The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen AnneJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
History
The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen Anne
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714 -- Fiction
in the weak and faltering voice of death, but in as determined a tone
as ever, "It is all trash. An hour's repentance could do no good even
if I could repent. But I do not. Nobody does repent. They regret their
failure, are terrified by their punishment; but they and I would do
exactly the same again if we hoped for success and impunity. Talk to
me no more of it. I do not wish to think of hell till it has hold upon
me, if that should ever be."
She said no more from that moment forward, and in about an hour after,
her spirit went to meet the fate she had so boldly dared.
But few persons remain to be noticed in this concluding chapter, and
with regard to their after history, the imagination of the reader
might perhaps be left to deal, without further information. A few
words, however, may be said, merely to give a clue to their after
fate.
The prosecution of Mr. Shanks, the attorney, was carried on but
languidly, and it is certain that he was not convicted of the higher
offence of forgery. On some charge, however, it would seem he was
sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and the last that is heard of
him, shows him blacking shoes at the inn in Carrington, then a very
old man, in the reign of George the First.
Sir Philip Hastings never recovered his senses, not did he seem to
have any recollection of the horrible events with which his earthly
history may be said to have closed; but his life was not far extended.
For about six months he continued in the same lamentable state in
which we have last depicted him, sometimes singing, sometimes
laughing, and sometimes absorbed in deep melancholy. At the end of
that period, another paralytic stroke left him in a state of complete
fatuity, from which, in two years, he was relieved by death.
If the reader will look into the annals of the reign of Queen Anne, he
will find frequent mention in the campaigns of Marlborough and Eugene,
of a Major, a Colonel, and a General Marlow. They were all the same
person; and they will find that officer often reported as severely
wounded. I cannot trace his history much farther; but the genealogies
of those times show, that in 1712, one Earl of Launceston died at the
age of eighty-seven, and was succeeded by the eighth Earl, who only
survived three years, and the title with him became extinct, as it is
particularly marked that he died unmarried. As this last of the race
is distinguished by the title of Lieutenant-General, the Earl of
Launceston, there can be no doubt that this was the lover and promised
husband of poor Emily Hastings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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