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5 | None | OUR acts our angels are, or good or ill, The fatal shadows that walk by us still. --JOHN FLETCHER.
THE next morning came; the carriage was at the door of Maltravers, to bear him away he cared not whither. Where could he fly from memory? He had just despatched the letter to Evelyn,--a letter studiously written for t... | {
"id": "9771"
} |
1 | None | QUALIS ubi in lucem coluber . . . Mala gramina pastus. *--VIRGIL.
Pars minima est ipsa puella sui. **--OVID.
* "As when a snake glides into light, having fed on pernicious pastures."
** "The girl is the least part of himself."
IT would be superfluous, and, perhaps, a sickening task, to detail at length th... | {
"id": "9772"
} |
2 | None | QUID frustra simulacra fugacia captas? -- Quod petis est nusquam. *--OVID: _Met. _ iii. 432.
* "Why, in vain, do you catch at fleeting shadows? That which you seek is nowhere."
TO no clime dedicated to the indulgence of majestic griefs or to the soft melancholy of regret--not to thy glaciers, or thy dark-blue lak... | {
"id": "9772"
} |
3 | None | THE weary hours steal on And flaky darkness breaks. --_Richard III. _ ONCE more, suddenly and unlooked for, the lord of Burleigh appeared at the gates of his deserted hall! and again the old housekeeper and her satellites were thrown into dismay and consternation. Amidst blank and welcomeless faces, Maltravers passe... | {
"id": "9772"
} |
4 | None | I CANNA chuse, but ever will Be luving to thy father still, Whaireir he gae, whaireir he ryde, My luve with him maun still abyde; In weil or wae, whaireir he gae, Mine heart can neir depart him frae. Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament.
IT may be remembered that in the earlier part of this continuation of the histo... | {
"id": "9772"
} |
5 | None | YET once more, O ye laurels! and once more, Ye myrtles! --LYCIDAS.
WHILE Maltravers was yet agitated and excited by the disclosures of the curate, to whom, as a matter of course, he had divulged his own identity with the mysterious Butler, Aubrey, turning his eyes to the casement, saw the form of Lady Vargrave slow... | {
"id": "9772"
} |
6 | None | WILL Fortune never come with both hands full, But write her fair words still in foulest letters? _Henry IV. _ Part ii.
I PASS over those explanations, that record of Alice's eventful history, which Maltravers learned from her own lips, to confirm and add to the narrative of the curate, the purport of which is alrea... | {
"id": "9772"
} |
7 | None | THINK you I can a resolution fetch From flowery tenderness? --_Measure for Measure_.
THEY were on the road to Dover. Maltravers leaned back in the corner of the carriage with his hat over his brows, though the morning was yet too dark for the curate to perceive more than the outline of his features. Milestone after... | {
"id": "9772"
} |
1 | None | "The French Are in the Valley!"
It may easily be that, during the many years which have come and gone since the eventful time of my childhood, Memory has played tricks upon me to the prejudice of Truth. I am indeed admonished of this by study of my son, for whose children in turn this tale is indited, and who is now ... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
2 | None | Setting Forth How the Girl Child Was Brought to Us.
When I came out of my nest next morning--my bed was on the floor of a small recess back of the great fireplace, made, I suspect, because the original builders lacked either the skill or the inclination, whichever it might be, to more neatly skirt the chimney with th... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
3 | None | Master Philip Makes His Bow--And Behaves Badly.
My protector and chief friend was at this time, as near as may be, fifty years of age; yet he bore these years so sturdily that, if one should see him side by side with his gossip and neighbor, Sir William Johnson, there would be great doubt which was the elder--and the... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
4 | None | In Which I Become the Son of the House.
The French, for some reason or other, did not follow up their advantage and descend upon the lower Valley; but had they done so there could scarcely have been a greater panic among the Palatines. All during the year there had been seen at times, darkly flitting through the wood... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
5 | None | How a Stately Name Was Shortened and Sweetened.
It was on the morrow after my birthday that we became finally convinced of the French retreat. Mr. Stewart had returned from his journeys, contented, and sat now, after his hot supper, smoking by the fire. I lay at his feet on a bear-skin, I remember, reading by the lig... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
6 | None | Within Sound of the Shouting Waters.
If I relied upon my memory, I could not tell when the French war ended. It had practically terminated, so far as our Valley was concerned, with the episode already related. Sir William Johnson was away much of the time with the army, and several of the boys older than myself--John... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
7 | None | Through Happy Youth to Man's Estate.
