John Inglesant: A Romance (Volume 2 of 2)Shorthouse, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
History
John Inglesant: A Romance (Volume 2 of 2)
Shorthouse, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
Great Britain -- History -- Charles I, 1625-1649 -- Fiction; Religious fiction
While Mr. Oley was thus recollecting his past troubles, Mr. Dean was
announced, and entered the room accompanied by Mr. Inglesant and by a
servant who carried their violins. You are, I know, acquainted with the
Dean, who is also Bishop of St. David’s, and who, they say, will be
Bishop of Worcester also before long, so I need not describe him. The
first sight of Mr. Inglesant pleased me very much. He wore his own hair
long, after the fashion of the last age, but in other respects he was
dressed in the mode, in a French suit of black satin, with cravat and
ruffles of Mechlin lace. His expression was lofty and abstracted, his
features pale and somewhat thin, and his carriage gave me the idea of a
man who had seen the world, and in whom few things were capable of
exciting any extreme interest or attention. His eyes were light blue,
of that peculiar shade which gives a dreamy and indifferent expression
to the face. His manner was courteous and polite, almost to excess, yet
he seemed to me to be a man who was habitually superior to his company,
and I felt in his presence almost as I should do in that of a prince.
Something of this doubtless was due to the sense I had of the part he
had played in the great events of the late troubles, and of the nearness
of intercourse and of the confidence he had enjoyed with his late
Majesty of blessed memory. It was impossible not to look with interest
upon a man who had been so familiar with the secret history of those
times, and who had been taken into the confidence both of Papists and
Churchmen.
When he had been introduced to the company, Mr. Oley reminded him of the
incidents he had been relating before his arrival. When he mentioned
the meeting in the inn in Buckinghamshire, Mr. Inglesant seemed
affected.
"I remember it well," he said. "I was with Father St. Clare, whose
deathbed I attended not two months after my return to England. Do you
remember, Mr. Oley," he went on to say, "the sermons at St. Martin’s in
Oxford, where Mr. Giles Widdowes preached? I remember seeing you there,
sir, and indeed his high and loyal sermons were much frequented by the
royal party and soldiers of the garrison; and I have heard that he was
most benevolent to many of the most needy in their distress. I remember
that poor Whitford played the organs there often, before he was killed
in the trenches."
"Ah," said Mr. Oley, "we have heard strange music in our day. I was in
York when it was besieged by three very notable and great armies—the
Scotch, the Northern under Lord Fairfax, and the Southern under the Earl
of Manchester and Oliver. At that time the service at the Cathedral
every Sunday morning was attended by more than a thousand ladies,
knights, and gentlemen, besides soldiers and citizens; when the booming
of cannon broke in upon the singing of the psalms, and more than once a
cannon bullet burst into the Minster amongst the people, like a furious
fiend or evil spirit, yet no one hurt."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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