The Robber, A Tale.James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
The Robber, A Tale.
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
England -- Social life and customs -- 17th century -- Fiction
As we have before seen, the conclusions at which the poor man arrived
were very often just, and his madness consisted rather in a kind of
wandering, an occasional want of the power of seizing and holding
anything firmly, than in folly. In the present instance, then, he
inferred from the sight of the money given him by Franklin Gray, that a
person who had treated him so kindly would not ill-use him or suffer
him to be ill-used; and, accordingly, he gained courage from the
contemplation, and set out for the tower. Although he had been twice
there before, since Franklin Gray had been the tenant thereof, yet, on
both those occasions his visits had been after dark; but, as he
approached at present the scenes of all the horrors of the preceding
night, he could scarcely believe his eyes, so different was the whole
when displayed in the broad sunshine from that which it appeared under
the shadow. In this instance, however, the face that it wore in the
open day was the deceptive one, and is but too common through the
world, and in life; and in the human heart. The tower, and the large
building by its side, and the court within its walls, were converted
into a farm-house, with its barns and its yard full of straw, and
ploughshares, and farming implements, while carts stood around bearing
the name of "Franklin Gray, Farmer," though the name of the place which
followed was that of a distant part of the country, where probably he
had exercised the same kind of farming which he now carried on. There
were two or three stout men in farming habiliments about the yard too,
whose faces were not unfamiliar to the eye of John Graves, and an
honest watch-dog stood chained near the stable-door, as if the good
farmer was in fear of nightly depredators. A flaxen-headed plough-boy
whistled gaily in the court; and at the moment that Silly John
approached, a very lovely creature, habited in plain white garments,
and carrying a beautiful child of little more than a year old in her
arms, was crossing on tiptoe the dirty yard, wet and muddy with the
storm of the preceding night.
"A dainty farmer's dame, indeed!" said the half-witted man to himself;
"but I'll speak to her rather than to any of the foxes. Women are
always kindest."
His singular appearance had already attracted the attention of the
person who was the subject of his contemplation, and she seemed at once
to comprehend his character, and the nature of the affliction under
which he laboured.
"He is one of the happy," she said, speaking low, and to herself. "What
would you, poor man?" she added, with her sweet-toned voice and foreign
accent. "Do you seek money or food?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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