Part 5 (2/2)
Never did I behold so sudden a change in the hulared at hastly in the sunken form of his features! My shi+rt was still red, and my coat spotted with blood; the hair had been cut away froe plaister My eye was black, and swelled up, and my forehead too was plaistered above the eye-brow My body he had been told was covered with bruises, tears bathedlike convulsive erandson! It was an apparition he knew not how to endure To be claimed by such a wretched creature, to have been himself the author of his wretchedness, to have had an oath extorted from him, in direct violation of an opposite oath, to feel this universal shock to his pride and his prejudices was a co sensations that confounded hith For a moment he lost his voice: at last he exclaimed, with a hoarse scream--'Take him away'--My heart sunk within me The apothecary stood petrified with astonishony--'Take hione!
Never letI felt was unutterable I rose with a feeling of despair that was annihilating, and was going broken hearted out of the rooure of my master started to recollection, and with such terror as to subdue every other fear I turned back, fell onhty's sake, do not send me back to my master! I shall never escape with life! He willas I live I will go of your errands; take care of your horses; drive your plough; weed your garden; do any thing you bid me; indeed, indeed I will--Do not send s had so effect on those of the rector He repeated, 'Go go, boy, go! I feel ue and added, 'Ay, o'
The altered voice of the rector removed a part of the load that oppressed h with no little sensation of despondency In about half an hour the apothecary came down He had had a conversation with the rector, who I found could not endure the sight ofform
The remembrance however that I had saved his life was predominant How his casuistry settled the account between his two oaths I never heard; on that subject he was eternally silent He was probably asha been tricked out of the second
His orders were that I should go hoed matters, should be new clothed, wait till my wounds were healed, and then, if he possibly could, he would prevail upon himself to see me
CHAPTER X
_Hopes in behalf of ain his favour: Am adopted by him: And effect a family reconciliation
Anecdotes of a school-fellow, and his sister: Grammatical and musical studies: Causes of discontent between the Squire and the rector: Tythes and law produce quarrels: The tragi-comic tale of the rats_
Six weeks had elapsed before my wounds, bruises, and black marks, had totally disappeared; and the scar above my eye still retained a red appearance The alteration of my person however, aided as it was by dress, was so ree friends The apothecary prided hi himself that the rector would thank hirandson His art and care had wrought miracles, I was quite another creature; the alteration was so prodigious since he had taken land
In the e was about ten e where the apothecary lived He would not perreed that, if she should by chance co to ly caht lead to a general reconciliation: especially now that my brother and sister were both dead They had been carried off by the sh conjectured that the rector would not be the less prone to pardon her for being clear of further incumbrance She enjoined me to intercede in her behalf, and I very sincerely promised to speak as soon as I dared
The day at last came on which the rector was to pay his visit, and exarandson My terror by this ti taken thus er of being rejected I was not however without trepidation, and when the well known post chariot drove up to the door my heart sunk within me
The apothecary had two sons, one a year older, and the other soer that I was The eldest was deforht them and the whole farandfather entered; I was dressed as genteelly as every effort of the village taylor could contrive; an appearance so different from that of the beaten, bruised, and wounded poor elf he first had seen, with clouted shoes, torn stockings, and coarse coating, dripping ater, and clotted with blood, was so great as scarcely to be credible The ugliness of my companions did but enhance the superiority of randson, and the pleasure my pre-eminence inspired excited a smile of no little approbation For my part I had conceived an affection for him; first I had saved his life, then he had relieved randson The change of my present situation froave me ineffable pleasure The entrance of the rector, who had been the cause of this change, and the sardedin tears, and begged his blessing He gave it, bade me rise, and thus
The rector stayed some time to settle accounts with the apothecary, after which the postillion was called, leave was taken, and I found randfather, in that fortunate post chariot from which I had so happily extricated him
How extreme are the vicissitudes of life! What a reverse of fortune was here! From hard fare, severe labour, and a brutal tyrant, to plenty, ease, and snorance, I now had free access to the preciousrestrained, I had every encouragee was at first so great as almost to be incredible But the youthful mind easily acquires new habits, and my character varied with the accidents by which it was influenced Yet, to useI had received tempered my future life, and prepared ht otherwise have broken my spirit
From the day that I arrived at the rectory, I increased so fast in randfather's favour that he scarcely kne to deny h to petition for h the pill at first was bitter, th prevailed, and the rector agreed that, when his daughter should have sufficiently huradation, she should be permitted to kneel at his footstool for pardon, instead of perishi+ng like an out-cast as she deserved
It was not to be expected that my mother should object to the conditions; the alternative was very simple, submit or starve Beside she had been too much accustomed to the display of the collective authority, accumulated in the person of the rector, to think of contest His government was patriarchal, and his powers plenipotentiary He was the head of his family, the priest of the parish, the justice of peace for the hundred, and the greatest man of miles around He had no rival, except the before-mentioned Squire Mowbray, whom, if divines can hate, I certainly think he hated
Of the claims of my late master over me, as his apprentice, I never heard more Perhaps there was no indenture, for I do not recollect to have signed one; but if there were he certainly was too conscious of his guilt to dare to enforce his right, now that he found randfather It is possible indeed that he should never have heard what becah I consider that as very improbable While I was at Oxford, I was infor, with a fever in the brain
I have es the rector thought of was randson, it was fitting that his grandson should be a gentlerammar school, that had been endowed, not indeed by Squire Mowbray or his ancestors, but, by the family that in times of yore had held the saovernment not entirely in his own family, and its representatives, but in that fa
This circumstance, and many others of a parochial nature, conduced to a kind of partition of poell calculated to excite contempt in the wealthy Squire, as likewise lord of the erent, whose very office on earth is to govern, and to detect, reprove, and rectify, the wanderings of us silly sheep
To this school I was i other competitors was the Squire's eldest son, Hector Mowbray He o years older than I, and in the high exercise of that power to which he was the redoubted heir To insult the boys, seize their marbles, split their tops, cuff them if they et theed if they kicked and cuffed in return, and tyrannize over them to the very stretch of his invention, were practices in which he dailySquire, and that was a receipt in full for all demands
I soon careat ious difference between flesh and blood of a squire's propagating, and that of ordinary breed
But I heard it so often repeated, and saw it proved in such a variety of instances, that I too was the grandson of a great ainst, or at least bid defiance to, the giant power of Magog Mowbray (it was an epithet of ) I say, I was so fully convinced that I randson) that no sooner did young Hector begin to exercise his ingenuity upon ly disposed to rebel I had been bred in a hardy school
At my first admission into this seminary, I did not immediately and fully enter into the spirit and practice of the place; though I soon beca up latches, lifting gates, breaking down hedges, and driving cattle astray, I was by no reat affection for swigars; but at cli, and such like exercises, I was a the most alert