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against him as if every leaf on every tree in all his royal forests had been a curse upon his head in the new forest his son richard for he had four sons had been to death by a and the people said that this so cruelly made forest would yet be fatal to others of the conqueror s race he was engaged in a dispute with the king of france about some territory while he staid at with that king he kept his bed and took being advised by his to do so on account of having grown to an size word being brought to him that the king of william the conqueror france made light of this and about it he swore in a great rage that he should his he assembled his army marched into the disputed territory burnt his old way the vines the crops and fruit and set the town of on fire but in an evil hour for as he rode over the hot ruins his horse setting his hoofs upon some burning embers started threw him forward against the of the saddle and gave him a mortal hurt for six weeks he lay dying in a near and then made his will giving england to william to robert and five thousand pounds to henry and now his violent deeds lay heavy on his mind he ordered money to be given to many english churches and and which was much better repentance released his prisoners of state some of whom had been confined in his twenty years it was a september morning and the sun was rising when the king was awakened from slumber by the sound of a church bell what bell is that he faintly asked they told him it was the bell of the chapel of saint mary i commend my soul said he to mary and died think of his name the conqueror and then consider how he lay in death the moment he was dead his priests and not knowing what contest for the throne might now take place or what might happen in it hastened away each man for himself and his own property the servants of the court began to rob and plunder the body of the in the strife was rolled from the bed and lay alone for hours upon the ground o conqueror of whom so many great names are proud now chapter ii under william the second called william the red in breathless haste secured the three great of and and made with hot speed for where the royal treasure was kept the delivering him the keys he found that it amounted to sixty thousand pounds in silver besides gold and jewels possessed of this wealth he soon persuaded the of to crown him and became william the second king of england was no sooner on the throne than he ordered into prison again the unhappy state whom his father had set free and directed a to ornament his father s tomb with gold and silver it would have been more dutiful in him to have attended the sick conqueror when he was dying but england itself like this red king who once governed it has sometimes made expensive for dead men whom it treated when they were alive the king s brother robert of seeming quite content to be only duke of that country and the king s other brother fine scholar being quiet enough with his five thousand pounds in a chest william the second the king flattered himself we may suppose with the hope of an easy reign but easy were difficult to have in those days the turbulent bishop odd who had blessed the army at the battle of and who i dare say took all the credit of the victory to himself soon began in concert with some powerful to trouble the red king the truth seems to be that this bishop and his who had lands in england and lands in wished to hold both under one sovereign and greatly preferred a thoughtless good natured person such as robert was to who though far from being an amiable man in any respect was keen and not to be imposed upon they declared in robert s favor and retired to their castles those castles were very troublesome to kings in a sullen humor the red king seeing the thus falling from him himself upon them by appealing to the english to whom he made a variety of promises which he never meant to perform in particular promises to the cruelty of the forest laws and who in return so aided him with their that was in the castle of and forced to abandon it and to depart from england forever whereupon the other were soon reduced and scattered then the red king went over to where the people greatly under the loose rule of duke robert the king s object was to upon the duke s this the duke of course prepared to resist and miserable war between the two brothers seemed inevitable when the child s history of england powerful on both sides who had seen so much of war interfered to prevent it a treaty was made each of the two brothers agreed to give up something of his claims and that the longer liver of the two should inherit all the of the other when they had come to this loving understanding they embraced and joined their forces against f ine sc who had bought some territory of e with a part of his five thousand pounds and was considered a dangerous individual in consequence st michael s mount in there is another st michael s mount in wonderfully like it was then as it is now a strong place perched upon the top of a high rock around which when the tide is in the sea flows leaving no
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road to the in this place fine scholar shut himself up with his soldiers and here he was closely by his two brothers at one time when he was reduced to great distress for want of water the generous robert not only permitted his men to get water but sent fine scholar wine from his own table and on being remonstrated with by the red ring said what i shall we let our own brother die of thirst where shall we get another when he is gone i at another time the red king riding alone on the shore of the bay looking up at the castle was taken by two of fine scholar s men one of whom was about to kill him when he cried out hold i am the king of england the story says that the soldier raised him from the ground respectfully and humbly and that the king took him into his service the story may or may not be true but at any rate it is true that fine scholar could not william the second hold out against his united brothers and that he abandoned mount st michael and wandered about as poor and forlorn as other scholars have been sometimes known to be this scotch became in the red king s time and were twice defeated the second time with the loss of their king and his son the became too against them was less successful for they fought among their native mountains and did great execution on the king s troops robert of became too and complaining that his brother the king did not faithfully perform his part of their agreement took up arms and obtained assistance from the king of france whom in the end bought off with vast sums of money england became too lord the powerful earl of headed a great conspiracy to the king and to place upon the throne the conqueror s nephew the plot was discovered all the chief were seized some were some were put in prison some were put to death the earl of himself was shut in a beneath castle where he died an old man thirty long years afterward the priests in england were more than any other class or power for the red king treated them with such small ceremony that he refused to new or when the old ones died but kept all the wealth belonging to those offices in his own hands in return for this the priests wrote his life when he was dead and abused him well i am inclined to think myself that there a child s history of england was little to choose between the priests and the red king that both sides were greedy and and that they were fairly matched the red king was false of heart selfish and mean he had a worthy minister in his favorite for almost every famous person had a in those rough days or the once the king being ill became penitent and made a foreign priest and a good man of but he no sooner got well again than he repented of his repentance and persisted in keeping to himself some of the wealth belonging to the this led to violent which were by there being in rome at that time two rival each of whom declared he was the only real original pope who couldn t make a mistake at last knowing the red king s character and not feeling himself safe in england asked leave to return abroad the red king gladly gave it for he knew that as soon as was gone he could begin to store up all the money again for his own use by such means and by and the english people in every possible way the red king became very rich when he wanted money for any purpose he raised it by some means or other and cared nothing for the injustice he did or the misery he caused having the opportunity of buying from robert the whole of for five years he the english people more than ever and made the very sell their plate and to supply him with the means to make the purchase william the second but he was as quick and eager in putting down revolt as he was in raising money for a part of the people very naturally i think to being sold in this way he headed an army against them with all the speed and energy of his father he was so impatient that he embarked for in a great gale of wind and when the sailors told him it was dangerous to go to sea in such angry weather he replied sail and away did you ever hear of a king who was drowned you will wonder how it was that even the careless came to sell his it happened thus it had long been the custom for many english people to make journeys to which were called in order that they might pray beside the tomb of our there belonging to the and the christianity these christian were often insulted and ill used the bore it patiently for some time but at length a remarkable man of great earnestness and eloquence called peter the began to preach in various places against the and to declare that it was the duty of good christians to drive away those from the tomb of our and to take possession of it and protect it an excitement such as the world had never known before was created thousands and thousands of men of all ranks and conditions departed for to make war against the the war is called in history the first and every wore a cross marked on his right shoulder all the were not zealous christians s history of england among them were vast numbers of the idle and adventurous spirits of the
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time some became for the love of change some in the hope of plunder some because they had nothing to do at home some because they did what the priests told them some because they liked to see foreign countries some because they were fond of knocking men about and would as soon knock a about as a christian b of may have been influenced by all these motives and by a kind desire besides to save the christian from bad treatment in future he wanted to raise a number of aimed men and to go to the he could not do so without money he had no money and he sold his to his brother the king for five years with the large sum he thus obtained he fitted out his gallantly and went away to in martial state the red king who made money out of every thing staid at home busily more money out oi and after three years of great hardship and from at sea from travel in strange lands from hunger thirst and upon the burning sands of the desert and from the fury of the the got possession of our s tomb the were still resisting and fighting bravely but this success increased the general desire in europe to join the another great french duke was proposing to sell his for a term to the rich red king when the red king s reign came to a sudden and violent end you have not forgotten the new forest which the william the second conqueror made and which the miserable people whose homes he had laid waste so hated the cruelty of the forest laws and the torture and death they brought upon the increased this hatred the poor persecuted country people believed that the new forest was enchanted they said that in thunder storms and on dark nights appeared moving beneath the branches of the gloomy trees they said that a terrible had foretold to hunters that the red king should be punished and now in the pleasant season of may when the red king had reigned almost thirteen years and a second prince of the conqueror s blood another richard the son of duke robert was killed by an arrow in this dreaded forest the people said that the second time was not the last and that there was another death to come it was a lonely forest accursed in the people s hearts for the wicked deeds that had been done to make it and no man save the king and his and liked to stray there but in reality it was like any other forest in the spring the green leaves broke out of the in the summer flourished heartily and made deep shades in the winter and blew down and lay in brown heaps on the moss some trees were stately and grew high and strong some had fallen of themselves some were by the s ax some were hollow and the at their roots some few were struck by lightning and stood white and bare there were hill covered with rich on which the morning dew so beautifully spark i g a child s history of england led there were where the deer went down to drink or over which the whole herd bounded flying from the arrows of the there were sunny and solemn places where but little light came through the rustling leaves the songs of the birds in the new forest were pleasanter to hear than the shouts of fighting men outside and even when the red king and his court came hunting through its cursing loud and riding hard with a of and and knives and they did much less there than among the english or and the died as they lived far easier than the people upon a day in august the red king now reconciled to his brother fine scholar came with a great train to hunt in the new forest fine scholar was of the party they were a merry party and had lain all night at keep a hunting lodge in the rest where they had made good cheer both at supper and breakfast and had drunk a deal of wine the party dispersed in various directions as the custom of hunters then was the king took with him only sir walter who was a famous and to whom he had given before they mounted horse that morning two fine arrows the last time the king was ever seen alive he was riding with sir walter and their dogs were hunting together it was almost night when a poor passing through the forest with his cart came upon the solitary body of a dead man shot with an arrow in the breast and still bleeding he got it into his cart it was the body of the king shaken and william the second tumbled with its red beard all with lime and with blood it was driven in the cart by the next day to cathedral where it was received and buried sir walter who escaped to and claimed the protection of the king of france in france that the red king was suddenly shot dead by an arrow from an unseen hand while they were hunting together that he was fearful of being suspected as the king s murderer and that he instantly set spurs to his horse and fled to the sea shore others declared that the king and sir walter were hunting in company a httle before sunset standing in bushes opposite one another when a came between them that the king drew his bow and took aim but the string broke that the king then cried shoot walter in the s name that sir walter shot that the arrow glanced against a tree was turned aside from the and struck the king from his horse dead by whose hand the red
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king really fell and whether that hand the arrow to his breast by accident or by design is only known to god some think his brother may have caused him to be killed but the red king had made so many enemies both among priests and people that suspicion may reasonably rest upon a less unnatural murderer men know no more than that he was found dead in the new forest which the people had regarded as a doomed ground for his race n chapter x england under henry the first called fine scholar fine scholar on hearing of the red king s death hurried to with as much speed as himself had made to seize the royal treasure but the keeper of the treasure who had heen one of the hunting party in the forest made haste to too and arriving there at the same time refused to yield it up upon this fine scholar drew his sword and threatened to kill the who might have paid for his fidelity with his life hut that he knew longer resistance to be useless when he found the prince supported by a company of powerful who declared they were determined to make him king the therefore gave up the money and jewels of the crown and on the third day after the death of the red king being a sunday fine scholar stood before the high altar in abbey and made a solemn declaration that he would resign the church property which his brother had seized that he would do no wrong to the and that he would restore to the people the laws of edward the with all the improvements of william the henry the first conqueror so began the reign of henry the the people were attached to their new ring both because he had known and because he was an englishman by birth and not a to strengthen this last hold upon them the king wished to marry an english lady and could think of no other wife than the good the daughter of the king of scotland although this good princess did not love the king she was so by the representations the made to her of the great charity it would be in her to unite the and saxon races nd prevent hatred and between them for the future that she consented to become his wife after some among the priests who said that as she had been in a in her youth and had worn the of a she could not be married against which the princess stated that her aunt with whom she had lived in her youth had indeed sometimes thrown a piece of black stuff over her but for no other reason than because the s was the only dress the conquering respected in girl or woman and not because she had taken the vows of a which she never had she was declared free to marry and was made king henry s queen a good queen she was beautiful kind hearted and worthy of a better husband than the king for he was a cunning and man though firm and clever he cared very little for his word and took any means to gain his ends all this is shown in his treatment of his brother robert robert who had suffered him to be refreshed a child s history of england with water and who had sent him the wine from his own when he was shut up with the flying him with thirst in the castle on the top of st michael s mount where his red brother would have let him die before the king began to deal with robert he removed and disgraced all the of the late king who were for the most part base characters much detested by the people or whom the late king had made bishop of of all things in the world henry imprisoned in the tower but was a great and a jolly companion and made himself so popular with his guards that they pretended to know nothing about a long rope that was sent into his prison at the bottom of a deep of wine the guards took the wine and took the rope with which when they were fast asleep he let himself down from a window in the night and so got cleverly aboard ship and away to now robert when his brother fine scholar came to the throne was still absent in the holy land henry pretended that robert had been made sovereign of that country and he had been away so long that the ignorant people believed it but behold when henry had been some time king of england robert came home to having leisurely returned from through italy in which beautiful country he had enjoyed himself very much and had married a lady as beautiful as itself in he found waiting to urge him to assert his claim to the english crown and declare war against king henry this great loss of henry the first time in and dancing with his beautiful italian wife among his friends he at last did the english in general were on king henry s de though many of the were on robert s but the english sailors deserted the king and took a great part of the english fleet over to so that robert came to this country in no foreign vessels but in english ships the virtuous however henry had invited back rom abroad and made of was steadfast in the king s cause and it was so well supported that the two armies instead of fighting made a peace poor robert who trusted any body and every body readily trusted his brother the king and agreed to go home and receive a from england on condition that all his followers were fully this the king very faithfully promised but robert was no sooner
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leading him by the hand went from king to king and from court to court relating how the child had a claim to the throne of england henry the first and how his uncle the king knowing that he had that claim would have murdered him perhaps hut for his escape the youth and innocence of the pretty little william robert for that was his name made him many friends at that time when he a young man the king of france with the french counts of and supported his cause against the king of england and took many of the king s towns and castles in but king henry artful and cunning always some of william s friends with money some with promises some with power he off the count of hy promising to marry his eldest son also named william to the count s daughter and indeed the whole trust of this king s life was in such and he believed as many another king has done since and as one king did in france a very little time ago that every man s truth and honor can be bought at some price for all this he was so afraid of william robert and his friends that for a long time he believed his life to be in danger and never lay down to sleep even in his palace surrounded by his guards without having a sword and at his bedside to strengthen his power the king with great ceremony his eldest daughter then a child only eight years old to be the wife of henry the fifth the emperor of germany to raise her marriage portion he the english people in a most oppressive manner then treated them to a great procession to restore their good humor and sent away in fine state with the german a child s of england to be educated in the country of her future husband and now his queen the good unhappily died it was a sad thought for that gentle lady that the only hope with which she had married a man whom she had never loved the hope of the and english races had failed at the very time of her death and all france was in arms against england for so soon as his last danger was over king henry had been false to all the french powers he had promised and bought and they had naturally united against him after some fighting however in which few but the unhappy common people who always suffered whatsoever was the matter he began to promise bribe and buy again and by those means and by the help of the pope who exerted himself to save more and by solemnly declaring over and over again that he really was in earnest this time and would keep his word the king made peace one of the first consequences of this peace was that the king went over to with his son prince william and a great to have the prince acknowledged as his successor by the and to contract the promised marriage this was one of the many promises the king had broken between him and the daughter of the count of both these things were triumphantly done with great show and rejoicing and on the twenty fifth of november in the year one thousand one hundred and twenty the whole prepared to at the port of for the voyage home henry the first on that day and at that place there came to the king a sea captain and said my my father served your father all his life upon the sea he the ship with the golden boy upon the in which your father sailed to conquer england i yon to grant me the same office i have a fair vessel in the harbor here called the white ship by fifty sailors of renown i pray you to let your servant have the honor of you in the white ship to england i am sorry friend replied the king that my vessel is already chosen and that i can not therefore sail with the son of the man who served my father but the prince and all his company shall go along with you in the fair white ship by the fifty sailors of renown an hour or two afterward the king set sail in the vessel he had chosen accompanied by other vessels and au night with a fair and gentle wind arrived upon the coast of england in the morning while it was yet night the people in some of those ships heard a faint wild cry come over the sea and wondered what it was now the prince was a young man of eighteen who bore no love to the english and had declared that when he came to the throne he would yoke them to the like oxen he went aboard the white ship with one hundred and forty youthful like himself among whom were eighteen noble ladies of the highest rank all this gay company with their servants and the fifty sailors made three hundred souls aboard the fair white ship a child s of england give three of wine said the prince to the fifty sailors of renown i my father the king has sailed out of the harbor what time is there to make merry here and yet reach england with the rest prince said before morning my fifty and the white ship shall overtake the vessel in attendance on your father the king if we sail at midnight then the prince commanded to make merry and the sailors drank out the three of wine and the prince and all the noble company danced in the moonlight on the deck of the white ship when at last she shot out of the harbor of there was not a sober seaman on board but the sails were all set and the oars
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all going merrily had the the gay young and the beautiful ladies wrapped in of various bright colors to protect them from the cold talked laughed and sang the prince encouraged the fifty sailors to row harder yet for the honor of the white ship crash a terrific cry broke from three hundred hearts it was the cry the people in the distant vessels of the king heard faintly on the water the white ship had struck upon a rock was down hurried the prince into a boat with some few push off he whispered and row to the land it is not far and the sea is smooth the rest of us must die but as they rowed away fast from the sinking ship the heard the voice of his sister henry the first the of calling for help he never in his life had heen so good as he was then he cried in an agony row hack at any risk i i can not hear to leave her they rowed back as the prince held out his arms to catch his sister such numbers leaped in that the boat was and in the same instant the white ship went down only two men floated they both clung to the main yard of the ship which had broken from the mast and now supported them one asked the other who he he said i am a nobleman by name the son of de l and you said he am a poor butcher of was the answer then they said together lord be merciful to us both and tried to encourage one another as they drifted in the cold sea on that unfortunate november night y and by another man came swimming toward them whom they knew when he pushed aside his long wet hair to be where is the prince said he gone gone i the two cried together neither he nor his brother nor his sister nor the king s niece nor her brother nor any one of all the brave three hundred noble or except we three has risen above the water i with a ghastly face cried woe i woe to me and sunk to the bottom the other two clung to the yard for some hours at length the young noble said faintly i am exhausted and chilled with the cold and can hold no longer farewell good friend god preserve you i so he dropped and sunk and of all the brilliant in a child s history of england the poor butcher of alone was saved in the morning some saw him floating in his coat and got him into their boat the sole of the dismal tale for three days no one dared to carry the to the king at length they sent into his presence a little boy who weeping bitterly and kneeling at his feet told him that the white ship was lost with all on board the ring fell to the ground like a dead man and never never afterward was seen to smile but he again and promised again and and bought again in his old way having no son to succeed him all his pains the prince will never yoke us to the now i said the english people he took a second wife or a duke s daughter and the pope s niece having no more children however he proposed to the to swear that they would recognize as his successor his daughter whom as she was now a widow he married to the eldest son of the count of a custom he had of wearing a of called in french in his cap for a feather as one false man usually makes many and as a false king in particular is pretty certain to make a false court the took the oath about the succession of and her children after her twice over without in tbe least intending to keep it the king was now relieved from any remaining fears of william robert by his death in the of st in france at twenty six years old of a wound henry tub first in the hand and as gave birth to three sons he thought the succession to the throne secure he spent most of the latter part of his life which was troubled by family quarrels in to be near when he had reigned upward of thirty five years and was sixty seven years old he died of an and fever brought on by eating when he was far from well of a fish called against which he had often been by his his remains were brought over to reading abbey to be buried you may perhaps hear the cunning and of king henry the first called policy by some people and by others neither of these fine words will in the least mean that it was true and nothing that is not true can possibly be good his greatest merit that i know of was his love of learning i should have given him greater credit even for that if it had been strong enough to induce him to spare the eyes of a certain poet he once took prisoner who was a knight besides but he ordered the poet s eyes to be torn from his head because he had laughed at him in his verses and the poet in the pain of that torture dashed out his own brains against his prison wall king henry the first was and so false that i suppose a man never lived whose word was less to be relied upon vol i h chapter xi england under and the king was no sooner dead than all the plans and schemes he had at so long and lied so much for away like a hollow heap of sand a of the conqueror whom he had never or suspected started up to claim
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the throne was the son of the conqueror s daughter married to the count of to and to his brother henry the late king had been liberal making henry bishop of and finding a good marriage for and much him this did not prevent from hastily producing a false witness a servant of the late king to swear that the king had named him for his heir upon his death bed on this evidence the of crowned him the new king so suddenly made lost not a moment in seizing the royal treasure and foreign soldiers with some of it to protect his throne if the dead king had even done as the false witness said he would have had small right to will away the english people like so many sheep or oxen without their consent but he had in fact all his territory to who supported by and her brother robert earl of soon began to dispute the crown some of the powerful and priests took her side some took s all fortified their castles and again the miserable english people were involved in war from which they could never derive advantage was victorious and in which all parties tortured starved and ruined them five years had passed since the death of henry the first and during those five years there had been two terrible by the people of scotland under their king david who was at last defeated with all his army when attended by her brother robert and a large force appeared in england to maintain her claim a battle was fought between her troops and king s at in which the king himself was taken prisoner after bravely fighting until his battle ax and sword were broken and was carried into strict confinement at then submitted herself to the priests and the priests crowned her queen of england she did not long enjoy this dignity the people of london had a great affection for many of the considered it degrading to be ruled by a woman and the queen s temper was so haughty that she made innumerable enemies the people of london and in alliance with the troops of her at where they took her brother robert prisoner whom as her best soldier and chief general she was glad to exchange for himself who thus regained his liberty then the long war went on afresh once she was pressed so hard in the castle of oxford in the winter a child s history of england weather when the snow lay thick upon the ground that her only chance of escape was to dress herself all in white and accompanied hy no more than three faithful knights dressed in like manner that their figures might not be seen from s camp as they passed over the snow to steal away on foot cross the frozen thames walk a long distance and at last gallop away on horseback ail this she did but to no great purpose then for her brother dying while the struggle was yet going on she at last withdrew to in two or three years after her her cause appeared in england afresh in the person of her son henry young who at only eighteen years of age was very powerful not only on account of his mother having resigned all to him but also from his having married the wife of the french king a bad woman who had great possessions in france louis thb french king not this arrangement helped king s son to but henry drove their united forces out of that country and then returned here to assist his whom the king was then at upon the thames here for two days divided only by the river the two armies lay opposite to one another on the eve as it seemed to all men of another desperate fight when the earl of took heart and said that it was not reasonable to the unspeakable miseries of two to minister to the ambition of two princes many other repeating and supporting this when it was once uttered and young da and went down each to his own bank of the river and held a conversation across it in which they arranged a very much to the dissatisfaction of who away with some followers and laid violent hands on the abbey of st where he presently died mad the led to a solemn council at in which it was agreed that should retain the crown on condition of his declaring henry his successor that william another son of the king s should inherit his father s possessions and that all the crown lands which had given away should be recalled and all the castles he had permitted to be built thus terminated the bitter war which had now lasted fifteen years and had again laid england waste in the next year died after a troubled reign of nineteen years although king was for the time in which he lived a humane and moderate man with many excellent qualities and although nothing worse is known of him than his of the crown which he probably excused to himself by the consideration that king henry the first was an too which was no excuse at all the people of england more in these dread nineteen years than at any former period even of their suffering history in the division of the nobility between the two rival of the crown and in the growth of what is called the system which made the the born and mere slaves of ihe every noble had his strong castle where he reigned the cruel king of all the neighboring people accordingly he whatever a child s history of england he chose and never were worse committed upon earth than in wretched england in those nineteen years the writers who were living then describe them fearfully they say that the castles were
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and she paid for her passage with of her jewels and sailed away well i the merchant was sitting in his counting house in london one day when he heard a great noise in the street and presently richard came running in from the with his eyes wide open and his breath almost gone saying master master here is the lady the merchant thought he was mad but he said no master as i live the the second lady is going up and down the city calling then he took the merchant by the sleeve and pointed oat at window and there they saw her among the and water of the dark dirty street in her foreign dress so forlorn surrounded by a wondering crowd and passing slowly along calling when the merchant saw her and thought of the tenderness she had shown him in his and of her constancy his heart was moved and he ran down into the street and she saw him coming and with a great cry fainted in his arms they were married without loss of time and richard who was an excellent man danced with joy the whole day of the wedding and they all lived happy ever afterward this merchant and this lady had one son thomas a he it was who became the favorite of king henry the second he had become when the king thought of making him he was clever gay well educated brave had fought in several battles in france had defeated a french knight in single combat and brought his horse away as a token of the victory he lived in a noble palace he was the of the young prince henry he was served by one hundred and forty knights his riches were immense the king once sent him as his to france and the french people beholding in what state he cried out in the streets how splendid must the king of england be when this is only the they had good reason to wonder at the magnificence of thomas a for wh a he entered a french town his procession was a s history op england headed by two hundred and fifty boys then came his hounds in couples then eight each drawn by five horses driven by five drivers two of the filled with strong ale to be given away to the people four his gold and silver plate and stately clothes two with the dresses of his numerous servants then came twelve horses each with a monkey on his back then a train of people bearing and leading fine war horses splendidly equipped then with their wrists then a host of knights and gentlemen and priests then the with his garments flashing in the sun and all the people and shouting with delight the king was well pleased with all this thinking that it only made himself the more magnificent to have so magnificent a favorite but he sometimes with the upon his splendor too once when they were riding together through the streets of london in hard winter weather they saw a shivering old man in rags look at the poor object said the king would it not be a charitable act to give that aged man a comfortable warm cloak undoubtedly it would said thomas a and you do well sir to think of such christian duties come cried the king then him your cloak it was made of rich crimson trimmed with the king tried to pull it off the tried to keep it on both were near rolling from their in the mud when the submitted and the king gave the cloak to the old beggar much to the beggar s astonishment and much to the merriment of all the henry the second in attendance for are not only eager to the king laughs but they really do enjoy a laugh against a favorite i make thought king henry the second this of mine thomas a of he will then be the head of the church and being devoted to me will help me to correct the church he has always my power against the power of the clergy and once publicly told some i remember that men of the church were equally bound to me with men of the sword thomas a is the man of all other men in england to help me in my great design so the king regardless of all objection either that he was a fighting man or a lavish man or a man or a man of pleasure or any thing but a likely man for the office made him accordingly now thomas a was proud and loved to be famous he was already famous for the pomp of his life for his riches his gold and silver plate his horses and attendants he could do no more in that way than he had done and being tired of that kind of fame which is a very poor one he longed to have his name celebrated for something else nothing he knew would render him so famous in the world as the setting of his utmost power and ability against the utmost power and ability of the king he resolved with the whole strength of his mind to do it he may have had secret grudge against the king besides the king may have offended his proud humor at some time or other for any thing i a child s history of england know i think it likely because it is a common thing for kings princes and other great people to try the of their rather severely even the little affair of the crimson cloak mast have been any thing but a pleasant one to a haughty man thomas a knew better than any one in england what the king expected of him in all his life he had never yet been in a position to disappoint the king he could
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some of those present picked up rushes rushes were strewn upon the floors in those days by way of carpet and threw them at him he proudly turned his head and said that were he not he would those with the sword he had known vol i i a child s history of england how to use in days he then mounted his horse and rode away cheered and surrounded by the common people to whom he threw open his house that night and gave a supper with them himself that same night he secretly departed from the town and so by night and hiding by day and calling himself brother got away not without difficulty to the struggle still went on the angry king took possession of the of the and banished all the relations and servants of thomas a to the number of four hundred the pope and the french king both protected him and an abbey was assigned for his residence stimulated by this support thomas a on a great festival day formally proceeded to a great church crowded with people and going up into the pulpit publicly cursed and all who had supported the of mentioning many english by name and not at the king of england himself when intelligence of this new was carried to the king in his chamber his passion was so furious that he tore his clothes and rolled like a madman on his bed of straw and rushes but he was soon up and doing he ordered all the ports and of england to be narrowly watched that no letters of might be brought into the kingdom and sent messengers and to the pope s palace at rome meanwhile thomas a for his part was not idle at rome but constantly employed his utmost arts in his own behalf thus the contest stood until there was peace between france and henry the second england which had been for some time at war and until the two children of the two kings were married in of it then the french king brought a meeting between henry and his old favorite so long his enemy even then though thomas a knelt before the king ho was obstinate and immovable as to those words about his order king louis of france was weak enough in his veneration for thomas a and such men but this was a little too much for him he said that a wanted to be greater than the saints and better than st peter and rode away from him with the king of england his poor french majesty asked a s pardon for so doing however soon afterward and cut a very pitiful figure at last and after a world of trouble it came to this there was another meeting on french ground between king henry and thomas a and it was agreed that thomas a should be of according to the customs of former and that the king should put him in possession of the of that post and now indeed you might suppose the struggle at an d and thomas a at rest no not even yet for thomas a hearing by some means that king henry when he was in dread of his kingdom being placed under an had had his eldest son prince henry secretly crowned not only persuaded the pope to the of york who had performed that ceremony and to the who had assisted at it but bent a messenger of his own into england in spite of a child s history of england all the king s precautions along the coast who delivered the letters of into the bishop s own hand thomas a then came over to england himself after an of seven years he was privately warned that it was dangerous ta come and that an knight named de had threatened that he should not live to eat a loaf of in england hut he came the common people received him well and marched with him in a way armed with such rustic weapons as they could get he tried to see the young prince who had once heen his pupil hut was prevented he hoped for some little support among the and priests but found none he made the most of the who attended him and them and went from to h arrow on the and from on the hill hack to and on christmas day preached in the cathedral there and told the people in his sermon that he had come to die among them and that it was likely he would he murdered he had no fear however or if he had any he had much more obstinacy for he then and there three of his enemies of whom de the knight was one as men in general had no fancy for being cursed in their sitting and walking and gaping and and all the rest of it it was ve y natural in the persons so freely to complain to the king it was equally natural in the king who had hoped that this troublesome opponent was at last to fall into a mighty rage when he heard of these new af and on the of york henry the second telling him that he never could hope for rest while thomas a lived to cry out hastily before his court i no one here who will deliver me from this man there were four knights present who hearing the king s words looked at one another and went out the names of these knights were william de and richard three of whom had been in the train of thomas a in the old days of his splendor they rode away on horseback in a very secret manner and on the third day after christmas day arrived at house not far from which belonged to the family of de they quietly collected some
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followers here in case they should need any and proceeding to suddenly appeared the four knights and twelve men before the in his own house at two o clock in the afternoon they neither bowed nor spoke but sat down on the floor in silence staring at the thomas a said at length what do you want we want said the taken from the and you to answer for your to the king thomas a replied that the power of the clergy was above the power of the king that it was not for such men as they were to threaten him that if he were threatened by all the swords in england he would never yield then we will do more than threaten said the knights and they went out with the twelve men a child s history of england and put on their and drew their shining swords and came back his servants in the mean time had shut up and barred the great gate of the palace at first the knights tried to it with their battle but being shown a window by which they could enter they let the gate alone and climbed in that way while they were at the door the attendants of thomas a had implored him to take in the cathedral in which as a or sacred place they thought the knights would dare to do no violent deed he told them again and again that he would not stir hearing the distant voices of the singing the evening service however he said it was now his duty to attend and therefore and for no other reason he would go there was a near way between his palace and the cathedral by some beautiful old which you may yet see he went into the cathedral without any hurry and having the cross carried before him as usual when he was safely there his servants would have fastened the door but he said no it was the house of god and not a fortress as he spoke the shadow of appeared in the cathedral doorway darkening the little light there was outside on the dark winter evening this knight said in a strong voice follow me loyal servants of the king the rattle of the of the other knights echoed through the cathedral as they came in it was so dark in the lofty and among the stately pillars of the church and there were so many hiding places in the below and in the henry the second passages above that thomas a might even at that pass have saved himself if he would but he would not he told the resolutely that he would not and though they all dispersed and left him there with no other than edward his faithful cross bearer he was as firm then as ever he had been in his life the knights came on through the darkness making a terrible noise with their armed tread on the stone pavement of the church where is the traitor they cried out ue made no answer but when they cried where is the he said proudly i am here and came out of the shade and stood before them the knights had no desire to kill him if they could rid the king and themselves of him by any other means they told him he must either fly or go with them he said he would do neither and he threw william off with such force when he took hold of his sleeve that again by his reproaches and his he so them and exasperated their fierce humor that whom he called by an ill name said then die and struck at his head but the faithful edward put out his arm and there received the main force of the blow so that it only made his master another voice from among the knights again called to thomas a to fly but with his blood running down his face and his hands clasped and his head bent he commended himself to god and stood firm then they cruelly killed him close to the altar of st and his body fell upon the pavement which was with his blood and brains a s history of england it is an awful thing to think of the murdered mortal who had so his curses about lying all in the church where a few lamps here and there were but red on a pall of darkness and to think of the guilty knights riding away on horseback looking over their shoulders at the dim cathedral and remembering what they had left inside part the second when the king heard how thomas a had lost his life in cathedral through the ferocity of the four knights he was filled with dismay some have supposed that when the king spoke those hasty words have i no on here who will deliver me rom this man he wished and meant a to be slain but few things are more unlikely for besides that the king was not naturally cruel though very passionate he was wise and must have known full well what any stupid man in his must have known namely that such a murder would rouse the pope and the whole church against him he sent respectful messengers to the pope to represent his innocence except in having uttered the hasty words and he swore solemnly and publicly to his innocence and contrived in time to make his peace as to the four guilty knights who fled into and never again dared to show themselves at court the pope them and they miserably for some time by all their countrymen at last they went humbly to as a penance and there died and were buried it happened fortunately for the of the henry the second pope that an opportunity arose very soon after the of a for the king to declare his power in
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ireland which was an acceptable undertaking to the pope as the irish who had been converted to christianity by one otherwise saint long ago before any pope existed considered that the pope had nothing at all to do with them or they with the pope and accordingly refused to pay him peter s pence or that tax of a penny a house which i have elsewhere mentioned the king s opportunity arose in this way the irish were at that time as barbarous a people as you can well imagine they were continually and fighting cutting one another s throats one another s noses burning one another s houses carrying away one another s wives and committing all sorts of violence the country was divided into five and each governed by a separate king of whom one claimed to be the chief of the rest now one of these kings named rough a wild kind of name in more than one wild kind of way had carried off the wife of a friend of his and concealed her on an island in a the friend this though it was quite the custom of the country complained to the chief king and with the chief king s help drove out of his came over to england for revenge and offered to hold his realm as a of king henry if king henry would help him to regain it the king consented to these terms but only assisted him then with what were called letters patent any english subjects who were a child s history of england disposed to enter into his service and aid ms cause there was at a certain earl richard de called of no very good character and desperate and ready for any thing that him a chance of improving his fortunes there were in south wales two other broken knights of the same good for nothing sort called robert and these three each with a small hand of followers took up s cause and it agreed that if it proved successful should marry s daughter and be declared his heir the trained english followers of these knights were so superior in all the discipline of battle to the irish that they beat them against immense superiority of numbers in one fight early in the war they cut off three hundred heads and laid them before who turned them every one up with his hands rejoicing and coming to one which was the head of a man whom he had much disliked grasped it by the hair and ears and tore off the nose and lips with his teeth you may judge from this what kind of gentleman an irish king in those times was the all through this war were horribly treated the victorious party making nothing of breaking their limbs and casting them into the sea from the tops of high rocks it was in the midst of the miseries and attendant on the taking of where the dead lay piled in the streets and the filthy ran with blood that married an odious those of must have made henry the second i think and one quite worthy of the young lady s father he died after and had been taken and various achieved and became king of now came king henry s opportunity to restrain the growing power of he himself repaired to as s royal master and deprived him of his kingdom but confirmed him in the enjoyment of great possessions the king then holding state in received the homage of nearly all the irish kings and chiefs and so came home again with a great addition to his reputation as lord of ireland and with a new claim on the favor of the pope and now their reconciliation was completed more easily and mildly by the pope than the king might have expected i think at this period of his reign when his troubles seemed so few and his prospects so bright those domestic miseries began which gradually made the king the most unhappy of men reduced his great spirit wore away his health and broke his heart he had four sons henry now aged his secret crowning of whom had given such to thomas a richard aged sixteen fifteen and john his favorite a young boy whom the named because he had no inheritance but to whom the king meant to give the of ireland all these boys in their turn were unnatural sons to him and unnatural brothers to each other prince henry stimulated by the french king and by his bad mother queen began the history a child s history of england first he demanded that his young wife margaret the french king s daughter should he crowned as well as he his father the king consented and it was done it was no sooner done than he demanded to have a part of his father s during his father s life this refused he made off from his father in the night with his bad heart full of bitterness and took refuge at the french king s court within a day or two his brothers richard and followed their mother tried to join them escaping in man s clothes but she was seized by king henry s men and in prison where she lay for sixteen years every day however some grasping english to whom the king s protection of his people from their and oppression had given deserted him and joined the princes every day he heard some fresh intelligence of the princes armies against him of prince henry s wearing a crown before his own at the french court and being called the junior king of england of all the princes swearing never to make peace with him their father without the consent and approval of the of france but with his fortitude and energy king henry met the shock
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of these with a resolved and cheerful face he called upon all e fathers who had sons to help him for his cause was theirs he hired out of his riches twenty thousand men to fight the false french king who stirred his own blood against him and he carried on the war with such vigor that louis soon proposed a conference to treat for peace the second the conference was held beneath an old green elm tree upon a plain in france it led to nothing the war prince richard began his career by leading an army against his father but his father beat him and his army back and thousands of his men would have the day in which they fi in such a wicked cause had not the king received news of an invasion of england by the and promptly come home through a great to repress it nd whether he really began to fear that he these troubles because a had been murdered or whether he wished to rise in the favor of the pope who had now declared a to be a saint or in the favor of his own people of whom many believed that even a s senseless tomb could work miracles i don t know but the king no sooner landed in england than he went straight to and when he came within sight of the distant cathedral he dismounted from his horse took off his shoes and walked with bare and bleeding feet to a s grave there he lay down on the ground in the presence of many people and by and by he went into the chapter house and removing his clothes from his back and shoulders submitted himself to be beaten with knotted not beaten very hard i dare say though by eighty priests one after another it chanced that on the very day when the king made this curious exhibition of himself a complete victory was obtained over the which very much delighted the priests who said that it was won because of his great example of repentance for the priests in general had found out since a a child s history of england s death that they admired him of aft things though they had hated him very cordially when he was alive the earl of who was at the h ad of the conspiracy of the king s sons and their foreign friends took the opportunity of the king being thus employed at home to lay siege to the capital of but the king who was quick and active in all his movements was at too before it was supposed possible that he could have left england and there he so defeated the said earl of that the proposed peace and his bad sons henry and submitted richard resisted for six weeks but being beaten out of castle after castle he at last submitted too and his father forgave him to forgive these unworthy princes was only to afford them breathing time for new they were so false and that they were no more to be trusted than common thieves in the very next year prince henry again and was again forgiven in eight years more prince richard against his elder brother and prince said that the brothers could never agree well together unless they were united against their father in the very next year after their reconciliation by the king prince henry again against his father and again submitted swearing to be true and was again forgiven and again with but the end of this prince was come he fell sick at a french town and his conscience terribly him with his he sent henry the second messengers to the king his father imploring him to come and see him and to forgive him for the last time on his of death the generous king who had a royal and mind toward his children always would have gone hut this prince had heen so unnatural that the the king suspected treachery and represented to him that he could not safely trust his life with such a traitor though his own eldest son therefore the king sent him a ring from off his finger as a token of forgiveness and when the prince had kissed it with much grief and many tears and had confessed to those around him how had and wicked and a son he had heen he said to the attendant priests o tie a rope my and draw me out of and lay me down upon a bed of ashes that i may die with prayers to god in a manner and so he died at twenty seven years old three years afterward prince being at a had his brains trampled out by a crowd of horses passing over him so there only remained prince richard and prince john who had grown to be a young man now and had solemnly sworn to be faithful to his father richard soon again encouraged by his friend the p king philip the second son of louis who was dead and soon submitted and was again forgiven swearing on the new testament never to rebel again and in another year or so again and in the presence of his father knelt down on his knee before the king of france and did the french king homage and declared that with his aid a child s history of england he would possess himself by force of all his father s french and yet this richard called himself a soldier of our and yet this richard wore the cross which the kings of france and england had both taken in the previous year at a meeting underneath the old wide spreading elm tree on the plain when they had sworn like him to devote themselves to a new for the love and honor of the truth sick at heart wearied out by the falsehood of
