Children of clergy -- Fiction; Clergy -- England -- Fiction
These vile books I discovered by accident carefully hidden away in
my son's bedroom. "Facilis descensus Averni!" You will easily
imagine the humiliation of a parent who, having devoted his life to
bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the heathen, finds that his own
son has fallen as low as the lowest savage. As soon as I made my
discovery, I removed him from Haverton House, and warned the
proprietor of the risk he was running by not taking better care of
his pupils. Having been summoned to a conference of missionaries in
Sydney, N.S.W., I determined to take my son with me in the hope
that a long voyage in the company of a loving parent, eager to help
him back to the path of Truth and Salvation from which he had
strayed, might cure him of his idolatrous fancies, and restore him
to Jesus.
What followed is, as I write this, scarcely credible to myself;
but however incredible, it is true. Young Lidderdale, acting no
doubt at the instigation of "Father" Ogilvie (as my son actually
called him to my face, not realizing the blasphemy of according to
a mortal clergyman the title that belongs to God alone), entered
into a conspiracy with another Romanizing clergyman, the Reverend
Oliver Dorward, Vicar of Green Lanes, Hants, to abduct my son from
his own father's house, with what ultimate intention I dare not
think. Incredible as it must sound to modern ears, they were so far
successful that for a whole week I was in ignorance of his
whereabouts, while detectives were hunting for him up and down
England. The abduction was carried out by young Lidderdale, with
the assistance of a youth called Hacking, so coolly and skilfully
as to indicate that the abettors behind the scenes are USED TO SUCH
ABDUCTIONS. This, my lord, points to a very grave state of affairs
in our midst. If the son of a Protestant clergyman like myself can
be spirited away from a populous but nevertheless comparatively
small town like Slowbridge, what must be going on in great cities
like London? Moreover, everything is done to make it attractive for
the unhappy youth who is thus lured away from his father's hearth.
My own son is even now still impenitent, and I have the greatest
fears for his moral and religious future, so rapid has been the
corruption set up by evil companionship.
These, my lord, are the facts set out as shortly as possible and
written on the eve of my departure in circumstances that militate
against elegance of expression. I am, to tell the truth, still
staggered by this affair, and if I make public my sorrow and my
shame I do so in the hope that the Society of which your lordship
is President, may see its way to take some kind of action that will
make a repetition of such an outrage upon family life for ever
impossible.
Believe me to be,
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