The loyalists : $b an historical novel, Vol. 1-3West, Jane
History
The loyalists : $b an historical novel, Vol. 1-3
West, Jane
Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Fiction
"I know little more, please Your Reverence," said Jobson to Dr.
Beaumont, "than that they were all cruelly shot to death. I have heard
that poor Fido sat howling on my young master's corpse, and would not
let any body touch it till Dr. Lloyd fetched it away to bury it; and
that the Doctor keeps the poor dog still, and will never part with it.
Ah! the bloody-minded knaves so hated poor Eustace, that they never
would have suffered him to have had Christian burial, had not the
officers and soldiers mutinied just at that moment. They said that the
General had betrayed them, and that the trouble they had to conquer us
was all owing to his favouring his friends in the Castle. There is
nothing but lies among the Round-heads; for I'll take my life not a soul
of us would have had any thing to do with them, and if starving us to
death was a way of shewing us favour, I hope never to meet with such
friends any more. So, and please Your Reverence, as soon as poor Mr.
Eustace fell, the Devil (whom they talk so much about) got among them,
and they began quarrelling and fighting; and a pity it is he did not
come a little sooner and carry off that cowardly Lord who let his
prisoners be shot in cold blood, because he could not beat them when
they had arms in their hands. Had it not been for him, the finest young
man Lancashire ever bred would have been alive and merry with his noble
father at this moment. I don't wonder Your Reverence weeps and wrings
your hands. I would have died a thousand times to save him; and if ever
I may shew my face in the open day-light again, I'll go to Pembroke and
beg Dr. Lloyd to let me take Fido to Mistress Constantia. Poor Fido! Mr.
Eustace hid him all through the siege, or the garrison would have eat
him. We gave him a morsel out of our own mess, and that was short
commons enough. I fancy I see him walking after Mr. Eustace when he went
to be shot, and then sitting on his body. I warrant they found the lock
of Mrs. Constantia's hair lying on his heart; for he looked at it every
day, and swore he never would part with it. O! that I had died instead
of him; there is nobody to grieve for Ralph Jobson!"
Thus imitating the artifice, while unable to catch the spirit of the
Grecian painter, I describe sorrow as personified in a faithful
attendant, and leave the reader's imagination to picture the frantic
father and the fainting mistress of Eustace--affliction wearing the form
of a ministering angel in Isabel, and that of a mourning patriarch in
Dr. Beaumont--all tracing the ruin of their dearest hopes to the same
iniquitous source; yet all agreeing that it was better to die with
virtue than to live with guilt; to be immolated on the shrine of alarmed
ambition, rather than to be the bloody hierarch who dragged the
sacrifice to the altar.
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