Part 8 (1/2)
Thepart of the task that now reood fortune, in such a ht least disturb her spirits, already but too much discomposed For this purpose they chose the landlady, who, after having received proper directions how to regulate her conduct, visited her in person that sa her quite cal her to put her trust in Providence, which would never forsake the cause of the injuredand fatherless She promised to assist and befriend her on all occasions, as far as her abilities would reach She gradually turned the conversation upon the farees infor learned her situation, was deter her astonished, and deeply affected at this intimation, she artfully shi+fted the discourse, reconation to the divine will, and observed, that this circumstance seemed to be an earnest of further happiness
”Oh! I'eyes--”Yet I ought not to be surprised at any blessing that flows from that quarter The family of Greaves were always virtuous, huentleman's mother was my dear lady and benefactress:--he himself was suckled at these breasts Oh! he was the sweetest, comeliest, best-conditioned babe!--I loved not reater affection--but he, alas! is now no hbour,” said the landlady of the White Hart, ”that is ht to affirm--all that you know of the matter is by common report, and common report is commonly false; besides, I can tell you I have seen a list of the ht the French in the East Indies, and your son was not in the number” To this intiood neighbour, don't feed me with false hope--My poor Greaves too certainly perished in a foreign land--yet he is happy;--had he lived to see rief would soon have put a period to his days” ”I tell you then,” cried the visitant, ”he is not dead I have seen a letter thatwith er a prisoner, but shall live at my house comfortably, till your affairs are settled to your wish” The poorfollowed her in silent astonishment, and was i her hostess proceeded with her in the same cautious manner, until she was assured that her son had returned Being duly prepared, she was blest with a sight of poor Greaves, and fainted away in his arms
We shall not dwell upon this tender scene, because it is but of a secondary concern in the history of our knight-errant Let it suffice to say, their mutual happiness was unspeakable She was afterwards visited by Sir Launcelot, who forwards with all the eagerness of , ”My dear child! ! ed you in these are of Sir Everhard in his youth; but you have got the eyes, the complexion, the sweetness, and complacency of my dear and ever-honoured lady” This was not in the strain of hireling praise; but the genuine tribute of esteereeable to our hero, who undertook to procure Oakley's discharge, and settle him in a comfortable farm on his own estate
In the meantiemoor, where he found Suky, who had been prepared for his reception, in a transport of joy, though very weak, and greatly emaciated
Nevertheless, the return of her sweetheart had such an happy effect on her constitution, that in a feeeks her health was perfectly restored
This adventure of our knight was croith every happy circuenerous mind The prisoners were released, and reinstated in their former occupations The justice performed his articles from fear; and afterwards turned over a new leaf fro Oakley was married to Suky, hom he received a considerable portion The new-ht's estate; and the mother enjoyed a happy retreat in the character of housekeeper at Greavesbury Hall
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
IN WHICH OUR KNIGHT IS TANTALISED WITH A TRANSIENT GLIMPSE OF FELICITY
The success of our adventurer, which we have particularised in the last chapter, could not fail of enhancing his character, not only a the people of the town to whoer The populace surrounded the house, and testified their approbation in loud huzzas Captain Croas more than ever inspired with veneration for his admired patron, and more than ever determined to pursue his footsteps in the road of chivalry Fillet and his friend the lawyer could not help conceiving an affection, and even a profound esteem for the exalted virtue, the person, and accoht, dashed as they ith a ance and insanity
Even Sir Launcelot hiree of self-complacency on the fortunate issue of his adventure, and becaht-errant's profession e of the community The only person of the coeneral satisfaction was Mr
Thoood reason, laid it down as a ht-errantry and h exhibited in the e its nature, but must continue a perversion of sense to the end of the chapter He perceived the additional impression which the brain of his uncle had sustained, from the happy manner in which the benevolence of Sir Launcelot had so lately operated; and began to fear it would be in a little time quite necessary to have recourse to a corace the family of the Crowes, but also tend to invalidate the settle lawyer
Perplexed with these cogitations, Mr Clarke appealed to our adventurer's own reflection He expatiated upon the bad consequences that would attend his uncle's perseverance in the execution of a schen to his faculties; and entreated him, for the love of God, to divert hiuained such an ascendency over his spirits, that he would listen to his exhortations with respect and submission
