin'?\" enquired our tormentor, who was\napparently waterproof.\n\n\"To Florence in Alabama,\" answered Richards, \"and thence down the\nMississippi.\"\n\n\"Ah, fine city, Florence! such as one only finds in this country. Ain't\nit now? And a good market, too. Talkin' of that, what's the price of\nflour in the north? You're come from thereaway, I guess. I did hear it\nwas six and four levies, and Injun corn five and a fip--butter three\nfips.\"\n\n\"Are you mad?\" cried I, losing all patience, and unconsciously raising\nmy whip as I spoke--\"are you stark staring mad, to keep us talking here\nabout flour and butter, and fips and levies, while the rain is falling\nby bucketsfull?\"\n\n\"Hallo, stranger!\" cried the man, raising himself for the first time out\nof his lounging position on the saddle. \"Guess you're gettin' wolfish.\nI'm for you--stick, fist, or whiphandle, rifle or bowie-knife. Should\nlike to see the man as could leather Isaac Shifty!\"\n\n\"The road, the road, Mister Isaac Shifty!\" interrupted friend Richards\nin a conciliating tone. There was another long pause.\n\n\"I guess you're traders,\" said the fiend at last.\n\n\"No, man.\"\n\n\"And what may you be, then?\"\n\nOur answer was followed by another long inspection of our persons and\nphysiognomies. He gazed at us for a couple of minutes or more, examining\nus from head to foot; at last he spoke.\n\n\"And so you've a mind to go down the Mississippi?\"\n\n\"Yes, in the Jackson, which starts to-morrow, we are told.\"\n\n\"Ah, the Jackson! a mighty good steamboat too--ain't it now? But I guess\nyou ain't a thinkin' of takin' that thing and your horse with you?\"\ncontinued the Yankee, pointing to our gig.\n\n\"Yes, we are.\"\n\n\"Oh, you are! Well.--You haven't seen two women in a dearborn on the\nroad, have you?\"\n\n\"No, we have not.\"\n\n\"Well, then,\" continued the man in the same indifferent tone, \"it's\na'most too late now to get to Bainbridge; and yet you might try it, too.\nBetter turn your horse round, and follow the road till you come to a big\nwalnut-tree; there it divides. Take to the right hand for half a mile,\ntill you come to neighbour Dims's hedge; then you must go through the\nlane; and then, for about forty rods, right through the sugar-field;\nkeep to your left till you come to some rocks, but then turn to your\nright, if you don't want to break your necks. There's a bit of a stream\nthere; and when you are over that, the left-hand road will take you\nstraight to Cox's ferry. You can't miss it,\" concluded he, in a\nself-satisfied tone, striking his horse a blow with his riding-whip. The\nanimal broke into a smart trot, and in ten seconds our obliging friend\nhad disappeared into the fog.\n\nMy countenance, during the Yankee's interminable directions, must have\nsomewhat resembled that of a French recruit, to whom some scarred and\nmustached veteran is relating his Egyptian campaigns, and telling him\nwonderful stories of snakes and crocodiles at least half a mile\nlong--monsters who made nothing of swallowing a drum-major to their\nbreakfast, bearskin cap, cane, and whiskers, included. I was so\ncompletely bothered and confounded with the rights and lefts, that the\nmetal-buttoned individual was out of sight and hearing before I thought\nof explaining to him, that, dark as it then was, we should never be able\nto find even the walnut-tree, let alone neighbour Dims's hedge and the\nbreak-neck rocks. Patience is by no means one of my virtues; but the\nman's imperturbable phlegm and deliberation, in the midst of the most\npouring rain that ever wetted poor devil to the skin, tickled my fancy\nso exceedingly, that the sound of his horse's hoofs had hardly died\naway, when I burst into an almost interminable fit of laughter. \"First\nright, then left--look out for the big walnut-tree, and don't break your\nneck over the crags!\" repeated I, in a tone between merriment and\ndespair. Richards, however, saw nothing to laugh at.\n\n\"The devil take the Yankee!\" cried he. \"May I be hanged if I know what\nyou find so amusing in all this!\"\n\n\"And hang me if I know how you manage to look so grave!\" was my answer.\n\n\"How could we possibly have missed the ferry?\" cried Richards; \"and,\nwhat is still more stupid, to come back instead of going forward!\"\n\n\"Not very astonishing,\" replied I, \"considering the multitude of\nby-roads and cross-roads, and waggon-tracks and cattle-paths, and the\nswamp into the bargain. It is quite impossible to see which way the\nriver runs. And then you have been sleeping all the afternoon, and I had\nto find the way by myself.\"\n\n\"And you found it after an extraordinary fashion--retracing your own\nsteps,\" said Richards in a vexed tone. \"It is really too stupid.\"\n\n\"Very stupid,\" said I--\"to sleep.\"\n\nAs may be seen, we were on the verge of a quarrel; but we were old and\nsincere friends, and stopped in time. The discussion was dropped. The\nfact was, that our mistake was by no means a very surprising one. The\ncountry in which we were, seemed made on purpose to lose one's-self in.\nThe road winds along at some distance from the river, frequently out of\nsight of it; the shore is uneven, covered with crags and hillocks;\nnothing like a landmark to be seen, or a mountain to guide one's-self\nby, except occasionally, when one gets a peep at the Appalachians rising\nout of the blue distance. The fog, however, had hidden them from us, and\nthat just at the time when we most wanted them as guides. We found\nourselves in a long low clearing--a sort of bottom, as they call it in\nthat country--which was laid out in sugar-fields, and through which\nthere ran nearly as many cart-roads as there were owners to the land.\nThe morning had been bright and beautiful; but, towards noon, a grey\nmist had begun to rise in the south-western corner of the horizon, and\nhad gone on, thickening and advancing, till it spread like a pall over\nthe Tennessee. With a grey wall of fog on one side, and the swamp,\nintersected with a hundred cross-paths, on the other, we had gone on for\nabout a mile; until it got so thick and dark, that it was quite as\npossible we should find our way into the marsh as over the Mussel\nshoals.{B} So certain was I, however, of the proximity of the latter,\nthat I pushed on, expecting each moment to find the ferry, until the\nunlucky Yankee brought all my hopes to a termination.\n\nIt was now quite night--one of those dreary pitch-dark nights that are\nof no unfrequent occurrence in the south-western states. I would as soon\nhave been on the banks of Newfoundland as in this swamp, from which\nnothing was more probable than that we should carry away a rattling\nfever. The Yankee's directions concerning the road were, as may be\nsupposed, long since forgotten; and even had they not been so, it would\nhave required cat's eyes to have availed ourselves of them. Even the\nowls, the nightingales of that neighbourhood, seemed puzzled by the\nextreme darkness. We could hear them whooping and screaming all around\nus; and now and then one flew against us, as if it had lost its way as\nwell as ourselves. The road we were now following ran close to the bank\nof the river; so close, indeed, that a single stumble of our horse might\nhave precipitated us into the water, which was then very high.\n\n\"I think we should do our best to get out of the gig,\" said I to my\ncompanion; \"or else we have a very good chance of passing the night in\nthe Tennessee.\"\n\n\"No danger,\" replied Richards, \"Caesar is an old Virginian.\"\n\nA shock that made our very ribs crack again, and as nearly as possible\nthrew us backwards out of the gig, came rather opportunely to interrupt\nthis eulogium on Caesar, who had suddenly reared furiously up on his\nhind-legs.\n\n\"There must be something in the path,\" cried Richards. \"Let us see what\nit is.\"\n\nWe got out, and found a huge walnut-tree lying right across the road.\nHere was an end to our journey. It was an absolute impossibility to get\nthe gig over the enormous trunk; the boughs, which spread out full\ntwenty yards in every direction, had given Caesar timely warning of the\nimpediment to our further progress. The road, moreover, was so narrow\nthat it was impossible to turn. There was nothing for it but to back\nout. Richards began hunting about for a cross-road, where we might turn;\nI set to work to back the gig. I had no sooner, however, set one foot\nout of the road, than my cloak was almost torn from my shoulders by a\nthorn half a yard long. To get through this detestable wilderness with a\nwhole skin, one ought to have been cased in complete armour. I had only\njust taken my unfortunate garment off this new-fashioned cloak-peg, when\nRichards returned.\n\n\"This is the most infernal wilderness in all the west!\" said he.\n\"Neither road nor path, mud up to the ears, and, to add to my enjoyment,\nI have left one of my boots in the swamp.\"\n\n\"And, for my part, there are as many holes in my cloak as thorns on that\ncursed acacia-tree,\" replied I by way of consolation.\n\nThese were the last words we spoke in any thing like a jesting tone; for\nwe were now wet to the skin: and of all situations, I believe a damp one\nto be the least favourable to jocularity. I confess a certain partiality\nfor adventures, when they are not carried too far. There is nothing I\ndetest like a monotonous wearisome Quaker's journey, with every thing as\ntame, and dull, and uniform, as at a meeting of broad-brims; but to be\novertaken by darkness and a deluge in the middle of a maple-swamp, to be\nunable to go three steps on one side without falling into the Tennessee,\nwith an impenetrable morass and thicket on the other hand, a colossal\nwalnut-tree barring the way in front, and no possibility of turning\nback--this was, even to my taste, rather too much of an adventure.\n\n\"Well, what is to be done now?\" said Richards, who had placed himself in\na sort of theatrical posture--his bootless foot on the gig-step, the\nother sticking fast in the mud.\n\n\"Take out the horse, and draw the gig back,\" suggested I.\n\nEasily said, but rather more difficult to accomplish. We set to work,\nhowever, with a will; and pushed, and tugged, and pulled, till at last,\nafter much labour, we got the gig about thirty paces backwards, where\nthe road became wider. We then turned it, and were putting Caesar into\nthe shafts, when, to our inexpressible delight, a loud hallo was given\nquite close to us.\n\nReader, if you were ever at a hard contested election, where you had bet\nyour fifty or a hundred dollars on your favourite candidate, and just\nwhen you made sure of losing, and your five senses were almost\nextinguished by noise, brandy, and tobacco smoke, you heard the result\nproclaimed that secured you your stake, and a hundred per cent to boot;\nif you have ever been placed in such circumstances, then, and then only,\ncan you form an idea of the joyful feeling with which we heard that\nshout. After such a thorough Yankee fashion was it given, that it caused\nthe fog to break for a moment, and roused the obscene inhabitants of the\nneighbouring swamp from their mud-pillowed slumbers. They set up a\nscreeching, and yelling, and croaking, that was lovely to listen to.\n\n\"And now have patience, for Heaven's sake!\" whispered Richards to me,\n\"and hold your tongue for a quarter of an hour, or you will spoil all\nwith this infernal Yankee.\"\n\n\"Do not be afraid,\" replied I; \"I am dumb.\"\n\nMy blood was certainly tolerably cooled by the shower-bath I had had--to\nsay nothing of the prospect of passing the night in this vile hole; and\nI would willingly have given the tenacious Yankee information concerning\nthe prices of flour and butter in every state of the Union, upon the\nsole condition that he should afterwards help us out of this reservoir\nof fever.\n\nIt was, as we had at once conjectured, our friend Mr Isaac Shifty, in\nsoul, body, and buttons. In true Connecticut fashion, he stood a couple\nof minutes close to us without saying a word. It almost looked as if he\ntook a delight in our difficulties, and was in no particular hurry to\nextricate us from them. For our part, we kept very much on our guard.\nThe cross-grained scarecrow might likely enough have left us to our fate\nagain, if we had said any thing that did not exactly chime in with his\nqueer humour. Richards at last broke silence.\n\n\"Bad weather,\" said he.\n\n\"Well, I don't know. I shouldn't say it was though, exactly,\" returned\nthe Yankee.\n\n\"You have not met the two women you were looking for, have you?\"\n\n\"No. Guess they'll have stopped at Florence, with cousin Kate.\"\n\n\"You are not thinking of going there too, are you?\" said Richards.\n\n\"No. I'm goin' home. I thought you were at the ferry by this time.\"\n\n\"Perhaps we should have been, if your roads were better, and the holes\nin them filled up with stones instead of walnut-trees,\" returned\nRichards, laughing.\n\n\"Guess you ain't inclined to go to the ferry to-day?\"\n\n\"Inclined we are, but able we are not,\" replied Richards; \"and you will\nacknowledge, my friend, that is a pretty strong reason for not going.\"\n\n\"Well, so it is,\" replied the man sententiously. \"It ain't very\nagreeable lyin' out in the swamp; and so, stranger, if you like to go to\nBainbridge, you can come with me. Better let me drive, and my mare can\nfollow behind.\"\n\nIt took at least five minutes before the wearisome, pedantical fellow\nhad finished his arrangements and preparations. At last, to the infinite\nsatisfaction of Richards and myself, we sat three in the gig. After\nundergoing a questioning and cross-questioning that would have done\nhonour to an experienced diplomatist, we had succeeded in striking up a\nsort of alliance with Mr Isaac Shifty, and were on our way to one of the\nhundred famous cities of Alabama--cities which have decidedly not their\nmatch in the whole of the United States.\n\nI do not know how it happens, but I am constantly finding myself\ndisappointed in my expectations. I had hoped that the distance between\nthe infernal maple swamp and the place to which we were going, would\nhave borne some sort of relative proportion to the agreeableness of our\nsituation--that is to say, that it would not be very great. It\nnevertheless appeared to me enormous, and Horace's impatience during his\ncelebrated walk was trifling compared to mine. Our Yankee, like the\nRoman babbler, had abundance of time to discourse on fifty different\nsubjects. The first which he brought before our notice was naturally his\nown worthy person. From the interesting piece of biography with which he\nfavoured us, we learned that he was originally from Connecticut, and\nthat his first occupation had been that of usher in a school; which\nemployment he had, after a short trial, exchanged for the less\nhonourable but more independent one of a pedlar. From that he had risen\nto be a trader and shop-keeper, and was now, as he modestly informed us,\na highly respectable and well-to-do man. He next gave us an account of\nall the varieties of merchandise in which he dealt, or ever had dealt;\nintermixing the details with an occasional side-blow at a certain Mr\nBursicut, who had dared to set up an opposition store, and whom\nProvidence had punished for his presumption by the loss of sundry dozen\nknives and forks, and pairs of shoes, upon the Mussel shoals. He then\nfound occasion to talk of the thousand and one mishaps that had occurred\nupon the aforesaid Mussel shoals; and thence branched off into the\nvarious modes of water-carriage which the enlightened inhabitants of\nAlabama were accustomed to employ. After amusing us for some time with\nlong histories concerning steam-boats and keel-boats, barks and\nflat-boats, broad-horns, dug-outs, and canoes, he glided into some\ncanal-making scheme, which was to connect the waters of the Tennessee\nwith Heaven knows what others. It was a most monstrous plan--that I\nremember; but whether the junction was to be made with Raritan bay or\nConnecticut river, I have clean forgotten. At last we came to the\nhistory of Bainbridge--a sure sign, as I thought, with much inward\ngratulation, that we were approaching the end of our journey; yet the\naccomplishment of this hope, reasonable as it was, was doomed to be\ndeferred a long time. We had first to listen to the whole history and\ntopographical description of that celebrated city; how it had sprung up\nin the right corner, he reckoned; and how flourishing and industrious it\nwas; and whether we had not a mind to settle there--because if we had,\nhe, Mr Isaac Shifty, had some almighty fine building land to sell; and\nhow the town already boasted of three taverns, just the right proportion\nto the ten houses of which Bainbridge consisted. We should find two of\nthe taverns chokeful of people, he said, because there was a canvass\ngoing on for the Florence election; as to the third, it was a poor\nplace, hardly habitable indeed.\n\nAt the word _canvass_, Richards and I looked aghast.\n\n\"An election coming on!\" stammered Richards.\n\n\"An election!\" repeated I, the words dying away upon my tongue from\nconsternation at this unwelcome news. An election in Alabama, which even\nin old Kentucky is considered as backwoods! Farewell, supper and sleep,\nand comfortable bed and clean linen! every thing, in short, which we had\nflattered ourselves with obtaining, and which we stood so much in need\nof, after such a hard day's journey.\n\nBefore we had time to make any further enquiries, Caesar, who had for\nsome time been splashing through a sea of mud, stood suddenly still. The\nlight of a tallow candle, glimmering and flaring through an atmosphere\nof tobacco-smoke, and the hoarse and confused sounds of many voices,\nwarned us that we had reached the haven. We sprang out of the gig; and\nwhilst Richards was tying Caesar to a post, I hurried to the door, when I\nfelt myself suddenly seized by the skirt of my cloak.\n\n\"Not there--not there! This is the house where you are to stop,\"\nexclaimed Mr Isaac Shifty, pointing anxiously to an adjacent edifice,\nthat looked something between a house and a pigsty.\n\n\"Don't go with him,\" whispered I to Richards, heartily glad to be at\nlast independent of the insupportable Yankee, and to be able to vex him\na little in my turn. My hand was already on the latch; I opened the\ndoor, and we entered.\n\nThere sat the burgesses of Bainbridge, with their heels upon the\ntable--those, at least, for whom there were chairs; while those for whom\nthere were none, made shift with tubs, or stood up in various elegant\nattitudes. There was a prodigious amount of talking, shouting, drinking,\nand laughing going on; and my first feeling was, that I would rather\nhave been any where else than in that worshipful assembly. Richards,\nhowever, stepped boldly forward, in spite of his bootless foot; and\nluckily the men appeared disposed to be upon their best behaviour with\nus. They pressed back right and left, forming a lane about a foot wide,\nenclosed between living palisades, six feet and upwards in height,\nthrough which we passed, subjected, as we did so, to a searching\ninspection. Richards stepped smartly up to the table, then turned round,\nand confronted the group of half-horse, half-alligator visages there\nassembled.\n\n\"A hurra for old Alabama!\" cried he, \"and the devil take the Bainbridge\nroadmaster!\"\n\n\"Are you mad?\" I whispered to him.\n\n\"May I be scalped if you don't soon feel the weight of these five bones\nupon your carcass, stranger!\" growled a voice, proceeding from a sort of\nmammoth that had just filled itself a half-pint tumbler of Monongahela.\nBefore the double-jointed Goliath put his threat into execution, he\nswallowed the whisky at a gulp, and then, striding forwards, laid his\nopen hand upon my companion's shoulder, with a force that threw the poor\nfellow on one side, and gave him the appearance of being crooked. At the\nsame time the giant stared Richards in the face, with an expression\nwhich the natural hardness of his features, and the glimmer of his\nowl-like eyes, rendered any thing but agreeable.\n\n\"The devil take the Bainbridge roadmaster--I repeat it!\" cried Richards,\nhalf in earnest and half laughing, raising his muddy and bootless foot\nas he spoke, and placing it on a chair. \"See there, men! I may thank him\nfor the loss of my boot. The cursed swamp between here and the ferry was\nkind enough to pull it off for me.\"\n\nThe roar of laughter that responded to these words would inevitably have\nbroken the windows, had there been any glass in them. Fortunately the\nlatter luxury was wanting; its place being supplied by fragments of old\ninexpressibles, and of _ci-devant_ coats and waistcoats.\n\n\"Come, lads!\" continued Richards, \"I mean no offence; but of a surety I\nhave to thank your bad roads for the loss of my boot.\"\n\nRichard's jest, exactly adapted to the society in which we found\nourselves, was the most fortunate _impromptu_ that could have been hit\nupon. It seemed at once to have established us upon a footing of harmony\nand friendship with the rough backwoodsmen amongst whom we had fallen.\n\n\"May I be shot like a Redskin, if that ain't Mister Richards from Old\nVirginny, now of the Mississippi,\" suddenly exclaimed the same colossus\nwho had so recently had his hand upon Richards's shoulder, twisting, as\nhe spoke, his wild features into a sort of amicable grin. \"May I never\ntaste another drop of rale Monongahela, if you sha'n't drink a pint with\nBob Snags the roadmaster!\"\n\nIt was the very dignitary whom Richards had insulted with such imminent\nrisk to his shoulder-blade.\n\n\"A hurra for old Virginny!\" shouted the master of the roads, biting, as\nhe spoke, into a piece of tobacco from that famous state. \"Come,\nmister--come, doctor!\" continued the man, offering Richards with one\nhand a roll of tobacco, with the other a pint glassful of whisky.\n\n\"Doctor!\" repeated the whole assembly--\"a doctor!\"\n\nA man possessing power over gin and whisky, and whose word is an\nindisputable veto against even a _smaller_, is no unimportant personage\nin that feverish neighbourhood. In this instance, Richards's doctorship\nwas of the double utility of delivering us from the threatened\npint-glasses, and of causing us to be considered as privileged\nguests--no small advantage in a backwoods' tavern, occupied as the\nheadquarters of an electioneering party. Caesar, however, was the first\nto derive a positive profit from the discovery. Bob left the room for a\nminute or two, and we could hear the horse walking into the stable. When\nthe roadmaster returned, he had assumed a patronizing sort of look.\n\n\"Mister Richards!\" said he confidentially, \"Mister Richards! May I be\nshot if you ain't continually a sensible man, with more rale blood in\nyour little finger than a horse could swim in. Yes, and I'll show you\nthat Bob Snags is your friend. I say, doctor, what countryman is your\nhorse?\"\n\n\"A thorough-bred Virginian,\" replied Richards.\n\n\"The devil he is!\" cried Bob. \"Well, doctor, to prove to you that I'm\nyour friend, and that I ain't forgotten old times, I'll swop with you\nwithout lookin' at him. May I be shot if I ain't reg'larly cheatin'\nmyself. Well, I'm uncommon glad to see you again. Bob Snags has no\nreason to fear lookin' a rale gemman in the face. Come, lads, none of\nyer jimmaky, and slings, and poorgun,{C} and suchlike dog's wash, but\nginu_ine_ Monongahela--that's the stuff. Hurra for Old Virginny! Well,\ndoctor, it's a deal--ain't it?\"\n\n\"No, Bob,\" said Richards, laughing; \"your generosity is so truly\nAlabamian, that I cannot make up my mind to accept it. For the present,\nat least, I must keep my Virginian. It is my wife's saddle-horse.\"\n\n\"But Swiftfoot,\" replied Bob, in a cordial confidential\nmanner--\"Swiftfoot is a famous trotter.\"\n\n\"It won't do, Bob,\" was the answer. \"I should not dare show myself at\nhome without Caesar.\"\n\nBob bit his lips, a little vexed at not being able to make a deal; but\nanother half-pint of whisky, which he poured down as if it had been\nspring water, seemed to restore him to good humour. Meanwhile my wet\nclothes were beginning to hang heavy upon me, and to steam in the hot\natmosphere in which we were. Bob, who had already cast several\nside-glances at me, now turned to Richards.\n\n\"And who may the mister be?\" said he.\n\nThe mention of my name and condition, procured me a welcome that I could\nwillingly have dispensed with. After the shake of the hand with which\nBob favoured me, I looked at my finger-nails, to see if the blood was\nnot starting from under them. The fellow's hands were as hard and rough\nas bear's paws.\n\n\"Very glad that you're come, boys,\" said Bob in a low confidential tone.\n\"I'm just makin' a try for the next Assembly; and it's always good, you\nknow, to have somebody to speak to one's character. How long is it,\nMister Richards, since I left Blairsville.\"\n\n\"Eight years,\" replied my friend.\n\n\"No, Harry,\" whispered the roadmaster; \"may I be shot if it's more than\nfive.\"\n\n\"But,\" replied Richards, \"I have been living five years by the\nMississippi, and you know\"----\n\n\"Ah, nonsense!\" interrupted Bob. \"Five years--not an hour more. D'ye\nunderstand?\" added he cautiously--\"five years, if you're asked.\"\n\nThe facts were thus. This respectable candidate for the representation\nof his fellow-citizens, had made his escape from his previous residence,\nthe birthplace of Richards, on account of certain misdeeds, of which the\nsheriff and constables had taken cognizance, and after wandering about\nfor a few years, had settled in Bainbridge county, where he seemed to\nhave thriven--as far, at least, as whisky and human weakness had allowed\nhim. We could hardly help laughing outright at the importance which Bob\nthought proper to attribute to us before his companions, the independent\nelectors, whose votes he was desirous of securing. AEsculapius himself\nwas a mere quacksalver compared to Squire Richards, whose twenty-five\n<DW64>s were rapidly multiplied into a hundred; while my poor neglected\nplantation was, between brothers, well worth five hundred thousand\ndollars. We allowed Mr Bob to have it his own way; for it might have\nbeen dangerous to contradict a giant of his calibre, who was always\nready to support his arguments with his huge cocoa nut- fists.\nAt last Richards was able to slip in a word.\n\n\"You are not going to make your speech now, are you?\"\n\n\"May I be shot if I ain't, though! I'll begin at once.\"\n\n\"Cannot we manage to change our clothes, and get some supper first?\"\nsaid Richards.\n\n\"Change your clothes!\" said Bob contemptuously. \"And what for, man? Not\non our account; you're quite smart enough, quite good enough for us--no\noccasion to bother yourselves. If it's for your own pleasure, however,\nyou can do it. Hallo, Johnny!\"\n\nAnd he commenced a negotiation with Johnny, the host, who, to our great\njoy, took up a candle, and led the way into a sort of back parlour, with\na promise that we should have our supper before very long.\n\n\"Is there no other room where we can dress ourselves?\" said I.\n\n\"To be sure there is,\" was the answer. \"There's the garret--only there's\nmy daughter and a dozen gals sleepin' there; then there's the kitchen,\nif you like it better.\"\n\nI looked round the room. A servant girl was beginning to lay the table;\nand, unluckily, the apartment was connected by an open door with the\nkitchen, in which there was a loud noise of voices. I would have given a\ngood deal for a quarter of an hour's undisturbed possession of the room.\nI looked about for our portmanteaus, but could see nothing of them.\n\n\"Six smalls it ain't buffalo hide!\" vociferated a young Stentor in the\nkitchen.\n\n\"Six smalls its cow hide!\" roared another.\n\n\"If I am not very much mistaken,\" said Richards, \"it is our portmanteaus\nthat those fellows are betting about.\"\n\n\"That would really be too bad,\" said I.\n\nNevertheless, it was as Richards had said. We had little occasion to\nfear that the portmanteaus would be lost or injured; but we knew very\nwell that the only way to get them out of the claws of these rough\nbackwoodsmen would be by some well-contrived joke. And those jokes were\nexactly what I feared; for one had often to risk breaking an arm or a\nleg by them. There was a crowd of men in the kitchen. One young fellow,\nupwards of six feet high, held a lighted candle; and they were all\nbusily engaged examining something which lay in the middle of the floor.\n\n\"No,\" cried a voice, appealing apparently from a decision that had been\ngiven, \"I won't pay without I see the inside.\"\n\nThey were debating whether the portmanteaus were of buffalo or cow hide.\nThey had caught sight of them as they were being carried through the\nkitchen into the back-room, and had at once seized upon them as good\nsubjects for a bet. It was time for us to interfere, if we did not wish\nto see our trunks ripped open, for the sake of ascertaining the quality\nof the leather.\n\n\"Sixteen smalls,\" cried Richards, \"that it's deer hide!\"\n\n\"Done!\" thundered half a score voices, with loud peals of laughter.\n\n\"It is a bet, then,\" said my friend; \"but let us see what we are betting\nabout.\"\n\n\"Make way for the gemmen!\" cried the men.\n\n\"Our portmanteaus!\" exclaimed Richards, laughing. \"No, certainly, they\nare not deer hide. Here is my bet.\"\n\nA loud hurra followed the payment of the dollar which my friend handed\nover; and we now found ourselves in undisputed possession of our\nbaggage. The next thing to be done was to endeavour to get the room to\nourselves for a few minutes.\n\n\"We wish to be left alone for a short time,\" said I to the help, who was\nbustling in and out, and covering the table with innumerable plates of\npreserved fruits, cucumbers, beet-root, and suchlike edibles.\n\nI shut the door.\n\n\"That is the surest way to have it opened again,\" said Richards.\n\nHe had hardly uttered the words, when, sure enough, the door flew open,\namidst a peal of uproarious laughter.\n\n\"Tail!\" cried one fellow.\n\n\"Head!\" shouted another.\n\n\"They want another dollar,\" said Richards. \"Well, they must have it, I\nsuppose. Head!\" cried he.\n\n\"Lost!\" roared the fellows in chorus.\n\n\"There is something for you to drink,\" said my friend, whose wonderful\npatience and good-humour was bringing us so fortunately through the\nshoals and difficulties of this wild backwoods' life. We now shut the\ndoor, and had time enough to change our wet clothes for dry ones. We\nwere nearly dressed, when a gentle tapping at the only pane of glass of\nwhich the room window could boast attracted our attention. On looking in\nthe direction of the sound, we distinguished the amiable features of Mr\nIsaac Shifty, who, upon our entering the tavern, had thought proper to\npart company.\n\n\"Gentlemen,\" whispered he, removing the remains of an old waistcoat,\nwhich supplied the place of one of the absent panes, and then applying\nhis face to the aperture--\"Gentlemen, I was mistaken. Our spies say you\nare not come to the election, but that you are from lower Mississippi.\"\n\n\"And if we are, what then?\" replied I dryly. \"Didn't we tell you as much\nat first?\"\n\n\"So you did, but I wasn't obliged to believe it; and d'ye see, they're\na-canvassing here for next election, and we've got an opposition in the\nother tavern; and as we knew that Bob Snags's people were expectin' two\nmen from down stream, we thought you might be they.\"\n\n\"And so, because you thought we should vote against you, you allowed us\nto stick in the mud, with the agreeable prospect of either breaking our\nnecks or tumbling into the Tennessee?\" said Richards laughing.\n\n\"Not exactly that,\" replied the Yankee; \"though if you had been the two\nmen that were expected, I guess we shouldn't have minded your passing\nthe night in the swamp; but now we know how matters stand, and I'm come\nto offer you my house. There'll be an almighty frolic here to-night, and\np'r'aps somethin' more. In my house you can sleep as quiet as need be.\"\n\n\"It won't do, Mr Shifty,\" said Richards, with a look that must have\nshown the Yankee pretty plainly that his object in thus pressing his\nhospitality upon us was seen through; \"it won't do, we will stop where\nwe are.\"\n\nThe latch of the door leading into the kitchen was just then lifted,\nwhich brought our conversation to a close. During the confabulation, our\nYankee's sharp grey eyes had glanced incessantly from us to the door;\nand hardly was the noise of the latch audible, when his face\ndisappeared, and the old waistcoat again stopped the aperture.\n\n\"He wants to get us away,\" said Richards, \"because he fears that our\npresence here will give Bob too much weight and respectability. You see\nthey have got their spies. If Bob and his people find that out, there\nwill be a royal row. A nice disreputable squatter's hole we have fallen\ninto; but, bad as it is, it is better than the swamp.\"\n\nThe table was now spread; the tea and coffee-pots smoking upon it. The\nsupper was excellent, consisting of real Alabama delicacies. Pheasants\nand woodcocks, and a splendid haunch of venison, which, in spite of the\ngame-laws, had found its way into Johnny's larder--wheat, buckwheat, and\nIndian-corn cakes; the whole, to the honour of Bainbridge be it spoken,\ncooked in a style that would have been creditable to a Paris\n_restaurateur_. By the help of these savoury viands, we had already, to\na considerable extent, taken the edge off our appetite, when we heard\nBob's voice growling away in the next room. He had begun his speech. It\nwas high time to make an end of our supper, and go and listen to him\nunder whose protecting wings we were, and to whom we probably owed it,\nthat we had got so far through the evening with whole heads and unbroken\nbones. Backwoods' etiquette rendered our presence absolutely necessary;\nand we accordingly rose from table, and rejoined the assemblage of\nelectors.\n\nAt the upper end of the table, next to the bar, stood Bob Snags, in his\nvarious capacity of president, speaker, and candidate. A thickset\npersonage, sitting near him, officiated as secretary--to judge at least\nfrom the inkstand with which he was provided. Bob looked rather black at\nus as we entered, no doubt on account of our late arrival; but Cicero\npleading against Catiline could not have given a more skilful turn to\nhis oration than did Bob upon the occasion of our entrance.\n\n\"And these gemmen,\" continued he, \"could tell you--ay, and put down in\nblack and white--no end of proofs of my respectability and character.\nMay I be shot by Injuns, if it ain't as good as that of the best man in\nthe state.\"\n\n\"No better than it should be,\" interposed a voice.\n\nBob threw a fierce look at the speaker; but the smile on the face of the\nlatter showing that no harm was meant, the worthy candidate cleared his\nthroat and proceeded.\n\n\"Yes,\" said he, \"we want men as know what's what, and who won't let\nthemselves be humbugged by the 'Ministration, but will defend our\nnat'ral born sovereign rights. I know their 'tarnal rigs, inside and\nout. May I be totally swallowed by a b'ar, if I give way an inch to the\nbest of 'em; that is to say, men, if you honour me with your confidence\nand\"----\n\n\"You'll go the whole hog, will you?\" interrupted one of the free and\nindependent electors.\n\n\"The whole hog!\" repeated Bob, striking his fist on the table with the\nforce of a sledge-hammer; \"ay, that will I! the whole hog for the\npeople! Now lads, don't you think that our great folks cost too much\nmoney? Tarnation to me if I wouldn't do all they do at a third of the\nprice. Why, half a dozen four-horse waggons would have enough to do to\ncarry away the hard dollars that Johnny{D} and his 'Ministration have\ncost the country. Here it is, lads, in black and white.\"\n\nBob had a bundle of papers before him, which we had at first taken for a\ndirty pocket-handkerchief, but which now proved to be the county\nnewspapers--one of which gave a statement of the amount expended by the\nfirst magistrate of the Union during his administration, reduced, for\nthe sake of clearness, into waggon-loads. Bob was silent, while his\nneighbour the secretary put on his spectacles, and began to read this\nimportant document. He was interrupted, however, by cries of \"Know it\nalready! Read it already! Go on, Bob!\"\n\n\"Only see here now,\" continued Bob, taking up the paper. \"Diplomatic\nmissions! what does that mean? What occasion had they to send any one\nthere? Then they've appointed one General Tariff, who's the maddest\naristocrat that ever lived, and he's passed a law by which we ain't to\ntrade any more with the Britishers. Every stocking, every knife-handle,\nthat comes into the States, has to pay a duty to this infernal\naristocrat. Where shall we get our flannel from now, I wonder?\"\n\n\"Hear, hear!\" cried a youth in a tattered red flannel shirt, to whose\nfeelings this question evidently went home.\n\n\"Moreover,\" continued Bob, \"it's a drag put upon our ships, to the\nprofit of their Yankee manyfacters. Manyfacters, indeed! Men! free\nsovereign citizens! to work in manyfacters!\"\n\n\"Hear, hear!\" in a threatening tone from the audience.\n\n\"But that ain't all,\" continued Bob, nodding his head mysteriously. \"No,\nmen--hear and judge! You, the enlightened freemen of Alabama, listen and\njudge for yourselves! Clever fellows, the 'Ministration and the Yankees!\nD'ye know what they've been a-doin'?\"\n\n\"No, no. Tell us!\" repeated twenty voices.\n\n\"You don't know?\" said Bob, with a fine oratorical movement. \"I'll tell\nyou then. They've been a-sendin' clothes, powder, rifles, flour, and\nwhisky to the Creeks! Two full shiploads have they sent. Here it is!\"\nyelled Bob, taking another paper from his pocket, and dashing it upon\nthe table.{E}\n\nA breathless silence reigned during the reading of the important\nparagraph, while Richards and myself were making almost superhuman\nefforts to restrain our laughter. Bob continued--\n\n\"You see, men, they want to get the scalpin' plunderin' thieves back\nag'in over the Mississippi into Georgia--ay, and perhaps into Alabama\ntoo. And they're holdin' meetin's and assemblies in their favour, and\nsay that we owe our independence to these Creeks; and talk about their\nchiefs--one Alexander the Great, and Pericles, and Plato, and suchlike\nnames that we give our <DW65>s. And the cussed Redskins are fightin'\nagainst another chief whom they call Sultan, and who lives upon Turk's\nisland. Where shall we get our salt from now, I should like to know?\"{F}\n\nThe storm that had been for some time brewing, now burst forth with a\nroar that shook the rafters of the log-built tavern. Although\nimmeasurably tickled by Bob's speech, Richards and I had struggled\nsuccessfully with our disposition to laugh. At this moment, however, a\nstifled giggling was heard behind us, which immediately attracted the\nattention of Bob and his friends. \"A spy! a spy!\" shouted they; and\nthere was a sudden and general rush to the door, through which an\nunfortunate adherent of the opposite party had sneaked in to witness\ntheir proceedings. The poor devil was seized by a dozen hands, and\ndragged, neck and heel, before Bob's tribunal, to account for his\nintrusion. He set up a howl of terror, and probably pain, that\nimmediately brought to his assistance a whole regiment of his friends,\nwho were assembled in the adjacent tavern. A furious fight began, from\nwhich Richards and myself hastened to escape. We made our way into the\nkitchen, and thence into a court at the back of the house.\n\n\"Stop!\" said a whispering voice, as we were groping about in the\ndarkness; \"you are close to a pool that would drown an ox. I guess you\nwon't refuse my invitation now?\"\n\nIt was no less a person than Mr Isaac Shifty; and we began to consider\nwhether it would not really be better to put ourselves under his\nguidance. Indoors we could hear the fight raging furiously. We paused to\nthink what was best to be done. Suddenly, to our great astonishment, the\nnoise of the contest ceased, and was replaced by a dead silence. We\nhurried through the kitchen to the field of battle, and found that the\ncharm which had so suddenly stilled the fury of an Alabamian election\nfight, was no other than the arrival of the constable and his\nassistants, who had suddenly appeared in the midst of the combatants.\nTheir presence produced an effect which scarcely any amount of mere\nphysical force would have been able to bring about; and a single summons\nin the name of the law to keep the peace, had caused the contending\nparties to separate--the intruding one retiring immediately to its own\nheadquarters.\n\nWe passed a quiet and tolerably comfortable night, except that Bob\nthought proper to favour us with his society, so that we lay three in\none bed. Before break of day he got up, and went away. Tired as we were,\nit was much later before we followed his example. Upon entering the\ncommon room of the tavern, we found it empty, but bearing pretty evident\nmarks of the recent conflict. Chairs, benches, and tables, lay in\nsplinters upon the floor, which was, moreover, plentifully sprinkled\nwith fragments of broken jugs and glasses; and even the bar itself had\nnot entirely escaped damage. On repairing to the stable, to pay Caesar a\nvisit, I found my gig, to my no small mortification, plastered all over\nwith election squibs--\"Hurras for Bob Snags!\" and the like; while poor\nCaesar's tail was shorn of every hair, as close and clean as if it had\nbeen first lathered and then shaved. Our breakfast, however, was\nexcellent--the weather fine; and we set out upon our journey to Florence\nunder decidedly more favourable auspices than those that attended us on\nthe preceding day.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n{A} There is no surer way of ascertaining the State from which an\nAmerican comes, than by his thinkings and guessings. The New-Englander\nguesses, the Virginians and Pennsylvanians think, the Kentuckian\ncalculates, the man of Alabama reckons.\n\n{B} The Mussel shoals are broad ridges of rocks, above Florence, which\nspread out into the Tennessee.\n\n{C} A corruption of Bourgogne, Burgundy wine.\n\n{D} John Quincy Adams, then president of the United States.\n\n{E} The Greeks, who at that time were struggling for their independence,\nhad received various succours from the United States. The Creeks are a\nwell-known tribe of Indians on the frontiers of Georgia.\n\n{F} Turk's island is a small island from which the Western States, North\nand South Carolina, Georgia, &c., get their salt.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EXECUTION OF MONTROSE.\n\n\nThe most poetical chronicler would find it impossible to render the\nincidents of Montrose's brilliant career more picturesque than the\nreality. Among the devoted champions who, during the wildest and most\nstormy period of our history, maintained the cause of Church and King,\n\"the Great Marquis\" undoubtedly is entitled to the foremost place. Even\nparty malevolence, by no means extinct at the present day, has been\nunable to detract from the eulogy pronounced upon him by the famous\nCardinal de Retz, the friend of Conde and Turenne, when he thus summed\nup his character:--\"Montrose, a Scottish nobleman, head of the house of\nGrahame--the only man in the world that has ever realized to me the\nideas of certain heroes, whom we now discover nowhere but in the Lives\nof Plutarch--has sustained in his own country the cause of the King his\nmaster, with a greatness of soul that has not found its equal in our\nage.\"\n\nBut the success of the victorious leader and patriot, is almost thrown\ninto the shade by the noble magnanimity and Christian heroism of the man\nin the hour of defeat and death. It is impossible now to obliterate the\ndarkest page of Scottish history, which we owe to the vindictive cruelty\nof the Covenanters--a party venal in principle, pusillanimous in action,\nand more than dastardly in their revenge; but we can peruse it with the\nless disgust, since that very savage spirit which planned the woful\nscenes connected with the final tragedy of Montrose, has served to\nexhibit to the world, in all time to come, the character of the martyred\nnobleman in by far its loftiest light.\n\nThere is no ingredient of fiction in the historical incidents recorded\nin the following ballad. The indignities that were heaped upon Montrose\nduring his procession through Edinburgh, his appearance before the\nEstates, and his last passage to the scaffold, as well as his undaunted\nbearing, have all been spoken to by eyewitnesses of the scene. A graphic\nand vivid sketch of the whole will be found in Mr Mark Napier's volume,\n\"The Life and Times of Montrose\"--a work as chivalrous in its tone as\nthe Chronicles of Froissart, and abounding in original and most\ninteresting materials; but, in order to satisfy all scruple, the\nauthorities for each fact are given in the shape of notes. The ballad\nmay be considered as a narrative of the transactions, related by an\naged Highlander, who had followed Montrose throughout his campaigns, to\nhis grandson, shortly before the splendid victory of Killiecrankie:--\n\n    I.\n\n    Come hither, Evan Cameron,\n      Come, stand beside my knee--\n    I hear the river roaring down\n      Towards the wintry sea.\n    There's shouting on the mountain side,\n      There's war within the blast--\n    Old faces look upon me,\n      Old forms go trooping past.\n    I hear the pibroch wailing\n      Amidst the din of fight,\n    And my old spirit wakes again\n      Upon the verge of night!\n\n\n    II.\n\n    'Twas I that led the Highland host\n      Through wild Lochaber's snows,\n    What time the plaided clans came down\n      To battle with Montrose.\n    I've told thee how the Southrons fell\n      Beneath the broad claymore,\n    And how we smote the Campbell clan\n      By Inverlochy's shore.\n    I've told thee how we swept Dundee,\n      And tamed the Lindsays' pride;\n    But never have I told thee yet\n      How the Great Marquis died!\n\n\n    III.\n\n    A traitor sold him to his foes;{A}\n      O deed of deathless shame!\n    I charge thee, boy, if e'er thou meet\n      With one of Assynt's name--\n    Be it upon the mountain's side,\n      Or yet within the glen,\n    Stand he in martial gear alone,\n      Or back'd by armed men--\n    Face him, as thou would'st face the man\n      Who wrong'd thy sire's renown;\n    Remember of what blood thou art,\n      And strike the caitiff down!\n\n\n    IV.\n\n    They brought him to the Watergate{B}\n      Hard bound with hempen span,\n    As though they held a lion there,\n      And not a fenceless man.\n    They set him high upon a cart--\n      The hangman rode below--\n    They drew his hands behind his back,\n      And bared his lordly brow.\n    Then, as a hound is slipp'd from leash,\n      They cheer'd the common throng,\n    And blew the note with yell and shout,\n      And bade him pass along.\n\n\n    V.\n\n    It would have made a brave man's heart\n      Grow sad and sick that day,\n    To watch the keen malignant eyes\n      Bent down on that array.\n    There stood the Whig west-country lords\n      In balcony and bow,\n    There sat their gaunt and wither'd dames,\n      And their daughters all a-row;\n    And every open window\n      Was full as full might be,\n    With black-robed Covenanting carles,\n      That goodly sport to see!\n\n\n    VI.\n\n    But when he came, though pale and wan,\n      He look'd so great and high,{C}\n    So noble was his manly front,\n      So calm his steadfast eye;--\n    The rabble rout forbore to shout,\n      And each man held his breath,\n    For well they knew the hero's soul\n      Was face to face with death.\n    And then a mournful shudder\n      Through all the people crept,\n    And some that came to scoff at him,\n      Now turn'd aside and wept.\n\n\n    VII.\n\n    But onwards--always onwards,\n      In silence and in gloom,\n    The dreary pageant labour'd,\n      Till it reach'd the house of doom:\n    But first a woman's voice was heard\n      In jeer and laughter loud,{D}\n    And an angry cry and a hiss arose\n      From the heart of the tossing crowd:\n    Then, as the Graeme look'd upwards,\n      He caught the ugly smile\n    Of him who sold his King for gold--\n      The master-fiend Argyle!\n\n\n    VIII.\n\n    The Marquis gazed a moment,\n      And nothing did he say,\n    But the cheek of Argyle grew ghastly pale,\n      And he turn'd his eyes away.\n    The painted harlot at his side,\n      She shook through every limb,\n    For a roar like thunder swept the street,\n      And hands were clench'd at him,\n    And a Saxon soldier cried aloud,\n      \"Back, coward, from thy place!\n    For seven long years thou hast not dared\n      To look him in the face.\"{E}\n\n\n    IX.\n\n    Had I been there with sword in hand\n      And fifty Camerons by,\n    That day through high Dunedin's streets\n      Had peal'd the slogan cry.\n    Not all their troops of trampling horse,\n      Nor might of mailed men--\n    Not all the rebels in the south\n      Had borne us backwards then!\n    Once more his foot on Highland heath\n      Had stepp'd as free as air,\n    Or I, and all who bore my name,\n      Been laid around him there!\n\n\n    X.\n\n    It might not be. They placed him next\n      Within the solemn hall,\n    Where once the Scottish Kings were throned\n      Amidst their nobles all.\n    But there was dust of vulgar feet\n      On that polluted floor,\n    And perjured traitors fill'd the place\n      Where good men sate before.\n    With savage glee came Warristoun{F}\n      To read the murderous doom,\n    And then uprose the great Montrose\n      In the middle of the room.\n\n\n    XI.\n\n    \"Now by my faith as belted knight,\n      And by the name I bear,\n    And by the red Saint Andrew's cross\n      That waves above us there--\n    Ay, by a greater, mightier oath--\n      And oh, that such should be!--\n    By that dark stream of royal blood\n      That lies 'twixt you and me--\n    I have not sought in battle field\n      A wreath of such renown,\n    Nor dared I hope, on my dying day,\n      To win the martyr's crown!\n\n\n    XII.\n\n    \"There is a chamber far away\n      Where sleep the good and brave,\n    But a better place ye have named for me\n      Than by my father's grave.\n    For truth and right, 'gainst treason's might,\n      This hand has always striven,\n    And ye raise it up for a witness still\n      In the eye of earth and heaven.\n    Then nail my head on yonder tower--\n      Give every town a limb--\n    And God who made shall gather them.--\n      I go from you to Him!\"{G}\n\n\n    XIII.\n\n    The morning dawn'd full darkly,\n      The rain came flashing down,\n    And the jagged streak of the levin-bolt\n      Lit up the gloomy town:\n    The heavens were speaking out their wrath,\n      The fatal hour was come,\n    Yet ever sounded sullenly\n      The trumpet and the drum.\n    There was madness on the earth below,\n      And anger in the sky,\n    And young and old, and rich and poor,\n      Came forth to see him die.\n\n\n    XIV.\n\n    Ah, God! That ghastly gibbet!\n      How dismal 'tis to see\n    The great tall spectral skeleton,\n      The ladder, and the tree!\n    Hark! hark! It is the clash of arms--\n      The bells begin to toll--\n    He is coming! he is coming!\n      God's mercy on his soul!\n    One last long peal of thunder--\n      The clouds are clear'd away,\n    And the glorious sun once more looks down\n      Amidst the dazzling day.\n\n\n    XV.\n\n    He is coming! he is coming!\n      Like a bridegroom from his room,{H}\n    Came the hero from his prison\n      To the scaffold and the doom.\n    There was glory on his forehead,\n      There was lustre in his eye,\n    And he never walk'd to battle\n      More proudly than to die:\n    There was colour in his visage,\n      Though the cheeks of all were wan,\n    And they marvell'd as they saw him pass,\n      That great and goodly man!\n\n\n    XVI.\n\n    He mounted up the scaffold,\n      And he turn'd him to the crowd;\n    But they dared not trust the people,\n      So he might not speak aloud.\n    But he look'd upon the heavens,\n      And they were clear and blue,\n    And in the liquid ether\n      The eye of God shone through:\n    Yet a black and murky battlement\n      Lay resting on the hill,\n    As though the thunder slept within--\n      All else was calm and still.\n\n\n    XVII.\n\n    The grim Geneva ministers\n      With anxious scowl drew near,{I}\n    As you have seen the ravens flock\n      Around the dying deer.\n    He would not deign them word nor sign,\n      But alone he bent the knee;\n    And veil'd his face for Christ's dear grace\n      Beneath the gallows-tree.\n    Then radiant and serene he rose,\n      And cast his cloak away:\n    For he had ta'en his latest look\n      Of earth, and sun, and day.\n\n\n    XVIII.\n\n    A beam of light fell o'er him,\n      Like a glory round the shriven,\n    And he climb'd the lofty ladder\n      As it were the path to heaven.{J}\n    Then came a flash from out the cloud,\n      And a stunning thunder roll,\n    And no man dared to look aloft,\n      For fear was on every soul.\n    There was another heavy sound,\n      A hush and then a groan;\n    And darkness swept across the sky--\n      The work of death was done!\n\n    W. E. A.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n{A} \"The contemporary historian of the Earls of Sutherland records, that\n(after the defeat of Invercarron) Montrose and Kinnoull 'wandered up the\nriver Kyle the whole ensuing night, and the next day, and the third day\nalso, without any food or sustenance, and at last came within the\ncountry of Assynt. The Earl of Kinnoull, being faint for lack of meat,\nand not able to travel any further, was left there among the mountains,\nwhere it was supposed he perished. Montrose had almost famished, but\nthat he fortuned in his misery to light upon a small cottage in that\nwilderness, where he was supplied with some milk and bread.' Not even\nthe iron frame of Montrose could endure a prolonged existence under such\ncircumstances. He gave himself up to Macleod of Assynt, a former\nadherent, from whom he had reason to expect assistance in consideration\nof that circumstance, and, indeed, from the dictates of honourable\nfeeling and common humanity. As the Argyle faction had sold the King, so\nthis Highlander rendered his own name infamous by selling the hero to\nthe Covenanters, for which 'duty to the public' he was rewarded with\nfour hundred bolls of meal.\"--NAPIER'S _Life of Montrose_.\n\n{B} \"_Friday, 17th May._--Act ordaining James Grahame to be brought from\nthe Watergate on a cart, bareheaded, the hangman in his livery, covered,\nriding on the horse that draws the cart--the prisoner to be bound to the\ncart with a rope--to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and from thence to be\nbrought to the Parliament House, and there, in the place of delinquents,\non his knees, to receive his sentence--viz., to be hanged on a gibbet at\nthe Cross of Edinburgh, with his book and declaration tied on a rope\nabout his neck, and there to hang for the space of three hours until he\nbe dead; and thereafter to be cut down by the hangman, his head, hands,\nand legs to be cut off, and distributed as follows--viz., His head to be\naffixed on an iron pin, and set on the pinnacle of the west gavel of the\nnew prison of Edinburgh; one hand to be set on the port of Perth, the\nother on the port of Stirling; one leg and foot on the port of Aberdeen,\nthe other on the port of Glasgow. If at his death penitent, and relaxed\nfrom excommunication, then the trunk of his body to be interred, by\npioneers, in the Greyfriars; otherwise, to be interred in the\nBoroughmuir, by the hangman's men, under the gallows.\"--BALFOUR'S _Notes\nof Parliament_.\n\nIt is needless to remark that this inhuman sentence was executed to the\nletter. In order that the exposure might be more complete, the cart was\nconstructed with a high chair in the centre, having holes behind,\nthrough which the ropes that fastened him were drawn. The author of the\n_Wigton Papers_, recently published by the Maitland Club, says, \"the\nreason of his being tied to the cart was in hope that the people would\nhave stoned him, and that he might not be able by his hands to save his\nface.\" His hat was then pulled off by the hangman, and the procession\ncommenced.\n\n{C} \"In all the way, there appeared in him such majesty, courage,\nmodesty--and even somewhat more than natural--that those common women\nwho had lost their husbands and children in his wars, and who were hired\nto stone him, were upon the sight of him so astonished and moved, that\ntheir intended curses turned into tears and prayers; so that next day\n_all the ministers preached against them for not stoning and reviling\nhim_.\"--_Wigton Papers._\n\n{D} \"It is remarkable, that of the many thousand beholders, the Lady\nJean Gordon, Countess of Haddington, did (alone) publicly insult and\nlaugh at him; which being perceived by a gentleman in the street, he\ncried up to her, that it became her better to sit upon the cart for her\nadulteries.\"--_Wigton Papers._ This infamous woman was the third\ndaughter of Huntly, and the niece of Argyle. It will hardly be credited\nthat she was the sister of that gallant Lord Gordon, who fell fighting\nby the side of Montrose, only five years before, at the battle of\nAldford!\n\n{E} \"The Lord Lorn and his new lady were also sitting on a balcony,\njoyful spectators; and the cart being stopt when it came before the\nlodging where the Chancellor, Argyle, and Warristoun sat--that they\nmight have time to insult--he, suspecting the business, turned his face\ntowards them, whereupon they presently crept in at the windows: which\nbeing perceived by an Englishman, he cried up, it was no wonder they\nstarted aside at his look, for they durst not look him in the face these\nseven years bygone.\"--_Wigton Papers._\n\n{F} Archibald Johnston of Warristoun. This man, who was the inveterate\nenemy of Montrose, and who carried the most selfish spirit into every\nintrigue of his party, received the punishment of his treasons about\neleven years afterwards. It may be instructive to learn how _he_ met his\ndoom. The following extract is from the MSS. of Sir George\nMackenzie:--\"The Chancellor and others waited to examine him; he fell\nupon his face, roaring, and with tears entreated they would pity a poor\ncreature who had forgot all that was in the Bible. This moved all the\nspectators with a deep melancholy; and the Chancellor, reflecting upon\nthe man's great parts, former esteem, and the great share he had in all\nthe late revolutions, could not deny some tears to the frailty of silly\nmankind. At his examination, he pretended he had lost so much blood by\nthe unskilfulness of his chirurgeons, that he lost his memory with his\nblood; and I really believe that his courage had been drawn out with it.\nWithin a few days he was brought before the parliament, where he\ndiscovered nothing but much weakness, running up and down upon his\nknees, begging mercy; but the parliament ordained his former sentence to\nbe put to execution, and accordingly he was executed at the cross of\nEdinburgh.\"\n\n{G} \"He said he was much beholden to the parliament for the honour they\nput on him; 'for,' says he, 'I think it a greater honour to have my head\nstanding on the port of this town, for this quarrel, than to have my\npicture in the king's bedchamber. I am beholden to you, that, lest my\nloyalty should be forgotten, ye have appointed five of your most eminent\ntowns to bear witness of it to posterity.'\"--_Wigton Papers._\n\n{H} \"In his downgoing from the Tolbooth to the place of execution, he\nwas very richly clad in fine scarlet, laid over with rich silver lace,\nhis hat in his hand, his bands and cuffs exceeding rich, his delicate\nwhite gloves on his hands, his stockings of incarnate silk, and his\nshoes with their ribands on his feet; and sarks provided for him with\npearling about, above ten pund the elne. All these were provided for him\nby his friends, and a pretty cassock put on upon him, upon the scaffold,\nwherein he was hanged. To be short, nothing was here deficient to honour\nhis poor carcase, more beseeming a bridegroom than a criminal going to\nthe gallows.\"--NICHOLL'S _Diary_.\n\n{I} The Presbyterian ministers beset Montrose both in prison and on the\nscaffold. The following extracts are from the diary of the Rev. Robert\nTraill, one of the persons who were appointed by the commission of the\nkirk \"to deal with him:\"--\"By a warrant from the kirk, we staid a while\nwith him about his soul's condition. But we found him continuing in his\nold pride, and taking very ill what was spoken to him, saying, 'I pray\nyou, gentlemen, let me die in peace.' It was answered, that he might die\nin true peace, being reconciled to the Lord and to his kirk.\"--\"We\nreturned to the commission, and did show unto them what had passed\namongst us. They, seeing that for the present he was not desiring\nrelaxation from his censure of excommunication, did appoint Mr Mungo Law\nand me to attend on the morrow on the scaffold, at the time of his\nexecution, that, in case he should desire to be relaxed from his\nexcommunication, we should be allowed to give it unto him in the name of\nthe kirk, and to pray with him, and for him, _that what is loosed in\nearth might be loosed in heaven_.\" But this pious intention, which may\nappear somewhat strange to the modern Calvinist, when the prevailing\ntheories of the kirk regarding the efficacy of absolution are\nconsidered, was not destined to be fulfilled. Mr Traill goes on to say,\n\"But he did not at all desire to be relaxed from his excommunication in\nthe name of the kirk, _yea, did not look towards that place on the\nscaffold where we stood_; only he drew apart some of the magistrates,\nand spake a while with them, and then went up the ladder, in his red\nscarlet cassock, in a very stately manner.\"\n\n{J} \"He was very earnest that he might have the liberty to keep on his\nhat; it was denied: he requested he might have the privilege to keep his\ncloak about him--neither could that be granted. Then, with a most\nundaunted courage, he went up to the top of that prodigious\ngibbet.\"--\"The whole people gave a general groan; and it was very\nobservable, that even those who at his first appearance had bitterly\ninveighed against him, could not now abstain from tears.\"--_Montrose\nRedivivus._\n\n\n\n\nTHE WITCHFINDER.\n\nPART I.\n\n\nIt was towards the close of an autumnal evening, in the commencement of\nthe sixteenth century, that a crowd of human beings was dispersing from\nthe old market-place of Hammelburg, an ancient and, at that time,\nconsiderable town of Franconia, after witnessing the performance of a\nhideous and living tragedy. The Ober-Amtmann, or governor of the town,\nwho had presided over the awful occasion, had left, attended by his\n_schreibers_, or secretaries, the small balustraded terrace which\nadvanced out before the elevated entrance of the old Gothic town-hall.\nThe town-guard were receding in various directions, warning the crowd to\nseek their homes, and sometimes aiding with a gentle admonition of their\npike-heads those who lingered, as, slowly retreating, they moved down\nthe different narrow streets that led from the central market-place,\nlike streams flowing off in different channels after an inundation.\nWindow after window was closing in the quaintly-carved and\nstrangely-decorated gables of the houses; and many a small casement had\nbeen pulled to, over sundry withered old faces, that, peering from the\ndark and narrow aperture, and illumined by the glaring light that had\nfilled the market-place, had resembled some darkly-traced picture placed\nagainst the opening. In the middle of the square still smoked, in a\nheavy volume of cloud, the last gleaming ashes of a lately blazing pile,\nstill filling the air with a noisome stench. The night was closing\ndarkly in, and one human being alone seemed yet to linger in the\nmarket-place.\n\nIt would have been difficult, indeed, to discover that the dark object\njust discernible upon the edge of the blackened mass of smoking cinders\nreally was a human being, so shapeless was the form, so strangely was it\ncrouched down before the spot where the pile had been consumed. From\ntime to time only an upward-flung movement of two thin arms, as if in\nthe violent emotion of earnest prayer or deprecation, showed that this\nobject was a living thing; until, when the moon rose from behind the old\ntown-hall, disengaging itself, ever and anon, from among the heavy\nclouds of a gathering storm, its light fell full upon this indistinct\napparition, and revealed the form of a man, curiously bent together in a\nhalf-squatting, half-kneeling position. His head was bare. His long\ntangled black locks hung around a swarthy face, young still in years,\nbut worn and withered, and prematurely aged by sickness, sorrow, or\nviolence of passion--perhaps by the constant operation of all three. At\nthis moment it was ghastly pale, and bore the marks of the faintness and\nexhaustion attendant upon a reaction after intense excitement. The dress\nof this creature was not the usual costume of the lower classes, and\nconsisted almost entirely of a ragged and soiled garment of coarse brown\nlinen, made somewhat in the shape of a modern _blouse_, and bound round\nhis waist by a coarse leathern band. Around his neck hung a square bag,\nor satchel, which at once designated his calling to be that of a common\nbeggar, privileged by the religious authorities of the place. The stoop\nof his broad shoulders, between which the head was deeply sunk, told a\ntale of long sickness, which had broken a frame originally bold and\nstrong, and given a peculiarly ill-favoured appearance to a form\nnaturally well built; and when he arose from his squatting posture, the\nbent and withered appearance of his crooked legs, which no longer\npossessed sufficient strength to support the bulkier frame above, gave\npainful evidence that the wretched man had suffered cruelly from those\ncommon scourges of his class at that period--rheumatism and ague.\nClasped between his hands was a rosary of wood; and, as he rose, he\npressed it to his lips, and then deposited it in the upper part of his\ngarment.\n\n\"No, no!\" exclaimed the <DW36> aloud, when he had staggered to his\nfeet. \"No, it is not vengeance--it is not, God knows; although the\nmalevolence of those hideous and accursed hags, those lemans of\nSatan\"--and he spat upon the ground--\"have made me the wretched outcast\nof humanity I am. The blood of the foul one has been shed for His glory\nonly, and that of the blessed Virgin, to the destruction of the\narch-enemy of mankind and his delusions!\"\n\n\"Thou knowest it is so,\" he added, again clutching forth the rosary from\nhis bosom, which, after gazing upon a rude personification of the\nVirgin, stamped upon a tiny plate of copper at the end of the string of\nbeads, and devoutly making the sign of the cross, he returned to its\nusual depository.\n\n\"I have cried against the handmaid of Beelzebub--uttering cry for cry as\nshe shrieked out her wretched soul. I have prayed earnestly and long,\nand I am athirst,\" continued the <DW36>, as he dragged his distorted\nlimbs with difficulty over the rough stones towards a large covered\nwell, which occupied the lower part of the market-place.\n\nAs the beggar approached the parapet of the well, to drink from one of\nthe buckets which reposed upon its edge, he became first aware of the\npresence of another human being. Half-concealed behind one of the\ntwisted columns that supported the Gothic pavilion above, sat upon the\nparapet a female figure, dressed in a black garb of such a form and\nnature, that, without being the exact costume of any known religious\norder, it bore a monastic character. Her face, as she sat with her head\nbent down over her clasped hands, in an attitude of mournful\nhumiliation, was fully concealed by a black hood. But when, upon the\napproach of the beggar, she started up hastily, as if impelled by\nfeelings of horror and disgust, the moon shone full upon her, and\nrevealed the features of a woman of an advanced period of life, who\nformerly might have possessed much beauty, although now so washed out by\ntears, and furrowed by sorrow, that the whole character of her face was\nchanged. Her years, too, were probably very much fewer than her\nappearance denoted, for the signs of age upon her face bore less the\nmarks of time than of mental suffering. The symptoms of aversion which\nher manner displayed upon the beggar's approach, although instinctive\nand involuntary, and almost immediately restrained, had not escaped his\neye. His features expressed the bitter resentment of his heart at this\ninsult, and worked with ill-repressed feelings of anger and spite.\n\n\"Ha! Mother Magdalena--it is thou! Why flinchest thou at my approach?\nHast thou cause to fear me, then?\" exclaimed the <DW36> with a sneer,\nas he drew nearer.\n\nThe female thus addressed shuddered at the sound of his voice; and,\nhastily pulling her dark hood more closely over her face, endeavoured to\npass on without reply; but the beggar caught her by the arm.\n\n\"Not so fast, beldam!\" he cried. \"I would have a word with thee. Dost\nthou not know me?\"\n\n\"Not know thee!\" exclaimed the dark female. \"Who in this wretched town\ndoes not know Schwartzer Claus, the witchfinder? What wouldst thou with\nme? Let me go!\"\n\n\"Why dost thou tremble, then, and turn away thy head?\" continued the\n<DW36>. \"Why does Black Claus, the witchfinder--since such thou callest\nme--make thee shudder thus in every limb? The innocent have no cause to\nfear.\"\n\n\"Thou askest me why I shudder?\" said Magdalena in an excited tone,\nforgetting in her agitation her purpose of self-control. \"Thou hast\nforced me to speak, and I will tell thee. Is not thy hand yet reeking\nwith the bloody ashes of thy last victim? Has not a seventh unhappy\nwoman suffered this very day a cruel death at the stake upon thy hideous\ndenunciation; and thou askest me why I shudder?\"\n\n\"Beware, woman--beware!\" cried the witchfinder, lifting up his long\nright arm with a gesture of menace. \"Those who defend the evil-doer, and\nmalign the just and heaven-directed accuser, are not far from being\narraigned as accomplices themselves!\"\n\n\"What! thou seekest already another innocent sacrifice, wretched man!\"\ncontinued the female, tearing away her arm, which the beggar still held\nclenched in his left hand. \"Thou art not sated with the innocent blood\nthy false witness has this day shed?\"\n\n\"It is a lie!--it is a damning lie!\" screamed the <DW36>, foaming with\npassion. \"I have borne no false witness! Besides, did not she avow her\ndeeds of darkness? did she not confess her complicity with the spirits\nof hell, and her harlotries with the arch-deceiver of mankind?\"\n\n\"Ay! when, tortured in mind and body, her poor weak old head gave way,\nand she unconsciously affirmed all that her torturers had for hours past\nbeen pressing upon her wavering understanding. Ye had driven her mad,\npoor wretch!\"\n\n\"'Tis false again!--'tis false!\" repeated the witchfinder. \"The truth\nspoke out of her at last, when her treacherous paramour, the demon, had\ndeserted her. God's glory and that of the holy church, for which I work,\nhad triumphed over the powers of darkness.\"\n\n\"Thou serve the holy church! Hear not the blasphemy, O Lord!\" cried the\nexcited woman, raising up her hands to heaven. \"Thou, miserable wretch!\nwho, for the favour of the Amtmann or the priest, for the pittance\nbestowed on thee in reward of thy discovery of the supposed foul\npractices of witchery and magic, art ever ready to sell the innocent\nblood of the aged, helpless, and infirm!\"\n\n\"For the lucre of gain!\" screamed the <DW36>, but in a tone as much of\ndespair at this accusation as of wrath. \"For the lucre of gain! No--no;\nas God is my judge, it is not! My motives are pure; God and the Holy\nVirgin know they are! It is not even a spirit of revenge that instigates\nme. No--no! it cannot be; it _is_ not! If the words of my mouth have\ncondemned and killed, it is because my voice was uplifted in the cause\nof religion, and to the confusion of the prince of evil!\" But as he\nspoke, the beggar covered his face with his hands, with a shudder, as\nthough there passed in his soul a struggle with himself--a doubt of his\nown real motives.\n\nMagdalena was about to quit in haste her dangerous companion, when a\nsentiment of pity at the sight of the <DW36>'s evident emotion seemed\nto mingle strangely with her disgust and aversion to the witchfinder. It\nwas even with an uncontrollable feeling of interest that she stopped for\na moment to look upon the wretched man.\n\nAfter a pause, the beggar removed his hands from his face, and uttering\nin a low tone the words, \"I thirst,\" staggered to the edge of the well,\nand seized the bucket within his hands. He bent over it but for a moment\nto drink, and could scarcely have swallowed many mouthfuls, before,\nflinging back the bucket into the well, he started up, and spat the\nwater from his mouth.\n\n\"Horror!\" he said, with a look of mingled terror and insanity--\"it\ntastes of blood!\"\n\n\"It is thy own conscience, poor man, that troubles the taste of the\nfresh element,\" said Magdalena solemnly; \"the water is pure and sweet!\"\n\n\"Thou hast done this, old hag!\" cried the witchfinder wildly; unheeding\nher remark. \"Thou hast corrupted the waters at the source. Why did I\nfind thee sitting here, cowering over the surface of the well, if it\nwere not to cast malefick spells upon the water, and turn it into\npoison--in order to give ills, and ails, and blains, and aches, and\npains, and sickness, and death to thy fellow-creatures? Ha! ha! I have\nlong thought it. Thou also art one of the accursed ones!\"\n\n\"Thou ravest, miserable wretch!\" replied the female; \"thou knowest not\nwhat thou utterest. God forgive thee, <DW36>, thy wicked thought, and\nchange thy perverted mind!\"\n\nShe was again about to turn away, and leave her angry questioner, when,\nfearing the result of the evil feeling now fully excited in the\nwitchfinder's mind, she again paused to excuse herself in the eyes of\nthe dangerous man, and added--\n\n\"Thou canst not mean what thou sayest, Claus; I sat by the well but to\ncool my heated brow in the night-air, and taste the breath of heaven;\nfor my mind was saddened, and my head whirled, with the horrors that\nthis day has witnessed.\"\n\nBut her words were but oil upon the flame, and only served to augment\nthe wild infatuation of the witchfinder.\n\n\"Ah! thy mind was saddened! Thou hadst pity for that vile hag of hell!\nWas she thy comrade? Perchance thou hadst fear for thyself? Thou\nthought'st thy own time might come? Thy own time _will_ come, old\nMagdalena. My eye is upon thee and thy dark practices; it has been upon\nthee since thou camest, unknown and unacknowledged, to this place, none\ncould tell when, and whence, and how. Ay, my eye is upon thee,\nand--beware!\"\n\nWillingly would the woman now have shrunk away before the maddened\nwitchfinder's objurgation; but the wild accusation thus thundered\nagainst her froze her with terror, and riveted her to the spot.\n\n\"I have marked thee well,\" continued the frantic man, \"and I have seen\nthee pause upon the threshold of the holy house of God, and kneel in\nmockery upon the steps before it: but thou hast never dared to enter it.\nThou knewest well that the devil thou servest would have torn thee in\npieces hadst thou done it. Ha! do I catch thee there?\" he continued, as\nat these words the woman buried her face between her hands.\n\n\"Thou canst not deny it!\" shouted the witchfinder with an air of\ntriumph.\n\n\"God best judges the motives of the heart,\" murmured Magdalena.\n\n\"I will tell thee more, vile hag, and thou shalt hear it face to face,\"\npursued the <DW36>, seizing the poor woman's arms with his long bony\nfingers, and dragging her hands from before her face, in spite of her\nefforts at resistance. \"Thou watchest at street corners and in doorways,\non the bridge or on the causeway, to see fair Fraulein Bertha, the\nOber-Amtmann's daughter, ride past upon her ambling jennet, or mount the\nchurch-steps, her missal in her hand. Thou watchest her to cast thy\nspells upon her. Thou hatest her for her youth and beauty and spotless\npurity, like all thy wretched tribe, whom the sight of innocence and\nbrightness sickens to the heart's core. Thou wouldst fascinate her with\nthy eye of evil and thy deadly incantations.\"\n\nThe moon, the light of which still struggled faintly through the\nfast-accumulating clouds, shone for a moment upon the face of old\nMagdalena, as the <DW36> pronounced these words. Her features were more\ndeadly pale than usual, and convulsed with an excess of agitation at\nthis mention of Bertha's name, which she evidently struggled to control\nin vain.\n\n\"Ah! I have thee there again!\" screamed Claus in triumph a second time.\n\"Already have I seen her cheek grow pale, her head bow down like a\nblighted flower, her walk become weary with faintness. Hast thou already\nbeen at thy filthy machinations? But Black Claus, the witchfinder, is\nthere to wrestle with the powers of evil. And hear me! That fair sweet\ngirl is the only comfort of my wretched life. My soul grows calm and\nsoothed when I look upon that lovely face. A ray of sunshine gleams upon\nthe darkness of my path when her smile beams upon me. My heart leaps\nwithin me for joy when her small white hand drops an offering into my\nbeggar's bowl. She is my only life, my only joy, and my guardian angel.\nAnd couldst thou harm her, woman, no torment should be too horrible for\nthee, body and soul. The chains of the stake still lie upon the\nmarket-place--the ashes of yon pile still reek with heat; and the pile\nshall rise again, the chains shall bind once more. Wretched hag! I bid\nthee again beware!\"\n\nAs with one hand the raving witchfinder pointed to the spot where one\nunhappy woman had already perished that day, a victim to the\nsuperstition of the times, Magdalena, who, during his praise of the fair\ngirl, had again looked at him with awakened interest, disengaged herself\nfrom the other. \"God's will be done!\" she said with humility. \"I am\nprepared for all. But thou, unhappy man!\" she continued, \"beware in\nturn, lest, before thou hast time to repent thee of the hardness and\ncruelty of thy heart, His judgement fall on thee, and his justice punish\nthee.\"\n\nShe spoke with hand upraised to heaven; and then, pulling her hood over\nher face, hurried from the market-place.\n\nThe witchfinder gazed after her, fixed to the spot, and for a moment\nawe-struck by her words. As he still stood struggling with his various\npassions, the storm, which had been gathering ever since sunset, began\nto burst over his head. The rain came down in torrents.\n\n\"Ah! was it that?\" screamed the beggar, with a fit of wild laughter.\n\"The miserable old beldam! she stretched out her finger to the sky, and\nit was to bring down these waterspouts upon my head. Curses on the foul\nmalicious fiend!\" And he spat upon the ground, as if to exorcise the\nevil spirit.\n\n\"But I must find shelter,\" he murmured. \"Already pains rack my limbs; my\nbones ache; a shudder runs through my frame! The old hag has worked her\nspell upon me. _Apage, Sathanas!_ Anathema!\"\n\nSpeaking thus, the wretched man shuffled along as fast as the crippled\nstate of his limbs, and the acute pains of rheumatism, which the damp\nnight-air had again brought upon him, would allow him to proceed. He\nstaggered to the shelter of a doorway, which was placed under the\nadvancing terrace of the town-hall, and between two staircases which\ndescended on either side on to the market-place. The protruding vault of\nthe Gothic archway afforded him some refuge from the storm, which now\nburst down with increased violence. But the excited witchfinder's brain\nseemed to wander, as he caught an indistinct vision of the gaping jaws\nof the dragons and other grotesque monsters, which protruded as\nwaterspouts from the roofs of the surrounding houses, and now disgorged\ntorrents of rain.\n\n\"Spit, spit, ye devils all!\" he shouted aloud. \"Ye cannot reach me here.\nHa! ha! rage, storm, spew forth your venom, do the bidding of your\nmistress--I defy you!\" And as the wind swept round the corners of the\nbuilding, and spattered some of the water of the gushing cataracts in\nhis face, he cried, \"Avaunt!\" as if speaking to a living thing, and,\nclinging to the bars of an aperture in the upper part of the door,\nturned away his face.\n\nAs he thus came to look upon the strongly-barred opening in the door,\nthe current of his ideas changed. Within was the small and wretched\nprison of the town, which just occupied the space of the terrace\nabove--a miserable hole.\n\n\"There she lay this morning,\" he murmured, looking into the interior,\nwhich was now in utter darkness, and quite empty--\"there she lay, old\nMartha Dietz, and called in vain upon the demon who deserted her. There\nhave lain all the foul hags who tortured my poor aching limbs. There\nshall _she_ lie also, the scoffer and reviler, the worker of evil. The\nwitchfinder will be revenged. Revenge! no, no! He will do the work of\nthe holy church. Who shall say the contrary? Not thou, old Martha--nor\nthou--nor thou. If ye say so, ye lie in death, as ye have lied in life.\nAy! glare upon me with your lack-lustre eyes. Ye are powerless now,\nthough ye are there, and make mouths at me. One--two--three--God stand\nby me! There they are--_all seven!_\"\n\nWith a wild scream of horror, the <DW36> covered his eyes with his\nhands, and rushed forth into the tempest.\n\nSituated in the picturesque and fertile valley of the Saale, the town of\nHammelburg stands upon a gentle declivity, commanding one of the\nnumerous windings of the river, and sloping downwards to its banks. A\npart of the old walls of the town is thus bathed by the waters of the\nstream, which, calm and peaceful in the summer months, become\ntumultuous, and even dangerous, during rainy weather, or after the\nmelting of the snows. From the ancient gateway of the town on the river\nside, a triple bridge of great length and many arches, which, in the dry\nseason, seems to occupy a most unnecessary space across the narrower\nwaters, but which, at other times, scarce suffices to span the extent of\nthe invading inundation, affords a communication with the high-road.\n\nAt the commencement of the sixteenth century, this bridge was only\nconstructed of wood, and although put together with rude strength,\nill-sufficed to resist the force of the torrents, and had been\nrepeatedly swept before them.\n\nNot far from the town gateway that commanded this bridge, stood a huge\nmansion, constructed as a palace for the Prince Bishops of Fulda, the\nsovereign rulers of the district; although, at the period in question,\nit had been ceded to the Ober-Amtmann, a near relation of the reigning\nbishop, as his official dwelling. On the side of this ancient palace\nfurthest removed from the town gate, ran, along the river's banks, its\nspacious gardens, abutting at their extremity upon the premises of an\nextensive Benedictine monastery, from which they were only separated by\na narrow lane, that led from the town to the river. At the very angle of\nthis lane, where it opened by a small water-gate upon a narrow\ntowing-path, skirting alike the town-walls and the banks of the stream,\nthere stood a low building attached to the monastery, the upper story of\nwhich thus overlooked the old gardens of the palace on the one hand,\nand, on the other, the river banks.\n\nAt one of the windows of this humble dwelling, that which overlooked the\npalace gardens, stood a young man, intently gazing through its small\noctagon panes. Two or three times he turned away with a heavy sigh, as\nif wearied with long and vain watching, and as often returned again to\nhis previous occupation. At length the opening of the door of the room\nstartled him from his position; and as if ashamed of being caught in the\nact of looking out, he hurried to a table in the middle of the room, and\nflung himself into an old chair.\n\nThe various objects with which the table was covered, as well as those\nwhich filled and littered the room in all directions, clearly designated\nthe young man's employment to be that of a sculptor and colourer of\nimages for the ornament of churches, as well as an illuminator of\nmissals and manuscripts--an occupation at that time still pursued,\nalthough gradually falling into disuse since the invention of printing.\nScattered about upon the table were several old parchment manuscripts,\nwhich had served as models for the artist's use, or had been confided to\nhis hands to clean. Old illuminated missals, some of the gorgeous\nillustrations of which were open, as if lately retouched by the hand of\nthe young painter, lay here and there. At the further end of the table\nstood a small figure of a Virgin and Child, delicately and exquisitely\ncarved, and painted with the richest colours. The group was bright with\nits fresh finish, and evidently had not long been completed by the hand\nof the artist. Upon an elevated bench or dresser were littered the tools\nof the sculptor and wood-carver, with a few unfinished trials of small\nsaintly figures; and around the room were fragments of wooden images of\nsaints, some discoloured, some broken, a few in tolerable preservation,\nwhich were either destined to be restored and repainted, or had served\nas studies for the artist. Upon the walls hung a few pictures of female\nsaints, bedecked with garlands of flowers, which showed them to be\nobjects of devotion and respect in the eyes of the possessor. Among all\nthis confusion, space was scarcely left, in the small chamber of the\nartist, for the pallet-bed and cumbrous press that formed his only\nfurniture.\n\nImmediately before the chair into which the young man so hastily flung\nhimself, lay a rich missal, upon the adornment of which he had been\nemployed, before other thoughts and feelings had sent him to the window;\nand when he again resumed his work, it was upon the face of a fair\nsaint, which formed the headpiece of a chapter, peering out from among\nthe various graceful arabesques that twined in the brightest colours\nalong the margin of the leaf.\n\nIn truth, the face of the young artist was almost as fair as that of the\nbright being he was engaged in painting. His light brown hair was parted\nin the middle, over a high white forehead, and fell in faintly waving\ncurls almost to his neck, forming a frame to the soft oval face, to\nwhich his violet-blue melancholy-looking eyes, his calm,\nfinely-chiselled features, and the serious repose of his imaginative\nmouth, imparted an air of gentleness and thoughtfulness combined. His\ndark, sober-, simple dress, although somewhat too severe to suit\nhis youthful figure, accorded well with the character of his\nphysiognomy. His falling collar displayed a full white throat, which\nmight have served as a model for a statue of Antinous, had it not borne\nmore the stamp of genius in its proportions than of physical\nvoluptuousness. The hands, which now hastily resumed their neglected\noccupation, had all the fairness and well-moulded contour of a woman's,\nwithout that delicacy of size which would have stamped them as\neffeminate. Had he been aware of his own beauty, he might have copied\nhis own graceful form for a personification of the lily-bearing angel in\na group of the Annunciation.\n\nThe person who had startled him from the window, by opening the door of\nhis room, was an aged-looking woman, in a plain dress of coarse black\nserge. She bore in her hands a coarse brown porringer filled with\nsteaming viands, a lump of dark homely bread, and a white cloth.\n\n\"Ah! my good Magdalena, art thou there?\" said the young artist, raising\nhis head with an almost unconscious affectation of surprise, as though\nunexpectedly disturbed at his work.\n\n\"You forget all hours, and all human wants, in your zeal for your\nbeautiful art, Master Gottlob,\" said the woman. \"I bring you your\nnoon-day repast, which you would never have called for, had I allowed it\nto stand by even until sundown. But I have ventured to transgress your\norders. You must be faint with long fasting;\" and the old woman made a\nmovement as if to place the food upon the table before the artist.\n\n\"Thanks, good Magdalena! thanks!\" said the young man, looking at her\nwith that sweet smile, and tender expression of his mild blue eyes,\nwhich had procured him, among all who knew him, the constant designation\nof \"Gentle Gottlob;\" but at the same time repelling the porringer. \"Not\nhere. Place the food elsewhere. I will eat anon. I am not hungry now;\nand I must not leave my work. I have promised it to his noble reverence\nthe prior, for the eve of the fete of St Ursula, and to-morrow is the\nvery day. There is still much to do. It seems as if I could never give\nsufficient finish to this face, or impart to it, with my dull colours\nand rebellious pencil, that look of heavenly brightness that ought to\ndwell upon it. And yet, alas! I would it never could be finished! It\nwill break my heart to part with it--although I love not my own work,\nnor deem it excellent. But still I cherish it--all imperfect as it is--I\nknow not why; and when to-morrow comes, and I must give it up into his\nreverence's hands, it seems that my life and spirit would depart from me\nwith its loss, and that all around me would be dark and joyless.\"\n\nAfter placing the porringer and bread upon a spare corner of the\nsculptor's working bench, Magdalena moved gently behind the young man's\nchair, and having asked respectfully his pardon, looked over his\nshoulder. At the sight of the fair face upon which the young artist was\nbestowing so much care, her looks betrayed feelings of surprise, mingled\nwith much emotion. Once or twice she passed her hand over her eyes, as\nif doubting the reality of what she saw. It was some time before she\ncould sufficiently master her agitation to speak; and when at last she\nspoke, after a long-drawn sigh, it was with a tone which still betrayed,\nin spite of her efforts, the interest inspired in her by the painter's\nwork of art.\n\n\"It is indeed a fine performance, and right bravely limned,\" she said;\n\"and in truth the countenance you have given to yonder saint, with the\npale glory, is one of exquisite beauty. I wonder not that you should be\ngrieved to look upon so sweet a face no more; although, methinks, I know\na face as fair, to which it bears a marvellous resemblance.\"\n\n\"What meanest thou, Magdalena?\" said the young artist, bending his head\nstill lower over his work. \"Whom dost thou know who could bear a\nlikeness to this creation of my own imagination?\"\n\n\"Of your own memory, Master Gottlob! you should have said,\" pursued\nMagdalena. \"Surely--or my eyes deceive themselves most strangely--although\nin that sweet face they were not easily deceived; surely the face is\nthat of\"----\n\nThe old woman again paused, as if to suppress her emotion.\n\n\"Of whom?\" enquired Gottlob in a low tone, also in much agitation.\n\n\"Of the fair Fraulein Bertha, the noble Ober-Amtmann's daughter.\"\n\n\"You think so, Magdalena?\" replied the young man. \"Perhaps it maybe a\nslight shade of a resemblance, caught unconsciously\"----\n\n\"It is she herself,\" exclaimed Magdalena. \"It is the same angelic\nsmile--the same beam of innocent brightness athwart her brow! It is\nshe!\"\n\n\"Perhaps thou art right,\" stammered Gottlob, still in much confusion,\nbut evidently well pleased with the species of praise thus bestowed\nupon his performance. \"There is, in truth, more resemblance to the\nFraulein Bertha than I had thought.\"\n\nMagdalena seemed for a minute lost in her reflection, as if a new and\npainful idea had struck her; and after giving a long and anxious look at\nthe window, from which the young artist had drawn back upon her\nentrance, she pressed her hand heavily to her heart, as if to support\nher in a sudden resolution, and, advancing to the artist's side, said in\nan earnest tone, \"Young man! thou lovest her!\"\n\n\"Magdalena! thou knowest not what thou sayest,\" cried Gottlob, more\nharshly than as the wont of his gentle nature.\n\n\"Oh! pardon me if I have offended. Condemn me not!\" said the excited\nwoman. \"But I do entreat you, tell me! Tell me your secret as you would\nconfide it to a mother--to your own mother, Gottlob. It is the purest\ninterest for you--for her--that guides me! I swear it to you! Oh! tell\nme--is it not so? You love that fair and gentle girl!\"\n\nThe young man looked at his strange interrogator with some astonishment\nat her evident agitation. The tears were swelling in her eyes. But\nwithout pausing to question the reasons of her emotion--so absorbed is\nlove in its own self--he rose, and took the old woman's hand.\n\n\"Yes! I will speak; my heart has long been overcharged with its own\nsecret, even to bursting,\" he said; \"and it throbs to unburden itself\ninto some sympathizing heart! And why not thine, good Magdalena? Ever\nsince fate has brought us so strangely together, thou hast been like a\nmother to me!\"\n\n\"Do not I owe you all?\" interrupted the old woman; \"my life--my daily\nbread--a shelter for my old limbs in the cell below?\"\n\n\"Alas! I have but little to give, poor Magdalena!\" said the young man\nkindly.\n\n\"And that little thou hast shared with me as a son,\" continued Magdalena\nbending her head over his hand as if to kiss it.\n\n\"Yes, thou shalt know all,\" pursued Gottlob; \"for it would seem as\nthough the destiny that threw thee in my way were linked with hers. Her\nimage it was that led me to the spot where first I saw thee. It was the\nlast day of the Carnival, at the beginning of this year, and there was a\nfete at the palace of the Ober-Amtmann. I had long gazed with adoration\nupon that angelic face, and treasured it in my heart. I already\nworshipped yon saintly portraits, because in one--God forgive me the\nprofane thought!--I had found a faint forth-showing of the beam of her\nbright eye; in another, the gentle, dimpled smile of her sweet mouth; in\na third, her pure and saint-like brow. It was not for such as I, a poor\nartist, to be invited to the noble Amtmann's fete; but I thought that,\nthrough the windows in the illuminated halls, I might perchance trace\nher passing shadow. I fancied that, by some unforeseen accident, she\nmight come forth upon the terrace, overhanging the river's banks--a\nfoolish fancy, for the night was wintry and cold. I hoped to see her, no\nmatter how; and I wandered out of the town--for its gates were open for\nthat holiday--to look upon the lighted windows of the palace from the\nopposite side of the stream. The snow was on the ground. My mantle\nscarcely preserved me from the bitter cold. But I felt it not. It was\nonly when a groan sounded near me, that I thought on the sufferings of\nothers in such a night. I looked around me; and there, not far from me,\non the snow, before the very windows of the palace, where within was\nmusic and dancing, and feasting and mirth, lay thy form, poor Magdalena!\nFeeble, helpless, stiff with cold, thou appearedst to me in the last\nagonies of death.\"\n\n\"Yes; I had laid me down to die, in sorrow and despair. It is too true,\"\nsobbed the old woman, in a voice choked with tears. \"But your hand\nraised me up--your arms warmed me into life--your voice encouraged me,\nand gave me force. You brought me to your home, fostered me, and nursed\nme--me, an unknown outcast, whose very history you did not even seek to\nknow--whose silence and secrecy you respected. Your kindness saved me\nfrom despair, and gave me hope; and I lived on, in order to pay, were\nit possible, my debt of gratitude to my preserver.\"\n\n\"Good Magdalena,\" said the young man soothingly, taking her withered\nhands between his own, \"I did but the duty of a Christian man.\"\n\n\"And you love her, then?\" resumed Magdalena, recalling her young\npreserver to his promised confidence.\n\n\"Love her!\" exclaimed Gottlob with an impassioned fervour, which gave\nhis gentle face a look of inspiration. \"Love her! She is my vision by\nday--my dream by night. When I read, it is her voice that seems to speak\nto me from the Minnesinger's poesy. When I paint, it is her form that\ngrows under my pencil. When I pray, it is her seraphic smile that seems\nto beam upon me down from heaven. I wander forth: it is to meet her in\nher walks. I kneel in the church: it is to breathe the same air as she!\"\nAt these words, Magdalena covered her face, and uttered a suppressed\ngroan. \"I rise from my labour, which of old was a labour of love to me,\nand now is oft an irksome task: it is to watch for her coming forth into\nthe garden. I have neither rest by day nor by night. Where there was\nrepose in my heart, there is now eternal fever.\"\n\n\"And she?\" said Magdalena with a low tone of anxiety, as if fearful of\nthe answer she might receive. \"Does she know--does she return your\nlove?\"\n\n\"How should she deign to remark a worm like me?\" was the young artist's\nanswer. \"How should I dare to breathe my affection in her ear, were it\neven possible for me to approach her? And yet she looks upon me kindly,\"\ncontinued the young lover, encouraging himself in vague hopes, at the\nsame time that he condemned their presumption. \"When I doff my cap to\nthe noble Amtmann's daughter, as she ambles forth by her proud father's\nside, she will answer with so sweet a smile, and greet me with a wave of\nher riding-switch--with what a grace!--and then grow red thereby, and\nthen grow pale. When I offer her the holy water as she passes from the\nchurch, she will cast down her trembling eyelids, and yet will see\nwithal who offers it; and when I stand at yon window, as she rambles in\nthe garden, she will pluck flower after flower, as though she knew not\nwhy; then fling them all aside, then pick them up with care; then\ndisappear as if she had gone back, and yet come forth again.\"\n\nMagdalena's brow grew thoughtful and anxious as Gottlob proceeded in his\nenumeration of these symptoms. Her bosom heaved painfully, her hands\nwere clenched together.\n\n\"Poor child! should it be so!\" she murmured, casting her eyes upon the\nground; and then, raising them again to Gottlob's face, into which she\nlooked with scrutinizing eagerness, she said aloud--\"And yet you do not\nthink she loves you?\"\n\n\"She love me!\" cried the young man. \"Such a dream of bliss were madness!\nCan I forget the immeasurable gulf that separates the noble daughter of\nthe high-placed Amtmann from the poor and humble artist--the dependent\nof a cloister? No, Magdalena. I must die as I have lived, the poor\nunloved and uncared-for orphan--die without a sigh of pity, without a\ntear of sorrow from her eye.\"\n\n\"Have you, then, no friends, poor youth?\" said Magdalena.\n\n\"None. Yes! I am ungrateful. I have one--a kind protector; but he is far\nremoved, and I have seen him seldom.\"\n\n\"The Prince Bishop of Fulda!\" repeated the old woman, with some degree\nof agitation. \"Perhaps--yet it is a wild and foolish thought--perhaps\nall hope is not shut out to you.\"\n\n\"What sayest thou, then, old Magdalena?\" said the youth. \"Hope were but\ntorture were it vain; and so it must be\"----\n\n\"Yes. I was wrong. Heed not my words! But know you not that your patron,\nthe bishop, is close at hand? Already I have heard that he arrived this\nmorning at his castle of Saaleck, at half a league's distance from the\ntown; and he will probably shortly enter Hammelburg, as is his wont.\"\n\n\"These are glad tidings!\" said Gottlob, his eyes beaming with joy. \"I\nwill at once to Saaleck, and, if the prince admit me to his presence,\nthrow myself at his feet, assure him of all my gratitude for the past,\nand offer him my poor service for the future.\"\n\nWith these words the young man hurried to his cumbrous chest, and\npulling out a short cloak, flung it around him. A small cap of black\nvelvet, of the cut of the time, which showed off to advantage the beauty\nof his youthful face, was hastily thrown upon his head. He was about to\nquit the chamber, when Magdalena caught him by the arm.\n\n\"Thy repast, Master Gottlob.\"\n\n\"Have I time to think of that?\" said the eager youth, swallowing,\nhowever, in haste a few mouthfuls of the broth, to satisfy the old\nwoman's look of supplication.\n\n\"And when you mount or descend the mountain-path that leads to the\ncastle on its brow,\" said the old woman, during Gottlob's hasty meal,\n\"if you can still have a thought for poor old Magdalena, she begs you\nenter the chapel on the mountain-side, which is esteemed so holy that it\nis permitted to be a sanctuary of refuge to the criminal, and say a\nshort prayer for her soul's weal.\"\n\n\"Can those so good and kind as thou, Magdalena, need the prayers of such\nas I?\" said the young man.\n\n\"The fervent supplications of the young and pure at heart are always\nacceptable,\" replied Magdalena evasively, but in a sad and earnest tone.\n\n\"So be it--and fare-thee-well,\" said Gottlob, finishing his last\nmouthful, and hurrying to depart.\n\n\"And heed you, gentle youth,\" again cried Magdalena, \"as you cross the\nbridge to leave the town. The river is much swollen with the late rains,\nso much as to threaten destruction to the tottering fabric.\"\n\n\"I fear no such danger,\" was the young man's reply; \"and besides, have I\nnot thy charm?\" he continued, laughing, holding up a black ring\ninscribed with strange characters, that hung about his neck.\n\n\"Oh, say not so!\" said the old woman earnestly, as a recollection of the\nWitchfinder's dreadful threats the night before came across her mind.\n\"Call it not a charm! The holy church permits not of such dealings. It\nwas but a remembrance that I gave you, to think sometimes on the poor\nwretch whose life you had preserved. It was of little value; but I had\nnought else to give. I prayed only that it might bring happiness to you,\nboy, for it had brought nothing but misery and wretchedness to me.\"\n\nLong before old Magdalena could complete her sentence, the eager youth\nhad left the room. The old woman looked after him for a time with a look\nof gratitude, and then, hurrying to the artist's table, threw herself\ndown upon her knees beside the open missal, and gazed with intense\neagerness upon the picture of the fair saint upon which he had been\npainting. She approached her lips as if to kiss it; then again drew\nback, as if she feared to mar the colouring by her caress: then gazed\nagain, until her eyes filled with tears: and at last, with the cry,\n\"Yes! it is she--her very self!\" burst into a fit of convulsive sobbing,\nand buried her face between her hands.\n\nAs she still lay crouched upon her knees, a partly-concealed door, which\nled towards the monastery, and was almost in disuse, slowly opened, and\na figure, enveloped in a monk's robe and cowl, entered the room.\n\nMagdalena was not at first aware of the entrance of the stranger; and it\nwas only when, after looking about the room, as if to assure himself\nthat no one was there, he approached the table, that she heard the\nfootstep, and lifted up her head in surprise. The intruder evidently as\nlittle expected to find the room already tenanted; for he also started\nupon seeing the kneeling woman. But the astonishment of both parties was\ngreatly increased when their eyes met each other. Far from attempting to\nrise from her knees, Magdalena remained in an attitude of supplication\nbefore the stranger, who was an aged man of mild aspect, and folding her\narms across her heart, bent down her head like a penitent, in order to\navoid his scrutinizing look.\n\n\"Magdalena! thou here!\" said the seeming monk, in a tone of voice which,\nnaturally that of benevolence, he evidently strove to render harsh and\nsevere. \"How comes this? Thou hast left, without my knowledge, the\nseclusion of the convent in which I placed thee? In defiance of thy\nsolemn promise, and thy accepted vow of penitence, thou hast approached\nthis town--thou hast sought, perhaps, forgetful of thy oath\"----\n\n\"No, no,\" interrupted the agitated woman, \"that cruel oath has sealed\nmy lips for ever. God knows, and you, reverend father--you know, that I\nhad accepted the bitterest trial woman can bear on earth, in expiation\nof my past sin. Long did I observe my vow of penitence without a murmur\nto heaven or to you. But I thought to die. A fever had seized me, and a\nburning thought came over me that I no longer could withstand. O God,\nforgive me--but my head was turned--I knew not what I did! I longed to\nsee once more on earth that object that was my only earthly joy. That\nuncontrollable desire overcame the stubborn resolution of a vow, which\nlong years of tears and mortification had striven to fortify in vain. I\nfled. I hoped once more to glad my eyes--but once----but once, my\nfather, and then to lay me down and die, trusting in God's pardon and\nyour reverence's.\" And Magdalena bowed her head to the ground, as a\ncriminal awaiting her sentence.\n\n\"Thou hast erred, woman--bitterly and grievously,\" replied the stranger\nharshly, adding, however, with a feeling of indulgence that his kindly\nnature evidently could ill suppress, \"but the struggle of the spirit\nwith the weakness of the body, in sickness and in fever, is heavy to\nbear. And yet,\" he continued, again assuming a severity of manner, \"thou\nlivest, and I still find thee here. Thou hast remained to feast thy eyes\nupon thy earthly treasure, in forgetfulness of thy vow of mortification\nfor thy soul's weal.\"\n\n\"Pardon!\" cried Magdalena, raising her hands in supplication.\n\n\"But thou must leave this place forthwith,\" continued the monk. \"Return\nto the convent, and employ thyself in such acts of penitence as my\norders shall prescribe.\"\n\n\"Pardon!\" again cried the unhappy woman, \"for my vow is heavier than I\ncan bear. It is a task beyond the force of human nature!\"\n\n\"Foolish woman!\" exclaimed the stranger. \"Wouldst thou compromise the\nhappiness and peace of mind of the being thou lovest best, by the danger\nof a discovery to which thy presence here might lead? Thy expiation is\nsevere. Such as we, alas!\" and the monk heaved a sigh, \"who cannot feel\nthe vibration of some of the tenderest chords of humanity, know not how\nto sound in its profundity; but I can judge that it must be grievous to\nbear. Still it must be so. Go, then, in peace--but go. What I command no\nlonger in the name of thy salvation, I ask of thy heart, for the repose\nof thy heart's treasure.\"\n\n\"Father,\" said the penitent, sobbing at his feet--\"I obey! But I have\nstill a secret to impart to you, upon which depends, perhaps, the\nhappiness of that beloved one. Oh! deign to hear me.\"\n\n\"In three days hence, let me receive thy shrift at the convent of Saint\nBridget,\" continued the ecclesiastic. \"There also I will hear thy\nsecret. But tell me,\" he added, looking round the room with some\nsurprise--\"how comest thou here in gentle master Gottlob's studio?\"\n\n\"It was he who saved my life,\" answered Magdalena, striving to repress\nher sobbing, \"when in the midst of the snows, and the keen blast of\nwinter, death had laid hands upon me. Ever since, he has cherished and\nnourished the unknown outcast in his abode.\"\n\n\"Generous youth!\" said the stranger. \"I came to witness, alone and\nunbiassed, his progress in his noble art; and I find that the heart\nsoars as nobly as the head. So should ever be true genius! Yes, yes!\" he\nmurmured to himself, looking around, \"he advances towards perfection\nwith rapid strides. This arabesque is exquisite. And this head, how\nbeautiful! And yon statue of our Holy Mother--what heavenly grace in its\nfashioning!\"\n\nAnd with more of such commendatory observations, interspersed now and\nthen with a few gentle criticisms, which showed the connoisseur as well\nas the gratified admirer, he took up and examined the various designs\ndispersed upon the table. When his curiosity seemed fully satisfied, he\nagain turned to Magdalena.\n\n\"I must away,\" he said; \"for I have still many arduous and painful\nduties to perform, and my time is limited. I rely upon thy strict\nsecrecy, Magdalena. I would not it should be known that I was here. And\nremember, in three days at Saint Bridget's convent!\"\n\nWith these words he stretched forth his hand. She again knelt, and\nkissed it devoutly; and pulling his black robe and cowl more closely\nabout his face and person, the monk disappeared by the concealed door.\n\nMagdalena still knelt, overcome by her various emotions, when a sound\nfrom the window looking into the river startled her, and caused her to\nturn round. An involuntary scream burst from her lips; for from among\nthe branches of a tree that grew upon the river's banks, and overhung\nthe window, peered, through the dingy panes, the pale face of the\nwitchfinder.\n\nIt was about the hour of vespers; and an unusually dense crowd of the\ntown's people of Hammelburg, of all ages, ranks, and sexes, swarmed in\nthe small open space before the fine old Gothic church of the town, and\nstood in many a checkered group--here, of fat thriving _bourgeois_ and\ntheir portly wives, dragging in their hands chubby and rebellious little\nurchins, who looked all but spherical in their monstrous puffed hose or\nshort wadded multifold petticoats, the miniature reproductions of the\npaternal and maternal monstrosities of attire--there, of more noisy and\nclamorous artizans, in humbler and less preposterous dress--on the one\nside, of chattering serving-damsels, almost crushed under their high\npyramidical black caps, worn in imitation of an ancient fashion of their\nbetters--on the other, of grave counsellors and _schreibers_ in their\nblack costumes, interlarding their pompous phrases with most canine\nLatin--here again, of the plumed and checkered soldiers of the civic\nguard--there, of ragged-robed beggars, whose whine had become a second\nnature--all in a constant ferment of movement and noise, until the\nsquare might be fancied to look like the living and crawling mass of an\nold worm-eaten cheese.\n\nThe congregation of the multitude had been induced by a report prevalent\nthroughout the town, that the Prince Bishop, whose arrival from Fulda at\nhis castle of Saaleck, close at hand, had been announced, was about to\nmake his entrance in grand state, and that a holy and solemn service to\ncelebrate this event was to be performed at the high church.\n\nAlready, however, other rumours were afloat among the crowd; and it\nbegan to be confidently stated, that a sudden change of plans had forced\nthe Prince Bishop to renounce his intention.\n\nListening with anxiety, on the outskirts of a group, to the discussion\nupon the probabilities or improbabilities of the service taking place in\nthe absence of the Prince, stood Magdalena. She was attired in her usual\ndark semi-monastic dress; but to this was now added the scrip, wallet,\nand tall crossheaded staff of the wandering pilgrim. As the prevailing\nopinion appeared to be that the Ober-Amtmann would attend, at all\nevents, at the celebration of the church rites intended to be performed,\nMagdalena turned away with a calmer air, murmuring to herself the\nwords--\n\n\"I shall see her once more--once, and for the last time: and God surely\nwill forgive the sin, if such it be. One look of last farewell! and then\nagain a long expiation of penitence and prayer.\"\n\nSo saying, she traversed the small square to the broad stairs of the\nchurch, where she sat herself down upon the highest step, among a group\nof beggar women and ragged children, and, sinking her head to the\nground, seemed to dispose herself to wait with patience.\n\nShortly afterwards, a young man also began to mount the steps leading to\nthe great entrance of the church, as if with the intention of placing\nhimself near the arch, in so favourable a position as to be close by all\nthose who should pass into the interior. He bounded upwards with anxious\nhaste and beating heart--although there was yet a long interval before\nthe commencement of the service--and with a movement so hurried and\nagitated, that he brushed rudely against one person of a group in his\nway. He turned, with a gentleness of feeling unusual at the time towards\nthe lower classes, to crave of the female he had pushed a pardon for his\nawkwardness. At the sound of his voice the old woman raised her head.\n\n\"Magdalena!\" cried the young man with surprise, as he recognised upon\nher the evident symbols of travel and wayfaring peculiar to that age,\n\"What means this pilgrim's garb?\"\n\n\"Alas! kind, gentle Master Gottlob,\" replied Magdalena in a tone of the\nbitterest sadness, as she rose from her seat, \"my hour is arrived, and I\nmust leave you. Ask me not why. I must go as I have come, in silence and\nmystery. But oh! I beseech you, deem me not ungrateful. I had not\nquitted you without a last farewell--a last assurance that all your\ngentle charities are engraven here, upon my heart for ever.\"\n\n\"Magdalena!\" again exclaimed Gottlob, still astonished at this\nunexpected announcement, \"thou leavest me thus abruptly?\"\n\n\"Again, I pray you, gentle Master,\" said the old woman sobbing, \"think\nme not unkind or cold. The will of another is far stronger than my own.\nThe will of God is above all. We shall meet no more on earth, young man;\nat least I fear so: my destiny leads me from the world. But my prayers\nshall be offered up, morning and evening, at my noontide meal as at my\nlying down; at all times, and in all places, whenever it shall please\nHeaven to hear them, for my generous benefactor.\"\n\n\"But you must not quit me thus,\" said the young man--\"thus unassisted,\nin penury and want. I have but little, it is true, but that little shall\nbe thine. What matter the gauds I thought to purchase? the dainty plume\nto deck my cap?\" Still, in spite of himself, an unconscious sigh broke,\nas he spoke, from the breast of \"Gentle Gottlob,\" at the anticipated\nrenunciation of the braveries that were to give him a price in the eye\nof the fair object of his adoration. \"Can my poor savings be better\nbestowed than upon thee?\"\n\n\"I need not thy generous sacrifice, kind youth,\" replied Magdalena. \"The\npilgrim lacketh nothing in a Christian land; and soon I shall be beyond\nall want.\"\n\n\"Oh! speak not thus sadly,\" said Gottlob, taking her hand.\n\n\"I meant it not so sadly as you deem. I am resigned still to live on,\nuntil it please God to release me from this world of sin and sorrow,\nmore easily resigned and with a calmer spirit, since, through the mist\nof solitary darkness around me, I see a way of hope that shines not upon\nme, but upon the bright forms most dear to me.\"\n\n\"What meanest thou, Magdalena?\" cried the young man.\n\n\"Strive not to comprehend me,\" said the old woman in a more subdued\ntone--\"I would not foster vain delusions;\" and, as if to remove the\nimpression of what she had said from Gottlob's mind, she hastily added,\n\"You have not seen the Prince at Saaleck?\"\n\n\"Alas, no!\" replied the young artist. \"My noble patron had already left\nthe castle with a small retinue, and I was too late to meet him. It was\nsaid that he was gone upon a visit to all the various monasteries in\nthis part of the country, in order to hold secret counsel with the\ndifferent dignitaries of the church in his domain, respecting the late\nheresies that have appeared, and already spread so widely throughout the\nland.\"\n\nMagdalena was about to answer, when a new and general movement among the\ncrowd, showed that the expectation of the multitude was aroused. The\ntapers upon the altars in the church had been lighted in splendid\nprofusion. The vapour of incense already scented the air, as it floated\ndown the aisles. The organ pealed through the church; and the priests,\nin their sacerdotal robes, were seen advancing along the middle aisle\ntowards the entrance, to meet the expected dignitary. But Gottlob and\nMagdalena gazed not upon this priestly show; their heads were turned in\nanother direction, and looked from the church across the square. Their\nhearts beat with one feeling. Both murmured to themselves with one\naccord, \"She comes!\"\n\nAlready the pikes of the guard preceding the noble Ober-Amtmann appeared\nemerging from the street leading to the episcopal palace, and the\nsoldiers, entering the square, cleared the way rudely through the crowd,\nwhen Magdalena again pressed tightly her companion's arm.\n\n\"Swear to me, young man,\" she whispered in a low and solemn tone, \"as\nyou value your salvation--swear to me ever to respect the purity and\npeace of mind of that innocent and happy girl, upon whose fair face I\nshall now gaze for the last time!\"\n\nGottlob looked at the excited woman with much surprise.\n\n\"Swear to me that you will not trouble her unconscious heart with words\nof love, until, perhaps, a better time may come!\" she continued, with\nhesitation.\n\n\"Magdalena, I understand thee not,\" replied the young man. \"But before\nme she is as a holy saint of heaven, at whose shrine we may bow down and\npray, but whom we cannot pollute with earthly touch.\"\n\n\"God grant you happiness, young man!\" said Magdalena, dropping her\nflowing tears upon the hand she held in her own.\n\nGottlob's attention was too much absorbed in the sight of the one object\nof his eager gaze, to heed more seriously, at that moment, the strange\nand solemn adjuration of the old woman. His heart beat with intense\nviolence, his cheek flushed, his mild blue eyes dilated with animation,\nas he followed along the square the form of Bertha, who was advancing in\nthe procession by her father's side. And now she was about to mount the\nchurch steps, she would be obliged to pass close by him, perhaps near\nenough for her dress to touch his own; for the crowd was dense behind,\nand pressed forward upon those who stood, like him, in the foremost row.\nThe agitation of his companion equaled, perhaps exceeded, his own.\n\nThe clergy now stood under the church gate--the preceding guards had\nstationed themselves on either side of the arch--the Ober-Amtmann,\nleading his daughter by the hand, had reached the broad surface of the\nhighest step, where stood the aged female and the young artist, when the\nagitated Magdalena, unable to control her feelings as the governor and\nhis fair child passed so near, bent lowly down, and seized the hem of\nBertha's garment to kiss it unperceived. At that moment, a rude gripe\nseized her arm and dragged her up, and a harsh voice shrieked in her\near--\"Touch her not, hag of hell, to cast thy infernal spells upon her!\"\nA scream of terror burst from Magdalena as she recognised Black Claus,\nthe witchfinder.\n\n\"Noble Ober-Amtmann, hear me!\" cried the <DW36>, pushing forward with\nforce, and arresting with a wild gesture the progress of the dignitary.\n\"I here denounce, before your noble honour, this wretched woman as a\nmost foul and most notorious witch.\"\n\nIn the rude attack thus made upon the unhappy woman--on her terror and\nsurprise--the cross-topped pilgrim's staff slipped from her grasp, and\nslightly wounding the fair neck of Bertha, it fell upon the pavement,\nand was splintered into several pieces.\n\n\"See, see!\" screamed the witchfinder, \"how she strives to harm the\ninnocent and good, and destroys and tramples under foot--curses on\nher!--the holy symbols of the church.\"\n\nWith a feeling of horror and alarm, for which the credence in witchcraft\nand its agents that pervaded all ranks and classes at that age gave full\nwarrant, Bertha clung with a scream to her father's breast, and sought\nprotection in his arms. At this sight the unhappy Magdalena uttered a\nbitter cry of despair, and raising her clasped hands aloft,\nexclaimed--\"O God! Thou punishest me too bitterly.\"\n\n\"Hear ye,\" cried the witchfinder, \"how she owneth her crime even in her\nblasphemy!\"\n\nWith one arm the Ober-Amtmann pressed the terrified Bertha to his bosom,\nand, with the other, signed to some of the guards to surround the old\nwoman. At this moment the sight of the blood which had trickled in a few\ninsignificant drops upon her veil, caught the eye of the alarmed girl,\nand turning very pale, she held forth a crucifix, which hung about her\nneck, towards the spot where stood Magdalena, as if to exorcise the\npowers of witchcraft directed against her, and sobbed--\"Oh! take her\nfrom my sight--save me--she would destroy me!\"\n\n\"It is she condemns me!\" cried Magdalena; and, with another\nheart-rending exclamation of despair, she fell forward to the earth as\nif in violent convulsions.\n\n\"See, see!\" shouted Claus in triumph, \"how the sight of the holy cross\ncauses the devil within her to tear and rend her.\"\n\nThe bystanders shrank in horror from the prostrate form of the unhappy\nwoman. The guards, who had approached, kept at a sufficient distance to\navoid all contact with the reputed witch, although near enough to\nprevent her escape.\n\nPetrified with astonishment and dismay at the strange scene that had\npassed thus rapidly before him, and shocked at the sight of Bertha's\nwound and terror, Gottlob had stood at first incapable of movement. But\nwhen he saw Magdalena thus stricken to the earth, he forgot all the\nterrors of witchcraft--he forgot the horrible denunciation--he forgot\neven Bertha's fainting form; the instinctive impulse of his kindly\nnature was to rush forward and to raise the poor old woman. Before he\ncould reach her, however, twenty hands had pulled him back with\nforce--twenty voices screamed in his ear, \"Touch her not--beware!\" In\nvain he struggled, and strove to extricate himself--in vain he protested\nthe poor woman's innocence--he was held back by force.\n\nIn the meanwhile, although those nearest to the accused woman drew back\nwith terror, the remoter crowd rushed forward towards the church steps\nin violent excitement, preferring loud cries of \"A witch!--a witch! To\nthe stake with her--to the stake!\" The deeper voices of the men mingling\nwith the shriller cries of the women and children.\n\nIn the midst of this scene of tumult, the Ober-Amtmann conveyed his\ndaughter in his arms--for she had now completely fainted--to the church,\nand confided her to the care of her women. Upon returning, he sternly\ngave orders that the accused female should be placed in the prison of\nthe town, with a guard before the door, until the denouncer should be\nheard against her.\n\n\"Come hither man, black <DW36>!\" he continued, with some disgust, to\nClaus: \"We know that the dreadful crime of witchcraft has, like heresy,\nmade much and notable progress in the land of late; and although our\nreverend brother views the former abomination with more lenient eye than\nourselves, we think that fagot and stake are but too slight a punishment\nfor such black and damning sin. But still, of late, thy denunciations\nagainst this crime have much multiplied; and sometimes, it has seemed to\nour justice, upon but small and vague proof--although popular voice\ndemanded the condemnation of the wretched women. Have a care, then, how\nthou wrongfully preferrest such a charge--have a care how thou jugglest\nwith our sense of right and wrong; for though there seemeth, in truth,\nto be some appearance of the demon and his works in the horror which\nthat woman has expressed for the symbols of our holy religion, and in\nthe manner in which she has drawn blood from our young and innocent\ndaughter, yet were we to find thy accusation to be inspired by motive or\nthe spirit of falsehood, as we live that pile which threatens the\nsorceress and hag shall be thy own seat--the fire thy death-garment.\"\n\n\"Noble Amtmann,\" cried the witchfinder, undaunted by this address, \"I\nfear not the proof. Again I denounce that woman as dealing in\nwitchcraft, and consorting with the powers of darkness.\"\n\nAs the guard drew nearer, to force the unhappy woman with their\npike-heads to rise from the ground, where she still lay crouched\ntogether, the wretched Magdalena raised her head, and her eyes fell upon\nthe dark face of the witchfinder, as it glared upon her in triumph. The\nhideous yells of the crowd prevented her hearing the only faint voice of\npity raised in her behalf--that of gentle Gottlob. Her brain whirled\nwith terror--she thought that her last hour was come; and, with a heavy\nshudder throughout her whole frame, she fell senseless to the ground.\n\n\n\n\nNATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.{A}\n\n\nIt has probably occurred to the reflecting student of logic, that the\nphilosophers of the schools must have been sorely straitened in seeking\nfor a definition of man, before they would have had recourse to such a\nderogation from his apparently higher attributes, as to define him by\n\"_animal risibile_,\" or \"_animal bipes implumis_.\" An attentive\nconsideration will, however, show the enquirer, that to distinguish man\nfrom the remainder of the animal kingdom by his structural\ncharacteristics alone, is not so easy a task as would at first sight\nappear; and he will be obliged at length to return to some such\nhumiliating designation of the _genus animal_, _species homo_, as those\nabove given. Physical differences, indeed, there are between man and the\nother tribes of mammalia; but these differences are more matters of\nanatomical detail, than such salient notable exponents as would at once\nbe recognised and admitted by the sceptical objector. The strength,\nmoreover, of these differences resides in the whole collectively, and\nnot in any one taken singly. If, however, the student take as his\ngrounds for induction the habits of the species, instead of its\nstructure, he will find a much broader line of demarcation. Wherever he\nexamines the existing relations or former records of his race, and\ncompares them with those of other animals, he will find that the\ninstincts of the one are variable and progressive, those of the other\nare definite and stationary. As far as has ever been ascertained by the\nmost accurate observer, the nest of the grossbeak, the dam of the\nbeaver, the cone of the termites, were, ages ago, each similar in\ncharacter, and equal in perfection, to those of the present day; while,\nwhether we compare the rude wigwam of the uncivilized savage, or the\nmore finished architecture of ancient Thebes, with the buildings,\nrailroads, and shipping of the present day, we still find a continual\nvariation, and a progressive adaptation to new wants. The psychological\ncharacteristics stand out then in fuller relief than the physiological;\nbut yet the former are by no means free from grounds for cavil. Domestic\nanimals acquire new habits, varying from their natural instincts.\nAdmitting these to result from the teaching of man, it still shows--as\ndoes, indeed, the fact of domestication--a capability of progression;\nand some feeble instances of the faculty of learning may be detected\neven in the wild tribes of animals. Thus every thing becomes, if\nhypercritically examined, a question of degree, \"_demo unum, demo etiam\nunum_,\" and the hundred years become an hour; nought is every thing, and\nevery thing is nought. Rational investigation, then, should lead us to\nreject, or at least to set no undue value upon, extreme instances, or\nthe merging shadows of boundaries; the spectrum consists of separate\ncolours, though we may not tell where the red ends and the yellow\nbegins.\n\nThe fair questions in examining the physiology and psychology of man,\nwith a view to his place in the creation, are, 1st, Whether his\ndistinctive marks and attributes, taken collectively, are such as\nbroadly separate him from the rest of the animal kingdom; 2dly,\nSupposing such distinctions to exist now, whether they have existed at\nall periods of which we can acquire any evidence; and, 3dly, Whether\nthese distinctions are common to the whole of the race to which the term\n_man_ is applied, or whether different tribes of men differ _inter se_\nas much as the species viewed collectively differs from other species.\n\nThese, with other minor questions which arise out of them, are, as far\nas we can gather, the propositions discussed in the work before us--a\nwork abounding in elaborate research and erudition, but somewhat\ndeficient in logical precision or lucid arrangement; a mass of details\nis given, but the links whereby the generalizations from these are\nsought to be established, are here and there wanting, and here and there\nobscure. It is probably the fault of the subject, which is in its\ncharacter inexact; but we certainly expected that more had been done;\nand from some passages in the early portions of the work, we were\ninduced to believe that the author had succeeded in proving races of\nmankind to be more distinctly deducible from their sources, and that\ntheir physical and moral relations were more definitely traced. The\nfollowing passage, in which the object of the work is enounced by the\nauthor, is wanting in precision and perspicuity:--\n\n     \"That great differences in external conditions, by the double\n     influence of their physical and moral agency, should have effected,\n     during a long series of ages, remarkable changes in the tribes of\n     human beings subjected to their operation--changes which have\n     rendered these several tribes fitted in a peculiar manner for their\n     respective abodes--is by no means an improbable conjecture; and it\n     becomes something more than a conjecture, when we extend our view\n     to the diversified breeds of those animals which men have\n     domesticated, and have transferred with themselves from one climate\n     to another. Considered in this point of view, it acquires, perhaps,\n     the character of a legitimate theory, supported by adequate\n     evidence, and by an extensive series of analogous facts.\n\n     \"But we must not omit to observe, that to this opinion there is an\n     alternative, and one which many persons prefer to maintain; namely,\n     that the collective body of mankind is made up of different races,\n     which have differed from each other in their physical and moral\n     nature from the beginning of their existence. To determine which of\n     these two opinions is the best entitled to assent, or at least to\n     set before my readers a clear and distinct notion of the evidence\n     that can be brought to bear upon the question, will be my principal\n     object in the following work.\"\n\nNow, as they are here stated, the two opinions are not necessarily\ncontradictory; differences in external condition may effect remarkable\nchanges in tribes of human beings, and yet the collective body may be\nmade up of different races: and to set before the reader a clear and\ndistinct notion, is to prove nothing, although indeed, as we shall see\nin the sequel, the author has a very strong conviction, and believes\nthat he succeeds in proving, as far as a matter incapable of\nmathematical demonstration can be proved, the negative of the latter\nproposition. What the author seems to intend, or rather what the whole\ntenor of his book imports, though his expressions at times go much\nfurther, is, not that community of origin is proved inductively by the\nresearches which have been made into the existing and past state of man,\nbut that the natural history of man presents nothing inconsistent with\nsuch a view.\n\nThe researches of Cuvier and others have negatived the theory of\nLamarcke as to the transmutation of species. The \"_nisus formativus_\" is\nadmitted, but admitted with limits, \"_quos ultra citraque nequit\nconsistere rectum_\".\n\nThe extreme rarity of hybrids, their inability of continuous\nprocreation, the absence of any well-authenticated cases of a permanent\nspecies formed by the union of two distinct ones, the return to the\noriginal type when the disturbing causes are removed, with various other\narguments tending the same way, have been considered, by the most\ncompetent and impartial judges, as conclusive evidence of the real and\npermanent existence in nature of distinct species. These arguments are\nstated in detail in the second volume of Lyell's _Principles of\nGeology_, to which we refer those of our readers who wish for further\ninformation.\n\nHaving briefly stated these and similar arguments, Dr Prichard expresses\nhis conclusion as follows:--\n\n     \"It seems to be the well-established result of enquiries into the\n     various tribes of organized beings, that the perpetuation of\n     hybrids, whether of plants or animals, so as to produce new and\n     intermediate tribes, is impossible.\n\n     \"Now, unless all these observations are erroneous, or capable of\n     some explanation that has not yet been pointed out, they lead, with\n     the strongest force of analogical reasoning, to the conclusion,\n     that a number of different tribes, such as the various races of\n     men, must either be incapable of intermixing their stock, and thus\n     always fated to remain separate from each other; or, if the\n     contrary should be the fact, that all the races to whom the remark\n     applies, are proved by it to belong to the same species.\n\n     \"I believe it may be asserted, without the least chance of\n     contradiction, that mankind, of all races and varieties, are\n     equally capable of propagating their offspring by intermarriages,\n     and that such connexions are equally prolific, whether contracted\n     between individuals of the same or of the most dissimilar\n     varieties. If there is any difference, it is probably in favour of\n     the latter.\"\n\nThis conclusion is repeated a little further on.\n\n     \"It appears to be unquestionable that intermediate races of men\n     exist and are propagated, and that no impediment whatever exists to\n     the perpetuation of mankind when the most dissimilar varieties are\n     blended together. We hence derive a conclusive proof--unless there\n     be, in the instance of human races, an exception to the universally\n     prevalent law of organized nature--that all the tribes of men are\n     of one family.\n\n     \"Perhaps the solution of the problem which we have undertaken to\n     discuss might be left on this issue, or considered as obtained by\n     this argument. But further light may be thrown on the subject, by a\n     careful analysis of the facts which can be collected relative to\n     the nature and origination of varieties; and it may be satisfactory\n     to my readers to survey this field of enquiry.\"\n\nGranting, then, the truth of the limitation of species to be\nestablished, and taking as the definition of species the power of\ncontinual propagation, we have it proved at the commencement of the\nwork, that \"all human races are of one species;\" the only question which\nremains is, whether, admitting them to be of one species, the deduction\nthat they have a common origin is necessary; or, if not necessary,\nwhether it is proved in the course of the author's work. It does not\nappear to us a _necessary_ conclusion; for there appears no reason _a\npriori_ why the Creator should not as well form separately an indefinite\nnumber of creatures of the same species as a single pair. This point is\nnot adverted to in the work before us; and whenever identity of origin\nis assumed, it is upon the same grounds from which identity of species\nis deduced. In fact, they are generally coupled; thus, at page 487, we\nhave the expression--\n\n     \"If now it should appear, on enquiry, that one common mind, or\n     psychical nature, belongs to the whole human family, a very strong\n     argument would thence arise, on the ground of analogy, for their\n     community of species and origin.\"\n\nAnd in the last page we have--\n\n     \"We are entitled to draw confidently the conclusion, that all human\n     races are of one species and one family.\"\n\nThe great point as to identity of species being proved, it would be\ncertainly more simple, and more in unison with the economy of nature, to\nsuppose that all were descended from one pair, than that numerous\nidentical members of a common species were simultaneously created. On\nthe other hand, a physiological difficulty occurs, in viewing a race as\ndescended from a single pair, from the fact universally recognised in\nthe later periods of history, viz. the degeneration, and, in the end,\ndestruction or indefinite deterioration of both physical and mental\nfaculties, by continual intermarriage. The houses of Braganza and\nHapsburg are notorious instances of this; and, as far as we are aware,\nthere are no counter instances.\n\n                          \"Marry\n    A gentler scion to the wildest stock,\n    And make conceive a bark of baser kind\n    By bud of nobler race; this is an art\n    Which does mend nature, change it rather, but\n    The art itself is nature.\"\n\nThe matter is incapable of absolute proof--we mean inductive proof; for\nit is in this point that the work before us regards it. Any arguments,\nsuch as similarity of habits, of languages, of opinions, which may be\nused to deduce community of origin, would be equally explained by\ncommunity of species; for, supposing that different individuals of the\nsame species were simultaneously created, the same physical formation\nwould necessarily engender similar habits, and the power of\nintermarriage would induce a similarity of language, long before any\nperiod to which our histories go back. Taking, then, as a fair\nassumption, that, if identical in species, mankind have a common origin,\nwe get in the outset of the book the conclusion stated at the end, viz.\nthat all human races are of one species and one family. The great body\nof the work is, therefore, only accessory and corroborative; and its\nvalue would consist not so much in proving the affirmative of the\nauthor's thesis, as in placing in a prominent point of view the\nprincipal facts known respecting the natural history of man.\n\nIt may be thought that, in the existing state of man, few marks remain\nfrom which his early history may be deduced; but those unacquainted with\nthe progress of inductive research, would be astonished at the magnitude\nand importance of results derivable from an apparently simple and\nworthless object. An unthinking wanderer, stumbling upon an ancient\ntombstone, if reproached with inattention, would ask what is to be\nlearned from such a relic. A word of inscription would give a clue to\nthe language, and, coupled with other observations, to the date of the\nmonument; the character of the stone, whether roughly hewn or\nelaborately carved, would give evidence as to the tools used in its\nformation, and consequently furnish a key to the manufacturing and\nmetallurgic knowledge of the fabricators. The stone itself might\npossibly not be similar to those in the immediate vicinity, and thence\nwould indicate that travelling and the power of transfer were practised,\nand the skeleton within would indicate the physical formation of the men\nof that day. We have selected here a case of an ordinary grave, but how\nmuch stronger would the case be were we to take a sarcophagus of Egypt,\nenclosing a mummy? The inscription, the fabric of the cere-cloth, the\nchemical substances with which it is impregnated, as well as those by\nwhich the body is preserved, and the relics commonly deposited with it,\nwould lead, by careful investigation, to a tolerably accurate knowledge\nof the character and habits of the time; and where many relics of\ndifferent descriptions, collected from different parts, are skilfully\ncompared, a body of evidence is arrived at, minutely circumstantial in\nits details, and the veracity of which admits of no dispute. As the\nresearches of comparative anatomists have enabled us, from the\nexamination of a single bone, to pronounce with certainty upon the\ngeneral conformation and habits of the animal to which it belonged; and\nas, in many cases, from the existence of such animals, we may go on,\nstep by step, to the nature of the earth's surface at the period when\nthey lived: so the meanest relic of art will serve the natural historian\nof man as a fulcrum by which he may turn up a mass of genuine\ninformation; with which, as with all knowledge, as its store increases,\nthe power of applying it becomes more facile; until at length it\nscarcely becomes an exaggeration to say, that every material relic bears\nin itself its own natural history, and, if artificially modified, the\nhistory of its fabricators--what the germ is to futurity the relic is to\nthe past.\n\nFrom the data which Dr Prichard has given us, in a somewhat scattered\nform, we shall endeavour to collect and group the most interesting of\nhis facts and opinions. In order to ascertain what modifications of\nphysical structure, variation of climate, food, and habits, may effect\nupon mankind, it is necessary, first, to review the effects produced by\nsuch variation upon domesticated animals. It is indeed questionable\nwhether we can in any case, with certainty, trace these to their native\nwilds; but, in many cases, we have instances of their return to a savage\nstate, as with the wild horses, goats, oxen, &c.; and although it does\nnot necessarily follow that their conformation, induced by such return,\nis identical with their original structure, yet there is a reasonable\nprobability that such is the case, and we must take these cases for want\nof better. How far, then, has the outward form been altered by the\nchanges induced by domestication; how far are instincts acquired by such\nchanges capable of hereditary transmission, and is there any, and what,\nconnexion between the changed instincts and the changed structure? These\nquestions, involving among other things the infant and difficult\nscience of phrenology, Dr Prichard has left very much to conjecture.\nWhether he considers the data too imperfect, or is afraid of trusting\nhimself with any decided expression of opinion on a subject which has\nbeen so obscured by charlatanry, and which is open to so much\nmisapprehension, does not appear; but it certainly is an apparently\nstriking defect, that where a large portion of the work is devoted to\nthe explanation of the different forms of the cranium in the inferior\nanimals and in man, and to which the largest portion of his pictorial\nillustrations apply, he should give us so little insight into his\nopinions as to what extent phrenology is fairly entitled to credibility.\nHis having taken so much pains in collecting facts and drawings on this\npoint, necessarily leads to the inference that he attaches much value to\nthe craniological distinctions. We shall take an opportunity presently\nof recurring to this subject. We will now take some of the most\ninteresting instances, given by Dr Prichard, of structural changes and\nhereditary instincts, acquired by domesticated animals, and again lost\nby them on returning to a wild state:--\n\n     \"Swine transported from Europe to America, since the discovery of\n     the western continent by the Spaniards in the fourteenth century,\n     and wandering at large in the vast forests of the New World, and\n     feeding on wild fruits, have resumed the manner of existence which\n     belonged to the original stock. Their appearance nearly resembles\n     that of the wild boar. Their ears have become erect; their heads\n     are larger, and the foreheads vaulted at the upper part; their\n     colour has lost the variety found in the domestic breeds. The wild\n     hogs of the American forests are uniformly black. The hog which\n     inhabits the high mountains of Paramos bears a striking resemblance\n     to the wild boar of France. His skin is covered with a thick fur,\n     often somewhat crisp, beneath which is found, in some individuals,\n     a species of wool. From excessive cold and defect of nourishment,\n     the hog of that region is of small and stunted figure. In some warm\n     parts of America, the swine are not uniformly black, as above\n     described, but red, like the young pecari. At Melgara and other\n     places, there are some which are not entirely black, but have a\n     white band under the belly reaching up to the back; they are termed\n     _cinchados_. The restoration of the original character of the wild\n     boar in a race descended from domesticated swine, removes all\n     reason for doubt, if any had really existed, as to the identity of\n     the stock; and we may safely proceed to compare the physical\n     characters of these races, as varieties which have arisen in one\n     species. The restoration of one uniform black colour, and the\n     change of thin sparse hair and bristles for a thick fur with a\n     covering of wool, are facts that must be noticed in the\n     observations of M. Roulin. The difference in the shape of the head\n     between the wild and domestic hog of America, is very remarkable.\n     Blumenbach long ago pointed out the great difference between the\n     cranium of our swine and that of the primitive wild boar. He\n     remarked that this difference is quite equal to that which has been\n     observed between the skull of the <DW64> and the European. 'Those\n     persons,' he says, 'who have no opportunity of verifying the fact,\n     have only need to cast their eyes on the figure which Daubenton has\n     given of both the former. I shall pass over,' he adds, 'the lesser\n     varieties of breeds which may be found among swine, as among men,\n     and only mention that I have been assured by M. Sobzer, that the\n     peculiarity of having the bone of the leg remarkably long, which in\n     the human kind is observed among the Hindoos, has been remarked\n     with regard to swine in Normandy. They stand very long on their\n     hind legs; their back, therefore, is highest at the rump, forming a\n     kind of inclined plane; and the head proceeds in the same\n     direction, so that the snout is not far from the ground.'\n\n     \"'Swine,' continues Blumenbach, 'in some countries have degenerated\n     into races which, in singularity, far exceed every thing that has\n     been found strange in bodily variety among the human race. Swine\n     with solid hoofs were known to the ancients, and large breeds of\n     them are found in Hungary and Sweden. In like manner, the European\n     swine first carried by the Spaniards in 1509 to the island of\n     Cubagua, at that time celebrated for its pearl fishery, degenerated\n     into a monstrous race, with toes which were half a span in length.'\n     There are breeds of solid-hoofed swine in some parts of England.\n     The hoof of the swine is also found divided into five clefts.\n\n     \"Buffon had before remarked the varieties of the hog tribe. 'In\n     Guinea,' he observes, 'this species has acquired very long ears,\n     couched upon the back; in China, a large pendant belly, and very\n     short legs; at Cape Verde and other places, very large tusks,\n     crooked like the horns of oxen; in domestication, half pendant and\n     white ears.'\"\n\n            *       *       *       *       *\n\n     \"A very remarkable fact relative to the oxen of South America is\n     recorded by M. Roulin, to which M. Geoffrey St Hilaire has\n     particularly adverted, in the report made by him on M. Roulin's\n     Memoir, before the Royal Academy of Sciences.\n\n     \"In Europe, the milking of cows is continued through the whole\n     period, from the time when they begin to bear calves till they\n     cease to breed. This secretion of milk has become a constant\n     function in the animal economy of the tribe; it has been rendered\n     such by the practice, continued through long series of generations,\n     of continuing to draw milk long after the period when it would be\n     wanted for the calf; the teats of the cow are larger than in\n     proportion, and the secretion is perpetual. In Columbia, the\n     practice of milking cows was laid aside, owing to the great extent\n     of farms and other circumstances. 'In a few generations,' says M.\n     Roulin, 'the natural structure of parts, and withal, the natural\n     state of the function, has been restored. The secretion of milk in\n     the cow of this country is only an occasional phenomenon, and\n     contemporary with the actual presence of the calf. If the calf\n     dies, the milk ceases to flow, and it is only by keeping him with\n     his dam by day, that an opportunity of obtaining milk from cows by\n     night can be found.' This testimony is important, by the proof\n     which it affords that the permanent production of milk in the\n     European breeds of cows is a modified function of the animal\n     economy, produced by an artificial habit continued through several\n     generations. Two other very important observations made by M.\n     Roulin in South America, were pointed out by M. Geoffrey St Hilaire\n     in his report to the Academy of Sciences. They refer to the fact of\n     the hereditary transmission of habits originally impressed with\n     care and art upon the ancestors. Of this fact I shall adduce other\n     examples in the sequel; at present I only advert to M. Roulin's\n     observations. The horses bred in the grazing farms on the\n     table-land of the Cordillera, are carefully taught a peculiar pace,\n     which is a sort of running amble. This is not their natural mode of\n     progression, but they are inured to it very early, and the greatest\n     pains are taken to prevent them from moving in any other gait. In\n     this way the acquired habit becomes a second nature. It happens\n     occasionally that such horses, becoming lame, are no longer fit for\n     use; it is then customary to let them loose, if they happen to be\n     well-grown stallions, into the pasture grounds. It is constantly\n     observed that these horses become the sires of a race to which the\n     ambling pace is natural, and requires no teaching. The fact is so\n     well known, that such colts have received a particular name; they\n     are termed 'aguilillas.'\n\n     \"The second fact is, the developement of a new instinct, which, as\n     M. Roulin declares, seems to become hereditary in the breed of dogs\n     found among the borderers on the river Madeleine, which are\n     employed in hunting the pecari. I shall cite the author's own\n     words:--'L'addresse du chien consiste a moderer son ardeur a ne\n     s'attacher a aucun animal en particulier, mais a tenir toute la\n     troupe en echec. Or, parmi ces chiens, on en volt maintenant qui,\n     la premiere fois qu'on les amene au bois, savent deja comment\n     attaquer; un chien d'une autre espece se lance tout d'abord, est\n     environne, et quelle que soit sa force, il est devore dans un\n     instant.'\"\n\nTo these cases we may add a case familiar to the sportsmen of this\ncountry, and one of which we have ourselves seen an unquestionable\ninstance, viz. the acquired habit of the setting-dog in arresting his\nsteps, and crouching, when in pursuit of game; the origin of which was\nprobably a pause in his career, in order the better to ascertain the\nposition of the game of which he was in quest; but this, by constant\nteaching, has become hereditary to such an extent, that occasionally a\ndog of pure breed will, the first time he is taken out, as soon as he\ngets on the scent of game, crouch or place himself in a setting\nattitude, and remain perfectly immobile until forced to proceed; nay\nfurther--as it is necessary that the sportsman teach the dogs who are in\nthe same field with that one who discovers the game, as soon as they see\nthe latter setting to arrest their steps likewise; or, as it is termed,\nto _back_, in order not to disturb the game--in the instance which came\nunder our notice, a dog of eight or nine months old, which had never\nbeen out of a town, when taken into the fields for the first time with\nan old well-trained dog, as soon as the latter had discovered game, and\npointed to it, instantly backed him--_i.e._ remained stiffly standing in\nthe position in which he was when he first caught sight of the older\ndog: probably many sportsmen could be found who would vouch to similar\nfacts.\n\nWe may here state that we quite agree with Dr Prichard, as to the\nabsence of any foundation for the general belief, that all the acts of\ninferior animals are performed without their consciousness or view to\nany object or end; on the contrary, there is every probability that\nthey, in carrying into effect their several instincts, seem to\nthemselves to act from similar internal impulses of will and intention,\nas human beings do.\n\nWe need not enter into the vast number of varieties which the most\ndomestic of all domesticated animals, the dog, exhibits; we shall only\nremark, that, in all their varieties, Dr Prichard says,--\n\n     \"Restored to a state of comparative wildness, which approaches to\n     their unreclaimed and primitive condition, the tribes of dogs every\n     where make a corresponding approximation to the type which may be\n     supposed to have belonged to the species in its original state.\"\n\nBut this passage is enigmatical, as the original _type_ seems to be\ninvolved in dense obscurity. Buffon considered the shepherd dog to be\nthe least modified by domestication--very erroneously, according to Dr\nPrichard; it is still a _vexata questio_, whether the original\nprogenitor of the dog be a wolf, a jackal, a fox, or an unknown animal\ndiffering from all these.\n\n     \"The sheep is one of the most anciently domesticated animals, and\n     it is one in which great varieties display themselves. It has been\n     long believed, and this appears to have been the opinion of Baron\n     Cuvier, that all the breeds of tamed sheep are descended either\n     from the argali of Siberia, or from the moufloun or musmon of\n     Barbary. This is at present doubted by most naturalists. There\n     seems, however, to be no reason for believing that the domestic\n     breeds belong to more than one species, though they differ much in\n     different countries. In Europe, the breeds of sheep vary much in\n     stature, in the texture of their wool, the number and shape of\n     their horns, which are in some large, in some small, in others\n     wanting to the female, or altogether absent from the breed. The\n     most important varieties in Europe are the Spanish breeds, some\n     with fine, others with crisp wool, in which the rams have long\n     spiral horns; the English breeds, which differ greatly in size and\n     in the quality of the wool; and, in the southern parts of Russia,\n     the long-tailed breed. The breeds of sheep in India and in Africa\n     are remarkable for the length of their legs, a very convex\n     forehead, and pendant ears; these also have long tails. Their\n     covering is not wool, but a smooth hair. In the northern parts of\n     Europe and Asia the sheep have short tails. The breeds spread\n     through Persia, Tartary, and China, have their tails transformed\n     into a double spherical mass of fat. The sheep of Syria and\n     Barbary, on the other hand, have long tails, but likewise loaded\n     with a mass of fat. In both of these varieties of the sheep the\n     ears are pendant, the horns of the rams large, and those of the\n     ewes and lambs of moderate size, and the body is covered with wool,\n     mixed more or less with hair.\n\n     \"New breeds of sheep are frequently formed in different countries\n     in which particular qualities predominate, according to the\n     preference of the breeders. This is done, partly by crossing or\n     intermixing races already constituted and well known; but in great\n     part also by selecting individuals from the stock in which the\n     particular qualities are more strongly marked than in the\n     generality of the same breed. In these instances, the natural or\n     congenital variety which the individual animal displays, perhaps\n     for the first time, becomes perpetuated by the hereditary\n     transmission of such characters, which is a law of the animal\n     economy. A striking instance of this fact is to be found in the\n     origination of a new breed of sheep in the state of Massachusetts,\n     which has been noticed by many writers in connexion with this\n     subject. In the year 1791, one ewe on the farm of Seth Wright gave\n     birth to a male lamb, which, without any known cause, had a longer\n     body and shorter legs than the rest of the breed. The joints are\n     said to have been longer, and the fore-legs crooked. The shape of\n     this animal rendering it unable to leap over fences, it was\n     determined to propagate its peculiarities, and the experiment\n     proved successful; a new race of sheep was produced, which, from\n     the form of the body, has been termed the otter breed. It seems to\n     be uniformly the fact, that when both parents are of the otter\n     breed, the lambs that are produced inherit the peculiar form.\"\n\nWe might extract other instances of physiological and psychological\nchanges induced by domestication, but we think enough have been given to\nshow the character and degree of such changes. The least important\nchange, and that which appears the soonest affected, is the colour of\nthe skin and hair. This is universally of an uniform tint in wild\nanimals, and generally bears a close approximation to the colour of the\nland in which the animal lives: thus the ptarmigan, inhabiting snowy\nregions, is white; the grouse has the colour of heath; the hare that of\ndry fern or furze--a provision which has the effect of protecting the\nweaker tribes from the stronger and predatory ones. In domesticated\nanimals, from causes apparently not as yet traced, the colour is\nvariegated and various. Closely connected with the colour and nature of\nthe skin, are the size and shape of the horns, their presence and\nabsence. Great as is the apparent variety of appearance effected by\nhorns, changes in these appear to be easily induced: they are connected\nwith the epidermic structure, generally the most easily modified; and we\nneed not cite instances to prove that different breeds of the same\ntribe, and occasionally different individuals of the same breed, differ\nmaterially as to horns. According to Azara, horned horses are sometimes\nseen in Paraguay.\n\nVery little appears to be known, at least scarcely any intimation is\ngiven in the work before us, of the proximate or final cause of these\nchanges. Great as they are, certainly, as far as we can judge, no _nisus\nformativus_ can account for the enormous horns of the Spanish sheep;\nnor, looking to the final cause; does there appear any reason why\ndomestic animals should need such overgrown instruments of defence.\nWhen, however, we come to the more important anatomical modifications,\nsuch as the length and shape of the legs, the bones of the pelvis or of\nthe jaw, the object is more apparent. A greyhound, with the muzzle of a\nbull-dog, would be an obvious natural inconsistency.\n\nWe now pass to the physical distinctions of the different races of men.\nHere we may observe that a much greater importance is to be attached to\ncomparatively slight variations. Considering the surprising external\ndifferences that exist in domesticated animals of the same species, the\nwonder rather is, that the different races of men differ physically so\nlittle as they do, than that they differ so much. Here we will take\nfirst, the least important shades of difference--the texture of the\nskin, hair, and complexion; and then pass on to the more prominent\ndiversities of the bony fabric, cranium, &c.\n\n     \"The texture of the body, in which all these varieties have their\n     seat, is the extracorial or exodermal structure, constituting, if I\n     may so speak, the outer coating of the body, external to the true\n     skin, which corresponds to the cuticular and corneous excrescences\n     of animals--a structure which includes horns, hoofs, hair,\n     feathers, and all similar appendages in different orders of\n     animals. This structure displays infinite diversities in colour,\n     constitution, and organization, and is the most variable tissue on\n     the whole body. Many different opinions have, however, been lately\n     maintained, and much research has been made, as to the nature and\n     texture of the parts on which the variety of colour depends.\"\n\nThe ancient anatomists, it appears, recognised only two parts of the\nskin--the true skin, and the outer cuticle or epidermis. Malpighi\ndiscovered a third layer interposed between these, consisting of a sort\nof network, thence called _rete mucosum_, and believed to be the seat of\ncolour in the <DW64>. Albinus showed this to be a continuous layer, and\nnot a network. Cruikshank discovered four layers--three membranes, and\nthe fourth a layer of colour. Flourens, at a more recent period, made\nthe number of intermediate layers five, four of which he showed to the\nFrench Academy; one of these, a mucous membrane underlying the pigment,\nis, according to this anatomist, a distinct organized body, existing\nonly in men of dark colour, and entirely wanting in the white races, or\nelse (which appears the more probable conjecture) maceration, and the\nordinary process of examination, fail to detect it in the skin of white\nmen. Lastly, the microscopical researches of Henle, Purkinje, and\nSchwann, go to prove that the outer integument does not consist of\nseparate membranes, but is of a cellular structure, and that of these\ncells or \"cytoblasts,\" there are three distinct kinds. We will not\nfurther analyse the different opinions as to the texture of the skin and\nposition of the colouring material; it certainly throws no\ninconsiderable degree of doubt over certain classes of scientific\ninvestigation, to find each subsequent research entirely altering, and\nin some cases overturning, the previously received views.\n\nTo the different characters of human complexion, Dr Prichard gives three\ndistinctive terms--the _melanous_ or brunette; the _xanthous_ or blonde;\nand the _leucous_ or albino; the _melanous_ predominating in the\nsouthern countries, the _xanthous_ in the northern. It is observable\nhere, that although the natural divisions of territory with respect to\ncomplexion, (supposing climate to have the principal modifying effect\nupon complexion,) would be the equatorial and polar regions, or the\nzones of the earth which differ in latitude, yet, with some few\nexceptions, it is only on the northern side of the equator that the\n_xanthous_ complexion prevails--the inhabitants of Australia and the\nSouth Sea Islands being very generally _melanous_. The distribution of\nland and water cannot well be conceived to have any influence upon\nclimate which would account for such diversity; it is probably,\ntherefore, a result of long-continued civilization, the covering the\nbody with clothes, and being for the most part sheltered from the direct\nrays of the sun. The _leucous_ complexion is an abnormal variety, and\noccurs occasionally in all countries. It proceeds from the absence of\nthe dark colouring matter, or pigment; there appears in this case,\nhowever, no difference of anatomical structure, the pigment being\nsometimes subsequently developed in persons who have been born albinoes.\nThe change from the _xanthous_ to the _melanous_ complexion, is a\ncircumstance of constant occurrence; there are few children born, whose\ncomplexion does not darken as they grow up, in many cases undergoing a\ntotal change: the passage from dark to fair is rare, but it constantly\noccurs that _xanthous_, or even _leucous_ children, are born of\n_melanous_ parents. There is nothing, therefore, in the diversities of\ncomplexion which indicates specific diversity in different human races.\nOf the conformation of the bony fabric in the human race, the formation\nof the skull is the part of the greatest importance; we shall only\ntherefore briefly notice, as to the other parts of the skeleton, that\nbetween the most uncultivated races of men, and those tribes of apes\nwhich most nearly approach man, there is a wide difference--the arms of\nthe orang-outang reach to the ankle, and those of the chimpanzee below\nthe knee; the pelvis, or central bony fabric, differ much from those of\nthe human race.\n\nWith regard to the skull, the value of the distinctions in its form and\nstructure depends upon their connexion with the size and organization of\nthe brain--involving the question, whether this has any, and what,\ninfluence upon the powers and habits of the creature. Dr Prichard, as we\nhave already stated, blinks the question of phrenology; though he makes\nsome inferences which prove him to have a general belief in the\nconnexion between mental power and physical formation; nay, further, in\nthe appropriation of different portions of the brain to different\nfaculties.\n\nFew will, we believe, in the present day be disposed entirely to deny\nthat, _ceteris paribus_, the external formation of the skull, or rather\nthe shape of the brain as shown by the formation of the skull, is a\ngeneral index of the mental power of the individual to whom it belongs.\nLook over a collection of busts, or portraits, of eminent men, and, with\nscarcely an exception, they will be found to have high and capacious\nforeheads; while uncivilized races, and born idiots, are lamentably\ndeficient in this respect. The difficulties of phrenology exist in its\ndetails, which by many have been carried out into degrees of subdivision\ncertainly not warranted either by the anatomical structure of the brain,\nor by any empirical data as to the form of different crania, and the\nbiography of the individuals to whom they have belonged. Where, in the\nexisting state of our knowledge, the proper mean may be, it is perhaps\ndifficult to say; but it would have been well, we think, had Dr Prichard\ngiven us a little more explicitly his opinions as to what extent\nphrenology (we use the word in its broadest sense) may be fairly relied\non. As far as we can gather from the scattered passages in his book, he\nseems to take a rational view of it; but a little less caution would\ncertainly have been more instructive to his readers, not only on the\nsubject of phrenology, but on many of the connexions between physical\nstructure and the habits to which such structure is adapted. This is a\n_hiatus_ in Dr Prichard's work, the filling up of which would add much\ninteresting matter, and serve to weave together acts which at present\nare disjointed and isolated; giving the book a dry character, and\npreventing its arresting the attention of the reader. Throughout a\nlarger portion of the work also, we have, in every third page or so, a\nminute description of the complexion, hair, &c., of different people;\nwhich, however valuable as matter of record, becomes tiresome and\nuninteresting as a continuous narrative, and would be much better thrown\ninto a tabular form, as matter of reference only, if incapable of being\nso linked as to present a plausible theory.\n\nThe following passage is the most explicit we can find on the subject of\nthe connexion between the _physique_ and _morale_, and, at the same\ntime, will serve to introduce the three varieties of skull which the\nauthor deems principally worth notice:--\n\n     \"If any method of subdividing the human family into groups, is\n     likely to be of any particular advantage in elucidating the natural\n     history of the species, it must be one founded on some relation\n     between the physical characteristics of different tribes and the\n     leading circumstances of their external condition.\n\n     \"We shall clearly perceive, in tracing the following outline of\n     ethnography, that the varieties of colour refer themselves, in\n     part, to climates, elevations of land, proximity to the sea-coast,\n     or distance from it. It can hardly be doubted that these conditions\n     have likewise an effect on the configuration of the human body. But\n     there is, perhaps, some truth in the remark, though frequently made\n     on little better foundation than conjecture, that the prevailing\n     form or configuration of the body is more liable to be influenced\n     by the habits of different races, and their manner of living, than\n     by the simple agencies of climate. It would be an interesting\n     discovery, could it be shown that there is any apparent connexion\n     between the display of particular forms, or the leading physical\n     characters of human races, and their habits of existence. If I may\n     venture to point out any such relation, it would be by remarking,\n     in a very general manner, and without pretending to make the\n     observation as one which holds without many exceptions, that there\n     are in mankind three principal varieties in the form of the head\n     and other physical characters, which are most prevalent\n     respectively in the savage or hunting tribes, in the nomadic or\n     wandering pastoral races, and in the civilized and intellectually\n     cultivated divisions of the human family. Among the rudest tribes\n     of men, hunters and savage inhabitants of forests, dependent for\n     their supply of food on the accidental produce of the soil or on\n     the chase, among whom are the most degraded of the African nations\n     and the Australian savages, a form of the head is prevalent which\n     is most aptly distinguished by the term _prognathous_, indicating a\n     prolongation or extension forward of the jaws; and with this\n     characteristic other traits are connected which will be described\n     in the following pages. A second shape of the head, very different\n     from the last mentioned, belongs principally to the nomadic races,\n     who wander with their herds and flocks over vast plains, and to the\n     tribes who creep along the shores of the Icy Sea, and live partly\n     by fishing, and in part on the flesh of their reindeers. These\n     nations have broad and lozenge-formed faces, and what I have termed\n     _pyramidal_ skulls.\n\n     \"The Esquimaux, the Laplanders, Samoiedes, and Kamschatkans,\n     belong to this department, as well as the Tartar nations--meaning\n     the Mongolians, Tungusians, and nomadic races of Turks. In South\n     Africa, the Hottentots, formerly a nomadic people, who wandered\n     about with herds of cattle over the extensive plains of Kafirland,\n     resembling in their manner of life the Tungusians and the Mongols,\n     have also broadfaced, pyramidal skulls, and in many particulars of\n     their organization resemble the Northern Asiatics. Other tribes in\n     South Africa approximate to the same character, as do many of the\n     native races of the New World.\n\n     \"The most civilized races, those who live by agriculture and the\n     arts of cultivated life, all the most intellectually improved\n     nations of Europe and Asia, have a shape of the head which differs\n     from both the forms above mentioned. The characteristic form of the\n     skull among these nations may be termed _oval_ or _elliptical_.\n\n     \"We shall find hereafter that there are numerous instances of\n     transition from one of these shapes of the head to another, and\n     that these alterations have taken place in nations who have changed\n     their manner of life.\"\n\nBlumenbach considered that the most important admeasurement of the skull\nwas derivable from the shape and size of the oval, seen when the skull\nwas viewed from above, looking vertically down upon it. Camper took as\nthe basis of his theory of the gradations of different genera of\nmammalia, the angle formed by a line drawn from the aperture of the ear\nto the base of the nose, and a tangent to the forehead and jaw.\nConsidering the increasing size of this angle to be the distinctive mark\nof intellectual superiority, he viewed a <DW64> as an intermediate animal\nbetween an European and an ape. But Mr Owen has shown that the\nobservations of Camper and others, being applied to immature animals,\nare not worthy of reliance; as the relations of all animals more closely\napproximate if they be examined in an infant, than in an adult state.\nThe facial angle of the orang, which has been estimated at from 60 deg. to\n64 deg., he finds in the adult animal is only 30 deg.--_i. e._ 40 deg. short of the\nsmallest facial angle in the human race! We should hence be led to\nsuspect a proportionate difference between the infant and adult mind;\nbut the psychological development of infants is a subject which has been\nstrangely neglected by philosophers. A clever Italian authoress who has\nwritten an anonymous work upon education, gives as the reason for the\ndearth of writing on this subject, that philosophers are not mothers,\nand that mothers are not philosophers. Be this as it may, few theorems\nappear to us more promising of interest. The struggle of internal force\nwith external resistance, the feelings manifested in the acquisition of\nnew powers, the impressions made by objects seen for the first time, and\nfirst questions asked, form grounds for induction as to the psychology\nof man, which, thanks to the chartered tyranny of nursery-maids over\nphilosophers, have been grossly neglected.\n\nAfter going through other points of physical difference in human races,\nwith which, being for the most part matter of anatomical detail, we\nshall not trouble our readers, Dr Prichard concludes:--\n\n     \"On surveying the facts which relate to difference in the shape of\n     the body, and the proportions of parts in human races, we may\n     conclude that none of these deviations amount to specific\n     distinction. We may rest this conclusion on two arguments. First,\n     that none of the differences in question exceed the limits of\n     individual variety, or are greater than the diversities found\n     within the circle of one nation or family. Secondly, the varieties\n     of form in human races are by no means so considerable, in many\n     points of view, as the instances of variation which are known to\n     occur in different tribes of animals belonging to the same stock,\n     there being scarcely one domesticated species which does not\n     display much more considerable deviations from the typical\n     character of the tribe.\"\n\nThe only observation we shall make upon this is, that, as before stated,\nthe test of identity of species being the power of continued\nreproduction, not the slightest evidence having been ever offered that\nall the various human races have not _inter se_ this power, but the\ncontrary having been proved in every case within human experience, none\nof the deviations _can_ amount to _specific_ distinctions.\n\nHaving noticed the most remarkable physical distinctions of the human\nrace, we come to its ethnographical divisions--divisions founded partly\nupon traditional and historical records, and partly upon the internal\nevidence of similarity of language. The following sketch of hypotheses,\nas to the original birthplaces of the +autochthones gaias+, although\nvisionary, and in all probability incorrect, forms such an interesting\nabstract of philosophical speculations and poetical myths, that we\ncannot refrain from quoting it:--\n\n     \"The most popular, or generally received distribution of human\n     races in the present day, is that which was recommended by the\n     adoption of Baron Cuvier. It did not entirely originate with that\n     great writer, but was set forth by him in a more decided and\n     complete manner than it had been before his time. This system\n     refers different races of men to certain lofty mountain-chains, as\n     the local seats of their original existence.\n\n     \"The birthplace, or the primitive station, of the race of men who\n     peopled Europe and Western Asia, is supposed to have been Mount\n     Caucasus. From this conjecture, Europeans and many Asiatic nations,\n     and even some Africans, have received the new designation of\n     Caucasians. The nations of Eastern Asia are imagined, in like\n     manner, to originate in the neighbourhood of Mount Altai, and they\n     are named after the Mongolians, who inhabit the highest region in\n     that vast chain of hills. The African <DW64>s are derived from the\n     southern face of the chain of Mount Atlas.\n\n     \"They are, however, named simply the Ethiopian race, from the\n     Ethiopians, who were the only black people known to the ancients in\n     very remote times. A mixture of somewhat vague notions, partly\n     connected with physical theories, and in part derived from history,\n     or rather from mythology, has formed the groundwork of this scheme,\n     which refers the origin of human races to high mountainous tracts.\n     The tops of mountains first emerged above the surface of the\n     primeval ocean, and, in the language of some philosophical\n     theorists, first became the scene of the organizing life of nature.\n     From different mountain tops, Wildenow, and other writers on the\n     history of plants, derive the vegetable tribes; which they suppose\n     to have descended from high places into the plains, and to have\n     spread their colonies along the margins of mountain streams. High\n     mountains thus came to be regarded as the birthplaces of living\n     races.\n\n     \"Geological theories give their part to render these notions\n     popular; not only the late speculations of the Count de Buffon and\n     the learned Bailly, but the opinions of ancient philosophers, who\n     maintained, before the time of Justin and of Pliny, that the\n     mountains of high Asia must have been the part of the world first\n     inhabited by men, inasmuch as that region must have been first\n     refrigerated in the gradual cooling of the surface of our planet,\n     and first raised sufficiently above the level of the ocean.\n     Moreover, the poetical traditions of the ancient world describe\n     high mountains as the scenes of the first mythical adventures of\n     gods and men--as the resting-places on which celestial or aerial\n     beings alighted from their cloudy habitations, to take up their\n     abode with men, and to become the patriarchs of the human race.\n     Lofty mountains are the points in the geography of our globe on\n     which the first dawn of historic light casts its early beams; hence\n     the legends of the first ages begin their thread. In the cosmogony\n     of the Hindoos, it was on the summit of the sacred mountain\n     Maha-meru, which rises in the midst of the seven _dwipas_, or great\n     peninsulas, like the stalk between the expanded petals of a lotus,\n     that Brahma, the creator, sits enthroned on a pillar of gold and\n     gems, adored by Rishis and Gandharbhas; while the regents of the\n     four quarters of the universe hold their stations on the four faces\n     of the mountain. Equally famed in the ancient mythology of Iran and\n     of Zoroaster, is the sacred mountain Albordy, based upon the earth,\n     but raising through all the spheres of heaven, to the region of\n     supernal light, its lofty top, the seat of Ormuzd, whence the\n     bridge Ishinevad conducts blessed spirits of pious men to Gorodman,\n     the solid vault of heaven, the abode of Ferouers and Arnshaspands.\n     Even the prosing disciples of Confucius had their sacred mountain\n     of Kuen-lun, where, according to the legends of their forefathers,\n     was the abode of the early patriarchs of their race. The Arabs and\n     the Persian Moslemin had their poetical Kaf. The lofty hills of\n     Phrygia and of Hellas--Ida, Olympus, Pindus--were, as every one\n     knows, famous in Grecian story. Caucasus came in for a share of the\n     reverence paid to the high places of the earth. Caucasus, however,\n     was not the cradle of the human race, but the dwelling-place of\n     Prometheus, the maker of men, and the teacher of astronomy.\"\n\nAbandoning this somewhat dreamy view, Dr Prichard regards, consistently\nwith the Scriptural account, the birthplace of man as being on the banks\nof fertilizing rivers, and at a period when the world was, by its\nvegetable and animal productions, prepared for his reception, and adopts\nthree divisions as being those of which we have the earliest records;\n1st, the _Semitic_ or _Syro-Arabian_, inhabiting countries between Egypt\nand the Ganges. 2dly, the _Japetic_, _Indo-European_, or _Arian_,\nspreading from the mouths of the Ganges over the greater part of Europe.\nAnd 3dly, the Egyptian or _Hamitish_,{B} who peopled the banks of the\nNile, and of whom the African <DW64>s are probably a degenerate\noffshoot. With regard to the knowledge of letters possessed by these\nthree nations, our author gives two inconsistent statements. He says:--\n\n     \"The three celebrated nations whose history we have surveyed,\n     appear alone to have possessed in the earliest times the use of\n     letters, and by written monuments to have transmitted to the last\n     ages memorials of their existence. It seems improbable that each of\n     these nations should have become, by a separate process, possessed\n     of this important art: yet those eminent scholars who have laboured\n     with so great success of late in elucidating the Oriental forms of\n     writing, have not succeeded in tracing any connexion between the\n     alphabetic systems of Egypt, of the Phoenicians, the Assyrians,\n     and the Hindoos.\"\n\nAnd states afterwards:--\n\n     \"It is plain that the use of letters was entirely unknown to the\n     Arian nations, to those tribes at least of the race who passed into\n     Europe: and that it was introduced among them in long after ages by\n     the Phoenicians, who claim this most important invention, and\n     certainly have the merit of having communicated it to the nations\n     of the west.\"\n\nThe words \"those tribes at least,\" are scarcely sufficient to remove the\ninconsistency.\n\nA fourth division comprehends those various barbarous nations of unknown\norigin which occupied the territories surrounding the Indo-European\nrace, and were for the most part subdued and expelled by the latter--to\nthis fourth division he applies the term _Allophyllian_.\n\nThis glotto-historical division does not exactly correspond with the\nphysical division as deduced from the form of the skull. The three\nnations first above mentioned, or the inhabitants of the central\nregions, from which they at least are supposed, according to this view,\nto have emanated, have all the oval skull; though, when we pass to the\nnomadic people of high Asia, we get the pyramidal, and, passing from\nEgypt to Africa, we get a gradually increasing tendency to the\nprognathous form.\n\nIt would carry us far beyond the usual bounds of an article in this\nMagazine, were we to give even a condensed abstract of the descriptions,\nindividual and collective, of each of these leading divisions and their\nvarious subdivisions. We will observe generally that the central portion\nof the work, which contains a detailed account of the divisions\nphysical, ethical, and ethnical, of all the most marked varieties of the\nhuman race, accompanied with illustrative pictures and woodcuts, evinces\nthe most elaborate research, and, as a work of reference, will be\ndoubtless found of great value. We will, therefore, pass to the fifth\ngreat division of the human race, which is discussed in a later portion\nof the work, and which is not very distinctly connected with the other\nfour--viz. the American. The Sioux tribes, however, who occupy tracts\nof land on the Upper Mississippi, are supposed with great probability,\nfrom their physical character, language, and tradition, to be the\ndescendants of a Tartar race, who have emigrated across the north-west\nstraits of America.\n\n     \"The aboriginal people of America are generally considered as a\n     department of the human family very distinct from the inhabitants\n     of the Old World. The insulated situation of the continent, and the\n     fact that it was so long unknown, and the tribes which it contains\n     so long cut off from intercourse with other nations, are among the\n     circumstances which have contributed to produce this impression.\n     The American nations, taken in the aggregate, are neither among\n     themselves so uniform and unvaried in the physical and moral\n     qualities, nor is the line of distinction between them and the rest\n     of mankind so strongly marked and so obvious, as most persons\n     imagine. Yet it must be admitted that certain characters are\n     discoverable which are common, or nearly so, to the whole of this\n     department of nations; that there are strong indications, if not\n     proofs, of a community of origin, or of very ancient relationship\n     among them; and that in surveying collectively the people of the\n     New World, we contemplate human nature under a peculiar aspect. On\n     comparing the American tribes together, we find reasons to believe\n     that they must have subsisted as a separate department of nations\n     from the earliest ages of the world. Hence, in attempting to trace\n     relations between them and the rest of mankind, we cannot expect to\n     discover proofs of their derivation from any particular tribe or\n     nation in the Old Continent. The era of their existence, as a\n     distinct and insulated race, must probably be dated as far back as\n     that time which separated into nations the inhabitants of the Old\n     World, and gave to each branch of the human family its primitive\n     language and individuality.\"\n\nThe points which are supposed to indicate this relationship of the\nAmerican aborigines _inter se_, and their distinction from the\ninhabitants of our continents, are, 1st, the structure of their\nlanguage, in which--\n\n     \"Striking analogies of grammatical construction have been\n     recognised, not only in the more perfect languages, as that of the\n     Incas, the Aymara, the Guarani, the Mexican, and the Cora, but also\n     in languages extremely rude. Idioms, the roots of which do not\n     resemble each other more than the roots of the Sclavonian and\n     Biscayan, have resemblances of internal mechanism similar to those\n     which are found in the Sanscrit, the Persian, the Greek, and the\n     German languages.\"\n\nAnd, 2dly, their moral and social state, indicating a people which has\nanciently possessed institutions of a highly civilized character, such\nas, according to Dr Martius--\n\n     \"A complicated form of government, regulated despotisms or\n     monarchies, privileged orders, hierarchical and sacerdotal\n     ordinances, systematic laws, the results of reflection, and a\n     settled purpose, connected with marriage and inheritance, and\n     family relationships, and other customs, which are strongly\n     contrasted with the simple and unreflective habits of rude and\n     uncivilized nations.\n\n     \"The languages of these nations abound, as he says, with words\n     expressive of metaphysical views and abstract conceptions. Their\n     opinion respecting a future state, the nature and attributes of\n     invisible agents, are strikingly different from those of nations\n     who have never emerged from primitive barbarism. Another fact which\n     tends, as M. Martius observes, to confirm the opinion that natives\n     of the New World have fallen from a state of greater refinement, is\n     their use, from immemorial ages, of certain domesticated animals\n     and cultivated plants, and the notions which they entertained of\n     the first acquisition of these possessions. Of such animals and\n     plants the people of the Old World have their peculiar stock, and\n     the American nations have their own entirely different.\n\n     \"In the Old World we know not whence our horses, our dogs, cattle,\n     and the various kinds of cerealian gramina were obtained, and the\n     American nations are equally at a loss, when we enquire for the\n     original stock of the dumb dog of the Mexicans, the llama, the root\n     of the mandioca, the American corn, and of the quinoa.\n\n     \"In the ancient world there were traditions of some mythical\n     benefactors of mankind. Ceres, Triptolemus, Bacchus, Pallas, and\n     Poseidon, who had contributed their gifts, corn and wine, the\n     sacred olive, and the horse, and we infer that all these had been\n     known from periods of remote antiquity.\n\n     \"In America, likewise, tradition refers the knowledge of cultivated\n     plants and domestic animals, and the art of tilling the earth, to\n     some fabulous person who descended from the gods, or suddenly made\n     his appearance among their ancestors, such as the Manco-Capac of\n     the Peruvians, and the Xolotl and the Xiuhtlato of the Tollecas and\n     Chicimecas.\n\n     \"The remains of ancient sculpture and architecture spread over\n     Mexico, Yucatan, and Chiapa, as well as over the high plain of\n     Quito and other parts of South America, and the extensive works of\n     art, consisting of fortifications and other relics, discovered in\n     the Tenessi country, as well as in the inland parts of New Mexico\n     on the Rio Gila, afford some further support to the hypothesis of\n     M. Martius.\n\n     \"The possession of arts and acquirements, the most simple\n     improvements of human life, and such as belong to the very infancy\n     of human society, distinctively appropriate, and the origin of\n     which is recorded by mythical legends peculiar to each division of\n     mankind, seems to carry back the era of their separation to the\n     first ages of the world.\"\n\nWith regard to the physical character of the Americans, it appears,\naccording to Dr Martius, that the principal characteristic is the\ntruncation, or flatness, of the occipital portion of the cranium; the\nforehead wide, but low, supposed upon rather insufficient data to be\nmoulded to this shape by artificial means; and the nose arched. In the\nnew as in the old continent, the diversities of physical character do\nnot correspond with the ethnical divisions. The principal criterion of\nthe latter adopted by Dr Prichard is the affinity of languages; and,\nwhen this is insufficient to found any probable opinions, conjectures\nderived from geographical or traditional evidence are called in aid.\nUpon these grounds the Americans are arranged and described by the\nauthor, into the details of which, for the same reason as before stated,\nwe regret not being able to follow him.\n\nSince, however, the first pages of this article were written, a\ndiscovery has been announced connected with the physiology of the\nAmerican aborigenes, which, if subsequently verified, will be of much\nimportance, both as to the anthropological classification of the\nAmericans, and as to the natural history of man generally. In a letter\naddressed to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and\nrepublished in the _Philosophical Magazine_ for July last, is an account\nof the researches of Dr Lund, who has been for some time engaged in\ngeological investigation in Minas Geraes, a province of Brazil. While\nexamining the caverns of calcareous rocks, he has found in one of them,\nmixed with the bones of extinct races of animals, human bones, having\nall the character of fossils; they are stated to be in part petrified,\nand in part penetrated with iron particles, which gave to them a\nmetallic lustre resembling bronze; they were of extraordinary weight;\nthe crania presented the narrow forehead, prominent zygomatic bones, the\nfacial angle, the maxillary and orbital conformation of the American\nrace. The depression of the forehead in many instances is said to amount\nto a total disappearance. With the bones was found a smooth stone, about\nten inches in circumference, apparently intended to bruise seeds or hard\nsubstances. In other caverns were found human bones, but unaccompanied\nwith those of other animals. These facts, if confirmed, will furnish us\nwith most important evidence as to the past state of the Americans, and\nthe ancient history and physiology of the human race; but the novelty of\nthe results, and the recent date of the communication, induce us to\nabstain from hasty comment.\n\nThe general physiological comparison of human races, the similarity of\nperiodic changes, and the average duration of life, are points upon\nwhich we can very briefly touch. Dr Prichard considers the different\nages at which women are said to be marriageable in different climates to\nbe very much exaggerated. He states his reasons, which do not appear to\nus to be very conclusive. The exceptional cases from the normal\nphysiology would be more interesting, had we space for them, than the\nanalogies, for which probably all our readers would be prepared. Thus,\namong the most curious national anomalies are the Quichuas and Aymaras,\nwho, from the constant habit of breathing an attenuated atmosphere, have\ntheir chests enormously expanded; the Mandans, who, without any apparent\ncause, have the hair grizzled or grey in youth. Among the instances of\nindividual peculiarity, no one is more extraordinary than the horned\nman, whose entire person was covered with a rugged bark, or hide, having\nbristles here and there, which hide he was said to shed annually; and\nthis peculiar form of monstrosity appears to have been capable of\nhereditary transmission, as he had six children with a similar covering.\nHow he procured a wife to bear these children to him does not appear.\nThe children were, it is to be presumed, not equally successful, as the\nbreed of these human rhinoceri has become extinct. Some curious\ninstances of longevity are collected. Of 15 <DW64>s, the names and\nresidences of whom are given, the average age is 135 years; from\nEuropean nations, there are 1310 recorded instances of persons aged from\n100 to 110, and 3 from 180 to 190. We do no more than briefly notice\nthese exceptions, as we are anxious to devote our small remaining space\nto what will by many be considered the most interesting portions of the\nbook, viz. the author's psychological view of the different races of\nmankind, or the comparison of their different mental faculties.\n\n     \"Though inhabiting, from immemorial times, regions in\n     juxtaposition, and almost contiguous to each other, no two races of\n     men can be more strongly contrasted than were the ancient Egyptian\n     and Syro-Arabian races; one nation, full of energy, of restless\n     activity, changing many times their manner of existence--sometimes\n     nomadic, feeding their flocks in desert places--now settled, and\n     cultivating the earth, and filling their land with populous\n     villages, and towns, and fenced cities--then spreading themselves,\n     impelled by the love of glory and zeal of proselytism, over distant\n     countries; the other, reposing ever in luxurious ease and wealth on\n     the rich soil, watered by their slimy river, never quitting it for\n     a foreign clime or displaying, unless forced, the least change in\n     their position or habits of life. The intellectual character, the\n     metaphysical belief, and the religious sentiments and practices of\n     the two nations were equally diverse; one adoring an invisible and\n     eternal spirit, at whose almighty word the universe started into\n     existence, and 'the morning stars sang together, and the sons of\n     God shouted for joy;' the other adorning splendid temples with\n     costly magnificence, in which, with mysterious and grotesque rites,\n     they paid a strange and portentous worship to some foul and\n     grovelling object--a snake, a tortoise, a crocodile, or an ape. The\n     destiny of the two races has been equally different: both may be\n     said still to exist; one in their living representatives, their\n     ever-roving, energetic descendants; the other reposing in their own\n     land--a vast sepulchre, where the successive generations of thirty\n     centuries, all embalmed, men, women, and children, with their\n     domestic animals, lie beneath their dry preserving soil, expecting\n     vainly the summons to judgment--the fated time for which is to some\n     of them long past--before the tribunal of Sarapis, or in the hall\n     of Osymandyas.\"\n\nWe are far from agreeing with this estimate of the ancient Egyptians.\nTheir progress in mechanical arts, their hieroglyphical literature, and\neven their theology, with its mystic trine, marked them as a people far\nsurpassing their contemporaries; and they were not the less great\nbecause their greatness is now extinct. The Arian{C} tribes, though\nunskilled in many of the most useful arts of life, yet had--\n\n     \"National poetry, and a culture of language and thought, altogether\n     surprising when compared with their external condition and habits.\n     They had bards or scalds, _vates_, who were supposed, under divine\n     impulse, to celebrate the history of ancient times, and connect\n     them with revelations of the future, and with a refined and\n     metaphysical system of dogmas, which were handed down from age to\n     age, and from one tribe to another, as the primeval creed and\n     possession of the enlightened race. Among them in the West, as\n     well as in the remote East, the doctrine of metempsychosis held a\n     conspicuous place, implying belief in an after state of rewards and\n     punishment, and a moral government of the world. With it was\n     connected the notion that the material universe had undergone, and\n     was destined to undergo, a repetition of catastrophes by fire and\n     water; and after each destruction, to be renewed in fresh beauty,\n     when a golden age was again to commence, destined in a fated time\n     to corruption and decay. The emanation of all beings from the soul\n     of the universe, and their refusion in it, which were tenets\n     closely connected with this system of dogmas, border on a species\n     of Pantheism, and are liable to all the difficulties attendant upon\n     that doctrine.