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his sons and almost ready to lie down and die the unhappy king who had so long stood firm began to fail but the pope to his honor supported him and obliged the french king and richard though successful in fight to treat for peace richard wanted to be crowned king of england and pretended that he wanted to be married which he really did not to the french king s sister his promised wife whom king henry detained in england king henry wanted on the other hand that the french king s sister should be married to his favorite son john the only one of his sons he said who had never against him at last king henry deserted by his one by one distressed exhausted consented to establish peace one final heavy sorrow was reserved for him even yet when they brought him the proposed treaty of peace in writing as he lay very ill in bed they brought him also the list of the from their whom he was required to pardon the first name upon this list was john his favorite son in whom he had trusted to the last henry the second o john child of my heart exclaimed the in a great agony of mind o john whom i have loved the best i o john for whom i have through these many troubles have you betrayed me too and then he lay down with a heavy groan and said now let the world go as it will i care for nothing more i after a time he told his attendants to take him to the french town of a town he had been fond of during many years but he was fond of no place now it was too true that he could care for nothing more upon this earth he wildly cursed the hour when he was bom and cursed the children whom he left behind him and expired as one hundred years before the followers of the court had abandoned the conqueror in the hour of his death so they now abandoned his the very body was stripped in the plunder of the chamber and it was not easy to find the means of carrying it for burial to the abbey church of was said in after years by way of flattery to have the heart of a lion it would have been far better i think to have had the heart of a man his heart whatever it was had cause to beat within his breast when he came as he did into the solemn abbey and looked on his dead father s uncovered face his heart whatever it was had been a black and heart in all its dealings with the deceased king and more deficient in a single touch of tenderness than any wild beast s in the forest there is a pretty story told of this reign called vol i k a child s history of england the story of fair it relates how the king on fair who was the loveliest girl in all the world and how he had a bower built for her in a park at and how it was erected in a and could only be found by a of silk how the bad queen becoming jealous of fair found out the secret of the and appeared before her one day with a dagger and a cup of poison and left her to the choice between those deaths how fair after shedding many piteous tears and offering many useless prayers to the cruel queen took the poison and fell dead in the midst of the beautiful bower while the unconscious birds sang all around her now there was a fair and she was i dare say the loveliest girl in all the world and the king was certainly very fond of her and the bad queen was certainly made jealous but i am afraid i say afraid because i like the story so much that there was no bower no no silken no dagger no poison i am afraid fair retired to a near oxford and died there her sister hanging a silken over her tomb and often dressing it with flowers in remembrance of the youth and beauty that had enchanted the king when he too was young and when his life lay fair before him it was dark and ended now faded and gone henry lay quiet in the abbey church of in the fifty seventh year of his age never to be completed after governing england well for nearly thirty five years chapter xiii england under the first called the lion heart in the year of our lord one thousand one hundred and eighty nine richard of the lion heart succeeded to the throne of king henry the second paternal heart he had done so much to break he had been as we have seen a rebel from his boyhood but the moment he became a king against whom others might rebel he found out that rebellion was a great wickedness in the heat of this pious discovery he punished all the leading people who had him against his father he could scarcely have done any thing that would have been a better instance of his real nature or a better warning to and not to trust in lion hearted princes he likewise put his late father s in chains and locked him up in a from which he was not set free until he had not only all the crown treasure but all his own money too so richard certainly got the lion s share of the wealth of this wretched whether he had a lion s heart or not he was crowned king of england with great pomp at westminster walking to the cathedral under a silken stretched on the tops of four a child s history of england each
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carried by a great lord on the day of his a dreadful of the jews took place which seems to have given great delight to numbers of savage persons calling themselves christians the king had issued a forbidding the jews who were generally hated though they were the most useful merchants in england to appear at the ceremony but as they had assembled mn london from all parts bringing presents to show their respect for the new sovereign some of them ventured down to westminster hall with their gifts which were very readily accepted it is supposed now that some noisy fellow in the crowd pretending to be a very delicate christian set up a howl at this and struck a jew who was trying to get in at the hall door with his present a riot arose the jews who had got into the hall were driven forth and some of the cried out that the new king had commanded the race to be put to death thereupon the crowd rushed through the narrow streets of the city all the jews they met and when they could find no more out of doors on account of their having fled to their houses and fastened themselves in they ran madly about breaking open all the houses where the jews lived rushing in and or them sometimes even flinging old people and children out of window into blazing they had lighted up below this great cruelty lasted four and twenty hours and only three men were punished for it even they their lives not for and the jews but for burning the houses of some christians king richard who was a strong restless u richard the first man with one idea always in his head and that the very troublesome idea of breaking the heads of other men was impatient to go on a to the holy land with a great army as great armies not be raised to go even to the holy land without a great deal of money he sold the crown and even the high offices of state to rule over his english subjects not because they were fit to govern but because they could pay high for the privilege in this way and by selling at a dear rate and by varieties of and oppression he scraped together a large treasure he then appointed two to take care of his kingdom in his absence and gave great powers and possessions to his brother john to secure his friendship john would rather have been made of england but he was a sly man and friendly to the expedition saying to himself no doubt the more the more chance of my brother being killed and when he is killed then i become king john before the newly army departed from england the and the general distinguished themselves by astonishing on the unfortunate jews whom in many large towns they murdered by hundreds in the most horrible manner at york a large body of jews took refuge in the castle in the absence of its governor after the wives and children of many of them had been slain before their eyes presently came the governor and demanded admission how can we give it thee o governor said the jews upon the walls when if we open the gate by so much as the width of a a child s op england foot the roaring crowd behind thee will press in and kill us upon this the unjust governor became angry and told the people that he approved of their killing those jews and a mischievous of a dressed all in white put himself at the head of the assault and they the castle for three days then said the head jew who was a or priest to the rest brethren there is no hope for us with the christians who are at the gates and walls and who must soon break in as we and our wives and children must die either by christian hands or by our own let it be by our own let us destroy by fire what jewels and other treasure we have here then fire the castle and then perish a few could not resolve to do this but the greater part complied they made a blazing heap of all their and when those were consumed set the castle in flames while the roared and around them and shooting up into the sky turned it blood red cut the throat of his beloved wife and himself all the others who had wives or children did the like dreadful deed when the broke in they found except the trembling few in corners whom they soon killed only heaps of greasy with here and there something like part of the blackened trunk of a burnt tree but which had lately been a human creature formed by the beneficent hand of the creator as they were after this bad beginning richard and his troops went on in no very good manner with the holy richard the first it was undertaken by the king of england and his old friend philip of france they commenced the business by their forces to the number of one hundred thousand men afterward they embarked their troops for in which was appointed as the next place of meeting king richard s sister had married the king of this place but he was dead and his uncle had the crown cast the royal widow into prison and possessed of her estates richard fiercely demanded his sister s release the restoration of her lands and according to the royal custom of the island that she should have a golden chair a golden table four and twenty silver cups and twenty silver dishes as he was too powerful to be successfully resisted yielded to his demands and then the french king grew jealous and complained that the english king wanted to be absolute in the
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island of and every where else richard however cared little or nothing for this complaint and in consideration of a present of twenty thousand pieces of gold promised his pretty little nephew arthur then a child of two years old in marriage to s daughter we shall hear again of pretty little arthur by and by this affair arranged without any body s brains being knocked out which must have rather disappointed him king richard took his sister away and also a fair lady named with whom he had fallen in love in france and whom his mother queen so long in prison remember but released by richard on his coming to a s history op england the throne had brought out there to be his wife and sailed with them for he soon had the pleasure of fighting the king of the island of for allowing his subjects to some of the english troops who were on the shore and easily conquering this poor monarch he seized his only daughter to be a companion to the lady and put the king himself into silver he then sailed away again with his mother sister wife and the captive princess and soon arrived before the town of acre which the french king with his fleet was from the sea but the french king was in no triumphant condition for his army had been by the swords of the and wasted by the plague and the brave of the at the head of a numerous army was at that time gallantly defending the place from the hills that rise above it wherever the united army of went they agreed in few points except in drinking and in a most manner in the people among whom they whether they were friends or foes and in carrying disturbance and ruin into quiet places the french king was jealous of the english king and the english king was jealous of the french king and the and violent soldiers of the two nations were jealous of one another consequently the two kings could not at first agree even upon a joint assault on acre but when they did make up their quarrel for that purpose the promised to yield the town to give up to the christians the wood of the richard the first holy cross to set at liberty all their christian and to pay two hundred thousand pieces of gold all this was to be done within forty days but not being done king richard ordered some three thousand prisoners to be brought out in the front of his camp and there in full view of their own countrymen to be the french king had no part in this crime for he was by that time homeward with the greater part of bis men being offended by the conduct of the english king being anxious to look after his own and being ill besides from the air of that hot and sandy country king richard carried on the war without him and remained in the east meeting with a variety of adventures nearly a year and a half every night when his army was on the march and came to a halt the cried out three times to remind all the soldiers of the cause in which they were engaged save the holy and then all the soldiers knelt and said amen marching or the army had continually to strive with the hot air of the glaring desert or with the soldiers animated and directed by the brave or with both together sickness and death battle and wounds were always among them but through every difficulty king richard fought like a giant and worked like a common long and long after he was quiet in his grave his terrible battle ax with twenty english pounds of english steel in its mighty head was a legend among the and when all the and christian hosts had been for many a year if a horse started at a child s history of any object by the his rider would exclaim what dost thou fear fool dost thou think king richard is behind it no one admired this king s renown for bravery more than himself who was a generous and gallant enemy when richard lay ill of a fever sent him fresh fruits from and snow from the mountain tops messages and compliments were frequently exchanged between them and then king richard would mount his horse and kill as many as he could and would mount his and kill as many christians as he could in this way king richard fought to his heart s content at and at and finding himself with nothing exciting to do at except to for his own some there which the had destroyed he kicked his ally the duke of for being too proud to work at them the army at last came within sight of the holy city of but being then a mere nest of jealousy and and fighting soon retired and agreed with the upon a for three years three months three days and three hours then the english christians protected by the noble from revenge visited our s tomb and then king richard embarked with a small force at acre to return home but he was in the sea and was fain to pass through germany under an assumed name now there were many people in germany who had served in the holy land under that proud duke of who had been kicked and some the first of then easily a man go remarkable as king richard carried their intelligence to the kicked duke who straightway took him prisoner at a little inn near the duke s master the emperor of germany and the king of france were equally delighted to have so troublesome a monarch in safe keeping which are founded on a in doing wrong are never true and the king of france
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was now quite as heartily king richard s foe as he had ever been his friend in his unnatural conduct to his father he pretended that king richard had designed to poison him in the east he charged him with having murdered there a man whom he had in truth he the emperor of germany to keep him close prisoner and finally through the of these two princes richard was brought before the german charged with the foregoing crimes and many others but he defended himself so well that many of the assembly were moved to tears by his eloquence and earnestness it was decided that he should be treated during the rest of his in a manner more becoming his dignity than he had been and that he should be set free on the payment of a heavy this the english people willingly raised when queen took it over to germany it was at first and refused but she appealed to the honor of all the princes of the german empire in behalf of her son and appealed so well that it was accepted and the king released thereupon the king of france wrote to prince john take care of the devil is a child s of england prince john had reason to fear his brother for he had been a traitor to him in his he had secretly joined the french king had vowed to the english and people that his brother was dead and had vainly tried to seize the crown he was now in france at a place called being the meanest and of men he contrived a mean and base expedient for making himself acceptable to his brother he invited the french officers of the garrison in that town to dinner murdered them all and then took the fortress with this recommendation to the good will of a lion hearted monarch he hastened to king richard fell on his knees before him and obtained the of queen i forgive him said the king and i hope i may forget the injury he has done me as easily as i know he will forget my pardon while king richard was in there had been trouble in his at home one of the whom he had left in charge thereof the other and making in his pride and ambition as great a show as if he were king himself but the king hearing of it at and a new this for that was his name had fled to france in a woman s dress and had there been encouraged and supported by the french king with all these causes of against philip in his mind king richard had no sooner been welcomed home by his enthusiastic subjects with great display and splendor and had no sooner been crowned afresh at than he resolved to show the french king that the devil was indeed and made war against him with great fury richard the first there was fresh trouble at home about this time arising out of the of the poor people who complained that they were far more heavily than the rich and who found a spirited champion in william called he became the leader of a secret society fifty thousand men he was seized by surprise he the citizen who first laid hands upon him and retreated bravely fighting to a church which he maintained four days until he was by fire and run through the body as he came out he was not killed though for he was dragged half dead at the tail of a horse to and there hanged death was long a favorite remedy for the people s but as we go on with this history i fancy we shall find them difficult to make an end of for all that the french war delayed occasionally by a was still in progress when a certain lord named of chanced to find in his ground a treasure of ancient as the king s he sent the king half of it but the king claimed the whole the lord refused to yield the whole the king the lord in his castle swore that he would take the castle by storm and hang every man of its on the there was a strange old song in that part of the country to the effect that in an arrow would be made by which king richard would die it may be that de a young man who was one of the of the castle had often sung it or heard it sung of a winter night and remembered it when he saw from his post upon the the a child s history of england king attended only by his chief officer riding below the walls surveying the place he drew an arrow to the head took steady aim said between his teeth now i pray god speed thee well arrow discharged it and struck the king in the left shoulder although the wound was not at first considered dangerous it was severe enough to cause the king to retire to his tent and direct the assault to be made without him the castle was taken and every man of its was hanged as the king had sworn all should be except de who was reserved until the royal pleasure respecting him should be known by that time treatment had made the wound mortal and the king knew that he was dying he directed to be brought into his tent the young man was brought there heavily chained king richard looked at him steadily he looked as steadily at the king i said king richard what have i done to thee that thou take my life what hast thou done to me replied the young man with thine own hands thou hast killed my father and my two brothers myself thou have hanged let me die now by any torture that thou wilt my comfort is
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he did not know how could he being so innocent and inexperienced that his little army was a mere nothing against the power of the king of england the french king knew it but the poor boy s fate was little to him so that the king of england was worried and distressed therefore king philip went his way into and prince arthur went his way toward a french town near both very well pleased prince arthur went to attack the town of mire king john beau because his who so often made her appearance in this history and who had always been his mother s enemy was living there and because his knights said prince if you can take her prisoner you will be able to bring the king your uncle to terms but she was not to be easily taken she was old enough by this time eighty but she was as full of as she was full of years and wickedness receiving intelligence of young arthur s approach she shut herself up in a high tower and encouraged her soldiers to defend it like men prince arthur with his little army the high tower king john hearing how matters stood came up to the rescue with his army so here was a strange family party the boy prince his grandmother and his uncle him this position of did not last long one summer night king john by treachery got his men into the town surprised prince arthur s force took two hundred of his knights and seized the prince himself in his bed the knights were put in heavy irons and driven away in open carts drawn by to various where they were most treated and where some ul were starved to death prince arthur was sent to the castle of one day while he was in prison at that castle mournfully thinking it strange that one so young should be in so much trouble and looking out of the small window in the deep dark wall at the summer sky and the birds the door m as softly opened and he saw his uncle the king in the shadow of the looking very grim a child s history of england arthur said the king with his wicked eyes more on the stone floor than on his nephew will you not trust to the gentleness the friendship and the of your loving uncle t i will tell my loving uncle that replied the boy when he does me right let him restore to me my kingdom of england and then come to me and ask the question the king looked at him and went out keep that boy close prisoner said he to the of the castle then the king took secret counsel with the worst of his how the prince was to be got rid of some said put out his eyes and keep him in prison as robert of was kept others said have him others have him hanged others have him poisoned king john feeling that in any case r was done afterward it would be a satisfaction to his mind to have those handsome eyes burnt out that had looked at him so proudly while his own royal eyes were at the stone floor sent certain to to blind the boy with red hot irons but arthur so entreated them and shed such piteous tears and so appealed to de the of the castle who had a love for him and was an honorable tender man that could not bear it to his eternal honor he prevented the torture from being performed and at his own risk sent the savages away the and disappointed king himself of the suggestion next and with his shuffling manner and his cruel face proposed it to king john one william de i a gentleman and not an said william de and left the presence with disdain but it was not difficult for a king to hire a murderer in those days king john found one for his money and sent him down to the castle of on what errand dost thou come said to this fellow to young arthur he returned go back to him who sent thee answered and say that i will do it i king john very well knowing that would never do it but that he sent this reply to save the prince or gain time messengers to convey the young prisoner to the castle of arthur was soon forced from the good of whom he had never stood in greater need than then carried away by night and lodged in his new prison where through his window he could hear the deep waters of the river rippling against the stone wall below one dark night as he lay sleeping dreaming perhaps of rescue by those unfortunate gentlemen who were suffering and dying in his cause he was roused and by his to come down the staircase to the foot of the tower he hurriedly dressed himself and obeyed when they came to the bottom of the winding stairs and the night air from the river blew upon their faces the trod upon his torch and put it out then arthur in the darkness was hurriedly drawn into a solitary boat and in that boat he found his uncle and one other man a child s history of england he knelt to them and prayed them not to murder him deaf to his entreaties they him and sunk his body in the river with heavy stones when the spring morning broke the tower door was closed the boat was gone the river sparkled on its way and never more was any trace of the poor boy beheld by mortal eyes the news of this murder being spread in england awakened a hatred of the king already odious for his many vices and for his having stolen
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away and married a noble lady while his own wife was living that never slept again through his whole in the indignation was intense arthur s own sister was in the power of john and shut up in a at but his half sister was in the people chose her and the murdered prince s father in law the last husband of to represent them and carried their fiery complaints to king philip king philip summoned king john as the of territory in france to come before him and defend himself king john refusing to appear king philip declared him false and guilty and again made war in a little time by conquering the greater part of his french territory king philip deprived him of one third of his and through all the fighting that took place king john was always found either to be eating and drinking like a fool when the danger was at a distance or to be running away like a beaten cur when it was near you might suppose that when he was losing his at this rate and when his own king john cared so little for him or his cause that they plainly refused to follow his out of england he had enemies enough but he made another enemy of the pope which he did in this way the of dying and the junior of that place wishing to get the start of the senior in the appointment of his successor met together at midnight secretly elected a certain and sent him off to rome to get the pope s approval the senior and the king soon finding this out and being very angry about it the junior gave way and all the together elected the bishop of who was the king s favorite the pope hearing the whole story declared that neither election would do for him and that he elected the to the pope the king turned them all out bodily and banished them as the pope sent three to the king to threaten him with an the king told the that if any were laid upon his kingdom he would tear out the eyes and cut off the noses of all the he could lay hold of and send them over to rome in that state as a present for their master the nevertheless soon published the and fled after it had lasted a year the pope proceeded to his next step which was king john was declared with all the usual ceremonies the king was so at this and was made so desperate by the of his and the hatred of people that it is said he even privately sent to the in spain offering to his religion and hold his a child s history of england kingdom of them if they would help him it is related that the were admitted to the presence of the through long lines of guards and that they found the with his eyes seriously on the pages of a large book from which he never once looked up that they gave him a letter from the king containing his proposals and were gravely dismissed that presently the sent for one of them and him by his faith in his religion to say what kind of man the ring of en truly was that the thus pressed replied that the king of england was a false tyrant against whom his own subjects would soon rise and that this was quite enough for the money being in his position the next best thing to men king john spared no means of getting it he set on foot another and of the unhappy jews which was quite in his way and invented a new punishment for one wealthy jew of until such time as thai jew should produce a certain large sum of money the king him to be imprisoned and every day to have one tooth violently out of his head beginning with the double teeth for seven days the oppressed man bore the daily pain and lost the daily tooth but on the eighth he paid the money with the treasure raised in such ways the king made an expedition into ireland where some english had it was one of the very few places from which he did not run away because no resistance was shown he made another expedition into wales whence he did run away in the end but not before he had got from the people as twenty seven young men of the king john best families every one of whom he caused to be slain in the following year to and the pope now added his last sentence he proclaimed john no longer king all his subjects from their and sent and others to the king of france to tell him that if he would england he should be forgiven all his sins at least should be forgiven them by the pope if that would do as there was nothing that king philip desired more than to england he collected a great army at and a fleet of seventeen hundred ships to bring them over but the english people however bitterly they hated the king were not a people to invasion quietly they to where the english standard was in such great numbers to themselves as of their native land that there were not provisions for them and the king could only select and retain sixty thousand but at this crisis the pope who had his own reasons for to either king john or king philip being too powerful interfered he a whose name was with the easy task of king john he sent him to the english camp from france to him with of king philip s power and his own weakness in the discontent of the english and people discharged his commission so well that king john in a wretched panic consented to
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acknowledge to resign his kingdom to god saint peter and saint paul which meant the pope and to hold it ever afterward by the pope s leave on pay a child s of england of an annual sum of money to this shameful contract he publicly bound himself in the church of the knights at he laid at the s feet a part of the tribute which the trampled upon but they do say that this was merely a genteel flourish and that he was afterwards seen to pick it up and pocket it there was an unfortunate prophet of the name of peter who had greatly increased king john s terrors by that he would be which the king supposed to signify that he would die before the feast of the should be past that was the day after this humiliation when the next morning came and the king who had been trembling all night found himself alive and safe he ordered the prophet and his son to be dragged through the streets at the tails of horses and then hanged for having frightened him as king john had now submitted the pope to king philip s great astonishment took him under his protection and informed king philip that he found he could not give him leave to england the angry philip resolved to do it without his leave but he gained nothing and lost much for the english commanded by the earl of went over in five hundred ships to the french coast before the french fleet had sailed away from it and utterly defeated the whole the pope then took off his three sentences one after another and publicly to receive king john into the favor of the church again and to ask him to dinner the king who hated with all his might and main and king john with reason too for he was a great and a good man with whom such a king could have no sympathy pretended to cry and to he very grateful there was a little difficulty settling how much the king should pay as a to the clergy for the losses he had caused them hut the end of it was that the superior clergy got a good deal and the inferior clergy got little or nothing which has also happened since king john s time i when all these matters were arranged the king in his triumph more fierce and false and insolent to all around him than he had ever heen an alliance of sovereigns against king philip gave him an opportunity of landing an army in france with which he even took a town but on the french king s gaining a great victory he ran away of course and made a for five years and now the time approached when he was to he still further and made to feel if he could feel any thing what a wretched creature he was of all men in the world seemed raised up hy heaven to oppose and subdue him when he burnt and destroyed the property of his own subjects because their lords the would not serve him abroad and threatened him when he swore to restore the laws of king edward or the laws of king henry the first knew bis falsehood and pursued him through all his when the met at the abbey of saint s bury to consider their wrongs and the king s roused them by his words u demand a solemn of rights a child s history of england and liberties from master and to swear one by one on the high altar that they would have it or would war against him to the death when the king hid himself in london from the and was at last obliged to receive them they told him they would not believe him unless became a that he would keep his word when he took the cross to invest himself with some interest and belong to something that was received with favor was still immovable when he appealed to the pope and the pope wrote to in behalf of his new favorite was deaf even to the pope himself and saw before him nothing but the welfare of england and the crimes of the english king at time the assembled at in in proud array and marching near to oxford where the king was delivered into the hands of and two others a list of and these they said he must or we will do it for ourselves i when told the king as much and read the list to him he went half mad with rage but that did him no more good than his afterward trying to the with lies they called themselves and their followers the army of god and the holy church marching through the country with the people to them every where except at where they failed in an attack upon the castle they at last triumphantly set up heir banner in london itself whither the whole land tired of the tyrant seemed to flock to join them seven knights alone of all the knights in england remain king john ed with the king who reduced to this strait at last sent the earl of to the to say that he approved of every thing and would meet them to sign their when they would then said the let the day be the of june and the place on monday the of june one thousand two hundred and fourteen the king came from castle and the came from the town of and they met on which is still a pleasant meadow by the thames where rushes grow in the clear water of the winding river and its banks are green with grass and trees on the side of the came the general of their army robert walter and a great of the nobility of
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england with the king came in all some four and twenty persons of any note most of whom despised him and were merely his in form on that great day and in that great company the king signed a the great of england by which he pledged himself to maintain the church in its rights to relieve the of oppressive obligations as of the crown of which the in their turn pledged themselves to relieve their the people to respect the liberties of london and all other cities and to protect foreign merchants who came to england to no man without a fair trial and to sell delay or deny justice to none as the knew his falsehood well they further required as their that he should send out of his kingdom all his foreign troops that for two months they should hold possession of the city of london and a child s history of england of the tower and that five and twenty of their body chosen by themselves should be a lawful committee to watch the keeping of the and to make war upon him if he broke it all this he was obliged to yield he signed the with a smile and if he could have looked agreeable would have done so as he departed from the splendid assembly when he got home to castle he was quite a madman in his helpless fury and he broke the immediately afterward he sent abroad for foreign soldiers and sent to the pope for help and to take london by surprise while the should be holding a great at which they had agreed to hold there as a of the the however found him out and put it off then when the desired to see him and tax him with his treachery he made numbers of with them and kept none and shifted from place to place and was constantly and about at last he appeared at to join his foreign soldiers of whom numbers came into his pay and with them he and took castle which was occupied by knights and soldiers of the he would have hanged them every one but the leader of the foreign fearful of what the english people might afterward do to him interfered to save the knights therefore the king was fain to satisfy his vengeance with the death of all the common men then he sent the earl of with one portion of his army to the eastern part of his own while he carried fire and king john slaughter into the northern part killing and every cruelty upon the people and every morning setting a worthy example to his men by setting fire with his own monster hands to the house where he had slept last night nor was this all for the pope coming to the aid of his precious friend laid the kingdom under an again because the people took part with the it did not much matter for the people had grown so used to it now that they had begun to think nothing about it it occurred to them perhaps to that they could keep their churches open and ring their bells without the pope s permission as well as with it so they tried the experiment and found that it succeeded perfectly it being now impossible to bear the country as a wilderness of cruelty or longer to hold any terms with such a of a king the sent to louis son of the french monarch to him the english crown caring as little for the pope s of him if he accepted the as it is possible his father may have cared for the pope s forgiveness of his sins he landed at king john immediately running away from where he happened to be and went on to london the king with whom many of the northern english lords had taken refuge numbers of the foreign soldiers numbers of the and numbers of the people went over to him every day king john the while continually running away in all directions the career of louis was checked however by the suspicions of the founded on the dying of a french lord that when the kingdom was a child s history of england conquered he was sworn to banish them as and to give their estates to some of his own rather than this some of the hesitated others even went over to king john it seemed to be the turning point of king john s fortunes for in his savage and course he had now taken some towns and met with some but happily for and humanity his death was near crossing a dangerous called the wash not very far from the tide came up and nearly drowned his army he and his soldiers escaped but looking back from the shore when he was safe he saw the roaring water sweep down in a torrent the horses and men that carried his treasure and them in a raging from which nothing could be delivered cursing and swearing and his fingers he went on to abbey where the set before him quantities of and and new some say poison too but there is very little reason to suppose so of which he ate and drunk in an and way all night he lay ill of a burning fever and haunted with horrible fears next day they put him in a horse litter and carried him to castle where he passed another night of pain and horror next day they carried him with greater difficulty than on the day before to the castle of upon and there on the of october in the forty ninth year of his age and the of his vile reign was an end of this miserable brute chapter xv england under henry the third called of if any of the english remembered the
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murdered arthur s sister the fair maid of shut up in her at none among them spoke of her now or maintained her right to the crown the dead s eldest boy henry by name was taken by the earl of the of england to the city of and there crowned in great haste when he was only ten years old as the crown itself had been lost with the king s treasure in the raging water and as there was no time to make another they put a circle of plain gold upon his head instead we have been the enemies of this child s father said lord a good and true gentleman to the few lords who were present and he our ill will but the child himself is innocent and his youth demands our friendship and protection those lords felt tenderly toward the little boy remembering their own young children and they bowed their beads and said long live king henry the third i next a great council met at and made lord or protector of england as the king was too young vol i m j a child s history of england to reign alone the next thing to be done was to get rid of prince louis of france and to win those english who were still ranged under his banner he was strong in many parts of england and in london itself and he held among other places a certain castle called the castle of mount in to this fortress after some and making lord laid siege louis an army of six hundred knights and twenty thousand soldiers to relieve it lord who was not strong enough for such a force retired with all his men the army of the french prince which had marched there with fire and plunder marched away with fire and plunder and came in a manner to the town submitted but the castle in the town held by a brave widow lady named de whose property it was made such a sturdy resistance that the french count in command of the army of the french prince found it necessary to this castle while he was thus engaged word was brought to him that lord with four hundred knights two hundred and fifty men with cross bows and a stout force both of horse and foot was marching toward him what care i said the french count the englishman is not so mad as to attack me and my great army in a walled town but the englishman did it for all that and did it not so madly but so wisely that he the great army into the narrow ill paved lanes and by ways of where its horse soldiers could not ride ill any strong body and there he made such henry the third with them that the whole force surrendered themselves prisoners except the count who said that he would never yield to any english traitor alive and accordingly got killed the end of this victory which the english called for a joke the fair of was the usual one in those times the common men were slain without any mercy and the knights and gentlemen paid and went home the wife of louis the fair of equipped a fleet of eighty good ships and sent it over from france to her s aid an english fleet of forty ships some good and some bad under de who had before then been very brave against the french at castle gallantly met them near the mouth of the thames and took or sunk sixty five in one fight this great loss put an end to the french prince s hopes a treaty was made at in virtue of which the english who had remained attached to his cause returned to their and it was engaged on both sides that the prince and all his troops should retire peacefully to france it was time to go for war had made him so poor that he was obliged to borrow money from the citizens of london to pay his expenses home lord afterward applied himself to governing the country justly and to healing the quarrels and that had arisen among men in the days of the bad king john he caused to be still more improved and so the forest laws that a peasant was no longer put to death for killing a in a royal forest but was only imprisoned it would have a child s history of england been well for if it could have had so good a protector many years longer but that was not to be within three years after the young king s lord died and you may see his tomb at this day in the old temple church in london the was now divided peter de whom king john had made bishop of was with the care of the person of the young sovereign and the exercise of the royal authority was confined to earl de these two personages had from the first no liking for each other and soon became enemies when the young king was declared of age peter de finding that increased in power and favor retired and went abroad for nearly ten years afterward had full sway alone but ten years is a long time to hold the favor of a king this king too as he grew up showed a strong resemblance to his father in and the best that can be said of him is that he was not cruel de coming home again after ten years and being a novelty the king began to favor him and to look coldly on wanting money besides and having made rich he began to dislike at last he was made to believe or pretended to believe that had some of the royal treasure and ordered him to furnish an account of all he had done
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prince louis who had also died after a short reign of three years and had been succeeded by his son of the same name so moderate and just a man that he was not the least in the world like a king as kings went king henry s mother wished very much for a certain spite she had that england should make war against this king and as king henry was a mere in any body s hands who knew how to manage his she easily carried her point with him but the parliament were determined to give him no money for such a war so to defy the parliament he packed up thirty large of silver i don t know how he got so much i dare say he it out of the miserable jews and put them aboard ship and went away himself to carry war into france accompanied by his mother and his brother richard earl of who was rich and clever but he only got well beaten and came home the good humor of the parliament was not restored by this they reproached the king with wasting the public money to make greedy foreigners rich and henry the third were so stern with him and so determined not to let him have more of it to waste if they could help it that he was at his wit s end for some and tried so to get all he could from his by excuses or by force that the people used to say the king was the beggar in england he took the cross thinking to get some money by that means but as it was very well known that he never meant to go on a he got none in all this the were particularly keen against the king and the king hated them warmly in return or loving however made no he continued in the same condition for nine or ten years when at last the said that if he would solemnly confirm their liberties afresh the parliament would vote him a large sum as he readily consented there was a great meeting held in westminster hall one pleasant day in may when all the clergy dressed in their robes and holding every one of them a burning candle in his hand stood up the being also there while the of read the sentence of against any man and all men who should henceforth in any way the great of the kingdom when he had done they all put out their burning candles with a curse upon the soul of any one and every one who should merit that sentence the king concluded with an oath to keep the as i am a man as i am a christian as i am a knight as i am a king it was easy to make oaths and easy to break them and the king did both as his father had done before bim he took to his old courses again when he was a child s of england supplied with money and soon cured of their weakness the few who had ever really trusted him when his money was gone and he was once more and begging every where with a meanness worthy of his nature he got into a difficulty with the pope respecting the crown of which the pope said he had a right to give away and which he to ring henry for his second son but if you or i give away what we have not got and what belongs to somebody else it is likely that the person to whom we give it will have some ble in taking it it was exactly so in this case it was necessary to conquer the crown before it could be put upon young s head it could not be conquered without money the pope ordered the clergy to raise money the clergy however were not so obedient to him as usual they had been with him for some time about his unjust preference of italian priests in england and they had begun to doubt whether the king s whom he allowed to be paid for preaching in seven hundred churches could possibly be even by the pope s favor in seven hundred places at once the pope and the king together said the bishop of london may take the off my head but if they do they will find that i shall put on a soldier s i pay nothing the bishop of was as bold as the bishop of london and would pay nothing either such sums as the more timid or more helpless of the clergy did raise were away without doing any good to the king or bringing the crown an inch nearer to prince s head the end of the business was that the pope gave the henry the third crown to the brother of the king of france who conquered it for himself and sent the king of england in a bill of one hundred thousand pounds for the expenses of not having won it the king was now so much distressed that we might almost pity him if it were possible to pity a king so shabby and ridiculous his clever brother richard had bought the title of king of the from the german people and was no longer near him to help him with advice the clergy resisting the very pope were in alliance with the the were headed by de earl of married to king henry s sister and though a foreigner himself the most popular man in england against the foreign when the king next met his parliament the led by this earl came before him armed from head to foot and in when the parliament again assembled in a month s time at oxford this earl was at their head and the king was obliged to consent on oath
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red and white wine instead of water the rich citizens hung and of the brightest colors out of their windows to increase the beauty of the show and threw out gold and silver by whole to make for the crowd in short there was such eating and drinking such music and such a ringing of bells and tossing up of caps such a shouting and singing and as the narrow overhanging streets of old london city had not witnessed for many a long day all the people were merry the poor jews who trembling within their edward the first houses and scarcely daring to peep out began to foresee that they would have to the money for this sooner or later to dismiss this sad subject of the jews for the present i am sorry to add that in this reign they were most they were hanged in great numbers on of having the king s coin which all kinds of people had done they were heavily they were they were on one day thirteen years after the taken up with their wives and children and thrown into until they purchased their release by paying to the king twelve thousand pounds finally every kind of property belonging to them was seized by the king except so little as would the charge of their taking themselves away into foreign countries many years elapsed before the hope of gain induced any of their race to return to england where they had been treated so and had so much if king edward the first had been as bad a king to christians as he was to jews he would have been bad indeed but he was in general a wise and great monarch under whom the country much improved he had no love for the great few kings had through many many years i but he had high qualities the first bold object that he conceived when he came home was to unite under one sovereign england scotland and wales the two last of which countries had each a little king of its own about whom the people were always and fighting and making a prodigious disturbance a great deal more than he was worth in the course a child s history of england of king edward s reign he was engaged besides in a war with france to make these quarrels clearer we will separate their histories and take them thus wales first second scotland third was the prince of wales he had been on the side of the in the reign of the stupid old king but had afterward sworn to him when king edward came to the throne required to swear to him also which he refused to do the king being crowned and in his own three times more required to come and do homage and three times more said he would rather not he was going to be married to de a young lady of the family mentioned in the last reign and it chanced that this young lady coming from france with her youngest brother was taken by an english ship and was ordered by the english king to be detained upon this the quarrel came to a head the king went with his fleet to the coast of wales where so that he could only take refuge in the bleak mountain region of in which no provisions could reach him he was soon starved into an apology and into a treaty of peace and into paying the expenses of the war the king however forgave him some of the hardest conditions of the treaty and consented to his marriage and he now thought he had reduced wales to obedience but the although they were naturally a gentle quiet pleasant people who liked to receive strangers in their cottages among the mountains and edward the first to set before them with free hospitality whatever they had to eat and drink and to play to them on their and sing their native to them were a people of great spirit when their blood was up englishmen after this affair began to be insolent in wales and to assume the air of masters and the pride could not bear it moreover they believed in that unlucky old some of whose unlucky old somebody always seemed doomed to remember when there was a chance of its doing harm and just at this time some blind old gentleman with a harp and a long white beard who was an excellent person but had become of an unknown age and tedious burst out with a declaration that had predicted that when english money should become round a prince of wales would be crowned in london now king edward had recently forbidden the english penny to be cut up into and quarters for half pence and and had actually introduced a round coin therefore the people said this was the time meant and rose accordingly king edward had bought over prince david s brother by upon him but he was the first to revolt being perhaps troubled in his conscience one stormy night he surprised the castle of in possession of which an english nobleman had been left killed the whole garrison and carried off the nobleman a prisoner to upon this the people rose like one man king edward with his army marching from to the strait crossed it near to where the wonderful iron bridge now in days so different makes a passage for railway a child s history of england by a bridge of boats that enabled forty men to abreast he subdued the island of and sent his men forward to observe the enemy the sudden appearance of the created a panic among them and they fell back to the bridge the tide had in the meantime risen and separated the boats the pursuing them they were driven into the sea and there they
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oppose him two of them in particular earl of and earl of were so stout against him that they maintained he had no right to command them to head his forces in and refused to go there by heaven sir earl said the king to the earl of in a great passion you shall either go or a child s history of england be hanged i by heaven sir king replied the earl of i will neither go nor yet will i be hanged and both he and the other earl left the court attended by many lords the king tried every means of raising money he the clergy in spite of all the pope said to the contrary and when they refused to pay reduced them to submission by saying very well then they had no claim upon the government for protection and any man might plunder them who would which a good many men were very ready to do and very readily did and which the clergy found too losing a game to be played at long he seized all the wool and leather in the hands of the merchants promising to pay for it some fine day and he set a tax upon the of wool which was so among the that it was called the evil toll but all would not do the led by those two great declared any taxes imposed without the consent of parliament and the parliament refused to impose taxes until the king should confirm afresh the two great and should solemnly declare in writing that there was no power in the country to raise money from the people but the power of parliament representing all ranks of the people the king was very unwilling to his own power by allowing this great privilege in the parliament but there was no help for it and he at last complied we shall come to another king by who might have saved his head from rolling off if he had by this example the people gained other benefits in parliament from the good sense and wisdom of this king many of edward the first the laws were much improved provision was made for the greater safety of and the apprehension of thieves and the priests were prevented from holding too much land and so too powerful and of the peace were first appointed though not at first under that name in various parts of the country and now we come to scotland which was the great and lasting trouble of the reign of king edward the first about thirteen years after king edward s alexander the third the king of scotland died of a fall from his horse he had been married to margaret king edward s sister all their children being dead the crown became the right of a young princess only eight years old the daughter of king of who had married a daughter of the deceased sovereign king edward proposed that the maiden of as this princess was called should be engaged to be married to his eldest son but unfortunately as she was coming over to england she fell sick and landing on one of the islands died there a great commotion immediately began in scotland where as many as thirteen noisy to the vacant throne started up and made a general confusion king edward being much renowned for his sagacity and justice it seems to have been agreed to refer the dispute to him he accepted the trust and went with an army to the border land where england and scotland joined there he called upon the gentlemen to meet him at the castle of on a child s history of england the english side of the river and to that castle they came but before he would take any step in the business be required those gentlemen one and all to do homage to him a their superior lord and when they hesitated he said by holy edward whose crown i wear i will have my rights or i will die in maintaining them the gentlemen who had not expected this were disconcerted and asked for three weeks to think about it at the end of the three weeks another meeting took place on a green plain on the side of the river of all the for the throne there were only two who had any real in right of their near kindred to the royal family these were john and robert and the right was i have no doubt on the side of john at this particular meeting john was not present but robert was and on robert being formally asked whether he acknowledged the king of england for his superior lord he answered plainly and distinctly yes he did next day john appeared and said the same this point settled some arrangements were made for inquiring into their titles the inquiry occupied a pretty long time more than a year while it was going on king edward took the opportunity of making a journey through scotland and calling upon the people of all degrees to acknowledge themselves his or be imprisoned until in the mean while were appointed to conduct the inquiry a parliament was held at about it the two edward the first were heard at full length and there was a vast amount of talking at last in the great hall of the castle of the king gave judgment in favor of john who to receive his crown by the king of england s favor and sion was crowned at in an old stone chair which had been used for ages in the abbey there at the of then king edward caused the great seal of scotland used since the late king s death to be broken in four pieces and placed in the english treasury and considered that he now had scotland according to the common saying under his thumb scotland
