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• Table of Contents
• Index
• Reviews
• Reader Reviews
• Errata
• Academic

Learning PHP 5

By David Sklar

Publisher : O'Reilly
Pub Date : June 2004
ISBN : 0-596-00560-1
Pages : 368

Learning PHP 5 is the ideal tutorial for graphic designers, bloggers, and other web crafters
who want a thorough but non-intimidating way to understand the code that makes web sites
dynamic. The book begins with an introduction to PHP, then moves to more advanced
features: language basics, arrays and functions, web forms, connecting to databases, and
much more. Complete with exercises to make sure the lessons stick, this book offers the ideal
classroom learning experience whether you're in a classroom or on your own.
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• Table of Contents
• Index
• Reviews
• Reader Reviews
• Errata
• Academic

Learning PHP 5

By David Sklar

Publisher : O'Reilly
Pub Date : June 2004
ISBN : 0-596-00560-1
Pages : 368

Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Who This Book Is For
Contents of This Book
Other Resources
Conventions Used in This Book
Using Code Examples
Comments and Questions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Orientation and First Steps
Section 1.1. PHP's Place in the Web World
Section 1.2. What's So Great About PHP?
Section 1.3. PHP in Action
Section 1.4. Basic Rules of PHP Programs
Section 1.5. Chapter Summary
Chapter 2. Working with Text and Numbers
Section 2.1. Text
Section 2.2. Numbers
Section 2.3. Variables
Section 2.4. Chapter Summary
Section 2.5. Exercises
Chapter 3. Making Decisions and Repeating Yourself
Section 3.1. Understanding true and false
Section 3.2. Making Decisions
Section 3.3. Building Complicated Decisions
Section 3.4. Repeating Yourself
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Section 3.5. Chapter Summary

Section 3.6. Exercises
Chapter 4. Working with Arrays
Section 4.1. Array Basics
Section 4.2. Looping Through Arrays
Section 4.3. Modifying Arrays
Section 4.4. Sorting Arrays
Section 4.5. Using Multidimensional Arrays
Section 4.6. Chapter Summary
Section 4.7. Exercises
Chapter 5. Functions
Section 5.1. Declaring and Calling Functions
Section 5.2. Passing Arguments to Functions
Section 5.3. Returning Values from Functions
Section 5.4. Understanding Variable Scope
Section 5.5. Chapter Summary
Section 5.6. Exercises
Chapter 6. Making Web Forms
Section 6.1. Useful Server Variables
Section 6.2. Accessing Form Parameters
Section 6.3. Form Processing with Functions
Section 6.4. Validating Data
Section 6.5. Displaying Default Values
Section 6.6. Putting It All Together
Section 6.7. Chapter Summary
Section 6.8. Exercises
Chapter 7. Storing Information with Databases
Section 7.1. Organizing Data in a Database
Section 7.2. Connecting to a Database Program
Section 7.3. Creating a Table
Section 7.4. Putting Data into the Database
Section 7.5. Inserting Form Data Safely
Section 7.6. Generating Unique IDs
Section 7.7. A Complete Data Insertion Form
Section 7.8. Retrieving Data from the Database
Section 7.9. Changing the Format of Retrieved Rows
Section 7.10. Retrieving Form Data Safely
Section 7.11. A Complete Data Retrieval Form
Section 7.12. MySQL Without PEAR DB
Section 7.13. Chapter Summary
Section 7.14. Exercises
Chapter 8. Remembering Users with Cookies and Sessions
Section 8.1. Working with Cookies
Section 8.2. Activating Sessions
Section 8.3. Storing and Retrieving Information
Section 8.4. Configuring Sessions
Section 8.5. Login and User Identification
Section 8.6. Why setcookie( ) and session_start( ) Want to Be at the Top of the Page
Section 8.7. Chapter Summary
Section 8.8. Exercises
Chapter 9. Handling Dates and Times
Section 9.1. Displaying the Date or Time
Section 9.2. Parsing a Date or Time
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Section 9.3. Dates and Times in Forms

Section 9.4. Displaying a Calendar
Section 9.5. Chapter Summary
Section 9.6. Exercises
Chapter 10. Working with Files
Section 10.1. Understanding File Permissions
Section 10.2. Reading and Writing Entire Files
Section 10.3. Reading and Writing Parts of Files
Section 10.4. Working with CSV Files
Section 10.5. Inspecting File Permissions
Section 10.6. Checking for Errors
Section 10.7. Sanitizing Externally Supplied Filenames
Section 10.8. Chapter Summary
Section 10.9. Exercises
Chapter 11. Parsing and Generating XML
Section 11.1. Parsing an XML Document
Section 11.2. Generating an XML Document
Section 11.3. Chapter Summary
Section 11.4. Exercises
Chapter 12. Debugging
Section 12.1. Controlling Where Errors Appear
Section 12.2. Fixing Parse Errors
Section 12.3. Inspecting Program Data
Section 12.4. Fixing Database Errors
Section 12.5. Chapter Summary
Section 12.6. Exercises
Chapter 13. What Else Can You Do with PHP?
Section 13.1. Graphics
Section 13.2. PDF
Section 13.3. Shockwave/Flash
Section 13.4. Browser-Specific Code
Section 13.5. Sending and Receiving Mail
Section 13.6. Uploading Files in Forms
Section 13.7. The HTML_QuickForm Form-Handling Framework
Section 13.8. Classes and Objects
Section 13.9. Advanced XML Processing
Section 13.10. SQLite
Section 13.11. Running Shell Commands
Section 13.12. Advanced Math
Section 13.13. Encryption
Section 13.14. Talking to Other Languages
Section 13.15. IMAP, POP3, and NNTP
Section 13.16. Command-Line PHP
Section 13.17. PHP-GTK
Section 13.18. Even More Things You Can Do with PHP
Appendix A. Installing and Configuring the PHP Interpreter
Section A.1. Using PHP with a Web-Hosting Provider
Section A.2. Installing the PHP Interpreter
Section A.3. Installing PEAR
Section A.4. Downloading and Installing PHP's Friends
Section A.5. Modifying PHP Configuration Directives
Section A.6. Appendix Summary
Appendix B. Regular Expression Basics
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Section B.1. Characters and Metacharacters

