The Disowned — CompleteLytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
The Disowned — Complete
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
English fiction -- 19th century
Such was the letter to which we shall leave the explanation of much that
has taken place within the last three years of our tale, and which, in
its tone, will serve to show the kindness and generosity of heart and
feeling that mingled (rather increased than abated by the time which
brought wisdom) with the hardy activity and resolute ambition that
characterized the mind of our “Disowned.” We now consign him to such
repose as the best bedroom in the Golden Fleece can afford, and conclude
the chapter.
CHAPTER LX.
Though the wilds of enchantment all vernal and bright,
In the days of delusion by fancy combined
With the vanishing phantoms of love and delight,
Abandon my soul, like a dream of the night,
And leave but a desert behind,
Be hush’d my dark spirit, for Wisdom condemns
When the faint and the feeble deplore;
Be strong as the rock of the ocean that stems
A thousand wild waves on the shore.--CAMPBELL.
“Shall I order the carriage round, sir?” said Harrison; “it is past
one.”
“Yes; yet stay: the day is fine; I will ride; let the carriage come on
in the evening; see that my horse is saddled; you looked to his mash
last night?”
“I did, sir. He seems wonderfully fresh: would you please to have me
stay here with the carriage, sir, till the groom comes on with the other
horse?”
“Ay, do: I don’t know yet how far strange servants may be welcome where
I am going.”
“Now, that’s lucky!” said Harrison to himself, as he shut the door: “I
shall have a good five hours’ opportunity of making my court here. Miss
Elizabeth is really a very pretty girl, and might not be a bad match. I
don’t see any brothers; who knows but she may succeed to the inn--hem! A
servant may be ambitious as well as his master, I suppose.”
So meditating, Harrison sauntered to the stables; saw (for he was an
admirable servant, and could, at a pinch, dress a horse as well as its
master) that Clarence’s beautiful steed received the utmost nicety of
grooming which the ostler could bestow; led it himself to the door; held
the stirrup for his master, with the mingled humility and grace of his
profession, and then strutted away--“pride on his brow and glory in his
eye”--to be the cynosure and oracle of the taproom.
Meanwhile Linden rode slowly onwards. As he passed that turn of the town
by which he had for the first time entered it, the recollection of the
eccentric and would-be gypsy flashed upon him. “I wonder,” thought
he, “where that singular man is now, whether he still preserves his
itinerant and woodland tastes,--
‘Si flumina sylvasque inglorius amet,’
[“If, unknown to fame, he love the streams and the woods.”]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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