As we two children became slowly transformed into youths, the Valley with no less steadiness developed in activity, population, and wealth. Good roads were built; new settlements sprang up; the sense of being in the hollow of the hand of savagery wore off. Primitive conditions lap... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
8 | None | Enter My Lady Berenicia Cross.
It is averred that all the evils and miseries of our existence were entailed upon us by the meddlesome and altogether gratuitous perverseness of one weak-headed woman. Although faith in the personal influence of Eve upon the ages is visibly waning in these incredulous, iconoclastic time... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
9 | None | I See My Sweet Sister Dressed in Strange Attire.
In the library room of the Hall, across from the dining-chamber, and at the foot of the great staircase, on the bannister of which you may still see the marks of Joseph Brant's hatchet, we men had a long talk in the afternoon. I recall but indifferently the lesser topi... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
10 | None | The Masquerade Brings Me Nothing but Pain.
There were, in all, ten of us at the table. Sir William beamed upon us from the end nearest the windows, with Daisy on his left hand and the London dame on the other--in the place of distinction to which she was, I suppose, entitled. Below Lady Berenicia sat Mr. Stewart, Sir... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
11 | None | As I Make My Adieux Mr. Philip Comes In.
When the eventful day of departure came, what with the last packing, the searches to see that nothing should be forgotten, the awkwardness and slowness of hands unnerved by the excitement of a great occasion, it was high noon before I was ready to start. I stood idly in the ha... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
12 | None | Old-Time Politics Pondered Under the Forest Starlight.
Among the numerous books which at one time of another I had resolved to write, and which the evening twilight of my life finds still unwritten, was one on Fur-trading. This volume, indeed, came somewhat nearer to a state of actual existence than any of its unborn... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
13 | None | To the Far Lake Country and Home Again.
We had left what it pleases us to call civilization behind. Until our return we were scarcely again to see the blackened fields of stumps surrounding clearings, or potash kettles, or girdled trees, or chimneys.
Not that our course lay wholly through unbroken solitude; but the... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
14 | None | How I Seem to Feel a Wanting Note in the Chorus of Welcome.
I could hear the noisy clamor among the negroes over the advent of Tulp, whom I had sent off, desiring to be alone, while I still stood irresolute on the porch. My hand was on the familiar, well-worn latch, yet I almost hesitated to enter, so excited was I w... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
15 | None | The Rude Awakening from My Dream.
I look back now upon the week which followed this home-coming as a season of much dejection and unhappiness. Perhaps at the time it was not all unmixed tribulation. There was a great deal to do, naturally, and occupation to a healthful and vigorous young man is of itself a sovereign ... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
16 | None | Tulp Gets a Broken Head to Match My Heart.
Without heed as to the direction, I started at a furious pace up the road which I found myself upon--Tulp at my heels. If he had not, from utter weariness, cried out after a time, I should have followed the track straight, unceasing, over the four leagues and more to the Sac... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
17 | None | I Perforce Say Farewell to My Old Home.
The slave sat upon one of the bowlders in the old Indian circle, holding his jaw with his hand, and rocking himself like a child with the colic.
He could give me no account whatever of the marvellous escape he had had from instant death, and I was forced to conclude that his ... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
18 | None | The Fair Beginning of a New Life in Ancient Albany.
The life in Albany was to me as if I had become a citizen of some new world. I had seen the old burgh once or twice before, fleetingly and with but a stranger's eyes; now it was my home. As I think upon it at this distance, it seems as if I grew accustomed to the no... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
19 | None | I Go to a Famous Gathering at the Patroon's Manor House.
We come to a soft, clear night in the Indian summer-time of 1774--a night not to be forgotten while memory remains to me.
There was a grand gathering and ball at the Manor House of the Patroons, and to it I was invited. Cadwallader Golden, the octogenarian li... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
20 | None | A Foolish and Vexatious Quarrel Is Thrust Upon Me.
I sat beside Daisy, and we talked. It was at the beginning a highly superficial conversation, as I remember it, during which neither looked at the other, and each made haste to fill up any threatened lapse into silence by words of some sort, it mattered not much what... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
21 | None | Containing Other News Besides that from Bunker Hill.
