All But Lost: A Novel. Vol. 1 of 3Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
All But Lost: A Novel. Vol. 1 of 3
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Fiction
It is unnecessary to enter into any details as to the doings of the
evening, the speech-making, the songs, the drinking, and the smoking.
Every one can imagine the scene for himself, and may conceive the noise,
the shouting and laughing which twenty young fellows in full health and
spirits, highly satisfied with themselves and their day’s work, would
make upon such an occasion. So great was the hubbub indeed that the dons
across the court began to think that even the victory of the day, which
they themselves had discussed with great satisfaction over their wine in
the common room, could hardly excuse such an uproarious meeting as this.
About midnight, however, the party began to break up, and the men
scattered over the college to their respective rooms, singing snatches
of songs as they went. And then the courts were still again. Frank
Maynard, and a few of the quieter men, sat for another hour smoking and
discussing the race, agreeing that the credit of the day was mainly due
to Crockford, the don who had called upon them for the final ten strokes
which had effected the bump. After this they, too, separated, and in a
few minutes Caius was quiet for the night.
Frank Maynard had not been very long asleep when he was awakened by a
shouting, and the sound of running in the street. He opened his eyes—the
room was lit up with a dull red light—and he hardly needed the cry of
“Fire! fire!” to tell him what was the matter. He leaped from his bed,
threw up his window, and looked out. There were no flames visible, but
the fronts of the houses on the opposite side of the road were aglow
with a dark fiery glare. It was evident that the flames were behind
him—that one of the colleges was on fire. He ran into the
sitting-room—to the windows which looked into the court, and there,
through the trees before him, across the court, was a great glare, and
sparks flying up. It was close—so close that he could not tell whether
it was in the next court of his own college or in Trinity Hall, which
lies behind it, separated only by a narrow lane.
It was the work of a minute to throw on his clothes, and to run
downstairs and across to the gateway leading to the next court; and then
he saw that the fire was not there, but in Trinity Hall.
Turning back, he ran to the porter’s-lodge. It was already open, and the
porter, in answer to an appeal at the gate for assistance, had just gone
into the college to rouse the men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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