Our adventurer was not so mad, but that he saw and owned the rationality of these remarks He readily undertook to employ all his influence with Crowe, to dissuade hin; and seized the first opportunity of being alone with the captain, to signify his sentiments on this subject ”Captain Crowe,” said he, ”you are then deterht-errantry?” ”I am,” replied the seaman, ”with God's help, d'ye see, and the assistance of wind and weather”-- ”What dost thou talk of wind and weather?” cried the knight, in an elevated tone of affected transport; ”without the help of Heaven, indeed, we are all vanity, imbecility, weakness, and wretchedness; but if thou art resolved to embrace the life of an errant, let me not hear thee so much as whisper a doubt, a wish, a hope, or sentiment with respect to any other obstacle, which wind or weather, fire or water, sword or faer or disappointment, may throw in the way of thy career When the duty of thy profession calls, thou ly rush upon innumerable hosts of armed men Thou must storm the breach in the mouth of batteries loaded with death and destruction, while, every step thou movest, thou art exposed to the horrible explosion of subterranean , hirl thee aloft in air, a led corse, to feed the fowls of heaven Thou must leap into the abyss of dreadful caves and caverns, replete with poisonous toads and hissing serpents; thousulphur; thoubillows rollflashes, the thunder roars, and the howling te elements of air and water, earth and fire, and reduce all nature to the original anarchy of chaos Thus involved, thou ainst the fury of the storh at the distance of a thousand leagues; thou must”----
”Avast, avast, brother,” exclaih latitudes, d'ye see If so be as you spank it away at that rate, adad, I can't continue in toe must cast off the rope, or 'ware ti aloft, d'ye see-- your caves and caverns, whistling tuods and serpents, burning bri billoe must take our hap--I value 'e in the wind's eye, brother, you ive hbred seaman, d'ye see--and I'll be d--ned if you, or e'er an arrant that broke biscuit, ever sailed in a three- for variation and lee-way No, no, brother, none of your tricks upon travellers--I an't now to learnup, and laying his hand on the pummel of his sword, ”what! suspecthireat earnestness, saying, ”Nay, don't--what apize!--adds-buntlines!--I didn't go to give you the lie, brother, smite my limbs; I only said as how to sail in the wind's eye was iht, ”nothing is iht-errant, inspired and animated by love” ”And I say unto thee,” hallooed Crowe, ”if so be as how love pretends to turn his hawse-holes to the wind, he's no seaman, d'ye see, but a snotty-nosed lubberly boy, that knows not a cat from a capstan--a don't”
”He that does not believe that love is an infallible pilot, e of chivalry; for, next to the protection of Heaven, it is frolory The bare naorates his arm; the remembrance of her beauty infuses into his breast the e, while the idea of her chastity hedges him round like a charonist A knight without a mistress is a mere nonentity, or, at least, a monster in nature--a pilot without a compass, a shi+p without rudder, and must be driven to and fro upon the waves of discorace”
”An that be all,” replied the sailor, ”I told you before as how I've got a sweetheart, as true a hearted girl as ever swung in canvas What thof she ; I'll warrant her tight as a nut-shell”
”She on either of beauty or virtue
Now, as you have given up the last, you must uphold her charms unequalled, and her person without a parallel” ”I do, I do uphold she will sail upon a parallel as well as e'er a frigate that was rigged to the northward of fifty”
”At that rate, she must rival the attractions of her whom I adore; but that I say is iether supernatural; and as two suns cannot shi+ne together in the same sphere with equal splendour, so I affirm, and will prove with my body, that your loorht to the full moon, or a stale mackerel's eye to a pearl of orient” ”Harkee, brother, you , d'ye see, I can heave out as ewater as another; and since you besmear my sweetheart, Besselia, I can as well bedaub your mistress Aurelia, who stock-fish”
”Enough, enough!--such blasphemy shall not pass unchastised In consideration of our having fed froh short intercourse, I will not demand the coreat tohere you can be furnished with horse and harnessing, with arms offensive and defensive; provide a trusty squire, assume a motto and device, declare yourself a son of chivalry, and proclaim the excellence of her who rules your heart I shall fetch a coe with equal arms in mortal combat, that shall decide and deter, our adventurer stalked with great sole sufficiently irritated, snapped his fingers in token of defiance Honest Crowe thought himself scurvily used by a man whom he had cultivated with such humility and veneration; and, after an incoherent ejaculation of sea oaths, went in quest of his nephew, in order to make him acquainted with this unlucky transaction
In theordered supper, retired into his own chaave a loose to the most tender emotions of his heart
He recollected all the fond ideas which had been excited in the course of his correspondence with the char Aurelia He remembered, with horror, the cruel letter he had received fro a formal renunciation of his attachment, so unsuitable to the whole tenor of her character and conduct He revolved the late adventure of the coach, and the declaration of Mr Clarke, with equal eagerness and astonishment; and was seized with theto the predoled considerations produced a kind of ferment in the economy of his mind, which subsided into a profound reverie, compounded of hope and perplexity
From this trance he aked by the arrival of his squire, who entered the roo over his nose, and stood before hiht asked whose livery was that he wore?
he replied, ”'T is your honour's own livery; I received it on your account, and hope as you will quit the score” Then he proceeded to infor co for their supper the victuals which Sir Launcelot had bespoke; and that he, the squire, objecting to the proposal, one of them had seized the poker, and basted hied to a knight-errant, and threatened theeance of hishi's names; and bade him tell his master, Don Quicksot, that, if he e, and lie with his mistress, Dulcinea ”To be sure, sir,”