Section B.2. Quantifiers
Section B.3. Anchors
Section B.4. Character Classes
Section B.5. Greed
Section B.6. PHP's PCRE Functions
Section B.7. Appendix Summary
Section B.8. Exercises
Appendix C. Answers To Exercises
Section C.1. Chapter 2
Section C.2. Chapter 3
Section C.3. Chapter 4
Section C.4. Chapter 5
Section C.5. Chapter 6
Section C.6. Chapter 7
Section C.7. Chapter 8
Section C.8. Chapter 9
Section C.9. Chapter 10
Section C.10. Chapter 11
Section C.11. Chapter 12
Section C.12. Appendix B
Colophon
Index

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Copyright © 2004 O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Printed in the United States of America.

Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.

O'Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online
editions are also available for most titles (http://safari.oreilly.com). For more information,
contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or
corporate@oreilly.com.

Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O'Reilly logo are registered
trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. Learning PHP 5, the image of an eagle, and related trade
dress are trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are
claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly Media, Inc.
was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and
authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use
of the information contained herein.

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Dedication
To Jacob, who can look forward to so much learning.

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Preface
Boring web sites are static. Interesting web sites are dynamic. That is, their content
changes. A giant static HTML page listing the names, pictures, descriptions, and prices of all
1,000 products a company has for sale is hard to use and takes forever to load. A dynamic
web product catalog that lets you search and filter those products so you see only the six
items that meet your price and category criteria is more useful, faster, and much more likely
to close a sale.

The PHP programming language makes it easy to build dynamic web sites. Whatever
interactive excitement you want to create? such as a product catalog, a blog, a photo
album, or an event calendar? PHP is up to the task. And after reading this book, you'll be up
to the task of building that dynamic web site, too.

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Who This Book Is For

This book is for:

• A hobbyist who wants to create an interactive web site for himself, his family, or a
nonprofit organization.

• A web site builder who wants to use the PHP setup provided by an ISP or hosting
provider.

• A small business owner who wants to put her company on the Web.

• A page designer who wants to communicate better with her developer co-workers.

• A JavaScript whiz who wants to build server-side programs that complement her
client-side code.

• A blogger or HTML jockey who wants to easily add dynamic features to her site.

• A Perl, ASP, or ColdFusion programmer who wants to get up to speed with PHP.

• Anybody who wants a straightforward, jargon-free introduction to one of the most

popular programming languages for building an interactive web site.

PHP's gentle learning curve and approachable syntax make it an ideal "gateway" language for
the nontechnical web professional. Learning PHP 5 is aimed at both this interested, intelligent,
but not necessarily technical individual as well as at programmers familiar with another
language who want to learn PHP.

Aside from basic computer literacy (knowing how to type, moving files around, surfing the
Web), the only assumption that this book makes about you is that you're acquainted with
HTML. You don't need to be an HTML master, but you should be comfortable with the HTML
tags that populate a basic web page such as <html> , <head> , <body> , <p> , <a> , and <br> .
If you're not familiar with HTML, read HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition, by
Bill Kennedy and Chuck Musciano (O'Reilly).

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Contents of This Book

This book is designed so that you start at the beginning and work through the chapters in
order. For the most part, each chapter depends on material in the previous chapters. Chapter
2, through Chapter 12 and Appendix B, each end with exercises that test your understanding
of the content in the chapter.

Chapter 1, provides some general background on PHP and how it interacts with your web
browser and a web server. It also shows some PHP programs and what they do to give you
an idea of what PHP programs look like. Especially if you're new to programming or building
dynamic web sites, it is important to read Chapter 1.

The next four chapters give you a grounding in the fundamentals of PHP. Before you can
write great literature, you need to learn a little grammar and some vocabulary. That's what
these chapters are for. (Don't worry? you'll learn enough PHP grammar and vocabulary right
away to start writing some short programs, if not great literature.) Chapter 2 shows you how
to work with different kinds of data such as pieces of text and numbers. This is important
because the web pages that your PHP programs generate are just big pieces of text. Chapter
3, describes the PHP commands with which your programs can make decisions. These
decisions are at the heart of the "dynamic" in "dynamic web site." The concepts in Chapter 3
are what you use, for example, to display only items in a product catalog that fall between
two prices a user enters in a web form.

Chapter 4, introduces arrays, which are collections of a bunch of individual numbers or pieces
of text. Many frequent activities in PHP programs, such as processing submitted web form
parameters or examining information pulled out of a database, involve using arrays. As you
write more complicated programs, you'll find yourself wanting to repeat similar tasks. Functions
, discussed in Chapter 5, help you reuse pieces of your programs.

The three chapters after that cover three essential tasks in building a dynamic web site:
dealing with forms, databases, and users. Chapter 6, supplies the details on working with web
forms. These are the primary way that users interact with your web site. Chapter 7,
discusses databases. A database holds the information that your web site displays, such as a
product catalog or event calendar. This chapter shows you how to make your PHP programs
talk to a database. With the techniques in Chapter 8, your web site can do user-specific
things such as display sensitive information to authorized people only or tell someone how
many new message board posts have been created since she last logged in.

