[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Richard s absence; when the cousins returned to their horses.
On reaching the highway they separated, the Sheriff to summon twenty-four
good men and true, to attend as the inquest of the county, on the succeeding
Monday, when Marmaduke held his stated court of common pleas and general
sessions of the peace, and the Judge to return, musing deeply on what he had
seen and heard in the course of the morning.
When the horse of the latter reached the spot where the highway fell towards
the valley, the eye of Marmaduke rested, it is true, on the same scene that
had, ten minutes before, been so soothing to the feelings of his daughter and
her friend, as they emerged from the forest; but it rested in vacancy. He
threw the reins to his sure-footed beast, and suffered the animal to travel at
its own gait, while he soliloquized as follows:--
There may be more in this than I at first supposed. I have suffered my
feelings to blind my reason, in admitting an unknown youth in this manner to
my dwelling;--yet this is not the land of suspicion. I will have the
Leather-stocking before me, and, by a few direct questions, extract the truth
from the simple old man. --
At that instant the Judge caught a glimpse of the figures of Elizabeth and
Louisa, who were slowly descending the mountain, but a short distance before
him. He put spurs to his horse, and riding up to them, dismounted, and drove
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his steed along the narrow path. While the agitated parent was listening to
the vivid description that his daughter gave of her recent danger, and her
unexpected escape, all thoughts of mines, vested rights, and examinations,
were absorbed in his emotions; and when the image of Natty again crossed his
recollection, it was not as a lawless and depredating squatter, but as the
preserver of his child.
CHAPTER XI.
The court awards it, and the law doth give it.
Merchant of Venice
Remarkable Pettibone,who had forgotten the wound received by her pride, in the
contemplation of the ease and comforts of her situation, and who still
retained her station in the family of Judge Temple, was despatched to the
humble dwelling which Richard styled the Rectory, in attendance on Louisa,
who was soon consigned to the arms of her father.
In the mean time, Marmaduke and his daughter were closeted for more than an
hour, nor shall we invade the sanctuary of parental love, by relating the
conversation for that period. At its expiration, when the curtain rises on the
reader, the Judge is seen walking up and down the apartment, with a tender
melancholy in his air, softening the manly expression of his features, and his
child reclining on a settee, with a flushed cheek, and her dark eyes seeming
to float in crystals.
It was a timely rescue! it was, indeed, a timely rescue, my child! cried
the Judge. Then thou didst not desert thy friend, my noble Bess?
I believe I may as well take the credit of fortitude, said Elizabeth,
though I much doubt if flight would have availed me any thing, had I even
courage to execute such an intention. But I thought not of the expedient.
Of what didst thou think, love? where did thy thoughts dwell most, at that
fearful moment?
The beast! the beast! cried Elizabeth, veiling her face with her fair hand;
Oh! I saw nothing, I thought of nothing, but the beast. I tried to think of
better things, but the horror was too glaring, the danger too much before my
eyes.
Well, well, thou art safe, and we will converse no more on the unpleasant
subject. I did not think such an animal yet remained in our forests; but they
will stray far from their haunts when pressed by hunger, and --
A loud knocking at the door of the apartment interrupted what he was about to
utter, and he bid the applicant enter. The door was opened by Benjamin, who
came in with a discontented air, as if he felt that he had a communication to
make that would be out of season.
Here is Squire Doolittle below, sir, commenced the Major-domo. He has been
standing off and on in the door-yard, maybe for the matter of a glass; and he
has sum mat on his mind that he wants to heave up, d ye see; but I tells him,
says I, man, would you be coming aboard with your complaints, said I, when the
Judge has gotten his own child, as it were, out of the jaws of a lion? But
damn the bit of manners has the fellow any more than if he was one of them
Guineas, down in the kitchen there; and so as he was shearing alongside, every
stretch he made towards the house, I could do no better than to let your
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honour know that the chap was in the offing.
He must have business of importance, said Marmaduke; something in relation
to his office, most probably, as the court sits so shortly.
Ay, ay, you have it, sir, cried Benjamin, it s sum mat about a complaint
that he has to make of the old Leather-stocking, who, to my judgment, is the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl freetocraft.keep.pl
Richard s absence; when the cousins returned to their horses.