\n\n     \"Among most of the Indo-European nations, the conservation of\n     religious dogmas, patriarchal tradition, and national poetry, was\n     confided, not to accidental reminiscences and popular recitations,\n     but to a distinct order of persons, who were venerated as mediators\n     between the invisible powers and their fellow mortals, as the\n     depositories of sacred lore, and interpreters of the will of the\n     gods, expressed of old to the first men, and handed down, either\n     orally in divine poems, or preserved in a sacred literature, known\n     only to the initiated. In most instances they were an hereditary\n     caste, Druids, Brahmans, or Magi.\n\n     \"Among the Allophylian nations, on the other hand a rude and\n     sensual superstition prevailed, which ascribed life and mysterious\n     powers to the inanimate objects. The religion of fetisses, of\n     charms, and spells and talismans, was in the hands not of a learned\n     caste, the twice-born sons of Brama, but of shamans or sorcerers,\n     who, by feigning swoons and convulsions, by horrible cries and\n     yells, by cutting themselves with knives, by whirling and\n     contortions, assumed the appearance of something preternatural and\n     portentous, and impressed the multitude with the belief that they\n     were possessed by demons. Of this latter description were the\n     wizards of the Finns and Lappes, the angekoks of the Esquimaux; and\n     such are the shamans of all the countries in Northern Asia, where\n     neither Buddhism nor Islamism has yet penetrated.\"\n\nOf the American nations, the prevailing opinion, according to Loskiel,\nis--\n\n     \"'That there is one God, or, as they call him, one Great and Good\n     Spirit.' It seems, from the testimony of this writer, which is\n     supported by the evidence of all those who have conversed with the\n     aboriginal nations of North America, that the conceptions of these\n     nations respecting the Deity are much more complete and\n     philosophical than those of the most savage people in the Old\n     Continent. They suppose him literally to be the creator of heaven\n     and earth, of men and all other creatures; they represent him as\n     almighty, and able to do as much good as he pleases; 'nor do they\n     doubt that he is kindly disposed towards men, because he imparts\n     power to plants to grow, causes rain and sunshine, and gives fish\n     and venison to man for his support;' these gifts, however, to the\n     Indians exclusively. 'They are convinced that God requires of them\n     to do good, and to eschew evil.' We may observe that, in these\n     particulars, the Americans resemble the Northern Asiatics. We are\n     assured by the late traveller, M. Erman, on the authority of the\n     metropolitan Philophei, who lived among the Ostiaks on the Oby,\n     that these people had, before Christian missionaries ever came\n     among them, a belief in the existence of a Supreme Deity, of whose\n     nature they had pure and exalted ideas, and to whom they affirmed\n     that they never made offerings, nor had they represented his form;\n     while to inferior gods, and particularly to Oertidk, who was a sort\n     of mediator, and whose name, as it was preserved among the Magyars,\n     Oerdig, was used by the monks as a designator for the devil, they\n     made divers gifts; they performed before his image dances, which\n     Erman, who visited the Kolushians on the Sitcka, declares to be\n     precisely similar to the war-dances of those Americans. Some of the\n     American people make images of the Manittos.\n\n     \"Besides the Supreme Deity, the American nations believe in a\n     number of inferior spirits, whom the Delaware Indians term\n     Manittos; they are both good and evil. 'From the accounts of the\n     oldest Indians,' says Loskiel, 'it appears that when war was in\n     contemplation, they used to admonish each other to hearken to the\n     good, and not to evil spirits--the former always recommending\n     peace.' They had formerly no notion of a devil, or evil being, in\n     the Christian or Eastern sense of the term, but readily adopted,\n     according to Loskiel, such a belief from the white people. They\n     have among them preachers, who pretend to have received\n     revelations, and who dispute and teach different opinions. Some\n     pretend to have travelled near to the dwelling of God, or near\n     enough to hear the cocks crow, and see the smoke of the chimneys in\n     heaven; others declare that no one ever knew the dwelling-place of\n     God, but that the abode of the Good Spirit is above the blue sky,\n     and that the road to it is the milky way--a notion, by the way,\n     which Beausobre and others have traced in the remains of the\n     Manicheans, and other Eastern philosophers. The Americans believe\n     in the existence of souls distinct from bodies, and many of them in\n     the transmigration of souls. According to Loskiel, they declare,\n     'that Indians cannot die eternally; for even Indian corn is\n     vivified, and rises again.' The general opinion among them is, that\n     the souls of the good alone go to a place abounding in all earthly\n     pleasures, while the wicked wander about dejected and melancholy.\n     Like other nations, they had sacrifices. 'Sacrifices,' says\n     Loskiel, 'made with a view to pacify God and the subordinate\n     deities, are of a very ancient date among them, and considered in\n     so sacred a light, that unless they are performed in a time and\n     manner acceptable, illness, misfortune, and death would befall them\n     and their families.' They offer on these occasions hares, bear's\n     flesh, and Indian corn. Many nations have, besides other stated\n     times of sacrifice, one principal festival in two years, when they\n     sacrifice an animal, and make a point of eating the whole.\n\n     \"A small quantity of melted fat is poured by the oldest men into\n     the fire, and in this the main part of the offering consists. The\n     offerings are made to Manittos. The Manittos are precisely the\n     Fetisses of the African nations, and of the Northern Asiatics. They\n     are tutelary beings, often in visible forms. Every Indian has a\n     guardian Manitto; one has the sun for his Manitto; one the moon;\n     one has a dream, that he must make his Manitto an owl; one a\n     buffalo. The Delawares had five festivals in the year, one in\n     honour of fire, supposed to have been the parent of all the Indian\n     nations. Like other nations, these people believed in the necessity\n     of purification from guilt, by fasting and bodily mortification.\n     Some underwent for this end the pain of being beaten with sticks\n     from the sole of their feet to their head. 'Some gave the poor\n     people vomits as the most expeditious mode.'\n\n     \"Like the Northern Asiatics, the American nations had, instead of a\n     regular priesthood, jugglers or sorcerers, who pretended to have\n     supernatural power and knowledge. They appear to conform in every\n     respect to the schamans of the Siberians, and the Fetiss-seers of\n     the African nations.\"\n\nWe have, in the above extracts, placed in juxtaposition the leading\npsychical characteristics of the five divisions of mankind. There are\nsome points in which the different races of man seem, in their various\nsuperstitions and creeds, curiously agreed. The doctrine of sacrificial\natonement seems almost universally prevalent, and forms the basis of the\nvarious sacerdotal institutions. The care of the dead is also another\npeculiarity, and one in which mankind appear, from the earliest\nhistorical period, to have differed from other animals.\n\nThe susceptibility to receive the doctrines of Christianity is a\ncircumstance of agreement among the various races of mankind, from which\nthe Bushmen of South Africa are the only exception; and, viewing these\nas a branch of the Hottentots, this exception would seem to\ndisappear--for the latter have been converted. The following is the\nsatisfactory account of the Hottentot missionaries as to the moral\neffect of Christianity:--\n\n     \"It is the unvarying statement of these missionaries, deduced from\n     the experience of a hundred years of patient service and laborious\n     exertions among the rudest and most abject tribes of human beings;\n     that the moral nature of man must be in the first instance\n     quickened, the conscience awakened, and the better feelings of the\n     heart aroused, by the motives which Christianity brings with it,\n     before any improvement can be hoped for in the outward behaviour\n     and social state; that the rudest savages have sufficient\n     understanding to be susceptible of such a change; and that, when it\n     has once taken place, all the blessings of civilization follow as a\n     necessary result.\"\n\nThe gypsy tribe, of which Dr Prichard takes no notice, would seem to\nform an exception from the great mass of mankind as to the absence of\nreligious creed. The opinions and theories respecting it we must leave,\nas it forms of itself a wide field for discussion; and, having fully\noccupied the space allotted to us, we must here bring to a close our\nsketch of a work which, notwithstanding the somewhat unreadable\ncharacter of the central portion, has supplied to the public a valuable\ncollection of recorded facts, expressed for the most part in clear,\nuntechnical language. We have not entered into questions of contrast or\nsimilitude with the opinions of other authors. Had we done so, we must\nhave adopted a style of criticism interesting only to those who are\nspecially engaged in the subject, and so incapable of limitation that\nevery paragraph would serve for an article longer far than that which we\nhave here written. Dr Prichard appears nowise unwilling to refer to each\nauthor his due share of merit, and is by no means sparing of copious\nextracts, taken with no partial view of supporting a theory. At the risk\nof being considered only a compiler, he has, at all events, avoided any\naffectation of originality.\n\nWith regard to the proposition sought to be established by the author,\nthe book before us does not appear to be conclusive. The question as to\nthe community of origin of mankind, viewed purely as an inductive one,\nappears still involved in obscurity. On the one hand, the fact of\ncontinual degeneration, resulting from the intermarriage of members of\nthe same family, would require for its explanation either a miraculous\ninterference in the first periods of human existence, or a gradual\nchange in the constitution of man, whereby what once was harmless has\nbecome injurious, when the necessity for it is removed; moreover,\naccording to the evidence contained in this book, the races of mankind\ncannot be traced backward to a single pair. But, taking the three great\ndivisions, the Semitic, the Hamitish, and the Japetic, as derived from\nShem, Ham, and Japhet, the various Allophyllian and American aborigines\nwould appear to have existed, and to have been spread over the world\nbefore the above nations overran it. On the other hand, supposing that\nthe mere power of reproduction be not of itself sufficient evidence of\nidentity of species, the similarity of physical formation, of periodic\nchanges, and of psychical instincts, are strongly corroborative of this\nevidence, and would of themselves lead to the deduction of such\nidentity. Upon the whole, we consider the merits of the work before us\nto consist, not in the demonstration of a theorem, but in presenting to\nthe reader a compendious record of physical, historical, and\npsychological facts and relations. Viewed in this light, it is an\ninteresting contribution to ethnology; while the size of the book, the\npictorial illustrations, and the absence of unnecessary technicality,\nmake it a convenient manual for the general reader.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n{A} _The Natural History of Man._ By J. C. PRICHARD, M.D.\n\n{B} The term _Hamitish_ is not used by Dr Prichard; but as he gives no\ndistinctive appellation to his third division, we adopt that which has\nbeen used by Beke and others.\n\n{C} The term _Arian_, used by Dr Prichard, is objectionable as having\nreceived a very different application.\n\n\n\n\nPOEMS BY COVENTRY PATMORE.{A}\n\n\nThis is certainly an age of very merciful tendencies. The severity of\nthe criminal laws has been greatly abated; and, in conformity with the\nviews of the legislature, we have, of late years, been gradually\nrelaxing the stringency of our critical code. Yet we question whether\nthe change has been productive of good, and whether the result can be\nsaid to have answered the expectations either of government or of\nourselves. We doubt whether crime has diminished in consequence of the\nlegislative clemency; and, in our own humble department, we are now\nconvinced that the mild method is not the best way of bringing singers\nto repentance. The experiment has been fairly tried, and the numerous\ntrashy publications put forth by the young writers of the day,\nparticularly in the poetical line, convince us that our mercy has been\nmisplaced; and that a little well-timed severity, and a few examples\nheld up _in terrorem_, might have greatly benefited the literary\nwellbeing of England. The \"spirit of the age\" might have been different\nfrom what it is, if the just sentence of the law had been more\nfrequently carried into effect. Our timely strictures might not have\nkindled into song any masculine intellect, but they might have prevented\nthe temple of the Muses from being desecrated. They might have prevented\nthe appearance of such a publication as this. In the days of the knout,\nwe believe that no such volume as Mr Coventry Patmore's could have\nventured to crawl out of manuscript into print. While we admit, then,\nthat we have to blame our own forbearance in some degree for its\nappearance, we think it our duty to take this opportunity of amending\nour code of criticism, and shall try the volume simply as it stands, and\nsomewhat according to the good old principles of literary jurisprudence.\n\nWe are further instigated to this act of duty by the laudatory terms in\nwhich the volume has been hailed by certain contemporary journalists.\nHad Mr Patmore's injudicious friends not thought proper to announce him\nto the world as the brightest rising star in the poetical firmament of\nYoung England, we would probably have allowed his effusions to die of\ntheir own utter insignificance. But since they have acted as they have\ndone, we too must be permitted to express our opinion of their merits;\nand our deliberate judgment is, that the weakest inanity ever\nperpetrated in rhyme by the vilest poetaster of any former generation,\nbecomes masculine verse when contrasted with the nauseous pulings of Mr\nPatmore's muse. Indeed, we question whether the strains of any poetaster\ncan be considered vile, when brought into comparison with this\ngentleman's verses. His silly and conceited rhapsodies rather make us\nsigh for the good old times when all poetry, below the very highest, was\nmade up of artifice and conventionalism; when all poets, except the very\ngreatest, spoke a hereditary dialect of their own, which nobody else\ninterfered with--counted on their fingers every line they penned, and\nknew no inspiration except that which they imbibed from Byssh's rhyming\ndictionary. True that there was then no life or spirit in the poetical\nvocabulary--true that there was no nature in the delineations of our\nminor poets; but better far was such language than the slip-slop\nvulgarities of the present rhymester--better far that there should be no\nnature in poetry, than _such_ nature as Mr Patmore has exhibited for the\nentertainment of his readers.\n\nThe first poem in the volume, entitled \"The River,\" is a tale of\ndisappointed love, terminating in the suicide of the lover. Poor and\npointless as this performance is, it is by far the best in the book. As\nMr Patmore advances, there is a marked increase of silliness and\naffectation in his effusions, which shows how sedulously he has\ncultivated the art of sinking in poetry; and that the same adage which\nhas been applied to vice, may be applied also to folly, \"_Nemo repente\nfuit stultissimus_.\" Never was there a richer offering laid on the\nshrine of the goddess _Stultia_ than the tale of Sir Hubert, with which\nthe volume concludes. But our business at present is with \"The River.\"\n\nThe common practice of writers who deal with stories of love, whose\n\"course never did run smooth,\" is to make their heroes commit suicide,\non finding that the ladies whom they had wooed in vain were married to\nother people. But in the poem before us, Mr Patmore improves upon this\nmethod; he drowns his lover, Witchaire, because the lady, whom he had\nnever wooed at all, does not marry him, but gives her hand (why should\nshe not?) to the man who sues for it. Did Witchaire expect that the lady\nwas to propose to him? The poem opens with some very babyish verses\ndescriptive of an \"old manor hall\":--\n\n    \"Its huge fantastic weather-vanes\n      _Look happy_ in the light;\n    Its warm face through the foliage gleams,\n      A _comfortable_ sight.\"\n\nAnd so on, until we are introduced to the lady of the establishment:--\n\n    \"That lady loves the pale Witchaire,\n      _Who loves too much to sue_:\n    He came this morning hurriedly,\n      Then out her young blood flew;\n    But he talk'd of common things, _and so_\n      Her eyes are steep'd in dew.\"\n\nThe lady, finding that her lover continues to hang back, dries her\ntears, and very properly gets married to another man. During the\ncelebration of the ceremony, the poet recurs to his hero, who has taken\nup his position in the park--\n\n    \"Leaning against an aged tree,\n      By thunder stricken bare.\n\n    \"The moonshine shineth in his eye,\n      From which no tear doth fall,\n    Full of vacuity as death,\n      Its slaty parched ball\n    Fixedly, though expressionless,\n      Gleams on the distant hall.\"\n\nWitchaire then goes and drowns himself, in a river which \"runneth round\"\nthe lady's property--a dreadful warning to all young lovers \"who love\ntoo much to sue.\"\n\nOn a fine day in the following summer, the poet brings the lady to the\nbanks of this river. His evident intention is, to raise in the reader's\nmind the expectation that she shall discover her lover's body, or some\nother circumstance indicative of the fatal catastrophe. This\nexpectation, however, he disappoints. The only remarkable occurrence\nwhich takes place is, that the lady does _not_ find the corpse, nor does\nany evidence transpire which can lead her to suppose that the suicide\nhad ever been committed; and with this senseless and inconclusive\nconclusion the reader is befooled.\n\nThe only incident which we ever heard of, at all rivaling this story in\nan abortive ending, is one which we once heard related at a party, where\nthe conversation turned on the singular manner in which valuable\narticles thrown into the sea had been sometimes recovered, and restored\nto their owners--the ring of Polycrates, which was found in the maw of a\nfish after having been sunk in deep waters, being, as the reader knows,\nthe first and most remarkable instance of such recoveries. After the\nrest of the company had exhausted their marvellous relations, the\nfollowing tale was told as the climax of all such wonderful narratives;\nand it was admitted on all hands that the force of surprise could no\nfurther go. We shall endeavour to versify it, _a la_ Patmore, conceiving\nthat its issue is very similar to that of his story of \"The River.\"\n\n\nTHE RING AND THE FISH.\n\n    A lady and her lover once\n      Were walking on a rocky beach:\n    Soft at first, and gentle, was\n      The music of their mutual speech,\n    And the looks were gentle, too,\n      With which each regarded each.\n\n    At length some casual word occurr'd\n      Which somewhat moved the lady's bile;\n    From less to more her anger wax'd--\n      How sheepish look'd her swain the while!--\n    And now upon their faces twain\n      There is not seen a single smile.\n\n    A ring was on the lady's hand,\n      The gift of that dumb-founder'd lover--\n    In scorn she pluck'd it from her hand,\n      And flung it far the waters over--\n    Far beyond the power of any\n      Duck or drag-net to recover.\n\n    Remorse then smote the lady's heart\n      When she had thrown her ring away;\n    She paceth o'er the rocky beach,\n      And resteth neither night nor day;\n    But still the burthen of her song\n      Is, \"Oh, my ring! my ring!\" alway.\n\n    Her lover now essays to soothe\n      The dark compunctious visitings,\n    That assail the lady's breast\n      With a thousand thousand stings,\n    For that she had thrown away\n      This, the paragon of rings.\n\n    But all in vain; at length one day\n      A fisher chanced to draw his net\n    Across the sullen spot that held\n      The gem that made the lady fret,\n    And caught about the finest cod\n      That ever he had captured yet.\n\n    He had a basket on his back,\n      And he placed his booty in it;\n    The lady's lover bought the fish,\n      And, when the cook began to skin it,\n    She found--incredible surprise!--\n      She found the ring--was _not_ within it.\n\nThe next tale, called \"The Woodman's Daughter,\" is a story of seduction,\nmadness, and child-murder. These are powerful materials to work with;\nyet it is not every man's hand that they will suit. In the hands of\ncommon-place, they are simply revolting. In the hands of folly and\naffectation, their repulsiveness is aggravated by the simpering conceits\nwhich usurp the place of the strongest passions of our nature. He only\nis privileged to unveil these gloomy depths of erring humanity, who can\nsubdue their repulsiveness by touches of ethereal feeling; and whose\nimagination, buoyant above the waves of passion, bears the heart of the\nreader into havens of calm beauty, even when following the most\ndeplorable aberrations of a child of sin. Such a man is not Mr Patmore.\nHe has no imagination at all--or, what is the same thing, an imagination\nwhich welters in impotence, far below the level of the emotions which it\nought to overrule. The pitfalls of his tale of misery are covered over\nwith thin sprinklings of asterisks--the poorest subterfuge of an\nimpoverished imagination; and besotted indeed is the senselessness with\nwhich he disports himself around their margin. Maud, the victim, is the\ndaughter of Gerald, the woodman; and Merton, the seducer, is the son of\na rich squire in the neighbourhood. Maud used to accompany her father to\nhis employment in the woods.\n\n    \"She merely went to think she help'd;\n      And whilst he hack'd and saw'd,\n    The rich squire's son, a young boy then,\n      For whole days, as if aw'd,\n    Stood by, and gazed alternately\n      At Gerald and at Maud.\n\n    \"He sometimes, _in a sullen tone_,\n      Would offer fruits, and she\n    Always received his gifts with an air,\n      So unreserved and free,\n    That half-feign'd distance soon became\n      Familiarity.\n\n    \"Therefore in time, when Gerald shook\n      The woods at his employ,\n    The young heir and the cottage-girl\n      Would steal out to enjoy\n    The music of each other's talk--\n      A simple girl and boy.\n\n    \"They pass'd their time, both girl and boy,\n      Uncheck'd, unquestion'd; yet\n    They always hid their wanderings\n      By wood and rivulet,\n    Because they could not give themselves\n      A reason why they met.\n\n    --It may have been in the ancient time,\n      Before Love's earliest ban,\n    Psychean curiosity\n      Had broken Nature's plan;\n    _When all that was not youth was age,\n      And men knew less of Man;_--\n\n    \"Or when the works of time shall reach\n      The goal to which they tend,\n    And knowledge, being perfect, shall\n      At last in wisdom end--\n    That wisdom to end knowledge--or\n      Some change comes, yet unkenn'd;\n\n    \"It perhaps may be again, that men,\n      Like orange plants, will bear,\n    At once, the many fine effects\n      To which God made them heir--\n    Large souls, large forms, and love like that\n      Between this childish pair.\n\n    \"Two summers pass'd away, and then--\n      _Though yet young Merton's eyes,\n    Wide with their language, spake of youth's\n      Habitual surprise_--\n    He felt that pleasures such as these\n      No longer could suffice.\"\n\nWhat the meaning of the three stanzas beginning with--\n\n    \"It may have been in the ancient time,\"\n\nmay be, we are utterly at a loss to conjecture. We seek in vain to\ninvest them with a shadow of sense. Perhaps they are thrown in to\nredeem, by their profound unintelligibility, the shallow trifling of the\nrest of the poem. But it was not enough for young Merton that the girl\naccepted the fruits which he offered to her in a _sullen_ tone. He had\nnow reached the age so naturally and lucidly described as the period of\nlife when the \"eyes, wide with their language, speak of youth's habitual\nsurprise,\" and he began to seek \"new joys from books,\" communicating the\nresults of his studies to Maud, whose turn it now was to be surprised.\n\n    \"So when to-morrow came, while Maud\n      Stood listening with surprise,\n    He told the tale learnt over night,\n      And, if he met her eyes,\n    _Perhaps_ said how far the stars were, _and\n      Talk'd on about the skies_.\"\n\nThe effect of these lucid revelations upon the mind of Maud was very\noverpowering.\n\n    \"She wept for joy if the cushat sang\n      Its low song in the fir;\n    The cat, _perhaps_, broke the quiet with\n      Its regular slow purr;\n    'Twas music now, and her wheel gave forth\n    A rhythm in its whirr.\n\n    \"She once had read, When lovers die,\n      And go where angels are,\n    Each pair of lover's souls, _perhaps_,\n      Will make a double star;\n    _So stars grew dearer, and she thought\n      They did not look so far._\n\n    \"But being ignorant, and still\n      So young as to be prone\n    To think all very great delights\n      Peculiarly her own,\n    She guess'd not what to her made sweet\n      _Books writ on lovers' moan_.\"\n\nAnd so the poem babbles on through several very sickly pages, in which\nthe following descriptive stanza occurs:--\n\n    \"The flat white river lapsed along,\n      Now a broad broken glare,\n    Now winding through the bosom'd lands,\n      Till lost in distance, where\n    The tall hills, sunning their chisell'd peaks,\n      _Made emptier the empty air_.\"\n\nDuring one of their ramblings, Maud becomes visibly embarrassed.\n\n    \"But Merton's thoughts were less confused:\n      'What, _I_ wrong ought so good?\n    Besides, the danger that is seen\n      Is easily withstood:'\n    Then loud, 'The sun is very warm'--\n      _And they walk'd into the wood_.\"\n\nThe wood consisting of a forest of as shady asterisks as the most\nfastidious lovers could desire.\n\n    \"Months pass'd away, and every day\n      The lovers still were wont\n    To meet together, and their shame\n      At meeting had grown blunt;\n    _For they were of an age when sin\n      Is only seen in front_.\"\n\nThe father, however, who was also of an age to see sin _in front_,\nsuspects that his daughter is with child, and taxes her with it. Maud\nconfesses her shame; upon which, as we are led to conjecture, old Gerald\ndies broken-hearted--while the girl is safely delivered under a cloud of\nasterisks. She is deterred from disclosing her situation to Merton, the\nfather of the child--and why? for this very natural reason, forsooth,\nthat\n\n    \"He, if that were done,\n      Could hardly fail to know\n    The ruin he had caused, he might\n      Be brought to share her woe,\n    Making it doubly sharp.\"\n\nSo, rather than occasion the slightest distress or inconvenience to her\nseducer, she magnanimously resolves to murder her baby; and accordingly\nthe usual machinery of the poem is brought into play--the\nasterisks--which on former occasions answered the purpose of a forest\nand a cloud, being now converted into a very convenient pool, in which\nshe quietly immerses the offspring of her illicit passion. And the deed\nbeing done, its appalling consequences on her conscience are thus\npowerfully and naturally depicted--\n\n    \"_Lo! in her eyes stands the great surprise\n      That comes with the first crime_.\n\n    \"She throws a glance of terror round--\n      There's not a creature nigh;\n    But behold the sun that looketh through\n      The frowning western sky,\n    Is lifting up one broad beam, _like\n      A lash of God's own eye_.\"\n\nWere we not right in saying that there is nothing in the writings of any\nformer poetaster to equal the silly and conceited jargon of the present\nversifier? Having favoured us with the emphatic lines in italics, to\ndepict the physical concomitants of Maud's guilt, he again has recourse\nto asterisks, to veil the mental throes by which her mind is tortured\ninto madness by remorse: and very wisely--for they lead us to suppose\nthat the writer could have powerfully delineated these inner agitations,\nif he had chosen; but that he has abstained from doing so out of mercy\nto the feelings of his readers. We must, therefore, content ourselves\nwith the following feebleness, with which the poem concludes:\n\n    \"Maud, with her books, comes, day by day,\n      Fantastically clad,\n    To read them near the poor; and all\n      Who meet her, look so sad--\n    That even to herself it is\n      Quite plain that she is mad.\"\n\n\"Lilian\" is the next tale in the volume. This poem is an echo, both in\nsentiment and in versification of Mr Tennyson's \"Locksley Hall;\" and a\nbaser and more servile echo was never bleated forth from the throat of\nany of the imitative flock. There are many other indications in the\nvolume which show that Mr Tennyson is the model which Mr Patmore has set\nup for his imitation; but \"Lilian,\" more particularly, is a complete\ncounterpart in coarsest fustian of the silken splendours of Mr\nTennyson's poem. It is \"Locksley Hall\" stripped of all its beauty, and\ndebased by a thousand vulgarities, both of sentiment and style. The\nburden of both poems consists of bitter denunciations poured forth by\ndisappointed and deserted love; with this difference, that the passion\nwhich Mr Tennyson gives utterance to, Mr Patmore reverberates in rant. A\nsmall poet, indeed, could not have worked after a more unsafe model. For\nwhile he might hope to mimic the agitated passions of \"Locksley Hall,\"\nin vain could he expect to be visited by the serene imagination which,\nin that poem, steeps their violence in an atmosphere of beauty. Even\nwith regard to Mr Tennyson's poem, it is rather for the sake of its\npicturesque descriptions, than on account of its burning emotions, that\nwe recur to it with pleasure. We rejoice to follow him to regions where\n\n    \"Never comes the trader, never floats an European flag,\n    _Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland_, droops the trailer from\n        the crag.\"\n\nIt is rather, we say, on account of such lines as these (no picture of\ntropical loveliness ever surpassed, in our opinion, the description\nprinted in italics) that we admire \"Locksley Hall,\" than on account of\nthe troubled passions which it embodies; knowing as we do, that poetry\nhas nobler offices to perform than to fulmine forth fierce and sarcastic\ninvectives against the head of a jilt; and if, as Mr Tennyson says,\n\"love is love for evermore,\" we would ask even him why he did not make\nthe lover in \"Locksley Hall\" betray, even in spite of himself, a more\npitiful tenderness for the devoted heroine of the tale? How different\nthe strain of the manly Schiller under similar circumstances! _His_\nbitterness cannot be restrained from breaking down at last in a flood of\ntenderness over the lost mistress of his affections.\n\n    \"Oh! what scorn for thy desolate years\n      Shall I feel! God forbid it should be!\n    How bitter will then be the tears\n      Shed, Minna, oh Minna, for thee!\"\n\nBut if it be true that \"Locksley Hall\" is somewhat deficient in the\nethereal tenderness which would overcome a true heart, even when\nblighted in its best affections, it was not to be expected that its\nimitator should have been visited with deeper glimpses of the divine.\nThe indignant passions of his unrequited lover are, indeed, passions of\nthe most ignoble clay--not one touch of elevated feeling lifts him for\na moment out of the mire. The whole train of circumstances which\nengender his emotions, prove the lover, in this case, to have been the\nsilliest of mortal men, and his mistress, from the very beginning of his\nintercourse with her, to have been one of the most abandoned of her sex.\n\"Lilian\" is a burlesque on disappointed love, and a travestie of the\npassions which such a disappointment entails. We know not which are the\nmore odious and revolting in their expression--the emotions of the\njilted lover, or the incidents which call them into play.\n\nThe poem is designed to illustrate the bad effects produced on the\nfemale mind by the reading of French novels. We have nothing to say in\ntheir defence. But the incongruity lies here--that Lilian, who was\nseduced by means of these noxious publications, was evidently a lady of\nthe frailest virtue from the very first; and her lover might have seen\nthis with half an eye. Her materials were obviously of the most\ninflammable order; and it evidently did not require the application of\nsuch a spark as the seducer Winton, with his formidable artillery of\nimported literature, to set her tinder in a blaze--any other small\ncontingency would have answered equally well. All that she wanted was an\nopportunity to fall; and that she would soon have found, under any\ncircumstances whatsoever. The lover, however, sees nothing of all this,\nbut relates the story of his unfortunate love-affair with as much\nsimplicity as if he had been mourning the fall of the mother of mankind\nfrom paradise.\n\nThe lover relates his tale to his friend, the author. He begins by\nentreating him to\n\n                                  \"Bear with me, in case\n    Tears come. _I feel them coming by the smarting in my face_.\"\n\nAnd then he proceeds to introduce us to this Lilian, the immaculate\nmistress of his soul--\n\n    \"She could see me coming to her with the vision of the hawk;\n    Always hasten'd on to meet me, _heavy passion in her walk;_\n    Low tones to me grew lower, sweetening so her honey talk,\n\n    \"That it fill'd up all my hearing, drown'd the _voices of the birds_,\n    The _voices of the breezes_, and the _voices of the herds_--\n    For to me the lowest ever were the loudest of her words.\"\n\n\"Heavy passion in her walk!\"--what a delicate and delectable young lady\nshe must have been! Then, as to the fact so harmoniously expressed, of\nher accents drowning \"the voices of the birds, the voices of the\nbreezes, and the voices of the herds,\" we may remark, that the first and\nsecond never require to be drowned at all, being nearly inaudible at any\nrate, even during the most indifferent conversation--so that there was\nnothing very remarkable in their being extinguished by the plaintiveness\nof the lady's tones; while, with regard to the voices of the herds, if\nshe succeeded in drowning these--the cattle being near at hand, and\nlowing lustily--she must indeed have roared to her lover \"like any\nnightingale.\"\n\nThe description of her is thus continued--\n\n    \"On her face, then and for ever, was the seriousness within.\n    Her sweetest smiles (and sweeter did a lover never win)\n    _Ere half-done grew so absent, that they made her fair cheek thin._\n\n    \"On her face, then and for ever, thoughts unworded used to live;\n    So that when she whisper'd to me, 'Better joy earth cannot give'--\n    Her lips, though shut, continued, 'But earth's joy is fugitive.'\n\n    \"For there a _nameless something_, though suppress'd, still spread\n        around;\n    The same was on her eyelids, if she look'd towards the ground;\n    When she spoke, you _knew directly_ that the same was in the sound;\"\n\nBy and by, a young gentleman, of the name of Winton, comes to visit\nLilian and her father:--\n\n    \"A formerly-loved companion--he was fresh from sprightly France,\n    And with many volumes laden, essay, poem, and romance.\"\n\nHe, and his pursuits after leaving school, are thus elegantly\ndescribed:--\n\n    \"When free, all healthy study was put by, that he might rush\n    To his favourite books, French chiefly, that his blood might boil\n       and gush\n    Over scenes which set his visage glowing crimson--_not a blush_.\"\n\nThis gentleman and Lilian's lover strike up a strong friendship for one\nanother, and the latter makes Winton his confidant. As yet no suspicions\narise to break the blind sleep of the infatuated dreamer.\n\n    \"Delights were still remaining--hate--shame--rage--_I can't tell what_,\n    Comes to me at their memory; none that, _more or less_, was not\n    The soul's _unconscious incest_, on creations self-begot.\"\n\nHe still continues to doat on Lilian.\n\n    \"Oh friend, if you had seen her! heard her speaking, felt her grace,\n    When serious looks seem'd filling with the smiles which, in a space,\n    Broke, sweet as Sabbath sunshine, and lit up her _shady_ face.\n\n    \"Try to conceive her image--does it make your brain reel round?\n    But all of this is over. Well, friend--various signs (I found\n    Too late on rumination) then and thenceforth did abound,\n\n    \"Wherefrom--but that all lovers look too closely to see clear--\n    I might have gather'd matter fit for just and jealous fear.\n    From her face, _the nameless something_ now began to disappear.\n\n    \"What I felt for her I often told her boldly to her face;\n    _Blushes used to blush at blushes flushing on in glowing chace!_\n    But latterly she listen'd, bending full of bashful grace.\n\n    \"It was to hide those blushes, I thought then, _but I suspect\n    It was to hide their absence_.\"\n\nHow great this writer is on the subject of blushing we shall have\nanother opportunity of showing.--(See Lady Mabel's shoulders, in the\npoem of Sir Hubert.) Meanwhile, the fair deceiver is now undergoing a\ncourse of French novels, under the tuition of young Winton. The\nconsequence was,\n\n\"_Her voice grew louder_\"--no great harm in that--\n\n    \"Her voice grew louder--losing the much meaning it once bore,\n    _The passion in her carriage_, though it every day grew more,\n    Was now the same to all men--and that was not so before.\"\n\nWe suppose that there was now \"heavy passion in her walk,\" whoever the\nman might be that approached her.\n\n    \"And grosser signs, _far grosser_ I remember now; but these\n    I miss'd of course, and counted _with those light anomalies,\n    Too frequent to disturb us into searching for their keys_.\"\n\nThese misgivings, which might have ripened into suspicions, are suddenly\nswept away by a stroke of duplicity on the part of his mistress,\ninconceivable in any woman except one inclined naturally, and without\nany prompting, to practise the profoundest artifices of vice.\n\n    \"Even the dreadful glimpses now began to fade away,\n    And disappear'd completely, when my Lilian asked one day,\n    If I knew what reason Winton had to make so long a stay\n\n    \"In England--'For,' said Lilian, with untroubled countenance,\n    'Winton of course has told you of the love he left in France.'\n    I seized her hand, and kiss'd it--joy had left no utterance.\"\n\nWinton, according to the account of the false Lilian, having _a love_ in\nFrance, could not, of course be supposed to be paying court to her. Thus\nthe lover is thrown off the scent, and his doubts are entirely laid\nasleep. He is again in the seventh heavens of assured love, and\ncontinues thus:--\n\n    \"Another calm so perfect I should think is only shed\n    On good men dying gently, who recall a life well led,\n    Till they cannot tell, _for sweetness_, if they be alive or dead.\n\n    \"_I'll stop here._ You already have, I think, divined the rest.\n    There's a prophetic moisture in your eyes:--yet, tears being blest\n    And delicate nutrition, apt to cease, too much suppress'd,\n\n    \"_I'll go on_; but less for your sake than my own:--my skin is hot,\n    And there's an arid pricking in my veins; their currents clot:\n    Tears sometimes soothe such fever, where the letting of blood will\n        not.\"\n\nAt length his eyes are opened, and the whole truth flashes upon him, on\noverhearing an acquaintance ask Winton whether his suit with Lilian has\nbeen successful. Upon this he writes out his opinion of the lady's\nbehaviour, presents it to her, and watches her while she peruses it,\noccupying himself at intervals as follows:--\n\n    \"I turn'd a volume, waiting her full leisure to reply,\n    The book was one which Winton had ask'd me to read, and I\n    Had stopp'd halfway for horror, _lest my soul should putrify_.\"\n\nWhen Lilian has finished the perusal of the document, she endeavours at\nfirst to stand on the defensive,--\n\n    \"She stood at bay, _depending on that crutch made like a stilt_,\n    The impudent vulgarity wherewith women outstare guilt.\"\n\nBut she finally succumbs under the influence of the following refined\nvituperation:--\n\n    \"Don't speak! You would not have me unacquainted with what led\n    To this result? No! listen, and let _me_ relate what bred\n    Thy tears and cheapen'd chasteness--(_we may talk now as if wed._)\n\n    \"This book here, that lay open when I came in unaware,\n    Is not the first--I thought so!--but the last of many a stair\n    Of easy fall. Such only could have led you to _his lair_.\n\n    \"These drugs, at first, had scarcely strength to move your virgin\n        blood;\n    They slowly rose in action, till they wrought it to a flood,\n    Fit for their giver's purpose, who--_who turn'd it into mud!_\"\n\nThe lover then leaves Lilian to her own meditations, and commences to\nrant and rave against her seducer in good set terms, of which the\nfollowing is a specimen:--\n\n    \"Pardon, Heaven! that I doubted whether there was any hell.\n    Oh! but now I do believe it! Firmly, firmly! I foretell\n    Of one that shall rank high there: he's a scoffer, and must dwell\n\n    \"Where worms are--ever gnawing scoffers' hearts into belief;\n    Where weepings, gnashings, wailings, thirstings, groanings, ghastly\n        grief,\n    For ever and for ever pay the price of pleasures brief;\n\n    \"Where Gallios, who while living knew but cared for none of these,\n    Now amazed with shame, would gladly, might it God (_Fate there_)\n        appease,\n    Watch and pray a million cycles for a single moment's ease.\"\n\nAfter having thus breathed his passion, in a diatribe which beats in\nabomination any slang that was ever ranted out of a tub by a mountebank\nsaint, he harps back upon the prodigious attractiveness of his mistress,\nin the following pathetic, though not very consistent terms--\n\n    \"Ah but had you known my Lilian! (a sweet name?) Indeed, indeed,\n    I doted on my Lilian. None can praise her half her meed.\n    Perfect in soul; too gentle--others' need she made her need;\n\n    \"_Quite passionless_, but ever bounteous-minded even to waste;\n    Much tenderness in talking; very urgent, yet no haste;\n    _And chastity--to laud it would have seem'd almost unchaste._\n\n    \"Graced highly, too, with knowledge; versed in tongues; a queen of\n        dance;\n    An artist at her playing; a most touching utterance\n    In song; her lips' mild music could make sweet the _clack_ of France.\"\n\nAmid such outpourings of feculent folly, it is scarcely worth our while\nto take notice of the minor offences against good taste that abound in\nthese poems; yet we may remark, that the writer who here condescends to\nuse such a word as _clack_, and who, on other occasions, does not\nscruple to talk of _a repeat_ and _a repay_, instead of \"a repetition,\"\nand \"a repayment,\" does not consider the word _watch-dog_ sufficiently\nelevated for his compositions. Whenever he alludes to this animal, he\ncalls him a _guard-hound_--a word which we do not remember ever to have\nencountered either in conversation or in books, but which, for ought we\nknow, may be drawn from those \"pure wells of English undefiled,\" which\nirrigate with their fair waters the provincial districts of the modern\nBabylon.\n\nThe author of \"Lillian\" evidently piques himself on the fidelity with\nwhich he has adhered to nature in his treatment of that story. But there\nare two ways in which nature may be adhered to in verse; and it is only\none of these ways which can be considered poetical. The writer may\nadhere to the truth of _human_ nature, while he elevates the emotions of\nthe heart in strains which find a cordial echo in the sentiments of all\nmankind. Or, if his whole being is sicklied over with silliness and\naffectation, he may adhere to the truth of _his own_ nature, and while\nwriting perfectly naturally _for him_, he may unfold his delineations of\ncharacter in such a manner as shall strip every passion of its dignity,\nand every emotion of its grace. Now, it is only by reason of their\nadherence to the latter species of nature, that \"Lillian\" and the other\ncompositions of Mr Patmore can be considered natural, and, viewed under\nthis aspect, they certainly are natural exceedingly.\n\nThe story of \"Sir Hubert\" finishes the volume. This tale is versified\nfrom Boccacio's story of the Falcon, with which many of our readers may\nbe acquainted; if not, they will find it in the fifth day, novel ninth,\nof the _Decameron_. We can only afford space for a short outline of its\nincidents, and shall substitute Mr Patmore's names for those of the\npersonages who figure in Boccacio's story. This will save both ourselves\nand readers the trouble of threading the _minutiae_ of Mr Patmore's\nsenseless and long-winded version of the tale. A few specimens will\nsuffice to exhibit the manner in which he deals with it. Sir Hubert is a\nrich gentleman, who squanders almost all his substance in giving grand\nentertainments to the Lady Mabel, whom he makes love to without meeting\nwith any return. Finding his suit unsuccessful, and his money being all\nspent, he retires to a small and distant farm, having nothing left but\none poor hawk, upon which he depends for his means of subsistence.\nMeanwhile, the Lady Mabel marries, and has a son. After a time, (her\nhusband being dead,) she comes to reside in a castle in the\nneighbourhood of Sir Hubert's cottage, where her son, who has often\nremarked the prowess and beauty of the above-mentioned hawk, falls sick,\nassuring his mother that nothing can save his life except the possession\nof the bird. The lady very reluctantly pays a visit to Sir Hubert, and\ntells him that she has a request to proffer, which she will make known\nto him after dinner. Though Sir Hubert is delighted to see her, the\nmention of dinner throws him into a state of great perplexity, as he has\nnothing in the house which they can make a meal of. Going out of doors,\n\"he espies his hawk upon the perch, which he seizes, and finding it very\nfat, judges it might make a dish not unworthy of such a lady. Without\nfurther thought, then, he pulls his head off, and gives it to a girl to\ndress and roast carefully.\"\n\nThis being done, the lady and her admirer sit down to dinner, and make\nan excellent repast. When their meal is over, then comes the\n_eclaircissement_. The lady proffers her petition for the hawk; and\ndiscovers from Sir Hubert's answer, and to her own consternation, that\nshe has eaten the very article she came in quest of, and which she had\nexpected to carry home alive; as the only means of saving the life of\nher son. The young gentleman dies on finding that he cannot obtain what\nhe wants; and Mabel marries Sir Hubert, and settles upon him all her\npossessions, as a reward for his magnanimity in sacrificing that which\n(next to herself) he held dearest in the whole world, rather than that\nshe should go without a dinner.\n\nSuch is a short sketch of Boccacio's tale of the Falcon--a good enough\nstory in its way; and more creditable than many that were circulated\namong the loose fish, male and female, that play their parts in the\n_Decameron_. This novel has been versified by Mr Patmore, and versified\n(as our specimens shall show) as he alone could have versified it. The\nfollowing is his description of the much-longed-for, but\nsorely-ill-treated, hawk of Sir Hubert.\n\n    \"It served him, too, of evenings:\n      On a sudden he would rise,\n    From book or simple music,\n      And awake his hawk's large eyes,\n    (_Almost as large as Mabel's_)\n      Teasing out its dumb replies,\n\n    \"In sulky sidelong glances,\n      And reluctantly flapp'd wings,\n    Or looks of slow communion,\n      To the lightsome questionings\n    That broke the drowsy sameness,\n      And the sense, like fear, which springs\n\n    \"At night, when we are conscious\n      Of our distance from the strife\n    Of cities; and the memory\n      Of the spirit of all things rife,\n    _Endues the chairs and tables\n      With a disagreeable life_.\"\n\nA Scotch lyrist, who, we are told, sings his own songs to perfection,\nhas also recorded the very singular fact of various articles of\nhousehold furniture (not exactly tables) being occasionally endued \"with\na disagreeable life.\" One of his best ballads, in which he describes the\nbickerings which, even in the best-regulated families, will at times\ntake place between man and wife, and in which various domestic missiles\ncome into play, contains the following very excellent line--\n\n    \"_The stools pass the best o' their time i' the air_\"--\n\nthan which no sort of life appertaining to a stool can be more\ndisagreeable, we should imagine--to the head which it is about to come\nin contact with. We doubt whether Mr Patmore's, or rather Sir Hubert's,\nchairs and tables ever acquired such a vigorous and unpleasant vitality\nas that. What may have happened to the \"stools\" after Mabel was married\nto Sir Hubert, we cannot take it upon us to say. At any rate, we prefer\nthe Scotch poet's description, as somewhat the more pithy, and graphic,\nand intelligible of the two. The coincidence, however, is remarkable.\n\nAfter Sir Hubert has retired to his farm, the state of his feelings is\ndescribed in the following stanzas. We suspect that the metaphysical\nacumen of Boccacio himself would have been a good deal puzzled to\nunravel the meaning of some of them.\n\n    \"He gather'd consolation,\n      As before, where best he might:\n    But though there was the difference\n      That he now could claim a right\n    To grieve as much as pleased him,\n      It was six years, since his sight\n\n    \"Had fed on Mabel's features;\n      So that Hubert scarcely knew\n    What traits to give the vision\n      Which should fill his eyes with dew:--\n    For she must needs, by that time,\n      Have become another, who,\n\n    \"In girlhood's triple glory,\n      (For a higher third outflows\n    Whenever Promise marries\n      With Completion,) troubled those\n    That saw, with trouble sweeter\n      Than the sweetest of repose.\n\n    \"It, therefore, was the business\n      Of his thoughts to try to trace\n    The probable fulfilment\n      Of her former soul and face,--\n    From buds deducing blossoms.\n      For, although an easy space\n\n    \"Led from the farm of Hubert\n      To where Mabel's castle stood,\n    Closed in, a league on all sides.\n      With wall'd parks and wealthy wood,\n    No chance glimpse could be look'd for,\n      So recluse her widowhood.\n\n    \"Hence seasons past, and Hubert\n      Earn'd his bread, but leisure spent\n    In loved dissatisfaction,\n      Which he made his element\n    Of choice, as much as, till then,\n      He had sought it in content.\"\n\nIf the verses above would have baffled the sagacity of the father of\nItalian literature, what would he have thought of the following, in\nwhich the interview between Sir Hubert and Mabel is described, when the\nlady comes to negotiate with him about the hawk? She accosts him, \"Sir\nHubert!\" and then there is presented to our imaginations such a picture\nof female loveliness, as (thank Heaven!) can only be done justice to in\nthe language which is employed for the occasion.\n\n    \"'Sir Hubert!'--and, that instant,\n      _Mabel saw the fresh light flush\n    Out of her rosy shoulders_,\n      And perceived her sweet blood _hush\n    About her_, till, all over,\n      _There shone forth a sumptuous blush_--\n\n    \"'Sir Hubert, I have sought you,\n      Unattended, to request\n    A boon--the first I ever\n      Have entreated.' Then she press'd\n    _Her small hand's weight of whiteness\n      To her richly-sloping breast_.\"\n\nAt first we thought that it should have been Hubert, and not Mabel, who\nsaw \"the fresh light flush out of her rosy shoulders\"--particularly if\nthe blush extended, as no doubt it did, to the lady's back: but on\nfurther consideration we saw that we were wrong; for Sir Hubert could\nnot have perceived \"her sweet blood _hush_ about her\"--this _hushing_ of\nthe blood about one being, as all great blushers know, a fact\ndiscernible only by the person more immediately concerned in the blush.\nThe propriety, therefore, of making Mabel perceive the blush, rather\nthan Sir Hubert, is undeniable. The writer must either have left out the\n_hushing_ altogether, which would have been a great blemish in the\npicture, or he must have written as he has done. How profoundly versed\nin the physiology of blushing he must be! We are doubtful, however,\nwhether the costume of the picture is altogether appropriate; for we\nquestion very much whether the Italian ladies of the thirteenth, or any\nother century, were in the habit of paying forenoon visits in low-necked\ngowns; and whether Mabel could have walked all the way from her castle\nto Sir Hubert's cottage, in an attire which revealed so many of her\ncharms, without attracting the general attention of the neighbourhood.\nShe had no time, be it observed, to divest herself of shawl or mantilla\nin order to show how _sumptuously_ she could blush--for her salutation\nis made to Sir Hubert, and its roseate consequences ensue the very first\nmoment she sees him. But let that pass. We should have been very sorry\nif such a \"splendiferous\" phenomenon had been obscured by envious boa or\npelisse, or lost to the proprieties of costume. The Lady then\n\n      \"Said that she was wearied\n    With her walk--would stay to dine,\n    And name her wishes after.\"\n\nMeanwhile the poet asks--\n\n    \"How was it with Sir Hubert?\n      --Beggarly language! _I could burst_\n    For impotence of effort:\n      Those who made thee were accurst!\n    _Dumb men were gods were all dumb_.\n      But go on, and do thy worst!--\n\n    \"His life-blood stopp'd to listen--\n      Her _delivering_ lips dealt sound--\n    Oh! _hungrily_ he listen'd,\n      But the meaning meant was drown'd;\n    For, to him, her voice and presence\n      Meaning held far more profound.\n\n    \"He gave his soul to feasting,\n      And his sense, (which is the soul\n    More thoroughly incarnate,)\n      Backward standing, to control\n    His object, as a painter\n      Views a picture in the whole.\n\n    \"She stood, her eyes cast downwards,\n      And, upon them, dropp'd halfway,\n    Lids, sweeter than the bosom\n      Of an unburst lily, lay,\n    With black abundant lashes,\n      To keep out the upper day.\n\n    \"_A breath from out her shoulders\n      Made the air cool_, and the ground\n    Was greener in their shadow;\n      All her dark locks _loll'd_, unbound,\n    About them, heavily lifted\n      By the breeze that struggled round.\n\n    \"As if from weight of beauty,\n      Gently bent--but oh, how draw\n    This _thousand-featured_ splendour--\n      _Thousand-featured without flaw!_--\n    At last, his vision reveling\n      On her ravishing mouth, _he saw_\n\n    \"_It closed_; and then remember'd\n      That she spoke not.--'Stay to dine,\n    And name her wishes after'--\n      To these sounds he could assign\n    A sense, for still he heard them,\n      Echoing silvery and divine.\"\n\nSir Hubert having reveled on her ravishing mouth, and having, by a\nstrong effort of intelligence, mastered the meaning of the very occult\nproposition which issued therefrom, namely, that the lady would \"stay to\ndine, and name her wishes after;\" and, moreover, having seen--\"It\nclosed\"--he shortly afterwards saw it opened, for the purpose of eating\nhis hawk, which, as the reader knows, he had felt himself under the\nnecessity of killing for the fair widow's entertainment. We pass over\nthe relation of the circumstances which, as the lady discovers, render\nher mission fruitless, and which are detailed in a strain of the most\nvapid silliness--and proceed to the interview which brings about the\nunion of Mabel and Sir Hubert. The latter, some time after these\noccurrences, pays a visit to the castle.\n\n                        \"Half reclined\n    Along a couch leans Mabel,\n      Deeply musing in her mind\n    Something her bosom echoes.\n      O'er her face, like breaths of wind\n\n    \"Upon a summer meadow,\n      Serious pleasures live; and eyes\n    _Large always, slowly largen,\n      As if some far-seen surprise\n    Approach'd,--then fully orb them,\n      At near sound of one that sighs_.\"\n\nHer eyes having recovered their natural size, a good deal of\nconversation ensues, the result of which is given in the following\nstanza, which forms a fit conclusion for the story of such a passion--\n\n    \"Her hands are woo'd with kisses,\n      They refuse not the caress,\n    Closer, closer, ever closer,\n      Vigorous lips for answer press!\n    _Feasting the hungry silence\n      Comes, sob-clad, a silver 'yes.'_\"\n\nThere are several smaller poems interspersed throughout the volume. Mr\nTennyson has his \"Claribels,\" and \"Isabels,\" and \"Adelines,\" and\n\"Eleanores\"--ladies with whom he frequently plays strange, though, we\nadmit, by no means ungraceful vagaries; and Mr Patmore, as in duty\nbound, and following the imitative bent of his genius, must also have\nhis Geraldine to dally with. The two following stanzas of playful\nnamby-pambyism, are a specimen of the manner in which this gentleman\ndandles his kid:--\n\n    \"We are in the fields. Delight!\n    Look around! The bird's-eyes bright;\n    Pink-tipp'd daisies; sorrel red,\n    Drooping o'er the lark's green bed;\n    Oxlips; glazed buttercups,\n    Out of which the wild bee sups;\n    See! they dance about thy feet!\n    Play with, pluck them, little Sweet!\n    Some affinity divine\n    Thou hast with them, Geraldine.\n\n    \"Now, sweet wanton, toss them high;\n    Race about, you know not why.\n    Now stand still, from sheer excess\n    Of exhaustless happiness.\n    I, meanwhile, on this old gate,\n    Sit sagely calm, and perhaps relate\n    Lore of fairies. Do you know\n    How they make the mushrooms grow?\n    Ah! what means that shout of thine?\n    _You can't tell me, Geraldine._\"\n\nOur extracts are now concluded; and in reviewing them in the mass, we\ncan only exclaim--this, then, is the pass to which the poetry of England\nhas come! This is the life into which the slime of the Keateses and\nShelleys of former times has fecundated! The result was predicted about\na quarter of a century ago in the pages of this Magazine; and many\nattempts were then made to suppress the nuisance at its fountainhead.\nMuch good was accomplished: but our efforts at that time were only\npartially successful; for nothing is so tenacious of life as the spawn\nof frogs--nothing is so vivacious as corruption, until it has reached\nits last stage. The evidence before us shows that this stage has been\nnow at length attained. Mr Coventry Patmore's volume has reached the\nultimate _terminus_ of poetical degradation; and our conclusion, as well\nas our hope is, that the fry must become extinct in him. His poetry\n(thank Heaven!) cannot corrupt into any thing worse than itself.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n{A} London: Moxon. 1844.\n\n\n\n\nMARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.\n\nPART XIII.\n\n    \"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?\n    Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,\n    Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?\n    Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,\n    And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?\n    Have I not in the pitched battle heard\n    Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?\"\n\n    SHAKSPEARE.\n\n\nI had been familiar with the debates of the French Convention, and had\nwitnessed the genius of French eloquence in its highest exertions.\nNothing will cure this people of their aversion to nature. With them,\nall that is natural is poor--simplicity is meanness. The truth of things\nwants the picturesque, and thus wants every charm. I had listened to\nsome of their public speakers with strong interest, while they were\nconfined to detail. No man tells a story better than a French _conteur_.\nThere lies the natural talent of the people. Nothing can be happier than\ntheir seizure of slight circumstances, passing colours of events, and\nthose transient thoughts which make a story as pretty as a piece of\nladies' embroidery--a delicate toil, a tasteful display of trivial\ndifficulties gracefully surmounted. But even in their higher order of\nspeakers, I could perceive a constant dissatisfaction with themselves,\nunless they happened to produce some of those startling conceptions\nwhich roused their auditory to a stare, a start, a clapping of hands. I\nhad seen Mirabeau, with all his conscious talent, look round in despair\nfor applause, as a sailor thrown overboard might look for a buoy; I had\nseen him as much exhausted, and even overwhelmed, by the want of\napplause, as if he had dropped into an exhausted receiver. If some lucky\nepigram did not come to his rescue, he was undone.\n\nI was now to be the spectator of a different scene. There was passion\nand resentment, the keenness of rivalry and the ardour of triumph--but\nthere was no affectation. Men spoke as men speak when their essential\ninterests are engaged--plainly, boldly, and directly--vigorously always,\nsometimes vehemently; but with that strong sincerity which administers\neloquence to even the most untaught orders of mankind, and without which\nthe most decorated eloquence is only the wooden sword and mask of\nharlequin.\n\nPitt took the lead, in all senses of the phrase. He was magnificent. His\nexposition of the state of Europe, perfectly unadorned, had yet an\neffect upon the House not unlike that of opening a volume to a multitude\nwho had but just learned to read. All was novelty, conviction, and\namazement. His appeal to the principles by which a great people should\nshape its conduct, had all the freshness and the strength of feelings\ndrawn at the moment from the depths of his own blameless bosom; and his\nhopes of the victory of England over the temptations to public\noverthrow, exhibited all the fire, and almost all the sacred assurance\nof prophecy.\n\nHe described the system of France as \"subversion on principle,\" its\npurpose universal tumult, its instrument remorseless bloodshed, and its\nsuccess a general reduction of society to the wild fury and the squalid\nnecessities of the savage state. \"This,\" he exclaimed, turning his full\nfront to the House, raising his hand, and throwing up his eyes to heaven\nwith the solemnity of an adjuration--\"This we must resist, in the name\nof that Omnipotent Disposer who has given us hearts to feel the\nblessings of society, or we must acknowledge ourselves unworthy to hold\na name among nations. This we must resist--live or die. This system we\nmust meet by system--subtlety by sincerity--intrigue by\nresolution--treachery by good faith-menace by courage. We must remember\nthat we have been made trustees of the honour of the past, and of the\nhopes of the future. A great country like ours has no alternative but\nto join the enemy of all order, or to protect all order--to league\nagainst all government, or to stand forth its champion. This is the\nmoment for our decision. Empires are not afforded time for delay. All\ngreat questions are simple. Shrink, and you are undone, and Europe is\nundone along with you; be firm, and you will have saved the world!\"\n\nThe feelings with which this lofty language was heard were intense. The\nHouse listened in a state of solemn emotion, hour after hour, deeply\nsilent, but when some chord was so powerfully touched that it gave a\nuniversal thrill. But those involuntary bursts of admiration were as\nsuddenly hushed by the anxiety of the House to listen, and the awful\nsense of the subject. It was not until the great minister sat down that\nthe true feeling was truly exhibited; the applause was then unbounded--a\nsuccession of thunder-peals.\n\nI had now leisure to glance at the Opposition. Fox, for a while, seemed\ngood-humouredly inclined to give up the honour of the reply to some of\nthe popular speakers round him; but the occasion was too important to be\nentrusted to inferior powers, and, on a general summons of his name, he\nat length rose. The world is too familiar with the name of this\ncelebrated man to permit more than a sketch of his style. It has been\nsaid that he had no style. But this could be said only by those who\nregard consummate ability as an accident.\n\nOf all the public speakers whom I have ever heard, Fox appeared to me\nthe most subtle--of course, not in the crafty and degrading sense of the\nword; but in the art of approaching an unexpected case, he was a master.\nHe loitered, he lingered, he almost trifled by the way, until the\nobserver began to believe that he had either no object in view, or had\nforgotten it altogether. In the next moment he rushed to the attack, and\ncarried all by storm. On this occasion he had a difficult part to play;\nfor the hourly violences of the French capital had begun to alienate the\nprincipal aristocracy of England, and had raised abhorrence among that\nmost influential body, the middle class. The skill with which the orator\nglided over this portion of his subject was matchless; no Camilla ever\n\"flew o'er the unbending corn\" with a lighter foot. He could not\naltogether evade the topic. But he treated it as one might treat the\nnarrative of a distressing casualty, or a disease to be touched on with\nthe pity due to human infirmity, or even with the respect due to a\ndispensation from above. He often paused, seemed to find a difficulty of\nbreathing, was at a loss for words, of which, however, he never failed\nto find the most pungent at last; and assumed, in a remarkable degree,\nthe appearance of speaking only from a strong compulsion, a feeling of\nreluctant duty, a sense of moral necessity urging him to a task which\nburdened all his feelings. I will acknowledge that, when he had made his\nway through this difficult performance, I followed him with unequivocal\ndelight, and acknowledged all the orator. He had been hitherto Milton's\nlion \"pawing to get free his hinder parts.\" He was now loose, in all his\nsymmetry and power, and with the forest and the plain before him. \"Why\nhas the monarchy of France fallen?\" he explained, \"because, like those\non whom the malediction of Scripture has been pronounced, it had eyes\nand yet would not see, and ears, yet would not hear. An immense\npopulation was growing up round it year after year, yet it could see\nnothing but nobles, priests, and princes. In making this war,\" said he,\n\"you are beginning a contest of which no man can calculate the means, no\nman can state the objects, and no man can predict the end. You are not\nwarring against the throne of France, nor even against the people of\nFrance; but warring against every people of the earth which desires to\nadvance its own prosperity, to invigorate its own constitution, and to\nplace itself in that condition of peace, purity, and freedom, which is\nnot more the desire of man than the command of Providence.\"\n\nThe House burst into loud reprobations of the name of aristocrat and\ndemocrat, which he declared to be mere inventions of party prejudice.\n\"Do you require to make political hostilities immortal, give them names;\ndo you wish to break down the national strength, divide it in sections:\narm against your enemy, if you will, but here you would arm one hand\nagainst the other.\"\n\nTo the charge of defending the French mob, his answer was in the most\nprompt and daring style.\n\n\"Who are the French mob? The French nation. Dare you put eight and\ntwenty millions of men into your bill of attainder? No indictment ever\ndrawn by the hand of man is broad enough for it. Impeach a nation, you\nimpeach the Providence that made it. Impeach a nation, you are\nimpeaching only your own rashness and presumption. You are impeaching\neven the unhappy monarch whom you profess to defend. Man is every where\nthe creature of circumstances. Nations are what their governments make\nthem. But France is in a state of revolt. Be it so. I demand what nation\never revolted against justice, truth, and honour? You might as well tell\nme, that they rebelled against the light of heaven; that they rejected\nthe fruits of the earth; that they refused to breathe the air. Men do\nnot thus war against their natural benefactors; they are not mad enough\nto repel the very instincts of preservation. I pronounce it, fearlessly,\nthat no nation ever rose, or ever will rise, against a sincere,\nnational, and benevolent authority. No nation was ever born blind.\nInfatuation is not a law of human nature. The monarchy of France was the\ncriminal.\"\n\nAnother burst, which produced vast effect on the House, referred to the\nexclusiveness of the chief public employments.\n\n\"The people have overthrown the titles and dignities of France. I admit\nit. But was it from a natural hatred of those distinctions? That I deny.\nThey are congenial to the heart of man. The national hatred lay in the\nsense of that intolerable injustice which turns honour into shame. For\ncenturies, those titles and dignities were to the people not badges of\nhonour, but brands of scorn. They were not public calls to generous\nemulation, but royal proclamations of everlasting contempt. They were\nnot ramparts surrounding the state, but barriers shutting out the\npeople. How would such insults to the common origin of man, to the\ncommon powers of the human mind, to the common desires of distinction\nborn with every man, be endured in this country? Is it to be wondered\nat, that France should have abolished them by acclamation? I contend,\nthat this was a victory gained, not for a populace, but for a people,\nfor all France, for twenty-eight millions of men--over a portion of\nsociety who had lost their rank, a body already sentenced by their\npersonal inefficiency--a caste, who, like a famished garrison, had been\nstarved by the sterility of the spot in which they had inclosed\nthemselves; or, like the Indian devotees, had turned themselves into\n<DW36>s by their pretence of a sacred superiority to the habits of the\nrest of mankind.\"\n\nOpposition still exhibited its ranks but slightly diminished, and the\nchief passages of this impassioned appeal, which continued for three\nhours, were received with all the fervour of party. Burke then rose.\nStrong interest was directed to him, not merely for his eminent name,\nbut from the public curiosity to hear his explanation of that\nestrangement which had been for some time spreading, under his auspices,\nthrough the leading personages of the Opposition. Like most men who have\nmade themselves familiar with the works of a great writer, I had formed\na portraiture of him by anticipation. I never was more disappointed.\nInstead of the expressive countenance and commanding figure, I saw a\nform of the middle size, and of a homely appearance, a heavy\nphysiognomy, and the whole finished by two appurtenances which would\nhave been fatal to the divinity of the Apollo Belvidere, spectacles and\na wig. His voice and manner were scarcely less prepossessing; the one\nwas as abrupt and clamorous, as the other was rustic and ungraceful. He\nhad the general look of a farmer of the better order; and seemed, at\nbest, made to figure on a grand jury.\n\nBut I soon felt how trivial are externals in comparison of genuine\nability; or perhaps, how much even their repulsiveness may add to the\npower of genius. I had listened but a few minutes when I forgot every\nthing, except that a man of the highest faculties was before me; with\nthose faculties wrought to the highest tension by the highest subjects.\nTaking a line of argument, equally distinct from the leaders of the\nMinistry and the Opposition, he dwelt as little on the political views\nof England and Europe with Pitt, as he did upon the revolutionary\nregeneration of France and Europe with Fox. His view was wholly English;\nthe reference of the revolutionary spirit to our own institutions. \"I do\nnot charge,\" he exclaimed, turning full on the Opposition bench,\n\"individuals with conspiracy; but I charge them with giving the sanction\nof their name to principles, which have in them all the germs of\nconspiracy. Sir, the maxim of resisting the beginnings of evil, is as\nsound in the concerns of nations as in the morality of individual minds.\nNay, I am not sure whether mischief is not more effectually done in that\nincipient state, than when the evil comes full-formed. It is less\nperceived, and it thus destroys with impunity. The locust, before it\ngets its wings, destroys the crop with a still more rapacious tooth than\nwhen its armies are loading the wind.\n\n\"Honourable members have talked largely of their zeal for the\nconstitution. Sir, I am content to follow the wisdom which judges of the\nfaith by the works. In my humble measure, I have been a zealous\nworshipper of the constitution. There was a time when those honourable\ngentlemen and myself--and I speak of that time with the regret due to\nlong friendship--took 'sweet counsel together,' and bowed before that\ncommon worship as friends. That time is past. We have since taken\ndifferent paths. I have been charged with apostasy. What is my apostasy?\nThat I have not followed the frenzy and ingratitude of the hour; that,\nwhile the most awful event in the history of human change has been\ntransacting before us, I have not shut my ears and eyes to its moral;\nthat I have not followed the throng into the valley, and there joined\nthe fabricators of the new idolatry, the priesthood of the golden calf\nof revolution, and shared the polluted feast and the intoxicated dance;\nwhile the thunders of divine vengeance were rolling on the hill above.\"\n\nIt was obvious from his manner, and his frequent return to the topic,\nthat that charge of deserting his party had deeply wounded his generous\nand sensitive nature; and nothing struck me as more characteristic of\nhis mind, than the variety and richness of his fine amplification on\nthis subject.\n\n\"In those ranks,\" said he, \"I fought for nearly the half of that portion\nof life allotted to man; certainly for that portion of my course, in\nwhich the desires, the vigour, and the applicability of all the best\nparts of human nature have their fullest play. I came to it a\nvolunteer--I fought side by side with its foremost--I shared the 'winter\nof their discontent,' as willingly as the summer of their prosperity. I\ntook the buffets of ill fortune, and they were many, with as cheerful a\ncountenance and as unshaken a fidelity as any man. But when I saw a new\nbanner raised among them, blazoned with mottoes of evil, and refused to\nfollow, who were the deserters? They or I?\" As he spoke these words, he\ndrew his otherwise rather stooping form to its full height, lifted his\nhand above his head, and stood like one at once demanding and defying\nthe investigation of the empire.\n\nThe roar of applause which followed seemed to shake the very walls. He\nwas powerfully moved; his countenance changed from its usual pallidness\nto strong suffusion; his hands rather tossed than waved in the air. At\nlast I saw one of them thrust strongly into his bosom, as if the gesture\nwas excited by some powerful recollection. \"Do I speak without proof of\nthe public hazards?\" he exclaimed. \"I can give you demonstration--I need\ninvoke neither powers above nor powers below to enlighten you. I have\nthe oracle within my hand.\" The House fixed all its eyes upon him. He\ndropped his voice, and spoke with a faint, but clear tone which formed a\nremarkable contrast to his usually bold, and even harsh enunciation:\n\"Sir,\" said he, in this half-whispered voice, \"before I join these\ngentlemen in their worship, I must know what deity presides in their\ntemple; I must see that the incense which fumes before its altar is\ntaken from the sacred repositories of the constitution, not the smuggled\nimportation of foreign fabrications of revolt--that pernicious compound\nof civil mischief and mad metaphysics--which, instead of consummating\nand purifying the sacrifice, only poisons the air. I must see something\nof the priest too, before I join in his aspirations; I must see that he\nis lawfully inducted to his office, that he is not a rebel in the garb\nof loyalty--a blasphemer where he professes to pray, and a traitor where\nhe propounds allegiance.\"\n\nFox here, evidently taking the description to himself, exhibited\npalpable signs of displeasure. Burke caught the expression at once, and\ninstantly changed the whole current of his conceptions. \"If,\" said he,\n\"the honourable gentleman thinks that I designate _him_ as the\nhigh-priest of this new worship, he does me as much injustice as\nhimself. No, no! When we shall see the Republican Pantheon thrown open,\nhe, and such as he, will not be called to officiate at the altar. He is\nmuch more likely to be the victim. The popular ornaments, now flung so\nlavishly upon him, will find him no further favour, than the speedier\noffering on the same abhorred altar, which reeks with so much of the\nbest blood of France.\" Here a corpulent noble, peculiarly hostile to\nBurke, laughed contemptuously. The orator instantly turned upon him.\n\"True,\" said he, \"there may be a good deal of variety in that\nprocession. There may be the mummer as well as the priest; it may have\nthe mountebank selling his potions, and playing his tricks, as well as\nthe sacrificer with his axe--unless the ambition of the bloated\nperformer should prefer to combine the offices, and be at once the\nbutcher and the buffoon.\"\n\nThe hit was felt on all sides, and the laughter was unbounded. He then\nrose, as was his custom, into a higher strain. \"I can imagine that\nprocession,\" said he, \"or rather, that triumph, of the principles of\nchange. Like the return of the classical Bacchus from his Indian\nconquests, the demigod,\" and he now cast a look at Fox, \"secure of\nsupremacy, exulting in his prowess, and thinking the civilized world at\nhis feet; but not without the companionship of his trusty Silenus\"--and\nhere he turned his glance on the noble lord--\"that veteran follower,\nwhose ambition is limited to his cups, and the vigour of whose fidelity\nis shown only in the constancy of his intoxication; the whole procession\nbeing drawn by the wild lords of the forest and the wilderness, who,\nharnessed as they may be for the moment, will no sooner find their food\nstinted, than they will resume the natural instincts of the lion and the\ntiger, turn on their drivers and devour them.\n\n\"But, sir,\" he exclaimed, turning to the chair, \"I have higher topics,\nand to those I now call the attention of the representatives of England.\nI have alluded to the revolutionary temple. I here have its deity.\" With\nthese words, he plucked from his bosom a large dagger, held it for a\nmoment up to the light, and then flung it at the foot of the table. The\nastonishment, and even the alarm, of the whole assembly was beyond\ndescription. They all started from their seats, as if assassination had\nstood before them in a visible shape. Some crowded round Burke, some\nseized the dagger, which was eventually carried to the Speaker, and\nbecame the object of universal curiosity. All was confusion for a\nconsiderable time. At length Burke, in a few words delivered in his most\nimpressive tone, explained the phenomenon. \"That dagger,\" said he, \"is\none of thousands, perhaps of millions, which the preachers of philosophy\nare now forging for popular conviction. You see that by its construction\nit is equally fitted for the head of a pike, or for a dagger--equally\nserviceable in tearing down the monarchy in the field, or stabbing its\nfriends in their chambers. You have it, at once the emblem of rebellion\nand assassination. Those are the arguments of the new school--those are\nthe instruments by which the limbs of the state are to be amputated, for\nreplacement by the inventions of the revolutionary mechanists. Those are\nthe keys by which the locks of cabinets and councils are henceforth to\nbe opened, and the secrets of national wealth laid bare to the rapacity\nof the rabble.\" After this speech nothing was listened to.\n\nThe debate had been prolonged through the greater part of the night, and\nyet such was the interest felt in its subject, that the streets in the\nneighbourhood continued crowded to the last. All the hotels and\ncoffee-houses were filled with people waiting for the division. Groups,\nwith lighted torches, were lingering everywhere, and passing the\nintelligence along, as a member happened casually to make his appearance\nin the course of the night; shouts and expressions of wrath alternately\narose, according to the nature of the intelligence, and a species of\nopen-air legislature was held during one of the bitterest nights of\nwinter, with discussions as active, though perhaps not altogether so\nclassical, as those within; yet totally free from tumult, and in the\nspirit of a people who live with a constant reference to the laws. The\nrush of the members to the porch, on the breaking up of the debate,\nproduced a corresponding rush of the multitude. Public curiosity was\nroused to its wildest height--every public sentiment had its full\nexpression; and whether the acclamation was louder when Fox's corpulent\nframe was seen toiling its slow way through the pressure, or when Pitt's\nslender figure and passionless face was recognised, is a question which\nmight have perplexed the keenest investigators of popular sentiment. All\nwas that uproar in which the Englishman delights as a portion of his\nfreedom.\n\nOn returning to my chamber, exhausted, yet animated with a new sense of\nthe value of existence in such a country, and of the noble faculties\nwhich she carried in her bosom, I saw a large packet on my table. I\ngazed on its envelope for a few moments with that strange emotion which\nsometimes makes us dread to open the very letter which we most desire to\nreceive. It was obviously from Downing Street. At last I opened it. It\ncontained my commission in the Guards!\n\nMy destiny was now fixed, and it is impossible to tell how much I felt\nrelieved. I had spent the preceding period in such perplexing\nindecision, that I felt my heart withering within me. Now all was clear.\nMy course was decided. I was in other hands than my own, and whatever\nmight be the result, I was no longer answerable for either good or ill\nfortune. No human being who has not felt the trial almost the torment,\nof being left to decide on the conduct which may make or mar him for\nlife, can conceive the depression into which it plunges the mind. From\nthis I was now relieved; I was wholly free; an established routine, a\nvigorous profession, a regulated pursuit, and that pursuit one of the\nmost honourable nature, was suddenly prepared for me by the enclosure\nupon my table. After again and again reading this simple but expressive\ndocument, I threw myself on my bed, and attempted to forget it and the\nworld. But I could forget neither; my eyelids would not close; sleep had\ngone from me. After a useless effort for composure, I rose, relighted my\nlamp, and spent the rest of the night in writing to my relatives, to\nVincent, to Mordecai, and every one to whom I felt his majesty's\nsign-manual a vindication of my whole career. There was still one cloud\nthat overhung my prospect, one gloomy and bitter remembrance: but this\ncloud I had neither the power nor even the wish to dispel; this\nremembrance was already a part of my being--to extinguish it was\nimpossible. I resolved to cherish it as a sacred recollection, to\ncombine it with the aspirations of my new pursuit, and render them thus\nstill nobler; to reserve it as a treasure inaccessible to the knowledge\nof mankind, but to which I might return in my hours of discontent with\nthe world, and restore my sense of the beauty of mind and form which\nmight still exist in the shape of human nature.\n\nYet it may be justly supposed that I did not limit my feelings to this\nlonely abstraction. I spent an anxious period in making enquiries for\nthe Marechale, in every quarter which offered the slightest probability\nof discovering her abode. Though I had seen the announcement of\nClotilde's approaching marriage in the public journals, I had seen no\nmention of its having taken place. My search was wholly unproductive.\nThe captivating duchess, who received me with the kindness which seemed\na part of her nature, while she joined me in my praises of the \"young,\nthe lovely, and the accomplished Comtesse,\" \"her dearest of friends,\"\ncould tell me nothing more than that she had left London, and she\nbelieved with an intention of visiting France. There her knowledge\nceased. I learned only further, that she had grown singularly fond of\nsolitude, was melancholy, and had no hesitation in expressing the\ndeepest dislike to the marriage proposed by her family. My enquiry was\nat an end.\n\nHopeless as this intelligence was, it relieved me from the certainty,\nwhich would have been despair. While Clotilde remained unallied to one\nwhom I could not avoid regarding as an uncongenial spirit, if not a hard\nand tyrannical master, there was, at least, the chance of happiness\nremaining for me in a world where every day brought changes more\nextraordinary than our meeting. If there should be a war, my regiment\nwould be among the first to be employed, and France would inevitably be\nthe first object of a British expedition. The \"march to Paris\" had been\nproclaimed by orators, exhibited in theatres, and chanted in street\nballads. All before us was conquest, and distinctions of every kind that\ncan captivate the untried soldier, glittered in all eyes. I was young,\nardent, and active. My name was one known to the table at which I seated\nmyself on my introduction to the Guards, and I was immediately on the\nbest footing with the gallant young men of a corps which has never\nsuffered a stain. I had even some peculiar sources of favour in their\neyes. I had actually made a campaign. This was more than had been done\nby any man in the regiment. The Guards, always brave and always foremost\nas they were, had not seen a shot fired for a quarter of a century. The\nman who had heard bullets whistling about his ears, and had, besides,\nseen the realities of war on the magnificent scale of continental\ncampaigning, possessed a superiority which was willingly acknowledged by\nthe gallant youths round us; and every detail of that most romantic\ncampaign, reluctantly given as it was by me, was listened to with\ngenerous interest, or manly intelligence. And I had actually learned\nenough, under the Duke of Brunswick, a master of tactics, to render my\nservices useful at the moment. The discipline of the British army was\nnot then, what it has since been, the model to Europe. The Englishman's\nnature prompts him to require a reason for every thing; and there was no\npeculiarly strong reason for the minute toil of foreign discipline, in\nan army which had never been engaged since the American war. But other\ndays were now obviously at hand, and the passion for discipline, and\nabove all others, for the Prussian discipline, became universal. With\nthe exaggeration common to all popular impulses, the tactics of\nFrederick were now regarded as the secrets of victory. That great\nsoldier, and most crafty of men, by his private reviews, to which no\nstranger, even of the highest rank, was ever admitted, and by a series\nof mystifications, had laboured to produce this impression upon Europe,\nand had largely succeeded. Mankind love being cheated; and what the\ncharlatanism of necromancy effected a thousand years ago, was now\neffected by the charlatanism of genius. If I had seen the Prussian\ntroops only at Potsdam, I should probably have mistaken the truncheon\nfor a talisman, like the rest of the world. But the field suffers no\nmystification. I had seen that the true secret of this great tactician,\nfor such unquestionably he was, consisted in his rejecting the\nsuperfluities and retaining the substance; in reducing tactics to the\nready application of force, and in simplifying the old and tardy\nmanoeuvres of the French and Austrian battalions, to the few\nexpeditious and essential formations required before an enemy in the\nfield. I was offered the adjutancy, and I accepted it rejoicingly.\n\nIn those days, by a curious anomaly, which can scarcely be believed in\nours, every regiment was practically free to choose its own system of\nmanoeuvre. The natural consequence was, that no two regiments did any\nthing alike. To brigade the army was impossible, and every field-day was\na scene of ludicrous confusion. But this freedom had the advantage, in\nthe present instance, of allowing me to introduce that Prussian\ndiscipline which has since been made the basis of the British. It was\nthen perfectly new, and it had all the effect of brilliant novelty. Our\nparade was constantly crowded with officers of the highest grades,\nanxious to transmit our practice to their regiments. The king, always\nattached to German recollections, and who would have made as good a\nsoldier as any of his forefathers, was frequently a spectator. The\nprinces and nobility were constant in their attendance; and the\nregiment, thus stimulated, rapidly displayed all the completeness and\nprecision of movement which to this day makes a review of the Guards the\nfinest military spectacle of Europe.\n\nThe adjutant was not forgotten in the general applause and excitement. I\nwas promised promotion in the most gratifying language of royalty\nitself, and all the glittering prospects of the most glittering of all\npursuits opened before me. I still had my moments of depression.\nClotilde often rose before me like a departed spirit in the solitude of\nmy chamber, and even in the midst of public festivities, or in those\nballs and banquets which the nobility gave in such profusion at this\nperiod of the year. When a shape, however faintly resembling her\nincomparable elegance of form, passed before my eye, or a voice, in the\nslightest degree reminding me of her noble tones, reached my ear, I felt\nan irresistible pang, that, for the time, embittered all the scene\naround me.\n\nBut I had in no period of my life been suffered to linger in long\nmelancholy. One night, after returning from a dinner at Devonshire\nHouse, I found a gentleman in possession of my chamber, with my fire\nbriskly blazing, supper on the table, and every appearance of his having\nmade himself master of the establishment. As I paused at the door, in\nsome surprise at the ease of the proceeding, the intruder turned round,\nand I saw the face of my old and excellent friend Vincent. I was\ndelighted to take the honest hand of one who was enough to redeem the\ncharacter of human nature. He was full of congratulations and country\nnews. He told me that this, his first visit to London for years, was\nsimply to shake hands with his pupil; to hear from him his adventures;\nand to have the opportunity of seeing the regiment on parade. He now\nenjoyed all his objects together. The regiment \"reminded him of the\ngrenadiers of Maria Theresa, in the first Hungarian campaign; and all\nthat he wished for me was, that I had seen Daun or Landohn. However, no\nman in this world could have every wish gratified; and he was certain\nthat I had in me the materials of a field-marshal.\"\n\nBut he had more important topics. By an accidental meeting with an old\ncollege friend, high in office, he had ascertained that an expedition\nfor Holland had been resolved on; and that it was to take place without\ndelay. The French army had passed the frontier, and taken the strong\nfortress of Breda. Williamstadt was bombarded, and must fall in a few\ndays if not relieved. With its fall, the Seven Provinces would be thrown\nopen. In this emergency, aid had been solicited from England.\n\nVincent's country news was brief. My lordly brother was in pursuit of a\nneighbouring heiress; and, as a prospective remedy for matrimonial\nennui, speculating on the chance of employment on some foreign embassy.\nVincent himself had married one of his daughters to a neighbouring\nsquire, whom he denominated an \"unlicked cub,\" but an honest man. Thus I\nhad the knowledge of all that the country could furnish, and thus--\"runs\nthe world away.\"\n\nAll now was excitement and activity. The intelligence of the French\nadvance into the territories of our old and very helpless ally, awoke\nEngland at once. The feeble and perfectly fruitless negotiations, by\nwhich the slide from disgust into war is generally managed, had produced\ntheir effect; and France, furious for its prey, and England, steady and\nstubborn, for the first time were brought face to face. The summons, so\nlong wished for, at length reached us; and the Guards were ordered for\nembarkation. We received it in the spirit of a jubilee. All had been\nprepared. And on the night before our final parade, I received my\nappointment to a company. Our parade, next morning, was one which I\nbelieve was never forgotten by any individual who had the good fortune\nto witness it. Of all the striking ceremonials which I have ever seen,\nit was the most striking. The king had given notice of his intention to\nbe present, and bid us farewell. At six o'clock, the three regiments\nwere drawn up in front of the Horse-Guards, a body of three thousand\nmen, and finer-looking troops never bore arms. All the avenues to the\npark were crowded with the multitude. Exactly at the half-hour, a rush\nof the people towards the parade showed that the king, always punctual,\nwas at hand. He came, surrounded by general officers, with the Prince of\nWales, then a most chivalric figure, in the uniform of his regiment of\nlight dragoons, and the Duke of York, as a field-marshal. The enthusiasm\nof the troops could not be restrained, as this brilliant staff\napproached their line; and three cheers were given with all the zeal of\nhonest loyalty. There are times when tears are the only substitute for\nspeech; and the king, one of the most kindhearted of men, visibly shed\ntears at this reception. Another _cortege_ now approached; they were the\ncarriages of the queen and princesses. The scene now became almost\npainful. There was many a tear from royal and noble eyes--the impulse of\nhigh emotion, not of sorrow--or if tinged with the thoughts which always\nshade the name of war, yet undegraded by weakness. The multitude caught\nthe feeling; the shouts subsided; and all was weeping and waving of\nhandkerchiefs. The king put an end to this embarrassing sympathy. He\nrode forward, and, taking his station in the centre, gave the word to\n\"march.\" He was answered by one gallant \"huzza\" from the line, repeated\nby the thousands and tens of thousands who now moved before and around\nus. Our bands struck up, and, with the monarch and his sons at our head,\nand the queen and princesses following in their equipages, we marched\nthrough streets, crowded to the roof, echoing with acclamations, and\nwishing us all good fortune as we passed along, until we left the mighty\nmetropolis behind. Even then, it was only to meet the new multitude of\nthe country. The road to Greenwich, where we were to embark, exhibited a\npopulation as countless, enthusiastic, and full of good wishes as those\nwith whom we had just parted. The king still rode in our front; flags,\nbanners, and every kind of joyous testimonial met our eyes; and if ever\nthere was a triumph before the victory, it was in that honest and\ngenerous display of the true heart of England.\n\nThe embarkation took place within a few hours; and on that night we\nslept on the element which Britain has so long made her field of battle.\nThe weather was serene, and we fully enjoyed the freshness of the air,\nand the brightness of the view, as we rounded the coast. At the mouth of\nthe Thames, we had met a strong squadron of the line of battle,\nappointed for our convoy, and bringing numerous transports with troops.\nOur fleet had now become extensive, and as we moved out from the land,\nthe sight became continually more animated and exciting. The despatch of\nthe look-out frigates, the constant change of signals, the firing of\nguns to regulate the sailing of the great convoy, the manoeuvres of\nthose floating castles, the seventy-fours and three-deckers, the harmony\nof their bands as they passed us, rushing along under a cloud of\ncanvass, with the hum of the thousands on board--all formed one of the\nmost heart-stirring combinations that could exist to the eye, or even to\nthe heart of a human being.\n\nI stood gazing on the poop of our transport the entire day; and even\nwhen twilight came, there was but a change of interest and beauty. We\nmoved on, a moving multitude--a fragment of a mighty nation--almost a\nnation ourselves, on the face of the deep. Within the horizon which now\nlay beneath my glance, smooth as glass, and shining in the richness of\nthe departing day, what materials of living power were gathered; what\nbold hearts; what high hopes; what indefatigable perseverance; what\naccomplished intelligence! a force inferior to the one before me had\nmore than once changed the fate of the world. It might be now on its way\nonly to change that fate once more. The cause, too, was a noble one. It\nwas sustained by no aggression, perfidy, or desire of change. It was to\nprotect a friendly nation, and to sustain an inspired cause. There was\nno taint of cruelty or crime to degrade the soldiership of England. We\nwere acting in the character which had already exalted her name as\nprotectors of the weak and punishers of the powerful.\n\nOn the second evening we reached the flat and uninteresting coast of\nHolland. But if the coast was repellent, nothing could exceed the\neagerness of the inhabitants to welcome our arrival. On our first\napproach to the land every boat that could swim came off, crowded with\npeople, some to take refuge on board the fleet, but thousands to urge\nour speedy landing. The ferocious plunder which had become the principle\nof the republican arms had stricken terror into the hearts of the\nHollanders: a people remarkably attached to home, and fond, or even\njealous, of the preservation of the most trivial article of property\nconnected with that home. The French troops, often pressed with hunger,\nand adopting the desperate maxim of \"making war support war,\" had\ncommitted such wanton ruin of property in the Netherlands, that, at this\ndistance, the common effect of exaggeration described them as rather\ndemons than men.\n\nWar is of all things the most picturesque, and there never was a gala on\nthe waters of the Adriatic more gay or glittering than our landing. But\nwe had infinitely the advantage in the numbers, the brilliancy, and,\nwhat gave a higher feeling to the whole, in the reality of all its\nobjects. This was no painted pageant; it was real strength, real\nsoldiership; the cannon that roared above our heads, as we descended\ninto the boats, were the thunderers which had shaken many a battlement;\nthe flotilla of launches, long-boats, and cutters which covered the sea,\nwas manned with the soldiers and sailors sent forth to fight the battle\nof human freedom on every shore of the globe. The ships were that\nBritish fleet whose name was synonymous with the noblest exploits of\nwar, and which it would have been well worth going round the\ncircumference of the globe to see.\n\nOn this night we bivouacked; the shore offered no human habitation, and\nit was too late for the landing of our tents. But the sand was dry; our\nfires were soon lighted; all was sport and activity; our bands played\n\"Welcome to Holland;\" our men danced with the peasantry; all had the\nlook of a magnificent frolic; and, when at last I threw myself on my\nopen air pillow, I dreamed of fairyland.\n\nAt daybreak we marched, in the highest spirits, and only longing to have\nan opportunity of trying our strength with the enemy. From time to time,\nthe sound of a cannonade reached us, and heightened our eagerness to\nadvance. But Holland is proverbially difficult for any movements but\nthose of a trackschuyt; and the endless succession of narrow roads, the\nperpetual canals, and the monotony of her level fields, rich as they\nwere, exhausted us, more than if we had marched twice the distance. But\nthe spell of human hearts is excitement, and war is all excitement. All\nround us was new, and from the colonel to the rank and file, the\n\"general camp, pioneers and all,\" enjoyed the quaint novelty of Dutch\nlife. The little villages, so unlike our own, and yet so admirably\nfitted for peasant comfort, the homesteads embedded in plantations of\nwillows, the neatness of every thing round the farm-houses, and even the\nsleekness of the cattle, which seemed by their tameness to form a part\nof the habitancy--all were objects of constant remark on our march; and\nwe could easily comprehend the horror with which the arrival of a French\ncommissariat must strike these comfortable burghers. But the punctuality\nof British payments was perfectly known already; the whole plenty of the\nland was poured out before us; we regaled sumptuously.\n\nOn the second evening of our march through this landscape of fatness, we\nwere warned of our approach to the besieged fortress, by the louder roar\nof the cannon, and not less by the general desolation of the country.\nThe enemy's hussars had made a wide sweep, and wherever they were seen,\nthe villagers had fled instantly, carrying off their cattle. We found\nthe traces of those foraying excursions in the fragments of burned\nmills, a favourite object of destruction with the French--for what\npurpose I never could comprehend, except the pleasure of seeing them\nburn--in cottages unroofed, for the sake of the thatch; in broken\nmoveables, and, in some instances, in the skeletons of horses and\nremnants of arms; for the peasantry were not always patient sufferers,\nand some of the smaller detachments of the plunderers had met with\nsevere retaliation.\n\nAt length we halted for the night, and orders were issued for a general\nmovement at daybreak, to attack the French force covering the siege of\nWilliamstadt. The order was received with shouts; and the night was\nspent in great exultation. The cannonade, which was now within a few\nmiles of us, continued with such violence during the night that sleep\nwas next to impossible; and long before the first streak of light in the\neast, we were busy in the numberless preparations for a first action.\nOrderlies and aides-de-camp were speedily in motion, and at the first\ntap of the _reveille_ all were on parade. The sun rose brightly, gave\none broad blaze along our columns, and after thus cheering us, instantly\nplunged into a mist, which, except that it was not actually black,\nobscured our road nearly as much as if it had been midnight. This was\nsimply a specimen of the new land on which we now set foot. But it\nperplexed all the higher powers prodigiously--generals and the staff\ngalloping round us in all directions, the whole one mass of confusion.\nYet we still pushed on, toiling our puzzled way, when, as if by magic, a\nregiment of the enemy's hussars dashed full into the flank of our\ncolumn. Never was there a more complete surprise. The enemy were as much\nastonished as ourselves, for the collision had been the result of an\nattempt to find their way through the fog back to their camp; but I now\nfor the first time saw the temper of John Bull in the field. The attack\nof the hussars was evidently looked on by our men less as a military\nmanoeuvre, than as a piece of foreign impudence. To fire might be\nhazardous to some of our advancing columns, which we could hear, though\nnot see; but the word \"charge\" from our gallant old colonel was enough;\nthey rushed with the bayonet on the cavalry, forced their way in between\nthe squadrons, which had been brought to a stand by the narrowness of\nthe <DW18>; and in five minutes the whole had laid down their arms, given\nup their horses to our fifers and drummers, and were marching to the\nrear.\n\nAs if to reward us for this dashing affair, a gust of wind blew aside\nthe fog; the sun gleamed again; and Williamstadt, the French camp, the\ncovering force formed in columns and waiting for us, and the whole\ncountry to the horizon, green as a duckpond, and altogether as smooth,\nburst on our view. The suddenness of the display was like the drawing-up\nof a stage curtain, with a melo-dramatic army and castle behind. Our\nadvance was now rapid. The skirmishers on both sides began to engage,\nand our light artillery to throw a long shot now and then into the\nenemy's columns. The difficulty of the ground, intersected with high\nnarrow causeways stretching over marshy fields, retarded our progress;\nand for two hours--and they were the two longest hours which any of us\nhad ever spent--we were forced to content ourselves with firing at our\nlong range, and watching the progress of our more distant columns moving\non the flank of the enemy. To a military eye nothing could be more\ninteresting than the view of the vast field on which these concentric\nmovements were developing themselves from hour to hour. At length we\nreceived the order to advance, and drive in a strong column which had\njust debouched from a wood in front of us. Our men rushed on with a\ncheer, threw in a heavy volley, and charged. Their weight was\nirresistible, and the French column broke, and took refuge again in the\nwood. Another glance showed me the whole British force in motion, every\nwhere pressing on; the enemy every where retreating, all their columns\nconverging upon their camp. Those are the brilliant moments of a\nsoldier's life. All was exultation. We had met the enemy, and driven him\nfrom his position.\n\nBut the most difficult task of the day was still to be achieved. The\nFrench camp had been placed in strong ground; heavy batteries commanded\nevery approach; and Dampierre, their general, an officer of known\nability, had exhibited all his skill in rendering the position, if not\nimpregnable, at least one which could not be forced without the most\nserious loss. The day had been already far spent, and the troops were\nwearied with six hours' marching and fighting; but nothing could\nrestrain their eagerness to finish the victory. The heads of columns\nagain advanced, and the firing became tremendous on both sides. The\nFrench batteries poured an absolute shower of balls upon us, and we were\nbeginning to lose men, when a strange and indescribable sound suddenly\ncaught every ear. Such was the universal sense of something more\nsingular, and even more formidable, than the work of war, that the fire\non our side rapidly subsided, and every eye was turned to look for the\ncause. It soon exhibited itself. With a roar like thunder, I saw the sea\nbursting in upon the plain where the enemy lay intrenched. The Dutch\ngarrison had sallied out from Williamstadt, on the repulse of the\nFrench, and cut the <DW18> in several places. The ocean now fought our\nbattle; each chasm in the long mound which protected the fields from\ninundation, was now the channel of a roaring cataract; the trenches were\nsoon filled; as the waters advanced, the field-works were washed away;\nstill wave rolled on wave; cannon, tents, baggage, every thing but the\nsoldier himself, was seen gradually sinking, or floating away on the\nsurface of the surge. Within the hour, the ground on which we had fought\nduring the day was completely covered with the flood. The French camp\nwas totally buried. The enemy had only time to make a hurried retreat,\nor rather flight, along the causeways which stood above the waters. As\nan army, they were utterly ruined; when they at last reached firm\nground, they scattered through the country, and those battalions never\nappeared in the field again.\n\nOur troops entered the relieved fortress, with drums beating and colours\nflying. We were received as deliverers; all that the place could offer\nwas heaped upon us; and if praise could have repaid our exploits, never\nwas praise more abundant from the lips of the whole population.\n\nThe catastrophe was complete; and when at night I broke away from the\nheat and noise of the huge barrack in which we had been placed, as the\npost of favour, and walked upon the rampart, nothing could form a more\nexpressive contrast to the tumult of the day. The moon was high, and her\nlight showed the whole extent of the late field of battle. But all now\nwas one immense shining lake. Where cavalry had charged and artillery\nhad roared, and the whole living clash and confusion of a stubborn\nengagement had filled the eye and ear but a few hours before, all was\nnow an expanse of quiet water, calm as the grave, without a vestige of\nthe struggle, but with hundreds of the combatants sleeping their last\nsleep below, and the whole artillery and equipment of a powerful army\nsubmerged.\n\nI was still gazing from the ramparts, when I observed a body of cavalry\nadvancing along the dike, at a rapid pace, with a group of staff\nofficers among them. The alarm was given by the sentries; and, after\nsome brief pause, it was ascertained that they were the escort of the\nnew commander-in-chief of the allied armies in the Netherlands. My first\nimpression was, that the man to whom so important a trust was given must\nbe Clairfait; and I hastened down to meet him at our quarters. But I was\ndisappointed; and for the dark and decided physiognomy, and military\nfrankness of that distinguished soldier, I saw the Prince Cobourg, stern\nand lofty in his air, evidently too Austrian to be popular, yet known to\nbe a gallant officer. But my disappointment was considerably assuaged by\nseeing one of his staff throw himself off his horse, and hasten towards\nme with almost joyous salutation. My surprise and pleasure were equal\nwhen I found him to be Guiscard!\n\nSupper was on the table when I introduced the Prussian philosopher to my\nbrother officers, and they were delighted with him. But he was the\nphilosopher no longer, or rather had thrown off the half misanthropy\nwhich had made him so strong a contrast to my honest friend Varnhorst.\nHis very countenance had adopted a different expression. It was no\nlonger stern and sarcastic, but was lighted up with pleasantry; and the\nonly conception of the change which I could form was, either that he had\narrived at that height of philosophy to which every thing seems trivial,\nor that he had met with some of those extraordinary instances of good\nfortune which throw all the world into sunshine for the moment.\n\nBut he was full of knowledge on the subject most interesting to his\nhearers; and he gave us his information of the allied councils, and the\nmovements of the armies, with a copiousness and courtesy which all our\nquestioning could not tire.\n\n\"We have now,\" said he, \"the finest army in line that Europe has ever\nseen; little less than 200,000 men are under the command of the prince.\nIf he is suffered to move them in a mass, they must break through any\npart of the French territory which they choose. If they divide, they\nwill be beaten. It will now take only three pitched battles to reach\nParis--for the three covering armies fight with the guillotine in their\nrear. But a single unlucky skirmish may bring every peasant in France\nupon us; and it takes but fifteen days to make the French peasant a\nsoldier. Blows, and those straightforward, are our true policy. If we\nnegotiate, we shall be beaten; if beaten here, we shall be beaten on the\nRhine, and perhaps even on the Danube.\"\n\nThe news of Dumourier's attempt to overthrow his government had reached\nus, but in the usual way of mystification. The answer of Guiscard was\nprompt and plain. \"Dumourier,\" said he, \"is one of those men who has a\none-sided understanding. He is a capital soldier, but a childish\nstatesman; and, with an absurdity by no means limited to himself, he\nthinks that his talent lies in statesmanship. The result has been, that\nthe factions have always managed him as they do all men of his calibre.\nWhen he attempted to act for himself, they crushed him without mercy;\nwhen he ceased to be a tool, he necessarily became a victim. The army is\nnow in retreat. To the French retreat is always ruin; the horseman sells\nhis horse; the foot-soldier sells his musket; and the artilleryman sells\nhis powder and ball, breaks up his gun-carriage for a fire, and throws\nhis gun into the next ditch. The peasantry then fall on them all, repay\ntheir plunder with the pike and the pitchfork, and in three days the\narmy is dissolved.\"\n\n\"But will Cobourg follow up his blow?\" was the question on all sides.\n\n\"The commander-in chief,\" was the answer, \"is intelligent and brave. He\nhas learned his profession under the greatest soldier whom Russia has\nproduced, or perhaps ever will produce--Suwarrow. But he is himself\nunder orders. If he were a republican general he would instantly march,\nand within a week he would be in the Tuileries. But as an Austrian\ncommander, he must wait for the opinion of men too far off to know a\nsingle fact of the campaign, too blind to know them if they were on the\nspot, and too jealous even of their own general to suffer him to beat\nthe enemy if victory would throw their own nothingness into the shade.\"\n\nEvery hour now produced its event. A general _feu-de-joie_ announced the\nfirst great success of the campaign; Mayence had been taken, with its\ngarrison of 20,000 men. The French general Custine, had made an\nunsuccessful attack on the lines of the besiegers, to relieve the\nfortress in its last extremity, had been beaten, and driven back into\nthe Vosges, where he was at liberty to starve among the most barren\nmountains of France. But this intelligence came qualified by the\nformidable rumour that Prussia was already making terms with the French,\nthat it had acknowledged the government as the \"Republic,\" and even that\nthe Prussians had sung the _Marsellaise_. Thus we had the light and\nshade.\n\nBut while politicians tremble, soldiers are gay. What were all those\nshiftings and doublings to us? We had all the luxuries of the most\nluxurious of all lives, the foreign camp. We had now marched from the\ncountry of fogs and bogs, and were moving through the richest soil, and\nnot the least beautiful landscape, of the Continent. Holland was left\nbehind, Flanders was round us, France was before us. We had the finest\narmy of Europe, untouched by disaster, confident in its strength, and\nthe enemy in full flight. If we despised the fugitives, we fully as much\ndespised the politicians; the man with the sword in his hand naturally\nscorns the man with the pen behind his ear. Thus we galloped, danced,\nand dreamed on. The spring, too, had come; the harshness of a foreign\nwinter had been changed within a few days to the delightful softness of\nearly summer. The fields were covered with flowers, and the country was\nfilled with the preparations for the rural fetes of the first of May. I\nenjoyed the scene doubly, for I had been sent along with a squadron of\ndragoons to the advanced posts, and thus escaped the turmoil of the\ncamp. My quarters were in one of the old Flemish country-houses, which\nhad been the headquarters of the French general, and had thus escaped\nthe usual ravage. The chateau was large, well furnished in the national\nfashion, and the half-dozen domestics who remained after the escape of\ntheir master, were charmed with the expenditure which always follows the\npresence of English troops. My companion, the captain of dragoons, was\none of the finest specimens of his country--the heir of a noble family,\ngenerous and gay, brave as his own sword, and knowing as little of the\nsoldier's life as became a young aristocrat with the prospect of thirty\nthousand a-year. He insisted on our giving a ball to the Flemings; and\nour invitations were sent out accordingly for half a dozen leagues\nround. They included, of course, the camp; and every lounger who could\nobtain leave for the night came crowding in upon us. Nothing could\nsucceed better. All was festivity within doors. But not so all without,\nfor the night suddenly changed from serenity to storm. England is not\nthe only spot famed for fickleness of atmosphere. By midnight every\nbeech and elm round the chateau was tossing and bending down to the\nroots, and a heavy snowfall was already sheeting the fields. As the\nstorm rose, it occurred to me to ascertain what provision might have\nbeen made against it by our soldiers, who were lodged in the barns and\nextensive outhouses of the chateau. Leaving my dragoon friend to act as\nmaster of the ceremonies, I sallied forth. The storm was now at its\nheight; and it was with some difficulty that I could make my way. In the\nmidst of the excessive darkness, I felt some animal make a sudden spring\non me, which nearly brought me to the ground. Wolves were not common in\nthe country, but there had been some recent instances of their issuing\nfrom the forests, and my first idea was that I had been thus attacked.\nBut the barking and bounding of a dog soon put an end to this\nconception; and I recognised in my assailant the huge house-dog of the\nchateau, with whom I had already struck up a particular friendship. More\nsharpsighted than myself, he had rushed across the wood after me, and\nexhibited all imaginable rejoicing at the rencontre. I reached the\nbarns, found all my men wrapped in that quiet which cares nothing for\nthe troubles of kings and cabinet councils, and was preparing to return,\nwhen Caesar, with every demonstration of having found something of\nimportance, brought me a letter which he had dug out of the snow. By the\nlight of the lantern, I discovered it to be the report of an engineer\nofficer dispatched from the French army to ascertain the condition of\nour outposts, informing the head of the staff of an intended ball, and\nproposing a plan for carrying off the whole party together. I was\nthunderstruck. The letter was dated three days before, and though\nevidently dropped by some negligence of the officer, yet giving full\ntime for him to make his report in person, and bring the force necessary\nfor our capture. If it succeeded, an exploit of this order might have\nparalysed the whole campaign; for nearly the entire staff of the army,\nbesides a crowd of regimental officers of all grades, were within the\nwalls of the chateau.\n\nI hastened back, showed the report to one or two of the principal\nofficers, in private, for the purpose of avoiding alarm to our fair\npartners, and we then considered what means were left to protect us from\nthe approaching catastrophe. Our little council of war was nearly as\nmuch perplexed as matters of this kind are in general; and the\npropositions, various as they were, came finally to the usual result,\nthat we had got into a scrape, and that we must get out of it as well as\nwe could. To send the ladies away was impossible, in a tempest which\nalready flooded every road, and with all the trees crashing over their\nheads. To expect reinforcements from the camp, at such a distance, and\nin such weather, was hopeless; with the recollection that the whole\naffair might be over in the next quarter of an hour, and our entire\nassembly be in march before the French hussars. This was the first\noccasion of my responsibility as a soldier; and I learned, from this\ntime forth, to give commanders-in-chief some credit for their\nresponsibilities. The agonies of that half hour I have never forgotten.\nMilitary failure was nothing compared to the universal shame and\nblighting which must fall on the officer who suffered such a disgrace to\nbe inflicted on him in the presence of the whole army; and such a\ncalamity to arrest the progress of that army, if not the hopes of\nEurope. My resolution was desperately but decidedly taken, if the post\nfell into the enemy's hands, on that night to throw away my sword and\nabandon my profession, unless some French bayonet or bullet relieved me\nfrom all the anxieties of this feverish world. To offer the command of\nthe post to any of the superior officers present was, as I well knew,\ncontrary to rule; and on me and the dragoon devolved the whole duty.\n\nBut this state of almost nervous torture was as brief as it was painful,\nand my faculties became suddenly clear. The service of outposts was a\nbranch of soldiership, at that period, wholly unpractised by the British\ntroops; but I had seen it already on its most perfect scale in the\nPrussian retreat, which I and my hussars had our share in covering. My\nfirst step was to warn my soldiers and the dragoons of the probability\nof attack, and my second to call for a favourite quadrille, in which I\nsaw all our guests busily engaged before I left the chateau. My next was\nto repeat my Prussian lesson in reconnoitring all the avenues to the\nhouse. This, which ought to have been our first act on taking\npossession, had been neglected, in the common belief that the enemy were\nin full retreat. The gallant captain of dragoons prepared to take a\ngallop at the head of a party along the _chaussee_, and ascertain\nwhether there were any symptoms of movement along the road. He mounted\nand was gone. Posting the dragoons in the farm-yard, I went to the front\nto make such preparations as the time might allow for the enemy. Like\nthe greater number of the Flemish chateaux, it was approached by a long\navenue lined with stately trees; but it wanted the customary canal, or\nthe fosse, which, however detestable as an accompaniment to the grounds\nin peace, makes a tolerable protection in times of war, at least from\nmarauding parties. All was firm, grand, and open, except where the\ngarden walls and hedges of the lawn shut it in. As the avenue was the\nonly approach accessible to cavalry, and as this was the force which\nwould probably be used for a _coup-de-main_, if it were to be attempted\nat all, I set all hands to work to secure it. Wild as the night was, my\nmen wielded the spade and mattock with good will; and we had completed a\ntrench of some feet deep and wide, half across the road, when I caught\nthe trampling of cavalry at a distance. My chagrin was irrepressible;\nthe enemy would be upon us before we had got through our work, and we\nmust be taken or fly. My men worked vigorously; but the cavalry were\nupon us--and to my utter astonishment and infinite relief, our labours\nproduced a roar of laughter. The party were our dragoons, who had looked\nfor the French advance in vain, and were now amusing themselves with our\nwaste of toil. We forgave them their jest; they passed, and we prepared\nto follow to our quarters. But still the French officer's report haunted\nme; the precision of its terms, and the feasibility of the enterprise\nitself, struck with new force; and even after I had given the word to\nmove, I halted the men, and climbing a little pleasure turret by the\nside of the avenue, gave a parting glance round the horizon. Nothing was\nto be seen. The night was dark as a dungeon, and I prepared to descend,\nwhen at that moment the distant sound of a trumpet broke on the air. I\nlistened, and thought that I recognised the French call for cavalry to\nsaddle and mount. I sprang down; every man piled his arms, took spade\nand mattock in hand once more, and in a few minutes the trench was\ncompleted across the road. Still no further notice of approaching troops\nwas to be heard; and I heard a low, but rather provoking laugh among my\ncompany. Still I determined to persevere, and ordering some of the trees\nround us to be cut down, formed a rude species of _chevaux-de-frise_ in\nfront of our trench. It was scarcely finished, when the distant\ntrampling of cavalry was heard in the lull of the gale. All were now\nconvinced, and dispatching a notice to the dragoons to be ready, we\nstood to our arms. Giving the strictest orders that not a word should be\nspoken, nor a shot fired, I waited for the enemy. The trampling\nincreased every moment, and it was evident that the body of cavalry must\nbe large, though of its actual numbers we could form no conjecture. They\nsuddenly stopped at the entrance of the avenue, and I was in fear that\nmy _trou-de-rat_ would be discovered; but the national impatience soon\nspared me this vexation. The cavalry, hearing nothing in the shape of\nresistance, and not relishing the pelting of the storm in the open\ncountry, rushed in without further search, and came pouring on at the\ngallop. The avenue was long, and the whole corps was already within it,\nwhen the leading squadrons came at full speed upon my rude\nfortifications. In they dashed, into the very heart of my\n_chevaux-de-frise_. Nothing could equal the confusion. Some sprang over\nthe trees, but it was only to be flung into the trench; some even leaped\nthe trench, but it was only to be met by our bayonets. The greater\nnumber, startled by the cries of their unlucky comrades in front,\nattempted to rein back; but found it impossible, from the weight of the\nsquadrons still pushing on from behind. At this point, while they stood\na struggling mass, wholly unable to move either backward or forward, I\ngave the word to fire, and poured in a volley with terrible execution.\nAn ineffectual firing of pistols was their only return. Some of their\nofficers now rushed to the front, with the usual gallantry of their\ncharacter, called on their men to advance, and charged the trench; but\nthis dash only filled it with falling men and horses. I gave them a\nsecond volley, which was followed by a howl of despair; the whole of\ntheir leading squadron was brought down--every shot had told. The mass\nstill stood, evidently taken by surprise, and wholly unable to extricate\nthemselves. I now ordered our dragoons to mount, take a circuit to the\nhead of the avenue, and, if possible, close them in. In a few minutes, I\nheard the effect of my order in their galloping through the enclosures,\nand in the shout of a charge at the further end of the avenue. The staff\nand other officers in the chateau had hurried out at the sound of our\nfiring, and some had come up to us, and others had joined the dragoons.\nA proposal was now sent by a general officer to the commandant of the\nbrigade, to surrender, with a threat of being put to the sword in case\nof an instant's delay. The brave Frenchman was indignant at the\nproposal, and threatened to hang the bearer of it to the next tree. But\nthe British camp had palpably been alarmed by this time. Bugles and\ntrumpets were heard in every direction. Our dragoons had already shut up\nthe avenue; and after some slight discussion, the advance of a few\nsquadrons more, which came up at the gallop, proved the total\nimpossibility of escape, and the affair was at an end. This night's\n_melee_ had no rival in the campaign; it put into our hands twelve\nhundred of the best cavalry in the French army, and almost wholly\nstripped the enemy of the means of protecting his flanks, while it made\na most brilliant figure in the Gazette--the true triumph of the British\nsoldier.\n\nTo me, it was a restoration to life from the depths of despair. It may\nbe perfectly true, that many a post has been surprised, and many an\nofficer captured, without being objects of penalty, or even of public\nobservation; but my case was different. My character as a soldier was\nessential to my existence. The eyes of many, at home and abroad, were on\nme; and the scorn of one, wherever she was, would have been fatal to me.\nBut of those bitter extremes I say no more; my spirit was buoyant with a\nsense that I had done my duty in the most effective style. Nor was I\nleft to my solitary sense on the subject. My return to the chateau was\nas triumphant as if I had gained a pitched battle at the head of a\nhundred thousand men. Our fair guests, who had spent the hour before in\nthe terrors of instant capture, were boundless in their congratulations\nand expressions of gratitude. The officers, to whom my defence had made\nthe entire difference between a French prison and liberty, spoke in the\nmanliest and most cheering terms of my conduct. The scene of the\nstruggle was visited during the next day by every officer of the army\nwho could obtain a horse and an hour's leave; and the report which was\nforwarded to the commander-in-chief contained language which was\nregarded as a sure pledge of promotion.\n\nGuiscard hurried over to join in the congratulation. He had been\nemployed until a late hour in sending despatches to his court, relative\nto the growing problems of our politics with Prussia; and taking the\nfirst opportunity of throwing aside the envoy, he came at a gallop to\nshake hands with me. His impatience to see the ground scarcely suffered\nhim to sit down at table; his toast to the brave British army was given,\nand we went out to traverse the avenue. After having inspected every\ncorner of it with his keen military glance--\"You will find my theory\nright,\" said he; \"war is always a succession of mistakes. There never\nhas been a battle fought, in which even the successful general could not\npoint out a series of his own blunders, any one of which might have\nruined him. The only distinction is, that there are brilliant mistakes\nand stupid ones. Yours was of the former order--the Frenchman's of the\nlatter. If, instead of sending his whole brigade headlong down the road,\nlike clowns at a fair, he had dismounted half a squadron of his\ndragoons, and sent them to fire into the casements of the chateau, while\nhe kept the rest of his men in hand in the neighbourhood, he must have\ncaptured every soul of the party, and by this time had you all fast at\nthe French headquarters; but he blundered, and he has paid the price of\nblundering.\" To my laughing reply, \"that there was at least some merit\nin the steadiness of the men who beat him\"--\"Of course,\" was his answer.\n\"The English steadiness is like the English fire, the grand cure for the\nEnglish contempt of the tactician. Yours is an army of grenadiers; you\nare fit for nothing but assaults: but it must be owned that your troops\nof old managed that part of their business well, and I dare say that the\nart is not lost among you yet. Still, there are other matters to be\nthought of. Pray,\" said he, turning his keen eye on me, \"can any one in\nthe chateau tell how near is the French army to-night?\" I acknowledged\nmy ignorance. \"I ask the question,\" said he, \"because I think it by no\nmeans improbable, that they are at this moment marching down upon you.\nNot that they can afford to lose a brigade of cavalry a-night, and I\ntherefore think you safe enough for the twelve hours to come; but I am\nfar from answering for the next twenty-four. Dampierre commands them; I\nknow him well--he is a bold and also a clever fellow; the loss of his\ncavalry last night will leave him no alternative but to attack you or to\nmeet the guillotine. Those are fine times to make a general officer look\nabout him. My last letters from the Rhine state that the two generals of\nthe two covering armies on the frontier have been put under arrest, and\nthat they are now both on their way to Paris, from which Custine and\nBeauharnais will never return with their heads on their shoulders.\"\n\nI shuddered at this fate of brave men, overcome only by circumstances,\nand asked whether it was possible that such a system could last, or in\nany case could be endured by men with swords in their hands.\n\n\"It can, and will,\" was the reply. \"Soldiers are the simplest race of\nmankind, when they come in contact with the cunning men of cities. An\narmy, showy and even successful as it may be, is always an instrument\nand no more--a terrible instrument, I grant you, but as much in the\nhands of the civilian as one of your howitzers is in the hands of the\nmen who load and fire it. At this moment sixty commissioners, ruffians\nand cut-throats to a man--fellows whom the true soldier abhors, and who\nare covered with blood from top to toe--are on their way from Paris to\nthe headquarters of the fourteen armies of the republic. Woe be to the\ngeneral who has a will of his own! Those fellows will arrest him in the\nmidst of his own staff, carry him off in the presence of his army, and\nsend him to give a popular holiday to the Parisians, by his execution\nwithin half an hour after his arrival. So much for the power of an\narmy.\"\n\n\"But Frenchmen are human beings after all. Must not those horrors revolt\nhuman nature?\" was my question, put with indignant sincerity. He looked\nat me with a quiet smile.\n\n\"You are romantic, Marston, but you are of an age that becomes romance.\nWhen you shall have lived as long as I have done, and seen as much of\nthe world as myself, you will know that it is utterly selfish. It may be\ntrue, that some generous spirits are to be found here and there, some\nfond hearts to cling to, some noble natures which inspire an involuntary\nhomage for their superiority; but you might as well expect to be lighted\non your way by a succession of meteors. In the world, you will find that\nevery man carries his lantern for himself; and that whether small or\ngreat his light, the first object is to guide his own steps, with not\nthe slightest care whether yours may not be into the swamp--unless,\nindeed, he may have a particular object in bewildering you into the very\nheart of it. But now, to more pressing affairs than my honest and\nluckless philosophy. Get leave from your colonel to take a ride with me.\nI feel a sudden wish to know what Dampierre is doing; and a few hours,\nand as few leagues, may supply us with information on points which your\nbrave countrymen seem so constitutionally to despise. But recollect that\n_I_ am a Prussian.\"\n\nWe returned to the table, which was crowded with visitors, and spent an\nhour or two in great enjoyment; for what enjoyment can be higher than\nthe conversation of minds willing to give and receive intellectual\npleasure? And Guiscard was never more animated, easy, and abundant, in\ncommunicating that pleasure. He was a model of the most accomplished\norder of the continental gentleman. He had commenced life as a scholar;\na disappointment in his affections drove him into the army. He\ndiscovered that he was made for the profession; and, combining the\naccomplished diplomatist with the almost chivalric soldier, he had\nrapidly risen to the highest rank of the royal staff. But he had the\nstill rarer qualities of a sincere heart, and was a firm and willing\nfriend.\n\nThe orderly now returned with the leave for which I had applied. The\npost was left in charge of the captain of dragoons; and Guiscard and I,\nwithout mentioning our purpose, rode out quietly, as if to enjoy the\ncool of the evening. It was well worth enjoying. The storm had gone down\nat daybreak, and been succeeded by a glowing sun; the fields flourished\nagain, and if I had been disposed to forget the tremendous business\nwhich might be preparing for the morrow, I might have lingered long over\nthe matchless luxuriance of the Flemish landscape. There certainly never\nwas one which gave slighter evidence of the approach of two hostile\narmies. From the first hill which we ascended, the view, for leagues\nround, exhibited nothing but the rich tranquillity of a country wholly\nagricultural; soft uplands, covered with cattle grazing; ploughed\nfields, purpling in the twilight; clumps of trees sheltering villages,\nfrom which the smoke of the evening fires rose slowly on the almost\nbreathless air, giving an impression of the comfort and plenty of the\nmeal within; and at intervals, some huge old chateau, with its\nbuttressed and richly-wrought architecture--those carvings and\ncolourings which so strikingly convey the idea of a past age of quaint\nluxury and lavish wealth--rose from the centre of its beech grove,\nglaring against the sunset, as if it had been suddenly covered with a\nsheet of gold. All was peace, and the few peasants whom we met, as the\nnight fell, were all in the same tale, that there had been no patrols in\ntheir neighbourhood of late, and that, with the exception of the attack\non the \"outposts of the English,\" they had not heard or seen any thing\nof the French for a month before.\n\nThe night had now fallen, and though calm, it was one of remarkable\ndarkness. We passed village after village, but by this time all were\nfast asleep, and except the disturbance of the house-dogs as we rode\nby, not a sound was to be heard. I felt every inclination to take my\nshare of \"nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,\" and proposed to my\ncompanion to turn our horses into the first farm-yard, and \"borrow an\nhour\" or two's rest from the farmer's hospitality, and clean straw.\n\n\"I agree with you,\" was the answer, \"that Dampierre is clearly not on\nthis road; but that is no reason why he may not be on some other. On\nconsidering the matter, I think that we have been wrong in looking for\nhim here; for his national adroitness is much more likely to have tried\na movement in any other direction. He may be marching on either the\nright or the left of the spot where we are standing. And if he is the\nofficer which I believe him to be, he is trying this game at this\nmoment.\"\n\n\"What then is to be done, but ride back to our quarters, unless we\nshould prefer being cut off by his advance?\" was my question.\n\n\"One thing is to be done,\" was the reply--\"we must not let ourselves be\nlaughed at; and if we return with nothing more for our night's work than\nthe story that we slept in a Flemish barn, we shall be laughed at. So\nfar as I am concerned, I care nothing for the sneers of ignorance; but,\nmy young friend, your late conduct has inevitably made you an object of\nenvy already; and the only way to pluck the sting out of envy, is by\ngiving the envious some new service to think of.\"\n\nWe now agreed to separate, and examine the country to the right and left\nfor an hour precisely, meeting at one of the villages in the road, if no\nadvance of the enemy were discernible within that time. We parted, and I\ncommenced as comfortless an expedition as it would be easy to imagine.\nThe Flemish cross-roads, never very passable, were now deep in mire; the\nrivulets, of which they are generally the conduits, had been swelled by\nthe storm of the night before; and I floundered on for nearly the\nappointed time, in the full perplexity of a stray traveller. I was on\nthe point of returning, when I observed a sudden light rising above some\nfarm-houses, about half a league off. The light rapidly strengthened,\nand I rode forward, in some degree guided by its illumination. But after\nblazing fiercely for a while, it sank as suddenly as it rose; and I was\nagain left bewildered among hedges and ditches. But a loud hum of\nvoices, followed by the sound of many footsteps, now convinced me that a\nlarge body of men were near; though whether peasants roused by the fire,\nor battalions, I was still unable to discover. While I stood under cover\nof a clump of trees by the roadside, the question was settled by the\nmarch of a patrol of cavalry, followed at brief intervals by squadrons\nand light troops intermixed. It was evident that Dampierre meditated a\nsurprise of the British forces, and that the whole of his skirmishers\nwere already in motion. How long this movement had continued, or how\nnear the enemy might already have approached to the British camp, was\nentirely beyond my conjecture; and for the first few moments, the\nprobability of the surprise, and the possibility of my being already so\ncompletely within the range of the French march as to preclude my\nbearing the intelligence in sufficient time, made the drops of anxiety\nand perturbation roll down my forehead. But every thing must be tried. I\nno longer attempted to wind my way back through the network of lanes;\nbut, in the spirit of an English sportsman, took the country in a\nstraight line towards the British quarters. My horse, a thorough English\nhunter, evidently preferred leaping the Flemish fences to wading his way\nthrough the swamps; and I had the honour of bringing the first\ninformation, and the happiness of finding that I had brought it just in\nthe right time.\n\nThe camp was immediately under arms; every preparation was made in a\nsilence which gave me a high conception of the capabilities of the\nBritish soldier for every species of service; and, without a sound among\nten thousand men, we waited for the approach of the enemy.\n\nDampierre's manoeuvre had been a dashing one--conceived and managed\nwith the skill of an able officer. His purpose had been to throw his\nmain body into the rear of our position; and while he drew off our\nattention by a false attack on our front, avail himself of the\nconfusion of a night attack to crush us. Whether the fighting qualities\nof the Englishman would not have made him repent of his plan under any\ncircumstances, is no longer the question; but the surprise was now\nwholly his own. The first volley which we poured into his columns, as\nthey crept up stealthily towards our line, was so heavy that it finished\nthe battle. By the blaze of the musketry, we could see the French masses\nactually rolling back upon each other, staggering and shaken like\nlandsmen at sea, or like any man in an earthquake. Our cavalry were now\nordered to follow; but the enemy were too quick in making their escape;\nand the intersected nature of the country forbade any continued pursuit.\nA few shots from our howitzers, which ripped up the ground after them,\nwere all that we could send as our parting present; and the engagement,\nwhich began in such silence and sternness, finished in roars of laughter\nfrom all our battalions.\n\nDay broke, and the order was issued to follow the French general. The\ntroops, animated by the prospect of coming to action at last, and\nutterly wearied with the idleness of the camp, received the intelligence\nwith shouts; and the whole moved rapidly forward. Dampierre, before his\nmarch of the previous night, had provided for casualty, by forming an\nintrenched camp in the famous position of Famars. It was strong by\nnature, and he had added to its strength by covering it with fieldworks,\nand a powerful artillery. It was late in the day before we came within\nsight of it; and its strength, from the height of its glacis--the\nnatural glacis made by a succession of sloping hills--was all displayed\nto full and formidable advantage. The troops, fatigued with the length\nof the march under the burning sun of one of the hottest days which I\never felt, were halted at the foot of the heights; and the plans of\nattack proposed were various enough to have perplexed the Aulic Council\nitself. Lines of circumvallation, or bombardment, or waiting the effect\nof famine, were successively urged. But the British style prevailed at\nlast over the scientific. The Guards were ordered to head the column\nwhich was to storm the lines in front, and columns on the right and left\nwere put in motion at the same instant. We rushed forward under a\ngeneral discharge of the French artillery and musketry, and in a quarter\nof an hour the position was in our hands. The difficulty of its\napproach, and the broken nature of the ground in its rear, enabled the\nFrench general to make his retreat with the chief part of his forces.\nBut our prize was well worth the trouble; for we brought back two\nthousand prisoners, and the whole artillery in position.\n\nThe war had now begun in earnest; and our advance was unintermitted. On\nthe eighth day from the storm of Famars, we again came in sight of\nDampierre. He was now the assailant; our army, which had never exceeded\nten thousand men, (such was the military parsimony of those days,) with\nthe Prussian troops, and some of the smaller German contingents, were\nnow unwisely spread to cover a line of nearly thirty miles. The French\ngeneral had seized the opportunity of retaliating his ill fortune upon\nthe allied troops. At daybreak we were roused by the tidings that the\nFrench had broken through our weak extended line in several places, and\nhad got into the rear of the whole army. The force of the enemy, its\ndirection, or its object, were alike matters of total ignorance; and,\nfor some hours, it was impossible to obtain any exact information.\n\nIt was in vain that we adopted all the usual expedients, of detaching\nofficers, examining peasants, or judging of the progress of the\nengagement by the sound of the advancing or retreating fire. We had only\nto wait, drawn up ready for action, and take our chance of the result.\nOf all the contingencies of the field, none is more perplexing; but I\nhad a personal source of anxiety to add to the general vexation. I had\nevery reason to believe that my excellent friend, Guiscard, had either\nfallen into the hands of the enemy, or had been killed on the night when\nwe separated. If either misfortune had occurred, it was solely in\nconsequence of his zeal for my character, and the thought inexpressibly\ndistressed me. I had made the most persevering enquiries for him, but\nwithout any success; or rather, with a painful gathering of facts, all\nwhich told against my feelings. His horse had been found straying\nthrough the country; his helmet had been also found; and a fragment of a\nsabre, in a spot evidently much trampled, and which, therefore, appeared\nto be the scene of the personal rencontre in which he had probably\nfallen. Every thing had been found but his body.\n\nAt length, the firing, which had continued with more or less steadiness\nduring the day, approached our position and we were ordered to advance.\nThe country was now a portion of an ancient forest, and it was difficult\nto see in front of us beyond a few hundred yards. As we made way, we\ncould hear not only the musketry but the shouting of the troops engaged;\nas, growing constantly more impatient, we pressed on, a mounted officer\ncame galloping towards us. Judge of my astonishment and delight when I\nsaw Guiscard. As he reined up beside me--\n\n\"I have not a moment,\" said he, \"to speak to you; you shall hear of my\nadventures by and by. I was in as much fear for you as you probably were\nfor me. But now, tell me where I am to look for the officer in command\nof the column.\"\n\nThe general was soon found, and Guiscard communicated to him that the\nenemy had concentrated his chief force directly in front of us, where a\nPrussian column had been posted; that the Prussians had resisted\nvigorously several successive attacks; but that the force converging on\nit was too powerful, and that it must speedily retire. \"Then let it\nretire,\" was the general's reply, \"and we shall take their place.\"\n\n\"Pardon me, general,\" was the prompt suggestion of the pupil of a more\nexperienced school; \"but, if you will permit me, I shall ride back to my\ncountrymen, inform them of your advance, and make them hold their\nposition until you come out from the forest upon the enemy's flank.\"\n\nHis opinion was received, and he put spurs to his horse and was gone. We\nnow moved with all speed to the right of our former direction; and after\nhalf an hour's toiling through the intricacies of a wood on which no axe\nseemed to have fallen since the Deluge, passed round the enemy, and came\nfull upon their rear. A few volleys, thrown in upon them in this state\nof alarm, broke them; the Prussian fire in front, and our's in the rear,\nmade their disorder irreparable. In this crisis, Dampierre rushed\nforward with a group of aides-de-camp to restore the engagement,\nstriking the fugitives with his sabre, and desperately exposing his\nperson to the balls which now fell thick as hail around him. For a while\nhe seemed to bear a charmed life; but a rifleman of the Prussian hulans\ntook a sure aim. He fired, and I saw the unfortunate general fall from\nhis horse. He had died instantly. A more gallant death, and scarcely a\nmore expeditious one, than awaited the unsuccessful generals of the\nmerciless Republic. We buried him on the spot where he fell, with the\nhonours due to a distinguished soldier. Before nightfall the French had\nretired in all quarters; and the remnant of the troops hurried across\nthe Flemish frontier, utterly disheartened and ruined.\n\nThis engagement, which was known long after as the battle of the forest\nof Vicogne, cleared the Netherlands, raised the fame of the British\ntroops to the highest pitch, and left in their hands four thousand\nprisoners.\n\nThe councils of the allied camp now assumed a bolder tone. France was\nbefore us. The popular enthusiasm had been cooled by time and calamity.\nDefeat had taught the nation the folly of supposing that it could\ncontend single-handed with Europe; and the only obstacle to our march to\nParis was the line of fortresses erected by Louis XIV. The most powerful\nof those fortresses lay in the road by which the British columns were\nadvancing; and it was with a singular mixture of rejoicing and anxiety,\nof ardour and awe, that I saw, at the breaking of a brilliant morning,\nspread beneath me the strong city of Valenciennes.\n\n\n\n\nIT IS NO FICTION.\n\n     \"Oh! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of\n     infinite space, were it not that _I have bad dreams_.\"--_Hamlet_.\n\n     \"I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings.\"--SHAKSPEARE.\n\n\nI have been a dreamer all my life. The earliest recollections of my\nchildhood are of dreams of greatness. My boyhood's visions were peopled\nwith warlike tumults. There were no spring mornings to my brain even in\nearly youth; my heart was clouded with shadow, and sadness reigned when\nmirth and careless glee should have been pre-eminent. My manhood has\nbeen a fitful, feverish, and painful existence. I have outlived all whom\nI ever cared for; I have seen those whom I idolized lie before me cold\nand senseless; and now, with every event vividly impressed upon my\nmemory, each tone of the voice of her I loved dropping like liquid fire\ninto my brain, and drying up the tears that would weep away my\nanguish--feeling all this with intensity, and longing for the free air\nof heaven, I find myself alone--desolate--and HERE!!\n\nOh! the horror of this prison-solitude--the anxious watching for the\npale morning after sleepless nights--the horrible nights when fantastic\nshapes are alone visible, mocking at and jeering me--when the only\nsounds I hear are the ravings of some wretched maniac, confined, like\nmyself, because we have made for ourselves a world, and our imaginations\nhave created a presiding divinity; and, should a laugh disturb the\nsilence, it is the outbreak of a maddened spirit seeking relief from\nthought--a laugh frightful, because a mockery--sad in its\nboisterousness--\"_the laugh which laughs not_.\"\n\nFor many weary years I have been pent up in this prison, pining for\nfreedom, hoping for things which never existed, conjuring up\nanticipations of a brighter future, calling upon her who made\n\n    \"The starlight of my boyhood,\"\n\nto look down upon me from her blest abode, and woo me back to calmness\nby one gentle word, one loving glance; and then sinking into hopeless,\nbitter despondency, when I remembered that she was gone, and that I\nshould see her no more.\n\nSometimes I can think of her in her exquisite beauty, and my soul drinks\nin, as it were, the sweet and liquid tones of the voice which once spoke\npeace to me, and, fancying her again before me, I sink into an unquiet\nslumber, till some hideous dream oppresses me, and I see the fair brow\nof my \"Julia\" contracted, withered; and instead of her silvery voice of\nenchantment, a hissing sound escapes the lips I have worshipped. I rise,\nand try to approach, but she recedes. I awake--I start from my uneasy\nbed--I find this horrible picture, which bore the impress of reality, is\nbut a dream. I awake to the consciousness that my beloved is dead, and\nthat my eyes will gaze upon her beauty no more.\n\nHow few there are in this busy world who, when passing those abodes of\nwretchedness--\"private madhouses\"--can imagine the agony, the misery,\nthe despair that dwells there! But to my history.\n\nI was the only child of General Sir Frederick and Lady Charlotte B----.\nI was reared in luxury; the rude air was scarcely allowed to blow upon\nmy delicate frame. I can remember now, though years have passed, and\nsorrow has bowed me--I can remember the happy days when my wearied head\nwas pillowed on the bosom of my mother, and, after she had sung me to\nsleep with some wild melody, she would place me in my small luxurious\ncot, and watch over me with those deep-loving eyes, and be the first to\ncomfort and re-assure me if uneasy dreams--for even then I was a\ndreamer--made me awake to sorrow. But my mother died. Even now I shudder\nat the recollection of the desolateness of my agony when I knew I had\nlooked on her for the last time. Even now I can feel the coldness which\ncrept over me as I laid my cheek to hers. My blood was frozen. I could\nnot weep. Oh! tears would have been a relief, but they were denied me;\nand though I saw her taken from my embrace, and her beloved form laid in\nthe vault, I could still gaze with speechless agony--but I wept not.\n\nHow I wished for the quiet of the grave; for even then there was a\nwhirlwind within my bosom, and my sensitive heart shrank from holding\nconverse with, or bestowing confidence on another as freely or\nunreservedly as I had done with the dear being whom I had lost.\n\nShortly after this event my father was ordered upon foreign service, and\nmy childhood was passed among relatives who were strangers to me. It was\na childhood without love. I remembered my mother, and none could supply\nher place. I could not trust in another as I had trusted in her. In my\nsorrows, real or imaginary, none other could comfort me. I longed for my\nchildhood's resting-place, where I might again pillow my aching head,\nand sleep once more the calm sleep hallowed by a mother's matchless\nlove.\n\nAt an early age I was sent to one of our great public schools, and\nthere, although I endured some hardships, yet I experienced also\nsomething like the pleasures and pastimes of boyhood.\n\nFrom having been a weakly, delicate child, I grew strong and active; but\na gloom was ever upon me.\n\nIn my moments of relaxation I would join some of my companions in their\ngames of play; but even then a dark phantom pursued me, and I would\nfancy a shadowless spirit was after me: if I ran it always followed me\nwith its noiseless steps, and my constant fear was, that it would\novertake me. This was _madness_--aye, I can see it now--_it was madness\ncoming upon me_.\n\nI frequently used to endeavour to dispel the illusion by reading; but if\nI raised my eyes from my book there was the figure, looking at me and\nsighing, and its lips would move to speak--_but there was no sound_.\n\nI have sat for hours watching this bane of my existence. I have sat till\nmy eyes were fixed from fright, and I have tried to move, but I felt\nchained to the spot, and the fetters that appeared to bind me, seemed of\ncold heavy steel, that fell on my whole body and paralyzed me. Then I\ncould feel my heart growing dead, and yet throbbing with those dull,\naudible throbs, till at last I have shrieked in the agony of my horror,\nand only then would the dark being leave me--but _it left me moody and\nmad_.\n\nI had one friend at school who would soothe me by gentle words, and tell\nme my fears were but fancy, and he would hold my hands until I slept,\nand lost, for a time at least, the phantom which pursued me.\n\nThat friend is dead. I have outlived _him_. _Why should the madman\nlive?_\n\nWhen I was about sixteen a new life opened to me. There came as a\nvisitor to one of the ladies belonging to the establishment, a young and\nlovely girl. I first saw her at the private chapel belonging to the\nschool. The moment I looked at her a gush of hitherto unknown pleasure\ncame to my heart. I felt that I could love her.\n\nI saw her again and again. I have stood for hours by the house in which\nshe was, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Sometimes I was\nsuccessful--more frequently not--but it was something to hope for. Once\nI fancied that her eye fell upon me. Oh, how I was repaid by that one\npure glance!\n\nWhile she remained at ----, my life was one of bright and vivid fancy,\nand I was cheered by the angel Hope; but at length her visit came to a\ntermination; yet, though I knew she had departed, I would go daily to my\naccustomed watching place, and gaze until I fancied the beautiful girl\nwas again before me.\n\nAt the usual period my school days ended, and my college life began. I\nwas entered at Christ Church, Oxford. I read hard, and obtained the\nhighest honours. My fame was brilliant. I was talked of, and marked by\nmy superiors as a rising man.\n\nShortly afterwards, I was returned as one of the members of a family\nborough in my native county, and my first speech in Parliament met with\ngeneral applause. The world called me a fortunate man. Oh! they little\nknew the nights of horror I passed--the battling I had with my attendant\nphantom, which still pursued me, blighted me. But I was mad; and the\nexcitement of madness was called energy.\n\nHow often I have laughed them to scorn, as I have sat alone with the\ndark spirit!\n\nMy sole ambition was that the girl whom I had seen and admired might\nhear of my career; and that, with honours crowded upon me, I might see\nher again, that I might place my laurel crown at her feet, lay bare my\nheart's best feelings, my undying love for her, and prove to her how\nentire was my devotion, how earnest my worship.\n\nI saw many young and lovely girls; and I was told that mothers looked\nupon me as a desirable match--but I was true to my first love. I\nremembered her in the perfection of maiden beauty--I wished for none\nother; and to see _her_ again was my sole hope in life.\n\nAfter a season of unceasing gaiety and dissipation--sick of London and\nits vanities--I determined to travel, and for seven years I was absent\nfrom my native land.\n\nI was recalled to attend the deathbed of my father. I had seen but\nlittle of him; he had no sympathy with me, and in heart we were\nstrangers to each other. He was proud of my talents, and I was an only\nson; but he never bestowed any real affection on me. I honoured him\nbecause he was my parent; but I never loved him as I ought to have loved\na father.\n\nHe died, and I succeeded to the baronetcy and estates; but I was already\ntired of life--wretched in the midst of my splendour. In a word--_I was\nmad_.\n\nAt the table of a friend I met a man a few years my senior, whom I had\nknown at school. We renewed our acquaintance; and I accepted an\ninvitation to dine at his house, to meet some old schoolfellows.\n\nI consented to go, but not cheerfully, for a moody state of mind was\ncoming over me. I can remember the struggle, the exertion it was to\ndress for the party. Twenty times I was tempted to send a message saying\nI was too unwell to go, but my better angel prevailed--and I went. To\nwhat an eventful period was that evening but the prelude!\n\nMy friend met and welcomed me with a cordiality which somewhat cheered\nme; but I had a weight on my spirits from which I could not rouse\nmyself, and most reluctantly accompanied Sir Charles Tracey, with\nfaltering steps and an aching heart and brow, into the inner\ndrawing-room, to be introduced to his wife, Lady Tracey.\n\nShe was seated on a low ottoman, with her back to the door, reading. She\narose as her husband presented me to her as his old friend, Sir\nFrederick B----. She turned towards me, and for a moment I was\noverpowered. I beheld before me the creature I had so long pined for--so\nearnestly searched for--whose memory I had so devotedly and entirely\nworshipped.\n\nWith exquisite grace she extended her hand to welcome her husband's\nguest, and as I held those small taper fingers in mine, thick coming\nfancies crowded upon me. I was again the schoolboy--the anxious, ardent\nschoolboy, longing even for a look from this lovely woman, whose hand I\nnow held in mine.\n\nHot tears rushed into my eyes, and I bent over the fair hand to conceal\nthem.\n\nThis momentary cloud passed away, and while seated by her, I forgot that\nwe had ever been parted, and imagination peopled a world of love--a\nparadise of hope.\n\n    \"But she in these fond feelings had no share.\"\n\nThe years which had passed, had changed her from a lovely girl into the\nmore matured loveliness of the matron.\n\nWhen I had last seen her, her hair, which was a rich and shining black,\nhung in natural and graceful curls over her beautiful and classically\nformed head. Now the thick and luxuriant mass was gathered into a knot\nbehind, and laid in soft bands over her pure and polished brow.\n\nHer eyes were of that deep full blue which is so rare, and were large\nand bright, and full of fire and spirit, which at times gave an\nappearance of haughtiness to her noble countenance; her throat, neck,\nand arms, were white as ivory, and formed in the most perfect mould; her\nheight was commanding, and her figure exquisitely proportioned.\n\nBefore she spoke I could only look at her with wonder, that any thing so\nglorious could be earthly; but the instant she addressed me, a peculiar\nwitchery played over her features and about her mouth; and my wonder was\ninstantly changed into love and adoration, and I drank in with eagerness\nthe silvery sweetness of her voice.\n\nI fancied on this night that Lady Tracey bestowed more attention on me\nthan on her other guests; for women have an intuitive tact in\ndiscovering when a man admires devotedly.\n\nFor that night I lost my dark phantom, I slept a sweet sleep, dreaming\nof things which could never be accomplished; and my waking vision, as\nwild and improbable, was that she might one day return my love.\n\nI would not lose sight of my newly found treasure. I called at her\nresidence. I was admitted. Again I gazed; and worshipped. Lady Tracey\nlooked more lovely by daylight than with the full blaze of candle-light\nupon her beauty. There was a delicacy about her complexion no daylight\ncould impair; but it spoke also of a delicacy of constitution which made\nme tremble as I gazed.\n\nThe fascination of her manner, the elegance of her movements, her light\nand airy tread, her musical voice, her bright but subdued laugh; all\nthese combined made me idolize her.\n\nThere is but one sun in heaven: there was but one Julia to my eyes on\nearth. Her shadow had fallen on my heart, as the sun on an island far\naway from land in the lonely sea. It was filled with light and verdure,\nand all my best feelings were warmed to ripeness by her glowing smile.\n\nWe conversed together on poetry, music, history, the arts; and I\ndiscovered she possessed a refined and superior intellect. A sparkling\ntincture of satire mingled with her mention of men and things; but while\nshe did this with perfect temper and gentleness, it gave a brilliancy to\nher conversation not to be described. She expressed a wish for a book\nwhich I had the happiness to possess; here was an opportunity for\nanother visit. Again and again we met, and I was intoxicated with love;\nbut I saw no reciprocal feeling on her part. She was the same gentle and\ncharming being; but she bestowed no _love_ upon the poor visionary who\nadored her.\n\nOn the days we met I was gay and happy; but on the intervening ones I\nwas in despair. All my darkest thoughts came back upon me, fraught with\neven greater horrors. I tried to battle with my evil spirit, but I could\nnot subdue it. It grasped me tightly in its fetters; and I had no\nrespite until I was again in the presence of my Julia. The smallest\nsound of her voice, with its silvery sweetness, broke the sad chain\nwhich had bound me, and I was free to look--to love--to worship again.\nOh, why did not these moments of rapture last for ever! This holy calm,\nlike an enchanted circle, into which my spirit of evil dared not\nventure, why was it broken? Why did sickness, and sorrow, and\n_madness_--yes, furious, hopeless, desponding madness--darken those\nsunny days? Why did death come to her, and thick clouds to me?\n\nThe sky mocks me with its gemmed radiance. The stars shine on brightly;\nbut they fail to give light and hope to me. I have gazed on them with\nher. I have seen her stand with her fair brow raised, and her lovely\nface bathed in moonlight; but, as the pale beams danced around her, to\nmy eyes her own glory dimmed all other brightness.\n\nThe winds howl, and the trees wave to and fro in the tempest, and with\nevery blast comes a shriek, as if Julia were in despair, and I arise to\nrush to her rescue; but the clanking chain of the maniac binds me. I try\nto break my bonds, but they clasp me; and my hideous companion, the\nphantom, jeers at me; and I hear the voice of my beloved receding\nfurther and further from me, till, with an agonized moan, it dies away\nin the distance.\n\nAnd this the world calls fancy--the fantastic vision of a madman's\nbrain!\n\nThere was never a voice like _her_ voice; and though the winds rage\ntempestuously among the waving branches of the storm-tossed trees, I\nhear the liquid music of her accents above all, and I strain my eyes to\ncatch a glimpse of her person, but there is nothing; and I crouch down\nagain in my chains and my madness on my desolate bed, feeling how\nutterly--how entirely, I am alone.\n\nAn interruption occurred in our intercourse, in consequence of Sir\nCharles Tracey being obliged to go abroad, on business connected with\nthe state. His lady accompanied him, and they were absent for some\nmonths. How I spent these months, I scarcely know. I avoided all\nsociety--I felt moody--wretched--despairing. I grew violent. Restraint\nbecame necessary. Then, indeed, I _knew_ that _I was mad_. Life was a\nblank; and some weeks passed while this dark cloud was upon me.\n\nAt last, though my recovery had been a work of time, I was _called_\nconvalescent, and the violence of my frenzy abated.\n\nI heard with joy that Sir Charles and his lady had returned to town. I\nthought the hour would never come when I might set out on my visit.\n\nI flew, rather than walked, to her residence. I felt startled and\nalarmed as I trode the streets; for I had not been out for months, and I\nfancied every one stared at me--that everyone knew _I was mad_; but the\none darling hope of seeing _her_ cheered me on.\n\nAt last I reached the house. I was admitted; and in a moment I was by\nthe side of Julia. She was looking pale and ill, but very lovely.\n\nI rushed towards her. I knelt by her side. I took her cold hand in mine,\nand kissed it ardently. A bright colour suffused her cheek. She\nendeavoured to withdraw her hand from my grasp; but the demon was within\nme. I held that pale, small, fragile hand firmly; and pressed it again\nand again to my lips, and my throbbing, bursting heart. I laughed aloud\nand wildly, and she looked at me fearfully. She had discovered my\nsecret, and she saw that _I was mad_.\n\n\"You, too, have been ill?\" she said.\n\nThe honied accents of that beloved voice fell on my ear like dew to the\nparched flower. I was calmed in a moment, and I endeavoured to look\ncoldly on her who was life--light--all to me in this world.\n\nI found she had been dangerously ill, and I felt, as I looked on her\nimperial loveliness, that she was not destined long for this world.\n\nDaily I saw her. I could not see enough of one I loved so desperately;\nand I feigned calmness while I endured agony--but my madness ruined me\nat last.\n\nOne wretched day--I spoke to her of love. I told her of my devotion--my\nhopeless devotion for so many years. I knelt by her side--I passed my\narm round her waist--and for one brief moment I rested my scorching,\nmaddened brow upon her bosom. It was only a moment of reality--but an\neternity of bliss in the recollection.\n\nI strained her fragile form to my breast. I kissed her pale cheeks--her\nbrow--her lips. She moved not. I found she had fainted. I thought she\nwas dead, and my brain reeled.\n\nI raised her beautiful form in my arms, and laid her gently on a couch.\n\nShe was like marble--so cold, and pale, and breathless. I called no one\nto my assistance--I was the madman--the desperate, heart-broken\nmadman--and I saw before me the ruin I had wrought.\n\nHow long this lasted I cannot tell; I only know my feelings were worked\nto frenzy. I called upon her by name; I conjured her to look at me, to\nspeak to me once--but once more.\n\nI longed for tears to cool the burning heat of my brain. In my agony, I\nlaughed and shrieked aloud; I could not control myself.\n\nShe opened her eyes, those large, bright, lustrous eyes, and looked, I\nthought, kindly on me. How those glances entered my soul!\n\n\"Speak to me, Julia, forgive me,\" I said. She smiled, and extended her\nhand. Her eyes were in a moment fixed and glassy. She tried to speak,\nwhen, O God! as her lips separated, the life-blood gushed from her\nheart, and the purple stream flowed over her neck and bosom.\n\nI was paralyzed--I moved not--I looked on horror-stricken.\n\nShe made one movement with her hand, and then it fell lifeless by her\nside. She gave one deep sigh, and all was over. I saw that she was dead,\nbut I wept not. I stood by, a miserable madman, my heart heaving with\nagony, but my eyes refusing to weep, and laughing that violent, horrible\nlaugh, that mockery of mirth which belongs only to the maniac's ravings.\n\nI stood by the couch--I bathed my burning forehead with her blood--I\nsaw that beautiful being cold and motionless, her eyes closed, and the\nlofty brow damp with the dews of death. I saw this and yet lived on.\n\nThere was stillness, and gloom, and death, around me, but I was not\nalone. I felt that creeping consciousness that my evil spirit was near.\nI raised my eyes and saw the phantom--the dark and hideous one; my old\ncompanion as standing by me--muttering and mocking at my grief. I shrank\nfrom the fiend.\n\nI drew closer to the loved form of her I adored. I took her cold hand\nand placed it on my burning brow. I can feel the death-like coldness now\nwhere that small hand lay. I closed my eyes and tried to pray; but\nfiendish shouts of laughter rang in my ears, and I felt that an _evil\nspirit_ was by my side. My whole frame quivered with suppressed agony. I\nturned. I saw it move; and the shadowless hand was raised as if to touch\nthe precious and costly form of her I loved. I can remember no more; all\nafter for some time was gloom and misery. * * *\n\nWild spirits are dancing around me, bearing in their arms the dear form\nof my Julia. Sometimes her voice breaks the stillness of my chamber in\nthe darkness of night, for I never sleep--my brain is _too hot for\nsleep_. Sometimes I am roused by feeling the softness of her light taper\nfingers on my brow, and then I start from my uneasy and wretched bed to\nlook for her once more; but instead of her I see my dark spirit the\ndemon, watching me with that untired eye, following me with that\nnoiseless step, that shadowless form, and then falling on my bed, I bury\nmy face in my pillow, and try to pray for peace, and for tears--but both\nare denied me.\n\nThe sun mocks me with his bright, clear, dancing beams speaking of life,\nand hope, and joy. It brings back the memory of that wretched day when I\nhad killed by my burning passions the only woman I had ever loved.\n\nShe was, indeed, the sun of my gloom; and, without her, I am as a\ncaptive in a darkened cell, through the gratings of which thoughts of\nher stream in, and make a dim twilight--a sad satisfaction. Oh! if I\nwere to be false to her, my soul would be a void; my memory, a curse; my\nheart, a heap of ashes.\n\nI see again, with terrible reality, that graceful form--that regal\nface--dead, yet smiling--as I last saw her in that curtained chamber,\nwith the sun shining in glory through the crimson drapery, and shedding\na warm glow on the inanimate features.\n\nEven now I see her. I see that last look of unsullied purity and fear. I\nfeel again that warm blood, as it trickled down and fell on my hands and\nface, as I knelt before her. It fell on my forehead, and I know that it\nis eating in, deeper and deeper, towards my brain.\n\nHer last words ring in my ears; her last smile is my beacon, my only ray\nof hope, luring me on towards a happier future.\n\nThere is a fire kindled within me that will dry up every thought but\nrecollection of her; for every circumstance connected with her is\nimpressed on my memory with a vivid distinctness.\n\nCan it be?--the thought sometimes occurs to me, with a balmy and\nconsoling power, like that fragrant wind from the Spicy Islands, which\nthe mariner feels blowing cool upon his brow, as he lies becalmed, in\nthe still noon, on the wide and desert sea? Can it be, that the devotion\nof a lifetime--such as my devotion has been--may be repaid by\nassociation in eternity?\n\nMay I dare to hope to live hereafter in the shadow of her glory? Shall\nwe meet again in that bright land?\n\nNo--the vision is too joyous for the poor maniac, her murderer. I shall\nsee her no more--we are separated for ever!\n\nHell--deep, deep hell--is the madman's portion; and heaven, that pure\nand distant clime, is thy resting-place for ever--thy radiant home--thy\npeaceful haven--my lost--my adored--my sainted Julia!\n\n\n\n\nTHE BURNS' FESTIVAL.\n\n\nScotland has of late years been exposed to perilous influences. Unused,\nfrom its older form of representation, to popular excitement, and\nstimulated by example from without, the nation threw itself headlong\ninto the revolutionary current which swept the whole empire at the\nperiod of Parliamentary Reform, and, with characteristic fervour, seemed\ninclined to riot in the novel element. Whenever symptoms of such a\ndisposition appear in the body politic, there is manifest danger that,\nin the new accession of power, the old and sacred landmarks may be\ndisregarded, and little heed be given to the mutual dependence and\ncommon interests of every class of society. Thus agitated and disturbed,\nthe Scottish people, once jealously national, and so proud of that\nnationality that it had passed into a byword throughout Europe, might\nhave lost their cohesive power, loosened the cord which bound the social\nrods together, and formed themselves into separate sections with\napparently hostile interests. Fortunately, however, there was a strong\ncounteracting influence. Even when the storm was wildest, and the clash\nof conflicting opinions most discordant, it was impossible to eradicate\nfrom the minds of any order the vast and stirring memories of the past.\nNew rights might, indeed, be claimed; but it was not alleged that there\nhad been any abuse of the old. Nothing had occurred to weaken the esteem\nwith which the lower ranks were accustomed to regard the ancient\naristocracy of the country; and accordingly, throughout the whole of\nthat protracted contest, fervid and determined as it was, there was less\nrancour shown than might have been expected in the course of so great a\npolitical change. As the excitement subsided, the kindly feeling, which\nnever had been extinguished, began more palpably to revive. Before the\nepoch of agitation approached, we were a peaceful and a happy people.\nThe peerage, the gentry, the yeomen, and the peasantry--all classes were\nbound together with the links of respect and of affection. The old\nhereditary attachment between the orders had not been broken. The poor\nman was proud of the noble, because the noble bore a name conspicuous in\nthe annals of his country; because he was the descendant of those who\nhad fought and died for Scotland, and who had identified their\nhonourable renown with hers; because he was a man every way worthy to\nbear the titles so gloriously achieved; and, more than all perhaps,\nbecause he loved and venerated the poor. And for that love and\nveneration the noble had ample grounds. Ancient as his race might be,\nthe yeomanry and peasantry of Scotland were yet as ancient in theirs.\nNot one step of honour could his fathers have gained without the help of\nthe fathers of those who were now living upon his hereditary soil; and\nthe old spell-words of the land were common to them both. Nor was there\nto be found in wide Europe a better or a braver race. They were\nindustrious, faithful, loyal; they were attached without servility,\nindependent without rudeness, and intelligent to a degree that excited\nthe admiration and the wonder of the stranger. No wonder that the mere\nthought of estrangement, in such a society as this, should have stricken\nthe bravest bosom with terror, and woe, and dismay! Yet so troublous was\nthe aspect of Europe then, that such fear was not utterly unfelt; and it\nwas the apprehension of that calamity, more than any other worldly\ncause, that dimmed the soul and darkened the spirit of that great and\ngood man, Sir Walter Scott, in his declining years; for all his large\naffections were bound up and entwined with the interests of Scotland,\nand, had the sacrifice been required of him, he would gladly have laid\ndown his life to avert from her the perils which he then foresaw.\n\nThese few remarks we cannot consider as inappropriate to our present\nsubject. We have once more been joyful spectators of a truly national\ngathering. Once more we have seen Scotsmen, of every grade and degree,\nassemble together without a tinge of party purpose, to do honour to the\nmemory of a poet who sprang from the ranks of the people, and who was\nheart and soul a Scotsman in his feelings, his inspiration, and, it may\nbe, in his errors and his prejudices also. It was a stirring and\nexciting spectacle, such as no other country could have exhibited--to\nbehold peer and senator, poet and historian and peasant--the great and\nthe small, the lettered and the simple of the land--unite, after fifty\nyears of silence, in deep and sincere homage to the genius of one humble\nman. Nor did they assemble there because his genius was greater than\nGod, in his bounty, had bestowed upon others, but because he had used it\nfor the glory and exaltation of his country; because he loved her with\nan ardour the most vivid and extreme; because he had shed the light\nentrusted to his charge both on the lofty dwelling and on the lowly\nhearth, but most brightly and cheeringly upon the latter, for that was\nhis peculiar charge. We feel assured that the events of that day, and\nthe sentiments which were then inspired and uttered, will produce a\nmarked effect upon the disposition of the country at large. It seemed as\nif all classes had spontaneously assembled to join hands above the grave\nof Robert Burns, and then and there to renew the vow of enduring\nreconciliation and love.\n\nWe shall now proceed to give a short account of the proceedings of the\nday. In our climate, the state of the weather on public occasions is\nalways regarded with anxiety; for enthusiasm, however warm, is apt to\nexpire beneath a deluge of northern rain. On the previous evening the\nsky promised well. A brilliant sunset and a warm wind seemed security\nfor a placid morrow; and although the glare of the great furnaces in the\nneighbourhood of Glasgow glowed somewhat ominously large as the night\nwore on, we retired to rest rather in hope than resignation. But dismal,\nindeed, was the prospect when we awoke. A vaporous grey mist had\nentirely usurped the heavens, and the plash of weary rain resounded\nthrough the pluvious metropolis of the west. Fortunately, we were not\nignorant of the fact, that Glasgow is under the peculiar tutelage of the\nPleiades; and accordingly we proceeded to the railway, trusting that\nmatters might mend so soon as we lost sight of the stupendous\nchimney-stalk of St Rollox. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the\nweather, and the early hour, every town, as we passed along, seemed in a\nstate of the greatest excitement. There were bands of music, deputations\nof mason lodges, and the rival brotherhood of Odd Fellows, with hundreds\nof men and women, all clad in holiday attire, awaiting the arrival of\nthe train at every station. It is a marvel to us, how half of these\nexpectants could have found their way to Ayr. Carriage after carriage\nwas linked to the already exorbitant train, until the engine groaned\naudibly, and almost refused to proceed. Still the rain continued to\nfall, and it was not until after we had left Irvine, and were rounding\nthe margin of the bay towards Ayr, that the sky brightened up and\ndisclosed the great panorama of the sea, with Ailsa and Arran looming in\nthe distance, and steamers from every direction ploughing their way into\nthe port. The streets of Ayr were swarming with people, and sounding\nwith the crash of music. There were arches on the bridge, flags\nstreaming from windows, and bells tolling from the steeples--symptoms of\na jubilee as great as if Royalty had descended unawares, and the whole\ndistrict had arisen to pay honour to its Queen. The inns were thronged\nto excess, and the waiters in absolute despair. What a multitude of\nsalmon must have died to furnish that morning's meal! Yet every face\nlooked bright and happy, as became those who had engaged in such a\npilgrimage. Then the burst of music became louder and more frequent, as\nband after band, preceding the trades and other public bodies, filed\npast towards the rendezvous of the great Procession. This was on what is\ncalled the Low Green; and the admirable arrangements made by the\ncommittee of management--of which Mr Ballantine of Castlehill was\nconvener, and Messrs Bone and Gray secretaries--were manifest. Mr\nThwaites undertook the marshaling of the whole. Here, first, the\ngrandeur of the National Festival was displayed, while the immense\nmultitudes that had come trooping in from all quarters stood\ncongregated in orderly muster, a mighty host, bound in unity by one\nsoul, stretching far and wide from the towers of Ayr to the sea.\nSuddenly, at signal given, the Procession began to deploy, in admirable\norder, with streaming banners and crashes of music, and shouts from the\naccompanying thousands that rent the sky; and we were warned that it was\ntime to proceed, if we wished to obtain a place upon the Platform\nerected on the banks of Doon.\n\nA unit in the stream of population, we skirted the noble race-course,\nand reached the Platform just before the head of the Procession had\narrived. It was erected in a magnificent situation. Behind was the\nmonument of Burns, and the sweet habitation of Mr Auld, with old Alloway\nKirk a little further off. Before it was the immense Pavilion erected\nfor the banquet, all gay with flags and streamers. To the right, were\nthe woods that fringe the romantic Doon, at that point concealed from\nsight; but not so the Old Bridge, which spans it, with its arch of\ntriumphal evergreen. Every <DW72> beyond was studded with groups of\npeople, content to view the spectacle from afar. The Carrick hills\nreached far away beyond; and, on the other side, were the town and broad\nbay of Ayr, and Arran with all its mountains. But we had little leisure\nthen to look around us. On the Platform were collected many of the\nLadies and Gentlemen of the county--Sir David Hunter Blair; James\nCampbell, Esq. of Craigie; W. A. Cunninghame, Esq. of Fairlie; A. Boyle,\nEsq. of Shewalton, &c.; Archibald Hastie, Esq. M.P.; A. Buchanan, Esq.,\nCharles Neaves, Esq. Mr Sheriff Campbell, Mr Sheriff Bell, Mr\nCarruthers, &c. &c.; some of the most distinguished of those who had\ncome from afar, and conspicuous in front the surviving Kindred of Burns.\nThere stood, with his beautiful Countess, the noble and manly Eglinton,\n_preux chevalier_ of his day, and fitting representative of that ancient\nhouse of Montgomery, so famous in the annals and peerage of Scotland,\nand of France. There was the venerable and venerated Lord\nJustice-General Boyle, the President of the Scottish Courts, and chief\nmagistrate of the land, with the snows of more than seventy winters\nlying lightly and gracefully upon his head. There stood Wilson, never\nmore fitly in his place than here; for of the many who have interposed\nto shield the memory of Burns from detraction, he had spoken with the\nmost generous spirit and collected purpose, and came now to rejoice in\nthe common triumph. There, too, were Alison, the sound and strong\nhistorian; Chambers, whose delicate generosity to the relatives of\nBurns, independently of the services he has rendered to our national\nliterature, made him one of the fittest spectators of the scene; and a\nhost of other distinguished men, well and aptly representing the\naristocracy and the learning of the country. Many strangers, too, had\ncome to grace the festival; amongst whom, it may be allowed us to\nspecify the names of Mrs S. C. Hall, the charming authoress, and her\naccomplished husband. We looked in vain for some whose presence there\nwould have given an additional interest to the scene. We would fain have\nseen the poets of the sister countries represented by Wordsworth and\nMoore. That might not be; but their sympathies were not withheld.\n\nAmong that brilliant group, there stood an elderly female, dressed in\ndeep black, and three men, all past the meridian of life, with quiet,\nthoughtful looks, and unpretending aspect. These were the sister and the\nsons of Burns. His sister!--and half a century has wellnigh gone past\nsince the hot heart of the brother was stricken cold, and the manly\nmusic of his voice made dumb for ever! Was it too much to believe that,\nthrough these many long years of her earthly pilgrimage--sometimes, we\nfear, darkened by want and neglect--that sister had always clung to the\nmemory of the departed dead, in the hope that the day would arrive when\nhis genius should receive the homage of a new generation, to atone for\nthe apathy and coldness of that which had passed away? What emotions\nmust have thrilled the bosom of that venerable woman, as she gazed on\nthe stirring spectacle before her, and saw her lingering hopes far more\nthan thoroughly realized! What a glorious welcome, too, for the sons to\ntheir native land! They had left it--not quite as the poor man\ndoes--but with heavy difficulties before them. They had wrestled their\nway onwards through half the journey of life, and now, on their return,\nthey were greeted with a welcome which it were almost worth the\nstruggles of a life to obtain. All this they owed to their father; and\nhonoured among the honourable that day were the lineage and kindred of\nBurns.\n\nBeneath and around the Platform there were thousands already\ncongregated. If any one had wished to paint the character of the\nScottish peasantry in its loftiest and most endearing light, the\nsubjects were there before him. Old patriarchal men, on whose venerable\ntemples time had bleached the white locks of age to the softness of\nthose of infancy, stood leaning upon their grandchildren, proud, and yet\nwondering at the honours which were that day paid to him, whom, long,\nlong ago, reaching away through the vista of memory, they remembered to\nhave seen in their youth. So familiarized were they with his image, and\nthe glorious language he had uttered, that they had almost forgotten the\ngreatness and universality of his fame; and now, when brought forth from\ntheir cottages in the far glens and muirlands of the south, they could\nscarcely believe that the great, and gifted, and beautiful of the land,\nhad come together for no other purpose than to celebrate the genius of\ntheir old companion. But they were proud, as they well might be; for it\nwas a privilege even to have beheld him, and in that homage they\nrecognised and felt the tribute that was paid to their order. The\ninstinctive decency of Scottish feeling had accorded to these men a\nfitting and conspicuous place. Around them were the women of their\nfamilies of all ages--from the matron in her coif to the bashful maiden\nwith the snood--and even children; for few were left at home on that day\nof general jubilee. These, and a vast concourse of strangers, already\noccupied the ground.\n\nMeanwhile the Procession had wound its enormous length from Ayr along a\nroad almost choked up with spectators. Every wall and gate had its\nburden, and numerous Flibbertigibbets sat perched upon the branches of\nthe trees. The solitary constable of the burgh was not present to\npreserve order, or, if he was, his apparition was totally unrequired.\nThe old bell of Alloway Kirk was set in motion as the head of the column\nappeared, and continued ringing until all were past. The whole land was\nalive. Each road and lane poured forth its separate concourse to swell\nthe ranks of the great Procession. The weather, after one heavy final\nshower, cleared up; or, if not clear, resolved itself into that\nindescribable mixture of sunshine and cloud which sets off the beauties\nof the undulating landscape so well, light alternating with shadow, and,\non the ridges of the distant hills, contending radiance and gloom.\n\nOn they went, with banners flying and a perfect storm of music, across\nthe new Bridge of Doon, deploying along the road on the opposite side of\nthe river, and finally recrossing by the old bridge, from which they\nfiled past in front of the Platform. The order of the Procession was as\nfollows:--\n\n    BAND OF THE 87TH FUSILIERS.\n    Provost, Magistrates, Town-Council, and Trades of Ayr.\n\n    FIVE BAGPIPERS IN HIGHLAND COSTUME.\n\n    FARMERS AND SHEPHERDS.\n\n    Dalrymple Burns's Club, with banners and music.\n    Motto, \"Firm.\"\n\n    KILWINNING BAND.\n    Kilwinning Mother Lodge of Freemasons.\n\n    CUMNOCK BAND.\n    London Newmilns Lodge.\n\n    IRVINE BAND.\n    Troon Navigation Lodge.\n    Girvan Masons.\n    St James's, Tarbolton.\n    St John's, Ayr.\n    Thistle and Rose, Stevenston.\n    St John's, Largs.\n    Glasgow Star.\n\n    ST ANDREW'S BAND.\n    Royal Arch, Maybole.\n    St Paul's, Ayr.\n    St Andrew's, Ayr.\n    St John's, Girvan.\n    St James's, Kilmarnock.\n    St Peter's, Galston.\n    St John's, New Cumnock.\n    Junior or Knights Templars, Maybole.\n\n    SALTCOATS BAND.\n    St John's, Dalry.\n\n    KILBARCHAN BAND.\n    St John's, Greenock.\n    Shoemakers as follows:--\n    Champion.\n    British Prince and attendants.\n    Indian Prince and Train.\n\n    CATRINE BAND.\n    King Crispin and Train.\n    Souter Johnie, in character.\n    Highland Chieftains.\n\n    GREENOCK BAND.\n    Lodge of Odd Fellows.\n\n    BAND.\n    Robert Burns's Lodge, Beith.\n\n    AYR BAND.\n    Banks of Ayr Lodge of Odd Fellows.\n    Sir T. Makdougall Brisbane Lodge, Largs.\n    Ancient Order of Foresters, Glasgow.\n    Captain mounted, with Bow and Arrows.\n\n    KILMARNOCK BAND.\n    Kilmarnock Burns's Lodge of Foresters.\n    Weavers from Maybole.\n\n    MAYBOLE BAND.\n    Tailors of Maybole.\n\n    MAUCHLINE BAND.\n    Boxmakers of Mauchline, with large Scotch Thistle, carried\n    shoulder-high by Four men, and Banner, inscribed,\n\n    \"I turn'd my weeder-clips aside,\n    And spared the Symbol dear.\"\n\n    The Party were on the Establishment of Messrs W. and A. Smith. The\n    Thistle grew near to Mossgiel.\n\n    Caledonian Union Odd Fellows, Dunlop. (Deputations of the Magistracy\n    joined in the Procession from Dumbarton, Dunlop, Maybole, and Irvine.)\n\nThe effect of the Procession as seen from the Platform almost baffles\nthe power of description. The wailing of the bagpipes and the crash of\nthe bands were heard from the bosom of deep wood-thicket behind, long\nbefore the ranks became visible. At length, among the trees that skirted\nthe opposite banks, there was a glittering of lances, and a lifting of\nbanners, and a dark-growing line of men, in closest order, marching as\nif to battle. Gradually it flowed on, in continuous stream, file\nsucceeding to file without gap or intermission, until the head of the\ncolumn appeared recrossing by the Old Bridge, and winding up the road\ntowards the Platform; and still new banners rose up behind, and fresh\nstrains of music burst forth amidst the leafy screen. And now they\nreached the platform: lance and flag were lowered in honour of those who\nstood bareheaded above, and deafening were the cheers that ushered in\nthe arrival of the national pageant. The spectacle was most imposing,\nand must have conveyed to the minds of the strangers present a vivid\nimpression of the energy and enthusiasm so deeply implanted in the\nScottish character, and always so irresistibly manifested at the\ntouching of a national chord. The most interesting part of the\nProcession by far was the array of Farmers and Shepherds, the flower of\nthe west-country yeomanry, attired in the graceful plaid. Of that same\nbreed of men, of tall and compact mould and hardy sinew, was Robert\nBurns; nor is it possible to imagine any thing more animated than the\nappearance of those stalwart sons of the soil, as they lingered for a\nmoment before the platform, and looked with wistful eyes at the sons of\nthe Poet, if haply they might trace in their lineaments some resemblance\nto the features of him whom, from their infancy, they had learned to\nlove. Then came the Freemasons, and King Crispin with his train, and the\nArchers, and much more of old Scottish device, until there seemed no end\nto the flowing tide of population, all keen, and joyful, and exultant.\nBut the full burst of enthusiasm was reserved for the close. In the rear\nof all appeared an enormous Thistle borne shoulder high; and no sooner\nwas the national emblem in sight, than a universal and long-continued\ncheer burst forth from the many thousands who were now congregated in\nthe plain beyond. Alas, for that thistle! Though Burns, as the\ninscription bore,\n\n    \"Had turn'd his weeder-clips aside,\n    And spared the symbol dear,\"\n\nsuch was not the fate of the offspring plant. Scarcely had it reached\nthe platform, when Christopher North violently possessed himself of one\nbranch, the Lord Justice-General seized upon another, and in the\ntwinkling of an eye it was torn into fragments, and its rough leaves and\nrougher flowers displayed upon manly bosoms, from which it would have\nbeen difficult to wrest them again. So closed the Procession--but not\nthe gathering. Deafening were the cheers which followed for Burns--for\nhis Sons--for Professor Wilson--for Lord Eglinton; until the last\nremnant of reserve gave way, and a torrent of people swept forward to\nobtain, if possible, a pressure of their hands that were gladly and\ngratefully held forth. Descending from the Platform, we entered the\nmeadow-ground beyond, where the multitude were now assembled. One of the\nbands struck up the beautiful air--\"Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon;\"\nand immediately the People, as if actuated by one common impulse, took\nup the strain, and a loftier swell of music never rose beneath the cope\nof heaven. We thought of the fine lines of Elliott--\n\n    \"To other words, while forest echoes ring,\n    'Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon,' they sing;\n    And far below, the drover, with a start\n    Awaking, listens to the well-known strain,\n    Which brings Schehallion's shadow to his heart,\n    And Scotia's loveliest vales: then sleeps again,\n    And dreams on Loxley's banks of Dunsinane.\"\n\nFew could abstain from tears as the last glorious note died solemnly\naway into the skies. We looked down from the top of the pavilion-stairs\nupon the vast multitude beneath. There could not have been less than\n80,000 souls collected upon the ground. Of all that mighty mass, not\none man had thrown discredit upon the harmony and order of the day.\nEvery face glowed with happiness and congratulation, as if conscious\nthat a good work had been done, and that the nation had at length\ndischarged the duty which she owed to one of her most gifted sons.\n\n\nTHE BANQUET.\n\nThe company began to enter the Pavilion almost immediately after the\nclose of the Procession, and the chair was taken about two o'clock. The\nPavilion was erected in a field of twenty-two acres, adjoining to the\nMonument, and was a magnificent building. It measured not less than 120\nfeet by 110, forming nearly a perfect square. The roof, supported by two\nrows of pillars, was covered with waterproof felt, and the building\ninside was lined with white cloth, festooned with crimson. In the centre\nof the roof was a radiation of the same colours. The tables and seats\nwere arranged in parallel lines from the head to the foot of the\napartment, rising with a gentle inclination from the middle on both\nsides. At each end there was an elevated table for the Chairman,\nCroupier, and their respective supporters; and on the two remaining\nsides of the square there were _vis-a-vis_ galleries for the\ninstrumental band and glee-singers, a pianoforte for the accompaniment\nto Mr Templeton being placed in front of the latter, at which Mr Blewitt\ntook his station. Mr Templeton, between the speeches, sang, with great\npower and sweetness, appropriate songs from Burns; and Mr Blewitt's\nperformance was admirable. Mr Wilson came from Paris to the Festival;\nbut unfortunately was prevented by severe illness from delighting the\nassembly with his exquisite strains. The hall was lighted by twenty-two\nglass windows, shaded with white cloth. The chairman and croupier's\nseats were of oak, made of the rafters of Alloway Kirk; and several\nsplendid silver vases decorated their tables. The hall was seated to\naccommodate 2000 persons, and was entirely filled, although not\ninconveniently crowded.