The Caxtons: A Family Picture — Volume 15 — John Shaqi
The Caxtons: A Family Picture — Volume 15Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
The Caxtons: A Family Picture — Volume 15
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
English fiction -- 19th century; Families -- Fiction
Before nine o'clock Lady Ellinor arrived, and went straight into Miss
Trevanion's room; I took refuge in my uncle's. Roland was awake and
calm, but so feeble that he made no effort to rise; and it was his calm,
indeed, that alarmed me the most,--it was like the calm of nature
thoroughly exhausted. He obeyed me mechanically, as a patient takes
from your hand the draught, of which he is almost unconscious, when I
pressed him to take food. He smiled on me faintly when I spoke to him,
but made me a sign that seemed to implore silence. Then he turned his
face from me and buried it in the pillow; and I thought that he slept
again, when, raising himself a little, and feeling for my hand, he said,
in a scarcely audible voice,--
"Where is he?"
"Would you see him, sir?"
"No, no; that would kill me,--and then what would become of him?"
"He has promised me an interview, and in that interview I feel assured
he will obey your wishes, whatever they are." Roland made no answer.
"Lord Castleton has arranged all, so that his name and madness (thus let
us call it) will never be known."
"Pride, pride, pride still!" murmured the old soldier. "The name, the
name,--well, that is much; but the living soul!--I wish Austin were
here."
"I have sent for him, sir."
Roland pressed my hand, and was again silent. Then he began to mutter,
as I thought, incoherently about the Peninsula and obeying orders; and
how some officer woke Lord Wellington at night and said that something
or other (I could not catch what,--the phrase was technical and
military) was impossible; and how Lord Wellington asked, "Where's the
order-book?" and looking into the order-book, said, "Not at all
impossible, for it is in the order-book;" and so Lord Wellington turned
round and went to sleep again. Then suddenly Roland half rose, and
said, in a voice clear and firm, "But Lord Wellington, though a great
captain, was a fallible man, sir, and the order-book was his own mortal
handiwork. Get me the Bible!"
Oh, Roland, Roland! and I had feared that thy mind was wandering!
So I went down and borrowed a Bible in large characters, and placed it
on the bed before him, opening the shutters and letting in God's day
upon God's word.
I had just done this when there was a slight knock at the door. I
opened it, and Lord Castleton stood without. He asked me, in a whisper,
if he might see my uncle. I drew him in gently, and pointed to the
soldier of life "learning what was not impossible" from the unerring
Order-Book.
Lord Castleton gazed with a changing countenance, and without disturbing
my uncle, stole back. I followed him, and gently closed the door.
"You must save his son," he said in a faltering voice,--"you must; and
tell me how to help you. That sight,--no sermon ever touched me more!
Now come down and receive Lady Ellinor's thanks. We are going. She
wants me to tell my own tale to my old friend Mrs. Grundy; so I go with
them. Come!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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