On reaching the highway they separated, the Sheriff to summon twenty-four
good men and true, to attend as the inquest of the county, on the succeeding
Monday, when Marmaduke held his stated court of common pleas and general
sessions of the peace, and the Judge to return, musing deeply on what he had
seen and heard in the course of the morning.
When the horse of the latter reached the spot where the highway fell towards
the valley, the eye of Marmaduke rested, it is true, on the same scene that
had, ten minutes before, been so soothing to the feelings of his daughter and
her friend, as they emerged from the forest; but it rested in vacancy. He
threw the reins to his sure-footed beast, and suffered the animal to travel at
its own gait, while he soliloquized as follows:--
There may be more in this than I at first supposed. I have suffered my
feelings to blind my reason, in admitting an unknown youth in this manner to
my dwelling;--yet this is not the land of suspicion. I will have the
Leather-stocking before me, and, by a few direct questions, extract the truth
from the simple old man. --
At that instant the Judge caught a glimpse of the figures of Elizabeth and
Louisa, who were slowly descending the mountain, but a short distance before
him. He put spurs to his horse, and riding up to them, dismounted, and drove
Page 72
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
his steed along the narrow path. While the agitated parent was listening to
the vivid description that his daughter gave of her recent danger, and her
unexpected escape, all thoughts of mines, vested rights, and examinations,
were absorbed in his emotions; and when the image of Natty again crossed his
recollection, it was not as a lawless and depredating squatter, but as the
preserver of his child.
CHAPTER XI.
The court awards it, and the law doth give it.
Merchant of Venice
Remarkable Pettibone,who had forgotten the wound received by her pride, in the
contemplation of the ease and comforts of her situation, and who still
retained her station in the family of Judge Temple, was despatched to the
humble dwelling which Richard styled the Rectory, in attendance on Louisa,
who was soon consigned to the arms of her father.
In the mean time, Marmaduke and his daughter were closeted for more than an
hour, nor shall we invade the sanctuary of parental love, by relating the
conversation for that period. At its expiration, when the curtain rises on the
reader, the Judge is seen walking up and down the apartment, with a tender
melancholy in his air, softening the manly expression of his features, and his
child reclining on a settee, with a flushed cheek, and her dark eyes seeming
to float in crystals.
It was a timely rescue! it was, indeed, a timely rescue, my child! cried
the Judge. Then thou didst not desert thy friend, my noble Bess?
I believe I may as well take the credit of fortitude, said Elizabeth,
though I much doubt if flight would have availed me any thing, had I even
courage to execute such an intention. But I thought not of the expedient.
Of what didst thou think, love? where did thy thoughts dwell most, at that
fearful moment?
The beast! the beast! cried Elizabeth, veiling her face with her fair hand;
Oh! I saw nothing, I thought of nothing, but the beast. I tried to think of
better things, but the horror was too glaring, the danger too much before my
eyes.
Well, well, thou art safe, and we will converse no more on the unpleasant
subject. I did not think such an animal yet remained in our forests; but they
will stray far from their haunts when pressed by hunger, and --
A loud knocking at the door of the apartment interrupted what he was about to
utter, and he bid the applicant enter. The door was opened by Benjamin, who
came in with a discontented air, as if he felt that he had a communication to
make that would be out of season.
Here is Squire Doolittle below, sir, commenced the Major-domo. He has been
standing off and on in the door-yard, maybe for the matter of a glass; and he
has sum mat on his mind that he wants to heave up, d ye see; but I tells him,
says I, man, would you be coming aboard with your complaints, said I, when the
Judge has gotten his own child, as it were, out of the jaws of a lion? But
damn the bit of manners has the fellow any more than if he was one of them
Guineas, down in the kitchen there; and so as he was shearing alongside, every
stretch he made towards the house, I could do no better than to let your
Page 73
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
honour know that the chap was in the offing.
He must have business of importance, said Marmaduke; something in relation
to his office, most probably, as the court sits so shortly.
Ay, ay, you have it, sir, cried Benjamin, it s sum mat about a complaint
that he has to make of the old Leather-stocking, who, to my judgment, is the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]