Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction
Markworth's death released him from all his liabilities! It can be
imagined what a wail went up in Jewry when the knowledge that he had
escaped them became fully known to those modern Shylocks, Solomonson and
Isaacs. They tore their beards, they wept, they cursed by their gods
the Gentile who had out-witted them; but it was of no use, they could
not get their money back. Death is regardless of human bonds and
obligations, and although the Shylocks got much additional avoirdupois
weight of flesh beyond their original pound, the Jews thought themselves
sadly victimised. They got no pecuniary satisfaction for the large sums
they had advanced their former client; even the change which had been
left out of Mrs Martin's five pound note did not come to them: it was
taken out of the pockets of the dead man by the Cerberus of the
sponging-house, who thought it better to appropriate the said moneys to
his own use rather than leave them to be a source of wrangling to
others.
Seeing that nothing could be got out of him now, the harpies left
Markworth's body to its fate. An inquest was held, a verdict given,
"Died by the visitation of God," and the unfortunate schemer would have
been buried at the expense of the parish, had it not been for Mr Trump,
who defrayed the cost out of his own pocket.
Thus ended Markworth's life. He had schemed and planned, it is true, to
enrich himself at the expense of others, but he was not, perhaps, so bad
altogether, as one would, perhaps, at the first blush suppose. If we
were to analyse the men around us, and enquire into the motives which
plan their actions, independently of the actions themselves, we might
find many whose principles are like those of the man who has been
depicted in these pages--many, perhaps, far worse.
Volume 3, Chapter XIV.
"SEE THE CONQUERING HERO COMES."
The Abyssinian war was ended! that gallant exploit of British arms,
however marvellous in its inception, and second only to the march of
Cyrus to the Sea that we read of in Xenophon, was actually _un fait
accompli_! The captives were rescued, and the host returned, leaving
Abyssinia pretty much as it was before it set out, with the exception of
King Theodore being no longer in the land of the living. Peace to the
bones of his sable majesty, who deserves some credit for his pluck, even
if his ideas on the subject of diplomacy were at fault.
Although we have been saddled with a debt of some ten millions more or
less--probably more, on account of the expedition--still it was a
glorious feat for our country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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