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had a strong wiu of its own yet however king edward determined that the king should not forget he was his summoned him repeatedly to come and defend himself and his judges before the english parliament when appeals from the of courts of justice were being heard at length john who had no great heart of his own had so much heart put into him by the brave spirit of the people who took this as a national insult that he refused to come any more thereupon the king further required him to help him in his war abroad which was then in progress and to give up as security for his good behavior in future the three strong castles of and nothing of this being done on the contrary the people concealing their king among their mountains in the and showing a determination to resist edward marched to with an army of thirty thousand and four thousand horse took the castle and i a child s history of england its whole garrison and the inhabitants of the town as well men women and children lord wa earl of then went on to the castle of before which a battle was fought and the whole army defeated with great slaughter the victory being complete the earl of was left as guardian of scotland the principal offices in that kingdom were given to englishmen the more powerful were obliged to come and live in england the crown and were brought away and even the old stone chair was carried off and placed in westminster abbey where you may see it now had the tower of london lent him for a residence with on to range about within a circle of twenty miles three years afterward he was allowed to go to where he had estates and where he passed the remaining six years of his life far more happily i dare say than he had lived for a long while in angry scotland now there was in the west of scotland a gentleman of small fortune named william the second son of a knight he was a man of great size and great strength he was very brave and daring when he spoke to a body of his countrymen he could rouse them in a wonderful manner by the power of his burning words he loved scotland dearly and he hated england with his utmost might the conduct of the english who now held the places of trust in scotland made them as intolerable to the proud people as they had been under similar circumstances to the and no man in all scotland regarded them with so much smothered rage as william one day an edward the first englishman in office little knowing what he was mm instantly struck him dead and taking refuge among the rocks and hills and there joining with his william who was also in arms against king edward became the most resolute and champion of a people struggling for their independence that ever lived upon the earth the english guardian of the kingdom fled before him and thus encouraged the people every where and fell upon the english without mercy the earl of by the king s commands raised all the power of the border and two english armies poured into scotland only one chief in the face of those armies stood by who with a force of forty thousand men awaited the at a place the river forth within two miles of across the river there was only one poor wooden bridge called the bridge of so narrow that but two men could cross it abreast with his eyes upon this bridge posted the greater part of his men among some rising grounds and waited calmly when the english army came up on the opposite bank of the river messengers were sent forward to terms sent them back with a defiance in the name of the of scotland some of the officers of the earl of in command of the english with v eyes also on the bridge advised him to be discreet and not hasty he however urged to immediate battle by some other officers and particularly by edward s and a rash man gave the word of command to advance one thousand en s a child s of england crossed the bridge two abreast the troops were as motionless as stone images two thousand english crossed three thousand four thousand five not a feather all this time had been seen to stir among the now they all fluttered forward one party to the foot of the bridge cried and let no more english cross the rest down with me on the five thousand who have come over and cut them all to pieces it was done in the sight of the whole remainder of the english army who could give no help himself was killed and the scotch made for their horses of his skin king edward was abroad at this time and during the on the side which followed and which enabled bold to win the whole country back again and even to the english borders but a few winter months the king returned and took the field with more than his usual energy one night when a kick from his horse as they both lay on the ground together broke two of his ribs and a cry arose that he was killed he leaped into his saddle regardless of the pain he and rode through the camp day then appearing he gave the word still of course in that bruised and aching state forward and led his army on to near where the forces were seen drawn up on some stony ground behind a here he defeated and killed fifteen thousand of his men with the shattered remainder drew back to but being pursued set fire to the town that it might give no help to the english
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and escaped the i of afterward set fire to their houses edward the first for the same reason and the king to find provisions was forced to withdraw his army another robert the of him who had disputed the crown with was now in arms against the king that elder dead and also john nephew these two young men might agree with in opposing edward hut could agree in nothing else as they were rivals for the throne of scotland it was they knew this and knew what troubles must arise even if they could hope to get the better of the great english king that the principal people applied to the pope for his interference the pope on the principle of losing nothing for want of trying to get it very coolly claimed that scotland belonged to him but this was a little too much and the in a friendly manner told him so in the spring time of the year one thousand three hundred and three the king sent sir john whom he made of scotland with twenty thousand men to reduce the sir john was not as careful as he should have been but at near with his army divided into three parts the forces saw their advantage fell on each part separately defeated each and killed all the prisoners then came the king himself once more as soon as a great army could be raised he passed through the whole north of scotland laying waste whatsoever came in his way and he took up his winter quarters at the cause now looked so hopeless that and the other made il child s history of england sion and their alone stood out ho was invited to surrender though on no distinct pledge that his life should be spared but he still defied the king and lived among the steep of the where the made their nests and where the mountain torrents roared and the white snow was deep and the bitter winds blew round his head as he lay through many a pitch dark night wrapped up in his nothing could break his spirit nothing could lower his courage nothing could induce him to forget or to forgive his country s wrongs even when the castle of which had long held out was by the king with every kind of military engine then in use even when the lead upon cathedral was taken down to help to make them even when the king though now an old man commanded in the siege as if he were a youth being so resolved to conquer even when the brave garrison then found with amazement to be not two hundred people including several ladies were starved and beaten out and were made to submit on their knees and with every form of disgrace that could their even then when there was not a ray of hope in scotland william was as proud and firm as if he had beheld the powerful and edward lying dead at his feet who betrayed william in the end is not quite certain that he was betrayed probably by an attendant is too true he was taken to the castle of under john nd thence to london where the great fame of his bravery and resolution attracted immense r edward the first of people to behold him he was tried in westminster hall with a crown of laurel on his head it is supposed because he was reported to have said that he ought to wear or that he would wear a crown there and was found guilty as a robber a murderer and a traitor what they called a robber he said to those who tried him he was because he had taken spoil from the king s men what they called a murderer he was because he had slain an insolent englishman what they called a traitor he was not for he had never sworn to the king and had ever scorned to do it he was dragged at the tails of horses to west and there hanged on a high gallows torn open before he was dead and his head was set upon a pole on london bridge his right arm was sent to his left arm to his legs to and but if king edward had had his body cut into inches and had sent every separate inch into a separate town he could not have dispersed it half so far and wide as his fame will be remembered in songs and stories while there are songs and stories in the english tongue and scotland will hold him dear while her lakes and mountains last released from this dreaded enemy the king made a fairer plan of government for scotland divided the offices of honor among gentlemen and english gentlemen forgave past o and thought in his old age that his work was done but he deceived himself and and made an appointment to meet at in the church of the there is a a child s history of england was false to and had informed against him to the king that was warned of his danger and the necessity of flight hy ing one night as he sat at supper from his friend the earl of twelve and a pair of spurs that as he was riding angrily to keep his appointment through a snow storm with his horse s shoes reversed that he might not he he met an evil looking serving man a messenger of whom he killed and concealed in whose dress he found letters that proved s treachery however this may he they were likely enough to quarrel in any case being hot headed rivals and whatever they about they certainly did quarrel in the church where they met and drew his dagger and who fell upon the pavement when came out pale and disturbed the friends who were waiting for
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him asked what was the matter i think i have killed said he you only think so returned one of them i will make sure and going into the church and finding him alive him again and again knowing that the king would never forgive this new deed of violence the party then declared king of scotland got crowned at without the chair and set up the rebellious standard once again when the king heard of it he kindled with anger than he had ever shown yet he caused the prince of wales and two hundred and seventy of the young nobility to be the trees in the temple gardens were cut down to make room for their tents and they watched their all night according to the old usage some in the edward thb first tt s r westminster abbey d at v r ith gold net punish the false aim the l h the rest of the young knights rode away to the border country to join the english army and the k now weak and sick followed in a a battle and many d gen and much misery fled to ireland ie he concealed through the winter that winter s and neither youth nor age and showing no touch of pity or sign of m in the spring re ap and some in these both sides were cruel for instance brace s two brothers being taken desperately wound were ordered by the king to instant execution sir john taking his own of out of the hands of an english lord wasted the dead bodies of the garrison in a great fire made of every within it which dreadful his men called the still successful however drove the earl of and the earl of into the of and laid siege to it the king who had been laid up all the winter but had directed the army from his now a child s history of england advanced to and there causing the litter in which he had to he placed in the cathedral as an offering to heaven mounted his horse once more and for the last time he was now sixty nine years old and had reigned thirty five years he was so ill that in four days he could go no more than six miles still even at that pace he went on and resolutely kept his face toward the border at length he lay down at the village of upon sands and there telling those around him to impress upon the prince that he was to remember his father s vow and was never to rest until he had thoroughly subdued scotland he yielded up his last breath chapter xvii england under edward the second king edward the second the first prince of wales was twenty three years old when his father died there was a certain favorite of his a young man from named of whom his father had so much that he had ordered him out of england and had made his son swear by the side of his sick bed never to bring him back but the prince no sooner found himself than he broke his oath as so many other princes and kings did they were far too ready to take oaths and sent for his dear friend immediately now this same was handsome enough but was a reckless insolent audacious fellow he was detested by the english lords not only because he had such power over the king and made the court such a dissipated place but also because he could ride better than they at and was used in his impudence to cut very bad jokes on them calling one the old another the stage player another the jew another the black dog of this was as poor wit as need be but it made those lords very and the surly earl of who was the black dog a child s history of england swore that the time should come when should feel the dog s teeth it was not come yet however nor did it seem to be coming the king made him earl of and gave him vast riches and when the king went over to france to marry the french princess daughter of philip le who was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world he made of the kingdom his splendid marriage ceremony in the church of our lady at where there were four kings and three queens present quite a pack of court cards for i dare say the were not wanting being over he seemed to care little or nothing for his beautiful wife but was wild with impatience to meet again when he landed at home he paid no attention to any body else but ran into the favorite s arms before a great of people and him and kissed him and called him his brother at the which soon followed was the richest and brightest of all the glittering company there and had the honor of carrying the crown this made the proud lords than ever the people too despised the favorite and would never call him earl of however much he complained to the king and asked him to punish them for not doing so but persisted in him plain the were so with the king in giving him to understand that they would not bear this favorite that the king was obliged to send him out of the country the favorite himself was edward the second made to take an oath more oaths that he would never come hack and the supposed him to he banished in disgrace until they heard that he was appointed governor of ireland even this was not enough for the king who brought him home again in a year s time and not only disgusted the court and the people by his folly but offended his beautiful
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wife too who never liked him afterward he had now the old royal want of money and the had the new power of positively refusing to let him raise any he summoned a parliament at york the refused to make one while the favorite was near him he summoned another parliament at westminster and sent away then the came completely armed and appointed a committee of themselves to correct in the state and in the king s household he got some money on these conditions and directly set off with to the border country where they spent it away the time and while made ready to drive the english out of scotland for though the old king had even made this poor weak son of his swear as some say that he would not bury his bones but would have them boiled clean in a and carried before the english army until scotland was entirely subdued the second edward was so the first that gained strength and every day the committee of after some months of deliberation ordained that the king should henceforth call a parliament together once every year and even twice if necessary instead of it only a child history of england when he chose further that once more be banished and this time on pain of death if he ever came back the king s tears were of no avail he was obliged to send his favorite to as soon as he had done so however he dissolved the parliament with the low cunning of a mere fool and set off to the north of england thinking to get an army about him to oppose the and once again he brought home and heaped upon him al the riches and titles of which the had deprived him the lords saw now that there was nothing for it but to put the favorite to death they could have done so according to the terms of his but they did so i am sorry to say in a shabby manner led by the earl of the king s cousin they first of all attacked the king and at they had time to escape by sea and the mean king having his precious with him was quite content to leave his lovely wife behind when they were comparatively safe they separated the king went to york to collect a force of soldiers and the favorite shut himself up in the meantime in castle overlooking the sea this was what the wanted they knew that the castle could not hold out they attacked it and made surrender he delivered himself up to the earl of that lord whom he had called the jew on the his ith and word that no harm should happen to him and no violence be done him now it was agreed with that he should be taken to the castle of and there edward the second kept in honorable they as far as near where in the castle of that place they stopped for a night to rest whether the earl of left his prisoner there knowing what would happen or really left him thinking no harm and only going as he pretended to visit his wife the who was in the neighborhood is no great matter now in any case he was bound as an honorable gentleman to protect his prisoner and he did not do it in the morning while the favorite was yet in bed he was required to dress himself and come down into the court yard he did so without any but started and turned pale when he found it full of strange armed men i think you know me v said their leader also armed from head to foot i am the black dog of the time was come when was to feel the black dog s teeth indeed they set him on a mule and carried him in mock state and with military music to the black dog s castle where a hasty council composed of some great considered what should be done with him some were for him but one loud voice it was the black dog s bark dare say sounded through the castle hall uttering these words you have the fox in your power let him go now and you must hunt him again they him to death he threw himself at the feet of the earl of the old but the old was as savage as the dog he was taken out upon the pleasant road leading from to where the beautiful river by which long afterward william a s history of england was born and now lies buried sparkled in the bright landscape of the beautiful may day and there they struck off his wretched head and stained the dust with his blood when the king heard of this black deed in his grief and rage he war against his and both sides were in arms for half a year but it then became necessary for them to join their forces against who had used the time well while they were divided and had now a great power in scotland intelligence was brought that was then castle and that the governor had been obliged to pledge himself to surrender it unless he should be relieved before a certain day the king ordered the and their to meet him at but the cared so little for the king and so neglected the summons and lost time that only on the day before that appointed for the surrender did the king find himself at and even then with a smaller force than he had expected however he had all together a hundred thousand men and had not more than forty thousand but brace s army was strongly posted in three square columns on the ground lying between the burn or brook of and the walls of
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castle on the very evening when the king came up did a brave act that encouraged his men he was seen by a certain henry de an english knight riding about before his army on a little horse with a light battle ax in his hand and a crown of gold on his head this english knight who was edward the second mounted on a strong war horse in steel strong ly armed and able as he thought to overthrow by crushing him with his mere weight set spur to his great rode on him and made a thrust at him with his heavy spear the thrust and with one blow of his battle ax split his skull the men did not forget this next day when the battle raged s nephew rode with the small body of men he commanded into such a host of the english all shining in polished in the sunlight that they seemed to be swallowed up and lost as if they had plunged into the sea but they fought so well and did such dreadful execution that the english staggered then came himself upon them with all the rest of his army while they were thus hard pressed and amazed there appeared upon the hills what they supposed to be a new army but what were really only the camp followers in number fifteen thousand whom had taught to show themselves at that place and time the earl of commanding the english horse made a last rush to change the fortune of the day but like jack the giant in the story had had dug in the ground and covered over with and into these as they gave way beneath the weight of the horses and horses rolled by hundreds the english were completely all their treasure stores and engines were taken by the men so many and other wheeled were seized that it is related that they would have reached if they had been drawn out in a line one hundred and eighty miles the fortunes of scotland were vol t p child s history of england for the time completely changed and never was a battle won more famous upon ground than this great battle of plague and famine succeeded in england and still the powerless king and his lords were always in some of the turbulent chiefs of ireland made proposals to to accept the rule of that country he sent his brother edward to them who was crowned king of ireland he afterward went himself to help his brother in his irish wars but his brother was defeated in the end and killed robert returning to scotland still increased his strength there as the king s ruin had begun in a favorite so it seemed likely to end in one he was too poor a creature to rely at all upon himself and his new favorite was one le the son of a gentleman of an ancient family was handsome and brave but he was the favorite of a weak king whom no man cared a rush for and that was a dangerous place to hold the against him because the king liked him and they lay in wait both for his ruin and his father s now the king had married him to the daughter of the late earl of and had given both him and his father great possessions in wales in their to extend these they gave violent to an angry gentleman named john de and te divers other angry gentlemen who resorted to arms took their castles and seized their estates the earl of had first placed the favorite who was a poor relation of his own at court and he considered his own dignity by the preference he edward the second and the honors he acquired so he and the who were his friends joined the marched on london and sent a message to the king demanding to have the favorite and his father at first the king took it into his head to be spirited and to send them a bold reply but when they themselves around and and went down armed to the parliament at westminster he gave way and complied with their demands b turn of triumph came sooner than he expected it arose out of an accidental circumstance the beautiful queen happening to be came one night to one of the royal castles and demanded to be lodged and entertained there until morning the governor of this castle who was one of the enraged lords was away and in his absence his wife refused admission to the queen a took place among the common men on either side and some of the royal attendants were killed the people who cared noting for the king were very angry that their beautiful queen should be thus rudely treated in her own and the king taking advantage of this feeling the castle took it and then recalled the two home upon this the lords and the went over to the king encountered them at gained the victory and took a number of distinguished prisoners among them the earl of now an old man upon whose destruction he was resolved this earl was taken to his own castle of and there tried and found guilty by an unfair court appointed the purpose he was not even allowed to speak in a child s history of england his own he was insulted mounted on a starved pony without saddle or bridle carried out and eight and twenty knights were hanged drawn and when the king had this bloody work and had made a fresh and a long with he took the into greater favor than ever and made the father earl of one prisoner and an important one who was taken at made his escape however and turned the tide against the king this was b always resolutely opposed to him who was to
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death and placed for safe in the tower of london he treated his guards to a quantity of wine into which he had put a sleeping and when they were insensible broke out of his got into a kitchen climbed up the chimney let himself down from the roof of the building with a rope ladder passed the got down to the river and made away in a boat to where servants and horses were waiting for him he finally escaped to france where charles le the brother of the beautiful queen was king charles sought to quarrel with the king of england on of his not having come to do him homage at his it was proposed that the beautiful queen should go over to arrange the dispute she went and wrote home to the king that as he was sick and could not come to france himself perhaps it would be better to send over the young prince their son who was only twelve years old who could do homage to her brother in his stead and in whose company she would immediately return the king edward the second sent him but both he and the queen remained at the french and became the queen s lover when the king wrote again and again to the queen to come home she did not reply that she despised him too much to live with him any more which was the truth but said she was afraid of the two in short her design was to overthrow the power and the king s power such as it was and england having obtained a french force of two thousand men and being joined by all the english then in france she landed within a year at in where she was immediately joined by the of and the king s two brothers by other powerful and lastly by the first english general who was to check her who went over to her with all his men the people of london receiving these tidings would do nothing for the king but broke open the tower let out all his prisoners and threw up their caps and for the beautiful queen the king with his two fled to where he old in charge of the town and castle while he went on with the son to wales the men being opposed to the king and it being impossible to hold the town with enemies every where within the walls yielded it up on the third day and was instantly brought to trial for having influenced what was called the king s mind though i doubt if the king ever had any he was a venerable old man upward of ninety years of age but his age gained no respect or mercy a child s history of england he was hanged torn open while he was yet alive cut up into pieces and thrown to the dogs his son was boon taken tried at the same judge on a long series of foolish charges found guilty and hanged upon a gallows fifty feet high with a of round his head his poor old father and he were innocent enough of any worse crimes than the crime of having heen the friends of a king on whom as a mere man they would never have to cast a favorable look it is a bad crime i know and leads to worse but many lords and gentlemen i even think some ladies too if i right have committed it in england who have neither been given to the dogs nor hanged up fifty feet high the wretched king was running here and there all this time and never getting any where in particular until he gave himself up and was taken off to ken c when he was safely lodged there the queen went to london and met the parliament and the bishop of who was the most of her friends said what was to be done now here was an indolent miserable king upon the throne wouldn t it be better to take him ofi and put his son there instead i don t know whether the queen really pitied him at this pass but she began to cry so the bishop said well my lords and gentlemen what do you think upon the whole of sending down to and seeing if his majesty god bless him and forbid we should him won t resign my lords and gentlemen thought it a good notion ao a of them went down to edward the second and the king came into a g eat hall of the castle commonly dressed in a poor black gown and when he saw a certain bishop among them fell down poor feeble headed man and made a wretched spectacle of himself somebody lifted him up and then william t the speaker of the house of almost frightened him to death by making him a tremendous speech to the that he was no longer a king and that every body to him after which sir the steward of the household nearly finished him by forward and breaking his white which was a ceremony only performed at a king s death being asked in this pressing manner what he thought of the king said he thought it was the best thing he could do so he did it and they proclaimed his son next day i wish i could close his history by saying that he lived a harmless life in the castle and the castle gardens at many years that he had a favorite and plenty to eat and drink and having that wanted nothing but he was he was outraged and and had dirty water from dishes given him to and wept and said he would have clean warm water and was altogether very miserable he was moved from this castle to that castle and from
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that castle to the other castle because this lord or that lord or the other lord was too kind to him until at last he came to castle near the river where the lord being then ill and absent he fell into the hands of two black called thomas and william one night it was the night of september the a child s history of england twenty first one thousand three hundred and dreadful screams were heard by the startled people in the neighboring town ringing through the thick walls of the castle and the dark deep night and they said as they were thus horribly awakened from their sleep may heaven be merciful to the king for those cries that no good is being done to him in his dismal prison next morning he was dead not bruised or or marked upon the body but much in the face and it was whispered afterward that those two and had burnt up his inside with a red hot iron if you ever come near and see the centre tower of its beautiful cathedral with its four rich rising lightly in the air you may remember that the wretched edward the second was buried in the old abbey of that ancient city at forty three years old being for nineteen years and a half a perfectly incapable king chapter xviii england under edward the third the queen s lover who escaped to france in the last chapter was far from by the examples he had had of the fate of having through the queen s influence come into of the estates of the two he became extremely proud and ambitious and sought to be the real ruler of england the young king who was crowned at fourteen years of age with all the usual resolved not to bear this and soon pursued to his ruin the people themselves were not fond of first because he was a royal favorite secondly because he was supposed to have helped to make a peace with scotland which now took place and in virtue of which the young ring s sister only seven years old was promised in marriage to david the son and heir of robert who was only five years old the hated because of his pride riches and power they went so far as to take up arms against him but were obliged to submit the earl of one of those who did so but who afterward went over to and the queen was made an example of in the following cruel manner he seems to have been any thing but a wise old a child s history of england earl and he was persuaded by the agents of the favorite and the queen that poor king edward the second was not really dead and thus was betrayed into writing letters his claim to the throne this was made out to be high treason and he was tried found guilty and to be executed they took the poor old lord outside the town of and there kept him waiting some three or four hours until they could find somebody to cut off his head at last a said he would do it if the government would pardon him in return and they gave him the pardon and at one blow he put the earl of out of his last suspense while the queen was in france she had found a lovely and good young lady named who she thought would make an excellent wife for her son the young king married this lady soon after he came to the throne and her first child edward prince of wales afterward became celebrated as we shall presently see under the famous title of the black prince the young king thinking the time ripe for the of took counsel with lord how he should proceed a parliament was going to be held at and that lord mended that the favorite should be seized by night in castle where he was sure to be now this like many other things was more easily said than done because to guard against treachery the great gates of the castle were locked every night and the great keys were carried up stairs to the queen who laid them under her own pillow but edward the third tlie castle had a governor and the governor b g lord s friend confided to him how he knew of a secret passage under ground hidden from observation by the weeds and with which it was overgrown and how through that passage the might enter in the dead of night and go straight to s room accordingly upon a certain dark night at midnight they made way through this dismal place startling the rats and the and and came s to the bottom of the main tower of the castle where the king met them and took them up a dark staircase in a deep silence they soon heard the voice of in council with some friends and bursting into the room with a sudden noise took him prisoner the queen cried out from her bed chamber oh my sweet son my dear son spare my gentle they carried him off however and before the next parliament accused him of having made between the young king and his mother and of having brought about the death of the earl of and even of the late king for as you know by this time when they wanted to get rid of a man in those old days they were not very particular of what they accused him was found guilty of all this and was to be hanged at the king shut his mother up in genteel confinement where she passed the rest of her life and now he became king in earnest the first he made was to conquer scotland the english lords who had lands in scotland finding
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that their rights were not respected under the a s history op england peace made war on their own account choosing for their general edward the son of john who made such a vigorous fight that in less than two months he won the whole he was joined when thus triumphant hy the king and parliament and he and the ring in person the forces in the whole army coming to the assistance of their countrymen such a furious ensued that thirty thousand men are said to have heen killed in it was then crowned king of scotland doing homage to the king of england hut little came of his after all for the men rose against him within no very long time and david came hack within ten years and took his kingdom france was a far richer country than scotland and the king had a much greater mind to conquer it so he let scotland alone and pretended that he had a claim to the french throne in right of his mother he had in reality no at all hut that mattered little in those times he brought over to his cause many little princes and sovereigns and even the alliance of the people of a busy working community who had very small respect for kings and whose head man was a with such forces as he raised by these means edward invaded france but he did little by that except run into debt in carrying on the war to the extent of three hundred thousand pounds the next year he did better gaining a great sea fight in the harbor of this success however was very short lived for the took fright at the siege of saint and ran away leaving edward the third weapons and baggage behind them philip the french king coming up with hia and being very anxious to decide the war proposed to settle the difference by single combat with him or by a fight of one hundred knights on each side the french king said he thanked him but being well as he was he would rather not so after some and talking a short peace was made it was soon broken by king edward s the cause of john earl of a french nobleman who asserted a claim of his own against tbe french king and to do homage to england for the crown of france if he could obtain it through england s help this french lord himself was soon defeated by the french king s son and shut up in a tower in paris but his wife a courageous and beautiful woman who is said to have had the courage of a man and the heart of a lion assembled the people of where she then was and showing them her infant son made many pathetic entreaties to them not to desert her and their young lord they took fire at this appeal and rallied around her in the strong castle of here she was not only without by the french under charles de but was within by a dreary old bishop who was always representing to the people what horrors they must undergo if they were faithful first from famine and afterward from fire and sword but this noble lady whose heart never failed her encouraged her soldiers by her own example went from post to post like a great general even mounted on horseback fully a child s history of england and i from the castle by a by fell upon the french camp set fire to the tents and threw the whole force into disorder this she got safely back to again and was received with loud shouts of joy by the of the who had given her up for lost as they were now very short of provisions however and as they could not dine off enthusiasm and as the old bishop was always saying i told you what it would come to they began to lose heart and to talk of yielding the castle up the brave retiring to an upper room and looking with great grief out to sea where she expected relief from england saw at this very time the english ships in the distance and was relieved and rescued sir walter the english commander so admired her courage that being come into the castle with the english knights and having made a feast there he the french by way of and beat them off triumphantly then he and the knights came back to the castle with great joy and the who had watched them from a high tower thanked them with all her heart and kissed them every one this noble lady distinguished herself in a sea fight with the french off when she was on her way to england to ask for more troops her great spirit roused another lady the wife of another french lord whom the french king very murdered to distinguish herself scarcely less the time was fast coming however when edward prince of wales was to be the great star of this french and english war it was in the month of july in the year one thou edward the third band three hundred and six when the king embarked at for france with an army of about thirty thousand men in all attended by the prince of wales and by several of the chief he landed at la in and burning and destroying as he went according to custom advanced up the left bank of the river and fired the small towns even close to paris but being watched from the right bank of the river by the french king and all his army it came to this at last that edward found himself on saturday the twenty sixth of august one thousand three hundred and forty six on a rising ground behind the little french village of face to face with the
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french king s force and although the french king had an enormous army in number more than eight times his he there resolved to beat him or be beaten the young prince assisted by the earl of oxford and the earl of led the first division of the english army two other great led the second and the king the third when the morning dawned the king received the and heard prayers and then mounted on horseback with a white in his hand rode from company to company and rank to rank cheering and encouraging both officers and men then the whole army each man sitting on the ground where he had stood and then they remained quietly on the ground with their weapons ready up came the french king with all his great force it was dark and angry weather there was an of the sun there was a thunder storm accompanied with tremendous rain the frightened birds flew a child s history of land screaming above the soldiers heads a certain captain in the french army advised the french who was by no means cheerful not to begin the battle until the morrow the king taking this advice gave the word to halt but those behind not understanding it or desiring to be foremost with the rest came pressing on the for a great distance were covered with this immense army and with the common people from the villages who were flourishing their rude weapons and making a great noise owing to these circumstances the french army advanced in the greatest confusion every french lord doing what he liked with his own men and putting out the men of every other french lord now their king relied strongly upon a great body of cross from and these he ordered to the front to begin the battle on finding that he could not stop it they shouted once they shouted twice they shouted three times to alarm the english but the english would have heard them shout three thousand times and would have never moved at last the cross went forward a little and began to discharge their upon which the english let fly such a hail of arrows that the speedily made ofl for their besides being heavy to carry required to be wound up with a handle and consequently took time to re load the english on the other hand could discharge their arrows almost as fast as the arrows could fly when the french saw the turning he cried out to his men to kill those who were doing harm instead of service this increased edward the third tiie confusion meanwhile the english to shoot as fast as ever shot down great numbers of the french soldiers and knights whom certain sly men and from the english army creeping along the ground with great knives the prince and his division were at this time so hard pressed that the earl of sent a message to the king who was overlooking the battle from a him to send more aid is my son killed said the king no please god returned the messenger is he wounded said the king no is he thrown to the ground said the king no not so but he is very hard pressed then said the king go back to those who sent you and tell them that i shall send no aid because i set my heart upon my son proving himself this day a brave knight and because i am resolved please god that the honor of a great victory shall be his these bold words being reported to the prince and his division so raised their spirits that they fought better than ever the king of france charged gallantly with his men many times but it was of no use night closing in his horse was killed under him by an english arrow and the knights and who had clustered thick about him early in the day were now completely scattered at last some of his few remaining followers led him off the field by force since he would not retire of himself and they away to the vol i q a child s history of england ous english lighting their watch fires made merry on the field and the king riding to meet his gallant son took him in his arms kissed him and told him that he had acted nobly and proved himself worthy of the day and of the crown while it was yet night king edward was hardly aware of the great victory he had gained but next day it was discovered that eleven princes twelve hundred knights and thirty thousand common men lay dead upon the french side among these was the king of an old blind man who having been told that his son was wounded in the battle and that no force could stand against the black prince called to him two knights put himself on horseback between them fastened the three together and dashed in among the english where he was presently slain he bore as his crest three white feathers with the motto in english i serve this crest and motto were taken by the prince of wales in remembrance of that famous day and have been borne by the prince of wales ever since five days after this great battle the king laid siege to this siege ever afterward memorable nearly a year in order to starve the inhabitants out king edward built so many wooden houses for the lodgings of his troops that it is said their quarters looked like a second suddenly sprung up around the first early in the siege the governor of the town drove out what he called the useless mouths to the number of seventeen hundred persons men and women young and old king edward allowed them to pass through his lines the third and even fed
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which he gave her among other rich presents she took the very ring from his on the morning of the day when he died and left him to be by his servants only one good priest was true to him and attended him to the last besides being famous for the great i have related the reign of king edward the third was a child s history of england rendered memorable in better ways by the growth of architecture and the of castle in better ways still by the rising up of originally a poor parish priest who devoted himself to exposing with power and success the ambition and corruption of the pope and of the whole church of which he was the head some of those were induced to come to england in this reign too and to settle in where they made better than the english had ever had before the order of the a very fine thing in its way but hardly so important as good clothes for the nation also dates from this period the king is said to have picked up a lady s at a ball and to have said soil qui y in english evil be to him who evil thinks of it the were usually glad to imitate what the king said or did and hence from a slight incident the order of the was and became a great dignity so the story goes chapter xix england under the second son of the black a boy eleven years of age succeeded to the crown under the title of king richard the second the whole english nation were ready to admire him for the sake of his brave father as to the lords and ladies about the court they declared him to be the most beautiful the wisest and the even of princes whom the lords and ladies about the court declare to be the most beautiful the wisest and the best of mankind to flatter a poor boy in this base manner was not a very likely way to develop whatever good was in him and it brought him to any thing but a good or happy end the duke of the young king s uncle commonly called john of gaunt from having been bom at which the common people so pronounced was supposed to have some thoughts of the throne himself but as he was not popular and the memory of the black prince was he submitted to his nephew the war with france being still unsettled the of england wanted money to provide for the expenses that might arise out of it accordingly a certain tax called the tax which had origin a child s history of england in the last reign was ordered to be on the people this was a tax on every person in the kingdom male and female above the age of fourteen of three or three pieces a year were charged more and only beggars were i have no need to repeat that the common people of england had long been under great oppression they were still the mere slaves of the lords of the land on which they lived and were on most occasions harshly and treated but they had begun by this time to think very seriously of not bearing quite so much and probably were by that french i mentioned in the last chapter the people of rose against the tax and being severely handled by the government officers killed some of them at this very time one of the going his rounds from house to house at in came to the cottage of one a by trade and claimed the tax upon his daughter her mother who was at home declared that she was under the age of fourteen upon that the as other had already done in parts of england behaved in a savage way and insulted s daughter the daughter screamed the mother screamed the who was at work not far off ran to the spot and did what any honest father under such provocation might have done struck the dead at a blow instantly the people of that town as one man they made their leader they joined with the people of who were in arms under richard the second a priest called jack straw they took out of prison another priest named john ball and gathering in numbers as they went along advanced in a great confused army of poor men to it is said that they wanted to all property and to declare all men equal i do not think this very likely because they stopped the on the roads and made them swear to be true to king richard and the people nor were they at all disposed to those who had done them no harm merely they were of high station for the king s mother who had to pass through their camp at on her way to her young son lying for safety in the tower of london had merely to kiss a few dirty faced rough bearded men who were fond of and so got away in perfect safety next day the whole mass marched on to london bridge there was a in the middle which william the mayor caused to be raised to prevent their coming into the city but they soon terrified the citizens into lowering it again and spread themselves with great uproar over the streets they broke open the they burned the papers in palace they destroyed the duke of s palace the in the strand said to be the most beautiful and splendid in england they set fire to the books and documents in the temple and made a great riot many of these were committed in since those citizens who had well filled were only too glad to throw them open to save the rest of their property but even the drunken
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were very careful to steal nothing they were so angry with one man who was seen to a child s history of england take a silver cup at the palace and put it in his breast that they drowned him in the river cup and all the young king had been taken out to treat with them before they committed these but he and the people about him wore so frightened by the shouts that they got back to the tower in the best way they could this made the bold er so they went on away striking off the heads of those who did not at a moment s notice declare for king richard and the people and killing as many of the persons whom they supposed to be their enemies as they could by any means lay hold of in this manner they passed one very violent day and then was made that the king would meet them at mile end and grant their the went to mile end to the number of sixty thousand and the king met them there and to the king the proposed four conditions first that neither they nor their children nor any coming after them should be made slaves any more secondly that the rent of land should be fixed at a certain price in money instead of being paid in service that they should have liberty to buy and sell in all and public places like other free men that they should be for past heaven knows there was nothing very unreasonable in these proposals the young king pretended to think so and kept thirty clerks up all night writing out a accordingly now himself wanted more than this he wanted the entire of the forest laws the second he was not at mile end with the rest but while that meeting was being held broke into the tower of london and the and the for whose heads the people had cried out loudly the day before he and his men even thrust their swords into the bed of the of wales while the princess was in it to make certain that none of their enemies concealed there so and his men still continued armed and rode about the city next morning the king with a small train of some sixty gentlemen among whom was the mayor rode into and saw and his people at a little distance says to his men there is the king i will go speak with him and tell him what we want straightway rode up to him and began to talk king says dost thou see all my men there r ah says the king why because says they are all at my command and have sworn to do whatever i bid them some declared that as said this he laid his hand on the king s bridle others declared that he was seen to play with his own dagger i think myself that he just spoke to the king like a rough angry man as he was and did nothing more at any rate he was expecting no attack and preparing for no resistance when the mayor did the not very deed of drawing a short sword and him in the throat he dropped from his horse and one of the king s people speedily finished him so fell and made a mighty triumph of it and set up a cry a child s history of england which will occasionally find an echo to this day but was a hard working man who had red much and had heen outraged and it is that he was a man of a much higher nature and a much spirit than any of the who then or haye since over his defeat seeing down his men immediately bent their bows to his fall if the young king had not had presence of mind at that dangerous moment both he and the mayor to boot might have followed pretty fast but the king riding up to the crowd cried out that was a traitor and that he would be their leader they were so taken by surprise that they set up a great shouting and followed the boy until he was met at by a large body of soldiers the end of this rising was the then usual end as soon as the king found himself safe he all he had said and all he had done some fifteen hundred of the were tried mostly in with great and executed with great cruelty many of them were hanged on and there as a terror to the country people and because their miserable friends took some of the bodies down to bury the king ordered the rest to be chained up which was the beginning of the barbarous custom of hanging in chains the king s falsehood in this business makes such a pitiful figure that i think appears in history as beyond comparison the truer and more respectable man of the two richard was now sixteen years of age and married anne of an excellent princess who was the second called the good queen anne she deserved a better husband for the king had been and flattered into a treacherous bad young man there were two at this time as if one were not enough and their quarrels involved europe in a great deal of trouble scotland was still troublesome too and at home there was much jealousy and distrust and and counter because the king feared the ambition of his relations and particularly of his uncle the duke of and the duke had his party against the king and the king had his party against the duke nor were these home troubles lessened when the duke went to to urge his claim to the crown of that kingdom for then the duke of another of richard s opposed him and influenced the parliament to
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demand the dismissal of the king s favorite ministers the king said in reply that he would not for such men dismiss the meanest servant in his kitchen but it had begun to signify little what a king said when a parliament was determined so richard was at last obliged to give way and to agree to another government of the kingdom under a commission of fourteen for a year his uncle of was at the head of this commission and in fact appointed every body it having done all this the king declared as soon as he saw an opportunity that he had never meant to do it and that it was all and he got the judges secretly to sign a declaration to that the secret out directly and was carried to the duke of the duke of at the head vol r a child s history of england of forty thousand men met the king on his entering into london to enforce his authority the king was helpless against him his and ministers were and were executed among them were two men whom the people regarded with very feelings one chief justice who was hated for having made what was called the circuit to try the the other sir an honorable knight who had been the dear friend of the black prince and the governor and guardian of the king for this gentleman s life the good queen even begged of on her knees but with or without reason feared and hated him and replied that if she valued her husband s crown she had better beg no more all this was done under what was called by some the wonderful and by others with better reason the merciless parliament but s power was not to last forever he held it for only a year longer in which year the battle of sung in the old ballad of chase was fought when the year was out the king turning suddenly to in the midst of a great council said uncle how old am i your returned the duke is in your twenty second year am i so much said the king then i will manage my own affairs i am much obliged to you my good lords for your past services but i need them no more he followed this up by a new and a new and announced to the people that ho had resumed the he held it for eight years without opposition through all that time he kept richard thb second determination to revenge some day up n his uncle in his own breast at last the good queen died and then the ring desiring to take a second wife proposed to his council that he should marry of france the daughter of charles the sixth who the french said as the english had said of richard was a marvel of beauty and wit and quite a phenomenon of seven years old the council were divided about this marriage but it took place it secure peace between england and france for a quarter of a century but it was strongly opposed to the prejudices of the english people the duke of who was anxious to take the occasion of making himself popular against it loudly and this at length decided the ring to execute the vengeance he had been nursing so long he went with a gay company to the duke of s house castle in where the duke suspecting nothing came out into the court yard to receive his royal visitor while the ring conversed in a friendly manner with the the duke was quietly seized hurried sway for and lodged in the castle there his friends the of and were taken in the same treacherous manner and confined to their castles a few days after at they were of high treason the earl of was condemned and and the earl f was banished then a writ was sent by a messenger to the governor of requiring him to send the duke of over to be tried in three days he returned an answer that he could a child s of england not do that because the duke of ter had died in prison the duke was declared a traitor his property was to the king a real or pretended confession he had made in prison to one of the of the common was produced against him and there was an end of the matter how unfortunate duke died very few cared to know whether he really died naturally whether he killed himself whether by the ring s order he was or smothered between two beds as a serving man of the s named hall did afterward declare can not be discovered there is not much doubt that he was killed somehow or other by his nephew s orders among the most active in these proceedings were the king s cousin henry whom the king had made duke of to smooth down the old family quarrels and some others who had in the family times done just such acts themselves as they now condemned in the duke they seem to have been a corrupt set of men but such men were easily found about the court in such days the people murmured at all this and were still very sore about the french marriage the saw how little the king cared for law and how he was and began to be somewhat afraid for themselves the king s life was a life of continued and excess his down to the meanest servants were dressed in the most costly manner and at his tables it is related to the number of ten thousand persons every day he himself surrounded by a body of ten thousand and enriched by a duty on wool which the had granted the second to him for life saw no danger of ever being otherwise