\n\nThe distinguishing feature of the pavilion was the number of ladies who\nwere present. A great room exclusively filled with men, is at best a\ndull and sombre spectacle; and so far from social, that it always\nconveys to us a gross idea of selfishness. The mere scenic effect on\nthis occasion was immensely heightened by the adoption of the polite\nrule; nor can it be doubted that the tone of the meeting underwent a\nsimilar improvement.\n\nThe Chairman, the Right Hon. the Earl of Eglinton, was supported on the\nright by Robert Burns, Esq., late of the Stamps and Taxes, Somerset\nHouse, London, eldest son of the poet; Major Burns, youngest son of the\npoet; Miss Begg, niece of the poet; Henry Glassford Bell, Esq.,\nSheriff-Substitute of Lanarkshire; Rev. Mr Cuthill, Ayr; Mr Robert Burns\nBegg, teacher, Kinross, nephew of the poet; Miss Begg, the younger niece\nof the poet; Mr and Mrs Thomson of Dumfries, (the latter the Jessie\nLewars of the bard, who tended his deathbed;)--on the left, by Colonel\nBurns, second son of the poet; Mrs Begg, sister of the poet; Sir John\nM'Neill, Bart., late Plenipotentiary to the Court of Persia; the Right\nHon. Lord Justice-General; the Countess of Eglinton; Sir D. H. Blair,\nBart., of Blairquhan. The Croupier, Professor Wilson, was supported on\nthe right by Archibald Alison, Esq., Sheriff of Lanarkshire, and author\nof the History of Europe; Colonel Mure of Caldwell, author of Travels in\nGreece; William E. Aytoun, Esq., Advocate; A. Hastie, Esq., M.P. for\nPaisley; Jas. Oswald, Esq., M.P. for Glasgow;--on the left by Sir James\nCampbell, Glasgow; Provost Miller, Ayr; James Ballantine, Esq. of\nCastlehill; Charles Mackay, Esq., London; James Campbell, Esq. of\nCraigie.\n\nThe Rev. Mr CUTHILL of Ayr asked the blessing.\n\nThe Earl of EGLINTON, after the usual loyal toasts, rose and spoke as\nfollows:--Ladies and gentlemen, The subject of the toast which I have\nnow the honour to bring before your notice, is one of such paramount\nimportance on this occasion, and is so deeply interesting, not only to\nthose whom I am addressing, but to all to whom genius is dear, that I\ncould have wished that it had been committed to more worthy hands; more\nespecially when I see the great assemblage collected here--the\ndistinguished persons who grace our board to-day. It is only because I\nconceive that my official position renders me the most formal and\nfitting, though most inefficient, mouthpiece of the inhabitants of this\ncounty, that I have ventured to present myself before you on this\noccasion, and to undertake the onerous, though most gratifying, duty of\nproposing, in such an assemblage, the thrilling toast--\"The Memory of\nBurns.\" This is not a meeting for the purpose of recreation and\namusement--it is not a banquet at which a certain number of toasts are\nplaced on paper, which must be received with due marks of\napprobation--it is the enthusiastic desire of a whole people to pay\nhonour to their greatest countryman. It is the spontaneous outpouring of\na nation's feeling towards the illustrious dead, and the wish to extend\nthe hand of welcome and of friendship to those whom he has left behind.\nHere on the very spot where the Poet first drew breath, on the very\nground which his genius has hallowed, beside the Old Kirk which his\nverse has immortalized, beneath the monument which an admiring and\nrepentant people have raised to his memory, we meet after the lapse of\nyears, to pay our homage at the shrine of genius. The master mind who\nhas sung the \"Isle of Palms\"--who has revelled in the immortal\n\"Noctes\"--and who has already done that justice to the memory of Burns\nwhich a brother poet alone can do--Christopher himself is here, anxious\nto pay his tribute of admiration to a kindred spirit. The historian who\nhas depicted, with a Gibbon's hand, the eventful period of the French\nempire, and the glorious victories of Wellington, is here--a Clio, as it\nwere, offering a garland to Erato. The distinguished head of the\nScottish bench is here. In short, every town and every district, every\nclass and every age, has come forward to pay homage to their poet. The\nhonest lads whom he so praised, and whose greatest boast it is that they\nbelong to the land of Burns, are here. The fair lasses whom he so loved\nand sung, have flocked hither to justify, by their loveliness, their\npoet's words. While the descendant of those who dwelt in the \"Castle o'\nMontgomerie,\" feels himself only too highly honoured by being permitted\nto propose the memory of him who wandered then unknown along the banks\nof Fail. How little could the pious old man who dwelt in yon humble\ncottage, when he read the \"big ha' bible\"--\"his lyart haffets wearing\nthin and bare\"--have guessed that the infant prattling on his knee was\nto be the pride and admiration of his country; that that infant was to\nbe enrolled a chief among the poetic band; that he was to take his place\nas one of the brightest planets that glitter round the mighty sun of the\nBard of Avon! In originality second to none, in the fervent expression\nof deep feeling, and in the keen perception of the beauties of nature,\nequal to any who ever reveled in the bright fairyland of poesy, well may\nwe rejoice that Burns is our own--well may we rejoice that no other land\ncan claim to be the birthplace of our Homer except the hallowed spot on\nwhich we stand! Oh! that he could have foreseen the futurity of fame he\nhas created to himself--oh! that he could have foreseen this day, when\nthe poet and the historian, the manly and the fair, the peer and the\npeasant, vie with each other in paying their tribute of admiration to\nthe untaught but mighty genius whom we hail as the first of Scottish\npoets! It might have alleviated the dreary days of his sojourn at\nMossgiel--it might have lightened the last hours of his pilgrimage upon\nearth. And well does he deserve such homage. He who portrayed the\n\"Cottar's Saturday Night\" in strains that are unrivaled in simplicity,\nand yet fervour--in solemnity, and in truth--He who breathed forth the\npatriotic words which tell of the glories of Wallace, and immortalize\nalike the poet and the hero--He who culled inspiration from the modest\ndaisy, and yet thundered forth the heroic strains of \"The Song of\nDeath\"--He who murmured words which appear the very incarnation of\npoetry and of love, and yet hurled forth the bitterest shafts of\nsatire--a Poet by the hand of nature, despising, as it were, the rules\nof art, and yet triumphing over those very rules which he set at\nnought--at whose name every Scottish heart beats high--whose name has\nbecome a household word in the cottage as in the palace--to whom shall\nwe pay our homage, of whom shall we be proud, if it is not our own\nimmortal Burns? But I feel that I am detaining you too long. I feel\nthat, in the presence of a Wilson and an Alison, I am not a fit person\nto dilate upon the genius of Burns. I am but an admirer of the poet like\nyourselves. There are those present who are brother poets and kindred\ngeniuses--men who, like Burns, have gained for themselves a glorious\nimmortality. To them will I commit the grateful task of more fully\ndisplaying before you, decked out by their eloquence, the excellences of\nthe poet, the genius of the man, and to welcome his sons to the land of\ntheir father: and I will only ask you, in their presence--on the ground\nwhich his genius has rendered sacred--on the \"banks and braes o' bonny\nDoon\"--to join with me in drinking an overflowing bumper, and giving it\nevery expression of enthusiasm which you can, to \"The Memory of Burns!\"\n\nMr ROBERT BURNS rose along with his brothers, and was received with\nenthusiastic cheering. He said--My lord, ladies, and gentlemen, Of\ncourse it cannot be expected, at a meeting such as the present, that the\nsons of Burns should expatiate on the merits and genius of their\ndeceased father. Around them are an immense number of admirers, who, by\ntheir presence here this day, bear a sufficient testimony to the opinion\nin which they hold his memory, and the high esteem in which they hold\nhis genius. In the language of the late Sir Christopher Wren, though\nvery differently applied, the sons of Burns can say, that to obtain a\nliving testimony to their father's genius they have only to look around\nthem. I beg, in name of my aunt, brothers, and myself, to return our\nheartfelt and grateful thanks for the honour that has this day been paid\nto my father's memory.\n\nPROFESSOR WILSON then rose and said--Were this Festival but to\ncommemorate the genius of Burns, and it were asked, what need now for\nsuch commemoration, since his fame is coextensive with the literature of\nthe land, and enshrined in every household? I might answer, that\nalthough admiration of the poet be wide as the world, yet we, his\ncompatriots, to whom he is especially dear, rejoice to see the universal\nsentiment concentered in one great assemblage of his own people: that we\nmeet in thousands and tens of thousands to honour him, who delights each\nsingle one of us at his own hearth. But this commemoration expresses,\ntoo, if not a profounder, a more tender sentiment; for it is to welcome\nhis sons to the land he has illustrated, so that we may at once indulge\nour national pride in a great name, and gratify in filial hearts the\nmost pious of affections. There was, in former times, a custom of\ncrowning great poets. No such ovation honoured our bard, though he too\ntasted of human applause, felt its delights, and knew the trials that\nattend it. Which would Burns himself have preferred, a celebration like\nthis in his lifetime, or fifty years after his death? I venture to say,\nhe would have preferred the posthumous as the finer incense. The honour\nand its object are then seen in juster proportion; for death confers an\nelevation which the candid soul of the poet would have considered, and\nsuch honour he would rather have reserved for his manes, than have\nencountered it with his living infirmities. And could he have foreseen\nthe day, when they for whom at times he was sorely troubled, should,\nafter many years of separation, return to the hut where himself was\nborn, and near it, within the shadow of his monument, be welcomed for\nhis sake by the lords and ladies of the land; and--dearer thought still\nto his manly breast--by the children and the children's children of\npeople of his own degree, whose hearts he sought to thrill by his first\nvoice of inspiration; surely had the Vision been sweeter to his soul\nthan even that immortal one, in which the Genius of the Land bound the\nholly round his head, the lyric crown that it will wear for ever.\n\nOf his three Sons sitting here, one only can remember their father's\nface--those large lustrous eyes of his, so full of many meanings, as\nthey darkened in thought, melted in melancholy, or kindled in mirth, but\nnever turned on his children, or on their excellent mother, but with one\nof tender or intense affection. That son may even on this day have\nremembrance of his father's head, with its dark clusters not unmixed\nwith gray, and those eyes closed, lying upon the bed of death. Nor,\nshould it for a moment placidly appear, is such image unsuitable to this\nfestival. For in bidding welcome to his sons to their father's land, I\nfeel that, while you have conferred on me a high honour, you have\nlikewise imposed on me a solemn duty; and, however inadequately I may\ndischarge it, I trust that in nought shall I do any violence to the\nspirit either of humanity or of truth.\n\nI shall speak reverently of Burns's character in hearing of his sons;\nbut not even in their hearing must I forget what is due always to\nestablished judgment of the everlasting right. Like all other mortal\nbeings; he had his faults--great even in the eyes of men--grievous in\nthe eyes of Heaven. Never are they to be thought of without sorrow, were\nit but for the misery with which he himself repented them. But as there\nis a moral in every man's life, even in its outward condition\nimperfectly understood, how much more affecting when we read it in\nconfessions wrung out by remorse from the greatly gifted, the gloriously\nendowed! But it is not his faults that are remembered here--assuredly\nnot these we meet to honour. To deny error to be error, or to extenuate\nits blame, _that_ makes the outrage upon sacred truth; but to forget\nthat it exists, or if not wholly so, to think of it along with that\nunder-current of melancholy emotion at all times accompanying our\nmeditations on the mixed characters of men--_that_ is not only\nallowable, but it is ordered--it is a privilege dear to humanity--and\nwell indeed might he tremble for himself who should in this be deaf to\nthe voice of nature crying from the tomb.\n\nAnd mark how graciously in this does time aid the inclinations of\ncharity! Its shadows soften what they may not hide. In the distance,\ndiscordances that once jarred painfully on our ears are now\nundistinguishable--lost in the music sweet and solemn, that comes from\nafar with the sound of a great man's name. It is consolatory to see,\nthat the faults of them whom their people honour grow fainter and\nfainter in the national memory, while their virtues wax brighter and\nmore bright; and if injustice have been done to them in life, (and who\nnow shall dare to deny that cruelest injustice was done to Burns?) each\nsucceeding generation becomes more and more dutiful to the\ndead--desirous to repair the wrong by profounder homage. As it is by his\nvirtues that man may best hope to live in the memory of man, is there\nnot something unnatural, something monstrous, in seeking to eternize\nhere below, that of which the proper doom is obscurity and oblivion? How\nbeneficent thus becomes the power of example! The good that men do then\nindeed \"lives after them\"--all that was ethereal in their being alone\nsurvives--and thus ought our cherished memories of our best men--and\nBurns was among our best--to be invested with all consistent\nexcellences; for far better may their virtues instruct us by the love\nwhich they inspire, than ever could their vices by aversion.\n\nTo dwell on the goodnesses of the great shows that we are at least\nlovers of virtue--that we may ourselves be aspiring to reach her serene\nabodes. But to dwell on their faults, and still more to ransack that we\nmay record them, _that_ is the low industry of envy, which, grown into a\nhabit, becomes malice, at once hardening and embittering the heart.\nSuch, beyond all doubt, in the case of our great poet, was the source of\nmany \"a malignant truth and lie,\" fondly penned, and carefully corrected\nfor the press, by a class of calumniators that may never be extinct;\nfor, by very antipathy of nature, the mean hate the magnanimous, the\ngroveling them who soar. And thus, for many a year, we heard \"souls\nignoble born to be forgot\" vehemently expostulating with some puny\nphantom of their own heated fancy, as if _it_ were the majestic shade of\nBurns evoked from his Mausoleum for contumely and insult.\n\nOften, too, have we been told by persons somewhat presumptuously\nassuming the office of our instructors, to beware how we suffer our\nadmiration of genius to seduce us from our reverence of virtue. Never\ncease to remember--has been still their cry--how far superior is moral to\nintellectual worth. Nay, they have told us that they are not akin in\nnature. But akin they are; and grief and pity 'tis that ever they should\nbe disunited. But mark in what a hateful, because hypocritical spirit,\nsuch advices as these have not seldom been proffered, till salutary\ntruths were perverted by misapplication into pernicious falsehoods. For\nthese malignant counsellors sought not to elevate virtue, but to degrade\ngenius; and never in any other instance have they stood forth more\nglaringly self-convicted of the most wretched ignorance of the nature\nboth of the one and the other, than in their wilful blindness to so many\nof the noblest attributes of humanity in the character of Burns. Both\ngifts are alike from heaven, and both alike tend heavenward. Therefore we\nlament to see genius soiled by earthly stain; therefore we lament to see\nvirtue, where no genius is, fall before the tempter. But we, in our own\nclear natural perceptions, refuse the counsels of those who with the very\nbreath of their warning would blight the wreath bound round the heads of\nthe Muses' sons by a people's gratitude--who, in affected zeal for\nreligion and morality, have so deeply violated the spirit of both, by\nvile misrepresentations, gross exaggerations, and merciless denunciations\nof the frailties of our common nature in illustrious men--men who, in\nspite of their aberrations, more or less deplorable, from the right path,\nwere not only in their prevailing moods devout worshippers of virtue, but\nin the main tenor or their lives exemplary to their brethren. And such a\nman was Burns. In boyhood--youth--manhood--where such peasant as he? And\nif in trouble and in trial, from which his country may well turn in\nself-reproach, he stood not always fast, yet shame and sin it were, and\nindelible infamy, were she not _now_ to judge his life as Christianity\ncommands. Preyed upon, alas! by those anxieties that pierce deepest into\nthe noblest hearts--anxieties for the sakes--even on account of the very\nmeans of subsistence--of his own household and his own hearth--yet was he\nin his declining, shall we call them disastrous years, on the whole\nfaithful to the divine spirit with which it had pleased Heaven to endow\nhim--on the whole obedient to its best inspirations; while he rejoiced to\nillumine the paths of poverty with light which indeed was light on\nheaven, and from an inexhaustible fancy, teeming to the genial warmth of\nthe heart in midst of chill and gloom, continued to the very last to\nstrew along the weary ways of this world flowers so beautiful in their\nfreshness, that to eyes too familiar with tears they looked as if dropped\nfrom heaven.\n\nThese are sentiments with which I rejoice to hear the sympathy of this\ngreat assemblage thus unequivocally expressed--for my words but awaken\nthoughts lodged deep in all considerate hearts. For which of us is there\nin whom, known or unknown, alas! there is not much that needs to be\nforgiven? Which of us that is not more akin to Burns in his fleshly\nfrailties then in his diviner spirit? That conviction regards not merely\nsolemn and public celebrations of reverential memory--such as this; it\npervades the tenor of our daily life, runs in our heart's-blood, sits at\nour hearths, wings our loftiest dreams of human exaltation. How, on this\nearth, could we love, or revere, or emulate, if, in our contemplation of\nthe human being, we could not sunder the noble, the fair, the gracious,\nthe august, from the dregs of mortality, from the dust that hangs\nperishably about him the imperishable? We judge in love, that in love we\nmay be judged. At our hearthsides, we gain more than we dared desire, by\nmutual mercy; at our hearthsides, we bestow and receive a better love,\nby this power of soft and magnanimous oblivion. We are ourselves the\ngainers, when thus we honour the great dead. _They_ hear not--_they_\nfeel not, excepting by an illusion of our own moved imaginations, which\nfill up chasms of awful, impassable separation; but _we_ hear--_we_\nfeel; and the echo of the acclaim which hills and skies have this day\nrepeated, we can carry home in our hearts, where it shall settle down\ninto the composure of love and pity, and admiration and gratitude, felt\nto be due for ever to our great poet's shade.\n\nIn no other spirit could genius have ever dared, in elegies and hymns,\nto seek to perpetuate at once a whole people's triumph, and a whole\npeople's grief, by celebration of king, sage, priest, or poet, gone to\nhis reward. From the natural infirmities of his meanest subject, what\nKing was ever free? Against the golden rim that rounds his mortal\ntemples come the same throbbings from blood in disease or passion\nhurrying from heart to brain, as disturb the aching head of the poor\nhind on his pallet of straw. But the king had been a guardian, a\nrestorer, a deliverer; therefore his sins are buried or burned with his\nbody; and all over the land he saved, generation after generation\ncontinues to cry aloud--\"O king, live for ever!\" The Sage who, by long\nmeditation on man's nature and man's life, has seen how liberty rests on\nlaw, rights on obligations, and that his passions must be fettered, that\nhis will be free--how often has he been overcome, when wrestling in\nagony with the powers of evil, in that seclusion from all trouble in\nwhich reverent admiration nevertheless believes that wisdom for ever\nserenely dwells! The Servant of God, has he always kept his heart pure\nfrom the world, nor ever held up in prayer other than spotless hands? A\nhumble confession of his own utter unworthiness would be his reply alike\nto scoffer and to him who believes. But, unterrified by plague and\npestilence, he had carried comfort into houses deserted but by sin and\ndespair; or he had sailed away, as he truly believed for ever, to savage\nlands, away from the quiet homes of Christian men--among whom he might\nhave hoped to lead a life of peace, it may be of affluence and\nhonour--for his Divine Master's sake, and for sake of them sitting in\ndarkness and in the shadow of death. Therefore his name dies not, and\nall Christendom calls it blest. From such benefactors as these there may\nseem to be, but there is not, a deep descent to them who have done their\nservice by what one of the greatest of them all has called \"the vision\nand the faculty divine\"--them to whom have been largely given the powers\nof fancy and imagination and creative thought, that they might move\nmen's hearts, and raise men's souls, by the reflection of their own\npassions and affections in poetry, which is still an inspired speech.\nNor have men, in their judgment of the true Poets, dealt otherwise with\nthem than with patriot kings, benign legislators, and holy priests.\nThem, too, when of the highest, all nations and ages have reverenced in\ntheir gratitude. Whatever is good and great in man's being seems\nshadowed in the name of Milton; and though he was a very man in the\nstorms of civil strife that shook down the throne at the shedding of the\nblood of kings, nevertheless, we devoutly believe with Wordsworth, that\n\n    \"His soul was like a star, and dwelt apart.\"\n\nBut not of such as he only, who \"in darkness, and with danger compassed\nround,\" soared \"beyond this visible diurnal sphere,\" and whose song was\nof mercy and judgment, have men wisely resolved to dwell only on what is\npure and high and cognate with their thoughts of heaven. Still, as we\nkeep descending from height to height in the regions of song, we desire\nto regard with love the genius that beautifies wherever it settles down;\nand, if pity will steal in for human misfortunes, or for human frailties\nreproach, our love suffers no abatement, and religious men feel that\nthere is piety in pilgrimage to such honoured graves. So feel we now at\nthis commemoration. For our Poet we now claim the privilege, at once\nbright and austere, of death. We feel that our Burns is brought within\nthe justification of all celebrations of human names; and that, in thus\nhonouring his memory, we virtuously exercise the imaginative rights of\nenthusiasm owned by every people that has produced its great men.\n\nAnd with a more especial propriety do we claim this justice in our\ntriumphal celebration of poets, who, like Burns, were led by the\ncharacter of their minds to derive the matter and impulse of their song,\nin a stricter sense, from themselves. For they have laid bare to all\neyes many of their own weaknesses, at the side of their higher and purer\naspirations. Unreserved children of sincerity, by the very\nopen-heartedness which is one great cause of their commanding power, and\ncontagiously diffuses every zealous affection originating in their\nnobility of nature--by this grown to excess, made negligent of\ninstinctive self-defence, and heedless of misconstruction, or overcome\nby importunate and clinging temptations--to what charges have they not\nbeen exposed from that proneness to disparaging judgments so common in\nlittle minds! For such judgments are easy indeed to the very lowest\nunderstandings, and regard things that are visible to eyes that may\nseldom have commerced with things that are above. But they who know\nBurns as we know him, know that by this sometimes unregulated and\nunguarded sympathy with all appertaining to his kind, and especially to\nhis own order, he was enabled to receive into himself all modes of their\nsimple, but not undiversified life, so that his poetry murmurs their\nloves and joys from a thousand fountains. And suppose--which was the\ncase--that this unguarded sympathy, this quick sensibility, and this\nvivid capacity of happiness which the moment brings, and the frankness\nof impulse, and the strength of desire, and the warmth of blood, which\nhave made him what he greatly is, which have been fire and music in his\nsong, and manhood, and courage, and endurance, and independence in his\nlife, have at times betrayed or overmastered him--to turn against him\nall this self-painting and self-revealing, is it not ungrateful,\nbarbarous, inhuman? Can he be indeed a true lover of his kind, who would\nrecord in judgment against such a man words that have escaped him in the\nfervour of the pleading designed to uphold great causes dear to\nhumanity?--who would ignobly strike the self-disarmed?--scornfully\ninsult him who, kneeling at the Muses' confessional, whispers secrets\nthat take wings and fly abroad to the uttermost parts of the earth? Can\nthey be lovers of the people who do so? who find it in their hearts thus\nto think, and speak, and write of Robert Burns?--He who has reconciled\npoverty to its lot, toil to its taskwork, care to its burden--nay, I\nwould say even--grief to its grave? And by one Immortal Song has\nsanctified for ever the poor man's Cot--by such a picture as only\ngenius, in the inspiring power of piety, could have painted; has given\nenduring life to the image--how tender and how true!--of the Happy Night\npassing by sweet transition from this worky world into the Hallowed Day,\nby God's appointment breathing a heavenly calm over all Christian\nregions in their rest--nowhere else so profoundly--and may it never be\nbroken!--as over the hills and valleys of our beloved, and yet religious\nland!\n\nIt cannot be said that the best biographers of Burns, and his best\ncritics, have not done, or desired to do, justice to his character as\nwell as to his genius; and, according as the truth has been more\nentirely and fearlessly spoken, has he appeared the nobler and nobler\nman. All our best poets, too, have exultingly sung the worth, while they\nmourned the fate of him, the brightest of the brotherhood. But above,\nand below, and round about all that they have been uttering, has all\nalong been heard a voice, which they who know how to listen for it can\nhear, and which has pronounced a decision in his favour not to be\nreversed; for on earth it cannot be carried to a higher tribunal. A\nvoice heard of old on great national emergencies, when it struck terror\ninto the hearts of tyrants, who quaked, and quailed, and quitted for aye\nour land before \"the unconquered Caledonian spear\"--nor, since our union\nwith noblest England, ever slack to join with her's and fervid Erin's\nsons, the thrice-repeated cry by which battle-fields are cleared; but\nhappier, far happier to hear, in its low deep tone of peace. For then it\nis like the sound of distant waterfalls, the murmur of summer woods, or\nthe sea rolling in its rest. I mean the Voice of the People of\nScotland--the Voice of her Peasantry and her Trades--of all who earn\ntheir bread by the sweat of their brow--her Working Men.\n\nI presume not to draw their character. But this much I will say, that in\nthe long run they know whom it is fitting they should honour and love.\nThey will not be dictated to in their choice of the names that with\nthem shall be household words. Never, at any period of their history,\nhave they been lightly moved; but, when moved, their meaning was not to\nbe mistaken; tenacious their living grasp as the clutch of death; though\nforce may wrench the weapon from their hands, no force can wrench the\nworship from their hearts. They may not be conversant with our written\nannals; but in our oral traditions they are familiar with historic\ntruths--grand truths conceived according to the People's idea of their\nown national mind, as their hearts have kindled in imagination of heroic\nor holy men. Imaginary but real--for we all believe that men as good, as\nwise, as brave, have been amongst us as ever fancy fabled for a people's\nreverence. What manner of men have been their darlings? It would be hard\nto say; for their love is not exclusive--it is comprehensive. In the\nnational memory live for ever characters how widely different!--with all\nthe shades, fainter or darker, of human infirmity! For theirs is not the\nsickly taste that craves for perfection where no frailties are. They do\nnot demand in one and the same personage inconsistent virtues. But they\ndo demand sincerity, and integrity, and resolution, and independence,\nand an open front, and an eye that fears not to look in the face of\nclay! And have not the grave and thoughtful Scottish people always\nregarded with more especial affection those who have struggled with\nadversity--who have been tried by temptations from without or from\nwithin--now triumphant, now overcome--but, alike in victory or defeat,\ntestifying by their conduct that they were animated by no other desire\nso steadily as by love of their country and its people's good? Not those\nwho have been favourites of fortune, even though worthy of the smiles in\nwhich they basked; but those who rose superior to fortune, who could not\nfrown them down. Nor have they withheld their homage from the\nunfortunate in this world of chance and change, if, in abasement of\ncondition, by doing its duties they upheld the dignity of their own\nnature, and looked round them on their honest brethren in poverty with\npride.\n\nAnd how will such a people receive a great National Poet? How did they\nreceive Burns? With instant exultation. At once, they knew of\nthemselves, before critics and philosophers had time to tell them, that\na great Genius of their own had risen, and they felt a sudden charm\ndiffused over their daily life. By an inexplicable law, humour and\npathos are dependent on the same constitution of mind; and in his Poems\nthey found the very soul of mirth, the very soul of sadness, as they\nthought it good with him to be merry, or to remember with him, \"that man\nwas made to mourn.\" But besides what I have said of them, the people of\nScotland hold in the world's repute--signally so--the name of a\nreligious people. Many of them, the descendants of the old covenanters,\nheirs of the stern zeal which took up arms for the purity of the\nnational faith--still tinged, it may be, by the breath of the flame that\nthen passed over the land--retain a certain severity of religious\njudgment in questions of moral transgression, which is known to make a\npart of hereditary Scottish manners--especially in rural districts,\nwhere manners best retain their stamp. But the sound natural\nunderstanding of the Scottish peasant, I use the liberty to say, admits,\nto take their place at the side of one another, objects of his liberal\nand comprehensive regard, which might appear, to superficial observation\nand shallow judgment, to stand upon such different grounds, as that the\napprobation of the one should exclude the admiration of the other. But\nnot so. Nature in him is various as it is vigorous. He does not, with an\nover-jealous scrutiny, vainly try to reduce into seeming consistency\naffections spontaneously springing from many sources. Truth lies at the\nbottom; and, conscious of truth, he does not mistrust or question his\nown promptings. An awful reverence, the acknowledgment of a Law without\nappeal or error--Supreme, Sacred, Irresistible--rules in his judgment\nof other men's actions, and of his own. Nevertheless, under shelter and\nsanction of that rule, he feels, loves, admires, like a man. Religion\nhas raised and guards in him--it does not extinguish--the natural human\nheart. If the martyrs of his worship to him are holy--holy, too, are his\ncountry's heroes. And holy her poets--if such she have--who have\nsung--as during his too short life above them all sang Burns--for\nScotland's sake. Dear is the band that ties the humbly educated man to\nthe true national poet. To many in the upper classes he is, perhaps, but\none among a thousand artificers of amusement who entertain and scatter\nthe tedium of their idler hours. To the peasant the book lies upon his\nshelf a household treasure. There he finds depicted himself--his own\nworks and his own ways. There he finds a cordial for his drooping\nspirits, nutriment for his wearied strength. Burns is his brother--his\nhelper in time of need, when fretfulness and impatience are replaced\nwith placidity by his strains, or of a sudden with a mounting joy. And\nfar oftener than they who know not our peasantry would believe, before\ntheir souls awakened from torpor he is a luminous and benign presence in\nthe dark hut; for, in its purity and power, his best poetry is felt to\nbe inspired, and subordinate to the voice of heaven.\n\nAnd will such a people endure to hear their own Poet wronged? No, no.\nThink not to instruct _them_ in the right spirit of judgment. They have\nread the Scriptures, perhaps, to better purpose than their revilers, and\nknow better how to use the lessons learned there, applicable alike to us\nall--the lessons, searching and merciful, which proscribe mutual\njudgment amongst beings, all, in the eye of absolute Holiness and Truth,\nstained, erring, worthless: And none so well as aged religious men in\nsuch dwellings know, from their own experience, from what they have\nwitnessed among their neighbours, and from what they have read of the\nlives of good and faithful servants, out of the heart of what moral\nstorms and shipwrecks, that threatened to swallow the strong swimmer in\nthe middle passage of life, has often been landed safe at last, the\nrescued worshipper upon the firm land of quiet duties, and of years\nexempt from the hurricane of the passions! Thus thoughtfully guided in\ntheir opinion of him, who died young--cut off long before the period\nwhen others, under the gracious permission of overruling mercy, have\nbegun to redeem their errors, and fortified perhaps by a sacred office,\nto enter upon a new life--they will for ever solemnly cherish the memory\nof the Poet of the Poor. And in such sentiments there can be no doubt\nbut that all his countrymen share; who will, therefore rightfully hold\nout between Burns and all enemies a shield which clattering shafts may\nnot pierce. They are proud of him, as a lowly father is proud of an\nillustrious son. The rank and splendour attained reflects glory down,\nbut resolves not, nor weakens one single tie.\n\nAy, for many a deep reason the Scottish people love their own Robert\nBurns. Never was the personal character of poet so strongly and\nendearingly exhibited in his song. They love him, because he loved his\nown order, nor ever desired for a single hour to quit it. They love him,\nbecause he loved the very humblest condition of humanity, where every\nthing good was only the more commended to his manly mind by\ndisadvantages of social position. They love him, because he saw with\njust anger, how much the judgments of \"silly coward man\" are determined\nby such accidents, to the neglect or contempt of native worth. They love\nhim for his independence. What wonder! To be brought into contact with\nrank and wealth--a world inviting to ambition, and tempting to a\nthousand desires--and to choose rather to remain lowly and poor, than\nseek an easier or a brighter lot, by courting favour from the rich and\ngreat--was a legitimate ground of pride, if any ground of pride be\nlegitimate. He gave a tongue to this pride, and the boast is inscribed\nin words of fire in the Manual of the Poor. It was an exuberant feeling,\nas all his feelings were exuberant, and he let them all overflow. But\nsometimes, forsooth! he did not express them in sufficiently polite or\ncourteous phrase! And that too was well. He stood up not for himself\nonly, but for the great class to which he belonged, and which in his\ndays--and too often in ours--had been insulted by the pride of superior\nstation, when unsupported by personal merit, to every bold peasant a\nthing of scorn. They love him, because he vindicated the ways of God to\nman, by showing that there was more genius and virtue in huts, than was\ndreamt of in the world's philosophy. They love him for his truthful\npictures of the poor. Not there are seen slaves sullenly labouring, or\nmadly leaping in their chains; but in nature's bondage, content with\ntheir toil, sedate in their sufferings, in their recreations full of\nmirth--are seen Free Men. The portraiture, upon the whole, is felt by\nus--and they know it--to demand at times pity as a due; but challenges\nalways respect, and more than respect, for the condition which it\nglorifies. The Land of Burns! What mean we by the words? Something more,\nsurely, than that Fortune, in mere blindness, had produced a great poet\nhere? We look for the inspiring landscape, and here it is; but what\ncould all its beauties have availed, had not a people inhabited it\npossessing all the sentiments, thoughts, aspirations, to which nature\nwilled to give a voice in him of her choicest melody? Nothing\nprodigious, after all, in the birth of such a poet among such a people.\nWas any thing greater in the son than the austere resignation of the\nfather? In his humble compeers there was much of the same tender\naffection, sturdy independence, strong sense, self-reliance, as in him;\nand so has Scotland been prolific, throughout her lower orders, of men\nwho have made a figure in her literature and her history; but to Burns\nnature gave a finer organization, a more powerful heart, and an ampler\nbrain, imbued with that mystery we call genius, and he stands forth\nconspicuous above all her sons.\n\nFrom the character I have sketched of the Scottish people, of old and at\nthis day, it might perhaps be expected that much of their poetry would\nbe of a stern, fierce, or even ferocious kind--the poetry of bloodshed\nand destruction. Yet not so. Ballads enow, indeed, there are, embued\nwith the true warlike spirit--narrative of exploits of heroes. But many\na fragmentary verse, preserved by its own beauty, survives to prove that\ngentlest poetry has ever been the produce both of heathery mountain and\nbroomy brae; but the names of the sweet singers are heard no more, and\nthe plough has gone over their graves. And they had their music too,\nplaintive or dirge-like, as it sighed for the absent, or wailed for the\ndead. The fragments were caught up, as they floated about in decay; and\nby him, the sweetest lyrist of them all, were often revivified by a\nhappy word that let in a soul, or, by a few touches of his genius, the\nfragment became a whole, so exquisitely moulded, that none may tell what\nlines belong to Burns, and what to the poet of ancient days. They all\nbelong to him now, for but for him they would have perished utterly;\nwhile his own matchless lyrics, altogether original, find the breath of\nlife on the lips of a people who have gotten them all by heart. What a\ntriumph of the divine faculty thus to translate the inarticulate\nlanguage of nature into every answering modulation of human speech! And\nwith such felicity, that the verse is now as national as the music!\nThroughout all these exquisite songs, we see the power of an element\nwhich we, raised by rank and education into ignorance, might not have\nsurmised in the mind of the people. The love-songs of Burns are\nprominent in the poetry of the world by their purity. Love, truly felt\nand understood, in the bosom of a Scottish peasant, has produced a crowd\nof strains which are owned for the genuine and chaste language of the\npassion, by highly as well as by lowly born--by cultured and by ruder\nminds--that may charm in haughty saloons, not less than under\nsmoke-blackened roofs. Impassioned beyond all the songs of passion, yet,\nin the fearless fervour of remembered transports, pure as hymeneals; and\ndear, therefore, for ever to Scottish maidens in hours when hearts are\nwooed and won; dear, therefore, for ever to Scottish matrons, who, at\nhousehold work, are happy to hear them from their daughters' lips. And\nhe, too, is the Poet of their friendships. At stanzas instinct with\nblythe and cordial amities, more brotherly the grasp of peasant's in\npeasant's toil-hardened hands! The kindliness of their nature, not\nchilled, though oppressed with care, how ready at his bidding--at the\nrepeated air of a few exquisite but unsought-for words of his--to start\nup all alive! He is the Poet of all their humanities. His Daisy has made\nall the flowers of Scotland dear. His moorland has its wild inhabitants,\nwhose cry is sweet. For sake of the old dumb fellow-servant which his\nfarmer gratefully addresses on entering on another year of labour, how\nmany of its kind have been fed or spared? In the winter storm 'tis\nuseless to think of the sailor on his slippery shrouds; but the \"outland\neerie cattle\" he teaches his feres to care for in the drifting snow. In\nwhat jocund strains he celebrates their amusements, their recreations,\ntheir festivals, passionately pursued with all their pith by a people in\nthe business of life grave and determined as if it left no hours for\nplay! Gait, dress, domicile, furniture, throughout all his poetry, are\nScottish as their dialect; and sometimes, in the pride of his heart, he\nrejoices by such nationality to provoke some alien's smile. The sickle,\nthe scythe, and the flail, the spade, the mattock, and the hoe, have\nbeen taken up more cheerfully by many a toil-worn cottar, because of the\npoetry with which Burns has invested the very implements of labour. Now\nand then, too, here and there peals forth the clangour of the\nwar-trumpet. But Burns is not, in the vulgar sense, a military poet; nor\nare the Scottish, in a vulgar sense, a military people. He and they best\nlove tranquil scenes and the secure peace of home. They are prompt for\nwar, if war be needed--no more. Therefore two or three glorious strains\nhe has that call to the martial virtue quiescent in their bosoms--echoes\nfrom the warfare of their ancient self-deliverance--menacings--a\nprophetical _Nemo me impune lacesset_, should a future foe dare to\ninsult the beloved soil. So nourishes his poetry all that is tender and\nall that is stern in the national character. So does it inspire his\npeople with pride and contentment in their own peculiar lot; and as\n_that_ is at once both poetical and practical patriotism, the poet who\nthus lightens and brightens it is the best of patriots.\n\nI have been speaking of Burns as the poet of the country--and his is the\nrural, the rustic muse. But we know well that the charm of his poetry\nhas equal power for the inhabitants of towns and cities. Occupations,\nfamiliar objects, habitual thoughts, are indeed very different for the\ntwo great divisions of the people; but there is a brotherhood both of\nconsanguinity and of lot. Labour--the hand pledged to constant toil--the\ndaily support of life, won by its daily wrestle with a seemingly adverse\nbut friendly necessity--in these they are all commoners with one\nanother. He who cheers, who solaces, who inspirits, who honours, who\nexalts the lot of the labourer, is the poet alike of all the sons of\nindustry. The mechanic who inhabits a smoky atmosphere, and in whose ear\nan unwholesome din from workshop and thoroughfare rings hourly, hangs\nfrom his rafter the caged linnet; and the strain that should gush free\nfrom blossomed or green bough, that should mix in the murmur of the\nbrook, mixes in and consoles the perpetual noise of the loom or the\nforge. Thus Burns sings more especially to those whose manner of life he\nentirely shares; but he sings a precious memento to those who walk in\nother and less pleasant ways. Give then the people knowledge, without\nstint, for it nurtures the soul. But let us never forget, that the mind\nof man has other cravings--that it draws nourishment from thoughts,\nbeautiful and tender, such as lay reviving dews on the drooping fancy,\nand are needed the more by him to whom they are not wafted fresh from\nthe face of nature. This virtue of these pastoral and rural strains to\npenetrate and permeate conditions of existence different from those in\nwhich they had their origin, appears wheresoever we follow them. In the\nmine, in the dungeon, upon the great waters, in remote lands under fiery\nskies, Burns's poetry goes with his countrymen. Faithfully portrayed,\nthe image of Scotland lives there; and thus she holds, more palpably\nfelt, her hand upon the hearts of her children, whom the constraint of\nfortune or ambitious enterprise carries afar from the natal shores.\nUnrepining and unrepentant exiles, to whom the haunting recollection of\nhearth and field breathes in that dearest poetry, not with homesick\nsinkings of heart, but with home-invigorated hopes that the day will\ncome when their eyes shall have their desire, and their feet again feel\nthe greensward and the heather-bent of Scotland. Thus is there but one\nsoul in this our great National Festival; while to swell the multitudes\nthat from morning light continued flocking towards old Ayr, till at\nmid-day they gathered into one mighty mass in front of Burns's Monument,\ncame enthusiastic crowds from countless villages and towns, from our\nmetropolis, and from the great City of the West, along with the sons of\nthe soil dwelling all round the breezy uplands of Kyle, and in regions\nthat stretch away to the stormy mountains of Morven.\n\nSons of Burns! Inheritors of the name which we proudly revere, you claim\nin the glad solemnity which now unites us, a privileged and more fondly\naffectionate part. To the honour with which we would deck the memory of\nyour father, your presence, and that of your respected relatives, nor\nless that of her sitting in honour by their side, who, though not of his\nblood, did the duties of a daughter at his dying bed, give an impressive\nliving reality; and while we pay this tribute to the poet, whose glory,\nbeyond that of any other, we blend with the renown of Scotland, it is a\nsatisfaction to us, that we pour not out our praises in the dull cold\near of death. Your lives have been past for many years asunder; and now\nthat you are freed from the duties that kept you so long from one\nanother, your intercourse, wherever and whenever permitted by your\nrespective lots to be renewed, will derive additional enjoyment from the\nrecollection of this day--a sacred day indeed to brothers,\ndwelling--even if apart--in unity and peace. And there is one whose\nwarmest feelings, I have the best reason to know, are now with you and\nus, as well on your own account as for the sake of your great parent,\nwhose character he respects as much as he admires his genius, though it\nhas pleased Heaven to visit him with such affliction as might well\ndeaden even in such a heart as his all satisfaction even with this\nfestival. But two years ago, and James Burnes was the proud and happy\nfather of three sons, all worthy of their race. One only now survives;\nand may he in due time return from India to be a comfort, if but for a\nshort, a sacred season, to his old age! But Sir Alexander Burnes--a name\nthat will not die--and his gallant brother have perished, as all the\nworld knows, in the flower of their life--foully murdered in a barbarous\nland. For them many eyes have wept; and their country, whom they served\nso faithfully, deplores them among her devoted heroes. Our sympathy may\nnot soothe such grief as his; yet it will not be refused, coming to him\nalong with our sorrow for the honoured dead. Such a father of such sons\nhas far other consolations.\n\nIn no other way more acceptable to yourselves could I hope to welcome\nyou, than by thus striving to give an imperfect utterance to some of the\nmany thoughts and feelings that have been crowding into my mind and\nheart concerning your father. And I have felt all along that there was\nnot only no impropriety in my doing so, after the address of our Noble\nChairman, but that it was even the more required of me that I should\nspeak in a kindred spirit, by that very address, altogether so worthy of\nhis high character, and so admirably appropriate to the purpose of this\nmemorable day. Not now for the first time, by many times, has he shown\nhow well he understands the ties by which, in a country like this, men\nof high are connected with men of humble birth, and how amply he is\nendowed with the qualities that best secure attachment between the\nCastle and the Cottage. We rise to welcome you to your Father's land.\n\nMr ROBERT BURNS replied in the following terms:--My lord, and ladies and\ngentlemen, You may be assured that the sons of Burns feel all that they\nought to feel on an occasion so peculiarly gratifying to them, and on\naccount of so nobly generous a welcome to the Banks of Doon. In whatever\nland they have wandered--wherever they have gone--they have invariably\nfound a kind reception prepared for them by the genius and fame of their\nfather; and, under the providence of Almighty God, they owe to the\nadmirers of his genius all that they have, and what competencies they\nnow enjoy. We have no claim to attention individually--we are all aware\nthat genius, and more particularly poetic genius, is not hereditary,\nand in this case the mantle of Elijah has not descended upon Elisha. The\nsons of Burns have grateful hearts, and will remember, so long as they\nlive, the honour which has this day been conferred upon them by the\nnoble and the illustrious of our own land, and many generous and kind\nspirits from other lands--some from the far West, a country composed of\nthe great and the free, and altogether a kindred people. We beg to\nreturn our most heartfelt thanks to this numerous and highly respectable\ncompany for the honour which has been done us this day.\n\nSir JOHN M'NEILL spoke as follows:--My lord, ladies, and gentlemen--We\nhave now accomplished the main purpose of this assembly. We have done\nhonour to the memory of Burns, and have welcomed his sons to the land of\ntheir father. After the address--which I may be permitted to call the\naddress of manly eloquence--which you have heard from our Noble\nChairman; after the oration--which I may be permitted to designate as\nsolemn and beautiful--which you have heard from our worthy\nVice-chairman--I should be inexcusable were I to detain you long with\nthe subject which has been entrusted to me. The range of English poetry\nis so vast--it is profuse in so many beauties and excellences, and many\nof its great names are approached with so much habitual veneration, that\nI feel great diffidence and difficulty in addressing you on a subject on\nwhich my opinions can have little weight, and my judgment is no\nauthority; but to you, whose minds have been stirred with the lofty\nthoughts of the Poets of England, and are familiar with their beauties,\nnothing is needed to stimulate you to admire that which I am sure has\nbeen the object of your continual admiration, and the subject of your\nunfailing delight. We have been sometimes accused of a nationality which\nis too narrow and exclusive; but I hope and believe that the accusation\nis founded on misapprehension of our feelings. It is true that, as\nScotsmen, we love Scotland above every other spot on earth--that we love\nit as our early home, and our father's house. We cherish our feelings of\nnationality as we cherish our domestic affections, of which they are in\ntruth a part. But while we have these feelings, we glory in the might\nand the majesty of that great country, with which, for the happiness of\nboth, we have long been united as one nation. We are proud of the\nvictories of Cressy, of Agincourt, and of Poictiers, as if they had been\nwon by our own ancestors. And I may venture to say there is not in this\ngreat assembly one who is not proud that he can claim to be the\ncountryman of Spenser, and Shakspeare, and Milton, and Wordsworth, and\nof every one in that long list of glorious Englishmen, who have shed a\nlustre and conferred a dignity upon our language more bright and more\nmajestic than illuminates and exalts the living literature of any other\nland. There is, I think, in the history of the progress of the human\nintellect, nothing more surprising than the sudden growth of literature\nin England to the summit of its excellence. No sooner had tranquillity\nbeen restored after the long civil wars of the Roses--no sooner had\nmen's minds been set free to enter the fields of speculation opened up\nby the Reformation, than in the short space of the life of one man--than\nin the space of seventy years, there arose such men as Spenser, and\nMilton, and Shakspeare, and Sydney, and Raleigh, and Bacon, and Hobbes,\nand Cudworth, and a whole phalanx of other great men, inferior only to\nthem in the brightness of original genius. How glorious must have been\nthe soil which could bring to maturity a harvest of such teeming\nabundance! There are probably many among us who can even now remember\nwith exultation when the first ray of light was cast on their minds from\nthe genius of Spenser--as the first glimmering of day comes to him whose\nsealed eyes are opened to the light of heaven, discovering objects at\nfirst dimly and then more clearly, we at length gazed in wonder and in\njoy on a creation vaster far, and far more lovely, than it had entered\ninto our hearts to conceive. And if, in our maturer years, we return to\nlive an hour with him in the regions of fairyland that enchanted our\nyouth--if some of the flowers seem less bright, if the murmur of the\nwaters is a more pensive sound, if a soberer light pervade the scene,\nand if some of the illusions are broken for ever, we still discover in\nevery stanza beauties which escaped our earlier observation, and we\nnever lose our relish for that rich play of fancy, like the eastern\nfountain, whose spray descends in pearls and in gems. But, above all,\nwhen we look upon him with mature feelings, we can appreciate that lofty\nstrain of godly philosophy which he, the father of our poetry,\nbequeathed, and which has been followed by his successors. When we call\nto mind the influence produced on a people by the poetry of a\nnation--when we call to mind that whatever is desired to be inculcated,\nwhether for good or for evil, the power of poetry has been employed to\nadvance it, even from the times when the Monarch-Minstrel of Israel\nglorified his Maker in Psalms, to the latest attempts which have been\nmade to propagate treason, immorality, or atheism--when we thus think of\nthese things, we may learn how much of gratitude is due to those men\nwho, having had the precious ointment of poetic genius poured abundantly\non their heads, have felt and acknowledged that they were thereby\nconsecrated to the cause of virtue--who have never forgotten that there\nwas a time when\n\n                     \"The sacred name\n    Of poet and of prophet was the same.\"\n\nSuch men are Spenser, Milton--such is Wordsworth. Of Milton I shall not\nventure to speak. He stands alone in his sanctuary, which I would not\nprofane even by imperfect praise. But it is my duty to speak of\nWordsworth. Dwelling in his high and lofty philosophy, he finds nothing\nthat God has made common or unclean--he finds nothing in human society\ntoo humble, nothing in external nature too lowly, to be made the fit\nexponents of the bounty and goodness of the Most High. In the loftier\naspirations of such a mind, there must be much that is obscure to every\ninferior intelligence; and it may be that its vast expanse can only be\nbut dimly visible--it may be that the clouds of incense rising from the\naltar may veil from common eyes some portion of the stately temple they\nperfume; but we pity the man who should therefore close his eyes on a\nscene of beauty and sublimity, or turn back from the threshold of the\nnoble edifice in which he has been invited to survey the majesty of\ncreative genius, and where he will be taught to find \"Books in the\nrunning brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every thing.\"\n\n    \"Blessings be with them, and eternal praise,\n    The poets who on earth have made us heirs\n    Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays.\"\n\n    --\"Wordsworth and the Poets of England.\"\n\nHENRY GLASSFORD BELL, Esq., advocate, said--My lord, I feel it to be a\ngreat distinction and privilege to have been requested to take a part in\nthe proceedings of this day. It is a day which will not soon pass from\nthe recollection of those who have partaken in its admirably-conducted\nfestivities. In assembling to do honour to the memory of Burns, in no\nidle or frivolous spirit, but impressed with those elevated emotions\nwhich have so plainly animated the whole of this mighty gathering, we\nhave a right to feel that we do honour to ourselves as individuals, and\nas a nation. Our assembling has been prompted by a love of all that is\npurest and best in our national genius, as represented by our national\npoet. It has been prompted, too, by that indomitable love of our native\nland which Burns felt and sang--a love founded on admiration, which\ngrows with our growth and strengthens with our strength, of all that\nexternal nature here presents to us--on profound respect for our\ninestimable and time-hallowed institutions; and in never-dying delight\nin all that kindred spirits have here shared with us--in all that higher\nspirits have here achieved for us. No poet ever possessed greater\ninfluence in disseminating and strengthening such sentiments, than\nBurns. My lord, it has been well said that wherever an humble artisan,\nin the crowded haunts of labour or of trade, feels a consciousness of\nhis own dignity--is stirred with a desire for the beautiful, or haunted\nwith a dream of knowledge, or learns to appreciate the distinction\nbetween the \"guinea's stamp\" and the \"gowd,\" _there_ the royal and\ngentle spirit of Robert Burns, lion-like in its boldness, and dove-like\nin its tenderness, still glows, elevates, and inspires. This spirit is\nalso here, and has been evidenced in many ways; perhaps in none more\nthan in this, that in doing honour to the genius of Burns, we are\nirresistibly led to acknowledge, and speak of the debts we owe to the\nintellectual achievements of other great minds, not in Scotland only,\nbut in the sister countries. We have just heard, from the eloquent lips\nof Sir John M'Neill, the well-deserved praises of the English bards.\nWill this meeting refuse a similar cup of welcome, and of thanks, to the\npoets of Green Erin? Will this meeting, where so many bright eyes rain\ninfluence, and manly hearts beat high, not hail with simultaneous\ndelight the name of one who shines conspicuous as the very poet of\nyouth, of love, and of beauty--the poet, with deference be it spoken, of\nbetter things than even beauty--of gentle thoughts and exquisite\nassociations, that give additional sweetness to the twilight hour, and\nto the enjoyments of home a more endearing loveliness; the poet, too, of\nhis own high-souled country, through whose harp the common breeze of\nIreland changes, as it passes, into articulate melody--a harp that will\nnever be permitted to hang mute on Tara's walls, as long as\n\n    \"Erin! the tear and the smile in thine eye\n    Blend like the rainbow that melts in thy sky!\"\n\nHow many voices have to-day murmured a wish that he were here! But the\necho of the acclaim with which we greet the name of Moore will reach him\nin his solitude, and he will feel, what Burns died too young to feel,\nthat it is something worth living for to have gained a nation's\ngratitude. Of Maturin and others now dead, I must not pause to speak.\nBut let me be privileged to express, in name of this meeting, our\nrespect and admiration for the best of the living dramatists--one deeply\nimbued with the spirit of the Elizabethan age--one who has rescued our\nstage from the reproach which seemed ready to fall upon it--one to whose\nexuberant poetical fertility, and bold originality of thought, we are\nindebted for such beautiful creations as \"Virginius\" and \"William Tell,\"\nthe \"Hunchback\" and the \"Love Chase,\"--our valued friend, James Sheridan\nKnowles. And I might have stopped here, had it not been that I have\nto-day seen that not the gifted sons alone, but also some of the gifted\ndaughters of Ireland, have come as pilgrims to the shrine of Burns; that\none in particular, one of the most distinguished of that fair sisterhood\nwho give, by their talents, additional lustre to the genius of the\npresent day, has paid her first visit to Scotland, that she might be\npresent on this occasion, and whom have myself seen moved even to tears\nby the glory of the gathering. She is one who has lately thrown\nadditional light on the antiquities, manners, scenery, and beautiful\ntraditions of Ireland--one, whose graceful and truly feminine works are\nknown to us all, and whom we are proud to see among us--Mrs S. C. Hall.\nMy lord, feebly and briefly as I have spoken of these great names, I\nmust not trespass longer on your time, but beg to propose the health of\n\"Moore and the Irish Poets.\"\n\nARCHIBALD ALISON, Esq., Sheriff of Lanarkshire, spoke as follows:--We\nhave listened with admiration to the eloquent strains in which the first\nin rank and the first in genius have proposed the memory of the immortal\nbard whose genius we are this day assembled to celebrate; but I know not\nwhether the toast which I have now to propose, has not equal claims to\nour enthusiasm. Your kindness and that of the committee, has intrusted\nto me the memory of three illustrious men--the far-famed successors of\nBurns, who have drank deep at the fountains of his genius, and proved\nthemselves the worthy inheritors of his inspiration. And Scotland, I\nrejoice to say, can claim them all as her own. For if the Tweed has been\nimmortalized by the grave of Scott, the Clyde can boast the birthplace\nof Campbell, and the mountains of the Dee first inspired the muse of\nByron. I rejoice at that burst of patriotic feeling--I hail it as a\npresage, that as Ayrshire has raised a graceful monument to Burns, and\nEdinburgh has erected a noble structure to the Author of Waverley, so\nGlasgow will ere long raise a worthy tribute to the bard whose name will\nnever die while Hope pours its balm through the human heart; and\nAberdeen will worthily commemorate the far-famed traveller, who first\ninhaled the inspiration of nature amidst the clouds of Loch-nagarr, and\nafterwards poured the light of his genius over those lands of the sun\nwhere his descending orb set--\n\n    \"Not as in northern climes obscurely bright,\n    But one unclouded blaze of living light.\"\n\nScotland, my lord, may well be proud of such men, but she can no longer\ncall these exclusively her own; their names have become household words\nin every land. Mankind claims them as the common inheritance of the\nhuman race. Look around us, and we shall see on every side decisive\nproofs how far and wide admiration for their genius has sunk in the\nhearts of man. What is it that attracts strangers from every part of the\nworld into this distant land, and has more than compensated a remote\nsituation and a churlish soil, and given to our own Northern Isle a\nsplendour unknown to the regions of the sun? What is it which has\nbrought together this mighty assemblage, and united the ardent and the\ngenerous from every part of the world, from the Ural mountains to the\nbanks of the Mississippi, on the shores of an island in the Atlantic? My\nlord, it is neither the magnificence of our cities, nor the beauty of\nour valleys, the animation of our harbours, nor the stillness of our\nmountains; it is neither our sounding cataracts, nor our spreading\nlakes; neither the wilds of nature we have subdued so strenuously, nor\nthe blue hills we have loved so well. These beauties, great as they are,\nhave been equaled in other lands; these marvels, wondrous though they\nbe, have parallels in other climes. It is the genius of her sons which\nhas given Scotland her proud pre-eminence; this it is, more even than\nthe shades of Bruce, of Wallace, and of Mary, which has rendered her\nscenes classic ground to the whole civilized world, and now brings\npilgrims from the most distant parts of the earth, as on this day, to\nworship at the shrine of genius.\n\n    \"Yet Albyn! yet the praise be thine,\n    Thy scenes with story to combine;\n    Thou bid'st him who by Roslin strays\n    List to the tale of other days.\n    Midst Cartlane crags thou showest the cave,\n    The refuge of thy champion brave;\n    Giving each rock a storied tale,\n    Pouring a lay through every dale;\n    Knitting, as with a moral band,\n    Thy story to thy native land;\n    Combining thus the interest high\n    Which genius lends to beauty's eye!\"\n\nBut, my lord, the poet who conceived those beautiful lines, has himself\ndone more than all our ancestors' valour to immortalize the land of his\nbirth; for he has united the interest of truth with the charms of\nfiction, and peopled the realm not only with the shadows of time, but\nthe creations of genius. In those brilliant creations, as in the glassy\nwave, we behold mirrored the lights, the shadows, the forms of reality;\nand yet\n\n    \"So pure, so fair, the mirror gave,\n    As if there lay beneath the wave,\n    Secure from trouble, toil, and care,\n    A world than earthly world more fair.\"\n\nYears have rolled on, but they have taken nothing, they have added much\nto the fame of those illustrious men.\n\n    \"Time but the impression deeper makes,\n    As streams their channels deeper wear.\"\n\nThe voice of ages has spoken: it has given Campbell and Byron the\nhighest place with Burns in lyric poetry, and destined Scott\n\n    \"To rival all but Shakspeare's name below.\"\n\nTheir names now shine in unapproachable splendour, far removed, like the\nfixed stars, from the clouds and the rivalry of a lower world. To the\nend of time they will maintain their exalted station. Never will the\ncultivated traveller traverse the sea of Archipelago, that the \"Isles of\nGreece, the Isles of Greece,\" will not recur to his recollection; never\nwill he approach the shores of Loch Katrine, that the image of Ellen\nDouglas will not be present to his memory; never will he gaze on the\ncliffs of Britain, that he will not thrill at the exploits of the\n\"Mariners of England, who guard our native seas.\" Whence has arisen this\ngreat, this universally acknowledged celebrity? My lord, it is hard to\nsay whether we have most to admire the brilliancy of their fancy or the\ncreations of their genius, the beauty of their verses or the magic of\ntheir language, the elevation of their thoughts or the pathos of their\nconceptions. But there is one whose recent death we all deplore, but who\nhas lighted \"the torch of Hope at nature's funeral pile,\" who has gained\na yet higher inspiration. In Campbell it is the moral purposes to which\nhe has directed his mighty powers which is the real secret of his\nsuccess, the lofty objects to which he has devoted his life, which have\nproved his passport to immortality. It is because he has unceasingly\ncontended for the best interests of humanity, because he has ever\nasserted the dignity of the human soul, because he has never forgotten\nthat amidst all the distinctions of time,\n\n    \"The rank is but the guinea stamp,\n    The man's the gowd for a' that.\"\n\nBecause he has regarded himself as the high-priest of Nature, and the\nworld which we inhabit as the abode not merely of human care and human\njoys, but as the temple of the living God, in which praise is due, and\nwhere service is to be performed.--\"The memory of Scott, Byron, and\nCampbell.\"\n\nWILLIAM E. AYTOUN, Esq., advocate, said--We are met here to-day not only\nto pay due honour to the memory of that bard whose genius has\nconsecrated this spot, and the scenes around it, as classic ground for\never, but for a wider, a more important, and even a more generous\npurpose. I look upon this assemblage as a great national gathering--a\nmeeting not only of the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, but of\nkindly strangers also, to testify our reverence and affection for the\nliving lights of fame that are still burning amongst us, and our undying\ngratitude and exultation for those who have already passed away. Thus,\nthough they belong to the sister countries, we have paid due homage to\nthe venerable name of Wordsworth and to the sparkling genius of Moore.\nThus the heart of every one that hears me burned within him--am I not\nright?--when we saw our own noble Wilson rise amidst us, and heard him,\nwith an eloquence the most pure--for it flowed spontaneously from his\nsoul--speak, as perhaps no other man could speak, of the genius of the\nimmortal dead. Thus, too, we have heard the tribute so touchingly paid\nto Campbell, who now sleeps among the sages, and the statesmen, and the\nwarriors, and the poets of famous England; and to him who has a happier\nand a holier sepulture still--for he lies within the bosom of his own\ndear native land--to Scott, the master-spirit of the age, for whom we\nwell may mourn, since we dare not hope to look upon his like again! I\nhave now, in a few words, to entreat your patience whilst I speak of two\nother Scottish poets whose memory is yet green amongst us--both reared,\nlike Robert Burns, at the lowly hearth of the peasant--both pursuing,\nlike him, through every discouragement and difficulty, the pathway\ntowards honourable renown--and both the authors of strains which bear\nthe stamp of immortality. And first, let me allude to one of them whom I\nknew and dearly loved. Who is there that has not heard of the Ettrick\nShepherd--of him whose inspiration descended as lightly as the breeze\nthat blows along the mountain side--who saw, amongst the lonely and\nsequestered glens of the south, from eyelids touched with fairy\nointment, such visions as are vouchsafed to the minstrel alone--the\ndream of sweet Kilmeny, too spiritual for the taint of earth? I shall\nnot attempt any comparison--for I am not here to criticise--between his\ngenius and that of other men, on whom God in his bounty has bestowed the\ngreat and the marvellous gift. The songs and the poetry of the Shepherd\nare now the nation's own, as indeed they long have been; and amidst the\nminstrelsy of the choir who have made the name of Scotland and her\npeasantry familiar throughout the wide reach of the habitable world the\nclear wild notes of the Forest will for ever be heard to ring. I have\nseen him many times by the banks of his own romantic Yarrow; I have sat\nwith him in the calm and sunny weather by the margin of Saint Mary's\nLake; I have seen his eyes sparkle and his cheek flush as he spoke out\nsome old heroic ballad of the days of the Douglas and the Graeme, and I\nhave felt, as I listened to the accents of his manly voice, that whilst\nScotland could produce amongst her children such men as him beside me,\nher ancient spirit had not departed from her, nor the star of her glory\ngrown pale! For he was a man, indeed, cast in nature's happiest mould.\nTrue-hearted, and brave, and generous, and sincere; alive to every\nkindly impulse, and fresh at the core to the last, he lived among his\nnative hills the blameless life of the shepherd and the poet; and on the\nday when he was laid beneath the sod in the lonely kirkyard of Ettrick,\nthere was not one dry eye amongst the hundreds that lingered round his\ngrave. Of the other sweet singer, too--of Allan Cunningham, the\nleal-hearted and kindly Allan--I might say much; but why should I detain\nyou further? Does not his name alone recall to your recollection many a\nsweet song that has thrilled the bosom of the village maiden with an\nemotion that a princess need not blush to own? Honour, then, to the\npoets!--whether they speak out loud and trumpet-tongued, to find\naudience in the hearts of the great, and the mighty, and the brave--or\nwhether, in lowlier and more simple accents, but not less sacred in\ntheir mission, they bring comfort and consolation to the poor. As the\nsweep of the rainbow, which has its arch in heaven, and its shafts\nresting upon the surface of the earth--as the sunshine which falls with\nequal bounty upon the palace and the hut--is the all-pervading and\nuniversal spirit of poetry; and what less can we do to those men who\nhave collected and scattered it around us, than to hail them as the\nbenefactors of their race? That has been the purpose of our gathering,\nand we have held it in a fitting spot. Proud, indeed, may be the\ndistrict that can claim within herself the birthplaces of Burns and of\nCunningham; and proud may we all be--and we are proud, from yourself, my\nlord, to the humblest individual who bore a part in the proceedings of\nthis memorable day--that we have the opportunity of testifying our\nrespect to the genius that will defy the encroachment of time: and which\nhas shed, and will continue to shed, a splendour and a glory around the\nland that we love so well! My lord, I am honoured in having to propose\n\"The memory of the Ettrick Shepherd, and of Allan Cunningham.\"\n\nSir D. H. BLAIR, Bart., of Blairquhan, said--My Lord Eglinton and\ngentlemen, I have been requested to give the next toast, which I very\nmuch wish had fallen into abler hands. It is a toast, my lord, that is\nas well calculated to call forth enthusiastic bursts of eloquence as any\nwe have listened to with such delight to-day; but as on that account I\nfeel quite unable to do it adequate justice, I must trust to that\nacclamation by which I am confident it will be received, without any\neffort on my part. We all recollect the words of our immortal bard,\nwhen, in alluding to the manner in which nature had finished this fair\ncreation, he says--\n\n    \"Her 'prentice han' she tried on man,\n    And then she made the lasses O!\"\n\nI am sure every man in this assembly will join me in an enthusiastic\nbumper to the health of the \"Countess of Eglinton, and the ladies who\nhave honoured this meeting with their presence.\"\n\nColonel MURE of Caldwell, said--In obedience to the order of our noble\nchairman, I have to request a bumper to the Peasantry of Scotland. In\norder justly to appreciate the claims of this most estimable class of\nour fellow-citizens upon our sympathies, I must remind you that to it\npre-eminently belongs the honour of having given birth to the remarkable\nman whose memory we are this day met to celebrate. I must remind you,\nthat while the fact of Burns having raised himself from the rank of a\nScottish ploughman, by the innate force of heaven-born genius, to the\nlevel of the greatest and most original poets of any age or country, is\nthe noblest feature of his history, the peasantry of Scotland, in their\nturn, may be entitled to feel pride, even in the presence of the\nproudest nobles of their land, when they remember that from them, and\nnot from the privileged orders of society, our greatest national genius\nwas destined to arise. And, in fact, the most striking, and perhaps the\nmost valuable feature in the poetical character of Burns, is the marked\nascendancy which the spirit and habits of the peasant, the genius of the\nman, as it were, continued to exercise on the genius of the poet, even\nduring the most brilliant periods of his subsequent career. Even amid\nthat rich variety of subjects, in the treatment of which his instinctive\nrefinement and delicacy of taste enabled him to combine, with all the\nhigher powers of the man, the courtly graces of the gentleman and\nscholar--still his happiest effort, the masterpiece of his genius, in\nwhich his own mind is displayed in the most agreeable light, and his\ninspiration breathes forth with the greatest brilliancy and beauty, will\nbe found to be dictated by the associations of his early rustic days.\nWhen I reflect, therefore, how copious, how graphic, how true are his\nown descriptions of the character of the Scottish peasantry, in all its\nvarieties of grave or of gay, of light or of shadow, I cannot but feel\nit is a sort of presumption to offer in a company, who must be all so\nfamiliar with these descriptions, any crude remark of my own, on the\nmore interesting features of those to which they refer. I shall,\nhowever, do my best to season the few comments which I am in some degree\nbound to offer on the subject allotted to me, by taking the poet's works\nas my text-book. Were I called upon, therefore, to name the virtues of\nour peasantry, which chiefly claim our respect and admiration, I should\npoint first to their industry, frugality, and contentment, as those\nwhich prominently adorn their own class of society above all others, and\nalso to their piety and their patriotism, as shared, I would fain hope\nequally, or at least largely, by the mass of our fellow-citizens. Where,\nthen, shall we find a more spirited picture of the influence and effects\nof the three former qualities--above all, of that most inestimable\nblessing, contentment--than in the brilliant little poem which bears the\nhumble title of the \"Twa Dogs,\" where, after so graphically describing\nthe honest toils, often the severe hardships, inseparable from the\npeasant's lot, he goes on to say, that yet\n\n    \"They're nae sae wretched's ane wad think,\n    Though constantly on poortith's brink;\n    They're sae accustom'd wi' the sight,\n    The view of it gi'es little fright;\n    And how it comes I never kent yet,\n    They're maistly wonderfu' contented;\n    And buirdly chiels and clever hizzies\n    Are bred in such a way as this is.\"\n\nBut where are we, after all, to look for the source of this beautiful\nattribute of contentment? Is it not in the still more admirable one of\ntheir piety? It is here almost superfluous to make any close appeal to\nour poet's authority--to that most sublime description, so familiar to\nyou all, where the old peasant on the Saturday night collects his\nscattered family, at the close of the long week's labour, around his\nhumble but happy cottage fireside, and, after a few sweet but\nhard-earned hours of social enjoyment, instils, before retiring to\nrepose, from the open Word of God, into their minds those lessons of\nDivine wisdom which were to guide them during the next week, and through\nlife, in the paths of religion and virtue. Are not such scenes to this\nday common in our cottages, still, as of old, I firmly believe, the\nfavourite abodes of the genuine spirit of simple Scottish piety? Then as\nto the last, if not the least, in the above list of the virtues of our\npeasants--their patriotism. To whom, I would ask, but to the peasantry\nof Scotland, does our poet so beautifully appeal as having bled with\nWallace? To whom, but to our peasantry, did our national hero look--and\nnever look in vain--for support in his gallant effort to restore the\nfallen fortunes of his country, at the period when our doughty knights\nand nobles--happily but for a season--had been reduced, by the intrigues\nor intimidation of our powerful enemy, to crouch submissive beneath the\nthrone of his usurpation. And can we doubt that this proud spirit of\npatriotism still burns as warm in their hearts as then, if no longer, by\nGod's blessing, so fearfully or so desperately called into action; or\nthat when after, as our poet again has it,\n\n    \"They lay aside their private cares\n    To mind the Kirk and State affairs\n    They'll talk of patronage and priests\n    Wi' kindling fury in their breasts,\n    Or tell what new taxation's coming,\n    And ferlie at the folks in Lunnan.\"\n\nBut I have already detained you too long--if not longer than the\ninterest of the subject, at least than my power of doing justice to it\nentitles me. I shall therefore conclude by pronouncing a grace over our\nbumper, also supplied from the stores of the Poet, and the sentiments of\nwhich every one here present, I am sure, will cordially sympathize--\n\n    \"O Scotia! my dear, my native soil,\n    For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent,\n    Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil\n    Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content.\"\n\nSir JAMES CAMPBELL of Glasgow said--In proposing the toast with which I\nhave been entrusted, I shall content myself by simply expressing my deep\nregret that, under any circumstances, I could so inadequately express my\nown sentiments and feelings of admiration--in all the acceptations of\nthat word--of \"the Land of Burns.\" I am aware, however, that I have the\nhonour of addressing an assemblage who can appreciate, who do\nappreciate, and who, by their appearance here, and the interest so many\nof them have taken in the proceedings and associations of this day, give\nample proof of their high estimation of, and attachment to, \"the Land of\nBurns.\" I am aware, also, that I have the honour to address not a few of\nthose who have, with the pencil or with the pen, done homage to the\nclassical, patriotic, and poetical claims of that land. I feel\nsatisfied, indeed, that there is not an individual in this most\ninteresting and splendid assemblage, who does not greatly prize and\nadmire the fertile soil and landscape beauty of that land; whose bosom\nglows not with an honest pride at the intelligence, enterprise, and\npatriotism of the men of that land; and, above all, who does not honour\nand admire the beauty and accomplishments of the ladies of that land.\nAnd therefore is it, my lord, that, without further preface, I would\ncall upon this assembly to dedicate a bumper to \"The Land of Burns.\"\n\nLord EGLINTON said--Ladies and Gentlemen, Except the toast which I have\nhad the honour and happiness of bringing before you to-day, there is not\none which gives me greater pleasure to see committed to my charge than\nthat which I am now about to bring before your notice--I mean the\n\"Provost and Magistrates of Ayr;\" and along with it, though not down on\nthe card, my feelings will not allow me to leave out the Interests of\nAyr. On such an occasion as this, and so late in the day, I will not\noccupy your time by dilating on the interest which I feel in that Town,\nor of the knowledge which I have of the Provost and the Magistrates.\nFrom that knowledge I feel convinced that the interests of Ayr could not\nbe placed in more worthy hands. In addition to the respect felt towards\nthem as the Magistrates of the County Town, we all feel gratitude to\nthem for the assistance, support, and countenance, they have given to\nour proceedings on this occasion.\n\nProvost MILLER said--Permit me to return my best thanks, on behalf of my\ncolleagues and myself, for the flattering compliment which has just been\npaid to them. The manner in which the toast was introduced by the noble\nlord was particularly gratifying to me; and I am sure it will be\nappreciated by the entire corporation. I beg to assure the noble lord\nthat the recognition of \"Auld Ayr\" at a meeting so peculiarly\ninteresting as the present, and combining, as it does, so much of the\nrank, talent, and worth of the land, will be highly appreciated by the\n\"honest men and bonnie lasses\" for which it has been characterized by\nthe immortal bard in honour of whose memory we are this day met.\n\nThe LORD JUSTICE-GENERAL rose amidst much applause. He said--Ladies and\ngentlemen, after the uncommon success which has attended every part of\nthe proceedings at this meeting to-day, I am confident that I anticipate\nthe unanimous concurrence of this great assembly I have now the honour\nto address, when I state that there appears, in addition to many toasts\ndrunk with so much enthusiasm, one that remains as a debt of gratitude\ndue by this assembly. I consider it a most fortunate circumstance\nattending this meeting, that we have been presided over by the Noble\nLord in the chair. I am sure that the most enthusiastic admirers of\nBurns must be gratified in thinking that the proceedings of this day\nhave been conducted by my noble friend in so admirable a manner. Every\nperson must be satisfied that it was impossible the proceedings of this\nday could have been commenced in a happier strain. Without further\ncomment, I beg leave to propose that we drink the health of our\nexcellent Chairman.\n\nLord EGLINTON, in reply, said--My Lord Justice, and ladies and\ngentlemen, I assure you I feel most deeply grateful to you for the\nhonour you have paid me, as I always ought to be when my health is\nproposed and drunk at a meeting of Scotchmen. But I assure you I never\nfelt more deeply grateful, or more highly sensible of that honour, than\nI do at the present moment, when my health is proposed by such a man as\nthe Lord Justice-General, and when it has been received--and, I am proud\nto say, enthusiastically received--by an assemblage met for such a\npurpose as to do honour to the memory of our greatest poet. But,\ngentlemen, I will not at this late hour of the day, and in a temple, as\nit were, dedicated to the Muses--I will not occupy your time by\nreturning thanks for drinking the health of one who has no merit. But,\nbefore we part, there is a toast which claims our especial\nconsideration--\"the health of Professor Wilson.\" Had it not been for the\nmodesty of the Professor, it ought to have been proposed at a much\nearlier part of the evening. On such an occasion as this, when we have\nmet from all parts of Scotland, to do honour to the memory of the\ngreatest genius Scotland ever knew, it surely is not only proper, but\nour bounden duty, to drink the health of the greatest genius which\nScotland possesses now. The memories of others have been drunk to-night,\nand have been received with that deep feeling which Scotchmen feel\ntowards the memory of genius, but the toast which I am now proposing is\none which has this additional merit, that the subject of it is alive and\nhearty, and able to continue, as you have heard to-day, in that career\nwhich has hitherto so much delighted his countrymen. In the presence of\nProfessor Wilson I cannot dilate, as I could wish to do, on the\ncharacter of that gentleman. I will only ask you to drink with me his\nhealth in a way that will show that you can pay honour to genius alive,\nas you can do honour to departed worth.\n\nProfessor WILSON rose and simply bowed his acknowledgments.\n\nThe Earl of EGLINTON then rose and said--Ladies and Gentlemen,\n\n    \"Nae man can tether time nor tide;\n    The hour approaches--Tam maun ride.\"\n\nThis brought the proceedings to a close.\n\nWe have thought it due--not less to the character of the meeting than to\nthe sincere and fervid eloquence of the speakers--to place upon our\npages an authentic record of the whole proceedings of the day. This\n\"great national gathering,\" as it was aptly denominated, must be of\nenduring and not ephemeral interest, and will be remembered, and spoken\nof, and quoted, long after events of greater apparent importance have\npassed away into oblivion. The outpourings of a nation's heart are\nimmortal. The tributes that were paid, in the ages long since gone by,\nto the poets of Greece and of Italy, have outlived the most enduring\nmonuments of marble, and we dare not hesitate now to recognise a triumph\nwhich will be as everlasting as theirs.\n\nWe feel that little comment is necessary upon the various addresses that\nare given above. But we should not be justified--and no man who was\nthere that day would forgive us--if we passed over in silence the manly\nand distinguished manner in which Lord Eglinton discharged the duties of\nthe chair. Scotland, as we have already had occasion to say, is proud,\nand justly so, of her aristocracy; but there is not one of them all,\nthrough the whole length and breadth of the land, to whom she can point\nmore exultingly than to this young nobleman. His opening address would\nhave done honour to one long trained in the schools of oratory, and that\nwas its smallest merit. The emphatic and earnest tone of admiration in\nwhich he spoke of the peasantry of his country--his generous and\ntouching allusions to Burns in his earlier years, to what he had done\nand suffered, and to the honours so long withheld, and now so\nbrilliantly conferred--and the patriotic fervour which pervaded his\nwhole address--carried along with him not only the applauses, but the\nhearts of the whole assemblage. Lord Eglinton may well look back with\npride and satisfaction to the proceedings of that day; for he has\nsecured the affections of thousands who already respected his name.\n\nOf the other speeches, eloquent and impressive as they were, we\nshall--with only one exception--speak collectively; and the highest\npraise we can give is to say, that they were every way worthy of the\noccasion, of the subjects which they celebrated, and of the men by whom\nthey were uttered. There was a delicate propriety in the feeling which\nexcluded from the list of toasts the names of the living poets, with the\ngreat and glorious exceptions of Wordsworth and Moore, now beyond all\ncavil at the head of the literature of their respective countries. Their\npresence, though ardently hoped for, was hardly to be expected on this\noccasion; for their advanced years, and the distant journey they must\nhave undertaken, were serious obstacles; but their apologetic letters,\nfull of deep feeling and sympathy, were received, and the reception\nwhich greeted their names, showed the respect and love which the\nScottish people entertain for the greatness and universality of their\nfame. Deep also and thrilling was the emotion evinced at the mention of\nthe illustrious dead, who have passed away into their graves in the\nfulness and maturity of their fame. Strange and powerful is the spell\nwhich lies in the mere plain utterance of their names! Scott, and Byron,\nand Campbell, (just laid in the noblest mausoleum of the world,) the\nEttrick Shepherd, and Allan Cunningham--what names for a country to\nrecord in its annals, in the brief space of one generation!\n\nBut the speech to which all looked forward with the utmost expectation\nand anxiety, was that of Professor Wilson. His zeal in the cause of\nBurns, his earnest and reiterated defence of his reputation, were so\nwell known, that on this occasion, when the balance might be held as\nfinally struck, and when the nation, by its own voluntary act, had\nrecognized the position which its poet, through all time coming must\nmaintain, it would have been felt as a vast and serious omission if the\nlast elegy had not been uttered by the greatest vindicator of his fame.\nIt _was_ so uttered, and none but those who listened to that address can\nconceive the effect which it produced. Elsewhere than in these pages we\nshould assuredly have attempted some comment upon it. As it is, we shall\nborrow an opinion of the provincial press, from the pen, we believe, of\nthe Editor of the _Dumfries-shire Herald_, Mr Aird, himself a spectator\nof the scene, and a man of high intellect and imagination, whose remarks\nwe have been led to adopt, not from the eulogy they contain, but from\ntheir just and reverential truth:--\n\n\"The remarkable speech of the day was Professor Wilson's. Since the time\nwhen in his 'bright and shining youth' he walked seventy miles to be\npresent at a Burns' meeting, and electrified it with a new and peculiar\nfervour of eloquence, such as had never been heard among us before, how\nmanifold, how multiform have been this man's generous vindications of\nour great Bard! Now broad in humour; now sportive and playful; now\nsarcastic, scornful, and searching; now calmly philosophic in criticism;\nnow thoughtful and solemn, large of reverent discourse, 'looking before\nand after,' with all the sweetest by-plays of humanity, with every\nreconciling softness of charity--such, in turns, and in quickest\nintermingled tissue of the ethereal woof, have been the many\nillustrations which this large-minded, large-hearted Scotchman, in whose\ncharacter there is neither corner nor cranny, has poured in the very\nprodigality of his affectionate abundance around and over the name and\nthe fame of Robert Burns. It became him--and he knew it--that on this\ngreat and consummating occasion, so full of reconcilement betwixt human\nfrailty and human worth, his address, on which so much expectation\nwaited, should be a last SOLEMN REQUIEM over the grave of the\nillustrious dead, pronounced not merely to the congregation of the day,\nbut to mankind in general, and to every future age. With those long,\nheart-drawn, lingering, slow-expiring tones, solemn as a cathedral\nchant, the whole of this sacred piece of service (for we can call it\nnothing else) was to us like some mournful oratorio by Mozart, soft at\nonce and sublime. Some might be disappointed that they heard nothing on\nthis occasion of the varied play of Christopher North; but the heart of\nScotland, in its calm retirement, will appreciate this holy oration, as\nworthily hallowing and sanctifying her meeting.\"\n\nThe proceedings in that Pavilion were a just and fitting conclusion to\nthe splendid jubilee of the day. Some no doubt were absent, whom the\npublic would gladly have seen there; for, on an occasion like this, the\ngeneral wish must have been, that all the greatness, and talent, and\nlearning of the land should have united in the National Festival. But\nthat absence, though regretted, did not, in any degree, lessen the\nenthusiasm. Indeed, as we looked around the meeting, and saw, unelevated\nto any conspicuous place, Delta, and Chambers, and Ferrier, and a\nhundred other distinguished men, not only content, but proud to bear\ntestimony by their simple presence to the genuine purpose of the\nassembly, it was hardly possible to wish for more. Every individual\nfeeling was merged in the common desire, that the day should be\nconsecrated to its own peculiar object; and consecrated it was, if\nunanimity, and eloquence, and tears, and the outpouring of all that is\nlofty, and generous, and sincere, can consecrate aught on earth--where\nerror and frailty must abide, but where the judgment of man in his\nweakness, may not, and dare not, usurp the functions of the All-seeing\nand Eternal Judge.\n\nAnd now we close the hasty record of a scene that will be remembered so\nlong as Scotland is a nation. Some there may be--for there are malignant\nand jaundiced spirits every where--who may sneer at the solemnities we\nhave witnessed; and it is well that they should do so, for the praise of\nsuch men is no honour--far better that it should be withheld. We\nconclude by again adopting the language of Mr Aird, which leaves no word\nunsaid.\n\n\"Such has been the tribute of a country to her national poet. She\nfurnished him with the rich materials of his song--with her dear\nvictories set in blood; with the imperishable memory of her\nindependence; with the character of her sons and daughters, simple as\nwater, but strong as the waterfall; with her snatches of old-world\nminstrelsy, surely never composed by mortal man, but spilt from the\noverflowing soul of sorrow and gladness; with her music, twin-born, say\nrather one with her minstrelsy; with her fairy belief, the most\ndelicately beautiful mythology in the history of the human mind, and\nstrangely contrasted with the rugged character of her people, a people\nof sturt and strife; with her heroic faith; with the graves of her\nheadless martyrs, in green shaw or on grim moor, visited by many a slip\nof sunshine streaming down from behind the cloud in the still autumnal\nafternoon. These, and all the other priceless elements of 'the auld\nScottish glory,' he--the national bard--compacted and crystallized into\na Poetry which, by innumerable points of sympathetic contact, carries\nback into the national heart, by ever-conducting issue, the thoughts and\nfeelings which itself first gave forth to his plastic genius; and thus\nthere is an eternal interchange of cause and effect, to the perpetuation\nand propagation of patriotism, and all that constitutes national spirit\nand character.\n\n\"THEREFORE it was fitting that such a national tribute should be paid to\nsuch a national benefactor.\"\n\n\n\n\nSTANZAS FOR THE BURNS' FESTIVAL.\n\nBY DELTA.\n\n\n    I.\n\n    Stir the beal-fire, wave the banner,\n    Bid the thundering cannon sound--\n    Rend the skies with acclamation,\n    Stun the woods and waters round--\n    Till the echoes of our gathering\n    Turn the world's admiring gaze\n    To this act of duteous homage\n    Scotland to her poet pays.\n    Fill the banks and braes with music,\n    Be it loud and low by turns--\n    This we owe the deathless glory,\n    That the hapless fate of Burns.\n\n\n    II.\n\n    Born within the lowly cottage\n    To a destiny obscure,\n    Doom'd through youth's exulting spring-time\n    But to labour and endure--\n    Yet Despair he elbow'd from him;\n    Nature breathed with holy joy,\n    In the hues of morn and evening,\n    On the eyelids of the boy;\n    And his country's Genius bound him\n    Laurels for his sun-burn'd brow,\n    When inspired and proud she found him,\n    Like Elisha, at the plough.\n\n\n    III.\n\n    On, exulting in his magic,\n    Swept the gifted peasant on--\n    Though his feet were on the greensward,\n    Light from heaven around him shone;\n    At his conjuration, demons\n    Issued from their darkness drear;\n    Hovering round on silver pinions,\n    Angels stoop'd his songs to hear;\n    Bow'd the Passions to his bidding,\n    Terror gaunt, and Pity calm;\n    Like the organ pour'd his thunder,\n    Like the lute his fairy psalm.\n\n\n    IV.\n\n    Lo, when clover-swathes lay round him,\n    Or his feet the furrow press'd,\n    He could mourn the sever'd daisy,\n    Or the mouse's ruin'd nest;\n    Woven of gloom and glory, visions\n    Haunting throng'd his twilight hour;\n    Birds enthrall'd him with sweet music,\n    Tempests with their tones of power;\n    Eagle-wing'd his mounting spirit\n    Custom's rusty fetters spurn'd;\n    Tasso-like, for Jean he melted\n    Wallace-like, for Scotland burn'd!\n\n\n    V.\n\n    Scotland!--dear to him was Scotland,\n    In her sons and in her daughters,\n    In her Highlands,--Lowlands,--Islands,--\n    Regal woods, and rushing waters;--\n    In the glory of her story,\n    When her tartans fired the field,--\n    Scotland! oft betray'd--beleagur'd--\n    Scotland! never known to yield!\n    Dear to him her Doric language,--\n    Thrill'd his heart-strings at her name;--\n    And he left her more than rubies,\n    In the riches of his fame.\n\n\n    VI.\n\n    Sons of England!--Sons of Erin!\n    Ye who, journeying from afar,\n    Throng with us the shire of Coila,\n    Led by Burns's guiding star--\n    Proud we greet you--ye will join us,\n    As, on this triumphant day,\n    To the champions of his genius\n    Grateful thanks we duly pay--\n    Currie--Chambers--Lockhart--Wilson--\n    Carlyle--who his bones to save\n    From the wolfish fiend, Detraction,\n    Couch'd like lions round his grave.\n\n\n    VII.\n\n    Daughter of the poet's mother!\n    Here we hail thee with delight;\n    Shower'd be every earthly blessing\n    On thy locks of silver white!--\n    Sons of Burns, a hearty welcome,\n    Welcome home from India's strand,\n    To a heart-loved land far dearer,\n    Since your glorious Father's land:--\n    Words are worthless--look around you--\n    Labour'd tomes far less could say\n    To the sons of such a father,\n    Than the sight of such a day!\n\n\n    VIII.\n\n    Judge not ye, whose thoughts are fingers,\n    Of the hands that witch the lyre--\n    Greenland has its mountain icebergs,\n    AEtna has its heart of fire;\n    Calculation has its plummet;\n    Self-control its iron rules;\n    Genius has its sparkling fountains;\n    Dulness has its stagnant pools;\n    Like a halcyon on the waters,\n    Burns's chart disdain'd a plan--\n    In his soarings he was heavenly,\n    In his sinkings he was man.\n\n\n    IX.\n\n    As the sun from out the orient\n    Pours a wider, warmer light,\n    Till he floods both earth and ocean,\n    Blazing from the zenith's height;\n    So the glory of our poet,\n    In its deathless power serene,\n    Shines--as rolling time advances--\n    Warmer felt, and wider seen:\n    First Doon's banks and braes contain'd it,\n    Then his country form'd its span;\n    Now the wide world is its empire,\n    And its throne the heart of man.\n\n\n    X.\n\n    Home returning, each will carry\n    Proud remembrance of this day,\n    When exulted Scotland's bosom\n    Homage to her bard to pay;--\n    When our jubilee to brighten,\n    Eglinton with Wilson vied,\n    Wealth's regards and Rank's distinctions\n    For the season set aside;\n    And the peasant, peer, and poet,\n    Each put forth an equal claim,\n    For the twining of his laurel\n    In the wreath of Burns's fame!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEnd of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume\n56, Number 347, September, 1844, by Various\n\n*** ","meta":{"redpajama_set_name":"RedPajamaBook"}}
+{"text":" \nThank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook.\n\n* * *\n\nGet a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.\n\nCLICK HERE TO SIGN UP\n\nAlready a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.\n\n## Contents\n\nIntroduction\n\n1. Cooking with an Instant Pot\u00ae\n\n2. Breakfast\n\nChampion Breakfast Bowl\n\nSweet Potato Breakfast Bowl\n\nMorning Bacon Parsnips\n\nApple Cinnamon Muffins\n\nBlueberry-Orange Muffins\n\nPumpkin Chip Muffins\n\nSausage Gravy\n\nSouth-of-the-Border Frittata\n\nCiao Bella! Egg Muffins\n\nHam and Mushroom Egg Muffins\n\nBacon, Onion, and Spinach Egg Muffins\n\nSoft-Boiled Eggs with Steamed Asparagus Dippers\n\nBell Pepper Egg Cups\n\nFruity Trail Mix Bowls\n\nMixed Berry Breakfast Syrup\n\nBacon Jam\n\nBreakfast Casserole with Drop Biscuit Dumplings\n\nLoaded Sweet Potato Hash\n\nPiggy Tater Bowl with a Poached Egg\n\n3. Soups, Stews, and Chilis\n\nChicken Broth\n\nVegetable Broth\n\nBeef Broth\n\nTo Bean or Not to Bean Chili\n\nChunky Beef Chili\n\nHearty Lamb Stew\n\nCreamy Mushroom Soup\n\nCream of Broccoli and Bacon Soup\n\nTom Kha Goong\n\nKentucky Derby Burgoo\n\nWhite Chicken Chili\n\nSavory Acorn Squash Soup\n\nChicken Taco Soup\n\nCreamy Tomato Basil Soup\n\nMardi Gras Gumbo\n\nQuick Vegetable Soup\n\nHamburger Soup\n\nOma's Sausage and Cabbage Soup\n\nCreamy Ham and Root Veggie Soup\n\nCurried Carrot Soup\n\n4. Appetizers and Sauces\n\nDeviled Eggs\n\nMini Chili Polpette\n\n\"Cheesy\" Spinach Crab Dip\n\nEndive Boats with Chicken Salad\n\nTandoori-Style Chicken Wings\n\nSesame-Orange Chicken Wings\n\nBroccoli-Zucchini Hummus\n\nBurgundy Mushrooms\n\nMushrooms Stuffed with Sausage and Kimchi\n\nSteamed Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce\n\nLiver P\u00e2t\u00e9\n\nSteamed Artichokes with Lemon-Herb Butter\n\nRutabaga Fries with Rosemary Dipping Sauce\n\nBroccoli-Cauli Sausage Tots\n\nSalsa Verde\n\nBolognese Sauce\n\nMarinara Sauce\n\nPuttanesca Sauce\n\nTomato Curry Sauce\n\n5. Side Dishes\n\nNutty Holiday Sweet Potatoes\n\nHoney-Glazed Carrots\n\nBacon-Apple Brussels Sprouts\n\nMixed Southern Greens\n\nDilled Purple Potatoes\n\nLemon Ghee Broccoli\n\nHerbed Fingerling Potatoes and Onions\n\nKohlrabi, Kale, and Karrots\n\nSteamed Beets\n\nPurple Cauliflower\n\nGerman Red Potatoes\n\nEggplant-Olive Ratatouille\n\nSouthern Squash Casserole\n\nBroccoli Casserole\n\nBacon Cauli-Potato Mash\n\nRed Onion and Apple Confit\n\nSesame Zoodles\n\nSaffron and Herb Cauliflower Rice\n\nBroccoli-Parsnip Smash\n\n6. Poultry Main Dishes\n\nBBQ Whole Chicken\n\nGluten-Free Beer Can Dijon Chicken\n\nKimchi Chicken Wings\n\nChicken Leg Almond Butter Satay\n\nSmoked Paprika and Garlic Chicken Legs\n\nChili Lime Chicken Legs\n\nKombucha Chicken Thighs\n\nChicken Thighs with Strawberry Salsa\n\nTuscan Chicken\n\nSalsa Verde Chicken Meatballs\n\nHoney Mustard Chicken Bites\n\nJamaican Jerk Chicken Meatballs\n\nTaco Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Pico Guacamole\n\nAsian Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Ginger Aioli\n\nChicken Livers and Onions with Gravy\n\nAvocado Chicken Salad\n\nPaleo-ish Turkish Chicken Thighs\n\nCornish Hens and Veggies\n\nChili-Orange Turkey Wings\n\nMega Turkey Meatballs\n\n7. Beef and Bison Main Dishes\n\nNana's Sunday Pot Roast\n\nChuck Roast with Carrots and Onions\n\nSweet-n-Spicy Beef Brisket\n\nTender Flank Steak with Mushrooms and Onions\n\nSkirt Steak Fajitas\n\nKorean Beef Short Ribs\n\nMongolian Beef and Cashew BBQ\n\nMeatloaf and Gravy\n\nBalsamic Meatballs\n\nMarinara Meatballs\n\nReuben Meatballs with Russian Dressing\n\nGround Beef and Broccoli Bowl\n\nJust Beet It Burgers\n\nCorned Beef and Cabbage\n\nCuban Picadillo with Riced Cauliflower\n\nChi-Town Italian Beef and Peppers\n\nBeef Shanks and Artichokes\n\nBison Sloppy Joe's\n\nGround Bison Bulgogi\n\nItalian Beef Tongue Lettuce Wraps\n\n8. Pork, Lamb, and Game Main Dishes\n\nSalsa Verde Pulled Pork\n\nSimple Dijon Pork Tenderloin\n\nOrange Rosemary Pork Tenderloin\n\nBalsamic Pork Tenderloin with Caperberries\n\nSteamed Dry-Rubbed Pork Spareribs\n\nCowgirl Baby Back Pork Ribs\n\nHam and Scalloped Potatoes\n\nGround Pork Stir-Fry Bowl\n\nSmothered Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy\n\nPork Chops with Sauerkraut, Potatoes, and Apples\n\nCubano Bowl\n\nVietnamese Pork Chops\n\nBBQ Boneless Pork Loin Roast\n\nOsso Bucco with Gremolata\n\nPork Medallions Puttanesca\n\nLamb Riblets\n\nLamb Shanks with Tomato Curry Sauce\n\nGreek Lamb Meatballs\n\nChorizo Sliders with Jicama-Beet Slaw\n\nThe Busy Cook's Duck \u00e0 l'Orange Breast\n\n9. Seafood and Fish Main Dishes\n\nSteamed Mussels and Chorizo\n\nStewed Halibut\n\nFish Taco Bowl\n\nThai Coconut Curry Monkfish\n\nLouisiana Shrimp and Sausage\n\nShrimp, Prosciutto, and Asparagus Salad with Yuzu Vinaigrette\n\nShrimp Scampi\n\nCrab-Chorizo Stuffed Calamari\n\nBerbere Salmon\n\nDilled Salmon and Broccoli\n\nDairy-Free Creamed Crab\n\nCitrus-Steamed Littleneck Clams\n\nSalmon Croquettes\n\nGreek Sea Bass\n\nHerbed Cod with Yellow Squash\n\nMahi-Mahi with a Lemon-Caper Butter Sauce\n\nSteamed Snow Crab Legs\n\nSimply Steamed Lobster Tails\n\nQuick Crawfish Boil\n\n10. Sweet Treats and Drinks\n\nSpiced Applesauce\n\nCaf\u00e9 Mocha Muffins\n\nStrawberry Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache\n\nApple Brown Betty\n\nUpside-Down Peach Cobbler\n\nBanana Pudding Cake\n\nChocolate Chip Zucchini Bread\n\nDouble Chocolate Custard\n\nCoconut Key Lime Custard\n\nGrain-Free Stuffed Apples\n\nHummingbird Cake\n\nPoached Cherries\n\nUpside-Down Chocolate Cherry Cake\n\nMixed Berry Quick Jam\n\nQuick Lime Marmalade\n\nFresh-Brewed Arnie Palmer\n\nGluhwein\n\nHomemade Chai Tea Latte\n\nSpiced Mocha Latte\n\nMexican Hot Cocoa\n\nAppendix A: Paleo \"Yes\" and \"No\" Foods\n\nAppendix B: US\/Metric Conversion Chart\n\nAbout the Author\n\nIndex\nTo Samantha and Calla   \nTHANK YOU for all the laughs in the kitchen and complete honesty over my creations.   \nI love you, Mom\n\n## Introduction\n\nThe paleo diet (or lifestyle, as I like to think of it) has become increasingly popular in the past several years, but that doesn't mean it is a \"fad\" diet. Eating paleo just means eating real, whole, and unprocessed foods. One of the most significant benefits of adhering to a paleo lifestyle is the potential for decreasing your risk of developing a number of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis.\n\nAlso known as the caveman diet, the term paleo refers to a time when people ate only grass-fed game, wild-caught fish, nuts, vegetables, berries, and occasionally, other fruits. These people lived before the time of modern agriculture and the domestication of animals. When they needed meat, they hunted, and they gathered berries and nuts. There were no grains planted in fields and no milk past the weaning stage. Subsequently, the population wasn't plagued by many of the diseases that plague humans today.\n\nEven though they had to forage, hunt, and kill most of their food, Paleolithic humans ate better-quality food than most of the world does today. Not only are the hundreds of quick-fix weight-loss products wreaking havoc on the human body, but the standard American diet (SAD)\u2014with grains at the helm\u2014is believed to contribute to a number of diseases caused by inflammation.\n\nYou may be thinking that you need to move to a forest and take up hunting, fishing, and gardening to be on today's paleo diet, right? That couldn't be further from the truth. This lifestyle simply requires a shift in your thinking. First, you will need to learn what foods are considered paleo \"yes\" foods and paleo \"no\" foods. From there, all you need to start on your journey toward paleo success is a simple shopping list, an open mind, and a whole bunch of recipes! While cooking paleo may seem intimidating in the beginning, the truth is that many of the recipes adored by families the world over can easily be converted to paleo-friendly options with a few carefully chosen ingredients and some fun substitution. When it comes to cooking paleo, it's all about getting creative.\n\nAnd that's where your Instant Pot\u00ae comes in. Cooking with an Instant Pot\u00ae is a life-changing experience, especially when you follow the Paleolithic lifestyle. This multifunction cooking tool allows you to saut\u00e9, brown, steam, and warm your food. It cooks soups, eggs, and even cakes! And the high-pressure cooking and steaming ability of an Instant Pot\u00ae does wonders to steaks, pork shoulders, and chicken. With the touch of a button you'll be able to cook cuts of meat that would normally take hours in just minutes. The Instant Pot\u00ae cooks food at a low temperature but it does it more efficiently than other slow-cooking methods or appliances because it also uses pressure and steam. It is like a pressure cooker and a slow cooker rolled into one. This cooking method also seals in essential vitamins and minerals and allows the Instant Pot\u00ae to turn out healthier, better-tasting food that is perfect when you're on the go.\n\nWhether you've just bought your Instant Pot\u00ae or have been using one for years and just need some inspiration, this book is for you. Inside you'll find 175 delicious paleo recipes ranging from Pumpkin Chip Muffins and White Chicken Chili to Tender Flank Steak with Mushrooms and Onions and Steamed Mussels and Chorizo. You'll also find decadent desserts, including Double Chocolate Custard and Upside-Down Chocolate Cherry Cake. The more you cook, the more you'll realize how versatile the Instant Pot\u00ae really is, whether you're making a hearty breakfast, an amazing main course, or a delicious dessert. So plug in your Instant Pot\u00ae and get ready to enjoy some amazing, delicious, and quick paleo meals.\n\n## Cooking with an Instant Pot\u00ae\n\nSo you're about to venture into the amazing world of Instant Pot\u00ae cooking . . . but you're not sure where or how to start. Don't worry, this chapter will give you the information you need to know to get started. Here you'll learn what all those buttons on your Instant Pot\u00ae do, how to release the pressure from the Instant Pot\u00ae when the cooking time is up, how to keep your Instant Pot\u00ae clean, and more.\n\nEven though you'll learn all this information in this chapter, it's important that you read the owner's manual as well. The user manual is your key to successfully creating the recipes throughout this book. In addition to pointing out the basic functions of the appliance, it will tell you to do an initial test run using water to get familiar with the Instant Pot\u00ae. I can't stress enough that you need to do this. It will familiarize you with this appliance and take away some of the anxiety. In addition, this first run will help steam-clean your pot before you use it to make a favorite recipe.\n\nBut for now, let's take a look at some Instant Pot\u00ae basics.\n\n### Function Buttons\n\nYou are staring at the Instant Pot\u00ae and there are so many buttons. Which one should you use? Most of the function buttons seem obvious, but it is important to note that several are set with preprogrammed default cooking times. Also, keep in mind that every button option on the Instant Pot\u00ae is programmed with a 10-second delay, meaning that cooking begins 10 seconds after you hit the button. Most likely you will utilize the Manual or Pressure Cook button the most because you are in complete control, but read on for more detailed information on the remaining function buttons.\n\nManual\/Pressure Cook button. Depending on the model of Instant Pot\u00ae, there is a button labeled either Manual or Pressure Cook. This might be the most used button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. The default pressure setting is High; however, you can toggle the pressure from High to Low by pressing the Pressure button. Use the Plus and Minus buttons to adjust the pressurized cooking time.\n\nSaut\u00e9 button. This button helps the Instant Pot\u00ae act as a skillet for saut\u00e9ing vegetables or searing meat prior to adding the remaining ingredients of a recipe, and it is used for simmering sauces as well. There are three temperature settings\u2014Normal, Less, and More\u2014that can be accessed using the Adjust button. The Normal setting is for saut\u00e9ing, the Less setting is for simmering, and the More setting is for searing meat. Keep the lid open when using the Saut\u00e9 button to avoid pressure building up.\n\nSoup button. This button is used to cook soups and broths at high pressure for a default of 30 minutes. The Adjust button allows you to change the cooking time to 20 or 40 minutes.\n\nPorridge button. This button is used to cook porridge, congee, and jook in the Instant Pot\u00ae at high pressure for a default of 20 minutes. The Adjust button allows you to change the cooking time to 15 or 40 minutes.\n\nPoultry button. This button is used to cook chicken, turkey, and even duck at high pressure for a default of 15 minutes. The Adjust button allows you to change the cooking time to 5 or 30 minutes.\n\nMeat\/Stew button. This button is used to cook red meats and stew meats at high pressure for a default of 35 minutes. The Adjust button allows you to change the cooking time to 20 or 45 minutes.\n\nBean\/Chili button. This button is used to cook dried beans and chili at high pressure for a default of 30 minutes. The Adjust button allows you to change the cooking time to 25 or 40 minutes.\n\nRice button. This button is used to cook white rice such as jasmine or basmati at low pressure. The Instant Pot\u00ae will automatically set the default cooking time by sensing the amount of water and rice in the cooking vessel.\n\nMultigrain button. This button is used to cook grains such as wild rice, quinoa, and barley at high pressure for a default of 40 minutes. The Adjust button allows you to change the cooking time to 20 or 60 minutes.\n\nSteam button. This button is excellent for steaming vegetables and seafood using your steamer basket. It steams for a default of 10 minutes. The Adjust button allows you to change the cooking time to 3 or 15 minutes. Quick-release the steam immediately after the timer beeps so as to not overcook the food.\n\nSlow Cook button. This button allows the Instant Pot\u00ae to cook like a slow cooker. It defaults to a 4-hour cook time. The Adjust button allows you to change the temperature to Less, Normal, or More, which correspond to a slow cooker's low, normal, or high. The Plus and Minus buttons allow you to adjust the cooking time.\n\nKeep Warm\/Cancel button. When the Instant Pot\u00ae is being programmed or it is in operation, pressing this button cancels the operation and returns the Instant Pot\u00ae to a standby state. When the Instant Pot\u00ae is in the standby state, pressing this button again activates the Keep Warm function.\n\nAutomatic Keep Warm function. After the ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae are finished cooking, the pot automatically switches over to the Keep Warm function and will keep your food warm up to 10 hours. This is perfect for large cuts of meat as well as soups, stews, and chili, allowing the spices and flavors to really marry for an even better taste. The first digit on the LED display will show an L to indicate that the Instant Pot\u00ae is in the Keep Warm cycle, and the clock will count up from 0 seconds to 10 hours.\n\nTimer button. This button allows you to delay the start of cooking up to 24 hours. After you select a cooking program and make any time adjustments, press the Timer button and use the Plus or Minus keys to enter the delayed hours; press the Timer button again and use the Plus or Minus keys to enter the delayed minutes. You can press the Keep Warm\/Cancel button to cancel the timed delay. The Timer function doesn't work with Saut\u00e9, Yogurt, and Keep Warm functions.\n\n### How Does Food Cook in 0 Minutes?\n\nIf you are confused about how some recipes require \"0\" minutes to cook, it's not a typo. Some veggies and seafoods that only require minimal steaming are set at zero cooking time. Food can actually be cooked in the time that it takes the Instant Pot\u00ae to achieve pressure.\n\n### Locking and Pressure-Release Methods\n\nOther than the Saut\u00e9 function, where the lid should be off, or the Slow Cook or Keep Warm functions, where the lid can be on or off, most of the cooking you'll do in the Instant Pot\u00ae will be under pressure, which means you need to know how to lock the lid before pressurized cooking and how to safely release the pressure after cooking. Once your ingredients are in the inner pot of the Instant Pot\u00ae, to lock the lid put the lid on the Instant Pot\u00ae with the triangle mark on the lid aligned with the Unlocked mark on the rim of the Instant Pot\u00ae. Then turn the lid 30 degrees clockwise until the triangle mark on the lid is aligned with the Locked mark on the rim. Turn the pointed end of the pressure release handle on top of the lid to the Sealing position. After your cooking program has ended or you've pressed the Keep Warm\/Cancel button to end the cooking, there are two ways you can release the pressure:\n\nNatural-release method. To naturally release the pressure, simply wait until the Instant Pot\u00ae has cooled sufficiently for all the pressure to be released and the float valve drops, normally about 10\u201315 minutes. You can either unplug the Instant Pot\u00ae while the pressure releases naturally or let the pressure release while it is still on the Keep Warm function.\n\nQuick-release method. The quick-release method stifles the cooking process and helps unlock the lid for immediate serving. To quickly release the pressure on the Instant Pot\u00ae, make sure you are wearing oven mitts, then turn the pressure release handle to the Venting position to let out steam until the float valve drops. This is generally not recommended for starchy items or large volumes of liquid (e.g., soup) so as to avoid any splattering that may occur. Be prepared, because the noise and geyser effect of the releasing steam during the quick-release method can be off-putting. Also, if you own dogs, apparently this release is the most frightening part of the day, so take caution.\n\n### Pot-in-Pot Accessories\n\nPot-in-pot cooking is when you place another cooking dish inside the Instant Pot\u00ae for a particular recipe. The Instant Pot\u00ae is straightforward and comes with an inner pot and trivet; however, there are many other tricks and recipes that can be made with the purchase of a few other accessories, including a springform pan, cake pan, glass bowl, and ramekins.\n\n7\" springform pan. A 7\" springform pan is the perfect size for making a cake and many other desserts in an Instant Pot\u00ae. It is the right dimension to fit inside the pot, and it makes a dessert for four to six people.\n\n6\" cake pan. A 6\" pan is excellent for making a small cake in the Instant Pot\u00ae. It can serve four to six people depending on the serving size. This pan is perfect for a family craving a small dessert without committing to leftovers.\n\n7-cup glass bowl. This 7-cup bowl fits perfectly in the Instant Pot\u00ae and works great for eggs and casseroles that generally would burn on the bottom of the pot insert. The items in the bowl sit up on the inserted trivet and are cooked with the steam and pressure of the pot.\n\nRamekins. These 4-ounce porcelain individual portions are the perfect vessel for tasty custards.\n\nSteamer basket. The steamer basket helps create a raised shelf for steaming. Shop around, as there are several variations, including metal or silicone steamer baskets. Some even have handles to make it easier to remove them after the cooking process.\n\nSilicone baking cups. The silicone baking cups are great for mini meatloaves, cupcakes, on-the-go frittatas, and little quick breads.\n\nAlthough these accessories can help you branch out and make different recipes with the Instant Pot\u00ae, there are many recipes you can make using just the inner pot and trivet that come with your appliance. These are just handy items you can purchase along the way to use with what will soon become your favorite heat source in the kitchen.\n\n#### Accessory Removal\n\nCooking pot-in-pot is a great idea until it's time to remove the inserted cooking dish. Because of the tight space, it is almost impossible to use thick oven mitts to reach down and grip something evenly without tipping one side of the cooking vessel and spilling the cooked item. There are a few ways around this:\n\nRetriever tongs. Retriever tongs are a helpful tool for removing hot bowls and pans from the Instant Pot\u00ae.\n\nMini mitts. Small oven mitts are helpful when lifting pots out of an Instant Pot\u00ae after the cooking process, especially the type made of silicone. They are more heat-resistant and less cumbersome than traditional oven mitts, which can prove to be bulky in the tight space of the cooker.\n\nAluminum foil sling. This is a quick, inexpensive fix to the problem of lifting a heated dish out of an Instant Pot\u00ae. Take a 10\" \u00d7 10\" square of aluminum foil and fold it back and forth until you have a 2\" \u00d7 10\" sling. Place this sling underneath the bowl or pan before cooking so that you can easily lift up the heated dish.\n\nAlthough necessary if you do pot-in-pot cooking, these retrieval tools are not needed if you are simply using the interior pot that comes with the appliance upon purchase. A slotted spoon will do the trick for most other meals.\n\n### Cleaning Your Instant Pot\u00ae\n\nWhen cleaning up after using your Instant Pot\u00ae, the first thing you should do is unplug it and let it cool down. Then you can break down the following parts to clean and inspect for any trapped food particles:\n\nInner pot. The inner pot, the cooking vessel, is dishwasher safe; however, the high heat causes rainbowing, or discoloration, on stainless steel. To avoid this, hand wash the pot.\n\nOuter heating unit. Wipe the interior and exterior with a damp cloth. Do not submerge in water, as it is an electrical appliance.\n\nTrivet. The trivet is dishwasher safe or can be cleaned with soap and water.\n\nLid. The lid needs to be broken down into individual parts before washing. The sealing ring, the float valve, the steam release handle, and the antiblock shield all need to be cleaned in different ways:\n\n\u2022 Sealing ring. Once this ring is removed, check the integrity of the silicone. If it is torn or cracked, it will not seal properly and may hinder the cooking process, in which case it should not be used. The sealing ring needs to be removed and washed each time because the ring has a tendency to hold odors when cooking. Vinegar or lemon juice is excellent for reducing odors. You can purchase additional rings for a nominal price. Many Instant Pot\u00ae users buy more than one ring and use one for meats and a separate one for desserts and milder dishes.\n\n\u2022 Float valve. The float valve is a safety feature that serves as a latch lock that prevents the lid from being opened during the cooking process. Make sure that this valve can move easily and is not obstructed by any food particles.\n\n\u2022 Pressure release handle. This is the venting handle on top of the lid. It can be pulled out for cleaning. It should be loose, so don't worry. This allows it to move when necessary.\n\n\u2022 Antiblock shield. The antiblock shield is the little silver \"basket\" underneath the lid. It is located directly below the vent. This shield can and should be removed and cleaned. It blocks any foods, especially starches, so they don't clog the vent.\n\nSo, now that you know about all the safety features, buttons, and parts of the Instant Pot\u00ae and know how to clean everything, it's time for the fun part. The cooking process is where the excitement begins. From breakfast to dessert and everything in between, The \"I Love My Instant Pot\u00ae\" Paleo Recipe Book has you covered.\n\n## Breakfast\n\nFitting breakfast into a busy schedule can seem a bit overwhelming at times, especially if you are following a paleo diet. You will usually have to make your own breakfasts because there really aren't many, if any, paleo-friendly drive-through options. This chapter's got you covered with several to-go meals in addition to sit-down meals made on the fly. The Instant Pot\u00ae can help save the day with its shortened cooking time and freedom from having to stand over the skillet. All you have to do is add your ingredients, press a button, and go get ready to tackle your day. Make sure to set aside a prep day during the week so all of your fruits and vegetables are already cut and ready to use.\n\nIn addition to the morning-time crunch, most of the breakfast options on the paleo lifestyle seem repetitive. From casseroles to muffins, this chapter offers a wide variety of delicious breakfast recipes, including Bacon Jam, Apple Cinnamon Muffins, and even a Breakfast Casserole with Drop Biscuit Dumplings. And once you get comfortable with some of the basics, you should feel free to get creative and make some of your own morning masterpieces. So, get cooking, and let your family wake up with a new appreciation for their soon-to-be-favorite kitchen gadget!\n\nChampion Breakfast Bowl\n\nSweet Potato Breakfast Bowl\n\nMorning Bacon Parsnips\n\nApple Cinnamon Muffins\n\nBlueberry-Orange Muffins\n\nPumpkin Chip Muffins\n\nSausage Gravy\n\nSouth-of-the-Border Frittata\n\nCiao Bella! Egg Muffins\n\nHam and Mushroom Egg Muffins\n\nBacon, Onion, and Spinach Egg Muffins\n\nSoft-Boiled Eggs with Steamed Asparagus Dippers\n\nBell Pepper Egg Cups\n\nFruity Trail Mix Bowls\n\nMixed Berry Breakfast Syrup\n\nBacon Jam\n\nBreakfast Casserole with Drop Biscuit Dumplings\n\nLoaded Sweet Potato Hash\n\nPiggy Tater Bowl with a Poached Egg\n\n## Champion Breakfast Bowl\n\nFeel like a champion. Work out like a champion. Eat like a champion. After an intense early morning workout on the punching bag, come home to a bowlful of protein to nourish those sore muscles.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n6 large eggs\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 teaspoons avocado oil\n\n1\/2 cup diced red onion\n\n1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1\/4 pound ground pork sausage\n\n11\/2 cups water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, salt, and pepper. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Stir-fry onion, bell pepper, and sausage 3\u20134 minutes until sausage starts to brown and onions are tender.\n\n3 Transfer mixture to a lightly greased 7-cup glass bowl. Pour whisked eggs over the sausage mixture.\n\n4 Add water to Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place dish with egg mixture on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove dish from pot. Let sit at room temperature 5\u201310 minutes to allow the eggs to set. Slice and serve.\n\n## Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowl\n\nThis is a perfect breakfast after an intense morning workout. Let your Instant Pot\u00ae be your personal chef and cook this Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowl while you are showering off and getting ready for your day. When ready, ladle a helping of flavor-filled protein and vegetables into your breakfast bowl to help you tackle the day.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n6 large eggs\n\n1 tablespoon Italian seasoning\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 pound ground pork sausage\n\n1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Stir-fry sausage, sweet potato, onion, garlic, and bell pepper 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent.\n\n3 Transfer mixture to a lightly greased 7-cup glass bowl. Pour whisked eggs over the sausage mixture.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place dish with egg mixture on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove dish from pot. Let sit at room temperature 5\u201310 minutes to allow the eggs to set. Slice and serve.\n\n## Morning Bacon Parsnips\n\nThe runny yolks of a perfectly poached egg are nature's gravy. Don't skip this luxurious step! And if you really want to take this dish to the next level, drizzle some drool-worthy hollandaise over the top.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n2 slices bacon, diced\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n4 cups peeled and diced parsnips\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n4 large eggs, poached\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add bacon and onions. Stir-fry until onions are translucent, 3\u20135 minutes. Transfer mixture to a lightly greased 7-cup glass bowl. Add parsnips, ghee, garlic, salt, and pepper to bowl and toss to mix.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place glass dish on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove dish from pot and divide mixture equally among four serving dishes. Garnish each dish with a poached egg.\n\n## Apple Cinnamon Muffins\n\nA classic flavor combination, these muffins are a great treat for the family to wake up to as the weather cools. Serve with a slice or two of bacon and a warm cup of tea to round out this wintry breakfast.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n11\/4 cups cassava flour\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\n1 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n3 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n1\/3 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1\/4 cup grated red apples\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and sea salt.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, ghee, eggs, syrup, and apples.\n\n3 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into 6 lightly greased silicone cupcake liners.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place cupcake liners on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 9 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove muffins from pot and set aside to cool 5 minutes.\n\n## Blueberry-Orange Muffins\n\nThe sweet blueberries and the zesty orange make this the ideal breakfast for mornings on the go.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n11\/4 cups cassava flour\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n1\/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice\n\n1 teaspoon orange zest\n\n3 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n1\/3 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1\/4 cup fresh blueberries\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, orange juice, orange zest, ghee, eggs, and syrup.\n\n3 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Fold in blueberries. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into 6 lightly greased silicone cupcake liners.\n\n4 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place cupcake liners on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 9 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove muffins from pot and set aside to cool 5 minutes.\n\n## Pumpkin Chip Muffins\n\nWhen everyone else is drinking pumpkin lattes, you can fulfill that urge to splurge with this healthy alternative. The dark chocolate chips provide an element that will make you feel like you are cheating, but the antioxidants will prove otherwise.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n11\/4 cups cassava flour\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\n1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/4 cup pumpkin pur\u00e9e\n\n1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n1 tablespoon ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n1\/3 cup pure maple syrup\n\n2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and sea salt.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin pur\u00e9e, vanilla, ghee, eggs, and syrup.\n\n3 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Fold in dark chocolate chips. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into 6 lightly greased silicone cupcake liners.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place cupcake liners on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 9 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove muffins from pot and set aside to cool 5 minutes.\n\n## Sausage Gravy\n\nWhether you serve it with gluten-free biscuits, leftover meatloaf, or morning hash browns, this sausage gravy is the ideal savory addition to your brunch table. And don't forget to go heavy on that black pepper . . . it's the charm in this Southern breakfast staple.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 6 minutes\n\nServes 10\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 pound ground pork sausage\n\n1 small sweet onion, peeled and diced\n\n1\/4 cup chicken broth\n\n1\/4 cup cassava flour\n\n11\/2 cups unsweetened almond milk\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add ghee and heat until melted. Add sausage and onion; stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. The pork will still be a little pink in places.\n\n2 Add chicken broth to the pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 1 minute. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Whisk in flour, milk, salt, and pepper.\n\n3 Press the Keep Warm button and let the gravy sit about 5\u201310 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken. Remove from heat and serve warm.\n\n### WHAT IS CASSAVA FLOUR?\n\nCassava flour is made from the yucca, a root vegetable that has been dried and ground. Otto's Naturals Cassava Flour is a high-quality cassava flour that is readily available. It is an all-natural, amazing, grain-free replacement for wheat flour and can often be used as a 1:1 substitute in countless recipes. There are no fillers. So, tie up your apron and get to baking!\n\n## South-of-the-Border Frittata\n\nThis flavorful frittata will have you up and running in the morning. If you are not a fan of cilantro, swap it out with parsley. If a little heat scares your taste buds, substitute the chorizo with breakfast sausage or ground pork, beef, or chicken. Use this recipe as a guide and sub whatever you already have on hand. Frittatas are a great way to clean out the refrigerator.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 large whole eggs\n\n4 large egg whites\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro\n\n2 small Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced\n\n1 medium avocado, peeled and diced\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1\/4 pound chorizo, loose or cut from casing\n\n1 small red onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, salt, and pepper. Add cilantro, tomatoes, and avocado. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat oil and stir-fry chorizo, onion, and green pepper 5 minutes or until chorizo is browned and cooked through. Pat chorizo with paper towels to remove excess oil.\n\n3 Transfer cooked chorizo mixture to a greased 7-cup glass bowl and set aside to cool 5 minutes. Pour whisked eggs over the cooked mixture and stir to combine.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place dish with egg mixture on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove dish from pot and set aside 5\u201310 minutes to allow the eggs to set. Slice and serve.\n\n## Ciao Bella! Egg Muffins\n\nThis breakfast is optimal for those mornings spent running around with no time to spare. Whisk yourself away to Italy with these egg muffins made in no time at all. The Instant Pot\u00ae makes it easy to get a quick vegetable-filled, protein-packed bite on your way out the door.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 3\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n4 large eggs\n\n2 teaspoons Italian seasoning\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 tablespoon nutritional yeast\n\n4 ounces prosciutto, torn into pieces\n\n1 small Roma tomato, seeded and diced\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh spinach\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add onion and stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes until translucent. Transfer onion to a small bowl to cool.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, yeast, prosciutto, tomato, and spinach. Stir in cooled onion mixture. Distribute egg mixture evenly among 6 lightly greased silicone cupcake liners.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place steamer basket on trivet. Carefully place muffin cups on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Remove egg muffins and serve warm.\n\n### WHAT ON EARTH IS NUTRITIONAL YEAST?\n\nNutritional yeast, or nooch as it is affectionately called, is used by a lot of paleo folks and vegans for its cheesy and nutty flavor. It is a deactivated yeast, so it is not the same as baking or brewer's yeast, but it adds another level of richness to many recipes. It can be found in powder or flake form in most specialty grocery stores or online.\n\n## Ham and Mushroom Egg Muffins\n\nThese make-ahead egg muffins ease the morning rush when you can eat these individual breakfast casseroles on the way to the gym for a little protein boost.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 3\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1\/2 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 cup diced button mushrooms\n\n1\/2 cup small-diced cooked ham\n\n4 large eggs\n\n2 teaspoons yellow mustard\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add onion, mushrooms, and ham; stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. Transfer mixture to a small bowl to cool.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, mustard, salt, and pepper. Stir cooled ham mixture into egg mixture. Distribute egg mixture evenly among 6 lightly greased silicone cupcake liners.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place steamer basket on trivet. Carefully place cupcake liners on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Remove egg muffins and serve warm.\n\n## Bacon, Onion, and Spinach Egg Muffins\n\nNot only are these savory egg muffins a nutritious meal, but you'll avoid a trip to the drive-through window for alternate \"food.\" When purchasing bacon, there are several brands that are paleo-friendly, either from a local farmer, a specialty grocer, or online.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 3\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1\/2 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n4 slices bacon\n\n1 overflowing cup fresh spinach leaves\n\n4 large eggs\n\nPinch ground nutmeg\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add onion and bacon; stir-fry 5 minutes until onions are starting to brown and bacon is crisp. Add spinach for 1 minute until wilted. Transfer mixture to a small bowl to cool.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stir cooled onion mixture into egg mixture. Distribute egg mixture evenly among 6 lightly greased silicone cupcake liners.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place steamer basket on trivet. Carefully place cupcake liners on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Remove egg muffins and serve warm.\n\n## Soft-Boiled Eggs with Steamed Asparagus Dippers\n\nThese should just be called yum. Eggs cooked in an Instant Pot\u00ae are so easy to peel and this dish cooks the asparagus right in the same pot. Crack those eggs open and dip into that glorious soft-boiled yolk. Round out this meal with some prosciutto and melon balls while dining alfresco!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 2 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 bunch asparagus, woody ends removed\n\n4 large eggs\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place asparagus on steamer basket and place eggs on top. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer eggs to an ice bath to stop the cooking process.\n\n3 Place your egg in a soft-boiled egg holder. Hit the side of the egg halfway down around the midway perimeter of the egg. Peel off upper shell. Dig in with a spoon and then dip your asparagus in that glorious yolk.\n\n## Bell Pepper Egg Cups\n\nBell peppers for breakfast? You better believe it! These peppers are stuffed with ground turkey and eggs making this the perfect protein-packed breakfast to start off your day.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 large red bell peppers\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1\/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n3\/4 pound ground turkey\n\n1 small Roma tomato, seeded and diced\n\n1 tablespoon tomato paste\n\n3 large eggs, whisked\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Cut off the bell pepper tops as close to the tops as possible. Hollow out and discard seeds. Set cleaned peppers aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat avocado oil. Add onion and ground turkey. Stir-fry 5 minutes until onions are starting to soften and turkey is browned. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl to cool.\n\n3 Add remaining ingredients except water to the turkey mixture. Stuff equal amounts of mixture into each of the bell peppers.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Set peppers upright on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick release remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Transfer peppers to a platter and serve warm.\n\n## Fruity Trail Mix Bowls\n\nIf you've missed eating oatmeal on the paleo diet, this recipe is your saving grace. It is warm, filling, and just a good old breakfast comfort meal. The smooth cooked apples and the crunch of the pecans are married together with the warm spices of cinnamon and nutmeg.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, including juice\n\n2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced\n\n1\/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes\n\n1\/4 cup crushed pecans\n\n2 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds\n\n2 tablespoons diced dates\n\n2 tablespoons honey\n\n2 tablespoons cassava flour\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 Pour crushed pineapple, including juice, into a medium bowl. Add the apples to the pineapple and stir. Add coconut flakes, pecans, sunflower seeds, dates, honey, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Pour ingredients into a lightly greased 7-cup glass bowl.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place the glass bowl on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Spoon into bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Mixed Berry Breakfast Syrup\n\nThis berrylicious syrup is perfect for your paleo pancakes and gluten-free waffles. Served warm or chilled, this will be a hit at your next brunch or breakfast gathering. Keep refrigerated up to one week if it even lasts that long!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 3 minutes\n\nYields 1 cup\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound frozen mixed berries\n\n1 tablespoon ghee\n\n1\/2 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1\/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice\n\n1 tablespoon orange zest\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1 cinnamon stick\n\n1 Add all ingredients to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Remove and discard cinnamon stick. Press mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any seeds or skins.\n\n3 Transfer syrup to a lidded container and refrigerate. Serve warm or cold.\n\n## Bacon Jam\n\nSweet and salty, this glorious concoction can give new life to several meals. On top of a burger, alongside your scrambled eggs in the morning, or even licked off a kitchen spoon, Bacon Jam will be your new favorite condiment.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 14 minutes\n\nYields 2 cups\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon coconut oil\n\n1 pound center-cut bacon, diced\n\n1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped\n\n4 cloves garlic, halved\n\n1\/4 cup apple cider vinegar\n\n1\/2 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1 chipotle in adobo sauce\n\n1 teaspoon adobo sauce from the chipotle jar\n\n1 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1 tablespoon instant espresso powder\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add bacon and onion; stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until bacon fat is rendered and onions are translucent. Add garlic and saut\u00e9 1 minute.\n\n2 Discard all but 1 tablespoon bacon grease from pot. Add remaining ingredients. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use an immersion blender to blend mixture in pot until preferred consistency is reached. Spoon the jam into a jar and refrigerate up to 2 weeks until ready to use.\n\n## Breakfast Casserole with Drop Biscuit Dumplings\n\nMiss that biscuit topping no more. Cassava flour has saved the paleo community. This gluten-free, grain-free, and all-natural product allows a little \"breading\" back into our lives again. Cooked atop this breakfast casserole, it makes this a complete meal made in no time at all.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\nDrop Biscuit Dumplings\n\n1\/2 cup cassava flour\n\n1 teaspoon baking powder\n\n1\/4 teaspoon baking soda\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1 large egg white, whisked\n\n2 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\nBreakfast Casserole\n\n1 pound breakfast pork sausage, loose or cut from casings\n\n1\/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1\/2 cup diced button or cremini mushrooms\n\n4 large eggs\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine dumpling ingredients. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and stir-fry sausage, onion, and mushrooms 3 minutes to render fat. Transfer mixture to a lightly greased 7-cup glass bowl.\n\n3 Whisk together eggs and black pepper in a small bowl. Pour over sausage mixture.\n\n4 Drop spoonfuls of dumpling mixture over casserole. Place trivet in the Instant Pot\u00ae and place the glass bowl on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove dish from pot and let cool 5 minutes. Use a paper towel to dab off any additional moisture that may have accumulated on the top of casserole. Serve warm.\n\n## Loaded Sweet Potato Hash\n\nWhether you've just finished up a CrossFit class or finally managed to get your kids on the bus, you are starving. This protein-packed power bowl is just what is needed to perk you up and get your body moving for the day.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n6 large eggs\n\n1 tablespoon Italian seasoning\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 pound ground pork sausage\n\n1 large sweet potato, peeled and grated\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Stir-fry sausage, sweet potato, onion, garlic, and bell pepper 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent.\n\n3 Transfer mixture to a 7-cup greased glass bowl. Pour whisked eggs over the sausage mixture.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place dish with egg mixture on trivet. Lock lid. Press Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Remove dish from pot. Let sit at room temperature 5\u201310 minutes to allow the eggs to set. Slice and serve.\n\n## Piggy Tater Bowl with a Poached Egg\n\nThis tasty tater bowl is made luxurious with nature's sauce, the beautiful runny yolk of a poached egg! Although white potatoes are not to be consumed every day, this is an all-around treat breakfast especially when you are about to enjoy a full day of hiking with your family or friends.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n3 slices bacon, diced\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n4 cups small-diced russet potatoes\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup water\n\n4 large eggs, poached\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add bacon, onion, green pepper, and potatoes; stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. Transfer mixture to a lightly greased 7-cup glass bowl. Mix in ghee, garlic, salt, and pepper.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place dish on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove dish from pot. Spoon mixture into four serving bowls. Garnish each bowl with a poached egg and serve.\n\n## Soups, Stews, and Chilis\n\nSoups, stews, and chilis are perfect foods in the paleo world. Most of them utilize the simplest of ingredients: fresh vegetables from the garden and grass-fed meat floating in a sea of beautiful homemade broth. Or at least in the perfect world. Sometimes the ingredients are just quick-grabbed from the store and we make do with what we can find. And that's okay. You are still eating vegetables, meat, and broth.\n\nOr sometimes you may have all the ingredients for a great soup, but you look at the clock and realize you are only an hour out from dinner. Traditionally, you've needed low heat and a long cooking time to marry all the wonderful spices and flavors that make any soup great, but not anymore. The pressurized heat in your Instant Pot\u00ae can save the day. Although there is a Slow Cook button on your Instant Pot\u00ae for when time isn't an issue, cooking at high pressure can have you serving a finished dinner within an hour. So, break out your ladle because dinner is almost ready. From White Chicken Chili and Mardi Gras Gumbo to Hearty Lamb Stew, this chapter is packed with fresh ideas.\n\nChicken Broth\n\nVegetable Broth\n\nBeef Broth\n\nTo Bean or Not to Bean Chili\n\nChunky Beef Chili\n\nHearty Lamb Stew\n\nCreamy Mushroom Soup\n\nCream of Broccoli and Bacon Soup\n\nTom Kha Goong\n\nKentucky Derby Burgoo\n\nWhite Chicken Chili\n\nSavory Acorn Squash Soup\n\nChicken Taco Soup\n\nCreamy Tomato Basil Soup\n\nMardi Gras Gumbo\n\nQuick Vegetable Soup\n\nHamburger Soup\n\nOma's Sausage and Cabbage Soup\n\nCreamy Ham and Root Veggie Soup\n\nCurried Carrot Soup\n\n## Chicken Broth\n\nDon't skip this recipe after you cook a whole chicken or purchase a cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. Save the carcass and bones to make this nutrient- and mineral-packed Chicken Broth that you can use for a soup base in place of store-bought broth.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 30 minutes\n\nYields 6 cups\n\n* * *\n\n1 chicken carcass from a whole chicken\n\n2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks\n\n2 stalks celery, cut into chunks\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped\n\n1 bay leaf\n\n2 cloves garlic, halved\n\n1\/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n6 cups water\n\n1 Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 30 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Use a slotted spoon to remove and discard solids from the broth. Strain the remaining liquid through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Refrigerate broth up to 4 days or freeze up to 6 months.\n\n## Vegetable Broth\n\nBroths are the base, the very foundation, of almost any soup that you make, so feel free to alter this recipe in order to personalize the flavor of the broth. For example, if you know a guest dislikes garlic, make this broth without it. If you have everything but the parsnip, eliminate it. Tailor this broth to your own taste buds and preferences as well. It will be amazing!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 30 minutes\n\nYields 6 cups\n\n* * *\n\n3 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks\n\n2 stalks celery, cut into chunks\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped\n\n1 medium parsnip, peeled and chopped\n\n1 bay leaf\n\n2 cloves garlic, halved\n\n1\/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n6 cups water\n\n1 Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 30 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Use a slotted spoon to remove and discard solids from the broth. Strain the remaining liquid through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Refrigerate broth up to 4 days or freeze up to 6 months.\n\n## Beef Broth\n\nBeef soup bones can be bought at most supermarkets and butcher shops. If they are not on display, don't hesitate to ask. Making your own beef and bone broth is very popular these days, so it won't seem like a weird question. You can also use oxtail or neck bones as a substitute.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 30 minutes\n\nYields 6 cups\n\n* * *\n\n3 pounds beef soup bones\n\n2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks\n\n2 stalks celery, cut into chunks\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped\n\n1 bay leaf\n\n2 cloves garlic, halved\n\n1\/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n6 cups water\n\n1 Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 30 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Use a slotted spoon to remove and discard solids from the broth. Strain the remaining liquid through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Refrigerate broth up to 4 days or freeze up to 6 months.\n\n## To Bean or Not to Bean Chili\n\nBeans are part of the legume family and are not recommended with the paleo lifestyle. Without sounding too scientific, they contain phytates, which lead to improper digestion. They basically inhibit the absorption of certain nutrients and minerals and can lead to a \"leaky gut\" over time.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 40 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1\/2 pound ground pork\n\n1\/2 pound ground beef\n\n1 cup diced red onion\n\n1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1 large carrot, peeled and diced\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n2 tablespoons chili powder\n\n1 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1 small jalape\u00f1o, seeded and diced\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 (28-ounce) can pur\u00e9ed tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat oil. Add the ground pork, ground beef, and onion. Stir-fry 5 minutes until pork is no longer pink.\n\n2 Add remaining ingredients to pot and stir to combine. Lock lid. Press the Meat button and cook for default time of 35 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Serve warm.\n\n## Chunky Beef Chili\n\nIf you're looking to cook up some chili for game day, this recipe is beyond compare. The thinly sliced jalape\u00f1os used to top off this hearty bowl of chili will spice up your day and get you through the pregame jitters. Fire up your Instant Pot\u00ae and get ready to enjoy some tailgating with your friends.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 30 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 pound beef stew cubes\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n4 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1\/2\" pieces\n\n2 cups beef broth\n\n2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms\n\n1 tablespoon chili powder\n\n1 tablespoon Italian seasoning\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons tomato paste\n\n1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 Press Saut\u00e9 button on Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat oil and add beef and onion. Stir-fry 3 minutes, searing beef and stir-frying until onions are translucent. Add garlic and carrot; saut\u00e9 2 minutes.\n\n2 Add beef broth to pot and deglaze by scraping up any bits from the bottom and sides of the pot.\n\n3 Stir in all remaining ingredients. Lock lid. Press Meat button and cook for default time of 25 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Ladle into individual bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Hearty Lamb Stew\n\nForget the family table. Enjoy this incredibly satisfying and hearty stew around the fireplace on a cold winter's night. And, if you happen to have leftovers, it is even better the next day.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 40 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n2 pounds boneless lamb, cubed\n\n1 medium sweet onion, peeled and diced\n\n4 cloves garlic, minced\n\n3 cups beef broth\n\n1 (14.5-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, including juice\n\n2 medium carrots, peeled and diced\n\n1 medium turnip, peeled and small-diced (greens cleaned and chopped)\n\n1\/2 teaspoon fennel seeds\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh mint\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add lamb and onion; stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes, searing lamb and stir-frying until onions are translucent. Add garlic and saut\u00e9 1 minute.\n\n2 Add beef broth and deglaze pot by scraping up any bits from the sides and bottom of the pot. Add tomatoes, including juice, carrots, turnip including chopped greens, fennel seeds, salt, and pepper. Lock lid. Press the Meat button and cook for the default time of 35 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Stir in mint. Ladle into individual bowls, garnish with parsley, and serve warm.\n\n## Creamy Mushroom Soup\n\nYou won't even miss the heavy cream in this dairy-free creamy soup. The pur\u00e9ed cauliflower adds a smoothness and the mushrooms lend earthy and hearty notes needed to make this bowl of soup sing.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 small sweet onion, peeled and diced\n\n2 cups sliced button mushrooms\n\n1 small head cauliflower, chopped\n\n1 stalk celery, diced\n\n4 cups chicken broth\n\n2 teaspoons dried thyme\n\n1 teaspoon dried oregano\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add onion and mushrooms; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. Transfer half the mushroom mixture to a small bowl and set aside.\n\n2 Add remaining ingredients to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Soup button and adjust time to 20 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use an immersion blender to blend the soup in the pot until smooth. Stir reserved mushroom mixture into the pot and heat 3\u20135 minutes.\n\n4 Ladle into bowls and serve warm.\n\n### MUSHROOM VARIETIES\n\nMushrooms create a woody and unique flavor to many dishes. Each variety brings a slightly different flavor. Oyster mushrooms have a bit of a briny note, shiitakes have a smoky hint, and morels have a fabulous nuttiness. Change up the variety of mushroom that you use in this recipe or use a mix of varieties for a true \"wild mushroom\" blend for balance.\n\n## Cream of Broccoli and Bacon Soup\n\nThis smooth and creamy broccoli soup is enhanced with the smoky and crunchy bacon garnish. This dish is the perfect comfort meal after a brisk run in the cool fall evenings or even after a family snowball fight in the winter.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 30 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 teaspoon ghee\n\n6 pieces of bacon, diced\n\n1 medium sweet onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 large carrot, peeled and diced\n\n2 stalks celery, diced\n\n1 pound broccoli, chopped\n\n1 tablespoon nutritional yeast\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n4 cups chicken broth\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat the ghee. Add half the bacon and heat 3\u20135 minutes until crispy. Set aside on a plate lined with paper towels to cool. Add remaining bacon and onion; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until the onions are translucent.\n\n2 Add all remaining ingredients to Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Soup button and adjust time to 20 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use an immersion blender to blend the soup in the pot until smooth.\n\n4 Ladle the soup into serving bowls and garnish with reserved bacon. Serve warm.\n\n## Tom Kha Goong\n\nAdding the shrimp at the end of the cooking process keeps it from getting overcooked. The other ingredients, however, go through the steaming process to really marry all the rich flavors\u2014so much so that you'll think that this soup has been slow cooking for hours.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon coconut oil\n\n6 green onions, sliced\n\n1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n3 cups vegetable broth\n\n1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste\n\n1 tablespoon fish sauce\n\n2 tablespoons minced lemongrass (soft inner layer only)\n\n1 teaspoon honey\n\n1 cup canned coconut milk\n\n1 tablespoon fresh lime juice\n\n1\/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon white pepper\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro\n\n1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add green onions and mushrooms; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until mushrooms are tender. Add garlic and saut\u00e9 1 minute.\n\n2 Add remaining ingredients except shrimp to pot. Lock lid. Press the Soup button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Add shrimp and simmer 5 minutes until opaque and pink.\n\n4 Ladle into bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Kentucky Derby Burgoo\n\nBurgoo? What's that? It's a traditional stew in Louisville especially celebrated during the week of the Kentucky Derby. Once cooked in large iron kettles, this concoction used meat from that day's hunting expedition and vegetables that were already in the house. Burgoo typically isn't ever made the same way twice and is different from family to family, so let this recipe be your guide and tweak it as you see fit.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 40 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n1\/2 pound chicken thighs, cubed\n\n1\/2 pound beef, cubed\n\n4 cups beef broth\n\n1 stalk celery, diced\n\n1 cup asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1\" pieces\n\n1\/2 cup sliced fresh or frozen okra\n\n2 small red potatoes, peeled and cubed\n\n1 small carrot, peeled and diced\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n4 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, including juice\n\n2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat the oil and add the chicken and beef cubes. Sear meat 3\u20134 minutes until browned on all sides.\n\n2 Add broth and deglaze the pot by scraping up bits from the sides and bottom of the pot.\n\n3 Add remaining ingredients. Lock lid. Press the Meat button and cook for the default time of 35 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Ladle into individual bowls and serve warm.\n\n## White Chicken Chili\n\nThis warmth-inducing, crowd-pleasing dish will have your friends asking if they can watch the game at your house every weekend. And not only will you have the winning dish of the day, but you will actually get to visit with your guests instead of being stuck in the kitchen cooking. Let your Instant Pot\u00ae do all the work!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 20 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 pound ground chicken\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 stalk celery, diced\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including liquid\n\n1 (4-ounce) can diced green chilies, including liquid\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 tablespoon chili powder\n\n1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add chicken, onion, and celery; stir-fry 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Add garlic and saut\u00e9 1 minute.\n\n2 Stir in remaining ingredients. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Ladle into individual bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Savory Acorn Squash Soup\n\nAcorn squash has an inherently sweet taste, but coupled with some savory pantry spices and salty bacon, this squash takes on a new life.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 23 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n2 medium acorn squash, halved and seeds removed\n\n1 tablespoon ghee\n\n2 slices bacon, diced\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 stalk celery, diced\n\n1 medium carrot, peeled and diced small\n\n3 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n3 cups chicken broth\n\n1 cup canned coconut milk\n\n1 teaspoon celery seed\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place squash on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 4 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer squash to a cutting board and discard liquid from pot. When cool enough to work with, scoop out squash meat and set aside. Discard skin.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee until melted. Add bacon, onion, celery, and carrot; stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until fat is rendered from bacon and onion is translucent. Add garlic and saut\u00e9 1 minute.\n\n4 Add chicken broth and deglaze pot by scraping up the bits from the bottom and sides of the pot. Add all remaining ingredients and lock lid. Press the Soup button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Use an immersion blender to pur\u00e9e the soup in the pot, or use a blender and pur\u00e9e it in batches.\n\n6 Ladle the soup into bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Chicken Taco Soup\n\nThis soup is filled with chicken, vegetables, and taco spices. The chicken is cooked in its juices and even pulled apart directly in the pot to ensure the tenderness and moistness of the meat.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 small red onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 medium yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n3 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 cup water\n\n1\/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts\n\n1 medium jalape\u00f1o, seeded and diced\n\n1 (2.25-ounce) can diced black olives, drained\n\n2 tablespoons chili powder\n\n1 tablespoon ground cumin\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided\n\n1 medium avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add onion and bell pepper; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. Add garlic and heat an additional minute. Add tomatoes, including juice, and water; deglaze pot by scraping up any bits from the bottom and sides of the pot.\n\n2 Add chicken, jalape\u00f1o, black olives, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and 1\/4 cup cilantro. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Use two forks to shred the chicken in the pot. Let simmer 5 minutes.\n\n3 Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with avocado slices and remaining cilantro.\n\n## Creamy Tomato Basil Soup\n\nSkip the usual step of peeling the tomatoes for this recipe. Once steamed and blended, there will be no trace of the skins. Also, if you can get your hands on some heirloom tomatoes, try them in this dish. They are the ugly duckling of the produce world, but their swan wings will be revealed once you take a slurp of this creamy soup.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon coconut oil\n\n1 small sweet onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 stalk celery, thinly sliced\n\n8 medium tomatoes, seeded and quartered\n\n3 cups chicken broth\n\n1\/4 cup julienned fresh basil, divided\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add onion and celery; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes and saut\u00e9 3 minutes or until tomatoes start to break down.\n\n2 Add broth, 1\/8 cup basil, salt, and pepper to pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 7 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Add almond milk. Use an immersion blender to pur\u00e9e the soup in the pot or pur\u00e9e it in a stand blender in batches.\n\n4 Ladle into bowls and garnish with remaining basil. Serve warm.\n\n### COMPANION PLANTS FOR GARDEN TOMATOES\n\nJust like grapes meant for fine wines take on some of the flavors of the plants grown around them, so do tomatoes. Not only do dill and basil plants add another level of flavor to a gardener's tomato plants, but they also help repel disease and destructive insects harmful to the tomato plants.\n\n## Mardi Gras Gumbo\n\nBecause the booze usually flies freely during Mardi Gras, make sure you get some solid food in your stomach before you get started. So plug in your Instant Pot\u00ae and get your taste buds ready to take a quick vacation down South. This dish is traditionally served over rice, but this gumbo is just as delicious as is or over some riced cauliflower.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon ghee\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n2 stalks celery, diced\n\n1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1\/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1\/2\" pieces\n\n1 pound andouille sausage, sliced\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n3 cups chicken broth\n\n1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce\n\n1\/4 cup cassava flour\n\n1 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed\n\n1 tablespoon gumbo fil\u00e9 powder\n\n1 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, divided\n\n10-ounces frozen or fresh sliced okra\n\n1 (14.5-ounce) can stewed tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add onion, celery, and bell pepper; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. Add chicken, sausage, and garlic; stir-fry 2\u20133 minutes until chicken is no longer pink.\n\n2 Add chicken broth and deglaze the pot by scraping up the brown bits from the bottom and sides of the pot. Add Worcestershire sauce, flour, shrimp, fil\u00e9 powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, thyme, 1\/8 cup parsley, okra, and tomatoes. Lock lid. Press the Soup button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Ladle gumbo into bowls and garnish with remaining parsley.\n\n## Quick Vegetable Soup\n\nThis low-calorie vegetable soup is loaded with nutrients, and it is a great starter soup for a family that generally isn't crazy about vegetables. Add chicken or sausage to make this a more complete meal.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 cups vegetable broth\n\n2 stalks celery, diced\n\n1 small carrot, peeled and diced\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 medium turnip, peeled and diced\n\n1 medium zucchini, diced\n\n1 tablespoon Italian seasoning\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Add all ingredients to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Ladle into individual bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Hamburger Soup\n\nSkip the processed foods, trans fats, and wasted money of drive-through meals. This Hamburger Soup hits all the flavors of your favorite burger. And don't skip that pickle garnish\u2014it makes the soup!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 pound ground beef\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n2 teaspoons yellow mustard\n\n1 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n4 cups beef broth\n\n2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce\n\n1\/2 cup diced dill pickles\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add beef, onion, and green pepper; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until beef begins to brown.\n\n2 Add tomatoes, including juice, mustard, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and beef broth to pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 7 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Stir in lettuce and simmer 3 minutes. Ladle into bowls and garnish with diced dill pickles. Serve warm.\n\n## Oma's Sausage and Cabbage Soup\n\nIf you're craving a home-cooked hearty meal, become your own German grandma. The simplicity and heartiness of the meal will taste like you've been making it for years. Nothing soothes the soul better than a warm bowl of soup.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 13 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n2 medium leeks, diced (white and light green portions only)\n\n1 stalk celery, diced\n\n1 (16-ounce) bag coleslaw mix\n\n8 ounces precooked sausage links, sliced on an angle\n\n1 medium turnip, peeled and diced\n\n1 tablespoon German stone-ground mustard\n\n2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, divided\n\n1\/2 teaspoon caraway seeds\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n4 cups beef broth\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add leeks and celery; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until onion is tender.\n\n2 Add remaining ingredients to pot and lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Ladle soup into bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Creamy Ham and Root Veggie Soup\n\nA meal straight from the farm. What a perfect soup to make from a hodgepodge of vegetables from your CSA box that you're not sure what to do with. This bowl of comfort is a great introduction to some root vegetables that you might not have cooked with before.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 20 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n3 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 medium sweet onion, peeled and diced\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 large carrot, peeled and diced\n\n1 cup peeled and cubed celeriac\n\n1 small rutabaga, peeled and diced\n\n4 cups chicken broth\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, divided\n\n1 tablespoon cooking sherry\n\n2 cups cubed cooked ham\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add onion and saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and saut\u00e9 1 minute until fragrant.\n\n2 Add carrot, celeriac, rutabaga, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon thyme to pot and lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use an immersion blender to pur\u00e9e the soup in the pot or pur\u00e9e in a stand blender in batches. Stir in sherry and ham and let simmer 5 minutes.\n\n4 Ladle into bowls and garnish with remaining thyme. Serve warm.\n\n### WHAT IS A CSA?\n\nCSA stands for community-supported agriculture. It allows a local community member to receive a box per week or biweekly made up of a produce collection from regional farmers. You are essentially buying a share of the crop which is paid for upfront allowing the farmers to plan better for their season while you receive crops that are completely fresh and haven't left a large carbon footprint in its wake.\n\n## Curried Carrot Soup\n\nFresh and creamy, this Curried Carrot Soup is a perfect lunch companion to a big green salad.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 14 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n3 cups peeled and sliced carrots\n\n6 green onions, sliced, greens and whites separated\n\n3 cups chicken broth\n\n1 cup canned coconut milk\n\n1 tablespoon curry powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground ginger\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 medium lime, quartered\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and melt ghee. Add carrots and onion whites; stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until onions are tender.\n\n2 Add all remaining ingredients except onion greens and lime to pot and lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use an immersion blender to pur\u00e9e the soup in the pot or pur\u00e9e in a stand blender in batches.\n\n4 Ladle into bowls and garnish with onion greens. Serve warm with a squeeze of lime.\n\n## Appetizers and Sauces\n\nLiving within certain diet requirements is never harder than when you are with a group of friends. Chips and dips and cheesy everything seem to swarm the tables. But boring plates of inedible food doesn't have to be your fate. Bring a healthy paleo option to share. Or, better yet, throw your own party and show the folks what they've been missing! Appetizers are a great way to bring a group of people together to enjoy a game or hold them over until you serve a meal.\n\nBut you don't want to have to wear your chef hat all day, stuck in the kitchen, so let the Instant Pot\u00ae be your helpful sous chef. Quick, hot food in minutes? Now that's how you throw a party! With amazing appetizers ranging from Broccoli-Zucchini Hummus and Liver P\u00e2t\u00e9 to Tandoori-Style Chicken Wings and Deviled Eggs, the only problem you'll have incorporating the recipes in this chapter into your next social event will be deciding which ones to make. And after the appetizers have been devoured, make some of the rich sauces from this chapter such as Bolognese or Puttanesca to ladle over some spiralized zucchini or carrots. Your guests will leave full and satisfied not even knowing that they ate \"paleo\" all night!\n\nDeviled Eggs\n\nMini Chili Polpette\n\n\"Cheesy\" Spinach Crab Dip\n\nEndive Boats with Chicken Salad\n\nTandoori-Style Chicken Wings\n\nSesame-Orange Chicken Wings\n\nBroccoli-Zucchini Hummus\n\nBurgundy Mushrooms\n\nMushrooms Stuffed with Sausage and Kimchi\n\nSteamed Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce\n\nLiver P\u00e2t\u00e9\n\nSteamed Artichokes with Lemon-Herb Butter\n\nRutabaga Fries with Rosemary Dipping Sauce\n\nBroccoli-Cauli Sausage Tots\n\nSalsa Verde\n\nBolognese Sauce\n\nMarinara Sauce\n\nPuttanesca Sauce\n\nTomato Curry Sauce\n\n## Deviled Eggs\n\nThe hardest part about making this recipe is usually the actual peeling of the eggs\u2014but not with the Instant Pot\u00ae. It produces the most peelable eggs, so you won't have all those pesky gouges in the sides. Note that the cooking time will vary slightly depending on the size of the eggs as well as how fresh they are.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 4 minutes\n\nYields 12 deviled eggs\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n6 large eggs\n\n3 tablespoons mayonnaise\n\n1 teaspoon yellow mustard\n\n1\/2 teaspoon dill pickle juice\n\n2 teaspoons finely diced dill pickles\n\n1\/8 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\nSmoked paprika, for garnish\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place eggs on basket. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 4 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Transfer eggs to an ice bath to stop the cooking process.\n\n2 Peel eggs. Slice each egg in half lengthwise and place yolks in a small bowl. Place egg white halves on a serving tray.\n\n3 Add mayonnaise, mustard, pickle juice, diced pickles, salt, and pepper to the bowl with the yolks. Use a fork to blend until smooth.\n\n4 Spoon or pipe the yolk filling into the egg white halves. Sprinkle with paprika for garnish.\n\n## Mini Chili Polpette\n\nPolpette literally means \"meatballs\" and there are many versions across the various regions of Italy. With these Mini Chili Polpette you can introduce your guests to a new word and wow their taste buds at the same time. And, they will be even more impressed when you show them how easy it is to cook this dish in your Instant Pot\u00ae.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 7 minutes\n\nYields 24 meatballs\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground beef\n\n1 large egg\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions\n\n1 tablespoon chili powder\n\n1 tablespoon Dijon mustard\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine ground beef, egg, parsley, almond meal, green onions, chili powder, mustard, and salt. Form the mixture into 24 meatballs.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Add half the meatballs to the pot and sear about 3 minutes, turning them to brown all sides. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add the remaining oil and repeat with the remaining meatballs. Remove the meatballs from the pan.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place the meatballs evenly on the steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 1 minute. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer the polpette to a serving tray and serve warm.\n\n## \"Cheesy\" Spinach Crab Dip\n\nThe nutritional yeast gives this dip a cheesy flavor that your guests won't even know is missing. For a browned top, place the dip under the broiler 1\u20133 minutes until it browns to your desired doneness. Serve with a variety of fresh vegetables such as radishes, broccoli florets, cauliflower, squash rounds, celery, and carrots.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 16 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 small sweet onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 cup diced zucchini\n\n1 overflowing cup fresh spinach leaves\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n3\/4 pound lump crab meat\n\n2 tablespoons nutritional yeast\n\n1\/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce\n\n2 teaspoons prepared horseradish\n\n1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning\n\n1 teaspoon sriracha\n\n2 teaspoons lemon zest\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add onion and zucchini. Stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes until zucchini is tender. Add spinach and heat 1 additional minute to wilt spinach.\n\n2 Transfer saut\u00e9ed ingredients and salt to a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth.\n\n3 Combine zucchini pur\u00e9e and remaining ingredients except water in a medium bowl until well blended. Spoon into a lightly greased 7-cup glass bowl.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place glass bowl on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove dish and serve warm.\n\n## Endive Boats with Chicken Salad\n\nTalk about time-saving\u2014the chicken and the egg are cooked together. Make sure your chicken isn't cut too small or it will dry out. Twenty-five endive leaves are suggested in this recipe, but if you have leftover chicken salad, it is perfect served the next day as a lettuce wrap for a quick lunch!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nYields 3 cups\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound chicken breasts, cut into 1\" cubes\n\n11\/2 cups water\n\n1 large egg\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 stalk celery, finely diced\n\n1 teaspoon yellow mustard\n\n1\/2 teaspoon dill pickle juice\n\n1 tablespoon finely diced dill pickle\n\n1\/2 cup mayonnaise\n\n2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled\n\n25 endive leaves\n\n1 Add chicken and water to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add steamer basket to pot and place egg on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer egg to an ice bath to stop the cooking process.\n\n3 Use a slotted spoon to transfer the chicken to a cutting board. When cool enough to work with, finely chop the chicken. Add to a medium bowl. Peel egg and dice. Add to bowl.\n\n4 Add salt, pepper, celery, mustard, pickle juice, pickles, mayonnaise, and bacon. Stir ingredients until well combined. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve.\n\n5 Spoon chicken salad onto endive leaves. Serve.\n\n### IS MAYONNAISE PALEO?\n\nHomemade mayonnaise is your best bet to stay strictly paleo of course. It is quick to make and you can control the ingredients that go into your recipe. Primal Kitchen makes a glorious jarred regular mayonnaise as well as an avocado mayonnaise that can be found online or in specialty stores. Pssst: don't forget to try their Chipotle Lime Mayo too!\n\n## Tandoori-Style Chicken Wings\n\nThis recipe still captures the flavors and essence of tandoori-style without the dairy. Perfect \"dude\" food, these are a sophisticated twist on the traditional buffalo-style staple found at most tailgating parties.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n2\" piece ginger, peeled and minced\n\n4 cloves garlic, minced\n\n2 tablespoons fresh lime juice\n\n1 cup canned coconut milk\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n1 tablespoon ground cumin\n\n1 tablespoon ground coriander\n\n2 teaspoons sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon white pepper\n\n1 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n2 tablespoons tomato paste\n\n3 pounds chicken wings, separated at the joint if necessary\n\n1 cup chicken broth\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh mint\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine onion, ginger, garlic, lime juice, coconut milk, avocado oil, cumin, coriander, salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper, and tomato paste. Add wings to mixture and toss. Refrigerate covered at least 1 hour or up to overnight.\n\n2 Add chicken broth to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add chicken wings, arranging them so they aren't sitting on top of one another; place them standing up if necessary. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the wings to a serving tray. Garnish with chopped mint and serve.\n\n3 Optional: Before garnishing, place the wings on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes on each side to crisp up the chicken.\n\n### THE THICK LAYER IN A CAN OF COCONUT MILK\n\nDon't throw away that can of coconut milk if you notice a thick layer on top and a cloudy thinner liquid underneath. This is normal. The top layer is the coconut cream, which is full of the natural fats and flavor. Use this first. Also, if you have a warm kitchen, try putting the can of coconut milk in the refrigerator up to an hour before using to ensure this layer. On a yummy note, for desserts, whip up this thick layer with a little honey for some dairy-free whipped cream.\n\n## Sesame-Orange Chicken Wings\n\nThe brightness of the orange, the sweetness of the maple syrup, the saltiness of the coconut aminos, and the bit of heat from the ginger and red pepper flakes makes these wings a balanced and delicious addition to your appetizer spread for your family and guests.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 16 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1\/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice\n\n2 tablespoons orange zest\n\n1\/4 cup pure maple syrup\n\n2 tablespoons coconut aminos\n\n2\" piece ginger, peeled and minced\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n2 tablespoons sesame oil\n\n1\/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 tablespoon arrowroot flour\n\n1 bunch green onions, sliced and separated into whites and greens\n\n3 pounds chicken wings, separated at the joint if necessary\n\n1 cup chicken broth\n\n1\/4 cup toasted sesame seeds\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine orange juice, orange zest, syrup, coconut aminos, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, salt, flour, and whites of green onions. Transfer 2 tablespoons of the sauce to a small bowl and set aside.\n\n2 Add wings to sauce in large bowl and toss. Refrigerate covered at least 1 hour or up to overnight.\n\n3 Add chicken broth to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add chicken wings, arranging them so they aren't sitting on top of one another; place them standing up if necessary. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Use a slotted spoon to transfer the wings to a baking sheet. Brush with the 2 tablespoons of reserved sauce. Broil 3 minutes on each side to add some crisp to the chicken.\n\n5 Transfer to a serving tray and garnish with sesame seeds and the greens of the onions.\n\n### WHAT ARE COCONUT AMINOS?\n\nA gluten-free and soy-free alternative to soy sauce, this underrated condiment is a staple in paleo diets. Used 1:1 and an incredible taste substitute, this sauce is created from aged coconut sap and sea salt. Coconut aminos are found in most specialty grocers as well as online.\n\n## Broccoli-Zucchini Hummus\n\nA perfect dip served with crudit\u00e9s and some fresh pita slices for your non-paleo guests. Though hummus is traditionally made with chickpeas, this Broccoli-Zucchini Hummus offers not only a handful of nutrients, but a flavor combination that is out of this world.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 2 minutes\n\nServes 10\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 small head broccoli, diced\n\n1 medium zucchini, large chopped\n\n1\/2 cup tahini\n\n4 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice\n\n1 teaspoon lemon zest\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1\/2 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for garnish\n\n2 tablespoons finely diced jarred roasted red peppers\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add broccoli and zucchini. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer broccoli and zucchini to a food processor or blender and pulse 2\u20133 times. Add tahini, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper; pulse 5\u20136 times. Add olive oil 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing between additions, until desired consistency is reached. Transfer to a serving dish.\n\n3 Garnish with diced roasted red peppers placed in a small circle in the center. Add an extra drizzle of olive oil. Serve.\n\n## Burgundy Mushrooms\n\nThese Burgundy Mushrooms are a side dish you'll find yourself making again and again. Don't skip the bacon in this recipe as the meatiness and saltiness add a deep flavor to this insanely rich and earthy side dish. Serve alongside a grilled steak and you'll have a meal to be proud of.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 30 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\n1\/2 cup ghee\n\n3 cloves garlic, halved\n\n16 ounces whole button mushrooms\n\n16 ounces whole baby bella mushrooms\n\n11\/2 cups dry red wine\n\n1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce\n\n1 teaspoon dried thyme\n\n1 tablespoon Dijon mustard\n\n1 teaspoon ground celery seed\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n3 cups beef broth\n\n2 slices bacon\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add ghee and melt. Add garlic and mushrooms and toss to coat with ghee. Stir-fry 3 minutes until mushrooms soften.\n\n2 Add red wine. Press the Saut\u00e9 button and adjust temperature to Less; simmer 5 minutes.\n\n3 Add remaining ingredients to the pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual button and adjust time to 20 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Discard bacon and garlic.\n\n4 Use a slotted spoon to transfer mushrooms to a serving bowl. Serve warm.\n\n## Mushrooms Stuffed with Sausage and Kimchi\n\nIf you are true paleo, you probably have a jar of kimchi in the back of your refrigerator. So, if you are in a pinch for a quick appetizer, this recipe is for you. The kimchi and its acidity blends nicely with the breakfast sausage. If cilantro repels you, substitute some Italian seasoning or dried basil; both work beautifully and add a slightly different flavor note to this dish.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nYields 10\u201312 mushrooms\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1\/4 pound ground breakfast sausage\n\n2 tablespoons finely minced yellow onion\n\n1 tablespoon diced drained kimchi\n\n2 tablespoons mayonnaise\n\n1 teaspoon dried cilantro\n\n8 ounces whole baby bella mushrooms (about 10\u201312), stemmed\n\n1 cup water\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add sausage and onion; stir-fry 5\u20136 minutes until sausage is no longer pink. Transfer mixture to a small bowl and use paper towels to dab off excess oil and fat. Add kimchi, mayonnaise, and cilantro.\n\n2 Stuff an equal amount of mixture into each mushroom cap and place on the steamer basket. Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae. Insert steamer basket and lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. Adjust pressure to Low. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer mushrooms to a serving plate. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve warm.\n\n### WHAT TO DO WITH MUSHROOM STEMS?\n\nDon't throw away those mushroom stems. Clean and dice them, and place in a lidded container and refrigerate. These stems, which are usually discarded, are ideal additions to breakfast scrambles, sauces, and even to green smoothies in the morning.\n\n## Steamed Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce\n\nThis is one of the easiest and most-appreciated appetizers. It is a low-calorie alternative to those rich chip and dips that are always present at a group get-together.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 0 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\nCocktail Sauce\n\n1\/2 cup paleo ketchup\n\n2 tablespoons prepared horseradish\n\n1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice\n\n1\/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce\n\n1\/4 teaspoon sriracha sauce\n\nSteamed Shrimp\n\n1 cup water\n\n2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined (tails on)\n\n1 Combine cocktail sauce ingredients until well blended. Refrigerate lidded until ready to use.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place shrimp on the steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Serve shrimp, warm or cold, with cocktail sauce.\n\n### ALL KETCHUP IS NOT CREATED EQUAL\n\nMost commercial ketchups are filled with sugars; however, you have options. There are many sugar-free homemade recipes online. Also, you can find several premade and paleo-approved options at specialty stores and online.\n\n## Liver P\u00e2t\u00e9\n\nLuxury . . . pure luxury. And for such a decadent dish, it is really quite simple to make, especially with your Instant Pot\u00ae. Served with crudit\u00e9s or even with some bread toasts for your non-paleo guests, this spread is sure to delight your friends.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nYields 11\/2 cups\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 pound chicken livers\n\n1 piece bacon, diced\n\n1 large shallot, peeled and diced\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1\/4 cup cabernet\n\n2 tablespoons water\n\n1 bay leaf\n\n1 large egg\n\n1 teaspoon capers, rinsed\n\n2 tablespoons cooking sherry\n\nPinch ground nutmeg\n\n2 tablespoons melted ghee\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 2 tablespoons ghee. Add chicken livers, bacon, and shallot. Saut\u00e9 3 minutes or until chicken livers are lightly browned on all sides and shallot is tender. Add garlic and stir-fry 1 minute.\n\n2 Add wine and water and scrape up any bits from the bottom and sides of the pot. Add bay leaf and place egg on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Discard bay leaf.\n\n3 Transfer egg to a water bath to stop the cooking process. Peel egg and dice.\n\n4 Transfer egg and remaining ingredients to a food processor or blender. Pulse ingredients until smooth.\n\n5 Transfer mixture to a large lidded container and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve chilled.\n\n## Steamed Artichokes with Lemon-Herb Butter\n\nNot only are artichokes a fun food to eat with other people, but also they are an absolute superfood packed with phytonutrients and anti-inflammatory properties that help protect against cancer, heart disease, and diabetes just to name a few ailments. In addition, they help detoxify your liver.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n6 medium artichokes\n\n1 cup water\n\n3 cloves garlic, quartered\n\nJuice of 1 medium lemon\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 Clean the artichokes by clipping off the top third of the leaves and removing the tougher exterior leaves. Trim the bottoms so that they have a flat surface to prop up in the Instant Pot\u00ae.\n\n2 Add water, garlic, and lemon juice to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place artichokes upright in a steamer basket and lower onto the trivet. Sprinkle artichokes with salt. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer the artichokes to a plate, and serve warm.\n\n### LEMON-HERB BUTTER DIPPING SAUCE\n\nThe following Lemon-Herb Butter Dipping Sauce is a delicious dipping sauce to accompany the light nature of the steamed artichoke. To make this recipe, in a small bowl combine 1\/4 cup melted ghee, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1\/2 teaspoon herbes de Provence (or Italian seasoning), 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, and a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.\n\n## Rutabaga Fries with Rosemary Dipping Sauce\n\nTraditional baked rutabaga fries can take 45 minutes up to an hour to bake. In the meantime, all the moisture is sucked out. By steaming the fries and then broiling them, the fries result in a crispy outside and a beautifully steamed and tender inside. Couple that with this flavorful rosemary dip, and your taste buds will be in heaven.