St. George and St. Michael, Volume 3MacDonald, George
History
St. George and St. Michael, Volume 3
MacDonald, George
Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Fiction
Dorothy, although it may be hard for thee, beholding me as I am, to
comprehend it, I like to be old and ugly as little as wouldst thou,
and my heart, I verily think, is little, older than thine own. One
day, please God, I shall yet be clothed upon with a house that is
from heaven, nor shall I hobble with gouty feet over the golden
pavement--if so be that my sins overpass not mercy. Pray for me,
Dorothy, my daughter, for my end is nigh, that I find at length the
bosom of father Abraham.'
As he ended, a slow flower of music bloomed out upon the silence
from under the fingers of the blind youth hid in the stony shell of
the chapel; and, doubtful at first, its fragrance filled at length
the whole sunset air. It was the music of a Nunc dimittis of
Palestrina. Dorothy knelt and kissed the old man's hand, then rose
and went weeping to her chamber, leaving him still seated by the
broken yet flowing fountain.
Of all who prepared to depart, Caspar Kaltoff was the busiest. What
best things of his master's he could carry with him, he took, but a
multitude he left to a more convenient opportunity, in the hope of
which, alone and unaided, he sunk his precious cabinet, and a chest
besides, filled with curious inventions and favourite tools, in the
secret shaft. But the most valued of all, the fire-engine, he could
not take and would not leave. He stopped the fountain of the white
horse, once more set the water-commanding slave to work, and filled
the cistern until he heard it roar in the waste-pipe. Then he
extinguished the fire and let the furnace cool, and when Dorothy
entered the workshop for the last time to take her mournful leave of
the place, there lay the bones of the mighty creature scattered over
the floor--here a pipe, there a valve, here a piston and there a
cock. Nothing stood but the furnace and the great pipes that ran up
the grooves in the wall outside, between which there was scarce a
hint of connection to be perceived.
'Mistress Dorothy,' he said, 'my master is the greatest man in
Christendom, but the world is stupid, and will forget him because it
never knew him.'
Amongst her treasures, chief of them all, even before the gifts of
her husband, lady Glamorgan carried with her the last garments, from
sleeve-ribbons to dainty little shoes and rosettes, worn by her
Molly.
Dr. Bayly carried a bag of papers and sermons, with his doctor's
gown and hood, and his best suit of clothes.
The marquis with his own hand put up his Vulgate, and left his Gower
behind. Ever since the painful proofs of its failure with the king,
he had felt if not a dislike yet a painful repugnance to the volume,
and had never opened it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account