"A somewhat singular conclusion," said Mr. Benfield, musing. "I remember
when I sat in the House, there was a party who were fond of the cry of
this said liberty; but when they got the power they did not seem to me
to suffer people to go more at large than they went before; but I
suppose they were diffident of telling the world their minds after they
were put in such responsible stations, for fear of the effect of
example."
"Most people like liberty as servants but not as masters, uncle," cried
John, with a sneer.
"Captain Jarvis, it seems, liked it as a preservative against danger,"
continued Mr. Haughton; "to avoid ridicule in his new neighborhood, he
has consented to his father's wishes, and turned merchant in the city
again."
"Where I sincerely hope he will remain," cried John, who since the
accident of the arbor, could not tolerate the unfortunate youth.
"Amen!" said Emily, in an under tone, heard only by her brother.
"But Sir Timo--what has become of Sir Timo--the good, honest merchant?"
asked John.
"He has dropt the title, insists on being called plain Mr. Jarvis, and
lives entirely in Cornwall. His hopeful son-in-law has gone with his
regiment to Flanders; and Lady Egerton, being unable to live without her
father's assistance, is obliged to hide her consequence in the west
also."
The subject became now disagreeable to Lady Moseley, and it was changed.
Such conversations made Jane more reserved and dissatisfied than ever.
She had no one respectable excuse to offer for her partiality to her
former lover, and when her conscience told her the mortifying fact, was
apt to think that others remembered it too.
The letters from the continent now teemed with preparations for the
approaching contest; and the apprehensions of our heroine and her
friends increased, in proportion to the nearness of the struggle, on
which hung not only the fates of thousands of individuals, but of
adverse princes and mighty empires. In this confusion of interests, and
of jarring of passions, there were offered prayers almost hourly for the
safety of Pendennyss, which were as pure and ardent as the love which
prompted them.
Chapter XLVIII.
Napoleon had commenced those daring and rapid movements, which for a
time threw the peace of the world into the scale of fortune, and which
nothing but the interposition of a ruling Providence could avert from
their threatened success. As the the ----th dragoons wheeled into a
field already deluged with English blood, on the heights of Quatre Bras,
the eye of its gallant colonel saw a friendly battalion falling beneath
the sabres of the enemy's cuirassiers. The word was passed, the column
opens, the sounds of the quivering bugle were heard for a moment above
the roar of the cannon and the shouts of the combatants; the charge,
sweeping like a whirlwind, fell heavily on those treacherous Frenchmen,
who to-day had sworn fidelity to Louis, and to-morrow intended lifting
their hands in allegiance to his rival.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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