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 13 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\nRosemary Dipping Sauce\n\n1\/2 cup mayonnaise\n\n1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary\n\n1\/2 teaspoon lemon juice\n\n1\/2 teaspoon lemon zest\n\n1\/4 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\nRutabaga Fries\n\n1 large rutabaga, peeled, trimmed, and cut into 1\/2\" sticks\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt, or more to taste\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set oven to broil.\n\n2 Combine Rosemary Dipping Sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate covered until ready to use.\n\n3 Place rutabaga in a medium bowl and toss with avocado oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.\n\n4 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add fries to steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Transfer fries to the prepared baking sheet and scatter evenly. Broil 10 minutes or until crisp and browned, tossing once halfway through cooking. Season with additional salt if desired. Serve warm with chilled dipping sauce.\n\n## Broccoli-Cauli Sausage Tots\n\nChoosing different types of sausage will alter the flavor of these tots as the broccoli and cauliflower take on the flavors of whatever they are combined with. These crispy and savory tots will disappear off the plate in minutes!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 37 minutes\n\nYields 20 tots\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n2 cups fresh broccoli florets\n\n2 cups fresh cauliflower florets\n\n1 shallot, finely minced\n\n1\/4 pound mild Italian sausage\n\n1 large egg\n\n1 teaspoon dried oregano\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add broccoli and cauliflower. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button, and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Preheat oven to 400\u00b0F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.\n\n3 Transfer broccoli and cauliflower to a food processor or blender. Pulse 5\u20136 times until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl.\n\n4 Add shallot, sausage, egg, oregano, and salt. Combine until well mixed. Form into 20 tots and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake 35 minutes. Serve warm.\n\n## Salsa Verde\n\nTomatillos are the star of this green sauce, or \"salsa verde.\" It is terrific served with chicken enchiladas, fish taco wraps, Salsa Verde Pulled Pork (see Chapter 8), and many other dishes.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 2 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound tomatillos, outer husks removed and halved\n\n2 small jalape\u00f1os, seeded and chopped\n\n1 small onion, peeled and diced\n\n1\/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro\n\n1 teaspoon ground coriander\n\n2 teaspoons sea salt\n\n11\/2 cups water\n\n1 Place tomatillos in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add enough water to cover the tomatillos. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button, and adjust timer to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Drain pot.\n\n2 Add tomatillos, jalape\u00f1os, onion, cilantro, coriander, sea salt, and 11\/2 cups water to a food processor or blender. Pulse until well combined, about 1\u20132 minutes.\n\n3 Transfer to a serving dish, cover, and chill in the refrigerator before serving.\n\n## Bolognese Sauce\n\nRich and meaty, Bolognese originated in Bologna, Italy; however, its power has won the world's heart. Make a jar of this on food prep day and enjoy the tasty sauce during the week served over spiraled zucchini, carrots, or whatever your heart likes to zoodle!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 20 minutes\n\nYields 6 cups\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n2 stalks celery, finely diced\n\n1 medium carrot, peeled and finely diced\n\n1\/2 medium Vidalia onion, peeled and finely diced\n\n4 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n1 pound ground Italian sausage\n\n2 slices bacon, diced\n\n1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, including juice\n\n1\/2 cup beef broth\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil\n\n2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add celery, carrot, and onion; saut\u00e9 2\u20133 minutes until onions are tender. Add garlic, Italian sausage, and bacon; stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes until sausage is no longer pink. Drain off and discard any excess fat.\n\n2 Stir in tomatoes, including juice, and scrape up the bits from the sides and bottom of the pot. Add broth, basil, thyme, salt, and pepper. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Stir in almond milk.\n\n3 Simmer unlidded 2\u20133 minutes. Pour sauce into a lidded container or jar and refrigerate until ready to use. Use within 5 days.\n\n### HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE ALMOND MILK\n\nSoak 1 cup unsalted raw almonds covered in water for at least 24 hours. Rinse and drain. In a stand blender or food processor, pulse 13\/4 cups water and almonds. Strain liquid through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Refrigerate up to 2\u20133 days.\n\n## Marinara Sauce\n\nOne of the tastiest and most versatile sauces out there, Marinara Sauce is a great one to keep on hand. You can add it to zoodled vegetables, to a bowl of meatballs, to a skillet of ground beef with added vegetables\u2014and the list goes on.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nYields 4 cups\n\n* * *\n\n1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 stalk celery, finely diced\n\n1 medium carrot, peeled and finely diced\n\n1\/2 medium red onion, peeled and finely diced\n\n4 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 cup beef broth\n\n1 Combine all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Use an immersion blender to blend the sauce in the pot until smooth.\n\n3 Pour the sauce into a lidded container or jar and refrigerate until ready to use. Use within 5 days.\n\n## Puttanesca Sauce\n\nNo need to add salt to this dish because the olives, anchovies, and capers hit this beautiful note in the recipe. Puttanesca literally translates to \"in the style of the prostitutes,\" because the intriguing aroma of the sauce was how the prostitutes from Naples, Italy, would lure customers to their door.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nYields 5 cups\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n1 small red onion, peeled, halved, and cut into half-moons\n\n4 large cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1\/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and diced\n\n1\/4 cup green olives, pitted and diced\n\n4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped or smashed with the back of a fork\n\n2 tablespoons drained capers\n\n2 teaspoons dried oregano\n\n1\/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes\n\n1\/2 cup chicken broth\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 Combine all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Pour sauce into a lidded container or jar and refrigerate until ready to use. Use within 5 days.\n\n## Tomato Curry Sauce\n\nThis creamy dairy-free sauce is excellent served over cauliflower \"rice,\" seafood, or chicken.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nYields 4 cups\n\n* * *\n\n1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, including juice\n\n1\/2 medium onion, peeled and finely diced\n\n4 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garam masala\n\n1\/2 teaspoon turmeric powder\n\n1\/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\n1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 cup canned coconut milk\n\n1 Combine all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Use an immersion blender to blend the sauce in the pot until smooth.\n\n3 Pour sauce into a lidded container or jar and refrigerate until ready to use. Use within 5 days.\n\n## Side Dishes\n\nSometimes in our attempt to live a paleo life, we cook up a chicken breast or steak and then fall short on the extras. All the while our gorgeous farmers' market and CSA (community-supported agriculture) produce takes a backseat in the refrigerator and gets a little slimy. Unfortunately, sometimes those nutrient-rich vegetables never make it to our plates. Not only is it a waste of healthful food, but it is also a big waste of money. With the Instant Pot\u00ae, you can have flavorful seasonal vegetables in minutes while the main dish is being prepared. Also, cooking vegetables in your Instant Pot\u00ae retains more nutrients than boiling them on the stovetop or roasting them in the oven. So, while you're grilling that steak outdoors in the summer or charring some chicken on an indoor grilling pan, why not take a few extra minutes to round out the meal? With recipes such as Lemon Ghee Broccoli and Honey-Glazed Carrots to Southern Squash Casserole and Bacon-Apple Brussels Sprouts, you will be happy you took the few extra moments to prepare a side dish. And your body will thank you!\n\nNutty Holiday Sweet Potatoes\n\nHoney-Glazed Carrots\n\nBacon-Apple Brussels Sprouts\n\nMixed Southern Greens\n\nDilled Purple Potatoes\n\nLemon Ghee Broccoli\n\nHerbed Fingerling Potatoes and Onions\n\nKohlrabi, Kale, and Karrots\n\nSteamed Beets\n\nPurple Cauliflower\n\nGerman Red Potatoes\n\nEggplant-Olive Ratatouille\n\nSouthern Squash Casserole\n\nBroccoli Casserole\n\nBacon Cauli-Potato Mash\n\nRed Onion and Apple Confit\n\nSesame Zoodles\n\nSaffron and Herb Cauliflower Rice\n\nBroccoli-Parsnip Smash\n\n## Nutty Holiday Sweet Potatoes\n\nHappy holidays to you and your family! Sweet potatoes are a traditional staple on most winter celebration tables and this dish is no exception. You won't miss the marshmallows and ooey-gooey recipes of the past. These sweet potatoes will quench all of your comfort memories.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n21\/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and diced large\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 tablespoon pure maple syrup\n\n1 tablespoon ghee\n\n1\/4 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n2 tablespoons crushed walnuts\n\n1 Add potatoes and water to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Drain water from pot. Add ginger, salt, syrup, ghee, and milk (1 tablespoon at a time) to the potatoes. Use an immersion blender or masher to cream the potatoes to desired consistency. Stir in walnuts. Serve warm.\n\n### PEELING FRESH GINGER\n\nFresh ginger can seem difficult to navigate with its uneven surface and all the branches. Instead of taking your fingers' safety into the war zone, simply take the edge of a spoon and scrape the peel off of a fresh gingerroot before you grate or mince it.\n\n## Honey-Glazed Carrots\n\nWe all dress up during the holidays, so why not give the simple carrot a makeover? By adding a little honey and ghee, these beta-carotene cargo trains come to life and deliver a flavorful punch for your guests or family any time of the year.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound carrots, peeled and diced large\n\n1\/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 tablespoon ghee\n\n2 tablespoons honey\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 Add carrots, orange juice, and water to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Use a slotted spoon to transfer the carrots to a bowl. Toss with ghee, honey, and salt. Serve warm.\n\n### MEASURING HONEY WITHOUT THE MESS\n\nWhen measuring sticky liquids like honey, maple syrup, or molasses, warm up the measuring cup or spoon by rinsing it first with hot water. Your liquid won't stick to your cup, making cleanup much easier and the measurement more accurate!\n\n## Bacon-Apple Brussels Sprouts\n\nThe saltiness of the bacon and the sweetness of the apple help counter the bitter flavor that some may detect in Brussels sprouts. Rounded out even more with the earthiness of the onions and the citrus kick from the zest, this dish will have your family asking for seconds!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n2 slices bacon, diced\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved\n\n2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced\n\n1 small sweet onion, peeled and sliced\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n2 teaspoons orange zest\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add bacon and stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes or until almost crisp and the fat is rendered. Add water and deglaze the pot by scraping the bits from the sides and bottom of the pot.\n\n2 Add Brussels sprouts, apples, and onion. Lock lid. Press the Manual button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer the Brussels sprouts to a serving dish. Garnish with salt and orange zest. Serve warm.\n\n## Mixed Southern Greens\n\nThis recipe calls for turnip and collard greens, but you can swap or add kale, mustard greens, chard, or whatever your heart desires. For the fat, this recipe calls for bacon, but you can swap out a ham hock or turkey neck. That is part of the greatness of Southern cooking. Recipes are merely a suggestion.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 bunch turnips with greens\n\n1 bunch collard greens, chopped (ribs removed)\n\n1 small Vidalia onion, peeled and diced\n\n1\/4 cup apple cider vinegar\n\n1 teaspoon sriracha\n\n2 slices bacon\n\n1 cup chicken broth\n\n1 teaspoon honey\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Remove spines from turnip greens and discard. Chop leaves. Rinse turnips. Peel and dice.\n\n2 Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Discard bacon.\n\n3 Transfer the greens and turnips to a dish and serve warm.\n\n## Dilled Purple Potatoes\n\nWait! Potatoes? Yes, that's right. Potatoes are now considered paleo in small quantities. Opinions do change. But here's the rub. If nightshades are your enemy or you are trying to drop a few pounds, this starchy tuber needs to stay underground. However, if your family is craving a little comfort, go for it. It is a natural product but just cook it as a savory treat from time to time and not so much in regular rotation.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n11\/2 pounds baby purple potatoes\n\n4 tablespoons ghee, divided\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n3 tablespoons chopped dill, divided\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 Use a fork to pierce each potato 3 or 4 times. Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat 2 tablespoons ghee and add potatoes, garlic, and 1 tablespoon dill; saut\u00e9 3 minutes, stirring frequently.\n\n2 Add water to the pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 7 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use a slotted spoon to transfer the potatoes to a serving bowl. Toss with remaining ghee, dill, and salt. Serve.\n\n## Lemon Ghee Broccoli\n\nSimply divine. Broccoli is such a healthy and inexpensive side that goes with just about any protein. The lemon lends a freshness and the ghee gives it that little bit of fat to help our taste buds along. Because heads of broccoli vary in size, season sparingly and taste as you go before adding more salt.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 2 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\nJuice of 1\/2 medium lemon\n\n1 head broccoli, chopped into bite-sized pieces\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 Add water and lemon juice to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add broccoli. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button, and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer broccoli to a serving bowl. Add ghee and salt. Toss to mix. Serve immediately.\n\n## Herbed Fingerling Potatoes and Onions\n\nFingerling potatoes are stubby little counterparts to the mighty russet, but that size can work to the favor of the busy home chef. There is no need to peel or dice these small tubers. Give them a good scrub and they are ready for steamed perfection in the Instant Pot\u00ae.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n11\/2 pounds fingerling potatoes (unpeeled)\n\n4 tablespoons ghee, divided\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled, halved, and sliced into half-moons\n\n2 cloves garlic, chopped\n\n2 sprigs rosemary\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves\n\n1 Use a fork to pierce each potato 2 or 3 times. Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat 2 tablespoons ghee and add potatoes, onion, garlic, and rosemary. Stir-fry 3 minutes or until onions are translucent.\n\n2 Add water to the pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 6 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use a slotted spoon to transfer potatoes and onions to a serving bowl. Discard rosemary. Toss with remaining ghee, salt, and thyme. Serve.\n\n### DRIED HERBS IN A PINCH\n\nIf you're in a hurry and out of fresh herbs, use some Italian seasoning from your spice drawer. Add 2 teaspoons to the Instant Pot\u00ae while cooking and then use another 2 teaspoons to garnish the finished product. When garnishing, pinch the dried herbs between your fingers to release some of the oil from the leaves. This adds another dimension of flavor to your dish.\n\n## Kohlrabi, Kale, and Karrots\n\nBalanced in flavors and exploding with nutrients, this kindred trio is a knockout that teams nicely with a tender chicken or savory steak dish.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 12 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar\n\n1 tablespoon pure maple syrup\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\nPinch cayenne pepper\n\nPinch ground nutmeg\n\n1 bunch kale\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 large kohlrabi, peeled and diced\n\n3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced\n\n3 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, syrup, salt, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Set aside.\n\n2 Remove spines from the middle of the kale leaves and discard. Chop kale.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat ghee and add kohlrabi and carrots. Stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until vegetables start to get tender. Add garlic quarters and heat 1 additional minute.\n\n4 Add water to the pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Stir in kale and simmer 1\u20132 minutes until it wilts.\n\n6 Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pot ingredients to a serving dish. Add vinegar mixture and toss to mix. Serve warm.\n\n## Steamed Beets\n\nKeep the skin on these beets to reap the benefits of the fiber. Plus, peeling them just gets messy. Adding this root vegetable to your meal rotation is a smart move. They contain betalains, which provide anti-inflammatory and detoxification support. Also, mix it up by trying golden beets as well. They can be prepared in the same way.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n6 medium beets, trimmed and quartered\n\nJuice of 1\/2 medium orange\n\n2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place beets in basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time for 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer beets to a bowl. Add orange juice, dill, and salt. Toss and serve warm.\n\n## Purple Cauliflower\n\nPurple Cauliflower is just so pretty, but this recipe works with orange and white cauliflower too. To take this dish from florets to cauliflower rice, just drain the water after cooking. Add the olive oil back to the pot. Press the Saut\u00e9 button and use a potato masher to mash the cauliflower directly in the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Voila!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 2 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets\n\n1 cup water\n\nDrizzle of extra-virgin olive oil\n\nPinch sea salt\n\nPinch freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add cauliflower. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time for 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer cauliflower to a serving bowl. Garnish with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Serve warm.\n\n## German Red Potatoes\n\nNot only does the Instant Pot\u00ae make this German classic quick to fix, but also there is no need to take the extra time to peel the potatoes. The color of the red potatoes not only adds to the optics of the dish, but the skins also provide most of the fiber, vitamins, and minerals found in the potato.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 16 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar\n\n1 teaspoon honey\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 teaspoon caraway seeds\n\n8 small red potatoes, diced (unpeeled)\n\n2 slices bacon, diced\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 cup water\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, and caraway seeds. Set aside.\n\n2 Use a fork to pierce each potato 3 or 4 times. Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and add bacon. Cook bacon until crisp, about 5\u20138 minutes. Transfer bacon to a plate lined with paper towels.\n\n3 Add potatoes and onion to bacon grease in the pot. Stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until onions are translucent. Add garlic and saut\u00e9 1 minute.\n\n4 Add water to pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Use a slotted spoon to transfer potatoes and onions to a serving bowl. Toss with bacon and vinegar mixture. Garnish with parsley. Serve.\n\n## Eggplant-Olive Ratatouille\n\nThe somewhat plain-flavored eggplant and zucchini take on the incredible Mediterranean flavors of the basil and garlic of this dish. The olives lend a salty and almost fantastic bitter flavor to round out this side dish that is exquisite served with a grilled steak or tender chicken breast.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 7 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon coconut oil\n\n1 medium sweet onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 small yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1 large eggplant, peeled and diced into 1\" cubes\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1\/4 cup sliced green olives\n\n1 medium zucchini, diced into 1\" cubes\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh basil\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat coconut oil. Add onion and bell pepper; stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until onions are translucent. Add eggplant and garlic; toss and cook 1 minute.\n\n2 Add diced tomatoes including juice and scrape sides and bottom of pot. Add olives, zucchini, salt, pepper, and basil. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use a slotted spoon to transfer ingredients to a large bowl. Garnish with parsley. Serve warm.\n\n## Southern Squash Casserole\n\nVoid of the milk and bread or crackers that are in most squash casserole recipes, this version will thrill even the harshest of critics. Most home gardeners are overwhelmed during the year with an overhaul of summer squash and this is a great go-to recipe for the win.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n2 cups water, divided\n\n2 large yellow squash, diced\n\n1 small Vidalia onion, peeled and diced\n\n4 large eggs, whisked\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n2 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 teaspoons nutritional yeast\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Pour 1 cup water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place squash and onion in basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and set time to 0 minutes. Adjust pressure to Low. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer squash to a medium bowl. Let cool 5 minutes. Discard liquid from the pot.\n\n3 Add eggs, almond meal, ghee, yeast, salt, and pepper to a medium bowl. Transfer to greased 7-cup glass bowl.\n\n4 Add 1 cup water to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Insert steamer basket or trivet. Place the squash dish in pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove squash casserole. Let rest 5 minutes. Use a paper towel to dab off any additional moisture. Serve warm.\n\n## Broccoli Casserole\n\nBroccoli casserole is found on the table at most Southern get-togethers, and it is traditionally cooked with condensed mushroom soup, cheese, and a butter cracker layer. The condensed soup is replaced with the slurry made from almond milk and cassava flour, which is added to the saut\u00e9ed mushroom mixture. The nutritional yeast adds a little cheese flavor, and the ghee and almond meal sub for the \"cracker\" layer. But really, the broccoli is the star.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 14 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n3\/4 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n2 tablespoons cassava flour\n\n1 tablespoon ghee\n\n1\/2 cup chopped yellow onion\n\n1 cup diced button or cremini mushrooms\n\n4 cups chopped fresh broccoli\n\n4 large eggs\n\n1 teaspoon nutritional yeast\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a small bowl, create a slurry by whisking together almond milk and flour. Set aside.\n\n2 Lightly grease a 7-cup glass bowl. Set aside.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button and adjust temperature to Less. Heat ghee. Add onion, mushrooms, and broccoli; stir-fry 4\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. Add slurry and mix together 1 minute until thickened.\n\n4 Crack eggs in a medium bowl. Quickly whisk in a spoonful of the mixture from the pot to temper the eggs. Add yeast, salt, and pepper. Add remaining pot mixture and stir until combined. Transfer mixture to the prepared dish. Sprinkle almond meal in an even layer over casserole.\n\n5 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Insert dish and lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n6 Remove broccoli casserole. Let rest 10 minutes to set. Use a paper towel to dab off any additional moisture after resting time. Serve warm.\n\n## Bacon Cauli-Potato Mash\n\nMashed cauliflower can be a little thin on its own, but the single potato in this mouthwatering side dish adds just the amount of heft needed. This recipe still cuts back drastically on the glycemic index and the cauliflower is loaded with nutrition. And then the bacon . . . Enough said about that.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 slices bacon, diced\n\n2 cups chicken broth\n\n1 small head cauliflower, chopped\n\n1 russet potato, peeled and diced\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1\/4 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n4 teaspoons chopped fresh chives\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add bacon and cook 3\u20134 minutes to render fat. Transfer bacon to a plate lined with paper towels.\n\n2 Add broth to pot and scrape up any bits from the bottom and sides of the pot. Add cauliflower, potato, garlic, salt, and pepper. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Use an immersion blender to blend the mixture in the pot. Add ghee. Blend a little more. Add almond milk 1 tablespoon at a time, blending after each addition. You may need a little more or less almond milk depending on your desired consistency. Garnish with chives and serve warm.\n\n## Red Onion and Apple Confit\n\nThe sweetness from the caramelized onions and apple are the perfect match to be served with a salty and hearty pork chop. This is also nice alongside scrambled eggs and leftover beef in the morning.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 14 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 large red onion, peeled, halved, and sliced into half-moons\n\n2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced\n\n2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar\n\n2 tablespoons honey\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 cup water\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add onion and apples; stir-fry 4\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent.\n\n2 Add remaining ingredients to pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Simmer unlidded if there is any liquid remaining until it cooks off. Transfer mixture to a lidded container and refrigerate up to 1 week.\n\n## Sesame Zoodles\n\nThese zucchini zoodles are an excellent substitute and complement to the zippy sesame sauce, and it's prepared in no time flat. This dish pairs nicely with a steak or chicken dish . . . and don't forget your chopsticks!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/4 cup water\n\n4 cups spiraled zucchini (about 3 small zucchini)\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n2 tablespoons pure maple syrup\n\n1 teaspoon sriracha\n\n2 teaspoons sesame oil\n\n1 tablespoon creamy almond butter\n\n1\/4 cup diced green onions\n\n1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket.\n\n2 In a large bowl, combine zucchini, coconut aminos, syrup, sriracha, sesame oil, almond butter, and green onions. Place the marinated zucchini in the steamer basket. Pour remaining marinade over zucchini. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer zucchini to a serving bowl. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds. Serve immediately.\n\n### DON'T HAVE A SPIRALIZER?\n\nIf you don't own a spiralizer, you have a couple of options. First, most supermarkets carry a variety of spiraled vegetables, both in the produce and freezer sections. Second, you can use a vegetable peeler\/knife to create your own \"noodles.\"\n\n## Saffron and Herb Cauliflower Rice\n\nThis recipe is so, so easy and pairs nicely with seafood. Top this cauliflower rice with shrimp, mussels, sausage, and some asparagus for a quick paleo paella. Don't forget the fruit-packed sangria to accompany this dish.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 2 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets\n\n1 tablespoon ghee\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1\/2 teaspoon saffron threads\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\nPinch freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 teaspoon lemon juice\n\n1\/2 teaspoon lemon zest\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add cauliflower. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time for 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer cauliflower to a serving bowl and discard liquid from pot.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add cauliflower. Use a potato masher to smash cauliflower in the pot until it has a rice-like consistency.\n\n4 Add remaining ingredients and stir. Transfer \"rice\" to a dish and serve warm.\n\n## Broccoli-Parsnip Smash\n\nListen up broccoli haters: This side dish is sure to become a new favorite. The parsnips and almond milk together lend a creamy texture and added flavor to an otherwise boring vegetable. Also, heads of broccoli come in so many sizes, so season with salt and pepper to taste. This recipe is merely a guideline.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 2 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 medium head broccoli, cut into florets\n\n2 parsnips, peeled and diced\n\n2 teaspoons ghee\n\n2 teaspoons nutritional yeast\n\n2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add broccoli and parsnips. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time for 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer broccoli and parsnips to a medium bowl and drain pot.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add broccoli and parsnips. Use a potato masher to smash the vegetables in the pot until somewhat smooth.\n\n4 Add yeast and milk. Smash it into broccoli mixture. Transfer to a serving bowl and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.\n\n## Poultry Main Dishes\n\nThis chapter covers Cornish hens, turkey, and probably one of the most consumed proteins in the United States, chicken. There are so many recipes out there and a handful of go-to meals that you can cook for your family, but if you're sick of eating dried-out chicken breasts and overcooked thighs, the Instant Pot\u00ae is your new best friend. The steam and pressure used to cook ingredients in the pot are guaranteed to leave the chicken dishes in this chapter juicy and delicious. Whether you're craving Jamaican Jerk Chicken Meatballs or Kimchi Chicken Wings, or your family is calling for Chili-Orange Turkey Wings or Cornish Hens and Veggies, you'll find a new favorite recipe here!\n\nAlso, if you're planning on getting home late, the Instant Pot\u00ae allows you to start a meal in the morning and set it to automatically switch to the Keep Warm function for up to 10 hours, which means dinner will be ready and waiting when you walk in the door. So get cooking!\n\nBBQ Whole Chicken\n\nGluten-Free Beer Can Dijon Chicken\n\nKimchi Chicken Wings\n\nChicken Leg Almond Butter Satay\n\nSmoked Paprika and Garlic Chicken Legs\n\nChili Lime Chicken Legs\n\nKombucha Chicken Thighs\n\nChicken Thighs with Strawberry Salsa\n\nTuscan Chicken\n\nSalsa Verde Chicken Meatballs\n\nHoney Mustard Chicken Bites\n\nJamaican Jerk Chicken Meatballs\n\nTaco Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Pico Guacamole\n\nAsian Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Ginger Aioli\n\nChicken Livers and Onions with Gravy\n\nAvocado Chicken Salad\n\nPaleo-ish Turkish Chicken Thighs\n\nCornish Hens and Veggies\n\nChili-Orange Turkey Wings\n\nMega Turkey Meatballs\n\n## BBQ Whole Chicken\n\nSure, you can take extra time and stop at the grocery store on your way home from work, circle the parking lot a few times, and grab a rotisserie chicken. Or you can set the timer on your Instant Pot\u00ae and have a beautiful barbecue-rubbed whole chicken waiting for you and your family. And don't forget to save those bones to make some health-filled broth.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon smoked paprika\n\n1 teaspoon espresso powder\n\n1 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n1 tablespoon pure maple syrup\n\n1 (5-pound) whole chicken\n\n1 small red apple, peeled, quartered, and cored\n\n1 small orange, quartered\n\n1 medium sweet onion, peeled and roughly chopped\n\n3 cloves garlic, halved\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 In a small bowl, combine paprika, espresso powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.\n\n2 Brush the syrup on the outside of the chicken. Sprinkle prepared dry rub evenly over chicken. Place the apple and orange in the cavity of the bird.\n\n3 Place onion and garlic in the bottom of the Instant Pot\u00ae. Pour in water. Insert trivet over vegetables.\n\n4 Place chicken on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 25 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n5 Remove chicken. Discard apple and orange. Serve warm.\n\n## Gluten-Free Beer Can Dijon Chicken\n\nA \"beer can chicken\" dish typically entails a beer can placed in the cavity of a chicken and then grilled or baked. The purpose is to utilize the steamed flavor from the beer. In this Instant Pot\u00ae twist, the flavor is distributed while the beer steams around the chicken. Change up the beer variety for a different flavor experience each time.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 20 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/4 cup Dijon mustard\n\n3 pounds (about 10) chicken legs\/drumsticks\n\n1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped\n\n1 (12-ounce) bottle gluten-free beer, type of choice\n\n1 Rub mustard over chicken legs.\n\n2 Scatter onion in the bottom of the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Add beer. Press the Saut\u00e9 button and simmer unlidded 5 minutes.\n\n3 Press the Adjust button and change temperature to Less. Arrange chicken standing up, meaty side down, on the trivet. Lock lid. Press the Poultry button and cook for the default time of 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n4 Transfer chicken to a serving platter. Serve warm.\n\n## Kimchi Chicken Wings\n\nFermented foods are high on the \"yes\" list of the paleo diet. Kimchi, along with kombucha, sauerkraut, and pickles to name a few, have many health benefits. The probiotics in fermented foods aid in digestion and immunity and assist in the absorption of the nutrients in other foods you eat.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nServes 3\n\n* * *\n\n11\/2 pounds chicken wings, separated at the joint if necessary\n\n1\/2 cup kimchi brine\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 cup kimchi\n\n1 Add chicken wings and kimchi brine to a large plastic bag. Seal and shake. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes up to 2 hours.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add chicken wings to basket and pour in extra brine from the plastic bag. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer chicken wings to a large bowl and serve with kimchi.\n\n### WHAT IS KIMCHI?\n\nKimchi is a fermented spicy cabbage popular as a Korean side dish. Whether you are making your own or picking up a premade jar, there are a zillion variations available. There are varieties with cucumbers, radishes, and even different types of cabbage. The spices and chilies can vary as well. If you don't like one, try another. You just might be surprised.\n\n## Chicken Leg Almond Butter Satay\n\nSatay is traditionally a peanut-based sauce, but because of the phytic acids in nuts, it isn't a paleo-friendly item. In this satay, almond butter is substituted in the marinade to mimic the same texture and flavor of the nuts.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 26 minutes\n\nServes 5\n\n* * *\n\n1\/2 cup smooth almond butter\n\n1\/4 cup canned coconut milk\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n1\/8 cup lime juice\n\n1 teaspoon minced ginger\n\n1\/2 teaspoon fish sauce\n\n1 teaspoon honey\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n3 pounds (about 10) chicken legs\/drumsticks\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, whisk together almond butter, coconut milk, coconut aminos, lime juice, ginger, fish sauce, honey, and salt. Pour into a shallow dish with drumsticks. Cover and refrigerate overnight.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Arrange chicken standing up, meaty side down, on the trivet. Lock lid. Press the Poultry button and cook for the default time of 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n3 While the Instant Pot\u00ae is releasing pressure, preheat oven to 550\u00b0F.\n\n4 Place chicken legs on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes on each side to crisp the chicken.\n\n5 Transfer chicken to a serving plate and serve warm.\n\n## Smoked Paprika and Garlic Chicken Legs\n\nSmoked paprika is an underused spice that should be at the front of your spice drawer. Sweet and smoky and a little mild, smoked paprika adds comfort to proteins and sauces, and it is lovely as a garnish on deviled eggs.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 21 minutes\n\nServes 5\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon garlic powder\n\n1 tablespoon smoked paprika\n\n1 teaspoon fine sea salt\n\n3 pounds (about 10) chicken legs\/drumsticks\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Preheat the oven broiler.\n\n2 In a small bowl, combine garlic powder, smoked paprika, and salt. Season chicken legs with the seasoning mix.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Arrange chicken standing up, meaty side down, on the trivet. Lock lid. Press the Poultry button and cook for the default time of 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n4 Place chicken legs on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes on each side to crisp the chicken.\n\n5 Transfer chicken to a serving plate and serve warm.\n\n## Chili Lime Chicken Legs\n\nSweet and tangy, salty and spicy, these Chili Lime Chicken Legs do a little dance on your taste buds. What an ideal recipe for outdoor socializing on the deck with close friends and a cooler full of ice-cold gluten-free beer.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 26 minutes\n\nServes 5\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons fresh lime juice\n\n1 teaspoon lime zest\n\n1 teaspoon chili powder\n\n1 teaspoon sriracha\n\n2 teaspoons honey\n\n4 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n3 pounds (about 10) chicken legs\/drumsticks\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Preheat oven to 550\u00b0F.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, combine lime juice, lime zest, chili powder, sriracha, honey, garlic, and salt. Toss chicken legs in the marinade. Refrigerate covered at least 1 hour or up to overnight.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Arrange chicken standing up, meaty side down, on the trivet. Lock lid. Press the Poultry button and cook for the default time of 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n4 Place chicken legs on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes on each side to crisp the chicken.\n\n5 Transfer chicken to a serving plate and serve warm.\n\n## Kombucha Chicken Thighs\n\nKombucha, a popular fermented drink among paleo enthusiasts, comes in many flavors. When it all boils down, kombucha is an acid. So, if you have some chicken thighs and are left without a marinade, grab one of your kombucha drinks from the refrigerator. It will add a deeper flavor than just salt and pepper. The recipe calls for Gingerberry, but use what you have on hand for a different experience each time.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 7 minutes\n\nServes 3\n\n* * *\n\n11\/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs\n\n2 cups Gingerberry kombucha\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 Place chicken thighs and kombucha in a medium bowl. Refrigerate 1 hour.\n\n2 Insert steamer basket in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Place chicken thighs evenly on basket. Pour in remaining kombucha marinade. Season chicken with salt. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 7 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n3 Transfer chicken to a tray and serve warm.\n\n## Chicken Thighs with Strawberry Salsa\n\nThe sweetness of the strawberries plays nicely in this salsa with the bite of the red onion, the zest of the lime, and the creaminess of the avocado. If you prepare this ahead of time, make sure to toss in the avocado right before serving to avoid browning.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 7 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\nStrawberry Salsa\n\n1 cup diced strawberries\n\n1\/2 cup fresh lime juice\n\n1 tablespoon lime zest\n\n2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced\n\n1\/4 cup finely diced red onion\n\n1 medium avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh mint\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\nChicken\n\n3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine strawberries, lime juice, lime zest, tomatoes, onion, avocado, cilantro, mint, and salt. Refrigerate salsa covered at least 1 hour or up to overnight.\n\n2 Pat chicken thighs dry with a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place steamer basket on the trivet. Arrange thighs evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 7 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n4 Transfer chicken to plates. Garnish with strawberry salsa. Serve.\n\n### FRUIT SALSAS\n\nDon't limit yourself to strawberries. Pineapple salsa pairs nicely with a grilled pork chop. And don't forget to grill your fruit before chopping it up for salsa. The heat caramelizes the natural sugars for an added level of flavor. Peaches and mangoes are two other tasty alternatives.\n\n## Tuscan Chicken\n\nA taste of Italy can be on your dinner table in less than a half hour. And the thrilling part is that there will only be one cooking pot to wash at the end of the evening. The prosciutto and capers add a unique salty, earthy flavor that tops off this healthy meal.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 24 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and roughly diced\n\n1\/2 cup sliced cremini mushrooms\n\n1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh basil\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1\" cubes\n\n4 ounces prosciutto, torn into pieces\n\n1 tablespoon capers, drained\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add onion and mushrooms and stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until onions are translucent.\n\n2 Add tomatoes, basil, salt, and chicken to pot. Lock lid. Press the Poultry button and cook for the default time of 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n3 Evenly distribute chicken mixture and sauce among four serving bowls. Garnish with prosciutto and capers.\n\n## Salsa Verde Chicken Meatballs\n\nZero carbs and gluten-free, who knew chicken meatballs could be so mouthwatering? The diced onion helps keep the ground chicken moist and the Salsa Verde is the perfect flavorful mild sauce to accompany this dish. Plus, what a great way to get the children involved in the kitchen. What child doesn't want to help make a creepalicious green sauce?\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 16 minutes\n\nYields 16 meatballs\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground chicken\n\n1 large egg\n\n1\/2 cup chopped fresh mint\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n2 tablespoons finely diced Vidalia onion\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n11\/2 cups Salsa Verde (see Chapter 4)\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine ground chicken, egg, mint, almond meal, onion, salt, and pepper. Form into 16 golf ball\u2013sized meatballs. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place half the meatballs around the edges of the pot. Sear all sides of meatballs for a total of 4 minutes. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add remaining oil and meatballs and sear 4 minutes. Remove meatballs.\n\n3 Discard extra juice and oil from the pot.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place meatballs evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Drain the pot and add the meatballs. Pour in Salsa Verde. Let simmer 5 minutes, gently tossing meatballs.\n\n6 Transfer meatballs and sauce to bowls and serve warm with sauce.\n\n## Honey Mustard Chicken Bites\n\nSkip the fast-food fried nuggets. These chicken bites will be your kids' new favorite meal void of the preservatives, hydrogenated oils, and excessive sodium found in their quick-meal counterparts.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/4 cup honey\n\n1\/4 cup yellow mustard\n\n2 tablespoons mayonnaise\n\n2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1\" cubes\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, whisk together honey, mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar, and salt. Set aside and refrigerate 1\/4 cup of the sauce for dipping. Toss chicken in remaining mixture and coat evenly. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Transfer chicken to steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Poultry button and cook for the default time of 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n3 Serve warm with dipping sauce.\n\n### GROWN-UP CHICKEN BITES\n\nIf you want to kick up these kid-friendly Honey Mustard Chicken Bites a notch, try adding a squirt of sriracha to the sauce. Or replace the yellow mustard with some beer or horseradish mustard. Even more, substitute the honey with some maple syrup or molasses to add a different flavor profile.\n\n## Jamaican Jerk Chicken Meatballs\n\nMost Jamaican jerk seasoning blends already contain some dried chilies, so the habanero called for in this recipe is completely optional. If you aren't a fan of hot and spicy, eliminate the pepper. Otherwise, move on, mon, and enjoy these little jewels.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 11 minutes\n\nYields 16 meatballs\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground chicken\n\n1 large egg\n\n1 tablespoon honey\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n1 tablespoon finely diced yellow onion\n\n1 teaspoon finely diced habanero (seeded)\n\n1 tablespoon Jamaican jerk seasoning blend\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine ground chicken, egg, honey, almond meal, onion, habanero, Jamaican jerk seasoning, and salt. Form into 16 golf ball\u2013sized meatballs. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place half the meatballs around the edges of the pot. Sear on all sides for a total of about 4 minutes. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add remaining oil and meatballs and sear 4 minutes. Remove meatballs.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place meatballs evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid.\n\n4 Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Transfer meatballs to a bowl and serve.\n\n## Taco Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Pico Guacamole\n\nGather the family around the table for Taco Tuesday. These lettuce wraps will hit the spot and there is no lack of flavor or nutrients. The ingredient list looks long, but most of the spices are already on your spice rack.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\nPico Guacamole\n\nJuice of 1 small lime\n\n1 medium avocado, peeled and diced\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 small jalape\u00f1o, seeded and diced\n\n1\/4 cup diced onion\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro\n\n2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced\n\nChicken\n\n2 teaspoons chili powder\n\n1 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground coriander\n\n1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1\" cubes\n\n2 cups water\n\n8 iceberg lettuce leaves\n\n1 Place lime and diced avocado in a medium bowl. Use a fork to smash the avocado until desired chunkiness. Add garlic, jalape\u00f1o, onion, salt, cilantro, and tomatoes. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, combine chili powder, cumin, salt, garlic powder, paprika, and coriander. Toss chicken into mixture and coat evenly.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Transfer chicken to steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Poultry button and cook for the default time of 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n4 Transfer chicken to a cutting board and chop. Place in a serving bowl.\n\n5 Serve chicken, lettuce leaves, and pico guacamole family-style.\n\n## Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Ginger Aioli\n\nThese chicken lettuce wraps are packed with Asian flavors. If you ever have a friend tell you that paleo and gluten-free are boring and that they couldn't be on such a diet, serve them these lettuce wraps and watch the lightbulb turn on. There is no shortness of taste here.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 7 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\nGinger Aioli\n\n1\/4 cup mayonnaise\n\n1\/2 teaspoon minced ginger\n\n1\/8 teaspoon hot sauce\n\n1\/2 teaspoon lime juice\n\nLettuce Wraps\n\n1 tablespoon sesame oil\n\n1 pound ground chicken\n\n1\/3 cup chopped green onions\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n5 ounces shiitake mushrooms\n\n1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n1 teaspoon Dijon mustard\n\n1 tablespoon sriracha\n\n1 tablespoon honey\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon white pepper\n\n1 cup water\n\n12 Bibb lettuce leaves\n\n1\/4 cup slivered almonds\n\n1 In a small bowl, whisk together Ginger Aioli ingredients. Refrigerate covered until ready to use.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat sesame oil. Add chicken and onions; stir-fry 4\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent. Transfer mixture to a 7-cup glass bowl. Stir in garlic, mushrooms, ginger, coconut aminos, mustard, sriracha, honey, salt, and pepper.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Set bowl with chicken mixture on trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Serve chicken mixture warm with lettuce leaves, slivered almonds, and Ginger Aioli on the side.\n\n## Chicken Livers and Onions with Gravy\n\nChicken liver usually brings up memories of our grandparents as that seems to be the generation that really embraced this particular offal. So, start your own memories, update this relic, and bring this nutritional dish back to the dinner table.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 12 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n2 medium yellow onions, peeled, halved, and thinly sliced\n\n2 sprigs fresh rosemary\n\n1 pound chicken livers, halved and trimmed\n\n10 grape tomatoes, halved\n\n1\/2 cup beef broth\n\n2 tablespoons cooking sherry\n\n2 tablespoons cassava flour\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add onions and rosemary. Stir-fry 3 minutes. Add chicken livers and tomatoes and stir-fry an additional 3 minutes.\n\n2 Add beef broth and cooking sherry to the pot. Lock lid. Press the Meat\/Stew button and adjust time to 6 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer chicken livers, onions, and tomatoes to a medium bowl.\n\n4 Whisk flour and salt into pot juices until it thickens. Transfer to a gravy boat.\n\n5 Garnish chicken livers with fresh basil and serve warm with gravy.\n\n## Avocado Chicken Salad\n\nA fresh and quick meal, this chicken salad is also a great recipe to make on prep day to portion out for the remainder of the week. Whether for a light luncheon or weekday meal, this savory chicken dish is the ideal go-to recipe.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n2 pounds chicken breasts, cut into 1\" cubes\n\n1 teaspoon fine sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup water\n\n1\/2 medium red onion, peeled and diced\n\n2 stalks celery, finely chopped\n\n2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced\n\n1 medium avocado, peeled and diced\n\n1\/2 cup mayonnaise\n\n1 tablespoon yellow mustard\n\n1\/2 dried dill\n\n1\/2 teaspoon lime juice\n\n1 On a plate, season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Set aside.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place chicken cubes on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer chicken to a cutting board. When cool enough to work with, finely chop the chicken. Add to a medium bowl.\n\n4 Add onion, celery, tomatoes, avocado, mayonnaise, yellow mustard, dill, and lime juice. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve.\n\n## Paleo-ish Turkish Chicken Thighs\n\nLike cheese and alcohol, yogurt is not allowed in the strict paleo world. However, if you are okay with including a minimal amount of dairy in your diet and you don't have gut issues or allergies, this recipe is a great option to add a little dairy into your life. The remaining plain yogurt can be turned into a tzatziki sauce for some lamb meatballs, or it can be added to fresh berries along with a drizzle of honey for a delicious breakfast, or it can just be added to a post-workout smoothie for a little added creaminess and protein!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup plain Greek yogurt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground coriander\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n3 large carrots, peeled and spiralized\n\n2 cups water\n\n1\/4 cup fresh chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1\/4 cup fresh chopped mint\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine yogurt, coriander, nutmeg, cumin, cinnamon, and salt. Toss chicken thighs in sauce and refrigerate covered at least 4 hours or up to overnight.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat avocado oil and fry chicken thighs 2 minutes on each side until browned.\n\n3 Insert steamer basket in the Instant Pot\u00ae; place chicken evenly on basket. Pour any remaining marinade over chicken. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 7 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the chicken using a meat thermometer to make sure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n4 Transfer chicken to a medium bowl. Set aside.\n\n5 Add spiralized carrots to steamer basket. Add water and lock lid. Press the Saut\u00e9 button and let carrots cook 3\u20135 minutes until tender.\n\n6 Transfer carrots to individual bowls. Top with chicken. Garnish bowls with parsley and mint. Serve warm.\n\n## Cornish Hens and Veggies\n\nWhy is it that a whole chicken is an economical choice, but when miniaturized, Cornish hens are just a sexy meal for two or a fancy dish for guests? Either split the cooked hens in half and serve four guests with some extra sides or just enjoy them with the tender mushrooms and carrots with your sweetie.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 20 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n2 Cornish hens (11\/2 pounds each)\n\n1 pound whole button mushrooms, stems trimmed\n\n3 large carrots, peeled and sliced into 1\/2\" sections\n\n11\/2 cups water\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n2 cloves garlic, halved\n\n1 small Granny Smith apple, cored and quartered\n\n1 Pat down Cornish hens with a paper towel. Set aside.\n\n2 Place mushrooms, carrots, and water in the bottom of the Instant Pot\u00ae. Insert steamer basket.\n\n3 In a small container, combine salt, pepper, and paprika. Season Cornish hens evenly with spice mix. Insert garlic and apple into the cavities of the hens.\n\n4 Place hens on steamer basket. Press the Meat button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the hens using a meat thermometer to make sure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n5 Set oven to Broil.\n\n6 Transfer hens to a baking sheet. Remove and discard apples and garlic. Broil 5 minutes.\n\n7 Transfer hens to a serving platter. Use a slotted spoon to remove mushrooms and carrots from the pot and place them around the hens. Serve warm.\n\n## Chili-Orange Turkey Wings\n\nTurkey isn't just for Thanksgiving. Check the meat section next time you are at the grocery store. Throughout the year, there will be turkey legs and breasts offered separately. Buying the whole bird isn't necessary. The sriracha-orange-honey seasoning trio provides a nice balance of spicy and tangy and sweet.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n2 turkey wings (about 21\/2 pounds)\n\n2 teaspoons sea salt\n\n2 cups water\n\n2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice\n\n1 teaspoon orange zest\n\n2 tablespoons honey\n\n1 tablespoon sriracha\n\n2 teaspoons ghee\n\n1 Pat down turkey wings with a paper towel. Season with salt.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place wings on steamer basket.\n\n3 Press the Meat or Poultry button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the wings using a meat thermometer to make sure the internal temperature is at least 165\u00b0F.\n\n4 Set oven to Broil.\n\n5 In a large bowl, combine orange juice, orange zest, honey, sriracha, and ghee. Add turkey wings and toss to coat. Transfer wings to a baking sheet. Broil 5 minutes. Serve warm.\n\n## Mega Turkey Meatballs\n\nYou can call these mega meatballs or small meatloaves, but definitely try them. Served with your favorite sides, these meatballs are full of flavor from the fresh herbs. The onions and carrots work harmoniously to lend the moisture that the ground turkey needs to make this a delicious meal.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nYields 4 meatballs\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground turkey\n\n1 large egg\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1\/2 cup almond meal\n\n1\/2 cup peeled and grated carrot\n\n1 tablespoon finely diced yellow onion\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano\n\n2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine turkey, egg, salt, pepper, garlic powder, almond meal, carrot, onion, oregano, and parsley. Form into 4 large meatballs. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place 2 meatballs in the pot. Sear all sides of the meatballs for a total of about 4 minutes. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add remaining oil and meatballs and sear an additional 4 minutes. Remove meatballs.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place meatballs evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 6 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer meatballs to plates. Serve warm.\n\n## Beef and Bison Main Dishes\n\nThere is nothing better suited for the Instant Pot\u00ae than meat. The steam and pressure can take a seemingly tough piece of meat and make it taste like butter in your mouth. The steam keeps everything moist, and the pressure helps break down some of the sinewy parts. And the best part? The trapped steam helps create a meat that tastes like it has been braised for hours in about 30 minutes, depending on the weight. In addition, you can add your potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and other vegetables to the pot while cooking. Not only will you have a complete meal, but the vegetables take on a completely new savory flavor by cooking next to the meat, especially those mushrooms. With recipes ranging from Sweet-n-Spicy Beef Brisket and Skirt Steak Fajitas to Cuban Picadillo with Riced Cauliflower and Italian Beef Tongue Lettuce Wraps, this chapter will help get you started on some classic Instant Pot\u00ae recipes as well as introduce you to some new favorites.\n\nNana's Sunday Pot Roast\n\nChuck Roast with Carrots and Onions\n\nSweet-n-Spicy Beef Brisket\n\nTender Flank Steak with Mushrooms and Onions\n\nSkirt Steak Fajitas\n\nKorean Beef Short Ribs\n\nMongolian Beef and Cashew BBQ\n\nMeatloaf and Gravy\n\nBalsamic Meatballs\n\nMarinara Meatballs\n\nReuben Meatballs with Russian Dressing\n\nGround Beef and Broccoli Bowl\n\nJust Beet It Burgers\n\nCorned Beef and Cabbage\n\nCuban Picadillo with Riced Cauliflower\n\nChi-Town Italian Beef and Peppers\n\nBeef Shanks and Artichokes\n\nBison Sloppy Joe's\n\nGround Bison Bulgogi\n\nItalian Beef Tongue Lettuce Wraps\n\n## Nana's Sunday Pot Roast\n\nThe salt and pepper simply bring out the natural goodness of the roast. The drippings give the vegetables a savory, rich, and earthy note. You'll feel like Nana is just around the corner!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 65 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 (3-pound) pot roast\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n2 cups beef broth\n\n2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1\" sections\n\n3 russet potatoes, quartered\n\n1 large yellow onion, peeled, halved, and sliced into half-moons\n\n8 ounces whole button mushrooms, stems trimmed\n\n1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves\n\n1 Pat roast dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Sear meat on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove the meat and set aside.\n\n3 Add broth and deglaze the pot by stirring and scraping bottom and sides to loosen any browned bits. Add remaining ingredients. Return roast to pot. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 60 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Remove the meat and vegetables to a serving platter. Let rest 5 minutes. Slice roast and serve warm.\n\n## Chuck Roast with Carrots and Onions\n\nOh, the humble chuck roast. It is usually overlooked because of toughness of the connective tissue that usually takes hours of low and slow cooking to dissolve. The Instant Pot\u00ae with its high pressure and steam takes care of this so much faster. Succulent and delicious, chuck roast is making a comeback!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 65 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 (3-pound) boneless chuck roast\n\n2 tablespoons horseradish mustard\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n2 cups beef broth\n\n2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n5 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1\" sections\n\n1 Pat roast dry with paper towels. Massage mustard into roast. Season with salt and pepper.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Sear meat on all sides, about 5 minutes total. Remove the meat and set aside.\n\n3 Add broth and deglaze the pot by scraping the bottom and sides of the pot to loosen any browned bits. Stir in Worcestershire sauce.\n\n4 Add onion and carrots to pot. Place roast on top of vegetables. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 60 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Transfer meat and vegetables to a serving platter. Let rest 5 minutes. Slice roast. Reserve some of the pot juices if you'd like to serve \"au jus\" with the meal. Serve warm.\n\n## Sweet-n-Spicy Beef Brisket\n\nThe Instant Pot\u00ae is a great way to dress up a cheaper cut of meat. Add some fabulous spices and this brisket is a five-star delight. Placing the brisket fat side down helps render some of that fat cap. Also, the maple syrup in the wet rub gets a good layer of caramelization for added flavor.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 66 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons pure maple syrup\n\n2 tablespoons coconut aminos\n\n1 tablespoon adobo paste\n\n1 tablespoon yellow mustard\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic salt\n\n1 tablespoon Italian seasoning\n\n2 tablespoons coconut oil\n\n1 (3-pound) beef brisket\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 large yellow onion, peeled and roughly diced\n\n1 In a small bowl, whisk together syrup, coconut aminos, adobo paste, mustard, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning. Massage over beef brisket.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat coconut oil. Adjust temperature to Less. Place brisket in the pot with the fat cap side down. Sear 6 minutes to render fat.\n\n3 Add water and scatter onions around brisket. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 60 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Remove the meat and transfer to a serving platter. Let rest 10 minutes. Slice brisket and serve warm.\n\n## Tender Flank Steak with Mushrooms and Onions\n\nPeanut butter and jelly . . . Laverne and Shirley . . . tweens and boy bands. These are classic combinations. But, let's add another. Steak and mushrooms. The drippings from the steak add another dimension to these button mushrooms that is like no other. Simple. Quick. Delicious. It's hard to tell the star of this dish!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 50 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 (2-pound) flank steak\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n1 slice bacon, diced\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n2 cups whole button mushrooms\n\n11\/2 cups beef broth\n\n1 Pat steak dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Sear meat on all sides until browned, about 5 minutes per side. Remove meat and set aside.\n\n3 Add remaining oil to pot and saut\u00e9 bacon, onions, and mushrooms 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent.\n\n4 Add beef broth and deglaze the pot by stirring and scraping the bottom and sides of the pot to loosen any browned bits. Place meat on top of onions in pot. Lock lid. Press the Meat button and adjust time to 35 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Transfer the meat to a serving platter. Let rest 5 minutes. Thinly slice meat against the grain. Serve immediately with mushrooms, onions, and a few tablespoons of the liquid from the pot.\n\n## Skirt Steak Fajitas\n\nThis simple dish with such depth of flavor can be enjoyed for dinner, lunch, or even for breakfast as most paleo folks like their leftover meat in the morning, served with a side of scrambled eggs and a thick slice of avocado. There are so many ways to enjoy this tasty beef so dive on in!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 45 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/8 cup avocado oil\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n1 tablespoon fish sauce\n\n1 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1 teaspoon chili powder\n\n2 tablespoons tomato paste\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 (2-pound) skirt steak\n\n1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1 cup beef broth\n\n1 In a small bowl, combine oil, coconut aminos, fish sauce, cumin, chili powder, tomato paste, and salt. Spread 3\/4 of this mixture on all sides of the steak. Reserve additional sauce.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add skirt steak and sear on all sides for a total of about 5 minutes. Remove the meat and set aside. Add onion and peppers to the pot with reserved sauce. Saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent.\n\n3 Add beef broth. Set meat on the layer of onion and peppers. Lock lid. Press the Meat button and cook for the default time of 35 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat and vegetables to a serving platter. Let steak rest 5 minutes. Thinly slice the skirt steak against the grain. Serve warm.\n\n## Korean Beef Short Ribs\n\nShort ribs are just that: ribs taken from the short portion of the rib bone of cattle. There are two types of cuts with short ribs: flanken and English cut. For this recipe, flanken is the preferred choice. Your butcher can help achieve this if there are no prepackaged options. Otherwise, the sauce of this recipe will work to flavor any cut of meat you prefer.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n1\/4 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1 teaspoon fish sauce\n\n1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar\n\n1 tablespoon sesame oil\n\n1 teaspoon white pepper\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground ginger\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n3 pounds beef short ribs\n\n1 cup beef broth\n\n2 green onions, sliced\n\n1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds\n\n1 In a medium bowl, whisk together coconut aminos, syrup, fish sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, white pepper, ground ginger, garlic powder, and sea salt. Add ribs and toss to coat. Refrigerate covered at least 60 minutes or up to overnight.\n\n2 Add beef broth to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Arrange ribs standing upright with the meaty side facing outward. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 25 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer ribs to a serving platter and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds. Serve warm.\n\n## Mongolian Beef and Cashew BBQ\n\nTypically when you order this dish in restaurants, you go through the line and pick your meat, vegetables, oil, and sauces, and then hand it over to the chef who cooks it right in front of you. Cashews are actually in the paleo-ish category, because they are technically a legume. They fall more into the \"primal\" category. So, if you choose to indulge, purchase them raw so as to avoid the highly processed versions.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon sesame oil\n\n1 (2-pound) skirt steak\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n1\/2 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1\" piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated\n\n4 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1\/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, divided\n\n2 tablespoons arrowroot flour\n\n1\/4 cup sliced green onions\n\n1\/4 cup crushed raw cashews\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat oil and sear steak on all sides, for a total of about 4 minutes. Transfer steak to a cutting board. Slice beef against the grain into thin strips. Return beef to pot.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, whisk together coconut aminos, syrup, ginger, garlic, and 1\/2 cup water. Pour over beef and stir to deglaze any bits around the edges and bottom of the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 In a small dish, whisk together arrowroot flour and 2 tablespoons water until smooth to create a slurry. Stir this mixture into the beef mixture. Press the Saut\u00e9 button, then adjust temperature to Less and simmer unlidded 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.\n\n4 Ladle mixture into bowls. Garnish with green onions and raw cashews. Serve warm.\n\n## Meatloaf and Gravy\n\nMeatloaf is a worldwide tradition. It seems that every country in the world has a variation on this simple dish. As long as you have some form of ground meat, vegetables, and a binding agent, a meatloaf can be made. This quick and easy meatloaf is the perfect weeknight staple, especially when served with potatoes and vegetables.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 35 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground beef\n\n1 pound ground pork\n\n3 large eggs\n\n1 large shallot, peeled and finely diced\n\n1\/2 cup tomato sauce\n\n1\/2 cup almond meal\n\n1 tablespoon Italian seasoning\n\n1\/2 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup beef broth\n\n1 tablespoon cassava flour\n\n2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine beef, pork, eggs, shallot, tomato sauce, almond meal, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Form mixture into a ball and flatten the top. Place meatloaf in a lightly greased 7-cup bowl.\n\n2 Add beef broth to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place the glass bowl on top. Lock lid. Press the Meat button and cook for the default time of 35 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove meatloaf from Instant Pot\u00ae and let cool at room temperature 10 minutes. Tilt glass bowl and pour any liquid\/rendered fat back into the pot.\n\n4 Whisk flour and milk into the pot juices until a thick gravy forms. Transfer to a gravy boat.\n\n5 Slice meatloaf and serve with gravy.\n\n### UTENSIL HACKS\n\nYou may want to fashion an aluminum foil sling for easy retrieval if you don't have a pair of plate retriever tongs. Take a 10\" \u00d7 10\" square of aluminum foil and fold it back and forth until you have a 2\" \u00d7 10\" sling. Place sling under the bowl or pan before cooking so that you can easily lift up the heated dish when cooking is complete.\n\n## Balsamic Meatballs\n\nSo, there is a little debate over whether balsamic vinegar is officially a \"paleo\" product. I'm sure for the strictest of strict, the answer is probably no. Although vinegars have some wonderful health benefits, they are not all created equally. Some of the cheaper versions are laced with added sugars and caramel coloring. So, heed caution, read your labels, and go forth and conquer this recipe!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 11 minutes\n\nYields 16 meatballs\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground beef\n\n1 large egg\n\n2 tablespoons finely diced shallot\n\n1 tablespoon Italian seasoning\n\n1 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon celery seed\n\n1\/2 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 cup Marinara Sauce (see Chapter 4)\n\n2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar\n\n2 tablespoons julienned fresh basil\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine beef, egg, shallot, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, celery seed, smoked paprika, and almond meal. Form into 16 meatballs. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place half the meatballs around the edges of the pot and sear on all sides for a total of about 4 minutes. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add remaining oil and meatballs and sear 4 minutes. Remove meatballs from pot.\n\n3 In a small bowl, combine marinara sauce and balsamic vinegar. Add seared meatballs to a 7-cup glass bowl. Gently toss in marinara-balsamic sauce to coat meatballs evenly.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place meatballs evenly on steamer basket. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove dish from the pot. Garnish with fresh basil and serve warm.\n\n## Marinara Meatballs\n\nNow that's a good meatball! The homemade Marinara Sauce (see Chapter 4) really makes the meal. There is something about homemade foods and sauces that make you want to cook fresh every day. And, with the Instant Pot\u00ae, this is feasible with the time on cooked foods cut by at least half.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 16 minutes\n\nYields 16 meatballs\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground chuck\n\n1 large egg\n\n1\/2 cup chopped fresh basil\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n2 tablespoons finely diced yellow onion\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n11\/2 cups Marinara Sauce (see Chapter 4)\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine ground chuck, egg, basil, almond meal, onion, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Form into 16 golf ball\u2013sized meatballs. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place half the meatballs around the edges of the pot. Sear all sides of the meatballs for a total of about 4 minutes total. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add remaining oil and meatballs and sear 4 minutes. Remove meatballs.\n\n3 Discard extra juice and oil from the pot. Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place meatballs evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Drain the pot. Add meatballs directly to the pot. Pour in Marinara Sauce. Let simmer 5 minutes, gently tossing meatballs.\n\n5 Transfer meatballs and sauce to bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Reuben Meatballs with Russian Dressing\n\nOh, the Reuben sandwich. Although these meatballs are void of the rye bread and ooey-gooey Swiss cheese, this meatball will hopefully quench that craving for the deli delight. Corned beef and sauerkraut are mixed directly in the ground beef. Caraway seeds are added to hit that \"rye bread\" flavor. And the Russian Dressing pulls it all together!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 11 minutes\n\nYields 24 meatballs\n\n* * *\n\nRussian Dressing\n\n1\/2 cup mayonnaise\n\n2 tablespoons paleo ketchup\n\n1 small shallot, peeled and minced\n\n1 tablespoon lemon juice\n\n1 teaspoon prepared horseradish\n\n1\/2 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1\/4 teaspoon sea salt\n\nMeatballs\n\n1 pound ground beef\n\n1\/2 pound finely chopped corned beef\n\n1\/2 cup finely chopped sauerkraut, drained (plus extra for garnish if desired)\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n2 tablespoons German mustard\n\n1 tablespoon caraway seeds\n\n1 large egg\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a small bowl, combine Russian Dressing ingredients and refrigerate covered until ready to use.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, combine ground beef, corned beef, sauerkraut, almond meal, mustard, caraway seeds, egg, salt, and pepper. Form into 24 golf ball\u2013sized meatballs. Set aside.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon of the oil. Place half the meatballs around the edges of the pot and sear on all sides, for a total of about 4 minutes. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add remaining oil and meatballs and sear 4 minutes. Remove meatballs.\n\n4 Discard extra juice and oil from the Instant Pot\u00ae.\n\n5 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place meatballs evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n6 Transfer meatballs to a tray and serve with Russian Dressing on the side. Garnish with extra sauerkraut if desired.\n\n## Ground Beef and Broccoli Bowl\n\nTypically Beef and Broccoli is made with steak; however, this version not only is economical by substituting ground chuck, but is quick and easy to prepare with minimal cleanup.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 4 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n2 tablespoons fish sauce\n\n1\/4 teaspoon white pepper\n\n4 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 tablespoon cooking sherry\n\n2 tablespoons beef broth\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 pound ground chuck\n\n1 bunch green onions, sliced (reserve 2 tablespoons chopped greens for garnish)\n\n1 head broccoli, cut in bite-sized pieces\n\n1 In a small bowl, combine coconut aminos, fish sauce, white pepper, garlic, sherry, and beef broth. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add ground chuck and green onions; stir-fry 4 minutes until onions are tender and beef is almost all brown.\n\n3 Add sauce mixture and toss to combine. Add broccoli. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer pot ingredients to two serving bowls. Garnish with green onions. Serve warm.\n\n## Just Beet It Burgers\n\nJazz up your ho-hum burgers by adding some beets to your ground beef. The sweetness of the beets pairs nicely with the garlic and cayenne. And it's always nice to hide vegetables in meals for picky eaters, especially dishes packed with vitamin C and essential minerals.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 11 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground chuck\n\n1\/2 cup scrubbed and grated beets\n\n1 teaspoon cooking sherry\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n2 tablespoons coconut oil, divided\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine ground chuck, beets, cooking sherry, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Form into 4 burger patties. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place 2 patties in the pot. Sear the burgers 2 minutes on each side. Remove the patties and set aside. Add remaining oil and remaining patties and sear 2 minutes on each side. Set aside.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Prop patties evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer patties to serving plates. Serve warm.\n\n## Corned Beef and Cabbage\n\nIt just isn't St. Paddy's Day without a little corned beef and cabbage. While drinking your black and tan, let the Instant Pot\u00ae do the legwork, allowing you time to do an Irish jig with your friends. The corned beef brisket even comes with its own spice packet, so sit back, kiss the Blarney Stone, and wait for dinner to be cooked for you!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 75 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n3-pound corned beef brisket with spice packet\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n1 large yellow onion, peeled and quartered\n\n4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2\" sections\n\n1 small cabbage, cut into 6 wedges\n\n3 cloves garlic, smashed and quartered\n\n1 cup beef broth\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Massage contents of spice packet over corned beef brisket.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat avocado oil. Add brisket and sear on all sides 6\u20137 minutes. Transfer brisket to a plate.\n\n3 Add onion to the pot and stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until tender. Add remaining ingredients, including brisket, to Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Meat\/Stew button and cook for the default time of 45 minutes. When timer beeps, naturally release pressure for 20 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer brisket to a cutting board. When cooled enough to work with, slice and transfer to a serving tray. Add vegetables and serve warm.\n\n## Cuban Picadillo with Riced Cauliflower\n\nTraditionally served over rice, cauliflower is a perfect grain-free replacement. To \"rice\" the cauliflower, simply use a box grater until you achieve 3 cups. You will heat this in the pot liquid at the very end of cooking process until tender.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon coconut oil\n\n1 pound ground beef\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 medium parsnip, peeled and diced\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1\/2 cup dry white wine\n\n2 tablespoons tomato paste\n\n1 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon dried oregano\n\n1\/4 cup sliced green olives\n\n1 tablespoon capers\n\n1 teaspoon caper juice\n\n3 cups riced cauliflower\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat coconut oil. Add ground beef, onion, and parsnip; stir-fry 5 minutes until onions are tender and beef is almost all brown. Add garlic and pour in wine; heat 1 minute to allow the alcohol to burn off.\n\n2 Add tomato paste, cumin, salt, oregano, green olives, capers, and caper juice to pot and stir to mix. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer pot ingredients to a large bowl. Drain all but 2 tablespoons liquid from the pot. Add cauliflower to pot and heat 2\u20133 minutes until heated through.\n\n4 Transfer cauliflower to serving bowls and top with beef mixture. Serve warm.\n\n## Chi-Town Italian Beef and Peppers\n\nA giant bowl of beef and peppers will make you think you are in Chicago, strolling the Navy Pier, shopping the Magnificent Mile, or even at Portillo's enjoying your Italian Beef, minus the dipped bun!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 52 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons coconut oil\n\n3 pounds chuck roast, halved\n\n1 large onion, peeled, halved, and sliced\n\n2 medium red bell peppers, seeded and sliced\n\n2 medium green bell peppers, seeded and sliced\n\n1 (16-ounce) jar sliced pepperoncini, including juice\n\n3 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n1 cup beef broth\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat coconut oil until melted. Add roast and sear on all sides for a total of 12 minutes.\n\n2 Add onion, bell peppers, pepperoncini, garlic, and beef broth to pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time for 40 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer roast to a cutting board and let rest 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer onions and peppers to a large bowl. Thinly slice roast and add to the bowl. Transfer a few small spoonfuls of pot liquid to the bowl. Toss with black pepper. Serve warm.\n\n## Beef Shanks and Artichokes\n\nThis quick dish is a succulent meal for two that can be accomplished in no time. The salty and smooth artichoke hearts couple brilliantly with the fresh tomatoes. On a side note, the heated lycopene in the tomatoes is especially beneficial to men, aiding in the protection against prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 4 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n2 (1\"-thick) beef shanks (total 11\/2 pounds)\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 (14-ounce) can quartered artichoke hearts, including juice\n\n10 grape tomatoes, halved\n\n1 Season beef shanks on both sides with salt and pepper.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add beef shanks and sear 2 minutes per side.\n\n3 Add remaining ingredients to pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer beef to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes.\n\n5 Use a slotted spoon to transfer artichoke hearts and tomatoes to a bowl. Slice beef and serve with vegetables. Spoon over some of the pot juice if desired.\n\n## Bison Sloppy Joe's\n\nWho needs a bun, when all the good stuff is in the sloppy?! Bison is such a lean meat alternative that is rich in iron, zinc, and vitamin B12. And move over salmon, bison is also a great source of omega-3 fatty acids.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 4 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 pound ground bison\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1 stalk celery, finely chopped\n\n2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce\n\n2 cups tomato sauce\n\n2 tablespoons tomato paste\n\n1 tablespoon pure maple syrup\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add bison, onion, green pepper, and celery; stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until onions are tender and bison is mostly browned.\n\n2 Add remaining ingredients to pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer mixture to serving bowls and serve warm.\n\n## Ground Bison Bulgogi\n\nBulgogi is conventionally made with thin strips of marinated beef, but in this quick recipe, ground bison is used utilizing all the flavors. Enjoy this Korean classic as a modern bowl of yum using a quick Western take on the tradition.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 3\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon sesame oil\n\n1 pound ground bison\n\n5 green onions, sliced (whites and greens separated)\n\n1 small carrot, peeled and diced\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n2 tablespoons pure maple syrup\n\n1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar\n\n1 medium red apple, peeled, cored, and grated\n\n1 teaspoon minced ginger\n\n2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add ground bison, onion whites, and carrot; stir-fry 3\u20134 minutes until onions are tender and bison is almost all brown. Add garlic and heat 1 additional minute.\n\n2 Add coconut aminos, syrup, vinegar, apple, and ginger to pot and stir to mix. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer pot ingredients to serving bowls. Garnish with sesame seeds and onion greens.\n\n## Italian Beef Tongue Lettuce Wraps\n\nSo, beef tongue is completely a mental game. For first-timers, having a giant tongue on your cutting board can be somewhat off-putting. Once you can get past your personal mind games, there is incredibly tasty and juicy meat hidden in a scary form, and it is ideal for lettuce wraps.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 43 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n11\/2 pounds beef tongue\n\n1 medium white onion, peeled and roughly diced\n\n4 cloves garlic, halved\n\n2 bay leaves\n\n1 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1 teaspoon stone-ground mustard\n\n1 teaspoon ground coriander\n\n1 teaspoon celery seed\n\n4 cups water\n\n8 iceberg lettuce leaves\n\n3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced\n\n1\/4 cup julienned radishes\n\n1 medium avocado, peeled and diced\n\n1 medium lime, quartered\n\n1 Place tongue, onion, garlic, bay leaves, cumin, smoked paprika, mustard, coriander, celery seed, and water in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 40 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer tongue to a cutting board and let rest until cool enough to handle. Make a shallow cut lengthwise down the center of the tongue. Peel off and discard the thick outer layer. Cut off and discard any gristle at the back of the tongue. Dice the tongue meat and return it to the pot juices. Let simmer 2\u20133 minutes.\n\n3 Use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat to a bowl. Serve with lettuce leaves, tomatoes, radishes, avocado, and lime.\n\n## Pork, Lamb, and Game Main Dishes\n\nFrom Salsa Verde Pulled Pork and a tasty Cubano Bowl to Osso Bucco with Gremolata and Greek Lamb Meatballs, this chapter will take you around the world with new flavors and spices. You may even be trying lamb or veal for the first time and this chapter will show you just how to season it. And the Instant Pot\u00ae is the perfect kitchen appliance to yield juicy cuts of meat with its high-pressure method of cooking. In addition, it is an essential tool in the summer because it doesn't emit excess heat as the oven does. Because of this quicker cooking time, you'll have that barbecue dish on the picnic table in no time, allowing you to concentrate on your family and friends without heating up the house.\n\nSalsa Verde Pulled Pork\n\nSimple Dijon Pork Tenderloin\n\nOrange Rosemary Pork Tenderloin\n\nBalsamic Pork Tenderloin with Caperberries\n\nSteamed Dry-Rubbed Pork Spareribs\n\nCowgirl Baby Back Pork Ribs\n\nHam and Scalloped Potatoes\n\nGround Pork Stir-Fry Bowl\n\nSmothered Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy\n\nPork Chops with Sauerkraut, Potatoes, and Apples\n\nCubano Bowl\n\nVietnamese Pork Chops\n\nBBQ Boneless Pork Loin Roast\n\nOsso Bucco with Gremolata\n\nPork Medallions Puttanesca\n\nLamb Riblets\n\nLamb Shanks with Tomato Curry Sauce\n\nGreek Lamb Meatballs\n\nChorizo Sliders with Jicama-Beet Slaw\n\nThe Busy Cook's Duck \u00e0 l'Orange Breast\n\n## Salsa Verde Pulled Pork\n\nOf all the magic tricks that the Instant Pot\u00ae has up its proverbial sleeve, the grand act is the cooking of a pork shoulder and the amount of time it takes. What used to take many hours to yield tender pull-apart pork can now be done in less than 2 hours.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 95 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\n1 (5-pound) bone-in pork butt or shoulder\n\n2 teaspoons sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n4 cups beef broth\n\n1 cup Salsa Verde (see Chapter 4)\n\n1 Pat pork butt with paper towels and set aside. Season with salt and pepper.\n\n2 Place the pork butt in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add beef broth. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 85 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the pork to make sure it can easily pull apart. If not, press the Saut\u00e9 button and simmer unlidded for an additional 10 minutes.\n\n3 With the meat still in the Instant Pot\u00ae, use two forks and pull pork apart. Remove bone and discard. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pork to a serving bowl. Toss in Salsa Verde and 2\u20133 tablespoons of broth from the pot. Serve warm.\n\n## Simple Dijon Pork Tenderloin\n\nPork tenderloin is a go-to for most busy home cooks, but overcooked, it can become dried out and become sad. With the Instant Pot\u00ae, the steam helps keep the moisture in the air around the loin while it is cooking. Enjoy this pork sliced into medallions alongside a simple salad or roasted vegetables.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 20 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 (2-pound) loins, each halved\n\n2 tablespoons whole-grain Dijon mustard\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup water\n\n3 cloves garlic, halved\n\n1 Pat pork loins with paper towels. Massage with mustard. Season with salt and pepper.\n\n2 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add garlic. Place loins on a steamer basket and insert in pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 20 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer pork loins to a serving tray and either slice into medallions or pull apart pork with two forks. Serve warm.\n\n## Orange Rosemary Pork Tenderloin\n\nSuch a decadent cut of protein, tenderloins take on the flavors they are cooked with, lending a salty and fatty note. Combined with the citrus from the orange and the piney essence and earthiness from the rosemary, this dish is a winner.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 20 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1 orange)\n\n1 tablespoon orange zest\n\n1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary\n\n2 tablespoons honey\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 (2-pound) loins, each halved\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 In large bowl, combine orange juice, orange zest, rosemary, honey, salt, and pepper. Add pork, toss, and refrigerate covered at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.\n\n2 Place pork in the Instant Pot\u00ae and add remaining marinade. Add water. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 20 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer pork loins to a serving tray and either slice into medallions or pull apart pork with two forks. Serve warm.\n\n## Balsamic Pork Tenderloin with Caperberries\n\nThe reduced balsamic sauce is such a rich and luxurious sweet flavor. Add the little salt bombs of caperberries to balance out the flavor. Caperberries are the fruit of the caper bush. They are usually brined and eaten or used in recipes as you would olives. The brininess is a wonderful complement to the balsamic vinegar.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 (2-pound) loins, each halved\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n4 tablespoons ghee, divided\n\n1\/2 cup beef broth\n\n1\/4 cup balsamic vinegar\n\n2 tablespoons caperberries, stems removed\n\n1 Season pork with salt and pepper.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 2 tablespoons ghee. Sear loins on all sides for a total of about 4\u20135 minutes.\n\n3 Add beef broth to pot. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Transfer pork to a plate.\n\n4 Add balsamic vinegar and remaining ghee to pot. Heat 4\u20135 minutes until sauce is reduced. Add caperberries and heat 1 additional minute.\n\n5 Slice pork and serve warm with sauce and caperberries.\n\n## Steamed Dry-Rubbed Pork Spareribs\n\nNo sticky sauce needed here. These ribs will be as smooth as butter and have all the flavoring needed with the broad mix of simple spices.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 30 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 rack pork ribs (about 31\/2 pounds)\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n1 teaspoon chili powder\n\n1 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1 teaspoon Italian seasoning\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 Cut ribs into 2-rib sections. In a large bowl, combine salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Toss in rib sections to coat. Refrigerate covered at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Arrange ribs standing upright with the meaty side facing outward. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 30 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer ribs to a platter and serve warm.\n\n## Cowgirl Baby Back Pork Ribs\n\nThese Instant Pot\u00ae ribs are amazingly juicy due to the pressure and constant steam in the pot. Don't skip the coffee crystals with this rustically charming recipe. It adds a beautiful earthiness to the ribs. If you want a little crispness to the ribs, throw them on the grill or under a broiler for a couple of minutes until browned on each side.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 racks (about 3 pounds) baby back pork ribs\n\n1 teaspoon instant coffee crystals\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon chili powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1\/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n1\/2 teaspoon stone-ground mustard\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon onion powder\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground coriander\n\n1 medium onion, peeled and diced\n\n4 cloves garlic, halved\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 Cut ribs into 2-rib sections. In a large bowl, combine coffee, salt, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, and coriander. Toss in rib sections to coat. Refrigerate covered at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.\n\n2 Place onions, garlic, and water in the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Arrange ribs standing upright with the meaty side facing outward. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 25 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer ribs to a platter and serve warm.\n\n### WHAT ARE AROMATICS?\n\nEven though the onion and garlic are not part of the actual final meal in this recipe, the fragrance created in the steam adds another level of flavor due to the aroma from the onion and garlic.\n\n## Ham and Scalloped Potatoes\n\nWhen you are just craving some TV-binge time and needing a little comfort food, grab your remote and a blanket and cozy up to this bowl of salty, creamy, decadent delight.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 tablespoons ghee, divided\n\n1\/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and sliced into half-moons\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/3 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n1 teaspoon cassava flour\n\n3 small russet potatoes, thinly sliced\n\n1 cup diced ham\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 3 tablespoons ghee. Add onion and stir-fry 2\u20133 minutes until tender. Add salt, pepper, and milk. Whisk in flour. Press the Cancel button.\n\n2 Lightly grease a 7-cup glass bowl and layer 1\/3 of potatoes in the dish. Add 1\/3 of the ham. Add 1\/3 of the onion mixture. Repeat two more times until you have three layers. Top with remaining ghee.\n\n3 Place trivet in Instant Pot\u00ae and place the glass bowl on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 12 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Remove dish from pot and serve warm.\n\n## Ground Pork Stir-Fry Bowl\n\nForget about take-out food full of MSG, soy, and bad fats. Make your own quick and healthy version of Chinese take-out. Heck, you can even buy those great take-out boxes and wooden chopsticks if you miss the feel of holding the box while binge-watching the latest and greatest series.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 7 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 teaspoons sesame oil\n\n1 pound ground pork\n\n1\/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1\/4 cup coconut aminos\n\n1\/4 cup water\n\n1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder\n\n1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms\n\n1\/4 cup peeled and julienned carrots\n\n1 overflowing cup chopped fresh kale\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add pork and onion; stir-fry 4 minutes until pork starts to brown.\n\n2 Add coconut aminos, water, Chinese spice, mushrooms, and carrots. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Add kale to the pot and toss until it begins to wilt. Transfer to serving bowls. Serve warm.\n\n### WHAT IS CHINESE FIVE SPICE?\n\nAlthough there are a few variations, Chinese five spice is traditionally a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Szechuan peppers, and fennel seeds. It can be found already combined in the spice section of most grocery stores.\n\n## Smothered Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy\n\nThis is a classic country-style dish for a reason. It just hits all the right comfort buttons. Add some mashed cauliflower to round out this meal.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 25 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n4 (1\"-thick) bone-in pork chops\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 cup beef broth\n\n3 cups sliced baby bella or cremini mushrooms\n\n1 small Vidalia onion, peeled and sliced into half-moons\n\n2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk\n\n2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce\n\n2 tablespoons arrowroot flour\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat oil. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Sear chops 2\u20133 minutes per side in batches. Set pork aside.\n\n2 Add broth, mushrooms, and onion to the pot. Insert steamer basket. Add pork chops, propping them up on the sides so as not to overlap. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove pork chops and steamer basket. Add milk and Worcestershire sauce to pot with juices and broth. Slowly whisk in flour, 1 teaspoon a time, until a gravy forms. Transfer mushroom gravy to a bowl and serve with pork chops. Season with more salt if desired.\n\n## Pork Chops with Sauerkraut, Potatoes, and Apples\n\nThese pork chops are juicy and flavorful with a German flair from the addition of beer, potatoes, sauerkraut, and caraway seeds. If you're looking for a nonalcoholic option, feel free to substitute beef broth for the beer.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 30 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n4 (1\"-thick) bone-in pork chops\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n4 slices bacon, diced\n\n1 stalk celery, finely chopped\n\n3 large carrots, peeled and sliced\n\n1 large yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 clove garlic, minced\n\n1 (12-ounce) bottle gluten-free beer\n\n4 medium red potatoes, peeled and quartered\n\n2 medium red apples, peeled, cored, and quartered\n\n1 (1-pound) bag high-quality sauerkraut, rinsed and drained\n\n1 tablespoon caraway seeds\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat oil. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. In batches, sear pork chops 2\u20133 minutes per side. Set pork aside.\n\n2 Add bacon, celery, carrots, and onion to the pot. Stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add beer and deglaze the pot by stirring and scraping the bottom and sides to loosen any browned bits. Simmer unlidded for 5 minutes.\n\n3 Add potatoes, apples, and sauerkraut. Sprinkle with caraway seeds. Slightly prop pork chops up against the sides of the pot so as not to crowd the pork. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer the pork chops, sauerkraut, potatoes, and apples to a serving dish. Serve warm.\n\n## Cubano Bowl\n\nYou'll never miss the bread from the traditional Cubano sandwich with this recipe. You still get the tender pork, ham, mustard, and pickles. Although there is no Swiss cheese in this recipe, the nutritional yeast fulfills that note of nuttiness and \"cheese.\"\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 95 minutes\n\nServes 8\n\n* * *\n\n1 (5-pound) bone-in pork butt or shoulder\n\n11\/2 teaspoons sea salt, divided\n\n11\/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, divided\n\n1\/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 tablespoon fresh lime juice\n\n1 tablespoon fresh orange juice\n\n1 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1 teaspoon dried oregano\n\n1 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n2 teaspoons ground cumin\n\n1 tablespoon nutritional yeast\n\n2 cups diced smoked ham\n\n1 cup diced dill pickles\n\n8 teaspoons yellow mustard\n\n1 Dry pork butt with paper towels. Season with 1\/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Set aside.\n\n2 Place the pork butt in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add onion, water, lime juice, orange juice, garlic powder, oregano, cayenne pepper, cumin, nutritional yeast, and remaining salt and pepper.\n\n3 Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 85 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Check the pork to make sure it can easily pull apart. If not, press the Saut\u00e9 button and simmer unlidded an additional 10 minutes.\n\n4 Use two forks to shred the pork in the pot. Remove the bone and discard. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pork to separate bowls. Garnish with ham, pickles, and a drizzle of yellow mustard.\n\n## Vietnamese Pork Chops\n\nThis unique twist of sweet and spicy flavors complements the saltiness of the pork so well. There are just enough red chili pepper flakes to balance out the flavors of this dish, but if heat is your thing, go for it and add some more!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\nMarinade\n\n2 ripe plums, pitted\n\n1 small bunch cilantro, including stems\n\n2 tablespoons molasses\n\n2 tablespoons fresh lime juice\n\n1 teaspoon lime zest\n\nPinch dried red pepper flakes\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1\/2\" piece fresh garlic, peeled and minced\n\n1\/4 cup avocado oil\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\nPork Chops\n\n4 (1\"-thick) bone-in pork chops\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a food processor, combine all marinade ingredients and pulse until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl, add pork chops and toss. Marinate covered or sealed in the refrigerator at least 1 hour or up to overnight.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add pork chops to steamer basket. Pour excess marinade over pork chops. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer the pork chops to a serving tray. Serve warm.\n\n## BBQ Boneless Pork Loin Roast\n\nThe boneless loin roast is a center cut of pork. It is not the tenderloin and it is not the shoulder. Be aware of the different cuts as they will have different cooking times and results. For instance, pork shoulder or butt is perfect for shredding for barbecue dishes and takes longer to prepare. Pork tenderloin is more narrow and long and requires a lower cooking time.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 41 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\nRoast\n\n2 teaspoons sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n21\/2 pounds boneless pork loin roast\n\n2 cups water\n\nBarbecue Sauce\n\n1\/4 cup water\n\n3\/4 cup paleo ketchup\n\n1\/2 medium onion, peeled and grated\n\n1\/4 cup molasses\n\n1 teaspoon garlic powder\n\n1 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1\/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper\n\n1 tablespoon yellow mustard\n\n2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar\n\n1 In a small bowl, mix together salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Massage into roast.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add roast. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust for 30 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer loin to a plate. Discard liquid from pot. Add barbecue sauce ingredients. Press the Saut\u00e9 button. Stir and saut\u00e9 4\u20135 minutes until sauce starts to reduce and thicken. Ladle out 1\/2 cup sauce and set aside.\n\n4 Return pork to pot and saut\u00e9 6 minutes, turning roast until all sides are covered and sauce is caramelized. Transfer roast to a cutting board. Let rest 5 minutes.\n\n5 Thinly slice roast and pour reserved sauce over slices. Serve warm.\n\n## Osso Bucco with Gremolata\n\nFall off the bone, hearty, and flavorful are just a few ways to describe this scrumptious meal. And don't forget about that bone marrow. To. Die. For. The gremolata just freshens everything up. Add two more shanks for an extraordinary dinner party experience with your favorite couple.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 41 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\nGremolata\n\n1\/3 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n2 teaspoons lemon zest\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\nOsso Bucco\n\n2 (11\/2\") bone-in veal shanks (about 31\/4 pounds total weight)\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 In a small bowl, combine gremolata ingredients and refrigerate covered until ready to use.\n\n2 Season both sides of veal shanks with salt and pepper.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Sear veal shanks about 3 minutes per side until browned.\n\n4 Add crushed tomatoes, including juice. Lock lid. Press the Meat\/Stew button and adjust time to 35 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Transfer Osso Bucco and tomato sauce to two shallow bowls. Garnish with gremolata. Serve warm.\n\n## Pork Medallions Puttanesca\n\nWith just the right fat and salt from the pork married to this lusty derivative-named sauce, there is no way this quick dish won't be a home run with a date night with your sweetie.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 12 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2-pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1\" rounds\n\n1 teaspoon salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n11\/2 cups Puttanesca Sauce (see Chapter 4)\n\n2 tablespoons water\n\n1 Season pork medallions with salt and pepper on both sides. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Sear half the pork 1 minute on each side. Set aside. Repeat with remaining oil and pork.\n\n3 Add Puttanesca Sauce and water to pot. Gently toss in pork medallions. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer pork medallions and sauce to a dish and serve warm.\n\n## Lamb Riblets\n\nThese little riblets are so tasty that there is no need to douse them in a thick barbecue sauce. Sweet and simple helps enhance the natural flavor. Smaller than traditional beef or pork ribs, these also make a great finger food for guests.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic salt\n\n1 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n11\/2 pounds lamb riblets\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n1 (14.5-ounce) can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 In a small bowl, combine sea salt, garlic salt, and paprika. Massage into lamb riblets.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add riblets and sear on each side for a total of 4\u20135 minutes. Add tomatoes, including juice. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer ribs to a plate and serve warm.\n\n## Lamb Shanks with Tomato Curry Sauce\n\nLamb shanks are an amazing protein that easily take on the flavors they are cooked with. That's why the Tomato Curry Sauce is a spectacular sauce to pair with these meaty shanks.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 40 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n2 bone-in lamb shanks (about 11\/2 pounds)\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1\/4 cup ghee\n\n2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1\/2\" pieces\n\n2 cups Tomato Curry Sauce (see Chapter 4)\n\n1 cup water\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro\n\n1 Season both sides of veal shanks with salt and pepper.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Sear veal shanks 2\u20133 minutes per side until browned.\n\n3 Add carrots, tomato curry sauce, and water to pot. Toss ingredients. Lock lid. Press the Meat\/Stew button and adjust time to 35 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer shanks, tomato curry sauce, and carrots to two shallow bowls. Garnish with cilantro. Serve warm.\n\n## Greek Lamb Meatballs\n\nCalled keftedes in Greece, let these meatballs take you on a temporary vacation to the Mediterranean. Serve as is, on a salad, or with some traditional tzatziki sauce.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 11 minutes\n\nYields 16 meatballs\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound ground lamb\n\n1 large egg\n\n1\/2 teaspoon lemon zest\n\n1\/2 cup chopped fresh mint\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n2 tablespoons finely diced red onion\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground coriander\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground cumin\n\nPinch ground cinnamon\n\nPinch ground nutmeg\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 large lemon, cut into 6 wedges\n\n1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine lamb, egg, lemon zest, mint, almond meal, diced onion, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Form into 16 golf ball\u2013sized meatballs. Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place 8 meatballs around the edges of the pot. Sear all sides of the meatballs for a total of about 4 minutes. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add remaining oil and meatballs and sear 4 minutes. Remove meatballs.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place meatballs evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer meatballs to a serving plate and garnish with lemon wedges and fresh dill.\n\n### TZATZIKI SAUCE AND HOW TO MAKE IT\n\nTzatziki is a yogurt-based sauce served with grilled meats. If you allow yogurt into your diet, this sauce pairs exquisitely with these Greek Lamb Meatballs. To make a quick sauce, combine the following ingredients and then refrigerate lidded until use: 8-ounces plain Greek yogurt, 1 medium peeled, seeded, and diced cucumber, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 2 minced cloves of garlic, 2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste.\n\n## Chorizo Sliders with Jicama-Beet Slaw\n\nThese Chorizo Sliders with Jicama-Beet Slaw yield the heat from the chorizo and coolness from the slaw to create an undeniably nomtastic combination!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\nJicama-Beet Slaw\n\n1 cup grated jicama\n\n1\/2 cup peeled and grated beets\n\n1\/8 cup freshly squeezed orange juice\n\n1 tablespoon olive oil\n\n1\/2 teaspoon chopped dill\n\nPinch sea salt\n\nSliders\n\n1\/2 pound ground chorizo\n\n1\/2 pound ground pork\n\n2 tablespoons seeded and finely diced green pepper\n\n1 teaspoon smoked paprika\n\n2 tablespoons coconut oil, divided\n\n1 cup water\n\nGarnish\n\n1 medium avocado, peeled and sliced\n\n8 tomato slices\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine slaw ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to use.\n\n2 In a large bowl, combine ground chorizo, pork, green pepper, and paprika. Form into 8 slider patties. Set aside.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place 4 patties in the pot. Sear each side of the burgers 2 minutes each side. Remove the patties and set aside. Add another tablespoon of oil and remaining patties and sear them. Set aside.\n\n4 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add steamer basket. Prop patties evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Transfer slider patties to plate. Serve warm with avocado and tomato slices. Dollop slaw on top of each slider.\n\n## The Busy Cook's Duck \u00e0 l'Orange Breast\n\nYour dinner mate will think you studied for years at Le Cordon Bleu when serving this French classic dish, when in actuality, it only took you about 20 minutes tops to get this to a plate. Bon app\u00e9tit!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n1\/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1 orange)\n\n1 tablespoon orange zest\n\n2 tablespoons honey\n\n1 pound duck breasts (about 2\u20133 breasts)\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 teaspoons cassava flour\n\n1 In a small bowl, whisk together orange juice, orange zest, and honey.\n\n2 Season both sides of duck breasts with salt and pepper. Carefully score the duck fat in a cross-hatch pattern making sure to avoid the meat.\n\n3 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and place duck breasts fat side down. Heat 8 minutes. Do not touch the duck as it is rendering off its fat. After 8 minutes, remove duck to a plate. Pour out all fat except for 1 teaspoon. Add duck back to the pot with the fat side up. Add orange juice mixture. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. Adjust the pressure to Low. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer duck to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk flour into pot juices until thickened.\n\n5 Slice duck and transfer to plates. Drizzle sauce from pot over duck. Serve warm.\n\n## Seafood and Fish Main Dishes\n\nSeafood is one of those meals that gets ordered a lot at restaurants but gets overlooked at home. Seafood is a great paleo source of protein and is something to embrace. A lot of home chefs are timid when it comes to cooking fish and shellfish but that's a shame. Fish and shellfish are not only low in calories and full of nutrients, but they are some of the quickest meals you can cook in your Instant Pot\u00ae. In addition, the steaming functionality of the appliance makes for some tender and moist meals.\n\nIf you are purchasing fresh seafood rather than sealed, frozen seafood, make sure it comes from a trusted source. Don't be afraid to ask when the shipment came in, where it came from, if it was wild-caught, and whether or not the fishmonger can prepare the fish for you. If that fishmonger can't or won't answer those questions, find another one. Once you have made your choice, prepare your meal within 1\u20132 days for optimal freshness.\n\nThe Instant Pot\u00ae can easily and perfectly cook your seafood with its steam and pressure capabilities. The recipes in this chapter call for short cooking times and quick pressure release. You don't want to do a natural release with most fish as it will continue to cook if the pressure releases slowly. From a Fish Taco Bowl to Greek Sea Bass, this chapter covers a variety of recipes that will have you eating seafood on a regular basis.\n\nSteamed Mussels and Chorizo\n\nStewed Halibut\n\nFish Taco Bowl\n\nThai Coconut Curry Monkfish\n\nLouisiana Shrimp and Sausage\n\nShrimp, Prosciutto, and Asparagus Salad with Yuzu Vinaigrette\n\nShrimp Scampi\n\nCrab-Chorizo Stuffed Calamari\n\nBerbere Salmon\n\nDilled Salmon and Broccoli\n\nDairy-Free Creamed Crab\n\nCitrus-Steamed Littleneck Clams\n\nSalmon Croquettes\n\nGreek Sea Bass\n\nHerbed Cod with Yellow Squash\n\nMahi-Mahi with a Lemon-Caper Butter Sauce\n\nSteamed Snow Crab Legs\n\nSimply Steamed Lobster Tails\n\nQuick Crawfish Boil\n\n## Steamed Mussels and Chorizo\n\nMussels should be on the rotation of every family. They are inexpensive, quick to cook, and tasty. These nutrient-dense bivalves also pack a hefty dose of goodness such as omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin A, folate, and B12 as well as minerals such as phosphorus, zinc, and manganese.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 6 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced\n\n1\/2 pound chorizo, loose or cut from casings\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n2 pounds fresh mussels, cleaned and debearded\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 medium lemon, quartered\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add ghee and heat until melted. Add onion and chorizo and saut\u00e9 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 additional minute. Stir in diced tomatoes, including juice, and salt. Cook an additional 2 minutes.\n\n2 Add mussels. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove mussels and discard any that haven't opened. Transfer mussels to four bowls and pour chorizo mixture from Instant Pot\u00ae equally among bowls. Garnish each bowl with 1 tablespoon parsley and a lemon quarter. Serve immediately.\n\n## Stewed Halibut\n\nJust for the halibut, eh? Rich in vitamins B6 and B12, potassium, and omega-3 fatty acids, this fish is a low calorie choice and mild tasting white flaky fish. Coupled with the tomatoes and other Mediterranean flavors, grab a glass of white wine while the Instant Pot\u00ae does your cooking.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 3 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1\/2 cup chicken broth\n\n1\/4 teaspoon onion powder\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n2 teaspoons smoked paprika\n\n1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon\n\n1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and small-diced\n\n1 stalk celery, finely diced\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 pound halibut fillets, cut into bite-sized pieces\n\n1 Add all ingredients except halibut to the Instant Pot\u00ae and stir to mix. Once mixed, add the fish on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Transfer all ingredients to a serving bowl. Serve warm.\n\n## Fish Taco Bowl\n\nThis recipe looks complicated, but you probably have most of the spices on hand. You can make the slaw and aioli ahead of time. Also, instead of grating your own cabbage and peeling a carrot, pick up a bag of coleslaw mix; it's the same thing. There is also broccoli slaw available for a twist. But do give this recipe a try. The variety of flavors will win your heart.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 3 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\nSlaw\n\n1\/2 cup grated green cabbage\n\n1 large carrot, peeled and grated\n\nJuice of 1\/2 large lime\n\n2 dashes sriracha\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\nSpicy Aioli\n\n1\/4 cup mayonnaise\n\nPinch salt\n\nSqueeze lime juice\n\nDash sriracha\n\nFish\n\n3 (6-ounce) cod fillets\n\nJuice from 1\/2 large lime\n\n2 tablespoons fresh orange juice\n\n1 teaspoon garlic salt\n\n1 teaspoon ground cumin\n\n1 tablespoon olive oil\n\n1 cup water\n\nGarnishes\n\n1 medium avocado, peeled and diced\n\n2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced\n\n4 lime wedges\n\n1 Combine slaw ingredients in a medium bowl. Refrigerate covered until ready to use.\n\n2 Combine Spicy Aioli ingredients in a small bowl. Taste and adjust to your liking.\n\n3 In a large bowl, combine fish, lime juice, orange juice, garlic salt, cumin, and olive oil and refrigerate 15 minutes.\n\n4 Add 1 cup water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place steamer basket on top of trivet. Add cod in an even row onto steamer basket. Pour in marinade for the steaming aromatics. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Distribute slaw into serving bowls. Add fish and garnishes. Drizzle with aioli. Serve warm.\n\n## Thai Coconut Curry Monkfish\n\nKnown as the poor man's lobster, monkfish is a buttery and firm-textured whitefish that is unique and exquisite. Monkfish are certainly ugly, freaky looking sea creatures, but their taste is amazing. I suppose they represent the old adage, \"Never trust a book by its cover.\" If so, no one would have ever put this guy on the grill.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 3 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk\n\nJuice of 1 medium lime\n\n1 tablespoon red curry paste\n\n1 teaspoon fish sauce\n\n1 teaspoon coconut aminos\n\n1 teaspoon honey\n\n2 teaspoons sriracha\n\n2 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1 teaspoon turmeric powder\n\n1 teaspoon ground ginger\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon white pepper\n\n1 pound monkfish, cut into 1\" cubes\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro\n\n3 lime wedges\n\n1 In a large bowl, whisk together coconut milk, lime juice, red curry paste, fish sauce, coconut aminos, honey, sriracha, garlic, turmeric, ginger, sea salt, and white pepper.\n\n2 Place monkfish in the bottom of the Instant Pot\u00ae. Pour coconut milk mixture over the fish. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer fish and broth evenly into bowls. Garnish each with equal amounts of chopped cilantro and a lime wedge. Serve.\n\n## Louisiana Shrimp and Sausage\n\nEat this as is or served over a bed of riced cauliflower. Creole seasoning is a somewhat vague ingredient on this recipe list. Look in your local grocer's spice aisle and there will be several versions. Choose the one that speaks to you as you just can't go wrong with these beautiful spice blends.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil\n\n1 small onion, peeled and diced\n\n1 stalk celery, diced\n\n1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced\n\n1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice\n\n1 tablespoon tomato paste\n\n1 teaspoon honey\n\nPinch dried basil\n\n2 teaspoons Creole seasoning\n\n12 ounces fully cooked andouille sausage, sliced\n\n1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat oil. Add onion, celery, and bell pepper; saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until onions are translucent and peppers are tender.\n\n2 Stir in tomatoes and their juice, tomato paste, honey, basil, Creole seasoning, and sausage. Add shrimp. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 4 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Spoon into bowls, season with salt and pepper, and serve warm.\n\n## Shrimp, Prosciutto, and Asparagus Salad with Yuzu Vinaigrette\n\nYuzu kosho is the latest and greatest seasoning. It is citrusy and vinegary with a little kick, and chefs from around the globe are flocking to it. Yuzu is actually a Japanese fruit also known as citrus junos. To make a kosho paste, chefs use the peel from the yuzu and add chili pepper and salt. This mixture is then turned into a hot sauce.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 0 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\nYuzu Vinaigrette\n\n1 teaspoon yuzu kosho hot sauce\n\n1 teaspoon honey\n\n1\/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil\n\n1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar\n\nPinch sea salt\n\nShrimp and Asparagus\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1\" pieces (woody ends removed)\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt, divided\n\n1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined\n\nJuice of 1\/2 medium lemon\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\nSalad\n\n2 overflowing cups of mixed greens\n\n1 medium mango, peeled and diced\n\n2 ounces prosciutto, ripped into pieces\n\n1 In a small bowl, combine all vinaigrette ingredients. Set aside.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place steamer basket on trivet. Spread out the asparagus evenly over the bottom of the steamer basket. Sprinkle with 1\/2 teaspoon salt. Add the shrimp, drizzle with lemon juice, and sprinkle with remaining 1\/2 teaspoon salt. Place ghee evenly on top of shrimp in small scoops. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Place mixed greens in two serving bowls and toss with preferred amount of vinaigrette. Garnish with mango and prosciutto. Add steamed shrimp and asparagus. Serve.\n\n## Shrimp Scampi\n\nDon't forget to mark your calendar for April 29, which is officially National Shrimp Scampi Day! Serve this as is or enjoy it over a bed of zoodled zucchini. After removing the shrimp from the Instant Pot\u00ae, put your vegetable \"noodles\" in the pot and heat in the same liquid 2\u20133 minutes until tender. Drain and serve with the shrimp on top. One pot cooking at its finest!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/4 cup ghee\n\n6 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1\/2 cup dry white wine\n\n1 medium lemon, halved\n\n2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined (tails on)\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon lemon zest\n\n1\/4 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat ghee and add garlic. Saut\u00e9 1\u20132 minutes until garlic starts to brown. Add wine and juice from 1\/2 lemon. Continue to cook 2\u20133 minutes to allow alcohol to burn off.\n\n2 Add shrimp to pot. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Spoon shrimp into bowls. Give a quick squeeze of the lemon over shrimp, and add salt and lemon zest. Garnish with parsley. Serve warm.\n\n## Crab-Chorizo Stuffed Calamari\n\nThere is more to calamari than just cutting them into little rings and deep-frying them. The bodies of calamari make the perfect little sausage casings and absolutely add more flavor. If you don't like the heat, substitute the spicy chorizo sausage for either ground pork or some mild Italian sausage. The result will still be unique and tasty!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\nCalamari\n\n10\u201312 calamari tubes\n\n1\/4 pound chorizo, loose or cut from casings\n\n1\/4 cup crabmeat\n\n1 large egg\n\n1 tablespoon almond meal\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1 tablespoon finely diced shallot\n\n1 cup water\n\nSauce\n\n1 (14.5-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, including juice\n\n2 teaspoons honey\n\n3 cloves garlic, minced\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n2 tablespoons chopped chives\n\n1 Rinse calamari tubes and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine chorizo, crab, egg, almond meal, salt, and diced shallot. Transfer mixture to a piping bag or plastic bag. Cut the tip off large enough for the mixture to pass through. Pipe sausage into calamari tubes. Fasten opening with a toothpick.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place stuffed calamari in an even row on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove steamer basket with the calamari from the pot and discard liquid. Add crushed tomatoes and juice to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Stir in honey, garlic, and salt. Add stuffed calamari. Saut\u00e9 2\u20133 minutes until sauce is warmed through and the internal temperature of the stuffed calamari reaches at least 160\u00b0F.\n\n4 Remove toothpicks. Garnish with chives. Serve warm as a main course or as an appetizer.\n\n## Berbere Salmon\n\nBerbere is an Ethiopian spice and herb blend that is a little fiery and a lot aromatic, which makes it a perfect romantic meal for two. It can be found in specialty spice shops or easily online. There are also several \"make your own\" recipes online. This spice blend is great on almost any protein.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 2 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n2 (5-ounce) salmon fillets\n\n1 tablespoon berbere seasoning\n\n1 cup water\n\n2 lemon wedges\n\n1 Season salmon with berbere on all sides.\n\n2 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place salmon on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer fish to plates with lemon wedges. Serve immediately.\n\n## Dilled Salmon and Broccoli\n\nKnown for its beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, salmon is also high in vitamin B12, vitamin D, and selenium, among others. Do your body good and quickly steam this very mild and flaky fish in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Adding the broccoli not only gives you more nutrients, but it makes this a complete meal with minimal cleanup.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n4 lemon slices\n\n2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 small head broccoli, cut into florets\n\n1 Pat fillets dry with a paper towel. Season salmon with salt. Place 2 lemon slices on each fillet. Sprinkle with chopped dill.\n\n2 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place salmon on steamer basket and scatter broccoli florets around the fillets. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove fish and broccoli to plates and serve immediately.\n\n## Dairy-Free Creamed Crab\n\nAlthough this recipe is insanely good by the spoonful on its own, use this to level-up some simple dishes. Serve this crab atop a cod fillet with some fresh asparagus or even next to a grilled steak for a little surf and turf.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1\/4 cup ghee\n\n1\/2 stalk celery, finely diced\n\n1\/4 cup finely diced red onion\n\n1 pound lump crabmeat\n\n1\/4 cup chicken broth\n\n1\/4 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n2 teaspoons cassava flour\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add ghee and melt. Add celery and red onion; stir-fry 3\u20135 minutes until celery begins to soften.\n\n2 Stir crabmeat and broth into pot. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 0 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Carefully stir in milk, flour, salt, and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl. Let set 5\u201310 minutes until thickened. Serve warm.\n\n### WHAT KIND OF CRAB SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?\n\nFresh, lump crabmeat is the best option for this recipe\u2014but it can be pricey. Fortunately, there are many different varieties and sections of the crab that can be purchased at a lower price point. It is even sold in cans like the more familiar tuna. Although there is imitation krab available, draw the line at that. It is stringy and packed with starch and chemicals.\n\n## Citrus-Steamed Littleneck Clams\n\nThe citrus of the lemon and the richness of the chardonnay play so nicely against the brininess of the littleneck clams. This dish is a light and ideal lunch for a beautiful summer day. And, the good news is, you'll have chardonnay leftover from the recipe to enjoy a crisp glass of wine with your meal.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 tablespoon avocado oil\n\n2 shallots, diced\n\n1 clove garlic, quartered\n\n1\/2 cup chardonnay\n\n2 medium lemons\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n2 pounds fresh clams, rinsed and purged\n\n1\/2 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae. Heat oil. Add shallots and saut\u00e9 3\u20135 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and cook 1 minute.\n\n2 Add wine, juice of 1 lemon, and water to pot. Insert clams. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer clams to four serving bowls and top with a generous scoop of cooking liquid and parsley. Serve a quarter of lemon with each bowl. Discard any clams that do not open.\n\n### HOW DO YOU PURGE CLAMS?\n\nTo purge your clams of any residual sand, soak your clams in water with 1\u20132 tablespoons of cornmeal for 20 minutes. Scrub, rinse, and drain until there is no more sand.\n\n## Salmon Croquettes\n\nTraditionally, croquettes are a fried delicacy, as the word croquette comes from the French word croquer, which literally means \"to crunch\" or \"to be crunchy.\" However, in this recipe, you'll get all the flavors without the unhealthy cooking style. Serve as is, on a salad, or make a drizzle of Horseradish-Lemon Aioli.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nYields 16 croquettes\n\n* * *\n\n1 (14.75-ounce) can salmon\n\n1 large egg\n\n2 teaspoons prepared horseradish\n\n1 tablespoon chopped dill\n\n1\/4 cup almond meal\n\n2 tablespoons finely diced celery\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\n2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 In a medium bowl, combine salmon, egg, horseradish, dill, almond meal, celery, salt, and pepper. Form into 16 oval-shaped croquettes (similar to the shape of a tater tot). Set aside.\n\n2 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat 1 tablespoon oil. Place 8 croquettes around the edges of the pot. Sear all sides of the croquettes for a total of about 4 minutes. Remove the first batch and set aside. Add remaining oil and croquettes and sear 4 minutes. Remove croquettes.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place croquettes evenly on steamer basket. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 2 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer croquettes and sauce to bowls and serve warm with sauce.\n\n### HOW TO MAKE HORSERADISH-LEMON AIOLI\n\nWhip this up in a pinch to elevate your salmon croquettes. Whisk together 1\/4 cup mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons horseradish, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, a squeeze lemon juice, and a pinch or two of salt.\n\n## Greek Sea Bass\n\nThe flavors of the Mediterranean are spotlighted in this simple yet elegant dish. The richness of the olive oil, the freshness of the basil and tomatoes, and the brininess of the Kalamata olives all come together to dress up these already buttery pieces of sea bass.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 3 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n2 (5-ounce) sea bass fillets\n\n2 teaspoons olive oil, divided\n\n11\/2 teaspoons sea salt, divided\n\n10 pitted Kalamata olives, halved and divided\n\n10 grape tomatoes, halved and divided\n\n3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves, divided\n\n1 Place each fish fillet on a separate 10\" \u00d7 10\" square of aluminum foil. Drizzle each with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Sprinkle each with 1\/2 teaspoon salt. Scatter olives and tomatoes evenly over each fillet. Top each with 1 tablespoon basil. Fold up the sides of each foil piece and crimp at the top to create foil packets.\n\n2 Place both foil packets in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove foil packets and transfer fish and toppings to two plates. Garnish each plate with equal amounts of remaining 1 tablespoon basil and 1\/2 teaspoon salt.\n\n## Herbed Cod with Yellow Squash\n\nThe flavorful herb sauce is a fresh, creamy topping for the firm and flaky cod. The squash is a savory companion filled with vitamins A and C, potassium, and fiber. The steam in the Instant Pot\u00ae keeps this a moist and quick dish to make in a snap.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 3 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\nHerb Sauce\n\n1\/4 cup mayonnaise\n\n1\/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice\n\n1\/4 teaspoon lemon zest\n\n2 teaspoons Italian seasoning\n\n1 small shallot, peeled and minced\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper\n\nCod and Squash\n\n2 (6-ounce) cod fillets\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 large yellow squash, sliced into 1\/4\" circles\n\n1 In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, lemon zest, Italian seasoning, shallot, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate covered until ready to use.\n\n2 Season cod with salt.\n\n3 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Place squash evenly on basket. Set cod atop squash. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 2 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer fish and squash to plates. Place a spoonful of the herb sauce on each cod fillet. Serve warm.\n\n## Mahi-Mahi with a Lemon-Caper Butter Sauce\n\nMahi-mahi is a firm fish that works well as a vessel for whatever flavors you cook it with. It is mild in taste and doesn't have that \"fishy\" flavor that you get when you use tuna or salmon.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 4 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n2 (6-ounce, 1\"-thick) mahi-mahi fillets\n\n2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice\n\n2 tablespoons capers\n\n1 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon lemon zest\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley\n\n1 Place a piece of foil on the Instant Pot\u00ae's steamer basket. Set both fillets on the foil. Create a \"boat\" with the foil by bringing up the edges. Pour lemon juice on fish, add capers, and season with salt and zest. Add a tablespoon of ghee on top of each fillet.\n\n2 Insert steamer basket with fish into the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 4 minutes. Quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer fish to two plates. Garnish each with 1\/2 tablespoon chopped parsley and serve warm.\n\n## Steamed Snow Crab Legs\n\nThese crab legs are great served with melted ghee and plenty of lemon wedges. The wedges are not only great squeezed over the freshly cracked crab meat, but they act as a great hand cleaner and odor remover once you are done with this very interactive meal.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 3 minutes\n\nServes 2\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n4 cloves garlic, quartered\n\n1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning\n\n1 bay leaf\n\n2 pounds snow crab legs\n\n1 Add water, garlic, Old Bay Seasoning, and bay leaf to the Instant Pot\u00ae and stir to combine.\n\n2 Insert trivet in pot and add crab legs. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 3 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Transfer crab legs to a serving platter. Serve warm.\n\n## Simply Steamed Lobster Tails\n\nThere is no need to dress this up. Lobster tails and some melted ghee is simply divine together. Full of essential vitamins, lobster is a great source of protein and is low in calories and saturated fat.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 2 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 4 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 cup water\n\n4 small lobster tails\n\n1\/4 cup ghee, melted\n\n1 Add water to the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert steamer basket. Add lobster tails. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 4 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Remove lobster tails from pot and remove meat from shells. Serve with melted ghee.\n\n### MAKING BROTH WITH THE LOBSTER TAIL SHELLS\n\nDon't just discard those empty lobster tail shells. Place the shells in the Instant Pot\u00ae with 4 cups water, 1 diced yellow onion, 1 peeled and diced carrot, and 1 diced stalk celery. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 30 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Use a slotted spoon to remove and discard the solids from the broth. Strain the remaining liquid through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Refrigerate broth up to 4 days or freeze up to 6 months.\n\n## Quick Crawfish Boil\n\nFresh corn is not strictly a \"no\" paleo item. However, if you don't allow this in your diet, just skip it, as the recipe will still stand up without it.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 large sweet onion, peeled, halved, and sliced in half-moons\n\n2 ears corn, husked and halved\n\n12-ounces precooked andouille sausage, cut into 1\" pieces\n\n2 pounds crawfish\n\n2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning\n\n1 (12-ounce) gluten-free beer\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 Layer onions evenly in the bottom of the Instant Pot\u00ae. Add corn and sausage in even layers. Add the crawfish and sprinkle with Old Bay Seasoning. Pour in beer and water. Lock lid. Press the Manual button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Use a slotted spoon to transfer ingredients to a serving platter. Serve warm.\n\n### PACK A PICNIC\n\nThis Crawfish Boil is a great summer food. Line a picnic table with newspapers and pour all the ingredients onto the paper in the middle of the table. Guests can enjoy this family-style with no real etiquette to the meal other than to have fun. Oh, and don't forget a roll or two of paper towels. This can get messy.\n\n## Sweet Treats and Drinks\n\nPaleo folks are often criticized if they even think about putting any sugar in their mouths. Never mind that white refined stuff. How dare you indulge in raw honey, pure maple syrup, coconut sugar crystals, or molasses? Is sugar-shaming a thing? Sometimes it feels like it is in the paleo community. So, how about this: if you are 100 percent paleo, we are in awe of you. If you are in the 75 percent zone and indulge on occasion, then this is the chapter for you. You will find some cheat meals without all the guilt.\n\nIf you're like most people, you probably have a sweet tooth that pulls at your stomach from time to time. The great thing about the Instant Pot\u00ae is that it creates desserts that are just the right size to make your sweet tooth and your scale happy. Most of these desserts provide only 4\u20136 servings, so you won't be tempted to overeat and you won't have desserts hanging around your kitchen for days on end. There are also some drinks that are treats for you and your friends. And with recipes ranging from Upside-Down Peach Cobbler and Caf\u00e9 Mocha Muffins to Homemade Chai Tea Latte and Gluhwein, these perfect sweet delights are guaranteed to hit the spot . . . no matter what you find yourself craving.\n\nSpiced Applesauce\n\nCaf\u00e9 Mocha Muffins\n\nStrawberry Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache\n\nApple Brown Betty\n\nUpside-Down Peach Cobbler\n\nBanana Pudding Cake\n\nChocolate Chip Zucchini Bread\n\nDouble Chocolate Custard\n\nCoconut Key Lime Custard\n\nGrain-Free Stuffed Apples\n\nHummingbird Cake\n\nPoached Cherries\n\nUpside-Down Chocolate Cherry Cake\n\nMixed Berry Quick Jam\n\nQuick Lime Marmalade\n\nFresh-Brewed Arnie Palmer\n\nGluhwein\n\nHomemade Chai Tea Latte\n\nSpiced Mocha Latte\n\nMexican Hot Cocoa\n\n## Spiced Applesauce\n\nAfter a day of apple picking, applesauce is a perfect solution for your haul. Pick a variety for a balanced flavor . . . also, keep those apple skins on during cooking as they lend a beautiful hue to the finished product!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 20 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nYields 10 cups\n\n* * *\n\n4 pounds variety of apples, cored and chopped\n\n1 cinnamon stick\n\n2 whole star anise\n\n6 whole allspice\n\n1\/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice\n\n1\/3 cup honey\n\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt\n\n1\/3 cup water\n\n1 Add the apples, cinnamon stick, star anise, whole allspice, orange juice, honey, salt, and water to the Instant Pot\u00ae. (Alternatively, add the cinnamon stick, star anise, and whole allspice to a spice bag for easy retrieval after cooking.)\n\n2 Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Remove cinnamon stick, star anise, and whole allspice.\n\n4 Use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients in the pot until desired consistency is reached.\n\n## Caf\u00e9 Mocha Muffins\n\nEither for desserts, breakfast-on-the-go, or just a snack, these Caf\u00e9 Mocha Muffins are the perfect bite for any coffee and chocolate lover!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 9 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n2\/3 cup cassava flour\n\n1\/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder\n\n2 teaspoons instant espresso powder\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n3 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk\n\n1\/3 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, ghee, eggs, almond milk, and syrup.\n\n3 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into 6 lightly greased silicone cupcake liners.\n\n4 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place cupcake liners on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 9 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove muffins from pot and set aside to cool 5 minutes.\n\n## Strawberry Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache\n\nEveryone loves the combination of strawberries and chocolate and this perfect combo is neatly put together and delivered to you in a scrumptious little cupcake. Gluten? Who needs that! You won't even miss the stuff with each heavenly bite!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\nStrawberry Cupcakes\n\n11\/4 cups cassava flour\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n1 teaspoon lime zest\n\n3 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n1\/3 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1\/3 cup finely diced strawberries\n\n1 cup water\n\nChocolate Ganache\n\n31\/2-ounce dark chocolate bar\n\n1 teaspoon pure maple syrup\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n2 teaspoons coconut palm shortening\n\n1 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.\n\n2 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, lime zest, ghee, eggs, and syrup.\n\n3 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Do not overmix. Fold in strawberries. Spoon mixture into 6 lightly greased silicone cupcake liners.\n\n4 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place cupcake liners on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 9 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Remove cupcakes from pot and set aside to cool 5 minutes.\n\n6 Once cupcakes have cooled, prepare ganache. In a small bowl, break up the chocolate bar into pieces. Add syrup and salt. Set aside. Add milk and shortening to a small saucepan and heat over medium. Bring to a rolling boil. Pour milk mixture over chocolate and whisk until smooth.\n\n7 Dip tops of cupcakes in ganache and place on a cooling rack. Serve.\n\n## Apple Brown Betty\n\nThe Brown Betty goes back to the mid-1800s in America and was traditionally made with bread slices or cracker crumbs. King of the Hill fans know that Peggy is very proud of her Apple Brown Betty and loves to share. This Instant Pot\u00ae version takes out the grains but doesn't skimp on taste. Share this with your family. Share this with your neighbors!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 18 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\nCrust\n\n1 cup cassava flour\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n2 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n2 tablespoons honey\n\nApple Betty\n\n2 tablespoons ghee\n\n3 medium apples, cored, peeled, and thinly sliced\n\n2 tablespoons molasses\n\n1 teaspoon orange zest\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\n1\/4 cup chopped walnuts\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 Lightly grease a 7-inch springform pan. Set aside.\n\n2 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.\n\n3 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, melted ghee, eggs, and honey.\n\n4 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Do not overmix. Set aside.\n\n5 Press the Saut\u00e9 button on the Instant Pot\u00ae and heat ghee. Add apples and toss. Cook about 3 minutes to remove some water from the apples. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the apples to a medium bowl. Toss in molasses, orange zest, and cinnamon. Evenly transfer to greased springform pan. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over apple mixture.\n\n6 Spoon in crust mixture and spread evenly to edges of pan.\n\n7 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place springform pan on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n8 Remove pan from pot and refrigerate at least 30 minutes to allow the dessert to set. Unlock springform pan. Flip onto a serving plate and remove springform plate. Serve.\n\n## Upside-Down Peach Cobbler\n\nThis Peach Cobbler could show up to any Georgia dinner party and fit right in (other than the fact that it only serves four!). The Instant Pot\u00ae version of Peach Cobbler requires frozen peaches, so you can enjoy this dessert any time of the year. Also, you can make this at the last minute without worrying about cutting peaches or defrosting freezer items.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n1 pound bag frozen sliced peaches\n\n1 tablespoon honey\n\n2 tablespoons ghee, softened\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\n1 cup cassava flour\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n2 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n1\/4 cup pure maple syrup\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 Lightly grease a 7-inch springform pan. Scatter frozen sliced peaches in an even layer. Drizzle with honey. Place pats of softened ghee over peaches. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon.\n\n2 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.\n\n3 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, melted ghee, eggs, and syrup.\n\n4 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Do not overmix. Carefully and evenly smooth sticky batter over peaches.\n\n5 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place springform pan on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n6 Remove pan from pot and refrigerate at least 30 minutes to allow the cake to set. Unlock springform pan. Flip onto a serving plate and remove springform plate. Serve.\n\n## Banana Pudding Cake\n\nBanana pudding is a Southern tradition, but sometimes you just need a quick version so that you have extra time to gossip with your friends.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\nVanilla Cake\n\n1 cup cassava flour\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n2 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n2 tablespoons honey\n\nBanana Pudding\n\n2 medium ripe bananas, sliced\n\n2 large egg yolks\n\n1 tablespoon pure maple syrup\n\n1\/4 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n3\/4 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 Lightly grease a 7-inch springform pan. Set aside.\n\n2 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.\n\n3 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, ghee, eggs, and honey.\n\n4 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently mix to combine ingredients. Do not overmix. Set cake mixture aside.\n\n5 Evenly distribute bananas on the bottom of the prepared springform pan.\n\n6 In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt. Set aside.In saucepan over medium-low heat, heat almond milk to a low simmer. Whisk a spoonful of the milk into the egg mixture to temper the eggs, and then slowly whisk that egg mixture into the saucepan with remaining almond milk. Pour this pudding layer evenly over bananas. Refrigerate 10 minutes.\n\n7 Carefully spoon cake mixture over pudding layer and spread evenly to edges of pan.\n\n8 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place springform pan on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n9 Remove pan from pot and refrigerate at least 30 minutes to allow the dessert to set. Unlock springform pan. Flip onto a serving plate and remove springform plate. Serve.\n\n## Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread\n\nLoaded with nutritional zucchini and sweetened with a little honey and dates, this is the perfect bread for a sweet tooth. Enjoy with a warm cup of coffee or tea for a quiet morning curled up with a great book.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n11\/2 cups cassava flour\n\n1 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\n1\/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/3 cup finely diced pitted dates\n\n3 large eggs\n\n2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 small zucchini)\n\n1 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n1\/4 cup ghee, melted\n\n1\/3 cup honey\n\n1\/2 cup chopped pecans\n\n1\/4 cup dark chocolate chips\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 Lightly grease a 7-inch springform pan. Set aside.\n\n2 In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and dates.\n\n3 In a medium bowl, combine eggs, zucchini, vanilla, ghee, and honey.\n\n4 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Fold in pecans and chocolate chips. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into springform pan.\n\n5 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place springform pan on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n6 Remove pan from the Instant Pot\u00ae. Let rest 15 minutes. Use a paper towel to dab off any excess moisture. Open pan and cut and serve.\n\n## Double Chocolate Custard\n\nWhat is better than chocolate? Double chocolate! Egg yolks are not only nature's sauce once poached, but they add such a richness to custards and ice creams. The chocolate enhances this richness. You won't believe that this is paleo and dairy-free. Oh, but it is. So simple. So luxurious.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 large egg yolks\n\n1\/4 cup honey\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder\n\n11\/2 cups unsweetened almond milk\n\n1\/4 cup dark chocolate chips\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, honey, salt, vanilla, and cocoa. Set aside.\n\n2 In saucepan over medium-low heat, heat almond milk to a low simmer. Whisk a spoonful of the milk into the egg mixture to temper the eggs, and then slowly whisk that egg mixture into the saucepan with remaining almond milk. Add chocolate chips and continually stir on simmer until chocolate is melted, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and evenly distribute chocolate mixture among four custard ramekins.\n\n3 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place ramekins onto trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer custards to a plate and refrigerate covered overnight to allow the custard to set. Serve.\n\n## Coconut Key Lime Custard\n\nHello Key West! Although the little flavorful key limes are preferred in this recipe, if it isn't the season, feel free to use standard limes. Either way, close your eyes and you'll be transported to Alabama Jack's while wearing your flip-flops and tank top. Don't forget to go enjoy that glorious sunset over the ocean . . . at least in your dreams.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 large egg yolks\n\n1\/4 cup honey\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n1\/3 cup fresh key lime juice\n\n1 teaspoon key lime zest\n\n11\/2 cups canned coconut milk\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, honey, salt, vanilla, lime juice, and lime zest. Set aside.\n\n2 In saucepan over medium-low heat, heat coconut milk to a low simmer. Whisk a spoonful of the milk into the egg mixture to temper the eggs, and then slowly whisk that egg mixture into the saucepan with remaining coconut milk. Continually stir on simmer about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and evenly distribute custard mixture among four ramekins.\n\n3 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place ramekins onto trivet. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n4 Transfer custards to a plate and refrigerate covered overnight to allow the custard to fully set. Serve.\n\n## Grain-Free Stuffed Apples\n\nYou can have your apples and stuff them too! After a day of apple picking with the family, this glorious traditional recipe can be cooked and on your plates within 15 minutes. Serve with a scoop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream to take it over the top!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 5 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n3 tablespoons ghee, softened\n\n2 tablespoons pumpkin pur\u00e9e\n\n1 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\n1\/4 cup chopped pecans\n\n2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut flakes\n\n2 teaspoons pure maple syrup\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n4 medium cooking apples\n\n1 cup water\n\n1 In a small bowl, mix together ghee, pumpkin pur\u00e9e, cinnamon, pecans, coconut flakes, syrup, and salt. Set aside.\n\n2 Rinse and dry the apples. Cut the tops off the apples. Hollow out and core the apples by cutting to, but not through, the apple bottoms.\n\n3 Place each apple on a piece of aluminum foil that is large enough to wrap the apple completely. Fill the apple centers with prepared mixture. Wrap the foil around each apple, folding the foil over at the top and then pinching it firmly together.\n\n4 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet. Place the wrapped apples on the rack. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n5 Carefully unwrap apples and transfer to serving plates.\n\n## Hummingbird Cake\n\nHummingbird Cake is a Southern spice cake filled with banana, pineapple, and nuts. Traditionally, there is a rich white frosting with coconut flakes . . . it really is what dreams are made of. This recipe cuts out that thick frosting but doesn't skimp on any of the flavor. It makes for a great after-dinner dessert enjoyed with a cup of coffee.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n3\/4 cup cassava flour\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\n1\/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/4 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n2 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n1\/4 cup undrained crushed pineapple\n\n1\/4 cup mashed banana (about 1 small banana)\n\n2 tablespoons pure maple syrup\n\n1\/4 cup chopped pecans\n\n2 cups water\n\nTopping\n\n1 tablespoon pure maple syrup\n\n3 tablespoons unsweetened coconut flakes, divided\n\n1 Lightly grease a 6-inch cake pan. Set aside.\n\n2 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and sea salt.\n\n3 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, ghee, eggs, pineapple, banana, and syrup.\n\n4 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Do not overmix. Fold in pecans. Spoon mixture into greased cake pan.\n\n5 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place cake pan on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n6 Remove pan from pot and set aside to cool 5 minutes. Flip cake onto a serving plate.\n\n7 In a small bowl, combine syrup with 2 tablespoons coconut flakes. Spread on the top of the cake. Garnish with the remaining 1 tablespoon coconut flakes.\n\n## Poached Cherries\n\nIf you are overrun with cherries, poach them! They are a nice light dessert to quench that sweet tooth. Or serve them over some dairy-free ice cream or grain-free cake. And if you enjoy cherries, invest in a pitter. It will be one of the few gadgets that get some use, unlike the others in the graveyard of never-used kitchen tools.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n2 cups water\n\n1\/2 cup pure maple syrup\n\nZest and juice from 1 medium orange\n\n2 teaspoons vanilla extract\n\n1 pound sweet cherries, pitted\n\n1 cinnamon stick\n\n1 Add all ingredients to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 5 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid. Discard cinnamon stick.\n\n2 Transfer cherries to an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to eat, warm or cold.\n\n## Upside-Down Chocolate Cherry Cake\n\nChocolate covered cherries are a no-brainer combination, so this cake just makes sense. A seasonal treat, pick up one of those fresh sweet cherry bags that you see in the grocery store once a year and this is your dessert. Rich, brownie-like chocolate cake and naturally sweet pitted cherries, this should satisfy any sweet tooth without breaking the calorie bank.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 15 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n16 fresh sweet cherries, halved and pitted\n\n2\/3 cup cassava flour\n\n1\/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder\n\n2 teaspoons baking powder\n\n1\/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n3 tablespoons ghee, melted\n\n2 large eggs\n\n2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk\n\n1\/3 cup pure maple syrup\n\n2 cups water\n\n1 Lightly grease a 6-inch cake pan. Place cherries, flat side down, into cake pan until the bottom of the pan is covered. Set aside.\n\n2 In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.\n\n3 In a medium bowl, combine vanilla, ghee, eggs, milk, and syrup.\n\n4 Pour wet ingredients from the medium bowl into the large bowl with dry ingredients. Gently combine ingredients. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into greased cake pan.\n\n5 Pour water into the Instant Pot\u00ae and insert trivet or steamer basket. Place cake pan on top. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 15 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n6 Remove pan from pot and set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Flip cake onto a serving plate.\n\n## Mixed Berry Quick Jam\n\nIf you go down the jam and jelly aisle and look at the ingredients' label, you will notice that the jars are filled with refined sugars and preservatives. Enjoy this jam with whatever berries you have on-hand after a day of berry picking with the family.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 1 minute\n\nYields 3 cups\n\n* * *\n\n2 cups blueberries\n\n2 cups sliced strawberries\n\n1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice\n\n2 teaspoons orange zest\n\n1\/2 cup honey\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1 Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 1 minute. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients in the pot until desired consistency is reached. Spoon into a lidded container and store in refrigerator. Use within 2 weeks.\n\n## Quick Lime Marmalade\n\nFor a sweet-bitter-tart treat, this quick marmalade is for you. It can be used on gluten-free scones and biscuits, frozen into ice cubes for amazing additions to your gin drinks, or throw in a small spoonful to your Thai coconut milk\u2013based dishes.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 10 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 10\n\n* * *\n\n6 medium limes\n\n1\/2 cup honey\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1\/2 cup water\n\n1 Prepare limes by scrubbing the outside and removing any possible shiny wax on the exterior. Thinly slice limes, the thinner the better. Discard seeds. Cut slices in half.\n\n2 Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Manual or Pressure Cook button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally until float valve drops and then unlock lid. If mixture is too watery, let simmer unlidded until desired consistency.\n\n3 Transfer mixture to a lidded jar and refrigerate. Use within 2 weeks or freeze into cubes for later use.\n\n## Fresh-Brewed Arnie Palmer\n\nNamed after the beloved American golfer, Arnold Palmer, this summertime drink combines simple brewed tea with fresh, sweet and tart lemonade. If you'd like to adult this drink up, add a shot of vodka or limoncello to the finished product . . . but then you call it a John Daly!\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 medium lemons, halved\n\n5 tea bags\n\n7 cups water\n\n1\/2 cup honey\n\n1 Juice lemons. Discard seeds but keep the rinds.\n\n2 Place lemon juice, lemon rinds, tea bags, and water in Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n3 Add honey and let steep an additional 5 minutes. Strain. Press any additional liquid and flavor out of the tea bags. Serve over ice.\n\n## Gluhwein\n\nGluhwein is a glorious warm spiced wine drink that you sip while walking around the Christmas Markets in Germany. It is cold, yet the warm Gluhwein and the beautiful woodcrafts pull a person into the holiday. Share this enchanting drink with your stateside friends to introduce them to the warmth.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 10 minutes\n\nServes 6\n\n* * *\n\n1 (750-milliliter) bottle dry red wine\n\n1\/2 medium lemon, quartered\n\n1 medium orange, quartered\n\n1\/2 cup honey\n\n4 whole cloves\n\n2 cardamom pods\n\n1 cinnamon stick\n\n1 whole star anise\n\n1 Add all ingredients to the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Using a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth, strain out solids. Serve warm.\n\n## Homemade Chai Tea Latte\n\nYour friends will think they just stopped by their local favorite teahouse when they taste the freshness and richness of this homemade chai. Sweetened with maple syrup instead of refined sugars and made creamy with unsweetened almond milk instead of heavy cream, this drink's facelift is one to be savored.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n5 cups water\n\n4 black tea bags\n\n3 cardamom pods\n\n4 whole cloves\n\n1 cinnamon stick\n\n4 whole allspice\n\n1\/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg\n\n1 cup unsweetened almond milk\n\n1\/4 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1 Place water, tea bags, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick, allspice, and nutmeg in Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Add milk and syrup and let steep an additional 5 minutes. Strain. Press any additional liquid and flavor out of the tea bags. Serve warm, chilled, or on ice.\n\n### WHAT IS A SPICE BAG?\n\nIn the recipe, the solids are free-floating; however, to avoid straining the hot liquid at the end of the cooking process, simply bind the cardamom pods, whole cloves, cinnamon stick, and whole allspice in a cheesecloth tied with butcher twine. Premade spice bags are also sold in specialty stores or found easily online.\n\n## Spiced Mocha Latte\n\nWhy waste those dollars when you can whip up this concoction on your own with minimal effort? Pour the finished product in your to-go coffee mug and know that you have a cheaper and healthier product to wake you up and take you down the road without killing your wallet.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 15 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n4 cups water\n\n2 tablespoons instant espresso coffee powder\n\n2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n4 whole allspice\n\n1 star anise\n\n4 cardamom pods\n\n1 cinnamon stick\n\n2 cups unsweetened almond milk\n\n1\/2 cup pure maple syrup\n\n1 Add water, espresso, cocoa, salt, allspice, star anise, cardamom, and cinnamon stick in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 10 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Add milk and syrup and let steep an additional 5 minutes. Strain. Serve warm, chilled, or on ice.\n\n## Mexican Hot Cocoa\n\nRich, delicious, and warm, hot cocoa is what soothes the body after spending the morning shoveling snow out of the driveway with the family. Set this up in the Instant Pot\u00ae and it will be ready to be ladled into those mugs. Also, if you allow dairy in your life, whisk some organic cream with a little honey for a fluffy topping.\n\n\u2022 Hands-On Time: 5 minutes\n\n\u2022 Cook Time: 8 minutes\n\nServes 4\n\n* * *\n\n6 cups unsweetened almond milk\n\n1\/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder\n\n1 (31\/2-ounce) dark chocolate bar, broken into pieces\n\n1\/4 teaspoon chili powder\n\nPinch cayenne pepper\n\nPinch ground nutmeg\n\nPinch sea salt\n\n1 cinnamon stick\n\n2 teaspoons vanilla extract\n\n1\/4 cup honey\n\n1 Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot\u00ae. Lock lid. Press the Steam button and adjust time to 8 minutes. When timer beeps, quick-release pressure until float valve drops and then unlock lid.\n\n2 Remove and discard cinnamon stick. Ladle cocoa into mugs and serve warm.\n\n## Appendix A\n\n### Paleo \"Yes\" and \"No\" Foods\n\nIn order to ensure your success on the Paleolithic diet, you need to stock your pantry with fresh, organic produce and grass-fed and barn-roaming meats. Feel free to experiment with items you would not normally choose. That will spice things up and keep you interested in the diet. Also listed here are the foods you should avoid, including processed grains, potatoes, legumes, and dairy.\n\n#### PALEO \"YES\" FOODS\n\nProtein\n\nAlligator\n\nBass\n\nBear\n\nBeef, lean and trimmed\n\nBison\n\nBluefish\n\nCaribou\n\nChicken breast\n\nChuck steak\n\nClams\n\nCod\n\nCrab\n\nCrayfish\n\nEgg whites\n\nEggs\n\nFlank steak\n\nGame hen breasts\n\nGoat\n\nGrouper\n\nHaddock\n\nHalibut\n\nHamburger, extra lean\n\nHerring\n\nLiver (beef, lamb, goat, or chicken)\n\nLobster\n\nLondon broil\n\nMackerel\n\nMarrow (beef, lamb, or goat)\n\nMussels\n\nOrange roughy\n\nOstrich\n\nOysters\n\nPheasant\n\nPork chops\n\nPork loin\n\nPork, lean\n\nQuail\n\nRabbit\n\nRattlesnake\n\nRed snapper\n\nSalmon, wild-caught\n\nScallops\n\nScrod\n\nShrimp\n\nTilapia\n\nTongue (beef, lamb, or goat)\n\nTrout\n\nTuna, canned, unsalted\n\nTuna, fresh\n\nTurkey breast\n\nVeal, lean\n\nVenison\n\nLeafy Vegetables\n\nArugula\n\nBeet greens\n\nBitterleaf\n\nBok choy\n\nBroccoli rabe\n\nBrussels sprouts\n\nCabbage\n\nCelery\n\nChard\n\nChicory\n\nChinese cabbage\n\nCollard greens\n\nDandelion\n\nEndive\n\nFiddlehead\n\nKale\n\nLettuce\n\nRadicchio\n\nSpinach\n\nSwiss chard\n\nTurnip\n\nWatercress\n\nYarrow\n\nFruiting Vegetables\n\nAvocado\n\nBell pepper\n\nCucumber\n\nEggplant\n\nSquash\n\nSweet pepper\n\nTomatillo\n\nTomato\n\nZucchini\n\nFlowers and Flower Buds\n\nArtichoke\n\nBroccoli\n\nCauliflower\n\nBulb and Stem Vegetables\n\nAsparagus\n\nCelery\n\nFlorence fennel\n\nGarlic\n\nKohlrabi\n\nLeek\n\nOnion\n\nSea Vegetables and Herbs of All Types\n\nFruits\n\nApple\n\nApricot\n\nBanana\n\nBlackberries\n\nBlueberries\n\nCantaloupe\n\nCherries\n\nCoconut\n\nCranberries (not dried)\n\nFigs\n\nGrapefruit\n\nGrapes\n\nGuava\n\nHoneydew melon\n\nKiwi\n\nLemon\n\nLime\n\nMandarin orange\n\nMango\n\nNectarine\n\nOrange\n\nPapaya\n\nPassion fruit\n\nPeaches\n\nPears\n\nPersimmon\n\nPineapple\n\nPlums\n\nPomegranate\n\nRaspberries\n\nRhubarb\n\nStar fruit\n\nStrawberries\n\nTangerine\n\nWatermelon\n\nAll other fruits are acceptable\n\nFats, Nuts, Seeds, Oils, and Fatty Proteins\n\nAlmond butter\n\nAlmonds\n\nAvocado\n\nBrazil nuts\n\nCanola oil\n\nCashew\n\nCashew butter\n\nChestnuts\n\nCoconut oil\n\nFlaxseed oil\n\nHazelnuts\/filberts\n\nMacadamia butter\n\nMacadamia nuts\n\nOlive oil\n\nPecans\n\nPine nuts\n\nPistachios\n\nPumpkin seeds\n\nSafflower oil\n\nSesame seeds\n\nSunflower butter, unsweetened\n\nSunflower seeds\n\nUdo's oil\n\nWalnut oil\n\nWalnuts\n\n#### PALEO \"NO\" FOODS\n\nLegume Vegetables\n\nAmerican groundnut\n\nAzuki beans\n\nBlack-eyed peas\n\nChickpeas (garbanzo bean)\n\nCommon beans\n\nFava beans\n\nGreen beans\n\nGuar\n\nIndian peas\n\nKidney beans\n\nLentils\n\nLima beans\n\nMung beans\n\nNavy beans\n\nOkra\n\nPeanut\n\nPeanut butter\n\nPeas\n\nPigeon peas\n\nPinto beans\n\nRed beans\n\nRice beans\n\nSnow peas\n\nSoybean and soy products\n\nString beans\n\nSugar snap peas\n\nWhite beans\n\nDairy Foods\n\nAll processed foods made with any dairy products\n\nButter\n\nCheese\n\nCream\n\nDairy spreads\n\nFrozen yogurt\n\nIce cream\n\nIce milk\n\nLow-fat milk\n\nNonfat dairy creamer\n\nPowdered milk\n\nSkim milk\n\nWhole milk\n\nYogurt\n\nCereal Grains\n\nBarley\n\nCorn\n\nMillet\n\nOats\n\nRice\n\nRye\n\nSorghum\n\nWheat\n\nWild rice\n\nCereal Grain-Like Seeds\n\nAmaranth\n\nBuckwheat\n\nQuinoa\n\nStarchy Vegetables\n\nStarchy tubers (in large quantities)\n\nManioc\n\nPotatoes and all potato products\n\nSweet potatoes or yams (unless after workout to replenish gylcogen)\n\nTapioca pudding\n\nSalt-Containing Foods, Fatty Meats, and Sugar\n\nAlmost all commercial salad dressings and condiments\n\nCandy\n\nFrankfurters\n\nProcessed meats\n\nSalami\n\nSalt\n\nSalted nuts\n\nSmoked, dried, and salted fish and meat\n\nSoft drinks and fruit juice\n\nSugar\n\n## Appendix B\n\n### US\/Metric Conversion Chart\n\nVOLUME CONVERSIONS\n\n---\n\nUS Volume Measure | Metric Equivalent\n\n1\/8 teaspoon | 0.5 milliliter\n\n1\/4 teaspoon | 1 milliliter\n\n1\/2 teaspoon | 2 milliliters\n\n1 teaspoon | 5 milliliters\n\n1\/2 tablespoon | 7 milliliters\n\n1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) | 15 milliliters\n\n2 tablespoons (1 fluid ounce) | 30 milliliters\n\n1\/4 cup (4 tablespoons) | 60 milliliters\n\n1\/3 cup | 90 milliliters\n\n1\/2 cup (4 fluid ounces) | 125 milliliters\n\n2\/3 cup | 160 milliliters\n\n3\/4 cup (6 fluid ounces) | 180 milliliters\n\n1 cup (16 tablespoons) | 250 milliliters\n\n1 pint (2 cups) | 500 milliliters\n\n1 quart (4 cups) | 1 liter (about)\n\nWEIGHT CONVERSIONS\n\n---\n\nUS Weight Measure | Metric Equivalent\n\n1\/2 ounce | 15 grams\n\n1 ounce | 30 grams\n\n2 ounces | 60 grams\n\n3 ounces | 85 grams\n\n1\/4 pound (4 ounces) | 115 grams\n\n1\/2 pound (8 ounces) | 225 grams\n\n3\/4 pound (12 ounces) | 340 grams\n\n1 pound (16 ounces) | 454 grams\n\nOVEN TEMPERATURE CONVERSIONS\n\n---\n\nDegrees Fahrenheit | Degrees Celsius\n\n200 degrees F | 95 degrees C\n\n250 degrees F | 120 degrees C\n\n275 degrees F | 135 degrees C\n\n300 degrees F | 150 degrees C\n\n325 degrees F | 160 degrees C\n\n350 degrees F | 180 degrees C\n\n375 degrees F | 190 degrees C\n\n400 degrees F | 205 degrees C\n\n425 degrees F | 220 degrees C\n\n450 degrees F | 230 degrees C\n\nBAKING PAN SIZES\n\n---\n\nAmerican | Metric\n\n8 x 11\/2 inch round baking pan | 20 x 4 cm cake tin\n\n9 x 11\/2 inch round baking pan | 23 x 3.5 cm cake tin\n\n11 x 7 x 11\/2 inch baking pan | 28 x 18 x 4 cm baking tin\n\n13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan | 30 x 20 x 5 cm baking tin\n\n2 quart rectangular baking dish | 30 x 20 x 3 cm baking tin\n\n15 x 10 x 2 inch baking pan | 30 x 25 x 2 cm baking tin (Swiss roll tin)\n\n9 inch pie plate | 22 x 4 or 23 x 4 cm pie plate\n\n7 or 8 inch springform pan | 18 or 20 cm springform or loose bottom cake tin\n\n9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan | 23 x 13 x 7 cm or 2 lb narrow loaf or p\u00e2t\u00e9 tin\n\n11\/2 quart casserole | 1.5 liter casserole\n\n2 quart casserole | 2 liter casserole\n\n## About the Author\n\nMichelle Fagone is a recipe developer, mother of two, and food blogger. On her site, CavegirlCuisine.com, Michelle shares recipes and knowledge about the health benefits of cooking with local, fresh, and unprocessed foods. Despite being a Southern gal at heart, her travel and food experiences as a Navy brat and current Army spouse have given her a unique appreciation for worldly flavors. While comfort is the basis for most of her recipes, you will often find a twist of exciting flavors and combinations that make her recipes not only appealing to a broad audience but uniquely delicious  was named one of the Top 50 Paleo Blogs of 2012 by the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. Michelle lives in Louisville, Kentucky.\n\nMEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT\n\nSimonandSchuster.com\n\nAuthors.SimonandSchuster.com\/Michelle-Fagone\nWe hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster ebook.\n\n* * *\n\nGet a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.\n\nCLICK HERE TO SIGN UP\n\nAlready a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.\n\n## Index\n\nNote: Page numbers in bold indicate recipe category lists.\n\n### A\n\nAccessories, pot-in-pot cooking, \u201310\n\nAccessory removal options, \u201310\n\nAlmond milk, making,\n\nAppetizers, \u201375, , . See also Sauces and dips\n\nApples\n\nApple Brown Betty,\n\nApple Cinnamon Muffins,\n\nFruity Trail Mix Bowls,\n\nGrain-Free Stuffed Apples,\n\nRed Onion and Apple Confit,\n\nSpiced Applesauce,\n\nArtichokes, ,\n\nAsparagus, , ,\n\n### B\n\nBanana Pudding Cake,\n\nBananas, in Hummingbird Cake,\n\nBeef\n\nabout: Meat\/Stew button on Instant Pot\u00ae,\n\nBeef Broth,\n\nChunky Beef Chili,\n\nHamburger Soup,\n\nKentucky Derby Burgoo,\n\nMini Chili Polpette,\n\nBeef and bison main dishes, \u201349\n\nBalsamic Meatballs,\n\nBeef Shanks and Artichokes,\n\nBison Sloppy Joe's,\n\nChi-Town Italian Beef and Peppers,\n\nChuck Roast with Carrots and Onions,\n\nCorned Beef and Cabbage,\n\nCuban Picadillo with Riced Cauliflower,\n\nGround Beef and Broccoli Bowl,\n\nGround Bison Bulgogi,\n\nItalian Beef Tongue Lettuce Wraps,\n\nJust Beet It Burgers,\n\nKorean Beef Short Ribs,\n\nMarinara Meatballs,\n\nMeatloaf and Gravy,\n\nMongolian Beef and Cashew BBQ,\n\nNana's Sunday Pot Roast,\n\nReuben Meatballs with Russian Dressing,\n\nSkirt Steak Fajitas,\n\nSweet-n-Spicy Beef Brisket,\n\nTender Flank Steak with Mushrooms and Onions,\n\nBeets, in Jicama-Beet Slaw,\n\nBeets, steamed,\n\nBerries\n\nBlueberry-Orange Muffins,\n\nMixed Berry Breakfast Syrup,\n\nMixed Berry Quick Jam,\n\nStrawberry Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache,\n\nBreakfast recipes, \u201333\n\nBroccoli\n\nBroccoli Casserole,\n\nBroccoli-Cauli Sausage Tots,\n\nBroccoli-Parsnip Smash,\n\nBroccoli-Zucchini Hummus,\n\nCream of Broccoli and Bacon Soup,\n\nDilled Salmon and Broccoli,\n\nGround Beef and Broccoli Bowl,\n\nLemon Ghee Broccoli,\n\nBrussels sprouts, bacon-apple,\n\nButtons, on Instant Pot\u00ae, \u20137\n\n### C\n\nCabbage, corned beef and,\n\nCabbage, kimchi with, ,\n\nCabbage and sausage soup,\n\nCarrots, honey-glazed,\n\nCarrots, in Kohlrabi, Kale, and Karrots,\n\nCarrot soup, curried,\n\nCauliflower\n\nBacon Cauli-Potato Mash,\n\nBroccoli-Cauli Sausage Tots,\n\nCuban Picadillo with Riced Cauliflower,\n\nPurple Cauliflower,\n\nSaffron and Herb Cauliflower Rice,\n\nCherries, in Upside-Down Chocolate Cherry Cake,\n\nCherries, poached,\n\nChicken\n\nabout: Poultry button on Instant Pot\u00ae,\n\nChicken Broth,\n\nChicken Taco Soup,\n\nEndive Boats with Chicken Salad,\n\nKentucky Derby Burgoo,\n\nLiver Pate,\n\nSesame-Orange Chicken Wings,\n\nTandoori-Style Chicken Wings,\n\nWhite Chicken Chili,\n\nChicken main dishes\n\nAsian Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Ginger Aioli,\n\nAvocado Chicken Salad,\n\nBBQ Whole Chicken,\n\nChicken Leg Almond Butter Satay,\n\nChicken Livers and Onions with Gravy,\n\nChicken Thighs with Strawberry Salsa,\n\nChili Lime Chicken Legs,\n\nGluten-Free Beer Can Dijon Chicken,\n\nHoney Mustard Chicken Bites,\n\nJamaican Jerk Chicken Meatballs,\n\nKimchi Chicken Wings,\n\nKombucha Chicken Thighs,\n\nPaleo-ish Turkish Chicken Thighs,\n\nSalsa Verde Chicken Meatballs,\n\nSmoked Paprika and Garlic Chicken Legs,\n\nTaco Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Pico Guacamole,\n\nTuscan Chicken,\n\nChocolate\n\nCaf\u00e9 Mocha Muffins,\n\nChocolate Chip Zucchini Bread,\n\nDouble Chocolate Custard,\n\nMexican Hot Cocoa,\n\nStrawberry Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache,\n\nCitrus\n\nBlueberry-Orange Muffins,\n\nCoconut Key Lime Custard,\n\nHorseradish-Lemon Aioli,\n\nLemon-Herb Butter Dipping Sauce,\n\nQuick Lime Marmalade,\n\nCleaning Instant Pot\u00ae,\n\nCoconut aminos,\n\nCoconut Key Lime Custard,\n\nCornish Hens and Veggies,\n\n### D\n\nDesserts, \u2013211\n\nDrinks, , \u201315\n\nDuck \u00e0 l'orange breast,\n\nDumplings, drop biscuit,\n\n### E\n\nEggplant-Olive Ratatouille,\n\nEggs\n\nBacon, Onion, and Spinach Egg Muffins,\n\nBell Pepper Egg Cups,\n\nBreakfast Casserole with Drop Biscuit Dumplings,\n\nChampion Breakfast Bowl,\n\nCiao Bella! Egg Muffins,\n\nDeviled Eggs,\n\nHam and Mushroom Egg Muffins,\n\nPiggy Tater Bowl with a Poached Egg,\n\nSoft-Boiled Eggs with Steamed Asparagus Dippers,\n\nSouth-of-the-Border Frittata,\n\nSweet Potato Breakfast Bowl,\n\nEndive Boats with Chicken Salad,\n\n### F\n\nFruit salsas,\n\n### G\n\nGreens, mixed Southern,\n\n### H\n\nHerbs and spices, ,\n\n### I\n\nInstant Pot\u00ae\n\nabout: overview of features and uses, \u20135\n\nbuttons and functions, \u20138\n\ncleaning,\n\nlocking and pressure-release methods,\n\npot-in-pot cooking accessories, \u201310\n\n### K\n\nKale, ,\n\nKohlrabi, Kale, and Karrots,\n\n### L\n\nLamb\n\nGreek Lamb Meatballs,\n\nHearty Lamb Stew,\n\nLamb Riblets,\n\nLamb Shanks with Tomato Curry Sauce,\n\nLocking and pressure-release methods,\n\n### M\n\nMuffins, apple cinnamon,\n\nMushrooms\n\nBurgundy Mushrooms,\n\nCornish Hens and Veggies,\n\nCreamy Mushroom Soup,\n\nMushrooms Stuffed with Sausage and Kimchi,\n\n### N\n\nNuts, in Fruity Trail Mix Bowls,\n\nNuts, making almond milk,\n\n### O\n\nOnion and apple confit,\n\nOnions, herbed fingerling potatoes and,\n\n### P\n\nPaleo \"Yes\" and \"No\" foods, \u201318\n\nParsnips, , , ,\n\nPeach cobbler, upside-down,\n\nPineapple, ,\n\nPork\n\nabout: Meat\/Stew button on Instant Pot\u00ae,\n\nBacon, Onion, and Spinach Egg Muffins,\n\nBacon Cauli-Potato Mash,\n\nBacon Jam,\n\nBalsamic Pork Tenderloin with Caperberries,\n\nBBQ Boneless Pork Loin Roast,\n\nBolognese Sauce,\n\nBreakfast Casserole with Drop Biscuit Dumplings,\n\nBroccoli-Cauli Sausage Tots,\n\nChampion Breakfast Bowl,\n\nChorizo Sliders with Jicama-Beet Slaw,\n\nCowgirl Baby Back Pork Ribs,\n\nCream of Broccoli and Bacon Soup,\n\nCreamy Ham and Root Veggie Soup,\n\nCubano Bowl,\n\nGround Pork Stir-Fry Bowl,\n\nHam and Scalloped Potatoes,\n\nLoaded Sweet Potato Hash,\n\nLouisiana Shrimp and Sausage,\n\nMardi Gras Gumbo,\n\nMorning Bacon Parsnips,\n\nMushrooms Stuffed with Sausage and Kimchi,\n\nOma's Sausage and Cabbage Soup,\n\nOrange Rosemary Pork Tenderloin,\n\nOsso Bucco with Gremolata,\n\nPiggy Tater Bowl with a Poached Egg,\n\nPork Chops with Sauerkraut, Potatoes, and Apples,\n\nPork Medallions Puttanesca,\n\nSalsa Verde Pulled Pork,\n\nSausage Gravy,\n\nSimple Dijon Pork Tenderloin,\n\nSmothered Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy,\n\nSteamed Dry-Rubbed Pork Spareribs,\n\nVietnamese Pork Chops,\n\nPotatoes. See also Sweet potatoes\n\nDilled Purple Potatoes,\n\nGerman Red Potatoes,\n\nHerbed Fingerling Potatoes and Onions,\n\nPiggy Tater Bowl with a Poached Egg,\n\nPot-in-pot cooking accessories, \u201310\n\nPoultry main dishes, \u201325\n\nPressure-release methods,\n\nPumpkin, in Grain-Free Stuffed Apples,\n\nPumpkin Chip Muffins,\n\n### R\n\nRutabaga Fries with Rosemary Dipping Sauce,\n\n### S\n\nSalad, shrimp, prosciutto, and asparagus,\n\nSauces and dips\n\nabout: fruit salsas,\n\nBarbecue Sauce,\n\nBolognese Sauce,\n\n\"Cheesy\" Spinach Crab Dip,\n\nCocktail Sauce,\n\nGinger Aioli,\n\nGremolata,\n\nHerb Sauce,\n\nHorseradish-Lemon Aioli,\n\nLemon-Herb Butter Dipping Sauce,\n\nMarinara Sauce,\n\nMixed Berry Quick Jam,\n\nPuttanesca Sauce,\n\nRosemary Dipping Sauce,\n\nRussian Dressing,\n\nSalsa Verde,\n\nSausage Gravy,\n\nTomato Curry Sauce,\n\nTzatziki Sauce,\n\nSeafood and fish\n\nBerbere Salmon,\n\n\"Cheesy\" Spinach Crab Dip,\n\nCitrus-Steamed Littleneck Clams,\n\nCrab-Chorizo Stuffed Calamari,\n\nDairy-Free Creamed Crab,\n\nDilled Salmon and Broccoli,\n\nFish Taco Bowl,\n\nGreek Sea Bass,\n\nHerbed Cod with Yellow Squash,\n\nLouisiana Shrimp and Sausage,\n\nMahi-Mahi with a Lemon-Caper Butter Sauce,\n\nMardi Gras Gumbo,\n\nQuick Crawfish Boil,\n\nSalmon Croquettes,\n\nShrimp, Prosciutto, and Asparagus Salad with Yuzu Vinaigrette,\n\nShrimp Scampi,\n\nSimply Steamed Lobster Tails,\n\nSteamed Mussels and Chorizo,\n\nSteamed Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce,\n\nSteamed Snow Crab Legs,\n\nStewed Halibut,\n\nThai Coconut Curry Monkfish,\n\nTom Kha Goong,\n\nSeafood and fish main dishes, \u201393\n\nSide dishes, \u2013101\n\nSoup button on Instant Pot\u00ae,\n\nSoups, stews, and chilis, \u201357\n\nSquash\n\nBroccoli-Zucchini Hummus,\n\nChocolate Chip Zucchini Bread,\n\nSavory Acorn Squash Soup,\n\nSesame Zoodles,\n\nSouthern Squash Casserole,\n\nSweet potatoes, , ,\n\nSweet treats, \u2013211\n\n### T\n\nTeas and other drinks, \u201315\n\nTimer button,\n\nTomatillos, in Salsa Verde,\n\nTomato basil soup, creamy,\n\nTomatoes, sauces with. See Sauces and dips\n\nTurkey main dishes, ,\n\nAdams Media\n\nAn Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.\n\n57 Littlefield Street\n\nAvon, Massachusetts 02322\n\nwww.SimonandSchuster.com\n\nCopyright \u00a9 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.\n\nAll rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Adams Media Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.\n\nFirst Adams Media trade paperback edition DECEMBER 2017.\n\nADAMS MEDIA and colophon are trademarks of Simon and Schuster.\n\nFor information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.\n\nThe Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.\n\nInterior design by Colleen Cunningham\n\nPhotographs by James Stefiuk\n\nCover design by Erin Alexander\n\nLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data\n\nFagone, Michelle, author.\n\nThe \"I love my Instant Pot\u00ae\" paleo recipe book \/ Michelle Fagone of CavegirlCuisine.com, author of \"The 'I love my Instant Pot\u00ae' recipe book\".\n\nAvon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2017.\n\nSeries: \"I Love My\".\n\nIncludes index.\n\nLCCN 2017031651 (print) | LCCN 2017037760 (ebook) | ISBN 9781507205747 (pb) | ISBN 9781507205754 (ebook)\n\nLCSH: Pressure cooking. | Electric cooking. | High-protein diet--Recipes. | Gluten-free diet--Recipes. | Prehistoric peoples--Nutrition. | Cooking (Natural foods) | BISAC: COOKING \/ Methods \/ Special Appliances. | COOKING \/ Specific Ingredients \/ Meat. | COOKING \/ Courses & Dishes \/ General. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.\n\nLCC TX840.P7 (ebook) | LCC TX840.P7 F335 2017 (print) | DDC 641.5\/87--dc23\n\nLC record available at <https:\/\/lccn.loc.gov\/2017031651>\n\nISBN 978-1-5072-0574-7\n\nISBN 978-1-5072-0575-4 (ebook)\n\nThe \"I Love My Instant Pot\u00ae\" Paleo Recipe Book is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Double Insight Inc. Instant Pot\u00ae is a trademark of Double Insight Inc., registered in the US and other countries. Instant Pot\u00ae is designed in Canada and manufactured in China, with healthy and green living, and ethnic diversity.\n\nAlways follow safety and commonsense cooking protocols while using kitchen utensils, operating ovens and stoves, and handling uncooked food. If children are assisting in the preparation of any recipe, they should always be supervised by an adult.\n\nMany of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Simon & Schuster, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.\n\nContains material adapted from the following title published by Adams Media, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.: The \"I Love My Instant Pot\u00ae\" Recipe Book by Michelle Fagone, copyright \u00a9 2017, ISBN 978-1-5072-0228-9.\n\n## Contents\n\n  1. Cover\n  2. Dedication\n  3. Introduction\n  4. 1. Cooking with an Instant Pot\u00ae\n  5. 2. Breakfast\n    1. Champion Breakfast Bowl\n    2. Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowl\n    3. Morning Bacon Parsnips\n    4. Apple Cinnamon Muffins\n    5. Blueberry-Orange Muffins\n    6. Pumpkin Chip Muffins\n    7. Sausage Gravy\n    8. South-of-the-Border Frittata\n    9. Ciao Bella! Egg Muffins\n    10. Ham and Mushroom Egg Muffins\n    11. Bacon, Onion, and Spinach Egg Muffins\n    12. Soft-Boiled Eggs with Steamed Asparagus Dippers\n    13. Bell Pepper Egg Cups\n    14. Fruity Trail Mix Bowls\n    15. Mixed Berry Breakfast Syrup\n    16. Bacon Jam\n    17. Breakfast Casserole with Drop Biscuit Dumplings\n    18. Loaded Sweet Potato Hash\n    19. Piggy Tater Bowl with a Poached Egg\n  6. 3. Soups, Stews, and Chilis\n    1. Chicken Broth\n    2. Vegetable Broth\n    3. Beef Broth\n    4. To Bean or Not to Bean Chili\n    5. Chunky Beef Chili\n    6. Hearty Lamb Stew\n    7. Creamy Mushroom Soup\n    8. Cream of Broccoli and Bacon Soup\n    9. Tom Kha Goong\n    10. Kentucky Derby Burgoo\n    11. White Chicken Chili\n    12. Savory Acorn Squash Soup\n    13. Chicken Taco Soup\n    14. Creamy Tomato Basil Soup\n    15. Mardi Gras Gumbo\n    16. Quick Vegetable Soup\n    17. Hamburger Soup\n    18. Oma's Sausage and Cabbage Soup\n    19. Creamy Ham and Root Veggie Soup\n    20. Curried Carrot Soup\n  7. 4. Appetizers and Sauces\n    1. Deviled Eggs\n    2. Mini Chili Polpette\n    3. \"Cheesy\" Spinach Crab Dip\n    4. Endive Boats with Chicken Salad\n    5. Tandoori-Style Chicken Wings\n    6. Sesame-Orange Chicken Wings\n    7. Broccoli-Zucchini Hummus\n    8. Burgundy Mushrooms\n    9. Mushrooms Stuffed with Sausage and Kimchi\n    10. Steamed Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce\n    11. Liver Pate\n    12. Steamed Artichokes with Lemon-Herb Butter\n    13. Rutabaga Fries with Rosemary Dipping Sauce\n    14. Broccoli-Cauli Sausage Tots\n    15. Salsa Verde\n    16. Bolognese Sauce\n    17. Marinara Sauce\n    18. Puttanesca Sauce\n    19. Tomato Curry Sauce\n  8. 5. Side Dishes\n    1. Nutty Holiday Sweet Potatoes\n    2. Honey-Glazed Carrots\n    3. Bacon-Apple Brussels Sprouts\n    4. Mixed Southern Greens\n    5. Dilled Purple Potatoes\n    6. Lemon Ghee Broccoli\n    7. Herbed Fingerling Potatoes and Onions\n    8. Kohlrabi, Kale, and Karrots\n    9. Steamed Beets\n    10. Purple Cauliflower\n    11. German Red Potatoes\n    12. Eggplant-Olive Ratatouille\n    13. Southern Squash Casserole\n    14. Broccoli Casserole\n    15. Bacon Cauli-Potato Mash\n    16. Red Onion and Apple Confit\n    17. Sesame Zoodles\n    18. Saffron and Herb Cauliflower Rice\n    19. Broccoli-Parsnip Smash\n  9. 6. Poultry Main Dishes\n    1. BBQ Whole Chicken\n    2. Gluten-Free Beer Can Dijon Chicken\n    3. Kimchi Chicken Wings\n    4. Chicken Leg Almond Butter Satay\n    5. Smoked Paprika and Garlic Chicken Legs\n    6. Chili Lime Chicken Legs\n    7. Kombucha Chicken Thighs\n    8. Chicken Thighs with Strawberry Salsa\n    9. Tuscan Chicken\n    10. Salsa Verde Chicken Meatballs\n    11. Honey Mustard Chicken Bites\n    12. Jamaican Jerk Chicken Meatballs\n    13. Taco Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Pico Guacamole\n    14. Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Ginger Aioli\n    15. Chicken Livers and Onions with Gravy\n    16. Avocado Chicken Salad\n    17. Paleo-ish Turkish Chicken Thighs\n    18. Cornish Hens and Veggies\n    19. Chili-Orange Turkey Wings\n    20. Mega Turkey Meatballs\n  10. 7. Beef and Bison Main Dishes\n    1. Nana's Sunday Pot Roast\n    2. Chuck Roast with Carrots and Onions\n    3. Sweet-n-Spicy Beef Brisket\n    4. Tender Flank Steak with Mushrooms and Onions\n    5. Skirt Steak Fajitas\n    6. Korean Beef Short Ribs\n    7. Mongolian Beef and Cashew BBQ\n    8. Meatloaf and Gravy\n    9. Balsamic Meatballs\n    10. Marinara Meatballs\n    11. Reuben Meatballs with Russian Dressing\n    12. Ground Beef and Broccoli Bowl\n    13. Just Beet It Burgers\n    14. Corned Beef and Cabbage\n    15. Cuban Picadillo with Riced Cauliflower\n    16. Chi-Town Italian Beef and Peppers\n    17. Beef Shanks and Artichokes\n    18. Bison Sloppy Joe's\n    19. Ground Bison Bulgogi\n    20. Italian Beef Tongue Lettuce Wraps\n  11. 8. Pork, Lamb, and Game Main Dishes\n    1. Salsa Verde Pulled Pork\n    2. Simple Dijon Pork Tenderloin\n    3. Orange Rosemary Pork Tenderloin\n    4. Balsamic Pork Tenderloin with Caperberries\n    5. Steamed Dry-Rubbed Pork Spareribs\n    6. Cowgirl Baby Back Pork Ribs\n    7. Ham and Scalloped Potatoes\n    8. Ground Pork Stir-Fry Bowl\n    9. Smothered Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy\n    10. Pork Chops with Sauerkraut, Potatoes, and Apples\n    11. Cubano Bowl\n    12. Vietnamese Pork Chops\n    13. BBQ Boneless Pork Loin Roast\n    14. Osso Bucco with Gremolata\n    15. Pork Medallions Puttanesca\n    16. Lamb Riblets\n    17. Lamb Shanks with Tomato Curry Sauce\n    18. Greek Lamb Meatballs\n    19. Chorizo Sliders with Jicama-Beet Slaw\n    20. The Busy Cook's Duck a l'Orange Breast\n  12. 9. Seafood and Fish Main Dishes\n    1. Steamed Mussels and Chorizo\n    2. Stewed Halibut\n    3. Fish Taco Bowl\n    4. Thai Coconut Curry Monkfish\n    5. Louisiana Shrimp and Sausage\n    6. Shrimp, Prosciutto, and Asparagus Salad with Yuzu Vinaigrette\n    7. Shrimp Scampi\n    8. Crab-Chorizo Stuffed Calamari\n    9. Berbere Salmon\n    10. Dilled Salmon and Broccoli\n    11. Dairy-Free Creamed Crab\n    12. Citrus-Steamed Littleneck Clams\n    13. Salmon Croquettes\n    14. Greek Sea Bass\n    15. Herbed Cod with Yellow Squash\n    16. Mahi-Mahi with a Lemon-Caper Butter Sauce\n    17. Steamed Snow Crab Legs\n    18. Simply Steamed Lobster Tails\n    19. Quick Crawfish Boil\n  13. 10. Sweet Treats and Drinks\n    1. Spiced Applesauce\n    2. Cafe Mocha Muffins\n    3. Strawberry Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache\n    4. Apple Brown Betty\n    5. Upside-Down Peach Cobbler\n    6. Banana Pudding Cake\n    7. Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread\n    8. Double Chocolate Custard\n    9. Coconut Key Lime Custard\n    10. Grain-Free Stuffed Apples\n    11. Hummingbird Cake\n    12. Poached Cherries\n    13. Upside-Down Chocolate Cherry Cake\n    14. Mixed Berry Quick Jam\n    15. Quick Lime Marmalade\n    16. Fresh-Brewed Arnie Palmer\n    17. Gluhwein\n    18. Homemade Chai Tea Latte\n    19. Spiced Mocha Latte\n    20. Mexican Hot Cocoa\n  14. Appendix A: Paleo \"Yes\" and \"No\" Foods\n  15. Appendix B: US\/Metric Conversion Chart\n  16. About the Author\n  17. Index\n  18. Copyright\n\n# Guide\n\n  1. Cover\n  2. Contents\n  3. Start of content\n\n","meta":{"redpajama_set_name":"RedPajamaBook"}}
