The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy, the Chess ChampionEdge, Frederick Milnes
History
The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy, the Chess Champion
Edge, Frederick Milnes
Chess; Morphy, Paul Charles, 1837-1884
Forthwith commenced such a scene as I scarcely hope again to witness.
Morphy stepped from the arm-chair in which he had been almost immovable
for ten consecutive hours, without having tasted a morsel of any thing,
even water, during the whole of the period; yet as fresh, apparently, as
when he sat down. The English and Americans, of whom there were scores
present, set up stentorian Anglo-Saxon cheers, and the French joined in as
the whole crowd made a simultaneous rush at our hero. The waiters of the
Café had formed a conspiracy to carry Morphy in triumph on their
shoulders, but the multitude was so compact, they could not get near him,
and finally, had to abandon the attempt. Great bearded fellows grasped his
hands, and almost shook his arms out of the sockets, and it was nearly
half an hour before we could get out of the Café. A well-known citizen of
New York, Thomas Bryan, Esq., got on one side of him and M. de Rivière on
the other, and "Le Père Morel,"--body and soul for our hero--fought a
passage through the crowd by main strength, and we finally got into the
street. There the scene was repeated; the multitude was greater out of
doors than in the café, and the shouting, if possible, more deafening.
Morphy, Messrs. Bryan and De Rivière and myself, made for the Palais
Royal, but the crowd still followed us, and when we got to the guardhouse
of the Imperial Guard, _sergeants de ville_ and soldiers came running out
to see whether a new revolution was on the _tapis_. We rushed into the
Restaurant Foy, up stairs, and into a private room; whilst, as we
subsequently learned, the landlord made anxious inquiries as to the cause
of all this excitement. Having done our duty to a capital supper, we got
off by a back street, and thus avoided the crowd, who, we were informed,
awaited our reappearance in the quadrangle of the Palais Royal.
Next morning, Morphy actually awakened me at seven o'clock, and told me,
if I would get up, he would dictate to me the moves of yesterday's games.
I never saw him in better spirits, or less fatigued, than on that
occasion, as he showed me, for two long hours, the hundreds of variations
depending on the play of the previous day, with such rapidity that I found
it hard work to follow the thread of his combinations.
Harrwitz was in the café for about an hour during blindfold play, and he
actually had the assurance to say to me, "You can tell Mr. Morphy, that I
will continue the match to-morrow." I replied: "I feel satisfied that Mr.
Morphy will be willing to do so, but I shall most certainly object, and
all that lies in my power will be done to prevent his seeing a chess-board
until he has had at least twenty-four hours' rest." And I added: "You had
better not let it be known that you have made the proposition, or you will
be badly received in the café, depend upon it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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