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than powerful and absolute and was as fierce and haughty as a king could be he had two of his old enemies left in the persons of the of and these no more than the others he with the duke of until he got him to declare before the council that the duke of had lately held some talk with him as he was riding near and that he had told him among other things that he could not believe the king s oath which nobody could i should think for this treachery he obtained a pardon and the duke of was summoned to appear and defend himself as he denied the charge and said his was a liar and a traitor both according to the manner of those times were held in and the truth was ordered to be decided by a of battle at this of battle meant that won the combat was to be considered in the right which nonsense meant in effect that no strong man could ever be wrong a great holiday was made a great crowd assembled with much parade and show and the two were about to rush at each other with their when the king sitting in a to see fair play threw down the he carried in his hand and forbade the battle the duke of was to be banished for ten years and the duke of was to be banished for life so said the king the duke of went to france and went no farther the duke of made a pilgrimage to the holy land and afterward died at of a broken heart faster and after this the king went on in a child s history op england his career the duke of who was the father of the duke of died soon after the departure of his son and the king although he had granted to that son leave to inherit his father s property if it should come to him during his immediately seized it all like a the judges were so afraid of him that they disgraced themselves by declaring this to be just and lawful his knew no bounds he seventeen at once on a frivolous merely to raise money by way of for in short he did as many things as he could and cared so little for the discontent of his subjects though even the began to whisper to him that there was such a thing as discontent afloat that he took that time of all others for leaving england and making an expedition against the irish he was scarcely gone leaving the duke of york in his absence when his cousin henry of came over from france to claim the rights of which he had been so deprived he was immediately joined by the two great of and and his uncle the finding the ring s cause and the of the army to act against henry very strong withdrew with the royal forces toward henry at the head of an army came from where he had landed to london and followed him they joined their forces how they brought that about is not distinctly understood and proceeded to castle whither three had taken the young queen the castle they presently put those three to death richard the second the then remained there and henry went on to all this time the boisterous weather had prevented the king from receiving intelligence of what had occurred at length it was conveyed to him in ireland and he sent over the earl of who landing at rallied the and waited for the king a whole fortnight at the end of that time the who were perhaps not very warm for him in the beginning quite cooled down and went home when the king did land on the coast at last he came with a pretty good power but his men cared nothing for him and quickly deserted supposing the to be still at he disguised himself as a priest and made for that place in company with his two brothers and some few of their but there were no left only and a hundred soldiers in this distress the king s two brothers and offered to go to henry to learn what his intentions were who was true to richard was put into prison who was false took the royal which was a heart off his shield and assumed the rose the of henry after this it was pretty plain to the what henry s intentions were without sending more messengers to ask the fallen king thus deserted hemmed in on all sides and pressed with hunger rode here and rode there and went to this castle and went to that castle to obtain some provisions but could find none he rode back to and there surrendered himself to the earl of who came henry in reality to take him prisoner a child s history of england but in appearance to terms and whose men were hidden not far off by this earl he was conducted to the castle of flint where his cousin henry met him and dropped on his knee as if he were still respectful to his sovereign fair cousin of said the king you are very welcome very welcome no doubt but he would have been more so in chains or without i head my lord replied henry i am come a before my time but with your good pleasure i show you the reason your people complain witb some bitterness that you have ruled them for two and twenty years now if it please will help you to govern them better in future fair cousin replied the abject king since ii you it me after this the trumpets sounded and the king was stuck on a wretched horse and carried prisoner to where he was made to issue a calling a
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parliament from he was taken on toward london at he tried to escape by getting out of a window and letting himself down into a garden it was all in vain however and he was carried on and shut up in the tower where no one pitied him and where the whole people whose patience he had quite tired out reproached without mercy before he got there it is related that his very dog left him and departed from his side to the hand of henry the day before the parliament met a went to this wrecked king and told him that he had promised the duke of at richard the second lie to resign the crown he said he was quite ready to do it and signed a paper in which he his authority and his people from their to him he had so little spirit left that he gave his royal ring to his triumphant cousin henry with his own hand and said that if he could have had leave to a successor that same henry was the man of all others whom he would have named next day the parliament assembled in westminster hall where henry sat at the side of the throne which was empty and covered with a cloth of gold the paper just signed by the king was read to the multitude amid shouts of joy which were echoed through all the streets when some of the noise had died away the king was formally then henry arose and making the sign of the cross on his forehead and breast the realm of england as his right the of and york seated him on the throne the multitude shouted again and the shouts throughout all the streets no one now that richard the second had ever heen the most beautiful the wisest and the best of princes and he now made living to my thinking a far more sorry spectacle in the tower of london than had made lying dead among the hoofs of the royal horses in the tax died with the to the king and royal family could make no chains ir which the king could hang the people s of him so the tax was never collected chapter xx england under henry the fourth called during the last reign the preaching of against the pride and cunning of the pope and all his men had a great noise in england whether the new king wished to he in favor with the priests or whether he hoped by pretending to be very religious to cheat heaven itself into the belief that he was not a i don t know both are likely enough it is certain that he began his reign by making a strong show against the followers of who were called or although his father john of gaunt had been of that way of thinking as he himself had been more than suspected of being it is no less certain that he first established in england the detestable and custom brought from abroad of burning those people as a their opinions it was the into england of one of the of what was called the holy which was the most t holy and the most infamous that ever disgraced mankind and made men more like than followers of our no real right to the crown as you know was in this king edward the young earl of henry the fourth march who was only eight or nine years old and who was descended from the duke of the elder brother of henry s father was by succession the real heir to the throne however the king got his son declared prince of wales and obtaining possession of the young earl of march and his httle brother kept them in confinement but not severely in castle he then required the parliament to decide what was to be done with the king who was quiet enough and who only said that he hoped his cousin henry would be a good lord to him the parliament replied that they would recommend his being kept in some secret place where the people could not resort and where his friends should not be admitted to see him henry accordingly passed this sentence upon him and it now began to be pretty clear to the nation that richard the second would not live very long it was a noisy parliament as it was an one and the lords so violently among themselves as to which of them had been loyal and which and which consistent and which inconsistent that forty are said to have been thrown upon the floor at one time as to as many battles the truth being that they were all false and base together and had been at one time with the old king and at another time with the new one and seldom true for any length of time to any one they soon began to plot again a conspiracy was formed to invite the king to a at oxford and then to take him by surprise and kill him this enterprise which was agreed upon at secret meetings in the house of the a child s history of england of westminster was betrayed by the earl of one of the the king instead of going to the or staying at where the suddenly went on finding themselves discovered with the hope of seizing him retired to london proclaimed them all and advanced upon them with a great force they retired into the west of england richard ring but the people rose against them and they were all slain their treason hastened the death of the monarch whether he was killed l hired or whether he was starved to death or whether he refused food on hearing of his brothers being who were in that plot is very he met his death somehow and his body was
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publicly shown at st paul s cathedral with only the lower part of the face uncovered i can scarcely doubt that he was killed by the king s orders the french wife of the miserable richard was now only ten years old and when her father charles of france heard of her misfortunes and of her lonely condition in england he went mad as he had several times done before during the last five or six years the french of and took up the poor cause without caring much about it but on the chance of getting something out of england the people of who had a sort of superstitious attachment to the memory of richard because he was born there swore by the lord that he had been the best man in all his kingdom which was going rather far and promised to do great things against the english when they came to consider that they and henry th fourth the whole people of france were ruined by their own and that the english rule was much the better of the two they cooled down again and the two although they were very great men could do nothing without them then began between france and england for the sending home to paris of the poor little queen with all her jewels and her fortune of two hundred thousand in gold the king was quite willing to restore the young lady and even the jewels but he said he really could not part with the money so at last she was safely deposited at paris without her fortune and then the duke of who was cousin to the french king began to quarrel with the duke of who was brother to the french king about the whole matter and those two made france even more wretched than ever as the idea of conquering scotland was still popular at home the king marched to the river and demanded homage of the king of that country this being refused he advanced to but did little there for his army being in want of pro visions and the scotch being very careful to hold him in check without giving battle he was obliged to retire it is to his immortal honor that in this sally he burnt no villages and no people but was particularly careful that his army should be merciful and harmless it was a great example in those times a war among the border people of england and scotland went on for twelve months and then the earl of the nobleman who had helped henry to the crown began to rebel against a child s history of england him probably because nothing that henry could do for him would satisfy his extravagant expectations there was a certain gentleman named who had been a student in one of the of court and had afterward been in the service of the late king whose property was taken from him by a powerful lord related to the present king who was his neighbor appealing for and getting none he took up arms was made an and declared himself sovereign of wales he pretended to be a and not only were the people stupid enough to believe him but even henry believed too for making three into wales and being three times driven back by the of the country the bad weather and the skill of he thought he was defeated by the s magic arts however he took lord grey and sir prisoners and allowed the relatives of lord grey to him but would not extend such favor to sir now henry called son of the earl of who was married to s sister is supposed to have taken at this and therefore in with his father and some others to have joined aad risen against henry it is by no means that this was the real cause of the conspiracy but perhaps it was made the pretext it was formed and was very powerful including of york and the earl of a powerful and brave nobleman the king was prompt and active and the armies met at henry the there were about fourteen thousand men in each the old earl of being sick the rebel forces were led by his son the king wore plain to deceive the enemy and four the same object wore the royal arms the rebel charge was so furious that every one of those gentlemen was killed the royal standard was beaten down and the young prince of wales was severely wounded in the face but he was one of the and best soldiers that ever lived and he fought so well and the king s troops were so encouraged by his bold example that they rallied immediately and cut the enemy s forces all to pieces was killed by an arrow in the brain and the was so complete that the whole rebellion was struck down by this one blow the earl of surrendered himself soon after hearing of the death of his son and received a pardon for all his there were some of rebellion yet being retired to wales and a preposterous story being spread among the ignorant people that king richard was still alive how they could have believed such nonsense it is difficult to imagine but they certainly did suppose that the court fool of the late king who was something like him was he himself so that it seemed as if after giving so much trouble to the country in his life he was still to trouble it after his death this was not the worst the young earl of march and his brother were stolen out of castle being and being found to have been spirited away by one lady she accused her own brother that earl of who was in the former conspiracy and was now a child s history of england duke of york of
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being in the plot for this he was ruined in fortune though not put to death and then another plot arose among the old earl of some other lords and that same of york who was with the before these caused a writing to be posted on the church doors the king of a variety of crimes but the king being eager and to oppose them they were all taken and the was executed this was the first time that a great had been slain by the law in england but the king was resolved that it should be done and done it was the next most remarkable event of this time was the by henry of the heir to the james a boy of nine years old he had been put aboard ship by his father the king robert to save him from the designs of his uncle when on his way to france he was accidentally taken by some english he remained a prisoner in england for nineteen years and became in his prison a student and a famous poet with the exception of occasional troubles with the and with the french the rest of king henry s reign was quiet enough but the king was far from happy and probably was troubled in his conscience by knowing that he had the crown and had occasioned the death of his miserable cousin the prince of wales though brave and generous is said to have been wild and dissipated and even to have drawn his sword on the chief justice of the king s bench because he was firm in dealing with one of his companions upon henry the fourth this the chief justice is said to have ordered him immediately to prison the prince of wales is said to have submitted th a good grace and the king is said to have exclaimed happy is the monarch who has so just a judge and a son so willing to obey the laws this is all very doubtful and so is another story of which shakespeare has made beautiful use that the prince once took the crown out of his father s chamber as he was sleeping and tried it on his own head the king s health sank more and more he became subject to violent on the face and to bad fits and his spirits sank every day at last as he was praying before the shrine of st edward at westminster abbey he was seized with a terrible fit and was carried into the s chamber where he presently died it had been foretold that he would die at which certainly is not and certainly never was westminster but as the s room had long been called the chamber people said it was all the same thing and were quite satisfied with the this king died on the th of march in the forty seventh year of his age and the of his reign he was buried in cathedral he had been twice married and had by his first wife a family of four sons and two daughters considering his before he came to the throne his unjust of it and above all his making that monstrous law for the burning of what the priests called he was a reasonably good king as kings went vol i s chapter iii england under henry the fifth first part the prince of wales began his reign like a generous and honest man he set the young earl of march free he restored their estates and their honors to the family who had lost them by their rebellion against his father he ordered the and unfortunate richard ta be buried among the kings of england and he dismissed all his wild companions with assurances that they should not want if they would resolve to be steady faithful and true it is much easier to burn men than to burn their opinions and those of the were spreading every day the were represented by the priests probably false for the most part to entertain designs against the new king and henry himself to be worked upon by these representations sacrificed his friend sir john the lord to them after trying in vain to convert him by arguments he was declared guilty as the head of the and to the flames but he escaped from the tower before the day of execution postponed for fifty days by the king himself and summoned the to meet him near henry the fifth london on a certain day so the priests told the king at least i doubt whether there was any conspiracy beyond such as was got up by their agents on the day appointed instead of five and twenty thousand men under the command sir john in the meadows of st the king found only eighty men and no sir john at all there was in another place an headed who had gold to his horses and a pair of gilt spurs in his breast expecting to be made a knight next day by sir john and so to gain the right to wear them but there was no sir john nor did any body give any information respecting him though the king great rewards for such intelligence thirty of these unfortunate were hanged and drawn immediately and were then burnt gallows and all and the various in and around london were crammed full of others some of these unfortunate men made various of designs but such were easily got under torture and the fear of fire and are very little to be trusted to finish the sad story of sir john at once i may mention that he escaped into wales and remained there safely for four years when discovered by lord it is very doubtful if he would have been taken alive so great was the old soldier s bravery if a
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miserable old woman had not come behind him and broken his legs with a stool he was carried to london in a horse litter was fastened by an iron chain to a and so to death to make the state of france as plain as i can in a few words i should tell you that the duke of and the duke of commonly called a child s history of england john without fear had had a grand reconciliation of their quarrel in the last reign and had appeared to be in quite a heavenly state of mind immediately after which on a sunday in the public streets of paris the duke of was murdered by a party o twenty men set on by the duke of according to his own deliberate confession the widow of king richard had been married in france to the eldest son of the duke of the poor mad king was quite powerless to help his daughter and the duke of became the real master of france dying her husband duke of since the death of his father married the daughter of the count of who being a much man than his young son in law headed his party thence called after him thus france was now in this terrible condition that it had in it the party of the king s son the the party of the duke of who was the father of the s ill used wife and the party of the all each other all fighting together all composed of the most that the earth has ever known and all tearing unhappy france to pieces the late king had watched these from england sensible like the french people that no enemy of france could injure her more than her own nobility the present king now advanced a claim to the french throne his demand being of course refused he reduced his proposal to a certain large of french territory and to demanding the princess in marriage with a fortune of two millions of golden crowns he was offer henry the fifth ed less territory and fewer crowns and no princess but lie called his home and prepared for war then he proposed to take the princess with one of crowns the french court replied that he should have the princess with two hundred thousand crowns less he said this would not do he had never seen the princess in his life and assembled his army at there was a short plot at home just at that time for him and making the earl of march king but the were all speedily condemned and executed and the king embarked for france it is dreadful to observe how long a bad example will be followed but it is encouraging to know that a good example is never thrown away the king s first act on at the mouth of the river three miles from was to imitate his father and to proclaim his solemn orders that the lives and property of the inhabitants should be respected on pain of death it is agreed by french writers to his lasting renown that even while his soldiers were suffering the greatest distress from want of food these commands were rigidly obeyed with an army in all of thirty thousand men he the town of both by sea and land for five weeks at the end of which time the surrendered and the inhabitants were allowed tt depart with only five pence each and a part of their clothes all the rest of their possessions was divided among the english army but that army so much in spite of its from disease and that it was already reduced one half still the was determined not to retire until he had a child s history of england struck a greater blow therefore against the advice of all his he moved on with his little force toward when he came up to the river he was unable to cross in consequence of the ford being fortified and as the english moved up the left bank of the river looking for a crossing the french who had broken all the bridges moved up the right bank watching them and waiting to attack them when they should try to pass it at last the english found a crossing and got safely over the french held a council of war at resolved to give the english battle and sent to king henry to know by which road he was going by the road that will take me straight to said the king and sent them away with a present of a hundred crowns the english moved on until they beheld the french and then the king gave orders to form in line of battle the french not coming on the army broke up after remaining in battle array till night and got good rest and refreshment at a neighboring village the french were now all lying in another village through which they knew the english must pass they were resolved that the english should begin the battle the english had no means of retreat if their king had had any such intention and so the two armies passed the night close together to understand these armies well you must bear in mind that the immense french army had among its notable persons almost the whole of that wicked nobility whose had made france a desert and so were they by pride and by contempt for the common people that they had scarcely henry the fifth any if indeed they had any at all in their whole enormous number which compared with the english array was at least six to one for these proud fools had said that the bow was not a fit weapon for hands and that france must be defended by gentlemen only we shall see presently what hand the gentlemen made of it now on the
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french herald and asked him to whom the victory belonged the herald replied to the king of england we have not made this and slaughter said the king it is the wrath of heaven on the sins of france what is the name of that castle yonder the herald answered him my lord it is the castle of said the king from henceforth this battle shall be known to posterity by the name of the battle of our english have made it henry the fifth but under that it will ever be famous in english annals the loss upon the french side was enormous three were killed two more were taken prisoners seven counts were killed three more were taken prisoners and ten thousand knights and gentlemen were slain upon the field the english loss amounted to sixteen hundred men among whom were the duke of york and the earl of war is a dreadful thing and it is appalling to know how the english were obliged next morning to kill those prisoners wounded who yet in agony upon the ground how the dead upon the french side were stripped by their own countrymen and and afterward buried in great how the dead upon the english side were piled up in a great barn and how their bodies and the barn were all burned together it is in such things and in many more much too horrible to relate that the real desolation and wickedness of war consist nothing can make war otherwise than horrible but the dark side of it was little thought of and soon forgotten and it cast no shade of trouble on the english people except on those who had lost friends or relations in the fight they welcomed their king home with shouts of rejoicing and plunged into the water to bear him ashore on their shoulders and out in crowds to welcome him in every town through which he passed and hung rich carpets and out of the windows and the streets with flowers and made the fountains run with wine as the great field of had run with blood a child s history of england second part that proud and wicked french nobility who dragged their country to destruction and who were every day and every year regarded with deeper hatred and in the hearts of the french people learnt nothing even from the defeat of so far from against the common enemy they became among themselves more more bloody and more false if that were possible than they had been before the count of persuaded the french king to plunder of her treasures queen of and to make her a prisoner she who had hitherto been the bitter enemy of the duke of proposed to join him in revenge he attacked her guards and carried her off to where she proclaimed herself of france and made him her lieutenant the ac party were at that time possessed of paris but one of the gates of the city being secretly opened on a certain night to a party of the duke s men they got into paris threw into the all the upon whom they could lay their hands and a few nights afterward with the aid of a furious mob of sixty thousand people broke the open and killed them all the former was now dead and the king s third son bore the title him in the height of this scene a french knight hurried out of bed in a sheet and bore away to so when the and the duke of entered paris in triumph after the slaughter of their henry the fifth enemies the was proclaimed at as the real king henry had not heen idle since his victory of hut had a attempt of the french to recover had gradually conquered a great part of and at this crisis of took the important town of after a siege of half a year this great loss so alarmed the french that th duke of proposed that a meeting to treat of peace should he held the french and the english kings in a plain hy the river on the appointed day king henry appeared there with his two and and a thousand men the unfortunate french king being more mad than usual that day could not come but the queen came and with her the princess who was a very lovely creature and who made a real impression on king henry now that he saw her for the first time this was the most important circumstance that arose out of the meeting as if it were impossible for a french nobleman of that time to be true to his word of honor in any thing henry discovered that the duke of was at that very moment in secret treaty with the and he therefore abandoned the the duke of and the each of whom with the best reason the other as a noble surrounded by a party of noble were rather at a loss how to proceed after this but at length they agreed to meet on a bridge over the river where it was arranged that there should be two strong gates put up with an empty space between them and that the duke of should a child s history of england come into that space by one gate with ten men only and that the should come into that space by the other gate also with ten men and no more so far the kept his word but no farther when the duke of was on his knee before him in the act of speaking one of the s noble cut the said duke down with a small ax and others speedily finished him it was in vain for the to pretend that this base murder was not done with his consent it was too bad even for france and caused a general horror
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s life we want nothing but facts sir nothing but facts v the speaker and the and the third grown person present all backed a little and swept with their eyes the inclined of little vessels then and there arranged in order read to save imperial of facts po el s u to the chapter thomas sir a man of realities a man of facts and calculations a man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four and nothing over and who is not to he talked into allowing for any thing over thomas sir thomas thomas with a rule and a pair of scales and the table always in his pocket sir ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature and tell you exactly what it comes to it is a mere question of figures a case of simple you might hope to get some other belief into the head of george or or john or joseph all non persons but into the head of thomas no sir in such terms mr always mentally introduced himself whether to his private circle of acquaintance or to the public in general in such terms no doubt the words boys and girls for sir thomas now presented thomas to the little before him who were to be filled so full of facts indeed as he eagerly sparkled at them from the before mentioned he seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the with facts and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge he seemed a apparatus too charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young that were to be away girl number twenty said mr pointing with his square forefinger i don t know that girl who is that girl sir explained number twenty blushing standing up and is not a name said mr don t call yourself yourself hard times it s father as calls me sir returned the young girl in a trembling voice and with another courtesy then he has no business to do it said mr tell him he mustn t let me see what is your father he belongs to the horse riding if you please sir mr fix and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand we don t want to know any thing about that here you mustn t tell us about that here father breaks horses don t he if you please sir when they can get any to break they do break horses in the ring sir you mustn t tell us about the ring here very well then describe your father as a he doctors sick horses i dare say oh yes sir very well then he is a surgeon a and give me your definition of a horse thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand girl number twenty unable to define a horse said mr for the general of all the little girl number twenty possessed of no facts in reference to one of the commonest of animals some boy s definition of a horse yours the square finger moving here and there lighted suddenly on perhaps because he chanced to sit in the same ray of sunlight which darting in at one of the bare windows of the intensely room for the boys and girls sat on the face of the inclined plane in two compact bodies divided up the centre by a narrow interval and being at the comer of a row on the sunny side came in for the beginning of a of which being at the corner of a row on the other side a few rows in advance caught the end but whereas the girl was so dark eyed and dark haired that she seemed to receive a deeper and more color from the sun when it shone upon her the boy was so light eyed and light haired that the self same rays appeared to draw out of him what little color he ever possessed his cold eyes would hardly have e e i x s c of lashes by bringing m x j hard times than themselves expressed their form his hair might have heen a mere of the sandy on his forehead and face his skin was so deficient in the natural tinge that he looked as though if he were cut he would white said thomas your definition of a horse forty teeth namely four eye teeth and twelve sheds coat in the spring in countries sheds hoofs too h hard but requiring to be shod with iron age known by marks in mouth thus and much more now girl number twenty said mr you know what a horse is she again and would have blushed deeper if she could have blushed deeper than she had all this time rapidly at thomas with both eyes at once and so catching the light upon his quivering ends of lashes that they looked like the of busy insects put his to his forehead and sat down again the third gentleman now stepped forth a mighty man at cutting and drying he was a government officer in his way and in most other people s too a professed always in training always with a system to force down the general throat like a always to be heard of at the bar of his httle ready to fight all england to continue in he had a genius fi r coming up to the scratch wherever and whatever it was and proving himself an ugly customer he would go in and damage any whatever with his right follow up with his stop exchange counter bore his opponent he always fought all england to the ropes and fell upon him neatly he was certain to knock the wind out of common sense and render that unlucky adversary deaf to the call of time and he had it
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in charge from high authority to bring about the great public office when should reign upon earth very well said this gentleman briskly smiling and folding his arms that s a horse now let me ask you girls and boys would you paper a room with of horses a pause one half the m j i sl v hard times upon which the other half seeing in the gentleman s face that yes was cried out in chorus no sir as the custom is in these of course no why wouldn t you a pause one slow with a manner of breathing ventured the answer because he wouldn t paper a room at au but would paint it you paper it said the gentleman rather warmly you must paper it said thomas whether you like it or not don t tell us you wouldn t paper it what do you mean boy i ll explain to you then said the gentleman after another and a dismal pause why you wouldn t paper a room with representations of horses do you ever see horses walking up and down the sides of rooms in reality in fact do you yes sir firom one half no sir from the other of course no said the gentleman with an indignant look at the wrong half why then you are not to see any where what you don t see in fact you are not to have any where what you don t have in fact what is called taste is only another name for fact thomas nodded his approbation this is a new principle a discovery a great discovery said the gentleman now i ll try you again suppose you were going to carpet a room would you use a carpet having a representation of flowers upon it there being a general conviction by this time that no sir was always the right answer to this gentleman the chorus of no was very strong only a few feeble said yes among them girl number twenty said the gentleman smiling in the calm strength of knowledge blushed and stood up so you would carpet your room or your husband s room if you were a grown woman and had a husband with representations of flowers would you said the gentleman why would you if you please sir i am veiy o o r hard times and is that why you would put tables and chairs upon them and have people walking over them with heavy boots it wouldn t hurt them sir they wouldn t crush and if you please sir they would be the pictures of what was very pretty and pleasant and i would fancy ay ay ay i but you mustn t fancy cried the gentleman quite elated by coming so happily to his point that s it you are never to fancy you are not mary thomas solemnly repeated to do any thing of that kind fact fact fact i said the gentleman and fact fact fact repeated thomas you are to be in all things regulated and governed said the gentleman by fact we hope to have before long a board of fact composed of of fact who will force the people to be a people of fact and of nothing but fact you must the word fancy altogether you have nothing to do with it you are not to have in any object of use or ornament what would be a contradiction in fact you don t walk upon flowers in fact you can not be allowed to walk upon flowers in carpets you don t find that foreign birds and come and perch upon your you can not be permitted to paint foreign birds and upon your you never meet with going up and down walls you must not have i upon walls you must use said the gentleman for all these purposes and in colors of figures which are susceptible of proof and demonstration this is the new discovery this is fact this is taste the girl and sat she was very young and she looked as if she were frightened by the matter of fact prospect the world afforded now if mr m said the gentleman will proceed to give his first lesson here mr i shall be happy at your request to observe his mode of mr was much obliged mr m we only wait for you so mr m began in his best manner he and one hundred and forty other school masters had been lately turned at the same time in tlie actor tv a hard times like so many legs he had been put through an immense variety of paces and had answered volumes of questions and biography geography and general the of compound proportion land surveying and music and drawing from models were all at the ends of his ten chilled fingers he had worked his stony way into her majesty s most honorable council s b and had taken the bloom of the higher branches of and physical science french german latin and greek he knew all about all the water sheds of all the world whatever they are and all the histories of all the and all the names of all the rivers and mountains and all the productions manners and customs of all the countries and all their boundaries and bearings on the two and thirty points of the compass ah rather m if he had only learnt a httle less how infinitely better he might have taught much more i he went to work in this preparatory lesson not unlike in the forty thieves looking into all the vessels ranged before him one after another to see what they contained say good m when from thy store thou shalt t each jar brim full by and by dost thou think that thou wilt always kill outright the robber
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of coming to life was invariably stunned by some piece of fact tumbling on her mrs hoped it was a dry ditch no as wet as a a foot of water in it said mr enough to give a baby cold mrs considered i gold i was bom with of the lungs and of i every thing else i that was capable of returned mr for years ma am i was one of the most miserable httle wretches ever seen i was so sickly that i was always moaning and groaning i was so ragged and dirty that you wouldn t have touched me with a pair of mrs faintly looked at the as the most thing her could think of doing how i fought through it don t know said i was determined i suppose i have been a determined character in later life and i suppose i was then here i am mrs any how and nobody to thank for my being here but myself mrs meekly and weakly hoped that his mother my mother bolt ma am said mrs stunned as usual and gave it up my mother left me to my grandmother said and according to the best of my remembrance my grandmother was the and the worst old woman that ever if i got a little pair of shoes by any chance she would take em off and sell cm for drink why i have known that grandmother of mind lie in her bed and drink her four glasses of liquor before breakfast mrs weakly n n iv hard vitality looked as she always did like an executed of a small female figure without enough light behind it she kept a s shop pursued and kept me in an egg box that the of my infancy an old as soon as i was big enough to run away of course i ran away then i became a yoimg vagabond and instead of one old woman knocking me about and starving me every body of all ages knocked me about and starved me they were right they had no business to do any thing else i was a nuisance an and a i know that very well his pride in having at any time of his life achieved such a great social distinction as to be a nuisance an and a was only to be satisfied by three ib of the boast i was to pull through it i suppose mrs whether i was to do it or not ma am i did it i pulled through it though nobody threw me out a rope vagabond errand boy vagabond porter clerk chief manager small partner of those are the and the of learnt his letters fix m the of the shops mrs and was first able to tell the time upon a dial plate firom studying the clock of st s church london under the direction of a drunken who was a convicted thief and an tell bound of of your district schools and your model schools and your training schools and your whole kettle of fish of schools and of tells you plainly all right all correct he hadn t such advantages but let us have hard headed solid people the education that made him won t do for every body he knows well such and such his education was however and you may force him to swallow boiling fat but you shall never force him to suppress the facts of his life being heated when he arrived at this climax of stopped he stopped just as his eminently practical still accompanied by die two young entered the room his eminently practical friend on seeing him stopped also and gave a look hard times well mr what s the matter what is young thomas in the about he spoke of yoimg thomas but he looked at we were peeping at the muttered without lifting up her eyes and father caught us and mrs said her husband in a lofty manner i should as soon have expected to find my children reading poetry dear me mrs how can you and thomas i i wonder at you i declare you re enough to make one regret ever having had a family at all i have a great mind to say i wish i hadn t then what would you have done i should hke to know mr did not seem impressed by these remarks he frowned impatiently as if with my head in its present throbbing you couldn t go and look at the shells and and things provided for you instead of i said mrs you know as well as i do no young people have masters or keep in or attend lectures about what can you possibly want to know of then i am sure you have enough to do if that s what you want with my head in its present state i couldn t remember the mere names of half the facts you have got to attend to that s the reason don t tell me that s the reason because it can be nothing of the sort said mrs go and be directly mrs was not a scientific character and usually dismissed her children to their studies with this general to choose their pursuits in truth mrs s stock of facts in general was but mr in raising her to her high position had been influenced by two reasons she was most satisfactory as a question of figures and secondly she had no nonsense about her by nonsense he meant fancy and truly it is probable she was as free from any of that nature as any human being not arrived at the perfection of an absolute idiot ever was the simple circumstance of being left alone with her husband and mr was to a j ji hard times again without collision
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between herself and any other fact so she once more died away and nobody minded her said mr drawing a chair to the you are always so interested in my young particularly in that i make no apology for saying to you i am very much vexed by this discovery i have devoted myself as you know to the education of the reason of my family the reason is as you know the only faculty to which education should be addressed and yet it would appear from this circumstance of to day though in itself a trifling one as if something had crept into thomas s and s minds which is or rather which is not i don t know that i can express myself better than by saying which has never been intended to be developed and in which their reason has no part there certainly is no reason in looking with interest at a parcel of returned when i was a vagabond myself nobody looked with any interest i know that then comes the question said the eminently practical father with his eyes on the are in what has this vulgar curiosity its rise i ll tell you in what in idle imagination i hope not said the eminently practical i confess however that the has crossed me on my way home in idle imagination repeated a very bad thing for any body but a cursed bad thing for a girl like i should ask mrs s pardon for strong expressions but that she knows very well i am not a refined character whoever expects refinement in me will be disappointed i hadn t a refined bringing up whether said mr pondering with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the fire whether any or servant can have suggested any thing whether or thomas can have been reading any thing whether in spite of all precautions any idle story book can have got into the house v because in minds that have been practically formed by rule and line from the cradle upward this is so curious so i bible stop a bit cried vo x to i j as before on the ra ft x hard times of the room with humility you have one of those children in the by name said mr with something of a stricken look at his friend now stop a bit i cried again how did come there why the ct is i saw the girl m for the first time only just now she specially applied here at the house to be admitted as not regularly belonging to our town and yes you are right you are right now stop a bit cried once more saw her when she came v certainly did see her for she mentioned the n to me but saw her i have no doubt in mrs s presence pray mrs said what passed oh my poor health i returned mrs the girl wanted to come to the school and mr wanted girls to come to the school and and thomas both said that the wanted to come and that mr wanted girls to come and how was it possible to contradict them when such was the fact now i tell you what said mr turn this girl to the right about and there s an end of it i am much of your opinion do it at once said has always been my motto from a child when i thought i would run away from my and my grandmother i did it at once do you the same do this at once are you walking asked his friend i have the father s address perhaps you would not mind walking to town with me not the least in the world said mr as long as you do it at once so mr threw on his hat he always threw it on as expressing a man who had been far too busily employed in himself to acquire any fashion of wearing his hat and with his hands in his pockets out into the hall i never wear gloves it was his custom to say i didn t climb up the ladder in th n shouldn t be so high up if i had being left to ia the e ot h hard times r went up stairs for the address he opened the door of the children s study and looked into that serene floor clothed apartment which notwithstanding its and its and its variety of learned and philosophical had much of the genial aspect of a room devoted to hair cutting languidly upon the looking out without looking at any thing while young thomas stood at the fire dam smith and two younger were out at lecture in jane after a good deal of moist pipe clay on her face with slate pencil and tears had fallen asleep over vulgar it s all right now it s all right young thomas said mr you won t do so any more i ll answer for it s being all over with well that s worth a kiss isn t it you can take one mr when she had coldly paused and slowly walked across the room and raised her cheek toward him with her face turned away always my pet ain t you said mr good by i he went his way but she stood on the same spot rubbing the cheek he had kissed with her handkerchief until it was burning red she was still doing this five minutes afterward what axe you about loo her brother remonstrated you ll rub a hole in your face you may cut the piece out with your if you like tom i wouldn t cry k chapter v to which messrs and now walked was a triumph of fact it had no greater taint of fancy
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in it than mrs herself let us strike the key note pursuing our tune it was a town of red brick or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it but as matters stood it was a town of red and black like the painted face of a savage it was a town of machinery and tall chimneys out of which interminable of smoke themselves forever and ever and never got it had a black canal in it and a river that ran purple with ill smelling and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long and where the of the steam engine worked up and down like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness it contained several large streets all very like one another and many small streets still more like one another inhabited by people equally like one another who all went in and out at the same hours with the same sound upon the same to do the same work and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and to morrow and every year the of the last and the next these attributes of were in the main inseparable firom the work by which it was sustained against them were to be set comforts of hfe which found their way all over the world and of life which made we will not ask how much of the fine lady who could scarcely bear to hear the place mentioned the rest of its features were voluntary and they were these you saw nothing in but what was severely if the members of a religious persuasion built a chapel there as tbe of eighteen s hard times it a pious of red brick with sometimes but this only in highly ornamented examples a bell in a on the top of it the solitary exception was the new church a edifice with a square over the door in four short like wooden legs all the public in the town were painted alike in severe characters of black and white the jail might have been the the might have been the jail the town hall might have been either or both or any thing else for any thing that appeared to the contrary in the graces of their construction fact fact fact every where in the material aspect of the town fact fact fact every where in the the m school was all fact and the school of design was au fact and the relations between master and all fact and every thing as fact between the in hospital and the and what you t state in figures or show in the market and in the dearest was not and never should be world without end amen a town so sacred to fact and so triumphant in its assertion of i course got on well why no not quite well no dear me i a no did not come out of its own in all respects like gold that had stood the fire first the mystery of the place was who belonged to tl e eighteen because whoever did the laboring people did not it was very strange to walk through the streets on a sunday morning and note how few of them the barbarous of that was driving the sick and nervous mad called away from their own quarter from their own close rooms firom the comers of their own streets where they gazing at all the church and chapel going as at a thing with which they had no manner of concern nor was it merely the stranger who noticed this because there was a native organization in itself whose members were to be heard of in the house of every indignantly acts of parliament that should make these people religious by j main force then came the society who complained that these same people would get drunk and showed in statements that they did get drunk and proved at tea parties tha t no human or divine except a wi to forego custom of hard and with that when they didn t get drunk they took then came the experienced of the jail with more statements all the previous statements and showing that the same people resort to low haunts hidden the eye where they heard low singing and saw low dancing and joined in it and where a b aged twenty four next birthday and committed for eighteen months solitary had himself said not that he had ever shown himself particularly worthy of belief his ruin began as he was perfectly sure and that otherwise he would have been a tip top moral specimen then came mr and mr the two gentlemen at this present moment walking through and both eminently practical who could on occasion furnish more statements derived from their own personal experience and illustrated by cases they had known and seen firom which it clearly appeared in short it was the only clear thing in the that these same people were a bad bt altogether gentlemen that do what you would for them they were never thankful for it gentlemen that they were restless gentlemen that they never knew what they wanted that they lived upon the best and bought fresh butter and insisted on ee and rejected au but prime parts of meat and yet were dissatisfied and in short it was the moral of the old nursery fable there was an old woman and what do you think t she lived upon nothing but and drink and drink were the whole of her diet and yet this old woman would never be quiet is it possible i wonder that there was any between the case of the population and the case of the uttle surely none of us in our sober senses and acquainted with figures
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are to be told at this time of day that one of the foremost elements in the existence of the working people had been for scores of years deliberately set at naught that there was any fancy in them demanding to be brought into healthy existence instead of struggling on in that exactly in the as they worked long and the craving grew within them for some m ea and good q hard times some recognized holiday though it were but for an honest to a stirring band of music some occasional light pie in which even m had no finger which craving must and would be satisfied aright or must and would inevitably go wrong the laws of the creation were this man lives at s end aud i don t quite know s end said mr which is it mr knew it was somewhere down town but knew no more respecting it so they stopped for a moment looking about almost as they did so there came running the comer of the street at a quick pace and with a look a girl whom mr recognized i said he stop where are you going stop girl number twenty stopped then and made him a courtesy why are you tearing about streets said mr in this improper manner i i was run after sir the girl panted and i wanted to get away run after repeated mr who would run after you the question was unexpectedly and suddenly answered for her by the boy who came round the comer with such blind speed and so little a on the pavement that he brought himself up against mr s waistcoat and into the road what do you mean boy said mr what are you doing how dare you dash against every body in this manner picked up his cap which the had knocked ofi and and his forehead pleaded that it was an accident was this boy running after you asked mr yes sir said the girl reluctantly no i t sir cried not till she run away from me but the horse never mind what they say sir they re famous for it you know the x es never what they say i m hard times known in the town as please sir as the table isn t known to the horse tried mr with this he frightened me so said the girl with his cruel faces i oh i cried oh an t you one of the rest an t you a horse rider i never looked at her sir i asked her if she would know how to define a horse to morrow and to tell her again and she ran away and i ran after her sir that she might know how to answer when she was asked you wouldn t have thought of saying such mischief if you hadn t been a her calling seems to be pretty well known among em observed mr you d have had the whole school peeping in a row in a week truly i think so returned his turn you about and take yourself home stay here a moment let me hear of your running in this manner any more boy and you will hear of me through the master of the school you what i mean go along the stopped in his rapid his forehead again glanced at turned about and retreated now girl said mr take this gentleman and me to your father s we are going there what have you got in that bottle you are gin said mr dear no sir i it s the nine the cried mr the nine sir to rub father with then said mr with a loud short laugh what the devil do you rub your father with nine for it s what our people always use sir when they get any hurts in the ring the girl looking over her shoulder to assure herself that her was gone they themselves very bad sometimes serve em right said mr for being idle she glanced up at his face with mingled astonishment and dread by george said mr when i was four or five years younger than you i had worse upon me than ten twenty forty would have rubbed off i didn t get em by posture but by ig t l x ik hard times no rope dancing for me i danced on the bare ground and was with the rope mr though hard enough was by no means so rough a man as mr his character was not unkind all things considered it might have been a very kind one indeed it he had only made some round mistake in the that balanced it years ago he said in what he meant for a re assuring tone as they turned down a narrow road and this is s end is it this is it sir of you wouldn t mind sir this is the house she stopped at twilight at the door of a mean little public house with dim red lights in it as haggard and as shabby as if for want of n it had itself taken to drinking and had gone the way all go and was very near the end of it it s only crossing the bar sir and up the stairs if you would nt mind and waiting there for a moment till i get a candle if you should hear a dog sir it s only and he only and nine eh i said mr entering last with his laugh pretty well this for a self made man chapter vi the name of the public house was the s the s legs might have been more to the but underneath the winged horse upon the sign the s aims was inscribed in roman letters beneath that inscription again in
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a flowing the painter had off the good makes good beer walk in and they ll draw it here good wine makes good brandy give us a call and you ll find it handy framed and glazed upon the wail behind the dingy little bar was another a theatrical one with real let in for his wings golden stars stuck on all over him and his ethereal harness made of red silk as it had grown too dusky without to see the sign and as it had not grown light enough within to see the picture mr and mr received no from these they followed the girl up some steep comer stairs without meeting any one and stopped in the dark while she went on for a candle they every moment to hear give tongue but the highly trained performing dog had not n the girl and the candle appeared together father is not in our room sir she said with a face of great surprise if you wouldn t mind walking in i ll find him directly they walked in and having set two chairs for them sped away with a quick light step it was a mean room with a bed in it the white with two s feathers and a bolt upright in which had that very afternoon the varied performances with his and hung upon a nail but no other portion of his wardrobe or other token of him self or his pursuits was to be seen any where as to that of the t hard times aboard the might have been accidentally shut out of it for any sign of a dog that was manifest to eye or ear in the s they heard the doors of rooms above opening and shutting as y went from one to another in father and they heard voices expressing surprise she came bounding down again in a great hurry opened a battered and old hair trunk found it empty and looked round with her hands clasped and her face full of terror father must have gone down to the sir i don t why he should go there but he must be there til bring him in a minute she was gone directly without her bonnet with her dark childish hair streaming behind her what does she mean said mr back in a minute it s more than a mile off before mr could reply a young man appeared at the door and introducing himself with the words by your leaves gentlemen i walked in with his hands in his pockets his su e close shaven thin and sallow was shaded by a great quantity of dark hair brushed into a roll au his head and parted up the centre his legs were very robust but shorter than legs of good proportions should have been his chest and back were as much too broad as his legs were too short he was dressed in a coat and tight fitting wore a shawl round his neck smelt of lamp oil straw orange horses and and looked a most remarkable sort of of the stable and the play house where the one began and the other ended nobody could have told with any precision this gentleman was mentioned in the bills of the day as mr e w b so justly celebrated for his daring act as the wild of the north american in which popular performance a boy with an old who now accompanied him assisted as his infant son being carried down over his father s shoulder by one foot and held by the crown of his head heels upward in the palm of his father s hand according to the violent paternal manner in which wild be observed to their made up with curls wreaths wings white and into so a aa to x i hard times o the maternal part of the spectators but in private where his characteristics were a coat and an extremely voice he became of the turf by your leaves gentlemen said mr e w b glancing round the room it was you i that were wishing to see it was said mr his daughter has gone to fetch him but i can t wait therefore if you please i will leave a message for him with you you see my friend mr put in we are the kind of people who know the value of time and you are the kind of people who don t know the of time i have not retorted mr after surveying him from head to foot the honor of knowing you but if you mean that i you can make more money of your time than i can of mine i i should judge firom your appearance that you are about right and when you have made it you can keep it too i should think said that said mr master was s mortal name what does he come here us for then cried master showing a very temperament if you want to cheek us pay your at the doors and take it out said mr raising his voice that sir to mr i was addressing myself to you you may or you may not be aware for perhaps you have not been much in the audience that has missed his tip very often lately has what has he missed asked mr glancing at the potent for assistance missed his tip at the four times last night and never done em once said master missed his tip at the too and was loose in his didn t do what he ought to do was short in his leaps and bad in his tumbling mr interpreted oh said mr that is tip is it in a general way that s missing his tip mr e w b answered hard times nine missing tips and eh ejaculated with