+{"text":" \nSome people point from shores of safety to horizons of future possibility. But once in a while God raises up someone with the courage to do more than just talk about distant potential. Instead, they wade into the middle of the miraculous, their faith leaving a wake that will impact generations, starting here and now. My friend William McDowell is a waymaker and walking evidence that the move of God isn't coming; it's happening!\n\n\u2014STEVEN FURTICK\n\n_N EW YORK TIMES_ BEST-SELLING AUTHOR\n\nPASTOR, ELEVATION CHURCH\n\nMany people do a God thing without God; that is the definition of _religion_. My friend William is the exact opposite. He refuses to continue going through the Christian motions without seeing and hearing from God. His relentless pursuit has been seen and rewarded, as God continues to pour out His presence, miracles, and a sound that takes us all into God's presence. I thank God for who William is to the kingdom of God at large and to the people who are privileged to call him friend.\n\n\u2014JONATHAN STOCKSTILL\n\nLEAD PASTOR, BETHANY CHURCH\n\nI've known Pastor William McDowell for twenty-five years. We grew up in the same city, both raised by single mothers who wouldn't stop pushing us toward Jesus. I knew God would take William's heart and gift around the world. It was inevitable. But what I did not anticipate was the level of glory that would be unleashed once Pastor William said yes to leading Deeper Fellowship Church.\n\nGod wants glory in the local church. It is what Jesus came to establish. (See Matthew 16.) The power, the beauty, the consistency of spiritual growth and development coupled with tangible miracles, signs, and wonders are the heart of the New Testament church. What God is doing in Orlando, Florida, is unprecedented but shouldn't be unexpected. It's what God intended for the local church. May God give us the blueprint for glory to return to His house through the glorious testimonies of God's grace and power in this book.\n\n\u2014JOHN GRAY\n\nPASTOR, RELENTLESS CHURCH\n\nNot only is William a friend, but he has been a mentor to me over the past few years, and I cannot wait for the words of God written in this book to flow through your heart, mind, body, and spirit. The Holy Spirit is alive and well, not only in this book but in William's life, church, and songs. I pray that before you read this powerful book, you say a prayer for Jesus to open up your heart and soul to the spiritual journey you are about to go on! This journey will be overflowing with joy, tears, and the presence of Jesus from beginning to end. The anointing and presence of God are real!\n\nWilliam, thank you for being an amazing influence not only in my life but also in the lives of others. Jesus put us on this earth to serve, and you are doing that, my friend. Jesus reigns!\n\n\u2014RUSSELL WILSON\n\nQUARTERBACK, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS\n\nWhen he was a young man sitting in the back of the auditorium in my meetings, William McDowell may have been unknown to me, but he certainly was not unknown to God. It has been a tremendous privilege for me to observe his growth and development in so many different areas\u2014as a husband, a father, a music minister, a pastor, a songwriter, a worshipper, and now as an author.\n\nIt is gratifying but not at all surprising to me to see how God is using him, not only as an unusually gifted worship leader but also as a caring and compassionate pastor whose services are characterized by a remarkable demonstration of the supernatural power of God. _It's Happening_ will take your faith to the next level as Pastor McDowell shares the extraordinary miracles, signs, and wonders God has performed among his dynamic church family.\n\n\u2014DR. ROD PARSLEY\n\nPASTOR AND FOUNDER, WORLD HARVEST CHURCH\n\nMost CHARISMA HOUSE BOOK GROUP products are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchase for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, and educational needs. For details, write Charisma House Book Group, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746, or telephone (407) 333-0600.\n\nIT'S HAPPENING by William McDowell\n\nPublished by Charisma House\n\nCharisma Media\/Charisma House Book Group\n\n600 Rinehart Road\n\nLake Mary, Florida 32746\n\nwww.charismahouse.com\n\nThis book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means\u2014electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise\u2014without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.\n\nUnless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright \u00a9 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.\n\nScripture quotations marked ESV are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright \u00a9 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.\n\nScripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.\n\nScripture quotations marked MEV are taken from the Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright \u00a9 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved.\n\nScripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version\u00ae, NIV\u00ae. Copyright \u00a9 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.\u2122 Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The \"NIV\" and \"New International Version\" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.\u2122\n\nScripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version\u00ae. Copyright \u00a9 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.\n\nScripture quotations marked PHILLIPS are from _The New Testament in Modern English_ , Revised Edition. Copyright \u00a9 1958, 1960, 1972 by J. B. Phillips. Macmillan Publishing Co. Used by permission.\n\nScripture quotations marked THE MESSAGE are from _The Message: The Bible in Contemporary English_ , copyright \u00a9 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.\n\nCopyright \u00a9 2018 by William McDowell\n\nAll rights reserved\n\nCover design by Justin Evans\n\nVisit the author's website at www.williammcdowellmusic.com.\n\nLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:\n\nAn application to register this book for cataloging has been submitted to the Library of Congress.\n\nInternational Standard Book Number: 978-1-62999-500-7\n\nE-book ISBN: 978-1-62999-501-4\nThis book is dedicated to my children, Joshua, Olivia, Caleb, Joy, and the one yet to be revealed. I suspect that throughout history, in every generation, a prevailing thought emerges that God doesn't move the way He used to, but you know otherwise. As you get older, you will flip through the pages of this book and be able to say you were there when this happened. But this outpouring is not limited to a particular place or time. Heaven will always respond to those who are hungry. You can experience what we have seen and more if you will cling to these words written and consistently pursue a relationship with God. No one will be able to convince you that God doesn't move this way, because you were there! May you experience more of God in your future than I ever did.\n\nI am also aware that many in the next generation and others in the years to come will read this book. This book is also dedicated to you. Don't allow anyone to convince you that a move of God is something of the past. You can experience it too. Whatever you do, don't stop until you too can say, \"It's happening!\"\nCONTENTS\n\nAcknowledgments\n\nPrologue\n\nIntroduction: What's Happening?\n\n**Chapter 1** When He Walked Into the Room\n\n**Chapter 2** How's Your Posture?\n\n**Chapter 3** He Hears Your Cry\n\n**Chapter 4** Follow the Pathway\n\n**Chapter 5** It's All About Capacity\u2014How Empty Are You?\n\n**Chapter 6** No Submission, No Power\n\n**Chapter 7** Urgent Anticipation\n\n**Chapter 8** Stay and Wait\n\n**Chapter 9** Contend for the Flames of Revival\n\n**Chapter 10** A Worthy Host\n\n**Chapter 11** He Is Here\u2014Now What Will You Do?\n\n**Chapter 12** Feed the Fire\n\n**Chapter 13** It Happened Because It's Happening\n\n**Chapter 14** Living Stones\n\n**Chapter 15** You Were Born for This\n\nNotes\n\nEndorsements\nACKNOWLEDGMENTS\n\nTO MY WIFE, LaTae, your unwavering commitment, support, and partnership are what allow this ministry to happen. What you do that is unseen allows all that is seen. I love you with all my heart.\n\nJevon Bolden, thank you for your tireless work to help make this book come to life. It was clearly destined to happen this way.\n\nAdrienne Gaines, thank you for your amazing work and incredible patience. You are a true gift to us all.\n\nTo my mom, Pauline McDowell, you have intentionally lived your life in a way that allowed me not only to pursue every dream in my heart but more importantly to pursue God. As a result, it's happening! I'm proud to be a part of your legacy.\n\nTo Caleb Grant, Jason McMullen, and Jerry Bell, you guys inspire, encourage, challenge, and uphold me every day. It is the greatest joy and privilege to walk with you and serve Deeper Fellowship Church with you. This is our story. I just had the privilege of writing about it. I love you brothers dearly!\n\nTo Deeper Fellowship Church, I've never seen a group of people anywhere in the world pursue God the way you do. It's not just a privilege to serve as your pastor; it's an even greater privilege just to be a part of this community. What is happening among us is special. May we never take it for granted. We've only scratched the surface. There's more!\n\nTo my pastor, Bishop Joseph Garlington; Pastor Sam Oye; and every pastor, prophetic voice, and lead worshipper who has sown into this congregation and the atmosphere of our church in a deeply personal way, thank you from my heart and from everyone at Deeper Fellowship Church. The seeds you've sown into us are producing a harvest.\n\nMarcos Perez, we never could have known all those years ago that this is why God connected us, but He did, and it's marvelous.\n\nAnd again to Jason McMullen, this is another part of this unfolding destiny. I'm so happy to be able to work with you on this too!\n\nFinally, Lord, I'm grateful that You would trust me to be one of the stewards of Your move in the earth. My prayer is that my life and these words honor You and bring You glory.\nPROLOGUE\n\n_Father, You've been present in my life in such an amazing way, and it is mind-blowing to me that You continue to show me Your favor. I pray that Your grace will continue and extend in such a way that Your tangible presence will be felt on every page of this book._\n\n_What an amazing God You are that You would desire to dwell among Your people, that You would bless us with the fire of revival, that You would not stay distant and far off. I am undone with the knowledge that, from the foundations of the world, You would create an opportunity for us to get back in right relationship with You so that You can come and be with us._\n\n_The potential for what You will do when we surrender and ask blows my mind. You leave me speechless. I am in awe. My breath is taken away by Your glorious presence and power._\n\n_Lord, cause Your people to be sensitive to what You want to do and say through me and the words in this book. I don't want to say more than what You're saying; I don't want to do more than what You are doing. I only want to do and say what You are doing and saying. So make us sensitive._\n\n_Now, Lord, \"let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O L ORD, my strength, and my redeemer\"_ (Ps. 19:14, KJV).\n\n_You get the glory. Save us. Visit us. Dwell among us. Revive us. In Jesus's name, amen._\nINTRODUCTION\n\nWHAT'S HAPPENING?\n\nJesus told them, \"Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen\u2014the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.\" And he added, \"God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.\"\n\n\u2014MATTHEW 11:4\u20136\n\nIT'S HAPPENING! _W HAT'S_ happening? Something undeniable is stirring in the church. The global body of Christ is talking about the same thing right now. No matter where you go, you cannot escape hearing the word _revival_. I know it may feel like a Christian buzzword because of how we've used it to describe some of our services and gatherings: \"We're going to have a one- (or two- or three-) week revival.\" But I'm not just referring to a temporary series of good services. I'm talking about the legitimate outpouring of the Holy Spirit that many of us have longed to see.\n\nRevival is here, and I assure you _revival_ is not a buzzword. There are people who have gone before us who have prayed and cried and given their lives in intercession for you and me to experience the move of God they never were able to see. And I am here to tell you, it's happening. We've entered into a special time, an amazing season of open heaven, a season that can be defined not by clich\u00e9 or title but by reality. A season of revival is upon us.\n\nIf I were to define _revival_ as the outpouring of the Spirit of God in a place or region, then I can tell you that the things that have happened at our church, Deeper Fellowship in Orlando, Florida, since May 22, 2016, bear hallmarks of every historic revival that has taken place in the past four hundred years. There have been salvations, miraculous healings, and a deep awareness that God is in our midst. Even if you've never been to our church, you should get excited about this because this revival is not limited to our church\u2014it is available to everyone. If it's happening anywhere, it can happen everywhere! You too can encounter Him\u2014and you can be a catalyst for revival.\n\nIt can be hard to believe that what so many have longed and prayed for is actually here. That's why Matthew 11:4\u20136, quoted at the opening of this introduction, is an important encouragement for us to hold on to. In this passage John the Baptist, the prophetic forerunner announcing the message of the kingdom and the arrival of the kingdom man, Jesus, found himself in prison at the hands of King Herod. Scripture says when he was in prison, John heard about the works of Christ, so he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, \"Are You the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?\"\n\nWhat an interesting question when you consider who asked it. John the Baptist was the baby who leaped inside the womb of his mother, Elizabeth, when Mary came to visit while she was pregnant with Jesus. He was the one in the wilderness preaching, \"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand\" (Matt. 3:2, MEV). He was the one of whom Jesus said there was no greater prophet. John was the one baptizing people and proclaiming that one greater than he was coming and that he was not even worthy to untie His sandals. John was the one who recognized Jesus and said, \"Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!\" (John 1:29).\n\nWhen Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized, John tried to prohibit Him, saying, \"I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?\" (Matt. 3:14, NIV). But Jesus told him, \"Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness\" (v. 15, NIV). Only then did John consent. So John also was there when the Spirit descended like a dove and rested on Jesus, and a voice came from heaven saying, \"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased\" (Matt. 3:17, KJV).\n\nJohn the Baptist, the great prophet, preacher, and baptizer, is the one who wanted his disciples to ask Jesus, \"Are You the One, or should we look for another?\" Perhaps as he was sitting in that prison, some doubts began to fill his mind. Maybe he began wondering, \"Is this what life would be like if the Messiah were truly here?\" Maybe he thought things would be different. Perhaps that's how we are when we hear about a move of God happening somewhere. We wonder, \"Is it possible that this is revival, or should we look somewhere else?\" Maybe revival doesn't look the way we thought it would or isn't happening where or how we thought it would take place.\n\nI love how Jesus answered the question John had his disciples ask. Jesus could have simply said, \"Yes, I am the Messiah.\" But He didn't do that. The way Jesus chose to respond would not only answer John but reverberate through all of time.\n\n> Jesus told them, \"Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen\u2014the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.\" And he added, \"God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.\"\n> \n> \u2014MATTHEW 11:4\u20136\n\nBasically Jesus was saying, \"Go back and tell John it's happening. Tell John that what he'd been prophesying, believing, and praying for\u2014the very reason for his call\u2014is happening.\" John never got out of the prison, but he did get out of that prison of doubt. He knew from that moment on, it's happening. And Jesus knew that the same thing that would speak to and encourage John would speak to and encourage us: if it's happening anywhere, it can happen everywhere. Said another way, once it's happening anywhere, it's available everywhere.\n\nMany times when the American church starts to talk about moves of God, we point to the mass salvations and innumerable miracles that happen in South America, West Africa, and Western Europe and lament that those things aren't happening in abundance here. However, whenever you hear about a move of God anywhere, that's the time to get excited because it's an indication that the same thing is available to anyone who will posture himself to receive it. Miracles are breaking out. Undeniable encounters with God are taking place. The presence of God is being tangibly felt. The power of God is present. The people of God are passionately pursuing Him. It's happening!\n\nLET THE RIVERS OF GOD FLOW\n\nI initially did not want to call what we had begun to witness and experience a revival because I didn't want to brand or market a cluster of services as such a divine moment. Everything we have experienced we carry with reverence and honor because we recognize we have not done anything to bring it. But we could do something that causes it to leave. We are recipients of what some theologians call the scandal of particularity, which is all about God asserting His sovereign decision to reveal Himself in a place or to a people simply because He wants to. The only thing we can say about what's happening among us specifically is that God made a sovereign decision to show us favor.\n\nYet we hold an awareness that like the sensitivity of the Spirit of God, revival can go as suddenly as it came. Our respect for this season, or lack thereof, can sustain or repel the move of God, so we've been very careful to carry it with reverential fear. For this reason we renamed our services \"rivers.\" Based on the truth that everything we do should follow God's leading, we have submitted our services to the flow of what He is doing. We do not control the moments. We do not determine how everything will go.\n\nThis setup may not work for everyone. We live in a society that sorely longs to be in control of everything. It's so easy to try to control God or micromanage what we think He can do down to the smallest detail. Across the country, in almost every church in America, we've become really good at attempting to manage the flow of God. We've become really good at programming church to the point that we plan months ahead the experience people are going to have with each clever sermon series and corresponding worship set.\n\nPlease understand, I am not against systems or systematic thinking\u2014not at all. What I am against is anything that presupposes that we can control God, because He cannot be controlled. We've learned that in the river of God there cannot be boats with oars. In order to be in the river of God, we must throw down our oars and put up our sails!\n\nThe whole point of a revival is for the church to be awakened to the reality, presence, and power of God and for our hearts to be turned to Him. There are people\u2014it might start as a remnant people\u2014who are saying: \"Jesus, we want You more than we want anything else. We don't want programs. We want You. And we'll stay as long as it takes. We'll get as loud as we need to get. We'll get on our faces. We'll cry out and let our tears water the seed that we have sown.\" We will see this revival because it is a revival of people who want Jesus.\n\n_One of the greatest tragedies that could ever exist is that the prayers of the saints who have gone before us and who cried and cried out for revival be wasted on a complacent and comfortable church._\n\nOne of the greatest tragedies that could ever exist is that the prayers of the saints who have gone before us and who cried and cried out for revival be wasted on a complacent and comfortable church. Many, I'm sure, cried out for things yet not seen that we have the opportunity to see. We must resist the notion to become a \"What can You do for me?\" church and lean in to what it takes to be passionately on fire for God and filled with His presence to the point that it overflows and affects people everywhere we go. We must refuse to miss this moment.\n\nAs of the writing of this book, Deeper Fellowship has been experiencing a tremendous move of God for more than a year. We have seen more than two hundred miracles of physical healing in addition to deliverance, supernatural breakthrough, and salvation. We've begun to grow quite a collection at our altar of unusable crutches, wheelchairs, and other medical devices because people are being healed at each river.\n\nWe've never had a so-called \"healing service.\" We have prayed for some people, but many were healed just by being in the presence of God. Some of the miracles we've seen have boggled the minds of medical experts around the country and have set historical records. We've seen cancer healed, tumors disappear, and the effects of strokes reversed. Wheelchairs have been emptied, walkers discarded, deaf ears opened, blindness reversed, rheumatoid arthritis healed, lupus healed multiple times, and carpal tunnel syndrome healed. I was even healed of gout.\n\nOne lady in our church, Ms. Pam, used to be partially paralyzed due to a stroke and needed a walker. Now she jumps up and down at the front of the platform during worship! We've seen a partially brain dead baby who doctors said would never smile, talk, or eat on her own instantly healed. One of the most amazing testimonies, or what we call \"stories of the river,\" is when our executive pastor's wife and seven of their nine children were healed of a brain-eating amoeba. I'll share more about that later in this book. All I can tell you is it's happening!\n\nEvery time I sit down to write about what God has done, more miracles have happened. There are so many testimonies it's just impossible for me to include them all. That's why the title of this book is _It's Happening_ and not _It Happened_ , because the stories of the river just keep flowing. We marvel at what we've seen God do. Some of our members had never experienced or been part of a move of God like this before. There's been such a level of awe. We are astounded. And we want more.\n\nA LONG TIME COMING\n\nWhat God is doing in our midst has been a long time coming. I began to experience this hunger for revival back in 1998 after my pastor at the time suggested that I read Tommy Tenney's book _The God Chasers_. After reading the first chapter or two, I put the book down, went to my room, and began to cry out to God to have an encounter with Him\u2014and I wasn't going to leave until I had one! From that moment on I earnestly cried out for revival to break out somewhere I was. I wanted to see it. I wanted to be there. I wanted to experience it. I wanted to have that kind of encounter with God, and I was desperate to get it. I prayed and cried, and cried and prayed, but I wasn't seeing it.\n\nI would go to church with what I'll call a frustrated anticipation. I lived with the expectation that any service could be _the_ service where it would happen. I prayed for it, and I constantly looked for it. I'd see a couple of on-fire people here or there, but there never seemed to be an entire church that pursued God and didn't care what time the service let out. In the prayer gatherings held at my mom's house, where I stayed at the time, I would see glimpses of what could be. A group of friends would come over with no agenda but to seek God. At those gatherings we sought God intensely. Incidentally it was during those times of worship and prayer that my sensitivity to the voice of God grew and I learned how to host His presence. My longing led me through lonely times, isolation, ridicule, and being called weird. Still I prayed because I was determined to see revival.\n\nI didn't recognize that my prayers were setting me up for my life. I also didn't realize that when I was asking God to bring forth a generation that wanted revival as badly as I did, He would lead me into covenant with the members at Deeper. Fast-forward twenty years, and now Deeper is three years old publicly and six years old for those of us who've been part of the core group. For the first three years we met as a small group in my living room. Throughout those first three years we had one specific prayer: we wanted to see a move of God. Our first official act as a group was to take a map of the city of Orlando and put our tears on it. I still have that map at my house. We wept over our city and asked God for revival. God heard our cries, and He is responding. When I cry now, my tears often come because I am beginning to see what I have prayed for. It's happening! Since May 22, 2016, we've used that phrase as an encouragement to one another, recognizing that God is doing what He said He would do.\n\nGET YOUR HOPES UP\n\nAfter not seeing God move mightily in the church in America for so long, the door of disappointment has been opened, and a spirit of skepticism has entered. It has changed our faith-filled speech to doubt-filled discourse. Our spirits bear witness to this defeating spirit that causes us to say, \"Don't get my hopes up. Don't talk to me about my dreams. Don't talk to me about my potential. I've made peace with disappointment.\" But that is exactly what the word of the Lord comes to do. The word of the Lord comes to awaken the hope inside you to cause you to fall out of agreement with disappointment and align with hope. Your days of disappointment are over; your season of manifestation is here.\n\nPerhaps you were once active in your local church, serving on the worship team and maybe the prayer team. Maybe you were part of groups that prayed for the move of God to come to your church or city, but after years of praying, it seemed nothing was happening. Maybe you cried out before God in the privacy of your home, where no one else could see. What if I told you that not one word of your prayers and not one tear from your eyes went without response? The seeds you've sown in the past are going to manifest now. You are going to receive a harvest for seeds you have forgotten you have sown.\n\nIf you had been praying before but stopped, I want to encourage you to do it again. Maybe you've fasted already. Do it again. You've already walked the floor at night, contending with God for a visitation. Do it again. I know you've cried already. Do it again. Why? Because revival didn't happen the first time.\n\nWe live in a generation whose mantra is \"If at first you don't succeed, give up and try it a different way.\" It doesn't work that way with God. God answers persistence. Some of you have given up because the revival didn't happen when you thought it should have. But what if you gave up too soon?\n\nGod is looking for people who have a persistent faith, an unwavering, unshakable faith; people who will say to God, \"You did it before; You can do it again.\" There is a revival coming to the United States of America. I've seen it. We are in a season of manifestation, and it is going to be attached to those who are willing to do whatever God requires again and again and again until something happens!\n\nLEAVING ROOM FOR RESPONSE\n\nOne of the things that I think are important in considering an atmosphere that is ripe for revival is our response to what God is doing. How we respond to God is connected to the results we receive while He is near. In 2 Kings 6 and 7 there was a great famine in Samaria, and Elisha prophesied its sudden end. But the officer assisting the king resisted the word, saying the famine couldn't end as Elisha said even if God opened the windows of heaven. Well, the next day everything Elisha prophesied came to pass. The king's officer saw it happen, but he didn't experience it, all because he didn't believe the word and act accordingly.\n\nOur response to the word of the Lord determines our experience and results. At the end of each chapter in this book I have created an invitation for you to look into your heart and see what you need to do to be in the right posture to receive what God is wanting to do in the earth in this season. I am calling it \"Respond.\"\n\n_Your response to the word of the Lord determines your results._\n\nIn this section you may be led to pray, search your heart, or take some other action. God is calling you out of your comfort zone, out of yourself and your comforts, out of the norm. Your response to Him determines how He will respond in your home, your community, the nation, and the world. It is an exchange: we pray; God responds. Our response to God determines what we will experience.\n\nWILL YOU JOIN US?\n\nOn the Friday night after our church's dramatic encounter with the Lord on May 22, 2016, I was ministering to our young adults when I realized I was entering the middle of my life and I had been praying for a move of God for almost half of my life. Now that we are seeing it manifest, I am not going to waste time doing programmed and predictable church. I am going to water that seed with my tears. I want to see a revival hit this nation, not just my church, and I don't care how much the best church-growth strategists say people won't come. I'm not moved by how many people come to Deeper or how long our services last. We stay until He's finished.\n\nThe multitudes would stay all day with Jesus because things happened in His presence. I don't know about you, but I know I need Him. I want Him. And I will not stop until I see revival across the nation and around the world. I am going to weep for it, cry out for it, pray for it, fast for it, wait for it, and live in anticipation of it. What are you willing to do to see it come?\n\nPeople will talk about you and make fun of you. That's OK. They are going to say you're weird and crazy. That's OK. You know why? Because they need revival. They are just not willing to do whatever it takes to get it. But if they stay around you long enough, they will ride on your coattails, and that's OK. Some of us want Him; all of us need Him. Revival does not need everyone for it to spread. Just a remnant crying out for God will get heaven's attention.\n\nGod assembled Deeper, bringing us together for a divine purpose, and now He has released something through our little corner warehouse church. People stand in line outside to get in. Why? Because they know it's happening. And now that it's happened with us, we are believing the fire will spread to you.\n\nIt's happening. And if it's happening anywhere, it can happen everywhere!\nCHAPTER 1\n\nWHEN HE WALKED INTO THE ROOM\n\nAt the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary . . . \"When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.\"\n\n\u2014LUKE 1:41\u201345\n\nI WRITE DOWN many of the things the Lord has done in our midst, just for the sake of memory. One day as I was writing some things down, the presence of the Lord began to fill the room. I was overwhelmed and unable to keep my composure as I thought about all I have seen. What is happening in this season is precious. God is giving us a moment, an opportunity, an invitation to experience and encounter Him\u2014to go all in. The Lord wants to do something greater than anything we've experienced before. Can you imagine what would happen if we gave Him room to do it?\n\nI have been on a search for something nearly my entire life. I grew up in church. I was the kid who played church at home. At first, it was the music that kept me interested because I was a very musical child. I still am very musical. In fact, most people first encountered my ministry through my worship leading. The music was so good at my church that I actually didn't want to go to children's church when I was a little kid. In those days children's church was basically something to keep us occupied until we got old enough for the adult service. That was where it was happening. Back then gospel recording artist Donald Lawrence was our minister of music. If you are familiar with his ministry, then you can see why I wanted to be with the adults.\n\nBy the time I was nine or ten years old, it wasn't only the music that kept my attention. I also started listening to the messages. I started to feel as if there was more to this church thing than good music. You may wonder how a ten-year-old would think like this, but it was the Holy Spirit planting a seed in my spirit. I had no frame of reference to know there was something more. I just knew there was.\n\nWhen I was ten years old, my mother went on a business trip to Los Angeles and came back filled with the Holy Spirit. She visited Crenshaw Christian Center and was exposed to things we had never experienced. We were Baptist, and supernatural stuff such as healing, the gifts of the Spirit, and signs and wonders wasn't really discussed at our church. Now, don't get me wrong; the gospel was preached, and people were getting saved. But there is more to our spiritual existence, and even at ten years old I was getting hungry for it.\n\nThe next time my mother went to California, she took me with her. It was my spring break, and we had a full itinerary\u2014Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios, and some other must-see places. We had great fun. But she also made sure to take me to the church where she had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I saw things I had never seen before. I heard things I had never heard before. I saw people encounter God and become weak and unable to stand because of the weight of His presence\u2014what some believers call being \"slain in the Spirit.\" On one side of the room people were being prayed for, and on the other side of the room people were falling down because they could feel what was happening on the other side of the room. You can imagine that as a ten-year-old I was scared to death.\n\nI heard people speaking and singing in other languages and in unknown tongues. That scared me too, but I wanted it.\n\nThen someone said, \"We're going to pray for healing, so if you're sick in your body, come up.\" At that time I dealt with really bad asthma. I had even been hospitalized once. My mother, who served on the board of the American Lung Association of Southwest Ohio, had been putting all her efforts into finding a cure for it. So she said, \"Go up there. Go.\"\n\nBut after all I had seen at the church that day\u2014people falling out for what I thought was no reason\u2014I thought, \"No way.\" Then I saw that she was crying. Through her tears she said, \"I believe that if you'll just go, you'll be healed.\" Literally weeping, she pleaded again, \"Please. Go.\"\n\nUnderstand that this was happening in the 1980s, before Christian TV was as widespread as it is today, so not many people were exposed to this kind of thing. This was unfamiliar territory for me.\n\nIt was a midweek service. I remember going up for prayer, but I don't actually remember what happened after that. I do know this: I don't suffer from asthma anymore. We went back on Sunday, and I had to go to children's church there because they didn't allow children in the main service. However, I was filled with the Holy Spirit in their children's church. After spending one week in California and attending two church services, I had experienced the presence of God in a brand-new way, and I was marked for life. Since that time when I was ten, I have not been the same.\n\nBECOMING A GOD CHASER\n\nTwo years later we found ourselves in a church where there was a full-on outpouring of the Holy Spirit. People would stand outside in line for more than an hour in sub-zero temperatures, waiting to get in. Why? Because God was there. But after a while people became comfortable and complacent. If we aren't intentional, we can easily lose our awe of God and set up camp in the land of comfort. Whenever this happens, whenever we take the move of God for granted, things will change. Eventually our church went back to normal. But the hunger and fire in me continued to burn.\n\nSeveral years later a pastor and mentor of mine came up to me and said, \"Hey, why don't you read this book?\" He was holding a copy of _The God Chasers_ by Tommy Tenney. The message and testimonies in that book moved me from saying, \"I want that,\" to being obsessed with possessing the kingdom. I longed to know and be known by God and to pursue Him until I experienced Him in a profound and tangible way. He was who I wanted.\n\nI've had moments in my life when I've seen God move, but they were fleeting. I've been in services where His presence was intense, but eventually things returned to normal, as if the amazing service didn't even happen. I've been at restaurants where a simple conversation turned into a deep awareness of God's presence because He sat down in the booth with us. But the people in those restaurants went back to normal, and their fire seemed to be extinguished. I've been with friends, preparing to eat a meal, and the blessing turned into a God encounter that left us all on the floor before God. As a worship leader, I've led worship during times when no one knew what to say or do because we all were arrested by the presence of God. I've also seen moments like those dishonored because something else was on a program.\n\nHave you experienced what I'm talking about? If so, do you still cry out? Do you still burn for God? Do you still want Him more than anything? I know I do.\n\nI have never lost my cry. We planted our church with this cry. We want to see a move of God. We want to see it grow beyond the seven hundred to eight hundred people who gather together in a corner warehouse. We want to see it spread to our city, state, nation, and world. God is moving powerfully among us. He is moving in you. Do you want more?\n\nTHE DAY MY BABY LEAPED\n\nThere are many different ways people become aware that God is planning to visit His church. The great revivalists and prophets of old had visions, dreams, and angelic visitations that let them know God was near. That's not what happened with me. I felt my baby leap.\n\nIt was 2001, a couple of years after I had read _The God Chasers_. At that time I was traveling as the music director and keyboardist for worship leader Ron Kenoly. We were ministering in South Bend, Indiana, at the church Lester Sumrall once pastored. I don't remember anything specific about the service that night, but what God did in me after our time of ministry I will remember for the rest of my life.\n\nBefore the night of worship began, I had a conversation with Lester Sumrall's grandson. I remember us talking about the move of God we wanted to see in our generation. After the night of worship was over, we were standing in the parking lot, continuing to talk about the future move of God we were so desperate to see. As we were talking, I felt the strangest sensation. I physically felt something move inside of me. I had never felt anything like it in my entire life, and honestly it startled me. What happened next startled me even more. The person I was talking with said, \"Dude, did you feel that?\"\n\n\"Feel what?\" I said, even though I had felt something. He said, \"Did your baby just leap?\" I had never felt anything like it in my life, but in that moment I knew that's what had just happened, so I had to acknowledge it.\n\nI've not birthed any babies, obviously, but there is no other way to describe the leap I felt in my body that day. The Bible indicates that this leaping is symbolic of God's confirming that He hears our prayers and is answering them.\n\nIn Luke 1 Gabriel went to Zechariah and said, \"God has heard your prayer\" (v. 13). His prayer was for a child. Zechariah and Elizabeth were barren, and they were old. But God gave them John the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb and became a forerunner of Christ.\n\nSix months into Elizabeth's pregnancy Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she had been chosen to carry the Messiah. Mary and Elizabeth were relatives, and a few days after her angelic visitation, Mary went to visit Elizabeth. As they greeted each other, the Bible says the baby inside Elizabeth leaped for joy. After coming in contact with Jesus, after coming in contact with what was on the inside of Mary, John leaped, as if he were saying, \"My reason for living has just arrived.\"\n\nThis is what happened to my friend and me that day. Jesus walked into our conversation and confirmed to us that we were going in the right direction toward our purpose, toward having our hunger for Him satisfied and our thirst quenched. Just as it was with Elizabeth, my baby leaped when Jesus walked in. The desire God placed in me as a ten-year-old was alive. That leaping sensation was an announcement from heaven that God was coming to dwell among us\u2014that I would see what I had been praying for.\n\nMy entire life has been lived to intentionally position myself for the day when God would walk in the room. Every service I led, every sermon I preached, every song I sang anywhere in the world was in anticipation of the moment God Himself would come and visit with us. The only thing I asked was, \"God, let me be there. Let me see it. Let me be in the room when it happens.\" And He answered my prayer on May 22, 2016.\n\nTHE DAY _I T_ HAPPENED\n\nIt was a Sunday morning, and I woke up between 5:30 and 6:00, as I did every Sunday, to pray and spend time with the Lord to prepare my spirit for the day. I always look forward to our worship gatherings because our church is filled with people who are pursuing an encounter with God. The service began like most others, but during the worship I began to feel unease in my spirit. It wasn't because something was wrong. I just had a sense that something more was supposed to happen, but I didn't know what.\n\nI preached the message God had given me, but even when the service was over, I still had that uneasy feeling, and I didn't know why. Uneasy is the best way I can describe it. It felt like a mixture of nervous energy, anticipation of the unknown, and uncertainty about what to do next. We have two services, which we call River 1 and River 2, and between the two I remember saying to my best friend Caleb, who is the associate pastor at Deeper, \"I feel like God wants to do more or say something different from what I preached, and I'm not sure what it is yet.\" I asked him to handle the transition to the second service so I could press in to God to see what He wanted to do. As we began to worship for River 2, that uneasy feeling would not leave me. In fact, it intensified. The closer it came to my time to preach, the more intense the feeling became. But I still did not have a sense of what God wanted me to say or do.\n\nThen, right before I got up to speak, it happened. The baby leaped again! I experienced the exact sensation I had felt sixteen years earlier. I hadn't experienced anything like it since that day in South Bend, but there it was. Suddenly I began to weep uncontrollably. As I stood in front of the entire congregation weeping, I thought I should attempt to explain what I'd just felt, knowing how foolish it would sound for a man to explain to everyone that his baby had just leaped. Through my tears I tried my best to tell them what had happened sixteen years earlier, and while I was talking, other people began to weep. My friend Caleb, who knew what had happened to me sixteen years before, looked at me from the front row and said, \"It's happening.\"\n\nWhat happened next is hard to fully explain. What began with me weeping uncontrollably suddenly swept through the entire room. Without prompting or a single word spoken, people began to rush to the front of the church, falling on their knees, weeping and crying out to God. It wasn't just a few; it was the majority of the room. Nobody gave an altar call. There was no human catalyst to prompt that moment. It wasn't a response to what I preached because I couldn't even speak. It wasn't a response to a song because nothing was being sung at the time. The Lord walked into the room, and everyone knew it at the same time. Everyone felt it at the same time. Everyone was aware, and no one could do anything but weep.\n\nWe stayed there and wept in the presence of God for literally hours. The service that began at 11:30 a.m. continued until 3:30 p.m. officially, but people stayed beyond that time. I remember thinking at one point while I was there crying that none of the first-time visitors would ever come back. Imagine the story afterward.\n\n\"So how was Deeper Fellowship?\"\n\n\"Well, the pastor got up and said he could feel a baby inside of him, and then he started crying, and then everyone started crying, and they kept crying for hours.\"\n\nI thought, \"What must those who have yet to surrender their lives to Christ be thinking?\" The pastor part of me was thinking those things, but the one who had been crying out for this my entire life couldn't stop the moment. Being concerned in the back of my mind about what people would think almost caused me to make a huge mistake.\n\n_Genuine encounters with God change you._\n\nI looked at the clock and decided to give those who wanted to leave a safe exit. I stood up and gave a soft dismissal, but I didn't offer an invitation for salvation. Immediately the Holy Spirit convicted me and reminded me about the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, when the promised Holy Spirit came. You can imagine the many things that must have been happening when the sound of a mighty windstorm could be heard throughout the room and what looked like tongues of fire appeared and people began to speak in other languages. Some thought they were drunk. Scripture says Peter gave prophetic context to what was happening, and that day three thousand people went from confusion to conversion.\n\nAs some people were leaving, I stood up and said, \"Wait! If you have been here this entire time and haven't left, it is because you are clearly looking for Christ, and He is here now. If you want to surrender to Him, now is your opportunity.\" To my surprise people literally began to run to the front of the church to surrender to Christ. A service with no preaching that had gone on for hours with uncontrollable weeping left numerous people saying, \"I want in on this.\"\n\nThat was the day everything changed for me and for our church. What we experienced wasn't a one-time occurrence but rather a life-altering change. It's hard to prove biblically that you've had an encounter with God without change. Genuine encounters with God change you. When I went home that day, I didn't even want to speak. I didn't want to do anything that would cause my awareness of Him and His nearness to change.\n\nI called my friend Caleb the next day because I could still tangibly feel the presence of God, and when he answered, he was still in that place as well. All we could do on the phone was weep. As I am writing this now, I've had to stop and weep. It was such a holy moment that even talking about it brings me right back to that experience.\n\nI spent that entire week essentially in a place of solitude and reverence because of our encounter. The following Friday I was scheduled to minister to our young adults, and as I went to prepare my notes, once again I began to weep uncontrollably in my home. I fell to my knees in worship with the keen awareness that God likely wasn't going to use my notes. The Lord spoke to me and said He was going to show up during the service. My only instruction was to talk until He came. After the icebreaker and the time of worship was complete, I sat on a chair in front of our young adults, knowing what the Lord had spoken to me but not knowing how or when He would come, so I just started talking.\n\nI started sharing my journey with God and part of my testimony, and then suddenly it happened. He came, and we all knew it at the same time. We began to weep and worship. This went on for hours. I remember thinking, \"There is nothing else for me to say or do.\" The very presence of the Lord was there. We laugh about it today, but I attempted to give the service over to my friend Caleb, who also happens to be the young adults pastor. Yet through his weeping\u2014the most tears you can imagine someone having\u2014he strained to say, \"I can't!\" He was literally unable to do anything but weep. I understood because that's exactly how I and everyone else in the room were feeling. We were unable to speak or sing or do anything but weep because of the presence of the Lord. The young adults service, which began at 7:30 p.m., ended at 3:30 a.m. During the eight hours we spent in the presence of the Lord, it felt as if time were suspended. We've never been the same since. We refuse to go back to the way life was before.\n\nMy pastor, Bishop Joseph Garlington, had visited our church previously and prophesied to us that divine interruptions were coming. So _it_ \u2014the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the divine interruption, the divine invitation\u2014happened. The opening of the floodgates, the realization of an open heaven, the discovery of our cry, the reason for our tears\u2014it happened. God made an announcement to us. He confirmed that it's alive\u2014what He placed in me, in us, and in you is alive. Do you know what they call it? Revival.\n\nSIGNS OF REVIVAL\n\nSince that day I have been researching revivals that have broken out over the last four centuries. I've done this for several reasons. There's a part of our church culture in the West that causes us to want to brand a string of good services as \"revival.\" Because what God did was so sudden, I wanted to make sure we didn't prematurely call what we were seeing revival. As a result, we began to say, \"It's happening.\" And it was and is.\n\nBut I discovered something more. As of this moment every sign I have read about that marked the revivals that have taken place in the last four centuries\u2014salvation, repentance, healings\u2014has happened and is happening in our church. The only exception is we have not seen the effects on social systems in the area that marked the Welsh revival\u2014lowered crime rates, fewer police officers, increased economic status, and the like. God is big, and He's just getting started, so I won't rule that out. Yet and still, outside of the Welsh Revival every other historic revival in the last four centuries has included what we are seeing.\n\nThis is revival.\n\nYou may not have been at my church the day \"it\" happened. Most likely you weren't there, because only a few hundred of us were in the room. But the thing I've learned about revival, which I will share more about later, is that if God is doing something anywhere in the world, the heavens are ripe for Him to do it everywhere. What He is doing for us He will do for you\u2014He may have already started doing it. When God pours out His Spirit, the experience is not exclusive. Joel 2:28 says He will pour His Spirit out on all flesh. So I challenge you to allow that old desire for more of God to come alive again. Let the hope of a fresh outpouring for all nations and people come alive in you again.\n\n_The thing I've learned about revival is that if God is doing something anywhere in the world, the heavens are ripe for Him to do it everywhere. What He is doing for us He will do for you._\n\nWe never could have calculated when God would literally walk in the room and sit with us. We never could have prepared ourselves for that moment. But we were empty containers. We held on to the prayers of those who had died without seeing what they had prayed for come to pass. We hoped against hope, and hope did not disappoint. He gave us the desire of our hearts. He gave us Himself. Now we contend for the atmosphere to remain open and receptive to His presence. And He has been teaching us what it will take to see that happen.\n\nRESPOND\n\nI have a question for you: What is all this worth to you\u2014the presence, revival, God's power demonstrated, His blessings manifested, the outpouring of His Spirit? What are the hundreds of years of people crying day after day and night after night for revival, yet never seeing it come to pass, worth to you? Is it worth enough for you to go after it? I am going to level with you: pursuing God is an inconvenient, uncomfortable mission, but it is a priceless, eternal possession when you attain it, like the treasure hidden in the field. (See Matthew 13:44\u201346.) The man in that parable sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field\u2014that's how valuable the treasure was to him.\n\nWe're being invited to take a risk to buy the field with the buried treasure. Not everybody will go in on this one. There are a whole lot of people who have decided revival costs too much, and they are unwilling to go through what it takes and give up everything to possess it. Maybe you want to bargain as the rich young ruler did in Matthew 19:16\u201330. Maybe you want to see how you can keep everything you have and get God. Jesus says you can't.\n\nGod requires everything, and His movement in our lives depends on our level of surrender and our capacity to be filled with His Spirit. Giving up everything leaves room for the greatest amount of His power to become active in your life. What is that worth to you? If you want to see and be part of the next greatest move of God and you want it so badly that you are willing to do whatever it takes to see it, I invite you to pray this prayer with me:\n\n> _Father, give me the courage to buy the field. There's a treasure in it, and I want it. I want what You have for me, my family, my church, my city, and my nation. I release everything to You that is holding me back from seeing You move. The treasure I seek is You, and nothing else will satisfy me. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen._\nCHAPTER 2\n\nHOW'S YOUR POSTURE?\n\nSINCE GOD WALKED in, all we've wanted to do is maintain the right position to keep Him here. We call it posture. Posture is the attitude\u2014mental or spiritual\u2014people develop, usually in response to how external forces affect their internal world.\n\nWhen I was growing up, my mom, my aunts, church mothers, and other elders were always telling us kids, \"Fix your posture.\" They knew the deal. Posture is attitude. You know grown folks don't like when young people have attitudes. Posture is about disposition.\n\nWhat is your posture before God? What is your spiritual attitude? My posture before the Lord is waiting. My posture before the Lord is honor. My posture before the Lord is crying out to Him. My posture before the Lord is making room for Him. All these things communicate to God that we respond to His invitation with an eternal yes and eagerly anticipate what He wants to release in the earth.\n\nNow, before we go further, there's something I need to clarify: posture is not about working for the blessing of God or working to make something happen. We don't have to do that. God shows up in encounters of His choosing, not ours. By definition an encounter is a surprise or unexpected meeting. In other words, it's planned by someone else. All we can do is continue to position ourselves for encounters with God. If we do try to make something happen, we'll look up one day and find ourselves talking about what _was_ instead of what _is_ , trying to carry something emotionally and in our own strength because God is not breathing on it. The Lord is inviting us to a place where we can partner with Him and what He wants to do in our homes, our churches and cities, our nation, and the world. He is just looking for people who have the right posture.\n\nThere are nine postures the Lord revealed to us in the early days of His movement. Many of these will be discussed throughout the book, so I will introduce them only briefly. But they will be here for you to see all in one place, and you can come back to them as many times as you need to as the Lord increases your hunger for Him.\n\n1. WAITING\n\nIn Acts 1:4\u20135 Jesus told His followers, \"Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.\" Most teach from the perspective that there were only 120 people in this group, but a further look tells us there were actually five hundred. (See Matthew 28:18\u201320; 1 Corinthians 15:6.) At the time when the Holy Spirit came in like a rushing wind (Acts 2:2), there were only the 120. What happened to the other 380?\n\n_Some of us rebuke the devil when it's not the devil at all. It's God using that circumstance to cause us to seek Him._\n\nAnything could have caused them to change their posture from the \"stay and wait\" position in which Jesus asked them to remain. Those who stayed received the promise. They refused to settle for a secondhand experience. They waited until they saw what had been promised. They took the posture of \"God, I'm not leaving until . . .\"\n\n2. DESPERATION\n\nThis posture can show up in two ways: divine desperation and desperation by frustration. The difference between divine desperation and desperation by frustration is the recognition of one's need for God. Each of these postures of desperation will lead you to a different place. Desperation by frustration is birthed out of exasperation or frustration and will lead you to do anything in search of relief, even if what you do is without God. This posture is best seen in the life of King Saul. (See 1 Samuel 28.) After the prophet Samuel died, Saul was no longer able to hear from God since he had never developed a prophetic relationship with Him. The Philistine army was forming against Israel, and Saul was desperate for a word, so he sought out the witch of Endor. His actions led to the kingdom being stripped from him and his murder.\n\nThe posture of divine desperation, on the other hand, leads you to a fuller awareness of your need for God. This desperation comes from God. He places longings, and sometimes circumstances or situations, in our lives that cause us to seek Him. There are some of us who rebuke the devil when it's not the devil at all. It's God using that circumstance to cause us to seek Him. In Jeremiah 29:4\u201312 we see where the Lord orchestrated the events surrounding Israel's seventy-year Babylonian captivity to cause them to seek and desire Him once again. He led them into a desperate circumstance, but He also promised that when they recognized their need for Him again, He would hear their prayers and deliver them.\n\n3. CRYING\n\nGod is looking for a people who will literally cry out to Him and allow their tears to water their spiritual seed so the harvest can come. The story of Jacob paints a good picture of how a posture of crying will position you for a life-altering encounter with God.\n\nJacob's story is familiar to many people. He's the one who cried out, \"I won't let go until You bless me!\" He's the one who wrestled with God and won. But how can a man wrestle pound for pound with God and win? Let's think about that. We can't really wrestle with God and win. I mean, God just took His finger, touched Jacob lightly on the hip, and maimed him for life. We can't wrestle God. The truth is God didn't want Jacob to let Him go. So then how did Jacob get what He wanted? The answer is not found in Genesis 32, where we read of how Jacob wrestled with God. It's found in Hosea 12:4:\n\n> Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him. There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him.\n\nJacob wrestled with the angel and won because of his tears. Days after the encounter I called Pastor Caleb, and as we talked on the phone, we both began to weep. We could barely speak because the presence of God was overwhelming. That Friday as I prepared for the young adults service, I sat in my room, weeping for two hours. Then that night during the service, God did it again, and the Deeper young adults stayed until 2:30 in the morning, weeping. If you recall the times when you felt God so close, didn't you weep too?\n\nWhen this happens, we are contending with God. Crying out to God shows that we are no longer trying to figure things out on our own. The only way we're going to see what we've been praying for is if we weep. If we will be a people who will weep, who will cry out to God, I guarantee that we will be at the epicenter of the next revival.\n\n4. PRAYER\n\nPrayer is ultimately a declaration of our dependence on God. It's a dialogue between God and man. It's the reserved seat in the heavenly realms from which we affect things in the earth. Therefore, it is an ideal posture for one who is praying for God to move upon the earth.\n\nWhat we must be careful of is to not allow our prayers and declarations to become self-centered. Sometimes in the church our beliefs are self-centered, and what we pray about, think about, talk about, and believe God for usually has something to do with us.\n\nBut this may be where another posture overlaps: often desperation leads to intercession, where you begin to pray for those who are unaware of their need for God. Your prayers change from \"God, _I_ need You\" to \"God, _we_ need You.\" Desperate people don't just cry out for themselves. They begin to look at the hopelessness and the state of the world around them, and they begin to say, \"God, we need revival.\"\n\nPrayer is at the center of much of what we do at Deeper. We have a prayer call at 7:00 a.m. and another one at 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Right now there are more than 150 of us who get on that call and assume the posture of prayer. Prayer helps us keep momentum. We all stand on the prayers of past generations. The revivals that break out are a result of past prayers. Our posture of prayer now will keep those prayers alive.\n\n_Desperate people don't just cry out for themselves. They begin to look at the hopelessness and the state of the world around them, and they begin to say, \"God, we need revival.\"_\n\nWhen you have experienced a special visitation from God, in order to see that moment turn into something that will outlast you, you must continue to do what got you there. In a later chapter we are going to talk about how to create the window through which God's presence will shower down upon us continually. We will talk about how the Bible instructs us to pray for more rain in the season of rain. Do not let it dry up. Keep praying for God to invade every space and fill us with His presence.\n\nDuring this outpouring the gifts of prophecy, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom have been alive and active in our midst. We fully embrace these gifts and can directly testify to how the Lord has moved time and time again in incredibly accurate ways as a result of these things.\n\nFirst Corinthians 14:24\u201325 says: \"But if all prophesy and there comes in one who does not believe or one unlearned, he is convinced by all and judged by all. Thus the secrets of his heart are revealed. And so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you\" (MEV). We saw this happen among us one Sunday morning.\n\nI stood up to preach, but the spirit of prophecy was very strong, and many words of knowledge were given and released that day. At one point I specifically heard the Lord say, \"Watch for the day of the Walmart miracle.\" So I told the church, \"The Lord says, 'Watch for the day of the Walmart miracle.'\" Then I expounded on the word and said that someone was going to go into a Walmart and have a divine encounter.\n\nAs I was speaking, a tall, slender gentleman whom I had not previously seen at our church came forward looking as if he had seen a ghost. He had been in Walmart that morning and had encountered one of our faithful members, who invited him and his girlfriend to come to church that morning. He'd had an encounter with God during the service and was weeping uncontrollably.\n\nCaleb, our young adults pastor, then began to prophesy to him, revealing what his life was like in the past and the word of the Lord for his future. This young man surrendered his life to Christ in that moment\u2014and it just so happens that he and his girlfriend were both Muslims. First Corinthians 14:25 happened right then and there. Two people literally fell on their faces, worshipped God, and said by their actions, \"God is truly among you.\" It's happening!\n\n5. WORSHIP\n\nWe are in a generation obsessed with gaining knowledge about worship. Today there are likely more books about worship and worship songs than at any other time in history. We know the lingo, we know the stage placement, our musicianship is impeccable, but where are our hearts? Our external expressions in worship should reflect our internal posture; otherwise we are not giving God worship. We're only performing. The acts of worship without repentance\u2014another posture\u2014merely become rituals.\n\nJesus said it to the woman at the well: there's coming a time when God will be looking for a people who will be honest with Him. He is not looking for ritual and form. He is looking for the heart.\n\nOur true posture in worship is tested when our humanity encounters God's divinity. Worship acknowledges one greater than we are. Our posture during and after encounters with God reveals much about our hearts. When we don't worship from a place of self-denial, we can become prideful and think we can come up with some formula to invoke God's presence. That's not how worship works. Worship is a pathway, an invitation from God to be positioned for encounters with Him.\n\nEncounters are of His choosing, not ours, but worship positions us for them. God is not in our presence; we are in His presence. This is key to our understanding of the posture of worship. It is an honor to be in the presence of the Lord. When the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord in the year King Uzziah died, he was completely undone by what he experienced. The realization of humanity encountering divinity caused him to say, \"Woe is me! For I am undone\" (Isa. 6:5, MEV). He immediately recognized his frailty in relation to the holiness of God.\n\nThe amazing thing is that God allowed him to experience that vision in order to invite him into His plan. It was a God-given encounter that allowed Isaiah to glimpse the worship happening in heaven. God exposed him to His holiness and majesty and confirmed Isaiah's calling. The posture of worship does the same for us. It exposes us to the divine, causes us to recognize our own human frailty in relation to His holiness, and brings us into a place of revelation.\n\nWe must reconnect our external expressions of worship with what's really happening in our hearts. Repentance helps us get there. If we cannot get our hearts and lives in position to give God the worship He is worthy of, then we will miss out on one of the main vehicles of access to Him and His presence.\n\n6. DELIBERATE ACTION\n\nThe story of the woman with the issue of blood is a perfect example of how the posture of deliberate action leads to an encounter with God that changes everything. The Bible says in Luke 8:46 that Jesus noticed when someone \"deliberately touched\" Him. She was not casual about what she needed from God. She had tried everything to be healed. Now penniless and desperate, she heard that Jesus was passing by. She considered her options, she considered her unclean status, and she made a deliberate choice to risk it all and grab hold of His garment.\n\nThere are no accidental moves of God. If you are going to experience God, it's not going to happen by being random. If you want a greater demonstration of the power of God in your life, you must deliberately pursue Him. Make the intentional effort to risk it all\u2014reach out and grab hold.\n\n7. FAITH\n\nThe Lord asks, \"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?\" (Luke 18:8, NIV). Or will He return to find a bunch of frustrated believers? Faith is a posture that allows the faithful to endure the tension between present afflictions and future deliverance.\n\nGod is looking for people who have a persistent faith\u2014an unwavering, unshakable faith. He is looking for people who, in the midst of waiting, will say to God, \"You've done it before; You will do it again.\"\n\nFaith gives us confidence that what we hope for will happen. It gives us assurance about the things we cannot see. Faith makes us pleasing to God. Faith gives us permission to come to God. God rewards those who sincerely seek Him. Faith makes us whole.\n\nI pray that as you read this book, you will feel a faith arise in you that you haven't felt in a long time. I declare that your capacity to believe God again is being restored. May your faith come to new life as you begin to see what you've been hoping for come to pass.\n\n8. OBEDIENCE\n\nWorship, prayer, sacrifice, giving\u2014what does any of it mean if we won't obey God? Obedience is the posture that God wants most. As a matter of fact, obedience to Him helps us know what He wants us to do with our worship, prayer, sacrifice, and giving. Through our simple obedience to God in whatever He asks, especially the things that seem foolish to our limited understanding, we unlock the deep things, the mysteries we desire to understand. Revival is connected to simple obedience.\n\nKing Saul refused to obey the Lord. He refused to assume the posture of obedience, and it cost him dearly. He never saw the things he'd once hoped for happen. For him, _it_ never happened. When Saul was coming up against an enemy of the armies of the living God (Israel), God told him to kill and destroy everything. No matter how good something looked, no matter what kind of agreement they were offered, no matter what kind of purse they could receive, they were to \"completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation\u2014men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys\" (1 Sam. 15:3).\n\nBut Saul spared the enemy King Agag. He also let his soldiers keep the spoils. When God questioned Saul's actions through the prophet Samuel, Saul lied and made it seem as if the spoils were kept to honor God. Samuel said to him, \"What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. . . . Because you have rejected the command of the LORD, he has rejected you as king\" (1 Sam. 15:22\u201323).\n\nObedience is an important posture to maintain. It's a posture of surrender and submission to the will and ways of God. It is a demonstration of our eternal yes to God's invitation into His presence. We cannot have God and be disobedient to Him. Disobedience without repentance puts us at risk of losing everything God has for us. I'm not willing to lose Him. I will take whatever posture I have to take to maintain His presence in my life. How about you?\n\n9. REPENTANCE\n\nRepentance is the pathway to revival. It keeps the avenue between us and God open for whenever He decides to come and rest upon our lives. If we are unwilling to let go of the things that block what God wants, we will never see His power on display in the earth. It is God's gift to us that allows us to stay in His presence. Repentance is a hard practice for this generation to latch on to. We don't like to feel bad about anything. But if we look at it from God's perspective, we will see it as His desire to draw near to us. Repentance draws Him close. And when His holiness enters the room and comes in contact with our unholiness, we think we feel guilt, but it's actually His light illuminating our darkness. All we have to do is get in a posture of repentance. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, cleanse us of unrighteousness, and dwell among us. We do not have to run away. He has made a way for us to boldly enter His presence.\n\nGod wants to do something great. If you are hungry to see revival, you are ready to do whatever God asks of you to be the vessel through which His glory comes.\n\nRESPOND\n\nIt's easy to get excited about revival, but are you willing to assume the right posture to lay hold of it? Are you willing to deliberately reach out and touch Jesus as the woman with the issue of blood did\u2014to touch Him in a way that pulls on His power? Everyone claims to want Him, but will you pray until you touch Him? Will you worship until you touch Him? Will you wait until you touch Him? Will you risk rejection to touch Him? Will you accept ridicule to touch Him?\n\nWe're not going to accidentally enter into revival. We'll see it when we're willing to assume the posture that says, \"I want You and You alone, and I won't stop praying, I won't stop crying, I won't stop worshipping until You come. And then I'll keep on worshipping and keep on praying and keep on crying because I'm desperate. I want to be a vessel for Your glory. Ordinary won't do. I want to be part of what You're doing in the earth. Revival is here, and I want to be a part of it!\" When that is our posture, God will respond.\nCHAPTER 3\n\nHE HEARS YOUR CRY\n\nI love the LORD because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!\n\n\u2014PSALM 116:1\u20132\n\nI DON'T KNOW if you are paying attention to the current state of the world right now, but it's clear we need a revival. So we cry out for it day and night. At our church we've embraced the posture and disposition of crying out. We cry and we cry and we cry some more. And some may begin to wonder, \"OK, are you going to stop?\" The answer is no! We will not stop until we see what we're praying for manifest all over the earth.\n\nThis is why I love Psalm 116:1\u20132. It is something that I can understand now as a father of four. I couldn't have understood it ten years ago. When you have children, you recognize, discern, and decipher the cries of your children, especially when they are infants and can't talk. Infants have different cries that mean different things. Some cries are urgent and cause us to come running. Other cries bellow, and we know we have a couple of minutes before we're really needed. There's a cry that says, \"I'm hungry,\" \"I'm thirsty,\" \"I need to be changed\" (you can smell that one too), \"I need to be held,\" \"I'm bored,\" or \"I'm uncomfortable.\" The one I recognize but don't quite understand is the \"I'm sleepy\" cry. Why do infants cry when they're sleepy? Why don't they just go to sleep? That's what I do. We learn how to interpret our children's cries, and we respond accordingly.\n\nOur Father does the same thing with us. It amazes me. Not only can He interpret our cries, but He remembers and answers them. And He can distinguish our cries from everyone else's in the world. This is also a pretty remarkable phenomenon. If you're a parent, you can understand this on a smaller scale: your child can be with fifty other children, four of them can be crying, and you can tell which one is yours. There's something about your own child's cries that directly connects to your heart.\n\nI'll never forget being on an airplane and hearing a child cry. The cry kind of sounded like one of my children's. I knew my child was not on the plane, but I heard a cry that sounded like my daughter's. I kept looking back, thinking, \"Is my family on this flight trying to surprise me?\"\n\n_Just as we are connected to the cries of our children, our heavenly Father is connected to ours._\n\nJust as we are connected to the cries of our children, it's important that we understand that our heavenly Father is connected to ours. Even as we cry out to Him during corporate worship with other believers or alone in the privacy of our prayer closets, the Lord hears us, distinguishes our cries from all others, and answers them. I want to encourage you to continue to cry out and not be silent. The Lord responds to our cries. Just as our children's cries vary in degrees of urgency, so do ours.\n\nTHE CONSISTENT CRY\n\nIn Exodus 1 the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. The Egyptians were brutal taskmasters and worked the people of Israel without mercy. For four hundred years they lived under the lash of oppression, just as the Lord had prophesied to their forefather Abraham. And they cried out to God for deliverance:\n\n> Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites _continued_ to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.\n> \n> \u2014EXODUS 2:22\u201323, EMPHASIS ADDED\n\nThe word _continued_ in this verse also points to an unyielding, consistent groan. Day after day, month after month, and year after year they cried out to God for deliverance. They never stopped crying, even though they didn't see their answer right away, even though it seemed as if God was hearing. And they continued to cry out to God until their cries met up with His set time for their deliverance. We call this a _kairos_ moment.\n\nIn all of their distress they may not have been able to keep a grip on the fact that God was fulfilling His plan through them, that they were in this season as part of His sovereign design. God had made a covenant promise to their forefather, and He knew the time had come for Him to act. So God raised up a deliverer, Moses, whom He found in the middle of the desert on Mount Sinai.\n\nWe need to consistently and continually cry out until our cries meet up with God's set time. There are moments in your life when the will of God and your desires are on a collision course. And in an explosive meeting by God's design\u2014His set time for your life or your family\u2014breakthrough or deliverance manifests. The cry could have started with your grandparents. You may not know that, so don't stop crying. You never know when the moment will be when your cry intersects with God's set time.\n\nAs a generation, we are moving into a set time when God intends to send revival to the whole earth. Many of us can sense it, but there's also this sense that it is tarrying. _Tarry_ is an old English word that means to wait or delay. So the question is, Why is revival being delayed? One of the reasons is that there is no cry. Cries are connected to an intense desire for something. And when there's no cry going up to heaven for revival, it may appear to God that perhaps we don't really want it.\n\nMaybe there's a feeling that revival is no longer on the table. Maybe it's been such a long time coming that people have stopped crying out. But the Israelites cried out for four hundred years because they wanted what God had promised. Don't lose your cry just because it seems the answer is taking a long time.\n\nMaybe we need to start spreading the word again that revival is available, that outpouring is available, that deliverance is available. Maybe we need to start declaring that the year of God's favor is upon us. If people knew that these things were available, that they will surely come if we cry out, maybe they would cry out for them again.\n\nNo one likes being in bondage, so there are cries beginning to rise up from the earth. And God is beginning to respond, \"I have certainly seen the oppression of my people....I am aware of their suffering. I [will] come down [and] rescue them...and lead them...into their own fertile and spacious land\" (Exod. 3:7\u20138).\n\nI have news for you: God hears the consistent cry. If you want to see His promise of an outpouring manifest in your lifetime, don't stop crying out!\n\nTHE PERSISTENT CRY\n\nThere is another kind of cry that is directly related to the consistent cry, and that is the persistent cry. You may know the story found in Luke 18 of the persistent widow. Usually with stories like this we don't get the moral (or the point) until the end, but Luke, the one telling us what happened, didn't care about spoilers this day. He started off with \"Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up\" (v. 1).\n\nJust that much will mess with some of our theology. In certain movements it is taught that praying for something more than once shows a lack of faith. That's not true, and you may know somebody who needs to be set free from that. If this is the belief, then let's see how it plays out. Somebody comes to you and says, \"Hey, I have this situation, and I really need you to agree with me in prayer.\" With this as your belief, you say, \"It's already done.\" According to Scripture, because of what Jesus Christ has done, it is already done, yes. But you still have to pray about it. You have access to it, but you don't have possession of it without prayer.\n\nSo yes, Christ's work is already done, but your prayer is not. So if your friends or loved ones ask you to pray for them, don't just say, \"It's already done,\" and keep it moving, because oftentimes that's the manifestation of \"I'm not praying for you.\" When we're praying for someone who is going through a trial, we need to keep interceding until the person receives justice. Be persistent! This is what Jesus was saying to His disciples, and this is what He is saying to us.\n\n_Cry out until you see deliverance!_\n\nThis widow kept coming to this godless, coldhearted judge, pleading for justice in a dispute she had had with an enemy. She came day after day, and day after day he ignored her. Finally he couldn't take it anymore, and he ruled justly in her favor.\n\n> Then the Lord said, \"Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?\"\n> \n> \u2014LUKE 18:6\u20138\n\nGod is inquiring: Will He find people who will have patience and trust, knowing He's waiting for the right time to intervene and act on their behalf? Or will He find people who in their frustration stopped believing?\n\nHe is saying in this moment that we must cry out to Him day and night. If you stop crying out, you are signifying that you are frustrated with Him. You're frustrated that He's not answering on your time line. Like this widow did with the judge, cry out to God day and night. Don't stop crying out. Don't stop asking. Don't stop believing that God will answer. He's waiting on the exact right time to intervene on your behalf. He answers the persistent cry.\n\nShe was unable to make a fist\u2014completely unable to ball her hand tightly and make a fist. She is a schoolteacher, and her students used to make fun of her for constantly dropping chalk and pens and pencils. Her story of healing is amazing. She had her eyes closed during worship when she felt someone grab her hand. Assuming it was her husband, who was standing on that side of her, she initially didn't think anything of it. However, while still feeling the sensation that someone was holding her hand, she opened her eyes and discovered that her husband had his hands lifted and his eyes closed in worship. She then realized that she was able to close her hand and make a fist, so she grabbed her husband's hand. All of this was taking place during worship. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly\u2014tightly enough to make him say, \"Ow!\" Then, as she squeezed his hand, he realized, \"Oh my goodness, she is squeezing my hand.\" At the same time, she realized, \"Oh my goodness, I am squeezing his hand!\" I placed a picture of her closed hand on my Instagram page and wrote, \"To you it's just a random fist, but to her it's something that she couldn't do for more than two years!\" In one supernatural moment she was healed in the presence of the Lord. It's happening!\n\nTHE MISUNDERSTOOD CRY\n\nYes, there is a misunderstood cry. In 1 Samuel 1 we discover that Hannah cried out for a child in a way that the priest Eli misunderstood. The Bible says,\n\n> As she was praying to the LORD, Eli watched her. Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. \"Must you come here drunk?\" he demanded. \"Throw away your wine!\"\n\n\"Oh no, sir!\" she replied. \"I haven't been drinking wine or anything stronger. But I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the LORD.\"\n\n\u20141 SAMUEL 1:12\u201315\n\nAre you one whose walk with God has been misunderstood? Have people misunderstood why you live the way you live? People don't understand why you do the things you do. They don't understand why you keep crying out to God the way you do. People can't figure you out. They don't understand why you're not happy with things the way they are. Why are you always asking for more?\n\nThis is how Hannah's husband responded to her:\n\n> \"Why are you crying, Hannah?\" Elkanah would ask. \"Why aren't you eating? Why be downhearted just because you have no children? You have me\u2014isn't that better than having ten sons?\"\n> \n> \u20141 SAMUEL 1:8\n\nThe only one who understood her cry was God. No one but God understood what she longed for. Her cry was for something that man could not give.\n\nIf this story resonates with you, then trust that you are not alone. As it was with Hannah, there's something on the inside of you that longs for more. You were created to birth something in the earth. This season of barrenness has caused you to not want to eat or be around other people. What God is stirring in you is something that cannot be fulfilled by man.\n\n**The misunderstood cry is really the unselfish cry.**\n\nAnother thing about the misunderstood cry is that it's not even for you. The whole reason Hannah was crying was not even to benefit herself. Her cry was ultimately an unselfish cry. Her desire was to be part of what God was doing in the earth during that time. She wanted to birth someone who would faithfully serve the Lord\u2014and she wanted to give what God birthed through her right back to Him. That's exactly what she did. God gave her a son, whom she named Samuel, and he became one of the greatest prophets in Israel's history.\n\n**God understands your cry.**\n\nYou may be crying out in the house of the Lord, going to the altar even when there's no invitation or altar call. People don't understand why you're crying and praying. They don't understand that there's something on the inside of you that longs for more. I believe that God gave me a revelation about this cry especially for you whose cries are misunderstood. He wants you to know that He understands your cries and He will answer. You long to birth something in the earth that gives glory to God.\n\n_You were created to birth something in the earth._\n\nEven though you're misunderstood, keep crying. Even though people talk about you, keep crying. Even though people don't understand your posture before the Lord, keep crying out to God. Don't let any accusations of being religiously zealous stop you from crying out to God. They may not understand now, but the thing you're going to birth will shake the nations. Keep crying.\n\nTHE DESPERATE CRY\n\nDesperation has a sound attached to it and is not quiet. In fact, you could say that desperation is a misunderstood cry as well. The story of Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46\u201352, which is very dear to me and to our church, helps us understand the desperate cry. I wrote and recorded a song called \"I Don't Mind Waiting\" on my _Sounds of Revival_ CD, and in it I exhorted from this particular passage about the desperate cry. This is a cry that recognizes that when Jesus is coming near, that is not the time to be quiet because no one else can do for you what He can. And so when those who are desperate sense His presence is near, you will have to excuse them because they will likely get loud. Their faith is coming alive!\n\nIf we can imagine the scene from Bartimaeus's perspective, it makes perfect sense. He had been hearing about what Jesus could do. He'd been hearing about what happened to people when they got in His presence. Though he was blind and could only hear and feel the growing anticipation of the crowd, he was not going to let that moment or a season of manifestation pass Him by. The closer Jesus got, the louder the crowd got. Somehow he had to get the Lord's attention because He was the only One who could give him sight. His desperation grew by the minute, and just when the moment reached its set time, he cried out, \"Son of David, have mercy upon me!\"\n\nMany told him to be quiet, but the closer Jesus came, the louder Bartimaeus cried out. Oftentimes desperate people expose non-desperate people. The ones telling him to be quiet couldn't do anything for him. They knew him as a beggar. They could give him pocket change but not real change. Only Jesus could do that, which is why Bartimaeus had to ignore them. When you're desperate for an encounter with God, there will be times when you will have to ignore those around you. When you recognize that Jesus is the only One who can change you, the opinion of others ceases to matter. Sometimes the very reason you're being told to tone down your worship, prayer, and desperation is because it causes others to become uncomfortable with their lack of desperation. I don't know about you, but I refuse to remain quiet in this moment when I'm aware that Jesus is passing by. I refuse to miss this moment. Bartimaeus got Jesus's attention. I want the same thing to happen when I cry out.\n\nJesus heard him and asked, \"What do you want Me to do for you?\n\nBartimaeus did not stutter: \"I want to see!\"\n\nJesus said, \"Go, for your faith has healed you.\"\n\nBartimaeus was crying out because he was desperate. But Bartimaeus was also crying out because he had faith. He had been desperate the entire time. He had been desperate his entire life. And when he heard that Jesus was near, desperation got a voice.\n\nPerhaps you've been known to be reserved, but as Jesus comes closer and the visitation of God comes, that's not the time to keep your reputation of being reserved. You may have never shouted in your life, but that won't matter. All that will matter is that Jesus is near and you need to get His attention. Let desperation for the presence of God arise in you until it finds a voice. I am sure Bartimaeus's cry was so loud that it made the people around him uncomfortable. But he wasn't about to miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the only person who could give him what he needed. He was not going to let pride, embarrassment, a reputation of composure, or anything else get in the way of his miracle.\n\nTHE CRY OF FAITH\n\nThe secret power of the cry of faith is that it allows you to reach into the future and pull into your present the grace and provision God has promised to release at a later time. God does not live within the constraints of time as we do. He is omnipresent. He's everywhere at the same time. And because there is no sequential order in eternity, everything in Him is accessible consistently, all the time, at the same time, and outside of time. Time is a servant to faith. The Gentile woman in Matthew 15:21\u201328 had a supernatural awareness of this principle, and she used it to claim deliverance for her demonized daughter.\n\n_When Jesus is near, desperation gets a voice._\n\nWhen the woman first approached Jesus, asking Him to heal her demon-possessed daughter, He ignored her. It seems strange to us that Jesus seemed to be giving someone who came to Him in faith and sincerity the cold shoulder. It seems so out of character for Him. There are theories on what message He was sending in that moment. But that's not our focus.\n\nThe woman came to Him in faith, recognizing that He was the Son of David. We also see in verse 27 that she acknowledged to whom He was sent\u2014and it wasn't her and her people. But her response is one of faith that communicates a future truth. When she said, \"Even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters' table,\" she was speaking of a time yet to come when the Gentiles would have access to the promises of God through faith. She was declaring to Him that despite her present unworthiness, she needed to make a demand on a future provision and make it apply to her present need.\n\nShe couldn't wait because her daughter was severely possessed right then, and her faith told her that Jesus had the capacity to answer her cry right then. Even though her initial question was met with silence, she did not let that keep her from crying out, believing He was the Son of God. She believed that what was promised in the future could be made manifest to her right then.\n\nSometimes we get into the presence of God, knowing we don't deserve what we are asking for. But as we get in a posture of worship, acknowledging God for who He is, our worship begins to build our faith. And by faith we are able to cry out, and what may not be fully manifested to us right now we reach into the future and pull into our present because it is consistently available in God.\n\nYou may feel as if God has been silent when you have cried out to Him, but keep crying in faith. Even when you don't get an answer right away, throw yourself down before God and say, \"I know who You are, I know to whom You've been sent, I know I have access, and I know You can do this for me.\"\n\nTHE PROPHETIC CRY\n\nSome have a cry that I call the prophetic cry. It can be a combination of the misunderstood and desperate cries, and it comes because what you've seen and heard in the spirit has not yet manifested as a reality on the earth. You've seen something, and you've heard something in the spirit during your personal times of encountering God in worship and prayer. But things here don't yet look like what you've seen or experienced. This is what happened to the prophet Isaiah.\n\nIn Isaiah 6 the prophet describes a heavenly encounter.\n\n> In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. One cried to another and said: \"Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.\" The posts of the door moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: \"Woe is me! For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.\" Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar in his hand. And he laid it on my mouth, and said, \"This has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.\" Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, \"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?\" Then I said, \"Here am I. Send me.\"\n> \n> \u2014ISAIAH 6:1\u20138, MEV\n\nIsaiah had a vision of an open heaven and received a glimpse of the eternal, a glimpse of the divine, a glimpse of the majesty of God. He was given a glimpse of the beauty of holiness.\n\nBy design an open heaven can be an invitation by God meant to awaken awe, awaken wonder, awaken desire, and speak to the deep longing of our hearts. For Isaiah it was an invitation to embrace his prophetic assignment.\n\nOne can only imagine what life was like for Isaiah after his encounter. When you have a genuine encounter with God, not only does it change you, but you can never forget it. It will shape how you think, act, and live. Isaiah had a personal encounter with God that changed the trajectory of his life.\n\nIn Isaiah 64 he writes these words:\n\n> Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence! As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil, your coming would make the nations tremble. Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!\n> \n> \u2014ISAIAH 64:1\u20132\n> \n> Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend, make the mountains shudder at your presence\u2014as when a forest catches fire, as when fire makes a pot to boil\u2014to shock your enemies into facing you, make the nations shake in their boots!\n> \n> \u2014ISAIAH 64:1\u20132, THE MESSAGE\n> \n> Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence\u2014as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil\u2014to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!\n> \n> \u2014ISAIAH 64:1\u20132, NKJV\n\nWe are reading the words of a person who is still consumed by what he saw the year King Uzziah died. He is still consumed by his encounter when he says, \"Oh, that You would burst from the heavens and come down. Rend the heavens. Rip open the heavens!\" This is a cry that says, \"I've seen something that makes my insides feel like they are going to burst! I've seen something that causes me to yearn for more! To cry out for more! To search for more!\" He's saying, \"I long for the day when You will give us more than a glimpse of heaven. I long for the day when You will give us more than a glimpse of eternity. I long for the day when everyone will see what I've seen!\"\n\nIsaiah saw something during his personal encounter that wasn't yet happening around him, so he cried out for it. In Isaiah chapter 6 he said, \"I saw the Lord.\" Yet there was something in him that said, \"I long for the day when _all_ will see the Lord.\"\n\nYou could sense Isaiah's passion as he was saying, \"I pray and cry out because of what I saw _and_ what I heard! I saw the Lord seated high, and I saw the cherubim. But it's what I heard them say that stirs me as much as what I saw! I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Attending Him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of heaven's armies! The whole earth is filled with His glory!' They said, 'Holy is the Lord. The whole _earth_ is full of His glory.' If they had said, 'The highest heaven is full of His glory,' my singular cry would be to go there. But the fact that the earth is full of the glory says the glory is coming, so I cry, 'Oh, that You would rend the heavens, burst out, rip open the heavens!'\"\n\nIsaiah had a cry: \"Oh, that others could see what I've seen, feel what I've felt, experience what I've experienced.\" Those who have had genuine encounters with God are crying out that everyone would have the kind of transforming encounters they've had. It seems the feeling is if others would have the same encounter, they wouldn't think our passion was weird or strange. They likely wouldn't think this pursuit of God was too much. They would understand this passion. Isaiah was saying, \"Oh, God, let others in on it! I can't keep it to myself.\" He had a prophetic cry.\n\nTHE CRY OF CREATION AND THE SPIRIT\n\nThere is another cry\u2014one beyond our understanding. It is a deep, wordless cry, a cry that is not even coming from us. In Romans 8:19\u201326 the Bible says:\n\n> For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan. . . . But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.\n\nGroanings are deep, wailing cries, \"a crying out in grief.\" Creation is crying, we are crying, and the Spirit is crying for the same thing\u2014for the manifestation of the sons of God.\n\n_We cry out because we know the way things are is not the way they are supposed to be._\n\nThe reason we cry out is because we know the way things are right now is not the way they are supposed to be. That we all are crying out signifies that we're in harmony with what God is doing.\n\nThe earth and the Spirit have been crying out on our behalf, and even though there have been some outbreaks of crying out among God's people, we need more. God is restoring these six cries to His people. These are the cries that get Him to hear, stop, and ask, \"What do you want Me to do for you?\" These cries are how we get in harmony with what God is doing. Creation is crying. The Spirit is crying. Now, I believe, the people of God will cry out more than ever, and we will see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our generation.\n\nRESPOND\n\nIf you've been crying out to God, wondering when you will see miracles, deliverance, and the promise of God birthed, you join with creation and the Spirit, who've been eagerly waiting for us to arise and take up our full rights as God's children. As your Father, God hears every one of your cries and is coming to answer you. Don't be afraid to lift your voice and cry out. Whether your cry is misunderstood, consistent, persistent, or desperate, find your place, and cry out to God. Creation, the Spirit, and the people of God form a three-note chord when they cry out in harmony. Are you willing to join the cry with creation and the Spirit?\n\nRevival has been waiting, but we have the key to unlock the door of revival. It's when we join in the harmony of the Spirit and creation and cry out to God for more. In the body of Christ we've only scratched the surface. We've only had one glance of the Savior's eyes. We may have tasted of God's glory, but let's cry out for more!\nCHAPTER 4\n\nFOLLOW THE PATHWAY\n\nSearch me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.\n\n\u2014PSALM 139:23\u201324\n\nWHEN THE LORD sovereignly decided to dwell with us at Deeper, I began to revisit the stories of the revivalists God has used throughout the last four hundred years. One in particular stood out. His name was John G. Lake. God used him to spread the gospel in Africa. In a span of five years he planted 625 churches and raised up 1,250 preachers. After the five years in Africa, Lake moved to Spokane, Washington. Praying for people, he established something called healing rooms, and God used him to see one hundred thousand healing miracles in five years. At the time, newspapers reported that Spokane was the healthiest city in the world because no one was sick.\n\nAs of the writing of this book, our church has seen more than two hundred miracles in less than two years. But John G. Lake saw one hundred thousand miracles in five years. It is apparent to me that we are only seeing a glimpse. We have only scratched the surface. The question God has been asking us is, \"Are you _still_ hungry?\" Two hundred miracles is only enough to build faith for more. We know that God never intended to do great things only for our eight hundred to one thousand members. As those whom God has chosen to visit, we accept the responsibility to do whatever it takes to unlock the pathway to more. We have no interest in the move of God stopping with us.\n\nWe learned in those early months of revival that God was giving us an invitation to a perpetual outpouring, and now He is extending it to all who are being moved and impassioned by our testimonies. But the invitation is connected to something we don't like to talk about much anymore. The invitation to seeing a perpetual outpouring of God in this generation is connected to repentance. Outpouring happens only for those who are willing to give themselves completely to God, and this happens through the vehicle of repentance. If we are unwilling to let go of the things that obscure our view of God or we find ourselves in a place where we can enter His presence and remain obstinate about the things He is requiring of us, then revival will have an expiration date. It will die. But we have a choice whether to let revival live or die.\n\nLEGACY OR HEADSTONE?\n\nIn the history of the world's revivals some revivals sparked lasting movements, and others died. Some revivals have legacies; other revivals have headstones. The revivals that have headstones are the ones that have a definitive start and a definitive end but leave no lasting legacy. Revival can leave a legacy. Some awakenings become perpetual and create a culture and don't just mark a moment in time.\n\nIf you were to ask people if they want revival, the overwhelming answer would likely be yes. However, there is a pathway to revival, and that is repentance. Repentance is the pathway to righteousness, mercy, salvation, and restoration, and it is the pathway to revival. You can't have any of these things without repentance. We don't like to talk about repentance because it doesn't make us feel good, but God is not interested in how we feel. He's interested in truth in the inward parts (Ps. 51:6).\n\nWhen God decides sovereignly to show up in a particular place and reveal Himself, we have an opportunity to decide how we will respond to the revelation. In Isaiah 6:1\u20135 we are shown how the prophet Isaiah responded when God chose to transport him into His presence. Verse 1 says, \"It was in the year King Uzziah died that I _saw_ the Lord\" (emphasis added). Notice it doesn't say \"sought.\" Isaiah's encounter didn't happen because of what Isaiah was doing. God showed up because God wanted Isaiah to see and experience Him. Isaiah saw the majesty of God because God decided it was time.\n\nThis passage in Isaiah 6 reveals the moment Isaiah was called to prophesy to his nation. To equip Isaiah for this, God allowed him to see something bigger. He allowed him to see something that changed him. He allowed him to experience something that would mark his life forever. Isaiah saw what very few see, and as a result of being in the presence of God, Isaiah came to a finite conclusion. He said, \"It's all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips\" (v. 5). He became aware that in light of God's holiness he was not holy.\n\n_Outpouring happens only for those who are willing to give themselves completely to God, and this happens through the vehicle of repentance._\n\nThere's something about being in God's presence that unlocks an awareness of our gross separation from the holiness of God. Outside of God's presence we may feel confident that we know about God and His ways. Some of us have been trained in Christian traditions from young ages. But all of that flies out the window when our humanity comes in contact with God's divinity. We cannot contain all that God is, and our humanity dies. Exodus 33:20 says that no one can see God and live. Isaiah was well aware of this. So his statement was legitimate: \"I am doomed\" (Isa. 6:5). It was as if he were asking, \"Did You bring me here to kill me?\" He knew who he was in relation to who God is. And his sense of his depraved humanity grew the longer he stayed there. Not only did he become aware that he had filthy lips, but he also became aware that he lived among a people with filthy lips. But what happened to Isaiah next is huge:\n\n> Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, \"See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.\"\n> \n> \u2014ISAIAH 6:6\u20137\n\nThe angel took the coal with the tongs and touched Isaiah's lips as if to say, \"Be quiet, or you will miss why you have been invited into this place.\" Then the angel sensed Isaiah's repentant heart and took the exchange further, removing guilt and forgiving his sins. There always is a test when humanity comes in contact with divinity. The test is, Will we worship, or will we be prideful? Isaiah was completely undone. He could not move on. He had never encountered something so much higher, deeper, holier\u2014so infinitely \"more\" than he was in every way. He had been humbled to the point where he was emptied of himself enough to hear the Lord asking, \"Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?\" Isaiah swiftly replied, \"Here I am. Send me\" (Isa. 6:8).\n\nIf Isaiah got caught up in where he was and what he may have done to get there, he would have missed the very thing for which God had called him. Many of us get stopped at the place where we saw something, and we run out before we hear what God wants to say. But God invited Isaiah there and tested him. Isaiah's response was in proportion to how human he felt next to God's holy divinity. He took the same posture as the psalmist, who said, \"Search me, O God, and know my heart.... Point out anything in me that offends you\" (Ps. 139:23\u201324). Isaiah knew he was in a delicate moment that could instantly be taken away if he did not take the right posture, which was repentance. It is clear from Isaiah's response\u2014\"Here I am. Send me.\"\u2014that he didn't want anything in him to block what God wanted to do.\n\nA CALL TO GREATER\n\nGod showed up for Isaiah to call him to greater. God showed up at Deeper to call us to greater. God is showing up for you right where you are, calling you to greater. The first thing God gives is a glimpse of His glory. The next thing He gives is a test of humility, and finally He gives the assignment.\n\nThe first twelve months of God's outpouring on our church was only a glimpse of His glory, despite all that the Lord has done. And where we stand right now on the pathway to revival is a test of humility: Will we think that what we've seen God do so far is because of us? Will we somehow believe it is due to something we've done? Or will we humble ourselves and let go of our false sense of worthiness to be carriers of revival?\n\n_If God is doing it anywhere, He can do it here in my home, my church, and my community._\n\nIn ourselves we are not worthy carriers of the river of God, but because of the new covenant, Jesus makes us righteous. I don't want you to be beaten down, but I do need you to understand that righteousness is obtained by faith in Christ. We demonstrate this faith by repenting and receiving His forgiveness, thereby becoming worthy to carry revival. On our own, though, and without repentance we are unworthy.\n\nGod is inviting us to decide if we want to see the glimpse of glory transform into a perpetual legacy of revival. Or should He just put a headstone at the place we think our formula brought His presence? Hear me by the Spirit of God: when the Lord asks if we are still hungry, He should not get a flippant response. He is asking us this question so we can say, \"Search me, O God. Is there anything in me that is blocking the reality of what You want to do?\" Why? Because what God wants to do among us is so much greater than what we've seen. We've seen just a glimpse.\n\nThe outpouring had begun in May of 2016, and we were experiencing an incredible outpouring of the Spirit of God. In September of that year we were having our annual Habitation Conference, and my close friend David Diga Hernandez was one of our guests. He has a gift of healing, among other gifts God has given him, and during the conference he noticed one of our volunteers, Ms. Pam, who earlier had suffered a stroke, moving through the church with her cane. He called for her to come up to the platform, and he prayed for her, and instantly her partial paralysis was healed before our eyes.\n\nWe all watched Ms. Pam do things we had never seen her do. She walked without her cane, lifted her leg, and walked sideways\u2014all things she could not do previously because of her stroke. Today Ms. Pam is down front during worship, jumping, leaping, and praising God. She's free from the confining limitations of paralysis due to a stroke. She no longer has to use the handicapped parking when she goes places. She is now one of the people who transcribes every prophetic word given in our church. Every single Sunday she is a physical reminder that it's happening!\n\nRIGHTEOUS ENVY\u2014COVETING THE MOVE OF GOD\n\nFor many of us what I am talking about may seem like such a far-off thing, but that's why I started the chapter with the story of John G. Lake. There must be something inside of you that stirs up righteous envy.\n\nI was sharing with my good friends David and Nicole Binion on a pretty regular basis the many miracles that were taking place weekly at our church. Then one day David said, \"My friend, I have righteous envy hearing about the things God is doing!\" I thought, \"Wow, _righteous envy_. What a term.\" It almost seems like an oxymoron, when you think about it. In Scripture envy is usually presented as a sinful behavior\u2014wanting what someone else has. However, I discovered that God will do something for someone else, or in someone or someplace else, and seeing what He does will cause you to desire Him to do the same thing for you. Sometimes you don't know you want something until you see it.\n\nThere needs to be something that rises up in you and causes you to declare, \"If God is doing it anywhere, He can do it here in my home, my church, and my community.\" God will sometimes use others to do extraordinary things to cause you to long for those kinds of miracles yourself. He'll put you in circles and rooms with people who operate in ways you know you are called to operate in, ways that you know God has shown you.\n\n_Repentance is an invitation to stay._\n\nHe does this to make you jealous for it. God, infinite in His wisdom, will actually bless someone to make you want the blessing. Sometimes God blesses somebody with the blessing He promised you to show you that you need to get into alignment. There is a pattern for this: Romans 11 tells us that the Gentiles\u2014those who are not Jewish by birth\u2014have been grafted in to make the Jewish people jealous. He wants them to see the relationship they could have with Him so He can gather them back. Righteous envy can be frustrating, but what will you do with your frustration? Will you be mad at God, or will you repent?\n\nGod is doing things in the earth to make you jealous\u2014things that will stir your desire for Him to move in your life in such a way that when you see somebody sick, you have enough boldness to pray for them. We are seeing a powerless generation because we are running away from the very gift God has given us\u2014the gift called repentance. Repentance is an invitation to stay. Repentance is a hard teaching for those of us in this generation. We don't like to feel bad about anything. If anything makes us feel bad, then we want to stop engaging in that activity and start doing something that gives us pleasure. But the Scripture says it's in the presence of the Lord that we find a fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11). This means if you go outside of God to find pleasure, that's probably where you need to repent.\n\nGOD IS NEAR\n\nIf repentance is an invitation, then conviction is the sign that God is near. If you enter the presence of God, begin to worship, and get a spiritual picture of sin, this is not simply guilt you feel. It is an indication that God is near you. We have to retrain ourselves. We keep thinking, \"O God, I can't come close to You because I feel guilty.\" No. If you can lean in and see the scriptural principle, you will realize that the reason you feel guilty is because God is near you.\n\nYour humanity has come in contact with His divinity. Conviction is the appropriate response.\n\n_Conviction is the sign that God is near._\n\nIf a person can enter the presence of God and not feel anything about the porn he just watched, he ought to be afraid. His conscience has been seared. The Bible calls that a reprobate mind (Rom. 1:28). The conviction of the Holy Spirit that causes us to feel guilty is an invitation to stay in His presence _if we repent_! Guilt means He is shining a light on areas that are incongruent. He is shining a light on the very thing that will put a headstone on revival for you.\n\nRepentance is a gift from God. It is an invitation from God for salvation, righteousness, mercy, restoration, and revival. God is not interested in a generation showing up to attend a revival; God wants revival to be in you. Revival is not a show put on by a few anointed people. Revival is something that happens in your spirit man. You who were once dead are now made alive. You whose affections have grown cold are now hot for Christ. You who were cold are now on fire. Revival is something that happens on the inside of you, and it is contagious! You cannot be near fire and not feel it.\n\nWORSHIP DOES NOT REPLACE REPENTANCE\n\nGod says to this generation that our deeds don't vindicate us. What you do doesn't make you right. Your worship doesn't replace repentance. We are the generation that has more written material on worship than any other in history, yet we are the generation that, based on its fruit, seems to be resisting God the most. In Psalm 50:8\u201310 God says:\n\n> I have no complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings you constantly offer. But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens. For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.\n\nIt's not our worship that God has a problem with. He doesn't have a complaint about our external things. And really, He doesn't need them. We don't serve a narcissistic God who needs us to lift our hands for Him to feel good today, as if He's the king and we're court jesters. \"Sing for Me. Shout for Me. I need to feel better today.\" No! God is God, and we are not. We have needs; He does not. What God is saying in Psalm 50 is that our worship has become ritualistic. We are doing things externally that are disconnected from the internal posture of our hearts.\n\nGod really does not care how high we lift our hands or how loud we sing, if we don't mean it. God is not interested in ritual; He's interested in relationship. This is why David has such an amazing revelation in Psalm 51:16\u201317: \"You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.\"\n\nWhat God is looking for are people who recognize that they need Him. David came to an amazing revelation because at that time, according to the Law, God did require a blood sacrifice. But David saw more. He saw that God desired something from the inside.\n\nGod is not looking for people who are going through the motions\u2014the motions of revival, the motions of outpouring\u2014doing what they think He wants to see, saying what they think He wants to hear. God is looking for those who will say, \"God, search me. If there's anything in me that offends You, take it away from me.\"\n\nIf we come into God's presence and do the acts of worship without repentance, it's ritual because our hearts are not right. We are not intimately and honestly engaged\u2014in spirit and truth\u2014with God. We can lift our hands all day, but worship does not replace repentance. As one Bible dictionary says, \"In its biblical sense repentance refers to a deeply seated and thorough turning from self to God.\" Repentance leads you to say, \"God, whatever You desire from me or whatever You're shining a light on, I will not hold on to it more than I hold on to You.\" In repentance you are saying, \"Search me,\" and God tells you what should remain. Our response should be that we turn away from whatever He tells us to release in order to hold on to Him.\n\nThe result of repentance is salvation\u2014salvation from being ensnared by the idols you've been worshipping, the things that have been blocking your view of God, and the things in your heart that have been keeping you from being used by God. This is why God gives you a glimpse of His glory. He makes it so amazing that we long for it, so much so that we will do whatever it takes to stay in that moment\u2014including repent. God allows us to be stirred up with righteous envy so we'll say: \"I want to see revival come in my life and lifetime. God, if You're doing it somewhere, do it in me. If there's anything in me that offends You, take it out of me so You will bring revival in me.\"\n\nThe apostle John wrote:\n\n> If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.\n> \n> \u20141 JOHN 1:8\u201310\n\nEXPOSED!\n\nI have seen something, and it overwhelms me. It makes me want to cry. It makes me want to cry out. It makes me want to lie on my face. But mainly it makes me want to stop doing anything and everything that would possibly get in the way of it. There are moments in our lives when God shines light on something and says, \"I want that.\" It may be a habit or way of thinking\u2014it could be anything that is separating you from Him. There are times and seasons when God in His mercy will expose things that are hindering our relationship with Him, and we hate exposure. We want to deal with everything in private, but if God can't get your attention in private or you won't honor Him enough in private, He may expose you in public so you will return to Him.\n\nIt is human nature to hide from God, but we can't do what seems natural. We also try to hide from one another. That is why in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to hide from each other. We don't want our sin to be exposed to others. We can't hide anything from God, so we try to hide our sin from one another. That's why God connects righteousness and effective prayer when He says, \"Confess your faults one to another\" (James 5:16, KJV). An unrepentant heart can keep you from seeing the answers to your prayers concerning revival.\n\nThe Lord is showing us that He wants to do something great among us, but the pathway to it is the very thing that most of us run from. You would probably shout if I said the pathway to revival is praise or more worship. If the pathway was more prayer, others might say, \"OK, I can do that.\" But the moment we discover the pathway to revival is repentance, most of us say, \"Oh.\" But if you are hungry for revival, you are ready to do whatever God desires of you to see His glory come.\n\nRESPOND\n\nWhat is standing in the way of revival for you? Don't allow any unconfessed sin to cause God to look at your worship as a ritual. I believe there are things the Lord has been showing you for quite some time that you have been resisting. What if I told you that the next outpouring is connected to your surrender? What if I told you that the level of outpouring you experience is directly connected to the level of surrender and truth you are willing to walk in with God?\n\nGod wants to use you. The Bible says the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you (Rom. 8:11), not only in the pastor, bishop, apostle, or prophet. You are part of the chain of humanity through which God will bring the next habitation of His Spirit.\n\nThis is the season of the corporate anointing. The next move of God will not be predicated on the individual. In many of our churches the ministry offices have been exalted almost to the level of being worshipped, causing people to believe that God could not use someone who was not operating in one of the fivefold ministry gifts the same way He uses apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. But God is taking the needle and thread from those who are trying to re-stitch the veil that was torn when Christ died. (See Matthew 27:51.) They are doing this to make themselves more important, but there is only one High Priest, and it's not a man. Jesus Christ is the High Priest. He is our Mediator, our Intercessor. He is the One who makes the way for all of us to enter heaven's most holy place.\n\n_The level of outpouring you experience is directly connected to the level of surrender and truth you are willing to walk in with God._\n\nThe greatest revival that is going to happen in the earth is going to happen through God's surrendered corporate church. God wants to do greater. This means this word about repentance is not for the few. It's for all. What glimpses God has shown us are to make you long for more. He let us witness ten, twenty, fifty, or one hundred miracles so we could long for one hundred thousand. If you're hungry for it, be honest and say, \"I want that, Lord. Do it in me. Do it in us.\"\n\nThis is the prayer God is requiring of us:\n\n> Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.\n> \n> \u2014PSALM 139:23\u201324\n\nGod is looking for people who will say, \"Whatever You want, God, You can have.\" Your decision determines whether the current move of God will be perpetual or if a headstone will be put in place. I invite you to the spiritual altar, out of your comfort zone and your hiding place. I invite you to offer up to God anything that separates you from experiencing His greater outpouring. God wants to bring a great revival through you. Do you want what God has for you more than what you have right now? If so, I invite you to repent.\nCHAPTER 5\n\nIT'S ALL ABOUT CAPACITY\u2014HOW EMPTY ARE YOU?\n\nAnd Elisha said, \"Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.\" So she did as she was told. . . . Soon every container was full to the brim!...And then the olive oil stopped flowing.\n\n\u20142 KINGS 4:3\u20136\n\nTHE BIBLE SAYS God doesn't do anything without engaging His servants in His plans (Amos 3:7). Though God is God all by Himself, He desires to partner with us. Much of His movement in the earth happens as we submit ourselves as vessels through which He can flow. The Bible is a chronicle of the works of God extended through man. And history shows that revival spreads by the preaching and teaching of men and women who've been lit on fire by the Spirit of God.\n\nIf you have cried out for revival and been in the room as intercession and worship were being offered up, you probably have felt a longing in your heart to be used by God. It is during these moments that you may cry out, \"I want more of You, God,\" or, \"I want to be used by You, Lord.\" But do we? Do we know what it will take to make room for the fullness of God in our lives?\n\nWe are entering a season when we cannot instinctually answer the question \"Do you want to be used by God?\" Our participation in this next move of God cannot be by default. Our alignment with what God is doing must be intentional and deliberate. God blesses with more of Him those who recognize their need for Him. Those who are empty, those who are spiritually bankrupt, those who can say, \"I need God more than anything else\"\u2014these are the people God wants to fill and use for His glory.\n\nI remember growing up with an insatiable desire to be in the presence of God. My mom did not have to drag me to church. I used to play church all the time. I remember setting up my green army men not for war but as a choir, and I would stand in front of them, directing them. When I did go to church, I always tried to be close to someone I knew was being used by God. I just wanted to be near the person's gifting and anointing. There is something contagious about the anointing, and I hoped to have whatever that person had.\n\nBut being used by God is not about how we feel; it's about our capacity. My son loves pizza; he is a pizza-eating machine. When he was six, he ate as if he were sixteen. People ask me what I am going to do, how I am going to keep him fed. I tell them, \"I'm going to keep writing songs.\" One day he ate slice after slice and kept asking for more. My wife and I were surprised he could eat that much. At one point I told him to slow down, but he kept asking for more. Finally he had his fill, but he must not have realized he had surpassed what his stomach could hold, and he threw up everywhere. He didn't have the capacity to hold what he wanted. He had the desire for more pizza but not the capacity to receive it.\n\nMany of us are in the same boat. We're saying, \"God, fill me. Use me. I want more of You.\" But do we have the capacity to handle more of God? Let me show you something in Scripture.\n\nONLY EMPTY VESSELS CAN BE FILLED\n\nSecond Kings 4:1\u20137 tells the story of a woman who was recently widowed. She had two sons and was in debt. According to Jewish law, if a person had a debt but no money to pay it, he would have to work it off as an indentured or indebted servant. But here in 2 Kings 4 the creditors were threatening to take it a step further and make this woman and her sons slaves. In the moment of her desperation the woman cried out to God, who in those days was represented by the prophets, the men of God. She said, in essence, \"I need God to intervene. My husband was righteous, but I'm in this desperate situation. I'm not trying to figure it out for myself. We are hungry, and we have nothing left.\" The woman's desperation and awareness of the little she had gave her enormous capacity to receive what she needed from God. She was aware of her need for God to work a miracle in her life.\n\nThose of us who are becoming aware of our need for God must learn to live in a consistent posture of crying out and expectation. Expectation is an anticipation of being filled by God every day, like a chick that waits in the nest for the mother bird to return with food. We pray, \"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matt. 6:11, KJV). This is not a one-time cry. We need God daily. Do you live with that daily expectation? Are you, moment by moment, crying out, \"God, I need You\"?\n\nThe woman in 2 Kings 4 found herself in this place of emptiness. All she had was a flask of oil, and the prophet said, \"I can work with that.\" This oil is a spiritual representation of the anointing of God that imbues us with the power of God so we can do mighty exploits in His name. So yes, God can work with the little we have. It's a start, but then we see in verse 3 that the man of God, the prophet Elisha, told the woman, \"Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.\" A little oil is better than no oil, but a little is not enough. Like the woman, we need to increase our capacity.\n\n_Only empty vessels can receive what God wants to give._\n\nHow many times have we come before God saying we want to be used by Him, but we are full of the cares of life\u2014full of worry, pride, greed, envy, jealousy, and all the works of the flesh? God wants to give us more of Himself\u2014His anointing, power, miracles, provision, healing, blessing\u2014but sometimes we are already filled to the top with so many other things. You can't be filled with the oil of God while still being full of yourself.\n\nEach month at our church we host what we call Presence Nights. People gather from around Central Florida and even from other states and countries for these services. Presence Nights are always marked by anticipation and expectation. People line up outside for hours prior to the service just to get in. There is no agenda at these services but to seek God, hear from God, and respond accordingly. And God always does something amazing on Presence Nights, even though we never fully know what to expect.\n\nOn one particular night, my friend Caleb had a word of knowledge that the Lord wanted to heal paralysis. We've seen people come in using wheelchairs, walkers, and canes and walk out healed. Interestingly that particular night we didn't visibly see anyone who seemed paralyzed, but we knew God had spoken, so in faith we prayed that God would reverse paralysis.\n\nAfter the prayer we asked for anyone in the room who had that condition to identify himself. In the back of the room a man raised his hand and then came forward. He was a musician. He played the keyboard, and something happened that caused his hand to become locked and paralyzed, but the Lord healed him that night. We all watched him open and shut his hand and move his fingers\u2014all things he could not do before that.\n\nSeveral months later Caleb and I went out to eat at Red Robin and ran into this gentleman who was healed. We didn't actually recognize him because he had only been visiting our church. He came up to us and said, \"You are the guy that prayed for me, and I was healed!\" He introduced us to those who were with him and shared the testimony again. He was still healed. It's happening!\n\nGET USED TO FEELING EMPTY\n\nSome of us hate the feeling of emptiness. It carries a negative connotation in our culture, but emptiness is the prerequisite to receiving more from God. Emptiness gives you capacity. The emptier you are, the more room you have to be filled. Matthew 5:6 says, \"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness [the ways of God], for they will be filled\" (NIV).\n\n_Emptiness is the requirement for receiving the oil of God._\n\nIf you want to be used by God, you must become acquainted with feeling empty. You will not recognize your need for God until you are empty. As Matthew 5:6 implies, feeling empty is the same as feeling hungry or thirsty. You need food and water. You need to be nourished. You need to be filled. When you are thirsty and you drink soda instead of water, for the moment, your body does not feel as if it needs water, even though it does. The soda temporarily quenched your thirst, but it also cheated your body out of what it really needed to be filled, nourished, and satisfied. In this same way you won't really recognize your spiritual needs if you are filled with other things.\n\nSome of us are trying to medicate our way out of feeling empty. We may try to drink our way out of it. We try to fill ourselves with everything else, including the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, and then we wonder why there's no authority, power, miracles, and presence manifesting in our lives. Filling ourselves with anything other than God says we don't want His oil and we don't want His anointing. We say, \"Give me a man, marriage, alcohol, or drugs.\" Let me help you: Don't try to get rid of your emptiness. It was put there by God so He could fill it with His oil.\n\nGod wants to give this generation oil, but this generation doesn't want oil. This generation wants friends. Those in this generation can't handle being by themselves. We won't even drive in the car without the radio on because we don't want to feel alone. God put emptiness there as an indicator of our need for God, so we would call out to Him to be filled with His oil. How would you know your car needed gas or oil if the indicator light didn't show it was low?\n\nI've learned a few things over the years.\n\nFirst, those who are greatly used by God have become comfortable with emptiness. They know that God put emptiness there to help them recognize their need for Him. Without emptiness, they may never cry out, \"God, I need You!\"\n\nSecond, people who are greatly used by God are sometimes lonely. I know we don't like that. We want friends around all the time. But the more people we have around us, the less opportunity we have to hear God. God wants to talk to us, but He requires that we bring an empty vessel.\n\nThird, I haven't discovered anybody who has been greatly used by God who hasn't also been hurt or betrayed. Mighty men and women of God get hurt just as everyone else. The difference is instead of going to God empty, most people take on the hurt themselves, piling fleshly things into their spirits\u2014things such as offense, anger, and bitterness. Though these emotions feed the flesh, they also crowd the spirit, leading people to inadvertently repel the infilling of God. Even in these difficult moments, God gives the blessing of emptiness. I know it hurts, but you can take that hurt directly to God, have Him heal it, and be refilled.\n\nMy challenge to you: go to God first. Go to God hurt, worn, desperate, and empty. You increase your capacity for God to work miracles in and through your life when you do this. You should not be content with a little bit of oil. A little bit of oil runs out. You will not shift regions with a little bit of oil. You won't be able to speak to principalities with a little bit of oil. You will not see your family saved with a little bit of oil. The lame are not going to walk and the dumb will not talk with a little bit of oil. You need to go before God as empty as you can so you can be filled to the greatest capacity possible.\n\nEMPTY = DEAD\n\nIn talking about emptiness, we're actually talking about death. There are several ways you can put to death the things that limit your capacity.\n\n**1. Nail them to the cross.**\n\nGalatians 5:24 says, \"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.\" Whatever it is in your life that is against God, whatever keeps you from experiencing God and walking in His ways, nail it to the cross. Addictions, pornography, and gossip\u2014nail those to the cross.\n\n**2. Confess them to God.**\n\nFirst John 1:9 says, \"If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.\" Confess, repent, and then go to Him boldly, empty and ready to be filled.\n\n**3. Surrender.**\n\nRomans 6:11\u201313 says, \"So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God [surrender; be empty], for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.\" Being used by God is not just connected to desire, but it is also connected to capacity. You can say you want to be used by God all you want, but if you don't surrender, your capacity to contain the oil of God is limited. Have you tried filling a container that is already full? It doesn't work.\n\nEmptiness refers to being dead to sin. We say with our mouths that we want to be used by God, but do our lives show that we want to be used? Are we willing to pay the price? I've heard it said that there is not a man who has been used by God who has not first been bruised by God.\n\nSHUT THE DOOR BEHIND YOU\n\nIn 2 Kings 4:4 the prophet told the woman:\n\n> Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.\n\nSome people do things to look spiritual. They want everybody to see what they're doing. They want an audience for their gifts, anointing, or blessing. But the miracle realm doesn't work this way; it flows in secret. It flows out of surrender and humility. Most of the time the way God works is so counterintuitive that when we start out with Him, we'd rather keep it to ourselves.\n\nThink about Naaman. He was a commander and mighty warrior in the Syrian army, but he was a leper. (See 2 Kings 5.) He was unclean, and in those times lepers were shunned and had to be separated from society. Naaman's story also seems to suggest that his condition was not widely known. If everyone knew about his disease, it would have been a deadly blow to his status in the kingdom.\n\nBut the king gave him provision to seek out the man of God for healing. But before he could receive his miracle, his ego had to be broken down to the point where he was humble enough to try anything. He had to be drawn into the secret place\u2014a place away from the eyes of the people in the kingdom he served.\n\nWhen Naaman sought out the prophet of God, nothing about the encounter was as he expected. The prophet sent a messenger with instructions for Naaman to wash in the Jordan River seven times, and after he did this, he would be made clean. At first Naaman was angry. He actually stomped away from the prophet's house with no plans to follow his directives. Naaman thought Elisha would address him formally and raise his hand in some dramatic gesture and call out to God to heal him. But Elisha did nothing of the sort. There would be no fanfare, no thunder from heaven, no one but God to see that he followed the instructions.\n\nGod used the peculiar nature of this miracle to humble Naaman. When Naaman finally submitted and obeyed the instructions the prophet had given him, he was healed. The Bible says his skin became as healthy as that of a young child. God's way of bringing healing was the opposite of what Naaman expected. God worked in secret, and He does the same today. God will only begin to work through you publicly when He knows He can trust you to obey what He tells you in private.\n\nUnlike Naaman, the woman in 2 Kings 4 and her sons started in a place of desperation and surrender. Still Elisha said, \"Shut the door behind you\" (v. 4). Miracles are not born in public display but in private devotion. The power of God begins flowing in private.\n\nA lot of people want to be used publicly but don't want to be bruised privately. Yet the anointing, gifting, or miracle is all for God to get the glory. It is not about anything we do, except that we come willing and empty. Yes, the woman had oil, but she did not know how it was going to be used. How did she handle that? Second Kings 4:5 says that \"she did as she was told.\" She had her sons continue to bring jars to her. She had to have believed that God would do the impossible with those empty jars. The Bible doesn't show that she asked, \"What am I going to do with these empty jars?\" It says \"she did as she was told.\" She kept pouring\u2014behind closed doors\u2014and the oil never ran out.\n\n> Soon every container was full to the brim! \"Bring me another jar,\" she said to one of her sons. \"There aren't any more!\" he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.\n> \n> \u20142 KINGS 4:6\n\nThe oil only stops when empty vessels stop coming. When we stop coming to God, that's when the oil stops. When we stop recognizing our need for Him, we stop coming. The issue is not God's supply. God's supply is limitless. The issue is our demand.\n\nRESPOND\n\nThat we are not seeing the fullness of God's power in this generation has absolutely nothing to do with God's ability. God is just as miraculous and supernatural as He was at any other time in history. The Bible says He doesn't change (Mal. 3:6). This means that whatever you've seen Him do in the past He can still do. So why aren't you seeing His power in your life?\n\nIs it possible that the only reason you've stopped seeing the oil flow in your life is because you've stopped asking for it? Is it possible that the oil stopped flowing in your life because you don't have an empty vessel to contain what God wants to do? Are you so full of yourself\u2014your flesh, your desires, or pride\u2014that there's no room for His oil?\n\n_Miracles are not born in public display but in private devotion._\n\nIn the widow's story the oil stopped when the empty vessels stopped. God _always_ supplies oil when there is a demand. If you want to see God move in this generation, you need to understand this truth. Revival flows through us. I challenge you to ask yourself: Why is revival not happening in my life? Why do I not see miracles, signs, and wonders taking place in my generation, my home, or wherever I go?\n\nThe question is, Are you full, or are you empty? Is there room in your life for the anointing, for the presence of God? Is there anything in your life that is crowding out His ability to use you? Can He fill you with His oil? Is there anything keeping you from receiving the fullness of what He wants to do in your life? Even if you have a little bit of pride or a little bit of whatever, that little bit is enough to limit His ability to fill you completely.\n\nGod may be using you, and you may be anointed, but God wants to do more. When I get a glimpse of what God wants to do, I get excited. I become aware that whatever little bit of \"stuff\" I've been holding on to needs to go. We have to be careful not to get to a place where we stop coming to God. It could be that God gave you a word for somebody one time, and all of a sudden you want to be known as prophetess So-and-So. God uses you to pray for somebody one time, she says her headache is gone, and now you want to launch a healing ministry. You got it. You're anointed. But you stop coming to Him, and you stop praying and depending on Him as much. You may be able to look back at certain seasons of your life and say, \"Man, God was really using me back then.\" God hasn't changed. His supply is still there. The question then is, Are you still coming to Him?\n\nGod wants to do immeasurably more than anything we've seen, and He is inviting us to go deeper. I don't want to attempt to speak for you, but I invite you to go to God with a prayer similar to this one, letting Him know that you are reaching out to Him again, but this time you want to be emptied:\n\n> _God, I give You permission to go into every area of my life that does not line up with You. Examine my heart, thoughts, actions, deeds, relationships, interactions, addictions, pains, and struggles. Go in deep, and if You find anything that is hindering me from being filled to overflowing, take it out of me. I want Your oil to flow in my life. I do not want to be so full that I cannot receive Your oil. So God, I come. Empty me of everything that is against Your will and plans for my life. I come seeking to increase my capacity to house Your Spirit. God, fill me up._\n\nThere will never come a time when you will not need to present yourself back to God as an empty vessel in need of His filling. Never. The oil stops when you stop presenting yourself before Him empty. Surrender is not a one-time event. Don't allow the enemy to trick you into thinking it is. Surrender is a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment commitment to say, \"Lord, I want to be right with You. I need You.\" Your acknowledgment of your need for God is an emptying out of yourself. Nothing\u2014not money, reputation, or friends\u2014is worth more than having the oil of the anointing of God flowing in your life.\nCHAPTER 6\n\nNO SUBMISSION, NO POWER\n\nYou will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere\u2014in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.\n\n\u2014ACTS 1:8\n\nEVERYBODY WANTS TO walk in power. Everybody wants to receive a word from God. Everybody wants to prophesy. But we can't do any of it without being submitted to God. One of the things we need to talk about more as we pray for God to blow the winds of revival is submission to the Holy Spirit. We are professionals at being good at everything but submission. We don't like it. We don't like it when somebody tells us what to do, and that includes allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us. The way the old folks would say it is the Holy Spirit will help us walk right, talk right, and live right. To let Him do that, we have to surrender.\n\nThe reason we have a generation confused about revival is because there are many people who think like Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8. They think they can exercise special privilege and shortcut the way to receive supernatural power to carry out the works of Christ. They would rather have the anointing than a relationship with God. Do you know what that looks like? It looks like tongue-talking whore-mongers, tongue-talking cussers, tongue-talking alcoholics, and tongue-talking fornicators. They want the gifts but don't want to submit to God.\n\nThe problem we face as believers is that we leave the world confused about what kind of power God possesses when His people live the same way they do\u2014sometimes worse. While we're talking about revival and the power of God, the world is looking on, trying to figure out how we have power but don't live right, stop gossiping and watching pornography, or come together and love one another. What kind of power is this that we are talking about?\n\nThe world is waiting on us to arise like real sons of God (Rom. 8:19). They need to see us walk in God's full power. We cannot expect to see a perpetual move of God if we don't have power, and we will have no power without giving ourselves completely over to God. We must be willing to say, \"We'll go where You go. We'll take on Your identity. We'll take on Your name. We will lose it all to follow You.\" By doing this, we open the door to an authentic overflow of the power of the Holy Spirit.\n\nYOU WILL RECEIVE POWER . . .\n\nIn Acts 1:8 Jesus gave His followers a prophetic word about their future and destiny. He said, \"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.\" This is a good word. I imagine there was a feeling of strength and victory attached to it as He spoke to them. We as believers today like to hear this part of the verse, especially in Spirit-filled churches: \"Yes, God! I receive Your power.\" Next, Jesus says, \"You will be my witnesses . . . in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.\" The disciples are still tracking with Him, as would we be. \"Amen. Thank You, Jesus,\" I can hear us say.\n\nWhat we are witnessing in this passage is the Lord prophetically speaking by the power of His Spirit over the lives of believers then and now. He was spelling out our destiny, which is distinctly different from a destination. This prophetic word in Acts 1 is about the arc of the life of a believer. In essence, He was saying, \"What's about to happen in your life is going to be more powerful than you can imagine. The Spirit of God is going to come upon your life, and He is going to empower you to make you witnesses. He is going to give you a worldwide ministry, and you are going to go to the ends of the earth proclaiming My Word. I've called you to preach My gospel and to be My witnesses.\"\n\nI can see it: Just as this word ignited a revolution in the hearts of Jesus's followers that spread all over the known biblical world, I can see it having a similar effect in our churches today. The whole place would erupt. People would lift their hands and say, \"My life is going to be great because God is going to greatly use me.\"\n\n_The world is waiting on us to arise like real sons of God._\n\nBut Jesus was only telling _what_ would happen. He did not tell _how_ it would happen or what it would take to get to this place of spiritual power. With every _what_ , there is a _how_ , and by now those of us who are praying for revival already know the _why_. The _why_ fuels our prayers, the _what_ gives us direction, and the _how_ is the deciding factor for how far we'll go with God and how much we're willing to surrender to Him in this current season.\n\n. . . BUT THERE IS A COST\n\nThere's a point as the Spirit reveals the full extent of Jesus's call to destiny where many of us may get quiet. What if Jesus told us that on the way to receiving power, we are going to lose friends and people are going to talk about us? What if He said we may lose our houses or our jobs? What if it comes to losing health benefits or our cars? What if our children start acting up or our family members don't understand why we don't do the same things we used to?\n\nWhat if it takes all this and Jesus says, \"I'm still going to use you\"? Some of us would say, \"You know, I'm good where I am.\" Others may say, \"I don't know about that.\" But let me challenge you again with the words of Christ: \"If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?\" (Matt. 16:25\u201326).\n\nWhat are you willing to give to be used by God in this hour? Is seeing God move worth more than preserving your status in society? Is seeing God move worth more than preserving relationships with friends and family who don't understand the call of God? Is seeing God move worth more than preserving the comforts of your own soul? This is a hard word. I know some of us may not be ready to face this, but revival is costly to the flesh.\n\nBut God reassures us in this: \"I will never leave you nor forsake you\" (Heb. 13:5, NKJV). \"My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness\" (2 Cor. 12:9). He says, \"Whatever I take you through, the Holy Spirit will remind you of the things I've said so when you are in a moment that seems incredibly difficult, you will prevail.\"\n\nTwo of the hallmarks of revival are repentance and salvation. Even in what we think are the hardest cases, nothing is too hard for God. Our church is located not far from a street in our city that has been known as a hub for prostitution. There are several adult stores on that particular part of the street as well. We've seen fewer and fewer of those kinds of businesses over the years, but they're still present.\n\nOne Sunday a lady walked into church right off the street, having just sold her body for money. She literally didn't even clean herself up first. She had decided that she'd had enough of that life and was drawn by the Spirit of God to come to our church. When the invitation to surrender to Christ was made, she responded and gave her life to Christ on the spot. As we prayed for her, she was set free and delivered. She came back the next week like a completely different person and to this day has not gone back to that life of prostitution. It's happening!\n\nGET USED TO BEING UNCOMFORTABLE\n\nWhen God calls you to do great works, you must be willing to give up whatever you need to release to make yourself available to Him. As a witness of His glory, you will not get to go wherever you want to go on your own time. You don't get to determine when you go. You don't even get to determine how you go. When God has a call on your life, your personal schedule is irrelevant. Proverbs 19:21 says, \"You can make many plans, but the LORD'S purpose will prevail.\" In other words, there's nothing wrong with planning, but the sovereignty of God's purpose trumps your plans. Because God needs you to be unattached to the cares of this life, when you get too comfortable with your plan, He will intentionally make you uncomfortable.\n\n_The sovereignty of God's purpose trumps your plans._\n\nThis is exactly what He allowed to happen in Acts 8. The Bible says:\n\n> Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.\n> \n> A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. (Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.\n> \n> But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.\n> \n> \u2014ACTS 8:1\u20134\n\nSaul (who later became Paul) led the persecution of believers, which was the catalyst for their being sent out to preach the good news. This is so uncomfortable for many to embrace, and it may be a hard word for where God is moving His body, so I'll say it again: God caused Saul to persecute believers to send them out so His purpose would prevail. Jesus said in Acts 1:8, \"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth\" (MEV).\n\nOn the surface that sounds amazing. The Holy Spirit is going to come. We will receive power and minister around the world. Most would say, \"Sign me up for that.\" However, Jesus didn't say how it would happen, only that it would happen. If you've been walking with the Lord for a while, you can probably attest to the reality that we didn't know where our _yes_ would take us and what our _yes_ would cause us to go through.\n\nSome of us might not have said yes so readily if we had known the cost. Jesus said they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 8:1\u20133 tells us that Saul's persecution of the believers caused them to be scattered to the regions of Judea and Samaria. So how did they get to Judea and Samaria? Persecution. At times God uses persecution to advance His causes.\n\nConsidering that God had no problem turning up the heat on the believers in the early church to see a mass revival come, you must understand that God will also make you uncomfortable. Are you feeling uncomfortable around the friends and family you used to hang with? Are you feeling the pressure of being tied to a nine-to-five job? Are they turning up the heat, telling you not to talk about God? I need you to understand that God is calling you out. He, not the devil, is the One causing the people and environments around you to feel strange. So stop rebuking the devil.\n\nI am not at all telling you to quit your job, break up with all your friends, sell everything you have, and move to Tanzania. I am encouraging you to reframe how you see the challenges you are facing in the natural in this season. I am encouraging you to seek the face of God for clarity and direction. Because you have cried out and He has answered, He is taking you up on your commitment to surrender to Him to see how far you are really willing to go. He is calling you to respond once again.\n\nWhen Jesus released the word of destiny in Acts 1, He did not tell them that the way they would be built up in the faith, the way that they would be strengthened and empowered, was by the threat of death. He did not say, \"You will receive power to be My witnesses, and how you're going to get that power is through enduring death threats.\" I think He knew that would have been too much all at once. He gave them the first part and allowed the Holy Spirit to lead them through the second part.\n\nIn Acts 8:5 Phillip\u2014a layperson, a deacon in the church\u2014was sent to Samaria, a most uncomfortable place for Jews. From Jesus's encounter with the woman at the well (John 4) and His parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25\u201337), we know that these two groups didn't get along. Still, the Lord caused Philip to go there and walk in the miracle-working power of God:\n\n> Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.\n> \n> \u2014ACTS 8:6\u20138\n\nRevival broke out in Samaria. Because of increased persecution believers scattered into areas where they were not comfortable, and God used them mightily. They received power to carry out the work of the Lord in areas where they may not have gone on their own and to people who may never have heard the gospel.\n\nLooking closely at the Scripture, you will discover that most of Jesus's instructions for proclaiming the gospel were given for all believers, not just for those operating in what are known as the fivefold ministry gifts outlined in Ephesians 4:11 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers). This means every believer has been given the task of proclaiming the gospel everywhere because we can never know where revival will break out. We need to be surrendered and ready.\n\n_We need to be surrendered and ready._\n\nSome of us are secretly hoping that when revival breaks out, we won't be called to someplace uncomfortable. But what happens when the Lord does just that? His intention is for revival to break out wherever you're sent and that when you begin to proclaim the Word of the Lord, people are saved, healed, and delivered from all the power of the enemy.\n\nTHERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO POWER\n\nWhen the truth of the gospel is preached, deception is exposed and people are moved to choose between the truth and a lie. The Bible says:\n\n> A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. Everyone, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as \"the Great One\u2014the Power of God.\" They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic.\n> \n> \u2014ACTS 8:9\u201311\n\nThe people saw how this man moved in supernatural ways, and they thought they were seeing God's power at work\u2014until they heard Philip preach. \"But now the people believed Philip's message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ\" (Acts 8:12). The power of God present in Philip's teaching convicted their hearts with the truth, and they recognized that all this time they had been deceived. As a result, many men and women were baptized, including Simon.\n\n_When the truth of the gospel is preached, deception is exposed._\n\nBut Simon had a little bit more going on. He began to follow Philip because he saw the power Philip operated in. It seemed he was trying to figure out how it worked.\n\nWhen the apostles of Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there to confirm the new believers and baptize them in the Holy Spirit.\n\n> Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.\n> \n> When Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. \"Let me have this power, too,\" he exclaimed, \"so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!\"\n> \n> But Peter replied, \"May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God's gift can be bought! You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts, for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.\n> \n> \"Pray to the Lord for me,\" Simon exclaimed, \"that these terrible things you've said won't happen to me!\"\n> \n> \u2014ACTS 8:17\u201324\n\nUnfortunately for Simon, God doesn't work this way. He was given an opportunity to repent, but that's not what he did. His asking the apostles to pray for him made it clear that he really had no intention of taking his new commitment to God to full relationship status. He wanted a quick route to the power, but he didn't want a relationship. He wanted the power without submission. He didn't want to lose anything. He didn't want to be humbled or made uncomfortable. He somehow wanted to do everything the apostles were doing, but he didn't want to submit to the lordship of Jesus. If we aren't careful, we may find ourselves in the same place.\n\nHave you ever been awake late at night and caught one of those weight-loss infomercials? It's as if they come on one after the other. They try to sell you all sorts of things they say will change your body without your having to do much work. \"Take this pill, and you'll automatically lose weight.\" \"Wear this shirt, and you'll automatically get a six-pack.\" If we're not careful, we can get sucked into being part of Generation Shortcut. We try to think of ways to get what we want without doing the work or feeling discomfort. We do this with the things of God as well.\n\nSome of us want the power of God without relationship with Him. We see someone operating in a powerful anointing, and we want what they have, but we don't want to go through what they've been through to get to where they are in God. No, this will not be us. We will do whatever it takes to see the power of God moving in this generation. I believe we will be a people who will accept the engagement ring. We will not reject what God has freely given us. We will not shortcut the process to receiving the power of God, thinking that it can be bought with anything we have other than our whole selves. We will be the generation that knows the power of God is freely given to those who submit to God, withholding nothing. Hear me: there is nothing you possess that can equal what He can give you. What He requires from all of us is a level of submission that says, \"I belong to You.\"\n\nGOD'S ENGAGEMENT RING\n\nThe Bible says the Holy Spirit (whose power we receive) is the confirmation that we belong to Jesus. This concept of confirmation is loaded with meaning. In Ephesians 1:13\u201314 (NIV) the Bible says:\n\n> And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession\u2014to the praise of his glory.\n\nThe word _deposit_ is translated \"earnest\" in the King James Version, both words coming from the Greek word _arrabon_ , meaning \"pledge\" or \"downpayment.\" In context of the church being the bride of Christ, we can extend the meaning to include the modern Greek word _arrabona_ , which means \"engagement ring.\"\n\nBuilding from the concept of confirmation and deposit, 2 Corinthians 1:21\u201322 takes it further into ownership: \"He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come\" (NIV). The Holy Spirit is God's promise of marriage to His bride, the church. He is a confirmation that we belong to Jesus.\n\n_The Holy Spirit is God's promise of marriage to His bride, the church._\n\nWhen someone puts a ring on your finger, it says, \"I'm taken.\" When we submit to the Holy Spirit, we're saying: \"I'm taken. No one else can have me. Nothing else can have me. Nothing else deserves my affection and attention. Nothing else deserves my worship. I'm taken. I belong to someone. I have given myself away.\" In traditional wedding ceremonies the officiant will ask, \"Who gives this woman to this man?\" But in the kingdom we give ourselves away.\n\nSimon is an example of someone who came but did not have the right heart. He had no intention of fully submitting himself in relationship with God. Therefore God could not give him the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. God would not put a deposit, guarantee, or confirmation on Simon's choice because he was simply enamored with the power he saw operating in the apostles' lives. He wanted what they had, but he didn't want who they worshipped. This is the very definition of _prostitution_ \u2014trying to pay for something that should be given for free in the confines of a genuine intimate relationship. God illuminated the life of Simon the sorcerer to show us what happens when someone says he believes but doesn't want Him. Jesus knows why we come to Him, and because He gave everything He had to us, including His own life, He will not accept anything less than everything from us.\n\nRESPOND\n\nThe Holy Spirit is God's invitation to submission. If you don't want to be submitted, you can't have Him or His power. We are crying out for a perpetual move of God, one that the world has never seen. I've told you it's happening, but where we have to go next is total and complete submission. God is challenging every area of our lives to get us to respond to this one thing: either we belong to ourselves, or we belong to Him. This is not a plea to do better or try harder. This is a do-or-die moment: submit to Him, or be powerless in this next season. It's your choice.\n\n_The Holy Spirit is God's invitation to submission. If you Don't want to be submitted, you can't have Him or His power._\n\nIf you dare to submit to God, I challenge you to join me in this short, but dangerous, prayer:\n\n> _Holy Spirit, show me every area of my life that is not submitted to You, in the name of Jesus. Amen._\n\nNow let me forewarn you: Within the next couple of weeks there will be moments and circumstances in your life that will cause you to wonder where in the world they came from. Don't panic, and don't get mad at God. He will remind you about the prayer you just prayed, and He will remind you that He is with you. Do not doubt that you have made the best choice of your life. You have just opened the door to the supernatural power of God to flow through you as you step out as His witness. You also have received the greatest gift ever given to man\u2014God's engagement ring. It is the guarantee from God that everything He promised will come to pass.\nCHAPTER 7\n\nURGENT ANTICIPATION\n\n\"Behold, the days are coming,\" says the LORD, \"when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.\"\n\n\u2014AMOS 9:13, NKJV\n\nIN AMOS 9:11\u201314 the prophet foretold the rapid growth and abundance of the first-century church. As we pattern ourselves after the example of Christ and the apostles, this passage represents something prophetic for that generation and this one. It's telling us that God is accelerating the time between when we plant the seed of the Word\u2014indicated by the plowman\u2014and when we will see a harvest\u2014gathered by the reaper\u2014of souls, spiritual blessings, and an outpouring of the goodness of God.\n\nIn ancient times during the regular farming season the plowman and the reaper were never together. Those who sowed seed did it in one season, usually summer, and those who reaped did it in another season, usually fall. There was time between. Yet the Lord is saying that the days are coming when both will be on the field at the same time\u2014\"the plowman shall overtake the reaper.\" That suggests He is not only accelerating the harvest; He is also increasing the abundance of it. _The Message_ translates the promise this way:\n\n> \"Yes indeed, it won't be long now.\" GOD'S Decree.\n> \n> \"Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won't be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once\u2014and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills.\"\n> \n> \u2014AMOS 9:13\n\nThis is why I say with confidence, \"There's more.\" Now I add to it, \"But we don't have much time. Things are going to happen quickly.\" To keep up with what God is doing, we need to take on a posture of urgency.\n\nIn John 4 Jesus had gone to Samaria to talk to a woman at a well. At His specific appointment with her He began to reveal the fact that salvation was getting ready to come to the Gentiles (vv. 21\u201324). Though every other Jewish person would walk around the city of Samaria, He had a specific reason for going there. Jesus spoke prophetically to the woman, telling her about her life. This moment had such an impact on the woman that she went into the city telling everyone what Jesus had said and done. \"Come and see a man,\" she said, \"who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?\" (v. 29). As \"the people came streaming from the village\" (v. 30), Jesus looked up at His disciples and said, \"You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest\" (v. 35). What was He saying?\n\n_Wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest._\n\nWhile the disciples were trying to leave and worried about Jesus getting something to eat, there was a much more urgent need\u2014one that surpassed any natural need or want, such as food or Jesus's maintaining His reputation. Jesus was letting them know that it was harvesttime. Even though He had just planted a seed in the woman's heart, He also was reaping the harvest as the townspeople came out to see who He was. He made the statement in verse 35 to let them know that the normal period between sowing and reaping had been accelerated\u2014the plowman was overtaking the reaper. There is an urgency in the spirit when times and seasons accelerate, because if we don't get busy with the harvest, it will spoil. Just as Jesus needed His disciples to understand this, we too need to get this sense of urgency into our spirits.\n\nNo one is talking about the urgency of Christ anymore. These days sermons are about \"bless me,\" how to be a better this or that, or five steps to this and four steps to that. They want to talk about the latest movies and the most \"relevant\" thing in popular culture. I'm not against other people's preaching, but I remember a time when preaching seemed to be elementary. They kept it simple, and though some preachers may not have had the most scholarly grasp of the Scriptures, clever revelations, or full contextual prophetic understanding, they did have a relationship with Jesus and the urgent anticipation that any Sunday could be the last Sunday. They never took for granted that somebody might not have had the opportunity to hear about Jesus before he faced Judgment Day, so they would preach every week about Calvary, about the blood that never loses its power, and that Jesus is coming again. Now we have a generation of people who sit in church Sunday after Sunday and rarely hear of the blood and cross of Jesus\u2014and we certainly don't hear about the Second Coming. To skip the central messages of the gospel is to preach as if we have time.\n\nA SEASON OF ACCELERATION\n\nWhen Jesus entered the earth, acceleration began. The fulfillment of Amos 9:13 has been happening over the last two thousand years, but there are many who are unaware that Jesus's coming is near. In 2 Peter 3 the apostle Peter wrote about the last days to remind the believers that time was short. In verses 3\u20134 he said:\n\n> Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, \"What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.\"\n\nIn other words, people will say: \"There's nothing different. Why are you preaching with such urgency? Everything is the same.\" They are forgetting that, according to the next few verses of 2 Peter 3, God intervenes in time and the affairs of men: \"And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed\" (v. 7). If we believed this and kept it in our hearts, why do we think we have time? Peter went on to say, \"But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.\" In other words, since the day that Christ came as a baby until now, it's only been two days to Him.\n\nLook at everything that has happened in two days. We are in a season of acceleration. To God, He just came. For us it may seem as though we've been waiting for a long time, but Peter assures us that \"the Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent\" (v. 9). Christ hasn't come back yet because He is gracious and merciful. He's slow to anger and patient. He could come right now, but He sees the condition of the earth. He sees that people think they have time, and in His mercy He's saying, \"Not yet.\"\n\nBut the day is coming:\n\n> But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.\n> \n> \u20142 PETER 3:10\n\nThose of us who understand the times and season, like the sons of Issachar, are praying, crying, and falling on our faces so much because we know that the revival God is bringing may very well be the last one. This could be the last one!\n\n_Every time we come together could be the last time. Every time we open our eyes could be the day. How will you be found?_\n\nSome of us are confused, waiting on this or that to happen to signal the start of the last days because of varying eschatological beliefs. Others of us are in Matthew 24 and Daniel 10 with a calculator, trying to figure out how long we have left to sin before we get our lives right with God. The Bible says that \"the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief\" (2 Pet. 3:10). Even those who think they know will be surprised. Every time we come together could be the last time. Every time we open our eyes could be the day. How will you be found?\n\nI have a good friend from North Carolina. His name is Pastor Tony Jones. Tony is precious to our church because he flies in from North Carolina to Orlando every single month for our monthly Presence Nights. Unbeknownst to me, during one of the Presence Nights, Pastor Tony quietly placed on our church altar the name of one of his members who was battling sickness. We have a growing stack of papers on our altar, where people have placed the names of sick loved ones in faith. We've seen a number of people whose names were placed there miraculously healed.\n\nSometime later Pastor Tony asked me to minister at his church during their church anniversary, and I gladly accepted his invitation. The presence of God was strong that night as the people worshipped God. After I preached, there was a time of prayer, and the Spirit of God demonstrated His power among the people.\n\nPastor Tony asked me if I would pray for a precious lady who was dealing with stage IV lung cancer. She had been given just six months to live. As she came up, she was clearly weak from the medical treatments she received, and she was wearing a mask. As I prayed for her, I felt a tremendous heat, which sometimes comes when I'm praying for the sick, and I could sense the Holy Spirit working. With certain cancers there is usually not an immediate way to tell if anything happened, but I remember having a strong sense that something had taken place.\n\nMonths later I received a call from Pastor Tony about this lady. When she came to the service, she knew that nothing more could be done medically. The cancer had spread from her lungs to her neck and spine and was near the stem of her brain at that time. They were preparing for the worst, but Jesus met her that night. A few short months later, to everyone's amazement, her medical reports showed no sign of cancer! It's happening!\n\nA SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT\n\nOur cry for revival is not so our goose bumps can have goose bumps. We're not asking God for revival only so we can see more signs and wonders. It's not about gold dust, gold fillings, angel feathers, stigmata, anointed oil\u2014none of that stuff. We are here in this moment because God invited us here. He walked into our space to make an announcement.\n\nAccording to Micah 7, revival is a loud announcement, in the middle of corruption and scandal and sin, that the enemy's time is short. Our nation does not deserve revival. We have allowed the enemy to torment us with sin, scandal, and corruption. But our God is so merciful that He is sending revival anyway. He has put the enemy on notice that his days of ruling the earth are short. The more the fires of revival burn, the further out the enemy is driven. The closer God gets to us, the looser the grip of the enemy becomes.\n\nTime is coming to a close. We should be living with urgency and expectation in our spirits. Any hour could be the hour. Any moment could be the moment. Any day could be the day. None of us has the time we think we do. But the less time we spend here, the closer we are to an eternity there.\n\nGod has withheld the second coming of Jesus so that those who don't know Him have an opportunity to accept Him. He could come right this second and judge the entire earth, and everyone who has placed faith in himself would be found guilty and on the wrong side of judgment. But everyone who has placed his faith in Jesus Christ would receive the gift of eternal life.\n\nNo preacher knows the day or the hour, yet we must preach with urgency. No prophet knows the time or hour, yet we must proclaim and prophesy with urgency. God has made a loud announcement, yet He exercises His patience. As Moses discovered, He is \"the God of compassion and mercy! [He is] slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness\" (Exod. 34:6). Though we don't know the day, we must be grateful for God's great love and patience and wait with anticipation.\n\nRESPOND\n\nThe Bible tells us that we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. That is true of everyone who believes, no matter who we are. This message has a twofold application:\n\n> 1. If you are saved and have surrendered your heart to Jesus, you don't have more time to try and get yourself together. You need to live with urgency.\n> \n> 2. If you have never surrendered to Jesus Christ, you don't have the time to keep running. Today is your day.\n\nWhat is amazing in both cases is that the Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus afresh to you. The best preaching can't do that. The Holy Spirit is the only One who can convince your heart of your need for Him. All you have to do is accept His gift of forgiveness and eternal life. You have the capacity to believe. He is taking the scales off your eyes, and the veil on your heart is being removed. Will you believe? Will you accept Him?\n\nIf you have said yes, pray this prayer with me now:\n\n> _Lord Jesus, I'm not running from You anymore. I'm running to You. I believe that You are the Son of God, who died for my sins, and that God Your Father raised You to new life. I receive Your sacrifice and forgiveness._\n> \n> _Today, I acknowledge that I need You. I surrender my life to You completely. I know I don't have time, so I pray that You will fill me with Your Spirit that I may have the urgency to cry out for revival. I want to see it. I want to be a part of the mighty things You will do in this season. In Your name, I pray. Amen._\nCHAPTER 8\n\nSTAY AND WAIT\n\nDo not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.\n\n\u2014ACTS 1:4\u20135\n\nONE OF THE hallmarks of my life and of our church is that we are relentless about waiting in the presence of God. It's one of the things people often comment on when they visit Deeper. We've adopted the belief that God is not in our presence; we are in His presence. That distinction is critical to how we navigate our rivers (services). We don't rush through moments, wanting to move ahead with our plans for the gathering. We wait until He is finished with a moment. And then we wait until He directs us to the next moment. Some of the most significant miracles that have taken place have happened after the service was dismissed. Many times we will dismiss the service to give people the opportunity to leave if they need to, but often people stay. I've dismissed rivers before, only to see a couple of hundred people continue to wait in His presence for over an hour or more. We stay because we need Him. We wait because there is nothing more important than Him. Many believe it just isn't possible for people to wait in God's presence today, when so many just want to be in and out of the church service. But the Lord has consistently rewarded this posture of waiting.\n\nAs I mentioned previously, several of the most significant miracles that have taken place in our midst happened after the majority had left. This has happened both during our weekly gatherings and at our Presence Nights, which are monthly services specifically designed to give God room to move. We have no agenda at our Presence Nights other than to come and be in His presence and follow where He leads. We want to flow with Him. At Deeper we've come to understand that scripturally rivers are often used as a metaphor to represent the Spirit of God. The Lord has directed us concerning our purpose and potential through Ezekiel 47, in which the prophet had a vision of a river flowing from the temple. Our Sunday morning gatherings and Presence Nights are marked by being in the river of God's Spirit and waiting for the current to take us where He wants us to go. We have learned to throw away our oars and put up our sails.\n\nIsaiah 33:21 says, \"But there the glorious LORD will be to us a place of broad rivers and streams on which no boat with oars shall go and on which no gallant ship shall pass\" (MEV). On the river of God, boats with oars will not move. Oars represent human effort and strength, our ability to determine the direction and velocity of where we are going. On the river of God, the Spirit leads us, and we wait on Him to direct us. And we have seen and experienced amazing things as a result.\n\nIn July 2017 an entire day of services was dedicated to giving God thanks and praise for an incredible miracle He had performed for a family in our church. (I will share more about that miracle in chapter 9.) After the second service was over, as usual people remained in the sanctuary because we could still sense the presence of God. I decided to sit down in reverence when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, and a lady was standing there with a baby in her arms. The baby was four months old, and when I looked at her little body, it was limp, and she was in a somewhat catatonic state. The lady began to tell me that the Holy Spirit prompted her to come back in the church and not leave without having someone pray for this beautiful child. She explained that the child was partially brain dead, and the doctors said she would never smile, speak, or eat on her own. We prayed, and in an instant the baby's eyes focused and became normal. She smiled and began cooing and looking around, all things that she had never done in her young life. She was healed in an instant.\n\nAnother time there was a lady who had severe neuropathy. She utilized a walker and was partially blind. We prayed, and the Lord took away all her pain and restored her sight. Her husband came to the service carrying his wife; he left the service carrying her purse! The Lord healed another woman of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis the very week I sat down to write this. The arthritis had damaged her ligaments so extensively that her hands were shriveled up and contorted. As I took her hand in mine and began to pray, we literally watched her hand unravel like a flower bud opening to the sun. Jesus healed her and straightened her withered hands right in front of our eyes. She was astonished, and so were the people who were standing there. The Lord took away all the pain in her body.\n\nAnother young man had what doctors believed was nerve damage to his eyes and the early onset of glaucoma. When he opened and closed his eyes, the man felt excruciating pain and pressure. When he came to church, he was a little scared that he would completely lose his sight. We began to pray for him, and a heat radiated through his eyes, and he was instantly healed! The pain and pressure he was experiencing instantly left, and he was able to remove the special glasses he was wearing to protect him from light sensitivity. All these things happened after we officially dismissed. It seems as if something special is released to those who will embrace the posture of waiting.\n\nMost of us know the Great Commission as the words Jesus spoke in Matthew 28:18\u201320: \"I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\" But what some of us don't know is that, according to scholars, these words were spoken at the same time He declared the words of Acts 1:4\u20135. As a matter of fact, He didn't say this just to the eleven; He also said it to the five hundred Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 15:6: \"After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time.\"\n\nNow, looking at the totality of what Jesus was saying, we can understand that before they were to go and make disciples of nations, He was commanding all five hundred of His followers to wait to receive the power to do what He was commissioning them to do. This is important because sometimes we get excited about the revelation of the call of God on our lives and rush out before God can give us what we need to accomplish it. He is telling us, as He told the five hundred, \"Before you go, I need you to stay and wait.\" What's interesting is that Jesus didn't tell them how long they were to wait. He just said, \"Wait until . . .\"\n\nNot everybody could get with that. So the Bible reports that only 120 of the ones who were present to hear the Lord's command went to the upper room to wait, which means that 380 people didn't go, or maybe they went but didn't stay. Whichever way we look at it, it seems that the 380 lost their tenacity, which we'll talk about more in the next chapter. These 380 were the majority who decided, like many in this generation, they had something more important to do than wait. There is nothing in our lives more important than waiting on God. Those who stayed remained because they knew they needed what Jesus promised was coming. They all had the same passion, which is another way _homothymadon_ , the Greek word for \"one accord\" in Acts 1:14 (KJV), can be translated. It comes from two Greek terms that mean to \"rush along\" and \"in unison.\" The 120 stayed because nothing else was more important to them. Inevitably there are always some who have another priority.\n\nThere is a precious lady in our church who has a smile on her face every time I see her. Since she is always smiling, I was unaware that she was very sick. She had a cancerous tumor on her side the size of a melon. When I was told about her diagnosis, a righteous indignation rose up in me. I knew I wanted to pray for her the next time she was at a service.\n\nOne Saturday evening I read about Smith Wigglesworth and the miraculous healings that took place through his ministry, and I was struck by how bold he was. When I went into the service the next day, those powerful accounts were still reverberating in my mind.\n\nThat Sunday the atmosphere of worship and faith was electrifying, and I asked if this precious woman was in the room. She was present and came forward. A boldness came over me as the other leaders and I spoke to the cancer and the tumor and prayed for her healing. After we prayed, we felt a tangible sense that the Lord heard us and would answer.\n\nThe following week when she showed me the spot where the tumor was, I could feel that it had shrunk from the size of a melon to about the size of a golf ball. And instead of being hard, it was now soft. Today she says she can't even feel the tumor. On top of that, after losing a lot of weight because of the cancer, she's at a healthy weight again, and she's still smiling! It's happening!\n\n\"I'M NOT LEAVING\"\n\nBut there was a group of people who kept the posture of waiting. In essence, they said, \"We're not going anywhere until we see it. We're not leaving until we receive it.\" We have the opportunity to duplicate this posture in this generation. Many already have. This is the posture of those who believe there is something the Lord wants to pour out, and they know He is only going to pour it out on those who will stay and wait. The experience of those who stay \"until\" is different from the experience of anyone else. Those who stay get God. The 120 of Acts 1 set a precedent. They decided they were not going anywhere until they received what they were promised, and they received God. They didn't try to manipulate God to get Him to work on their terms. They submitted themselves to His timing.\n\nThe 380, on the other hand, either got distracted along the way or decided it wasn't worth it. Impatience and spirits of control arose in them, and they began to move out of their position, perhaps questioning the details of God's command: \"How long are we supposed to wait here?\" \"What did He say was going to happen?\" They sat there for a while, fifty days, the Bible says, and nothing happened. Maybe they left one by one, wondering, \"What is this thing? What if it's not going to happen? Maybe it's not going to happen. Maybe I don't need this as badly as I thought I did. I have other things to do.\" The real question, however, is, What did they value more than waiting on God?\n\nThere's something about those who say, \"I'm not leaving,\" whether it's Jacob, who said, \"I'm not leaving until I'm changed,\" or the woman with the issue of blood, who grabbed the hem of Jesus's garment. They were not willing to let go once they grabbed hold of the promise. No matter what it cost them personally, they were going to hold on until they received what they had been waiting for. I can imagine that for the rest of Jacob's life, he was asked, \"What happened to you?\" I can also imagine that he was grateful to respond, \"I got hold of God.\"\n\nWe ought to have such an encounter with the Lord that it causes people to ask, \"What happened to you?\" After the 120 received the Holy Spirit, amazing works of the Lord followed them. Miracles, signs, wonders, and salvations accompanied their experience. People who witnessed the events wondered, \"What happened to them?\" What happened is that they waited and received from the Lord. If you will stay and wait, you too will receive more of God. If you stay and wait, people will ask you what happened. And if you stay and wait, you will be able to say, \"I got ahold of God because I wouldn't let go until I was changed.\"\n\nWORTH THE WAIT\n\nOne thing we need to understand as we wait is that God does not move according to our time. He created time, and He holds it in His hands. So when God invites us into postures such as waiting, we should know the answer to questions such as \"How long do I have to wait?\" As we discussed, Scripture is clear. We wait \"until.\" There is no time frame on that. As a matter of fact, some individuals didn't see the promises God made to them in their lifetimes. Think of Abraham and the many others in the Old Testament who \"died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it\" (Heb. 11:13).\n\nBut for us, when God has spoken something, we want God to manifest it within the next fifteen minutes, fifteen months, or whatever time frame we decide is reasonable. And if it doesn't happen in that time, we're discouraged.\n\n_We ought to have such an encounter with the Lord that it causes people to ask, \"What happened to you?\"_\n\nWe don't like to wait for anything. But what we need to know is that what God wants to give us is worth waiting for. Consider this: It takes seventeen to eighteen hours to build a Toyota, but it takes four months to build a Rolls-Royce. Part of the reason is because a Toyota is made by robots, and a Rolls-Royce is made mostly by hand. If a mistake is made in the manufacturing process, it's done ten thousand times with a Toyota but only once with a Rolls-Royce. And so, ultimately, if you want something of value such as a Rolls-Royce-level blessing, you will have to wait, and it will be worth it.\n\nGod has His hands on this generation, inviting us to get in the right posture to receive revival in our lives, homes, and community, and in the nations all over the world. And this is not a prefabricated move where a die has been cast. God is doing an original work in this generation for those who are willing to wait.\n\nWAITING WHEN IT'S _N OT_ HAPPENING\n\nMost of the modern-day revivals we've seen in the world from the 1950s until now can be traced back to a room in Argentina. In the late 1940s missionary Edward Miller had been ministering in the area and was not seeing results. Miller was frustrated. He had been going door-to-door, evangelizing people, doing tent meetings, and all the other things missionaries normally do, but nobody was showing up. It was the same story for all the missionaries in that nation at the time. It seemed that the heavens were closed over the region, as they were not making any progress. So over time many of the missionaries left, but Miller stayed.\n\nEventually the Lord invited him to do something: pray for at least eight hours a day. If you know anything about missionaries, you know that they raise money from donors to fund their efforts and provide them with basic living necessities. People do not necessarily send support so the missionary can stay in his room and pray all day. Donors want to know that missionaries are out among the people, witnessing and saving souls. Miller put all the expectations of other people on hold and accepted the Lord's invitation to pray. Of course, now you're probably expecting me to say the demonic oppression over the region broke and the heavens were opened. But as it turned out, nothing happened. He prayed and prayed and prayed, and nothing tangible seemed to happen. So finally he gave the Lord a deadline.\n\nDon't judge him; we do the same thing. We may not be quite so bold as to tell God, \"On January 1, I expect to see my breakthrough.\" But know that God understands our thoughts and actions that communicate the same thing. He knows when we have given Him an unspoken deadline because when He doesn't meet it, we stop calling the prayer line. We stop being specific in our prayers. We stop believing. We stop attending church. We lose our zeal. Whether we admit it or not, we gave God a deadline, and since He did not meet it, we stopped reaching out to Him.\n\nSo Miller gave God a deadline, but he verbalized it and said, in essence, \"I will keep praying, but I need to see You do something by ______, or I will return to my usual missionary duties.\" He continued to pray eight hours a day as God had told him to do, and then the day of the deadline came. Miller grabbed a pocketful of tracts, but just as he was heading outside to pass them out, another local pastor showed up at his door. The two ended up talking for hours. The other pastor was hardly an encouragement to Miller; he had troubles of his own and was even more frustrated and discouraged than Miller was. Miller ended up encouraging the other pastor rather than receiving the encouragement he needed.\n\nThe other pastor had brought his unsaved son with him. As they were leaving, which was now well past his deadline, Miller asked the teenage boy a searching question. One word led to another until the boy began to weep. He ended up giving his heart to the Lord. Of course you would think this was the moment of breakthrough, that the Lord had finally come through for Miller. But that was not the moment of breakthrough. Basically all God said was, \"I will bring them in when I'm ready. Go back and pray.\"\n\nFaithfully Miller continued to pray eight hours every day. One day as he was praying, the Lord invited him to a new season. In the new season, God gave him this instruction: \"I want you to do a prayer meeting in which you will pray every day from 8:00 p.m. until midnight. Invite people to join you. But whoever comes must commit to praying the entire time. If they will not commit to praying the entire time, ask them not to come.\"\n\nSo Miller did as instructed, and only a handful of people joined him in praying from eight to midnight. You're probably thinking this is when something happened, after they prayed. But no. They prayed and prayed and prayed, and at the end of that first night Dr. Miller asked, \"Has anyone heard anything from the Lord? Does anyone have an impression?\" One of the young women who'd been praying with the small group said, \"I have this strange impression to go and hit the table in the center of the room. But it seems too foolish.\" It was so foolish to her, she couldn't even be persuaded to try it. So they didn't hit the table, and they all went home.\n\nThe next night, they came back, they prayed, Miller asked if anyone had heard from God, and everyone said no. Though the young woman had the same impression to hit the table, she did not pursue it because it seemed foolish. This cycle went on for three nights. Finally, after having the same impression, she agreed to try it once everyone in the room had hit the table first. They hit the table, one by one, and nothing happened. Then it was the young woman's turn. She went up and hit the table, and a physical rushing wind entered the building. Everyone fell to the floor in worship and began speaking in other tongues. They had an encounter with God, and the heavens were opened over Argentina.\n\nBecause this small group was faithful to obey God's instruction to wait despite the fact that nothing had happened for so long, He began to move. They opened a Bible school, and just a few years later a student who was walking and praying in the woods had an encounter with God that led to such a move of the Spirit they had to cancel classes for months. People could not stop crying. In addition, God gave the young student a prophetic word. He prophesied about different places that would have revival in the earth before the Lord returns. And would you know, every city he mentioned has seen one. All this is because some people were willing to stay in a posture of prayer and waiting.\n\nWAIT, THE ANSWER'S ON ITS WAY\n\nIn Daniel 10 Daniel received a vision from the Lord that grieved him. He wept and went without food for three weeks. His posture was one of lament and intercession for what he saw concerning the future of his nation and the nations of the earth. Though the vision did not come with revelation, as it had in times past, he sensed that God wanted to do something. So for twenty-one days he did nothing but remain in the presence of God, praying for His plans to be revealed. Nothing happened for twenty-one days. And keep in mind, God did not tell Daniel that he would need to remain in this position for twenty-one days. When he embarked on this journey with the Lord, Daniel did not know how long he would need to intercede.\n\nBut on the twenty-first day an angel came and gave him the answers he'd been praying for. The angel said:\n\n> Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you. . . . Don't be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.\n> \n> \u2014DANIEL 10:11\u201314\n\nThe angel was saying that a heavenly decree had been made on the first day Daniel prayed, but the prayer had been held up. So he had to call Michael to fight with him so he could get the answer to Daniel.\n\nIn order for an answer to be released on the earth, it has to be given to someone who has jurisdiction in the earth. In order for a decree or an announcement to take root, it has to take root in the place where there is jurisdiction. There was a decree made in heaven, but it had to get to someone, in this case Daniel, who had divine jurisdiction over that region. In Daniel 11 we learn that because the decree was about Persia and the prince of Persia had no ability to stop it, he tried to keep it from being declared. He thought he could delay the answer long enough and outlast Daniel's ability to wait for it. But Daniel waited, holding a posture of intercession and fasting. The prince of Persia could not outlast Daniel's posture.\n\nI need you to understand the power of waiting in this season. What the enemy was trying to do then and what he is trying to do now is hold up the answers to your prayers so you will get so frustrated you give up. But as with Daniel, God heard your cry on the first day. Some of you are getting frustrated because you believe that God hasn't heard you. But I want you to know that the moment you lifted your voice and began to cry out to God for understanding, the moment you lifted your voice and began to cry out to God\n\nfor revelation, or the moment you lifted your voice to cry out for your son or daughter, your city or your nation, the Lord heard you.\n\nThough the enemy tries to hold up His response, God is releasing the answers to those who have found His favor.