The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer — CompleteLever, Charles
General
The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer — Complete
Lever, Charles
Fiction
I have heard the wild war-whoop of the red Indian, as, in his own pine
forest, he has unexpectedly come upon the track of his foe, and the
almost extinguished hope of vengeance has been kindled again in his
cruel heart—I have listened to the scarcely less savage hurra of a
storming party, as they have surmounted the crumbling ruins of a
breach, and devoted to fire and sword, with that one yell, all who
await them—and once in my life it has been my fortune to have heard the
last yell of defiance from a pirate crew, as they sunk beneath the
raking fire of a frigate, rather than surrender, and went down with a
cheer of defiance that rose even above the red artillery that destroyed
but could not subdue them;—but never, in any or all of these awful
moments, did my heart vibrate to such sounds as rent the air when the
fatal “Guilty” was heard by those within, and repeated to those
without. It was not grief—it was not despair—neither was it the cry of
sharp and irrepressible anguish, from a suddenly blighted hope—but it
was the long pent-up and carefully-concealed burst of feeling which
called aloud for vengeance—red and reeking revenge upon all who had
been instrumental in the sentence then delivered. It ceased, and I
looked towards the court-house, expecting that an immediate and
desperate attack upon the building and those whom it contained would at
once take place. But nothing of the kind ensued; the mob were already
beginning to disperse, and before I recovered perfectly from the
excitement of these few and terrible moments, the square was nearly
empty, and I almost felt as if the wild and frantic denunciation that
still rang through my ears, had been conjured up by a heated and
fevered imagination.
When I again met our party at the dinner table, I could not help
feeling surprised on perceiving how little they sympathized in my
feeling for the events of the day; which, indeed, they only alluded to
in a professional point of view—criticising the speeches of the counsel
on both sides, and the character of the different witnesses who were
examined.
“Well,” said Mr. Daly, addressing our host, “you never could have had a
conviction to-day if it wasn’t for Mike. He’s the best evidence I ever
heard. I’d like to know very much how you ever got so clever a fellow
completely in your clutches?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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