| 320 | 321 | 322 | 323 | 324 |
| 1 | 154 | 308 | 461 | 615 |
|
"
But come, Ryland, recollect yourself! Men have hitherto thought you
magnanimous and wise, will you cast aside these titles? Consider the panic
your departure will occasion. Return to London. I will go with you.
Encourage the people by your presence. I will incur all the danger. Shame!
shame! if the first magistrate of England be foremost to renounce his
duties."
Meanwhile among our guests in the park, all thoughts of festivity had
faded. As summer-flies are scattered by rain, so did this congregation,
late noisy and happy, in sadness and melancholy murmurs break up, dwindling
away apace. With the set sun and the deepening twilight the park became
nearly empty. Adrian and Ryland were still in earnest discussion. We had
prepared a banquet for our guests in the lower hall of the castle; and
thither Idris and I repaired to receive and entertain the few that
remained. There is nothing more melancholy than a merry-meeting thus turned
to sorrow: the gala dresses--the decorations, gay as they might otherwise
be, receive a solemn and funereal appearance. If such change be painful
from lighter causes, it weighed with intolerable heaviness from the
knowledge that the earth's desolator had at last, even as an arch-fiend,
lightly over-leaped the boundaries our precautions raised, and at once
enthroned himself in the full and beating heart of our country. Idris sat
at the top of the half-empty hall. Pale and tearful, she almost forgot her
duties as hostess; her eyes were fixed on her children. Alfred's serious
air shewed that he still revolved the tragic story related by the Italian
boy. Evelyn was the only mirthful creature present: he sat on Clara's lap;
and, making matter of glee from his own fancies, laughed aloud. The vaulted
322
Page
Quick Jump
|