\n\nI believe that we are in a season of breakthrough. This is a season when answers that have been held back for a long time are being released. The enemy knows he can't stop the decree. All he can do is fight its timing. Once the decree has been released in heaven, the enemy can only delay it. He knows that when it gets to us and we speak it, it cannot be stopped.\n\nPsalm 2:7 says, \"I will declare the decree of the LORD\" (AMP). This means you need to agree with the Word of God\u2014every single thing the Word says. You must speak the Word. You must speak the promises of God. Once you speak them, they will not delay. They will perform as God intends them to. They will not return to Him void.\n\nOne last amazing thing about Daniel's story: the spirit prince of Persia thought, \"If I can hold it up long enough, perhaps he'll move.\" But the Bible says that when the angel found Daniel, he was in the same place. He never got off his face.\n\nGod is challenging you to hold your posture. Do not stop seeking God until you have received what He has promised. It will be worth the wait.\n\nWE WON'T STOP UNTIL WE SEE IT\n\nThere is a statement that has gripped the heart of our church and has become a literal rallying cry for us in prayer: we won't stop until we see it! We are in a relentless pursuit for revival to continue not only among us but everywhere.\n\nIn 2 Kings 13 we see the circumstances surrounding Elisha's final prophecy.\n\n> Now Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. So Joash the king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, and said, \"My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen.\" Elisha said to him, \"Take a bow and arrows.\" So he took a bow and arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, \"Draw the bow.\" So he drew it. Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. Then he said, \"Open the east window.\" So he opened it. Then Elisha said, \"Shoot.\" So he shot. Then he said, \"The arrow of the deliverance of the LORD, and the arrow of deliverance from Aram; for you must strike Aram in Aphek until you have destroyed them.\" Then he said, \"Take the arrows.\" So he took them. Then he said to the king of Israel, \"Strike the ground.\" So he struck it three times and stood there. Then the man of God was angry with him and said, \"You should have struck it five or six times. Then you would have stricken Aram until you had finished them. Now you will strike Aram just three times.\"\n> \n> \u20142 KINGS 13:14\u201319, MEV\n\nIn this passage King Joash went to Elisha and received prophetic instructions to open the east window and shoot an arrow. Elisha put his hands on the king's hands, and the king shot the arrow, which was followed by the word that it was an arrow of deliverance from Aram. Then Elisha told him to take the arrows and strike the ground, and the king took the arrows and struck the ground three times and stood there. The Bible says Elisha became angry with him and said, \"You should have struck it five or six times. Then you would have stricken Aram until you had finished them. Now you will strike Aram just three times.\"\n\n_We won't stop striking the ground until we see revival in our city, our nation, and around the world._\n\nWhy would Elisha be angry that the king stuck the ground only three times when he didn't tell him how many times to strike? The implication here is twofold. First, the fact that the king struck the ground three times and stood there could imply that he thought the instruction was silly and didn't see the point. It's as if he were saying, \"What will this do?\" How often do we do the same thing? If we don't see the direct correlation or an immediate result, we question the effectiveness of continuing in prayer or fasting or believing and declaring. We do something a few times and then stand there with a posture of \"Let's see if this does anything.\"\n\nThe second implication informs the posture we have taken at our church. He struck the ground three times, and Elisha was angry and said he should have struck it five or six times. The king stopped striking the ground after three strikes, but he was never told how many times to strike, which indicates he was to strike until he was told to stop!\n\nThe thought here is he didn't strike the ground with full confidence that it would bear fruit, so he stopped. How often do we stop before seeing full victory? Because of the king's actions Elisha told Joash that he would see only three victories. Had he kept going, his enemy would have been destroyed.\n\nWe've made a commitment to take the posture that we won't stop striking the ground until we see revival in our city, our nation, and around the world. Just because it's happening among us doesn't mean we can stop striking the ground. We are not after just small victories or a local movement. We are believing for a global outpouring, a global revival. We believe if it's happening anywhere, it can happen everywhere, and we won't stop until we see it!\n\nRESPOND\n\nGod is looking for a generation that is willing to wait. Wherever you were when you received instruction or a promise from the Lord, go back to that place. When you first learned of it, did you pace the floor to see it manifest? If so, go back to that posture. Have you let your tears dry up? Open them up again. Have you stopped crying out to God? Open your mouth again. The Holy Spirit is telling me to tell you to go back. Go back to what you were doing. Don't leave your posture. Keep waiting. Keep praying. Keep believing. Keep fasting. It's happening!\n\nJust because you don't feel it doesn't mean it's not happening. Just because you don't see the answer doesn't mean He hasn't heard you. It's held up right now, but the answer is on the way. We are entering a season of breakthrough. I declare things that have been held up for a long time will break through for you, in the name of Jesus. The fight is about to be over, and the answer is about to be released. Stay and wait.\nCHAPTER 9\n\nCONTEND FOR THE FLAMES OF REVIVAL\n\nIn the womb [Jacob] took his brother by the heel, and in his maturity he contended with God.\n\n\u2014HOSEA 12:3, NASB\n\nGOD WANTS TO know how badly you want revival in your life and in your world. Have you reached the point where you are so comfortable with your life that you are willing to continue to contend with yourself and with man to get what only God can give? Would you believe me if I told you that there are some things that belong to you, that have always belonged to you, that you will have to contend with God for in order to see?\n\nThe difference between immature and mature believers is that the immature think their problem is people. The immature always think there is someone trying to keep them from their blessing. It's the immature who are always talking about haters. It's the immature who are always saying, \"Don't let people do this,\" or, \"Don't let people do that.\" For some reason or another they feel as if they are wrestling with men.\n\nMature people do not contend with other people. They are not worried about what other people think or say about them. They are not worried about how they look to others. And for those of us who haven't reached this place, this is the reason the church has not grown up. We have not been able to get to the place God wants us because we're still concerned about what the world thinks. We think that somehow we're contending with the world, and if the world likes us, then we'll be at a good place. But the things of God cannot be managed or dispensed through the systems of the world. They can come only from God. There is a blessing with your name on it, and there is no man you have to wrestle with to get it. You will have to contend with God.\n\n_There is a blessing with your name on it, and there is no man you have to wrestle with to get it._\n\nContending with God is about posture. It's about how deliberately desperate you are to see the glory of God fill the earth. Will you contend with God for it? Will you press through the crowd to get it? Will you do whatever it takes to see it? The stories of Jacob, the woman with the issue of blood, and others who acted tenaciously throughout history will give you the faith to hold your position until you see what you've been praying for.\n\nHOW BADLY DO YOU WANT IT?\n\nSomehow we've bought into a lie that God is going to grace us with His presence and everything we want if we just keep showing up. We act as if He is going to say, \"Oh, OK. You have perfect attendance, so I'll just do something for you.\" But it won't happen that way. Where are the hungry? Where are the thirsty? Where are the desperate? Where are those who say, \"I need You more than anything else. Nothing else matters. Nothing else will do. Nothing else will satisfy or satiate this thing I have on the inside of me because deep in my soul I am crying out for You\"? God wants to feel our demand for His presence and power.\n\nYou're reading this book, and I'm saying, \"It's happening.\" Maybe you've latched on to this truth as well and have begun to proclaim it in your own life. But I hope you are not missing the heaviness of the condition attached to having God move in your life. The question He is asking is, \"How badly do you want it?\"\n\nI know you don't get the question right now. It's heavy. It has a condition attached to it. I believe we are going to continue to see increasing waves of revival come to our land. I believe that. But it's attached to a people who want it. How badly do you want it? What are you willing to do to get it? The pathway to revival will not get easier. There is no easy path to this.\n\nGod is saying this across the earth: Is there a people who want revival so badly they will do anything to get it? Are you willing to wrestle Me for it?\n\nOne of the gifts of the Spirit that is in operation on a pretty regular basis at our church is the gift of words of knowledge. I, along with several members of our pastoral team, flow in this gift. One Sunday while I was traveling overseas, my friend Caleb was leading the services, and he often flows in this particular gift. The Holy Spirit gave him a word of knowledge about a person dealing with an issue with his or her esophagus that the Lord wanted to heal. The Holy Spirit then gave the church an instruction that to some might seem unusual, but I'm just going to tell you what happened that day.\n\nThe Spirit of God gave the instruction that we were to shout to the Lord in praise, and as we did, He would heal whoever had the esophageal issue. Having experienced so many miracles in our midst, our church did so in faith. Afterward a girl identified herself as being the one dealing with the esophageal issue. She said she felt something happen during the shout. Later she reported that when she got home, all her symptoms were gone. She had previously been unable to swallow, and in the midst of the praise that issue was completely resolved. It's happening!\n\nTHERE ARE NO ACCIDENTAL MOVES OF GOD\n\nThere are moments when the Lord reveals certain things to us, enlightening our understanding and highlighting things for us. One evening as I was reading Luke 8, it was like the Lord put a neon highlight on the word _deliberately_ in the following passage:\n\n> As Jesus went with him, he was surrounded by the crowds. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.\n> \n> \"Who touched me?\" Jesus asked.\n> \n> Everyone denied it, and Peter said, \"Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.\"\n> \n> But Jesus said, \"Someone _deliberately_ touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.\"\n> \n> \u2014LUKE 8:42\u201346, EMPHASIS ADDED\n\nThrough this story the Lord revealed to me that there are no accidental moves of God. We've heard stories of accidental wealth, where people win the lottery or receive unexpected sums of money through inheritance or a lawsuit. But these accidental millionaires don't tend to keep the money. Overwhelming statistics have been reported showing that within a few years some of the people who win the lottery, for example, are right back to where they were before the winnings. They are right back in the same financial straits because they squandered the money.\n\nA 2009 ESPN documentary called _30 for 30: Broke_ looked at the myriad of athletes who had earned multi-millions of dollars over the course of their career and lost it within five years after their retirement. Of course, these stories include people taking advantage of them and poor investments. Still, regardless of why they lost the money, their stories are heartbreaking. Yet they reveal the reality that anyone who steps into something unprepared or by accident\u2014not with intention\u2014will lose it. This is a revelation for all who want to receive the blessing, presence, and power of God in their lives, including you: that for which you are not prepared you will lose.\n\nAs I mentioned in chapter 5 while discussing empty vessels, God will only send what you have the capacity to receive. Think in these terms: the word _receive_ can also mean keep, hold, or contain. God doesn't want people who have holes in their pockets to try to contain the revival He is sending. God is not going to send revival to a people who don't have wisdom to steward His blessings. In 2 Kings 4 we see how God worked through Elisha to bring miraculous provision into the widow's life, and we see how the oil only stopped flowing when the containers stopped coming. God is not short on supply. It is that He will not send what you do not have the capacity to receive.\n\n_God will not send what you do not have the capacity to receive._\n\nMay I suggest this? God won't waste revival.\n\nGod won't waste revival on a generation that wishes to happen upon the things of God by accident. He will not squander revival on those who won't create capacity for it. He won't waste revival on a generation that will say, \"That was fun while it lasted.\" They desire to play in the gifts of God and lavish in the blessings, but when the fun and feelings are over, they're on to the next thing. \"On-to-the-next-thing\" people will not experience revival. What we create capacity for is what we will receive. If you stop creating room for it, it will stop flowing.\n\nTrue revival doesn't happen by accident; it is deliberate. If I'm going to experience God, it's not going to be by accident. If I'm going to experience God, it's not going to happen by being random. Once I know who He is and find out I have access, my actions will become deliberate.\n\nWILL YOU CONTEND WITH GOD FOR IT?\n\nThis is a lesson for the mature in Christ. Will you hear it? The Bible says Jacob matured, not because he wrestled with man but because he contended with God. We know the story of Jacob and how it was prophesied that though he was not the firstborn, he would still be blessed. We also know that from the womb Jacob contended for the blessing in his own strength by grabbing the heel of his twin brother, Esau, almost as if to fight him for the position of being the first one out. He didn't know the blessing was already his.\n\nIn the next and most notable instance, Jacob propositioned his brother at a weak moment to sign over his birthright to him. Jacob was used to working in his own strength\u2014manipulating, lying, and stealing\u2014for the things God had promised. Esau was so angry at Jacob that he wanted to kill him. Rebekah, their mother, told Jacob to flee to her brother Laban's home. Jacob had a whole other set of issues during his fourteen-plus-year stay there: Laban treated him badly, changed his wages ten times, and gave him the wrong daughter to marry.\n\nGod finally gave Jacob favor and released him from serving Laban, but Laban came after him. Running from Laban, Jacob had nowhere to go and thought about going back home. Then he remembered the broken relationship with his brother. In an attempt to mend the relationship, Jacob sent his family ahead of him, along with some gifts, to meet Esau. He hoped this gesture would soften Esau's heart. But for Jacob to live at peace with Esau, he needed to first make peace with God.\n\nLeft alone in the camp, Jacob was so restless he couldn't sleep. A man, the Angel of the Lord, God Himself, came and wrestled with him all night. (See Genesis 32:22\u201332.) In the moment when He came and tested him, God knew Jacob's destiny. He knew Jacob was used to fighting and getting his way. Though He wrestled all night, God had something else for Jacob. God took the struggle to another level when He reached out and touched Jacob's hip socket. I don't know if you have ever had anything dislocated in your body. I can only imagine.\n\nWhen you watch sports, you can see people getting their fingers or shoulders dislocated, but a hip? The Bible says Jacob still didn't let go. Jacob made the more painful decision. Most of us, when we're hurting, let go of God to deal with our hurt. We get a little upset when bad things happen, and we recoil. We say, \"Hey, I'm not going to come to church for a little while. You're not going to see me for a minute. I have to deal with some stuff. There are some things I need to get over.\" We let go. But God wanted Jacob to see what it takes to really press through to see a change. God wanted Jacob to show how badly he wanted it. \"Do you want it so bad,\" God's actions may have suggested, \"that even if I touch your hip socket, even if I allow pain in your life, and even if the pain results in a physical or emotional scar or handicap you have to live with for the rest of your life, you will still hold on?\"\n\nJacob made the more painful decision\u2014he held on instead of letting go. He held on instead of letting go to fix it himself. He chose to hold on to God because he knew God had something for him that was greater than all he had fought for up until that moment. So he cried out, \"I will not let go until You bless me! I will not let go until I see, hear, experience, walk in Your blessing.\" So God said, \"OK. You want change so badly? Here it is. Since you contended with Me, I am going to give you the blessing that was meant for you from the foundation of the earth. I am going to change your name so that everyone who sees you will call you by a new identity. But I am going to leave you with your limp.\"\n\n_Jacob matured, not because he wrestled with man but because he contended with God._\n\nSome of us are so frustrated with God because He won't remove certain things from our lives, but that limp is the testimony. It is the thing you have to prove that you've been with God. It's the visible thing that others will ask you about, and you can say, \"There was a day when I used to depend on myself. There was a day when I used to think I could do it myself, when I thought my method of movement was good enough. But then I met Jesus, and though He afflicted me, He also kept me. I walk with this limp so I won't forget to lean on Him. It's my testimony.\"\n\nJacob saw revival that night in the wilderness. All his life he fought to bring revival in his life through his own striving; he contended with Esau and Laban and any other circumstance that stood in the way of the promised blessing. But it wasn't until his encounter with God Himself that his fighting spirit was brought to its knees.\n\nEvery encounter with God changes you. It is biblically impossible to have an encounter with God and stay the same. But it's the desperate who hold on through the encounter no matter how painful it gets, who show God that they are willing to go wherever, do whatever, give whatever, and pray whatever to see it. Jacob showed his desperation. He showed how badly he wanted it. Now it's your turn to answer: How badly do you want it?\n\nDELIBERATE DESPERATION\n\nCertain rhythms and patterns in our lives unlock things in the spirit. God is a God of order, systems, and patterns. He intends for us to do certain things to see His power become active in our lives. He highlights one of them in the story of the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8. In the midst of a mass of people pushing and bumping against one another, one woman did something different from everyone else, and Jesus noticed it immediately. \"Someone _deliberately_ touched me,\" He said. One of my best friends, Jason McMullen, who is the executive pastor at our church and the closest thing to a brother this only child will ever know, said it this way: \"The deliberate will see a demonstration.\" I'll add this to it: the random will sometimes see relief, but the deliberate will see a demonstration.\n\n_\"The deliberate will see a demonstration.\" \u2014Jason McMullen_\n\nIf there is anyone I know intimately who has walked out this truth, it is Jason. One of the most significant miracles I've ever heard of and certainly ever experienced took place for his family. The testimony of this miracle will be its own book one day, and it is one that will cause me to thank God for the rest of my life. Each of us who was there has his or her own perspective of this massive miracle. On the evening of July 3 I received a call from my friend and brother Jason asking me to pray because he was on the way to the hospital with his wife. At the time she was carrying their ninth child and was thirty-one weeks into the pregnancy. Their ten-year-old son had called Jason and said, \"Dad, you need to come home because something is wrong with Mom.\" Jessica, his wife, said she wasn't feeling well. She had a severe headache and body aches, and she was vomiting. When asked about her level of discomfort, she said it was at ten. Jason later said that if any woman who has already given birth to eight children says her level of discomfort is a ten, you need to get her to the hospital.\n\nJessica knew something wasn't right, but she mainly wanted to make sure that the baby was OK. When they arrived at the hospital, the doctors initially didn't find anything wrong and were going to send her home. But she knew something wasn't right. They did further tests and concluded that she had spinal meningitis. Jason called to update me so we could continue to pray, and he told me at the time that they were going to be moving her to a different hospital that would better be able to care for mom and baby.\n\nAs Jason was gathering their things to meet Jessica at the other hospital since she was being transported by ambulance, one of the nurses approached him. The nurse asked him if he could walk him to his car. As they walked, the nurse told Jason that he was a believer and was praying with them. He then proceeded to tell Jason that while the initial diagnosis was spinal meningitis, he saw the doctors checking for something else far more serious: an amoeba.\n\nAn amoeba is a microorganism that can live in fresh water in subtropical climates whenever the water temperature rises above a certain point. An amoeba eats your brain. The average life expectancy of someone who gets an amoeba is between three and five days, and the mortality rate is 97 percent. The nurse told Jason he wanted him to know what they were possibly dealing with so he would be able to pray. Upon learning of that possibility, Jason called me so I could believe God with him. Around midnight I received another call from Jason saying that the doctors confirmed that his wife had an amoeba. When he arrived at the hospital, he learned that his wife was in the neurocritical ICU, and he was greeted by a team of doctors ranging from infectious disease specialists to an OB\/GYN.\n\nThey told Jason that his wife had a 3 percent chance of survival and that they needed to give her a medicine so powerful it might kill her, but if she did not receive the treatment, she wouldn't survive the amoeba. Jason is a man full of faith, so upon learning the news, he brought the doctors together to pray for wisdom, healing, and direction. After they finished praying, he was also told that they needed to immediately deliver the baby because the baby wouldn't survive the medicine or the amoeba while in the womb. They then began asking about the other eight children, since they all had visited the same lake where it was believed Jessica contracted the amoeba. When Jason called home to ask about the other children, two of them were exhibiting the same symptoms as Jessica, so they were immediately taken to the hospital. After being tested, both were diagnosed as having the amoeba.\n\nBy the next morning two of their nine children had been diagnosed as having the amoeba; five of their children were in the hospital under observation, with the doctors expecting them to also test positive for the amoeba; and their newborn, delivered via C-section the previous night, was in the NICU. Jason's wife and eight of their children were in the hospital, with two of his children and his wife being given a 3 percent chance of living and a life expectancy of three to five days. The doctors wanted to place Jessica and the two children who had been diagnosed with the amoeba in an induced coma, lower their body temperature, and drill a hole into their heads to administer the medicine.\n\nWe were praying the entire time. I knew we needed to pray around the clock, so I didn't sleep that night. I stayed up to pray. I remembered a time prior when Jason asked me if I thought God had given me the gift of healing. He jokingly said, \"It's not like the rest of us feel heat every time we pray.\" At the time, that was something I had never considered. But as I was up praying for Jason's family, I remembered that conversation, and I said, \"God, if You have truly given me the gift of healing, please use it now.\"\n\nThe next day I met Jason at the hospital. I remember the peace he had; it was a peace that could only come from God. At one point he looked at me and said, \"This must be happening so that God can get the glory out of this!\" We spent time going back and forth visiting all of the children and Jessica and praying. Jason would often retreat to the chapel to pray and cry out to God for his family. He would not relent in his faith or waver in prayer. Neither did we. The details of what took place will become its own book, but I can tell you that God responded to our prayers. Almost as suddenly as the entire ordeal began, a miraculous thing took place. A nurse whom they had not seen or interacted with prior to this moment sat down on the edge of the bed and casually said to Jason, \"Have you heard? No amoeba!\"\n\nTwenty-four hours later all six children were sent home cleared of the amoeba. No coma, no medicine, no hole drilled into their heads. A week later Jessica was home. No amoeba, no hole drilled in her head, no powerful medicine to kill an amoeba. As I am writing this, we are not aware of another case in the recorded history of the United States where this particular sickness was healed without medicine!\n\nThe baby is also home and is completely healthy. We serve an awesome God! The enemy intended to have seven caskets at the front of our church and for the national news to broadcast a story about how an entire family died due to a rare brain-eating amoeba. But the Lord turned our potential mourning into dancing and our potential sorrow into joy. We have living, breathing miracles among us every week when the McMullen family comes to church. It's happening!\n\nWhen you randomly go through your life, sometimes you bump into relief because God is just that good. But the deliberate will see a demonstration of the power of God. There is a difference between being around Jesus and experiencing Him. Desperation can lead you to deliberate action that leads to seeing a demonstration of God's power. Those who stay in the posture and passion of consistently seeking God with desperation will see Him move in the deliberate way He intends.\n\nThe Bible says, \"A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure\" (Luke 8:43). It goes on to tell us that this woman had run out of options and money trying to address this issue of hemorrhaging. She had done everything she could possibly do to be healed, set free, and delivered from this thing. And because the issue caused her to be labeled unclean, it had also become an embarrassment to her.\n\nThen she heard that the healer was passing by. With large crowds surrounding Him, she had to make a life-or-death decision: \"If I go out, knowing that I'm unclean, and He doesn't heal me, I will be killed. But if I stay in and keep bleeding, I will die.\" She was in a desperate situation.\n\nDesperation is accompanied by corresponding action and can go a couple of ways, as I've already pointed out. Desperation can lead you to unwise decisions, or it can lead you to the right destination. Desperation, in the case of this woman, led to deliberate actions that led to the right destination. Sometimes God creates situations for you to understand that He's the only One who can change it. He's the only One who can fix it.\n\nSo in her desperation the woman chose the deliberate action of facing the large crowd and taking a chance on the Healer.\n\nDON'T BE AFRAID TO REACH OUT AND GRAB IT\n\nPressing her way through the crowd, touching people despite her uncleanness, she came up behind Jesus, reached out, and touched the fringe of His robe. Immediately the bleeding stopped. The Bible does not say she tapped Him on the shoulder or called out and waited for Him to take notice of her. I imagine that, at some level, two things could have happened. One, her shame started speaking so loud that she felt too low to draw any attention to herself. She probably didn't have the confidence to stand up and look Him in the eye, so she reached out and grabbed His garment. Two, He was passing by, and she thought that if she did not reach out and grab of Him what she could, she would miss her chance and not be healed that day.\n\nHow many of us will almost miss our time because we're afraid to reach out and grab hold of Him. At some point our situation will become so dire that, like the woman, we will resolve within ourselves to say, \"I don't care what they say. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care if they talk about me. Jesus is about to pass by. I cannot let this moment go! I can't let this moment pass me by! I can't let this season pass me by! I can't let this word pass me by!\" If God is doing something, if revival is happening anywhere, it can happen everywhere. We should be desperate enough to want it to happen to us. We have to reach out and grab Him deliberately, and He will know someone stepped out and did something different.\n\nJesus said, \"Someone deliberately touched me.\" Peter was wondering how in the world Jesus would have noticed with all the people pressing in around Him. I can imagine Peter thinking, \"All these people around? All the people who are associated with You? All these people who name Your name? All these people who go to church and lift up their hands? All these people who are singing these songs? All these people who show up every week? Jesus, don't You know that this church has twenty-five thousand people attending services every weekend?\" But Jesus is saying, \"Somebody is reaching out on purpose! Somebody has such a need that it is drawing something out of Me.\"\n\nWe're not going to accidentally enter revival. The Lord is literally saying to us, \"Who is willing to be desperately deliberate?\"\n\nTHE DELIBERATE ARE A TENACIOUS BUNCH\n\nIn addition to contending with God and not with man, another quality of a mature believer is tenacity, the ability to maintain a level of endurance and patience during difficult times. The apostles praised the Thessalonian church for this attribute: \"As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the _enduring hope_ you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ\" (1 Thess. 1:3, emphasis added). This group of believers endured affliction and persecution and still are shown as examples of those who \"remained strong in [their] faith\" and \"firm in the Lord\" (1 Thess. 3:7\u20138). The entire narrative of Scripture would be completely different if it were not for groups of people who were tenacious in their pursuit of God. There are so many stories that would be different if it were not for the tenacity of the people who lived them. We have these stories to show us how we are to live.\n\nEven in more contemporary history, our nation would look different if it were not for people who were tenacious. Every age has a tenacious group of people who will not give up easily. Think about the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Civil disobedience through nonviolence took tenacity. It took tenacity for Elizabeth Eckford to enter Little Rock Central High in 1957 shortly after segregation laws had been overturned. Moments such as that one, captured in an iconic photo, are a testament to the tenacity of those determined to see black Americans have access to the same opportunities available to others. As a father of two girls, I don't know that I could send my daughters into the kind of hostile environment Eckford entered that day. Then there was the 1960 sit-in at the Woolworth counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four African-American college students sat down at the lunch counter to protest the denial of service to black diners. They knew they were about to be beat up, arrested, and thrown into jail, but they had the tenacity to say, \"We're doing this anyhow. We will not be denied what we know is possible.\"\n\nMore famously, Rosa Parks chose not to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, also showing a tenacious attitude. Some of you reading this book lived through times like these. Those now iconic moments were part of a larger pursuit of equality. The tenacity of the people actively and deliberately seeking what they knew was theirs sparked a worldwide revolution. From India to South Africa, oppressed people joined together saying, \"We're going after something noble, something that should be for all people, and we're not going to stop until we get it.\" Each of these moments fueled the momentum for something greater. These were tipping points for single communities that became catalysts for other movements across the country and around the world.\n\nTHE TIPPING POINT\n\nIn his book _The Tipping Point_ , Malcolm Gladwell defines _tipping point_ as a series of consistent things that leads to the overflowing. So from this concept you wouldn't be able to point to one specific thing that caused another thing to happen, but the consistency of a set of actions can lead to an overflow. One drop of water from an eyedropper into a glass is not the catalyst for the glass overflowing, but consistently dropping the water in the glass can fill it and cause the water to run over. Considering the tipping point for revival, you never know what your next hallelujah will do. Or what your next \"Thank You, Jesus\" will do, or the next time you lift your hands or give an offering. You would not be able to say it was this offering or that praise that led to revival. It's the consistency of all the parts that leads to a tipping point.\n\nEven the fight for civil rights in the fifties and sixties didn't start in the twentieth century; it began the moment people were oppressed. It just so happened that, because of several different factors, it came to be a catalyst moment in the fifties and sixties. People who were not connected with the terrible state of how certain people were treated were suddenly forced to take notice.\n\nSo it applies that once revival breaks out somewhere, it causes people, bit by bit, to take notice of what's happening until the ripples are felt everywhere. Once revival breaks out somewhere, it causes people everywhere to take notice of what's happening. And the response will vary. On one hand people may feel revival is not for them. They're not that desperate. They're not hungry. Others may say, \"I need to change. I see what's happening with them over there, and I want that for my life.\" They may be encouraged to return to the place they had been before, but they feel that tenacity rising in their spirits, challenging them to contend for more.\n\nKEEP ASKING, KEEP KNOCKING, AND KEEP SEEKING\n\nBased on what I saw the Lord do in my third year of pastoring Deeper Fellowship Church, I am calling out to all who want to see revival. Do not be the generation that says, \"If at first you don't get an answer right away, it must not be God's will.\" To see the blessing of God fall on this generation, we will need to be desperate enough to contend with God and deliberate enough to reach out and grab hold. The principle of the tipping point does not align with how we approach things these days. We are not going to go from one methodology to another. We are going to press in and hold our posture before the Lord.\n\nJust like the woman in Luke 8 who saw a window of opportunity to be healed, tenacity causes us to see moments of opportunity that others don't see. It's easy to overlook something when you aren't searching for it. The tenacious are constantly seeking, knocking, and asking. When God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah and said, \"You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart\" (Jer. 29:13, NKJV), contextually, He was saying, \"I'm going to create a circumstance or an environment that literally causes you to look for what you weren't looking for previously. And when you look for it, you'll find it.\" Jesus said it too: \"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened\" (Luke 11:9\u201310, NKJV).\n\nFor the believer, this posture is the essential, perpetual internal posture. Living from this place is key to continual momentum. It is the fuel of the engine of revival. Tenacious pursuit and perpetual seeking are the evidence of believers' recognition of their need for God.\n\nRESPOND\n\nFrom the beginning of your life until now there is evidence of the Lord's random acts of love and kindness toward you. Maybe you have not desperately or deliberately pursued anything from God. Or perhaps you've seen the power of God displayed at churches you've attended, and maybe you've felt His presence in a tangible way. Maybe the word of the Lord has been spoken, and you know that God has pronounced a blessing over your life.\n\nIn all these things maybe life has gotten in the way. Maybe you've been hurt. Maybe difficulties have caused you to lose a level of faith, hope, and expectancy, and you have been reduced to fighting for only what you can achieve in your own strength. Well, I want to tell you that a greater demonstration of God's moving in your life is coming, but only the deliberate will see it. I don't know where you are in your walk with God, but regain your tenacity. I don't know where you were when you were most passionate, but find that place again and determine in your heart, \"I will not be afraid to reach out, grab hold, and not let go until I see it.\"\nCHAPTER 10\n\nA WORTHY HOST\n\nWhen David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, \"How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!\" David retorted to Michal, \"I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the LORD, so I celebrate before the LORD. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!\"\n\n\u20142 SAMUEL 6:20\u201322\n\nWHETHER WE ADMIT it or not, we like to be in control of every aspect and moment of our lives. It stresses us out when we are not in control. Some of us even hate surprise birthday parties, a moment set aside to celebrate us, because we're not in control. Early in ministry, before I became a pastor, the Holy Spirit began to teach me about losing control, and what I have discovered is that if I am in control of every aspect of a service, He isn't. People have even said, \"You're the most patient worship leader I've ever seen.\" When most people would move on or sit down, when the chorus seems to go a little too long or we're just standing there, I have learned that it is actually OK for us not to know what's next. For those of us who lead in some capacity, whether in a church or in the marketplace, it seems that we are expected to always know what to do. But we don't always know. Some people are willing to allow the moment to evolve. Others are not willing to wait and will take decisive action to push the moment along.\n\nHave you been in a service that's going one way, and suddenly the pastor shifts to something else? This may have happened because they didn't know what to do, so they took it back to what they knew. What if God wanted to do something brand new, something beyond what they had ever experienced? What if God wanted to open a portal to something on the other side that was far greater than what they had ever known before? What if they released control? What if we do?\n\nPROGRAMMED TO DEATH\n\nI had a dream years ago about the same service that ran twice. I was ministering, and all these powerful and amazing things were happening. I came off the platform and thought, \"Wow, God, that was amazing! You really moved. Thank You, Jesus.\" He said, \"Let Me take you back and show you what would've happened if you had yielded to Me.\" The service played again, this time with God guiding me through all the moments when He could have done more. In comparison to the things He showed me when the service replayed, I would have never called what I experienced in the first service a move of God.\n\nMany of us go to church and come home week after week saying things such as, \"Man, wasn't that powerful? Didn't God move?\" Yet we remain unchanged. May I submit to you that it is biblically impossible for you to have had an encounter with God without change? Everyone who has a genuine encounter with God always leaves different. Jacob left with a limp. The first Saul left with a crown. The second Saul left blind and with a new name. If you search throughout Scripture, you will find that every time someone had an encounter with the living God, that person was changed. That is why I wonder what's happening in our churches when we say God was there, but we're the same. Either it is an indictment against God, or we're lying, because now we're telling people that being with God doesn't make us any different. What can we say to the person who has fallen away when he says, \"I've tried Jesus, and He doesn't work for me,\" if we've never had a genuine encounter with God?\n\nA dividing line is being drawn down the center of the body of Christ. On one side are those who have learned to do church without God. On the other side are those who are dissatisfied with doing church without God. We've been programmed to death. We've been told this is how long you're supposed to stay, this is how long you're supposed to sing, and this is how long you're supposed to pray. We even advertise how quickly we can do all these things: \"Come here for the fastest one hour of church, and you'll be released right back into your life,\" as if God is not someone who's to be honored and worthy of whatever time it takes to engage with Him. \"Come to a prayer meeting. It's only an hour long.\" Yet in the midst of our perfectly timed services, God is inviting us to a new place. The question is, Who wants to go?\n\nTHERE IS A WAY\n\nIn the days of Moses, God had graced His people with His presence in the form of the ark of the covenant. He had given them specific instruction on how to honor and protect His presence. But then they made a grave mistake and took the ark into battle against the Philistines. (See 1 Samuel 4.) Israel lost the battle badly. The Philistines captured the ark and took it back to their territory, but since they were not in covenant with God, they suffered curses instead of blessing, so they brought the ark back to the Israelites. (See 1 Samuel 6.)\n\nFor twenty years the ark of the covenant, which, again, represents the presence of God, was kept at Abinadab's house. (See 1 Samuel 7:1\u20132.) During that time neither the king of Israel\u2014Saul\u2014nor the people inquired after it. They didn't seek to honor, fear, worship, or tend to the presence of the Lord the way He was used to. Revelation 4 gives us a picture of what kind of eternal and ongoing worship God is used to in heaven\u2014heavenly beings saying \"day after day and night after night . . . 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty\u2014the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come'\" (v. 8).\n\nWhen David ascended to the throne, he decided he could not live without the presence of God. So in 2 Samuel 6 the Bible tells us that David gathered thirty thousand of his most elite troops to bring the ark to him. It was a clumsy acquisition. Because he was thirty years old when he finally took the throne and the ark had not been central to life in Israel for twenty of those years, David grew up without ever seeing what it looked like to honor the presence of God. It had been written about, but no one had ever demonstrated it. So in his haste and excitement he thought, \"Let me just go get it.\" I imagine he thought there would be some people, perhaps the priests and Levites, who would know what to do with it.\n\n_In the midst of our perfectly timed services God is inviting us to a new place. The question is, Who wants to go?_\n\nThe troops set the ark on a new cart, and Abinadab's sons, Uzzah and Ahio, guided the cart. Since they were priests after their father, everyone must have thought they knew how the ark of God's presence was to be carried. But it turned out that this was not the way, and as creation recognizes the holiness, power, majesty, and presence of the Creator (Rom. 8:19\u201321), the oxen that carried the ark stumbled. I believe they instinctually knew the people were not handling God's presence with awe and reverence. I believe they sensed that was not how God's presence was supposed to be moved. I believe they sensed that He was supposed to be handled better than that. So they stumbled as if to say, \"Not on my watch will you dishonor the Creator.\"\n\nTo keep the ark from falling, Uzzah stuck out his hand to correct what creation was trying to correct. He put his hands on the glory, trying to control how God would move, as if to say, \"No, God doesn't go this way. It's supposed to go this way.\" But at the time of Moses and Aaron, God had given specific instruction that holy things such as the ark were not to be touched by undesignated people: \"They must not touch the sacred objects, or they will die\" (Num. 4:15).\n\nThere is another important element to this that I need to point out here. If you go back to 1 Samuel 6, you'll find that the Philistines were anxious to return the ark after seven months of suffering curses because of their wrongful possession of it. They were never supposed to be in possession of the presence of God. But I want to point out that they also moved the ark by cart. They\u2014who did not know, who were uncircumcised and outside of the covenant, and who were symbolic of the world\u2014had a way they thought God should have been moved. They put Him on a cart because they didn't know any better.\n\nBut the people of God knew better. As people of covenant, they were the ones who had an encounter with God. They had a history with Him. There should have been no way they would have done the same thing as the Philistines. They tried to move the presence of God using the same methodology as the world, but there is a way God is to be honored.\n\n_Things are happening in the earth right now. God is removing people who have caused the body of Christ to believe that our holy God is common. He is not common; He is holy._\n\nGoing back, the Bible says the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he died there in the presence of God. Why? Because of his irreverence, because he didn't fear the Lord, and because there is a way to honor the presence of God. If seventy people died for looking into the ark (1 Sam. 6:19), the Philistines got tumorous boils for being around it (1 Sam. 5:6), and the Philistines' god Dagon was broken down in his temple because he was next to the ark (1 Sam. 5:2\u20134), what would make Uzzah, knowing that history, think he could touch it?\n\nHe touched it because to him it wasn't the presence; it was a relic. It represented old traditions, past moves, and things God wasn't doing anymore. Perhaps he touched it while it was in his father's house, and nothing happened to him. The difference in this instance was that God was not about to be publicly dishonored in a way that caused the people to see a holy God as common.\n\nThings are happening in the earth right now. God is removing people who have caused the body of Christ to believe that our holy God is common. He is not common; He is holy. And those who think otherwise are being exposed. There is a way to honor the presence of God.\n\nIf you've ever known anyone personally who has been diagnosed with and lives with lupus, then you are very much aware of how painful and debilitating that sickness can be. There is no medical cure for it, but that didn't stop Ana from coming up front one day, believing that God would heal her.\n\nWe've never had a \"healing service\" at our church, but we have seen over two hundred miracles take place in the presence of God. When the Healer is in the room, healing happens. Ana, who is a woman of faith, knows this to be true, so she didn't hesitate to ask God for her healing and agree in faith when we prayed.\n\nAna felt the power of God when we prayed and was convinced that she was healed. Walking in that faith, she went back to the doctor and was tested for lupus again. After receiving the test results, she came back to church with a yellow folder. On one side were her former tests showing the diagnosis of lupus, and on the other side was the medical documentation that she was free of lupus.\n\nJesus healed Ana, but she wasn't going to let the moment go by without asking for total healing. Every year for ten years she had tested positive for precancerous cells in her body. When she was tested again after she received prayer, no precancerous cells were found. Ana was healed of lupus and the precancerous cells in her body. It's happening!\n\nWORTHY HOSTS\n\nThe day Uzzah died was the day all of Israel feared the Lord, including King David. King David didn't know there was a way to carry the presence of God. He grew up in a generation that was around the things of God but not intimately acquainted with God. That's what I'm afraid of in this generation. We know the worship songs, we know the lingo, and we have the lights, the smoke, and the screens. We have everything but God Himself, it seems sometimes. We have everything but people who actually know how to get to God Himself and honor Him the way He deserves.\n\nInstead of pushing past the shocking event of Uzzah dying on the spot, David decided not to move the ark to the City of David as he planned. He decided to take it to the house of Obed-edom while he learned God's requirements (2 Sam. 6:10). At Obed-edom's house something interesting happens. The Bible says, \"The Ark of the LORD remained there in Obed-edom's house for three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and his entire household\" (2 Sam. 6:11).\n\nWho was Obed-edom? He had not been mentioned before now as a set-apart priest or Levite. There doesn't seem to be anything significant about the man himself. Yet the Bible says everything surrounding Obed-edom was blessed. That's amazing. Understand that it wasn't the ark being in his house that caused the blessing. The ark had been in Abinadab's house for twenty years, and there was no mention of a blessing. Three months at Obed-edom's house, and everything was blessed. It wasn't the ark; it was the host.\n\nNotice that there wasn't anything that Obed-edom did to be the chosen host of the presence, but there were things he did to keep it. During the time that our church has been seeing tangible evidence of the presence of God in our midst, there was a moment in one of our rivers (services) when God literally walked into the room. He asserted His sovereign will and decided that our church was to be a habitation for His presence.\n\nI'll never forget this moment as long as I live. I was out of town with my team leading a night of worship. It was a ticketed event, and the room was full. They introduced us, and we went onto the stage and began to lead the people in songs of worship. We were on our third song when I began to feel a really intense heat on my neck and back. It was so hot that I kept turning around and looking up to see if maybe I was standing near a light or some kind of heat source. If you've ever been under the lights on a stage, you know they can get quite hot. I was thinking perhaps I was under one or close to one, but I kept looking, and there was nothing there.\n\nMy good friend Clay, who has co-produced all my worship recordings with me, was on the keyboard that night, and he saw me looking around and asked what was wrong. I told him I felt a warm heat on my neck and back. He gave me a quizzical look, but we were in the middle of a song, so I closed my eyes. Immediately I recognized the presence of the Lord right beside me. He was the source of the heat. I had heard of that phenomenon before but never experienced it myself. The significant manifestations of healing had just begun at our church, and I sensed that the power of the Lord was present to heal in that moment. So I began to share about the roughly thirty miracles we had experienced at that time. The word of our testimonies builds faith for the future, so I knew that in telling what God had been doing, faith was being stirred in the room.\n\nAs I began to flow this direction, the heat continued on my neck and back, and I sensed that the Lord wanted to heal people in the room with neck and back issues. Remember that it was a ticketed concert at a church in Boston, so I wasn't at my home church and didn't have a relationship with that particular church. Therefore, I asked for permission to continue flowing that direction. I was initially told yes, so I called for people who were dealing with neck and back issues to come forward. Several people came to the front where I was standing. As I prepared to pray for the people, I was passed a note. The note said, \"I'm sorry, but you are not permitted to pray for these people because Bishop isn't here.\"\n\nThe moment I read the note, instantly the heat left! I had never felt anything like what I felt in that moment. I've been pursuing God all my life and have become sensitive to His presence, and I had never in my life felt the Lord withdraw. He had come to be with His people, but when I read the note, it was as if He was rejected. I was so grieved by what I felt that I could not continue. It was a ticketed event, but I sang one more song and left the stage. I thought, \"If He's not here, why am I here? Apart from Him we can do nothing.\" I went back to my hotel room and wept like a baby. I kept saying, \"God, whatever You wanted to do there please do here [referring to our church in Orlando].\" I just kept saying that over and over and over: \"Whatever You wanted to do there please do here!\" I kept telling Him, \"We won't reject You.\"\n\nI flew home that Saturday, and I kept praying the same thing over and over. I couldn't get over what I felt. Interestingly enough, I received an email saying the two people who were standing closest to me when I felt that heat were healed of their back issues, even though I didn't pray for anyone. That's amazing, but I knew there was more. As I studied and spent time with God all day Saturday, I continued to cry, \"Whatever You wanted to do there please do here because we won't reject You.\"\n\nThe next morning, which was Sunday, I woke up praying the same prayer, and while I was driving to church, I felt the heat again. It was as if the Lord got into the car with me to say, \"I'll be there.\" In fact, as I am writing this, I feel His presence the same way. As the service began, I had an expectation of having an encounter. I didn't know when, but I expected Him to answer my prayer. I stood up to preach, and it happened! Once again the presence of the Lord manifested in a way that everyone was aware, and no one could do anything but lie prostrate before God and weep. I was attempting to preach a message titled \"The Second Invitation,\" and those who have heard it say you can literally hear the moment when God walked into the room. The musicians have told me they weren't playing the sounds you can hear on this recording.\n\nThen there was the heat that from that time to now has been one of the evidences to me that the power of the Lord is present. I remember trying to explain it, and people thought they understood until they came near me. Oftentimes when it's happening, others standing around can feel it too. I can't fully explain it, other than to say it's real. That particular day while it was happening, I went to go pray for someone, and all those between me and the person I was praying for experienced the phenomenon of being \"slain in the Spirit\" when I walked by them, and I never even prayed for them. Obviously it is not me but the presence of the Lord. When it is happening, I remind people that it's not as if I can make heat radiate from my body on command. This is a supernatural thing.\n\nSince that moment our entire household has been blessed. That day can be considered a turning point for us because it was the moment we corporately embraced the idea that we won't reject Him. As a result, He has done more and more. It's amazing what you will experience when you embrace Him instead of rejecting Him. We can't say enough about what God is doing. As I have already mentioned, He healed a whole family from a condition that has never been healed in the history of the United States. He healed a baby who was partially brain-dead. Walkers, canes, and crutches are piling up on our altar because people just don't need them anymore. Various cancers and tumors have been healed and removed. The effects of strokes have been reversed. Paralysis has been reversed. Blind eyes and deaf ears have been opened. Even I was healed of gout, which was debilitating. I can't tell you when it happened because we've been so concentrated on His presence. The only reason I know I've been healed is because I forgot to take my medicine one day, and I just wasn't in pain anymore. I went back to the doctor and was taken off all the medications that had been prescribed for the condition, and I haven't needed them since.\n\nHe is healing us because healing comes along with His presence. He says, \"I am the LORD who heals you\" (Exod. 15:26). We have set Him as our number one affection and pursuit. He is answering our cry. He is all we want. He is all we need. We are not in this moment because we want Him to answer something. We are here because we want Him. And there is nothing we want to do to jeopardize this visitation. We want to continue to have His blessing upon our lives. We want to continue to be hosts for His presence. But are we willing to become more undignified? Are we willing to avoid places that offend Him? Are we willing to make adjustments to the relationships we have to avoid offending Him? Are we willing to stop doing things that offend Him? This is not about our righteousness. This is about our desire to be a host.\n\nThere should be nothing we aren't willing to do to make God feel like an honored guest. We shouldn't want anything in our lives to repel Him.\n\nAs I travel around this world, I see arks gathering dust in church corners. I go to places where God wants so badly to show up but His presence has been reduced to a monument of the past\u2014a relic. It would seem nobody actually wants to honor Him, because every time He starts to move in a place, we shut it down. We say it's time to move on, time to go, that we have this or that to do. He's asking, \"May I have this moment? OK, OK, I'll wait. Oh, I want to heal this person. May I . . . ? OK, I'll wait.\" He wants to free people who are bound in our churches, but we keep saying, \"Not yet.\" He wants to heal people, and we say, \"Sorry, God. Maybe next time. It's 2:00 p.m., and we have to go. We can't hold the people in church too long.\"\n\nWe are in days of visitation, and I'm wondering if there are any people who will host God's presence and give Him the honor He deserves. The ark is moving, and it is seeking to rest in houses that are like Obed-edom's. The question is, Who will host Him?\n\nDAY AFTER DAY AND NIGHT AFTER NIGHT\n\nEarlier in this chapter I introduced the verse in Revelation 4 that shows us the kind of honor God is used to. It says that day after day and night after night heavenly beings worship Him. We keep thinking we're worshipping for a long time because we go for an hour. No! Day after day and night after night they worship in heaven. We keep thinking that just because we have our hands lifted, they get tired, we pull them down, and maybe we cry a few tears, that is enough. No, that's not enough. Day after day and night after night. What do we think Obed-edom was doing in order to receive the blessing of God's presence? He was giving God what He is used to\u2014worship day after day, night after night.\n\nThe ark of the covenant is moving and wants a place to dwell. Will you be a worthy host? Will you give God the atmosphere of worship He is used to? What will be your posture before Him? Will you treat Him as they did in Abinadab's house? Will you put Him in a corner?\n\nThe Bible says in 2 Samuel 6:12, \"Then King David was told, 'The LORD has blessed Obed-edom's household and everything he has because of the Ark of God.' So David went there and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David with a great celebration.\" David and the people of Israel figured out right way to carry the ark. So they hadn't moved more than six steps before \"David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf\" (2 Sam. 6:13). Further study into this scripture reveals that they did not stop just this one time on the way to Jerusalem. They stopped every six steps. There was a continual worship. They gave God what He is used to. They stopped to show their gratitude, worship, and honor.\n\nThe Bible says there was great fanfare. They had all sorts of music and singing and dancing because they were so excited that they would no longer be a generation that would try to operate apart from the presence of God.\n\nVerse 20 tells of King David dancing out of his robe. He and all the people were so excited that God would be near to them.\n\n> They brought in the ark of God and placed it inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD. He distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread and a portion of meat and a raisin cake.\n> \n> He appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the LORD, even to celebrate and to thank and praise the LORD God of Israel: Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel, with musical instruments, harps, lyres; also Asaph played loud-sounding cymbals, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests blew trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God.\n> \n> \u20141 CHRONICLES 16:1\u20136, NASB\n\nLook who was in the group of Levites\u2014Obed-edom. He did not live in Jerusalem, but he got in on honoring God since His presence had been at his house and since he had had an encounter with Him. He adjusted his life all over again, risking it all to be one of the hosts of the presence of God. He could not go back to life as usual.\n\nThen verses 37\u201338 of 1 Chronicles 16 blessed me. They say, \"So he left Asaph and his relatives there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required; and Obed-edom with his 68 relatives\" (NASB). What have we discovered God is used to? Praise, worship, and honor day after day and night after night. Can I tell you a secret? I keep worship music playing in our church every single day, twenty-four hours a day. Until we can have the kind of house where we have Asaph-type people who minister to him continually, we're at least going to keep an atmosphere.\n\nIt may seem as if it's too much\u2014day after day and night after night, worshipping and spending time with God. But it is all worth it. The encounter with God that you are having even now as you read this book is going to affect your entire family. When Obed-edom decided he was going to leave his hometown and go after God, sixty-eight of his family members went after God too. It's OK to stay in the presence of God, because your family is coming with you.\n\nEVEN MORE UNDIGNIFIED\n\nBut before your family joins you, you may have to deal with these questions: \"Why have you been at church so long? What have you been doing there? I just don't get it. I don't understand.\" This happened to David when he returned home after repossessing the ark of God. Second Samuel 6:20 says: \"When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, 'How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!'\"\n\nWhat was Michal doing? She was looking at him out of her window. Sometimes when you have an encounter with God, the people who once helped you and stood by you will question and criticize you. Earlier in Scripture (1 Sam. 19:12) Michal helped David escape through a window when Saul was trying to kill him. But now that he had an encounter with God, she said she was disgusted\u2014and maybe she was jealous because she had not had such an experience.\n\nHis response was bold: \"I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the LORD, so I celebrate before the LORD. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!\" (2 Sam. 6:21\u201322). I like the way the New King James Version of the Bible puts it: \"And I will be even more undignified than this.\"\n\nSome of us have been holding back our praise and adoration of God. We don't know that it's OK to become undignified in the presence of God and really worship like David because it has never been demonstrated to us before. David had no one to show him how to host the presence of God, but he was patient. He waited on the Lord, and God began to teach him by His Spirit. And old and ancient pathways began to surface.\n\nWhat David discovered is that it is OK to go crazy before God. It's OK to lose your mind before God. It's OK for you to make a sacrifice of praise and worship every six steps. It's OK for you to stomp, dance, leap, and cry out. It's OK. You're not crazy. This is what God is used to. You are giving Him what He is worthy of. You're not crazy; He's just worthy. You're not crazy; He's that good! You're not crazy; He's that amazing. You're not crazy; He's that holy. Don't hold back. Give Him what He's used to\u2014day after day and night after night.\n\nDo you know why I've decided I don't want to control anything? Because where He moves I move. Where He goes I go. I do not want to be one of the ones who say, \"Do you remember those days of visitation?\" I am like Obed-edom: whenever David comes to get the ark, I'm going with him.\n\nLet those who don't have the revelation that it's happening keep talking about you. They're coming. Let them continue to make fun of you. They're coming! Let them keep resisting. They're coming! Because when God blesses you and you are a worthy host of His presence, your whole family, your neighbors, and your coworkers will see it. And they are going to say, \"I want that too!\"\n\nRESPOND\n\nGod is here. Revival is happening. We are encountering the Lord, and we can't go back to normal. His presence changes everything\u2014our behavior, where we go, what we say, and who we want to be around. Don't apologize for it. Some may believe you think you are too good. But it's not that; it's that you'll do whatever you have to do to stay with Him because you are a host of His presence. Yes, it's that serious for you now. He is more valuable to you than anybody and anything else.\n\nWe're talking about a life-changing, life-altering encounter with the presence of God. Once you've experienced it, what is there to go back to?\nCHAPTER 11\n\nHE IS HERE\u2014NOW WHAT WILL YOU DO?\n\nAsk the LORD for rain in the spring, for he makes the storm clouds. And he will send showers of rain so every field becomes a lush pasture.\n\n\u2014ZECHARIAH 10:1\n\nAsk the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone.\n\n\u2014ZECHARIAH 10:1, NKJV\n\nWHEN IT COMES to recognizing the movement of God, most of us want things to be crystal clear. We would love to have God wave a big red flag at us and say, \"This is Me! Here I am. It's really Me moving.\" But when it comes to the things of God, many times He won't use big signs to get our attention. He will use subtle things, and most of us pass them by, thereby missing windows of opportunity. We fail the test of subtlety and miss divine moments.\n\nThere are certain moments in time and seasons in the Spirit that present themselves as windows of opportunity. Zechariah 10:1 puts us right in the midst of one such moment. It's raining, and most people don't pray for rain when it's raining. We pray for rain in seasons of drought. But this verse is directing us to do something different: Don't wait until there's a drought to ask for rain. Ask for rain in the time of rain. This is going to be important for us to understand in terms of sustaining the move of God. What the verse implies is that we need to use the open window of opportunity (an open heaven pouring down rain) to seize the moment to ask for more.\n\nNow you must understand how we can miss a moment. A moment is a very short period of time, or a particular time, or a precise point in time. So it's not hard to see how it could pass us by. This is why we must become aware of what God is doing so that when a moment of opportunity presents itself, we can seize it.\n\nCREATE A WINDOW\n\nNow this is important. Seizing a moment creates momentum, and momentum is a strength or force something has when it's moving. It's a strength or force that causes something to get stronger or faster as time passes. Momentum works in such a way that it takes more effort to get something moving than to keep it moving. We are aware that what we have stepped into at Deeper is a season that took years of intercession to see and that will take ongoing intercession to maintain.\n\n**Intercession creates a window.**\n\nDuring one of our monthly Presence Nights, I remember a man of God joining us for worship. He didn't need to identify himself; I knew who he was. I knew he was a pastor and was a prophetic voice. I knew he had been in the Orlando area for a long time. But he didn't ask for any preferential treatment. He didn't make an announcement, \"I'm coming. I want a special seat. Do you know who I am?\" He just came and worshipped and wept.\n\n_Don't wait until there's a drought to ask for rain. Ask for rain in the time of rain._\n\nAt the very end of the service, I went to greet him, and he just began to release a number of things the Lord had shown him. He was weeping as he said to me, \"I prayed for years to see this.\" What we have been seeing in our church he was not seeing in his, even though he spent his life interceding for what we are now experiencing in our city. He was weeping tears of joy because even though it wasn't happening specifically at his church with a group of people he was leading, he was seeing the fruit of his intercession beginning to break out and manifest somewhere. We reject the idea that we reached the place we are in on our own. It took people who laid down their lives to see a move of God in this region.\n\nWe don't often know the price intercessors will pay to see a move of God happen in a particular region. Back in the 1980s I knew of an intercessor who spent her retirement savings to travel to all fifty states so she could pray on the steps of all fifty state capitols. Nameless and faceless people such as this woman have laid down their lives so other people could step into an open heaven. They lay down their lives to create a window for other people to seize the moment.\n\nRevival doesn't just show up. I don't ever want our church to take it for granted and feel as if we prayed and this happened. No. We joined intercession that was already taking place. We stand on the shoulders of nameless and faceless people whom we've never met and who walked this city and died having never seen what they had been praying for come to pass. We must be careful not to take things for granted because we didn't pay for them.\n\nYears of intercession led to a moment. Continued intercession leads to momentum.\n\nRebecca and her son had been attending our church for a while. Her son was deaf in one ear, but like many resilient people, they didn't allow that to stop them from living a normal life. As they encountered obstacles, they faced them with a smile.\n\nOne of the most amazing things about this outpouring is that oftentimes people get healed without even specifically asking just because Jesus the Healer is near. That's what happened to Rebecca's son. One day during the service he was healed. No one prayed for him. He just suddenly was able to hear. The healing was so lowkey. He didn't even alert his mom right away. On the car ride home he casually said, \"Mom, I can hear you.\" She said, \"That's great, baby.\" He said, \"No, Mom, I can hear you!\" Now realizing what he was really saying, Rebecca began to praise God. Her son was healed. He was no longer deaf in one ear. His hearing was completely restored, and no one but God could possibly take the credit or the glory because no one had a hand in it but God. It's happening!\n\nSTIFLE THE MOMENT\n\nRevival requires continual movement\u2014momentum. Momentum requires an environment where movement is unimpeded, where nothing is blocking forward progress. That's why Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, \"Do not stifle [or quench] the Holy Spirit.\" In other words, don't stop your spiritual momentum, because once you stop momentum, it takes more effort than you needed when you started to get it going again. In the case of revival, that is a costly stoppage that takes a lifetime to see again.\n\nDon't stifle the moment. Don't quench the Holy Spirit.\n\nI remember as a child\u2014and we joke about this stuff now\u2014going to my grandmother's church in the morning and, while church was going on, smelling food. After service we would go to the fellowship hall, eat the food, and then return to the sanctuary for another service. We never left! Many of us look back at this now and think, \"No way!\"\n\nNot too long ago I was in Nigeria for a night of worship. It was held outdoors in an open field with about fifteen thousand to twenty thousand people in attendance. The night started at 6:00 p.m., but we didn't get on the platform until 1:00 a.m., and the last guest went up at 3:00 a.m. There were no chairs to sit down on, yet nobody left. In Western churches if pastors preach for more than forty minutes, we start getting antsy. We have places to go, people to see, and things to do. I ask this next question sincerely, and I think all of us need to honestly assess our answers: What place, person, or thing has more importance than God?\n\nWe have boiled down the Scripture and the presence of God in our corporate gatherings to less than an hour per week, in some cases, expecting God is going to move. In Acts 20 the Bible talks about Paul preaching so long that a young man fell asleep on a windowsill, fell out the window, and died. Instead of ending the service, Paul went down, raised the boy from the dead, and kept preaching. So we're at this point now where some of our churches are seeing miracles happen in our midst. We see God heal people. We see God deliver people. We see God set people free. We are excited\u2014it's cool\u2014but we still have this tendency to not make God's presence preeminent, where we still want to be out of church by a certain time.\n\n_Years of intercession led to a moment. Continued intercession leads to momentum._\n\nIn traveling to places such as the continent of Africa and witnessing thousands of people gathering in worship for nine or ten hours at a time or in hearing about the revivals and awakenings in South and Central America, I am moved to pray for the church of America. The only thing is the church of America is violating 1 Thessalonians 5:19. We do quench the Holy Spirit. He starts to move, and we act as if we are uncomfortable with it. I should probably take the surprise out of it: the move of God will make people uncomfortable. Guests will be uncomfortable. Unbelievers will be uncomfortable. How do you expect an unbeliever to be saved except that the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus?\n\nAny man who can be convinced into accepting something can also be convinced out of it. Our job is not to convince people that Jesus is a good idea. The Holy Spirit reveals to them that He's the only way. Jesus is not explained; He's revealed. How can the Spirit reveal Him if the Spirit is being stifled by our programs or our discomfort with the way He moves? If you have had a true encounter with God, it's because Jesus Himself was revealed by the Spirit in the midst of His free-flowing presence.\n\nWhen it comes down to it, people are not interested in our trying to preach as if we're doing a TED Talk. Preaching devoid of power and preaching devoid of signs and wonders will not change a life. It may change a mind, but it won't change a life. We must allow the Spirit of God to flow freely.\n\nTHE TIME TO ASK FOR MORE IS NOW\n\nAs we are in a moment of revival, the time to ask for more is now. Unfortunately during this spiritual spring season, some people are saying not to do this and not to do that. \"Don't worship this long.\" \"Don't preach this long.\" \"Don't keep people this long.\" \"Don't call for 5:00 a.m. prayer.\" \"Don't call for 7:00 a.m. prayer.\" \"Don't ask them to come to church more often.\" As a result, we have an entire generation that is not experiencing the things of God and is squandering the intercession that came before us.\n\n_Jesus is not explained; He's revealed._\n\nHow is it that we are now a culture that doesn't value the revival moments for which people laid down their lives in prayer and never saw? How is it that we are a church culture that doesn't want to come to church and doesn't want to stay? Revival is for the believer first, for a church that has fallen asleep. Revival is for something that was once alive but now is dead\u2014something that was once moving but now is stagnant. In truth, revival is needed because the church has fallen asleep. Revival in the church causes a reformation in the world.\n\nThat is why if there is ever an outpour of the rains of revival anywhere in the world, we need to be asking for more rain. We need to ask for the rain during the time of rain. It is costly to miss the moment and realize how dry we are once the rain has stopped. We may find ourselves waiting awhile for the rain to fall again\u2014possibly waiting for generation after generation. We can't afford the cost. We can't miss the moment.\n\nQUIET THE NOISE; RELEASE A SOUND\n\nDivine moments can be created. The moment of time we're in right now\u2014both our church and the body of Christ\u2014was created. A divine moment is an intersection where heaven meets earth. We create this intersection when we align with the things of heaven, and we can create divine moments with a sound. Let me show you what I mean.\n\nMark 10:46\u201352 says:\n\n> Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, \"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!\"\n> \n> \"Be quiet!\" many of the people yelled at him.\n> \n> But he only shouted louder, \"Son of David, have mercy on me!\"\n> \n> When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, \"Tell him to come here.\"\n> \n> So they called the blind man. \"Cheer up,\" they said. \"Come on, he's calling you!\" Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.\n> \n> \"What do you want me to do for you?\" Jesus asked.\n> \n> \"My Rabbi,\" the blind man said, \"I want to see!\"\n> \n> And Jesus said to him, \"Go, for your faith has healed you.\" Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.\n\nIn chapter 9 we looked at the story of the woman with the issue of blood. Well, once again we find Jesus in a similar setting\u2014surrounded by a large crowd. Bartimaeus, who was blind but had other heightened senses, knew that the atmosphere of his city had changed. The buzz and the noise of the crowd might have led him to ask, \"What's going on? Why are all these people here? Why is there suddenly a buzz?\" And maybe someone answered, \"Jesus is here.\"\n\nNow imagine what went on inside his heart when he heard that response: \"Jesus is here.\" Everything he had ever heard about Him up to that moment probably came rushing to his mind: the deliverances of the man with the unclean spirit, the demoniac in the garden, the demoniac boy, and the Syrophoenician woman's daughter; the healings of Simon's mother-in-law, the leper, the man with the withered hand, Jairus's daughter, the afflicted woman, the deaf and the dumb man, and the blind man near Bethsaida; the stilling of the storm and Jesus's walking on water; the feedings of the four thousand and the five thousand; and so many more.\n\n_As we are in a moment of revival in the earth, the time to ask for more is now._\n\nCan you imagine it? He had heard about Jesus before Jesus reached him, so he might have been thinking, \"All this has happened, and now the man who is responsible for it all is near me?\" The crowd got closer. He could hear them passing by. He knew a once-in-a-lifetime moment was upon him. The Bible says he lifted up his voice and said, \"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!\" He was determined to not let this moment pass him by. He was going to ask for rain in the time of rain. He was asking for a moment while the moment was there. He was going to seize that moment.\n\nWe tend to read his cry\u2014\"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me\"\u2014as if the environment were relatively calm and quiet, but it was not calm or quiet at all. He was in the midst of a large crowd. If he was using a calm and quiet tone, the only people who would have heard him were those in close proximity to him. Have you ever tried to get the attention of someone in a noisy place? Have you ever been in an arena and seen a friend and found yourself screaming and looking crazy trying to get his attention? This is what Bartimaeus was doing. And even with all the noise he was making, Bartimaeus could not move the crowd. Many of them probably didn't even hear him.\n\nCan I turn the narrative on its head for a moment? There's a difference between a noise and a sound.\n\nThe people were yelling at Bartimaeus and telling him to be quiet. They wanted him to stop making a scene. But desperation ignores detractors and distractions, so he kept crying out. And in the middle of a large, noisy crowd, Jesus stopped. I need you to get this. There were thousands of people asking Jesus for something or trying in some way to get His attention. They weren't walking along in silence. And somehow through the thousands of people who were walking, something got Jesus's attention. The Bible says He heard Bartimaeus and stopped. There's a difference between making noise and releasing a sound.\n\nNoise surrounded Jesus, but a sound stopped Him. Worry doesn't have a sound, but it makes noise. Fear doesn't have a sound, but it's noisy. Complaining doesn't have a sound; it's just noisy. Doubt doesn't have a sound; it's noisy.\n\nThat's why you can get stirred in your emotions, get stressed out, and maybe even shout, trying to get the attention of Jesus, but all you are doing is making noise. But there's a difference between making noise and releasing a sound. Noise might get the attention of people, but only a sound causes Jesus to stop. You might get everyone else to say, \"O God, please help her,\" or, \"O God, please help him.\" Everybody else might understand that you're going through something, but that doesn't necessarily mean your commotion will cause Jesus to stop in His tracks.\n\nDesperation has a sound that cuts through noise. Desperation gets God's attention. Jesus said, \"Tell him to come here.\" Then He asked Bartimaeus, \"What do you want Me to do for you?\" Don't just make a noise. Release a sound.\n\nWHEN THE MOMENT COMES . . .\n\nMany people are used to making noise and causing a commotion without carrying any sense of expectancy or faith. So if God does respond\u2014because He is God and can do whatever He wants\u2014they wouldn't know what to say. They wouldn't know how to answer if He were to draw them in and say, \"What do you want Me to do for you?\" Many believers have learned how to make noise, but they haven't learned to release a sound or what to do if God responds. They open the window but don't know how to keep it open. They end up living in the moment instead of living in momentum.\n\n_So many people get Jesus's attention but Don't know what to do when He comes._\n\n**Be present.**\n\nYears ago as a young worship leader, I received an amazing piece of advice. It was actually a rebuke from a pastor, but it was life-changing. He said, \"You need to learn how to be present to the moment.\" It's simple, but that gentle rebuke completely changed the way I lead worship. It completely changed my walk with God, and it will change yours.\n\n_Be present to the moment._ I wrestled with it for a while. I thought, \"What does that even mean?\" Then God began to break it down to me. You see, I grew up in a church that had a moment but didn't know how to sustain momentum. Sadly the window closed. To this day there are still people there hoping the window will open again, but they don't understand that they missed the moment. They haven't learned what the sound is, so they don't understand that they can shift from making noise to releasing a sound if they desire to create another divine moment.\n\n**Know that you can't re-create it.**\n\nIt's grieves me to look back at that time when I was a young person growing up in a moment when the window was open and something was happening. It was springtime. Songs were written. Records were recorded. Books were penned. Pastors were released. Then the sound changed to noise, though most people didn't recognize the shift. For a while the noise was still attracting people because of the reputation of the sound. But Jesus wasn't stopping. He kept walking to the next city.\n\nEven I, being young, knew there was a difference, but my immaturity led me to think we could just continue what we were doing. But what I found myself doing everywhere I went after that point was trying to re-create that past moment in the present. Pastor, worship leader, believer, and anyone who is reading these lines right now, hear me when I say we have developed an unhealthy obsession with the things of the past. All the time, we are unknowingly trying to re-create the past. That window is closed.\n\nWe say we need to go back and sing those songs. We need to go back and do what they did. If you do those things without the heart of desperation that was released during that moment, you won't get the same result. Those things were birthed in that moment's present reality of desperation. A sound was released. You can't echo a sound, but you can echo noise.\n\nA sound comes out of you in a present moment. You can't grab ahold of a sound that was released in the past. You can only release a sound from your present reality. What the pastor was really saying was that the moment was good. What happened there was good. It was a move of God, an outpouring, a revival, and a stirring of the Spirit. It was a prophetic moment. But that was then. Where are you now?\n\n**Be aware of what God is doing and what season it is.**\n\nThough it took some time for me to get it, I came to realize I was completely unaware of what God was doing. I was completely unaware of what season it was. I was trying to pull people back, not in.\n\nMany people are living in this moment, as I was. We get stuck in former moves. People come up to me all the time and say, \"We should do this because at my other church . . .\" And I'm thinking, \"Well, why did you leave?\" It's as if we're trying to capture lightning in a bottle and trying to get the old thing and bring it into the present.\n\nPlease don't misunderstand me; I'm not talking about principles here. I'm not talking about foundational biblical principles. I'm talking about how many of us are like zombies. Our bodies are here, but our spirits are there\u2014stuck. So when we shout, we're not releasing a sound. We're making a noise. We may be joining in with those who are releasing a sound, but we're just making a noise because we're not actually desperate. We don't even know we're not actually where we think we are. Disconnected from the present moment, we can't discern how much we need God.\n\n_If there was a time or season of consecration when you did something that allowed you to hear God, stay there._\n\nThe prophet Zechariah challenges us on the need to be aware of what season we're in. \"Ask for the rain in the time of rain.\" When we are aware, our asking and our crying out will be in tune with God's heart. When it's raining, we'll know it is the time to ask for more and it is the time God will give it.\n\n**Stay there.**\n\nThere is a corporate revival happening, but that doesn't necessarily mean an individual revival is happening in you. It is possible to be _at_ a move but not _in_ it. It's called a parade. You're standing there, and you're present, but the movement is happening on the street. Corporate revival is happening around you, but personal revival is not happening in you. Why? Because you thought that if you did it once, that was enough.\n\nSpiritual moments exist to create momentum. Whatever you did to create the moment when heaven intersected earth in your life is what you need to continue to do to keep that moment going. Consecration is not an event. It's an alteration of lifestyle.\n\nIf there was a time or season of consecration when you did something that allowed you to hear God, stay there. If not watching TV is what caused you to hear God, then keep the TV off. Perpetually. Forever. We may not want to hear stuff like this because we want God on our terms. We want our encounters with Him to work a certain way. We want it done our way. \"Come on our terms, God,\" we say. \"Come in our time.\" And we stifle the Holy Spirit. We say, \"OK, that was cool, God. We're good now.\"\n\nThere is no sense of desperation in that kind of response. That response will not cause God to stop in the midst of a multitude and ask, \"What is it you want Me to do for you?\" But if there is anyone within a generation who will release a sound, Jesus will hear it and stop.\n\nRESPOND\n\nI don't believe it was the audible sound of Bartimaeus's voice that arrested Jesus's attention. Remember when Jesus was on His way to raise Jairus's daughter from the dead? The Bible says that a woman who had been dealing with a blood-flow issue for twelve years touched the hem of His garment. He said, \"Who touched Me?\" But did He actually feel her hand on His garment? No. He noticed that somebody touched Him differently. Not only did the woman pull on His garment; she also pulled on His life.\n\nMay I suggest to you that He might not have felt the garment pull, but He felt the virtue pull? May I suggest to you that He didn't hear Bartimaeus's voice; He heard the sound of desperation?\n\nSome of us keep thinking that if we just get loud enough, if we get demonstrative enough, we'll get Jesus to respond. Let me dissuade you from that line of thinking because you'll end up making noise, and I am here to encourage you to make a sound. Let's step outside of the natural realm for a minute and hear what God is trying to say to us.\n\nSometimes when we're desperate, a sound can't even come out. Sometimes when we're desperate, it's not our voices that make the sounds; it's our tears. Sometimes when we're desperate, it's not how loud we get; it's how low we bow. Sometimes when we're desperate, it's not how loud we shout; it's how often we sit in silence. Sometimes when we're desperate, we release a sound when we open up the Word and say, \"God, I need to hear from You. God, I need You.\"\n\nAre you perpetually desperate?\n\nDesperation is a sound that your life makes. Desperation is the thing that makes you get up at one, two, or three o'clock in the morning when you're restless, and you start walking your floor and praying. Desperation has nothing to do with how loud you scream. It has everything to do with the sound that your life makes.\n\n_Sometimes when we're desperate, it's not our voices that make the sounds; it's our tears._\n\nI encourage you to find your way to a place of desperation and release a sound from there. When you do, you will create a divine moment that will lead to momentum. The moment is here. Jesus has heard and has stopped. What will you do now?\nCHAPTER 12\n\nFEED THE FIRE\n\nThe fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must never go out. Each morning the priest will add fresh wood to the fire and arrange the burnt offering on it. He will then burn the fat of the peace offerings on it. Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out.\n\n\u2014LEVITICUS 6:12\u201313\n\nSOME TIME AGO I had a chance to go to Zimbabwe. It was a return trip. I'd been to the continent of Africa before. I love it, and I love the people. But this trip was special. It contained a moment I'll remember forever.\n\nWe had been ministering in the area for a few days, and toward the end of our trip we were invited to the host pastor's home for conversation and refreshment. Upon our arrival we were led out to the patio, where a seating area had been set up around a blazing fire pit. There were different things to eat and drink, even marshmallows for roasting.\n\nNormally I am not an outdoorsman, and being outside in the elements is not my idea of fun. But there was something significant about being in this moment with this pastor and his family, who had been in the country for more than thirty-five years. Instead of traditional campfire stories, they shared with us stories of great faith and their efforts in building a church that had literally changed the nation.\n\nI was stirred as he told us about how being twice removed from the impartation of John G. Lake had impacted the effectiveness of their ministry over the years. I was so enthralled by their testimony, my spirit being fed, that I must have forgotten we were outside. You know how there are just some moments that are so precious you don't want to do anything to disturb them, so you will do whatever it takes to keep them? This was one of those moments.\n\nUntil . . .\n\nOut of the corner of my eye I saw something move in the darkness away from the light of the fire. It looked like a dog, but it was a rat\u2014a cane rat. We don't have those in the United States, and for the Americans reading this book, you ought to thank God. Not even the New York City subway rats can compare to these giant things. A cane rat could eat a subway rat, it's so big.\n\nSo for about two to three minutes there was mass pandemonium among the group. We screamed and shooed, stomped and shouted, each of us doing whatever we could to get away from the rat. Then the pastor yelled, \"Don't let that thing in the house,\" and everybody started chasing it and trying to scare it away. In confusion and terror, of course, the rat started coming toward me. I took off. One of my pastors, who had taken the trip with me, said he had never seen me move so fast. Listen, I don't do outside.\n\nThings settled down, and I apprehensively rejoined the group and discovered that they didn't kill the rat; they just chased it into the woods next to the fire. But somehow we all felt peace enough to sit back down. Someone threw more wood on the fire, and the conversation continued.\n\nThe fellowship we shared must have been a move of God. Had it been any other time, my normal MO would have led me to say, \"This meeting, this time of being out in front of a fire in Africa, is over. I'm good. Take me back to the hotel.\" But no. God was present. It was one of those moments so precious you don't want to disturb it, so you will do whatever it takes to make it last. So we sat there knowing that a rat the size of a dog lurked in the nearby woods but that we would be OK as long as we kept the fire burning.\n\nFUELING A FIRE FOR THE FUTURE\n\nAs they talked about how God had been moving in the nation of Zimbabwe since they planted their church, their stories and testimonies resonated deeply within me. The family imparted to us an anointing that was so sweet and so closely linked to what God had been doing at Deeper. As I listened, the Lord spoke to me, saying that there are supposed to be rivers flowing out of our little warehouse church that will affect the nations of the earth.\n\nThis is why I cannot help but feel the places the Lord has sent me to are to expose me to a level of faith and vision that challenge what I think is possible. If you position yourself as a student, God will put you in a place where you can see and hear things that seed in you a faith for the future. When you get there, don't try to make everyone understand why you're supposed to be there. It is for you to know and trust that God put you there. As He has done for me, God will allow you to be around people and circumstances that will ignite your faith and expectation, causing you to become uncomfortable with where you are. When it's time to turn up the heat on what He wants to do, God will put you with people who move in the Spirit in a way that provokes righteous envy. You will want what they have.\n\nIf you are like me, then you will understand when I say I am in the most unique and odd season of my life, where I am desperately crying out to be used by God in a significant way. This may seem strange if you know of my ministry as a worship leader. You may even be saying, \"You're already being used by God in a significant way.\" But there's something in me that keeps crying out for more.\n\nEven though the Lord has allowed me to experience a lot of amazing things, I'm nowhere close to being used at the magnitude God has shown me. Most of what I have been walking in during the last decade with music and such I really didn't see. With all that the Lord is doing at Deeper Fellowship, I am just now walking in the \"exceedingly abundantly\" I had envisioned. At the same time, \"far above what you could ask, think, or imagine\" is still far ahead of me. (See Ephesians 3:20.) It is an interesting place to be when you can look back over your life and be grateful for the amazing things God has enabled you to experience yet still look ahead and be desperate for more.\n\nAs I sit and listen to stories of faith about nations changing and turning to God, there is something in my DNA that says I don't want to just be in attendance when the move of God hits. I want to be part of it. I used to say, \"God, I want to see it.\" Now I am saying, \"God, I want to see it here.\" There is a holy dissatisfaction that keeps me up at night. It causes me to recognize that there is more. I long for it. It burns on the inside of me. Is it burning inside you? If so, let's talk about how to keep it burning.\n\nWe've experienced many unique moments during this outpouring, but one of the most memorable was in April of 2017 during our monthly Presence Night. We were also celebrating our third anniversary as a church and had a couple of guests with us. Due to the size of our building and the notoriety of some of my friends in ministry, at times we won't say publicly who is coming to be with us. But inevitably word gets out, and more people than usual show up. There is typically a line to get in, and sometimes we have to turn people away due to space restrictions. This particular Presence Night in April was one of those times.\n\nAs a pastor it breaks my heart to have to turn away people who come to encounter God. We had a guest speaker that night, but my friend Travis Greene, who also happens to be a Grammynominated, multiple award\u2013winning worship leader, was our guest worship leader. We were in the back preparing to go into the service when I received word that we were at full capacity and there were still hundreds of people outside. Travis said he would take his guitar outside and lead worship for the people who couldn't get inside. I thought that was an amazing idea. We've had several services when people have literally stood outside for hours while the service was taking place just to listen through the walls at what was happening inside.\n\nI offered to go out with Travis as he led worship. When we went outside, I noticed a woman to my left who was wearing a neck brace and slumped over with a cane. I thought to myself that she had probably heard of the many miracles that had taken place, so out of sheer compassion I walked over to her to pray for her. I asked her what her issue was, and she said she was dealing with fibromyalgia. I began to pray for her as Travis was leading worship a few feet away from me. What happened next was unexpected. As I was praying for her, I began to hear hissing and a spitting sound. I looked up, and the woman was hissing and spitting like a snake. At that moment my prayer changed, and I went from praying for the woman's healing to rebuking the devil. You can only imagine the scene. Hundreds of people are outside singing, and here I am on the side rebuking an evil spirit.\n\nAs I began to command the devil to come out of this lady, she began to scream, \"No, she's mine!\" Now we have quite a scene. People who had their phones out recording Travis were now recording a demon being cast out of a lady outside the building. After some prayer, not only did the Lord set her free from the demon, but she also was healed of all the symptoms of fibromyalgia. She left without her cane and neck brace and said she had no pain anywhere. It's happening!\n\nKEEP THE FIRE BURNING\n\n> Give Aaron and his sons the following instructions regarding the burnt offering. The burnt offering must be left on top of the altar until the next morning, and the fire on the altar must be kept burning all night. In the morning, after the priest on duty has put on his official linen clothing and linen undergarments, he must clean out the ashes of the burnt offering and put them beside the altar. Then he must take off these garments, change back into his regular clothes, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean. Meanwhile, the fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must never go out. Each morning the priest will add fresh wood to the fire and arrange the burnt offering on it. He will then burn the fat of the peace offerings on it. Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out.\n> \n> \u2014LEVITICUS 6:9\u201313\n\nWhen we were sitting in front of the fire in Africa, in order to keep it burning, they didn't add more fire. They added more wood. As long as it has something to consume, fire will keep burning. The only time fire dies is when there is nothing for it to feed on.\n\nThe Bible says in Hebrews 12:29 that our God is an all-consuming fire, and the instruction to the Levitical priest in Leviticus 6 was to not let the fire go out. This was important to God; He said it twice because He knew the natural proclivity of man is to take our eyes off what's important and let the fire die.\n\nThere's something about this generation\u2014and this is more about mind-set than age group\u2014that as soon as something is not hot for us, we want to move on to something else. But God has given us a responsibility and an assignment, just as He gave the priests in Leviticus\u2014not to ignite the fire but to not let the fire die. So when we pray, \"God, set me on fire for You,\" we pray in error. There was a fire set at the cross that we are responsible for keeping lit. We ought to be asking God what He wants us to add to the fire so it will burn without dying out.\n\n_Fire dies when it has nothing to consume._\n\nThere is a lot at stake with learning how to feed the fire of God. Every fire has a starting point, what arson investigators call ignition. In our desire to be part of what God is doing in the earth, we can increase our effectiveness by remembering what God has done and how He wants us to respond. The first two ignition points reveal God's contribution to the fire. The last two reveal ours.\n\nIGNITION POINT 1: BURNT OFFERINGS\n\n> The LORD called to Moses from the Tabernacle and said to him, \"Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you present an animal as an offering to the LORD, you may take it from your herd of cattle or your flock of sheep and goats. If the animal you present as a burnt offering is from the herd, it must be a male with no defects. Bring it to the entrance of the Tabernacle so you may be accepted by the LORD. Lay your hand on the animal's head, and the LORD will accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him.\"\n> \n> \u2014LEVITICUS 1:1\u20134\n\nThis is substitutionary atonement in a nutshell, a foreshadowing of what Christ would ultimately do on our behalf. Romans chapter 3 talks about our being made right with God through our faith in Christ, \"and this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are\" (v. 22). While atoning\u2014making up for\u2014one's sins was literal for the people of Israel in the Old Testament, it is by faith in Christ for us now.\n\nRomans 6:23 says that \"the wages of sin is death,\" but death was too high a price for us to pay before Christ because everything was literal. Everything was done in the natural. You wouldn't get back up if you laid down your own life. But this is what God required; He required life. \"Without the shedding of blood,\" Hebrews 9:22 tells us, \"there is no forgiveness\" of sin. Blood represents life. Christ shed His blood so we wouldn't have to. He took our place and died, but in the Old Testament, the animal sacrifice represented a person's sin-life. God created a visceral way for them to see what the exchange rate was for their sin-life by instituting the burnt offering as their atonement, as their way for being made right and thereby righteous enough to approach Him.\n\nThe reason it was important for the priests to keep the fire going was because as long as their sin-life was dead, they had access to God. If that exchange was ever cut short, if the fire ever went out, their access also would be cut off. Because humankind sins continually, there had to be a continual sacrifice, giving us continual access to the Father. He saw fit, in His desire to stay in communion with His people, that the sacrificial fire remain burning. God wanted to set a constant reminder in heaven and on earth of our access to Him.\n\nIn other words, because He is holy and set apart and we broke covenant at the fall of Adam and Eve, and because Christ had not yet come to be our substitutionary atonement once and for all, God instituted something on earth so we could see what the cost of true worship is. The true cost of worship is not a song but our life, which is acceptable because of His life. This is worship many of us now take for granted. We lift our hands if we want. We engage with it if our emotions say we feel like it. But being able to go into the presence of God without fear of our sins instantly condemning us to death is only two thousand years old. For millennia, people offered sacrifices they feared might not be accepted.\n\nConsider this: In the Old Testament if people wanted to go into the house of worship, they couldn't arrive without an animal sacrifice. They would not be accepted into the presence of God if they came the way we come now. And if you think worship is messy when you cry or someone is on the floor, then you would have thought worship was really messy back then. Some of us can't handle seeing our own blood. Imagine dealing with another creature's blood. Imagine the smell and the stench.\n\nYet to God the burnt offering reminded Him that even though we sin, He still loves us. Even though we've broken covenant, He will accept us back, set us right, and complete the work He began in us. Even though He had every right to pour out His wrath on us, He poured it out on something and then someone else to give us access to Him. His only repeated command in this process was keep the fire burning; do not let it go out. In this He says, \"I love you too much to lose connection with you. My love for you burns. I started the fire on your behalf. If you love Me, keep it burning.\"\n\nIGNITION POINT 2: RECONCILIATION ONCE AND FOR ALL\n\n_Atonement_ means reconciliation with God ultimately through Christ, so when God allowed for atonement, He was doing it Himself. From 2 Corinthians 5:19 we see that it was God's desire to bring us back to Him: \"For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.\" He understood the dire nature of our state. Because we do not have the power on our own to come to Him, He came to us:\n\n> For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.\n> \n> \u20142 CORINTHIANS 5:21\n\nBack then and at the time of Christ, God created ways to absolve us of the eternal punishment for the sin we committed and the covenant we broke. He did this despite our continual rejection of Him. God loves us so much that He made a way for us\u2014born in sin and shaped in iniquity\u2014to have access to Him in all His glory and holy perfection. The only requirement is that we keep the fire going.\n\nIGNITION POINT 3: TRUE WORSHIP AND THE JOY OF SALVATION\n\nGod has forgiven us, and we are not to forget. Our culture is so distracted by the next new thing that we begin to think our experience with God should be similar. We no longer think this salvation thing God did for us is good enough. And this is what causes our fire to die. Our minds are on so many other things that we no longer recall the significance of what He's done.\n\nWhen I was growing up, the older folks used to say that if God doesn't do another thing, He's already done enough! There used to be a time when it was enough that He saved us. We could shout off of that all day. Now we respond as if He has to add all this stuff on top of it. We even make fun of someone if he starts shouting over just being saved. Is the joy of salvation not enough to set off high praise and worship? What happened to it being enough for someone to stand up and say, \"When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that He's done for me, my soul cries out\"?\n\nBecause we lost sight of the Cross, our judgments of what constitutes being on fire for God are off. We judge people who shout over the seemingly simple works of God concerning our salvation, saying they are religious and emotional. But to remember that God has already done it all and all we have to do is keep it going isn't religious or emotional. We do not have to light the fire. He sent fire from heaven once and for all. All we have to do is keep it burning. When the people of God stand up and declare, \"I won't forget!\" more wood has been added to the fire. It is good for us to remember what the Lord has done.\n\n_The level of your passion and fire for God is directly proportionate to the level of your surrender._\n\nWhen you don't feed the fire with a testimony, it dies. When you don't feed it faith, it dies. For our fire to go out means that we aren't appreciating God's love enough. Looking back at Leviticus 6, we see that each morning new wood had to be put on the fire. Tending the fire was a daily process. It wasn't about how the priest felt one day or another.\n\nThe commitment to worship God has been reduced to how we feel about the way He has blessed us. We like to decide if God is worthy of our praise this week based on how it went. Did our bosses treat us right? Did this or that go the way we wanted? This is when worship is based on feelings. This is when worship is offensive to God and He doesn't have to receive it. Have you heard of strange fire? (See Leviticus 10.) You can't offer anything to God and think He will accept it. But true worship\u2014recounting the goodness of God and remembering the way He made it possible for you to have full access to Him\u2014is what adds wood to the fire.\n\nIGNITION POINT 4: SURRENDER\n\nIf you stop offering yourself to God, your fire will go out. If you stop giving Him your unconditional worship, your fire goes out. If you stop yielding certain parts of your heart to Him, your fire will go out. If you are asking God to set you on fire, but you are not feeding the fire, the fire will die. You have to feed the fire. God is not going to send fire to revive the fire. Fire doesn't revive fire. The parts of your life that need to be consumed revive the fire. When God searches your heart and shines light on certain things, release them. You are fueling the fire. When He says, \"I want those thoughts, that gossip, those addictions,\" put them in the fire. These are the things that cause your fire to grow.\n\nGod wants to consume every part of your life. Whatever you are withholding from Him is causing your fire to die out. Revival fire burns off of your surrender. The level of your passion and fire for God is directly proportionate to the level of your surrender.\n\nThe more surrendered you are, the more passionate and on fire you will be. When you declare to God that He can have all of you, you add much fuel to the fire.\n\nAfter all the years, the instruction has not changed\u2014don't let the fire go out. The difference is that now the fire is in you. You are the keeper of the flame. God gives the fire once and says to not let it go out. We must tend to the fire.\n\n> Let us not allow slackness to spoil our work and let us keep the fires of the spirit burning, as we do our work for God.\n> \n> \u2014ROMANS 12:11, PHILLIPS\n\nRESPOND\n\nYou want your fire to grow? Surrender. You want your fire to grow? Repent to the Lord right here and right now. Live a life of thankfulness, fall in love with the Word of the Lord, and get around people who are also on fire. If God is asking you for anything, give it to Him. I wish I could tell you that your fire will grow if you shout, but it won't. It grows by surrender. I wish I could tell you that the fire grows by dancing, but that is only a manifestation of being on fire. The fire grows by repentance. When God shows you an area in your life that is incongruent with His will and His heart, cast it off and throw it on the fire. Let God take it from you. When you do this, you are tending the fire.\n\nShow me a surrendered, repentant people, a people who are in love with the Word, a people who are grateful for salvation, redemption, and mercy, and I'll show you a fire burning. They are not after money, houses, and cars, but they are after the grace of God. Those are a people on fire. God is setting fires in America right now, and He is telling us not to let the fire go out. Your fire will be stoked the most as you get on your face before God.\n\nIf it is your heart's desire to keep your fire burning, join me in this prayer:\n\n> _God, search me, and if You find anything in me that is incongruent with Your will, take it out of me. Forgive me. I repent. I come to You. I am hungry for You. I am desperate for You. I want You more than anything else._\n\nEvery time you pray this, you are putting wood on the fire. Paul says, \"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service [or 'worship' in some translations]\" (Rom. 12:1, NKJV). In other words, this is truly the way to worship God. If you really want to worship God, throw anything in you that is not like Him into the fire.\nCHAPTER 13\n\nIT HAPPENED BECAUSE IT'S HAPPENING\n\n\"No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me,\" says the LORD.\n\n\u2014ISAIAH 54:17, NKJV\n\nTOWARD THE END of the first year after it had become clear God was doing something significant among us at Deeper Fellowship, the enemy began to attack many of our members and their families. There were also attacks on the city itself.\n\nOn June 12, 2016, a gunman opened fire in Pulse nightclub in Orlando, taking the lives of forty-nine people. At the time, it was named the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. We were devastated. As the whole city mourned the losses, evidence of kindness, love, and resilience rose to the surface through first responders' and trauma surgeons' tireless efforts, long lines of people waiting to give blood to the injured survivors, all-night prayer services and vigils, and financial donations to support the victims' families.\n\nWhat happened in our city was unfortunate, tragic, and terroristic\u2014a horrific act. But even in the midst of this tragedy and the many other attacks around the city and against our own members, God began to give us spiritual revelation about why the attacks\u2014both personal and collective\u2014were happening in this season. And what He told us, as I have said about everything up to this point, was not just for us.\n\nThe enemy wants to keep any fire of revival from burning. I want you to know that while he may try to come against you, he will not succeed. Do not be discouraged by the attacks because the enemy has overplayed his hand. Whatever the enemy has thrown and is throwing against your life and your region in this season, I declare to you, it won't work. No weapon formed against you will prosper (Isa. 54:17).\n\nELEVATE YOUR PERSPECTIVE\n\nIf you recall, in 1 Corinthians 2 Paul wrote about the different ways he communicated the mysteries of the gospel to different groups of people with varying levels of understanding. He wrote:\n\n> God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.\n> \n> When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.\n> \n> \u2014 1 CORINTHIANS 2:10\u201314\n\nPaul is telling us there are some things that carry a deeper spiritual meaning that goes beyond our natural understanding, and the only way to get that understanding is through a revelation from the Spirit of God. I believe that what our city and our church community were experiencing in the natural went beyond what we could see on the surface. The attacks you face as you cry out to God for more also have deeper spiritual meaning. Natural things sometimes have spiritual roots, and it's incumbent upon those of us who have spiritual insight and a prophetic eye to give a spiritual perspective of the natural things that take place. Otherwise some of us will walk around confused, and that's what the enemy wants. If the Lord gives me any revelation into a situation, I refuse to allow people to be confused about how things happening in the spirit realm are affecting things in the natural. The attacks that come in revival seasons are natural manifestations of spiritual things.\n\nWhen attacks come, some people allow the enemy to lead them down the religious route of judgment and condemnation. But others desire to speak words of comfort, hope, affirmation, and life. This is the path we have chosen at Deeper. We seek to be comforters.\n\nTimes of hurt, loss, and tragedy are amazing opportunities for us to allow God's Spirit to work through us and reveal who Jesus is. We also have the opportunity to reveal the deeper prophetic understanding of the enemy's attacks. We cannot afford to be deceived. We try to find all kinds of reasons to explain the inexplicable things that happen in our lives and communities, but we must recognize that they are spiritual attacks first with natural manifestations.\n\n_Do not be discouraged by these attacks because the enemy has overplayed His hand._\n\nPeople get sick, people get injured, and people die. These things are hugely unfortunate and painful for us to endure. But here's what I need you to understand: the devil doesn't play fair. You must learn to see these things for what they are\u2014attacks from an enemy that knows he's in trouble. I am in no way ignoring the natural ramifications of pain and loss. What I hope to do is encourage those of us who are praying for revival and experiencing opposition in our homes, churches, and communities to do as Paul said and, in a manner of speaking, \"elevate all things\" to a spiritual level so we'll know how to stand against them.\n\nI made this clear to our church in a sermon the weekend following the Pulse shooting\u2014and this applies to all who are beginning to see that it's happening: we are at a critical moment because there is a demon spirit that is angry with the church. But just as his strike against us is swift and intense, so will his loss be.\n\nTRAGEDY WILL NOT DEFINE YOU\n\nThe enemy is attempting to redefine you by your tragedy. He is attempting to silence your prophetic voice that cries out, \"Thus saith the Lord.\" He attempted this with us in Orlando. People all over the world were asking, \"What's happening in Orlando? Why is that city being attacked so badly?\" Of course there were the standard speculations. But I believe we were attacked like that because \"it's happening.\" There's a revival breaking out in our city. God is about to pour out His Spirit in an unprecedented manner in our city and from our city to the rest of the nation. So for everyone who asked what's happening in Orlando, my response was, \"A revival.\" We aren't the only ones. There are other churches in the city that have been experiencing an outpouring of the Spirit of God as well. God is moving in our city, and the devil doesn't like it. God is moving in your life, and he doesn't like that either.\n\nSome of the attacks happening in the body of Christ\u2014in your life and mine\u2014are happening because revival is happening. Revival is here, and it won't be stopped by what happened. Will you say this aloud in agreement with me? \"It happened because it's happening, but what happened won't stop what's happening.\" It's a little bit of a tongue twister, I know, but say it loud and put it out in the atmosphere even if you don't fully understand it right now. This chapter will help you understand. The plans of the enemy won't work. They will not stop the move of God.\n\nOne of the reasons we chronicle the numerous healings that have taken place at our church is because over time it's easy to forget what has happened, especially as the number of miracles increases. Of course the individuals healed will never forget, and those who knew them when they were sick will never forget. When a family member or friend no longer has cancer or can now walk without a walker or cane, you don't quickly forget. You remember things like that.\n\nYet sometimes things happen that no one can forget. That's what happened on a Sunday morning during River 1. The presence of God was evident in the room. There are times when it just seems as if everyone is aware of Him, and this was one of those moments. We also had the sense that God wanted to move in the room, and we specifically called out those who were dealing with certain sicknesses. I noticed in front of me a man who is normally active during worship but on this particular Sunday was sitting for most of it.\n\nAt first I wasn't sure why he was sitting so much during worship, but then I noticed a walking boot on his foot. Clearly something was wrong with his foot, and he seemed to be in a lot of pain, but when I invited people who were sick to receive prayer, he didn't come forward.\n\nWe prayed for those who came to the altar, and as we were about to move into another part of the service, out of compassion I went to him and asked what was wrong. He explained that he had broken his foot that week and would have to wear that walking boot for several weeks. Although he was in a lot of pain, he said he didn't come forward because he knew there were people who had much more serious conditions than a broken bone in their foot. He had been present for many of the other miracles that had taken place, so he said he wanted others to receive prayer.\n\nI let him know that the Lord cared for his situation just as much as He cared for those with more serious health issues. I asked him if I could pray for him, and he said yes, so we began to pray. Sometimes when I pray for people, I feel heat in the affected area as well as in my hand. Oftentimes those who are standing around can feel it as well. I began to experience this manifestation of heat as I prayed for the man. What happened next is something I won't soon forget, and I don't think anyone else there that day will soon forget it either. I asked him, \"What do you feel?\" He shouted, \"It's gone!\" A little startled by his proclamation, I said, \"What's gone?\" He said, \"The pain!\" Then, unprompted, he took off his walking boot and proceeded to run back and forth, even highstepping. He never had to wear the boot again. He came back the next week in dress shoes. Jesus healed him instantly! It's happening!\n\nWHAT'S HAPPENING IN ORLANDO . . . AGAIN?\n\nThere are spirits that linger over regions. We see proof of this in the book of Daniel, when Daniel prayed and asked God to give him an answer to something. God released the answer right away, but it took twenty-one days for God's response to reach Daniel because a principality called the prince of Persia had been blocking it. The archangel Michael had been fighting the demon prince for three weeks trying to get the answer to Daniel.\n\nJust as the prince of Persia governed a region, there are demonic principalities that govern people's behavior and thought processes. That's why the Bible says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4\u20135). What's a stronghold? It's a fortified thought\u2014a thought that you defend vehemently and can't break through even when things come to convince you otherwise. Until a person hears and really receives the truth of God's Word, he can't change a stronghold even if he wants to.\n\n_It happened because it's happening, but what happened won't stop what's happening._\n\nFor example, poverty is a stronghold. When you see generation after generation in poverty, and no matter how good their jobs are or how much money they make, they're still in poverty, they're dealing with a stronghold. It may be affecting how they respond to wisdom regarding the life choices they make or perhaps how they see their value. However it manifests, a stronghold is a deep-abiding dysfunctional mind-set. Sometimes this is called a generational curse. But it's not just a generational curse; it's also a stronghold.\n\nThere is a stronghold that hangs over the city of Orlando. If you look at the history of our city, you'll discover that three times in the last twenty-six years the fastest-growing church in America was in Orlando, yet none of them were able to sustain the momentum. It doesn't really make logical sense until you recognize that it's a spirit. Some have called this region a \"pastor's graveyard.\" Church leaders have risen to national prominence, only to have their life and influence cut short by untimely death, drug abuse, and other sorts of scandals. There is a principality that fights the church in this region, but it is losing ground now. So when people ask what's happening in Orlando, instead of allowing us to be defined by the tragedies, I respond in the faith of \"it's happening\" and say, \"Revival!\"\n\nAlthough this spirit is losing ground, it works hard to resist us, to oppose those who would actually go hard after God. I was telling someone the other day that around the time when God called me to plant Deeper Fellowship Church, I had a visitation from a demonic presence that told me if I planted a church in this city, it would take my family. The devil is a liar. This spirit took me on a journey to different churches, and it said, \"See what I did there to that church? See what I did to that pastor? See how he had an affair, and now the church is a shell of its former self or is gone altogether? Do you see what I did to this church over here? Do you see how this happened? Do you see how that happened?\" He said, \"I'm going to do it all to you too.\"\n\nNo, he's not. And let me just say, this is a good reminder of why we all should pray for our pastors. This spirit was trying to persuade me to take my gifts of worship leading and prophetic insight to another city to join with somebody else rather than stand on my own. But what he didn't count on was the fact that God was sending others to stand with me. I do not stand on my own. God has equipped me and has allowed me to link arms with others who are strong in the faith to keep me and others from falling. And by God's grace, through this book and your bearing witness to what's happening in our church, the same will happen in your life and in your church and all over this nation. Miracles, signs, wonders, healing, breakthrough, deliverance, presence, worship\u2014may it all be released everywhere that's desperately crying for more.\n\nThe enemy may have tried to take captive what God was doing, but it won't work. We are reclaiming every territory the devil has sought to destroy. We are pursuing him and recovering everything that's been taken!\n\nCONQUERING THE SPIRIT OF GOLIATH\n\nThere are many lessons from the life of David that have influenced my worship and my warfare while contending for the presence of God to rest on me. David's encounter with the Philistine warrior Goliath gives us much to glean.\n\nIn 1 Samuel 17, when David was still newly and secretly anointed to be Israel's next king, he was out on the battlefield bringing food to his brothers. They were soldiers in King Saul's army. All of a sudden, David heard a nine-foot-tall Philistine defying the armies of the living God. This is the epitome of a spirit of intimidation\u2014a spirit that was so confident in its ability to control the move of God that it challenged the people of God.\n\nFor forty days Goliath challenged the armies of Israel. He symbolizes a type of principality that stands over a region saying, \"I can do this to you, and I can do that to you. Look at what I did to them. Do you see the size of my sword and my shield? Do you see how big and bad I am?\" David said, \"Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?\"\n\nTalking all this noise, Goliath did not consider that somebody in the group would actually have faith in God. He had completely miscalculated. While he thought he was coming against the armies of Saul, David corrected that perspective by declaring that Goliath had come against the armies of the living God.\n\nThe spirit of Goliath always miscalculates and misinterprets who he is up against. In trying to come against the people of God, he is also coming against God. We serve an undefeated God who answers the cries of His people. So when we say, \"We want You,\" He moves everything, including a principality, to get to us.\n\nDavid did not think for a moment that he was fighting Goliath. He always knew Goliath was fighting God. Goliath was not only the physical manifestation of the man who stood in front of David that day. Goliath represents anything that stands against the move of God and tries to stop it through fear and intimidation.\n\nThat's what has been happening in Orlando in this new season of revival. But Goliath has it wrong. He keeps looking down on our churches that are not full, just as he mocked David's comparatively small stature, saying, \"I'm still winning.\" But there's a remnant of people like David who will cut off Goliath's head. It has nothing to do with whether the church is full; it has everything to do with faith in God. The churches will fill up, and even when they do, our strength will still be in our faith in God, not the size of our congregations.\n\n_Goliath is anything that stands against the move of God and tries to stop it through fear and intimidation._\n\nCan I tell you something the Lord has revealed to me? God has quietly been anointing a Davidic generation in our city and around the world. He's been anointing them, He's been sending them, He's been raising them up, and they've been coming forth. They have the word of the Lord in their mouths and faith in their hearts, and they believe God can do anything. They are confident that anything that tries to oppose God will not succeed. They don't care about the statistics or what people have heard about their cities. They know their God, and they will rise up as David did and cut off the head of Goliath.\n\nPURSUE AND RECOVER ALL\n\nThe next experience from the life of David that gives us instruction for warfare during revival is his experience at Ziklag. (See 1 Samuel 29\u201330.) This probably was the worst day of David's life up to that point. Being a father, husband, and pastor, I can't imagine the loss David felt that day. He had lost it all, including his family\u2014or so it seemed.\n\nAfter David's victories over the Philistines, King Saul grew more jealous of him as the days went on. His jealousy had increased so much that he was relentlessly pursuing David to kill him. To find safety from Saul's constant attacks, David went to the land of the enemy, the Philistines, and he made a deal with their king, Achish. Achish gave him a town called Ziklag. He lived fairly peacefully there until the Philistines asked him to fight with them against his own brothers, the Israelites. And David was going to do it!\n\n**Beware of the false-unity trick.**\n\nAs we are seeking to keep our thoughts elevated to see the spiritual roots of the natural attacks we face, consider this: we have to be careful about joining in with calls for unity in the midst of certain troubles and tragedies. Sometimes the calls for unity also mean you must be silent about what the Lord is showing you concerning the situation. By joining the Philistines, David was choosing to oppose the armies of the Lord. There is no other way to see it. Sometimes the call for unity is a trick of the enemy meant to bring the church into a stupor so we will not speak the word of the Lord.\n\nAt every turn the enemy seeks to silence the prophetic voice of the Lord in order to redefine what God is doing. He doesn't want revival to break out, but his plans will not work! While we always must walk in love and compassion, we should never choose to be unified with the world at the expense of standing for God. Unity with the world will never work because there will always be some who don't trust or like us. We spend too much time trying to be liked by the world. Jesus said, \"You will be hated by everyone because of me\" (Matt. 10:22, NIV). His words were not ambiguous. The only way to be liked by the world is to deny Christ.\n\nI know that's a little hard to hear, but the better place is to stand with Christ. The enemy is about to be sent on the run for good.\n\n**Watch out for the sneak attack.**\n\nThe leaders of the Philistine army could not come to terms with David's choice to fight with them. So they sent him and his men back to Ziklag. Three days later, when David and his men arrived home, they found that the Amalekites raided the town, burned it to the ground, and took all their possessions and the women and children captive. But wait a minute. Wasn't the war between the children of Israel and the Philistines? Where did the Amalekites come from?\n\nFor a long time you've been battling one spirit, and out of nowhere, it seems, here comes a surprise attack. It's been happening to us throughout the season of revival. Remember what I had you say earlier in the chapter: it happened because it's happening, but what happened won't change what's happening.\n\n_The only way to be liked by the world is to deny Christ._\n\nIf you want to know the reason for these attacks, they are acts of retaliation. The enemy knows he's losing ground, so he is calling in reinforcements, hoping to crush us in our moments of pressure, grief, worry, and weakness. But we will not stay there because we know how to get out of the place of pressure and grief. I told our church and all who listened on the podcast the week after the Pulse shooting that what happened in our city was horrific, but we are sending that foreign demonic spirit on the run.\n\nThe enemy has been after the seed of revival in our city, so he tried to take what is valuable to us captive. But he can't kill it. We are the only ones who can kill the revival.\n\nIf you want God, you'll have Him because we are under an open heaven, we are in a season of habitation, and we are in a season of visitation\u2014and it's available to everyone. The enemy can't kill that, but he will try to carry it away captive. And as David and his men did, we weep over what we lost until we can't weep anymore. But then something shifts.\n\n**\"Bring me the ephod!\"**\n\nIn the midst of all of his grief, confusion, hurt, and defeat, David said, \"Bring me the ephod!\" (1 Sam. 30:7). The ephod is a sacred garment that only the high priest or a king could wear. It had something called the Urim and the Thummim inside the breastplate. When the people of Israel needed an answer to a major question, the priest or king would bring out the Urim and the Thummim, and it would tell them yes or no. In this particular instance when David called for the ephod, the Bible does not actually record that he pulled out the Urim and the Thummim. It seems David put the question before God. He used the ephod not only as a priestly garment but also as a garment for worship, for invoking the presence of God. For David to get the right perspective, he knew he needed to change his posture.\n\nYou know why the enemy is going to be on the run in our city, in your life, and in mine? Because we're not coming at this thing like warriors; we're coming at it like worshippers. We have to change our position and our perspective. Going forward, David knew he needed to approach God like a worshipper, not a warrior. To get the will and counsel of God, he had to get into the presence of God.\n\nPURSUE AND RECOVER ALL\n\nDavid sought the Lord. In 1 Samuel 30:8 he asked, \"Should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them?\" The Lord told him, \"Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!\" (v. 8). The New King James Version says, \"Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.\" I need you to hear the word of the Lord: you will surely recover everything that was taken from you\u2014without fail!\n\nA foreign enemy came into our territory and took captive what God has given us, and when we get into the presence of God, we discover the counsel of God. Some of us get into the presence of the twenty-four-hour news cycles and social media posts. Sometimes we stand on everybody else's platform and neglect the presence of God. But no more. We know what to do. We must say, \"God, what should we do about this?\" It may be popular in some circles to just hold each other and say, \"We'll get through this.\" We have hashtags and memes for every sort of disaster and trauma that comes against us. But the word of the Lord is not to just stand there and take it. The word of the Lord is that we're supposed to pursue and recover all.\n\nWe will not sit by while the enemy comes in and steals the seat of revival and while he takes captive what we've been praying and laboring for.\n\nGod has shown us clearly why He is doing what He is doing here in Orlando. Think about this: Orlando is the number five most visited city in the United States. Sixty-eight million people came here in 2016, a record high, and more than two million people live here. Can you imagine what would happen if a full-on revival were to break out here? News of it would spread around the world. The enemy doesn't want people to come to Orlando because revival is happening here. And though he sent and keeps sending bands of raiders to take captive things that are precious to us, we will not stop contending for what belongs to us. We will not stop until we recover all.\n\n_We're not coming at this thing like warriors; we're coming at it like worshippers._\n\nWhen David and his group went out to fight, the Bible says that two hundred of them were too tired to go (v. 10). It's all right if some are battle weary. They'll still get the victory. As the four hundred went on, they came upon an Egyptian slave who had been among the Amalekites. They fed him and let him rest under their protection. After he regained his strength, he led them to the camp of the enemy, and David and his men overtook them and got back everything and everyone who was stolen.\n\nTHE OPPOSITE EFFECT\n\nI want to share another part of this spiritual warfare concept we are discussing. Just as the enemy sends these attacks to stop the move of God and get us off track, God always has a way of turning these things around and using them for His glory. David's rebound at Ziklag will forever be the testimony of one who \"strengthened himself in the Lord,\" who changed his posture from warrior to worshipper, and who fearlessly obeyed the Lord, pursued the enemy, and recovered all. The testimony that rises to the surface despite the enemy's efforts is that God is undefeated; He always wins.\n\nThe enemy meant for the attack to kill you, but it's about to bring life. He meant for it to stop you, but it's about to bring revival. Things look one way, but that's not the way it's going to end. God is going to turn the situation around and use it for His glory. The attack of the enemy is having the opposite effect. Let me show you how I know this is true.\n\nIn Acts 28 we read about a time when the apostle Paul was on the island of Malta. He had been shipwrecked. The natives of the island were kind and had started a fire to keep their new guests warm. Wanting to keep the fire burning, Paul had collected some wood and put it on the fire. Because of the heat, a snake came out of the fire and bit Paul on the hand. The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and thought he was attacked because of something bad he had done\u2014\"A murderer, no doubt!\" (v. 4). But Paul just shook the snake off and kept going.\n\n_The devil thinks he can outlast this generation, but we are going to strike until we see revival happening everywhere!_\n\nThe people looked on, waiting for him to swell up and die. The longer they looked, the more they realized there was something different about Paul. They expected the injury to cause him to drop dead at any moment. Not only did he not die, but also there was no sign of the attack. After witnessing this, the people were in awe.\n\nThen Paul went in and prayed for the sick father of the chief of the island, and he was healed. And not only that; Paul prayed for everyone who was sick, and they also were healed. Because of the miraculous work of God, when it was time for Paul and his company to leave, the people showered them with honors and all the supplies they needed.\n\nI declare to you that the same thing that happened to Paul will happen to you. The attack of the enemy will have the opposite effect on your life. When the enemy strikes, some will be waiting for your demise, but they are about to be shocked. There are those who are waiting for you to quit, give up, throw in the towel, but they are going to be shocked. Yes, the enemy bit you, but you will not die. You will live and proclaim the works of the Lord (Ps. 118:17). You are still here! You have confused the enemy by the way you have come back from his attacks. He thought he could take you out, but you shook him off and threw him in the fire.\n\nYour resilience is about to change your family, city, and nation. Your resilience is about to start a wildfire. The people of the island ended up wanting what Paul had. Whatever kept him from going under when the enemy attacked him they wanted. Since it didn't kill him, they believed that if they had whatever he had, they also wouldn't die if attacked. And what happened next is what I declare is going to happen in the season of attack: the enemy's assault on your life is about to cause a revival in all those who know you. The enemy messed up when he showed his head and attacked you.\n\nHOW WORSHIPPERS WAGE WAR\n\nSo I'm saying this to you and to the spirits that have ruled in our homes and geographic regions for far too long: we will not give in to the attacks. We will pursue and recover all that we've prayed and labored for. We wage war, but not like the world wages war, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. We are taking up our positions as worshippers, as those who seek the presence of the Lord. And we will see these attacks thrown into the fire to fuel the revival we are crying out for. The enemy's attacks will not end with our disgrace, defeat, or death. They will end with the name of the Lord glorified forever.\n\nSo if people ask you what's happening in your life, church, or city, do not define yourself by any of the trials and tragedies you're facing or that are taking place around you. Tell them as we do at Deeper Fellowship that a revival is what's happening, and you will not stop until the whole world knows about it.\n\nRESPOND\n\nI want to challenge you to consider your posture as this move of God spreads around the world. Consider how you are approaching the attacks that come into your life. Are you taking up the posture of a warrior? Or are you taking the posture of a worshipper? Worshippers know where to be when the heat is turned up. Worshippers know that sounds get God's attention. Worshippers are the ones who say in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, \"Bring me the ephod!\"\n\nThe devil thinks he can outlast this generation, but we're not going to stop until we see revival happening everywhere. One of my favorite examples of what it will take for us to keep the fire burning and the enemy at bay is found in 2 Kings 13:18\u201319. An enemy was coming against the children of Israel again. From the prophet Elisha's house they could see the enemy charging toward them. The Bible says:\n\n> Then [Elisha] said, \"Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the ground.\" So the king [Jehoash] picked them up and struck the ground three times. But the man of God was angry with him. \"You should have struck the ground five or six times!\" he exclaimed. \"Then you would have beaten Aram until it was entirely destroyed. Now you will be victorious only three times.\"\n\nThe message here is strike until. Don't relent. Don't hesitate. Keep praying until you see the answer manifest. Keep testifying until salvation comes to your family. Keep worshipping until you see breakthrough. Don't stop until the enemy is destroyed. Strike until you have recovered all!\nCHAPTER 14\n\nLIVING STONES\n\nEach of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder\u2014twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. . . . He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the LORD'S hand is powerful, and so you might fear the LORD your God forever.\n\n\u2014JOSHUA 4:5\u20136, 24\n\nIT IS HARD to believe that I have lived to see the moment I prayed for\u2014we prayed for\u2014for years. Some have prayed for forty years. Others, forty days. And still others may have just joined in the last forty minutes. Yet we all will be recipients of the residual effects of God's answering all the prayers from all the hearts of people across the globe. What we are seeing happen in this moment in time is sovereignly orchestrated. It is something only God can do. He's brought all the prayers together and by His will is changing our destinies and making us part of something that will outlast all of us.\n\nWhen the Lord walks into a room to mark a people, as He did for us at Deeper, He does so to mark them in a way that allows them to hear from Him supernatural things that are too big for the human mind to receive without His presence. Since the moment He walked into Deeper, everything about how we do what we do has changed. Prior to that moment we were teaching in series and layering prophetic thoughts and prophesying about a future that was to come, not knowing that the future that was to come was right upon us. We were believing God and making declarations of things that seemed to be far into the future. We essentially assumed the things we were talking about probably wouldn't manifest to us in our building but would manifest through us in some distant way. But God said, \"No, I want to do it through you, and I want to do it now.\"\n\nThe amazing thing about trying to \"prepare\" for a moment like that is that encounters don't come at your choosing. By definition an encounter is an unexpected meeting. God chooses the encounter. All we can do is be in position for one. And ultimately we found ourselves continually in a position of crying out to God.\n\nI don't know about anyone else who has experienced something like this, but I didn't know when to expect it. Almost two decades ago I read a book called _The God Chasers_ by Tommy Tenney. When I finished it, I put the book down and said, \"God, for the rest of my life I won't rest until I have an encounter like this.\" Since then every time I have led worship anywhere around the world, I have led trying to position those of us in the room for an encounter. I looked at every single moment, every single service, wondering, \"Could this be the moment? Could this be the moment God walks in?\" After living every day of the last twenty or so years with that kind of anticipation, what the Lord did in one moment during our service on May 22, 2016\u2014that was sudden.\n\nA year later the Lord led us to hold a special service acknowledging how that moment changed us. We could not move on as if nothing happened. More than two hundred miracles have taken place since the moment the Lord walked into the room, and it wasn't because we call ourselves a healing ministry or were having healing crusades. The miracles aren't taking place because we are constantly saying, \"Bring the sick and the lame, and we'll pray for them and lay hands on them.\" Most of the miracles taking place happen because the Lord Himself does it, and even some of those happen for people who are not in the room. People of faith place on the altar the names of individuals who are not in the room but need a special touch from God, and they receive it wherever they are in the world.\n\nOne year into our revival experience with God we could not do anything but stop and thank Him. It was not about trying to recreate the moment He walked in the room. It was about our honoring what He did. In essence, we were saying, \"God, we're not going to let the day or the moment pass by and act as if You didn't show up and change us forever.\" We stopped to acknowledge that we were not the same anymore.\n\n_\"God, for the rest of my life, I won't rest until I have an encounter like this.\"_\n\nAny people who have had an encounter with the living God should mark it and acknowledge what God has done. As they did for the men and women of old, these times of acknowledgment serve as lasting memorials, living stones to honor the presence of God in our lives.\n\nMARKED FOR LIFE\n\nI have a little scar on my left eye. It wasn't until my children became fascinated by it that I remembered it was there. What I haven't forgotten is how I got it. When I was a young boy, I used to go to North Carolina every summer to spend time with my grandparents and my cousins. Wrestling was a big deal back then. It may be a big deal for people now, but this was the era of the classic \"yellow trunks\" Hulk Hogan, not the \"bad\" Hulk Hogan, which he turned into later. Wrestling was in its prime, and my cousins and I watched it all the time.\n\nOf course we would try to imitate the moves. There was one move called the \"monkey flip,\" which my older cousin thought would be the perfect one to try out on me. I don't know how it happened, but I was the guinea pig for everything. So he said, \"Hey, let's try the monkey flip!\" He flipped me, and when I landed, things got quiet for a second. Then I had this overwhelming sense of peace and calm and warmth. But it wasn't the Holy Spirit. I didn't feel any pain, but I remember looking up and seeing a panicked, horrified look on my cousin's face.\n\nSomeone said, \"Shh! Be quiet! Shh, shh! Be quiet!\"\n\nI was thinking, \"What's going on?\"\n\nMy cousin took his hand and wiped my face. Then he wiped his hand on the carpet, I saw his handprint in my blood, and I started screaming.\n\nMy grandmother called out from somewhere else in the house, \"What's going on?\"\n\nMy cousin was still saying, \"Shh! Shh! Be quiet! Be quiet!\"\n\nI screamed and hollered.\n\nMy grandmother came in and noticed the big gash on my head. There was some fuss and commotion before my aunt rushed me to the hospital. It's funny that my biggest fear in that whole situation wasn't the blood; it was getting stitches. I'm pain adverse, thanks to my mother, who has a unique gift for describing painful things in such a way that you feel the pain as she talks. So I was terrified on the way to the emergency room. When the doctor confirmed that I would need stitches, my aunt told me that I said, \"No! Let the Lord heal it!\" I believed in the power of God even at ten years old.\n\nSo, a few stitches and thirty-plus years later, I have a scar that I don't even think about until my daughter crawls up in my lap and asks, \"What's that?\" And I tell her the monkey-flip story for the nth time. The scar marks a moment from my past.\n\nWhenever we go through something traumatic, there's typically something that will remind us of it. It could be a scar or a sound or a smell, but it marks that experience forever. Whenever something amazing happens, there's typically something that causes us to remember, and again we are marked forever. Either by chance or intention, there are markers that lead us to remember past events. But there is absolutely nothing in the world that marks us like an encounter with God, and God wants us to remember those moments.\n\nBUILD A MEMORIAL\n\nIn Joshua 4 we happen upon a significant moment in the life of the children of Israel. Their story as a nation began with God prophetically revealing to Abraham the destiny of his seed. He said that they would be in bondage for four hundred years, and they were. (See Genesis 15.) They cried out to the Lord for deliverance, and God raised up Moses to lead them out of bondage in Egypt. (See Exodus 3.) At first, Pharaoh wouldn't set them free, as the Lord hardened his heart. (See Exodus 9:12.) But finally they were released into the wilderness with gold, silver, and everything they needed for going into the Promised Land. (See Exodus 14.)\n\n_You know God has done something significant when you remember exactly when it happened._\n\nThe only thing they lacked was enough faith to get there. So they grumbled and complained, making their time in the wilderness much longer and more arduous than God had intended. Because of this, an entire generation died in the wilderness under Moses's leadership. (See Numbers 14.) Moses also transgressed against God and was not allowed to go into the Promised Land. (See Numbers 20:12.)\n\nIn Moses's place God raised up Joshua and commissioned him to take the next generation into the Promised Land. (See Joshua 1.) Joshua 4 chronicles the moment when this new generation, who had survived the wilderness, crossed the Red Sea and the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land. But before they took possession of the promise, God had them stop and remember \"the tenth day of the first month\" (v. 19), the day the people of Israel \"crossed the Jordan on dry ground\" (v. 22).\n\nThis was a significant moment\u2014a pivotal, life-altering encounter remembered with specificity. You know God has done something significant when you remember exactly when it happened. This is why we continue to remember that significant, pivotal, life-altering encounter that took place May 22, 2016. The date is not significant for everyone. Everyone was not in church on that day. Some of the people who've joined us since then missed that moment. But it was important enough to us to mark it.\n\nGod has a specific purpose for each memory. God instructed the people of Israel to make a memorial so future generations would also know what God did. In Joshua 4 two reasons rise to the surface for why God also wants us to build memorials for the things He has done: 1) for our children and future generations to know His goodness (Josh. 4:6\u20137, 21\u201322); 2) and so all the nations of the earth might know how powerful He is (Josh. 4:24).\n\nA MEMORY IS NOT ONLY FOR YOU; IT'S FOR THE FUTURE\n\nThe only way an encounter will outlive you is for you to mark it. Otherwise it will die with you. You don't want encounters to die with you. This is why God instructs us to make a memorial. Not only is what we experience with God for us right now, but it is also for our children.\n\nGod says to us in Deuteronomy 4:9:\n\n> But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren.\n\nThis is a command of the Lord. If you're a parent and you're not rehearsing the goodness of God with your children, you're doing them a disservice, and you're disobeying the Word of the Lord. When God does something for you, tell them, even if you consider it to be small. If you didn't know how you were going to make it till the end of the month and the Lord provided, tell them. You keep waiting for big things such as, \"My leg got chopped off, it grew back, and God did it.\" No, no, no. If you had more month than money and God made the money come together, tell your children what the Lord has done.\n\n> Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.\n> \n> \u2014DEUTERONOMY 6:4\u20139\n\nDon't stay silent about the goodness of the Lord to your children. That is a command of the Lord.\n\nDuring the Habitation Conference we host every September, we always experience a nearindescribable encounter with God. People come from around the world to be immersed in an encounter with God for days. In 2017 when we opened registration, the conference sold out in less than ten hours. People who are hungry for a move of God literally converge in Orlando from around the globe.\n\nDuring the gathering in 2017 the Holy Spirit led me to share several of the things that had been taking place in our midst because one of the things I understand about a testimony is that it creates faith for the future! The telling of a testimony creates room for God to do it again.\n\nAfter I shared testimonies of healing during one of the morning sessions, faith for healing was strong in the atmosphere, and we began to pray. We are still receiving testimonies about what God did that day. We've received testimonies of breast cancer healed, a deaf ear opened, and lupus healed, and we saw two people walk without their walkers. My good friend Jordan also was healed of a rotator cuff injury.\n\nHe had learned to deal with the pain over time, but he knew the injury would one day need to be surgically addressed. Jordan wasn't one of the people who came down to receive prayer. In fact, he didn't even know the Lord had healed him until he woke up in the middle of the night almost in a panic when he realized that he was sleeping on the side of his body with the injured rotator cuff. Normally if he slept on that side, he'd end up in excruciating pain.\n\nWhen he realized what he'd done, he expected to experience a surge of pain, but it never came. The pain was completely gone. His range of motion was completely restored. He came up to testify about that, and while he was doing so, our music director for the conference got my attention and told me that in that moment he was healed of the same issue. Both of them demonstrated their healing by moving their arms in ways that they previously could not have without extreme pain. Both of these men were healed in the river of God without anyone laying hands on them. Jesus did it Himself. It's happening!\n\nA MEMORIAL PROVOKES A QUESTION\n\nThroughout the Old Testament God instructed His people to build memorials. He wanted the memorials to provoke questions so the story of God's miraculous interventions would be told over and over. That's why multiple times in the Scripture, and particularly in Joshua 4, it says, \"Your children will ask you.\" In the future when your children ask you, \"What's this for?\" they will have an opportunity to discover the great things God has done. When you forget what God has done and don't build a memorial, there will be no inquiry and no opportunity for faith to be built in that area.\n\nWhen there's no memory of past victories, small things look big. If the Red Sea wasn't a part of the history of the children of Israel, the Jordan River would have looked insurmountable. When you forget what God has done, it causes you to question and doubt what He can do.\n\nA MEMORIAL CREATES FAITH FOR THE FUTURE\n\nA memorial is a witness of faith for future generations. It is a testimony to all future generations declaring what God has done while simultaneously declaring what He can and will do. This is why God says, \"Talk to your children.\" There may come a day when you aren't there, and they need to find the faith and confidence to know that if God did this before, He can do it again. \"If God did it for my mother and father, then He'll do it for me. I don't have to worry.\" If your testimony of faith is great, then they don't start where you started. Their faith launches from where yours stopped. Your faith ceiling is their floor.\n\n_When you forget what God has done and Don't build a memorial, there will be no opportunity for faith to be built._\n\nThe whole Bible is a memorial that testifies of the goodness and greatness of God. Every time we read it, it builds faith. Likewise your testimony says, \"Don't expect less,\" and, \"Don't settle for less.\"\n\nEach stone that goes into building a memorial is a testimony. God told Joshua to have one man from each tribe grab a stone, signifying that no one was to be left out. No one is supposed to be left out of the move of God. You can't say it's a move of God if it leaves people out. You can't call it revival if it's exclusive. If one person from each tribe was to bring one stone, that means everyone would have been involved in building the memorial, and that is the way it was to be from generation to generation.\n\nA STONE IS A WITNESS\n\nMay 22, 2016, changed everything in our church. This is the day the prophetic words that had been spoken over our congregation manifested before our eyes. We won't forget, and we can't forget. It is a stone for us.\n\nThe New Living Translation renders Joshua 4:6 this way: \"We will use these stones to build a memorial.\" The New King James Version reads, \"This may be a sign among you.\" The translations come together to help us understand that the Israelites were building a place to remember a miracle, or they were building a place that would bear witness to the miracle that happened there. Joshua obeyed the Lord, who told them that the stones would mark that place where God performed such a mighty act of deliverance. So in essence, a memorial stone is a sign, and a sign is a witness; that means a stone is a sign, and a stone is a witness. Israel was to give a strong witness to the power of God.\n\nJoshua 3:14\u201316 tells us about the miracle they were memorializing. The Bible says,\n\n> So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river's edge, the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.\n\nThe Jordan dried up before the ark of the Lord. This is the place where God did the impossible for them, and the stones they were instructed to set as a memorial spoke to this miracle and the God of the miracle. What's even more amazing is that they were told to not get just any stones. They were to get the stones \"from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan\" (Josh. 4:3), from the \"middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the LORD your God\" (v. 5). This was to be the empirical evidence that this miracle actually happened.\n\n_It's not a move of God if it leaves people out. You can't call it revival if it's exclusive._\n\nThis also means there are certain miracles you can only receive when you are near the presence of God. If you remember from chapter 10, the ark of the Lord represents the presence of God. There's a certain testimony that you can only get in the presence of God, in the river of God. They were standing there in the river when God moved. And guess what? Every river has stones! The only way to get stones is to be where God is moving.\n\nYOU ARE A STONE\n\nThere are two key verses that help us see that stones are not some mysterious objects in the spirit realm that we are to somehow grab and place in an intangible location. Instead, we see that we are the stones that testify of what God has done. Stones are not ancient relics or things we can't access every day around the world at any time, perhaps like the real historical sites in Israel where the miraculous happenings we've discussed so far occurred. No. There are real and living memorials that we build every day with our own lives. We are the ones who have been in the river of God, near the presence of God, and who can be the real, empirical evidence of His powerful hand.\n\nHere's what Jesus said in Acts 1:8:\n\n> You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere.\n\nThen in 1 Peter 2:4\u20139, specifically in verse 9, we get a deeper understanding of our purpose as living stones. The passage says:\n\n> You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.\n> \n> And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say, \"I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.\"\n> \n> Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him, \"The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.\" And, \"He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.\"\n> \n> They stumble because they do not obey God's word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.\n> \n> But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.\n> \n> \u20141 PETER 2:4\u20139\n\nThis is the purpose of stones: \"you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.\" In other words, living stones have a job description.\n\nYOUR JOB DESCRIPTION\n\nI love the way _The Message_ translates 1 Peter 2:9\u201310. It says,\n\n> But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you\u2014from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.\n\nDo you wonder why we keep talking about our encounters? It's because we have a job description. We are living stones, and our job is \"to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night- and-day difference he made\" for us. Did He take you from nothing to something and from rejected to accepted? Do you have a testimony?\n\n_Your stones of praise are markers for the power of God working in your life._\n\nRemembering what God has done for us and constantly rehearsing His goodness in our lives becomes the fuel for our worship and passion for Him. When your children see you praise, lift your hands, bow down, shout, sing, and cry, that's a stone. When your worship gets people's attention, they are watching you say, \"Let me tell you a story. This is how God found me, but now this is where I am. I was the least of these, the least qualified, the least likely to be called. But God saw something in me, and He came and rescued me.\"\n\nPeople watching you will see how quickly you are moved to worship. They will see that it doesn't take much for you to get in His presence. And they will see that it is because of the goodness of Jesus and all that He's done for you.\n\nYour stones of worship are a memorial set before your children, neighbors, and coworkers that will tell them of the times when God healed, delivered, and set you free. Your stones of praise are markers of the power of God working in your life. You are a living stone!\n\nLET THE ROCKS CRY OUT\n\nThere's a reason we praise, remember, and testify. Luke 19:36\u201340 gives us a clue:\n\n> As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.\n> \n> \"Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!\"\n> \n> But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, \"Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!\"\n> \n> He replied, \"If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!\"\n\nWhat Jesus meant here is that if His followers were to keep quiet, there would one day be a group of people on the earth who would not remain silent because their testimonies would speak. Even if they kept quiet in His day, their silence wouldn't squelch the movement. There would be people who would know that He's been so good that the stone of their testimonies would cry out. Jesus wasn't talking about rocks on the ground. He was talking about people who know who He is. He was talking about us. We are the living stones. We are the memorials of God. We are the ones who carry the evidence of God's power.\n\n_Cornelius asked for a river; God responded with the ocean._\n\nOur stones are very important because they build memorials in two places. Not only are they present with you here on earth, but they are also building memorials for you in heaven. In Acts 10 an angel of the Lord visited with Cornelius, a captain in the Italian army who was also a follower of Christ. The angel told him, \"Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.\" The stone on earth is a memorial. Your prayers and your giving are offered to your church, in your home, or in some everyday showing of generosity, but God is keeping record of them in heaven, and they become memorials to Him. Your stones live in two places.\n\nBut here's the amazing thing: the Bible never says what Cornelius prayed for. This is going to blow your mind. If Ephesians 3:20 is true, \"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think\" (KJV), then this is what God did for Cornelius. Cornelius asked for a river; God responded with the ocean.\n\nThe Bible doesn't say that Cornelius asked for the salvation of every non-Jew for the rest of the history of the earth, but that's what he got. If you read the rest of the account in Acts 10, you will see that Cornelius's faithfulness caused him to be the door through which the Gentiles were able to hear the gospel and receive the Holy Spirit.\n\nAll this is to say that you have no idea how powerful your stones of worship, prayer, and giving actually can be. You have no idea what the memorial to God actually can mean. Do you want to know why I believe the Lord decided to show up on May 22, 2016, at Deeper Fellowship Church in Orlando, Florida? Because there is a bunch of people here who have memorials in heaven.\n\nRESPOND\n\nYour worship is building a memorial. My worship is building a memorial. Your testimony is building a memorial for your children and future generations. My testimony is doing the same, and even more personally, it is building a memorial for my son. Every time he asks me, \"Daddy, why do you have to go on the airplane?\" I don't say, \"Because I have to go to work.\" I tell him I am getting on that plane because I am going to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to other nations.\n\nThe next generation is watching us build stones in memorial to the things the Lord is doing in this season. Our intentional and deliberate marking of the goodness, presence, and power of the Lord working in our lives will fuel their passion from here to eternity. We are getting them in position for a perpetual outpouring of the Spirit of God. Our spiritual ceiling is their floor. The higher we go, the higher the platform from which they launch the next move of God.\n\nI want to invite you to take a moment right now and recall the things the Lord has done in your life. I invite you to begin picking up another stone to add to the memorial you are building. This is one thing that God commanded that we aren't deliberate enough about. If it means that you get out your prayer journal and start to write things down, do it. Then next time the Lord gives you an opportunity to talk with your children, neighbors, friends, or coworkers, let them in on what God has done. Build your memorial one testimony at a time.\n\nYou may not have been with us on May 22, 2016, but what you're doing now is creating a new day on the calendar for when God moved in the earth. It's creating another portal and invasion of the presence of God to connect with us on earth. You're building the memorial right now for another outpouring, revelation, and visitation\u2014another encounter with the living God.\nCHAPTER 15\n\nYOU WERE BORN FOR THIS\n\nBy the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.\n\n\u2014PSALM 137:1, NIV\n\nBEFORE YOU WERE a thought in the minds of men, you existed in the mind of God. Before you were a twinkle in your parents' eyes, you were the apple of God's. He conceived His thoughts of you as He formed the foundations of the earth. You have been on God's mind from the beginning of time. Therefore you are not a mistake. You are not here by mistake. Your arrival here in this moment was and is intentional. If anyone has told you different, know that person can't know about you what your Creator knows. You are here by His design.\n\nBecause God knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb, it was His intentional will to send you into the earth at this specific time. Again, if you thought you were a mistake, if you were ever told you were a mistake, I need you to hear the word of the Lord: God intended for you to be here, no matter what the circumstances were that surrounded your arrival. The Lord placed you here on purpose because you have an assignment. You were born for this moment. Say it aloud right now: \"I was born for this moment.\"\n\nIf this were not true, you could have been born at any random time, but you weren't. God intentionally set you on His time line in this generation, for this time, and for a purpose. There is something special about the verse that opens this chapter. I want you to see what it tells us about God's set time and the people He appoints to live in that time.\n\nTHE SETUP\n\nAt the time God called Jeremiah, Israel was being ruled by evil kings and false prophets. It was hard to tell the truth from a lie, the word of the Lord from the word of man. Because of this the people were confused and had been led astray. But God saw some glimpses of righteousness among His people, and He set a plan in motion to help restore them back to a people who followed hard after Him.\n\n_Declare: \"I was born for this moment.\"_\n\nLooking for someone to be His mouthpiece and communicate His instructions, will, and thoughts to the people, He called a very young Jeremiah into His presence and appointed him to be His prophet to the nations. (See Jeremiah 1:4\u201310.) God forewarned Jeremiah that not everyone would like what God would say through him, but He would be with him and He would protect him. Then the Lord touched Jeremiah's mouth, gave him the words to speak, told him the plan to revive His people, and sent him out.\n\nThe first part of God's plan was to send the people into exile for seventy years. As a result, Jerusalem was destroyed. We need to understand that this was a consequence of Israel's turning their back on God, worshipping idols, and breaking their covenant with God. God does not wink at sin, particularly when His people dishonor him and allow sin to be perpetuated from generation to generation. So this was the word of the Lord spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:\n\n> \"I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,\" declares the LORD, \"and will make it desolate forever.\"\n> \n> \u2014JEREMIAH 25:10\u201312, NIV\n\nAlthough God was going to send them into seventy years of exile, He also promised to send revival and restoration. He was letting them know that yes, they would have to deal with their sins, but afterward something big was coming.\n\nWhen everything began to happen according to God's will, false prophets came forward and told the people that everything was going to be OK, that God was not angry, and that all He wanted was for them to be happy. They said it would not be seventy years of exile but only two and that God would bless them. Hananiah was one of the leading false prophets, and those who wanted a comfortable, feel-good message sided with him. Those who wanted to obey the word of the Lord submitted to what God was saying.\n\nThat's why you have to be careful not to so easily receive the words that make you feel good. In this instance Hananiah, the other false prophets, and the people who listened to the word that made them feel good were destroyed. (See Jeremiah 28.) God does some things that you may not understand or like, but He does them to protect you.\n\nA NEW GENERATION ARISES\n\nIn Jeremiah 29 we read a letter Jeremiah sent to those in exile telling them how to maintain until the time for their deliverance comes:\n\n> Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.\n> \n> \u2014JEREMIAH 29:5\u20137, NIV\n\nGod was letting them know that seventy years is a long time\u2014\"Settle in, get comfortable, and raise your families as you would if you were at home.\" He also instructed them to pray for the city they were held captive in, and this is a lesson to us as well: pray for the place that God sends you\u2014the job, the church, the city, the assignment. Don't curse them, because if you do, their curse is your curse. The other, more significant thing here is that because of the command to grow their families and increase in number, there would be a people, a generation, born in exile. A people born in between seasons. A people too young to experience what was, but not old enough to have become cynical about what was yet to be. The only thing the born-exiles would have was a word from the Lord about a day of restoration, a day of revival. They were not born in Jerusalem, which means they did not have a memory to think back on. All they had was the word of the Lord for their future.\n\nBORN FOR REVIVAL\n\nNever having seen the glory of Jerusalem, this new generation of Israelites was looking forward to something they had never seen. Having been born in captivity, born in exile, they were also born for revival. God knew when He was placing these people into this time line that some would have been born in Jerusalem and moved into exile and others would have been born in Babylon and had only the word of the Lord to hold on to.\n\nSometimes you find yourself in a certain season, and you don't understand why you're there. The Israelites who were born in exile weren't the ones who lived when Israel's evil king Manasseh led the nation into idolatry. They hadn't served idols. They weren't the ones who aroused God's anger. They weren't the ones who listened to the false prophets. They weren't born in Jerusalem. They had no memory of the beauty of the holy city. Yet Psalm 137 is their cry: \"By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion\" (v. 1, ESV).\n\nCan you hear their heart? \"I wasn't around for what it was, so I have no frame of reference, but something in me says this isn't all there is. Something in my spirit longs for a home, for a reality in the spirit that my natural eyes have yet to see, and whenever I think about it, I weep.\" Does this sound familiar?\n\nWE TOO WEEP FOR ZION\n\nIf you think about it, it probably looks weird to others when they see our generation crying. It probably looks weird to others when they see us longing for something we've never seen but have only read about. We too are a generation born in between. Our eternal Father placed something in us that causes us to cry out. He put us here for this moment for a specific reason and a specific purpose because He knows that we will seek Him until we find Him. He knew we would be the generation that would cry out for something we had never seen. Why? Because there's something on the inside of us that will not be satisfied with where we are.\n\nYou may not have been in the room with us when God walked into Deeper that day, but you're still crying out with us because God wove the longing for more of Him into your DNA. He put you here in this generation because He knew you would be part of a people who would not get lazy, a people who would cry out for revival day and night, even though they've never seen it.\n\nIt's not our fault that we're here, but it is our problem. He knew that we would know Him as the problem solver, so we cry out to Him day and night. We weep whenever we think about revival and whenever we think about restoration. This is what Zion represents in Psalm 137. It says, \"We sat down and we wept when we remembered Zion.\" Why did they weep? They wept because they were holding on to the word of the Lord that was given to them by the prophet Jeremiah: \"When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place\" (Jer. 29:10, NIV). God was saying, \"I will bring you home again. I will restore you.\" That moment of weeping signified their determination to hold on to the word of the Lord despite the current season they were in. Things looked crazy, and in the midst of the craziness they wept because they remembered that God had promised their generation would see revival.\n\nREFUSE TO ACCEPT YOUR PRESENT CONDITIONS AS NORMAL\n\nThe key to revival is to not accept your present conditions as normal. The Israelites' present conditions were not OK. They sat by the river and wept because they realized there was something more than what they were living.\n\nHave you ever attended one good church service after another and things were going pretty good, but something on the inside of you said, \"Yeah, there's more than this\"? God wants to do something through a people that affects the world. He wants it to expand out from just what's happening in a small warehouse on a corner in central Orlando. There must be a people who will be part of spreading the move of God throughout the nations of the earth. And until I see that, I can't be satisfied.\n\n> There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, \"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!\" How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?\n> \n> \u2014PSALM 137:2\u20134, NIV\n\nThe tormentors are those who were keeping them in Babylon. They were basically saying, \"Act as if everything is normal. Go back to doing normal things. Sings songs as if you're back in Zion.\" Their captors, their tormentors want them to forget revival and live in the moment, to forget that they had a promise from God. What did these exile-born Israelites even know about what Zion was like? They were born in between seasons. Their tormentors sound like some of ours: \"You're doing too much. You're crying too much. You're praying too much. You're shouting too much. Just act as if everything's fine. What are you talking about, 'revival is coming'? Don't you know it's already here?\"\n\nBut those born in exile were saying, \"No, no, no. What we are holding on to has yet to come, but we long for it. We can't act as if everything is normal. Something on the inside says, 'It's bigger than this.'\"\n\nGod has blessed Deeper Fellowship to see more than two hundred miracles, but we're not going to be satisfied with only that when we know there's more. What God wants to do is bigger than that. We're not going to be satisfied with a few songs of worship. It's bigger than that. God wants to impact the world. Don't tell this generation to be quiet. We weep and cry out because there's more! We refuse to accept our current conditions as normal.\n\nThe exile-born Israelites understood that they may not have been born in Jerusalem, but they had a promise from God about restoration and revival, so they wouldn't accept anything else as normal. In the same way, we must also resist the temptation to rush back to false normalcy. We must resist the temptation to try to act as if everything is normal when the Holy Spirit is the One who is stirring us up and making us uncomfortable. He's doing it on purpose. He's doing that so we will not try to get back to normal. He doesn't want us to get back to normal. He wants to redefine what normal is. The new normal is revival.\n\nCOMPLACENCY IS NOT NORMAL\n\nOftentimes we hate being uncomfortable so badly that we'll do almost anything to find comfort, including acting as if the things that hurt us don't hurt. There are moments in time when we need to allow discomfort to realign our posture. It is not normal to be complacent. It is not normal to not desire to be in God's presence. It is not normal to live as if we don't need Him. It is not normal to live in a society that turns its back on God. It's not normal to live in a society where the church is marginalized. It's not normal to live in a society where the prophetic voice is silenced and even mocked. It's not normal to live in a society where sin is celebrated and the upright are being vilified. It's not normal to live in a society where genuine love and truth are called hate. It is not normal to live in a society where the Word of God is disrespected. These things are not normal, and we need to resist allowing them to be normalized.\n\n_Allow discomfort to realign our posture._\n\nWhen we see the things happening in the world, it ought to inform our cry for revival and remind us of our need for it. When you see police officers gunned down in city streets, it ought to inform our posture for revival. When we see hate groups marching around in the country, trying to make their voices heard, it ought to tell us that we need revival. When we see people who don't even know the Lord but think their marching with signs is going to change what's ailing, it ought to tell us that we need revival. We would rather pretend that everything is OK when it's not OK for the sake of normalcy, rather than face where we really are.\n\nREVIVAL IS IN YOUR DNA\n\nPsalm 137 continues with:\n\n> If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.\n> \n> \u2014PSALM 137:5\u20136, NIV\n\n\"If I forget you\" is an interesting phrase because of the two types of people who were in exile. There were those who came from Jerusalem, and there were those who had never been. So how can the ones who had never been in Jerusalem remember it? Could it be that where they were was never where they were designed to be? God is implying something significant here. Those who have experienced God\u2014the seasoned saints\u2014were to pass on the experience to those who had not known Jerusalem. They were to do it in a way that would cause them to long for it. This is why it's important that the mature grow up with the immature.\n\nThis is why it is important that God puts a church family together, because those who have had an encounter with God are supposed to talk about it so other people who have not had an encounter will long for it. This is what the last chapter focused on\u2014the importance of our testimony, living stones, and setting up memorials. The mature are to mark their own encounters so they can use them as reminders for the next generation. So the next generation will say: \"I won't forget the future place in God that I've never been to, because I know that I was not designed to stay here.\"\n\nThe world and the enemy try to get us to forget that there is a place in God designed for us. But God placed us here at this time because He knit revival in our DNA. We cannot forget that we were born for this time.\n\nThere's a story I heard once about a person whose adopted child stood in his crib one day, crying for his mommy. The adoptive mom came running in the room and said, \"I'm here, baby.\" And the child said, \"Not you. My real mommy.\" The woman was completely shocked. The child had no reference that the woman wasn't his real mother. Yet woven in the child's DNA was the unconscious knowing that even though he was growing up there, he was not being raised by his birth family.\n\nThe cry is, \"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let me not forget revival. I understand that I might have been born in a season in between. I understand that I might have been born at a time when I may not have experienced revival before, but there's something on the inside of me that longs for it.\"\n\nWe could be going about our day, our year. We could be going about our church existence, lifting our hands and bowing down. We could be going around saying all the right church stuff: \"Hi, how are you doing?\" \"God bless you.\" \"Thank You, Jesus.\" \"I'm blessed and highly favored.\" We could be singing the songs, looking at the words on the screen, hearing some good preaching. Then one day God walks into the room and says: \"Don't forget that you are not supposed to be living an existence in which you just think that going to church and coming home is the totality of what I want to do in your life. I have something greater. I understand that you might have been born in a season when you haven't experienced a demonstration of My power. But there's something that I have woven into your DNA. There's something that I planted on the inside of you that will one day, out of the blue, cause you to lift your voice and say, 'Jesus! I know there's more than this. And I don't want to forget why You sent me here on this earth at this time.'\"\n\nHE'S INTENTIONAL\n\nGod puts a people in a certain time to accomplish a certain thing. It's His intention for those particular people to see what those who came before them may not have gotten a chance to see. Entire generations participate in moving the plan of God forward. God doesn't just think in days or years; He also thinks in generations. He's that amazing. That God put us where He put us, which is two thousand years after the death and burial of Jesus, means that we are not at the beginning of a process. We are two thousand years closer to the return of Christ than they were in the book of Acts, which means God intentionally placed us in this time.\n\nHe could've placed us under the old covenant. He could have placed us in the time when they observed the Law of Moses and had to make all the bloody sacrifices, but He placed us in a day of grace. And because of the time He has placed us in, our urgency should increase.\n\n_God doesn't just think in days and years; He also thinks in generations._\n\nWe are living in a time two thousand years after the first- and second-century church, and they lived with great expectancy. That should make us ask ourselves why we are not feeling that something is drawing closer than ever before. The level of urgency for the early church got so serious that Paul had to write and say, \"Listen, don't quit your jobs.\" (See 2 Thessalonians 3:6\u201315.) People were literally being idle. They dropped everything, believing the coming of Christ was upon them. They were thinking, \"I don't need to work because Jesus is coming at any point, and because He's coming, I don't even need a job. I don't need to pay my bills.\" Paul told them to continue to work. They lived with such an urgency. It's amazing that the further we get away from that time, the less urgent we've become.\n\nBut that's the opposite of the reaction we should have because we are thousands of years closer than they were. Our urgency should be increasing, not decreasing. If our urgency is not increasing, that means that we are out of alignment with God's will, Word, and plan. As a matter of fact, Peter had this to say:\n\n> Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, \"What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.\"\n> \n> They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.\n> \n> But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.\n> \n> \u20142 PETER 3:3\u20139\n\nThe reason Jesus has not yet come is because our God is so merciful that He is being patient. He is looking at the state of the world and knows that if He comes now, a whole lot of people are going to be in judgment. He does not want any to perish, so He is giving them more time. Jesus has not yet returned because of the mercy of God. He's not being slow concerning His promise.\n\nStill, we should live with urgency because the Scripture goes on to say that we should be prepared because the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night (2 Pet. 3:10). No one will expect it. But we wait with great expectation.\n\nWe were placed in this time because God knew we would wait. He knew we would be the ones to remember His promise to bring revival. We remember that He said, \"But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again\" (Jer. 29:10).\n\nABBA!\n\n> For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, \"Abba, Father.\"\n> \n> \u2014ROMANS 8:14\u201315\n> \n> And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, \"Abba, Father.\"\n> \n> \u2014GALATIANS 4:6\n\nJust like the baby who cried out for his mother when he did not know he had another mother, it is the same with God, who prompts us to cry out, \"Abba, Father,\" and who prompts us to cry out for revival. In Psalm 137 that next generation of Israelites said, \"By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion\" (NIV). A generation who had never seen Jerusalem was being prompted by the Spirit of God to cry out for revival. This is the challenge of intercession for us.\n\nWhile we are here in this world, there's something about normalcy that gets to us after a while. A group of people is being boxed in by normal church, normal living, and normal things. We're being told we're doing too much, we're too loud, we're preaching too long, we're shouting too long, we're singing too long, our service is too long, we're praying too much. And we're questioned about the hope we have: \"You still have faith for that? It hasn't happened.\" \"Why are you still doing that?\" \"Why are you still giving? Just be normal. Just be like everybody else.\" When these things happen, there's something on the inside of us that says, \"You are not my Father.\" There's something on the inside of us that says, \"Give me my real Dad. I want my Father.\"\n\nWhy are you frustrated? Because the Spirit of God is prompting you to cry out for revival. Why can't you get comfortable at night? Because the Spirit of God is prompting you to cry out for revival. Why are you sensing that there's something more? Because the Spirit of God is prompting you to cry out. That's why we weep when we remember Zion.\n\nRESPOND\n\nYou need to know you're not uncomfortable just to be uncomfortable. God has intentionally made you that way. It's His doing. He wants you to be dissatisfied with where you are. He wants you to want more. If you're wondering where the pin in your seat came from that causes you to jump up when you want to sit down and get comfortable, it came from God.\n\nGod is the One who has orchestrated the events in the world to drive the church to its knees. It is because of His prompting that His children are crying out for more.\n\nWe may not be the generation that was born living in the presence of God, but we hold on to the promise that He will come and bring revival. We have been put here for a reason. We were born for this moment. We may not have seen the manifestation of His presence, but we want it. And we won't stop until we see it.\n\nHow about you?\nNOTES\n\nCHAPTER 3\u2014HE HEARS YOUR CRY\n\n. Merriam-Webster.com, s.v. \"groan,\" accessed January 22, 2018, <https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/thesaurus\/groaning>.\n\nCHAPTER 4\u2014FOLLOW THE PATHWAY\n\n. \"About John G. Lake,\" John G. Lake Ministries, accessed January 22, 2018, <http:\/\/www.jglm.org\/john-g-lake\/>; see also Roberts Liardon, \"John G. Lake,\" God's Generals, accessed January 22, 2018, <http:\/\/godsgenerals.com\/jlake\/>.\n\n. Chad Brand, ed., et al, _Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary_ (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2015), as quoted in Edward D. Andrews, _Evidence That You Are Truly Christian_ (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2015), 272.\n\nCHAPTER 6\u2014NO SUBMISSION, NO POWER\n\n. Blue Letter Bible, s.v. \" _arrabon_ ,\" accessed January 24, 2018, https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/lexicon\/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G728&t=KJV.\n\n. \"Bible Verses About Holy Spirit as Engagement Ring,\" BibleTools .org, accessed January 24, 2018, <https:\/\/www.bibletools.org\/index.cfm\/fuseaction\/Topical.show\/RTD\/cgg\/ID\/5951\/Holy-Spirit-as-Engagement-Ring.htm>.\n\nCHAPTER 8\u2014STAY AND WAIT\n\n. Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, _Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible_ , \"Acts 1,\" accessed January 24, 2018, <http:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/commentaries\/jamieson-fausset-brown\/acts\/acts-1.html>.\n\n. Blue Letter Bible, s.v. \" _homothymadon_ ,\" accessed January 24, 2018, https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/Lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3661&t=KJV.\n\n. \"Children's Question Room,\" Toyota, accessed January 24, 2018, <http:\/\/www.toyota.co.jp\/en\/kids\/faq\/b\/01\/06\/>.\n\n. Rolls-Royce Raleigh, \"How Long Does It Take to Build a Rolls-Royce?\" Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Raleigh, December 12, 2014, <http:\/\/blog.rolls-roycemotorcarsraleigh.com\/long-take-build-rolls-royce\/>.\n\n. The account of Edward Miller is documented in Lila Terhune, _Cross Pollination_ (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 1998), 4\u201310; see also R. Edward Miller, _The Secrets of the Argentine Revival_ , viewed at Measure of Gold Revival Ministries, accessed January 24, 2018, <http:\/\/www.evanwiggs.com\/revival\/history\/The%20Beginning%20of%20the%20Great%20Argentine%20Revival.htm>.\n\nCHAPTER 9\u2014CONTEND FOR THE FLAMES OF REVIVAL\n\n. Abigail Hess, \"Here's Why Lottery Winners Go Broke,\" CNBC, August 25, 2017, <https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2017\/08\/25\/heres-why-lottery-winners-go-broke.html>.\n\n. _30 for 30: Broke_ , ESPN.com, accessed January 24, 2018, <http:\/\/www.espn.com\/30for30\/film?page=broke>.\n\n. David Margolick, \"Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan: The Story Behind the Photograph That Shamed America,\" _The Telegraph,_ October 9, 2011, <http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/northamerica\/8813134\/Elizabeth-Eckford-and-Hazel-Bryan-the-story-behind-the-photograph-that-shamed-America.html>.\n\n. Michele Norris, \"The Woolworth Sit-In That Launched a Movement,\" NPR.org, February 1, 2008, <http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=18615556>.\n\nCHAPTER 10\u2014A WORTHY HOST\n\n. _Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers_ , \"1 Samuel 6:19,\" accessed January 24, 2018, <http:\/\/biblehub.com\/commentaries\/1_samuel\/6-19.htm>.\n\n. Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, _Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible_ , s.v. \"2 Samuel 6,\" accessed January 24, 2018, <http:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/commentaries\/jamieson-fausset-brown\/2-samuel\/2-samuel-6.html>.\n\nCHAPTER 13\u2014IT HAPPENED BECAUSE IT'S HAPPENING\n\n. Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, \"Orlando Grieves With Las Vegas,\" _Orlando Sentinel_ , October 2, 2017, <http:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/opinion\/os-ed-las-vegas-massacre-pulse-shooting-20171002-story.html>.\n\n. \"The Most Visited Cities in the US,\" WorldAtlas.com, January 24, 2018, <http:\/\/www.worldatlas.com\/articles\/the-most-visited-cities-in-the-us.html>.\n\n. Sandra Pedicini, \"Visit Orlando: Record 68 Million People Visited Last Year,\" _Orlando Sentinel_ , May 11, 2017, <http:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/business\/tourism\/os-visit-orlando-tourist-numbers-20170511-story.html> ; Jeff Kunerth, \"Getting Bigger: Metro Orlando Grows to 2.3 Million,\" _Orlando Sentinel,_ March 26, 2015, <http:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/news\/breaking-news\/os-census-population-central-florida-20150326-story.html>.\nENDORSEMENTS\n\nIn a time when a lot of the information being promoted is contrary to the Word of God, this generation needs something more than just traditional church services. This generation needs to see a demonstration of God's power, and this has been found at Deeper Fellowship Church in Orlando, Florida, under the guidance of Pastor William McDowell. Miracles, signs, and wonders are happening literally week in and week out. These events are providing hope and truth to eliminate any doubt that the God we've heard about is real. The Bible says these signs shall follow those who believe (Mark 16:17), so our faith is rising to the occasion because of what's being demonstrated at Deeper Fellowship Church. I'm really excited about the release of this book, which shares miracles you wouldn't believe unless you read about them or saw them with your own eyes.\n\n\u2014TRAVIS GREENE\n\nMULTIPLE GRAMMY AWARD\u2013NOMINATED WORSHIP LEADER\n\nLEAD PASTOR, FORWARD CITY CHURCH\n\nGod is using William McDowell and Deeper Fellowship Church to be a prophetic signpost in this generation. In the tension between seeking God's presence and seeking to be cool, they're favoring His presence. And God is honoring that with miracles. May you be infected with the spirit of faith that permeates this book.\n\n\u2014BOB SORGE\n\nAUTHOR, _S ECRETS OF THE SECRET PLACE_\n\nFrom the moment I met William McDowell, humility and faithfulness oozed out of him. The same can be said when you begin to experience this book. It's truly an encouragement toward greater faith and a challenge to not miss what God has happening in your life!\n\n\u2014JOSH MCCOWN\n\nQUARTERBACK, NEW YORK JETS\n\nI've been able to see the handicapped walk, the sick healed, and frowns turned to smiles. The atmosphere at Deeper Fellowship is hard to describe, but when you are present, you understand just how impactful and loving a home it is. What I love is how William doesn't move until he knows the Holy Spirit has moved in the way He's supposed to. This book will give you a glimpse into what God is doing in our church and challenge you to go deeper.\n\n\u2014TOBIAS HARRIS\n\nFORWARD, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS\n\nThe Bible eloquently speaks of God sending pastors who are after His own heart. Pastor William McDowell and the life-changing work happening at Deeper Fellowship perfectly epitomize what that looks like. He is a leader in full pursuit of the God who has called him. Anytime he stands to offer a testimony about the miracles Deeper is experiencing, it pushes me to continue ministering the pure and unadulterated Word of God\u2014because that is ultimately what creates a space for heaven to kiss the earth. I'm sure that many across the globe can relate to this same push and inspiration; it's contagious.\n\n_It's Happening_ will further solidify to the world a fact that many have long known: Pastor William McDowell is indeed a host of God's presence and a general for the agenda of revival.\n\n\u2014TASHA COBBS LEONARD\n\nGRAMMY AWARD\u2013WINNING WORSHIP LEADER\n\nI am so excited about the miracles taking place at Deeper Fellowship Church and through Pastor William McDowell's ministry. He's shaking the culture and experiencing God's power on earth as it is in heaven and seeing wonderful miracles as a result. I love his heart for God. A church that stays in God's presence will always experience heaven! This book will turn hearts to God! I'm glad to call this man of God my friend!\n\n\u2014ERICA CAMPBELL\n\nHOST, NATIONALLY SYNDICATED RADIO SHOW _G ET UP! MORNINGS WITH ERICA CAMPBELL_; GRAMMY AWARD\u2013WINNING ARTIST;\n\nMEMBER, CHART-TOPPING DUO MARY MARY\n\nIt's hard to believe that I've known William McDowell for only a handful of years because the impact of his ministry on my life has been exponential. Much of my approach to music has been totally shifted by my conversations with William and by the hours of worship in the Father's presence facilitated through William's music.\n\nFrom the many impactful conversations we've had, one statement stands out to me more than any other. He told me, \"If we say what the Father says, He'll make a way for His word.\" That one sentence has reverberated in my life through the years, and I credit it with much of the success I've had as a Christian artist. It has taught me to dig deep into God when I write songs.\n\nI'm grateful for William's ministry and his posture of obedience to the Father. I'm grateful for not only his friendship but also his ability to demonstrate a life poured out, a life tangibly connected to the heart of God. I know this book will greatly impact all who read it with open hearts, and I'm excited about the new season so many people will walk into because of it.\n\n\u2014DANNY GOKEY\n\nGRAMMY AWARD\u2013NOMINATED, AWARD\u2013WINNING\n\nCHRISTIAN ARTIST\n\nIn William McDowell's new book, _It's Happening_ , he speaks on behalf of those seeking revival. Not only does he represent the revivalist accurately, but he also encourages those who don't share this appetite for a heavenly resurgence to change their diets. This book is a glorious recipe to encounter the miraculous and supernatural, which is exactly what our starving world needs at this moment in history. Knowing William personally, I'm not surprised at all by the rich content that saturates this book because it's really only a window into what he embodies and abides in daily. Like every other aspect of his ministry, this book is a necessity in our pursuit of Jesus.\n\n\u2014CHRIS DURSO\n\nAUTHOR, _T HE HEIST: HOW GRACE ROBS US OF OUR SHAME_\n\nPastor William McDowell has given his life to listening to the Holy Spirit's voice, as he has fashioned prophetic songs that give the family of God words to express their deepest feelings of worship. That same ability to hear the Holy Spirit and write songs of worship has found expression in revelatory teaching and preaching that has produced a faith to believe for the supernatural as a regular visitation of the Holy Spirit in their home church.\n\n\u2014BISHOP JOSEPH L. GARLINGTON SR.\n\nFOUNDING PASTOR, COVENANT CHURCH OF PITTSBURGH\n\nPRESIDING BISHOP, RECONCILIATION! MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL\n\nPastor William McDowell is a trailblazing leader in the world of worship and a true friend of mine. He is already known for his historic record within the music industry, but in this book we are able to see another passion of William's. _It's Happening_ reveals William's heart for the things of God. This book ignites passion within the reader and helps to give inspiration and education on miracles, signs, and wonders. This is a must-read for every believer who wants to go deeper in his or her walk with God!\n\n\u2014MATTHEW L. STEVENSON III\n\nSENIOR PASTOR, ALL NATIONS WORSHIP ASSEMBLY\n\nIt's happening! What a great reminder that revival isn't just something of the past or the future, but it's happening right now. This book is water for the spiritually dry and an anthem for those who desperately long for a move of God. I'm convinced that wherever these pages are being turned, fires of fervor are going to be set ablaze. I'm thankful that William would write these words. I'm even more grateful that he is living them out.\n\n\u2014LEVI LUSKO\n\nPASTOR, FRESH LIFE CHURCH, A MULTISITE CHURCH IN MONTANA AND UTAH; AUTHOR, _S WIPE RIGHT: THE LIFE-AND-DEATH POWER OF SEV AND ROMANCE_ AND _T HROUGH THE EYES OF A LION_\n\nThe earth is experiencing the crest of a wave of awakening. Like a spear piercing through the darkness, a tribe of kingdom worshippers is marching the breadth and width of the earth, exercising kingdom authority and experiencing the signs and wonders of the kingdom. At the tip of that spear God has positioned Pastor William McDowell with a mantle of miracles and a grace to release revival among the nations. The grace God has put on his life is a unique, threefold cord of prophetic worship, fervent prayer, and holy manifestation of God's presence. The message he carries calls a generation of sons and daughters closer to the heart of God. As a man after God's own heart, Pastor William is marked by the humility and kindness that he exudes while carrying this mantle of revival across the nations.\n\n\u2014BISHOP KEVIN WALLACE\n\nSENIOR PASTOR, REDEMPTION TO THE NATIONS CHURCH\n\n\"This is very uncommon and extraordinary and should be treasured.\" Those were the words that fell from my lips the first time I experienced Deeper Fellowship and the Habitation Conference they host each year. Pastor William and his team are experiencing the realities of heaven being manifest in the earth.\n\nIf you've ever been around him, you know that Pastor William McDowell is not a musical artist; he is a worshipper and pursuer of God who is a carrier of contagious faith. Within the first few pages of _It's Happening_ you will be challenged to new levels of faith by the testimonies, will be encouraged to release the presumptions you have about how church is supposed to be, and will discover the simple, yet profound, pathway of experiencing God up close and personally. What you will discover more than anything is that Pastor William and churches such as Deeper are becoming the new norm! This book is a _must-_ read! And as you read it, get ready\u2014\"it\" will begin to happen in you!\n\n\u2014BISHOP TONY MILLER\n\nPASTOR, THE GATE CHURCH\n\nEvery now and then someone special emerges, and something special happens in their world. William McDowell has developed a literal \"open heaven\" with praise, worship, prayer, and the Word. It's happening\u2014the book of Acts experience of miracles, signs, and wonders. It's happening\u2014the outpouring of God's Spirit the prophet Joel proclaimed. It's happening\u2014what Isaiah prophesied, that the glory of God would manifest. It's happening! The power of God is being released with tangible evidence.\n\n\u2014BISHOP TUDOR BISMARK\n\nFOUNDER, JABULA\u2014NEW LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL\n\nPASTOR, NEW LIFE COVENANT CHURCH\n\nI have been blessed by the mantle of praise and worship William McDowell is known for, and I have been to Deeper Fellowship Church and experienced firsthand the power of God in the atmosphere under his leadership. What's happening there is a beautiful fulfillment of God's promises in Acts 2:17 and Mark 16:17\u201319. I pray the accounts documented in this book will bring life to the reader and ignite faith like wildfire within the church worldwide. To God be the glory!\n\n\u2014JACKIE PATILLO\n\nPRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GOSPEL MUSIC ASSOCIATION\n\nEvery generation prays for revival but forgets that every revival needs a revivalist. I believe William McDowell has been called to be a modern David in this post-Christian culture to usher the honor and weight of God to this current generation. _It's Happening_ highlights the wonders of God's Word and the power of a _yes_!\n\n\u2014DAVID S. JACQUES\n\nPASTOR, THE KINGDOM CHURCH\n\nI have been listening to the worship music of William McDowell for many years, and for me it's not just about listening or singing along; it's always brought life-changing moments of worship in God's presence. You cannot turn on William's music and not be affected by the tangible presence of heaven coming through the airwaves. I believe his ability to transform a room with worship is attributed not just to his unique and absolutely fantastic songwriting skills but also to a life dedicated to pursuing the heart of the Father.\n\nWhen you listen to his songs, you can tell he has had an encounter with God, which is reflected in the deep passion for God that comes out of his mouth when he sings. This deep-felt passion is also communicated when he preaches. You can always hear the heart of God toward His people through the word he declares and ministers.\n\nIt's not surprising that his ministry has become global, effortlessly crossing ethnic and cultural barriers. In my experience I have found that when you have a ministry like this, it's not uncommon to see miracles taking place because worship has the ability to bring God into an environment, and when God's presence shows up, miracles happen. I am sure that reading this book will transform your life, your ministry, and your community because this isn't just a man thing; it's a God thing, and it's happening!\n\n\u2014BISHOP JOHN FRANCIS\n\nSENIOR PASTOR, RUACH CITY CHURCH\n\nI've had the unique opportunity to be a firsthand witness to William's life and the events and stories this book documents. I've heard the prayers he has prayed. I've seen the tears he has cried, the seeds he has sown, and the sacrifices he has made, all so a generation will live in the place of God encounters. I believe the story of _It's Happening_ is possible only because God found a man on the earth who was willing to surrender everything and not settle for anything less than a move of God. William has never pursued God's hand, but he has always pursued God's heart. Subsequently God has responded by demonstrating His power. I'm privileged to call William my best friend, and his life is proof that God honors private devotion with public demonstration. _It's Happening_ will give you a glimpse into what I believe God wants to do in every city and in every nation. I pray the Holy Spirit stirs within your heart a desire for the bombardment of heaven in your midst.\n\n\u2014CALEB GRANT\n\nASSOCIATE PASTOR, DEEPER FELLOWSHIP CHURCH\n\nIf you relegate William McDowell to just the writer of hit worship songs, you've missed the mark. He is a servant of God who hears the frequency of heaven and repeats what he has heard in the earth. Because of that sensitivity William has been tasked with housing\/leading a move of God in Orlando that has changed the landscape of normal church forever. The same grace that rests on William has been transmitted to everyone who comes in contact with that anointing. _It's Happening_ is a glimpse into the realities of miracles, signs, and wonders that are taking place at Deeper Fellowship Church and the posture they have assumed to welcome and sustain God's presence. Read this book and allow your life to be altered for the better. Read it and find the altar that will allow that same power to hit your home, church, business, and life.\n\n\u2014BISHOP JASON NELSON\n\nAWARD-WINNING GOSPEL ARTIST\n\nPASTOR, GREATER BETHLEHEM TEMPLE\n\nI've been privileged to have a front-row seat to many different moves of God over the last fifty years of my life. Revivals in various parts of the world have produced incredible miracles through men and women who walked closely with God. I've seen great outpourings where I've witnessed various signs that would make me wonder. In other places I've seen the creative release of worship that would take those of us present to exhilarating realms of God's glory that left us speechless. I've longed to see it again! I live with an expectation of \"more of God\" because I know that more is available than what most of our churches are experiencing.\n\nI've known William McDowell for several years, and I know his gift and passion for God's presence are at a level that most people don't have the courage to pursue. William is simply a lover of Jesus, and he has made God's presence a priority in his life. As a result, he's stumbled into the reward of the man who would diligently seek God. Every time I'm with him in a service, I remember revivals I've experienced before, and a phrase rises up inside of me: \"It's happening!\"\n\nI began to get phone calls and texts from William giving me testimonies of miracles breaking out from week to week in his church. I texted back to him on one occasion, \"It's happening!\" I had no idea that the church had started making that declaration as the river began to rise in their church. It's happening! It's happening!\n\nThere is a fresh wave of God's presence with the release of miracles and wonders swiftly coming to the earth. Are you ready? If you want to know what it looks like, read this book and jump into the river!\n\n\u2014DAVID BINION\n\nAWARD-WINNING WORSHIP LEADER, SONGWRITER\n\nGod has entrusted to Pastor William McDowell and Deeper Fellowship Church (DFC) a beautiful and genuine move of the Holy Spirit. A fresh anointing is being poured out of an open heaven. I, myself, have experienced this unique and growing spiritual stir at DFC. Standing there worshipping in a room filled with surrendered hearts, I could feel the weight of glory pressing upon us. The sweet presence of Jesus becomes so real in that atmosphere. And there is evidence. Souls are saved, bodies are healed, and lives are forever transformed. I know that as you read _It's Happening_ , your faith will be stirred, and your hunger for more of God will grow. Heaven will mark you, and you will learn to steward the presence of the Holy Spirit. You will become a habitation of power. May what is happening there happen in you.\n\n\u2014DAVID DIGA HERNANDEZ\n\nEVANGELIST; AUTHOR, _25 T RUTHS ABOUT DEMONS AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE_ AND _C ARRIERS OF THE GLORY_\n\n_It's Happening_ is a fresh, bold approach to the reality and manifestation of revival. The move of God, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit are not relegated to the pages of the Bible or to past historical accounts. They're happening now! My friend Pastor William McDowell is at the forefront of a generation that is uncovering an authentic and relevant move of God. This book will not only stir your hunger for revival but cause you to become the revival.\n\n\u2014JONATHAN MILLER\n\nLEAD PASTOR, NEW BEGINNINGS CHURCH\n\nIn a world where many are seeking attention, fame, and fortune merely for themselves, it never ceases to amaze me when I encounter people who are more concerned about God's glory than their own and who still value and desire the presence of God. William McDowell is one of those godly people. In his music and his ministry there are a simplicity and sincerity that attract God. It's clear that he hungers and thirsts for more of Him. You know a tree by the fruit it bears, and there is much good fruit in the life and ministry of William McDowell. God's presence is truly in the midst of Deeper Fellowship.\n\nContinue, my friend. Continue to hunger and thirst for more.\n\n\u2014ANDRE WARD\n\nOLYMPIC CHAMPION; FORMER WORLD BOXING CHAMPION;\n\nHBO BOXING ANALYST\n\nWhenever God wants to influence a people, He'll find a person. If He wants to impact a community, He will search for a praying people. And when He wants to transform the nations, He'll find a few apostolic churches. It gives me great joy to know God has found a man, a group of people, and an apostolic church in Orlando, Florida\u2014Deeper Fellowship Church (DFC), led by Pastor William McDowell.\n\nI came in contact with these precious people of God in a very unique way. The first thing I saw by revelation during worship there was a \"river\" rising and eventually flowing out from DFC into the city, impacting and transforming four major spheres of influence in it. I have watched with amazement the unscripted and unorganized move of God that's happening there with special miracles. It is happening! You can now experience it for yourself!\n\n\u2014SAM OYE\n\nPASTOR, THE TRANSFORMING CHURCH\n\nWith the humility of a lamb and the glory-filled power of a lion, Pastor William is truly a general of this generation. Not only have I been a firsthand witness to countless miracles under his ministry, but I likewise witnessed his personal integrity, passion for God's heart, and love for God's people. Out of the clamoring collection of voices in the world that are vying for your attention, Pastor William's voice is one that is proven and worthy to be attended to.\n\n\u2014TONY JONES\n\nPASTOR, FELLOWSHIP CHURCH\n\nI have personally and very intimately witnessed someone who has lived his life for a singular purpose for most of my life. I don't remember and can't recall a time over our twenty-plus years of brotherhood when William McDowell did not desire God to move. I'm not talking about a casual encounter but a radical one, the kind that people talk about for generations to come! William has been on the edge, awaiting and pointing to what has finally arrived. What is happening now happened to him some time ago, and now God has raised him up to help us enter into it! God has moved upon someone yet again, and that move has begun a movement. It indeed is happening. Let's not miss it, but let's seize what we are seeing! Let's go all in!\n\n\u2014JASON MCMULLEN\n\nEXECUTIVE PASTOR, DEEPER FELLOWSHIP CHURCH\n\nAs you hold _It's Happening_ in your hand, understand that you are now connected to the anointing that is upon William McDowell. He is a proven and seasoned vessel of God who carries a deep prophetic insight with an apostolic clarity, and he is trusted by God to dispense the supernatural power and presence of God in the earth, as it was in the days of the book of Acts. This is not a normal book full of well-thought-out information. This book is literally a point of contact with heaven that will release an impartation in your world that will cause what is happening at Deeper Fellowship Church to happen to you. By the time you are done taking all of this in, you will undoubtedly say, \"It's happening in my world too.\"\n\n\u2014PATRICK KITELEY\n\nPASTOR, RAIN CHURCH\n\nPastor William McDowell is an amazing friend and a most-esteemed kingdom partner. His love for God's people is unparalleled and shows in everything he does. Our society has faced some challenging times, and we have seen the hand of God shift things in the earth. Even with the shift, Pastor McDowell has maintained a keen level of precision in leading God's people because his ear remains fastened to the mouth of God. Pastor McDowell is a refreshing and much-needed vessel who understands the methodology required to release the power of God in the earth realm. I am a firm believer that the earth will yield the increase of Pastor McDowell's anointing for years to come.\n\n\u2014JOHN F. HANNAH\n\nSENIOR PASTOR, NEW LIFE COVENANT CHURCH SOUTHEAST\n\nIn the years that I worked with William McDowell, I was blessed to experience the presence of God in such a unique way. William has an unparalleled gift of ushering people into God's presence, then virtually disappearing so that God can work in the hearts of the people gathered there without distraction or pretense. I have witnessed firsthand God's supernatural power working through William's music ministry and through Deeper Fellowship. I'm so glad that even a sample of God's miraculous works is finally being shared in this book. Let it ignite in each of us the faith that revival has come and that God is here to work in and through us!\n\n\u2014EJ GAINES\n\nVICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING, MOTOWN GOSPEL\n\nMy experience with the ministry of William McDowell has been powerful and enriching. His passion for God and his worship have impacted me and the church I lead in unbelievable ways!\n\n\u2014JOHN JENKINS\n\nPASTOR, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF GLENARDEN\n\nDeeper Fellowship Church was birthed out of the most unique premise: William McDowell wanted to create a space where time, personality, and pageantry didn't matter, only the presence of God. What has transpired from day one has been something I personally have never seen before: a church where worship is unforced, the people are passionate, and absolutely anything can happen at any moment.\n\nEvery person God has ever used to make a difference in the earth has had to be comfortable with being different. And William McDowell is no exception. He believed that if God could find a people who were willing to linger in His presence and believe for the impossible, anything would happen. And he was right! It's happening!\n\n\u2014HART RAMSEY\n\nSENIOR PASTOR, NORTHVIEW CHRISTIAN CENTER\n\nKnown for bringing the power and presence of God into our cars, living rooms, and churches through his gift of music, William McDowell will now help deliver it through the printed page. I pray that as you read this book, the stories will help you believe for revival in your home, church, and community. With this book we get to see the Spirit behind the sound.\n\n\u2014MICAHN CARTER\n\nLEAD PASTOR, TOGETHER CHURCH\n\nFor years I've studied revival. After every book, article, or documentary I read or watched, I would often say, \"Jesus, let it happen here in Central Florida.\" I believe a holy invitation has come from heaven, and it's happening now!\n\nMany of you know William as an award-winning worship leader, but before any of that happened, he was hidden and gave God His _yes_ in the secret place. Over and over I have watched him say yes. He's a man of zero compromise, deep wisdom, purity, humility, and integrity when no one is watching. I believe because of that obedience he has touched the heart of God deeply and therefore continues to impact everyone around him. God used him to change the course of my family's life, and we've felt the consuming fire of Jesus evident at Deeper Fellowship. It truly is happening!\n\n\u2014THEO KOULIANOS JR.\n\nPASTOR, THE ANSWER CHURCH\n\nThere are some people you meet who immediately show you that God has more to offer. Pastor William McDowell is one of those people. He is a model for revival. I believe the rarity of his integrity, humility, and commitment to the plan of God is directly tied to the manifestations seen in his ministry. The culture of his life has opened the door for the heavens to pour out the impossible. It is my belief that God doesn't want to do the impossible just in him. Pastor William's breakthroughs are meant to cause faith to rise in you to chase the move of God for your life as well. My prayer is that as you read this book and pursue the presence of God, you will be provoked to look at your life and give God your _yes_ so you also will be able to say, \"It's happening!\"\n\n\u2014JOSH HART\n\nPASTOR, LIBERTY CHURCH\n\nAs a fellow pastor in the Orlando area, I have seen firsthand how God is using Pastor William McDowell in our city and abroad. Through the powerful ministry of Pastor William McDowell a fresh wind of revival has come to our city. Pastor William has made himself available to be used by the Holy Spirit and without restriction has created an atmosphere for the miraculous to take place. Pastor William McDowell's heart for worship and pure desire to see God move in people's lives have been instrumental in creating such an environment. I have experienced the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit at Deeper Fellowship Church, and in this book he shares how we can experience this in our own lives. When we focus on pursuing the very presence of God, heaven touches earth, and lives are changed, healed, set free, and restored. It's happening!\n\n\u2014RIVA TIMS\n\nSENIOR PASTOR, MAJESTIC LIFE CHURCH\n\nPastor William McDowell has always had a passion for God and engaged in an unrelenting pursuit of the things of God! I have known William for over thirty years, and even when he was a young teenager, it was evident that he had been given a musical gift and had a calling on his life to touch the world. It is no surprise that he has been raised up as one of the leading worship leaders in this generation.\n\nNow as a senior pastor, William has chosen to courageously lead his congregation outside the lines of tradition and conformity, and by so doing, they are experiencing what it truly looks like when heaven touches earth! I am honored to know William and to see how God is using him to bring His kingdom to earth. May \"it\" happen _everywhere_!\n\n\u2014JOHN W. STEVENSON\n\nAPOSTLE AND SENIOR PASTOR, HEIRS COVENANT CHURCH\n\nPastor McDowell is a servant leader, and this book is a must-read testament to his and his congregation's faith combining with works to bring forth revival. _It's Happening_ is a testimony we all should read.\n\n\u2014PHIL THORNTON\n\nSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, RCA\n\nINSPIRATION\n\nI had not heard of William McDowell in 2009. I was in Walmart walking down the gospel music aisle when I heard the Lord say, \"Stop!\" So I stopped immediately, not knowing what I was looking for. After feeling prompted to look to my left, I did so, and there it was, the album _As We Worship Live_ by William McDowell. The purchase of this album began a three-month period of weekly supernatural visitations from angels and even the Lord Himself, and through that process God birthed me into full-time ministry.\n\nWhen I discovered years later that William had started pastoring a church, I was so excited that I moved my entire family to a different city just to be close enough to attend the church when my ministry was not on the road. There aren't many people outside the ones written about in the book of Acts who have had that much of an impact on my life. To paraphrase the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 1:16, I am an eyewitness of the revival that is taking place in the church that William leads. I can say with certainty, \"It's happening!\"\n\n\u2014JONATHAN FERGUSON\n\nFERGUSON GLOBAL MINISTRIES\n\nI have had the unique opportunity of walking with William as a partner in his recorded music ministry. We have spent much time over the last ten years working to impart to the masses the music God gave him. I have always said that you learn the truth about artists during the process of promoting an album. When other artists would have chosen to self-promote, William consistently chooses to exalt Jesus. He is one of the most authentic people I know, someone who is sure of what he has been put on earth to do. The posture of his heart is to follow God's will and purpose for his life, which keeps him in a relentless pursuit of the presence of God. That is where he is leading anyone who chooses to follow him\u2014into God's presence.\n\nThrough the revival happening at Deeper Fellowship, God is using William to remind us that He is still with us, He still hears us, He still can, and He still will. Many people believe things not because of what they have been told but because of what they have seen. This revival has given the unbeliever proof that God still gives sight to the blind, a voice to the voiceless, and legs to those who couldn't walk. Many people have walked into Deeper Fellowship with a burden and have walked out with proof that God is real and wants to move in their lives.\n\nMay the proof taking place at Deeper activate your faith to believe that if revival can happen there, it can happen anywhere. Modern-day miracles do exist! Persuasion is not necessary when there is a demonstration of the power of God. \"It's happening!\"\n\n\u2014GINA MILLER\n\nVICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, ENTERTAINMENT ONE\n\nThere's an obvious anointing on William that comes from a deep well of time spent with God. He walks through this life at a slower pace, trading performance for a divine move of God. He's not interested in accolades, only anointing. He's a true friend who has cried with me, prayed with me, and encouraged me. I love how he constantly pushes those around him to press in close and listen to the voice of God. I know God has written these words on William's heart.\n\n\u2014JEREMY FOSTER\n\nPASTOR, HOPE CITY\n\n# TABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n  1. COVER PAGE\n  2. TITLE PAGE\n  3. COPYRIGHT PAGE\n  4. CONTENTS\n  5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS\n  6. PROLOGUE\n  7. INTRODUCTION: WHAT'S HAPPENING?\n  8. CHAPTER 1 WHEN HE WALKED INTO THE ROOM\n  9. CHAPTER 2 HOW'S YOUR POSTURE?\n  10. CHAPTER 3 HE HEARS YOUR CRY\n  11. CHAPTER 4 FOLLOW THE PATHWAY\n  12. CHAPTER 5 IT'S ALL ABOUT CAPACITY--HOW EMPTY ARE YOU?\n  13. CHAPTER 6 NO SUBMISSION, NO POWER\n  14. CHAPTER 7 URGENT ANTICIPATION\n  15. CHAPTER 8 STAY AND WAIT\n  16. CHAPTER 9 CONTEND FOR THE FLAMES OF REVIVAL\n  17. CHAPTER 10 A WORTHY HOST\n  18. CHAPTER 11 HE IS HERE--NOW WHAT WILL YOU DO?\n  19. CHAPTER 12 FEED THE FIRE\n  20. CHAPTER 13 IT HAPPENED BECAUSE IT'S HAPPENING\n  21. CHAPTER 14 LIVING STONES\n  22. CHAPTER 15 YOU WERE BORN FOR THIS\n  23. NOTES\n  24. 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+{"text":"\n\nCOPYRIGHT\n\nHarperCollins _Publishers_\n\n1 London Bridge Street\n\nLondon SE1 9GF\n\nwww.harpercollins.co.uk\n\nFirst published by HarperCollins _Publishers_ 2019\n\nFIRST EDITION\n\nText \u00a9 Angela Kelly 2019\n\nCover layout design by Claire Ward \u00a9 HarperCollins _Publishers_ 2019\n\nFront jacket image is a composite of two photographs (\u00a9 Nina Duncan) from the same series taken behind the scenes at a photoshoot by Chris Levine in 2003. Diamant\u00e9 detail taken from a photograph of Her Majesty The Queen \u00a9 Barry Jeffery. Back cover photograph supplied by the author.\n\nA catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library\n\nAngela Kelly asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work\n\nAll rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.\n\nFind out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk\/green\n\nSource ISBN: 9780008368364\n\nEbook Edition \u00a9 October 2019 ISBN: 9780008368371\n\nVersion 2019-10-28 \nCONTENTS\n\nCOVER\n\nTITLE PAGE\n\nCOPYRIGHT\n\nDEDICATION\n\nDEAR READER\n\nLETTER FROM SAMANTHA COHEN CVO\n\nFOREWORD BY STEWART PARVIN MVO\n\nPROLOGUE\n\nChapter 1: Dressing The Queen\n\nChapter 2: Our Working Year\n\nChapter 3: The Eyes of the Nation\n\nChapter 4: On the Move\n\nChapter 5: The Eyes of the World\n\nChapter 6: The Things We Do For Fun\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS\n\nPICTURE CREDITS\n\nABOUT THE PUBLISHER\nDEDICATION\n\n**Your Majesty,**\n\n**With humble respect I would like to dedicate my second book to you for allowing me to write about our personal working relationship that has grown over many years, and allowing me to share the details of it and to describe how we have come together on a trusted personal level. I will always be truly grateful. I cherish the time you have allowed me to have with you and the friendship you have shown me.**\n\n**With love and gratitude,**\n\n**Angela x**\n\nI would also like to dedicate this book to my wonderful family: Frank and Nicola Wylie, Paul and Sarah Wylie, Michelle and Simon Anson, and to my very special grandchildren \u2013 James and Scarlett Anson, Alex and Jacob Wylie. You have shared the experiences and the journeys with me and you have inspired me all the way to write this book. I could not have done it without you. I thank you so much for all the love, support and advice you give to me and in return I give you all my love and more.\n\nThe lesson you all taught me was: never underestimate young minds.\n\nI love you, Granny x x x x\n\n_A letter from Angela's grandson Jacob Wylie_\n\nGrowing up in Windsor was an immense experience. The sheer bliss, peace and quiet and nature all around you. I am truly grateful to have been able to grow up in a place with such elegance and beauty, all thanks to my granny's amazing accomplishment. Not many people can say, 'My granny works for The Queen.' Every time the subject is brought up I can't help but brag about my tremendous gran and how proud I am of her. Her triumphs only get bigger and it renders me speechless; the stories and experiences she tells me about her working days astonish me, I could listen for hours. Words don't even come close to describing how proud I am of my granny!\n\nAs I have grown up in Windsor since I was only a couple of weeks old, Windsor is a home for me, in the cosy cottage with the fire and the enormous grounds that lie around it. Ever since me and my brother were little kids, we were both curious about where the roads and paths would lead us, and we would go wandering off for hours exploring the river, bat caves, monkey puzzle tree, farm and bamboo trees. Staying in Windsor or Buckingham Palace is always the highlight of my week, and meeting The Queen is always a dream come true that I am grateful to enjoy. I am enormously proud of my granny and can't wait to see her future endeavours.\n\nSincerely,  \nJacob Wylie, age 15\n\n_A letter from Angela's grandson Alex P. Wylie_\n\nI would just like to say how proud I am of my granny of what she has achieved. All through the fifteen years of my life, actually since my twin, Jacob, and I were a few months old, we have stayed in Marlborough House apartment, and then, when Granny moved to Windsor, into her cottage. We still stay to this day in Windsor and sometimes in Buckingham Palace.\n\nAs you can imagine I have the fondest memories that will never leave me. Visiting my gran in the summer is great. I remember on one occasion, when my brother and I were around twelve years old, every evening we would set out walking and I smile now thinking of how many alarms we set off in the grounds of Windsor Castle while we went exploring, looking into the bat caves and many other exciting places, steeped in history.\n\nOn another occasion we were playing in The Splash, which is a shallow part of a stream close to the cottage, although The Queen often goes there when she is in Windsor. As Her Majesty got closer she recognised us both, as she knew we were staying at Granny's cottage. But so did the corgis. They came running up and started chasing us. They were very playful and they soon started playing in the water. Once again words can't describe how proud I am of my granny for giving us so many magical moments.The memories will remain with me for ever and although we have grown up now, going to Granny's is special.\n\nRegards,  \nAlex P. Wylie, age 15\n\nA letter from Angela's grandson James Anson\n\nWhen I read of or see my grandmother's accomplishments, I feel both immense pride for her, and also a strong sense of inspiration in regards to my own goals. It often makes me realise how fortunate I am to be related to someone so talented in their work.\n\nI was fortunate enough, in fact, to spend a lot of time in my childhood at places such as Marlborough House, Buckingham Palace, and Windsor Castle, and I'm thankful not only to be able to have access to such iconic institutions, but also to have made brilliant memories there. One of my favourite places to visit during my childhood was St James's Park. I still enjoy going there in winter to see the Smews.\n\nI am personally a massive fan of history; I aim to study history at university. In truth, I do owe a vast amount of my love for history to the fact that I have had access to some amazing places of great historical value for my entire life. I've formed my own memories in these places as well; memories I will treasure for many years. I realise how unique a position I am in and I'm very grateful to my grandmother for this.\n\nJames W. Anson, age 18\n\nA letter from Angela's granddaughter Scarlett Anson\n\nI have always enjoyed watching Granny work and talking with her about her latest design or projects. I've been privileged to see and feel some of the fabrics that have gone on to become outfits. I also spend a lot my time drawing and painting, but I like concept art for video games. I enjoy character design and created my own characters based on myself and people I have read about in books. Granny has inspired me with her skills in colour matching and creating designs so I love to show her my art work to get her feedback.\n\nYours,  \nScarlett Anson, age 13\n\nDEAR READER\n\nIt took me some time to start writing this book. When I first asked The Queen if she would mind me writing another book, after _Dressing the Queen_ in 2012, but this time about our close working relationship, I never thought in my wildest dreams that Her Majesty would say yes.\n\nOnce the initial shock was over, I found myself struggling. The Queen trusts me and she knows I would not write any intimate details or anything untoward about our friendship and working relationship, but, nevertheless, I still struggled.\n\nI wanted to do this book justice. I wanted to be worthy of writing it, and to share with you the magical and engaging moments that have happened between Her Majesty and myself while we have been working together. The Queen may not have thought them magical, but I did and I still do.\n\nDuring my twenty-five years to date of working with The Queen, many events and engagements have taken place. Her Majesty travels to and from Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Sandringham House, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Balmoral Castle, and spends numerous private weekends away, too.\n\nWith this book I would like to share with you the wonderful working life and relationship between Her Majesty and me. The Queen and I have fun and laughter, but there is a serious side to my work in which challenging and difficult decisions have to be taken \u2013 split-second decisions sometimes. I have to be quick and think on my feet. But it's all in a day's work. Someone has to do it \u2013 and I'm so glad it's me.\n\nI hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I did writing it. So, get yourself a cup of tea, sit down, put your feet up, and let me take you on a magical journey once again.\n\nWith love,\n\nLETTER FROM SAMANTHA COHEN CVO\n\n29 October 2019\n\nThis book documents the unique working relationship between Her Majesty The Queen and the woman who has been her Personal Assistant and Senior Dresser for more than two decades: Angela Kelly.\n\nIt gives a rare glimpse into the demands of the job of supporting the Monarch, designing Her Majesty's clothes and hats, and matching them with exquisite Royal jewellery. Throughout her long reign, Her Majesty has become a fashion icon, renowned for her sense of style and understated elegance. Behind the scenes, Angela has worked quietly with her to create fashion that is unique, accessible to all, and allows The Queen to reflect the trends of the day subtly, and with grace.\n\nThe book also reveals the lengthy preparations needed before important State occasions, such as the State Opening of Parliament. Most importantly, though, we gain privileged insight into a successful working relationship, characterised by humour, creativity, hard work, and a mutual commitment to service and duty.\n\nOn the many occasions I have worked with Angela in preparing for an important overseas or regional visit in the United Kingdom with Her Majesty, I have been struck by Angela's endless enthusiasm and original ideas. She tries to make each Royal engagement memorable for those who will be seeing The Queen for the first time\n\nAngela is a talented and inspiring woman, who has captured the highlights of her long career with The Queen for us all to share.\n\nSamantha Cohen CVO\n\nAssistant Private Secretary to The Queen (2011\u20132018)\n\nFOREWORD\n\nby Stewart Parvin MVO\n\nI first met Angela one morning in the summer of 2001. She had come into my shop in Motcomb Street and was chatting to our saleslady, Gill Edwards. From Angela's questions it became apparent that she needed a conversation with me. In those days our workroom was in the basement of the shop at Number 14 (previously the home of Royal couturier Ian Thomas), so I was immediately available. I ran upstairs to meet her and discuss her mystery client's needs. She wanted to look at the quality of our workmanship, and I agreed straight away.\n\nA few days later Angela reappeared and we had a lengthy discussion about fabrics. Her client couldn't be seen wearing any of the items that we had in the main collection. The easiest way around this, I thought, was for us to pop downstairs and go through our archive: Angela could look at fabrics we had never used or had made into just one or two garments in previous seasons. I saw her delight as we pulled out tweeds, cr\u00eapes and silks \u2013 our mutual enthusiasm was infectious!\n\nAfter we had taken cuttings from several rolls, I suggested that a few simple sketches to go with the swatches might help her client decide if I was the person she was looking for. Unbeknown to me, that was the start of our Royal journey.\n\nShortly afterwards I heard from Angela, who told me that her client liked four fabrics in particular: would it be possible for me to do sketches for each one?\n\nI produced a pile of sketches offering three or four alternatives for each of the selected fabrics and waited for Angela to collect them. A week or so later she telephoned, delighted to tell me that her client had chosen several outfits, and she could now reveal that she herself was Senior Dresser to The Queen. She asked if I would like to make clothes for Her Majesty. After a few seconds' disbelief I replied with an enthusiastic 'Yes!'\n\nIn the early days, on occasion there might be an urgent request, and the lack of technology in our studio meant that we'd sometimes have to fax a design to Angela's office to be discussed over the phone. As our relationship developed, Angela would often come to the studio \u2013 we later moved to a larger sewing room in West London \u2013 and we'd have fun as I proposed fabric combinations, buttons and trims. I would make preliminary sketches, Angela inspiring me with ideas that Her Majesty might like.\n\nBy now Angela, who had been creating off-duty clothes for Her Majesty, had started designing more formal outfits with a team of seamstresses at the Palace. I would often pop along to the in-house workroom and offer a helping hand to ease the process along, sometimes suggesting different techniques, interlinings, and other tricks of the trade. Over coffee in her office, Angela would show me her latest finds \u2013 such as exquisite laces and embroideries that she'd sourced on her travels and at shops such as London's Joel & Son. We would drape the beautiful fabrics on stands, coming up with ideas for gowns for Her Majesty. No one knows better than Angela Kelly what is required of a Royal wardrobe, and it makes my end of the process so much easier. While sketching and choosing the ideas to put before Her Majesty, it's been fascinating to see how Angela's guiding hand often tends towards a bolder, more glamorous look.\n\n_At Joel & Son Fabrics._\n\nThese days we often meet at Joel's as soon as they have their latest collection in stock to select prints that we will propose to Her Majesty. Often we find we've chosen the same design. We know, though, that either of us will come up with something fabulous for Her Majesty to wear.\n\nAngela not only creates many wonderful outfits, she's responsible for The Queen's complete look. It's fun to be shown into her millinery workroom, where, under Angela's watchful eye, Stella McLaren creates so many of the eye-catching hats that Her Majesty now wears.\n\nIn fact, on several occasions we've worked as a team. Between us, we created the outfit The Queen wore for Prince Harry's wedding: I designed several options for the coat and dress from the stunning silks Angela had chosen for the event, while Angela created the show-stopping hat that finished the iconic outfit.\n\nWe share so many fantastic memories of our times together from the start of our working relationship \u2013 when I had no idea who Angela was or who she worked for \u2013 to the present day.\n\nWhen I look back at some of the iconic outfits we have both created, I feel such pride in what Angela and I have achieved.\n\n_Me and my pal at Joel & Son in 2019._\n\n_The Queen, wearing a Stewart Parvin outfit, with The Duke of Edinburgh during Trooping the Colour in 2016._\n\n_The Queen at the State Opening of Parliament in 2014._\nPROLOGUE\n\nCrowning Glory\n\nDuring my twenty-five years of working closely with Her Majesty The Queen, I am lucky enough to have travelled to some of the most amazing places in the world. But one moment in particular makes me emotional every time: the sight of The Queen putting on her Imperial State Crown at the annual State Opening of Parliament. It is a truly special moment for me, and I am so privileged to play a small part in it. Whenever I see Her Majesty in a Diadem or a tiara, I am composed, but when she puts on the crown, it touches my heart.\n\nWe are alone behind the privacy screen in the Robing Room in the Houses of Parliament just before The Queen enters the Chamber to make her speech on behalf of her government. We are silent and serious, concentrating hard, and The Queen is deep in thought. When I have positioned the State Robe on her shoulders, she takes the crown off its cushion, and I watch as The Queen raises it above her head. The magnificence of that moment takes my breath away every time. I watch in awe while I wait for her to secure it. Then Her Majesty turns, gives me a smile, and lets me know that she's ready to go. And for a moment, I am speechless. Luckily I don't need to say anything and The Queen always says thank you, and I smile back.\n\nThe Queen has seen my emotions get the better of me quite a few times. This happens particularly at special events, such as when I dress Her Majesty for important events and State occasions. Once The Queen has the robe on and places the crown on her head, I feel so proud to be serving Her Majesty in such a unique position. Normally The Queen rolls her eyes and playfully tuts at me when she sees my eyes fill up! Even after all these years, I still find it overwhelming to watch her lift the crown. It is the ultimate reminder of just how lucky I am to be in the presence of The Sovereign, Her Majesty The Queen.\n\n_The Queen attending Derby Day in 2019_\n\n_The Ambassadorial Residence in Berlin in 1992._\nHOW IT  \nALL BEGAN\n\nWell, here I am at a certain age and still running around thinking that I am thirty years old \u2013 which my body is telling me I am not! So much has happened in my life \u2013 decisions made, paths taken \u2013 so let me take you back to where it all began.\n\nIt's hard for me to believe that I was first introduced to Her Majesty The Queen more than twenty-five years ago. I could never have imagined the significance of that meeting. It was my first step along the road to changing my life.\n\nIt was 1992, when I was working as Housekeeper for the British Ambassador to Germany, Sir Christopher Mallaby and his lovely wife Pascal, Lady Mallaby, in their Berlin Residence. In June of that year, the Ambassador told me we were expecting a few high-profile VIP guests who were to visit the Residence to see if the house was suitable and large enough to accommodate them all that autumn. The grounds were also to be assessed for security. This was not common practice at the time, so we suspected that someone truly special might be coming. The checks were to be carried out within the month \u2013 three months before the possible visit.\n\nThe Ambassador trusted me and soon informed me that the guests would in fact be Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, with their accompanying staff. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought I would be looking after members of the Royal Household. During their stay, the guests would require bedrooms, of course, and all meals were to be served at specially agreed times. The Ambassador also explained that many private meetings would be held behind closed doors \u2013 meaning that the participants should not be disturbed, unless under extreme circumstances. My role was to ensure that Her Majesty's personal staff were comfortable, equipped, and had a good working environment. Once I had familiarised myself with their requirements, in terms of any allergies, likes and dislikes with regard to food, I felt content that I could get the job done.\n\n_Service with a smile \u2013 Berlin, 1992._\n\nOctober soon came around and the Royal visitors arrived at the Ambassador's Residence. I remember being introduced to each member of the Royal staff: The Queen's Page; The Duke's Valet; the Travelling Yeoman and Miss Peggy Hoath, Her Majesty's Senior Dresser. I was so impressed by their professionalism: everything was executed with efficiency and precision, from the delivery of the luggage to the unpacking of the cases. Over the course of the next four days, we all got to know each other well, and I spent quite a bit of time with Peggy, who was a lovely lady. She told me she had been The Queen's Dresser for the last thirty-four years and was now considering her retirement. We agreed to keep in touch.\n\nIt wasn't until the end of their visit that I finally got to meet Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh. Just before our guests departed, The Queen and His Royal Highness said their farewells to the household. I now understand that this is common practice: they like to thank the staff for their assistance in making the visit a success. I remember what a privilege and honour it was to be presented to The Queen and The Duke. I was even given a lovely photograph of them, alongside a beautiful needle case with EIIR inscribed on it.\n\nAfter I'd thanked them for their thoughtful gift, Her Majesty asked whom we expected next at the Residence. I replied that the information was confidential, and The Duke asked, slightly incredulous: 'Surely you can tell Her Majesty The Queen?' Again, I explained that I really could not disclose the information as I had signed the Official Secrets Act, now known as Confidentiality Agreements. I had taken the confidentiality surrounding their visit in a similar way \u2013 even carrying a bunch of flowers whenever I left the Residence to trick the surrounding media into thinking I was a florist and so would be unable to provide any intelligence on the high-profile guests inside. In light of this exchange, I offered the photograph and needle case back to Her Majesty and The Duke \u2013 I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to keep them since I'd refused them the information they'd asked for. The Queen simply told me to keep it. I thanked her and His Royal Highness again, and said to Her Majesty The Queen, 'I will remember this for the rest of my life.'\n\nAnd the Queen replied, 'Angela, so will I.'\n\nA few weeks after the Royal visit to the Ambassador's Residence, I was surprised to receive a phone call out of the blue from Peggy, who asked how I was. I assumed she was just being kind as I'd mentioned to her that I was hoping to come back to England later in the year to start a new chapter of my life after the recent breakdown of my marriage. It was lovely to chat to her and she said she would call me again before I left Berlin.\n\nIt was just a couple of days later when I next heard from Peggy. She said that Her Majesty had requested she get in touch to ask would I consider coming to work at Buckingham Palace? To say that I was shocked would be an understatement. I told Peggy I was still making arrangements to return to England but that I would consider the offer of a position carefully.\n\nSeveral weeks later, when I was finally settled back in Sheffield with my family, Peggy rang to ask if I had an answer for her about applying for the Assistant Dresser role. I discussed the prospect at length with my family to make sure they were happy with my entering into this commitment, because it would be almost like a marriage and would therefore affect all of our lives. But there really was only one answer to give: a very enthusiastic yes from us all.\n\nI could give one half of myself to my children, and the other half to the life I was about to enter.\n\nMY LIFE\n\nA couple of months after I had accepted Peggy's invitation to interview for the position of Assistant Dresser, I found myself en route to Buckingham Palace to meet with Lady Susan Hussey and the Honourable Miss Mary Morrison, two of The Queen's Ladies-in-Waiting. As with any interview, I had spent quite a lot of time thinking about what to wear. I was certain this interview was for these two ladies to look me over and check me out, and that everyone in the Palace would be an intimidating, impeccably dressed aristocrat. When I first received the letter inviting me to Buckingham Palace for the interview I went into panic mode. Those famous words of 'what on earth will I wear?' came to mind \u2013 I already had lovely clothes, but I thought that a more conservative outfit was needed. So I made the rather rash decision to sell my washing machine so that I could afford an appropriately smart outfit. I chose a crisp cream blouse with navy spots and a long skirt, and wore a string of pearls. Normally I wear dresses to my knees, but for the interview I thought a long skirt would be more appropriate. I did struggle to walk and I looked like a good take on Miss Marple, with my skirt wrapped around my legs. I arrived at the Privy Purse Door, which is the main entrance at the front of Buckingham Palace, at 11.30am and was welcomed in. Trembling with nerves, I was taken to the Ladies-in-Waiting sitting room.\n\nAs I waited, I couldn't help but reflect on how I had ended up there: a divorced single mother from humble beginnings in Liverpool was on her way to interview for a position working with Her Majesty The Queen.\n\nWhen I think about my early childhood, most of my memories seem to be anchored in and around the back room of our house. I was born in a small street in Liverpool, facing Stanley Park, between two famous football grounds: Everton and Liverpool. We lived in a two-up-two-down terraced house, and it was a very happy home. My mother sewed and my father was in the Merchant Navy.\n\nThe back room of our house was a hive of activity; a place for chatting, listening to the radio, eating, and, crucially, it was also frequently transformed into a sewing room. My mother, Teresa, was a very smart, elegant, and glamorous lady, although I remember her blushing and shying away from compliments. She was not shy when it came to the sewing machine, though, and she had a raw talent and natural flair for clothes design. I'm sure her skills were recognised by my maternal grandmother, who taught her the art of dressmaking when she was still very young. When she grew up, my mum joined the army's Auxiliary Territorial Service. Funnily enough, then as the Princess Elizabeth, The Queen also joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945, and was the first female member of the Royal Family to join the Armed Services as a full-time active member. My mum worked with the Service until she fell in love with my father, Thomas, and left to marry him. They had two sons, my brothers Tommy and Tony, before I came along, then another two sons, John and Terry, and a second daughter, my sister Donna Maria. With so many young children to care for, my dad left the Merchant Navy and took up a job as a crane driver on the Liverpool docks so that he could be closer to home.\n\n_Clockwise: My first Holy Communion, age 7; my mum, Teresa, in the Auxillary Territorial Service; me and my dad at home in Liverpool._\n\nMy father was good-looking, quiet, and a gentleman. He was caring, loved, and respected by his family and all who knew him. When we were little, he was always tricking us. Perhaps he would shout, 'Would you like a Quality Street?' And we'd all come running, yelling, 'Yes!' And he would be standing in front of the television, and a Quality Street advert would be on, and he'd say, 'Ah, you missed it.' But every Friday, when he collected his wages, he'd go to the shop to buy the Liverpool Echo and a Mars Bar each for everyone.\n\nWe did not have much in the way of material possessions when we were growing up, but the house was filled with love, laughter, and kindness, and my mum insisted that our family take pride in everything we did. She was excellent at teaching by example and took meticulous care of every piece of clothing she created, which included my school uniform skirt and grey bib. She was endlessly generous with her time, and whenever the back room was not being used to entertain visitors, it became a fitting room, as well as a sewing room, for all those who came to her for new outfits. From wedding and bridesmaids' dresses \u2013 beautifully crisp gowns, perfectly cut and adorned with little rosebuds \u2013 to school uniforms to help out the children in the neighbourhood, nothing was too challenging, and I vividly remember watching her work on that well-oiled Singer sewing machine. In fact, aged eight, maintaining that precious machine was my first task as an assistant dressmaker. I learned how to strip it down before cleaning it thoroughly and oiling certain components that were likely to stick. I would also check the rubber belt religiously, making sure it was not wearing out, and grease the treadle to make sure it moved up and down easily. When I had mastered all of this, I was finally shown how to load the shuttle, place it in the machine, and thread the needle.\n\nHaving perfected that important task, I was soon being shown how to cross-stitch for embroidering napkins, how to sew hems by hand and make elasticated waists \u2013 all crucial skills that still come in handy today. My mum was a thrifty woman (which I know Her Majesty would appreciate) and showed me how to make carpet rugs from old coats. We would cut the coats into strips, then double them and use an old peg to push the strips through the rug's hessian backing to form a loop. However, it was when my mum was measuring her customers that I would pay close attention. I was fascinated to see how accurately she used her tape measure, which I still have to this day, and how confidently she cut and joined her patterns.\n\nNot only did my mum have an extraordinary talent for dressmaking, she was generous when family and neighbours were in difficulty, especially when someone had passed away. I remember her visiting other people's houses, and helping make their front room look beautiful for the family to mourn their loved one. She would take several white sheets with her and quickly get to work; I would watch her pleat the sheets and use small nails to keep them in place on the walls to make the room into a sort of chapel of rest into which the coffin would be brought. I also recall watching my mother lay out the body when a family member passed away. She was so gentle and caring, and it seemed such a natural thing to do, and it helped to ease the pain of the family and other mourners.\n\nI wanted to be just like her, so it's not surprising that my first paid job was in a sewing factory at the age of fifteen, working on the buttonhole machine. A few years later, when I got married and had children, I would make outfits for my family, but it was only when I started working with Her Majesty that I truly understood how indebted I am to the influence, knowledge, and guidance of my mum in those humble beginnings.\n\n_Me and Nettie at Windsor Castle before Royal Ascot in 2000._\n\nNettie\n\nI value so many people in my life, whether they be close or acquaintances. Nevertheless, they are important to me. Throughout my time of twenty-five years working for the Royal Household, Annette Wilkin, also known as Nettie, was my true friend from day one when I first started at Windsor Castle.\n\nNettie was The Queen's Housekeeper of Windsor Castle for over forty years. During Nettie's time as Housekeeper, The Queen gifted her with a corgi pup called Larch, who became Nettie's most loyal companion. After she retired as Housekeeper, Nettie came to work on the Dressers' Floor the very next day. For the last five years of her life, Nettie worked for The Queen archiving and photographing The Queen Mother's wardrobe.\n\nI wish my friend was here today so that she could share with me the ending of this book. Sadly, Nettie passed away in May 2019. I was with her throughout her illness as well as being a support to her loving brother, Andre, who was always there for her.\n\nIt was an honour to care for Nettie during this difficult time, although she still had her wicked sense of humour about her. Even when she was first rushed into hospital, her humour was there. I was with Nettie when the nursing sister was asking for her name. Annette was having a hard time breathing, so I answered the question by saying, 'Annette Wilkin'. It took all that Nettie had to say, 'No! It's Gwendoline Annette Wilkin.' I almost fell out of the chair. I was shocked! For twenty-five years I had been calling her Annette or Nettie. So, Nettie had the last laugh.\n\nWhen Nettie passed away I felt as though my mother was with me, keeping me calm and focused, as I helped prepare Annette's body to be laid out. I gave her a big hug and kiss. I'll never forget my best buddy. I miss you my friend.\n\n_Nettie and her corgi, Larch._\n\n_The gates of Buckingham Palace._\nMISS KELLY\n\nDedicated to Miss Peggy Hoath \u2013 who was my mentor and taught me to reach for the highest of standards.\n\nThe interview at Buckingham Palace that day went well, and I felt confident in my new outfit. Lady Susan Hussey and Miss Morrison seemed satisfied that I was the right person for the job. I would be reporting to Miss Peggy Hoath. After a lovely chat I was taken along the red-carpeted corridor to The Queen's private rooms, where I was to meet Her Majesty once again. This was where my life changed immediately. Obviously I cannot reveal the conversation, but I can say that it was lovely to see her again.\n\nWith all the arrangements made, I was soon walking through the gates of Buckingham Palace again, suitcase in hand, ready to start my new life.\n\nMy first day at the Palace was 31 March 1994, and I learned my first important lesson about life with Her Majesty: be prepared for anything. I was taken upstairs to the Dressers' Floor by the Footman who was kindly helping me with my suitcases. I was going to start unpacking, but Peggy had other plans. She was waiting for me on the corridor, took one look at the Footman and another at my suitcases and told him to put them with the rest of the luggage. Peggy said, 'Angela, don't get comfortable. We're off to Windsor for a month. There, I'll introduce you to the ironing board!' And I was! As soon as we arrived, Peggy said, 'Ironing board, meet your new owner!'\n\nAfter settling into my new job as an Assistant Dresser, my first task was to acquaint myself with Her Majesty's wardrobe. Each piece was exquisitely made with such close attention to detail. I also discovered an abundance of material \u2013 beautiful silks and chiffons that had been presented to Her Majesty as gifts and stored away safely for future use.\n\nBefore long, I started to receive unwanted questions about my marital status from other members of the Royal Household. My predecessors had all been known as 'Miss' and were typically unmarried women. Although I was divorced, I was still known as Mrs Kelly. Feeling vulnerable and scrutinised, I decided to seek advice from The Queen. We had become more familiar with each other over the months and I felt comfortable in approaching her, not just because her guidance on the delicate matter would be the most authoritative but also because we had quickly established a rapport. So, I went to see The Queen and explained that I had been receiving prying comments because of my married title, which I had kept as an acknowledgement of my past relationship. Her Majesty advised that if I was known as Mrs Kelly, I should be prepared for questions about where my husband was, whether he minded me travelling and working away from home. It was time to look to the future and, on reflection, I realised that my role with Her Majesty was my new priority. From then on, I would be known as Miss Kelly.\n\n_With Miss Peggy Hoath on Britannia during the VE Celebrations in 1995._\n\n_Now, let me introduce you to the ironing board, dear reader! Taken in the workroom at Buckingham Palace._\n\nEDUCATING  \nANGELA\n\nIn those early years at Buckingham Palace, I remember feeling very aware that some people might look down on me. I was, after all, from Liverpool and had a Scouse accent, not to mention that I was divorced with three children, and possibly not the ideal candidate to be working for The Queen. Even though I knew Her Majesty had particularly requested me after her visit to the British Ambassador's Residence in Berlin, I thought other people might not understand why I was chosen: they might think I did not belong, and I wanted to be able to hold my own.\n\nI've always wanted to speak nicely. I'm not sure I can say why. It's not because I want to improve myself, just that I've always admired people who speak clearly. I don't have a strong Liverpudlian accent, but it is there. I had wanted elocution lessons since I was eight years old, and I remember asking the Ambassador in Berlin whether I could take them. He offered me a pay rise and a promotion instead, but I refused as I didn't want money all I wanted was to feel more at ease with how I presented myself to others \u2013 especially now among members of the Royal Household.\n\nNeedless to say, when I first started working with The Queen, I became even more aware of how I sounded. Listening to and speaking with Her Majesty, I would think, how wonderful to be able to speak so nicely, and after a few months of working with her, I plucked up the courage to ask if she knew anyone who might give me the elocution lessons I'd wanted for so long. The look on The Queen's face was a picture. She simply asked, 'Why?' After I had explained, she said that it was not necessary and that she'd heard about my plan \u2013 the Ambassador had told her. I asked again and again, but she still refused. After much back and forth, Her Majesty eventually told me to go upstairs and talk to the Duchess of Grafton about it.\n\nI ran up straight away, and found the Duchess waiting for me in the corridor. 'Your Grace, I was wondering if you could put me in contact with anyone you know who could give me elocution lessons,' I said.\n\nThe Duchess started laughing and I realised The Queen had called her in the time it had taken me to run up the stairs. 'Look, Angela,' she said, 'if you speak slowly, it means you speak clearly. Just keep The Queen laughing \u2013 that's all I ask of you.' But that still wasn't enough for me.\n\nLater that day, I went back to see The Queen and mentioned that I'd spoken to the Duchess. 'Oh, and what did she say?' she asked. I repeated the advice I'd been given and Her Majesty seemed content. 'Well, there you go,' she said.\n\n'But that's not an elocution lesson,' I responded, then told Her Majesty my new idea: 'You can give me elocution lessons! You can tell me what I say that's correct and what I say that isn't.'\n\nThe Queen could probably sense that I wasn't going to give up, so she instructed me to say one word: 'furious'. 'Fyer-ri-ous,' I responded.\n\n'No, fee-or-ree-ous,' said Her Majesty, in perfect received pronunciation. After several more attempts, I finally cracked it and Her Majesty exclaimed, 'Yes!' and her finger went up in the air, followed shortly by, 'Not sick as a parrot'. And that was it \u2013 my one and only elocution lesson, and from The Queen herself. From then on, I listened and tried my best to speak properly \u2013 even adding an aitch to words where it didn't exist \u2013 but in the end I gave up: it was just too much effort. Ever since I've stuck to being myself, a girl from Liverpool and a proud Liverpudlian, too.\n\n_In The Splash with the dogs in Windsor Home Park in 1998._\n\nLET ME TAKE   \nYOU AMONG THE  \nNIGHT STARS\n\nIn August 1994, four months after I had started working for The Queen, it was time for my first trip to Balmoral. Needless to say, I was very excited whenever one of these 'firsts' came around: my first visit to Windsor, my first trip on the Royal Train, my first Trooping the Colour. But I was particularly looking forward to seeing Balmoral Castle, where the Royal Family take their holiday each year. I was intrigued to see whether Her Majesty would have time to relax \u2013 to me, it seemed that she never stopped working.\n\nOn our first night, I remember gazing up at the night sky and noticing how brightly the stars shone out from the darkness. I'd always loved star-gazing and I find it a very calming experience. I vividly recall thinking how lucky I was to be standing in the majestic grounds of that historic building. A few days later, I relayed this to Her Majesty, with whom I now felt quite comfortable to enjoy some casual chat, and told her how much I loved gazing at the stars. It turned out that The Queen shared this passion and we looked out of the window into the darkness together. She pointed out the various constellations \u2013 the Plough, Ursa Major and Cassiopeia \u2013 and I mentioned that I had brought a telescope with me, a present from my family for my fortieth birthday. Her Majesty suggested that as it was a very clear, cold night, I should wrap up, go outside, and stand in front of the Castle shortly before midnight for the best view. I pointed out that the police probably wouldn't appreciate me setting off all the alarms in the middle of the night, so instead, I asked if I could take a car to drive up to the Glenshee \u2013 one of the Highlands' highest peaks. The Queen thought I was crazy and was reluctant to let me drive there alone, so she asked one of her duty protection officers to escort me.\n\nEquipped with my telescope, its stand, binoculars, and a flask of coffee, my slightly begrudging escort and I made our way into the night. On top of Glenshee, the view was breathtaking. With the headlights turned off and the protection officer freezing in the car, I started scanning the sky and admiring the stars and constellations. It was the very first time I ever saw the Milky Way and I remember feeling quite emotional. Eventually I was persuaded by the officer to return to the Castle, but I had my head through the sun roof throughout the journey back, wielding my binoculars, reluctant to say goodbye to the stars. The next morning, I was full of excitement. I rushed up to Her Majesty and could not stop talking about how wonderful the experience had been. She must have thought, thank goodness it will be a while before she does that again. But every time I return to Balmoral, before I go to sleep, I open my bedroom window and gaze at the sky for several minutes. It always reminds me of that conversation with Her Majesty when I discovered a shared passion and the fact that, because of her thoughtful gesture, I saw the Milky Way for the first time.\n\n_Taking a walk in Balmoral grounds in 1998 \u2013 note the high heels!_\n\n_Beauty within the castle grounds._\n\n_The Queen at a State Banquet in 2011._\nLEADING LADIES\n\nAs I began to settle into life in the Palace, I knew it was important to start standing my ground and fighting my corner. When I was asked to do something, I did it efficiently and thoroughly, but I soon became aware that I was also ruffling feathers.\n\nBack then, the Royal Household was very male dominated. It had long been a place where traditions were upheld and routines were followed. On one occasion, I remember being told that only after twelve years as a staff member would I be allowed to have an opinion. Needless to say, I was not happy with this \u2013 I would only ever act in Her Majesty's best interests and yet I often felt patronised and belittled.\n\nAs I began to get to know Her Majesty, I could not help but reflect on her role as a female monarch. I thought too of Queen Victoria, who ascended the throne at the very young age of eighteen, and the responsibility she bore. Victoria ruled alongside governments where all their members were men, and although Her Majesty's reign has seen a greater female presence politically, she must also have felt the same pressure to prove herself as a young, recently married female monarch. In the face of condescension and old-fashioned attitudes, I found inspiration in The Queen and the women who ruled before her and was determined to defend my right to be heard as a member of the Royal Household.\n\nI now know that my tendency to be forthright was a breath of fresh air for many of my colleagues, but it took me quite some time to learn the right approach when it came to expressing myself. In fact, I even became known as AK47 and The Queen's Gatekeeper, which I take as a compliment as it demonstrates my determination to be taken seriously.\n\nEven now, after twenty-five years, I still admire The Queen as a strong, powerful woman and I find great inspiration not only in her courage, but also in her humility and gentle humour. She has taught me so much over the years and has always encouraged me to stay true to myself while being open to the opinions of others, even if I don't share them. I know that her guidance has made me a better person, and for that I am eternally grateful.\n\n_The Queen and King Yang Dipertuan Agong of Malaysia during the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998._\nBACK TO FRONT  \nOR FRONT TO  \nBACK?\n\nI've learned countless new skills and techniques during my years working for The Queen. Even now I face new challenges when it comes to creating Her Majesty's outfits, but I always keep one thing in mind on a day-to-day basis: to trust my instincts. I learned this valuable lesson soon after I joined the Royal Household, and one memorable occasion will stay with me as a reminder of how important it is to speak up.\n\nA year after Peggy Hoath retired, in the autumn of 1995, I was promoted to Senior Dresser. Peggy had worked for The Queen for over thirty-five years, and knew all the tricks of the trade. Her standards were so high that I thought I would never be able to reach them. But I listened and learned, and everything she taught me is still carried out to this day.\n\nThen, in 1998, although I wasn't yet in charge of designing The Queen's wardrobe, I did assist in choosing appropriate outfits for each occasion. We were planning for Her Majesty's upcoming tour of Malaysia, where she would be closing the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. As the weather is so warm over there, it was decided that Her Majesty would wear a dress but no jacket or coat, and she chose a vibrant deep coral for the outfit and matching hat. Designs were drawn up and a brief was sent to the milliner. Sketches were done for the hat and, due to Her Majesty's busy schedule, the hat was delivered at the last minute. Her Majesty didn't have a chance to try it on and I didn't have a chance to look it over before it was packed up.\n\nOn the day of the ceremony, I was helping Her Majesty get ready and went to take the hat out of the box in which it had been carefully packed. As soon as I had it in my hands, I knew, deep down, that it was not going to suit The Queen. With a commanding shell-like brim and a very large flower on the reverse, it was certainly an interesting and beautifully made piece, but I had a gut feeling that it would not complement the outfit or enhance Her Majesty's features. I was also very aware that The Queen was going to give a speech that would be broadcast live on television and that the world's media would be paying close attention, as always, to what she was wearing.\n\nAs the morning went on, I became increasingly worried, so I decided I had to raise my concern and face the consequences later. So, I waited for The Queen to come into the dressing room, took a deep breath, and said, 'Your Majesty, I don't think you should wear this hat. It is not the right design for you and it won't suit you.' A long silence followed before she eventually looked up and said, 'Well, it's a bit late now. What else can I wear? I must wear it.'\n\nAlthough I admired her pragmatic approach, I was insistent. I told her I had been examining the hat from all angles and that it would be better worn back to front. The Queen couldn't believe that this would work. I told her that, if she did not believe me, she should consult The Duke of Edinburgh, as he always tells her the truth. At this point, I left the room feeling somewhat terrified, as you can imagine.\n\nBefore long, Her Majesty called me back. She had consulted His Royal Highness and, after an amusing conversation, in which I imagine The Duke didn't hold back, The Queen had decided to wear the hat the wrong way around, as I had suggested. She was, however, very concerned that the milliner might be upset. I told her not to worry and that I would think of an explanation for when we returned to London.\n\nI remember feeling so relieved and proud when Her Majesty stepped out onto the stage to deliver her speech that day. The press admired her outfit: the hat had a wonderful 1940s feel to it, with the large flower sitting high at the top. During The Queen's speech, I was holding my breath \u2013 not because I was concerned for her but because I was eager to hear whether she was happy with her last-minute decision to turn the hat. Sure enough, when she came to see me after the event, she greeted me with a lovely smile. No words were needed. It was in moments like these that I knew Her Majesty and I would make a great team. I was so proud that I'd voiced my concern, and I think The Queen appreciated it, too.\n\nSo, dear reader, what do you think? Was it back to front, or front to back? Or, in fact exactly the right way around?\n\n_Top: The 'front'. Bottom: The 'back', but so much more stylish._\n\n_The Queen and Pope John Paul II during a State Visit to the Vatican in 2000._\nMEETING HIS  \nHOLINESS  \nTHE POPE\n\nAfter the incident with the back-to-front hat at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, I became more determined to speak up when it came to matters of Her Majesty's wardrobe. I had worked so hard to familiarise myself with what Her Majesty liked to wear and, crucially, what was appropriate for The Queen to wear to any given engagement. However, speaking up and being heard wasn't always easy, as one particular incident taught me.\n\nIt was the year 2000 and Her Majesty was due to travel to Rome on a four-day State Visit. I wasn't yet responsible for attending recces ahead of such trips, so it was the Private Secretaries who on their return outlined the provisional engagements that The Queen would be attending. On one day Her Majesty would be meeting with His Holiness the Pope, after which there would be a private engagement, and so they suggested The Queen would be fine to wear a normal day dress for both events. Straight away, I knew this would be a mistake. Whenever Her Majesty had visited the Pope previously she had always, without fail, worn a long black dress, a beautiful diamond tiara and a long mantilla lace veil. Having been brought up Catholic, I knew instinctively that a day dress simply would not be appropriate and so I expressed this to the Secretaries, who made it clear that my advice wasn't welcome.\n\nFeeling ignored and patronised, I decided to discuss the matter with Her Majesty directly. I told her that the Private Secretaries had advised that she should wear a colourful day dress to meet with the Pope as it could then also be worn to her next engagement. I insisted that this would not be appropriate for meeting with His Holiness. As always, The Queen listened, however, once she had discussed the matter again with her Private Secretaries, they still insisted that a colourful day dress should be worn. In response, I asked her to go back to the Secretaries and ask them to do their homework. I considered it to be bad advice. I sensed that Her Majesty was starting to feel torn as to whose advice to take.\n\nConfident in the knowledge that I would be standing my ground, regardless of what the Secretaries said, I came up with a secret plan. While preparing for the upcoming tour, I selected one of Her Majesty's favourite outfits \u2013 something I knew she would feel comfortable in \u2013 and requested that one of the dressmakers, Maureen Rose, create something in exactly the same style but in navy blue, and to send the invoice only to me. There would be no fittings on this occasion as I did not want to alert anyone to my plan. In addition, I approached Freddie Fox, the milliner at the time, and asked him to design a pillbox-style hat with a detachable veil and that the invoice must also be sent directly to me.\n\nI spoke with Her Majesty one final time before the tour. Once again, I told her that I was certain the Vatican would not have suggested that a day dress would be appropriate. I remember The Queen asking if I had ever been to the Vatican before and how I could be so sure of my advice. I hadn't, but said the reason I knew was because I was brought up a strong Catholic and that if The Queen turned up for such an important meeting in a day dress, where would it all end? I felt that standards would start slipping. Would guests just turn up to the Investitures in a cotton dress and pumps because they felt more comfortable? I insisted once more that the Pope would not expect guests to arrive in such informal dress. I simply would not dress The Queen this way and at this point, Her Majesty just wanted the matter to be sorted. I had to carry off my plan perfectly.\n\nThree months later, we were in Rome and I went about unpacking Her Majesty's clothes and arranging her outfits for the upcoming engagements. Soon enough, the day of her visit to the Pope arrived and I heard my name being called loudly down the corridor: I will never forget the sight of the Private Secretary frantically running down one of the longest corridors in the Quirinale Palace, bellowing my name, 'Angela, Angela, quick!', and wearing his brown jumper, brown corduroy trousers, brown socks but no shoes! He demanded to know what The Queen would be wearing that day. I calmly informed him that Her Majesty would be wearing a shocking pink outfit, as advised by him and the Assistant Private Secretaries, which did little to calm his panicked state. 'Don't you always travel with a black outfit?' he asked, and I replied that I had not on this occasion. In fact, we do always travel with a black outfit in case of an unexpected sad occasion, but I wasn't going to let him know that after what he had put me through. I told him not to worry and that Her Majesty would still look beautiful.\n\nHe then sent a message to The Queen asking what should be done, as the Vatican had said that the outfit must be dark. Shortly afterwards, The Queen sent for me and asked if we had any dark outfits that she could wear instead. 'Okay, Your Majesty,' I said, 'I'll show you something.' And with that, I produced the navy-blue dress and pillbox hat that I had had secretly made before casually commenting that, ideally, the outfit would be black for a meeting with the Pope. Her Majesty agreed and without a moment of hesitation, I produced the exact same dress and veiled hat in black. 'Luckily enough,' I said, 'I also had this made. So you're absolutely fine.' I vividly remember the brief look of relief on The Queen's face.\n\n_The two versions of the dress that I had secretly had made._\n\nWatching Her Majesty walk out in her stylish, modern and appropriate black outfit to meet His Holiness the Pope, I felt so proud of myself for having faith in my convictions. The Queen walked out dressed appropriately in her new black outfit as Head of the Church of England meeting another head of the church, His Holiness the Pope. I had known all along that my instincts about The Queen's outfit that day were right, even though I wasn't being listened to. From then on, I felt confident that my opinion would be heard.\n\nEventually I found out that the private engagement was a photograph of The Queen with members of the Royal Household outside the Sistine Chapel, and the Private Secretaries wanted Her Majesty to wear a normal day dress so that it looked like a fun day out, as the Royal Household wouldn't be dressed in black. This photograph moment had been prioritised above that important private meeting with His Holiness.\n\nIn 2014, The Queen met privately with the Pope during a visit to Rome. I had the honour and privilege to be presented to His Holiness. This was extremely special for me. I was holding my rosary beads when the Pope touched my hands to bless them, and I knew my mother would have been so proud of me.\n\n_A little colour makes all the difference. At Joel & Son Fabrics in 2019._\nFINDING  \nMY FEET\n\nAs my role progressed, I spent more and more time working on Her Majesty's wardrobe and I started to notice that many of her outfits were made in similar colours. The Queen was wearing a lot of dark green, navy, and red, and I had also noticed that some of the older pieces \u2013 the stunning Hardy Amies evening gowns, for example \u2013 which had been the height of fashion a few years before, had begun to look a little tired. Spending time with The Queen had allowed me to understand better her likes and dislikes, and I sensed that she would enjoy more vibrant colours and some fresher designs. At this point Her Majesty's outfits were still only made by designers and dressmakers outside the Palace.\n\nOn one occasion I mentioned to The Queen that the designers should be looking at brighter colours and new designs, but who was I to tell them? I had been Senior Dresser for a couple of years and in that time had become more confident, talking to The Queen more about her outfits. I think The Queen knew that I was loyal and would only ever be honest with her. I could not help thinking that The Queen's style needed to change quickly, before she was made to look older than she was \u2013 which was what some of the old designs did. Some of the coats and dresses also had to be made shorter, as The Queen still had, and still does have, a good figure and excellent legs.\n\nOne day, The Queen invited me to join her the next time a designer, his team and the milliner came in for a fitting. I was slightly taken aback as I wouldn't usually be present for fittings; usually I just saw the dressmakers into the room and would leave them to it, but this time I was asked to stay. I was also quite anxious as I knew I couldn't hide my feelings very well: if an outfit did not suit Her Majesty, the expression on my face would make it clear to everyone what I thought. Even worse, if The Queen asked my advice, I would be forced to dismiss an outfit in front of its designer, or the hat in front of its milliner. Her Majesty would never want to hurt anyone's feelings, even if I didn't mind, and I would have to be honest about my opinion for her sake. Little did I know that this moment was yet another stepping stone for me, another door opening.\n\nWith the fitting under way, as I'd anticipated, the expression on my face started to give everything away and Her Majesty asked my opinion. This question didn't go down well with everyone in the room. With bated breath they all turned to me for my answer and waited, and I could see the shock across their faces as I told them my thoughts: the hats were too masculine and their patterns too large. In terms of the outfits, The Queen needed something more chic, fitted and elegant. There was a shocked silence in the room after I spoke. I suspected that I would never be invited back, and I imagine the designer and milliner hoped as much, but Her Majesty continued to request my presence at fittings, to the dread of those designers. I became their worst nightmare.\n\nI vividly remember one fitting where The Queen was draped in a very large piece of bold, jacquard material in a large print. Even a six-foot-tall model would have struggled to pull off something like that, and it absolutely drowned Her Majesty. Once again, I could not hide my disapproval when Her Majesty asked my thoughts. Without hesitation, I said, 'No way! It doesn't suit you at all and it is totally the wrong pattern.' An awkward silence and an icy atmosphere descended on the room. Everyone in sequence turned their heads towards me with what felt like daggers in their eyes, except for The Queen who stared straight ahead and goodness knows what she was thinking. The atmosphere was ice cold. Just at that moment, The Duke of Edinburgh happened to walk past and Her Majesty asked what he thought of the material, knowing that, like mine, his feedback is always honest. 'Is that the new material for the sofa?' he joked, before continuing on his way. I excused myself, left the room, and privately punched the air with delight. I composed myself, then walked back into the dressing room where I noticed the material was being folded and put away unused. The Queen was thanking the designers and the milliner for their time and they left the room.\n\nShortly after that fitting, and experiencing my honesty, Her Majesty asked me to draw some of my own designs for what I thought she should wear. I told her I couldn't \u2013 it had been a long time since I had sketched any outfits. 'If I wanted an artist, I would hire one,' The Queen said jokingly. And with that, I began rummaging through the parcels of gift materials, taking samples to show Her Majesty the wealth of beautiful silks and glorious patterns that she already had in her stockroom. Then I showed her some quickly drawn sketches of more fitted, stylish pieces. Thanks to my mum, I'd already had extensive training on the necessary skills but I was a little out of practice. I needed to refresh my memory quickly, considering that it was Her Majesty's outfits I would be working on. Each was inspired by my own love of fashion and my mother's elegant wardrobe \u2013 her perfectly tailored skirts and jackets. Sometimes I channelled the sensibility of my aunt Edwina \u2013 a designer, tailor, and dressmaker, who liked to dress more daringly. She was the first woman I saw in a transparent black chiffon blouse. The Queen saw my drawings of the designs, along with samples of the beautiful materials already being stored upstairs, and accepted them. The Queen liked the designs and suggested that we employ a machinist to help me. Before long, Her Majesty's wardrobe was being revitalised as, piece by piece, vibrant colours and stylish cuts made their way onto the rails. More to the point, The Queen was happy. It is an honour to be the first ever in-house Designer to Her Majesty The Queen.\n\n_Her Majesty wore this for her 90th birthday in Windsor in 2016._\n\n_The symbolic 'Girls of Great Britian and Ireland' Tiara is one of my favourite pieces._\nTHE QUEEN'S  \nJEWELLERY\n\nBefore long, my role as Senior Dresser and Designer for Her Majesty evolved. Owing to the strength of my relationship with The Queen and the mutual respect we shared, in 1998 I was given the additional titles of Personal Advisor and Curator to Her Majesty The Queen. I still continued to design outfits for Her Majesty, and did this mainly in the evenings and at weekends. As Personal Advisor, I am in the privileged position of not only advising The Queen on her outfits and hats, but also looking after Her Majesty's health and well-being, and communicating with her team of expert professors and doctors.\n\nAs Curator, I would be responsible for The Queen's personal jewellery and certain pieces from the Crown Jewels, as well as The Queen's Insignia. It is a great honour and privilege to be entrusted with the care of The Queen's private jewellery and to help select items that are worn on a daily basis.\n\nOne of the first things I wanted to do in this new role as Curator was to find a jeweller with whom I could build a relationship, as the previous Crown Jeweller was due to retire. They would oversee one of the rarest collections of gems and historical pieces, some of which have never been seen, and would need to be extremely knowledgeable about the repair and restoration of antique jewellery. And, as is the case with all staff members in the Royal Household, they would need to be very discreet.\n\nHaving discussed this idea with Her Majesty, who agreed, I knew exactly where to begin my search; the Royal Palace itself, which often proved to be a fountain of knowledge. Not wanting to rouse anyone's suspicions, I mentioned to several people that I was looking to commission a jeweller to design something for myself, and time and time again the same name was suggested: Mr Harry Collins from G. Collins & Sons, who was based in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Her Majesty often chooses smaller, family-run businesses to work with and was not in the slightest bit bothered by the fact that Mr Collins was based outside of London, so a date was soon set for him to come to Buckingham Palace and bring a selection of his work.\n\nA week later, a very anxious Mr Collins arrived for his appointment, unaware that I had arranged for Her Majesty to join us. Shortly before The Queen's arrival, I asked him to display his silverware on the table and wait outside the room. Understandably, Harry seemed a little unnerved as he left. Her Majesty joined me to review his work and she was keen to purchase a few salvers and trinkets, so I proceeded to go and bring Mr Collins back into the room. I had to put him under pressure to see how he would cope, especially if I gave him a particular piece of jewellery from The Queen's collection. I needed to be sure that he would be able to work under stress if necessary.\n\nI always find it fascinating to see how differently people respond on first meeting The Queen. Unsurprisingly, Mr Collins was rather taken aback, and after the formal introductions, he began to discuss his work with Her Majesty, going into detail about his style and techniques. The Queen kept glancing in my direction and I knew from the look on her face that she was happy \u2013 this was her seal of approval and a signal to present Mr Collins with a beautiful leather fitted case which contained the Vladimir Tiara.\n\n_The Vladimir Tiara is made up of fifteen intertwined diamond-set ovals from which hang pendant pearls. The pearls can be interchanged with emeralds._\n\nI brought the case in and placed it on the table. Then I opened the box and took out the tiara, handing it to Mr Collins and explaining what was needed. Mr Collins delicately took the tiara from me and held it as gently as one would hold a baby. Carefully turning the headpiece to examine its diamonds and pear-shaped, cabochon-cut emeralds, he was clearly transfixed and I noticed that he kept staring at the tiara and Her Majesty in turn. It struck me that he was frozen to the spot \u2013 still smiling, but saying no words: it was as though he had stage fright. Luckily, The Queen is very adept in these situations and simply flashed Mr Collins a huge smile which helped snap him out of his trance.\n\n'Mr Collins,' Her Majesty said calmly, 'do you think you would be able to alter the casting on the drops of the emeralds?' Harry agreed, so I asked how much the re-casting would cost. 'Not much,' was his response, so I asked again. Once again, his response was vague and he looked nervously towards Her Majesty, only for her to say, 'Don't look at me, Angela does the money'. Putting Mr Collins under pressure, I asked one final time, 'Please can you give me an estimate, Mr Collins?' and he finally quoted a price which was agreeable to everyone.\n\n_The pearls for the Vladimir Tiara are kept in numbered pouches and it can take nearly an hour to change them._\n\nMr Collins has been an integral part of our team over the years and in June 2000, The Queen had a special request for him \u2013 to design a special piece of jewellery for her mother, Queen Elizabeth, to mark her 100th birthday. Needless to say, he was thrilled to be asked, and when Mr Collins returned a couple of weeks later to discuss some ongoing restoration work, he told Her Majesty that he had, 'come up with a lovely idea for your mum's present', producing a superbly designed brooch. It was a very unusual piece, handmade in 18-carat gold with a cabochon-cut centre of rock crystal and featuring a painstakingly fine hand-painted centenary rose set among 100 diamonds, to give the appearance that it is floating.\n\n_The Queen's special handmade birthday gift for The Queen Mother._\n\nThe Queen was delighted. When I escorted Mr Collins out of the Palace that day, I thought it was important to point out that although it wasn't a major issue, it was more correct to refer to members of the Royal Family by their full title, rather than 'mum'. Mortified, he asked me to pass on his apologies and even informed me later that the next day he'd purchased a copy of the Debrett's book on etiquette.\n\nA few weeks later, the day came to present Her Majesty with the brooch, and upon his arrival, it was clear that Mr Collins had been carefully studying how one should supposedly behave around The Queen. He greeted Her Majesty and presented her with the magnificent fitted case in which the brooch sat and, having read somewhere that where possible, one should not turn their back on The Queen, he proceeded to walk away backwards. Unfortunately, Mr Collins failed to notice Linnet, one of Her Majesty's corgis, lying on the floor behind him. He tripped over Linnet and ended up next to the dog, lying spread-eagled on the carpet. Terrified that he'd hurt one of The Queen's dogs, Harry frantically rubbed Linnet's chest, apologising profusely, but Her Majesty reassured Mr Collins and told him not to worry: it was not his fault as the corgis had a terrible habit of lying in the most awkward places.\n\nFrom that point on, Mr Collins and I formed a fruitful working relationship which saw him tend to some of the most significant pieces in Her Majesty's collection, including the alteration of the Vladimir Tiara and of the Countess of Wessex's wedding tiara, which was recently redesigned for the State Banquet with President Trump. Mr Collins is truly an invaluable member of the team.\n\nI have also had the privilege to work with various other jewellers, Swarovski Crystals and Mappin & Webb to name just a couple. The fourth of June 2013 was to be the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty's Coronation and Mark Appleby, from Mappin & Webb, called me explaining that the company wanted to design a brooch to give to The Queen in honour of this special occasion. Mark and I discussed the idea and it was agreed that it should be an orchid brooch made from Waterford Crystal. I particularly liked the idea of using the crystal, as you would then be able to see the colour of The Queen's outfit through it. The brooch consisted of four hand-cut Waterford Crystal orchid flowers surrounded by sixty-six diamonds, which would be attached to rose gold stamens. The brooch was lovely and Her Majesty wore it during the Irish State Visit at Windsor Castle, which was particularly fitting as Waterford Crystal is based in Ireland.\n\nMY PRETTY   \nWOMAN MOMENT\n\nBy the year 2001, I had begun designing outfits for The Queen and I wanted to ensure that from then on Her Majesty always looked her best and was up-to-date on the latest trends. As part of my role as a designer, I was responsible for searching for another designer whose creations might be suitable for The Queen, as I knew I wouldn't be able to do it all myself. Usually this is an enjoyable task, but on one occasion, things didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped.\n\nOn one of my first solo excursions, I was planning to visit some local designers, not far from Buckingham Palace. I dressed in smart-casual clothes, but comfortably, as anyone might do when they're anticipating a morning of walking around the shops. The first shop I went into had a stale feel to it and the outfits in the window display seemed slightly old-fashioned. None the less, I was approached by a lady who smiled and asked if she could help. I explained that I'd come to have a look at their clothes and asked whether I could see the clothes on the rails to gain a better idea of the style and cut of their designs, as well as the finishing. As she agreed, I spotted a man at the back of the room who, even though he was in the middle of fitting someone, was staring at me as if I was the dirt on his shoe. He peered over the top of his black-rimmed glasses and condescendingly advised that the clothing was 'couture, not retail'.\n\nI was shocked by his rudeness and immediately turned to the woman who had greeted me and I said quietly, 'I do know it's couture, not retail, thank you. And he has just made a big mistake. Huge. I will be back to tell him who he missed designing for.' In my mind I was Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman right then!\n\nWith that, I left the shop feeling humiliated and belittled. How rude of him to presume my status in such a way.\n\nI made my way to the next shop, hoping for a more positive experience. I had been recommended to try Motcomb Street by one of The Queen's Ladies-in-Waiting as a good area to find designers, so I went into Stewart Parvin Couture. As I stepped inside, it felt different from the last place \u2013 bright and modern with beautiful outfits everywhere. Again, a lady met me with a beaming smile and I asked the same questions as before: whether they'd mind me looking at the designs, the cut and the finishing of their clothes. 'Not at all, take your time,' was the very different response, and I went along the rails freely, looking at all the outfits. It was immediately clear to me that this was not only the work of a designer but of an excellent tailor. I was so impressed that I asked if it would be possible to meet Mr Parvin and, sure enough, the lady offered me a seat while she went to fetch him.\n\nI had to wait only ten minutes for Mr Parvin, during which time I kept looking towards a particular blue cocktail outfit with the most lovely harlequin multi-coloured gem buttons. In fact, I was engrossed in these buttons when a young man in a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt greeted me warmly and enthusiastically. I explained to Stewart (for that was who he was) that, having looked at his designs, I had my eye on the blue cocktail suit with diamant\u00e9 buttons, but that I would need to take the piece away for a short while to show my employer. I promised to bring it back within a few hours. Bear in mind that, at this point, Stewart had no idea who I was or for whom I worked, but he agreed: he really was the warm, friendly person he appeared to be.\n\nTwo hours later, I returned with the outfit, which I had shown to The Queen and had received her approval on Stewart's style. Stewart was there to greet me again and, after thanking him, I asked if he had a stockroom. Sure enough, he took me straight downstairs to show me, seemingly unfazed by my endless questions about his work. Three of his materials leaped out at me as being appropriate for Her Majesty \u2013 a blue fleck tweed among them. With these in mind, I asked Stewart if he would do some quick designs there and then for a very high-profile female customer. Once again, Stewart was happy to oblige and we spent some time sketching potential designs. Safe in the knowledge that Stewart was a talented, trustworthy, and kind person, I finally disclosed that these designs would be for Her Majesty The Queen, but that he must be discreet and keep everything confidential.\n\nAnd that was that. Since then, Stewart and I have been working together for The Queen, and our friendship and professional relationship have gone from strength to strength. Sometimes it's hard to believe that we have known each other for over eighteen years. In 2007, Stewart was granted his Royal Warrant in recognition of his contribution to The Queen's wardrobe. Little does that first designer know what he missed out on.\n\n_Happy times \u2013 Stewart and I collaborating together at Joel & Son. Look out for this material used in a cocktail dress to be worn in 2020._\n\n_Jackie and I working hard._\nALL IN A  \nDAY'S WORK\n\nAs my role evolved and became even more varied, I soon learned that there would be no 'typical' day for me, just as there is no 'typical' day in Her Majesty's schedule, with its various engagements, Royal Tours and State Visits.\n\nA couple of years ago, in 2017, a request from the Castle Administrator at Glamis Castle, Tommy Baxter, made its way to my desk in a handwritten letter from Angus, Scotland. Tommy was looking to organise an exhibition to mark the eightieth anniversary of King George VI's Coronation and was wondering if The Queen would be willing to loan The Queen Mother's wedding dress, her Coronation dress and Coronation robe for display, as well as the Coronation dresses, robes and coronets of Their Royal Highnesses The Princess Elizabeth and The Princess Margaret. Tommy mentioned that he thought it was unlikely: he had already been in touch with a member of the Royal Household and been offered two paintings for the exhibition, but no outfits.\n\nGlamis Castle is very close to The Queen's heart as it is where her mother, Queen Elizabeth, grew up and where Her Majesty was often taken as a child, with her sister, Princess Margaret. I knew that The Queen had wonderful memories of the historic castle, so I decided to ask whether we could agree to Tommy's request. Her Majesty was happy to do so, and asked me to 'help them as much as you can', even noting that some of those items had recently been on display in Buckingham Palace \u2013 there seemed no reason why they could not be loaned for the exhibition in Glamis Castle. Tommy was thrilled when I told him, but gaining The Queen's approval turned out to be the easiest part of this process.\n\nAfter much correspondence, my personal assistant, Jackie Newbold, and I found a suitable date to deliver everything to Glamis. We had to consider transport carefully \u2013 the cases must never be out of sight \u2013 so we decided that the train would be our safest option. With a case each \u2013 one containing the Princesses' small dresses, robes and coronets, the other with The Queen Mother's dress and robe \u2013 we made our way, alone and with no security, for a two-night stay in Dundee. God help anyone who tried to take the cases from us that day! We weren't stressed: we were alert, very aware, and very watchful.\n\nWhen we arrived at the Castle, we got straight to work. When it comes to any exhibition or display of The Queen's things, I tend to have a lot of input, so that Her Majesty is safe in the knowledge that everything will be displayed or showcased in just the right way. Jackie and I were thrilled to help the Earl of Strathmore and the Dowager Countess make a truly breathtaking exhibition.\n\nBefore we headed back to London, I was reminded that The Queen was in need of some checked skirts, so Doreen, one of Tommy's colleagues, was kind enough to take us to the Fabric Mill at Halley Stevensons \u2013 the perfect place to find something suitable for Her Majesty. All in all, it was a very fruitful trip.\n\nThe exhibition ran for five months and Tommy regularly emailed with updates to say how well it was going and how much the public enjoyed seeing the Coronation outfits. During our stay in Balmoral that year, The Queen herself went to Glamis Castle to have a look at her mother's dress and robe, and her younger sister's outfit, on display in that beautiful setting. It must have brought back such fond memories.\n\nAs the exhibition came to a close, Jackie and I arranged a date to collect the outfits. It was a particularly busy time of year so we decided to travel up to Dundee and come back immediately \u2013 everyone thought we were crazy for not staying overnight, even The Queen. But when the diary is that full, you do what you have to do. On the day, we had only a fifteen-minute window in which Tommy was to meet us on the station platform to return the cases and, as luck would have it, the train was running five minutes late. Needless to say, Jackie and I were slightly on edge. Happily, the exchange went smoothly (and very quickly!) and we were immediately on our way back to London with the priceless cargo. All in a day's work!\n\n_The Queen Mother's robe, worn during King George VI's Coronation. Regal at its best._\n\n_The Queen at Royal Ascot in 2019._\n\n_My design room at Buckingham Palace. This outfit was worn during the Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace and demonstrates how well The Queen and I work together. I designed the outfit with the detailing on the left shoulder, and The Queen requested it on her right shoulder, which is exactly how she wore it on the night._\nDESIGNING  \nFOR THE  \nQUEEN\n\nThe Queen accepts more than 300 engagements each year, through different seasons, occasions, and cultures. Our role as her dressers is to ensure that Her Majesty is appropriately attired for each occasion \u2013 from State events to informal daywear, in the United Kingdom and abroad.\n\nFrom time to time The Queen will wear the same outfit to different events, although several months will pass between them. When I'm designing an outfit, I start with 'feelers': large samples of material that allow me to experience the texture of the fabric before deciding to buy it. I will squeeze and twist the sample in my hands, before smoothing it out again. If the material remains crumpled or creased, it will be of no use and is discarded from the selection.\n\nI get my inspiration from seeing and touching the materials too, rather than starting with a sketch. I find a quiet moment when I hide in the materials storeroom and play with the fabrics, allowing them to shape themselves into a design. I look for movement with soft, light materials, and might even switch on a fan to see how they behave in a breeze. Fabric choices are obviously important \u2013 there are beautiful fabrics that work well but might catch or pull on objects like Her Majesty's watch. Loose-weave fabrics can easily lose their shape, requiring a good lining to prevent this. They can also develop loose strands, making them appear unkempt and unattractive.\n\nColour is key, though \u2013 the colour chosen must suit The Queen and the occasion. Vibrant colours work well in the daytime: they allow her to stand out from the crowd and be visible to the well-wishers who have come to see her. As the light changes, or when Her Majesty moves to an interior space, this will have an effect on the colour and texture of the fabric, and this must be taken into account.\n\n_Before I started working as Dresser and Designer for The Queen, no records were kept of what Her Majesty wore and when. I started keeping this diary in secret \u2013 scribbling and sketching hastily at midnight each night just to keep a record of the colours and a rough idea of the design so Her Majesty didn't repeat outfits too soon. After 1995 I was able to start keeping records more officially and less hurriedly than this!_\nI consider the four seasons separately and individually when designing for The Queen. Spring is for delicate, paler colours, flower motifs, lightweight coats and jackets, but as the weather is changeable, I must ensure that warmer fabrics are used to shield Her Majesty from the chill. Summer is for light, dynamic fabrics that move and flow with the breeze; strong florals work, with vibrant colours. Autumn is cooler, and I introduce medium to heavier fabrics, such as wools, cashmere and double cr\u00eapes, with a mellower colour palette. Winter brings gold, royal blue, deep purple, as well as velvets and heavier wools, with matching scarves, larger collars and warm hats. If Her Majesty is due to attend an engagement in particularly cold weather, from 2019 onwards fake fur will be used to make sure she stays warm.\n\nAlthough there are, of course, many beautiful garments and outfits, there is also the casual side to Her Majesty, when she goes walking with her dogs, for example. Although The Queen is famous for her green macs and her Wellington boots, The Queen also likes to wear skirts and blouses. The Queen has a mixture of silk blouses as well as cotton shirts, which are all handmade by Grosvenor Shirts Ltd in Jermyn Street. As you can imagine, over the years The Queen now has many blouses and shirts, but she also wears cotton dresses in hot weather. And this is where Karl Dunkley and Juan Credidio at Grosvenor Shirts really come into their own, making these more casual outfits in their factory in Ireland.\n\nMany of The Queen's more memorable dresses are created for specific events, such as a State ceremony or a Royal Tour abroad. When a tour is in prospect, The Queen will review the designs with me to find a style that will be sympathetic to the people and culture of the country she is to visit.\n\nIn general, necklines on coats and jackets must not be too high or too low, and must not restrict The Queen's movement. This is particularly true of thick wool coats with wide, full collars. A low neckline on a long dress allows a distinctive necklace to sit well and to be seen. In warmer weather I typically design with a more open neckline, and when cooler the neckline will be higher and closed for warmth and comfort.\n\nWhen Her Majesty is travelling in a car and sitting for long periods, her coat or jacket must be comfortable and practical, and she must be confident on getting out of a vehicle that her outfit will fall correctly and not crumple. Too much fabric can prove challenging in that situation \u2013 and large, heavy beading on a gown can be uncomfortable, especially on the back or when sitting down. None the less, The Queen understands that beading and crystals are sometimes necessary to produce a spectacular effect: she doesn't mind temporary discomfort when it is so important for her to 'look the part'. I usually add a few extra layers of lining to help cushion the impact, especially at the back of the dress, and try to keep the heavily beaded areas to the front and sides.\n\nThe lengths of dresses vary according to the occasion: daywear will usually stop just below the knee; a cocktail dress for a drinks reception could fall to just below the knee again or ballerina length, finishing just on or below the bottom of the calf. This length is particularly good as it enables Her Majesty to walk unhindered. Stairs can present a problem with dresses if they are too long or too tight. On occasion you will see The Queen wearing skirts that flare out from a fitted hip or knee as they allow for easy movement. I often use a fishtail in long skirts, as this gives a lovely shape to the back while still allowing for movement. Overall, The Queen likes her clothes to be fitted but not too tight, with a sleeve length of either three-quarters or full \u2013 definitely not too wide at the wrists: at lunch or dinner the cuffs might end up in the soup.\n\nWhen the time comes, I arrange a meeting with The Queen to go through my design ideas, suggested outfits and material choices. It usually takes no longer than an hour, and once we've come to an agreement, the outfits are made swiftly. Two fittings are then arranged to ensure that each garment fits Her Majesty perfectly.\n\nThe Queen's shoes are mostly handmade \u2013 and usually with no more than a 2-inch heel, although for uneven surfaces, such as cobbles, gravel, or grass, she will wear shoes with a lower heel. In the mid-2000s I was looking to modernise Her Majesty's shoe , so I called in an expert, and friend, Michael Atmore, the Editorial Director of Fairchild Publications. Known in the industry as the 'Shoe Whisperer', he suggested that I reconnect with Rayne Shoes, under the new direction of Nick Rayne. Rayne Shoes had a long history of supplying the Royal Family, but had stopped doing so after a change in ownership and direction. After this successful re-introduction, Michael also introduced me to Stuart Weitzman, Neil Clifford at Kurt Geiger and Carvela and Manolo Blahnik. Her Majesty tends to use cream, white or black for her shoes as one pair will match, and be worn with, many different outfits. As has been reported a lot in the press, a 'flunky' wears in Her Majesty's shoes to ensure that they are comfortable and that she is always good to go. And yes, I am that 'flunky'. The Queen has very little time to herself, and no time to wear in her own shoes, and as we share the same shoe size it makes the most sense this way.\n\nLike The Queen's shoes, most of her handbags are custom made, and weight is very important \u2013 given that Her Majesty may have to carry it for some time. She prefers a longer handle so that it hangs from her forearm without catching on the cuffs. The Queen doesn't have favourites, and uses handbags from different designers.\n\n_The 'EU dress' \u2013 seeThings Aren't Always What They Appear to Be for full story_\n\nThe Queen is conscious that she must be easily visible to as many people as possible when she is out and about so I choose mainly striking colours so that she will be easily seen. For example, when Her Majesty visits a school or a children's centre, she is always dressed in a bright, jolly colour, and her hat has the kind of details that will appeal to children \u2013 feathers, twirls, twists, flowers, and ribbons. When she visits a nursing or residential home for older people, she prefers to wear a strong, well-defined colour, with a structured hat, to help those who are visually impaired to see her and feel part of the visit. In fact, when The Queen's engagement includes a walkabout, the size of the crown and brim of the hat are also taken into account, as The Queen is aware that people travel from far and wide hoping to get a glimpse of her and it is important that young and old can see her clearly on the day. But the crown of the hat must not be so high that Her Majesty has difficulty with getting into and out of a vehicle. After 6pm, The Queen does not usually wear a hat, but on State occasions or when attending special dinners, she may wear a headpiece or a tiara to go with a beautiful evening dress.\n\nIf Her Majesty has to attend a large number of engagements in one day \u2013 sometimes up to five \u2013 I go for zips every time in her dresses: it is much more convenient for The Queen to be able to step in and out of a dress quickly: trying to lift a garment over the head can also wreak havoc with the hair. I also use discreet weights in the hemlines \u2013 many of The Queen's engagements take place in the open air where a sudden breeze can be troublesome.\n\nTypically, the lifespan of an outfit can be up to around twenty-five years. Her Majesty is always thrifty and likes her clothes to be adapted and recycled as much as possible. Given how much attention is paid to what The Queen wears, the Assistant Dressers and I do take into consideration how regularly an outfit is worn. After two or three outings, a piece will have become familiar to the media and public, so we will either look for ways to modify it or it will become something that is worn on private holidays at Balmoral or Sandringham, or as a morning dress. Older outfits are handy considering that, just like all of us, Her Majesty is likely to encounter the odd muddy dog.\n\n_Dress worn in 2018._\n\n_Part of The Queen's private wardrobe._\nTHE QUEEN'S  \nWARDROBE\n\nThere has been much speculation about the private rooms in Buckingham Palace, both in terms of their number and how they are used. However, Her Majesty is a very modest lady and only occupies a few rooms: her bedroom; her private sitting room; her dressing room and bathroom, and the Audience Room, which is where she meets with the Prime Minster and other dignitaries, and The Empire Room, which is a waiting room. These rooms aren't vast and there is space for very little furniture: just the odd wardrobe or chest of drawers.\n\nEven after twenty-five years of service with Her Majesty, it still astonishes me that some former members of staff \u2013 even those who have not worked in the Palace for thirty years \u2013 are prone to making suggestions and sharing supposed details about The Queen's private rooms, when they actually have no insight whatsoever. The only gentlemen that I have ever known to enter these rooms are The Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family, because The Queen's privacy is the absolute priority among her personal staff. So, do bear this in mind the next time you hear any supposed details about Her Majesty's private rooms! There will always be people who will say anything for attention.\n\nLike any woman, The Queen is very practical and has her everyday items accessible to her, such as day dresses, hanging in the wardrobe in her dressing room which are ready to wear. Outfits that Her Majesty would wear on special occasions or for outside engagements are kept in a wardrobe upstairs, along with longer evening gowns, so that whenever The Queen wishes to see these items, she can pop upstairs to browse through them. Having the upstairs space is equally as convenient for me, as when I am preparing for an upcoming Royal Tour, it would be impractical to try to safely move all of the many outfits and their matching hats to her dressing room to go through. Instead, selections are made based on sketches and material samples which I show to Her Majesty, and all the designing and creation of the outfits takes place on the Dressers' Floor.\n\nPart of my varied role involves looking after these personal rooms, along with Her Majesty's two Pages. With the help of the Assistant Dressers, I ensure that Her Majesty's wardrobe is properly organised and ready for the day ahead and The Queen's Housemaids will clean all her rooms daily. I am always respectful of Her Majesty's privacy and we try to make sure that she has a little time to herself.\n\n_Left: Calling bells originated during Queen Victoria's reign, when wiring was first put into Buckingham Palace. These are the same ones still used today to signal us from Her Majesty's private rooms. Right: Part of The Queen's private wardrobe._\n\n_The cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me, in 2019._\nTHE TEAM\n\nOur team is like a wedding cake. On the top tier is Her Majesty, of course, followed by me underneath. Then we have the Deputy Dresser, Timea, followed by three Assistant Dressers \u2013 Grace, Phoebe and Lucy \u2013 who assist me with The Queen's wardrobe. The title 'Dresser' could be a bit misleading as Her Majesty actually dresses herself. Our role is to lay everything out for her and sometimes help zip her up or fasten a tricky piece of jewellery, although The Queen doesn't need help with her everyday jewellery such as her pearls and earrings.\n\nAfter the Assistant Dressers is Jackie, my Personal Assistant. She not only looks after the work side of things \u2013 managing my diary, organising meetings, the bills \u2013 but also me personally, helping me get to the places I need to be at on time as my day can be quite hectic. With Jackie there, I know everything will be in order.\n\nNext is Neil, who is our Project Manager and who runs the floor. Anything to do with maintenance or the removal of luggage \u2013 whether it is a large number of cases to be sent to Windsor or Balmoral, or smaller, everyday deliveries \u2013 Neil deals with other members of the Royal staff to make sure everything is organised. He is also helpful when it comes to setting up meetings with property services and the travel office and making sure everything is organised.\n\nThen we have Stella, who is our milliner. Stella makes Her Majesty's hats based on my designs and I often ask for her input on which trimmings work best together \u2013 I really value her ideas and suggestions.\n\nWe also have a dressmaker, Desiree, who makes the clothes once I have designed them and they have been approved by Her Majesty. As with Stella, the dressmaker will suggest alterations and additions and she always knows exactly how I am picturing an outfit. I'll often say, 'Yes, that's it \u2013 that's exactly what I want!' She works on it from the very start to the finish, from cutting the pattern all the way to the completed article.\n\nFinally, we have a housemaid who focuses specifically on the Dressers' Floor and helps to keep things organised and tidy. She will assist with packing and labelling each item.\n\nAn important thing that helps to keep our team running like clockwork is that everyone is trained in each other's roles. Jackie, for example, is trained as an Assistant Dresser and Stella can make alterations and repairs to dresses. So, if I happen to be ill or on holiday, someone else can step in. Everyone covers everything and works together seamlessly.\n\nHowever, I do have strict rules on the Dressers' Floor. Firstly, I don't hold with gossip or little spats between staff members. I run a happy ship and everyone needs to feel that we're a small family. Secondly, no one can come onto our floor without an invitation or not having made an appointment, because there could be private clothes out that we're in the process of washing or ironing. I think that if any of my team was asked what they think of me, they'd say I was fair. They know what I'd say about them \u2013 that they're the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me.\n\n_Our record keeping has definitely built up over the years!_\nOUR  \nANNUAL  \nDIARY\n\nWhile it is impossible to predict what each year will bring, there are certain annual events and engagements that will forever remain unchanged.\n\nThe Christmas holiday season always starts in the middle of December at Sandringham House, in Norfolk, where Her Majesty is based until early February. After Christmas and New Year, which The Queen spends with her family, Her Majesty will invite private guests to Sandringham, who tend to stay until the beginning of February. Even throughout the Christmas period, The Queen will continue to work on her red boxes. Usually, Her Majesty will only return to Buckingham Palace after the anniversary of the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February. It's certainly a sad time for The Queen but I am sure that she finds comfort in the memories that Sandringham holds for her.\n\nUpon returning to Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty's schedule resumes at full pace with a host of daily private audiences, weekly meetings with the Prime Minister and occasional meetings with the Privy Council, as well as the odd evening function. In the run-up to Easter, Her Majesty will hold several Investitures and will typically hold at least one State Visit before joining her family for the Easter weekend. The day before Good Friday, The Queen attends a Maundy service before heading into the Easter Court, which varies each year, depending on when the Easter weekend falls. One constant occasion is Her Majesty's birthday, which falls on 21 April and is celebrated privately with her family. Typically, Easter Court will finish towards the end of the month or at the beginning of May, when The Queen will travel to Wood Farm, a private cottage located on the Sandringham Estate.\n\nMay is always an exciting time of year from my perspective, as it is the start of the Garden Party season and Her Majesty can start to wear lighter fabrics and beautiful florals. As spring gets under way, The Queen hosts several garden parties, and the Windsor Horse Show takes place in the Home Park at Windsor. Perhaps the highlight of the season is the Chelsea Flower Show, which Her Majesty looks forward to every year, and after which she will always travel to Craigowan, a small private house on Balmoral Castle Estate.\n\nThe second of June sees Coronation Day, which Her Majesty marks privately before attending the Epsom Derby in Surrey. The next Royal engagement is a very well-known one: Trooping the Colour, a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies to mark the official birthday of the British Sovereign. It may be of interest to know that the reason Her Majesty has two birthdays is because her great-grandfather, King Edward VII, who was born in November, always found the weather at that time of year to be disagreeable for the soldiers and members of the public who came out to celebrate the occasion. He therefore decided to arrange an official birthday parade in June, called Trooping the Colour, as it was near enough guaranteed that the weather would be more pleasant. After this grand event, Garter Day and Royal Ascot are soon upon us.\n\nAs June comes to a close, Her Majesty will visit the Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh, where she hosts her final Garden Party of the year before visiting Wood Farm, at Sandringham, again for a short stay. From hereon in, we exclusively focus on preparing for Her Majesty's stay at Balmoral Castle. We head up to Scotland in mid-July, firstly to Craigowan Lodge and then we move across to the Castle, and we will not return to London until early October. While at Balmoral, Her Majesty will host picnics, barbecues, dinners, and shooting parties for her family, friends, and private guests, as well as two Highland Ghillies' Balls.\n\n_We specifically name the outfits to ensure we recorgnise them previously if Her Majesty chooses to wear them again._\n\nAfter a busy but enjoyable summer, October sees us arrive back in London to a very different climate. Normal service resumes as soon as we return to the Palace, and it's not long before Her Majesty is hosting audiences, Investitures and her second State Visit of the year. Before long, November is upon us which usually involves the State Opening of Parliament, and attendance at The Royal Variety Show. Her Majesty also attends the Royal Albert Hall for the Festival of Remembrance, followed by the Cenotaph the following morning. As for anyone else in the country, December is a busy month for us, and alongside all the usual duties, Her Majesty will always take time to give Christmas presents to her staff at Buckingham Palace. An event she particularly looks forward to attending is the carol service in the Royal Mews, and festivities continue when The Queen hosts a Christmas lunch for the entire Royal Family.\n\nBefore you know it, the end of the year is approaching fast and we are soon packing to return to Sandringham. During The Queen's final weekend in Windsor, the choir from Windsor Castle comes to sing Christmas carols at the Sovereign's Entrance, which is always a special moment \u2013 particularly if it happens to be snowing! The Queen gives Christmas presents to the Windsor staff over this weekend. At this point, our only other event to prepare for is the filming of Her Majesty's Christmas message.\n\nSo, that's our year. There will always be changes to the programme, though, as Her Majesty may need to attend special events such as memorial or commemoration services, the opening of institutions or changes of Government. However, unexpected events aren't always serious occasions as sometimes there will be a wedding or christening to attend. Her Majesty may also need to sit for new portraits and there is always an excuse to take a trip on the Royal Train. Whatever her schedule, Her Majesty always rounds off each week by heading to Windsor Castle to relax and she will always attend church every Sunday, no matter where she is in the country.\n\n_The Queen on Garter Day in 2008._\nGARTER DAY\n\nGarter Day takes place every June at Windsor Castle. It falls on the Monday of Royal Ascot week. This occasion is full of pomp and circumstance, and the Knights Companion and Ladies Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, dressed in their velvet mantles, plumed hats and insignia, are a stunning sight. The Queen's Garter Robe is made from a royal blue velvet, lined with white satin. A red velvet hood is worn over the right shoulder, and the plumed hat is made from black velvet trimmed with white feathers.\n\nKing Edward III founded the Order in 1348, and on Garter Day any new Knights and Ladies take their oath and attend an Investiture, or installation, hosted by The Queen. As well as some 'extra' Knights and Ladies, who are members of the Royal Family, there are twenty-four Knights and Ladies at any one time, and they have been chosen personally by The Sovereign in recognition of their public service. It is a lifetime honour and each individual is designated their own banner, which is hung in St George's Chapel, Windsor.\n\nGarter Day falls in what is generally a very busy period in The Queen's diary, and especially for us, ensuring all the outfits are packed and ready in time for the luggage transport from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle. The week before Garter Day and Royal Ascot, the Dressers' Floor at Buckingham Palace is a scurry of rails of clothes trundling along the corridor. Just as I check all the State Robes, the Garter Robe is hung up in the workroom beforehand and I inspect every inch of it, looking for any spots or bruising \u2013 a shiny mark \u2013 on the velvet. If there is any bruising, I will gently brush it out. To clean the robe, I fill a bathtub with hot water so the bathroom gets steamy, then hang the robe carefully away from the water. The steam will enable the creases to drop out. This works with any velvet. I never touch velvet with water and never iron it: doing either would damage the material. Once I am happy that the robe is clean and crease-free and the ribbons have been ironed, I pack it into a hanging bag and have it ready to take to Windsor Castle, along with the Royal Ascot racing outfits. By this point I will have already done similar checks on the outfits Her Majesty will be wearing to Ascot, ensuring all the buttons and trimmings are secure by giving them a sharp tug.\n\nOnce the luggage has been transferred to Windsor Castle from Buckingham Palace, a few days before Garter Day, the first thing I do when I arrive is take the Garter Robe to the workroom. I lay a sheet on the floor to protect the robe from dirt and damage when I take it out of the bag, then hang it on the back of a door and let the bottom of the robe drape along the sheet. I use a padded hanger with extra layers so that the robe fits it perfectly. Hanging the robe like this helps air it and allows any further creases to drop out.\n\nOn the Sunday, the day before Garter Day, I will press the ribbons again to make sure the robe looks pristine, then convey the robe to The Queen's dressing room. The State Dress Her Majesty will be wearing beneath the robe is pressed and checked \u2013 in particular making sure that the zipper works. The dress will be elegant and full length, but it will be an older design: when The Queen walks along the pavement from the Castle to St George's Chapel, the material may be damaged as the dress may drag a little along the ground. I wouldn't want a new dress of The Queen's to be marked or the hem to snag. I always prepare two spare full-length State Dresses in case there is an emergency, such as a button falling off or a hem becoming unstitched.\n\nOn the day, the Assistant Dressers and I attend The Queen and prepare everything for the busy day ahead. When The Queen departs for breakfast, we bring a coat stand into the dressing room, lay the sheet on the floor and hang the robe on the stand where it is ready for Her Majesty, with the State Dress near by. I also lay out the Garter chain, which is called the Collar. This is made up of twenty-four enamelled roses encircled with a blue buckled garter bearing the motto 'HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE' ('Shame on him who thinks ill of it.') These are linked together with twenty-four 'double lovers' knots' in gold. The Collar is worn suspended from the shoulders by white satin bows. It was introduced by King Edward III in 1348 and is also worn at the State Opening of Parliament, along with the Lesser George, an oval of plain gold that encircles St George and the Dragon with a buckled Garter and motto, which is worn by recipients of the Garter.\n\nIt may interest you to know that the 'Garter George' is a representation of Saint George killing the Dragon, set in exquisite gold and enamels. Some of the Royal Georges are embellished with jewels. Originally, the Lesser George was worn around the neck suspended from a narrow ribbon of Garter blue. Although The Queen has recently permitted this practice again, in order for people wearing black tie to wear the insignia, the Lesser George is supposed to suspend from the Garter's Broad Riband or 4-inch wide (for men) sash in Garter blue corded silk which goes over the left shoulder to suspend the Lesser George on the right hip.\n\n_The Queen and I often speak silently using eye contact \u2013 here she is smiling at me and silently telling me, 'You got here quickly!' And I really had! I had only just finished dressing Her Majesty and I ran (in high heels, of course) to be able to see the procession._\n\nAfter breakfast, The Queen will attend meetings with the Private Secretary. Then the Assistant Dressers and I will help Her Majesty get ready. She will change into her State Dress and put on her jewellery, then make her way to the Waterloo Chamber, where she will join the other members of the Order of the Garter for lunch. Once lunch has finished, The Queen returns to her dressing room where we help her put on the Garter Robe, the hood, plumed hat, and the Collar over the State Dress. We will remove the jewellery that The Queen wore to lunch and put it away. It is difficult to wear a necklace with the robe, as the Collar has to hook together for the robe to be secure on The Queen's shoulders and the pressure of the hook on a necklace would be uncomfortable.\n\nGarter Day is steeped in tradition, and people come from all over the world to line the processional route and watch the Knights and Ladies walk to St George's Chapel for a short service, at which any new Knights are installed. For many years, The Queen walked from Windsor Castle to St George's Chapel, but more recently carriages have been used. Royal Members of the Order usually join the procession, including The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Princess Royal, The Duke of York, The Earl of Wessex and The Duke of Cambridge.\n\nWhile The Queen is away at the service, I prepare her clothes and jewellery to be worn at dinner, and when she returns, I help her remove all of the regalia and the robe. Her Majesty will change into a skirt and blouse, then perhaps go for a walk with her dogs. This is only the beginning of what will be a very busy week. I then take the robe and the State Dress to the workroom at Windsor Castle, where I check the robe before I put it away, and also check and press the State Dress before it is returned to the wardrobe.\n\n_The beautifully plush Garter Day robe._\n\n_The plumed hat from both angles, in all its glory._\n\n_The Queen attends Ladies Day at Royal Ascot in 2019._\nROYAL ASCOT\n\nRoyal Ascot is one of the most anticipated Royal events of the year. The racecourse was founded by Queen Anne in 1871, and the horse-races officially became a Royal Week in 1911. Even some of the races are Royal-themed, such as the Windsor Castle Stakes and the King George V Stakes. It was in 1825 that the first Royal Procession took place, with King George IV leading the coaches. Of course, Her Majesty has quite a few of her own horses that have entered and won on a number of occasions. So, only in extreme circumstances would Her Majesty not attend, and it is one of those rare occasions on which The Queen can relax and enjoy one of her best-loved interests, often watching her own horses race. Royal Ascot takes place in June and is one of the busiest weeks of our year, and also one of the most secretive, due to an incident a few years ago that involved inappropriate betting on the colour of The Queen's hat. Designing something different for this special week has its challenges. It's all about the horse-racing \u2013 one or more of Her Majesty's horses may be running \u2013 so my designs have to be practical for The Queen to get into and out of cars and also the Royal Carriages.\n\nI usually start to plan for Royal Ascot in March, keeping in mind that many other events have been arranged, such as Easter Court, when The Queen stays at Windsor Castle, and the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May. Joel & Son Fabrics, the London fabric shop, provides some of the most beautiful material that is used in The Queen's clothing. They sell fabrics from across the world to the wider public and this is the shop I use most often to source what I need. Over the years Her Majesty has received fabrics as gifts, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes with beading and sequins, and also exquisite silks. Some are saved for future use, but during my years with Her Majesty, I have been able to use several such gifts in my designs.\n\nI buy material from other sources too: in 2018 I was on holiday in Sri Lanka with my family, still on the lookout for inspiring materials. The tour guide took our group to a shop called Silk Gardens Ltd. The ladies there were wearing their traditional dress and I was in my element: it was a wonderland of colour. I came across a lovely raw silk and bought a few metres in purple, aqua, and green, which were kindly shipped to London. \nAt Joel & Son Fabrics I see Dino, who has looked after me for many years. Expert that he is, he updates me on all the latest fashions and colours. He will show me special materials, which are of the highest quality, and also less expensive fabric that is just as beautiful and still of the highest quality. His colleague Linda helps me when I choose the buttons, in which she is an expert.\n\nWhile I'm looking at fabrics, ideas for how to use them come to mind, but I don't think in detail until I have a piece of material on a stand and I begin to drape it into a style that will suit The Queen. While the samples are being cut, I always peep into the bargain basket. The Queen loves a bargain and sometimes I luck out with a piece of material that I can conjure into a dress for her.\n\nWhen Dino has the samples ready, he parcels them up and sends them to Buckingham Palace. I prepare my suggestions for what I think would work, with three possibilities for each fabric.\n\nSometimes I arrange to meet Stewart Parvin at Joel's and we talk about what different designs we will each do for Ascot Week. We talk about the colours we're thinking of, so if he is going for blue, I might opt to use yellow to ensure we don't overlap. Even though we have our own design styles, which are completely different, we might share a collar design or button: our main goal is always, of course, to ensure that The Queen looks beautiful. Thanks to Stewart's advice and guidance I have become the designer that I am today. Thank you, Stewart.\n\n_The Queen and John Warren cheer on her horse Estimate at Royal Ascot in 2013._\n\n_Left: The smile that says it all. The Queen with the Gold Cup after Estimate won in 2013. Right: Ryan Moore rides Estimate to victory in 2013._\n\nI will have lots of ideas for styles and colours for spring and summer, but I must choose the right ones, so I next make an appointment to show Her Majesty the samples I've picked out for her approval. This is a busy time for The Queen, so I need to schedule this important meeting at a time when I know we won't be rushed or interrupted. I meet The Queen at the appointed time in her dressing room and we go through all the samples together. The Queen listens to my suggestions and also provides feedback from previous outfits: she might, for example, notice that a high collar risks rubbing against the skin if worn with a certain style of dress with a lower neckline. Once everything is agreed, I place my final order with Dino \u2013 enough of each material for a dress, possibly a jacket and coat, and an extra metre for the hat.\n\nWhen the materials arrive, I lay them out and start work on the outfits straight away. I plan the style of each one in my mind and play with the material on the stand, draping it one way, then another. I do this on my own, while flitting in and out between my regular daily tasks. I never draw or sketch the design at this point: I unite the colours and shapes and plan it in my head. I also think about necklines, collars, and hats to match the outfits. I make a few sketches, then arrange another appointment with The Queen to show them to her and ask for her approval. The Queen trusts me with the designs but I like to seek her advice. Her Majesty chooses a colour, or suggests colours that will complement each other. I then produce a final design and, depending on its level of detail, it can take up to four weeks before we have something ready for a fitting with Her Majesty. At this time of the year, I usually make ten outfits in total, five of which are for Ascot. Two outfits are kept as backup and the remaining three are saved for upcoming garden parties or for Her Majesty's annual visit to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.\n\nFor Ascot the hats are even more important than the outfits. Ascot is famous for ladies' hats! These bring their own challenge. Once The Queen and I are satisfied with the main fabrics for the dresses and coats, I will go to see Stella in the millinery room at the Palace and look through all the millinery fabrics we have in stock. If we don't already have what is needed, Stella will order it. She handmakes \u2013 no easy task \u2013 most of the silk flowers, leaves or sculptural details, although sometimes we source silk flowers from a respected German company. There is a lot to think about for each hat as I like my designs to be different every time. Stella and I chat about the hats, and with my designs and her suggestions we create something beautiful. And we keep the betting shops busy with people betting on the colour of The Queen's hat each year!\n\nWhen a hat and an outfit are finished, I put them together and double-check that I'm completely happy. There have been times during the making of the outfits and hats that I have changed my mind and altered them. I have to be 100 per cent sure they will suit and look perfect on The Queen.\n\nI show The Queen each outfit, with its hat, for her final approval, three or four weeks before Ascot. I take rails of all the new clothes \u2013 Stewart Parvin's as well as mine \u2013 with the hats to The Queen's dressing room. In addition to the hats designed by me and made by Stella to go with my outfits, Rachel Trevor-Morgan will make the hats for most of Stewart Parvin's outfits. Here, Her Majesty and I will go through them for any final tweaks. The Queen will choose an outfit in which she feels she will stand out among the crowds of racegoers, who will also be in their best clothes.\n\nOnce The Queen has agreed, I return the rails to the Dressers' Floor and the outfits are packed and stored until we are ready to leave for Windsor, usually on the Thursday or Friday before Ascot Week begins, depending on The Queen's other engagements.\n\nWhen I look back at all the outfits and hats I have designed, and the hats that Stella has made, one particular hat stands out for me. It is the one The Queen wore to the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, now Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Her Majesty chose the colour, sunshine yellow, three weeks beforehand. It was such a significant occasion that the whole outfit, designed under my Angela Kelly label, had to be spot on. To mimic the sun's rays, we cut the material for the coat larger than was necessary to allow for pleats to be pinched in and the matching hat \u2013 a matador shape made of cr\u00eape and sinamay \u2013 was trimmed with two handmade satin roses and leaves. It was perfect.\n\nRoyal Ascot Week is a lot of fun for everyone in my team. The Dressers' Floor is bubbling with excitement, with everyone hoping to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty's new outfits and hats. They are all sworn to secrecy, of course, to keep the element of surprise, so I don't worry if they do take a peek: I trust them not to let any cats out of the bag!\n\nIn Ascot Week, Windsor Castle is even busier than usual, as guests will be staying there. My team is on call for dressing duties; they help to prepare The Queen's clothes, ensuring each outfit is pressed, its hemline checked, its buttons secure, and that there are no pulls or snags. Between them there is much speculation about what colour The Queen will choose to wear on opening day. On Saturday The Queen goes riding, and will spend time with her other horses. On Sunday she attends church and has a quiet afternoon when she may take the corgis out for a walk before any guests arrive for dinner.\n\nMonday is Garter Day, and Royal Ascot begins on Tuesday. The atmosphere at Windsor Castle is electric. Each morning I place four or five previously worn hats on a table in the workroom. They are different colours and styles, and are on display for a reason. Anyone who happens to pass the room will see those hats. They are not hidden behind a closed door and no secret is made of them. This will stop anyone catching sight of the hat Her Majesty actually intends to wear and, with inside knowledge, betting a vast amount of money on the correct colour of The Queen's hat for opening day at Royal Ascot. This is cheating, and unfair on everyone else. It happened once, which was why this system was devised. Luckily, that year, the bookies clocked that something wasn't right with the bet in question, which was over \u00a32,000, and they put a stop to it. Unfortunately, this meant that all bets on that day were called off. So the person who thought they were being clever just ruined the fun for everyone else.\n\nI was horrified when I learned about the incident from the paper the next morning. When Ascot Week had finished, I attended a meeting with the owner of Paddy Power at which we agreed that betting on the colour of The Queen's hat would be closed at a certain time to avoid any cheating, but allowed people to carry on guessing the colour of The Queen's hat and perhaps even win a bit of money.\n\n_Bring on the rain, and the rainbow! The Queen has a clear umbrella with coloured trim that matches every outfit in case of rain \u2013 so she can still be seen._\n\nEvery day in Ascot Week starts with The Queen dressing in her morning clothes. After breakfast, Her Majesty will call for each of her Private Secretaries, one by one. After her meetings with them, she returns to her dressing room. Three outfits are hanging on the clothes rail waiting for her, the hats placed on a table near by.\n\nJust before lunch The Queen will choose from the three outfits. Even though the outfits for the opening day, Ladies Day and the final day have been selected, she will still have the two backup outfits to choose from in case she changes her mind. The final choice is made at the last minute but, believe me, that's still no guarantee, as the weather could change, which means the chosen outfit may not be suitable. Before she makes her final decision, The Queen consults the weather forecast to help her determine which outfit she will wear. Her Majesty would not usually wear a new outfit if it is raining as we would not know how the fabric will react to rain \u2013 it may shrink or crease \u2013 and instead may choose something she has worn before. If it is a clear, dry day, The Queen will wear a new outfit. If it is raining, she will use one of the many transparent umbrellas she has (each with a different-coloured trim to match any particular outfit she wears), which ensures that, even in the wettest conditions, she remains as visible as possible.\n\nWhen The Queen chooses her outfit for the day, she will change into the dress for lunch, then go to join her guests in the private rooms of Windsor Castle. Lunch is very quick so that everyone can be ready to leave for the racecourse on time. When The Queen returns after lunch, she fixes her lipstick, adds a bit more blusher, puts on her hat, and secures it with hat pins. Finally, Her Majesty puts on her coat, picks up her gloves and handbag, gives us all a smile, and then she's off!\n\n_The blue hat is the 'EU hat' \u2013 now changed to a bow instead of the little flowers. SeeThings Aren't Always What They Appear to Be for full story._\nThere is no waiting around and certainly no fuss, as everything is done within three minutes, maybe four at the most. The Queen departs from the front door and leaves in the car that will drive her halfway to the racecourse. Then Her Majesty and her guests get out of the cars and step into the Royal Carriages, which will take them to the racecourse and on to the Royal Enclosure. It is much quicker by car to reach the halfway point to the racecourse, and The Queen and her guests' carriages need to follow a strict arrival schedule: each race starts at a specific time.\n\nOnce The Queen has left for the races, I contact the Palace Press Office in London and provide them with the much-anticipated information on what Her Majesty has chosen to wear that day. This will cover all the details of The Queen's outfit, including the colour, material, and the style of each piece and the hat. These details are immediately passed to the fashion commentators at the racecourse so that the radio and television presenters can announce it as Her Majesty is entering the racecourse arrival. This is also the moment when those who placed a bet on the colour of The Queen's hat find out if they have won!\n\nMy team and I always watch Royal Ascot on the television in my office and we all admire The Queen's and the other ladies' and gentlemen's attire, and take inspiration from the designs and colours on show. We listen to feedback on The Queen's outfit and hat, and I take pride in our work. You can see, even on the television, Her Majesty's passion and excitement and, of course, the thrill of the race.\n\nWhen The Queen returns from racing, and depending on how comfortable she feels, she may keep on the same dress or change into something different. Eventually, the outfit she wore for Royal Ascot will be taken upstairs to be checked, pressed and hung in the wardrobe in the workroom. The hat is wrapped in tissue for protection and stored away. She will wear the outfit and hat once more later that year or the following year for another engagement.\n\nWith the day of racing over, it is time for the guests to retire to their rooms in Windsor Castle for a rest before dinner. In the meantime, the team and I will choose a dress for The Queen, and I will get out the jewellery for another night of sparkles.\n\nThe following day we start all over again \u2013 for the races and the evening dinner, the outfits for those occasions. Everything during Royal Ascot Week is orchestrated and timed so that it all runs smoothly for Her Majesty The Queen. I love it!\n\n_The Queen at Royal Ascot in 2019. When I saw The Queen on TV wearing this hat, I realised that the feathers were now dangling down too far on the right-hand side after travelling to the racecourse. I knew that would annoy The Queen, so I sent an urgent message to the Equerry to ask him to trim them down slightly, so they didn't come below the brim. However, the only scissors they could find at this short notice were enormous, so The Queen told him it would be fine to wait until she was back at Windsor Castle again. As soon as they returned later that day I was able to trim them properly with the right (sized!) equipment._\n\nFOREVER  \nTHRIFTY\n\nSometimes, the special details that can take an outfit to another level are found in the most unexpected places. And often, they're the most inexpensive parts of an outfit.\n\nIn 2017, preparations for one of The Queen's Ascot outfits was going well. I had found some beautiful silk in the back of the stockroom with an eye-catching cerise floral pattern over an antique-gold background. I spend a lot of time in the stockroom, as new engagements come up often: in there I can plan and play with ideas. I thought initially that the flowers on that fabric were tulips but I soon learned that they were in fact called snake's-head fritillary \u2013 I'm always learning new things on the job. I was aware that Her Majesty had many outfits in cerise but decided it would be the best colour for the dress's accompanying coat and hat, as gold would not be appropriate for attending the races. Also, I knew that she would find a gold coat a little gaudy on this daytime occasion: it would appear too opulent.\n\nWith Ascot approaching, my team were making good progress with Her Majesty's outfit: the dress and coat were almost complete. However, although the hat from Stella was well under way, we had yet to decide on its trimmings. I had been pondering this for a few days, as I often do with more challenging designs \u2013 I'll often sleep on them and I find that an answer will present itself. I'd originally thought we could cut some of the fritillaries from the silk fabric to appliqu\u00e9 onto the hat, but had decided that this wasn't exciting enough for Ascot. I went looking for Paul Whybrew, The Queen's Page, for a solution. I found him in Her Majesty's storeroom, where something immediately caught my eye. In a corner, a modest plant pot contained snake's-head fritillaries in exactly the same cerise shade as The Queen's Ascot outfit! I couldn't believe it. Luckily for Stella and me, the fritillaries were made of silk, so once they had been well dusted, they could immediately be applied to Her Majesty's hat. A small detail such as this can really bring an outfit together. When I go shopping or out with family and friends to garden centres or department stores, I always visit the artificial flowers section in search of inspiration for the seasons ahead. It's always worth keeping your eyes open, as you never know where or when you might come across something useful!\n\n_Worn in 2019 \u2013 these silk flowers were a useful discovery!_\n\n_The Queen attends the Mass for the Order of the Thistle. Note that The Queen doesn't wear a necklace due to the cord which holds the robe together near the neck._\nTHE PALACE OF  \nHOLYROODHOUSE\n\nThe Palace of Holyroodhouse is The Queen's official Royal Residence in Edinburgh, and each year at the beginning of July, just after Royal Ascot, Her Majesty will spend a week there hosting and attending many different engagements, depending on her programme. The Royal Household staff who travel to Holyrood always look forward to this week. To be able to say that you are staying in the palace where Mary Queen of Scots once lived \u2013 how fabulous is that? Edinburgh is a fascinating and beautiful city, and when the staff have a bit of downtime, they venture in for a couple of hours. The Royal Yacht Britannia is docked there and some of the Royal Household staff worked on it many years ago. They like to visit it and reminisce about the happy times they spent aboard.\n\nThe run-up to Holyrood week is another busy time for us on the Dressers' Floor. I give The Queen a selection of sketches to choose from that includes outfits for the Garden Party she holds there and the official engagements she will attend and host. For a week's stay, there can be up to twelve outfits. The sketches include evening dresses for dinners.\n\nOnce the sketches have been approved and the outfits made, I oversee their packing, checking each item as it is placed in a hanging bag, and then I review the matching hats, making sure that the trimmings are attached properly before my team packs them carefully into hat boxes. They also pack clothing for everyday wear \u2013 skirts and blouses or perhaps a silk day dress. Finally, I pack the jewellery that Her Majesty will wear with each evening dress, as well as appropriate brooches for the day outfits.\n\nEvery other year, there is one more important item that must be packed: the Thistle Robe, to be worn by Her Majesty at the meeting of the Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle. The Order was established in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland, who was also James II of England. Membership, which is lifelong, is the highest honour a person can receive in Scotland, and, like the Order of the Garter, it is given personally by The Queen at an installation ceremony. There are just sixteen Knights and Ladies in the Order at one time, with 'extra' Knights who are members of the Royal Family. The Knights and Ladies are men and women who have held public office or have made a significant impact on Scottish society.\n\nThe United Kingdom is famous for its ceremonies and traditions, especially when they involve the Royal Family. Some date back hundreds of years and the sight of Edinburgh's Royal Mile lined with people from all over the world watching the grand procession of the Knights of the Order of the Thistle is not to be missed.\n\nThe Thistle Robe is made of dark green velvet, lined with white satin and decorated with the Scottish insignia. It is worn with a white feather-plumed hat. On the robe a star shows the cross of St Andrew, with a green thistle in the centre on a field of gold. The collar is decorated with thistles and sprigs of rue. The pendant is of St Andrew and his cross and is reversible. One side shows St George and the Dragon (worn on Garter Day) and the other side is St Andrew for this service.\n\nI pack two white State Dresses, one to be worn under the robe, with white gloves, silver shoes, and a matching silver handbag. I make the same preparations with the Thistle Robe as I do with the Garter Robe. I check to make sure the velvet has not been damaged and press the satin ribbons to make sure all the creases are out, then pack it into a hanging bag, ready for transport.\n\nWhen Her Majesty arrives at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, a small ceremony takes place on the forecourt: the Presentation of the Keys. The Lord Provost, who is in charge of the city of Edinburgh, welcomes Her Majesty and offers her the keys to the city. The Queen accepts them, then immediately hands them back to the Lord Provost so that he can keep them safely for her next visit. During this ceremony, The Queen will inspect the Guard of Honour and the band will play the National Anthem, marking the official start to Holyrood week. For this event Her Majesty wears a smart day outfit \u2013 so, a beautiful dress, coat, and hat would be chosen.\n\nWhile all this is happening outside, there is a scurry of activity inside The Queen's rooms as the Assistant Dresser and I unpack The Queen's luggage, making sure everything is in order as the week ahead will be extremely busy \u2012 and also highly enjoyable.\n\n_The luscious green Thistle Robe with the cross of St Andrew in pride of place._\n\nWhile at Holyrood, The Queen hosts a Garden Party to which as many as 8,000 guests will be invited. We always keep everything crossed for dry weather as everyone has to fit into the garden. The Queen will also hold an Investiture, audiences, or one-to-one meetings. The Queen will still meet with her Private Secretary and continue to work through her red boxes. Wardrobe changes come into play again, with between three and five every day: I have to make sure there are appropriate outfits available for each occasion for The Queen to choose from.\n\nWhen it comes to the service for the Order of the Thistle, the Knights and Ladies begin their grand procession in the Signet Library, with music played by the Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The group makes its way to the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle where Her Majesty will install any new members of the Order. Afterwards the Knights and Ladies walk to the Thistle Chapel in St Giles Cathedral where the ceremony will continue. Later on, The Queen hosts a small reception back in the Signet Library, one of Edinburgh's most splendid Georgian houses, which is followed by a lunch at Holyroodhouse.\n\nThis event used to take place at the beginning of our visit to Holyrood, but it has now been moved to near the end of the trip, which means that my team and I have to pack the robe and insignia, along with the rest of the luggage in a very short time, so that we leave punctually for either Wood Farm or Buckingham Palace. Everything is on a strict schedule, so it's a challenge, having this big event on the last day \u2013 but we manage!\n\nDuring my stay at Holyroodhouse, I do manage to get a bit of a break between engagements, just long enough to pop into Jenners, the local branch of House of Fraser, where I can pick up any bits and pieces that we need. I visit other local shops, too, when time allows, as I like to keep my eyes open for something special or useful for The Queen.\n\nThe Palace of Holyroodhouse is open to the public throughout the year and it is well worth a visit. The rooms are still much the same as they were when Mary Queen of Scots was in residence during the sixteenth century. The place is steeped in history \u2013 imagine if the portraits in the Picture Gallery could talk!\n\n_The reversible pendant of St Andrew is steeped in history._\n\n_The Queen arrives at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh. Notice how beautifully the Page's uniform complements this robe._\n\n_The Thistle Robe hat and its impressive plumage!_\n\n_The Queen wearing the Imperial State Crown at the State Opening of Parliament._\nTHE STATE  \nOPENING OF  \nPARLIAMENT\n\nThe State Opening of Parliament is one of the most important annual engagements of The Queen's year. Of course, Her Majesty has many important roles and engagements, and she takes each one very seriously. The State Opening of Parliament, which dates back to the sixteenth century and in its current form to 1852, usually takes place in November or immediately following a General Election. This annual event officially marks the beginning of a session in Parliament, when Her Majesty will address it in The Queen's Speech, which outlines the laws the government hopes will be approved over the upcoming year. The Queen speaks in the House of Lords on behalf of Her Majesty's Government, with the speech written by the Prime Minister.\n\nA fun fact! During the State Opening of Parliament a hostage from the Houses of Parliament is taken just before The Queen leaves for Parliament and is held at Buckingham Palace. This tradition, which dates back to the reign of Charles I, is a reminder that the Sovereign and Parliament did not always share an easy relationship: the 'hostage' guarantees The Queen's safe return to Buckingham Palace. Rest easy, though: the 'hostage', who is usually the Vice-Chamberlain of The Queen's Household and a government whip, is entertained with tea and biscuits while he or she watches The Queen deliver her speech on television.\n\nPreparing Her Majesty for such a crucial day is by no means easy! There is a lot to do, as well as keeping on top of the normal day-to-day routine during the week that leads up to it, and I try to keep my diary free. A few days before the State Opening my hand-picked specialist team of Assistant Dressers and I prepare the State Robe. First, I ask The Queen's Footman, Ian Robinson, to bring me the long, heavy, airtight black metal box in which it is stored. The box is kept in a room along the corridor on the Dressers' Floor, which also holds the other State Robes, such as the Garter and Thistle Robes, in their boxes. The Queen's military uniforms are kept there, too. Once Ian has brought in the metal box, he then places it, with assistance, on a table secure enough to take its weight.\n\n_At Buckingham Palace, before heading to the Houses of Parliament. The State Robe is neatly folded in its velvet bag._\n\nWe open the box and remove the first few layers of tissue. Then we take out the large square red velvet bag, which is very heavy due to its gold tassels, and rest it over a bolster. The bag was made to carry the robe, once it has been maintained and folded, to the Houses of Parliament.\n\nThere is more tissue to remove before we get to the robe. When it was last used, it was placed on a roller, so we lift the robe, including the roller, onto the table, and the box is taken down and put away safely, so no one falls over it: it is solid metal and the corners are sharp.\n\nWe then unroll the robe over the table. Once it is fully opened, I look for any holes or bruises to the velvet and any damage to the gold-thread-embellished border. I inspect the collar and cape, which are made from ermine fur, to ensure they are in pristine condition. Then it takes four of us to carry the robe to the ironing board in the workroom, due to its length and weight \u2013 one person could not carry it properly. The satin ribbons, which are already stitched to the robe on the shoulders, are checked to make sure they are secure with no loose stitches \u2013 they help hold the robe in place on The Queen. The next step is to iron the ribbons \u2013 one person ironing and two holding the robe, letting the the rest of it lie on a chair for support. When all the inspections and ironing are completed (around thirty minutes), we leave the robe hanging in a warm room so that any creases in the velvet can fall out. Shortly before the event, we fold the robe and put it inside the red velvet bag.\n\n_Her Majesty's elegant fur cape._\n\nOn the day before the State Opening of Parliament, I select two State Dresses for Her Majesty to choose from. Before we bring them downstairs to The Queen, my team and I check our diaries from the past couple of years to make sure Her Majesty hasn't worn either of the two options I plan to offer. I try to keep the dress as light as possible as the robe is heavy. The heaviest elements of the robe are the velvet and the gold thread, not the fur. As always, I check the zip, buttons, hooks and eyes, necklines, hems, and sleeves on both dresses.\n\nWhile one of my team is selecting the handbag and shoes for each dress, I make sure that either a cashmere cape or a fur wrap is available for The Queen to wear over the dress until she must put on the State Robe. I will then choose the jewellery to complement the dress, making sure it fits well in the neckline. There are two special necklaces to choose from \u2013 the Collet Necklace, which has matching earrings, or the Jubilee Necklace. The Collet Necklace was created in 1858 for Queen Victoria and is also known as the Coronation Necklace. It is made up of twenty-five cushion-cut brilliant diamonds, which graduate in size, with a large diamond pendant weighing approximately 22.48 carats. Made in 1887 by Carrington & Co, it was presented to Queen Victoria by the 'Women's Jubilee Offering', a group of aristocratic women, to honour her Golden Jubilee. It features a large central pearl and diamond quatrefoil with a pearl and diamond crown at the top and a large pearl drop hanging at the bottom. The remaining necklace has graduated diamond and trefoil lines, six of which could work also as brooches. The jewellery is checked in the diaries: I alternate the necklaces and earrings every year.\n\n_Fastening the robe, using hooks and eyes and press studs._\n\n_Finishing touches._\n\nHer Majesty The Queen will always wear the Diadem, which is more a diamond headpiece than a tiara, but not a crown. It was originally known as the George IV State Diadem and was made for the monarch in 1820 by Rundell & Bridge. It consists of 1,333 diamonds, which weigh 320 carats, and contains a four-carat yellow diamond within the shape of a cross at the front centre: the cross patt\u00e9e. Along the base there are two strings of pearls, the top strand containing eighty-one and the lower one eighty-eight. It also features diamond-set roses, thistles and shamrocks.\n\nEvery queen and queen consort from the reign of William IV onwards has worn the Diadem. During Queen Victoria's reign, the Diadem was reset with jewels from the Royal Collection. Queen Elizabeth II wore it to go to her Coronation and always wears it during the procession to and from the State Opening of Parliament in her gold coach.\n\nMy team and I have an early start on the morning of the State Opening of Parliament, and the weather can usually be better \u2013 it never seems to be sunny on that day! First, the girls and I take the State Robe from where it is hanging and place it on the long table, where we fold it up very carefully. This job takes four people, and it has to be done in a particular order to ensure it fits into the velvet bag correctly.\n\nFirst, we fold the sides into the middle, then fold them once more into the centre, which makes the robe much narrower. Next, we take the bottom and fold it about 2 feet in. We keep making 2-foot folds until we almost reach the top. The top of the robe, the ermine cape and collar, is folded back so it is resting on the velvet folds. This enables me to position the ribbons carefully so they are not creased in transit. Now I can slip the robe into the red velvet bag. The gold tassels are pulled slightly to close it. Once this is complete, I place the bag outside The Queen's private rooms, where it is safe and ready for me to take to the Houses of Parliament later that morning.\n\n_Note the placement of the chairs to support the extraordinary weight of the robe as it is fastened on._\n\nWe are all raring to go.\n\nOnce I have woken Her Majesty and checked everything in the dressing room is in order for her to dress, I go back upstairs and have a quick cup of my favourite Yorkshire tea \u2013 my only cup of tea until we return to Buckingham Palace after the speech has been delivered. Shortly after this, The Queen will ring and I, along with the other Dressers, will go down to The Queen's dressing room where I will discuss with Her Majesty anything she requires for the day, after which The Queen will go for breakfast.\n\nThe final preparations can then begin. I bring the two dresses that have been chosen to The Queen's dressing room, while the Assistant Dressers prepare the shoes, handbag, cape, and gloves. I always choose the jewellery the day before, to save myself time in the morning, and also in case there are any changes to the programme. The jewellery always includes the Diadem, earrings, necklace, watch, bracelet, and rings. I lay everything on the jewellery tray that once belonged to Queen Mary. At this point I will take the jewellery away and give it a final clean and polish. A little gin and water come in handy to give the diamonds extra sparkle \u2013 just don't tell the jeweller! \u2013 and a drop of washing-up liquid and water will get rid of any hairspray stains. The Queen's Jeweller will give the stones a deep clean when necessary, so for me it's just a matter of a quick polish and they're sparkling once more. I return the tray and place it on a small table next to The Queen's dressing table. I will take a last look at everything and, satisfied that all is correct and ready for The Queen, I thank my team of Dressers, knowing I can confidently leave them to help Her Majesty get ready for this grand occasion.\n\nThe Queen's Page \u2013 either Paul Whybrew or Barry Mitford \u2013 and I then depart for the Houses of Parliament. The Queen's Page will carry the red velvet bag containing the robe, while I carry the famous Collar and the Great George of the Order of the Garter, which is worn for the State Opening of Parliament as well as the Garter Day service. We are taken by car along Birdcage Walk to Westminster; it is an exciting but nervous journey, as all I can think about is whether The Queen has everything she needs. Once The Queen gets into her coach, there is no going back. The ceremony is transmitted on live television, so there is no room for mistakes.\n\nThe Queen's Page and I arrive at the Houses of Parliament and make the climb up the long staircase to the Robing Room. Red screens stand open across the far corner of the room with just enough space for a dressing table, a small table and two normal-sized chairs. There is also just enough room for four Pageboys to lift the robe once Her Majesty is finally ready.\n\nWhen I am in the Robing Room waiting for The Queen's arrival, I am surrounded by beautiful tapestries, silks, and paintings illustrating the legends of King Arthur. It is majestic, breathtaking, and the excitement builds as we all wait for the arrival of Her Majesty.\n\nThere is a small television in the Robing Room, where we all watch The Queen leave Buckingham Palace. There is no sound, but we can see The Queen sitting in her gold coach, making her way towards the Houses of Parliament. I am still going over everything in my head at this point: was it all ready for The Queen as I'd planned \u2013 gloves, the right shoes, the correct handbag, the white fur wrap and the white cashmere cape as an alternative?\n\nI go behind the privacy screens and place two chairs in the middle of that space. Although the area is small, we always manage. There is just enough room to manoeuvre, to lay the Collar on the table and secure to it the Lesser George badge. I unfold the State Robe and place it over the two chairs. This is no easy task: the two chairs will take the main weight of the robe, which makes it easier for me to lift the front, the Collar and cap, which overlaps the velvet at the top of the robe, then place it on The Queen's shoulders.\n\nOnce Her Majesty has arrived, she joins me behind the screens, which I then close. The Queen removes the Diadem and her gloves and places them on the dressing table and I start to arrange the robe on her. We are silent, concentrating hard. The process of fitting it is complex and I have little time to achieve it \u2013 usually around five minutes. It is very difficult to get under the robe because of the way it is placed on The Queen's shoulders. I must lift the front and raise it on to my right shoulder, taking some of the weight, then place it above The Queen's shoulders. Her Majesty is then able to position the robe herself and manoeuvre it so it is comfortable. There are two fairly wide satin straps with hooks and eyes on each side of the robe, which are pulled under The Queen's arms, and hooked together tightly so the robe stays in place.\n\nOnce this is done, and with Her Majesty's help, I put the Collar over her head. The Queen always helps by holding it on the other side, making it much easier for me to lift it over her head. Once the Collar is placed on The Queen's shoulders on the ribbed under ribbons, and I am happy that it is in the correct position, with the Lesser George in the middle of The Queen's waist, I count four of the medallions from the middle to the shoulder, and tie the under ribbons in smaller bows to secure the Collar, ensuring it cannot move. I move on to the wider satin ribbons, taking one near Her Majesty's neckline and bringing it over the Collar and across to her shoulder. I feed this ribbon in and out through the Collar to secure it even more firmly, then tie a larger bow. The robe is now fitted and ready.\n\nOn one occasion, quite soon after I'd started working for Her Majesty, I just froze. I held up her robe as normal, hooked it up and lifted the Collar over her head. I counted four medallions up the Garter Chain and attached it. I was in the middle of feeding the ribbons in and out of the links of the Collar when I froze. I simply couldn't move. I don't know why it happened \u2013 I think I must have been overwhelmed by the significance of the occasion, or perhaps nerves got the better of me \u2013 but I could hear whispering outside the screened area, people wondering what was happening. I started to worry that I was holding up The Queen and the ceremony. Then Her Majesty touched my hand where it lay on her shoulder, and said to me quietly and gently, 'Don't worry, just take your time. Take your time.' I apologised profusely, of course, then took a deep breath, picked up that ribbon and carried on. Her Majesty had calmed my nerves and she was soon ready to go.\n\nOnce the robe is secured, I pull the red screens slightly apart, just wide enough for the Lord Great Chamberlain to present The Queen with her Imperial State Crown on a red cushion. The Queen takes the crown from him and moves slightly towards the mirror on the table, then I close the screens once more. Her Majesty places the crown on her head and secures it by twisting it from side to side. It is heavy, weighing just over 2 pounds (1 kilogram) and sits perfectly with no need of support or clips. This all takes place while the heavy back part of the robe continues to rest over the two chairs. Once The Queen is satisfied the crown is sitting comfortably on her head, she puts her gloves back on. I open the screen once more to allow the Pageboys, who have been waiting patiently in the room, to come in and take up the satin handles on the sides of the robe. The boys are lovely, although understandably nervous and sometimes quite shy, but they have been trained in what to do and always carry out their duties carefully and well. They are chosen from the Royal Family, the Royal Household and friends. As they lift the robe I move the chairs to one side, so that they can position themselves behind The Queen with no obstacles in their way.\n\nThe Queen will chat with the boys for a few moments to make them feel at ease, and while this is happening, His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will take his place at the right-hand side of The Queen. Prince Philip has undertaken this role every year except for in 2017, when The Prince of Wales escorted Her Majesty. Taking his arm, they walk together towards the large wooden doors. The first two Pages will start to move at the same time as The Queen so that the robe moves smoothly. The back two Pages step forward, keeping the robe off the floor, and follow carefully. They have to let the robe sink a little so it does not pull The Queen backwards, and they must keep to the same pace as The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh. The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall follow them, then The Queen's Ladies-in-Waiting.\n\nThe large wooden doors to the House of Lords' chamber open at exactly 11am and The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and the Royal entourage make their way to the throne. This is where Her Majesty will deliver her speech on behalf of her government.\n\nAs soon as they leave, I feel relieved, but only briefly: the very moment the doors shut behind Her Majesty I start to worry \u2013 will the crown stay on? Is the dress too long? Throughout the ceremony, I hold my breath and watch on the silent monitor, waiting for Her Majesty to come back through the doors safely so I can breathe again.\n\nOnce the speech is over, I have the screens open, waiting for The Queen, His Royal Highness and the Pages to return. Only The Queen and the Pages will enter the area behind the screens, and everyone else waits on the other side. I place the two chairs back in position before The Queen returns so that the Pages can return the robe to them, then the boys take their leave of Her Majesty and she thanks them. I close the screen behind the boys and Her Majesty takes off the Imperial State Crown, which she places back on its cushion.\n\nNext I begin to untie the larger ribbons and release the smaller ones from the Collar. Again, Her Majesty will help me lift the Collar over her head, bringing it forward so I can take the weight of the St George and Dragon badge and the chain, and then I place it on the table. Next, I manoeuvre the robe onto my shoulder and unfasten it from behind The Queen's arms, so that it can slowly slide off her shoulders and rest safely on the chair. And what a relief that must be! One would never know it, but it has been digging in under The Queen's arms for about twenty minutes from start to finish.\n\nI open the screen for The Queen to pass the crown and cushion back to the Lord Great Chamberlain. The Queen thanks him, he bows his head to her, and takes his leave, to return the crown to the Tower of London. The screens are closed once more. The Queen is now able to put on the Diadem again, her stole or cape and gloves. I open the screens one final time and The Duke of Edinburgh is ready to take The Queen back to Buckingham Palace in the Gold State Coach.\n\nOnce everyone has left I unscrew the St George and Dragon pendant from the chain and place it in its red velvet box. Then The Queen's Page and I take away the chairs and lay the robe flat on the floor. For now, I can fold it quickly so it fits well into the red velvet bag, ready to be correctly folded and carefully returned to storage later when we are back at the Palace and have more time. I gather together the bits and pieces from the dressing table into a small bag, and we are ready to go. The Queen's Page and I return by car to Buckingham Palace, looking at each other with relief. Phew! We are so glad when it's over.\n\n_The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh walk through the Royal Gallery in the Palace of Westminster before the State Opening of Parliament in 2010._\n\n_Her Majesty delivers the Queen's Speech during the state Opening of Parliament in 2017. The hat has since been altered \u2013 seeRoyal Ascot._\nTHINGS AREN'T  \nALWAYS WHAT  \nTHEY APPEAR  \nTO BE\n\nThe State Opening of Parliament in 2017 was delayed due to the General Election and was rescheduled for 19 June. That was the same date as Garter Day, which had to be cancelled that year.\n\nIt was also decided that Her Majesty would not wear her traditional State Opening of Parliament Robe or long dress, but would wear a day dress instead. The Queen has worn her Imperial State Crown every year, except in 1974 and on this particular occasion. The change was made because the engagements diary was so busy for everyone involved that a simpler form of the ceremony that would work for all those involved was put forward and agreed.\n\nI already had in stock some material suitable for Her Majesty's outfit, so after I'd checked the background against which The Queen would be sitting \u2013 to be sure that the colours wouldn't clash \u2013 I made the design and passed it, with my instructions, to the in-house dressmaker. Then the milliner, Stella, and I sat down with a cup of tea to discuss the design of the hat.\n\nWe chose a Breton-brim block style, which would create an upturned brim, so Her Majesty's face could be clearly seen, and The Queen could see everyone in the room. We chose a large square crown to balance the brim and five flowers, made from feathers with tiny seed pearls, painted yellow. It never occurred to Stella and me that people might think we were copying the European Union flag. The press and the rest of the media were quick to assume that was the case. I understand from reading the papers and seeing all the articles online that there was almost a meltdown on social media with people speculating that The Queen's outfit and hat paid tribute to the EU flag, and that The Queen was making a subtle statement about the recent Brexit vote. It was a coincidence but, boy, did it attract a lot of attention, and it certainly made us smile.\n\n_The Queen during the Royal Variety Performance in 2009._\nTHE ROYAL  \nVARIETY  \nPERFORMANCE\n\nAmong all the formal engagements that Her Majesty attends each year, there is one that has perhaps just a little more glitz and glamour than the others: the Royal Variety Performance. Founded in 1912, this televised variety show raises money for the Royal Variety Charity, of which The Queen is a patron, and features performances from comedians, singers, dancers, and sometimes even magicians. I know it is one of the highlights of Her Majesty's year, and in 2009, I had the honour of attending too.\n\nThat particular year, the event was held in the Grand Opera House in Blackpool and, as always, I wanted to create something special for Her Majesty to wear. In fact, I had decided that it might be fitting to design something a little bit different for The Queen, considering that the Royal Variety Performance is an evening unlike any other. I knew that I had some beautiful black material in the stockroom that would make the perfect evening dress \u2013 it sparkled and shimmered just the right amount and I knew that it would catch the light perfectly in the flashes from the photographers' cameras. With a wave-like striped pattern running vertically down the fabric, I knew the design of the dress needed to be simple so that the subtle yet beautiful material could be showcased. I was thrilled that The Queen liked my provisional designs as it had struck me that Her Majesty rarely wore black to glamorous occasions like this and it suits her so wonderfully.\n\nOn the night of the performance, I was so excited to be attending and I travelled to the Opera House with the Equerry and the Lady-in-Waiting. I began to get more and more nervous as we approached as this was one of the first engagements I had been invited to attend with Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh. The Equerry reassured me and told me to relax and enjoy myself, but as our car pulled up, I was totally taken aback by how many people were outside on the street and nearly fell flat on my face trying to get out of the car elegantly in my long evening dress.\n\n_Ready and excited for the evening!_\n\nSafely inside the venue and in my seat, I was struck by how electrifying the atmosphere was. My seat was near the Royal Box and I had to keep pinching myself that this was real. As the evening went on, we were lucky enough to see performances from Katherine Jenkins, the dance troupe Diversity, and Michael Bubl\u00e9. However, I really could not contain myself when Ms Bette Midler came onto the stage. My heart stopped when she walked out. I was so overwhelmed with emotions. I had to remind myself where I was because I wanted to stand up and cheer. Composure, Angela!\n\nI knew Her Majesty loves music and that she would be much more composed than I was when Ms Midler sang 'The Wind Beneath My Wings', which always makes me so emotional as it reminds me of my family, who are truly the wind beneath my wings. It really was a special evening, so different to any of Her Majesty's other annual engagements and it was a thrill to be able to witness everything from right next to the Royal Box. Before Bette Midler sang she said, 'Tonight is a dream come true for me.' This was also my dream coming true, and what a night to remember.\n\n_The Queen meets singer Bette Midler and musician Jake Shimabukuro following the Royal Variety Performance. Performance in 2009._\n\n_The Queen attends St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham every Christmas Day._\nCHRISTMAS AT  \nSANDRINGHAM  \nHOUSE\n\nEvery year The Queen spends Christmas and New Year at Sandringham House, in Norfolk. It was bought by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1862 for their son, The Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, as they wanted him to have a quiet place in the countryside where he could go when he needed a rest from his busy London schedule.\n\nThe Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VII, rebuilt Sandringham House as he needed a larger home for his growing family and more bedrooms for when he had guests. Throughout his life, The King continued to improve not only the house, but also the Estate. When he died, Sandringham House stayed in the Royal Family and is now home to Her Majesty The Queen, who thoroughly enjoys being there with her family throughout the Christmas period until after 6 February, the anniversary of her father's death. Like Balmoral, Sandringham is for holidays, although spending time at either house isn't all that relaxing as there is a lot to do, and many events to attend. The Queen is just as busy as she would be in London, with more guests to entertain. There may be several outfit changes in one day \u2013 it could be as many as five or even up to seven, although that is rare \u2013 depending on the number of planned engagements, as well as the weather and temperature, which can change so quickly around Sandringham. It can be beautiful one day and freezing the next. Thankfully, the House Foreman and his team ensure the house is well maintained, so inside it is always warm.\n\nI always use the same bedroom during my time there, so it's easy for me to settle in when I arrive. My room also becomes my office, so I have a desk and computer tucked away in the corner. I have a lovely view of the gardens from my window so I can see what the weather is doing; then, with the prevailing conditions in mind, I can choose appropriate outfits each day for The Queen.\n\nIn the mornings, before breakfast, The Queen will either put on a skirt and blouse or will choose to wear a day dress from her wardrobe in her dressing room. Once Her Majesty has had breakfast, she will meet with her Private Secretary or have a private audience. After the meetings, Her Majesty may change for lunch if there are guests staying in the house. Sometimes when a Royal Shoot is taking place, The Queen will attend the shooting lunch. This means she needs to change into her shooting gear, which is a lengthy process for anyone! This outfit is all about warmth and comfort \u2013 and the layers. First the trousers go on, then waterproof trousers over the top, then a long-sleeve shirt, jumper, and cardigan, thick socks so feet stay warm and dry and, finally, Wellington boots. Last, Her Majesty picks up her gloves, scarf, and waterproof mac to head out in the car to meet the shooting party.\n\nAfter lunch, which takes place at one of the lodges on the Estate, The Queen will return to Sandringham House and will either change into a skirt and blouse if she is taking the dogs out or, if guests are staying in, into a dress for afternoon tea. Between all of the wardrobe changes The Queen makes time throughout her day to deal with all the paperwork and answer letters that come to her in the red boxes. She is always busy at work and never seems to tire.