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his laugh of laughs sort of company too for a man who has raised himself lower yourself then retorted oh lord i raised yourself so high as all that to let yourself down a bit this is a very lad said mr turning and knitting his brows oa him we d have had a young gentleman to meet you if we had known you were coming retorted master nothing abashed it s a pity you don t have a being so particular you re on the tight ain t you what does this boy mean asked mr him in a sort of desperation by tight there get out get out said mr thrusting his young friend from the room rather in the manner tight or slack it don t much signify it s only tight rope and slack rope you were going to give me a message fat yes i was then continued mr quickly my opinion is he will never receive it do you know much of him i never saw the man in my life i doubt if you ever see him now it s pretty plain to me he is off do you mean that he has deserted his daughter ay i mean said mr with a nod that he has cut he was last night he was the night before last he was to day he has lately got in the way of being always and he can t stand it why has he been so very much asked mr forcing the word out of himself with great solemnity and reluctance his joints are turning stiff and he is getting used up said he has his points as a still but he can t get a living out of a repeated here we go again a speaker if the gentleman likes it better said mr b w b throwing the n s st fi and accompanying it a ol s hard times which all shook at once now it s a feet sir that it cut that man deeper to that his daughter knew of his bein than to go through with it g od interrupted mr this is good i a man so fond of his daughter that he sway her this is devilish good ha ha now f tell you what young man i haven t always occupied my present station of life i know what these things are you may be astonished to hear it but my mother ran away from me e w b that he was not at all astonished to hear it yery u said i bom in a ditch and my mother ran away from me do i excuse her for it no have i ever excused her for it not i what do i call her fix it i call her probably the very worst woman that ever lived in the world except my drunken grandmother there s no pride about me there s no imaginative sentimental about me call a a and i call the mother of of any fear or any favor what i should call her if she had been the mother of dick jones of so with this man he is a rogue and a vagabond that s what he is in english it s au the same to me what he is or what he is not whether in english or whether in french retorted mr e w b facing about i am telling your what s the fact if you don t like to hear it you can avail yourself of the open air you give it mouth enough you do but give it mouth in your own building at least remonstrated e w b with stem irony don t give it mouth in this building till you re upon yon got some building of your own i dare say now perhaps so mr rattling his money and laughing then give it mouth in your own building will you if you please said because this isn t a strong building and too much of you might bring it down mr from head to foot again he turned rom him as fix m a man finally disposed of to mr sent his daughter out on an errand not an hour ago and ih o wm to dip out wi in v ax o i s hard times bundle tied up in a handkerchief under his arm she will never believe it of him but he has cut away and left her pray said mr why will she never believe it of him because those two were one because they were never asunder because up to this time he seemed to upon her said taking a step or two to look into the empty trunk both mr and master walked in a curious manner with their legs wider apart than the general nm of men and with a very knowing assumption of being stiff in the knees this walk was common to all the male members of s company and was understood to express that they were always on horseback poor he had better have her said giving his hair another shake as he looked up from the empty box now he leaves her without any thing to take to it is creditable to you who have never been to express that opinion returned mr never i was when i was seven year old oh indeed said mr rather as having been of his good opinion i was not aware of its being the custom to young persons to idleness mr put in with a bud laugh no by the lord harry i nor i her father always had it in his head resumed of mr s existence that she was to be taught the deuce and all of education how it got into his head i can t say i can only say that it never got out he
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has been picking up a bit of reading for her here and a bit of writing for her there and a at of for her else these seven mr e w b took one of his hands out of his pockets his face and chin and looked with a good deal of doubt and a little hope at mr rom the he had sought to that gentleman for the sake of the deserted girl got into the school here he pursued her father was as pleased as punch i could not altogether make out why as we were not stationary ee si su i however l il as hard times he was always half cracked and then considered her provided for if you should happen to have looked in to night the purpose d telling him that you were going to do her any little service said mr his again and repeating his look it would he very fortunate and well timed very fortunate and timed on the contrary returned mr i came to tell him that her connections made her not an for the and that she must not attend any more still if her father really has left her without any on her part me have a word v you upon this mr himself with his walk to the landing outside the door and there stood his face and softly whistling while thus engaged he heard such phrases in mr s voice as no say no i advise you not i say hy no means while from mr he heard in his much lower tone the words but even as an example to of what this pursuit which has been the subject of a vulgar curiosity leads to and ends in think of it in that point of view meanwhile the various members of s company gradually gathered together from the upper regions where they were and from standing about talking in low voices to one another and to mr gradually themselves and him into the room there were two or three handsome young women among them with their two or three husbands and their or three mothers and their eight or nine httle children who did the fairy business when required the father of one of the was in the habit of the father of another of the on the top of a great pole the father of a third family often made a of both those fathers with master the and himself for the base all the fathers could dance upon rolling stand upon bottles catch knives and balls hand ride upon any thing jump over every thing and stick at nothing au the mothers could and did dance upon the slack wire and the tight rope and perform rapid acts on bare backed none of them were at all particular in respect of showing their legs and one of them alone in a greek chariot drove six in hand into every town they came to si a ri hard times mighty and wing they were not very tidy in their private dresses they were not at all orderly in their domestic arrangements and the combined of the whole company would have produced but a poor letter on any subject yet there was a remarkable gentleness and about these people a special for any kind of sharp practice and an readiness to help and pity one another deserving often of as much respect and always of as much generous construction as the virtues of any class of people in the world last of all appeared mr a stout man as already mentioned with one fixed eye and one loose eye a voice if it can be called so like the efforts of a broken old pair of a surface and a head which was never sober and never drunk said mr who was troubled with and whose breath came far too thick and heavy for the letter s your ith a bad of ith you ve heard of my and dog being to have he addressed mr who answered yes well he returned taking off his hat and rubbing the with his pocket handkerchief which he kept inside it for the purpose ith it your to do any thing for the the poor girl i shall have something to propose to her when she comes back said mr glad to hear it not that i want get rid of the child any more than i want to in her way i m willing to take her though at her age ith late my ith a httle and not heard by them don t know me but if you d been chilled and heated heated and chilled chilled and heated in the ring when you young often i have been wouldn t have out no more than mine i dare say not said mr what it be while you wait it be give it a name said mr with hospitable ease nothing for me i thank t q t i n l hard times don t nothing what doth your friend if you haven t took your feed yet have a of here his daughter a pretty fair haired girl of eighteen who had been tied on a horse at two years old and had made a at twelve which she always carried about with her d her dying desire to be drawn to the grave by the two cried father hush she has come back then came running into the room as she had run out of it and when she saw them all assembled and saw their looks and saw no father there she broke into a most deplorable cry and took refuge on the bosom of the most accomplished tight rope lady herself in the family way who knelt down on the floor to nurse her and to weep over her ith an infernal
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upon my it ith said my dear father my good kind father where are you gone you arc gone to try to do me some good i know you are gone away for my sake i am sure and how miserable and you will be without me poor poor father until you come back it was so pathetic to hear her saying many things of this kind with her face turned upward and her arms stretched out as if she were trying to stop his departing shadow and embrace it that no one spoke a word until mr growing impatient took the case in hand n w good people all said he this is wanton waste of time let the girl understand the fact let her take it from me if you like who have been run away from myself here what s your name your father has deserted you and you mustn t expect to see him again as long as you live they cared so little for plain fact these people and were in that advanced state of on the subject that instead of being impressed by the speaker s strong common sense they took it in extraordinary the men muttered shame and the women brute i and in some haste the following hint apart to mr i tell you what to plain to you my opinion ith that you had better cut it and drop it they re a good d people my people but they re to be quick in their and if you don t act upon my i m damned if i don t believe o wa hard times mr being restrained by this mild suggestion mr found an opening for his eminently practical of the subject it is of no mom at said he whether this person is to be expected back at any tim or the contrary he is gone away and there is no present expectation of his return that i believe is agreed on all hands agreed to that from well then i who came here to inform the father of the poor girl that she could not be received at the school any more in consequence of there being practical objections into which i need not enter to the reception there of the children of persons so employed am prepared in these altered circumstances to make a proposal i am willing to take charge of you and to you and provide for you the only condition over and above your good behavior i make is that you decide now at once whether to accompany me or remain here also that if you accompany me now it is understood that you communicate no more with any of your who are here present these observations the whole of the case at the time said i put in my word tho that both of the banner may be equally if you like to be you know the of the work and you know your in lap you re a at would be a mother to you and would be a to you i don t pretend to be of the angel breed and i don t but what when you d your tip you d find me cut up rough and a oath or two at you but what i ith that good tempered or bad tempered i never did a a injury yet no more than at him went and that i don t expect i begin at my time of life with a rider i never of a and i have my the latter part of this speech was addressed to mr who received it with a grave inclination of his head and then remarked the only observation i will make to you in the way of your decision is that it highly v fi bound practical education and that i v hard times what i understand appears on your to have known and felt that much the last words had a visible upon her she stopped in her wild crying a little detached herself firom and turned her face full upon her patron the whole company pa the force of the change and drew a long breath together that plainly said she will go be sure you know your own mind mr her i say no more be sure you know your own mind when father comes back cried the girl bursting into again after a minute s silence how will he ever find me if i go away you may be quite at ease said mr calmly he worked out the whole matter like a sum you may be quite at ease on that score in such a case your father i apprehend must find out mr my name not of it all over england and ith way must find out mr who would then let him know where you went i should have no power of keeping you against his wish and he would have no at any time in finding thomas of i am well known well known assented l r rolling his loose eye you re one of the that a of money out of the but never mind that at there was another silence and then she exclaimed sobbing with her hands before her face oh give me my clothes give me clothes and let me go away before i break my heart the women sadly themselves to get the clothes together it was soon done for they were not many and to pack them in a basket which had with them sat all the time upon the ground still sobbing and covering her eyes mr and his friend stood near the door ready to take her away mr stood in the middle of the room with the male members of the company about him exactly as he would have stood in the centre of the ring during
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his daughter s performance he wanted nothing but his whip the basket packed in silence they brought her bonnet to her and smoothed her disordered ami ax ib hard pressed about her and bent over her in very natural attitudes kissing d embracing her and brought the children to take leave of her and were a tender hearted simple foolish set of women altogether now said mr if you are quite come but she had to take her farewell of the male part of the company yet and every one of them had to his arms for they all assumed the professional attitude when they found themselves near and give her a parting kiss master in whose young nature there was an original flavor of the who was also known to have matrimonial views and who withdrew mr was reserved until the last opening his arms wide he took her by both her and would have sprung her up and down after the riding master manner of young ladies on their from a rapid act but there was no in and she only stood before him crying good by my dear said you ll make your i hope and none of our poor will ever trouble you i ll pound it i with your father hadn t taken dog with him ith a to have the dog out of the but on he wouldn t have performed without tho ith broad ith long i with that he regarded her attentively with his fixed eye surveyed his company with the loose one kissed her shook his head and handed her to mr as to a horse there the ith he said sweeping her with a professional glance as if she were being adjusted in her seat and the u do you good by good by i good by i god bless you dear in a variety of voices from all the room but the riding master s eye had observed the bottle of the nine in her bosom and he now interposed with leave the bottle my dear ith large to carry it will be of no to you now give it to me no no i she said in another burst of tears oh no pray let me keep it for father till he comes back want it when he back he s si c hard times away when he sent me for it i keep it for him if you please i tho be it my clear you thee how it ith farewell i my to you ith to the of your engagement be obedient to the and forget but if when you re grown up and married and well yon come upon any riding ever don t be hard upon it don t be with it give it a if you can and think you might do people be continued rendered more than ever by so much they can t be a working nor yet they can t be a make the of not the i ve living out of the riding all my life i know but i that i lay down the of the when i to make the of not the the philosophy was as they went down and the fixed eye of philosophy and its rolling eye too boon lost the three figures and the basket in the darkness of the street chapter vii mr being a bachelor an elderly lady presided over his establishment in consideration of a certain annual mrs was this lady s name and she was a prominent figure in attendance on mr s car as it rolled along in triumph with the bully of humility inside for mrs had not only seen days but was highly connected she had a great aunt in these very times called lady mr deceased of whom she was the had been by the mother s side what mrs still called a strangers of limited information and dull apprehension were sometimes observed not to know what a was and even to appear uncertain whether it might be a business or a political party or a profession of faith the better class of minds however did not need to be informed that the were an ancient stock who could trace themselves so exceedingly far back that it was not surprising if they sometimes lost themselves which they had rather frequently done as respected horse flesh blind hebrew transactions and the court the late mr being by the mother s side a married this lady being l the father s side a lady an t old woman with an appetite for butcher s meat and a leg which had now refused to get out of bed for fourteen years contrived the marriage at u period when was just of age and chiefly noticeable for a slender body weakly supported on two long slim and surmounted by no head worth mentioning he inherited a fair fortune from his uncle but owed it all he came into it and spent it twice over afterward thus when he died at twenty four the scene of his v brandy he did not leave his widow v v separated soon after the in ca i a hard times that lady fifteen years older than he fell presently at deadly with her only relative lady and partly to and partly to maintain went out at a and here she was now in her elderly days with the style of nose and the dense black which had making mr s tea as he took ha breakfast if i had been a conqueror and mrs a captive princess whom he took about as a feature in his state he could not have made a greater flourish with her than he did just as it belonged to his to fail own so it belonged to it to mrs s in tho measure that he would not allow his own youth
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to have been attended by a single favorable circumstance he brightened s career with every possible advantage and wagon loads of early roses all over that lady s path and yet sir he would say how does it turn out after all why here she is at a hundred a year i give her a hundred which is to term handsome keeping the house of of nay he made this foil of his so very widely known that parties took it up and handled it on some occasions with able it was one of the most attributes of that he not only sang his own praises but stimulated other men to sing them there was a moral of in him strangers modest enough elsewhere started up at in and boasted in quite a way of they made him out to be the royal arms the union jack john bull the bill of an englishman s house is his castle church and state ai d saw the all put together and as often and it was very often as an orator of this kind brought into his princes and lords may flourish or may fade a breath can make them as a breath has made it was for certain more or less understood among the company that ho had heard of mrs mr said mrs om j with your breakfast this hard times why ma am he returned i am about tom s whim tom for a bluff independent manner of speaking as if somebody were always to bribe him with immense sums to say thomas and he wouldn t tom s whim ma am of bringing up the tumbling girl the girl is now waiting to know said mrs whether she is to go straight to the school or up to the lodge she must wait ma am answered till i know myself we shall have tom down here presently i suppose if he should wish her to remain here a day or two longer of course she can ma am of course she can if you wish it mr i told him i would give her a shake down here last night in order that he might sleep on it before he decided to let her have any association with f indeed mr very of you mn s nose a of the nostrils and her black eyebrows contracted as she took a of tea it s tolerably clear to me said that the httle can get small good out of such companionship you speaking of young miss mr yes ma am i am speaking of your observation being limited to little said mrs and there being two httle girls in question i did not know which might be indicated by that expression repeated mr you are quite another father to sir mrs took a httle more tea and as she bent her again contracted eyebrows over her steaming cup rather looked as if her classical were the infernal gods if you had said i was another father to tom young tom i mean not my friend tom you might have been nearer the mark i am going to take young tom into my office going to have him under my wing ma am indeed rather young for that is he not sir mrs s su in addressing mr was a word of ceremony rather consideration for herself m b bim hard times vm not going to take him at once he is to finish his before then said by the lord harry he ll have enough of it first and last he d open his eyes that boy would if he knew how empty of learning my young was at his time of life which by by he probably did know for he had heard of it often enough but it s tin i have on scores of such subjects in speaking to any one on equal terms here for example i have been speaking to yoa this morning about why what do you know about at the time when to have been a in the mud of the streets would have been a to me a prize in the to me you were at the italian opera you were coming oat of the italian opera ma am in white satin and jewels a blaze of splendor when i hadn t a penny to buy a link to light you i certainly sir returned mrs with a dignity mournful was familiar with the italian opera at a veiy age ma am so was i said with the wrong side of it a hard bed the pavement of its used to make i assure you people like you ma am accustomed om infancy to lie on down feathers have no idea how hard a is without trying it no no it s of no use my talking to you about i should speak of foreign dancers and the west end of london and may fair and lords and ladies and i trust sir rejoined mrs with decent it is not necessary that you should do any thing of that kind i hope i have learned how to accommodate myself to the changes of life if have acquired an interest in hearing of your ive experiences and can scarcely hear enough of them i claim no merit for that since i believe it is a general sentiment well ma am said her patron perhaps some people maybe pleased to say that they do like to hear in his own way what of has gone through but you must confess that you were bom in the lap of luxury yourself come ma am you know you were born in the lap of luxury i do not sir returned mrs with a shake of her head deny if hard times mr as obliged to get up from table and stand with his back to the fire looking
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at her she was such an of his merits and you were in crack society devilish high society he said his legs it is true ar returned mrs with an of the very opposite of his and therefore in no danger of i it you were in the fashion and all the rest of it said mr yes sir returned mrs with a kind of social upon her it is unquestionably true mr bending himself at the knees embraced his legs in his great satisfaction and laughed aloud mr and miss being then announced he received the former with a shake of the hand and the latter with a kiss can be sent here asked mr certainly so was sent there on coming in she to mr and to his tom and also to but in her confusion omitted mrs observing this the had the following remarks to make now i tell you what my girl the name of that lady by the is mrs that lady acts as mistress of this house and she is a highly connected lady consequently if ever you come again into any room in this house you will make a short stay in it if you don t behave toward that lady in your most respectful manner now i don t care a button what you do to we because l don t to be any body so far fin m having high connection s i have no connections at all and i come of the of the earth l but toward that lady i do care what you do and you shall do y what is and respectful or you shall not come here i hope said mr in a voice that this was merely an my friend tom suggests mrs said that this was merely an very likely however as you are aware ma am i don t allow of even toward you you are very good indeed r hard times her head th her state humility it is not worth of who all this time had heen faintly herself with tears iii her eyes was now waved over by the master of the to mr she stood looking intently at him and stood coldly by with her eyes upon the ground while he proceeded thus i have made up my mind to take you into my and when you are not in attendance at the school to employ yoa about mrs who is rather an i have to miss this is miss the miserable but natural end of your late career and you are to expressly understand that the whole of that subject is past and is not to be referred to any from this time you begin your history you are at present ignorant i know yes sir very she answered i shall have the satisfaction of causing you to be strictly educated and you will be a proof to all who come into communication with you of the advantages of the training you will receive you will be and formed you have been in the habit now of reading to your father and those people i found you among i dare say said mr her nearer to him before he said so and dropping his voice only to father and sir at least i mean to father when was always there never mind said mr with a passing frown i don t ask about him i understand you to have been in the habit of reading to your father yes sir thousands of times they were the happiest of all the happy times we had together sir it was only now when her grief broke out that looked at her and what asked mr in a still lower voice did you read to your father about the sir and the dwarf and the and the she sobbed out there said mr that is enough never breathe a word of such destructive nonsense any this is a case for rigid training and tl l x w hard times q well returned mr i have given you my opinion already and i shouldn t do as you do but very well very well since you are bent upon it very well so mr and his daughter took off with them to stone lodge and on the way never spoke one word good or bad and mr went about his daily pursuits and mrs got behind her eyebrows and meditated in the gloom of that retreat all the morning c chapter let us strike tho key note again the tune when she was half a dozen younger had been overheard to begin a conversation with her brother one day by saying tom i wonder upon which mr who waa the person stepped forth into the light and said never wonder lay the spring of the mechanical art and mystery of the reason without stooping to the of the sentiments and never wonder by means of addition and division settle every thing somehow and never wonder bring to me says m yonder baby just able to walk and i will engage that it shall never wonder now besides very many babies just able to walk there happened to be in a considerable population of babies who had been walking against time toward the world twenty thirty forty fifty years and more these being alarming creatures to stalk about in any human society the eighteen incessantly scratched one another s faces and pulled one another s hair by way of agreeing on the steps to be taken for their improvement which they never did a surprising circumstance when the happy of the means to the end is considered still although they differed in every other particular conceivable and inconceivable especially inconceivable they were pretty well united on the point that these unlucky were never to wonder body number one said they must take every thing on
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of the high presses in the room were all blended together on the wall and on the ceiling as if the brother and sister were by a dark or a fanciful imagination if such treason could have been there might have made it out to be the shadow of their subject and of its lowering association with their future what is your great mode of and managing tom is it a secret oh said tom if it is a secret it s not far off it s you you are his little pet you are his favorite he ll do any thing for you when he says to me what i don t like i shall say to him my sister loo will be hurt and disappointed mr she always used to tell me she was sure you would be easier with me than this that ll bring him about or nothing will after waiting for some answering and getting none tom wearily into the present time and himself yawning round and about the rails of his chair and his head more and more until he suddenly looked up and asked have you gone to sleep loo no tom i am looking at the fire you seem to find more to look at in it than ever i could find said tom another of the advantages i suppose of being a girl tom inquired his sister slowly and in a curious tone as if she were reading what she asked in the fire and it were not plainly written there do you look forward with any to this change to mr sl why there s one thing to be o r t i hard times ing his chair firom him and standing up it will be getting away from home there is one thing to be said of it repeated in her former curious tone it will be getting away home yes not but what i shall be very unwilling both to leave yon loo and to leave you here but i must go you know i it or not and i had better go where i can take with me some of your influence than where i should lose it altogether t you see yes tom the answer was so long in coming though there was no in it that tom went and leaned on the back of her chair to contemplate the fire which so engrossed her firom her point df view and see what he could make of it except that it is a fire said tom it looks to me as stupid and blank as every thing else looks what do you see in it not a i don t see any thing in it tom but since i have been looking at it i have been wondering about you and me grown up wondering again said tom i have such thoughts returned his sister that they wonder then i beg of you said mrs who had the door without being heard to do nothing of that description for goodness sake you girl or i shall never hear the last of it fi om your father and thomas it is really with my poor head continually wearing me out that a boy brought up as you have been and whose education has cost what yours has should be found encouraging his sister to wonder when he knows his father has expressly said that she is not to do it denied tom s in the but her mother stopped her with the answer don t tell me in my state of health for unless you had been encouraged it is morally and physically impossible that you could have done it i was encouraged by nothing but by looking at the dropping out of the e aa times made me think after all how short my life would be and how little i could hope to do in it nonsense d mrs rendered almost energetic nonsense i don t stand there and tell me such stuff to my face when you know very well that if it was ever to reach your father s ears i should never hear the last of it after all the trouble that has been taken with you after the lectures you have attended and the experiments you have seen after i have heard you myself when the whole of my right side has been going on with your master about and and and i may say every kind of that could drive a poor invalid distracted to hear you talking in this absurd way about sparks and ashes i wish mrs taking a chair and her strongest point before under these mere shadows of facts yes i really do wish that i ad never had a and then you would have known what it was to do without me v chapter el had not an easy time of it between mr m and mrs and was not without strong impulses in the first months of her to run a way it hailed facts all day long so very hard and life in general was opened to her as such a closely ruled book that assuredly she would have run away but for only one restraint it is lamentable to think of but this restraint was the result of no process was self imposed in defiance of all calculation and went dead against any table of that any would have drawn up from the premises the girl believed that her father had not deserted her she in the hope that he would come back and in the faith that he would be made the happier by her remaining where she was the wretched ignorance with which clung to this consolation the superior comfort of knowing on a sound basis that her father was an vagabond filled mr with pity yet what was to be done m reported that she
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had a very dense head for figures that possessed with a general idea of the globe she took the smallest conceivable interest in its exact that she was extremely slow in the acquisition of dates unless some pitiful incident happened to be connected that she would into tears on being required by the mental process immediately to name the cost of two hundred and forty seven muslin caps at that she was as low down in the as low could be that after eight weeks of into the elements of political economy she had only yesterday been set right by a three feet high for returning to the question what is the first principle of this science the absurd answer to do unto others as i would that they should do unto me mr observed t x ij h ed times very bad that it showed the necessity of infinite grinding at the mill of knowledge as per system blue book report and statements a to z and that must be kept to it so was kept to it and became very low spirited but no wiser it would be a fine thing to be you miss she said one night when had endeavored to make her for next day something clearer to her do you think so i should know so much miss all that is difficult to me now would be so easy then you might not be the better for it submitted a little hesitation i should not be the worse miss to which miss answered i don t know that there had been so little communication between these both because life at stone lodge went round like a piece of machinery which discouraged human interference and because of the relative to s past career that they were still almost strangers with her dark eyes directed to s face was uncertain whether to say more or to remain silent you are more useful to my mother and more pleasant with her than i can ever be resumed you are pleasanter to yourself than i am to but if you please miss pleaded i am so stupid with a brighter laugh than usual told her she would be wiser by and by you don t know said half crying what a stupid girl i am all through school hours i make mistakes mr and mrs m call me up over and over again regularly to make mistakes i can t help them they seem to come natural to me mr and mrs m never make any mistakes themselves i suppose no she eagerly returned they know every thing tell me some of your mistakes am almost ashamed said t x hard s to day for instance mr m was explaining to iu about natural prosperity national i think it must have been yes it was but isn t it the same she timidly asked i you had better say national as he said bo with her dry reserve national prosperity and ho said now this is a nation and in this nation there are fifty millions of money isn t this a prosperous nation girl number twenty isn t this a prosperous nation and a n t you in a state what did you say v asked miss i said i didn t know i thought i couldn t whether it was a prosperous nation or not and whether i was in a state or not unless i knew who had got the and whether any of it was mine but that had nothing to do with it it was not in the figures at all said wiping ha eyes that was a great mistake of yours observed yes miss i know it was now then mr m said he would try me again and he said this is an immense town and in it there are a million of inhabitants and only five and twenty are starved to death in the streets in the course of a year what is your remark on that proportion and my remark was for i couldn t think of a better one that i thought it must be just as hard upon those who were starved whether the others were a million or a million million and that was wrong too of course it was then mr m said he would try me once and he said here are the said yes miss they always remind me of and that s another of my k f accidents upon the sea and i find mr m said that in a given time a hundred thousand persons went to sea on long voyages and only five of them were drowned or burned to death what is the and i said miss here fairly sobbed as with extreme to her greatest error i said it was nothing i ha d times nothing nothing miss to the relations and friends of the people who were killed i shall never learn said and the worst of all is that although my poor father wished me so much to learn and although i am so anxious to learn because he wished me to i am afraid i don t like it stood looking at the pretty modest head as it drooped abashed before her until it was raised again to glance at her face then she asked did your father know so much himself that he wished you to be well taught too hesitated before replying and so plainly showed her sense that they were entering on forbidden ground that added no one hears us and if any one did i am sure no harm could be found in such an innocent question no miss answered upon this encouragement shaking her head father knows very little indeed it s as much as he can do to write and it s more than people in general can
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do to read his writing though it s plain to me your mother father says she was quite a scholar she died when i was bom she was made the terrible communication nervously she was a did your father love her asked these questions with a strong wild wandering interest peculiar to her an interest gone astray like a banished creature and hiding in solitary places yes as dearly as he loves me father loved me first for her sake he carried me about with him when i was quite a baby we have never been asunder from that time yet he leaves you now only for my good nobody understands him as i do nobody knows him as i do when he left me for my good he never would have left me for his own i know he was almost with the trial he will not be happy for a single minute till he comes back tell me more about him said i will never ask you where did you live we about the and j ti hard times live in father s a whispered the awful word a to make the people laugh said with a nod of yes but they wouldn t laugh sometimes and then lately they very often wouldn t laugh and he used to home despairing father s not like most those who didn t know him as well as i do and didn t love him as dearly u i do might he was not quite right sometimes they played tricks upon him but they never knew how he felt them and shrunk up when he was alone with me he was than they thought i and you were his comfort through every thing nodded with the tears rolling down her face i hope and father said i was it was because he grew so scared and trembling and because he felt himself to be a poor weak helpless man those used to be his words that he wanted me bo much to know a great deal and be from him i used to read to him to cheer his courage and he was very fond of that they were wrong books i am never to speak of them but we didn t know there was any harm in them and he liked them said with her searching gaze on all this time very much they kept him many times from what did him real harm and often and of a night he used to all his troubles in wondering whether the would let the lady go ou with the story or would have her head cut off before it was and your father was always kind to the last asked the great principle and wondering very much always always returned clasping her hands kinder and kinder than i can tell ho was angry only one night and that was not to me but merry legs she whispered the awful fact is his performing dog why was he angry with the dog demanded father soon after they came from performing told to jump up on the backs of the two chairs and stand them which is one of his tricks he looked at father and didn t do it at once every thing of at k a a aj go h d times he hadn t pleased the public at all he cried out that the very dog knew he was failing and had no compassion on him then he beat the dog and i was frightened and said father father pray don t hurt the creature who is so fond of you heaven you father stop i and he stopped and the dog waa bloody and father lay down crying on the floor with the dog in his arms and the dog licked his face saw that she was sobbing and going to her kissed her took her hand and sat down beside her finish by telling me how your father left you now that i have asked you so much tell me the end the blame if there is any blame is mine not yours dear miss said covering her eyes and sobbing yet i came home from the school that afternoon and found poor father just come home too from the and he sat rocking himself over the fire as if he was in pain and i said have you hurt yourself father v as he did sometimes like they all did and he said a little my darling and when i came to stoop down and look up at his face i saw that he was crying the more i spoke to him the more he hid his face and at first he shook all over and said nothing my darling and my love i here tom came lounging in and stared at the two with a cool a ness not particularly of interest in any thing but it and not much of that at present i am asking a few questions tom observed his sister you have no occasion to go away but don t interrupt us for a moment tom dear oh very weu i returned tom only father has brought old home and i want you to come into the drawing i room because if you come there s a good chance of old j s asking me to dinner and if you don t there s none j i ll come directly i ll wait for you said tom to make sure resumed in a lower voice at last poor father said that he had given no satisfaction again and never did give any satisfaction now and that he was a shame and disgrace and i should have done better without him au along i said all the things to him that came into my heart and ia aa s and i sat down by
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him and told t tn aft aj si sc v hard times thing that had been said and done there when i had no more left to tell ho put his arms round my neck and kissed me a great many times then he asked me to some of the stuff he for the httle hurt he had had and to get it at the best place whidi was at the other end of town from there and then after me again he let me go when i had gone down i back that i might be a httle bit more company to him yet and looked in at the door and said father dear shall i take father shook his head and said no no take nothing that s known to be mine my darling and i left him sitting by the then the thought must have come upon him poor poor ther i of going away to try something for my sake for when i came back he was gone i say look sharp for old loo tom remonstrated there s no more to tell miss i keep the nine ready for him and i know he will come back every letter that i see in mr s hand takes my breath away and blinds my eyes for i think it comes from father or firom mr about father mr promised to write as soon as ever father should be heard of and i trust to him to keep his word do look sharp for old loo said tom with an impatient whistle he ll be off if you don t look sharp this whenever dropped a courtesy to mr in the presence of his family and said in a faltering way i beg your pardon sir for being troublesome but you had any letter yet about me would the occupation of the moment whatever it was and look for the as as did and when mr regularly answered no nothing of the sort the trembling of s lip would be repeated in s face and her eyes would follow with compassion to the door mr nd usually improved these occasions by remarking when she was gone that if had been properly trained from an early age she have j to herself on sound principles the of these fantastic i hopes yet it did seem though not to him for he saw nothing of i it as if fantastic hope could take as strong a hold as fact this observation must be limited exclusively to his daughter ai o tom he was becoming that not m g te sl l oc calculation which is usually at su hard times if she said any thing on the subject she would come a little way out of her hke a feminine and say good gracious bless me how my poor head is vexed and worried by that girl s so asking over and over again about her tiresome letters upon my word and honor i seem to be fated and destined and ordained to live in the midst of things that i am never to hear the last of it really is a most extraordinary circumstance that it appears as if i never was to hear the last of any thing at about this point mr s eye would fall upon her and under the influence of that wintry piece of fact she would become again chapter x i a idea that the people as as any people upon whom the sun shines i acknowledge to this ridiculous as a reason why i would them a little more play in the hardest working part of in the of that ugly where nature was as out as killing airs and were in at the of the of narrow courts upon courts and close streets streets which had come into existence piece int violent hurry for some one man s purpose and the whole an un natural family and and pressing one another to death in the last close nook of this great exhausted ie where the chimneys for want of air to make a draught built in an immense variety of and crooked ai though every house put out a sign of the kind of people who be expected to be bom in it among the multitude of called the hands a race who would have more favor with some people if providence had seen fit to them only hands or like the lower creatures of the only hands and lived a certain years of age looked older but he had had a hard life it is said that every life has its roses and thorns there seemed however to have been a or mistake in s case somebody else had become possessed of his roses and he had possessed of the same somebody else s thorns in addition to his own he had known to use his words a of trouble he was ally called old in a kind of rough homage to the fact a rather stooping man with a brow a pondering expression of face and a hard looking head sufficiently on which his iron gray hair lay long and thin old might have passed for a m u hard times he was not he took no place among those remarkable hands who together their broken intervals of leisure through many years had mastered difficult and acquired a knowledge of most unlikely things he held no station among the hands who could make speeches and carry on thousands of his could talk much better than he at any time he was a g ood loom and a man of perfect integrity what more he was or what else he had in him if any thing let him show for himself the lights in the great which looked when they were illuminated like fairy palaces or the by express train said
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so were all extinguished and the bells had rung for knocking off for the night and had ceased again and the hands men and women boy and girl were home old was standing in the street with the odd sensation upon him which the of the machinery always produced the sensation of its having worked and stopped in his own head yet i don t see still said he it was a wet night and many groups of young women passed him with their drawn ov r their bare heads and held close under their to keep the rain out he knew well for a glance at any one of these groups was sufficient to show him that she was not there at last there were no more to come and then he away saying in a tone of disappointment why then i ha missed her but he had not gone the length of three streets when he saw another of the figures in advance of him at which he looked so keenly that perhaps its mere shadow reflected on the wet pavement if he could have seen it without the figure itself moving along from lamp to lamp brightening and fading as it went would have been enough to tell him who was there making his pace at once much quicker and much softer he darted on until he was very near this figure then into his former walk and called she being then in the brightness of a lamp and raising her hood a little a quiet oval face dark and rather delicate by a pair of very gentle eyes and further set off by the perfect order of her shining black w a vo si its rat bloom she was a woman five e d hard times ah lad tis thou when she had said this with a have bt t ii quite though nothing of her had i but her pleasant eyes she her hood again and ou i thou me t i m a little early times a little late fm never to be counted on home going t other way neither t seems to me iso he looked at her with some disappointment in his face but with a respectful and patient conviction that she must he light m whatever she did the expression was not lost upon her she laid her hand lightly on liis arm a moment as if to thank him for it ye are such true friends lad and such old friends getting to be such old folk now no rt as yoimg as ever thou one of us be puzzled how to get old t other getting so too both being alive she answered laughing but any ways we re such old friends that t hide a word of honest truth one another would be a sin and a pity tis better not to walk too much together times yes be hard indeed if twas not to be at all she said with a she sought to to him tis hard any ways try to think not and seem better i ve tried a long time and t a nt got better but thou it right t might make folk talk even of thee thou hast been that to me through so many year thou hast done me so much good and of me in that cheering way that thy word is a law to me ah and a bright good law better than some real ones never fret about them she answered quickly and not without an anxious glance at liis face let the laws bo y s he said with a slow nod or two let em be let j every thing be let all sorts alone tis a and that s i all hard times always a said with another gentle touch upon his arm as if to recall him out of the in which he was the long ends of his loose as he walked along the touch had its he let them fall tamed a smiling face upon her and said as he broke into a j ood laugh ay a that s where i stick i come to the many times and and i never get beyond it they had walked some distance and were near their own homes the woman s was the first reached it was in one of the many small streets for which the favorite who turned a handsome sum out of the one poor ghastly pomp of the neighborhood kept a black ladder in order that those who had n done their daily groping up and down the narrow stairs might out of this working world by the windows she stopped at comer and putting her hand in his wished him good night good night good night she went with her neat figure and her sober womanly step down the dark street and he stood looking after her until she turned into one of the small houses there was not a flutter of her coarse shawl perhaps but had its interest in this man s eyes not a tone of her voice but had its echo in his heart when she was lost to his view he pursued his homeward way glancing up sometimes at the where the clouds were sailing fast and wildly but they were broken now and the rain had ceased and the shone looking down the high chimneys of on the deep below and casting shadows of the steam engines at rest upon the walls where they were lodged the man seemed to have brightened with the night as he went on his home in such another street as the first saving that it was was over a little shop how it came to pass that any people found it worth their while to sell or buy the wretched little toys
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mixed up in its window with cheap newspapers and pork there was a leg to be for to morrow night matters not here he took his end of candle from a shelf lighted it at another end of candle on the without disturbing the mistress of the shop who was asleep in her little wa q s into bis lodging hard times it was a room not with tbe black ladder under various tenants but as neat at present as such a room could be a few books and writings were on an old in a comer the furniture was decent and sufficient and though the atmosphere was the room was clean going to the hearth to set the candle down upon a round table standing there he stumbled against ab he looking down at it it raised itself up into the form of a woman in a sitting attitude heaven s mercy woman he cried falling further off the figure hast thou come back again such a woman a drunken creature barely able to preserve the sitting posture by herself with one hand on the floor while the other was so in trying to push away her tangled hair from her face that it only blinded her the more with the dirt upon it a creature so foul to look at in her and but so much than that in her moral that it was a shameful thing even to see her after an impatient oath or two and some stupid of herself with the hand not necessary to her support she got her hair away from her eyes sufficiently to obtain a sight of him then she sat swaying her body to and fro and making gestures with her arm which seemed intended as the accompaniment to a fit of laughter though her face was stolid and drowsy lad what yo r there some hoarse sounds meant for this came out of her at last and her head dropped forward on her breast back she after some minutes as if he had that moment said it yes and back back ever and ever so often back yes back why not roused by the violence with which she cried it out she scrambled up and stood supporting herself with her shoulders against the wall dangling in one hand by the string a of a bonnet and trying to look scornfully at him i ll sell thee off again and i ll sell thee off again and i ll sell thee off a score of times i she cried with something between a furious menace and an at a defiant a wa from th bed he was sitting on l v o vi hard times hidden in his hands come from t tis mine and i ve a right to h i as she staggered to it he avoided her with a shudder and passed his face still hidden to the opposite end of the room she threw herself upon the bed heavily and soon was hard he sunk into a chair and moved but once all that night it was to throw a covering over her as if his hands were not enough to hide her even in the darkness chapter xi the fairy palaces burst out into pale morning showed the monstrous of smoke trailing over a of upon the pavement a rapid ringing of bells and all the melancholy mad and up for the day s monotony were at their heavy exercise again bent over his loom quiet watchful and steady a special contrast as every man was in the forest of when worked to the crashing tearing piece of at which he labored never fear good people of an turn of mind that art nature to oblivion set any where side by side the work of god and the work of man and the former even though it be a troop of hands of very account will gain in solemn dignity from the comparison four hundred and more hands in this mill two hundred and fifty horse steam power it is to the force of a single pound weight what the engine do but not all the of the national debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil for love or hatred for patriotism or discontent for the of virtue into vice or the reverse at any single moment in the soul of one of these its quiet servants with the composed faces and the regulated actions there is no mystery in it there is an mystery in the meanest of them forever supposing we were to reserve our for material objects and to these awful unknown quantities by other means i the day grew strong and showed itself outside even against the flaming lights within the lights were turned out and the work went on the rain fell and the smoke to the curse of all that tribe themselves upon the earth in the waste yard outside the steam from the escape pipe the litter of barrels and old iron the shining n o co t every where were in a oi ax f hard times the work went on until the noon bell rang more upon the the and wheels and hands all out y of gear for an hour y came ont of the hot mill into the wind and the cold wet streets haggard and worn he turned from his own class and his own quarter taking nothing but a httle bread as he walked along toward the on which his principal employer lived in a red house with black outside shutters green inside a black street door up two white steps in letters very uke himself upon a brazen plate and a round brazen door handle it like a brazen fuu stop mr was at his lunch so had expected would his servant say that one of the hands begged leave
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of years unlucky job t hard times not e en bo i were one and twenty she were twenty indeed sir said mrs to her chief with great i inferred from its being so miserable a that it was probably an unequal one in point of years mr looked very hard at the good lady in a way that had an odd about it he fortified himself with a httle more well why don t you go on he then asked turning rather on i ha to ask yo sir how i am to be ridden o this woman a yet deeper gravity into the mixed expression of his attentive face mrs uttered a gentle as having received a moral shock what do you mean said getting up to lean his back against the chimney piece what axe you talking about you took her for better for worse i be ridden o her i bear t i ha lived under t so long for that i ha had n the pity and the comforting words o th best living or dead but for her i should ha gone mad he wishes to be free to marry the female of whom he speaks i fear sir observed mrs in an under tone and much dejected by the of the people i do the lady says what s right i do i were a coming to t i ha read i th papers that great fair fa v a i wishes em no hurt are not together for better for worse bo fast but that they can be set free their marriages and marry when they agree for that their is ill they have rooms of one kind an another in their houses and they can live we ha only one room and we can t when that won t do they ha and other cash and they can say this for yo and that for me and i they can go their separate ways we can t spite o all that i they can be set free for smaller wrongs than is suffered by hun an of us by women fur more than men they can be set free for smaller wrongs than mine so i be o this wife o mine and i want t know how no how returned mr p i do her any hurt sir there s a o v hard times of course there is if i flee from her there s a law to punish me of course there is if i marry t dear there s a law to punish me of course there is if i was to live wi her an not marry her saying such a thing could be which it never could or would an her so good there s a law to punish me in every innocent belonging to me of course there is now a god s name said show me the law to help me i there s a in this relation of life said mr and and it must be kept up no no say that sir tan t up that way not that way tis down that way i m a i were in a fact ry when a but i ha gotten een to see wi and to hear wi i read in th papers every sizes every and you read too i know it with dismay how th impossibility o ever getting from one another at any price on any terms brings blood upon this land and brings many common married i say women fur of than men to battle murder and sudden death let us ha this right understood mine s a grievous case an i want if yo will be so good t know the law that helps me now i tell you what i said mr putting his hands in his pockets there is such a law into his quiet manner and never wandering in his attention gave a nod but it s not for you at all it costs money it costs a of money how much might that be calmly asked why you d have to go to doctors with a suit and you d have to go to a court of common law with a suit and you d have to go to the house of lords with a suit and you d have to get an act of parliament to enable you to marry again and it would cost you if it was a case of very plain sailing i suppose from a thousand to fifteen hundred pound said mr s twice the money there s no other law not it hard times why then sir said white and with that right hand of his as if he gave every thing to the four a a tis just a a an the i ain dead the better mrs again dejected by the of the don t you talk nonsense my good fellow said mr about things you don t understand and don t you call the institutions of your country a or you ll get yourself into a real one of these fine mornings the of your country are not your piece work and the only thing you have got to do is to mind your piece work you didn t take your wife for fast and for loose but for better for if she has turned out worse why all we have got to say is mi have turned out better tis a said shaking his head as he moved to the door tis a a i now i ll tell you what i mr resumed as a address with what i shall call your wed you have been quite shocking this lady who as i have already told you is a bom lady and who as i have not already told