Then, the next three chapters examine three other areas you're likely to encounter when
building your web site. Chapter 9, highlights the steps you need to take, for example, to
display a monthly calendar or to allow users to input a date or time from a web form. Chapter
10, describes the PHP commands for interacting with files on your own computer or elsewhere
on the Internet. Chapter 11, supplies the basics for dealing with XML documents in your PHP
programs, whether you need to generate one for another program to consume or you've been
provided with one to use in your own program.

Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 each stand on their own. Chapter 12, furnishes some approaches
for understanding the error messages that the PHP interpreter generates and hunting down
problems in your programs. While it partially depends on earlier material, it may be worthwhile
to skip ahead and peruse Chapter 12 as you're working through the book.

Chapter 13 serves a taste of many additional capabilities of PHP, such as generating images,
running code written in other languages, and making Flash movies. After you've gotten
comfortable with the core PHP concepts explained in Chapter 1 through Chapter 12, visit
Chapter 13 for lots of new things to learn.

The three appendixes provide supplementary material. To run PHP programs, you need to
have a copy of the PHP interpreter installed on your computer (or have an account with a
web-hosting provider that supports PHP). Appendix A, helps you get up and running, whether
you are using Windows, OS X, or Linux.

Many text-processing tasks in PHP, such as validating submitted form parameters or parsing
an HTML document, are made easier by using regular expressions, a powerful but initially
inscrutable pattern matching syntax. Appendix B, explains the basics of regular expressions so
that you can use them in your programs if you choose.
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Other Resources
The online annotated PHP Manual (http://www.php.net/manual) is a great resource for
exploring PHP's extensive function library. Plenty of user-contributed comments offer helpful
advice and sample code, too. Additionally, there are many PHP mailing lists covering
installation, programming, extending PHP, and various other topics. You can learn about and
subscribe to these mailing lists at http://www.php.net/mailing-lists.php. A read-only web
interface to the mailing lists is at http://news.php.net. Also worth exploring is the PHP
Presentation System archive at http://talks.php.net. This is a collection of presentations
about PHP that have been delivered at various conferences.

After you're comfortable with the material in this book, the following books about PHP are
good next steps:

• Programming PHP, by Rasmus Lerdorf and Kevin Tatroe (O'Reilly). A more detailed and
technical look at how to write PHP programs. Includes information on generating
graphics and PDFs.

• PHP Cookbook, by David Sklar and Adam Trachtenberg (O'Reilly). A comprehensive

collection of common PHP programming problems and their solutions.

• Essential PHP Tools, by David Sklar (Apress). Examples and explanations about many
popular PHP add-on libraries and modules including HTML_QuickForm, SOAP, and the
Smarty templating system.

• Upgrading to PHP 5, by Adam Trachtenberg (O'Reilly). A comprehensive look at the

new features of PHP 5, including coverage of features for XML handling and
object-oriented programming.

These books are helpful for learning about databases, SQL, and MySQL:

• Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, by David Lane and Hugh E. Williams
(O'Reilly). How to make PHP and MySQL sing in harmony to make a robust dynamic
web site.

• SQL in a Nutshell, by Kevin E. Kline (O'Reilly). The essentials you need to know to
write SQL queries. Covers the SQL dialects used by Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL,
Oracle, and PostgreSQL.

• MySQL Cookbook, by Paul DuBois (O'Reilly). A comprehensive collection of common

MySQL tasks.

• MySQL Reference Manual (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql). The ultimate source for

information about MySQL's features and SQL dialect.

These books are helpful for learning about HTML and HTTP:

• HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, by Bill Kennedy and Chuck Musciano (O'Reilly). If
you've got a question about HTML, this book answers it.

• Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, by Danny Goodman (O'Reilly). Full of useful
information you need if you're using JavaScript or Dynamic HTML as part of the web
pages your PHP programs output.

• HTTP Developer's Handbook, by Chris Shiflett (Sams Publishing). With this book, you'll
better understand how your web browser and a web server communicate with each
other.

These books are helpful for learning about security and cryptography:

• Web Security, Privacy & Commerce, by Simson Garfinkel (O'Reilly). A readable and
complete overview of the various aspects of web-related security and privacy.

• Practical Unix & Internet Security, by Simson Garfinkel, Alan Schwartz, and Gene
Spafford (O'Reilly). A classic exploration of all facets of computer security.
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Conventions Used in This Book

The following programming and typesetting conventions are used in this book.

Programming Conventions
The code examples in this book are designed to work with PHP 5.0.0. They were tested with
PHP 5.0.0RC2, which was the most up-to-date version of PHP 5 available at the time of
publication. Almost all of the code in the book works with PHP 4.3 as well. The PHP 5-specific
features discussed in the book are as follows:

• Chapter 7: the mysqli functions

• Chapter 10: the file_put_contents( ) function

• Chapter 11: the SimpleXML module

• Chapter 12: the E_STRICT error-reporting level

• Chapter 13: some new features related to classes and objects, the advanced XML
processing functions, the bundled SQLite database, and the Perl extension

Typographical Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic
Indicates new terms, example URLs, example email addresses, filenames, file
extensions, pathnames, and directories.

Constant width
Indicates commands, options, switches, variables, attributes, keys, functions, types,
classes, namespaces, methods, modules, properties, parameters, values, objects,
events, event handlers, XML tags, HTML tags, macros, the contents of files, or the
output from commands.

Constant width italic

Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values.

This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general note.

This icon indicates a warning or caution.

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Using Code Examples

Typing some of the example programs in the book yourself is instructive when you are getting
started. However, if your fingers get weary, you can download all of the code examples from
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnphp5.

This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this
book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact the publisher for
permission unless you're reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a
program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling
or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O'Reilly books does require permission. Answering a
question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission.
Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product's
documentation does require permission.

We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title,
author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: "Learning PHP 5 by David Sklar Copyright 2004
O'Reilly Media, Inc., 0-596-00560-1." If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair
use or the permission given above, feel free to contact the publisher at
permissions@oreilly.com.