To pass from October, 1774, to mid-June of 1775--from the moonlit streets of sleeping Albany to the broad noonday of open revolt in the Mohawk Valley--is for the reader but the turning of a page with his fingers. To us, in those trying times, these eight months wer... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
22 | None | The Master and Mistress of Cairncross.
There is the less need to apologize for now essaying to portray sundry scenes of which I was not an actual witness, in that the reader must by this time be heartily disposed to welcome an escape from my wearisome _ego_, at any expense whatsoever of historical accuracy. Nor is it... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
23 | None | How Philip in Wrath, Daisy in Anguish, Fly Their Home.
"You are, then, not even a gentleman!"
The ungracious words came almost unbidden from Daisy's pallid lips, as husband and wife for the first time faced each other in anger. She could not help it. Passive, patient, long-suffering she had been the while the morti... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
24 | None | The Night Attack upon Quebec--And My Share in It.
Of these sad occurrences it was my fortune not to be informed for many months. In some senses this was a beneficent ignorance. Had I known that, under the dear old roof which so long sheltered me, Mr. Stewart was helplessly stricken with paralysis, and poor Daisy lay ... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
25 | None | A Crestfallen Return to Albany.
For a man who had his physician's personal assurance that there was nothing serious in his case, I recovered my strength with vexatious slowness. There was a very painful and wearing week, indeed, before it became clear to me that I was even convalescent, and thereafter my progress was... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
26 | None | I See Daisy and the Old Home Once More.
I rode beside Colonel Elias Dayton one forenoon some ten days later, up the Valley road, my pulses beating fast at the growing familiarity of the scene before us. We had crossed the Chuctenunda Creek, and were within sight of the gray walls of Guy Park. Beyond rose the hills be... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
27 | None | The Arrest of Poor Lady Johnson.
Early the next day, which was May 20th, we heard to our surprise and consternation that on the preceding afternoon, almost as Colonel Dayton and his soldiers were entering Johnstown, Sir John and the bulk of his Highlanders and sympathizers, to the number of one hundred and thirty, ha... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
28 | None | An Old Acquaintance Turns Up In Manacles.
A truly miserable fourteen months' period of thankless labor, and of unending yet aimless anxiety, follows here in my story. It was my business to remain in the Valley, watch its suspected figures, invigorate and encourage its militia, and combat the secret slander and open c... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
29 | None | The Message Sent Ahead from the Invading Army.
The whole forenoon of this eventful day was occupied in transmitting to the proper authorities the great tidings which had so fortuitously come to us.
For this purpose, after breakfast, John Frey, who was the brigade major as well as sheriff, rode down to Caughnawaga w... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
30 | None | From the Scythe and Reaper to the Musket.
And now, with all the desperate energy of men who risked everything that mortal can have in jeopardy, we prepared to meet the invasion.
The tidings of the next few days but amplified what Enoch had told us. Thomas Spencer, the half-breed, forwarded full intelligence of the ... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
31 | None | The Rendezvous of Fighting Men at Fort Dayton.
I shall not easily forget the early breakfast next morning, or the calm yet serious air with which my mother and two unmarried sisters went about the few remaining duties of preparing for my departure. For all they said, they might have been getting me ready for a fishin... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
32 | None | "The Blood Be on Your Heads."
A bright, hot sun shone upon us the next morning--the never-to-be-forgotten 6th. There would have been small need for any waking rattle of the drums; the sultry heat made all willing to rise from the hard, dry ground, where sleep had been difficult enough even in the cooler darkness. At ... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
33 | None | The Fearsome Death-Struggle in the Forest.
Were I Homer and Shakespeare and Milton, merged all in one, I should still not know how fitly to depict the terrible scene which followed.
I had seen poor headstrong, wilful Cox pitch forward upon the mane of his horse, as if all at once his spine had been turned, into lim... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
34 | None | Alone at Last with My Enemy.
My stricken foe looked steadily into my face; once his lips parted to speak, but no sound came from them.
For my part I did not know what to say to him. A score of thoughts pressed upon my tongue for utterance, but none of them seemed suited to this strange occasion. Everything that occ... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
35 | None | The Strange Uses to Which Revenge May Be Put.
In after-times, when it could do no harm to tell this story, people were wont to regard as its most remarkable feature the fact that we made the trip from the Oriskany battle-field to Cairncross in five days. There was never exhibited any special interest in the curious w... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
36 | None | A Final Scene in the Gulf which My Eyes Are Mercifully Spared.