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you has had her own marriage misfortunes to the tune of of thousands of pounds of thou sands of he repeated it with great relish now you have always been a steady hand hitherto but my opinion is and so i tell you plainly that you are turning into the wrong road you have been listening to some mischievous stranger or other they re always about and the best thing you can do is to come out of that now you understand here his countenance expressed i can see as far into a as another man further than a good many perhaps because i had my nose well kept to it i was young i see traces of the soup and and gold in this yes i do i cried mr shaking his head obstinate cunning by the lord harry i do i with a very shake of the head and a deep sigh said thank you sir i wish you good day so he left mr swelling at his own portrait on the wall as if he were going to himself into it and mrs still on her foot in her looking quite cast b tha vices i chapter old descended the two white steps shutting the black door with the brazen door plate by the aid of the brazen full stop i to which he gave a parting polish with the sleeve of his coat observing that his hot hand clouded it he crossed the street with his eyes bent upon the ground and thus was walking sorrowfully away when he felt a touch upon his arm it was not the touch he needed most at such a moment the touch that could calm the wild waters of his soul as the uplifted hand of the love and patience could the raging of the sea yet it was a s hand too it was an old woman tall and still though withered by time on whom his eyes when he stopped and turned she was very and plainly dressed had country mud upon her shoes and was newly come from a journey the flutter of her manner in the unwonted noise of the streets the spare shawl carried unfolded on her arm the heavy and little basket the loose long gloves to which her hands were unused all an old woman firom the country in her plain holiday clothes come into on an expedition of rare occurrence remarking this at a glance with the quick observation of his class bent his attentive his face which like the faces of many of his order by dint of long working with eyes and hands in the midst of a pro i noise had acquired the concentrated look with which we are familiar in the countenances of the deaf the better to what she asked him pray sir said the old woman didn t i see you come out of that gentleman s house pointing back to mr s i believe it was you unless i have had the bad luck to mistake the person in following yes returned it were me have you ll excuse an old ok i seen the gentleman hard times yes and how lid ho look sir was he bold hearty as she straightened her own figure and held up her head iu her action to her words the idea crossed that he had seen this old woman and had not quite liked her yes he returned observing her more he all that and healthy said the old woman as the wind yes returned he were n and drinking as large and as loud as a thank you said the old with infinite thank you he certainly never had seen this old woman before yet there was a vague remembrance in his mind as if he had more than once dreamed of some old woman hke her she walked along at his side and gently himself to her humor he said was a busy place was it not to which she answered sure dreadful busy then he said she came the he saw to which she answered in the affirmative by this morning i came forty mile by this morning and am going back the same fi mile this afternoon i walked nine mile to the station this morning and if i find nobody on the road to give me a lift i shall walk the nine mile back to night that s pretty well sir at my age said the old woman her eyes brightening with exultation deed tis don t do t too often no no once a year she answered shaking her head i spend my so once every year i come regular to tramp about the streets and see the gentlemen only to see em returned that s enough for me she replied with great earnestness and interest of manner i ask no more i i have been standing about on this side of the way to see that gentleman turning her head back toward mr s again come out but he s late this year and i have not seen him you came out instead now if i am obliged to go back without a glimpse of him i only want a glimpse well i have seen you and you have seen i harp times and i must make that do saying this she looked at as if to fix his features in her mind and her eyes were not so bright as they had been with a large allowance for difference of tastes and with all submission to the of this seemed so extraordinary a source of interest to take so much trouble about that it perplexed him but they were passing the church now and as his eye caught the clock he quickened his pace he was going to his work the old woman said hers too quite easily yes
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time was nearly out on his telling her where he worked the old woman became a more singular old woman than before an t you happy she asked him why there s nobody but has their troubles he answered because the old woman appeared to take it for granted that he would be very happy indeed and he had not the heart to disappoint her he knew that there was trouble enough in the world and if the old woman had lived so long and could count upon his having so httle why so much the better for her and none the worse for him ay ay you have your troubles at home you mean she said times just now and then he answered but working under such a gentleman they don t follow you to the factory no no they didn t follow him there said all correct there every thing there he did not go so as to say for her pleasure that there was a sort of divine eight there but i have heard claims almost as magnificent of late years they were now in the black by road near the place and the hands were crowding in the was ringing and the serpent was a serpent of many and the elephant was getting ready the strange old woman was with the very bell it was the she had ever heard she said and sounded grand she asked him when he stopped good to shake hands with her before going in how long he had worked there a dozen year he told her hard times i must the hand said she that has worked in fine factory for a dozen year and she lifted it though he have prevented her and put it to her lips what harmony he sides her age and her simplicity her he did not hut even in this fantastic action there was a something neither ou of time nor place a something which it seemed as if nobody could have made as serious or done with such a natural am touching air he had heen at his loom full half an hour thinking about thi old woman when having occasion to move round the loom its he glanced through a window which waa in hi comer and saw her still looking up at the pile of ii admiration heedless of the smoke and mud and wet and of hei two long journeys she was gazing at it as if the heavy that issued from its many stories were proud music to her she was gone by and by and the day went after her and the lights sprung up again and the express whirled in full sight of the fairy palace over the arches near little felt amidst the of the machinery and scarcely heard above its crash and long before then his thoughts had gone back to the dreary above the little shop and to the shameful figure heavy on the bed but heavier on his heart machinery throbbing feebly like a stopped the bell again the glare of light and heat the heavy in the black wet night their tail chimneys rising up into the air like towers of he had spoken to only last night it was true and had walked with her a little way but he had his new misfortune oi him in which no one else could give him a moment s relief and for the sake of it and because he knew himself to want that soft of his anger which no voice but hers could he felt hi might so far disregard what she had said as to wait for her again he waited but she had him she was gone on no night in the year could he so ill have spared her patient face better to have no home in which to lay his head than ti have a home and dread to go to it through such a cause he at and drank for he was exhausted but he little knew or what and he wandered about in t iq c thinking and brooding and hard times no word of a new marriage had ever passed between them but had taken great pity on him years ago and to her alone he had opened his closed heart all this time on the subject of his miseries and he knew very well that if he were free to ask her she would take him he thought of the home he might at that moment have been seeking with pleasure and pride of the man he might have been that night of the then in his now heavy laden of the then restored honor and tranquillity now all torn to pieces he thought of the waste of th best part of his life of the change it made in his character for the worse every way of the dreadful nature of his existence bound hand and foot to a dead woman and tormented by a demon in her shape he thought of how young when they were first brought together in these circumstances how mature now how soon to grow old he thought of the number of girls and women she had seen marry how many homes with children in them she had seen grow up around her how she had pursued her own lone quiet path for him and how he had sometimes seen a shade of melancholy on her blessed face that smote him with remorse and despair he set the picture of her up beside the infamous image of last night and thought could it be that the whole earthly course of one so gentle good and was to such a wretch as that filled with these thoughts so filled that he had an sense of growing larger of being placed in some new and relation toward the objects among which he passed
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of seeing the every misty light turn red he went home for shelter chapter a candle faintly burned in the window to which the black ladder had b n raised for the sliding away of all that was most precious in this world to a striving wife and a brood of hungry babies and added to his other thoughts the stem reflection that of all the of this existence upon earth not one was dealt out with so unequal a hand as death the of birth was nothing to it for say that the child of a king and the child of a were bom to night in the same moment what was that to the death of any human creature who was serviceable to or beloved by r while this abandoned woman lived on i from the outside of his home he gloomily passed to the inside with suspended breath and with a slow footstep he went np to his door opened it and so into the room and peace were there was there sitting by the bed she turned her head and the light of her face shone in the midnight of his mind she sat by the bed watching and tending his wife that is to say he saw that some one lay there and he knew too well it must be she but hands had put a curtain up so that she was from his eyes her disgraceful garments were removed and some of were in the room every thing was in its place and order as he had always kept it the little are was newly trimmed and the hearth was swept it appeared to him that he saw all this in s face and looked at nothing besides while looking at it it was shut out from his view by the softened tears that filled his eyes but not before he had seen how earnestly she looked at and how her own eyes were filled too she turned again toward the bed and satisfying herself that all was quiet there spoke in a low calm cheerful voice am glad you have come at last you are very late hard times i ha been up an down i thought so but tis too bad a night for that the rain falls very heavy and the wind has risen the wind true it was blowing hard hark to the thundering in the chimney and the noise to have been out in such a wind and not to have known it was blowing i i have been here once before to day landlady came round for me at dinner time there was some one here that needed looking to she said and deed she was right all wandering and lost wounded too and bruised he slowly moved to a chair and sat down drooping his head before her i came to do what little i could first for that she worked with me when we were girls both and for that you her and married her when i was her he laid his forehead on his hand with a low groan and next for that i know your heart and am right sure and certain that tis far too merciful to let her die or even so much as for want of aid thou who said let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her there have been plenty to do that thou art not the man to cast the last stone when she is brought so low thou hast been a cruel heaven reward thee she said in compassionate accents i am thy poor with all my heart and mind the wounds of which she had spoken seemed to be about the neck of the self made outcast she dressed them now stiu without showing her she a piece of linen in a basin into which she poured some liquid from a bottle and laid it with a gentle hand upon the sore the three legged table had been drawn close to the bedside and on it there were two bottles this was one it was not so far off but that her hands with his eyes could read what was printed on it in large letters he turned of a deadly hue and a sudden horror seemed to upon him i will stay here said her seat till the bells go three tis to be done again at three and then she may be left till morning hard times but thy rest to morrow s work my dear i slept sound last night i can wake many nights when i am put to it tis thou who art in need of rest bo white and tired try to sleep in the chair there while i watch thou no sleep last night i can well to morrow s work is far harder for thee than for me he heard the thundering and out of doors and it seemed to him as if his late angry mood were going trying to get at him she had cast it out she would keep it out he trusted to her to defend him from himself she don t know me she just and i have spoken to her times and again but she don t notice tis as well so when she comes to her right mind once more i shall have done what i can and she never the wiser how long is t looked for that she ll be so doctor said she would come to her mind to morrow his eyes again fell on the bottle and a tremble passed over him causing him to shiver in every limb she thought he was chilled the wet no he said it was not that he had had a fright a fright ay ay i coming in when i were walking when i woe thinking when i it seized
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him again and ho stood up holding by the mantel shelf as he pressed his cold hair down with a hand that shook as if it were i she was coming to him but he stretched out his arm to stop her no i don t please don t i let me see thee by the bed let me see thee a so good and so let me see thee as i see thee when i in i can never see thee better than so never never never he had a violent fit of trembling and then sunk into his chair a time he controlled himself and resting with an on one knee and his head upon that hand could look toward seen across the dim candle with his eyes she looked as if she had a glory shining round her head he could have she had he did it as the noise without shook the window rattled at the door below and went a o x i hard time when she gets better tis to be hoped she ll leave thee to again and do thee no more hurt any ways we will hope so now and now i shall keep silence for i want thee to sleep he closed his eyes more to please her than to rest his weary head but by slow degrees as he listened to the great noise of the wind he ceased to hear it or it changed into the working of his loom or even into the voices of the day his own included saying what had been really said even this imperfect consciousness faded away at last and he a long troubled dream he thought that he and some one on whom his heart had long been set but she was not and that surprised him even in the midst of his imaginary happiness stood in the church being married while the ceremony was performing and while he recognized among the witnesses some whom he knew to be living and many whom he knew to be dead darkness came on succeeded by the shining of a tremendous light it broke from one line in the table of at the altar and illuminated the building with the words they were sounded through the church too as if there were voices in the fiery letters upon this the whole appearance before him and around him changed and nothing was left as it had been but himself and the clergyman they stood in the daylight before a crowd so vast that if all the people in the world could have been brought together into one space they could not have looked he thought more numerous and they all him and there was not one pitying or friendly eye among the millions that were fastened on his face he stood on a raised stage under his own loom and looking up at the shape the loom took and hearing the burial service distinctly read he knew that he was there to death in an instant what he stood on fell below him and he was gone out of what mystery he came back to his usual life and to places that he knew he was unable to consider but ho was back in those places by some means and with this condemnation upon him that he was never in this world or the next through all the ages of eternity to look on face or hear her voice wandering to and fro sa s of be knew not what he only aa a hard times seek it he was the subject of a nameless horrible dread a mortal fear of one particular shape which every thing took whatsoever he looked at grew into that form sooner or later the object of his miserable existence was to prevent its by any one among the various people he encountered hopeless labor if he led them out of rooms where it was if he shut up and where it stood if he drew the curious from places where he knew it to be and got them out into the streets the chimneys of the mills assumed that shape and round them was the printed word the wind was blowing again the rain was beating on the and the larger spaces through which he had strayed contracted to the four walls of his room saving that the fire had died out it was as his eyes had closed upon it seemed to have fallen into a in the chair by the bed she sat wrapped in her shawl perfectly still the table stood in the same place by the bedside and on it in its real proportions and appearance was the shape so repeated he thought he saw the curtain move ho looked again and he was sure it moved he saw a hand come forth a about a httle then the curtain moved more and the woman in the bed put it back and sat up with her eyes so haggard and wild so heavy and large she looked all round the room and passed the comer where he slept in his chair her eyes returned to that comer and she put her hand over them as a shade while she looked into it again they went all round the room scarcely if at all and returned to that comer he thought as she once more shaded them not so much looking at him as looking for him with a instinct that he was there that no single trace was left in those features or in the mind that went along with them of the woman he had married eighteen years before but that he had seen her come to this by inches he never could have believed her to be the same all this time as if a spell were on him he was motionless and powerless except to watch her or
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with her incapable self about nothing die sat for a little while with her hands at her ears and her head resting on them presently she resumed her hard times round the room and now for the first time her eyes stopped at the table with the bottles on it straightway she turned her eyes back to his comer with the of last night and moving very cautiously and softly stretched out her greedy hand she drew a into the bed and sat for a while considering which of the two bottles she should choose finally she laid her grasp upon the bottle that had swift and certain in it and before his eyes pulled out the cork with her teeth dream or reality he had no voice nor had he power to stir if this be real and her allotted time be not yet come wake wake i she thought of that too she looked at and very slowly very cautiously poured out the contents the draught was at her a moment and she would be past all help let the whole world wake and come about her with its utmost power but in that moment started up with a suppressed cry the creature struggled struck her seized her by the hair but had the cup broke out of his chair am i or this night tis all well i have been asleep myself tis near three hush i hear the bells the brought the sounds of the church clock to the window they listened and it struck three looked at her saw how pale she was noted the disorder of her hair and the red marks of fingers on her forehead and felt assured that his senses of sight and hearing had been awake she held the cup in her hand even now i thought it must be near three she said pouring from the cup into the basin and the linen as before am thankful i staid tis done now when i have put this on there and now she s quiet again the few drops in the basin i ll pour away for tis bad o leave about though ever so little of it as she spoke she drained the basin into the ashes of the fire and broke the bottle on the hearth she had nothing to do then but to cover herself with her shawl before going out into the wind and rain thou lt let me walk wi thee at this hour hard times no tis but a minute and tm home thou rt not he said it in a low as they went out at the door to leave me alone wi her i as she looked at him saying he went dawn on his knee before her on the poor mean and put an end of her shawl to his thou art an angel bless thee thee i am as i have told thy poor arc not like me between them and a working woman fu ci faults there is a deep gulf set my little sister is among them but she is changed she raised her eyes for a moment as she said the words and then they fell again in all their gentleness and on his face thou me from bad to good thou st me humbly to be more like thee and to lose thee when this life is an a the cleared thou rt an angel it may be thou hast saved my soul alive she looked at him on his knee at her feet with her shawl still in his hand and the reproof on her lips died away when she saw the working of his face i home rate i home wi out a hope and mad wi thinking that when i said a word o complaint i was reckoned a hand i told thee i had had a fright it were the poison bottle on table i never hurt a but so suddenly upon t i how can i say what i might ha done to or her or both she put her two hands on his mouth with a face of terror to stop him from saying more he caught them in his hand and holding them and still clasping the border of her shawl said hurriedly but i see thee by the bed i ha seen thee a this night in my sleep i ha known thee still to be there i will see thee there i will see her or think o her but thou shalt be beside her i will see or think o any thing that me but thou so much better than me shalt be by th side on t and so i will try t look t th time and so i will try t trust t th time when thou and me at last shall walk together far beyond the deep in th country where thy uttle sister is hard times he kissed the border of her shawl again and let her go she bade him good night in a broken voice and went out into the street the wind blew firom the quarter where the day would soon appear and still blew strongly it had cleared the sky before it and the rain had spent itself or elsewhere and the stars were bright he stood in the road watching her quick disappearance all the shining stars were to the heavy candle in the window so was in the rugged fancy of this man to the common experiences of life e chapter xiv time went on in like its own so material wrought up bo much fuel bo many worn out so much money made but less inexorable than steel and brass it brought its varying even into that of smoke and brick and made the only stand that ever was made in the place against its is becoming said mr almost a woman time with
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his innumerable horse power worked away not what any body said and presently turned out young thomas a foot taller than when his father had last taken particular notice of him thomas is becoming said mr almost a young man time passed thomas on in the mill while his father was thinking about it and there he stood in a long tail coat and a stiff really said mr the period has arrived when thomas ought to go to time sticking to him passed him on into s bank him an of s house the chase of his first and exercised him diligently in his calculations relative to number one the same great always with an immense variety of work on hand in every stage of development passed onward in his mill and worked her up into a very pretty article indeed i fear said mr that your continuance at the school any longer would be useless i am afraid it would sir answered with a courtesy i can not disguise from you said mr knitting his brow that the result of your there has hard times disappointed me has greatly disappointed me you have not acquired under mr and mrs m any thing hke that amount of exact which i looked for you are extremely deficient in your facts your acquaintance with figures is very limited you are altogether backward and below the mark i am sorry sir she returned but i know it is quite true yet i have tried hard sir yes said mr yes i believe you have tried hard i have observed you and i can find no fault in that respect thank you sir i have thought sometimes very timid here that perhaps i tried to learn too much and that if i had asked to be allowed to try a httle less i might have no no said mr shaking his head in his and most eminently practical way no the course you pursued you pursued according to the system the system and there is no more to be said about it i can only suppose that the circumstances of your early life were too to the development of your reasoning powers and that we began too late still as i have said already i am disappointed i wish i could have made a better acknowledgment sir of your kindness to a poor forlorn girl who had no claim upon you and of your protection of her don t shed tears said mr don t shed tears i don t complain of you you are an affectionate earnest good young woman and and we must make that do thank you sir very much said with a grateful courtesy you are useful to mrs and in a generally way you are serviceable in the family also so i understand from miss and indeed so i have observed myself i therefore hope said mr that you can make yourself happy in those relations i should have nothing to wish sir if i understand you said mr you still refer to your father i have heard from miss that you still preserve that bottle well if your training in the science of arriving at exact results had been more successful you would have been wiser on these points i will say no more hard times he really liked too well to have a t far her otherwise he held her calculating powers in such very slight estimation that he must have upon that conclusion some i how or other he had become possessed by an idea that there was i in this girl which could hardly be set forth in a form her capacity of definition might be easily stated at a low figure her knowledge at nothing yet he was not sure that if he had been required for example to her off into columns in a return he would have quite known how to divide her in some stages of his manufacture of the human the processes of time are very rapid young thomas and being both at such a stage of their working up these changes were effected in a year or two while mr himself seemed stationary in his course and no alteration except one which was apart from his necessary progress the mill time him into a httle noisy and rather dirty machinery in a by comer and made him member of parliament for one of the respected members for and measures one of the representatives of the table one of the deaf honorable gentlemen dumb honorable gentlemen blind honorable gentlemen lame honorable gentlemen dead honorable gentlemen to every other consideration else wherefore we in a christian land eighteen hundred and odd years after our master all this while had been passing on quiet and reserved and so much given to watching the bright ashes at twilight as they fell into the grate and became extinct that from the period when her father had said she was almost a young woman which seemed but yesterday she had scarcely attracted his notice again when he found her quite a young woman a young woman said mr musing dear me i soon after this discovery he became more thoughtful than usual for several days and seemed much engrossed by one subject on a certain night when he was going out and came to bid him good by before his as he was not to be home until late and she would not see him again until the morning he held in his aims looking at in ua hard times my dear you are a woman she answered with the old quick searching look of the night when she was found at the then cast down her eyes yes father my dear said mr i speak with you alone and seriously come to me in my room after breakfast to morrow will you yes father
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your hands are rather cold are you not well well father and cheerful she looked at him again and smiled in her peculiar manner i am as cheerful father as i usually am or usually have been that s well said mr so he kissed her and went away and returned to the serene apartment of character and leaning her elbow on her hand looked again at the short lived sparks that so soon subsided into ashes are you there loo said her brother looking in at the door he was quite a young gentleman of pleasure now and not quite a one dear tom she answered rising and embracing him how long it is since you have been to see me why i have been otherwise engaged loo in the evenings and in the old has been keeping me at it rather but i touch him up with you when he comes it too strong and so we preserve an understanding i say has father said any thing particular to you to day or yesterday loo no tom but he told me to night that he wished to do so in the morning ah that s what i mean said tom do you know where he is to night with a very deep no then til tell you he s with old they are having a regular together up at the bank why at the bank do you think well i ll tell you again to keep mrs s ears as far ofi as possible i expect with her hand upon her brother s shoulder s r looking at the her brother a i ei sa sa ss hard times interest than usual and her waist with his aim drew her to him you are ven fond of me ain t you loo v indeed i am tom though you do let such long intervals go hy without coming to see me well sister of mine said tom when you say that you near my we might be bo much t we always together almost t we it would do me a great deal of good if you were to make up your mind to know what loo it would be a splendid thing for me it would be jolly i her his cunning scrutiny he could make nothing of her face he pressed her in his arm and kissed her cheek she returned the kiss but still looked at the fire i say loo i thought come and just hint to you w hat was going on though i suppose you d most likely guess even if you didn t know i can t stay because i m engaged to some ra to night you won t forget how fond you are of me no dear tom i won t forget that s a capital girl said tom good by loo she gave him an affectionate good night and went out with him to the door whence the fires of could be seen making the distance lurid she stood there looking toward them and listening to his departing steps they retreated quickly as glad to get away from stone lodge and she stood there yet when he was gone and all was quiet it seemed as if first in her own fire within the house and then in the fiery haze without she tried to discover what kind of old time that greatest and longest established of all would from the threads he had already spun into a woman but his factory is a secret place his work is noiseless and his hands are i chapter xv although mr did not take after blue beard his room was quite a blue chamber in its abundance of blue books whatever they could prove which is usually any thing you like they proved in an army constantly by the arrival of new in that charmed apartment the complicated social questions were cast up got into exact s and finally settled if those concerned could only have been brought to know it as if an should be made without any windows and the within should arrange the universe solely by pen ink and paper so mr in his and there are like it had no need to cast an eye upon the of human beings around him but could settle all their on a slate and wipe out all their tears with one dirty little bit of to this then a stem room with a deadly clock in it which measured every second with a beat like a rap upon a coffin lid repaired on the appointed morning the window looked toward and when she sat down near her father s table she saw the high chimneys and the long tracks of smoke in the heavy distance gloomily my dear said her father i prepared you last night to give me your serious attention in the conversation we axe now going to have together you have been so well trained and you do i am happy to say so much justice to the education you that i have perfect confidence in your good sense you a not impulsive you not romantic g to e ry thing from tn s round of reason and calculation from that ground alone you will view and consider what i am going to communicate hard times he waited as if he would have n j ad that e be said something but she said never a n my dear you are subject of a marriage that has been made to me h again he waited and again she not one word this so far surprised him as to induce him gently to repeat a proposal of marriage my dear to which she returned without any visible emotion whatever i hear you father i am attending i assure you well said mr breaking into a smile after being for the moment
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am to call him mrs solemnly what do you mean whatever i am to call him mr when he is mar to i must call him something it s impossible said mrs with a mingled sense of and injury to be constantly addressing him and never giving him a name i can not call him for the name is to me you yourself wouldn t hear of joe you very well know am i to call my own son in law not i believe unless the time has arrived when as an invalid i am to be trampled upon by my relations then what am i to call him nobody present having any suggestion to offer in the emergency mrs departed this hfe for the time being after the following to her remarks already executed as to the wedding all i ask and i ask it with a no hard times fluttering in my which actually to the of my that it may take place soon i know it is and of those subjects i shall never hear the last of when mr had presented mrs had suddenly turned her head and looked in wonder in pity in sorrow in doubt in a multitude of emotions toward had known it and seen it without looking at lier from that moment she was proud and cold held at a dis i changed to her altogether chapter xvi mr s first on hearing of his happiness was occasioned by the necessity of it to mrs he could not make up his mind how to do that or what the consequences of the step might be whether she would instantly depart bag and baggage to lady or would positively refuse to from ihe premises whether she would be plaintive or tearful or tearing whether she would break her heart or break the looking glass mr could not at all foresee however as it must be done he had no choice but to do it so attempting several letters and failing in them all he resolved to do it by word of mouth on his way on the evening he set aside for this momentous purpose he took the precaution of stepping into a s shop and buying a bottle of the very strongest smelling by george said mr if she takes it in the fainting way i ll have the skin off her nose at all events but in spite of being thus he entered his own house with any thing but a courageous air and appeared before the object of his like a dog who was conscious of coming direct the good evening mr good evening ma am good evening he drew up his chair and mrs drew back hers as who should say your fireside sir i admit it it is t you to occupy it all if you think proper don t go to the north pole ma am said mr thank you sir said mrs and returned though short of her former position mr sat looking at her as with the points of a stiff sharp pair of she picked out holes for some inscrutable ornamental purpose in a piece of an operation which taken in connection with the eyebrows and the nose with same the idea of a s g ri hard times the es of a tough little she was bo that many minutes elapsed before she looked up firom her work when did so mr her attention with a of his head mrs ma am said mr putting his hands in his pockets and assuring with his right hand that the cork of the little bottle was ready for use i have no occasion to say to you that you are not only a lady bom and bred but a devilish sensible woman sir returned the lady this is indeed not the first time that you have honored me with similar expressions of your good opinion mrs ma am said mr i am going to astonish you yes sir returned mrs and in the most tranquil manner possible she generally wore and she now laid down her work and smoothed those i am going ma am said to marry tom s daughter yes sir mrs i hope you may be happy mr oh indeed i hope you may be happy sir i and she said it with such great condescension as well as with such great compassion for him that far more disconcerted than if she had thrown her work box at the mirror or on the hearth rug up the smelling tight in his pocket and thought now con foimd this woman who could have ever guessed that she would take it in this way i wish with all my heart sir said mrs in a highly superior manner somehow she seemed in a moment to have established a right to pity him ever afterward that you may be in all respects very happy well ma am with some resentment in liis tone which was clearly lowered though in spite of himself i am obliged to you i hope i shall be do you sir said mrs with great but naturally you do of course you do a very awkward pause on mr s part succeeded mrs resumed her work and occasionally gave a small cough which sounded like the cough of conscious strength and forbearance well ma am resumed under these hard times i imagine it would not be agreeable to a character like to remain here though you would be very welcome here oh dear no sir i could on no account think of that mrs shook her head still in her highly superior manner and a little changed the small now as if the spirit of prophecy rose within her but had better be down however ma am said there are apartments at the bank where a bom and bred lady as keeper of the place would be
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rather a catch than otherwise and if the same terms i beg your pardon sir you were so good as to promise that you would always substitute the phrase annual compliment well ma am annual compliment if the same annual com would be acceptable there why i see nothing to part us unless you do sir returned mrs the proposal is like yourself i and if the position i should assume at the bank is one that i could occupy without descending lower in th e social scale why of course it is said if it was not ma am you don t suppose that i should it to a lady who has moved in the society you have moved in not tha t care for such society you know i but you do mr you are very considerate you ll have your own private apartments and you ll have your coals and your candles and all the rest of it and you ll ha your maid to attend upon you and you ll have your light porter to protect you and you ll be what i take the of considering j precious comfortable said sir rejoined mrs say no more in yielding up my trust here i shall not be the necessity of eating the bread of dependence she might have said the for that article in a brown was her favorite supper and i would rather receive it from your hand than from any other therefore sir i accept your offer gratefully and with many sincere for past and i hope sir said mrs concluding in an compassionate manner i fondly hope that miss may be all you desire and deserve nothing moved mrs from that position any more it was in vain for to or to assert himself in aa of his ways it wa ft k k hard times passion on him as a victim she was polite hopeful but the more polite the more obliging the more cheerful the more hopeful the more altogether she the sacrifice and victim he she had that tenderness for his melancholy fate that his great red used to break out into cold when she looked at him meanwhile the marriage was appointed to be in eight weeks time and mr went evening to i stone lodge as an accepted love was made on these oo in the form of and on all during the period of took a aspect dresses were made was made cakes and gloves were made were made and an extensive of facts did appropriate honor to the contract the business was all fact first to last the hours did not go through any of those rosy performances which foolish poets have ascribed to them at such times neither did the go any faster or any slower than at other seasons the deadly in the knocked every second on the head as it was bom and buried it with his accustomed regularity so the day came as all other come to people who will only stick to reason and when it came there were married in the church of the wooden legs that popular order of architecture of to eldest daughter of thomas of stone lodge m p that and when they were united in holy matrimony they went home to breakfast at stone lodge there was an improving party assembled on the occasion who knew what every thing they had to eat and drink was made of and how it was imported or and in what quantities and in what whether native or foreign and all about it the down to httle jane were in an intellectual point of view fit for the calculating boy and there was no nonsense about any of the company after breakfast the bridegroom addressed them in the following terms ladies and gentlemen i am bo of since you have done my wife and m sc c cur and happiness suppose w hard times same though as you all know me and know what i am and what my was you won t expect a speech from a man who when he sees a post says that s a post and when he sees a pump says that s a pump and is not to be got to call a post a pump or a pump a post or either of them a if you want a speech this my friend and in law tom g is a member of and you know where to get it i am not your man however if i feel a httle independent when i look around this table to day and reflect how little i thought of marrying tom g s daughter when i was a ragged street boy who never washed his face unless it was at a pump and that not oftener than once a fortnight i hope i may be excused so i hope you like my independent if you don t i can t help it i do feel independent now i have mentioned and you have mentioned that i am this day married to tom s daughter i am very glad to be so it has long been my wish to be so i have watched her bringing up and i she is worthy of me at the same time not to deceive you i believe i am worthy of her so i thank you on both our parts for the good will you have shown toward us and the best wish i can give the unmarried part of the present company is this i hope every bachelor find as good a wife as i have found and i hope every may find as good a husband as my wife has found shortly after which as they were going on a trip to in order that mr might take the opportunity of seeing how the hands got on in those parts and
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whether they too required to be fed with gold the happy pair departed for the railroad the bride in passing down stairs dressed for her journey found tom waiting for her flushed either with his or the part of the breakfast what a game girl you are to be such a first rate sister loo i whispered tom she clung to him as she would have clung to some far better nature that day and was a little shaken in her reserved composure for the first time old s quite ready said tom time s up i i shall be on the look out foi ow i say my dear loo an t it v j i ii chapter a sunny day there was such a thing sometimes even in r seen from a distance in such weather lay in a haze of its own which appeared to the son s lays you only knew the town there you knew there could have heen no such sulky upon the prospect without a town a of and smoke now tending this way now that way now to the vault of heaven now creeping along the earth as the wind rose and fell or changed its a dense with sheets of cross light in it that showed nothing but masses of darkness in the distance was suggestive of itself though not a of it could he seen the wonder was it was there at all it had been rained so often that it was amazing how it had borne so many surely there never was such fragile china ware as that of which the of were made handle them never so lightly and they fell to pieces with such ease that you might suspect of having been before they were when they were required to send laboring children to school they were ruined when were appointed to look into their works they were ruined when such considered it whether they were quite justified in people up with their machinery they were utterly undone when it was hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite so much smoke besides mr s gold spoon which was generally received in another fiction was very popular it took the form of a threat whenever a felt he was ill used that is to say whenever he was not left entirely alone and it was proposed to hold him for the of any of his acts he was sure to com ou t i h w that be would sooner pitch n t mv hard times this had terrified the home secretary within an inch of his life on several occasions however the were bo patriotic after all that they never had pitched their property into the atlantic yet hut on the contrary had heen kind enough to take mighty good care of it so there it was in the haze yonder and it increased and multiplied the streets were hot and dusty on the summer day and the sun was so bright that it even shone through the heavy drooping over and could not be looked at steadily emerged from low into factory yards and sat on steps and posts and wiping their and contemplating coals the whole town seemed to be in oil there was a stifling smell of hot oil every where the shone with it the dresses of the hands were soiled with it the mills throughout many stories and it the atmosphere of those fairy palaces was like the breath of the and their inhabitants wasting with heat toiled languidly in the desert but no temperature made the melancholy mad more mad or more sane their wearisome heads went up and at the same rate in hot weather and cold wet weather and dry fair weather and foul the measured motion of their shadows on the walls was the substitute had to show for the shadows of rustling woods while for the summer of insects it could all the year round from the dawn of monday to the night of saturday the of shafts and wheels they all through this sunny day making the passenger more sleepy and more hot as he passed the humming of the mills sun blinds and of water a little cooled the main streets and shops but the mills and the courts and baked at a fierce heat down upon the river that was black and thick with some bo rs who were at large a rare sight there rowed a crazy boat which made a track upon the water as it along while every dip of an stirred up vile smells but the sun itself however beneficent generally was less kind to than hard and rarely looked intently into any of its closer c de than li bo the eye of a hard times eye when incapable or sordid hands are between it and the things it looks upon to bless mrs sat in her afternoon apartment at the bank on the side of the street office were over and at that period of the day in warm weather she with her genteel presence a board room over the public office her own private sitting room was a story higher at th window of which post of observation she was ready eveiy to greet mr as he came across the road with the recognition appropriate to a victim he had been married now a year and mrs had never released him from her determined pity a moment the bank offered no violence to the wholesome monotony of the town it was another red brick house with black outside green inside blinds a black street door up two white steps a brazen door plate and a brazen door handle full stop it was a size larger than mr s house as other houses were from a size to half a dozen sizes smaller in all other particulars it
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was strictly according to pattern mrs was conscious that by coming in the evening tide among the and writing implements she shed a feminine not to say also aristocratic grace upon the office seated with her or apparatus at the window she had a sense of by her lady like the rude business aspect of the place with this impression of her interesting character upon her mrs considered herself in some sort the bank fairy the who in their passing and saw her there regarded her as the bank keeping watch over the treasures of the mine what those treasures were mrs knew as little as they did gold and silver coin precious paper secrets that if would bring vague destruction upon vague persons generally however people whom she disliked were the chief in her ideal catalogue thereof for the rest she knew that after office hours she reigned supreme over all the office furniture and over a iron room with three locks against the door of strong chamber the light porter laid his head every night on a bed that disappeared at further she was lady over certain in the sharply hard times the world and over the relics of the current day s work consisting of of ink worn out pens fragments of and scraps of paper torn so small that nothing interesting could ever be on them when mrs tried lastly she was guardian over a httle of and arrayed in order above one of the official pieces and over that respectable tradition never fo be separated from a place of business claiming to be wealthy a row of fire vessels calculated to be of no physical utility on any occasion but observed to exercise a fine moral influence almost equal to on most a deaf serving woman and the light porter completed mrs s empire the deaf serving woman was to be wealthy and a saying had for years gone about among the lower orders of that she would be ed some night when the bank was shut for the sake of her money it was generally considered indeed that she had been due some time and ought to have fallen long ago but she had kept her life and her situation with an ill that occasioned much and disappointment mrs s tea was just set for her on a little table with its of legs in an attitude which she after into the company of the stem long that the middle of the room the light porter placed the tea tray on it his forehead as a form of homage thank you said mrs thank you ma am returned the light porter he was a very light porter indeed as as in the days when he defined a horse for girl twenty all is shut up said mrs all is shut up ma am and what said mrs pouring out her tea is the news of the day any thing well ma am i can t say that i have heard any thing particular our people are a bad lot ma am but that is no news unfortunately what are the restless wretches doing now asked mrs iso hard times merely on in the old way ma am and and engaging to stand by one another it is much to be regretted said mn her nose more roman and her more in the strength of her severity that the united allow of any such class yes ma am said being united themselves they ought one and all to set faces against any man who is united with any other man said mrs they have done that ma am it rather fell through ma am i do not pretend to understand these things said urn with dignity my lot having been originally east in a different sphere and mr as a being also quite out of the pale of any such i only know that these must be conquered and that it s high time it was au yes ma am returned with a of great respect for mrs s authority you couldn t put it clearer i am sure ma am as this was his usual hour for having a little confidential chat with mrs and as he had already caught her eye and seen that she was going to ask him something he made a pretence of arranging the rulers and so forth while that lady went on with her tea glancing through the open window down into the street has it been a busy day asked mrs not a very busy day my lady about an average day he now and then into my lady instead of ma am aa an involuntary acknowledgment of mrs s personal dignity and claims to reverence the clerks said mrs carefully brushing an of bread and butter from her are punctual and industrious of course yes ma am pretty fair ma am with the usual he held the respectable office of general spy and in the establishment for which service he received a present at christmas over and above his weekly he had grown into hard times an extremely clear headed cautious prudent young man who was t safe to rise in the world his mind was so exactly regulated that he had no or passions all his proceedings were the re j suit of the and calculation and it was not without i cause that mrs habitually observed of him that he was a young man of the principle she had ever known having satisfied himself on his father s death that his mother had a right of settlement in this excellent yoimg had as j that right for her with such a steadfast to the principle of the case that she had been shut up in the ever since it must be admitted that he allowed her half a pound of tea a year which was weak in him first because all gifts
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have an inevitable tendency to the and secondly i because his only reasonable in that would have been to buy it for as little as he could possibly give and it for as much as he could possibly get it having been clearly ascertained by philosophers that in this is the whole duty of man not a part of man s duty but the whole pretty fair ma am with the usual exception ma am repeated ah h said mrs shaking her head over her tea cup and taking a long mr thomas ma am i doubt mr thomas very much ma am i don t like his ways at au said mrs in a very impressive manner do you recollect my having said any thing to you respecting names i beg your pardon ma am it s quite true that you did object to names being used and they re always best avoided please to remember that i have a charge here said mrs with her air of state i hold a trust here under mr however improbable both mr and myself might have deemed it years ago that he would ever become my patron making me an annual compliment i can not but regard him in that light from mr i have received every acknowledgment of my social station and every recognition of my family descent that i could possibly expect more more therefore to my patron i will be true and i do not consider i will not consider i can not consider said mrs with a most extensive stock on hand of honor and morality f hard times that i be if i allowed names to be mentioned this roof that are unfortunately most unfortunately no doubt of that connected with his his forehead again and again pardon no continued mrs say an individual and will hear you say mr thomas and you must excuse me with the usual exception ma am said t back of an individual ah h i mrs repeated the th shake of the head over her tea cup and the long as taking up the conversation again at the point where it had been interrupted an individual ma am said has never been what he ought to have been since he first came into the place he is a dissipated extravagant he is not worth his salt ma am he wouldn t get it either if he hadn t a friend and relation at court ma am i ah h i said mrs with another melancholy shake of her head i only hope ma am pursued that his and relation may not supply him with the means of carrying on otherwise ma am we know out of whose pocket that money comes ah h sighed mrs again with another melancholy shake of her head he is to be pitied ma am the last party i have alluded to is to be pitied ma am said yes said mrs i have always pitied the delusion always as to an individual ma am said dropping his voice and drawing nearer he is as as any of the people in this town and you know what is ma am no one could wish to know it better than a lady of your eminence does they would do well returned mrs to take example by you thank you ma am but since you do refer to me now look at me ma am have put by a httle ma am already that which i receive at christmas ma am i never touch it i don t even go the length of my wages though they re not high hard times ma am why can t they do as i have done ma am what one person can do another can do this again was among the of any capital ist there who had made sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence always professed to wonder why the sixty thousand nearest hands didn t each make sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence and more or less reproached them every one for not the little feat what i did you can do why don t you go and do it as to their wanting ma am said it s and nonsense i don t want i never did and i never shall i don t like em as to their together there are many of them i have no that by watching and informing upon one another could earn a trifle now and then whether in money or good will and im ye their then why don t they improve it ma am it s the first consider of a rational creature and it s what they pretend to want pretend indeed i said mrs i am sure we are constantly hearing ma am till it becomes quite concerning their wives and said why look at me ma am don t want a wife and family why should they because they are said mrs yes ma am returned that s where it is if they were more and less perverse ma am what would they do they would say while my hat covers my family or while my bonnet covers my family as the case might be ma am i have only one to feed and that s the person i most like to feed y to be sure assented mrs eating thank you ma am said his forehead again in return for the favor of mrs s improving conversation would you wish a little more hot water ma am or is there any thing else that i could fetch you nothing just now thank you ma am i shouldn t wish to disturb you at your meals ma am particularly tea knowing your partiality for it said a little to look over into the street from where he stood but there s a gentleman been up