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Comments and Questions

Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher:
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
1005 Gravenstein Highway
North Sebastopol, CA 95472
(800) 998-9938 (in the United States or Canada)
(707) 829-0515 (international or local)
(707) 829-0104 (fax)
There is a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any additional
information. You can access this page at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnphp5
To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to:
bookquestions@oreilly.com
Or you can contact the author directly via his web site:
http://www.sklar.com
For more information about our books, conferences, Resource Centers, and the O'Reilly
Network, see our web site at:
http://www.oreilly.com

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Acknowledgments
This book is the end result of the hard work of many people. Thank you to:

• The many programmers, testers, documentation writers, bug fixers, and other folks
whose time, talent, and devotion have made PHP the first-class development platform
that it is today. Without them, I'd have nothing to write about.

• The Apple WWPM Hardware Placement Lab for the loan of an iBook, and to Adam
Trachtenberg, George Schlossnagle, and Jeremy Zawodny for advice on some code
examples.

• My diligent reviewers: Griffin Cherry, Florence Leroy, Mark Oglia, and Stewart Ugelow.
They caught plenty of mistakes, turned confusing explanations into clear ones, and
otherwise made this book far better than it would have been without them.

• Robert Romano, who turned my blocky diagrams and rustic pencil sketches into
high-quality figures and illustrations.

• Tatiana Diaz, who funneled all of my random questions to the right people, kept me on
schedule, and ultimately made sure that whatever needed to get done, was done.

• Nat Torkington, whose editorial guidance and helpful suggestions improved every part
of the book. Without Nat's feedback, this book would be twice as long and half as
readable as it is.

For a better fate than wisdom, thank you also to Susannah, with whom I enjoy ignoring the
syntax of things.

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Chapter 1. Orientation and First Steps

There are lots of great reasons to write computer programs in PHP. Maybe you want to learn
PHP because you need to put together a small web site for yourself that has some interactive
elements. Perhaps PHP is being used where you work and you have to get up to speed. This
chapter provides context for how PHP fits into the puzzle of web site construction: what it
can do and why it's so good at what it does. You'll also get your first look at the PHP
language and see it in action.

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1.1 PHP's Place in the Web World

PHP is a programming language that's used mostly for building web sites. Instead of a PHP
program running on a desktop computer for the use of one person, it typically runs on a web
server and is accessed by lots of people using web browsers on their own computers. This
section explains how PHP fits into the interaction between a web browser and a web server.

When you sit down at your computer and pull up a web page using a browser such as
Internet Explorer or Mozilla, you cause a little conversation to happen over the Internet
between your computer and another computer. This conversation and how it makes a web
page appear on your screen is illustrated in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1. Client and server communication without PHP

Here's what's happening in the numbered steps of the diagram:

1. You type www.example.com/catalog.html into the location bar of Internet Explorer.

2. Internet Explorer sends a message over the Internet to the computer named
www.example.com asking for the /catalog.html page.

3. Apache, a program running on the www.example.com computer, gets the message and
reads the catalog.html file from the disk drive.

4. Apache sends the contents of the file back to your computer over the Internet as a
response to Internet Explorer's request.

5. Internet Explorer displays the page on the screen, following the instructions of the
HTML tags in the page.

Every time a browser asks for http://www.example.com/catalog.html, the web server sends
back the contents of the same catalog.html file. The only time the response from the web
server changes is if someone edits the file on the server.

When PHP is involved, however, the server does more work for its half of the conversation.
Figure 1-2 shows what happens when a web browser asks for a page that is generated by
PHP.

Figure 1-2. Client and server communication with PHP

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 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Clara
Vaughan, Volume 3 (of 3)
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Title: Clara Vaughan, Volume 3 (of 3)

Creator: R. D. Blackmore

Release date: October 10, 2012 [eBook #41022]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Al Haines

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARA VAUGHAN,

VOLUME 3 (OF 3) ***
 Cover

CLARA VAUGHAN
A NOVEL

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL III.
R. D. Blackmore

London and Cambridge:

MACMILLAN AND CO.
1864.
The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.

LONDON:
R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL.
 CLARA VAUGHAN

BOOK IV. (continued).

CHAPTER X.
STORY OF EDGAR VAUGHAN.