Just before daybreak of the fifth day we stole past the sleeping hamlet of Caughnawaga, and as the sun was rising over the Schoharie hills I drew up the canoe into the outlet of Dadanoscara Creek, a small brook which came down through the woods from the h... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
37 | None | The Peaceful Ending of It All.
In the general paralysis of suffering and despair which rested now upon the Valley, the terrible double tragedy of the gulf passed almost unnoted. Women everywhere were mourning for the husbands, sons, lovers who would never return. Fathers strove in vain to look dry-eyed at familiar pl... | {
"id": "9787"
} |
1 | None | It happened in the ‘seventies in winter, on the day after St. Nicholas’s Day. There was a fete in the parish and the innkeeper, Vasili Andreevich Brekhunov, a Second Guild merchant, being a church elder had to go to church, and had also to entertain his relatives and friends at home.
But when the last of them had gon... | {
"id": "986"
} |
2 | None | The good stallion took the sledge along at a brisk pace over the smooth-frozen road through the village, the runners squeaking slightly as they went.
‘Look at him hanging on there! Hand me the whip, Nikita!’ shouted Vasili Andreevich, evidently enjoying the sight of his ‘heir,’ who standing on the runners was hanging... | {
"id": "986"
} |
3 | None | At the entrance to the street the wind still raged and the road was thickly covered with snow, but well within the village it was calm, warm, and cheerful. At one house a dog was barking, at another a woman, covering her head with her coat, came running from somewhere and entered the door of a hut, stopping on the thre... | {
"id": "986"
} |
4 | None | The household to which Vasili Andreevich had come was one of the richest in the village. The family had five allotments, besides renting other land. They had six horses, three cows, two calves, and some twenty sheep. There were twenty-two members belonging to the homestead: four married sons, six grandchildren (one of ... | {
"id": "986"
} |
5 | None | Vasili Andreevich went over to his sledge, found it with difficulty in the darkness, climbed in and took the reins.
‘Go on in front!’ he cried.
Petrushka kneeling in his low sledge started his horse. Mukhorty, who had been neighing for some time past, now scenting a mare ahead of him started after her, and they dro... | {
"id": "986"
} |
6 | None | Although Vasili Andreevich felt quite warm in his two fur coats, especially after struggling in the snow-drift, a cold shiver ran down his back on realizing that he must really spend the night where they were. To calm himself he sat down in the sledge and got out his cigarettes and matches.
Nikita meanwhile unharness... | {
"id": "986"
} |
7 | None | From the time he had covered himself with the sackcloth and seated himself behind the sledge, Nikita had not stirred. Like all those who live in touch with nature and have known want, he was patient and could wait for hours, even days, without growing restless or irritable. He heard his master call him, but did not ans... | {
"id": "986"
} |
8 | None | Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich, with his feet and the ends of the reins, urged the horse on in the direction in which for some reason he expected the forest and forester’s hut to be. The snow covered his eyes and the wind seemed intent on stopping him, but bending forward and constantly lapping his coat over and pushing i... | {
"id": "986"
} |
9 | None | Having stumbled back to the sledge Vasili Andreevich caught hold of it and for a long time stood motionless, trying to calm himself and recover his breath. Nikita was not in his former place, but something, already covered with snow, was lying in the sledge and Vasili Andreevich concluded that this was Nikita. His terr... | {
"id": "986"
} |
10 | None | Nikita awoke before daybreak. He was aroused by the cold that had begun to creep down his back. He had dreamt that he was coming from the mill with a load of his master’s flour and when crossing the stream had missed the bridge and let the cart get stuck. And he saw that he had crawled under the cart and was trying to ... | {
"id": "986"
} |
1 | None | "With fearless pride I say That she is healthful, fleet, and strong And down the rocks will leap along, Like rivulets in May."
WORDSWORTH.
Along a beautiful Devonshire lane, with banks of rock overhung by tall bowery hedges, rode a lively and merry pair, now laughing and talking, now summoning by call or whis... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
2 | None | "And now I set thee down to try How thou canst walk alone."
_Lyra Innocentium_.
Scarcely eight months had passed since the last recorded conversation, when Marian, in a dress of deep mourning, was slowly pacing the garden paths, her eyes fixed on the ground, and an expression of thoughtful sadness on her face. He... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
3 | None | "Where once we dwelt our name is heard no more, Children not thine 'may tread' my nurseryfloor."
COWPER.