\n\nIn the afternoon I lay out sketches of evening dresses for The Queen to look through and choose what she would like to wear that evening and, occasionally, she may have to pick out a dress for a cocktail party. Once Her Majesty has chosen her dress for dinner, a handwritten notice is pinned up in the Dressers' Corridor detailing what she will be wearing, so that The Queen's ladies' maids can select an appropriate dress for the lady they are looking after. When it comes to the Royal Family, it doesn't matter if they wear the same colour as The Queen because they are family, and sometimes the ladies will wear cocktail dresses even though The Queen might be wearing a long one. Other guests, though, feel they shouldn't be in the same colour as Her Majesty, although The Queen would not mind if this did happen. So we try to help The Queen's ladies' maids as often as we can. The Housekeeper makes sure the service given to all of The Queen's guests and staff is of the highest standard.\n\n_With the dogs after a walk at Sandringham in 1998._\n\nIf The Queen was hosting a cocktail reception for the Estate staff, Her Majesty would change into a cocktail dress. Nothing too sparkly, just a smart silk dress: The Queen would not want her guests to feel underdressed: they are likely to be wearing suits and tea dresses. However, if it is a larger cocktail party, it would be a more formal, sparkly dress. The guests like to dress up, too. The guests, who are usually friends and family, are given a bit of guidance as to what they need to pack before they arrive, although most of those who come to stay have been before and know what to expect.\n\nIf the reception goes on until 7.30pm and The Queen feels comfortable, she will remain in the cocktail dress and not worry about changing into evening dress. Alternatively, if she wants to change for dinner, Her Majesty will wear a long evening gown. Dressing for dinner is a tradition The Queen Mother kept up after the death of King George V, when she would wear a long evening dress, and The Queen has followed her example. This is when Her Majesty's beautiful jewellery comes out.\n\n_The Queen riding at Sandringham._\n\nOnce I know which dress The Queen will be wearing, I ask her if she would like to wear diamonds or pearls. In my first book, Dressing The Queen, I went into more detail about her jewellery, and how I make the decisions when offering her jewellery selection. So, if The Queen chooses a red dress, I wouldn't offer rubies because they would disappear on the dress, suggesting diamonds instead. If a dark or black dress was chosen, rubies are a beautiful match. If the dress is pale blue I would offer aquamarines or diamonds, or sometimes, just to soften the colour of the dress, I would offer a lovely set of pearls. It all depends on the colour and style of the dress and, of course, the cut of its neckline. Imagine having such spectacular jewellery to wear and knowing the history behind each piece.\n\nThe dress and jewellery are laid out for Her Majesty, along with a choice of shoes. If The Queen is wearing a black dress then black shoes are offered, or possibly silver. If the dress is red, I offer black or silver, but never gold as it would look too Christmassy, although if the dress had some cream or gold in the material, I might offer gold shoes.\n\nSo, Sandringham is much loved, especially during the Christmas season. The house is buzzing and I love to hear the children running around, laughing and playing. It looks magical, too, with the tree and all of the Christmas decorations.\n\nThe Queen attends church with her family every year on Christmas Day. Christmas is such a special time of year \u2013 everyone puts on their best clothes and, of course, The Queen is no different. There is so much media coverage, with pictures sent all over the world, and I take a lot of care in designing Her Majesty's outfit. I start to plan well in advance \u2013 around two months or so \u2013 checking to see what colours The Queen wore in previous years as I don't want to repeat a colour for a few years. I always think of the children and the other members of the public who are standing outside, waiting patiently for Her Majesty's arrival at the church. I like to make sure The Queen is wearing a festive colour so the well-wishers can see her easily. I do alternate years with Stewart Parvin, so we each get a turn making The Queen look lovely on Christmas Day.\n\n_The Queen attends the Christmas Day church service in 2017._\n\n_A warm, vibrant outfit for a chilly Christmas morning._\n\n_The Queen recording her Christmas Day message in 2018. The Duke of Edinburgh designed this brooch in 1966 for Her Majesty in the shape of a scarab, wrought in gold, rubies, and diamonds._\nTHE CHRISTMAS  \nMESSAGE\n\nSo many people want to see what The Queen wore to church on Christmas Day but, of course, there are many more across the country and around the world who look forward to The Queen's Christmas Message. It's an important part of Christmas Day for many people \u2013 something to be enjoyed after a long lunch and a time to reflect on the events of the year. It's a privilege for me to be involved in this significant occasion.\n\nAs part of the preparations for the speech, I am in touch with the broadcasters a couple of weeks before filming. I've got to know them quite well over the years \u2013 at the BBC, ITV, and Sky \u2013 and we've developed a smooth process for making sure everything goes perfectly. Firstly, I ask what colours and decorations they're planning to use for the scene and they'll give me a detailed description, including which furniture will be featured and how the tree will be decorated. I then pick out a selection of outfits for The Queen that might be suitable, based on the colours chosen for the setting. Ultimately, I leave it up to the production team to decide on the final outfit as the camera crews and producers know what will work and what won't: red, for example, is difficult to capture on camera, and in green, Her Majesty might disappear into the background, depending on the positioning of the tree.\n\nIn 2012, to celebrate Her Majesty's Jubilee year, as well as the eightieth year since King George first broadcast his speech over the radio, the production company suggested that it might try something a bit different. The Queen is always willing to embrace technology, so it was agreed that for the first time the Christmas message would be broadcast in 3D. On the day of filming, nothing was noticeably different with the cameras, and Her Majesty was as professional as ever, with the speech captured in one take.\n\nIt's a very rare occasion when someone else decides what The Queen will wear, particularly on such a significant day! But I trust the television crews and we work brilliantly as a team. Of course, I'll discuss their choice with Her Majesty, but if I'm assured that it's the right decision, she is satisfied. The only other thing left for me to do is to arrange for the make-up artist, Marilyn Widdess, to be there on the day of filming. You might be surprised to know that this is the only occasion throughout the year when Her Majesty does not do her own make-up.\n\n_Queen Victoria at the christening of her great-grandson, the future King Edward VIII, with the baby's mothers, Mary of Teck, and grandmother Alexandra_\nTHE CHRISTENING  \nROBE\n\nI would like to dedicate this story to Barbara Buckfield, better known as June\n\nEvery day I am concerned, first and foremost, with the design and maintenance of Her Majesty's wardrobe. The Queen's outfits are always my top priority, but now and again the opportunity arises for me to assist with the Royal wardrobe in a more unusual way. Needless to say, it's always a pleasure to help with an exhibition of iconic Royal gowns, but a few years ago I had the honour of undertaking a once-in-a-lifetime task.\n\nAfter 163 years of use, the famous Royal Christening Robe had been worn by sixty-two members of the Royal Family since its first outing in 1841 at the christening of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Princess Victoria. Made of Spitalfields silk and intricate Honiton lace, it was an extremely delicate piece that had historically never been washed after each wearing, other than a light spot clean with fresh spring water. After the christening of Lady Louise Windsor, the daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex, in 2004, I had noticed that, after so many years of use, the robe had snagged on bracelets and watches, and had acquired quite a few stains along the way. As I was preparing to put it away, I mentioned to Her Majesty that if it was worn again it might become irreparable. This evidently stayed with The Queen because the next time we were alone together she asked if I would make a replica of the robe for future use so that the original could be locked away safely.\n\nTouched that Her Majesty had entrusted such an important task to me, I set about making a plan. My first task was to examine the existing robe in detail, so I removed most of the furniture in my workroom except for a good-sized table and laid the robe carefully on top. My first thought was that it was the most beautiful garment I had ever seen. The detail that had gone into the different sections of lace was extraordinary, particularly considering that a square inch of Honiton lace can take ten hours to make. The sheer quantity of lace, too, was amazing, delicately folded to give the effect of a full skirt beneath the magnificent bodice and sleeves. At the time, due to the available lighting and other working conditions, it would have taken at least a year, perhaps even eighteen months, to create. I had heard that it was styled after Queen Victoria's wedding dress and I could see the resemblance. It was heartbreaking to see such a beautiful creation deteriorate, and I was determined to produce something equally lovely that could be worn by many future generations to come.\n\n_The Queen Victoria Christening Robe. Not all of these elements (the cape, the bibs, the medallions, and the ribbons) have been used as often in more recent times \u2013 mainly the robe and the bonnet._\nThankfully, there was no news of any Royal babies in the near future, as I knew it would take several months to source the finest materials, draw the designs, and create the robe. The project was to be kept top secret, so it was a happy coincidence that a new dressmaker joined our team and turned out to be the perfect ally. June Buckfield, whose real name was Barbara, had applied for the position after working for Jaeger. She was due to retire after many years with them, and after I'd interviewed many candidates, it was obvious that she was the right person for the job, bringing valuable experience to the team, as well as her workmanship, and I knew that her personality would fit right in with the rest of us. Shortly after her arrival, I told her about the secret task of recreating the Christening Robe and she was thrilled to be involved. However, shortly afterwards, June was sadly diagnosed with terminal cancer and needed treatment immediately. I made sure to let her know that as soon as her treatment was over she could come straight back to the Palace to help me with the robe.\n\nFirst I had to find a lace-maker to replicate the main bodice exactly, as this would undoubtedly be the most time-consuming material to produce. I required three types of lace but the majority was to be used in the full, layered skirt of the robe. There was also to be a slight alteration to the frill, at the request of The Queen. I initially spoke to a well-known company based on the outskirts of London but unfortunately, and much to my surprise, they were not very interested and quoted an enormous amount of money. Knowing that Her Majesty is always mindful of cost, I approached Joel & Son Fabrics; the owner, Mrs Bull, and her colleague Linda told me about a small family business in Italy called Vema that specialised in making the finest lace and embroidery. I made a call to Paola Mazzucchelli and asked for a quote based on the quantity I would need. Paola gave an approximate cost, which was much more reasonable, but said she would need to see the garment to make sure the firm could commit to the project.\n\nHer Majesty was happy for me, Mrs Bull, and Linda to travel to Italy to visit Vema, but before we went I wanted to take my own measurements of the robe. I knew the lace-makers would be taking their own exact measurements but I wanted to make sure they were recorded in the Royal Household, too, to help future generations when the time came for another replacement to be made. Measuring a complex garment like that can be difficult; first I had to find its centre point, a length of 70 centimetres from top to bottom, and then I broke the garment down into five sections and rebuilt it to form a gradual gradient across the front. Centimetre by centimetre, I meticulously took note of the dimensions, which was a very useful exercise in understanding how the robe had been put together.\n\n_The Queen Elizabeth II robe - note the ribbon is completely handstitched._\n\nBefore long, Mrs Bull, Linda, and I were on our way to Italy. Three ladies on a secret mission. When we arrived, after settling into our hotel, we went to Vema where we met Paola and her family. We got straight down to business and I showed them the Christening Robe, which I had discreetly brought, wrapped in lots of tissue paper, in a large handbag. When the family saw it, I could tell that they appreciated how special and delicate it was. In fact, they were in awe and held it with the utmost care. Seeing how respectfully and gently they handled it, I knew I had made the right decision in approaching them.\n\n_The two robes have never been pictures together before. The Queen Victoria robe is above, and the Queen Elizabeth II robe is below._\n\nWe were shown to their enormous workroom, which contained rows and rows of looms, each around 15 metres long. This was ideal as the robe would require 3 metres of lace, so we would have plenty of excess for repairs. With everything in place and the details agreed, we flew home. I remember thinking how extraordinary it was to be sitting on a plane with a garment made for Queen Victoria's children.\n\nHaving reassured The Queen that everything was going smoothly, I set about my next task: sourcing additional designs of lace to cover the bodice, sleeves, and trim of the robe. Happily, by this time June had come back to the Palace to join me in the enormous task of recreating the robe. Together, we sourced lace to complement that being made in Italy, and to make sure it looked authentic, we dyed it in Yorkshire tea (which is the strongest, as we all know!). One by one, we placed each piece of lace in a small bowl, from the Dressers' kitchen, filled with cool water and a tea bag, and left it for about five minutes, checking regularly until the colour was perfect. With the lace ready to sew onto the robe, the only material left to source was the duchesse satin to go beneath the lace skirt. Once again, Mrs Bull came to the rescue and, with the help of Dino, at Joel & Son Fabrics, found the perfect satin and tea-dyed it to match the lace June and I had worked on.\n\n_We had to use tea to dye it to get the new robe as close as possible to the original colour, so it wasn't a 'brand new' bright white._\n\n_We actually made the new robe a little bigger than the original to allow more room as most babies are born a little bigger now than they were back then!_\nNow that we had sourced all of the necessary materials and used plenty of tea bags, we were ready to start the painstaking process of producing the robe. Vema had delivered the most exquisite lace, so we were ready to go. I gave June the task of all the hand-stitching, as her attention to detail was second to none. A heavy lace panel edged with additional frilled lace was to be attached to the front, with a wider lace frill sewn on which reached around to the back of the gown. Around the neck, a fine millimetre-wide drawstring ribbon and three tiny 6-millimetre buttons were to be attached and buttonholes made. At the bottom of the bodice, just before it meets the skirt, June had to apply two rows of 3-millimetre satin-edged lace to the finish, which encased the same narrow ribbon as that used around the neck to allow the robe to be pulled in at the waist. Finally, the bottom of the gown was to be finished with a scalloped border, slightly frilled, which measured no more than 7 centimetres in height. At each stage of the creative process, I would show our progress to The Queen: first the bodice, then the sleeves attached to the bodice, then the skirt with the under-layers on, and finally the completed robe. Her Majesty was very interested to see how it was developing. So much complex and intricate work was involved that it was a relief to us all when the robe was finally complete. From start to finish, it had taken us, appropriately, nine months. Since completion, it has been worn by James, Viscount Severn, son of the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Savannah and Isla Phillips, the children of Peter Phillips (The Princess Royal's son), Maud Windsor, daughter of Lord Frederick Windsor, Mia and Lena Tindall, the children of Zara (The Princess Royal's daughter), Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, the sons and daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and most recently by Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.\n\nI cannot describe how touched I was that Her Majesty asked me to create a replica of this historic robe, and trusted me to take the original to Italy. It is an important garment to her, with lots of personal memories. I feel honoured to have created something that will be worn by future generations of the Royal Family, but it was daunting, making sure that I got it absolutely right. On a personal level, working alongside June, who was caring, warm, dedicated, and an expert seamstress, made the experience all the more special.\n\n_I'm holding the bonnet. The Queen Victoria robe is on the left and the Queen Elizabeth II robe is on the right, and the size difference between the two can be clearly seen._\n**'VEMA is a small embroidery company, founded in 1969 by my father, Venanzio Mazzucchelli, who was one of the first Italian entrepreneurs to purchase Swiss embroidery machines in Italy. As a company that manufactures high-end, bespoke embroideries, we often receive 'special orders'.**\n\n**One day in 2004, we received a call from our good customer Joel & Son Fabrics in London, asking if we could take part in a special project to replicate an ancient fabric \u2013 a very important undertaking that was to remain confidential. Of course, we agreed at once with enthusiasm. When we were informed that we would be visited by the Queen's Dresser to replicate the Royal Christening gown . . . well, the surprise couldn't have been bigger. **\n\n**When Angela pulled out the dress, no one dared to touch it. The magnificent hand embroideries were over 160 years old and although still well-kept, were worn out by usage. The fine yarns crafted by skilled workers had created a masterpiece that seemed impossible to replicate. In the weeks that followed, we did several trials and in the end, we used a technique called superpos\u00e9 which is basically a double embroidery, that gives a three-dimensional effect.**\n\n**Months went by, and then years, and the project remained as a folder in my dad's desk, together with a picture of him and Angela, of which he was so proud. And then one day, in 2013, I received a phone call from Buckingham Palace \u2013 the employee who picked up the phone thought it was a joke. It was Angela, announcing that the gown was to be presented officially for the Christening of the Royal heir, Prince George.**\n\n**Dad was so proud that Angela invited me to see the robe in Buckingham Palace. He passed away in 2015. At every Christening of the British Royal Family, there is a small fan club here in our offices, sharing pictures and, of course, memories. It makes us feel that we took part in a small piece of history.'**\n\n**_By Paola Mazzucchelli_  \nVema Ltd**\n\n_The Queen's Page, Paul Whybrew, does his duty alongside Daniel Craig and The Queen during filming for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games._\nGOOD EVENING,  \nMR BOND\n\nThe London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony was full of colour, sound, light, and spectacular performance. It took place in The Queen's Diamond Jubilee year, right in the middle of an extremely busy period. However, this event stood out. Thousands of volunteers worked seamlessly, creating perfectly choreographed patterns across the vast floor of the Olympic Stadium. Amid the kaleidoscope of activity, there was one moment when the stadium's 62,000 occupants held their breath in stunned silence: Her Majesty, dressed in a peach, crystal and lace cocktail dress, apparently took a daring leap from a helicopter, skydiving towards the stadium 500 feet below. What an entrance!\n\nThere are few occasions on which Her Majesty will agree to break protocol, but in 2011, when film director Danny Boyle approached the Royal Household, he had a request to make that we simply could not refuse. I first heard about Danny's grand plan when Private Secretary Edward Young called me into his room: he wanted to run an idea past me, as well as a thought for a sensational arrival at the Olympic Stadium. Danny wanted to ask Her Majesty to feature in a short film as part of his Olympics opening ceremony. She was to be greeted by James Bond, played by Daniel Craig, in the Palace and seemingly escorted to a helicopter. Mr Bond was there to rescue her from an unknown threat that jeopardised her safe arrival on time at an undisclosed event. Once safely aboard, the helicopter would fly over the Houses of Parliament, receiving a salute from Churchill's statue in Parliament Square, before passing beneath Tower Bridge and swinging north to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, London. Here, the helicopter door would slide open and 'Her Majesty' would take a daring leap out, skydiving down in perhaps her most dramatic entrance to an engagement ever.\n\nHaving listened to Danny's plan, I asked him and Edward to give me five minutes so that I could ask The Queen. I remember the look of shock on Danny's face that I would be asking Her Majesty straight away, but there's no point in waiting around with these things: if she said no, that would be the end of it. I ran upstairs and luckily The Queen was free so I asked if she would be prepared to do a surprise performance for the Olympics opening ceremony. She was very amused by the idea and agreed immediately. I asked then if she would like a speaking part. Without hesitation, Her Majesty replied, 'Of course I must say something. After all, he is coming to rescue me.'\n\nI asked whether she would like to say, 'Good evening, James,' or 'Good evening, Mr Bond,' and she chose the latter, knowing the Bond films. Within minutes, I was back in Edward's office delivering the good news to Danny \u2013 I think he almost fell off his chair when I said that The Queen's only stipulation was that she could deliver that iconic line: 'Good evening, Mr Bond.'\n\nMore than perhaps any other public appearance by Her Majesty, this would take meticulous planning. One crucial factor was the dress The Queen would wear for the momentous skydive. It had to be a bright, solid colour that would stand out as 'Her Majesty' descended into the stadium and also while she was in the stadium surrounded by the vibrant celebrations. I had to be careful not to choose a colour that was strongly associated with any of the participating nations, too, so after much consideration, I chose peach. However, the colour wasn't the only factor, the dress also had to be designed perfectly to allow movement in the skirt as The Queen seemingly flew through the air. Of course, there would be two: one for Her Majesty and one for the jump stuntman, Gary Connery.\n\n_Skydiving material \u2013 note the bloomers detail to help the stuntman's modesty in the air._\n\n_The Queen's show-stopping dress._\n\nWorking closely with Danny's team and the Olympic opening ceremony's costume department, I set about creating two identical versions of the peach dress. For months, the Palace dressmakers worked continuously and discreetly, never allowing both dresses to be visible at the same time. Even other members of the Royal Family were unaware of the plan, so I made up a story that two dresses were needed for an upcoming event, as one was to go on exhibition and I didn't want it to be stained or marked. After much hard work, we eventually finished the stuntman's dress and I delivered it to Danny's team to add the harness and parachute \u2013 certainly a first in my years as a dressmaker!\n\nOn the day of the filming, I was privileged to watch Her Majesty undertake her role. She was unflappable and even kept 'Mr Bond' waiting for a moment while finishing a letter she was writing. The Queen's Footman, Ian Robinson, outdid himself in his role of animal handler \u2013 he managed to align Her Majesty's corgis in the perfect position, using dog biscuits to grab their attention and give the impression that they were watching The Queen's helicopter flying away. The night of the ceremony, of course, was suspense-filled as we all watched to see if Gary, wearing that dress, would land safely just outside the stadium. He did, of course, and Her Majesty resumed her role, walking calmly and coolly to her place after the apparent death-defying leap. I believe she received a standing ovation and it was the perfect contribution to Danny's spectacular vision for the opening of the Games.\n\n_Gary Connery parachutes into the stadium._\n\n_Julian Calder's photograph_ , Chief of the Chiefs.\n\n_Action!_\nOUR OWN  \nMONARCH  \nOF THE GLEN\n\nHer Majesty has sat for countless portraits throughout her long reign. Most photoshoots are quite similar, but occasionally an unusual request comes through. I'm always happy to see if Her Majesty might be up for something new.\n\nBack in 2010, Alastair Bruce, a historian and author, had asked Her Majesty if she would consider being photographed by Julian Calder for inclusion in their upcoming book, Keepers: The Ancient Offices of Britain. I wasn't at the meeting with Alastair and The Queen, but he came to see me afterwards to explain his suggestion that Her Majesty be pictured on the Scottish moors, near Balmoral. I imagine The Queen had immediately thought about the obvious potential challenge \u2013 the Scottish weather. One minute it could be glorious sunshine, but the next there's torrential rain, gusty winds, and thick fog. Alastair asked The Queen if she would think about it for a while, and Her Majesty replied maybe.\n\nAs Her Majesty pondered, Alastair approached me to discuss their vision for the outfit she would wear on the moors. Would it be possible for her to wear the Thistle Robe and the Vladimir Tiara as she stood among the Scottish heather? The Vladimir Tiara dates back to 1880, when it was commissioned for the Grand Duchess Vladimir. In 1921, Queen Mary, our Queen's grandmother, had bought it from Princess Nicholas of Greece, the Grand Duchess's only daughter. In 1953 Her Majesty inherited it from Queen Mary. This stunning tiara has fifteen intertwining diamond circles, with either a pearl or emerald suspended from the centre of each. I thought that emeralds would perfectly complement the deep velvet green of the Thistle Robe.\n\nHow might Julian and Alastair's plan work if The Queen agreed to go ahead? Her Page, Paul Whybrew, had been told of the request, too, so we put our heads together to find a way to make the iconic photoshoot happen. But, of course, ultimately it was Her Majesty's decision. So, being brave, I asked again whether she might consider it, taking care to explain the plan. If Her Majesty got ready in the Castle, we could drive out in her car, stop on the moors, take a few pictures and drive back. The Queen looked at me as though I was crazy. She reminded me that it might easily be pouring with rain or blowing a gale. On top of that, the drive could take up to twenty minutes along bumpy roads \u2013 it was not a matter of nipping over to the heather-topped moors. Crossing my fingers, I told her that it wouldn't be raining, and Her Majesty agreed to go ahead. A day was fixed for the photoshoot and now all we had to do was pray that the weather would be kind.\n\n_Notice the heather placement._\n\nThe day before the photoshoot, Paul, Alastair, Julian, and I went out onto the moors to check the location that would work best. Julian and Alastair wanted Her Majesty to stand on a rock, which had a nearly, but not quite, even, flat surface. Returning to the Castle, I went to explain to The Queen that the location for the shoot wasn't too far away and that she would be standing on a slightly uneven rock, but that she would be fine. A couple of photographs, and we'd be on our way back to the Castle.\n\nThe day of the photoshoot arrived and we awoke to heavy rain showers. Her Majesty said firmly that she was not going out on the moors in that weather \u2013 we would all be soaked through, and the rain would ruin the beautiful velvet Thistle Robe. After a couple of hours, though, blue sky began to break through the grey clouds \u2013 the showers were passing. The Queen called for me and said, 'If I do this, we go now.'\n\nIt was all hands on deck. I alerted the others and helped The Queen to get ready. In her long gown, tiara, and Thistle Robe, she got into the car and I can only imagine what Her Majesty was thinking as she wrapped and tucked the robe around herself so that she could sit somewhat comfortably. Her face was a picture.\n\nPaul and I followed Her Majesty in the car behind and it only took a short time to drive to the chosen location. Paul, Julian and I helped The Queen out of the car, ensuring that the long robe didn't drag along the rough ground as she walked to the rock on which she was to stand. Some purple heather surrounded it but not quite enough \u2013 Paul and I quickly unearthed a few clumps, making sure to keep the soil around the roots, and placed them nearer to Her Majesty. The beautiful green robe was placed in such a way that it gave the impression of flowing down the grassy moors. Holding the Thistle hat, The Queen looked so elegant and regal. It was moving to see our Sovereign standing amid the stunning Highland scenery.\n\nAs Julian took his photographs, The Queen kept shooting pointed looks at me and Paul, as if to say, 'Have you seen the sky?' It was getting darker by the minute. Eventually Julian was happy that he had the shot he wanted and, job done, we all burst into giggles of relief \u2013 even The Queen. Her Majesty removed her tiara and passed it to me with a look that said, 'Are you happy now?', followed by a twinkle in her eye and a beaming smile. We packed up quickly, replanted the heather in its original position, jumped into our cars and the heavens opened as we headed back to the Castle.\n\nLater that day when we were all in The Queen's private rooms, it was clear that she thought the shoot had gone well: and with a grin, she said, 'I really enjoyed that!' Nevertheless, I wouldn't push my luck and ask if she would ever do it again!\n\n_Last-minute adjustments \u2013 I'm ensuring everything is exact._\n\n_I was thrilled to be involved in the iconic Annie Leibovitz photoshoot in 2018._\nBEHIND THE LENS:  \nANNIE LEIBOVITZ\n\nAnother shoot was particularly memorable, one that captured The Queen in a way that left me awestruck. Back in 2007, the Royal Household commissioned photographs to celebrate The Queen's State Visit to the United States and they wanted this to take place at the same time that Jamestown, Virginia, was celebrating the 400th anniversary of its founding. Annie Leibovitz became the first American photographer to take an official portrait of The Queen . . . four portraits, in fact.\n\nAnnie was asked to take four different images of The Queen. In the first, she would be wearing an evening gown with a stole wrapped around her shoulders, sitting down and looking out of an opened window. For the second, she would also be in an evening gown, but wearing a tiara and the Garter Robe, seated again. In the third photograph, she would stand in an evening gown, with a stole draped over her arm. The fourth was to show The Queen wearing her boat cloak that was made famous in Cecil Beaton's powerfully simplistic portrait of Her Majesty, taken in 1968.\n\nFor this photoshoot, Annie had a little more freedom than is usual through which to exercise her creativity, and I much enjoyed working with her. I could help by making sure the robe was positioned correctly, when The Queen put it on, so that it showed some of the white silk lining.\n\nWhen Annie was taking the photograph of The Queen wearing her stole, Her Majesty's pose resembled one of The Queen Mother's, with the fur draped over one shoulder. It didn't look quite right. Instead I suggested that in the picture The Queen might carry it over her arm, as if she was ready to go out but didn't need to put it on yet. Annie agreed, and this became the final shot. Annie was more than happy for me to advise, but that was as far as my role went: I knew Annie was an experienced, professional photographer. She had her own vision, which she captured in the photos she produced. The outcome was amazing.\n\nOne of the good things about working in the same job for such a long time is that it allows you to put things right that haven't gone quite as planned in the past. I'm often reminded of this when I think of that photoshoot. Annie had travelled over with her daughter, who would be introduced to The Queen before the portrait sitting. On the day, Her Majesty was scheduled to meet only Annie's daughter and was expecting just a handful of people to be present. When The Queen arrived she was met by nearly fifteen people in the room, standing in a straight line, and many members of the press. A misunderstanding meant that footage was captured and broadcast showing The Queen apparently 'storming' out of the photoshoot. This was not an accurate account of what happened. Her Majesty was not 'storming' anywhere: she was making her way to the shoot as planned, and hadn't time to meet so many people. I have always felt so bad for Annie about how this was later reported, as she really didn't deserve to be misrepresented in that way.\n\nAlmost nine years later, The Queen and I had a conversation about how we could make things right. Her Majesty's ninetieth birthday was coming up, and I suggested that we invite Annie back to do the official photographs. The Queen was more than happy and in full agreement that it would be the right thing to do to make amends for the earlier misunderstanding, and said yes.\n\nHer Majesty and I discussed different ideas for the photographs. I suggested that Annie should keep things simple and that the shoot should be informal, based around The Queen and her family. I suggested four photographs that should be taken at Windsor Castle: The Queen with His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh; The Queen with all of her great-grandchildren; The Queen with her corgis; and one of The Queen with her daughter, The Princess Royal. I felt that The Queen hadn't been photographed often enough with her daughter and, as I have a daughter myself, I thought it would make a special photo for them to share as mother and daughter. The Queen wholeheartedly agreed.\n\nSoon after, I flew to New York with my assistant, Jackie. I'd never been there before so I was very excited, and we went to see Annie and her team in her studio. When I told her that The Queen had asked for her to return to photograph her on or close to her ninetieth birthday, Annie was thrilled and humbled to receive such an honour.\n\nIt was great to see Annie and her team again. After we had spent a little time reminiscing about the 2007 shoot, we got down to work. I explained to Annie how the coming shoot would have to work. Time was limited as the entire Royal Family would be together only during the Easter weekend. We just had a few months to plan everything in detail. I even had the contracts with me for Annie to sign there and then if she agreed. I didn't have any time to waste: everything had to move quickly.\n\nA few weeks later, Annie and her team flew to London to do their own recce with us. We were all so excited and looking forward to seeing the photos. We prayed that the weather would be in our favour on the day. When the day of the shoot arrived, everything went according to plan. Annie captured a stunning image of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, and another of Her Majesty with her daughter, The Princess Royal. The great-grandchildren were all so well behaved, and I think even they were excited about having a group photograph taken with The Queen. But the real stars of the show that day were the corgis! They knew how to work that camera, looking straight at Annie while she was taking the photos. I think they even enjoyed it. I'm sure they were given plenty of special treats afterwards by Ian.\n\nThe Queen was delighted with the pictures, which were special family photos to be shared with the public.\n\n_Windsor Castle in all its majesty._\n\n_A secret wish come true._\nTHE QUEEN  \nDOING IT  \nHER WAY\n\nI get asked all sorts of questions about my job, with it being unusual \u2013 unique, actually. And, of course, everyone is keen to hear about what happens behind closed doors, especially when it comes to Her Majesty, who is beloved in this country and across the world. I'm very careful to respect The Queen's privacy, of course, but one thing I always tell people is just how considerate and thoughtful Her Majesty is \u2013 she is always willing to help, never wants to let anyone down, and will always do her best to make sure everyone is content. So, a few years ago, when I had the opportunity to do something special for The Queen, I leaped at the chance.\n\nMany years ago, Her Majesty disclosed something to me \u2013 a secret wish that she'd held since she was young. Throughout The Queen's time on the throne, she has been photographed in countless formal ways. However, for a long time, Her Majesty wanted to be photographed more informally and have the freedom, for example, to pose with her hands in her pockets. The Queen Mother and her advisors had always advised against this, suggesting it would not be appropriate, and I believe she has never done this before.\n\nSome years later, when I was writing my first book, Dressing The Queen, I remembered Her Majesty's secret wish. Given that the book was all about Her Majesty's outfits and relationship with fashion, I wondered if I might have a wonderful opportunity to make The Queen's wish come true. So, although I was very nervous, I finally asked the question: 'Your Majesty, would you do me a favour? I would like you to consider doing a photoshoot of yourself modelling a dress with your hands in your pockets. It would only be yourself, me, the photographer and his assistant.' The Queen looked at me in amazement as I asked whether she knew the potential implications of the photographs. She didn't take long to answer: yes, she would do it and, yes, she was sure. She asked me to arrange the photographer and I already had someone in mind: Barry Jeffery, whom I trusted implicitly and who I knew would take wonderful pictures.\n\nShortly after my conversation with The Queen, I went to see Barry and asked if he would like to photograph Her Majesty in a way that she had never been captured before. I explained that I wanted him to photograph The Queen as though she was the most famous model in the world and that she would be posing in a relaxed, informal way. Needless to say, Barry was overjoyed by the idea, and before long, we had booked a date. The photoshoot was to take place in the Throne Room and Her Majesty chose a very fetching white dress, although a crucial element was missing: it had no pockets! Luckily, this was an easy fix, as I had leftover material from when I had made the dress.\n\nThe day of the photoshoot arrived. I greeted Barry and his assistant, Gideon, and we walked together, with his camera, to the Throne Room where they set up their equipment. I went to request Her Majesty's company and as soon as she joined us, Barry began to explain his approach and how the photoshoot would progress. Within moments, The Queen raised her hand respectfully and Barry immediately stopped talking. 'No, Barry, this is how we're going to do it,' she said. 'Just keep the camera rolling!' And we were off. Her Majesty took her position in front of the lens and started striking a series of poses, slipping her hands in and out of her pockets and placing them onto her hips, mimicking the stances of a professional model. I stood by in disbelief \u2013 The Queen was a natural. Barry and I felt we were experiencing something really special: a moment never to be repeated.\n\nWhen the photoshoot was over, The Queen and I left the Throne Room and Her Majesty thanked Barry, giving him clear instructions to return the photographs to her. She told me that she was really looking forward to seeing them, and I could tell by her laughter and the twinkle in her eye that she had had a wonderful time.\n\nI was working with the Royal Collection at the time, who were to publish my first book, Dressing the Queen, and we were in final discussions regarding the layout, so once the photographs from this special shoot were ready, I handed them over to be placed in the book. However, to my utter amazement and disappointment, I was then told by the Royal Collection that only two photographs would be allowed to be used for the book. Once the full shoot had been shared more widely, their opinion was that these more candid photographs would bring the Monarchy down, and therefore they were not suitable for the public eye. Why they thought that, I have no idea.\n\nThe Royal Collection is now under new management, and Mr Tim Knox, who is the director, has been fully supportive of this book and has returned the photographs from this special shoot to The Queen. It is wonderful to have a second opportunity to share the one and only full set of photographs from that exceptional morning, when The Queen's wish was granted and Her Majesty was able to do it her way.\n\n_A beautiful portrait, and, I believe, one that is previously unseen._\n\n**'It was an absolute honour to be asked to photograph The Queen for the cover of the book _Dressing The Queen: The Jubilee Wardrobe_ , and the request came as a complete surprise.**\n\n**At the time I was working on photographing the majority of the content of the book at Buckingham Palace, capturing the magical process that each of Her Majesty's outfits goes through, from fabric selection to the making. I was spending a lot of time with Angela and her team on the Dressers' Floor, following them around on their daily routines, when one day, Angela called me to her office where she asked if I would shoot the book cover picture of The Queen in the Jubilee dress. At that very moment I felt hugely honoured, excited and lucky. What a privilege! It's not something I'd thought I would ever be asked to do.**\n\n**The day before the shoot, my assistant, Gideon Marshall, and I set up in the Throne Room. It was a surreal experience for us both, especially when we stepped out into the corridor for a break to find Daniel Craig in character as James Bond, standing there, talking on his phone! The scenes for the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony were being filmed.**\n\n**On the day of the shoot, naturally I was a little anxious, but I was ready and so was everything else. The moment arrived, and it all went to plan. I managed to capture fantastic shots of Her Majesty in the Jubilee dress and was so pleased with the results. Then The Queen decided she would change her outfit, which was completely unplanned. We had just five minutes to choose a different area to shoot within the Throne Room, move our kit around and be ready for the next shot.**\n\n**The Queen returned in her second outfit, and we were straight into the flow of shooting, but this session was different, and even more amazing than the first. Everyone was relaxed and having fun. There was lots of laughter, a sense of freedom and movement, which you can see in the series of images. It was much more like a fashion shoot, and I even captured a shot of The Queen with her hands in her pockets, which was used for the cover of the book. It was a day I'll never forget.**\n\n**Working with Angela and her team was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was fascinating and hugely educational, and Angela was so welcoming. As a photographer, shooting pictures of The Queen was career defining, and something I'd never dreamed of doing. I'd like to thank Angela for making it possible.**\n\n**And here I am, with Kate, my wife and assistant, being asked once more to produce photographs. This time Angela needs a completely different series of images, to include the original and replica Royal Christening Robes in their full glory and The Queen's Royal Ascot outfits for 2019. I feel so privileged to be asked to return to Buckingham Palace, and so honoured also to share this experience with my wife. I will never forget the magical moments I shared with Angela and her team.'**\n\n**_By Barry Jeffery_   \nPhotographer**\n\nBEHIND THE  \nLENS: CHRIS  \nLEVINE\n\nAnother shoot I remember fondly was for Jersey's 800th anniversary celebration to honour its special relationship with the Monarchy. To reflect this occasion, the Jersey Heritage Trust asked Chris Levine and Robert Munday to work together to create something spectacular.\n\nA unique and extraordinary sitting took place in November 2003 for a holographic portrait: The Queen's picture was going to be turned into a hologram. So much work went into setting up the Yellow Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace as a photographic studio \u2013 it took about three days for all the equipment to be installed. Robert designed and built the special camera system, as well as the tracks the camera was going to be sitting on so that it would capture thousands of pictures every minute!\n\nChris had a particular vision of the shot in mind, and when we discussed his ideas before the sitting, we also talked about outfits. I showed Chris a few options, and he selected the dress he thought would be best for the portrait. The Queen would also be wearing the Diadem, a pearl necklace and a lovely pair of diamond and pearl earrings. Chris asked if I could bring a couple of cloaks and capes with me, as one of the capes he was hoping The Queen would wear was the adapted Officer's Cape of the Life Guards, of which Her Majesty is Colonel-in-Chief.\n\nThe day finally came and I had the pleasure not only of helping The Queen dress, but also of seeing the astonishing pieces of equipment that would be used to create the hologram of Her Majesty. How cameras have come on since the Polaroid! I followed The Queen into the Yellow Drawing Room and the room was dark as all of the curtains had been closed. Built in a half-moon across the floor was what looked like a railway track with a camera sitting on it. It reminded me of the old-fashioned coal trucks that were pulled by trains many years ago. It was intriguing!\n\nThe Queen listened intently as Chris and Robert explained how this unusual sitting was going to work. Once everyone was happy with the plan, I followed The Queen to the mirror, handed her the Diadem and watched as she carefully placed it on her head. Her Majesty then made herself as comfortable as she could on the chair that was waiting for her. I placed the white-fur-trimmed cape around her shoulders and we were good to go. Lights, camera, action!\n\nDuring the sitting Chris asked The Queen to sit perfectly still for eight seconds as the series of images was taken. Once the eight seconds had passed, The Queen was able to close her eyes and rest for a moment. The lights were bright, so I know I would have appreciated that if I had been sitting in front of the camera. The Queen looked so peaceful with her eyes closed, and I thought the title of the hologram portrait was fitting. It was called Equanimity, as Chris wanted to demonstrate how one could achieve a sense of calm when sitting still and how liberating this could be.\n\nThe camera on the tracks took more than 10,000 individual images, which were then converted into the hologram. I was overwhelmed to be given one of the holograms and I have treasured it ever since, carefully packed away for safe keeping.\n\nActually, the photograph used on the cover of this book was taken during that sitting by Nina Duncan, Chris Levine's assistant. In that picture I am helping The Queen put the Admiral's Boat Cloak \u2013 it was made for her in 1968 \u2013 over her shoulders, making the final adjustments and ensuring that her pearl necklace was lying straight. I thought that photograph of The Queen and myself was the perfect picture for this book.\n\n_The Queen posing for the holographic portrait,_ Equanimity, _which was commissioned by Jersey Heritage to commemorate 800 years of allegiance to the crown._\n**'A week before my sitting with Her Majesty, I received a phone call from the Palace. It was Angela Kelly asking me what I would like The Queen to wear for the Jersey portrait. Until that point, I had been preparing for the shoot under the impression that I would only find out what Her Majesty would be wearing on the day itself. I had to pick myself up from the floor \u2013 Angela was suggesting that I could style Her Majesty myself, which was an immensely exciting but also extremely daunting prospect. Creatively, I was looking to simplify and purify the work \u2013 to create something resonantly modern and iconic \u2013 like The Queen herself \u2013 so the choice of attire was critical. Who better to collaborate with than Angela!**\n\n**Meeting with Angela at the Palace, I was able to share my thoughts about the work and what I was hoping to achieve artistically. Based on our discussions, she then selected several dresses for us to consider, but in the end I went for a simple, dark blue, A-line number. Angela also suggested that a cape could be fitting, so I asked for a variety of options, knowing that on the day we could change the look very quickly by simply switching capes. In terms of jewellery, along with Her Majesty's diamond and pearl earrings, I thought one string of pearls would be best, rather than the usual three, as it would make for a more graphic look. Finally, I was given the opportunity to review The Queen's crowns in the Royal Collection next door and decided on one of the more relatively understated pieces \u2013 the Diadem \u2013 which features a simple cross. It is just sublime and is apparently one of Her Majesty's favourites, so seemingly a good choice.**\n\n**On the day of the shoot, I got a call from one of the offices in the Palace to ask whether the crown was essential for the shoot. The President of the United States was staying at the time, so security was tight and the logistics of getting the Diadem to the shoot would be tricky. Something in me held firm. Yes, it was important. So Angela brought the piece over herself and told me that Her Majesty had said that if Chris wanted the Diadem, he must have the Diadem. Thank you, Your Majesty.**\n\n**With the shoot well under way in the Yellow Drawing Room, I asked if we might have a change of cape, so Angela brought out the Ermine. Until the day I die, I will never forget the moment The Queen put it on \u2013 I felt I was somehow channelling the work. Her Majesty looked sensational \u2013 just beautiful \u2013 and the images we captured have become historic.**\n\n**I'm proud of what we created together that day and I still have to pinch myself sometimes to remind myself that it wasn't a dream. The photoshoot was quite a surreal experience at times but I put my heart into the work and gave it my best. It was a huge honour and I'm grateful to Her Majesty for her faith in my art, to Jersey \u2013 the commissioning body \u2013 and to Angela for facilitating the work.'**\n\n**_By Chris Levine_  \nArtist**\n\n**'The experience of meeting and working with Angela and Her Majesty is a memory I treasure to this day. I was still a photographic assistant when I found myself in the surreal position of driving through the gates into the Buckingham Palace forecourt to meet The Queen for the first time back in 2003. Chris Levine was looking for an assistant to light Her Majesty for his holographic-portrait commission and I was the lucky lady who was hired. Shortly before we were due to go to the Palace for the first time, he also asked me to bring in my camera to document the making of the hologram and take some reference portrait shots.**\n\n**What I remember most from that first meeting was how sparkly Her Majesty's eyes were and how beautiful her smile was, but more than that, I was overcome with the thought that she was very much like a grandmother \u2013 albeit a very famous one. I just wanted to go over and give her a big hug \u2013 totally against protocol, obviously. I felt bad that she was sitting in the middle of the room with all of us around her, almost like a goldfish being watched in a bowl. I remember saying just that to Angela, who suggested I go over and talk to her to break the ice and make me feel more comfortable: The Queen is famous for making everyone feel at ease. So I did. I believe I even told her that she reminded me of my own nonna at one point. I also remember \u2013 probably much to everyone's horror! \u2013 telling her that part of the process we were doing that day would be just like having her passport photograph taken, and Her Majesty looking at me not at all unkindly for my blunder and babbling!**\n\n**I was amazed at how The Queen made us all feel so at ease, and just how sweet and gentle she was, although at the same time I was in awe of her obvious sovereignty. I also felt privileged to witness the tender connection and intimacy between Angela and Her Majesty, an almost mother\u2013daughter type of bond, yet one with much reverence and respect on Angela's part. It was apparent to me that I had a one-off opportunity to capture something precious \u2013 and that was quite something.**\n\n**We were fortunate enough to be given a second sitting early in 2004 and this time I had permission to bring in my small digital camera to further document my experience. It was in this visit that I decided to capture the truly unique little moments that made the experience, and Her Majesty, so magical and memorable for me. That was when I photographed Angela helping adjust The Queen's outfit for the camera \u2013 I wanted to capture their relationship \u2013 and Her Majesty putting on the Diadem in the mirror. I remember naively imagining that surely there must be a person in the Palace whose sole job it was to place the crown on Her Majesty's head! That moment, and the image I captured of it, humanised Her Majesty for me: I wanted to capture that while retaining her undeniable nobility.**\n\n**I'm honoured that I had the opportunity to meet The Queen and was able to capture those few moments to which I imagine few of us have access. I will treasure these memories for a lifetime.'**\n\n**_By Nina Duncan_  \nPhotographer**\n\n_The Queen sits with Anna Wintour and me at Richard Quinn's runway show during London Fashion Week in 2018. I'm wearing a beautiful dress kindly designed for me by Stewart Parvin._\nON THE FROW:  \nLONDON  \nFASHION  \nWEEK\n\nAlthough The Queen doesn't consider herself to be a fashion icon, I am very aware that many people do. She is always on-trend, trendsetting, in fact, never puts a foot wrong when it comes to choosing the outfits she wears, and takes inspiration from the classic styles of Dior and Chanel. The Queen is humble, and her life is about her role. It is part of her job to look the part, and fashion helps. I've had to be mindful over the years that when Her Majesty makes a speech, the media's focus should always be on her words and their subject matter, rather than the colour of her dress or the style of her hat, which can be a little limiting in how creative I can be with the design. So when the opportunity arose for The Queen to attend London Fashion Week, I was thrilled: for once, we could embrace the occasion without worrying quite as much as we would for a State engagement or an official Royal visit, when strict criteria must be taken into account in the designing of Her Majesty's clothes.\n\nThe origins of The Queen's iconic appearance on the 'FROW' (the front row) at the 2018 London Fashion Week show came from an idea that I had several months before. I'm such a fan of the fashion world, and considering how much everyone loves The Queen's sense of style, I wondered if we could create an award to mark the effect she has had on the fashion industry over the years. I thought it might also be a great opportunity to support an up-and-coming British designer. When I suggested to The Queen an award to be called 'The Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design' that could be presented for the first time at London Fashion Week by The Queen personally, she loved the idea. In subsequent years, the award would be presented by another member of the Royal Family. Later, Her Majesty described the award as her 'legacy to all those who have contributed to the British fashion industry'. Sam Cohen, Her Majesty's Private Secretary at the time and I immediately got in touch with Caroline Rush at the British Fashion Council to get the ball rolling. She was absolutely delighted to hear that Her Majesty would attend the show and recognise young British talent in this way. The only thing missing was the award, which Her Majesty kindly agreed that I would be in charge of designing. I think she knew that I would create something in keeping with her own taste.\n\n_When Richard found out The Queen was there \u2013 he added head scarves at the last minute, a touch that The Queen appreciated._\n\nDesigning an award is quite unlike designing an outfit, as I soon came to discover. I wanted to use The Queen Elizabeth Rose as the main focus for the design, but there were many other factors to consider, too. The award needed to be light enough for Her Majesty to hold easily but not so light that it felt insubstantial for the winner. For the design of the Rose, I envisaged it as giving the impression of having been carved into the bark of a tree, a modern design but still natural in tone. In the end, it turned out perfectly. Her Majesty was pleased when she saw it, and was confident that she could carry it!\n\nIn the lead-up to the show, which was hosted by the British Fashion Council, we had to keep everything tightly under wraps. If the media knew what was happening beforehand, it would have been very difficult for Her Majesty to attend as they would have flocked to the venue. Only a handful of people knew of the plan that The Queen would be presenting the award to Richard Quinn. My assistant, Jackie, Private Secretary, Sam Cohen, and I went to 180 Strand to see the venue before the event and to meet with the organisers. We assessed the suggested route that Her Majesty would take once she was inside, and I made some changes to the planned programme so that the new generation of designers attending would have the opportunity to speak to The Queen about their creations.\n\n_Mood board for designing The Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design by Lucy Price._\n\n_Me and my friend Michael Atmore._\n\nOn the day of the show, I arrived with The Queen, who was wearing an Angela Kelly outfit: the design was modern but inspired by Chanel, duck egg blue in colour, accompanied by a matching jacket decorated with aquamarine Swarovski crystals. We were taken to meet the New Generation designers, who, as they saw Her Majesty approaching, responded in utter amazement, not only to have the chance of seeing The Queen, but also having the chance to speak with her and share their designs. Afterwards everyone was asked to take their seats, which was our cue to take our positions. The media still had no idea that Her Majesty was about to walk into the room. I was later told by Stella, Jackie, and my great friend Michael Atmore, from Fairchild Publications, who flew over from NYC for London Fashion week, that they could hear the New Generation designers talking about how they just met The Queen and how they were still shocked. As The Queen walked in, there were audible gasps from every direction, followed swiftly by camera shutters going off at speed. After the initial shock, there was a spontaneous round of applause and some of the media representatives even had tears in their eyes \u2013 it's so unusual for anyone to see The Queen in this way and everyone was thrilled to capture Her Majesty in this rare moment.\n\nIt was a personal privilege for me that day to be able to sit with The Queen on the front row alongside iconic figures in fashion such as Caroline Rush, Anna Wintour, Sarah Mower, and Anya Hindmarch. The show began and Her Majesty later told me that she particularly loved seeing all the florals on the catwalk. Afterwards, The Queen and I made our way to the front where she made a wonderful speech about the importance of British fashion. I shall never forget seeing The Queen presenting Richard Quinn with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.\n\n_The Queen presents Richard Quinn the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design during London Fashion Week in 2018. What an honour to be on stage with The Queen, Caroline Rush, and Sarah Mower._\n\n_The Queen arrives at Runcorn by Royal Train in 2018_\nTHE ROYAL  \nTRAIN\n\nWe often travel across the country to engagements on the Royal Train. Although I can't disclose much about what happens on the train, I can give an idea of what a typical journey on it involves. And I can definitely tell you about the fun we have, especially if we're staying overnight somewhere. Travelling around the United Kingdom with The Queen in this way is a truly wonderful experience.\n\nBefore we leave Buckingham Palace, my team makes sure that everything is packed as efficiently as possible \u2013 as you can imagine, there isn't much space on the train for luggage. The train isn't as big as you might think as there are only six to eight coaches, depending on who is travelling with The Queen. All in all, there are only ever about twelve staff on board \u2013 Her Majesty never has a large entourage.\n\nAs soon as we board the train at the station, I get straight to work unpacking. Occasionally, when we are on longer trips, I may need to press a few items. It didn't take me long to learn that ironing on a moving train is almost like surfing! You just need to find your balance as the train rocks back and forth. And, as with the ironing, other work on the train isn't as straightforward or relaxing as it should be. Sadly, there isn't time to sit and watch the beautiful scenery go by, although I always catch a glimpse here and there as we head towards our destination, especially to the north, which is so familiar to me.\n\nWhen we arrive at our destination, I ensure that The Queen has everything she needs for the day and make some final checks on her dress, coat, and hat, because as soon as she steps off the train, she will be greeted by press and photographers. Everything must be perfect. As Her Majesty steps onto the platform, my heart lifts when I hear cheering and applause, and see Union Jack flags waving in the crowds. The mayor of whichever town we are visiting usually comes to greet The Queen and, in the background, you often catch trainspotters making hurried notes about the unusual model they've just seen.\n\nOn one special occasion, about ten years ago, I even got to enjoy my very own warm welcome when the Royal Train stopped in Liverpool. All of my family \u2013 my children and grandchildren \u2013 came to the station to see me and we hugged and kissed on the platform. I'm so glad I have pictures of that special moment: it was the first time my family had seen me on the Royal Train.\n\n_Miss Peggy Hoath on board the Royal Train in 1994._\n\nEven after The Queen has left for her engagement, there's no time to waste as I need to prepare for her return and pack everything if we're heading straight back to London. While we're waiting on board, it can be slightly unnerving when the train keeps reversing in and out of the station to allow commuter trains onto the platform \u2013 the Royal Train can never be in the way and must not disrupt others as they travel about the country. Her Majesty would hate to make anyone late. Although, saying this, the less time we spend on the platform the better, as far as I'm concerned! I do find it a little embarrassing when I'm taking a break from packing, and am preparing to sit in the dining car to eat something. People on the platform can see right in through the windows and you do start to feel like you're on display! Over the years, I have learned to close the curtains to save embarrassment all round.\n\nI'm always planning ahead, so if we're going back to London that day I'll be thinking about what's next on the agenda, whether it's at the Palace or at Windsor Castle. Occasionally, though, I'll take a moment to look at people's faces as we pass through stations. It's lovely to see how much everyone appreciates seeing the Royal Train.\n\n_The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh arrive on the Royal Train at Birmingham New Street Station in 2015._\n\n_The Royal Yacht_ Britannia _departing Portsmouth in 2007._\nBRITANNIA\n\nDuring its decades of service, the magnificent Britannia was the setting for many Royal engagements, and it was a wonderful way to travel. Whether on a formal or private tour, the elegantly designed Royal Yacht offered a home-away-from-home to The Queen and her family. I was privileged to join Her Majesty aboard Britannia on several occasions, and although I'd like to describe the beauty of the State Drawing Room, the Sun Lounge or the Admiral's Cabin, I'm afraid I simply can't do them justice! I can, however, safely say that being on Britannia was an amazing experience: it transported me to a world away from the hustle and bustle of Buckingham Palace, and it was always so much more relaxed. The minute Her Majesty came on board, anyone could tell she felt secure and at ease. It didn't matter where we were going \u2013 from South Africa to Helsinki \u2013 Britannia felt like home. Of course, The Queen is never truly on holiday as she still has to meet with her Private Secretaries and work her way through the famous red boxes, which still managed to reach Her Majesty even on Britannia \u2013 one of the Royal Yacht's lifeboats would go to pick them up from the nearest port.\n\nOf all the State occasions held on Britannia, one in particular will stay with me for ever. It was 24 March 1995 and Her Majesty was due to watch the iconic Beating of the Retreat in the harbour at Durban, in South Africa \u2013 a pageant of music and military drills, fireworks and cannons \u2013 after hosting a State Banquet for the great Nelson Mandela, followed by a reception for 200 guests. I remember that The Queen was particularly excited about the dinner and was very much looking forward to joining her guests when I was helping her get ready. For this occasion, Her Majesty and I had decided on a beautiful soft pink dress with a subtle pink lace overlay. As ever, it was a pleasure to see Her Majesty, elegantly dressed and perfectly complementing the beautiful gowns and smart suits of her guests, against the glorious backdrop of Britannia.\n\nAs the evening went on, I could hear music beginning to play and the gentle hum of chatter and laughter. Safe in the knowledge that I'd finished my duties for the day, I went back to my cabin and changed into my pyjamas. As I was settling into my nightly routine, I suddenly heard my name being shouted from the corridor. Slightly alarmed, I ran out of my cabin only to find Her Majesty standing right in front of me. At first, I didn't know where to look, but almost instantly, a broad smile broke across her face and I found myself grinning with her \u2013 our outfits, although very different, were exactly the same shade of soft pink. I was asked to follow Her Majesty to her cabin because she needed something before dinner, and once she was ready to join her guests again, I curtsied and said goodnight.\n\nAs The Queen walked away that evening, I was still quietly laughing to myself and certainly went to bed with a smile. It was one of many happy moments we shared on board Britannia. The Royal Yacht's crew were so diligent and considerate \u2013 we felt like one big happy family. Often when my evening duties were done, I would go outside and sit on a step and just watch the sea go by \u2013 at those times I always wished I had my telescope with me as the stars reflecting in the ocean were mesmerising.\n\n_The Queen and Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1995._\n\n_Everything labelled and ready to go._\nTHE QUEEN'S  \nLUGGAGE\n\nA huge amount of preparation is involved in getting everything ready for any travelling, and especially for a Royal Tour, from creating the outfits and matching the hats, to making sure the appropriate shoes, gloves, and handbags are selected and prepared. On a ten-day tour there might be up to thirty outfits for packing: this allows us to offer two outfits to choose from for each engagement, and if neither is quite right, or one gets soaking wet, we always have a backup. Sometimes we will pack two hats for each outfit \u2013 a lightweight one for warmer weather and a stronger, sturdier one in case it gets chilly or starts to rain. When everything has been readied, I ask for The Queen's Footmen to prepare the Royal luggage and deliver Her Majesty's to the Dressers' Floor, so that we can begin to pack it all.\n\nMany aspects of my role have remained unchanged from when my predecessor, Peggy Hoath, was in charge. But, as with any job over the course of a quarter of a century, certain things eventually need changing or processes can be improved, and this is something I'm always mindful of. That was definitely the case when it came to Her Majesty's luggage.\n\nYears ago, The Queen travelled with three very large, and very heavy, leather wardrobes. In fact, they were heavy even when completely empty, and although sturdy and strong, with three large metal locks, over time the leather had become so worn that the handles were starting to disintegrate \u2013 not ideal for the poor Footmen whose responsibility it was to carry them from place to place, and up and down stairs. There were three large wardrobes from the early years, plus a new, smaller, leather wardrobe that had been given to Her Majesty as a present by her children. Before each tour, these would be packed with The Queen's clothes and transported to the aeroplane, where they would stand upright in the hold, along with all the other luggage and cargo. Over the years, we tended to travel in smaller planes with less cargo space, as the length of the tours was condensed, with more engagements on each day, so the wardrobes had to be laid flat and strapped to the floor inside the plane behind where we all sat. The airline was happy to help with this \u2013 even removing some seats to make space \u2013 but, as you can imagine, this was all becoming a bit of a nightmare: we constantly worried that The Queen's clothing might end up damaged and I'm sure the crew who unloaded the luggage dreaded our arrival.\n\nI realised we couldn't possibly keep asking people to lift these wardrobes and cases any longer \u2013 it was getting ridiculous \u2013 so I had to come up with a better, more practical solution. My immediate thought was to use hanging bags instead and, at first, I was pleasantly surprised that this seemed to work quite well. When they were being packed, each hanging bag stored two outfits \u2013 a dress and a coat or jacket \u2013 the heavier items and the silk garments in separate bags to protect the more delicate materials. This change was met with huge relief by the Footmen and porters!\n\nI seemed to have struck upon the perfect solution, until The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh travelled to Italy in 2000. With all of Her Majesty's outfits packed in the correct bags and on the rail, ready to go, everything seemed to be going smoothly . . . until we arrived to a torrential downpour. The crew began unloading the luggage and someone decided to roll the rail of The Queen's hanging bags straight across the tarmac in the pouring rain. A huge gust of wind took hold and sent the bags flying across the ground, getting drenched by the rain. I watched the whole thing happen in slow motion from a window in the plane \u2013 I felt so sorry for them scrambling around trying to pick up Her Majesty's soaked clothes. Of course, we made sure that that never happened again, and I began straight away to think up another solution to this very old problem.\n\nAnother aspect of my role is to look after The Queen's personal Royal Warrants. They are issued to companies and individuals who are asked to supply personal goods to The Queen, from shoes to handbags and much more. To maintain a Royal Warrant, a company must demonstrate excellent service, not just to The Queen but to the general public, so from time to time I will go to visit them to check that their members of staff are treating their customers with respect. One company with a Royal Warrant is House of Fraser, so I decided to go for a browse to see if they might have anything suitable in the way of luggage. I soon found the solution: suitcases with wheels! I bought quite a few lightweight Linea cases, once again to the delight of the Buckingham Palace staff members who had risked their backs each time we went on tour. I'm happy to say that this has been a successful and very welcome change.\n\nWhen it comes to packing the new, lightweight (and waterproof!) cases, our approach is meticulous to ensure that there is no creasing or damaging of Her Majesty's clothes. It is important to balance the weight on each side of the case and, whenever possible, to start with heavier items, or those made of hardier material, at the bottom. You may not know that tissue paper is an invaluable tool in the packing of The Queen's luggage: we use layers of it to separate and protect individual items, from jumpers and cardigans all the way up to stocks and socks. We also use plenty of tissue paper to protect Her Majesty's hats in their boxes, and although I still use hanging bags and the rail for some outfits, we're all extremely careful if the weather isn't pleasant that day!\n\n_Saying farewell to the wonderful Milan._\n\n_It's always thrilling to see people's faces as The Queen drives past._\nTHE SPECIAL  \nESCORT GROUP  \n\u2013 AT YOUR SERVICE,  \nMA'AM\n\nImagine standing outside the gates at Buckingham Palace and seeing a row of white police motorcycles lined up on the forecourt. Behind them, there is a set of black doors, and behind these doors two cars wait. We are about to leave Buckingham Palace on our way to the airport. The last pieces of luggage are packed into the boots of the cars, and I have The Queen's personal luggage next to me on the seat. In the car with me are the chauffeur and The Queen's Footman, Ian Robinson. We are parked at the Garden Entrance waiting for Her Majesty The Queen to appear, with an additional car for members of the Royal Household, such as the Ladies-in-Waiting, the Private Secretary and The Queen's Equerry. We are all to drive to the airport at the same time in convoy.\n\nEvery day The Queen's programme runs like clockwork. We always set off at the exact time stated in it. My excitement \u2013 after twenty-five years I'm still excited! \u2013 starts as the big black doors open at the side of Buckingham Palace and you can see the public outside waiting. They have no idea who is in the car driving out through those black doors, but as it gets nearer you can see their faces change with astonishment when they realise it is The Queen. Then they start to cheer.\n\nFour police motorcyclists from the Special Escort Group (SEG) wait for us to come through the gates and join us, one at the front of the convoy leading the way, and three others who deal with the traffic and clear the route for us. They will ensure that The Queen gets to her destination safely and on time. On this particular occasion we are driving along The Mall towards Marble Arch. The SEG will stop other cars to allow The Queen's and those behind it in the convoy to pass through the traffic faster. They do not hold up the traffic for more than a minute or so. Once we pass the first bike, the other three speed off, blowing their whistles to get attention (they don't use sirens) and we move swiftly on to the next junction where the SEG bikes wait for us to pass, then zoom off to stop the traffic ahead so we have a clear run. It is like playing leapfrog. A police Range Rover travels behind our cars making sure no one gets too close.\n\nAs we pass members of the public, who have stopped to see what is going on, people cheer and clap when they see the car driving by and realise The Queen is sitting inside. 'It's The Queen! It's The Queen!' And as everyone seems to have a smartphone these days, they try to get a photograph or a video of Her Majesty's escort passing. If The Queen happens to catch someone's eye, she will wave, of course. Imagine how busy the streets of London can be: our escort has to make their way down some narrow streets. The SEG are so professional and have to be precise when moving in and out of traffic, keeping it clear for The Queen to get to her destination without holding up the traffic for too long. It is fascinating to watch them manoeuvre so rapidly, with excellent communication between them. The Queen will use the SEG as escorts only when there is an official engagement, or in an emergency.\n\nWhen I'm travelling in a convoy like this, I cannot help but smile at how happy the public are to see The Queen and how lucky I am to be travelling just a few cars behind Her Majesty.\n\n_The Queen and The Prince of Wales travel from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament._\n\n_Vulcan, the new recruit._\n\n_The Queen and Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace in 2009_\nWOMAN  \nTO WOMAN\n\nWhen I am designing for The Queen, I am always aware of how her outfits will be perceived, both by the people she is meeting with or speaking to, as well as by the media. However, just as eyes are always on Her Majesty, they are often also on the people she interacts with, and there is much speculation about how one is meant to behave.\n\nContrary to what many people believe, there are no strict rules that must be followed when one is introduced to The Queen. You may wish, or not wish, to curtsey. But on the whole most people do curtsey or bow out of respect. Some women tend to find that they instinctively curtsey, whereas men tend to bow, but there is no golden rule, even for the most long-standing members of the Royal Household. Each morning and evening, I greet Her Majesty with a curtsey, but because I see her so often, I don't repeat the gesture throughout the day unless we are out in public on Tour.\n\nThere are certain things that are understood to be accepted protocol when it comes to interacting with Her Majesty, though. Supposedly, you should never put your arm around The Queen, for example, but when human instincts kick in, sometimes this is absolutely the appropriate thing to do. The Queen has the ability to make everyone feel so relaxed that sometimes it feels instinctive to be tactile with her, just as Michelle Obama demonstrated during the State Visit with her husband, President Obama, in 2009.\n\nMuch has been made about the meeting between Michelle and Her Majesty, when an instant and mutual warmth was shared between these two remarkable women, and protocol was seemingly 'abandoned' as they stood closely with their arms around each other's' backs. In reality, it was a natural instinct for The Queen to show affection and respect for another great woman, and really there is no protocol that must be adhered to. When fondness is felt or the host of a State Visit goes to guide Her Majesty up some steps, it truly is about human kindness, and this is something The Queen will always welcome warmly. Anyone who is close to Her Majesty is not a threat and is certainly trusted.\n\n_An unexpected honour._\nA PERSONAL  \nHONOUR\n\nI never know what will land on my desk each day. It might be a specific request from a photographer for a photoshoot, or for Her Majesty to take part in a spoof James Bond film! I have fond memories of one request in particular, which came to me via the Private Secretary's office in 2005 from the sculptor Susan Velder, who had been commissioned by the province of Saskatchewan to create something to mark the fiftieth anniversary of The Queen's reign, which was to be presented to Her Majesty on her visit to Canada later that year.\n\nSusan had been commissioned to create a life-size statue of Her Majesty in bronze and it was to depict The Queen riding her favourite horse, Burmese, which was given to Her Majesty by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and which she rode for eighteen consecutive years on her birthday parade, also known as Trooping the Colour. Her Majesty has always ridden side-saddle on that occasion, and as she is Colonel-in-Chief, she wears the full Guards' regiment uniform as well as a tricorn hat. The biretta, as it is also known, is a square cap with three flat projections on top \u2013 it's quite a tricky one to design correctly in fabric, let alone in bronze, as Susan came to discover.\n\nSusan got in touch because, although things were going well with her designing of Burmese, The Queen and her uniform, she was struggling with the tricorn hat, finding it difficult to capture the fibres, the shape and the size. As you can imagine, a life-size bronze statue is no easy feat by any means, so to think that the hat was causing her so much trouble is quite something! She asked if I could provide a photograph of the biretta to help her.\n\n_Spare time in Canada._\n\nKnowing how important this request was, and the significance of the statue to the people of Saskatchewan, I was determined to help as much as I could. The sculpture needed to be ready for the Royal Tour later that year and, as luck would have it, I was due to go on the usual recce to Canada in the not-too-distant future. Rather than sending a photo, which I worried wouldn't be helpful enough, I asked The Queen if I could take the actual hat with me on the recce, deliver it to Susan and leave it with her. When we arrived on the Royal visit later, I could collect it and all would be well. Her Majesty, as ever, was happy to help, even though this was such an unusual request, and when I let Susan know my plan, she was thrilled.\n\nSo, three months later, we arrived at Saskatchewan for the unveiling of the statue and everything went exactly according to plan. The statue was enthusiastically received, the hat looked great, and Her Majesty was delighted. However, the night before we were due to move on to our next engagement, I received a request to be in the Audience Room of Government House the next morning at 11am. I went to sleep that night slightly perturbed, wondering what this was all about.\n\nThe next morning, I walked into the Audience Room to find that many chairs had been set out. To me, it looked like an Investiture and to my astonishment, I noticed that one of the chairs had my name on it. Still uncertain about what was happening, I sat down. Everyone else arrived shortly afterwards, and when we were all seated, Lieutenant Governor Lynda Haverstock called my name. In shock, I stood up and made my way to the stage where I was presented with the Saskatchewan Order of Merit medal for my help with Susan's work. I couldn't believe it! I was so proud and honoured that I cried when I received this special award. Sobbing as I returned to my seat, I knew from then on that Saskatchewan would always remain in my heart.\n\n_Notice the fibres and details on the hat which were hard to recreate in bronze, and why Susan needed to see the hat in person to help perfect the statue._\n\n_Susan Velder's sculpture._\n\n_The Queen in Ottawa on Canada Day in 2001, wearing the iconic Canadian Maple Leaf Royal Brooch. It was bought by King George VI for The Queen Mother in 1939 on what was the first ever State Visit by a reigning monarch._\nSCARLETT  \nTHE YOUNG  \nDESIGNER\n\nI've no doubt that my love for fashion and my lifelong fascination with fabrics and design came from my mum. After all, I was surrounded by it as a child \u2013 our back room was a hive of dressmaking activity and, especially when I was in my early teens, I rarely saw my mum away from her Singer sewing machine, and so I had a strong instinct for dressmaking. In turn, I have shared my passion with my granddaughter, Scarlett, and I swear she has an instinct for fashion. She's a natural. It must run in the family.\n\nScarlett has lots of interests, including football, painting, and drawing, as well as making up her own fantasy characters, but she always takes a keen interest in my work. From when she was tiny, I've brought material samples home to show her, and now we talk about how thickness and texture affect the design of an outfit, which colours work well together, and how to create something spectacular for a special occasion.\n\nScarlett was four when I was planning for the 2010 Royal Tour to Canada, and I was thinking in particular about what Her Majesty might wear for the Canada Day celebrations she would attend. Scarlett was asking all the right questions straight away \u2013 would it be warm or cool? Who else would be there? It would be a formal occasion, I told her, with many members of the military, who would be wearing their fine red tunics, and I showed her a picture of the Canadian flag. Scarlett took in all of the information \u2013 she's always keen to learn \u2013 and then she let me know some of her own ideas on the direction I should take.\n\nThe Queen's outfit should be red and white, she said confidently, so I showed her some possible options for the material. She picked a smart but relatively lightweight fabric: perfect for the weather conditions. Then, she came up with the brilliant idea of including two extra layers on the dress \u2013 a sort of large frill that wrapped twice around from the hip, which would move very elegantly as Her Majesty walked. The hat, she thought, should be white and decorated with a large red flower. I thought all of these were lovely ideas and promised Scarlett I would stick to her design. True to my word, when I went back to London I brought Scarlett's vision to life in the workroom. Scarlett, of course, saw nothing unusual in this: she thought she was just helping her granny.\n\nAnd then, at the celebrations on Canada Day, I felt so proud to watch The Queen wearing an outfit inspired by my granddaughter's creativity.\n\nConsidering how brilliantly the Canada Day outfit had gone down with everyone \u2013 Her Majesty and the media included \u2013 I was thrilled when on Scarlett's most recent visit, in 2019, when she was thirteen, she wanted to help again. I had a dress of The Queen's that she had worn quite often to private dinners which was in need of a revamp. I intended to adjust its length but to do this I needed to remove the delicate black beading from around the gown's lace hem. Without hesitation, Scarlett got on with the job, carefully unpicking it so that we could reuse the beading and lace on another part of the dress. She really is an excellent assistant, and probably far more patient than I am! I love sharing my passion with my granddaughter and I can't wait to see what life has in store for her.\n\n_Scarlett working on The Queen's evening dress at my cottage._\n\n_The Queen inspects a Guard of Honour outside Canadian Parliament on Canada Day celebrations in 2010._\n\n_The Queen gives a speech in Toronto in 2010. 'The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland' Tiara is one of the lightest of tiaras, which is why The Queen wears it so often._\nA FITTING  \nTRIBUTE\n\nA Royal Tour, for the people who come to greet The Queen, and the British media, who often travel great distances to report on her travels, is always a special event. As such, when designing Her Majesty's outfits for these occasions, I'm always looking to introduce a significant detail \u2013 ideally something that acknowledges or reflects the location of her visit.\n\nDuring the 2010 Canadian tour, Her Majesty and Prince Philip were due to attend a State Banquet in Toronto to celebrate Canada Day. For such a special occasion, I wanted to design something as a tribute to the country. So having chosen a white dress that was fitted but also comfortable for The Queen to walk in, I decided to add some detail that made use of the maple leaf \u2013 the most recognised symbol of Canada. Each leaf has eleven points and I wanted to make sure that this was reflected in the design of the dress. I managed to find a beautiful lacquered print material in white, which I thought would be well suited to appliqu\u00e9, and worked up a design that featured maple leaves running down the right shoulder and arm of the dress. The leaves were to be produced in Swarovski crystals to complement the simplicity of the gown. When I showed my design to The Queen, she agreed that this was a lovely idea.\n\nCanada was such a distance for the British media to travel to and I knew that some reporters and photographers were due to fly back before the banquet and wouldn't see the maple-leaf outfit. Although it had never been done before, and has never been done since, I decided to ask The Queen if she would grant special permission for some of the media to have access to the dress before the event itself. Her Majesty was happy to help, considering the long distance they had travelled, so the day before the banquet, Judy Wade, the Royal Correspondent for Hello! magazine, and her photographer John Stillwell came to meet me in Government House, where we were staying. The staff there were kind enough to arrange a room with lovely natural light for the photographs to be taken. I positioned the dress in the sunlight and John was able to capture the sparkle of the crystals. The results were sensational \u2013 the image was featured on the front cover of Hello!, Judy and John were thrilled to have been given the opportunity and to have secured the best shots for their magazine, and I was pleased to have been able to help.\n\nWhen The Queen was seen in the maple leaf dress the following evening at the State Banquet, the media went wild. Everyone loved the design and that the leaves all had the correct number of points \u2013 attention to detail always goes down well. It is at moments like that that I feel truly privileged to design dresses for Her Majesty's special occasions, and for the media to capture and acknowledge my work gives me reassurance and the confidence to keep designing for the next event, wherever and whenever that may be!\n\n_The intricate detailing of the Maple Leaf dress \u2013 this is when attention to detail really matters!_\n\n_The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at a State Dinner in Toronto in 2010._\n\n_The Queen attends a reception for celebrating Nova Scotia in 2010._\nPEOPLE OF  \nTHE DAWN\n\nAs part of the same 2010 Royal Tour to Canada, The Queen was scheduled to travel to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a meeting with members of the local First Nations Mi'kmaq tribe, also known as the 'People of the Dawn'. As always, I had been on a recce some months before to familiarise myself and others with the programme of events. Recces always mean long days of work, ensuring that everything is in order and that we are preparing and planning for any eventuality, but they are certainly worth it for the peace of mind they offer. They usually take three or four days, with the Private Secretary leading the small team. I go mostly to plan the accommodation needs, working with the Private Secretary on the timing of the engagements. On that occasion, I had the privilege of a personal meeting with the Mi'kmaqs and their chief.\n\nIn preparation, I'd been researching the customs of the tribe. Much of their traditional clothing was adorned with the most elaborate and beautiful beadwork \u2013 I couldn't even imagine the precision and skill involved in such detailed work. It provided me with inspiration for the outfit I was designing for Her Majesty to wear at their meeting. I had in mind a beautiful canary yellow material that would make a gorgeous jacket and skirt, but I wanted it to be embellished in such a way that would pay tribute to the traditions and hospitality of the Mi'kmaq people. So when I was finally introduced to their chief, I asked whether he and his tribe would be so kind as to design something for the collar and cuffs of Her Majesty's outfit. Of course, I would give free rein in terms of design and the colouring of the beads \u2013 theirs is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years, and it was an honour to incorporate some of their work in one of my own creations. I explained that the material would be sent to them from the British Embassy, and the Mi'kmaqs said they would be happy to help.\n\nBack in London, I was excited when a parcel arrived a few months later containing the completed cuffs and collar. The craftsmanship was exquisite and so beautiful. I'm used to working with embellishments and know most of the tricks of the trade: keep in mind the fabric with which you're working \u2013 heavier beads won't work on lighter, chiffon-style fabrics; sequins and crystals require someone with perfect eyesight to stitch them on as it's such a delicate and painstaking job. It can take many days to achieve the desired result, but at the end, it's satisfying to know that you have produced something truly unique. The work of the Mi'kmaq tribe was some of the loveliest I have ever seen.\n\nOn the day of the engagement, Her Majesty was delighted to meet the Mi'kmaq community and the ladies who had helped create her outfit. I will never forget the pride on their faces.\n\n_This beading detail is so beautiful._\n\n_The Queen attends a State Banquet at Brdo Castle during a State Visit to Slovenia in 2008._\nTHE SNOW  \nQUEEN\n\nWhen I'm preparing for one of Her Majesty's Royal Tours, one of the first things I consider, along with any cultural sensitivities, is the predicted weather conditions of the hosting country. The Queen's outfits must be made of the right material so that she is comfortable when completing her engagements: no one likes to be dressed for the wrong weather!\n\nIn 2008, Her Majesty was invited to Slovenia and Slovakia for a four-day State Visit. Three months before, I travelled with a small group of the Royal Household to both countries to do our usual recce ahead of the Royal visit. The weather was warm when we were there, as it was midsummer, but I was told there was a good chance of snow at the time of Her Majesty's visit. Immediately I felt inspired: it was my first chance to design a winter wonderland wardrobe for The Queen. As we went about our recce, colours, shapes, and styles were leaping into my head: hats, silk jersey dresses, and stunning evening gowns. Her Majesty needed to look glamorous on every occasion: there must not be a 'stand-out' outfit that overshadowed the rest, especially since she would be visiting two countries. There were also cultural sensitivities to take into account: would any particular colour be considered offensive or inappropriate?\n\nFull of ideas, I returned to London and began creating. All outfits for important engagements are created from scratch. I knew that Her Majesty would be attending a State Banquet in Slovenia, to be hosted by the President, and I immediately thought of the perfect material to use for this occasion. The Queen needed a long evening dress; I knew there was some beautiful brocade in the cupboard, wrapped in black tissue paper to preserve its fine silver thread. It had been there for decades \u2013 possibly as long as forty years \u2013 and it's quite a moment when you unwrap a parcel like this: a gift made to The Queen long ago, kept carefully in the cupboard until the right time comes to use it. Its pale blue and silver colourings would perfectly complement the wintry setting of the banquet.\n\n_These boots were meant for walking! The Queen and the President of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic tour Hrebienok Ski Resort._\n\nAlthough I give all of Her Majesty's outfits the same care and consideration, another event was scheduled on this tour for which I was particularly excited to design something. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were due to visit Star\u00fd Smokovec via a funicular railway to the peak of Hrebienok, where they would unveil a plaque to mark a wheelchair-accessible tourist pathway called 'Tatras Without Barriers'. It was a lovely engagement: with the path, the less physically able would be enabled to visit this beautiful spot. Given that they would be travelling high into the Slovakian Tatras mountains, I knew Her Majesty's outfit had to be warm but I wanted to design something that complemented the weather conditions, should it be snowing. I decided on an off-white wool tweed coat, trimmed with fur on the collar and cuffs for extra insulation, and a matching dress of the same material, from which I also asked Stella McLaren to make a matching hat. For decoration, we chose feathers and sequins, which would sparkle, hopefully through the falling snow.\n\nWhen we arrived in Slovakia, it was unusually warm for the time of year, but I had packed a pair of comfortable but stylish black boots for The Queen \u2013 they would be perfect for snowy conditions.\n\nThat morning, I was praying for snow, and as Her Majesty and His Royal Highness journeyed up the mountain on the train, sure enough it started to fall. It was the most magical sight \u2013 a crisp white blanket slowly settling all around. The Queen donned the stylish black boots I'd packed just in case, and the press went wild as she'd never been seen in anything like it before. In fact, Her Majesty was quite the trendsetter on that occasion, and when I think back to that moment, I can't help but think: Snow Queen.\n\n_The mink trim on this dress has now been removed and will be replaced with fake fur._\n\n_The Queen visits the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi in 2010. Note the beading detail, which was specially obtained for this occasion and is reminiscent of the Tree of Life detailing inside the Mosque._\nTIME IS OF  \nTHE ESSENCE\n\nDespite hours, days, or even weeks of preparation for any Royal engagement, there are occasions that require quick thinking from my team and even sometimes The Queen herself. On those days when Her Majesty requires a last-minute alteration or a swift change of garment or accessory, I'm often reminded of a visit to Abu Dhabi.\n\nIn September 2010, roughly two months before The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were to spend five days in the Gulf Arab states, I went on the usual recce to familiarise myself with the setting and climate, as well as the route to and location of her engagements. As part of the Royal Tour, Her Majesty was due to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque \u2013 one of the most beautifully decorated buildings I have ever seen. On my arrival, I was greeted by the local ladies who were to show me around. Walking quietly through the mosque, I felt calm and a sense of peace.\n\nDuring my walkabout with the ladies, we decided there would be a small privacy screen where The Queen would change from her shoes into her socks and put on her longer coat, in keeping with the required dress code. Another screen would be set up in the area where she would be leaving the mosque, so that she could change back, just as she had when she had visited the mosque in the old Lincolnshire town of Scunthorpe in 2002, as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations. Her Majesty is always more than happy to respect the customs of the sites and places she visits. In fact, she is a stickler for abiding by what is accepted or what is required.\n\nIn my experience, recces often provide inspiration when I'm designing the outfits to be worn by Her Majesty on a visit. The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi was so impressive that I quickly knew how to create something that would complement the grand setting. Dazzling crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, reflecting every colour of the rainbow, and beautiful patterns reminiscent of the Tree of Life adorned each pillar in red, blue and gold. I decided that The Queen should wear a long gold coat adorned with the same pattern, and I remembered that in the material stockroom at Buckingham Palace there was some very old golden material that had been presented to The Queen when she was still a princess. I knew it was in excellent condition and would be perfect for this occasion, although sadly I never discovered who gave it to her: records weren't kept before I started working at the Palace.\n\nI shared my thoughts on the outfit with my guides and they were more than willing to help me bring my vision to life. The next day, they took me to the local indoor market, where I was introduced to a gentleman who created the most wonderful colourful beading I have ever seen \u2013 which is saying something, given the nature of my profession! Explaining my idea, the ladies asked if he would help by creating beading that matched the colours of the Tree of Life, which I would then use to decorate a long golden coat for Her Majesty to wear. He was very happy to help and was even content to be sworn to secrecy, even though he didn't know who he was working for. With all of The Queen's outfits, it's important that we keep everything top secret. Having arranged for the ladies to collect the beading and post it to me in London, I returned from that recce knowing this would be a very special outfit and hoping it would turn out to be worthy of the grand setting of the mosque.\n\nBack in London, I set about bringing my creation to life. I had retrieved the golden material from the stockroom and I was safe in the knowledge that the beading was on its way, but I needed to consider what The Queen would wear as a headdress. Her Majesty would arrive for the engagement in a pillbox hat with gold corded trim and would travel straight to the mosque: I decided to add fasteners to the top of the hat and the shoulders of the coat: this would allow us to fix a scarf securely to the hat and for it to cross over The Queen's shoulders. This felt a fitting and practical solution to the problem, and while I was thinking of an appropriate scarf to use, I remembered I already owned just the thing! My sister, Donna, had given me a beautiful gold scarf years before and, as I had never worn it, I gave it to Her Majesty. When she considered the new owner of her gift, I knew Donna wouldn't mind \u2013 although I never did tell her or The Queen!\n\nWith the outfit in place, I had one final challenge to address: how would Her Majesty carry the longer coat, scarf and her white ankle socks to be worn only when she arrived at the mosque? Often my job requires creative thinking \u2013 it's one of the things I enjoy best about it \u2013 and I came up with the solution of designing and making a large cream canvas handbag with detailed patterning. On the day, the extra items of clothing would be neatly folded and kept inside, ready for Her Majesty to change into. With all outfit preparations complete, I was very much looking forward to returning to Abu Dhabi and was expecting a smooth, hiccup-free visit. However, as I've discovered over my years of service, you can't plan for every potential hitch . . .\n\nA few months later, The Queen's convoy was on its way to the mosque and I was travelling with The Duke of Edinburgh's valet a few cars back, just as we always do. The plan was in place: the valet and I would go straight to the screened areas to help Her Majesty and His Royal Highness to change into their outfits. However, as we approached the mosque, the police allowed The Queen's car, and the escort to proceed, but refused to let us in. We tried desperately to explain that it was crucial for us to be allowed in, but we weren't understood and, after we'd spoken to Her Majesty's driver on the phone, I knew that she was wondering where we were. Thankfully we were finally allowed through. Although, in that instance, keeping calm and carrying on just didn't do it for me!\n\nRushing to the screened area, I found Her Majesty and the relief on both of our faces was priceless. We had to move quickly and, after I'd removed the contents from the canvas bag, it became clear that the scarf was going to be a problem. Given that we'd lost so much time, after changing into her white socks and putting on the golden coat, Her Majesty had no time to fasten the scarf as intricately as planned. The Duke of Edinburgh came to alert her that she needed to join him immediately and, in need of a quick solution, Her Majesty calmly draped the scarf over her hat, and her shoulders, loosely tied it under her chin and off she went, right on time. Of course, she still looked amazing. The Queen and I had worked together in a stressful moment to ensure that she could continue with her important engagement.\n\n_The Queen speaks to guests at a State dinner in Saint Patrick's Hall at Dublin Castle in 2011._\n'PRESIDENT  \nAND FRIENDS'\n\nWhen it comes to designing the outfits for Her Majesty's State Visits abroad, inspiration comes easier with some than with others. In May 2011, The Queen was due to travel to the Republic of Ireland. It was a particularly significant occasion: Her Majesty would be the first British Monarch to visit the country since 1911, when King George V, her grandfather, had made a tour and all of Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom. The highlight of the programme was to be a State Banquet, hosted by the Irish President, Mary McAleese, held in Dublin Castle, and I had a clear vision for the perfect dress.\n\nThe Queen and I discussed the possible design at length, and I explained that for this evening gown it might be nice to incorporate the shamrock, both as a sign of respect and because it is a famous lucky charm. Her Majesty thought that an abundance of shamrocks all over the bodice of her outfit would be a lovely gesture. In addition, I thought it would be charming to introduce the traditional Irish symbol of the harp. On State engagements, it is usually the Royal Family Orders that are worn on the left shoulder, but on this occasion we could make a change and agreed that an Irish harp made of Swarovski crystals would take their place. Since the banquet, we have actually had several enquiries asking if the 'harp brooch' would be going on display, but it is actually sewn onto the dress and I'm afraid it cannot be removed!\n\nFinally, we had to decide on an appropriate tiara. I knew the public wanted to see Her Majesty in her finery, so I chose the 'Girls of Great Britain and Ireland' Tiara, which was given to Queen Mary, The Queen's grandmother, on her marriage in 1893 and then to The Queen as a wedding present. Her Majesty often wears it and I thought it would suit the occasion, especially since its silhouette looks like a row of girls from Britain and Ireland holding hands.\n\nAs is often the case, the execution of the idea proved to be much more time-consuming and intricate than I'd imagined. To apply 2,000 shamrocks to the bodice of Her Majesty's dress, Tina in my team first had to create a template, using a digital sewing machine, then each shamrock was individually hand-stitched on. It was painstaking work, but of course, we always do whatever we need to do to get the job done. We also had to pay great attention when it came to introducing the Irish harp made of Swarovski crystals to the left shoulder, as Guinness, the famous stout producers, also use this symbol as their logo. While the harp was being made, I kept checking, over and over again, to make sure that we hadn't got it wrong! I know Her Majesty would not have been impressed if she had ended up sporting the Guinness logo on her shoulder, especially given her reaction to a new hairstyle I'd tried a few months earlier.\n\nOn that occasion I'd decided to stay blonde on top but go dark underneath, which was a fashion trend at the time. When The Queen saw me the following morning, she looked at me and asked, 'Have you ever seen a pint of Guinness?' I replied that, yes, I had, and her response was simply, 'Hmm,' as if to say, 'I will say no more.' Needless to say, I was straight down to the hairdresser the next day to change it back to blonde.\n\nOn the evening of the banquet at Dublin Castle, as The Queen entered the room, everyone stood as she walked to give her speech. Her dress looked phenomenal and I knew she loved the intricate shamrock detail. After the guests took their seats, Her Majesty began to speak and, as a total surprise to everyone except the Private Secretary, she greeted the President, ladies and gentlemen in perfect Irish Gaelic: 'A Uachtar\u00e1in agus a chairde,' meaning 'President and friends'. The whole room was awestruck and you could even hear a few guests exclaiming, 'Wow!' A massive round of applause followed. I had never seen such admiration, and I couldn't help but think the shamrocks on The Queen's dress had brought magic or luck to that significant event.\n\n_The harp design had to be clearly the Irish harp, and definitely not the Guinness one \u2013 which sits to the other side._\n\n_The green shamrock is hidden secretly on this dress._\n\n_The Queen visits a hospital in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland._\nINSPIRATION IS  \nEVERYWHERE\n\nAs part of The Queen's extensive 2012 Diamond Jubilee Tour, she was due to visit Northern Ireland for two busy days of engagements. For this trip, I had two outfits to design: one for a Service of Thanksgiving in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, after which Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh would be attending St Michael's Catholic church. This would be The Queen's first visit to a Catholic church in Northern Ireland, so it would be an historic moment. The second outfit was for Her Majesty to wear while she and His Royal Highness travelled around the Stormont Parliament Buildings while standing in an open-top car.\n\nWhen I learned about the Service of Thanksgiving, I knew immediately what colour I would suggest for Her Majesty to wear. Given that she had worn green on her recent visit to the Republic of Ireland, I wanted her to wear something different for her first day of the trip and I had the perfect material in the stockroom \u2013 a beautiful pale blue. I've always found it fascinating that different colours can symbolise certain emotions or moods, and this soft hue seemed particularly fitting for the occasion. But I needed some additional design elements to bring the outfit to life. As always seems to be the way, I found inspiration in front of my eyes when I was walking through the corridors of Windsor Castle and noticed a beautiful Wedgwood collection. The china was exactly the same colour as the blue material I'd selected, and I decided to recreate its delicate pattern in fine lace for Her Majesty's dress and hat.\n\nSurely no one can visit the Emerald Isle without wearing some green, so for The Queen's second outfit I settled on a lime fabric. Knowing that there would be lots of crowds and commotion as Her Majesty and His Royal Highness drove around the Parliament Buildings, I wanted her to stand out in a vibrant colour. Everyone must be able to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty when they've come out especially to see her! I also wanted to soften the outfit ever so slightly and decided to introduce some gold lace detailing to the unusual double collar of the jacket, as well as to the hat. Finally, I thought a single gold feather placed diagonally across the front of the hat would bring everything together nicely.\n\nThe visit to Northern Ireland went brilliantly and Her Majesty's outfits were well received. At both engagements, The Queen looked elegant and stylish, and I think she was pleased with her reception by the crowds and the media. The following year, I received a request from Hillsborough Castle, the official Royal Residence in Belfast, asking if the blue and lime green pieces might be included in an exhibition, as well as the outfits that The Queen had worn on her visit to the Republic of Ireland. As well as my own designs, an outfit created by the late Karl Ludwig \u2013 a previous designer for Her Majesty \u2013 would be featuring. I'm always eager to enable as many people as possible to get a close look at Her Majesty's clothes, so we were very happy to oblige.\n\n_The Wedgewood inspired outfit in all its glory._\n\n_The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh drive in an open-top car in the grounds of the Stormont Estate in Belfast in 2012._\n\n_The Queen wears a lot of green \u2013 and I wanted to give another take here. Using gold lace on the hat and collar, and the gold feather \u2013 something a little different \u2013 Her Majesty is still clearly visible among the colourful crowds._\n\n_The Queen with President George Bush at the White House in 2007. The black lace was placed over the crown of her hat, and then adorned with the black and white flower._\nTHE WHITE  \nHOUSE\n\nAs the world's longest-reigning monarch, The Queen has met many Presidents of the United States. However, there was a moment on her fifth visit to the country in 2007 that will stay with me for ever: a true reminder of the joys of my job and just how fortunate I am to work so closely with Her Majesty.\n\nIt was May \u2013 a lovely warm time of year in the United States \u2013 and Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh had been invited by President George W. Bush to visit the White House as part of a Royal Tour of the country. The Queen and The Duke were first due to travel to Virginia, the site of the first permanent English settlement, at Jamestown, in America, before attending the famous Kentucky Derby in Louisville. On their arrival at the White House, a State ceremony on the South Lawn had been arranged, which would be attended by thousands of people, and later that evening, the President was to host the first white-tie dinner of his presidency in honour of the occasion. I had never been to Washington before and I was invited, along with other members of the Royal Household, to have dinner in the Map Room \u2012 I knew I'd be pinching myself throughout the experience!\n\nAs always with a Royal Tour, I had lots of things to consider and many outfits to create. But on this occasion, I was thinking a lot about one engagement in particular: the ceremony on the South Lawn, for which The Queen was to arrive directly from the White House. I kept thinking about the brightness of the famous building, and what an amazing backdrop it would make for whichever outfit Her Majesty wore. I knew that it had to complement this setting perfectly, particularly as she would be making a speech in front of thousands of guests.\n\nWith this upcoming visit I wanted something different for the event. After considering many options \u2013 different colour combinations, different styles of hat, different cuts and materials \u2013 I knew exactly how to showcase Her Majesty's elegance and pay tribute to the occasion. Against the brilliance of the White House walls, only a simple but stylish black and white outfit would do, although to my knowledge she'd never worn a monochrome outfit before. I remember thinking, with a white jacket and a black lace collar, it could work! I also thought a white hat covered with the same black lace could look the part. So as part of my preparations for the tour, I excitedly set about finding the perfect material \u2013 a lightweight waffle weave \u2013 and sketching the shape of the white jacket with black lace detail shaped around the neckline in a scalloped effect.\n\nOn the day of the ceremony, I remember so clearly watching Her Majesty step out from the grand White House and greet the cheerful crowds alongside the President, The Duke of Edinburgh, and the President's wife, Laura. As America's First Lady, I am certain the pressure of looking the part was immense for Mrs Bush, too. But The Queen looked so lovely that day \u2012 I just watched and could hardly believe what I'd achieved. The Queen stood out in that iconic dress in front of that iconic building. I never normally take in a moment like that one because I have work to do \u2013 the next thing to consider, something else to prepare for. I'm only as good as my last task. But on that occasion at least, I remember thinking, job's a good 'un! I look back on the whole trip with such fondness. Since then, I've been to the United States a few times and have always been met with such a warm welcome, everywhere I've been.\n\n_The hat matches the lace collar and black buttons. We later trimmed the flower down a little for a lighter look._\n**'The State Visit of 2007 was the second time I welcomed Her Majesty to The White House. Weeks before The Queen arrived, I received a call from Her Majesty's Page, Barry Mitford, to discuss plans for the trip. I was struck by the vivid detail with which Her Majesty obviously recalled the floor plans and layout of The White House from her previous visit in 1991. Barry relayed that The Queen had met with his team and provided specific directions on where her luggage was to be placed and other logistical arrangements. Although he hadn't been there on this occasion, his directions were exact and spot on \u2013 Her Majesty is obviously observant of even the smallest details.**\n\n**The 2007 visit was the first time I met Angela Kelly. I recall that within minutes of her arrival, Angela came to me with two specific directions. Firstly, Her Majesty wished that the Blair House staff should serve her and The Duke of Edinburgh \u2013 a kind gesture that gave our staff the honour of being near The Queen. Secondly, I would be required to accompany Her Majesty in the elevator each time she used it \u2013 not because The Queen was unfamiliar with which buttons to use, but again as a kind gesture to allow us to be in Her presence.**\n\n**Angela Kelly was most gracious and allowed me to take a close look at several of Her Majesty's amazing pieces of jewellery. She told me that certain items belonged to Her Majesty's grandmother and that one in particular was a gift from her father, and I was entranced. It was also a wonderful opportunity to see some of Angela's own creations, such as the aquamarine ensemble Her Majesty wore to the Garden Party held at the British Embassy during that visit.**\n\n**Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh were delightful guests and had an uncanny way of making everyone around them feel at ease. On the last day of their visit, The Queen presented me with a framed signed photograph of herself and The Duke of Edinburgh. Moments after I left the room, a Palace official came to find me and indicated that Her Majesty thought I should receive another gift as she had remembered that I had received a photograph after their visit in 1991. I was overwhelmed by how thoughtful she was.'**\n\n**_By Randy Bumgardner_  \nBlair House Manager**\n\n_The Queen on her visit to New York City in 2010._\nUNITED  \nNATIONS TO  \nGROUND ZERO\n\nWhile on a Royal Tour, The Queen is often required to attend sensitive and sombre occasions among her engagements. Often, these events happen in close succession as Her Majesty's schedule can be very tight, and it is on these occasions that we put even more thought than usual into her outfits for the day.\n\nIn July 2010, The Queen was due to travel to New York and had been invited to attend two important events, one after the other. The first was a visit to the United Nations, where Her Majesty was asked to deliver a speech, fifty-three years after she had first addressed the UN in 1957 at the age of thirty-one. The second was a visit to Ground Zero, the site of the former Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, destroyed by terrorist attack on 11 September 2001. The Queen had been asked to lay a wreath.\n\nFrom my perspective, designing something suitable for this occasion was a major challenge. The Queen would be moving from the very formal setting of the indoor auditorium at the United Nations to an outdoor event attended by bereaved families. Both events were serious, although very different in tone and mood, and Her Majesty would not have time to change outfits between them. I needed to find something that would be authoritative enough for Her Majesty's speech at the UN but not too severe and formal for the visit to Ground Zero. In terms of colouring, I needed something that would complement the imposing backdrop of the auditorium while allowing Her Majesty to stand out, but not overly vibrant considering her next engagement. In the end, I decided on a soft, floral material for the dress and jacket in muted blue, white, and metallic taupe. The edges of the jacket would be ruffled to suggest softness and femininity. I was pleased with the result and confident that it would be suitable for both events.\n\nWe arrived in New York to discover that the city was experiencing its worst heatwave in decades. The tarmac was melting onto the soles of people's shoes and the same was happening to ours! My immediate concern was that The Queen would be too hot with the long-sleeved jacket: thank goodness I had not opted for a heavier material! I needn't have worried, though: when I watched Her Majesty on television that day, her speech to the UN was calm and collected, and her presence at the Ground Zero wreath-laying ceremony provided comfort and reassurance to those who attended. It was a sad occasion and I couldn't help but reflect on my own good fortune. Although The Queen didn't say anything to me at the time, I could tell that she was deeply moved. We were all relieved when both engagements went smoothly and I was proud that Her Majesty's outfit had stood her in good stead.\n\n_When I first started designing, I used to buy the full roll so that no one else would be able to wear the same material, and would design multiple outfits from it. This silk material made a plain dress, a suit, a cocktail dress, and the trim for a cashmere coat. I am more thrifty now and just buy what is needed for the outfit I'm designing for specific occasions._\n\n_The Queen lays a wreath at the site of the World Trade Center in New York City in 2010._\n\n_The Queen with President Donald Trump at Buckingham Palace in 2019._\nAN IMPECCABLE  \nHOST\n\nI imagine that there aren't many people who have the privilege of being in the presence of multiple Presidents, but I am lucky to be one of them. On 3 June 2019, Her Majesty welcomed President Donald Trump to Buckingham Palace. Arriving by helicopter, he touched down on the lawn that just a few days before had been host to 8,000 guests at The Queen's last garden party of the spring. It was quite a surreal moment to watch the Presidential helicopter approach \u2013 I'm sure you can imagine that I was watching attentively from the window.\n\nFor State occasions like this, everything must run like clockwork, and on this one, thankfully, it did. As soon as the helicopter's rotors came to a rest, the President and the First Lady disembarked and the engagements began. The First Lady looked stunning and really set the tone for what turned out to be a very stylish visit. That evening, Her Majesty hosted a State Banquet in President Trump's honour and each and every guest looked fabulous. As always, it was an honour to dress The Queen for such an important occasion. I had chosen a beautiful gown decorated with fine lace and ornate beading of small daisies and crystals \u2013 we named this dress 'Daisy Chain'. Her Majesty wore this with the Garter Sash and Star, as well as the Burmese Ruby and Diamond Tiara, the ruby and diamond necklace, earrings, and bracelet, alongside her white gold watch and ruby diamond rings. The whole outfit was complemented beautifully by a silver handbag and matching silver shoes.\n\nThroughout President Trump's visit, the media had many opportunities to take pictures, not only of the glamorous State Banquet but also of the ceremony to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the D-Day landing in Portsmouth. Preparing the outfit for this occasion took much consideration \u2013 Her Majesty needed to wear something special considering how many world leaders would be in attendance. In the end, I suggested a beautiful fuchsia coat, which, although striking in colour, was simple and elegant. Underneath, Her Majesty wore a floral-patterned dress and we accompanied it with a stunning cerise hat. On this occasion, choosing The Queen's jewellery was simple \u2013 I immediately knew that she should wear a brooch that has sentimental value for Her Majesty as she gifted it to her mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, for her one-hundredth birthday. It would also complement the pink outfit.\n\nAs The Queen delivered her speech on that momentous occasion, standing next to the President of the United States, President Trump, I was reminded once again of how fortunate I am to be at her service and play a small part in dressing The Queen.\n\n_Close up of the Daisy Chain dress detail._\n\n_The Queen visits Thailand in 1996._\nA SNEAKY PLAN\n\nHer Majesty and I often have fun together, especially when we're away on a Royal Tour and I have the luxury of some spare time. Some time ago, in October 1996, Her Majesty went on a State Visit to Thailand and, as well as the beautiful landscape and stunning local scenery, one personal memory will stay with me for ever.\n\nIn the weeks leading up to that trip, I was preoccupied with preparing The Queen's outfits \u2013 on this occasion many vibrant lightweight silks because of the humid weather conditions \u2013 and I'd been so busy I'd simply run out of time to get to a hairdresser to refresh my roots. While I was reading the programme of engagements for the trip, I noticed there would be a market just across from the Royal Palace where we were to stay in Bangkok, and I mentioned to The Queen that I was planning to nip to a chemist in the market to buy a box of hair dye. I thought Ian Carmichael, The Queen's Hairdresser, should be able to colour my hair, no problem, while Her Majesty was out for a whole day on one of her engagements. The Queen was surprised by my plan, and insisted that it would be impossible because the box of hair colour would have no English instructions. I told her not to worry, and that it would be just fine, as the instructions are always the same, no matter what country you are in. I had to excuse myself quickly on that occasion so that The Queen did not see my smile \u2013 for I was coming up with a sneaky plan . . .\n\nWhen we arrived in Thailand, it was just as humid as we'd anticipated but everyone was so friendly and accommodating that everything went smoothly. A couple of days into the tour, Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh were due to attend a Royal Barge Procession of 2,000 oarsmen dressed in traditional costumes, manning fifty-two barges, watching from the banks of the Chao Phraya river, so I thought this would be the perfect time to carry out my plan. That morning, I told The Queen I was going to the market to collect my hair dye, and she again told me she thought it would be a big mistake. While Her Majesty was out at her engagements, and once I'd finished all my duties, I let Ian in on my cunning plan: I had no intention of getting my hair done in Thailand \u2012 I was there to work. Before we'd left England, though, I had been to Accessorize and found a vibrant purple hairpiece made with fake hair. Ian knows my sense of humour, so he was more than happy to help and we spent some time attaching it in various ways to my head, to make sure it looked as realistic as possible.\n\nA few hours later, when The Queen returned from her engagement, she started to tell me enthusiastically about what a splendid time she'd had and all the interesting people she'd met. She did not notice my new purple hair, so I pulled the piece slightly further forward on my head, but Her Majesty still didn't notice and kept talking about her day. I realised I had to do something dramatic, so I waited until she'd stopped talking, turned with the most sorrowful look and said, 'Your Majesty! Look what's happened! Look at the colour of my hair!' I even started to pull the purple strands out, saying, 'Look, my hair is falling out!'\n\nThe Queen looked flabbergasted for a moment, then trying to contain her laughter, Her Majesty exclaimed, 'Ian! What have you done to her hair?!' Everyone heard the commotion but all I could do was laugh. The Queen was chuckling quietly to herself as she told me to go away. I'll never know how I got away with it, but Her Majesty has quite a sense of humour.\n\n_Ian Carmichael and me._\n\n_The beautiful splendour of the Taj Mahal._\nAN  \nUNFORGETTABLE  \nEXPERIENCE\n\nWhen Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh travel abroad for a Royal Tour, we members of the Royal Household usually have a hectic schedule and have to make sure that everything goes smoothly. However, that doesn't mean we can't have a little free time to ourselves, and often it's on these little solo trips that we have the best fun. Usually, I miss out on such things because someone has to be there in case Her Majesty needs something. There was one time, though, when I managed to have a little fun of my own.\n\nIt was October 1997, and The Queen was on a Royal visit to Pakistan and India, which turned out to be an incredible experience. The atmosphere in both countries was magical, with music always in the air and a vast array of vibrant outfits to be seen. Over one weekend some of the Royal staff had had the opportunity to see the Taj Mahal as no Royal events were scheduled. I, along with a couple of others from the Royal Household had to stay behind as we can't all go on these explorations. However, given that we would both have liked to see the Taj Mahal, The Queen asked the Page to arrange for us to go on another day. Unlike the rest of the staff, though, we would be travelling in a tiny plane. As we made our way on board, I could tell this plane had many uses and functions, from transporting people, to cargo and probably more I would never even imagine. We were lucky enough to fly to the mausoleum and spend the day there, soaking up the rich historic surroundings. The colours were beautiful, and it is a most moving memorial to the love that existed between Shah Jahan and his chief consort, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631. It's impossible to see that magnificent structure without mulling over their story. Before we left, I went to the souvenir shop and bought a plate that would remind me of the Taj Mahal's shimmering marble walls and the wonderful adventure we had had that day.\n\nA BIRD IN THE  \nHAND\n\nHaving travelled so much, Her Majesty is the best tour guide ever, as she always takes the time to learn about the countries she visits. The Queen is full of interesting information and useful hints and tips. I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that I would have the chance to see Australia, so when we were preparing for my first Royal Tour there in 2006, I was so excited to hear about all the wildlife \u2013 the kangaroos we would see (red and grey), the koalas and dingoes. Her Majesty also mentioned the kookaburra and said that, although it is not the finest-looking bird, it makes a sound you will never forget. I asked if she thought I would see any, and Her Majesty replied, 'Oh, yes, many.'\n\nThe Royal Tour was going smoothly and we were all having a wonderful time. However, despite The Queen's confident response, I had not even heard a kookaburra, let alone seen one. I was a bit disappointed as I'd been so looking forward to seeing (and hearing!) the wildlife. Each time I heard an unusual bird call, I would turn to The Queen and ask her if that was the infamous call, and each time she said it was not.\n\nOne day, Her Majesty was due to visit the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge before a garden party to be held that afternoon in the grounds of the Governor's House, where we were staying. That morning, it was raining torrentially but, of course, The Queen would never let anyone down. After breakfast, she changed and left for the Opera House. As Her Majesty would be out all morning, the staff had an early lunch before we were all taken to the local indoor market. Walking around the stalls, I noticed that one vendor was selling birds. Among all the beautiful, brightly coloured ones I spotted a rather dull-looking brown bird and immediately thought that this must be the elusive kookaburra. I asked the shopkeeper, 'What is that unusual looking bird?' and she said, 'It's the Kookaburra.' So I bought it \u2013 I had something in mind that I thought The Queen would enjoy.\n\nBack at the Governor's House, Her Majesty wasn't due to return for a little while so I went up to her room to find the perfect perch for my new friend. I thought it might enjoy sitting in the sunshine which had just come out after the rain that morning, as it was used to hot weather, so I placed it outside on the balcony in a little cage. I waited in The Queen's room for her to return and when she came in, and walked across the room, I said, 'Your Majesty, there's a funny-looking grey bird on your balcony.'\n\nWithout a pause, The Queen looked outside and shouted, 'It's a kookaburra!' I went to open the cage doors and she said loudly, 'No! Don't do that! It will fly away!' and was behind me in a flash. I went to the bird, picked it up and, turning to Her Majesty while trying to keep a straight face, I solemnly told her it was dead. She looked horrified as I walked towards her with outstretched arms and as she took the bird from my hands, she realised I had been winding her up all along. It was really a stuffed toy. 'April Fool!' I said, with a mischievous grin on my face and she had only two words for me: 'You're sacked!' I was laughing uncontrollably as Her Majesty turned to His Royal Highness, and said 'Do you know what she has just done to me? Angela has had me!' and I just couldn't stop giggling.\n\nI never did get to see a real kookaburra, but I'm pleased to say that the toy I bought in the market that day is with us in Windsor Castle and has pride of place on the back of the sofa in The Queen's sitting room. I laugh to myself every time I see it.\n\n_Illustration by Sophia and Serena Polycarpou._\n\nWHAT A  \nCORKER\n\nWhen I reflect on the various Royal Tours I have been so lucky to attend, it strikes me that Australia always seems to bring out my mischievous side. Of course, Royal visits abroad involve lots of planning and preparation, but they also offer the opportunity for fun and jokes, and one particular memory from our second tour to the continent in 2011 will stay with me for ever.\n\nThe Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were due to attend some rather unusual events on that Royal Tour, including a barbecue, a tram ride, and a rainforest walk in Brisbane, so I had several things to consider when preparing my new collection for The Queen to wear.\n\nFirst and foremost, the weather would be a lot warmer there than it had been in London, so I wanted her outfits to be cool. This applied to the hats, too, and as I was researching, I remembered seeing photographs of Australians wearing hats with corks hanging from the brim \u2013 I think they might even be called cork hats! When I looked into this a bit more, I learned that the dangling corks were supposed to keep insects off your face. In a slightly mischievous mood, I decided to create an extra-special hat for Her Majesty to suit the occasion . . .\n\nThe journey to Australia went without a hitch and after we arrived at the Governor General's Residence, I began unpacking The Queen's luggage and helping her to prepare for her busy schedule. Aware that this was the day of the rainforest visit, I decided to present Her Majesty with two headwear options for the engagement. The first hat perfectly matched the dress, which was a Karl Ludwig creation made of satin silk in pinks and green with a pale green fine wool coat. The second was similar, with a crucial difference: it sported corks dangling from the brim. Eyeing the options, The Queen eventually looked up at me and asked, 'Why?' in a very matter-of-fact way. I explained that the corks might be of use in discouraging any flying insects from approaching her face. The Queen lifted the hat and pretended to put it on, laughing to herself. It's at a moment like that \u2013 sharing a joke with Her Majesty while on a visit to one of the most beautiful countries in the world \u2013 that I truly appreciate how lucky I am to work for someone with such a great sense of humour.\nMEETING THE  \nLOCALS\n\nOver the years, I've visited some of the world's most amazing sights and most beautiful countries. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see the White House or the Taj Mahal, or the breathtaking mountain ranges of Canada. Before a Royal Tour overseas, I often have something in mind that I'd like to see there, should I have some free time, and during my second visit to Australia, I was determined to catch sight of a kangaroo. We were scheduled to be in the country for ten days \u2013 plenty of time, I thought, to spot one.\n\nAs the tour went on and we travelled across the magnificent landscapes, I had yet to catch a glimpse of one. As we made our way to Canberra, where we would be staying in Government House, I started to wonder if I would manage to see a kangaroo, having travelled all that way! I remember that it was the hottest weather I had ever experienced. The days passed, and as I went about my duties, I would pop my head out of the window now and again: perhaps I'd see something hopping along in the garden.\n\nOne day, Her Majesty was out on an engagement and all the staff were enjoying lunch. Everyone knew how much I wanted to see a kangaroo, so Barry Mitford, The Queen's Page, suggested that we all get changed into casual clothes and meet at the garden entrance to go kangaroo spotting. I had an idea: we should camouflage ourselves so that we could get as close as possible without being seen. So, like fools, a few of us scurried around and found twigs and leaves to put in our hair.\n\nAfter quite some time roaming around, trying to locate the animals we had been assured lived in the grounds, we finally spotted something \u2013 I knew immediately from the large, powerful back legs and feet that it was a kangaroo! It was unlike any creature I'd seen before and I wanted to get a closer look. So we started crawling along the grass towards it, as though we were carrying out an army exercise, like Private Benjamin. I can't imagine what we must have looked like. As we inched closer, Barry told me to keep aware: kangaroos can be quite aggressive. I could now see that it was a male red kangaroo, the largest of all kangaroo species. He seemed to be quite preoccupied with the grass he was chewing, but I noticed he was also keeping a watchful eye on us. We were getting really quite close, around 5 metres away, when all of a sudden, he started pounding his foot on the ground. The noise was so loud that we all leaped up in a panic and I could hear Barry shouting that we should run. We scrambled back to the safety of the house, twigs flying from our hair. The kangaroo was clearly unimpressed and I'm sure he thought he was teaching us a lesson \u2013 it certainly worked!\n\n_Trying to blend in with the background._\n\nCUTTING IT FINE\n\nThe Queen likes to support local people wherever she visits, but we have a particular little tradition whenever we go to Singapore. There's never enough time to go to the market, but as Her Majesty loves Singaporean silk, local tradespeople bring their stalls to the airport when she is due to arrive so that she can personally browse all that they have to offer.\n\nWe wander through the stalls \u2013 Her Majesty leading the way, followed by me and the Ladies-in-Waiting. Something will catch The Queen's eye \u2013 usually a particularly vibrant fabric, given her fondness for bright colours \u2013 and she'll make a gesture to me. Seeing lovely material like this is usually very inspiring and I'll quickly have an idea for a dress, a coat, a jacket, and maybe a hat \u2013 5 metres should be enough. Her Majesty will point to another roll and I'll envisage a cocktail dress \u2013 3 metres will be plenty. So, this is our routine: we amble around the stalls until we've found everything we're looking for, at which point, having placed our orders, we go off on the tour. Our selections are always ready for collection on our return, when it's my responsibility to pay the bill.\n\nA few years ago, after Her Majesty's Ladies-in-Waiting and I had collected our parcels of silk, I went to make the payment and the stall owners advised me that I could claim tax back on the purchase. The Queen is always keen to keep costs down, so off I went in search of someone who could help. A few minutes later, as I was getting the tax back, another member of the Royal staff rushed up to me in a panic, shouting that we had to go straight away as the plane was leaving right that second. Soon I was running across the tarmac, flying up the steps to the plane just in time. I was so thrilled, I shouted over the plane's engines a phrase I am sure The Queen does not hear very often: 'I've got your tax back!' The look on The Queen's face was priceless as I handed her the tax refund.\n\n_Alone with my thoughts in the Castle grounds._\nWHEN THE PAST  \nAND PRESENT  \nCOME TOGETHER\n\nAs well as all the events and work that gets done, there are also countless formal traditions that are upheld in the Royal Household, as well as some less formal ones that we members of staff look forward to each year. One, in particular, is a real favourite \u2013 a fancy-dress competition that is held twice a year at Balmoral, once in August and once in September so that everyone gets to take part. Balmoral Court is split into two halves, with a staff changeover at the start of September. Everyone goes to town for this one because, as part of the event, The Queen dresses in a beautiful evening gown \u2013 and even wears a tiara \u2013 to judge the winners of first, second, and third place. Her family might join together to make a judging panel if they happen to be there too. As fancy-dress night approaches, many secret meetings are held around the Castle. Trips are made to fancy-dress stores and charity shops, and you'll find wigs and papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 everywhere!\n\nA couple of years ago, we decided to change things up a bit as The Queen was taking a short break from the judging and was having dinner with the Royal Family and guests on the evening of the event. Of course, no one can replace Her Majesty, but we decided it would be fitting to have four 'famous' judges instead: members of the Household dressed up as Louis Walsh, Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell, while I was to be Cheryl Cole. We even elected a comp\u00e8re to host the evening and announce the guests. But, of course, we still had our jobs to do. On the morning of the competition, I asked Her Majesty if she would mind that her dressers would be in fancy dress when they attended to her later that day \u2013 as we didn't want to be too late for our party. Without hesitation, The Queen said, 'No, no, no, you must!'. So we went about preparing our outfits and readying ourselves for the night ahead.\n\nYou can only imagine the look on The Queen's face when she saw me that evening wearing a red military jacket, black leather boots and a long, dark wig. She didn't have a clue who I was supposed to be, but she immediately recognised my assistant, Jackie, who was dressed as... Her Majesty's great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Alongside Queen Victoria, our other dresser was made up as Victoria's close friend and supporter, John Brown. That year the theme for the fancy dress was 'Balmoral', so the staff had dressed up as various people and animals associated with the estate.\n\nJackie had put in so much effort, even searching online for tips on how to style her hair correctly, but she felt embarrassed as she stood there, wearing all black with her hair in plaited buns, before The Queen. But it went down a treat with Her Majesty. Just before she left for her dinner, she said, 'I suppose I'll see you tomorrow,' suggesting that we might all be suffering from slightly sore heads the next day. Then, on her way down the stairs, we heard her exclaim to her guests: 'I've just been dressed by Queen Victoria and Mr Brown! I've been dressed by Queen Victoria herself, and John Brown. And I believe by Cheryl Cole!' Just to add to Jackie's embarrassment, later that evening as she was doing a walkabout with other staff members in fancy dress, presenting her outfit to me and the other judges, her hand resting on 'John Brown's' arm, the door opened and there were three guests from The Queen's dinner taking pictures! We must have been quite the discussion point at dinner.\n\n_Jackie as Queen Victoria, with me as Cheryl Cole!_\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nDear Reader\n\nWriting this book has been a humbling experience. This is not a piece of historical writing, but an amazing journey and the absolutely true facts of living and working with The Queen over the last twenty-five years \u2013 long may it continue.\n\nThis experience has taught me many things, particularly having patience with myself; while continuing to serve Her Majesty The Queen, and fulfilling all my duties to the high standard I set myself, I have managed to write this book alongside my daily working life.\n\nIt was a joy to reminisce with The Queen over these stories and now having the honour of sharing them with you. The Queen was with me every step of the way.\n\nThough my beginnings were humble, it took me many years to believe in myself \u2013 to have the courage and determination to make something of myself.\n\nThere have been many changes since my early years in the Royal Household. For example, it is not a man's world any more; it is a fabulous professional working environment for men and women in Buckingham Palace today. I get to work with some of the most talented, kind, and inspiring people.\n\nI hope this book has given you the inspiration and courage to follow your dreams like I did. My wish for you is that they all come true.\n\nThank you for reading my book and I hope we meet again . . . until next time.\n\nLove, Angela Kelly  \nX\n'Since meeting Angela eleven years ago, my life has never been the same. Working for her on the Dressers' Floor has been a joy and a privilege.\n\nAngela fills me with confidence and is always so positive and enthusiastic that it rubs off on me and makes me feel like I can achieve anything.\n\nShe is warm, funny, and has a big heart, but when it comes to reaching deadlines, she puts her serious head on and will always find a way to solve any problem. She is great to work for and we have mutual respect for each other.'\n\nStella\n\n* * *\n\n'It is an honour to work for Her Majesty and alongside Miss Kelly, one of the designers responsible for turning The Queen into a fashion icon all across the globe. Miss Kelly's loyalty to her job is a constant inspiration to us. She is a generous and fun-loving Mother Hen to our Dressers' Floor family.'\n\nThe Dressers\n\n* * *\n\n'When asked to write a brief paragraph or two about my working relationship with Angela, I thought to myself, Where do I start?.\n\nWhen you have worked and travelled around the globe with the most famous person in the world for more than twenty years, it can never be anything less than an honour \u2013 full of excitement and memories to keep for ever.\n\nWorking with Angela and seeing her in action is quite amazing to witness. She is a total professional, through and through.\n\nI have been extremely lucky to have known Angela as a dear friend and I'm sure she will agree that we have had many, many great laughs together.\n\nThis is a lady with an amazing sense of humour who is not afraid to laugh at herself, but most of all has great interest in the needs of others, which I simply adore.\n\nShe is a pleasure to work with and I pray that we have many more years together of working hard and laughing hard.'\n\nIan Carmichael\n\n* * *\n\n'My working relationship with Angela began about eighteen years ago.\n\nI joined the Royal Household in 2001 and was working in a different department. It wasn't long before I heard the name \"Angela Kelly\" mentioned and that she was a woman not to be messed with.\n\nNeedless to say, I expected the worst when we first met while I was undertaking luggage duties.\n\nThe truth was quite different. I met Angela and the rest of her team and everyone was very welcoming. Over the years, as I performed my luggage duties, I built up a relationship with Angela.\n\nAngela guards The Queen's privacy relentlessly and this crosses over into her personal domain. If Angela needed any duties seen to in her private rooms, I was among one of the few people she trusted.\n\nThis all changed in early 2018 when, unbeknown to myself, I was being headhunted by Angela. I headed up to the Dressers' Floor one day to undertake a job. Before I knew it, we were in discussions about me joining the team. I was stunned to say the least.\n\nSo, here we are eighteen months later and I am Project Manager for our department, among many other duties. I am deeply grateful to Angela for seeing something in me that she wanted to bring to her team.\n\nAngela is a wonderful boss and a pleasure to work for. Yes, we have our busy days when we have to knuckle down, but Angela always tries to make it fun and keep everyone's spirits high.\n\nI may have only been with the team a short time but I have been made to feel very much part of that team. During this time, I have noticed how Angela is a good friend to those close to her and loyal to the core.\n\nI have yet to meet the formidable woman I was warned of so many years ago.\n\nWorking with Angela is a pleasure and I will be eternally grateful for the many exciting opportunities she has given me.'\n\nNeil\n\n'After working for the Royal Household as the Administrator for the F Branch Office (Catering) for ten years, I became Angela's Personal Assistant on 12 August 2013.\n\nI love being a part of the team on the Dressers' Floor. If you were to come up and visit us, you would hear laughter coming from the workroom, music playing quietly in the background and you would hear the girls singing away (they have great voices, by the way!), and that would all be happening before eight in the morning! Then you would hear, \"Morning, girls\" and there would be Angela all set and raring for the day to start. She is always good to go!\n\nAngela is an amazing manager and boss \u2013 although both words are a struggle for me to use as Angela is more like your best friend. Angela has always supported my decisions, even if on the odd occasion they haven't been the best ones; she will always have my back. The love she has for her family shows every time we talk about them. She does have rather a soft spot for her grandchildren! Angela is so incredibly loyal and has allowed me to share with her some amazing adventures. From travelling to New York City to meet with Annie Leibovitz, to almost missing our train coming back from Glamis Castle, to also being trained as an Assistant Dresser and being able to revisit Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.\n\nIt has been on these occasions, travelling as an Assistant Dresser, when I have seen Angela and Her Majesty interact with each other and I have been able to see their unique relationship shine through. I have experienced so much laughter on these occasions. I mean, come on, I dressed up for our evening duties as Queen Victoria! I will never forget that evening when The Queen saw us all and shared a laugh with us about it.\n\nThere was also a time when I was waiting for Angela, who was helping The Queen get ready for the State Banquet during a State Visit. In the reflection of the mirror, I could see Angela helping The Queen secure the tiara onto her head, all the while hearing the banter and laughter being shared. It was definitely a \"pinch-yourself\" moment for me when I curtsied to The Queen as she passed me to leave the room.\n\nNever would I have thought that this small-town girl from Maine, USA, would ever be in the position that I am in today. Thank you, Angela! Long may our crazy, fun adventures continue.\n\nI truly hope you will be able to get a sense of Angela's warmth, dedication, and the commitment she has as the Personal Advisor to The Queen, and that you will also be able to imagine that you are in the same room experiencing the laughter that is shared between Her Majesty The Queen and Angela as you read this book.'\n\nJackie Newbold MVO\n\nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS\n\nYour Majesty, I would like to personally thank you for giving me your permission and blessing to write this book. I also thank you for your guidance and advice. Thank you for putting up with me for all the times when I have gone back and forth to you, checking and double-checking the stories. I am truly thankful for the time you gave me and for allowing me to share this book with the world. I am your humble servant.\n\nTo my children and grandchildren, once again I thank you for your continued love and support. I am forever grateful to you for understanding the way I balance my working life with the special times that I spend with you. Special thanks to Jacob Wylie for helping me finalise the book.\n\nI would like to thank June Anson for not only being a part of my family but for your friendship, company, and loyalty.\n\nI would also like to thank Paul and Margaret Grayson who have not just been part of my family but have been my closest friends. Thank you for your constant support, friendship, and loyalty.\n\nElizabeth Sheinkman, you have been my protector and my guardian and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping this book come alive and for making sure the working relationship and the magical moments were truly represented.\n\nMy gratitude and thanks go to you all at HarperCollins for making this book beautiful, elegant, and regal. The hard work that has gone into this book has been outstanding. Firstly, I would like to give a special thanks to Katya Shipster, Zoe Berville, Lucy Brown, and Claire Ward for working tirelessly to help and support me. You have all gone beyond the call of duty. I would also like to thank: Abi Hartshorne, James Empringham, Georgina Atsiaris, Sarah Hammond, Sarah Burke, Fiona Greenway, Liane Payne, Fionnuala Barrett, Josie Turner, Dawn Burnett, Tom Dunstan, Anna Derkacz, Hazel Orme, and Helena Caldon. I would also like to thank Jonathan Burnham and Lisa Sharkey from the US branch of HarperCollins. It was wonderful to share the same enthusiasm and excitement. Thank you for fully understanding the sensitivity and the discretion that surrounded this book.\n\nTo do the audio recording of this book terrified me! Thanks, therefore, to Alex at ID Studio, who encouraged me, and kept me calm and within the hours. We had a great understanding and a great working relationship which made the audio a success.\n\nI would like to thank the members of the Royal Household (too many to name individually) as you have been great supporters and advisors which has helped to make this unique book so special.\n\nThank you to the Royal Collection for your co-operation, especially Tim Knox, who has been a great supporter from the first time we were introduced.\n\nI would like to thank you, Samantha Cohen, for all your hard work and support you have given me, not only with my first book, Dressing The Queen, but also with this book. You have been my constant supporter from the first day we met many, many years ago. I truly value our friendship and our working relationship.\n\nMichael Atmore, I would like to thank you for your professionalism, for your help and guidance. Your constant support has been vital and I appreciate you being there for me day and night. You have gone above and beyond what anyone could ever ask for. I am so proud to call you my friend.\n\nThe team on the Dressers' Floor has a unique bond, just like a small family. Your support that you give me makes my work so much easier so I am able to look after The Queen. I really appreciate all your hard work. You truly are the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me!\n\nThank you to all the photographers for allowing me to use your beautiful photographs and for the wonderful contribution you have made to make this book so special. A picture says a thousand words! I would like to say a special thank you to Eva Zielinska-Millar for your advice and guidance.\n\nAndy and Sharon Polycarpou \u2013 I would like to thank you for allowing your two beautiful daughters, Serena and Sophia, to spend time with me discussing the illustrations for this book. They are two very talented girls. Serena and Sophia \u2013 I would like to thank you for putting my vision to paper and for contributing to this book and making it beautiful. I know it was a busy time for you as you were still in school, so thank you for finding time for me. May I wish you all the best for future. Don't let your talent go to waste. You are both an inspiration to all young people.\n\nDavid Morgan-Hewitt at The Goring hotel: although you did not know I was writing this book, our friendship, over the many years, has meant so much to me. You are a true friend and I have enjoyed your company. I look forward to our next dinner, whenever our busy schedules allow it.\n\nJackie Newbold, there are so many things I would like to thank you for, but too numerous to mention them all. I do want to thank you for your endless support as a true friend. You astound me with your calmness, patience, and determination to help bring this book together with me. Thank you for putting up with me and for all of my changes, making sure I got it right. With your help and support you never gave up on me. You believed in me and helped make this book what it is today. I could not have done this without you.\n\nA special thanks and gratitude goes to you, the reader. I do hope you enjoyed reading my book and that, once again, you caught a glimpse of this magical world. I hope you cherish this book, like I cherish my memories.\n\nWith love, Angela x\nPICTURE CREDITS\n\nPage numbers refer to printed numbers. Photographs courtesy of the author with the following exceptions:\n\n\u00a9 Annie Leibovitz p180; \u00a9 Barry Jeffery p92, p13, p15, p35, p49, p52, p54, p56, p57, p67, p68, p74, p79, p80, p81, p82, p84, p85, p86\u20137, p88, p100, p101, p108, p110, p111, p116, p117 (top), p123, p149, p156\u20137, p159, p160\u2013 61, p162,163, p168\u20139, p184, p187, p188\u20139, p216, p228, p231 (top), p242, p247 (bottom), p251, p255, p258, 259, p261, p264, p268, p269 (bottom), p272, p273, p274, p296, p299, p300; \u00a9 Chris Levine p192, p195; \u00a9 Julian Calder p126, p127, p128, p129, p130; \u00a9 National Museums Scotland p121; \u00a9 Nina Duncan p196, p199; ADRIAN DENNIS\/AFP\/Getty Images p113; AFP Photo p166; Antoine GYORI\/Sygma via Getty Images p276; Anwar Hussein\/EMPICS Entertainment\/PA Images p44, p102; ARTHUR EDWARDS\/AFP\/Getty Images p16; CARL COURT\/AFP\/Getty Images p136; Chris Jackson\u2013Pool\/Getty Images p240, p243; Chris Jackson\/Getty Images p96, p148, p232, p236, p246, p247 (top); Chris Jackson\/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse p105 (bottom left); Christopher Furlong\/ Getty Images p211; EQRoy\/Shutterstock.com p290; FRANK GUNN\/ The Canadian Press\/PA Images p238, p239; GARY DOAK\/Alamy Live News p122; Henny Ray Abrams\u2013Pool\/Getty Images p266; Jeff Gilbert\/ Daily Telegraph\/PA Wire\/PA Images p270; John Phillips\/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse p106; John Stillwell \u2013 WPA Pool\/Getty Images p150; John Stillwell\/PA Archive\/PA Images p235, p226, p269 (top); Julian Parker\/ UK Press via Getty Images p145; Julien Behal\/PA Archive\/PA Images p256; KAZUHIRO NOGI\/AFP\/Getty Images p46; Kirsty Wigglesworth \u2013 Pool\/ Getty Images p206; Leon Neal\/ WPA Pool\/Getty Images p138; Leon Neal\/AFP\/Getty Images p141; Leonard F\/Shutterstock.com p289 (main); Luke Macgregor \u2013 WPA Pool\/Getty Images p134; Maja Smiejkowska\/ Shutterstock p222 (top); Marco Secchi\/Corbis via Getty Images p118; Mark Cuthbert\/UK Press via Getty Images p104, p114, p262; MARWAN NAAMANI\/AFP\/Getty Images p248; Max Mumby\/Indigo\/Getty Images p18, p72, p152, p224; Neal Baker\/Shutterstock.com p183; OLIVIER MORIN\/AFP\/GettyImages p170; PA\/PA Archive\/PA Images p50; Paul Gilham\/Getty Images p105 (bottom right); PETER BYRNE\/AFP\/Getty Images p208; PETER MUHLY\/AFP\/Getty Images p252; Peter Muhly\/ AFP\/GettyImages p260; Photography by Julian Calder, Camera Press London p172\u20133; Pool\/ Anwar Hussein\/WireImage\/Getty Images p244; Royal Collection Trust\/All Rights Reserved p58, p61, p63; Royal Collection Trust\/All Rights Reserved; Photographer: Eva Zielinska-Millar p62; Samir Hussein\/Wire Image\/Getty Images p14; Scott Prokop\/Shutterstock p231 (bottom); Shutterstock.com p32, p40, p90, p220; Steven Booth\/Alamy Stock Photo p146; Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images p124, p142, p212; Tim Rooke\/Shutterstock p250; Times Newspapers\/Shutterstock p215; Tristan Fewings\/BFC\/Getty Images p205; W & D Downey\/Getty Images p154; YUI MOK\/AFP\/Getty Images p204; Yui Mok\/PA Archive\/ PA Images p200.\nABOUT THE PUBLISHER\n\nAustralia\n\nHarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.\n\nLevel 13, 201 Elizabeth Street\n\nSydney, NSW 2000, Australia\n\n<http:\/\/www.harpercollins.com.au>\n\nCanada\n\nHarperCollins Canada\n\nBay Adelaide Centre, East Tower\n\n22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor\n\nToronto, ON, M5H 4E3, Canada\n\n<http:\/\/www.harpercollins.ca>\n\nIndia\n\nHarperCollins India\n\nA 75, Sector 57\n\nNoida, Uttar Pradesh 201 301, India\n\n<http:\/\/www.harpercollins.co.in>\n\nNew Zealand\n\nHarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited\n\nP.O. Box 1\n\nAuckland, New Zealand\n\n<http:\/\/www.harpercollins.co.nz>\n\nUnited Kingdom\n\nHarperCollins Publishers Ltd.\n\n1 London Bridge Street\n\nLondon SE1 9GF\n\n<http:\/\/www.harpercollins.co.uk>\n\nUnited States\n\nHarperCollins Publishers Inc.\n\n195 Broadway\n\nNew York, NY 10007\n\n<http:\/\/www.harpercollins.com>\n\n# Table of Contents\n\n  1. Cover\n  2. Title Page\n  3. Copyright\n  4. Dedication\n  5. Dear Reader\n  6. Letter From Samantha Cohen CVO\n  7. Foreword\n  8. Prologue\n  9. Chapter 1: Dressing The Queen\n  10. Chapter 2: Our Working Year\n  11. Chapter 3: The Eyes of the Nation\n  12. Chapter 4: On the Move\n  13. Chapter 5: The Eyes of the World\n  14. Chapter 6: The Things We Do For Fun\n  15. Conclusion\n  16. Acknowledgements\n  17. Picture Credits\n  18. About the Publisher\n\n## Guide\n\n  1. cover\n  2. contents\n  3. title\n\n","meta":{"redpajama_set_name":"RedPajamaBook"}}
+{"text":"\n\n\n\nProduced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http:\/\/www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                        With the Compliments of\n                              J. Charlton\n                 _General Passenger and Ticket Agent_,\n                       CHICAGO AND ALTON R. R.,\n                               CHICAGO.\n\n                        [Illustration: A Parody\n                                  on\n                             PRINCESS IDA\n                                  by\n                            _D. DALZIEL._]\n\n[Illustration: GLORIA ALTON]\n\n[Illustration: KING GAMA ARRIVES.]\n\n[Illustration: WE ARE WARRIORS THREE.]\n\n\n\n\n                               A PARODY\n                                  on\n                             PRINCESS IDA\n\n                            BY D. DALZIEL,\n                                   _Editor of the Chicago News Letter._\n\n\n    SCENE--_Interior of King Alton Hilderbrandt's Palace in the\n        City of Chicago, U. S. America. Courtiers, Officials of the\n        Service, Soldiers of the Railroad, Body Guard, Conductors\n        and Passenger Agents, looking out on the line of the\n        Chicago and Alton Railroad with telescopes, opera glasses,\n        etc._\n\n\n                               [CHORUS.]\n\n        Search throughout the Panorama\n        For a sign of Royal Gama,\n        Who by the Alton this day shall,\n        Accompanied by his child and pal,\n        Come from Adamant.\n\n        Some misfortune evidently\n        Has detained them--consequently\n        Search throughout the Panorama\n        For the daughter of King Gama,\n        Prince Hilarion's Plant.\n\nFLORIAN--Will Prince Hilarion's hopes be sadly blighted?\n\nALL--Who can tell!\n\nFLORIAN--Will Ida slight the man to whom she's plighted?\n\nALL--Who can tell!\n\nFLORIAN--Can she an Alton ruler thus irritate?\n\nALL--Who can tell!\n\nFLORIAN--If so, she'll pay for it at any rate.\n\nALL--\n\n        We'll not despair,\n        For Gama would not dare\n        To make a deadly foe\n        Of Alton's King, and so\n\n        Search throughout, etc.\n\n                  (_Enter_ KING ALTON HILDERBRANDT.)\n\nHILDERBRANDT--No sign of Gama yet? The regular train from Castle\nAdamant came in exactly on time, some fifteen minutes since. I\nwill here in parenthesis remark, that all trains on the Alton Road\ninvariably _do_ come in on time. I saw it from my castle window; four\nsleepers, two drawing-room cars, a dining car, three reclining-chair\ncars and five coaches.\n\nFLORIAN--Your liege forgets that you placed a \"special\" at his\ndisposal, but still he should be here.\n\nHILD.--'Tis true, but still it's very odd. But, if Gama fails to put\nin an appearance at the Court before the sun sets, accompanied by his\ndaughter, to whom our son was betrothed at the extreme age of one, then\nthere will be war between Gama and ourselves. (_Aside._) I dread this\ngreeting. When last I saw Gama, twenty years ago, he was a fretful,\ntwisted monster, with a tongue as bitter as the agents of our rival\nlines.\n\nFLORIAN--(_Who has been looking attentively down the track with his\nglasses._) But stay! I see the smoke of an approaching train. I\neven hear the music of its wheels, as they fly like magic o'er the\nglittering rails. Already it is at the station. From a private car I\nsee somebody; guards descend, and now a bent and crippled form of human\nshape. It _must_ be Gama.\n\nHILD.--And is the Princess with him?\n\nFLORIAN--Not unless she's six foot three, and wears suspenders.\n\nHILD.--Who can tell! I've heard that she is a whimsical sort of girl.\nBut come! Bustle up there. Let everything be prepared. The costliest of\ndinners, the meanest of prison fares; the richest room in the palace,\nthe deepest dungeon, too. For as King Gama brings his daughter, or\nbrings her not, so shall he be treated.\n\n[Illustration: HILARION AND HIS FRIENDS.]\n\n[Illustration: THE CHICAGO & ALTON DEPOT.]\n\n[Illustration: HILDERBRANDT (furious): ENOUGH OF THIS, WHERE IS YOUR\nDAUGHTER?]\n\n    (_Enter_ PRINCE HILARION, _Knight of the Road, Grand Master of\n   the United Order of Chicago and Alton Railroad Conductors, and an\n                             exquisite_.)\n\nHILARION--(_Aside._) To-day I meet my baby bride, to whom I was\nbetrothed twenty years since. I have every confidence that my own\naccomplishments, and the influence of the line with which I am\nconnected, will suffice to re-unite our bonds to-day. They are above\npar on the market. (_To Hild._) Well, father, is there any news?\n\nHILD.--King Gama has just arrived, and is now on his way here from our\nd\u00e9p\u00f4t; but I fear without the Princess.\n\nHILARION--Alas! I have heard strange stories of my bride. They tell\nme she has foresworn men--never having had anything to do with them\nshe probably does not know what she loses. But they say she has shut\nherself up in the Castle Adamant accompanied by a number of devotees.\nIt is strange, considering that she lives so near our line that the\nmere proximity of our Alton men has not had its usual influence before\nthis.\n\n     (_Enter a representative of the Chicago and Alton Railroad._)\n\nREP. OF C. & A. R. R.--My liege, I beg to announce the coming of King\nGama, preceded by his three royal sons.\n\nHILD.--Bid them enter.\n\n        (_Enter_ ARAC, GURON _and_ SYNTHIUS, _warriors bold_.)\n\nARAC--\n\n                                [SONG.]\n\n        We are warriors three,\n        Men of worth are we,\n        Just arrived by steam,\n        Strange as it may seem.\n\nALL THREE--\n\n        Yes! yes!\n        Strange as it may seem.\n\nGURON--\n\n        Special train we had,\n        Not so very bad,\n        Really very fine\n        By the Alton Line.\n\nALL THREE--\n\n        Yes! yes!\n        By the Alton Line.\n\nSYNTHIUS--\n\n        Dining-car so rich,\n        Sleeping-car like which\n        Nothing can compare\n        Running time so rare.\n\nALL THREE--\n\n        Yes! yes!\n        Nothing can compare.\n\nARAC--My liege, we beg to present our respects, and to thank you for\nour pleasant journey on your line. It is our unpleasant duty also to\nannounce the coming of our Royal Father.\n\n                         (_Enter_ KING GAMA.)\n\nGAMA--\n\n                                [SONG.]\n\n        If you give me your attention I will tell you what I am,\n        I'm a genuine philanthropist--all other kinds are sham.\n        Each little fault of temper and each social defect\n        In my erring fellow creatures I endeavor to correct.\n        To all their little weaknesses I open people's eyes,\n        And little plans to snub the self-sufficient I devise.\n        I love my fellow creatures, I do all the good I can,\n        But everybody says I'm such a disagreeable man,\n                And I can't think why.\n\n        For all who do me favors I've a withering remark,\n        And as for beating railroad lines, I think it quite a lark,\n        I wheedle out free passes, and I call the road a sham,\n        I sell them to the scalpers, that's the sort of man I am.\n        I put rocks upon the railroad tracks, and try to wreck the train,\n        Get a madman hired as engineer, and swear the man is sane.\n        I spread all sorts of rumors, and have all the fun I can,\n        Yet! Everybody says I'm such a disagreeable man,\n                And I can't think why.\n\n        When I get into a sleeper I sit up half the night,\n        And try to make the ladies think that everything's not right.\n        I cut in strips the cushions, the curtains always tear,\n        And pleasantly suggest aloud: \"They are the worse for wear.\"\n        I go into the smoking car, and remark I never smoke,\n        And when the weeds are all put out, I explain it's all a joke,\n        You see, I try to make myself as pleasant as I can,\n        Yet! Everybody says I'm such a disagreeable man,\n                And I can't think why.\n\n        And yet, with all my little whims I really must decline\n        To say a single word against the fav'rite Alton Line.\n        To speak in praise of anything goes hard against the grain,\n        But I really never was upon such a perfect train.\n        I had dinner in a dining car, which every want could fill,\n        And I drank my health quite frequently, and didn't pay my bill.\n        You see I try to make myself as pleasant as I can,\n        Yet! Everybody says I'm such a disagreeable man,\n                And I can't think why.\n\n[Illustration: HILARION CHECKS HIS BAGGAGE.]\n\n[Illustration: ON THE DINING CAR.]\n\nGAMA--So this is the royal castle of the Chicago and Alton Railroad?\nDame Rumor whispered that the place was on a par with everything\nconnected with the Alton Line. Superb! Royal! Grand!\n\nHILD.--(_Gratified._) Oh! Sire.\n\nGAMA.--But she's a liar. And this is your son! Dame Rumor also said he\nwas the leader of fashions among the Alton employes, but he's changed.\nHe used to be a singularly handsome child.\n\nHILD.--(_Furious._) Enough of this. Where is your daughter, whom on\nyour plighted word should be here to-day?\n\nGAMA--She would not be tempted. She hates railroad travelling. I\ndon't blame her. I tried to explain that a journey on the Alton was a\ndelicious reverie set to music on wheels, but she was obdurate. She's\nin Castle Adamant foresworn to all men, surrounded by a hundred maidens\nfair, who think as she does.\n\nHILD.--Surely we can win her over?\n\nGAMA--Not you! She and her companions will have nothing to do with\nanything masculine. One young lady brought a mail phaeton with her\nto the castle and she was expelled. When the time comes for the fast\nmail for Kansas City over your line to pass, the young ladies shut\nthemselves in the basement cellar. Perhaps the never failing graces of\nyour Alton men may win her.\n\nPRINCE HILARION--Well! I'll try (_to Cyril and Florian_), and you shall\naccompany me. Come quick! Your satchel. We have just time to catch\nthe fast train for Castle Adamant, and we will see whether the graces\nof one Alton man won't change the tenor of these young ladies' ideas.\nQuick! secure us berths. (_Exit officials._)\n\nHILD.--Yes! and you, King Gama, and your baby boys shall remain here\nas hostages. (_Re-enter officials._) Sorry to say, sir, that every\nberth in the five sleepers is taken. Nothing left to swing a duster in.\n\nHILD.--Then take our special car (_exit officials to give orders_),\nand now, King Gama, a word to you. If aught befall the flower of this\nroad, look out for your life. Take him to a cell and give him one of\nour time tables to pass away the time. (_Exit GAMA and his three sons\nin chains._)\n\nThe scene changes to the d\u00e9p\u00f4t of the Chicago and Alton Railroad.\n\n_With the prince and his two friends checking their baggage and then\nto the gardens at Castle Adamant, a charming retreat on the line of\nthe Chicago and Alton Railroad. In the distance can be seen the steel\ntracks of the Chicago and Alton Railroad glittering in the noonday sun.\nThe air is calm and balmy, disturbed only by the occasional song of\nsome bird, or the musical hum of a distant train on the Alton Line, as\nit whizzes with lightning speed along the track. The lady graduates of\nthe Princess Ida's seminary are on the scene, seated on the lawn at the\nfeet of Lady Psyche._\n\nLADY P.--Attention, ladies, while I read to you the list of punishments\nordered by the Princess Ida. The first is Claire. She's expelled.\n\nALL--Expelled!\n\nLADY P.--Yes, expelled! Because, although she knows that no man of any\nkind may scale these walls, she brought a set of chessmen here. The\nnext is May. She is also expelled for receiving letters.\n\nMAY--They were from my mother!\n\nLADY P.--It matters not, they came by mail. The next is Edith. She is\nalso expelled for being found with a Chicago and Alton folder in her\npossession.\n\nEDITH--What harm is that?\n\nLADY P.--A young lady of this seminary is not allowed to harbor things\nthat fold-her. The next is Blanche. She is also expelled for looking\nout of her window when the Chicago and Alton train was passing.\n\nBLANCHE--I was only looking out for the sleepers, they are so--\n\nLADY P.--Enough! Looking out for sleepers is not a square game to play.\nEven horrid man condemns it. And now, young ladies, prepare yourselves,\nfor your Princess Ida will be here directly to read you the lessons of\nthe day.\n\n[Illustration: PRINCESS IDA AND HER COMPANIONS.]\n\n[Illustration: PRINCESS IDA AND THE ALTON ANGELS.]\n\n[Illustration: A CHANGE OF COSTUME.]\n\n[Illustration: THE ALTON MEN ARE APPRECIATED.]\n\n                      (_Enter the_ PRINCESS IDA.)\n\nIDA--Women of Adamant, gathered together for the noble purpose of\nshunning that vile creature known as man, listen while I a tale unfold.\nOur undertaking is a noble one. We, women assembled as we are in this\nretreat, know full well the uselessness of man. Let nothing tempt\nyou from your path of sworn duty, and yet! methinks, the dangerous\nproximity of that horrid Alton road is a glittering temptation to some\nof your thoughtless heads. If by chance your eyes should light upon one\nof the creatures they call their officials, let not their gaudy tinsel\nturn your giddy brains. It is true that they dress with exquisite\ntaste, that their manners are those which Lord Chesterfield so highly\ncommended, that they belong to the only railroad corporation in the\nworld which even _I_ can look upon with feelings akin to admiration. It\nis true also--this fact I cannot deny--that the equipment of the Alton\nLine is as near perfection as human ingenuity can make it. That their\ntrain service is perfect, their cars superb, their track as smooth as\nthe skin on my face, and that they run the only through train worth\ntaking between Chicago and Kansas City, and all points West. I can say\nthis fearlessly. Their tracks are but steel, their cars merely wood and\nmetal, and we have nothing to fear from wood and metal. But beware of\ntheir officials. Do not be deceived into thinking that because a man\nis godlike in appearance, he is anything but a man after all. With all\ntheir grace, their outward charms and pleasing manners, these creatures\nwould win your hearts, and wear them too, with all the assurance with\nwhich one of us would knock the top off an egg for breakfast. This much\nbeing said, I beg you to follow me to partake in the usual exercises of\nthe day.\n\n     (_Exit Princess, followed by the ladies of the seminary. The\n    sound of an engine whistle is heard. Then enter HILARION, CYRIL\n              and FLORIAN at back, creeping cautiously._)\n\n                                 TRIO.\n\n        Gently, gently,\n        Evidently\n            We are safe so far.\n        The Alton Train,\n        With sweet refrain,\n            Brought us, here we are!\n\n        Flying lightly,\n        Whizzing sprightly,\n            O'er the Alton Track.\n        We expect to\n        All invite you\n            When we journey back.\n\nHILARION--Hush, scoffer! Despite the advantages of our remarkably\nexcellent line, it is proper for you to remember that you can't work\noff any tickets here in this college of learning. These ladies are\ngoing to do wonderful things, I am told. List to their intentions:\n\n        They intend to live alone\n          From us men; from us men.\n        Like the doggy with his bone,\n          Do you ken; do you ken?\n\n        Then they're greedy with their graces,\n          Selfish girls; selfish girls.\n        And they hide their pretty faces\n          And their curls, and their curls.\n        They've a very queer intention\n          It is sung, it is sung:\n        To resist polite attention\n          From the young, from the young.\n\n        They've another funny notion,\n        They can do without devotion\n        From an Alton man--what notion--\n          If they can, if they can.\n\n        These are the Phenomena,\n        That every pretty Domina\n        Hopes that we shall see\n        At the Universitee.\n\nCYRIL--\n\n        As for Railroads they are ready\n          To admit; to admit\n        That their employes are steady\n          And they sit, and they sit\n        A dreaming of the Alton men\n          At their best, at their best;\n        And waiting for the hour when\n          They pass West, they pass West.\n        But, each newly made aspirant\n          To the clan, to the clan,\n        Must repudiate the tyrant\n          Known as man, known as man.\n\n        The Alton Road Conductors\n        They regard as mere seductors,\n        And they're going to do without them\n          If they can, if they can.\n\n        These are the Phenomena\n        That every pretty Domina\n        Hopes that we shall see\n        At this Universitee.\n\n[Illustration: HILARION IN CLOVER.]\n\n[Illustration: I'M A PEPPERY SORT OF A KING.]\n\n[Illustration: FREE AS A TETHERED ASS.]\n\n[Illustration: OH! DON'T THE DAY SEEM BLANK AND LONG.]\n\nHILARION--And so here we are, in the breast of the citadel. Hallo!\nwhat's this? (_Examining some robes left by the female graduates._)\nWhy! Academic robes, robes worn no doubt by some of the undergraduates.\nHere, you fellows! Put them on. (_They do so, and the robes reach\nto their feet. They look as any well-regulated Alton man looks in\nanything--extremely fetching. They burst out laughing._)\n\n                                 TRIO.\n\n                       HILARION, CYRIL, FLORIAN.\n\nHILARION--\n\n        I am a maiden coy and graceful,\n        Stately I, with a face divine,\n        But with my smiles I'm ever faithful,\n        True to the men of the Alton Line.\n\nALL--\n\n        Haughty, humble, coy and free,\n        Little care I what maid may be.\n        So that a maid is fair to see,\n        Every maid is the maid for me.\n\nFLORIAN--\n\n        I am a maiden sweet and lusty,\n        Dainty and pleasant am I to see,\n        Timid and shy, and oh! so trusty.\n        An Alton man is the man for me.\n\nALL--\n\n        Haughty, humble, coy and free,\n        Little care I what maid may be,\n        So that a maid is fair to see,\n        Every maid is the maid for me.\n\nHILARION--But who comes here? The Princess, as I live.\n\nCYRIL--What is to be done?\n\nHILARION--Why, brave heart, my boy. Remember that you are an Alton\nman, and be brave. (_Enter Princess._) He bows low. Madam, accept my\nhumblest reverence.\n\nPRINCESS--Ladies, you are welcome. What might be your pleasure with me?\n\nHILARION--(_bowing._) We are three well-born maidens, ma'am! daughters\nof those who run the Alton line, who wish to join the University.\n\nPRINCESS--You say you are the daughters of those who run the Alton\nLine. Well! You'll find no comfort here. Your bed will be that of the\nhumblest. No downy mattress, soft pillows, or the rock of a Pullman\nPalace Car to send you to sleep. Your fare will be plain and simple,\nyour beverage nature's stream. No dining-car lunches at seventy-five\ncents a meal, which ought to cost $2.00. No delicacies out of season,\nor fine wines iced, as you get on that line. Your service must be done\nby yourselves. No obsequious porters will brush your boots or carry\nabout your bundle. And so, if you think well of this, there are here\none hundred maidens fair who are prepared to love and welcome you. Will\nyou try to give the fullness of your love to them?\n\nALL--Indeed we will.\n\nPRINCESS--Then you are welcome.\n\n      (_Exit Princess. The men burst out laughing and do a bit of\n      a breakdown. Lady Psyche enters back and looks at them with\n                             amazement._)\n\nLADY P.--These ladies are unseemly in their mirth.\n\nFLORIAN--It's all up, Hilarion! Here is my sister.\n\nHILARION--Then make a virtue of necessity, and take her in our\nconfidence.\n\nFLORIAN--(_To Lady Psyche._) Psyche! why don't you know me, your\nbrother, Florian?\n\nPSYCHE--(_Amazed._) Florian. (_They embrace._) What are you doing here?\nOh, dear! You know it is death for any man to be found within these\nwalls. How did you get here?\n\nFLORIAN--By the ever reliable Chicago and Alton Railroad, of which I am\na humble but devoted employe.\n\nPSYCHE--Oh, dear! Then you are an Alton man (_looking at him with\nadmiration_). I always thought you would be something great some day.\nBut who are these?\n\nHILARION--I am Prince Hilarion, of the Alton Line also. Your early\nplayfellow, and the betrothed of your Princess.\n\nPSYCHE--I might have known you were an Alton man. To imitate their\nbearing is impossible. Listen! and I will tell you the history of a man\nwho once tried to rival a Chicago and Alton man:\n\n                                [SONG.]\n\n        An Alton man of lineage high\n        Was aped by a rival in days gone by.\n        The man was radiant as the sun,\n        The rival was an unsightly one.\n            So it would not do,\n            His scheme fell through\n        To the world when his scheme took formal shape;\n            Expressed such terror\n            At his monstrous error\n        That he stammered his apology and made his 'scape,\n        The picture of a disconcerted ape.\n\n        With a view to rise in the Railway scales,\n        He washed his collar and cut his nails.\n        He bought a uniform and made it shine,\n        And swore that he belonged to the Alton Line.\n            But it would not do,\n            His scheme fell through,\n        For the Alton man was beauty's king,\n            With graceful manners,\n            Like Lord John Manners,\n        While the rival lacked the metal ring,\n        And always remained a puny thing.\n\n        He bought white ties and he bought new boots,\n        And he dressed himself in bran-new suits;\n        Then he put C. & A. on all his things,\n        And he bought a pin and diamond rings.\n            But it would not do,\n            His scheme fell through,\n        For the Alton man whom the rival aped\n            Was a radiant being,\n            Well worth seeing,\n        While the rival King, however shaped,\n        At best was an Alton man ill-aped.\n\n[Illustration: THERE WAS MY PORTER GRINNING.]\n\n[Illustration: AN ALTON DART.]\n\n[Illustration: IN BATTLE ARRAY.]\n\n[Illustration: THE FIGHT.]\n\n      (_They do another breakdown, during which enter Princess at\n                  back. She looks on in amazement._)\n\nPSYCHE--(_Looks at her terrified._) All is lost!\n\nPRINCESS--What is this? It seems to me that female garb become you\nladies ill. I don't think I ever saw a gentlewoman do a breakdown\nbefore.\n\nHILARION--We hope to become young ladies soon.\n\nPRINCESS--But are not now?\n\nHILARION--(_Throws off his robe, and then throws himself at the feet of\nthe Princess._) 'Tis useless to dissemble farther. We are merely men. I\nam Prince Hilarion, your betrothed, and these two are my friends.\n\nPRINCESS--(_Screaming._) Men! and Alton men at that! Ring the bell!\nFire the alarm guns, and have the Army of Amazons take them to the most\nsecret cells and annihilate them.\n\n     (_Loud turmoil; enter all the girls running frightened. They\n       catch sight of the three Alton men, and immediately fall\n   prostrate at their feet and regard them with languishing eyes._)\n\nPRINCESS--Summon my henchmen! (_They come._) Seize and bind them.\n(_They do it._) And now, adventurous men, much as I admire your shape\nand venerate the line you represent, you must die (_with emotion_).\nMy principles must be observed. So take them off. (_Loud noise heard\noutside; enter girls running with fright._)\n\nMELISSA--Princess! There is an armed force at the gates of the castle,\njust arrived by the St. Louis express and headed by King Hilderbrandt.\nThey demand admittance.\n\nPRINCESS--Refuse it.\n\nALL--Too late.\n\n    (_A loud crash is heard; enter King Hilderbrandt with his army of\n     Chicago and Alton conductors, armed to the teeth. In the centre\n         they drag ARAC, GURON and SYNTHIUS, chained together._)\n\nHILD.--(_Coming down._)\n\n            Some years ago,\n            No doubt you know\n        (And if you don't I'll tell you so),\n            You gave your troth\n            Upon your oath\n        To Hilarion my son.\n            A vow you make\n            You must not break\n        (If you think you may, it's a great mistake),\n            For a bride's a bride,\n            Though the knot were tied\n              At the early age of one!\n\n                  And I'm a peppery kind of king,\n                  Who's indisposed for parleying\n                  To suit the wit of a bit of a chit,\n                  And that's the long and the short of it!\n\nPRINCESS--(_Irresolutely--the girls meanwhile look with loving eyes at\nthe conductors._) I still refuse!\n\n[Illustration: ITS RESULT.]\n\n[Illustration: HILARION I SURRENDER.]\n\n               (ARAC, GURON _and_ SYNTHIUS _come down_.)\n\nARAC--\n\n        We may remark, though nothing can\n              Dismay us,\n        That if you thwart this gentleman\n              He'll slay us.\n\n        We don't fear death, of course, we're thought\n              To shame it.\n        But still, upon the whole, we thought\n              We'd name it.\n\nALL--\n\n        Yes! yes! Better perhaps to\n              Name it.\n\nGURON--\n\n        This gentleman controls a Line--\n              A stunner.\n        With splendid bed and track as fine--\n              A hummer.\n        We hate his line, but still we must\n              Propound it.\n        The Alton is a line to trust--\n              Confound it.\n\n(TOGETHER.)\n\n        Yes! yes! In spite of that, confound it.\n\nSYNTHIUS--\n\n        We wish its trade was light and slack--\n              It isn't.\n        Its service bad, with moldy track--\n              It isn't.\n        But give to C\u00e6sar what is due,\n              Yes, rend it.\n        We really must, and strongly too,\n              Commend it.\n\n(TOGETHER.)\n\n        Yes! yes! yes! Darn their eyes,\n              Commend it.\n\nALL--\n\n        The Alton is a road, as such\n              None beat it.\n        St. Louis is a point they touch,\n              Repeat it.\n        And if you doubt they'll get you there\n              You'll rue it,\n        For when they say they'll get you there,\n              They'll do it.\n\n(TOGETHER.)\n\n        Yes! yes! yes! Devil doubt\n              They'll do it.\n\nPRINCESS--I still refuse!\n\nPSYCHE--Madame! your father claims an audience; he has just followed\nKing Hilderbrandt on the Denver Express.\n\nPRINCESS--Admit him.\n\n                            (_Enter_ GAMA.)\n\nGAMA--Free as a tethered ass. I dare not keep this up. I dare not face\nthe malignity of this devil, Hilderbrandt.\n\nPRINCESS--He has treated you well, father. Even a wretched man, when he\nbelongs to the Alton Line, is always a gentleman.\n\nGAMA--Yes! yes! But he has made my life a curse. Think of it, I had\nnothing whatever to grumble at.\n\n                                [SONG.]\n\n            The more I try\n            I can't deny,\n        Altho' I'm very spiteful,\n            I'm bound to say\n            The livelong day,\n        The Alton is delightful.\n\n            Now, when a man\n            Does all he can,\n        A rival line despising,\n            And in reply\n            They fete him--why\n        It's hard, there's no disguising.\n\n        Oh! don't the day seem blank and long,\n        When all goes right and nothing goes wrong,\n        And isn't your life extremely flat\n        With nothing whatever to grumble at?\n\n            When in a car\n            Above the par,\n        Officials are quite pleasing.\n            And when a line\n            You hate is fine,\n        It's surely very teasing.\n            They treat me well,\n            Ah! what a sell,\n        I thought they'd be ungracious.\n            But not a bit--\n            They strained their wit\n        To make my thoughts fallacious.\n\n        Oh! don't the day seem blank and long,\n        When all goes right and nothing goes wrong, etc., etc.\n\n            The Alton whirls\n            The pretty girls\n        From eyes that are repining.\n            And takes the best\n            Of travel West\n        In cars with chairs reclining.\n            A dining-car\n            Without a jar,\n        And coaches really tasteful.\n            A splendid track\n            Both there and back,\n        Now isn't that disgraceful?\n\n        Oh! don't the day seem blank and long, etc., etc.\n\n            When off to bed\n            They gently led\n        Me to a couch bewitching,\n            I prayed they might,\n            At least, that night,\n        The holy train be ditching.\n            But fate was there,\n            We sped like air,\n        And nothing happened tragic,\n            And then I wept,\n            And then I slept,\n        And dreamt the line was magic.\n\n        Oh! don't the day, etc., etc.\n\n            When morning came,\n            'Twas just the same,\n        There was my porter grinning;\n            I called him Sam,\n            And muttered Dam,\n        He really looked so winning;\n            I looked around,\n            And there I found\n        A car of pleasant faces;\n            It seemed their bent\n            To be content,\n        In spite of my grimaces.\n\n        Oh! don't the day, etc., etc.\n\n[Illustration: BOARDING THE ALTON TRAIN AFTER THE WEDDING.]\n\n[Illustration: AN IMPROMPTU WEDDING.]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration: HILARION WELCOMES IDA TO THE ALTON LINE.]\n\nPRINCESS--Poor father! how you must have suffered.\n\nGAMA--Yes, my child, and the only thing to do is to surrender. We must\ncapitulate. I have often heard that opposition to the Alton line is\nfutile, and now I know it.\n\n                          (_Enter_ HILARION.)\n\nPRINCESS--Hilarion, I surrender. My heart was with you long ago, but my\nprinciples forbade it. Take me.\n\nHILDERBRANDT--Then we will have an impromptu wedding. Everybody who\nwants to marry everybody else can do so. (_The remark is a signal\nfor every girl in the party to throw her arms around the neck of the\nnearest conductor._)\n\nGAMA--And take my advice, make your wedding trip over the Chicago and\nAlton Line.\n\nALL--We will.\n\nGAMA--Hereafter, consider Castle Adamant yours. You may make it a\ncoupon station, if you please, and advertise it as a pleasure resort.\n\n    (_The organ is heard; a procession formed, and the entire party\n     indulge in an impromptu wedding, after which the Chicago and\n    Alton train for Chicago is boarded, and everybody starts upon a\n            trip, which cannot but bring them happiness._)\n\n                               _Moral._\n\nAn official of the Alton Road is irresistible.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: RETURN TO CHICAGO.]\n\n[Illustration: THE RECEPTION.]\n\n[Illustration: TWENTY YEARS LATER.]\n\n[Illustration: THE END]\n\n\n\n\n               [Illustration: CHICAGO & ALTON RAILROAD]\n\n                            3 GREAT CITIES\n                             =OF THE WEST=\n                            LINKED TOGETHER\n                              --BY THE--\n                        =CHICAGO & ALTON R. R.=\n\n                    NO CHANGE OF CARS OF ANY CLASS\n                                BETWEEN\n                       CHICAGO AND KANSAS CITY.\n                        CHICAGO AND ST. LOUIS.\n                      ST. LOUIS AND KANSAS CITY.\n\n     Union Depots in Chicago, East St. Louis, St. Louis and Kansas\n                                 City.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n                          NO OTHER LINE RUNS\n\n                          PALACE DINING CARS\n\n    Between CHICAGO and KANSAS CITY, CHICAGO and ST. LOUIS, and ST.\n                        LOUIS and KANSAS CITY.\n\n     Meals equal to those served in any first-class hotel, only 75\n                                cents.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n       The only Line running a sufficient number of Elegant and\n               Comfortable =PALACE RECLINING CHAIR CARS=\n\n    Free of Extra Charge, in all its Through Trains, Day and Night,\n            Without Change, to accommodate all its patrons.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Pullman Palace Sleeping Cars and Pullman Palace Buffet Sleeping\n                                 Cars\n\n             THE FINEST, BEST AND SAFEST IN USE ANYWHERE.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n     The BEST and QUICKEST ROUTE from CHICAGO to and from MEMPHIS,\n       MOBILE, NEW ORLEANS, and all Points South via St. Louis.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n                      THE SHORT LINE TO AND FROM\n\n      =Missouri=, =Arkansas=, =Texas=, =Kansas=, =Colorado=, =New\n        Mexico=, =Mexico=, =Arizona=, =Nebraska=, =California=,\n               =Oregon=, =Washington Territory=, =Etc.=\n\n               *       *       *       *       *\n\n         THE GREAT EXCURSION ROUTE BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH\n\n                            AND TO AND FROM\n\n     Kansas Lands, and Colorado, New Mexico and California Health\n   and Pleasure Resorts and the Mining Districts of the Great West.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n     For Tickets and information apply at any Coupon Ticket Office\n                in the United States and Canada, or to\n\n        =JAMES CHARLTON=, General Passenger and Ticket Agent,\n        210 Dearborn Street, near corner Adams Street, Chicago.\n\n    _=J. C. McMULLIN=_, Vice-President, Chicago.\n\n                          _=C. H. CHAPPELL=_, General Manager, Chicago.\n\n\n\n\n     [Illustration: No Change of Cars of any Class AND Two Trains\n      a Day Each Way Between Chicago & Kansas City, Chicago & St.\n                 Louis, AND St. Louis & Kansas City.]\n\n                         CHICAGO & ALTON R.R.\n\n    _The Pioneer Palace Reclining Chair Car Route.\n                The Pioneer Palace Dining Car Route.\n                        The Pioneer Pullman Palace Sleeping Car Route._\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n                  TWO TRAINS DAILY, SUNDAYS INCLUDED,\n                  Between Chicago and Kansas City and\n                  Between St. Louis and Kansas City.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n           LIGHTNING NIGHT EXPRESS DAILY, SUNDAYS INCLUDED.\n\n                NIGHT EXPRESS DAILY, SUNDAYS INCLUDED.\n\n             DAY EXPRESS DAILY, Sundays Excepted, between\n                         CHICAGO AND ST. LOUIS\n\n\n\n\n\nEnd of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Parody on Princess Ida, by D. Dalziel\n\n*** ","meta":{"redpajama_set_name":"RedPajamaBook"}}