Child Clara, for your own dear sake, as well as mine and my sweet
love's, I will not dwell on that tempestuous time. If you cannot
comprehend it without words, no words will enable you. If you can,
and I fear you do, no more words are wanted; and, as an old man
weary of the world, I know not whether to envy or to pity you.
Hither and thither I was flung, to the zenith star of ecstasy or
the nadir gulf of agony, according as my idol pet chose to smile or
frown. Though she was no silly child, but a girl of mind and feeling,
she had a store, I must confess, of clouds as well as dazzling
sunlight in the empyrean of her eyes. Her nature, like my love, was
full of Southern passion. It is like the air they breathe, the beauty
they behold. One minute of such love compresses in a thunder flood
all the slow emotions stealing through the drought-scrimped
channel, where we dredge for gold deposits, through ten years of
Saxon courtship. Instead of Lily-bloom, she should have been called
the Passion-flower.
My life, my soul--how weak our English words are--she loved
me from the first, I can take my oath she did, although her glory
was too great for her to own it yet, though now and then her
marvellous eyes proved traitors. Sometimes when she was racking
me most, feigning even, with those eyes cast down, her pellucid
fingers point to point, and her little foot tapping the orchid bloom,
feigning, I say, in cold blood, to reckon her noble lovers--long names
all and horribly hateful to me--suddenly, while I trembled, and
scowled like a true-born Briton, suddenly up would leap the silky
drooping lashes, and a spring of soft electric light would flutter
through them to the very core of my heart.
As for me, I abandoned myself. I made no pretence of waiting a
moment. I flung my heart wide open to her, and if she would not
come in, desert it should be for ever.
She did come. That life-blood of my soul came in, and would
and could live nowhere else for ever.
It was done like this. One August evening, when the sun was
sinking, and the air was full of warmth and wooing sounds, the
cicale waking from his early nap, the muffro leaping for the first
dew-drop, the love-birds whispering in the tamarind leaves,
Fiordalisa sat with me, under a giant cork-tree on the western slope.
The tower was still in Vendetta siege, and the grave and reverend
Signor knew better than to come out, when the Sbirri were gone to
the town. Lily-bloom was sitting by me in a mass of flowers; her
light mandile was laid by, that her glorious hair might catch the first
waft of the evening breeze. All down her snow-white shoulders fell
the labyrinth of tresses, twined by me with red Tacsonia, and two
pale carnations. Her form was pillowed in rich fern, that feathered
round her waist; of all the fronds and plumes and stems, not one so
taper, light, and rich as that. The bloom upon her cheeks was
deepened by my playing with her hair, and her soft large eyes were
beaming with delicious wonder.
We knew, as well as He who made us, that we loved one
another. None who did not love for ever could interchange such
looks. Suddenly, and without a word, in an ecstasy of admiration, I
passed my left arm round her little waist, drew her close to me--she
was very near before--and looking full into her wondrous eyes, found
no protest but a thrill of light; then tried her lips and met her whole
heart there. Darling, how she kissed me! No English girl can do it.
And then the terror of her maiden thoughts. The recollection of her
high-born pride, and higher because God-born innocence. How she
wept, and blushed, and trembled; trembled, blushed, and wept
again; and then vouchsafed one more entrancing kiss, to atone for
the unwitting treason. Even thus I would not be content. I wanted
words as well.
"Do you love me, my own Lily, with every atom of your heart?"
"I have not left one drop of blood for all the world besides."
And it was true. And so it was with me. I told her father that
same night. And now in the heaven of gladness and wild pleasure,
beyond all dreams of earth, opened the hell of my wickedness and
crime; which but for mercy and long repentance would sever me
from my Lily in the world to come. To some the crime may seem a
light one, to me it is a most atrocious sin, enhanced tenfold by its
awful consequences.
By my crime, I do not mean my sinful adoration, as cold men
may call it, of a fellow mortal. Nature has no time to waste, and
unless she meant my Lily to be worshipped, she would not have
lavished all her skill in making her so divine. No, I mean my black
deceit, in passing for my brother. Oh, Clara, don't go from me.
Like many another ruinous sin, it was committed without
thought, or rather without deliberation. No scheme was laid, not
even the least intention cherished; but the moment brought it, and
the temptation was too great. Who could have that loving pet gazing
at him so, and not sell his soul almost to win her to his arms?
Laurence Daldy was a lazy ass. I do not want to shift my blame
to him, but merely state a fact. If he had not been a lazy ass, your
father would be living now--ay, and my Fiordalisa. When he chose,
he could write very good Italian, and a clear, round hand, and oh,
rare accomplishment for an officer, he could even spell. But his letter
to Signor Dezio, scrawled betwixt two games of pool, was a perfect
magpie's nest of careless zigzag, wattles, and sand slap-dash. In
those days a hasty writer used to flick his work with sand, which
stanched but did not dry the ink. The result was often a grimy
dabble, like a child's face blotched with blackberries.
Lily and I had quite arranged how we should present ourselves.
Like two children we rehearsed it under the twilight trees. "And
then, you know," my sweet love whispered, "I shall give you a
regular kiss beneath the dear father's beard, and you will see what
an effect it will have. Thence he will learn, oh sweetest mine, that
there is no help for it; because we Corsican girls are so chary of our
lips."
"Are you indeed, my beautiful Lily? I must teach you liberality,
to me, and to me alone."
"Sweetest mine," she always called me from the moment she
confessed her love; and so, no doubt, she is calling me now in
heaven.
The curtain hung in heavy folds across the narrow doorway of
the long dark room. The hospitable board was gay with wine and
dainty fruit, melons, figs, and peaches, plums of golden and purple
hue, pomegranates, pomi d'oro, green almonds, apricots, and
muscatels from the ladders of Cape Corso. Through them and upon
them played the mellow light from a single lamp, with dancing
lustres round it. All the rest of the room was dark. At the head of the
table sat Signor Dezio Della Croce, waiting for his guest and
daughter. Posted high at the end window on a ledge of rough-hewn
board, stood the ancient warder, who had lived for fifty years among
them, and whose great fusil commanded the only approach to the
castle.
As we entered timidly, the maiden's right hand on my neck, my
left arm round her ductile waist, our other hands clasped firmly, I
glanced toward that noxious sentinel.
"Never mind him, sweetest mine. Don't believe that he is there.
Grandpapa, I call him, and he knows all my secrets."
Signor Dezio looked amazed, as we glided towards him. His life
had been one series of crushing blows from heaven. Three brave
