登陆注册
19471600000028

第28章

"Mater intemerata! Eripe me e--Ugh! I am down! Adhaesit pavimento venter!--No! I am not! El dilectum tuum e potestate canis--Ah! Audisti me inter cornua unicornium! Put this, too, down in--ugh!--thy account in favor of my poor--oh, sharpness of this saddle! Oh, whither, barbarous islanders!"Now riding on his quarter, not in the rough track-way like a cockney, but through the soft heather like a sportsman, was a very gallant knight whom we all know well by this time, Richard Grenville by name; who had made Mr.Cary and the rest his guests the night before, and then ridden out with them at five o'clock that morning, after the wholesome early ways of the time, to rouse a well-known stag in the glens at Buckish, by help of Mr.Coffin's hounds from Portledge.Who being as good a Latiner as Campian's self, and overhearing both the scraps of psalm and the "barbarous islanders," pushed his horse alongside of Mr.Eustace Leigh, and at the first check said, with two low bows towards the two strangers--"I hope Mr.Leigh will do me the honor of introducing me to his guests.I should be sorry, and Mr.Cary also, that any gentle strangers should become neighbors of ours, even for a day, without our knowing who they are who honor our western Thule with a visit;and showing them ourselves all due requital for the compliment of their presence."After which, the only thing which poor Eustace could do (especially as it was spoken loud enough for all bystanders), was to introduce in due form Mr.Evan Morgans and Mr.Morgan Evans, who, hearing the name, and, what was worse, seeing the terrible face with its quiet searching eye, felt like a brace of partridge-poults cowering in the stubble, with a hawk hanging ten feet over their heads.

"Gentlemen," said Sir Richard blandly, cap in hand, "I fear that your mails must have been somewhat in your way in this unexpected gallop.If you will permit my groom, who is behind, to disencumber you of them and carry them to Chapel, you will both confer an honor on me, and be enabled yourselves to see the mort more pleasantly."A twinkle of fun, in spite of all his efforts, played about good Sir Richard's eye as he gave this searching hint.The two Welsh gentlemen stammered out clumsy thanks; and pleading great haste and fatigue from a long journey, contrived to fall to the rear and vanish with their guides, as soon as the slot had been recovered.

"Will!" said Sir Richard, pushing alongside of young Cary.

"Your worship?"

"Jesuits, Will!"

"May the father of lies fly away with them over the nearest cliff!""He will not do that while this Irish trouble is about.Those fellows are come to practise here for Saunders and Desmond.""Perhaps they have a consecrated banner in their bag, the scoundrels! Shall I and young Coffin on and stop them? Hard if the honest men may not rob the thieves once in a way.""No; give the devil rope, and he will hang himself.Keep thy tongue at home, and thine eyes too, Will.""How then?"

"Let Clovelly beach be watched night and day like any mousehole.

No one can land round Harty Point with these south-westers.Stop every fellow who has the ghost of an Irish brogue, come he in or go he out, and send him over to me.""Some one should guard Bude-haven, sir."

"Leave that to me.Now then, forward, gentlemen all, or the stag will take the sea at the Abbey."And on they crashed down the Hartland glens, through the oak-scrub and the great crown-ferns; and the baying of the slow-hound and the tantaras of the horn died away farther and fainter toward the blue Atlantic, while the conspirators, with lightened hearts, pricked fast across Bursdon upon their evil errand.But Eustace Leigh had other thoughts and other cares than the safety of his father's two mysterious guests, important as that was in his eyes; for he was one of the many who had drunk in sweet poison (though in his case it could hardly be called sweet) from the magic glances of the Rose of Torridge.He had seen her in the town, and for the first time in his life fallen utterly in love; and now that she had come down close to his father's house, he looked on her as a lamb fallen unawares into the jaws of the greedy wolf, which he felt himself to be.For Eustace's love had little or nothing of chivalry, self-sacrifice, or purity in it; those were virtues which were not taught at Rheims.Careful as the Jesuits were over the practical morality of their pupils, this severe restraint had little effect in producing real habits of self-control.What little Eustace had learnt of women from them, was as base and vulgar as the rest of their teaching.What could it be else, if instilled by men educated in the schools of Italy and France, in the age which produced the foul novels of Cinthio and Bandello, and compelled Rabelais in order to escape the rack and stake, to hide the light of his great wisdom, not beneath a bushel, but beneath a dunghill;the age in which the Romish Church had made marriage a legalized tyranny, and the laity, by a natural and pardonable revulsion, had exalted adultery into a virtue and a science? That all love was lust; that all women had their price; that profligacy, though an ecclesiastical sin, was so pardonable, if not necessary, as to be hardly a moral sin, were notions which Eustace must needs have gathered from the hints of his preceptors; for their written works bear to this day fullest and foulest testimony that such was their opinion; and that their conception of the relation of the sexes was really not a whit higher than that of the profligate laity who confessed to them.He longed to marry Rose Salterne, with a wild selfish fury; but only that he might be able to claim her as his own property, and keep all others from her.Of her as a co-equal and ennobling helpmate; as one in whose honor, glory, growth of heart and soul, his own were inextricably wrapt up, he had never dreamed.Marriage would prevent God from being angry with that, with which otherwise He might be angry; and therefore the sanction of the Church was the more "probable and safe" course.But as yet his suit was in very embryo.He could not even tell whether Rose knew of his love; and he wasted miserable hours in maddening thoughts, and tost all night upon his sleepless bed, and rose next morning fierce and pale, to invent fresh excuses for going over to her uncle's house, and lingering about the fruit which he dared not snatch.