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here for a minute or so ma am and he has come across as if he was to knock that is his knock ma am no doubt ti hard times he stepped to the window and out aud drawing in his head again himself with yes ma am would you wish the gentleman to be in ma am i don t know who it can be said mn wiping her mouth and arranging her a stranger ma am evidently what a stranger can want at the bank at this time of the evening unless he comes upon some business for which lie is too late i don t know said mrs bat i hold a charge in this establishment mr and i will never shrink from it if to see him is any part of the duty i have accepted i will see him use your own discretion here the visitor all unconscious of mrs repeated his knock so loudly that the light porter hastened down to open the door while mrs took the precaution of concealing her httle table with all its it in a cupboard and then up that she might appear if needful with the greater dignity if you please ma am the gentleman wish to see yon said with his light eye at mrs s so mrs who had improved the interval by touching up her took her classical features down stairs again and entered the board room in the manner of a matron going outside the city walls to treat with an general the visitor having strolled to the window and being then engaged in looking carelessly out was as unmoved by this entry as man could possibly be he stood whistling to himself with all imaginable coolness with his hat still on and a certain air of exhaustion upon him in part arising from and in part from excessive for it to be seen with half an eye that he was a thorough gentleman made to the model of the time weary of every thing and putting no faith in any thing than i believe sir mrs you wished to see me i beg your pardon he said turning and removing his hat pray excuse me thought mrs as she made a stately bend five and thirty good looking good g sod voice food breeding well dressed bo d e a hard im observed in her womanly the who put his head in the of water merely in dipping down and coming up again please to he seated sir said mrs thank you allow me he placed a chair for her hut remained himself carelessly lounging against the table j left my servant t tbe looking after the luggage very heavy train and vast quantity of it in the van and on looking about me exceedingly odd place will you allow me to ask you if its always as black as this in general much returned mrs in her way is it possible excuse me you are not a native i think no sir returned mrs it was once my good or ill fortune as it may be before i became a widow to move in a very different sphere my husband was a beg your pardon really i said the stranger was mrs repeated a family said the stranger after reflecting a few moments mrs signified assent the stranger seemed a little more fatigued than before you must be very much bored here was the he drew from the communication i am the servant of circumstances sir said mrs and i have long adapted myself to the governing power of my life very philosophical returned the stranger and very and and it seemed to be scarcely worth his while to finish the sentence so he played with his watch chain wearily may i be to ask sir said mrs to v hat i am indebted for the favor of assuredly said the stranger much obliged to you for reminding me i am the bearer of a letter of introduction to mr the banker walking through this extraordinary black town while they were getting dinner ready at the hotel i asked a fellow whom i met one of the working people who appeared to have been taking a shower bath of m n to be the raw material hard times mrs inclined her head raw material where mr the banker might reside upon which no doubt by the word banker he directed me to the bank fact being i presume that mr the banker does not reside in the edifice in which i have the honor of this explanation no sir returned mrs he does no thank you i had no intention of my letter at present moment nor have i but strolling on to the bank to kill time and having the good fortune to observe at the toward which he languidly waved his hand then slightly bowed a lady of a very superior and agreeable appearance i considered that i could not do better than take the of asking that lady where mr the banker does which i accordingly venture with all suitable apologies to do the and of his manner were sufficiently relieved to mrs s thinking by a certain gallantry at ease which offered her homage too here he was for instance at this moment all but sitting on the table and yet lazily bending over her as if he acknowledged an attraction in her that made her charming in her way banks i know are always suspicious and must be said the stranger whose lightness and of speech were pleasant likewise suggesting matter far more sensible and humorous than it ever contained which was perhaps a shrewd device of the founder of this numerous may have been that great man therefore i may observe that my letter here it is is
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from the member for this place whom i have had the pleasure of knowing in london mrs recognized the hand intimated that such confirmation was quite unnecessary and gave mr s address with all needful and directions in aid thousand thanks said the stranger of course you know the banker well yes sir rejoined mrs in my dependent relation toward him i have known him ten years an eternity i i think he married s daughter yes said mrs suddenly her mouth he had honor hard times the quite a philosopher i am told indeed sir said mrs is she excuse my impertinent curiosity the stranger fluttering over mrs s eyebrows wi a air but you know the family and know i i am about to know the family and may have to do with them is the lady so very v ber such a reputation that i have a burning desire to know is she absolutely and clever i see by your meaning smile you think not you have poured into my anxious soul as to age now forty thirty mrs laughed outright a said she not twenty when she was married i give you my honor mrs returned the stranger himself from the table that i never was so astonished in my hfe it really did seem to impress him to the utmost extent of his capacity of being impressed he looked at his for full a quarter of a minute and appeared to have the surprise in his mind all the time i assure you mrs he then said much exhausted that the father s manner prepared me for a grim and stony maturity i am obliged to you of all things for so absurd a mistake pray excuse my intrusion many thanks good day he bowed himself out and mrs hiding in the saw him down the street on the shady side of the way observed of all the town what do you think of the gentleman she asked the light porter when he came to take away a deal of money on his dress ma am it must be admitted said mrs that it s very yes ma am returned if that s worth the money besides which ma am while he was the table he looks to me as if he it s to game said mrs it s ridiculous ma am said b fe against the players hard times whether it was that the heat prevented mrs firom working or whether it was that her hand was out she did no work that night she sat at the window when the sun to sink behind the smoke she sat there when the smoke was burning red when the color faded it when darkness seemed to rise slowly out of the ground and upward upward up to the house tops up the church up to th of t he factory chimneys up to the sky without a candle in the room mrs sat at the window with her hands before lier not thinking much of the sounds of evening the of boys the barking of dogs the of wheels the steps and voices of passengers the shrill street cries the upon the pavement when it was their hour for going by the shutting up of shop shutters not until the light porter announced that her was ready did mrs arouse herself rom her reverie and convey her dense black eyebrows by that time with meditation as if they needed out up stairs you fool said mrs when she was alone at her supper whom she meant she did not say but she could have meant the i i xviii the party wanted assistance in the graces they went and where could they more readily than among the fine gentlemen who having every thing to be worth nothing were equally ready for any thing moreover the healthy spirits who had mounted to this sublime height were attractive to many of the school they liked fine gentlemen they pretended that they did not but they did they became exhausted in imitation of them and they in their speech like them and they served out an air the little of political economy on which they their there never before was seen on earth such a wonderful race as was thus produced among the fine gentlemen not regularly belonging to the school there was one of a good family and a better appearance with a happy turn of which had told immensely with the house of on the occasion of his entertaining it with his and the board of view of a railway accident in which the most officers ever known employed by the most liberal ever heard of assisted by the finest mechanical ever devised the whole in action on the best line ever constructed had killed five people and wounded thirty two by a without which the excellence of the whole system would have been positively among the slain was a cow and among the scattered articles a widow s and the honorable member had so the house which has a delicate sense of humor by putting the cap on the cow that it became impatient of any serious reference to the s and brought the railway ofi with cheers and laughter now this gentleman had a younger brother of still better ai i e s ance than himself who had tried t il t found it and had afterward td m k k ip hard times minister abroad and found it a bore and had then strolled to and got bored there and liad then gone about the world and got bored every where to whom this honorable and member said one day there s a good opening among the hard fact fellows and they want men i wonder you don t go in for rather taken by the novelty of the
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idea and very hard up for a change as ready to go in for as for any thing else so he went in he himself up with a blue book or two and his brother put it about among the hard fact fellows and said if you want to bring in for any place a handsome dog who can make you a devilish good speech look after my brother for he s your after a few in the public meeting way mr and a council of political approved of and it was resolved to send him down to to become known there and in the neighborhood hence the letter had last night shown to mrs which mr now held in his hand banker specially to introduce james thomas within an hour of the receipt of this and mr james s card mr put on his hat and went down to the hotel there he found mr james looking out of window in a state of mind so that he was already half disposed to go in for something else my name sir said his visitor is of mr james was very happy indeed though he looked so to have a pleasure he had long expected sir said taking a chair is not the kind of place you have been accustomed to therefore if you ll allow me or whether you will or not for i am a plain man i ll tell you something about it before we go any further mr would be charmed don t be too sure of that said i don t promise it first of all you see our smoke that s meat and drink to us it s the thing in the world in all respects and particularly for the lungs if you are one of those who want us to it i differ j om you we are not going to wear the hard times of our out any faster than we wear now for all the sentiment in great britain and by way of going in to the fullest mr rejoined mr i assure you entirely and completely of your way of thinking on i am glad to hear it id now you have heard a lot of talk the work in our mills no doubt you have very good i ll state the fact of it to you it s the work there is and it s the work there is and it ib the best paid work there is more than that we couldn t improve the mills themselves unless we laid down turkey carpets on the floors which we re not a going to do mr perfectly right lastly said as to our hands there s not a hand in this town sir man woman or child but has one mate object in life that object is to be fed on soup and with a gold spoon now they re not a going none of em ever to be fed on soup and with a gold spoon and now you know the place mr professed himself in the highest degree instructed and refreshed by this of the whole question why you see replied mr it suits my disposition to have a full understanding with a man particularly with a man when i make his acquaintance i have only one thing more to say to you mr before assuring you of the pleasure with which i shall respond to the utmost of my poor ability to my friend tom s letter of introduction you are a man of family don t you deceive yourself by supposing for a moment that am a man of family i am a bit of dirty and a genuine scrap of rag and if any thing could have exalted s interest in mr it would have been this very circumstance or so he told him so now said we may shake hands on equal terms i say equal terms because although i know what i am and the exact depth of the i have myself out of better than any man does i am as proud as you are i am just as proud as you are having now asserted my independence in proper hard times i to how do find and i hope you re the better mr him i as ther shook hands for the air el mr received the answer perhaps know said he yoa t know i married tom s tf to do than to walk tip town with me i be g ad to introduce to tom s daughter mr said yon anticipate n dearest wishes they went oat and mr the new who go strongly contrasted with him to the red brick dwelling with the black outside shutters the green inside blinds and the street door up the two white steps in the drawing room of which mansion there presently entered to them the most remarkable girl mr james had ever seen she was so constrained and yet so careless so reserved and yet so watchful so cold and proud and yet so ashamed of her husband s humility from which she shrunk as if every example of it were a cut or a blow that it was quite a new sensation to observe her in face she was no less remarkable than in manner her features were handsome but their natural play was so suppressed and locked up that it seemed impossible to guess at their genuine expression utterly perfectly self never at a loss and yet never at her ease with her figure in company with them there and her mind apparently quite alone it was of no use going in yet awhile to comprehend this girl for she all penetration from the mistress of the house the visitor glanced to the house itself there was no mute sign of a woman in the room no graceful little no fanciful little
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device trivial any where expressed her influence cheerless and and rich there the room stared at its present occupants and by the least trace of any womanly occupation as mr stood in the midst of his household gods so those occupied their places around mr and they were worthy of one another and matched hard times this sir said is my tom s eldest daughter loo mr has joined your father s roll if he is not tom s before long j l we shall at least of him in connection with t ur neighboring towns you observe mr t my wife is my junior i don t know what she aw me but she saw something in me i or she wouldn t have married me she has lots of expensive knowledge sir political and otherwise if you want to for any thing i should be troubled to recommend you to a better adviser than loo to a more agreeable adviser or one from whom he would be more likely to learn mr could never be recommended come said his host if you re in the complimentary line you ll get on here for you ll meet with no competition i have never been in the way of myself and i don t profess to understand the art of paying em in fact i despise em but your bringing up was di rent from mine mine was a real thing by george you re a gentleman and i don t pretend to be one i am of and that s enough for me however though am not influenced by manners and station loo may be she hadn t my advantages you would call em but i call em so u not waste your power i dare say mr said turning with a smile to a is a noble animal in a comparatively natural state quite the harness in which a conventional hack like myself works you respect mr very much she quietly retained it is natural that you should he was thrown out for a gentleman who had seen so much of the world and thought now how am i to take this you are going to devote yourself as i gather from what mr has said to the service of your country you have made up your mind said stiu standing before him where she had first stopped in all the singular of her and her being obviously so very ill at to ho the nation the way out of all its difficulties mrs he returned laughing upon my no hard times i will make no ch to you i have seen a little here and there up an down i have found it all to he very worthless as every has a as some confess they have and some do not and i am going in for your respected father s opinions really i have no choice of and may as well back them as any thing else have you none of your own a t i have not so much as the slightest left i a you i attach not the least importance to any opinions the result i of the varieties of i have undergone is a conviction unless conviction is too industrious a word for the lazy sentiment i enter tain on the subject that any set of ideas will do just as much good as any other set and just as much harm as any other set there s an family with a capital italian motto what will be will be it s the only truth going this vicious assumption of honesty in a vice so dangerous so deadly and so common seemed he observed a little to impress her in his favor he followed up the advantage by saying in his manner a manner to which she might attach ab much or as little meaning as she pleased the side that can prove any thing in a line of hundreds and thousands mrs seems to me to the most fun and to give a man the best chance i am quite as much attached to it as if i believed it i am quite ready to go in for it to the same extent as if i believed it and what more could i possibly do if i did it you are a singular said pardon me i have not even that merit we are the largest party in the state i assure you mrs if we all fell out of our adopted ranks and were together mr who had been in danger of bursting in silence interposed here with a project for the family dinner to half past six and taking mr james in the mean time on a round of visits to the and inter ting of and its vicinity the round of visits was made and mr james with a discreet use of his blue came off triumphantly though with a considerable ia of in the evening he found the dinner table laid for four but tliey hard times at down only three it was an appropriate fi r mr to the flavor of the hap f he had purchased in the streets at eight years o and also of the inferior water specially used for laying the with which he had washed down that he entertained his guest over the soup and fish with that he had eaten t east three under the guise of and these in a languid manner received with charming every now and then and they probably would have decided him to go in for again to morrow morning had he been less curious respecting is there nothing he thought glancing at her as she sat at the head of the table where her youthful figure small and but very looked as pretty as it looked is there nothing that will move that face
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yes by there was something and here it was in an unexpected shape tom appeared she changed as the door opened and broke into a beaming smile a beautiful smile mr james might not have thought so much of it but that he had wondered so long at her face she put out her hand a pretty httle soft hand and her fingers closed upon her brother s as if she would have carried them to her ay ay thought the visitor this is the only creature she cares for so so the was presented and took his chair the was not flattering but not when i was your age young tom said i was punctual or i got no dinner when you were my age returned tom m you hadn t a wrong balance to get right and hadn t to dress afterward never mind that now said well then grumbled tom don t begin with me mrs said perfectly hearing this as it went on your brother s face is quite to me can i have seen him abroad or at some school perhaps no she returned quite interested he has never been abroad yet and was educated here at home tom love i am telling mr that he never saw you abroad hard times whether it was that the heat prevented mrs from working or whether it was that her hand was out she did no work that night she sat at the window when the sun to sink behind the smoke she sat there when the smoke was burning red when the color faded it when darkness seemed to rise slowly out of the ground and upward upward up to the house tops up the church up to of the factory chimneys up to the sky without a candle in ihe at tiie window with her hands before lier not thinking much of the sounds of evening the of boys the barking of dogs the of wheels the steps and voices of passengers the shrill street cries the upon the pavement when it was their hour for going by the shutting up of shop shutters not until the light porter announced that her was ready did mrs arouse herself from her reverie and convey her dense black eyebrows by that time with meditation as if they needed out up stairs you fool said mrs when she was alone at her supper whom she meant she did not say but she could have meant the v i xviii the party wanted assistance in the graces they went about and where could they more readily than among the fine gentlemen who having found out every thing to be worth nothing were equally ready for any thing moreover the healthy spirits who had mounted to this sublime height were attractive to many of the school they liked fine gentlemen they pretended that they did not but they did they became exhausted in imitation of them and they in their speech like them and they served out an air the little of political economy on which they their there never before was seen on earth such a race as was thus produced among the fine gentlemen not regularly belonging to the school there was one of a good family and a better appearance with a happy turn of humor which had told immensely with the house of on the occasion of his entertaining it with his and the board of view of a railway accident in which the most ofi ever known employed by the most liberal ever heard of assisted by the finest mechanical ever devised the whole in action on the best line ever constructed had killed five people and wounded thirty two by a without which the excellence of the whole system would have been positively among the slain was a cow and among the scattered articles a widow s and the honorable member had so the house which has a delicate sense of humor by putting the cap on the cow that it became impatient of any serious reference to the s and brought the railway ofi with cheers and laughter now this gentleman had a younger brother of still better appearance than himself who had tried life as a of and found it a bore and had afterward tried it in the train of an n hard times minister abroad and found it a bore and bad strolled to and got bored there and had then gone about the world and got bored every where to whom this honorable and member said one day there s a good opening among the hard fellows and they want men i wonder you don t go in for rather taken by the novelty of the idea and very hard up for a change was as to go in for as for any thing else so he went in se himself up with a blue book or two and his brother put it about among the hard fact fellows and said if you want to bring in for any place a handsome dog who can make you a devilish good speech look after my brother for he s your after a few in the public meeting way mr and a council of political approved of and it was resolved to send him down to to become known there and in the neighborhood hence the letter had last night shown to mrs which mr now held in his hand banker specially to introduce james thomas within an hour of the receipt of this and mr james s card mr put on his hat and went down to the hotel there he found mr james looking out of window in a state of mind so that he was already half disposed to go in for something else my name sir said his visitor is of mr james was very happy indeed though he looked so to
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have a pleasure he had long expected sir said taking a chair is not the kind of place you have been accustomed to therefore if you ll allow me or whether you will or not for i am a plain man i ll tell you something about it before we go any further mr would be charmed don t be too sure of that said i don t promise it first of all you see our smoke that s meat and drink to us it s the thing in the world in all respects and particularly for the lungs if you are one of those who want us to it i j om you we are not going to wear the times of our out any faster than we wear em t ut now for all the sentiment in great britain and by way of going in to the fullest extent mr rejoined mr i assure you i m entirely and completely of your way of thinking on co i am glad to hear it now you have heard a lot of talk about the work in our mills no doubt you have very good i ll state the fact of it to you it s the work there is and it s the work there is and it b the best paid work there is more than that we couldn t improve the mills themselves unless we laid down turkey carpets on the floors which we re not a going to do mr perfectly right lastly said as to our hands there s not a hand in this town sir man woman or child but has one mate object in life that object is to be fed on soup and with a gold spoon now they re not a going none of em ever to be fed on soup and with a gold spoon and now you know the place mr professed himself in the highest degree instructed refreshed by this of the whole question why you see mr it suits my disposition to have a full understanding with a man particularly with a man when i make his acquaintance i have only one thing more to say to you mr before assuring you of the pleasure with which i shall respond to the utmost of my poor ability to my friend tom s letter of introduction you are a man of family don t you deceive yourself by supposing for a moment that i am a man of family i am a bit of dirty and a genuine scrap of rag and if any thing could have exalted s interest in mr it would have been this very circumstance or so he told him so now said we may shake hands on equal terms i say equal terms because although i know what i am and the exact depth of the i have myself out of better than any man does i am as proud as you are i am just as proud as you are having now asserted my independence in a proper hard times and she gets on bo placidly oh returned tom with contemptuous patronage she s a regular girl a girl can get on any where she has settled down to the life and she don t mind the life does just as well for her as another besides though loo is a she s not a common sort of girl she can shut herself up within herself and think as i have often known her sit and watch the br n hour at a stretch ay ay has resources of her own said smoking quietly not so much of that as you may suppose returned tom for our governor had her crammed with all sorts of dry and it s his system formed his daughter on his own model suggested his daughter ah i and every else why he formed me that way said tom impossible he did though said tom shaking his head i mean to say mr that when i first left home and went to old s i was as flat as a warming pan and knew no more about life than any does come tom i can hardly believe that a joke s a joke upon my soul said the i am serious i am indeed he smoked with great gravity and dignity for a little while and then added in a highly complacent tone oh i i have picked up a httle since i don t deny that but i have done it myself no thanks to the governor and your intelligent sister my intelligent sister is about where she was she used to complain to me that she had nothing to all back upon that girls usually fall back upon and i don t see how she is to have got over that since but she don t mind he added puffing at his cigar again girls can always get on somehow at the bank yesterday evening for mr s address i found an ancient lady there who seems to entertain great admiration for your sister observed mr james away the last of the cigar he had now smoked out hard times mother said tom what you have seen her already have you his friend nodded tom took his cigar out of his mouth to shut up his eye which had grown rather with the greater expression and to tap his nose several times with his mother s feeling for loo is more than admiration i should think said tom say and devotion mother never set her cap at when he was a bachelor oh no i these were the last words spoken by the before a giddy came upon him followed by complete oblivion he was roused from the latter state by an uneasy dream of being stirred up with a boot and also of a voice
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saying come it b late be well he said from the sofa i must take my leave of you though i say yours is very good tobacco but it s too mild yes it s too mild returned his it s it s mild said tom where s the door good night he had another odd dream of being taken by a waiter through a mist which after giving him some trouble and difficulty resolved itself into the main street in which he stood alone he then walked home pretty easily though not yet free from an impression of the presence and influence of his new friend as if he were lounging somewhere in the air in the same attitude regarding him with the same look the went home and went to bed if he had had any sense of what he had done that night and had been less of a and more of a brother he might have turned short on the road might have gone down to the ill smelling river that was black might have gone to bed in it for good and all and have hia head forever with its filthy waters chapter xx oh my friends the down trodden of oh my friends and fellow countrymen the slaves of an iron handed and a grinding oh my friends and fellow and fellow workmen and fellow men i tell you that the hour is come when we must rally round one another as one united power and into dust the that too long have upon the plunder of our families upon the sweat of our brows upon the labor of our hands upon the strength of our upon the glorious rights of humanity and upon the holy and eternal privileges of brotherhood good i hear hear hear and other cries arose in many voices from various parts of the crowded and close hall in which the orator perched on a stage himself of this and what other and he had in him he had himself into a violent heat and was as hoarse as he was hot by dint of roaring at the top of his voice under a his fists knitting his brows setting his teeth and with his arms he had taken so much out of himself by this time that he was brought to a stop and called for a glass of water as he stood there trying to his fiery face with his of water the comparison between the orator and the crowd of attentive faces turned toward him was extremely to his disadvantage judging him by nature s evidence he was above the mass in very little but the stage on which he stood in many great respects he was essentially below them he was not so honest he was not so manly he was not so good he cunning fer their simplicity and for their safe sense an high shouldered man with lowering brows and his features crushed into an habitually sour expression he contrasted most even in his dress with the great body of his in their plain working clothes strange as it always is to hard times consider any assembly in the act of itself to the of some complacent person lord or whom three of it could by no human means raise out of the of to their own intellectual l it was particularly strange and it was even particularly to see this crowd of faces whose honesty in the main no competent observer free from bias could doubt so agitated by such a leader good hear hear the eagerness both of attention and intention exhibited in all the countenances made them a most impressive sight there was no carelessness no languor no idle curiosity none of the many shades of to be seen in all other visible for one moment there that every man felt his condition to be somehow or other worse than it might be that every man considered it incumbent on him to join the rest toward the making of it better that every man felt his only hope to be in his himself to the comrades by whom he was surrounded and that in this belief right or wrong unhappily wrong then the whole of that crowd were gravely deeply faithfully in earnest must have been as plain to any one who chose to see what was there as the bare beams of the roof and the brick walls nor could any such spectator fail to know in his own breast that these men through their very showed great susceptible of being turned to the happiest and best account and that to pretend on the strength of sweeping cut and dried that they went astray wholly without cause and of their own wills was to pretend that there could be smoke without fire death without birth harvest without seed any thing or every thing produced from nothing the orator having refreshed himself wiped his forehead from left to right several times with his handkerchief folded into a and concentrated all his revived forces in a sneer of great disdain and bitterness but oh my friends and brothers oh men and englishmen the down trodden of what shall we say of that man that working man that i should find it necessary so to the glorious who being practically and well acquainted with the and wrongs of you the injured and of this land and having heard you with a noble and that will make tremble resolve for to hard times to the funds of the united and to abide by the issued by that body for your benefit whatever they may be what i ask you will you say of that working man since such i must acknowledge him to be who at such a time deserts his post and his flag who at such a time turns a traitor and a and a who at such
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a time is not ashamed to make to you the and humiliating that he will hold himself aloof and will not be one of those associated in the gallant stand for freedom and for right the assembly was divided at this point there were some groans and but the general sense of honor was much too strong for the condemnation of a man be sure you re right put him up let s hear him such things were said on many sides finally one strong voice called out is the man if the man s beer let s hear the man stead o yo which was received with a of applause the orator looked about him with a withering smile and holding out his right hand at arm s length as the manner of all is to still the thundering sea waited until there was a profound silence oh my friends and fellow men i said then shaking his head with violent scorn i do not wonder that you the prostrate sons of labor are incredulous of the existence of such a man but he who sold his birth right for a of existed and existed and existed and this man exists i here a brief press and confusion near the stage in the man himself standing at the orator s side before the he was pale and a little moved in the face his lips especially showed it but he stood quiet with his left hand at his chin waiting to be heard there was a to the proceedings and this now took the case into his own hands my friends said he by virtue o my as your president i ashes o our friend who may be a little over better in this business to take his seat this man is you all know this man you him o his ns and his good name with that the shook him frankly by the hand and hard times among yo i hope i shall die such a time and i shall among yo unless it truly i do t my friends not to yo but to live i ha work to live by and can i go i who ha worked sin i were no at aw in i no complaints o bein turned to the wa o bein and fro this time but i hope i shall be let to work if there s any right for me at aw my friends i think tis that not a word was spoken not a sound was audible in the building but the slight rustle of men moving a httle apart all along the centre of the room to open a means of passing out to the man with whom they had all bound themselves to companion ship looking at no one and going his way with a lowly ness upon him that asserted nothing and sought nothing old with all his troubles on his head left the scene then who had kept his arm during the going out as if he were with infinite solicitude and by a wonderful moral power the vehement passions of the multitude applied himself to raising their spirits had not the r oh my british countrymen condemned his son to death and had not the mothers oh my soon to be victorious friends driven their flying children on the points of their swords then was it not the sacred duty of the men of with forefathers before them an admiring world in company with them and a posterity to come after them to out from the tents they had pitched in a sacred and a cause the winds of heaven answered yes and bore yes cast west north and south and consequently three cheers for the united acted as and gave the time the multitude of doubtful faces a little conscience stricken brightened at the sound and took it up private feeling must yield to the common cause the roof yet with the cheering when the assembly dispersed thus easily did fall into the of lives th hfe of solitude among a crowd the stranger in the and who looks ten thousand faces for some answering look and never it is in cheering society as compared with him hard times who passes ten averted faces daily that were once the countenances of friends such experience was to be s now in every waking moment of his life at his work on his way to it and from it at his door at his window every where by general consent they even avoided that side of the street on which he habitually walked and left it of all the working men to him only he had been for many years a quiet silent man but little with other men and used to companionship with his own thoughts he had never known before the strength of the want in his heart for the frequent recognition of a nod a look a word or the immense amount of relief that had been poured into it by drops through such small means it was even harder than he could have believed possible to separate in his own conscience his by all his fellows from a sense of shame and disgrace the first four days of his endurance were days so long and heavy that he began to be appalled by the prospect before him not only did he see no all the time but he avoided every chance of seeing her for although he knew that the did not yet formally extend to the women working in the he found that some of them with whom he was acquainted were changed to him and he feared to try others and dreaded that might be even out from the rest if she were seen in his company so he had been quite alone during the four days and had spoken to no one when as
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he was leaving his work at night a young man of a very light complexion him in the street your name s an t it said the yoimg man colored to find himself with his hat in his hand in his gratitude for being spoken to or in the suddenness of it or both he made a of the and said yes you are the hand they have sent to i mean said the very light young man in question answered yes again supposed so from their all appearing to keep away from you mr wants to speak to you you know his house don t you times said yes again then go straight up there will you said you re expected and have only to tell the servant it s you i to the bank so if you go straight up without me i was sent to fetch you you ll save me a walk whose way had been in the contrary direction turned about and himself as in duty bound to the red brick castle of the giant chapter xxi well said in his windy what s this i hear what have these of the earth been doing to you come in and speak up it was into the drawing room that he was thus a was set out and mr s young wife and her brother and a great gentleman from london were present to whom made his closing the door and standing near it with his hat in his hand this is the man i was telling you about said mr the gentleman he addressed who was talking to mrs on the sofa got up saying in an indolent way oh really and to the hearth rug where mr stood now said speak up after the four days he had passed this address fell rudely and on s ear besides being a rough handling of his wounded mind it seemed to assume that he really was the he had been called what were it sir said as yo were pleased to want wi me why i have told you returned speak up like a man since you are a man and tell us yourself and this combination wi pardon sir said i ha to sen about it mr who was always more or less like a wind finding something in his way here began to blow at it directly now look here said he here s a specimen of em when this man was here once before i this man against the mischievous strangers who are always about and who ought to be hanged wherever they are found and i told this man that he was going in the wrong direction now would you be hard it that although they have put this mark upon him he is such a slave to them still that he s afraid to open his lips them i as i had to sen sir not as i was o my lips you said ah know what you said more than that i know what you mean you see not always the same thing by the lord harry q things you had better tell us at once that that fellow is not in the town stirring up the people to and that he is not a regular qualified leader of the people that is a most confounded scoundrel you had better tell us so at once you can t deceive mc you want to tell us so why don t you i m as as yo sir i en the people s leaders is bad said shaking his head they such as tis na the est o their when they can et no better the wind began to be boisterous now you ll think this pretty well said mr you ll think this tolerably strong you ll say upon my soul this is a tidy specimen of what my friends have to deal with but this is nothing sir you shall hear me ask this man a question pray mr wind springing up very fast may i take the liberty of asking you how it happens that you refused to be in this combination how t happens ah i said mr with his in the arms of his coat and his head and shutting his eyes in confidence with the opposite wall how it happens i d not to t sir but sin you put th question an not want n t be ill manner n i u answer i ha passed a not to me you know said weather with one now prevailing no sir not to you as for me any consideration for me has had just nothing at all to do with it said still in confidence with the wall if only of had been in question you would have joined and made no bones about it why yes sir tis true hard times though he said mr now blowing a gale that these are a set of and whom is too good for i now mr you have been knocking about in the world some time did you ever meet with any thing like that man out of this blessed country and mr pointed him out for inspection with an angry finger nay ma am said protesting against the words that had been used and instinctively addressing himself to after glancing at her face not nor yet o th kind ma am o th kind they ve not me a kindness ma am as i know and feel but there s not a dozen men em ma am a dozen not six but what as he has his duty by the rest and by god forbid as i that ha known and had n experience o these men aw my life i that ha n an wi em an n wi em an toil n wi em an
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n em should fail fur to by em wi the truth let em ha to me what they may he spoke with the rugged earnestness of his place and character deepened perhaps by a proud consciousness that he was faithful to his class under all their but he fully remembered where he was and did not even raise his voice no ma am no they re true to one another to one another to one another e en to death be poor em be sick em grieve em for o th causes that carries grief to the poor man s door an they ll be tender wi yo gentle wi yo comfortable wi yo wi yo be sure o that ma am they d be to bits ere ever they d be in short said mr it s because they are so full of virtues that they have turned you adrift go through with it while you are about it out with it how tis ma am resumed appearing still to find his natural refuge in s face that what is best in us seem to turn us most to trouble an n an mistake i but tis so i know tis as i know the heavens is over me the smoke we re patient too an wants in general to do right an i think the is aw wi us now my friend said mr whom he could not have exasperated more unconscious of it though he was than to any one if you will favor mc with a minute i like to have a word ot just now that you had to tell us ess you sure of that before wo go any m sure on t a gentleman from present mr handed point at mr james with his parliament gentleman i should hke him to heat a between you and mo instead of taking the i know precious well beforehand what it will j better than i do take instead of re it on from my mouth bent his head to the gentleman from london showed a rather more troubled mind than usual he turned i eyes involuntarily to his former refuge but at a look from quarter expressive he settled them o h face how what do you complain of asked mr i ha not st reminded him plain i for that i were sent for what repeated mr folding his arms m a general way com p looked at him with some httle for a s ment and then seemed to make up his mind sir i were never good at o t though i ha had n my share in o t we ate in a sir look town so rich as tis and see tb numbers o people as been into bein fur to an to card an to piece out a aw the same one way twist their an their graves look how we live an we live an in what numbers an by what chances an wi what and look how the mills is a gain an how they never works ns no to dis ant object death look how you of ns an writes of us and talks of us an goes up wi to o slate bout ua an how yo arc right and how we arc wrong and never had n no reason ui us sm ever we were bom look bow this ha an air t an broader harder an hard times fro year to year fro generation unto generation who can look on t sir and fairly tell a man tis not a of course said mr now perhaps you u let the gentleman know how you would set this as you re so fond of calling it to rights i sir i be to t tis not me as be to for that sir tis them as is put me an aw the rest of us what do they upon sir if not to do t i ll tell you something toward it at any rate returned mr we will make an example of half a dozen we u the for and get em off to gravely shook his head don t tell me we won t man said mr by this time blowing a because we will i tell you sir returned with the quiet confidence of absolute certainty if yo was t a aw as there is an aw the number ten times an was t em up in separate an sink em in the deepest ocean as were made ere ever dry land to be yo d leave the just tis strangers said with an anxious smile when ha we not i am sure sin ever we can call to mind o th strangers i tis not by them the trouble s made sir tis not wi them t i ha no favor for em i ha no reason to favor em but tis hopeless an useless to dream o them fro their trade stead o their trade fro them aw that s now about me in this room were afore i an will be when i am gone put that clock aboard a ship an pack it off to island an the time will go on just the same so tis wi every bit for a moment to his former refuge he observed a movement of her eyes toward the door stepping back he put his hand upon the lock but he had not spoken out of his own will and desire and he felt it in his heart a noble for his late injurious treatment to be faithful to the last to those who had him he staid to finish what was in his mind sir x wi my little learning an my common way tell hard times the what will better aw this though some o this town could above
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my powers but i can tell him what i know will never do t the strong hand wiu never do t victory and triumph will never do t fur to one side rally and forever right and side rally and forever wrong will never never do t nor yet alone will never do t let thousands upon thousands aw the like and aw en into the hke and they will be as one an yo will be as wi a black world yo just as long or short a time as hke misery can last not nigh to wi kindness an patience an cheery ways that so draws nigh to one another in their troubles and so one another in their wi what they need like i humbly believe as no people the gentleman ha seen in aw his travels can beat will never do t till th sun turns t ice last o aw em as so much power and latin em as if they was figures in a or machines wi out loves and wi out memories aiid inclinations wi out souls to weary an souls to hope when aw goes quiet on wi em as if they d o th kind an when aw goes em fur their want o in their wi this will never do t sir till god s work is stood with the open door in his hand waiting to know if any thing more were expected of him just stop a moment said mr excessively red in the face i told you the last time you were here with a grievance that you had better turn about and come out of that and i also told you if you remember that i was up to the gold spoon look out i were not up to t sir i do assure yo now it s clear to me said mr that you are one of those who have always got a grievance and you go about it and raising crops that s the business of your life my friend shook his head protesting that indeed he had other business to do for his life you are such a ill chap you see said mr that even your own union the men who know you best will have nothing to do with you i never thought hard times those fellows could be right in any thing but i tell you what i so far go along with them for a novelty that j ll have nothing to do with you either raised his eyes quickly to his face you can finish off what you are at said mr with a meaning nod and then go elsewhere sir yo know said that if i get work wi yo i get it the reply was what i know i know and what you know you know i have no more to say about it glanced at again but her eyes were raised to his no more therefore with a sigh and saying barely above his breath heaven help us aw in this world he departed chapter xxii it was dark when came out of mr s house the shadows of night had gathered so fast that he did not look about him when he closed the door but straight along the street nothing was further his thoughts than the curious old woman he had encountered on his previous visit to the same house when he heard a step behind him that he knew and turning saw her in company he saw first as he had heard her only ah my dear i thou wi her well and now you are surprised to be sure and with reason i must say the old woman returned here i am again you but how wi said falling into their step walking between them and looking from the one to the other why i come to be with this good pretty much as i came to be with you said the old woman cheerfully taking the reply upon herself my visiting time is later this year than usual for i have been rather troubled with of breath and so put it off till the weather was fine and warm for the same reason i don t make all my journey in one day but divide it two days and get a bed to night at the house down by the railroad a nice clean house and go back at six in the morning well but what has this to do with this good says you i m going to tell you i have heard of mr being married i read it in the paper where it looked grand oh it looked fine the old woman dwelt on it with strange enthusiasm and i want to see his wife i have never seen her yet now if you ll believe me she has nt come out of that house since noon to day so not to give her up too easily i was waiting about a little last bit more when i passed close to this good two or three times and her face being so friendly i spoke to her and she spoke to me there said the old woman hard times to you can make all the rest out fox yourself now a deal shorter than i can i dare say i once again had to conquer an instinctive to dislike this old woman though her manner was as honest and simple as a manner possibly could be with a gentleness that was as natural to him es he knew it to be to he pursued the subject that interested her in her old age well said he i ha seen the lady and she were and wi fine dark eyes and a way as i ha never seen the like on young and handsome yes i cried the old woman
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quite delighted as as a rose and what a happy wife ay i suppose be said but a doubtful glance at suppose she be she must be she s your master s wife returned the old woman nodded assent though as to master said he glancing again at not master more that s aw him and me have you left his work asked anxiously and quickly why he replied whether i ha left n his work or whether his work ha left n me t th same his work and me are parted tis as so better i were when yo up wi me it would ha brought n trouble upon trouble if i had stayed tis a to that i go tis a kindness to it be done i turn my face fro fur th time an seek a fort n dear by fresh will you go i t night said he lifting off his hat and his thin hair with the flat of his hand but tm not a goin t night nor yet t morrow tan t easy t know t turn but a good heart will to me too the sense of even thinking aided him before he had so much as closed mr s door he had reflected that at least his being obliged to go away was good for her as it would save her from the chance of being brought into for not withdrawing from him though it would cost hard times t him a hard pang to leave her and though he could think of no similar place in which his condemnation would not pursue him perhaps it was almost a to be forced away from the endurance of the last four days even to unknown difficulties and so he said with truth fm more under t than i couldn ha it was not her part to make his burden heavier she answered with her comforting smile and the three walked on together ago especially when it to be self and cheerful finds much consideration among the poor the old woman was so decent and contented and made so of her though they had increased upon her since her former interview with that they both took an interest in her she was too to allow of their walking at a slow pace on her ac count but she was very grateful to be talked to and very to talk to any extent so when they came to their part of the town she was more brisk and than ever to my poor place said and a o tea will then and i ll see thee safe t thy t may be long ere ever i ha th chance o thy company they and the three went on to the house where he lodged when they turned into the narrow street glanced at his window with a dread that always haunted his desolate home but it was open as he had left it and no one was there the evil spirit of his hfe had flitted away again months ago and he had heard no more of her since the only evidences of her last return now were the in his room and the hair upon his head he lighted a candle set out his httle tea board got hot water from below and brought in small portions of tea and sugar a loaf and some butter from the nearest shop the bread was new and the butter fresh and the sugar lump of in of the standard testimony of the that these people lived like princes sir made the tea so large a party the of a cup and the visitor enjoyed it it was the first glimpse of the host had had for many days he too with the world a wide hard times heath before him enjoyed the meal again in of the as the utter want of calculation on the part of these people sir i ha never yet said o thy name the old lady announced herself as mrs p a i think said oh many long years i mrs s husband one of the best on record was already dead by mrs s calculation when was bom a bad job too to lose so good a one said children mrs s cup rattling against her as she held it some on her part no she said not now not now dead softly hinted i m ha n on t said i ought t ha hadn in my mind as i might touch a sore place i i blame while he excused himself the old lady s cup rattled more and more i had a son she said curiously distressed and not by any of the usual appearances of sorrow and he did well wonderfully well but he is not to be spoken of if you please he putting down her cup she moved her hands as if she would have added by her action dead then she said aloud i have lost him had not yet got the better of his having given the old lady pain when his landlady came stumbling up the narrow stairs and calling him to the door whispered in his ear mrs was by no means deaf for she caught a word as it was uttered she cried in a suppressed voice starting up om the table oh hide me i don t let me be seen for the world don t let him come up tiu i have got away pray pray she trembled and was excessively agitated getting behind when tried to her and not seeming to know what she was about but said astonished mr tis his wife not fear o her yo was hey go mad about her but an hour sin hard times but are you sure it s the lady and not the gentleman she asked still trembling certain sure i well then
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and now stood with his hand before his face she stretched out hers as if she would have touched him then checked herself and remained still not e en said when he stood again with his face uncovered could a kind by words kinder t show that fm not a man wi out reason and gratitude i ll two pound i ll borrow t for t pay t back be the sweetest work as ever i ha done that puts it in my power t acknowledge once more my for this present a tion hard times she was fain to take up the note again and to substitute the much smaller sum he had named he was neither nor handsome nor picturesque in any respect and yet his manner of accepting it and of expressing his thanks without more words had a grace in it that lord could not have taught his son in a century tom had sat upon the bed swinging one leg and his walking stick with sufficient until the visit had attained this stage seeing his sister ready to depart he got up rather hurriedly and put in a word just wait a moment loo before we go i should like to speak to him a moment something comes into my head if you ll step out on the stairs i ll mention it never mind a light man tom was remarkably impatient of his moving toward the cupboard to get one it don t want a light followed him out and tom closed the room door and held the lock in his hand i say he whispered i think i can do you a good turn don t ask me what it is because it may not come to any thing but there s no harm in my tr ring his breath fell like a flame of fire on s ear it was so hot that was our light porter at the bank said tom who brought you the message to night i call him our porter because i belong to the bank too thought what a hurry he is in i he spoke so well said tom now look here when are you off t day s monday replied considering why sir friday or saturday nigh bout friday or saturday said tom now look here i i am not sure that i can do you the good turn i want to do you that s my sister you know in your room but i may be able to and if i should not be able to there s no harm done so i tell you what you ll know our light again yes sure said very well returned tom when you leave work of a night between this and your going away just hang about the bank an or so will don i ke on a l hard times any thing if he should see you hanging about there because i shan t put hun up to speak to you unless i find i can you the service i want to do you in that case he ll have a note or a message for you but not else now look here you are sure you understand he had a finger in the darkness through a button hole of s coat and was that comer of the garment tight up round and round in an extraordinary manner i sir said now look here i repeated tom be sure you don t make any mistake then and don t forget i all tell my sister as we go home what i have in view and she ll approve i know now look here you re all right are you you understand all about it very well then come along loo i he pushed the door open as he called to her but did not return into the room or wait to be lighted down the narrow stairs he was at the bottom when she began to descend and was in the street before she could take his mrs remained in her comer until the brother and sister were gone and until came back with the candle in his hand she was in a state of admiration of mrs and like an unaccountable old woman wept because she was such a pretty dear yet mrs was so lest the object of her admiration should return by any chance or any body else should come that her cheerfulness was ended for that night it was late too to people who rose early and worked hard therefore the party broke up and and escorted their mysterious acquaintance to the door of the house where they parted from her they walked back together to the comer of the street where lived and as they drew nearer and nearer to it silence crept upon them when they came to the dark comer where their meetings always ended they stopped still silent as if both were afraid to speak i shall strive t see thee afore i go but if not thou wilt not i know tis better that we make up our minds to be open wi one another thou rt right tis bolder and better i ha k that as tis a da ox hard times better for thee my dear not t be seen wi me t might bring thee into trouble fur no good tis not for that that i mind but thou know st our old agreement tis for that well well said he tis better thou lt write to me and tell me all that happens yes what can i say now but heaven be wi thee heaven bless thee heaven thank thee and reward thee may it bless thee too in all thy wanderings and send thee peace and rest at last thee my dear said that night that i would never see or