sons had been barbarously murdered in Vendetta, and his graceful
loving wife had broken her heart and died. The sole hope of his
house, his petling Fiordalisa, though she called herself a woman and
was full sixteen, he looked upon her still in his trouble-torn
chronology, as only ripe enough to be dandled on his lap. Still he
called her his "Ninnina," and sang nannas to her, as he had been
obliged to do after her mother's death.
 As he sat there, too astonished to smile, or frown, or say a
word, Lily dropped upon her knees before him, as a Grecian maiden
would. We English are not supple-jointed; but for Lily's sake, I could
not stand beside her. Then she placed her soft right hand in the
centre of my hard palm, flung the other arm round my neck, and
with her eyes upon her father's, gave me a long affectionate kiss.
This done, she drew her father's head down, and kissed his snow-
white beard. Now, she told me, after this, any father who is
obdurate, must according to institution blame himself and no one
else, if harm befall the maiden.
All this time, I spoke not, and thought of nothing except to
screen my Lily. Signor Dezio kept a stately silence, but the tears
were in his eyes, and the long white beard was quivering. Lily bent
her head, and waited for his words.
"Mother of God! My little child, what are you thinking of?"
"Only thinking of being married, father."
"And set another Vendetta afoot, and be killed yourself! Signor"-
-turning haughtily to me--"this lady is betrothed, from her early
infancy, to her cousin Lepardo Della Croce."
"Oh, I hate him," cried Fiordalisa, clasping her hands piteously.
"Ah, Madonna, I hate him so; and thank our Lady, no one has seen
him for six years. He is dead no doubt in some Cannibal Island.
Saints of mercy, keep him. I saw it in the Spalla, in the Shepherd's
Spalla, and I saw my own love there, the eve before he came."
"Grace of Holy Mary! Who read the Spalla for you?"
"The hoary goatherd from Ghidazzo." And up sprang Fiordalisa,
flew to an inner room, and fetched from the dark niche in the wall
the box of holy relics. With these she knelt before her father, and
placed her right hand on the box.
"My child, it is not needful. I believe you without an oath. Never
yet have you passed the boundary of truth."
The old chief bowed his head in thought. He had lost his last
surviving son by neglecting the Spalla's decree. The Spalla is the
shoulder blade of a goat, polished, and used for divination; upon it
had been read Sampiero's death, and the destiny of Napoleon. The
old man who had forecast the latter was still alive, and of immense
renown, and traversed the island now like an ancient prophet. He
was the hoary goatherd of Ghidazzo.
Lily saw that she was conquering; she leaped upon her father's
knee and hugged him; and her triumph was complete. While she
wept upon his breast, and told him all her little tale, and whispered
in his ear, and while he kissed, and comforted her, and thought of
her dear mother, I rushed out and leaped the Vinea, and wept
beneath the olive-trees.
At last the old man rose and called me, he durst not venture
from the door; but he did what was far better, he sent my own love
after me. At length when we returned, and we found cause not to
hurry,--
"Signor Vogheno," he began, "I have observed you well. I am a
man of very keen observation"--Lily's eyes gave me a twinkle full of
fun--"or I should not be alive this moment. I have observed you, sir,
and I approve your character. I cannot say as much, sir, of all the
Englishmen I have been privileged to meet. There is about them
very much of the nature of a dog. Forgive me, sir; pray interrupt me
not. I only judge by what I have seen. God forbid that I should say
so to you, while you were my guest. Now you are one of my family,
and entitled to the result of my observations. Of the little island itself
I know nothing at all, though I am informed that its institutions are
of a barbarous character."
"Vendetta for instance," was on my lips, but Lily's glance just
saved it. And I thought of his three brave sons.
"But, Signor beloved, you are different from them; indeed you
have the nobility of the Corsican nature. And what is most of all, my
little child has fixed her heart upon you. But she is very young, sir,
quite a child you see." I saw nothing of the sort, but a blooming
maiden figure, growing lovelier every day. Poor Lily dropped her long
eyelashes, and smiled through a glowing blush. So blushed Lavinia
under the eyes of Turnus.
"This darling child is now the heiress to these lands of mine.
And if her cousin Lepardo, whose death she has seen on the Spalla,
be indeed removed from us, she is the very last of all the Della
Croce. I cannot easily read the billet of your brother. He does not
write good Corsican of our side of the mountains, but some
outlandish Tuscan. There is something first which I cannot well
decipher, and then I see your name Signor Valentine Vogheno, and
that you are the lord of very large estates, in some district called
Gloisterio?" He looked at me inquiringly.
Instead of explaining that I was only the brother of the great
Signor Valentino, I bowed, alas I bowed with a hot flush on my
cheeks. What could it matter, and why should I interrupt him, if he
chose to deceive himself? Lily charmed away all hesitation, by
clapping her little hands, and crying, "Sweetest mine, I am so glad."
 "Then, upon two conditions I will give you my daughter. The
first, that you leave this island, and do not see our Lily, write to, or
even hear from her, for a period of six months. If she has not
outgrown her love, she will then be almost old enough to wed. I
mean, of course, if Lepardo does not appear. The other condition is
that you shall promise on the holy relics, and you as well, my flower,
never to part with these old estates, but keep them for Lily while she
lives, and transmit them to her second child."
A load of terror was off my heart--I thought he was going to
bind me to the accursed Vendetta. Even for my Lily, I could hardly
have taken that pledge. So I assented readily to the last stipulation,
though it was based upon a virtual lie of mine. But with Lily's eyes
upon me, brimming as they were with tears at the first condition,
and her round arms trembling to enfold me, could I stick at anything
short of downright murder? The first proviso I fought against in vain.
Even Lily coaxed and cried, without any good effect.
When at last we yielded to the stern decree, the venerable
father, as we knelt before him, joined our hands together, and
poured a blessing on us, which I did not lack. He had given me my
blessing.
After this we sat down to supper, and the trusty musketeer, who
had watched the whole scene grimly, and without hearing all, knew
what the result was, he, I say, upon his perch began to improvise, or
haply to adapt, and sing to a childish air, some little verses upon the
glad occasion. Having exhausted his stock, down he leaped without
permission, and drank our health in a bumper of Luri wine.
Lily was now in due course of promotion. No longer was she the
handmaid, whose eyes created and rejoiced in countless mistakes of
mine. Now she was sitting by my side, as she had good right to be,
and was lost in pretty raptures at my gallant attentions. They were
very nice, she owned, but thoroughly un-Corsican. How I wished her
father and the old fusileer away!