The way of life at Fern Torr parsonage was so quiet as to afford few subjects for narration. Mrs. Wortley was a gentle, sensible person, very fond of Marian and Gerald, both for their own sake and their mother... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
4 | None | "A place where others are at home, But all are strange to me."
_Lyra Innocentium. _ Marian began the next morning by wondering what a Sunday at Oakworthy would be like, but she was glad the formidable first meeting was over, and greeted Gerald cheerfully when he came into the room.
After a few minutes a bell ra... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
5 | None | "That is not home where, day by day, I wear the busy hours away."
In a short time, Marian had settled into her place at Oak Worthy, lost some part of her shyness towards the inhabitants, and arrived at the terms which seemed likely to continue between her and her cousins.
There was much that was very excellent ab... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
6 | None | "O Brignal banks are fresh and fair, And Greta woods are green; I'd rather rove with Edmund there, Than reign our English queen."
ROKEBY.
Winter came, and with it the time fixed for that farewell visit from Edmund Arundel, to which Marian and Gerald had long looked forward. Marian was becoming very anxious fo... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
7 | None | "Child of the town! for thee, alas! Glad nature spreads nor tree or grass; Birds build no nests, nor in the sun Glad streams come singing as they run. Thy paths are paved for five long miles, Thy groves and hills are peaks and tiles, Thy fragrant air is yon thick smoke, Which shrouds thee like a mourning cloa... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
8 | None | "Too soon the happy child His nook of homeward thought will change; For life's seducing wild; Too son his altered day-dreams show This earth a boundless space, With sunbright pleasures to and fro, Coursing in joyous race."
_Christian Year_.
A couple of weeks had passed away, and Marian was beginning to ... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
9 | None | "So too may soothing Hope thy leave enjoy, Sweet visions of long severed hearts to frame; Though absence may impair or cares annoy, Some constant mind may draw us still the same."
_Christian Year_.
"Here are two letters for you, Marian," said Mrs. Lyddell, meeting the girls as they came in from a walk; "Lady ... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
10 | None | "Yes, friends may be kind, and vales may be green, And brooks, may sparkle along between; But it is not friendship's kindest look, Nor loveliest vale, nor clearest brook, That can tell the tale which is written for me On each old face and well known tree."
R. H. FROUDE.
It was a happy day for both Agnes W... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
11 | None | "But we are women when boys are but boys; Heav'n gives us grace to ripen and grow wise, Some six years earlier. I thank heav'n for it: We grow upon the sunny side of the wall."
TAYLOR.
It certainly was quite involuntary on Agnes Wortley's part, but when the time came for returning to Oakworthy, Marian was con... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
12 | None | "She seemed some nymph in her sedan, Apparelled in exactest sort, And ready to be borne to court."
COWPER.
Mr. Faulkner came at the time appointed, and Caroline, who had kept Marian's counsel, according to promise, was very curious to see how they would behave towards each other. As to Marian, she was just what... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
13 | None | "_Benedict_. What, my dear Lady Disdain, are you yet living?" " _Beatrice_. Is it possible Disdain should die while she has such meet food to feed her?"
_Much Ado about Nothing. _ The Lyddell family did not continue in London much longer; it had been a short season, and though the session of Parliament was not... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
14 | None | "What is that which I should turn to, lighting upon days like these? Every door is barr'd with gold and opens but to golden keys. * * * * * "Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield, Eager hearted as a boy when he first leaves his father's field."
TENNYSON.
Mar... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
15 | None | "It's hame, and it's hame, and it's hame."
Cunningham.
Edmund and Gerald had promised to spend a few days at Oakworthy, before the one returned to Portsmouth and the other to Eton; but their plans were disconcerted by an event which, as Clara said, placed Marian in mourning in good earnest, namely, the death of her... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
16 | None | "The brass, by long attrition tried, Placed by the purer metal's side, Displays at length a dingy hue, That proves its former claim untrue; So time's discerning hand hath art To set the good and ill apart."
Lionel's affliction had certainly tended to lessen the gulf which the engagement with Mr. Faulkner ha... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
17 | None | "The flowers do fade, and wanton fields, To wayward winter reckoning yields, A honey tongue, a heart of gall Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall."
SIR W. RALEIGH.
The Sunday after Walter's departure was a very uncomfortable and melancholy day. It was very sad to see poor Caroline looking wan and suffering, a... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
18 | None | "They made a famous procession My good little women and men; Such a sight was never seen before And never will again."