同类推荐
  • 史纠

    史纠

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 正一醮宅仪

    正一醮宅仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 春闺辞二首

    春闺辞二首

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 石屋清洪禅师语录

    石屋清洪禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 优婆塞戒经

    优婆塞戒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 灌篮高手之冬季选拔赛

    灌篮高手之冬季选拔赛

    如果你喜欢《灌篮高手》,如果你喜欢樱木、流川、仙道、三井等等经典人物,如果你看了“十日后”仍意犹未尽,如果你期待冬季选拔赛上发生的故事,如果你更期待青春的经典能够延续,那么请打开这本书吧。
  • 单眼重瞳少年的阳判人生

    单眼重瞳少年的阳判人生

    我是一个重瞳人!双眼重瞳?不不,其实是一只眼重瞳罢了,不过除了重瞳之外,我还是一个隐藏在腐败社会中的阳判!你问我什么是阳判?呵呵,如果我告诉你,这是我在梦中获得的一种职业你信么?这是一种人鬼神都畏惧的职业,一种不受人间约束,不受阴间欢迎,不受神界喜爱的职业!你有没有兴趣来听听我的故事?关于我的阳判的故事!!
  • tfboys之记住我

    tfboys之记住我

    这是我写的第一本小说,希望大家能多多支持哦~谢谢啦!
  • 灭神屠魔路

    灭神屠魔路

    天池大陆,六分仪座矮星系中的一个行星。在这个行星上跟地球一样,有着人类,动物,空气,生物,万物定理,而有着一点却不同,整个天池大陆并未进化成科技时代,而是与地球几百年前的时代一样,生活在冷兵器时代中,生活在拥有内功,先天玄气中。天池大陆有着一共十三座城池,每个城池互相交易,杀戮,抢夺,合作,是一个强者生存,弱者灭完的时代,没有足够的实力,便会逐渐没落,甚至消亡。
  • Virginibus Puerisque

    Virginibus Puerisque

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 超神异能

    超神异能

    一个吊丝得到异能后结识一群坑货队友,然后他们一起去坑别人,最后那个吊丝逆袭了。你信吗?不信就点进去看吧!!!
  • 魔力宝贝传

    魔力宝贝传

    神域,魔域,人域的大战影响了整个世界,整个世界不断的毁灭,再生,毁灭,再生…一切生命都是轮回中的复制品,谁能改变命运?
  • 痴傻王爷逆袭妃

    痴傻王爷逆袭妃

    她是本将军府的废材四小姐,却遭迫害溺水而亡。再次醒来,一身异能,岂是池中之物?他本是天赋卓绝的皇子,却在一场意外后残疾痴傻,遭人任意欺压凌辱。她爱上了他哪怕痴傻,他为了她情义动天;她助他翻手为云覆手为雨,彻底逆了这天下!他为她宁可负天下也不负她。【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 管理者必备兵学谋略与运筹技巧

    管理者必备兵学谋略与运筹技巧

    本书选取中国古代兵学中15部典籍,择其要点,取其精华,分别从不同角度提取其文化的内涵与管理理念,展现其中精微、玄妙的运筹之道,目的是从中国博大精深的古代兵法中挖掘现代企业管理者必备的商战管理技巧,力求让管理者从中获得教益和启示。
  • 魅众生

    魅众生

    佛说:前世的你乃混世魔王,手下冤魂无数,身上罪孽深重,将受十世轮回之苦,以赎前罪,以慰怨灵。她冷笑着,纵身红尘,堕入轮回,十世轮回,十世青楼,千年屈怨。佛说:轮回之劫已满,冤魂孽债已清,我佛慈悲,这一世,去寻你的幸福罢。她冷笑,狠狠的啐了一口,佛颜大变。我佛慈悲?十世轮回,千年屈辱,生生死死,死死生生,极尽煎熬,这就是所谓的慈悲?寻找幸福?何为幸福?幸福何来?沉淀了千年悲怨的灵魂,谈何幸福?怨,足以毁天,恨,将要灭地。佛既不渡我,我便渡。--情节虚构,请勿模仿