CHAPTER XI.

"Six long months to be away from Lily! And perhaps forget her, and
find some lovelier maiden."
"By Lily's side, all maids are burdocks. And yet what if I do?"
She showed a small stiletto toy with a cross upon the handle,
and ground her pearly teeth together.
"Will it be for me, or her?"
"Both; and Lily afterwards."
"Oh you wholesale little murderer! Three great kisses directly,
one for every murder."
"Only if you promise, on the relics, never to look twice at a
pretty maiden."
And so we spent the precious time,--ten days allowed me to
prepare my yacht--in talking utter nonsense, and conning fifty foolish
schemes, to make us seem together. I was for departing at once,
that the period might begin to run; but Lily was for keeping me to
the last possible moment, and of course she had her way. It was
fixed that I should sail on the 10th day of September. My little boat,
now called the "Lily flower," was brought from Calvi, and moored in
a secluded cove, where my love could see it from her bedroom
window. It was no longer Corsican law that I should live in the
castle. The privileges of a guest were gone; and the rigorous code of
suitorship began. But to me and my own darling it made very little
difference. I never left Vendetta tower, as I lightly named it, until my
pet was ordered off to bed; and every morn I climbed the heights,
after a long swim in the sapphire ripple, and met my own sweet Lily
sparkling from the dew of her early toilet. How she loved me, how I
loved her; which more than other let angels say; for we could not
decide. That ancient Corsican her father, albeit little versed in books,
was as upright and downright a gentleman as ever knew when his
presence was not required. Therefore he took my word of honour for
his Lily's safety; and left her to her own sweet will; and her sweet
will was to spend with me all her waking hours. For her as yet there
was no fear of the blood-avenger. According to their etiquette they
cannot shoot the daughter, until they have shot the father. As to the
sons the restriction does not hold. The feud we were concerned in
had lasted now 120 years, and cost the lives of 130 people. It lay
between the ancient races of Della Croce, and De Gentili, and owed
its origin to the discovery of a dead mule on the road to church. The
question was which family should be exterminated first. For many
years the house of Della Croce had been in the ascendant, having
produced a long succession of good shots and clever bushmen. At
one time all the hopes of the De Gentili hung upon one infant life,
which was not thought worth the taking. Fatal error--that one life
had proved a mighty trump. One after one the Della Croce fell
before that original artist, who invented a patent method of trunking
himself in olive bark and firing from a knot-hole. Many a story Lily
told me of his devilish wiles; and in those stories I rejoiced, because
she clung around my neck, and trembled so that I must hold her.
Happily now this olive-branch was dead, having received his death-
wound while he administered one to Lily's youngest brother. Ever
since that, the feud had languished, and strict etiquette required
that the Della Croce should perpetrate the next murder. But her
father, said my Lily, with her sweet head on my breast and her soft
eyes full of fire, her father did not seem to care even to shoot the
cousin of the man who had shot her brothers.
Darling Lily, my blood runs cold, even with your beauty in my
arms, to hear you talk of murder so. Own pet, I shall change you.
You heaven meant for love, and softness, and delight: human devilry
has tainted even you. It was not an easy task to change her. Of all
human passions revenge is far the strongest. Clara, how your eyes
flash. You ought to have been a Corsican. It was not an easy task;
but love loves difficulties. In my ten short days of delicious
wretchedness, almost I taught Fiordalisa to despise revenge. And
what do you think availed me most? Not the Bible. No, her mind and
soul were swathed by Popery in the rags of too many saints. What
helped me most, and the only thing that helped me at all, except
caresses, was the broad and free expanse of the ever changing sea.
Her nature was all poetry, her throbbing breast an Idyl. Upon my
little quarter-deck I had a cushioned niche for her, and there we sat
and steered ourselves while the sailors slept below. Alone upon the
crystal world, pledged for life or death together, drinking deepest
draughts of passion and thirsting still for more, what cared we for
petty hatreds, we whose all in all was love? How she listened as I
spoke, how her large eyes grew enlarged.
 At last those eyes, pure wells of love, were troubled with hot
tears. The fatal day was come. Tokens we had interchanged, myriad
vows, and countless pledges, which even love could scarce
remember. With all the passion of her race, and all the fervour of the
clime, she bared her beautiful round arm, the part that lay most
near the heart and touched it with the keen stiletto, then she threw
her breast on mine, and I laid the crimsoned ivory on my lips. How
the devil--excuse me, Clara--how the devil I got away, only
phlegmatic Englishmen can tell. No Frenchman, or Italian, would
have left that heavenly darling so. We put it off to the last moment,
till it was quite dangerous to pass the rocky jaws. As my bad luck
would have it, there was a purpling sunset breeze. My own love on
the furthest point, her white feet in the water, growing smaller and
smaller yet, and standing upon tiptoe to be seen for another yard;
my own darling love of ages, she loosed her black hair down her
snowy vest, for me to know her from the rocks behind; then she
waved and waved her sweet palm hat, fragrant of my Lily,--I had
kissed every single inch of it,--until she thought I could not see her;
and then, as my telescope showed me, back she fell upon a ledge of
rocks, and I could see or fancy her delicious bosom heaving to the
fury of her tears. We glided past the cavern mouth, and the silver
beach beyond it, whence we had often watched the sunset; and
then a beetling crag took from me the last view of Lily.
However long the schoolboy may have bled from some big
coward's bullying, or the sway of the rustling birch and the bosky
thrill that follows, however sore he may have wept while hung head-
downwards through the midnight hours, with a tallow candle
between his teeth, or in the pang of nouns heteroclite and
brachycatalectic dinners; yet despite these minor ills, his fond heart
turns through after life to the scene of foot-ball and I-spy, to the
days when he could jump or eat any mortal thing. And so it is with
bygone love. Even the times of separation or of bitter quarrel, the
aching heart whereon the keepsake lies, the spasms of jealousy, the
