Ande Trembath: A Tale of Old Cornwall EnglandKemp, Matthew Stanley
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Ande Trembath: A Tale of Old Cornwall England
Kemp, Matthew Stanley
Cornwall (England : County) -- Fiction
"And now, members of the Conservative wing, you are going to vote for a
man who has uttered sentiments like these, and acted in this manner. I
need not speak to the members of my own party, I know their
determination for good government, but to you Conservatives. You are
going to vote for a man who has thus betrayed your sacred trust and thus
surrendered your standards to the enemy. What does all his actions and
speaking amount to in your minds? Just this, that though he is an
experienced hand, yet you know not what he stands for. Like a
vacillating weather vane, he is apt to be turned one way or the other as
the interests of Sir James Lanyan may direct."
There was an uproarious "Hear! Hear!" from the Radicals, and the black
looks that the Conservatives turned on Sir James were perceived by even
that worthy himself. He shrugged his shoulders and took on his
indifferent and placid expression. But Andrew Trembath was not through
yet, for he continued bringing up clause after clause of Sir James'
speeches, sweeping the audience fairly off its feet with a torrent of
indignant oratory such as it had never before heard. All the poetry in
his nature, all the passion of years of wrong heaped upon his family,
burst forth then and there. There was no more applause from any in that
assemblage, for they were all so enthralled that they hung upon each
word uttered, riveted their eyes upon each gesture, and remained
motionless like a painted throng. Then turning from indignant invective,
he gazed lovingly over the Bowling Green and swept his vision around
toward the town, and his eyes became misty with emotion.
"Helston! Dear old Helston!" he exclaimed, and he stretched out his arms
to the town and people, and there was such emotion, tenderness and love
in that tone that the crowd wept though they could not tell why.
[Illustration: "He opened his speech in clear, ringing tones"]
Sir James' proposer had called him a foreigner in little touch with
English ideals. He proved the contrary. He called vividly to mind the
days spent as a school lad among them, the exciting days of the hurling
match when Breage was defeated, and men nodded their heads and smiled
as they remembered. Then sweeping into the closing address, he said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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