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think o that me but thou so much better than me should st be beside it thou beside it now thou st me see it wi a better eye bless thee good night good by it was but a hurried parting in the common street yet it was a sacred remembrance to these two common people of of fact genteel and used up of many little dog s the poor you will have always with you cultivate in them while there is yet time the utmost graces of the fancies and to adorn their so much in need of ornament or in the moment of your triumph when romance is utterly driven out of their souls and they and a bare existence stand ce to face reality will take a turn and make an end of you worked the next day and the next by a word from any one and in all his and as before at the end of the second day he saw land at the end of the third his loom stood empty he had his hour in the street outside the bank on each of the two first evenings and nothing had happened there good or bad that he might not be in his part of the engagement he resolved to wait full two hours on this third and last night there was the lady who had once kept mr s house sitting at the first floor window as he had seen her before and there was the light porter sometimes talking with her there and sometimes looking over the blind below which had bank upon it and sometimes coming to the door and standing on the steps for a hard times breath of air when he first came out thought he might be looking for him and passed near but the light porter cast his eyes upon him slightly and said nothing two hours were a long stretch of lounging about after a long day s labor sat upon the step of a door leaned against a wall under an strolled up and down listened for the church clock stopped and watched children playing in the street some purpose or other is so natural to every one that a mere always looks and remarkable when the first hour was out even began to have an uncomfortable sensation upon him of being for the time a character then came the and two lines of light all down the long perspective of the street until they were blended and lost in the distance mrs closed the first window drew down the blind and went up stairs presently a light went up stairs after her passing first the of the door and afterward the two staircase windows on its way up by and by one comer of the second blind was disturbed as if mrs s eye were there also the other comer as if the light porter s eye were on that side still no communication was made to much relieved when the two hours were at last accomplished he went away at a quick pace as a for so much he had only to take leave of his landlady and lie down on his temporary bed upon the floor for his bundle was made up for tomorrow and all was arranged for his departure he meant to be clear of the town very early before the hands were in the streets it was barely daybreak when with a parting look round his room mournfully wondering whether he should ver see it again he went out the town was as entirely deserted as if the inhabitants had abandoned it rather than hold communication with him every thing looked wan at that hour even the coming sun made but a pale waste in the sky like a sad sea by the place where lived though it was not in his way by the red brick streets by the great silent not trembling yet by the railway where the danger lights were in the day by the railway s crazy neighborhood half pulled down and half built up by scattered red brick where the were sprinkled with a dirty powder like hard times snuff by coal dust paths and many varieties of got to the top of the hill and looked back day was shining upon the town then and the bells were going for the morning work domestic fires were not yet lighted and the high chimneys had the sky to themselves out their poisonous volumes they would not be long in hiding it but for half an hour some of the many windows were golden which showed the people a sun in through a medium of smoked glass so strange to turn from the chimneys to the birds so strange to have the road dust on hi instead of the coal so strange to have lived to his time of life and yet to be beginning like a boy this summer morning with these in his mind and his bundle under his arm took his attentive face along the high road and the trees arched over him whispering that he left a true and loving heart behind chapter mb james going in for his adopted soon began to score with the aid of a little more for the political a little more genteel r the general society and a tolerable management of the honesty in most and most of the polite deadly sins he speedily came to be considered of much promise the not being troubled with earnestness was a grand point in his favor him to take to the hard fact fellows with as good a grace as if he had been born one of the tribe and to throw all other tribes overboard as conscious whom none of us believe my dear mrs and who do not believe themselves the only between us and the professors of virtue or benevolence or
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never mind the is that we know it is all and say so while they know it equally and will never say so why should she be shocked or warned by this it was not so unlike her father s principles and her early training that it need her where was the great difference between the two schools when each chained her down to material realities and inspired her with no faith in any thing else what was there in her soul for james to destroy which thomas had there in its state of innocence it was even the worse for her at this pass that in her mind there before her eminently practical father began to form it a struggling disposition to believe in a wider and higher humanity than she had ever heard of constantly strove with doubts and with doubts because the been so laid waste in her youth with because of the wrong that had been done her if it were indeed a whisper of the truth upon a nature long accustomed to self thus torn and divided the philosophy came as a si every thing being not ci h hard times missed nothing and sacrificed nothing did it matter she had said to her father when he proposed her husband what did it matter she said still with a scornful self reliance she asked herself what did any thing matter and went on toward what step by step onward and downward toward some end yet so gradually that she herself to remain motionless as to mr whither he tended he neither considered nor cared he had no particular design or plan before him no energetic wickedness ruffled his he was as much amused and interested present as it became so fine a gentleman to be perhaps even more than it would have been consistent with his reputation to confess soon after his arrival he languidly wrote to his brother the honorable and member that the were great fun and further that the female instead of being the he had expected was young and remarkably pretty after that he wrote no more about them and devoted his leisure chiefly to their house he was very often in their house in his and about the district and was much encouraged by mr it was quite in mr s way to boast to all his world that lie didn t care about your highly connected people but that if his wife tom s daughter did she was welcome to their company mr james began to think it would be a new sensation if the face which changed so beautifully for the would change for him he was quick enough to observe he had a good memory and did not forget a word of the brother s revelations he them with every thing he saw of the sister and he began to understand her to be sure the better and part of her character was not within his scope of perception for jn natures as in seas depth answers unto depth but he soon began to read the rest with a student s eye mr had taken possession of a house and grounds about fifteen miles from the town and accessible within a mile or two by a railway on many arches over a wild country by deserted coal and spotted at night by fires and black of engines this co softening toward of mr ei hard times a rustic landscape golden with heath and snowy with in the spring of the year and tremulous with leaves and their shadows all the summer time the had a on the property thus pleasantly situated hy one of the ma who in his determination to make a shorter cut than usual to an enormous fortune himself afterward hy two hundred thousand pounds these accidents did sometimes happen in the regulated families of though the had no connection whatever with the classes it r supreme satisfaction to himself in this snug httle estate and with to grow in the flower garden he delighted to among the elegant furniture and he the very pictures with his origin why sir he would say to a visitor i am told that the late owner gave seven hundred pound for that sea now to be plain with you if i ever in the whole course of my hfe take seven looks at it at a hundred pound a look it will be as much as i shall do no by george i don t forget that i am of for years upon years the only pictures in my possession or that i could have got into my possession by any means unless i stole em were the of a man himself in a boot on the bottles that i was to use in cleaning boots with and that i sold when they were empty for a apiece and glad to get it then he would address mr in the same style you have a couple of horses down here bring half a dozen more if you like and we ll find room for em there s in this place for a dozen horses and unless is he kept the full number a round dozen of em sir when that man was he went to westminster school went to westminster school as a king s scholar when i was principally living on and sleeping in market baskets why if i wanted to keep a dozen horses which i don t for one s enough for me i couldn t bear to see em in their here and think what my own lodging used to be i couldn t look at em sir and not cm out yet so things come r what place it is you j h t hard times place of its size in this kingdom or i don t care and here got into
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the middle of it like a into a nut is while as a man came i to my office and told me yesterday who used to act in latin in the westminster school plays with the chief and nobility of this country him till they were black in the face is at this sir i in a fifth floor up a row dark back street in it was among the leafy shadows of this retirement in the long summer days that mr began to prove the face which had set him wondering when he first saw it and to try if it would for him mrs i esteem it a most fortunate accident that i find you alone here i have for some time had a particular wish to speak to you it was not by any wonderful accident that he found her the time of day being that at which she was always alone and the place being her favorite resort it was an opening in a dark wood where some trees lay and where she would sit watching the fallen leaves of last year as she had watched the falling ashes at home he sat down beside her with a glance at her face your brother my young tom her color brightened and she turned to him with a look of interest i never in my life he thought saw any thing so remarkable and so as the lighting of those features his face betrayed his thoughts perhaps without betraying him for it might have been according to its instructions so to do pardon me the expression of your interest is so beautiful tom should be so proud of it i know this is but r am so compelled to admire being so impulsive she said mrs no you know i make no with you i am a sordid piece of human nature ready to sell myself at any time for any reasonable sum and altogether incapable of any proceeding whatever i am waiting she returned for your further reference to my brother you are rigid with me and ma n a as you find except that not tt hard times you surprised and started me from my subject which your brother i have an interest in him have you an interest in any thing mr she half and half gratefully if you had asked me when i came here i should have said no i must say now even at the hazard of appearing to make a and of justly awakening your incredulity yes she made a slight movement as if she were trying to speak but could not find voice at length she said mr i give you credit for being interested in my brother thank you i claim to deserve it you know how little i do claim but i will go that length you have done so much for him you are so fond of him your whole hfe mrs expresses such charming self forgetfulness on his account pardon me again i am running wide of the subject i am interested in him for his own sake she had made the slightest possible as if she would have risen in a hurry and gone away he had turned the course of what he said at that instant and she remained mrs he resumed in a lighter manner and yet with a show of effort in assuming it which was even more expressive than the manner he dismissed it is no in a young fellow of your brother s years if he is heedless and expensive a httle dissipated in the common phrase is he yes allow me to be frank bo you think he games at all i think he makes mr waiting as if that were not her whole she added i know he does of course he loses yes every body loses who may i hint at the probability of your sometimes supplying him with money for these purposes she sat looking down but at this question raised her eyes and a httle me of impertinent curiosity my dear mrs i think tom may be gradually falling into trouble and i wish to stretch out a helping hand to him from the de c ss experience i say again foi ua ta i x hard times she seemed to try to answer but nothing came of it candidly to confess every thing that has occurred to me said james again gliding with the same appearance of into his more airy manner i will confide to you my doubt whether he has had many advantages whether forgive my whether any great amount of confidence is likely to have been established between himself and his most worthy father i do not said flushing with her own great remembrance in that wise think it likely or between himself and i may trust to your perfect understanding of my meaning i am and his highly esteemed brother in law she flushed deeper and deeper and was burning red when she replied in a fainter voice i do not think that likely either mrs said after a short silence may there be a better confidence between yourself and me tom has borrowed a considerable of you you will understand mr she returned some she had been more or less uncertain and troubled throughout the conversation and yet had in the main preserved her self contained manner you will understand that if i tell you what you press to know it is not by way of complaint or regret i would never complain of any thing and what i have done i do not in the least regret so spirited too i thought james when i married i found that my brother was even at that time heavily in debt heavily for him i mean heavily enough to oblige me to
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sell some they were no sacrifice i sold them very willingly i attached no value to them they were quite worthless to me either she saw in his face that he knew or she only feared in her conscience that he knew that she spoke of her husband s s she stopped and again if he had not known it before he would have known it then though he had been a much man than he was since then i have given my brother at various times what money i could spare in short what money i have had you at all on the faith of the interest you profess for him i not do mo by e a k hard visiting here he has wanted in one sum as much as a pounds i have not been able to give it to him i have felt uneasy for the consequences of his being so involved but i have kept these secrets until now when i trust them to your honor i have held no confidence with any one because you anticipated my reason just now she abruptly broke off he was a ready man and he saw and seized an opportunity here of presenting her own image to her slightly disguised as her brother mrs though a person of the world worldly i feel the utmost interest i assure you in what you tell me i can not possibly be hard upon your brother i understand and share the wise consideration with which you regard his errors with all possible respect both for mr and for mr i think i perceive that he has not been in his training bred at a disadvantage toward the society in which he f has his part to play he rushes into these extremes for himself from i opposite extremes that have long been forced with the very best intentions we have no doubt upon him mr s fine bluff english independence though a most charming characteristic does not as we have agreed invite confidence if i might venture to remark that it is the least in the world deficient in that delicacy to which a youth mistaken a character and abilities would turn for and guidance i should express what it presents to my own view as she sat looking straight before her the changing lights upon the grass into the darkness of the wood beyond he saw in her face her application of his very distinctly uttered words all allowance he continued must be made i have one great fault to find with tom however which i can not forgive and for which i take him heavily to account turned her eyes to his face and asked him what fault was that perhaps he returned i have said enough perhaps it would have been better on the whole if no allusion to it had escaped me you alarm me mr pray let me know it to you firom needless apprehension and a regarding your brother which y hard times possible things has been established between us i obey i can not forgive him for not being more sensible in every word look and act of his life of the affection of his best friend of the devotion of his best friend of her of her sacrifice the return he makes her within my observation is a very poor one what she has done for him demands his constant love and gratitude not his ill humor and caprice careless fellow as i am i am not so indifferent mrs as to be regardless of this vice in your brother or inclined to consider it a the wood floated before her for her eyes were with tears they rose from a deep well long concealed and her heart was filled with acute pain that found no relief in them in a word it is to correct your brother in this mrs that i most my better knowledge of his circumstances and my direction and advice in him rather valuable i hope as coming from a on a much larger scale will give me some influence over him and all i gain i shall certainly use toward this end i have said enough and more than enough i seem to be protesting that i am a sort of good fellow when upon my honor i have not the least intention to make any to that effect and openly announce that i am nothing of the sort yonder among the trees he added having up his eyes and looked about for he had watched her closely until now is your brother himself no doubt just come down as he seems to be in this direction it may be as well perhaps to walk toward him and throw ourselves in his way he has been very silent and of late perhaps his conscience is touch ed if there are such things as though upon my honor i hear of them much too to believe in them he assisted her to rise and she took his arm and they advanced to meet the he was idly beating the branches as he along or he stopped to the moss from the trees with his stick he was startled when they came upon him while he was engaged in this latter and his color changed he stammered i didn t know you were here whose name tom said mr putting his hand upon his shoulder and turning him so that they all three walked toward the house together have you been carving on the hard times whose name returned tom oh i you mean what girl s name you have a suspicious appearance of some fair creature s on the bark tom not much of that mr unless some fair creature with a fortune at her own disposal would take a fancy to me or she might be
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as ugly as she was rich without any fear of losing me i d her name as often as she liked i m afraid you are tom repeated tom who is not ask my sister have you so proved it to be a failing of mine tom said showing no other sense of his discontent and ill nature you know whether the fits you loo returned her brother if it does you can wear it tom is to day as all bored people are now and then said mr don t believe him mrs he knows much better i shall disclose some of his opinions of you privately expressed to me unless he a little at all events mn said tom in his admiration of his patron but shaking his head sullenly too you can t tell her that i ever praised her for being i may have praised her for being the contrary and i should do it again if i had as good reason however never mind this now it s not very interesting to you and i am sick of the subject they walked on to the house where quitted her visitor s arm and went in he stood looking after her as she ascended the steps and passed into the shadow of the door then put his hand upon her brother s shoulder again and invited him a confidential nod to a walk in the garden tom my fine fellow i want to have a word with you they had stopped among a disorder of roses it was part of mr s humility to keep s roses on a reduced scale and tom sat down on a terrace and picking them to pieces while his powerful stood over him with a foot upon the and his figure easily resting on the arm supported by that knee they were just visible firom her window perhaps she saw them tom what s the hard times oh mr said tom with a groan i am hard up and out of my life my good fellow so am i you returned tom you are the picture of independence mr i am in a horrible mess you have no idea what a state i have got myself what a state my sister might have got me out of if she would only have done it he took to biting the rose now and tearing them away from his teeth with a hand that trembled like an old man s after one exceedingly observant look at him his companion into his air tom you are you expect too much of your sister you have had money of her you dog you know you have well mr i know i have how else was i to get it here s old always that at my age he lived upon two pence a month or something of that sort here s my father drawing what he calls a line and tying me down to it from a baby neck and heels here s my mother who never has any thing of her own except her complaints what is a fellow to do for money and where am i to look for it if not to my sister he was almost crying and scattered the about by mr took him by the coat but my dear tom if your sister has not got it not got it mr i don t say she has got it i may have wanted more than she was likely to have got but then she ought to get it she could get it it s of no use pretending to make a secret of matters now after what i have told you already you know she didn t marry old for her own sake or for his sake but for my sake then why doesn t she get what i want out of him for my sake she is not obliged to say what she is going to do with it she is sharp enough ould to it out of him if she chose then why doesn t she choose when i tell her of what consequence it is but no there she fits in his company like a stone instead of making herself agreeable and getting it easily i don t know what you may call this but call it unnatural conduct there was a piece of ornamental water below the on the other side into which mr james had a v strong to pitch di s as hard times the men of threatened to pitch their property into the atlantic but he preserved his easy attitude and nothing more solid went over the stone than the accumulated rose now floating about a little surface island my dear tom said let me try to be your banker for god s sake replied tom suddenly don t talk about i and white he looked in contrast with the roses very white mr as a thoroughly well bred man accustomed to the best society was not to be surprised he could as soon have been affected but he raised his eyelids a little more as if they were by a feeble touch of wonder it was as much against the of his school to wonder as it was against the doctrines of the college what is the present need tom three figures out with them say what they are mr returned tom now actually crying and his tears were better than his injuries however pitiful a figure he made it s too late the money is of no use to me at present i should have had it before to be of use to me but i am very much obliged to you you re a true friend a true friend i i thought mr lazily what an ass you are i and i take your as a great kindness said tom grasping his hand
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as a great kindness mr well returned the other it may be of more use by and by and my good fellow if you will open your to me when they come thick upon you i may show you better ways out of them than you can find for yourself thank you said tom shaking his head and rose i wish i had known you sooner mr now you see tom said mr in conclusion himself tossing over a rose or two as a contribution to the island which was always drifting to the wall as if it wanted to become a part of the every man is selfish in every thing he does and i am exactly like the rest of my fellow creatures i am desperately intent the languor of his desperation being quite tropical on your m ml i p hard s to do and on your being a more and agreeable sort of you ought to be i will be mr no tune like the present tom begin at once certainly i will and my loo shall say so having made which bargain said clapping him on the shoulder again with an air which left him at liberty to infer as he did poor fool that this condition was imposed upon him in mere careless good nature to lessen his sense of obligation we will tear ourselves asunder until dinner time when tom appeared before dinner though his mind seemed heavy enough his body was on the alert and he appeared before mr came in i didn t mean to be cross loo he said giving her his hand and kissing her i know you are fond of me and you know i am fond of you j after this there was a smile upon s face that day for some one else alas for some one else so much the less is the the only creature that she cares for thought james the reflection of his first day s knowledge of her pretty face so much the less so much the less chapter xxiv the next was too bright a morning for deep and james rose early and sat in the pleasant bay window of his dressing room smoking the rare tobacco that had had so wholesome an influence on his young friend in the sunlight with the fragrance of his eastern pipe about him and the dreamy smoke vanishing into the air so rich and soil with summer he up his advantages as an idle might count his gains he was not at all bored for the time and could give his mind to it he had a confidence with her from which her band was excluded he had a confidence with her that absolutely upon her toward her husband and the absence now and at all times of any between them he had but plainly assured her that he knew her heart in its last most delicate recesses he had come so near to her through its tenderest sentiment he had associated himself with that feeling and the barrier behind which she lived had melted away all very odd and very satisfactory and yet he had not even now any earnest wickedness of purpose in him publicly and privately it were much better for ther age in which he lived that he and the of whom he was one were bad than and it is the drifting setting with any current any where that wreck v the ships when the devil about like a roaring lion he about in a shape by which few but savages and hunters are attracted but when he is trimmed and polished according to the mode when he is of vice and of virtue used up as to and used up as to bliss then whether he take to the serving out of red or to the of red fire he is the very devil so james in the window ing and reckoning up the steps ke i xl ta s i a hard times he happened to be the end to which it led was re him pretty plainly but he troubled himself with no calculations about it what will be will be as he had rather a long ride to take that day for there was a occasion to do at some distance which a tolerable opportunity of going in for the men he dressed early and went down to breakfast he was anxious to see if she had since the previous evening no he resumed where he had left off there was a look of interest for him again he got through the day as much or as httle to his own satisfaction as was to be expected imder the circumstances and came riding back at six o clock there was a sweep of some half mile between the lodge and the house and he was riding along at a foot pace over the smooth gravel once s when mr burst out of the with such violence as to his horse shy across the road cried mr have you heard heard what said soothing his horse and inwardly mr with no good wishes then you haven t heard i have heard you and so has this brute i have heard nothing else mr red and hot planted himself in the centre of the path before the horse s head to his with more the bank s robbed i you don t mean it i robbed last night sir robbed in an extraordinary manner robbed with a false key of much mr in his desire to make the most of it really seemed by being obliged to reply why no not of very much but it might have been of how much oh as a sum if you stick to a of not more than a hundred and fifty pound said with impatience but it s not the
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sum it s the fact it s the fact of the bank being robbed that s the important circumstance i am t see it hard times my dear said james and giving his bridle to his servant i o see it and am as overcome as you can possibly desire me to be by the spectacle afforded to my mental view nevertheless i may be allowed i hope to congratulate you which i do with all my soul i assure on your not having sustained a greater loss thank ee in a short manner but i tell you what it might have been twenty thousand pound i suppose it might suppose it might by the lord you may suppose so by george said mr with sundry menacing and shakes of his head it might have been twice twenty there s no knowing what it would have been or wouldn t have been as it was but for the fellows being disturbed had come up now and mrs and here s tom s daughter knows pretty well what it might have been if you don t dropped sir as if she was shot when i told her never knew her do such a thing before does her credit under the circumstances in my opinion she still looked faint and pale james begged her to take his arm and as they moved on very slowly asked how the robbery had been committed why i am going to tell you said giving his arm to mrs k you hadn t been so mighty particular about the i should have begun to tell you before you know this lady for she is a lady mrs i have already had the honor very well and this young man you saw him too on the same occasion mr inclined his head in assent and his forehead very well they live at the bank you know they live at the bank perhaps very well yesterday afternoon at the close of business hours every thing was put away as usual in the iron room that this young fellow sleeps outside of there was never mind how much in the little safe in young tom s closet the safe used for petty purposes there was a hundred and pound hard times hundred and fifty seven one said come retorted stopping to wheel round upon him let s have none of your it s enough to he while you re because you re too comfortable without being put right with your four seven ones i didn t myself when i was your age let me tell you i hadn t enough to and i didn t four seven one not if i knew it his forehead again in a manner and seemed at once particularly impressed and depressed by the instance last given of mr s moral a hundred and fifty odd pound resumed mr that sum of money young tom locked in his safe not a very strong safe but that s no matter now every thing was left all right some time in the night while this yoimg fellow mrs ma am you say you have heard him sir returned mrs i can not say that i have heard him precisely and therefore must not make that statement but on winter evenings when he has fallen asleep at his table i have heard him what i should prefer to describe as partially choke i have heard him on such occasions produce sounds of a nature similar to what may be sometimes heard in dutch not said mrs with a lofty sense of giving strict evidence that i would convey any on his moral character far from it i have always considered a young man of the most upright principle and to that i beg to bear my testimony well i said the exasperated while he was or choking or dutch or something or other being some fellows somehow whether previously concealed in the house or not remains to be seen got to young tom s safe fi it and abstracted the contents being then disturbed they made off letting themselves out at the main door and it again it was double locked and the key under mrs s pillow with a false key which was picked up in the street near the bank about twelve o clock to day no alarm takes place till this chap turns out this morning and begins to open and the offices for business then looking at tom s safe he the door and finds the lock forced and the money gone where is tom by the by asked glancing round ib been the i x d times behind at the bank i wish these fellows had tried to rob me when i was at his time of life they would have been out of pocket if they had invested in the job i can tell em that is any body suspected suspected i should think there was somebody suspected said mrs s arm to wipe his heated head of is not to be and nobody suspected no thank you might mr inquire who was suspected well said stopping and facing about to them all i ll tell you it s not to be mentioned every where it s not to be mentioned any where in order that the concerned there s a gang of em may be thrown ofi their guard so take this in confidence now wait a bit mr wiped his head again what should you say to here he violently exploded to a hand being in it i hope said lazily not our friend say pool instead of pot sir returned and s the man faintly uttered some word of incredulity and surprise yes i know said immediately catching at the sound i know i am used to that i know all about it they are the finest people in the world these fellows
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are they have got the gift of the they have they only want to have their rights explained to them they do but i tell you what show me a dissatisfied hand and i ll show you a man that s fit for any thing bad i don t care what it is another of the popular of which some pains had been taken to and which some people really believed but i am acquainted with these said i can read em off like books mrs ma am i appeal to you what warning did i give that fellow the first time he set foot in the house when the express object of his visit was to know how he could knock over and floor the established church mrs in point of high connections you are on a level with the aristocracy did i say or did i not say to that fellow you can t hide the truth from me you are ii come to no good v hard times assuredly sir mrs you did in a impressive give him such an when he shocked you ma am said when he shocked your yes sir mrs with a meek shake of her head he certainly did so though i do not mean to say but that my feelings may be weaker on such points more foolish if the term is preferred than they might have been ii i had always occupied my present position mr stared with a bursting pride at mr as much as to say i am the proprietor of this female and she s your attention i think then resumed his discourse you can recall for yourself what i said to him when you saw him i didn t the matter with him i am never with em know em well sir three days that he bolted went off nobody knows where as my mother did in my only with this difference that he is a worse subject than my mother if possible what did he do before he went what do you say mr with his hat in his hand gave a beat upon the crown at every little division of his sentences as if it were a to his being seen night after night watching the bank to his lurking about there after dark to its striking mrs that he could be lurking for no good to her calling s attention to him and their both taking notice of him and to its appearing on inquiry to day that he was also noticed by the neighbors having come to the climax mr like an oriental put his on his head suspicious said james certainly i think so sir said with a defiant nod i think so but there are more of em in it there s an old woman one never hears of these things till the mischief s done all sorts of defects are found out in the stable door after the horse is stolen there s an old woman turns up now an old woman who seems to have been flying into town on a every now and then she watches the place a whole day before this fellow begins and on the night when you saw him she away with him and holds a council with him i suppose to make her report on going and be damned to hard times there was such a person in the room that night and she shrunk from thought this is not all of em even as we already know em said with many of hidden meaning but i have said enough for the present you ll have the goodness to keep it quiet and mention it to no one it may take tim but we shall have em it s policy to give em line enough and there s no objection to that of course they will be punished with the utmost of the law as notice boards observe replied james and serve them right fellows who go in for banks must the consequences there were no consequences we should all go in for banks he had gently taken s from her hand and had put it up for her she walked under its shade though the sun did not shine there for the present loo said her husband here s mrs to look mrs s nerves have been acted upon by this business and she ll stay here a day or two so make her comfortable thank you very much sir that discreet lady observed but pray do not let my comfort be a consideration any thing will do for me it soon appeared that if mrs had a failing in her association with that domestic establishment it was that she was so ex i regardless of herself and of others as to be a nuisance on being shown her chamber she was so dreadfully sensible of its comforts as to suggest the that she would have preferred to pass the night on the in the true the and the were accustomed to splendor but it is my duty to remember mrs was fond of observing with a lofty grace particularly when any of the were present thai what i was i am no longer indeed said she if i could altogether the remembrance that mr was a or that i myself am related to the family or if i could even the fact and make myself a person of common descent and ordinary connection i would gladly do so i should think it under existing circumstances right to do so the same state of mind led to her l a and at dinner v hard times to take them when she said indeed yon are very good sir and departed from a of which she had made rather formal and public announcement to wait for
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the simple mutton she was likewise deeply for wanting the salt and feeling bound to bear out mr to the fullest extent in the testimony he had borne to her nerves occasionally sat back in her chair and wept at which periods a tear of large dimensions like a crystal might be observed or rather must be for it insisted on public notice down her nose but mrs s greatest point first and last was her determination to pity mr there were occasions when in looking at him she was involuntarily moved to shake her head as who should say alas poor i after allowing herself to be betrayed into these evidences of emotion she would force a brightness and would be cheerful and would say you have still good spirits sir i am thankful to find and would appear to hail it as a blessed that mr bore up as he did one for which she often she found it excessively difficult to conquer she had a curious to call mrs miss and yielded to it some three or four score times in the course of the evening her repetition of this mistake covered mrs with modest confusion but indeed she said it seemed so natural to say miss whereas to persuade herself that the young lady whom she had had the happiness of knowing from a child could be really and truly mrs she found almost impossible it was a further of this remarkable case that the more she thought about it the more impossible it appeared the differences she observed being such in the drawing room after dinner mr tried th case of the robbery examined the witnesses made notes of the evidence found the suspected persons guilty and them to the extreme punishment of the law that done was dismissed to town with instructions to recommend tom to come home by the mail train when candles were brought mrs murmured don t he ow or pray let me see you cheerful sir as i used to do mr upon whom o la hard times the effect of him in a bull headed way sentimental sighed like some large sea animal i can not bear to see you so sir said mrs try a hand at sir as you used to do when i had the honor of living under your roof i haven t played ma am said mr since that time no sir said mrs soothingly i am aware that you have not i remember that miss takes no interest in the game but i shall be happy sir if you will condescend they played near a window opening on the garden it was a fine night not moonlight but and fragrant and mr strolled out into the garden where their voices could be heard in the stillness though not what they said mrs from her place at the board was straining her eyes to pierce the shadows without what s the matter ma am said mr you don t see a fire do you oh dear no sir returned mrs i was thinking of the dew what have you got to do with the dew ma am said mr it s not m sir returned mrs i am fearful of miss s taking cold she never takes cold said mr really sir said mrs and was with a cough in her throat when the time drew near for retiring mr took a glass of water oh sir said mrs not your warm with and why i have got out of the habit of taking it now ma am said mr the more s the pity sir returned mrs you are losing all your good old habits cheer up sir if miss will permit mc i will to make it for you as i have often done miss readily permitting mrs to do any thing she pleased that considerate lady made the and handed it to mr it will do you good sir it will warm your heart it is the sort of thing you want and ought to take sir and when mr said your health ma am she answered with great feeling thank you sir the same to you and happiness also finally she wished him good night with great pathos and mr went to bed with a persuasion that he had been crossed in fa k s ci could not r bis life have n i x hard times long after had and lain down she watched and waited for her brother s coming home that could hardly be she knew until an hour past midnight but in the count ry silence which did any thing but calm the trouble of her thoughts time wearily at last when the darkness and stillness had seemed for hours to one another she heard the hell at the gate she felt as though she would have been glad that it rang on until but it ceased and the circles of its last sound spread out fainter and wider in the air and all was dead again she waited yet some quarter of an hour as she judged then she arose put on a loose robe and went out of her room in the dark and up the staircase to her brother s room his door being shut she softly opened it and spoke to him approaching his bed with a noiseless step she down beside it passed her arm over his neck and drew his face to hers she knew that he only feigned to be asleep but she said nothing to him he started by and by as if he were just then awakened and asked who that was and what was the tom have you any thing to tell me if ever you loved me in your hfe and have any thing concealed from every one besides tell it to me i don t know what you mean loo you
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have been dreaming my dear brother she laid her head down on his pillow and her hair flowed over him as if she would hide him from every one but herself is there nothing that you have to tell me is there nothing you can tell me if you will you can tell me nothing that will change me tom tell me the truth i don t know what you mean loo as you lie here alone my dear in the melancholy night so you must lie somewhere one night when even i if i am living then shall have left you as i am here beside you in darkness so must i lie through all the night of my decay until i am dust in the name of that time tom tell me the truth now what is it you want to know you may be certain in the energy of her love she took him to her as if he were a child that i will not reproach you may be certain that i wiu be com as ot a xv a hard times you may be certain that i will save you at whatever cost tom have you nothing to tell me whisper very softly say only yes and i shall understand you she turned her ear to his lips but he remained silent not a word tom how can i say yes or how can i say no when i don t know what you mean loo you are a brave kind girl worthy i begin to think of a better brother than i am but i have nothing more to say go to bed go to bed you are tired she whispered presently more in her usual way yes i am quite tired out you have been so hurried and disturbed to day have any fresh discoveries been made only those you have heard of from him tom have you said to any one that we made a visit to those people and that we saw those three together no didn t you yourself ask me to keep it quiet when you asked me to go there with you yes but i did not know then what was going to happen nor i neither how could i he was very quick upon her with this retort ought i to say after what has happened said his sister standing by the bed she had gradually withdrawn herself and risen that i made that visit should i say so must i say so good heavens loo returned her brother you are not in the habit of asking my advice say what you like if you keep it to yourself i shall keep it to if you disclose it there s an end of it it was too dark for either to see the other s face but each seemed very attentive and to consider before speaking tom do you believe the man i gave the money to is really in this crime i don t know i don t see why he shouldn t be he seemed to me an honest man another person may seem to you and yet not be so there was a pause for he had hesitated and stopped in short resumed tom as if he had made u s you come to tb t perhaps i was ao fat o times favor that i took him outside the door to tell him quietly that i thought he might consider himself very well ofi to get such a as he had got from my sister and that i hoped he would make a good use of it you remember whether i took him out or not i say nothing against the man he may be a very good fellow for any thing i know i hope he is was he by what you said no he took it pretty well he was civil enough where are you loo he sat up in bed and kissed her good night my dear good night i you have nothing more to tell me no what should i have you wouldn t have me tell you a lie i wouldn t have you do that to night tom of all the nights in your life many and much happier as i hope they will be thank you my dear loo i am so tired that i am sure i wonder i don t say any thing to get to sleep go to bed go to bed kissing her again he turned round drew the over his head and lay as still as if that time had come by which she had him she stood for some time at the bedside before she slowly moved away she stopped at the door looked back when she had opened it and asked him if he had called her but he lay still and she softly closed the door and returned to her room then the wretched boy looked cautiously up and found her gone crept out of bed fastened his door and threw himself upon his pillow again tearing his hair crying loving her but himself and no less and ly all the good in the world chapter xxv mrs lying by to recover the tone of her nerves in mr s retreat kept such a sharp look out night and day under her eyebrows that her eyes like a couple of on an iron bound coast might have warned all prudent from that bold rock her nose and the dark and region in its neighborhood but for the of her manner although it was hard to believe that her retiring for the night could be any thing but a form so severely wide awake were those classical eyes of hers and so impossible did it seem that her rigid nose could yield to any influence yet her manner of sitting her uncomfortable not to
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say they were constructed of a cool fabric like a meat safe or of to unknown places of destination with her foot in her cotton was perfectly serene that most would have been constrained to suppose her a dove embodied by some of nature in the earthly of a bird of the hook order she was a most wonderful woman for about the house how she got from story to story was a mystery beyond solution a lady so in herself and so highly connected was not to be suspected of dropping over the or sliding down them yet her extraordinary facility of suggested the wild idea another noticeable circumstance in mrs was that she was never hurried she would shoot with from the roof to t ie hall yet would be in full possession of her breath and dignity on the moment of her arrival there neither was she ever seen by human vision to go at a great pace she took very kindly to mr and had some pleasant conversation with him soon after her arrival she made him her stately courtesy in the garden one morning before breakfast it appears but yesterday sir said mrs that i had the honor of receiving you at the bank when you were so good as to wish to be made acquainted with mr k an occasion i am sure not to be s i a da hard times of ages said mr his head to mis with the most indolent of all possible we in a singular world sir said mrs i have had the honor by a coincidence of which i am proud to have made a remark similar in though not so expressed a singular world i would say sir pursued mrs acknowledging the it with a drooping of her dark not altogether so mild in its expression as her voice was in its tones as regards the we form at one time with individuals we were quite ignorant of at i recall sir that on that occasion you went so r as to say you were actually apprehensive of miss g your memory does me more honor than my deserves i availed myself of your obliging hints to correct my timidity and it is unnecessary to add that they w perfectly accurate mrs s talent for in fact for any thing requiring with a combination of strength of md family is too habitually developed to admit of any question he was almost asleep over this compliment it took him so long to get through and his mind w so in the course of its execution you found miss really can not call her mrs it s very absurd of me as as i described her asked mrs sweetly you drew her portrait said mr presented her dead image very engaging sir said mis causing her slowly to over one highly so it used to be considered said mrs that miss was wanting in animation but i confess she appears to me considerably and strikingly improved in that respect ay and indeed here is mr cried mrs nodding her head a great many times as if she had been talking and thinking of no one else how do you find yourself this morning sir pray let us see you cheerful sir now these persistent of his misery and of his load had by this time begun to have the of hard times ing mr than usual and harder than usual to most other people from his wife downward so when mrs said with forced lightness of heart you want your breakfast sir but i dare say miss will soon be here to at the table mr replied if i waited to be taken care of by my wife ma am i believe you know pretty well i should wait till so trouble you to take charge of the mrs complied and assumed her old position at table this again made the excellent woman vastly sentimental she was so humble withal that when appeared she rose protesting she never could think of sitting in that place under existing circumstances as she had had the honor of making mr s breakfast before mrs she begged pardon she meant to say miss she hoped to be excused but she really could not get it right yet though she trusted to become familiar with it by and by had assumed her present position it was only she observed because miss happened to be a little late and mr s time was so very precious and she knew it of old to be so essential that he should breakfast to the moment that she had taken the liberty of with his request long as his will had been a law to her there stop where you are ma am said mr stop where you are mrs will be very glad to be relieved of the trouble i believe don t say that sir mrs almost with severity because that is very unkind to mrs and to be is not to be you sir you may set your mind at rest ma am you can take it very quietly can t you loo said mr in a way to his wife of course it is of no moment why should it be of any importance to me why should it be of any importance to any one mrs ma am said mr swelling with a sense of slight you attach too much importance to these things ma am by george you ll be corrected in some of your notions here you are old fashioned ma am you are behind tom c s time hard times what is the matter with you asked coldly what has given you v repeated do you suppose if there was any given me i shouldn t name it and request to have it corrected i am a straightforward man i believe i don t go
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beating about for i suppose no one ever had occasion to think you too or too delicate answered him i have never made that objection to you either as a child or as a woman i don t understand what you would have have returned mr nothing otherwise don t you loo know thoroughly well that i of would have it she looked at him as he struck the table and made the ring with a proud color in her face that was a new change mr thought you are incomprehensible this morning said pray take no further trouble to explain yourself i am not curious to know your meaning what does it nothing more was said on this theme and mr was soon idly gay on subjects but firom this day the action upon mr threw and james more together and strengthened the dangerous firom her husband and confidence against him with another into which she had fallen by degrees so fine that she could not them if she tried but whether she ever tried or no lay hidden in her own closed heart mrs was so much on this particular occasion that assisting mr to his hat after breakfast and being then alone with him in the hall she a kiss upon his hand murmured my benefactor and retired overwhelmed with grief yet it is an fact within the of this history that five minutes after he had left the house in the same hat the same of the and connection by matrimony of the shook her right hand at his portrait made a contemptuous at that work of art and aid serve you right you and i am glad of it mr had not been long gone when appeared had come down by train shrieking and over the long cf that the wm o present hard times with an from stone lodge it was a hasty note to inform that mrs lay very ill she had never been well within her daughter s knowledge but she had declined within the last few days had continued sinking all through the night and was now as nearly dead as her limited capacity of being in any state that implied the ghost of an intention to get out of it allowed accompanied by the of fit at death s door when mrs knocked to over the coal past and present and was whirled into its smoky jaws she dismissed the messenger to his own devices and rode away to her old home she had seldom been there since her marriage her father was usually and at his heap in london without being observed to turn up many precious articles among the rubbish and was still hard at it in the national her mother had taken it rather as a disturbance than otherwise to be visited as she upon her sofa young people felt herself all unfit for she had never softened to again since the night when the s child had raised her eyes to look at mr s intended wife she had no to go back and had rarely gone neither as she approached her old home now did any of the best influences of old home descend upon her the dreams of childhood its airy its graceful beautiful humane impossible of the world beyond so good to be believed in once good to be remembered when for then the least among them rises to the stature of a great charity in the heart y little children to come into the midst of it and to keep with their pure hands a garden in the stony ways of this world wherein it were better for all the children of adam that they should oftener sun themselves simple and and not worldly what had she to do with these of how she had to the little that she knew by the enchanted roads of what she and millions of innocent creatures had hoped and imagined of how first coming upon reason through the tender light of fancy she had seen it a beneficent god to gods as great as itself not a grim idol cruel and cold with its victims bound mud its big dumb shape set up with a fi i t si j hard times by any thing but so many calculated of what had she to do with these her of home and childhood were of the drying up of every spring and fountain in her young heart as it out the golden waters were not there they were flowing for the of the land where grapes are gathered thorns and she went with a heavy hardened kind of sorrow upon her into the house and into her mother s room since the time of her leaving home had lived with the rest of the family on equal terms was at her mother s side and jane her sister now ten or twelve years old was in the there was great trouble before it could be made known to mrs that her eldest child was there she propped up from mere habit on a couch as nearly in her old usual attitude as any thing so helpless could be kept in she had positively refused to take to her bed on the ground that if she did she would never hear the last of it her feeble voice sounded so far away in her bundle of and the sound of another voice addressing her seemed to take such a long time in getting down to her oars that she might have been lying at the bottom of a well the poor lady was nearer truth than she ever had been which had much to do with it on being told that mrs was there she replied at cross purposes that she had never called him by that name since he married that her choice of an name she had called him j
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and that she could not at present depart from that not being yet provided with a permanent had sat by her for some minutes and had spoken to her often before she arrived at a clear understanding who it was she then seemed to come to it all at once well my dear said mrs and i hope you are going on satisfactorily to yourself it was all your father s doing he set his heart upon it and ho ought to know i want to hear of you mother not of myself you want to hear of me my dear that s something new i sure when any body wants to hear of me not at all well i very faint and giddy ai in pain dear i think there s a pain in the room said mrs but i say that i have got it after this strange e she lay silent fi r some time her hand feel no pulse but kissing it see a slight thread of life in fluttering motion you very seldom see your sister said mrs she grows like you i you would look at her bring her here she was brought and stood with her hand in her sister s had observed her with her arm round fr neck and she felt of this approach do you see the likeness yes mother i should think her like me but eh yes i always say so mrs cried with quickness and that reminds me i want to speak to you my dear my good leave us alone a had tiie hand had thought that her sister a was a better and brighter face than hers had ever been had seen in it not without a rising of resentment even in that place and at that time of the gentleness of the other in the room the sweet face with the trusting eyes made paler watching and sympathy made it by the rich dark hair left alone with her mother saw her lying with an awful lull upon her face like one who was floating away some great water all resistance over content to be carried down the stream she put the shadow of a hand to her lips again and recalled her you were going to speak to me mother eh yes to be sure my dear you know your is almost always away now and therefore i must write to him about it about what mother don t be troubled about what you must remember my dear that whenever i have said any thing on any subject i have never heard the last of it and consequently that i have long left ofl saying any thing i can hear you mother but it was only by dint of bending down her ear and at the same time attentively watching the lips as they moved that she could link such and broken into any chain of connection hard times you learned a great deal and so did your brother of all kinds from morning to night if there is any left of any description that has not been worn to rags in this house all i can say is i hope i shall never hear its name i can hear you mother when you have strength to go on this to keep her from floating away but there s something not an at all that your father has missed or forgotten i don t know what it is i have often sat with near me and thought about it i shall never i get its name now but your father may it makes me restless i i want to write to him to find out for god s sake what it is give me a pen give me a pen even the power of restlessness was gone except n the poor head which could just turn from side to side she fancied however that her request had been complied with and that the pen she could not have held was in her hand it matters little what figures of wonderful no she began to trace upon her the hand soon stopped midst of them the light that had always been feeble and dim hind the weak went out and even mrs emerged from the shadow in which man and himself in vain took upon her the dread solemnity of the and chapter xxvi mrs s nerves being slow to recover their tone the worthy woman made a stay of some weeks in duration at mr s retreat where notwithstanding her turn of mind based upon her becoming consciousness of her altered station she resigned herself with noble fortitude to lodging as one may say in and feeding on the fat of the land during the whole term of this recess from the of the bank mrs was a pattern of continuing to take such pity on mr to his face as is rarely taken on man and to call his portrait a to its face with the greatest and contempt mr having got it into his composition that mrs was a highly superior woman to perceive that he had that general cross upon him in his deserts for he had not yet settled what it was and further that would have objected to her as a frequent visitor if it had with his greatness that she should object to any thing he chose to do resolved not to lose sight of mrs easily so when her nerves were strung up to the pitch of again in solitude he said to her at the dinner table on the day before her departure i tell you what ma am you shall come down here of a saturday while the fine weather lasts and stay till monday to which mrs returned in though not of the persuasion to hear is to obey now mrs was not a poetical woman but she took
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