tenterhooks of doubt; remembrance looks upon them all as
treasures of a golden age.
Over the darkening sea, we bore away for Sardinia. Hours and
hours, I gazed upon the cushions, where my own pet darling used to
lean and love me. To me they were fairer than all the stars, or the
phosphorescent sea. From time to time our Corsican pilot kept
himself awake, by chanting to strangely mournful airs some of the
voceros or dirges, the burden of many ages in that lamenting land.
Fit home for Rachel, Niobe, or Cassandra, where half a million
gallant beings, twice the number of the present population, have
fallen victims to the blood-revenge. So Corsican historians tell; a
thousand violent deaths each year, for the last five centuries.
Sometimes the avenger waits for half a lifetime, lurking till his
moment comes. Before his victim has ceased to quiver, or the shot
to ring down the rocky pass, he is off for the bush or the mountains,
and leads thenceforth a bandit's life.
They tell me, Clara, that things are better now, and this black
stain on a chivalrous race is being purged by Christian civilization. Be
it as it may, I love the island of my Lily still; and hope, please God,
to see it once more, before I go to her.
Banished though I was, for the present, from the only place I
cared for, it seemed still greater severance to go further than I could
help. Therefore instead of returning to England, I spent the winter in
cruising along the western coast of Italy, and the south of Spain;
and coasted back to Genoa. To Seville, and other places famed for
beautiful women, I made especial trips, to search for any fit to
compare with my own maiden. Of course I knew none could be
found; but it gave me some employment, and bitter pleasure, to
observe how inferior were all. To my eyes, bright with one sweet
image, no other form had grace enough to be fit pillow for my
charmer's foot. How I longed and yearned for some fresh token of
her: all her little gifts I carried ever in my bosom, but never let
another's eyes rest one moment on them. Not even would I tell my
friends one word about my love; it seemed as if it would grow
common by being talked about. To Peter Green I wrote, resigning
my commission, although I did not tell him that I had found the
olives. No, friend Peter, those olives are much too near my Lily; and
I won't have you or any other stranger there. I know she would not
look at you; still I would rather have you a thousand miles away.
Free trade, if you like, when I have made my fortune; which by the
bye is somewhat the maxim of that school. My fortune, not in olives,
oil, or even guineas--all that rubbish you are welcome to--but my
fortune where my heart and soul are all invested, and now, no more
my fortune, but my certain fate in Lily.
At length and at last my calendar--like a homesick pair at
school, we had made one for each other, thanking God that it was
not a leap-year--my calendar so often counted, so punctually erased,
began to yield and totter to the stubborn sap of time. My patience
long ago had yielded, my blood was in a fever. Another thing began
to yield, alas it was my money. Green, Vowler, and Green had
behaved most liberally; but of course the expenses of my vessel had
been heavy on me; and now my salary had ceased. Peter Green
wrote to me in the kindest and most handsome manner, pressing
me, if tired (as he concluded) of those murderous Corsicans, to
accept another engagement in Sardinia. Even without imparting my
last discovery, I had done good service to the firm. I smiled at the
idea of my being weary of Corsicans: even now the mere word
sends a warm tide to my heart.
It was not for the beauty of the scene, or the works of art, that
I remained in Genoa; but because it was the likeliest place to see
the Negro's head. As we lay at the end of the mole, my glass
commanded all that entered; and every lugger or xebec that bore
the sacred emblem--off my little dingy pushed from our raking stern,
and with one man, now my friend because a thorough Corsican, I
boarded her, at all hazards of imprisonment; and craved for tidings
of the sacred land. Although, of course, I would not show the nest
of all my thoughts, yet by beating about the bush, I got some scraps
of news. The great Signor was flourishing, and had harvested an
enormous crop of olives: his lovely daughter, now becoming the
glory of the island, had been ill of something like marsh-fever, but
was now as blooming as the roses. They did say, but the captain
could not at all believe it, that she had been betrothed to some
foreign olive-merchant. What disgrace! The highest blood and the
sweetest maid in Corsica, to be betrayed to an oilman! Plenty of
other news I gathered--the good people are great gossips--but this
was all I cared for. Meanwhile your father, Clara dear, replied most
warmly to my letter, sending me a sum on loan, which quite relieved
me from cheese-paring. And now the wind was in the north, and it
was almost time to start for the arms of Lily. If I waited any longer, I
should be too mad to bear the voyage. At the break of day we left
the magnificent harbour, and the cold wind from the maritime Alps
chilled all but the fire of love. Up and down the little deck, up and
down all day and night; sleep I never would again, until I touched
my Lily. On the evening of the 8th of March, we were near Cape
Corso; next day we coasted down the west to the lively breeze of
spring, and so upon the 9th we moored to the tongue of Calvi. At
midnight we were under way, and when the sun could reach the sea
over the snowy peaks, we glided past the mountain crescent that
looks on the Balagna. In the early morning still, when the dew was
floating, we rounded the gray headland of Signor Dezio's cove, and I
climbed along the bowsprit to glance beyond the corner.
What is that white dress I see fluttering at the water's edge?
Whose is that red-striped mandile tossed on high and caught again?
And there the flag-staff I erected, with my colours flying! Only one
such shape on earth--only two such arms--out with the boat or I
must swim, or run the yacht ashore. The boat has been towing
alongside for the last six hours: Lily can't wait for the boat any more
than I can. From rock to rock she is leaping; which is the nearest
one? Into the water she runs, then away in blushing terror--she
forgot all about the other men. But I know where to find her, she
has dropped her little shoe, she must be in my grotto.
There I press her to my heart of hearts, trembling, weeping,
laughing, all unable to get close enough to me.
"Sweetest mine, ten thousand times, I have been so wretched."
Her voice is like a silver bell.
"My own, I am so glad to hear it. But how well you look!"
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