SOUTHEY.
A division of a first-class carriage, occupied only by Gerald, received Marian at the station, and first she had to be shown the hat, cloak, and umbrella with which he had constructe... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
19 | None | "Preach, read, and study as we will, Death is the mighty teacher still."
_Baptistery_.
Caroline continued very ill all the evening, hardly able to to look up, and every attempt to speak or swallow causing her great pain. Her mother would not leave her again, and sat watching her, and she smiled, and gave a please... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
20 | None | "Let us be patient. These severe afflictions Not from the ground arise But oftentimes celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise.
"We see but dimly through the mists and vapours Amid these earthly damps What seems to us but sad funereal tapers May be heaven's distant lamps."
LONGFELLOW.
There we... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
21 | None | "Perchance it was ours on life's journey to enter Some path through whose shadows no lovelight was thrown, With heart that could breast the fierce storms of its winter, And gather the wealth of its harvest alone; It is well there are stars in bright heaven to guide us To heights we ne'er dreamt of,--but oh, t... | {
"id": "9926"
} |
1 | THE VERDURER’S LODGE | “Give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament, with that I will go buy me fortunes.”
“Get you with him, you old dog.”
_As You Like It_.
THE officials of the New Forest have ever since the days of the Conqueror enjoyed some of the pleasantest dwellings that southern England can boast.
The home o... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
2 | THE GRANGE OF SILKSTEDE | “All Itchen’s valley lay, St. Catherine’s breezy side and the woodlands far away, The huge Cathedral sleeping in venerable gloom, The modest College tower, and the bedesmen’s Norman home.”
LORD SELBORNE.
VERY early in the morning, even according to the habits of the time, were Stephen and Ambrose Birken... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
3 | KINSMEN AND STRANGERS | “The reul of St. Maure and of St. Beneit Because that it was old and some deale streit This ilke monk let old things pace; He held ever of the new world the trace.”
CHAUCER.
“THE churls!” exclaimed Stephen.
“Poor old man!” said Ambrose; “I hope they are good to him!”
“To think that thus ends all tha... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
4 | A HERO’S FALL | “These four came all afront and mainly made at me. I made no more ado, but took their seven points on my target—thus—” SHAKESPEARE.
THE journey to Alton was eventless. It was slow, for the day was a broiling one, and the young foresters missed their o... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
5 | THE DRAGON COURT | “A citizen Of credit and renown; A trainband captain eke was he Of famous London town.”
COWPER.
IN spite of his satisfaction at the honourable obsequies of his dog, Stephen Birkenholt would fain have been independent, and thought it provoking and strange that every one should want to direct his mo... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
6 | A SUNDAY IN THE CITY | “The rod of Heaven has touched them all, The word from Heaven is spoken: Rise, shine and sing, thou captive thrall, Are not thy fetters broken?”
KEBLE.
ON Sunday morning, when the young Birkenholts awoke, the whole air seemed full of bells from hundreds of Church and Minster steeples. The Dragon C... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
7 | YORK HOUSE | “Then hath he servants five or six score, Some behind and some before; A marvellous great company Of which are lords and gentlemen, With many grooms and yeomen And also knaves among them.”
_Contemporary Poem on Wolsey_.
EARLY were hammers ringing on anvils in the Dragon Court, and all was activi... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
8 | QUIPSOME HAL | “The sweet and bitter fool Will presently appear, The one in motley here The other found out there.”
SHAKESPEARE.
THERE lay the quiet Temple Gardens, on the Thames bank, cut out in formal walks, with flowers growing in the beds of the homely kinds beloved by the English. Musk roses, honeysuckle an... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
9 | ARMS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL | “For him was leifer to have at his bedde’s hedde Twenty books clothed in blacke or redde Of Aristotle and his philosophie Than robes riche or fiddle or psalterie.”
CHAUCER.
MASTER HEADLEY was found spending the summer evening in the bay window of the hall. Tibble sat on a three-legged stool by him, writ... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
10 | TWO VOCATIONS | “The smith, a mighty man is he With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.”
LONGFELLOW.
STEPHEN’S first thought in the morning was whether the _ex voto_ effigy of poor Spring was put in hand, while Ambrose thought of Tibble’s promised commendation to t... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
11 | AY DI ME GRENADA | “In sooth it was a thing to weep If then as now the level plain Beneath was spreading like the deep, The broad unruffled main. If like a watch-tower of the sun Above, the Alpuxarras rose, Streaked, when the dying day was done, With evening’s roseate snows.”
ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
WHE... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
12 | A KING IN A QUAGMIRE | For my pastance Hunt, sing, and dance, My heart is set All godly sport To my comfort. Who shall me let?
THE KING’S BALADE, _attributed to Henry VIII. _ LIFE was a rough, hearty thing in the early sixteenth century, strangely divided between thought and folly, hardship and splendour, misery and merrim... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
13 | A LONDON HOLIDAY | “Up then spoke the apprentices tall Living in London, one and all.”
_Old Ballad_.
ANOTHER of the many holidays of the Londoners was enjoyed on the occasion of the installation of Thomas Wolsey as Cardinal of St. Cecilia, and Papal Legate.
A whole assembly of prelates and “lusty gallant gentlemen” rode out ... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
14 | THE KNIGHT OF THE BADGER | “I am a gentleman of a company.”
SHAKESPEARE.
GILES HEADLEY’S accident must have amounted to concussion of the brain, for though he was able to return to the Dragon in a couple of days, and the cut over his eye was healing fast, he was weak and shaken, and did not for several weeks recover his usual health. The noi... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
15 | HEAVE HALF A BRICK AT HIM | “For strangers then did so increase, By reason of King Henry’s queen, And privileged in many a place To dwell, as was in London seen. Poor tradesmen had small dealing then And who but strangers bore the bell, Which was a grief to Englishmen To see them here in London dwell.”
_Ill M... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
16 | MAY EVE | “The rich, the poor, the old, the young, Beyond the seas though born and bred, By prentices they suffered wrong, When armed thus, they gather’d head.”
_Ill May Day_.
MAY Eve had come, and little Dennet Headley was full of plans for going out early with her young playfellows to the meadow to gather May d... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
17 | ILL MAY DAY | “With two and two together tied, Through Temple Bar and Strand they go, To Westminster, there to be tried, With ropes about their necks also.”
_Ill May Day_.
AND where was Stephen? Crouching, wretched with hunger, cold, weariness, blows, and what was far worse, sense of humiliation and disgrace, a... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
18 | PARDON | “What if;’ quoth she, ‘by Spanish blood Have London’s stately streets been wet, Yet will I seek this country’s good And pardon for these young men get. ’” CHURCHILL.
THE night and morning had been terrible to the poor boys, who only had begu... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
19 | AT THE ANTELOPE | “Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen Full many a sprightly race, Disporting on thy margent green, The paths of pleasure trace.”
—GRAY.
MASTER HOPE took all the guests by boat to Windsor, and very soon the little party at the Antelope was in a state of such perfect felicity as became a proverb w... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
20 | CLOTH OF GOLD ON THE SEAMY SIDE | “Then you lost The view of earthly glory: men might say Till this time pomp was single; but now married To one above itself.”
—SHAKESPEARE.
IF Giles Headley murmured at Aldonza’s removal, it was only to Perronel, and that discreet woman kept it to herself.
In the summer of 1519 he was out of his appre... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
21 | SWORD OR SMITHY | “Darest thou be so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture, and to show it a fair pair of heels and run from it?”
SHAKESPEARE.
TIDINGS came forth on the parting from the French King that the English Court was about to move to Gravelines to pay a visit to the Emperor and his aunt, the Duchess of Savoy. ... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
22 | AN INVASION | “What shall be the maiden’s fate? Who shall be the maiden’s mate?”
SCOTT.
NO Giles Headley appeared to greet the travellers, though Kit Smallbones had halted at Canterbury, to pour out entreaties to St. Thomas, and the vow of a steel and gilt reliquary of his best workmanship to contain the old shoe, which a few ye... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
23 | UNWELCOME PREFERMENT | “I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now To be thy lord and master. Seek the king! That sun I pray may never set.”
SHAKESPEARE.
MATTERS flowed on peaceably with Stephen and Dennet. The alderman saw no reason to repent his decision, hastily as it had been made. Stephen gave himself no unseemly airs of presumption, ... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
24 | THE SOLDIER | “Of a worthy London prentice My purpose is to speak, And tell his brave adventures Done for his country’s sake. Seek all the world about And you shall hardly find A man in valour to exceed A prentice’ gallant mind.”
_The Homes of a London Prentice_.
SIX more years had passed over... | {
"id": "9959"
} |
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