Alexander Duncan

“ DUNCAN, DANIEL (1649–1735) , physician, of an ancient Scotch family, several members of which belonged to the medical profession, was born in 1649 at Montauban in Languedoc, where his father, Peter Duncan, was professor of physic. Having lost both his parents while he was quite an infant, he came under the guardianship of his maternal uncle, Daniel Paul, a firm protestant, like the other members of his family, by whom he was sent for his preliminary education to Puy Laurens. ”

“ Here he made the acquaintance of Bayle, who was not (as is sometimes said) his pupil, but a fellow-student, two years his senior, and at that time a protestant like himself. Duncan then went to Montpellier to study medicine, and, after living for several years in the house of Charles Barbeyrac, took the degree of M.D. in 1673. He next went to Paris, where he became acquainted with the minister Colbert, by whom he was appointed physician-general to the army before St. ”

“ Duncan being a good, honest, domestic man, and the world around him being in peace and quietness, thought fit to amuse himself with husbandry, which accorded not with the warlike spirit of Donald. He thought it much beneath the dignity of a gentleman, and frequently expressed his disgust. One day as he was walking upon the green of Invernahyle, he looked across the river, and saw a number of his followers with spades preparing a piece of ground for sowing seed. He thought to himself that he was wont to give a different sort of employment to his adherents, and that Duncan had no spirit. ”

“ His mother was a German and his grandmother Irish and his greatgrandmother a Spanish gipsy."
"How did you learn all that, Josie?"
"By making inquiries. Duncan was born in Dorfield and his father was born in the county. He's a typical American—a product of the great national melting-pot—but no patriot because he has no sympathy for any of the European nations at war, or even with the war aims of his native land. He's a selfish, scheming, unprincipled politician; an office-holder ever since he could vote; a man who would sacrifice all America to further his own personal ends." ”

“ Duncan watched each boat as it came into view with a keen suspense. This was a ketch, and that, and that other, for there was the peak of its reefed mainsail just visible, like a bird's wing, and at last he saw it—the fish-cutter—lurching and rolling in the very middle of the fleet, whither she had crept up in the night. He stared at it; his belly was pinched with fear as a starveling's with hunger; and yet he was conscious that, in a way, he would have been disappointed if it had not been there.
"No other smack is shipping its fish," quavered a voice at his elbow. ”

“ He patted me on the head. “You is but a lad,” said he, indulgent with my youth, “an’ your judgment isn’t well growed yet. Some o’ they cures is bad, no doubt,” he added, “an’ some is good. I wants no bad cures in my book. I’ll not have them there. But does you think I can’t try un all on meself afore I has un put in the book?”
When the punt was well through North Tickle, on a free, freshening wind, I sped to the Rat Hole to apprise the twins of their father’s unhappy situation, and to beg of them to be constant and importunate in prayer that he might be saved from the perils of that voyage. ”

“ Eliphalet Duncan went to the White Mountains, and in the car of the railroad that runs to the top of Mount Washington he met a classmate whom he had not seen for years, and this classmate introduced Duncan to his sister, and this sister was a remarkably pretty girl, and Duncan fell in love with her at first sight, and by the time he got to the top of Mount Washington he was so deep in love that he began to consider his own unworthiness, and to wonder whether she might ever be induced to care for him a little—ever so little. ”

“ Duncan thrust forth a foot, and the shock precipitated the eager savage headlong, many feet in advance of his intended victim. Thought itself is not quicker than was the motion with which the latter profited by the advantage; he turned, gleamed like a meteor again before the eyes of Duncan, and, at the next moment, when the latter recovered his recollection, and gazed around in quest of the captive, he saw him quietly leaning against a small painted post, which stood before the door of the principal lodge. ”

“ Duncan succeeded in expatriating his uncle and establishing himself in his stead; but the young king found his followers unpopular with the very Scots who had made him king. These rose up in a body, cut off the strangers almost to a man, and only consented to retain Duncan as their king on condition of his taking an oath to introduce no more English or Normans into the country. ”

“ Old King Duncan was a young man who seemed to labor under the impression that to support his royal dignity it was only necessary to grin incessantly, and turn his toes in when he walked; his royal highness had on a high hat with a red feather, plaid pantaloons (being the only symptom of Scotch costume visible during the evening) , and an embroidered vest, through which, as he wore no coat, the sleeves of his blue shirt appeared in agreeable contrast; he sported a silver watch, four seal rings, an opera glass, and a gold-headed cane. ”

“ Turning like a headed deer, he shot with the swiftness of an arrow through a pillar of forked flame, and passing the whole multitude harmless he appeared on the opposite side of the clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he tried the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness; and then several moments succeeded, during which Duncan believed the active and courageous young stranger was lost.
Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human forms tossed and involved in inexplicable confusion. ”

“ The awful effect was heightened by the piercing [182] shrieks of the women and the fierce yells of the warriors. Now and then Duncan caught a glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some desperate bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the captive yet retained the command of his astonishing powers of activity. Suddenly the multitude rolled backward, and approached the spot where he himself stood. The heavy body in the rear prest upon the women and children in front, and bore them to the earth. ”

“ He exercised himself ostentatiously upon a plate, standing in the door to be within earshot of his father.
“Eph Wheeler,” he informed his family, “Eph Wheeler, he’s got twenty-five cents, an’ a English sixpence, an’ a Yankee nickel. An’ Mr Wheeler’s only a common working man, a lot poorer’n we are.”
Mr Murchison removed his pipe from his lips in order, apparently, to follow unimpeded the trend of the Dominion’s leading article. Oliver eyed him anxiously. “Do, Father,” he continued in logical sequence. “Aw do.”
“Make him, Mother,” said Abby indignantly. “It’s the Queen’s BIRTHDAY!” ”

“ Roderick Duncan, son and heir of Stephen Langdon's former partner, was the possessor, by inheritance, of one of those colossal fortunes which are expressed in so many figures that the average man ceases to contemplate their meaning. Nevertheless, Duncan had kept himself clean and straight. In person, he was tall, handsome, distinguished in appearance, and genuinely a fine specimen of young American manhood. The older man regarded him with undoubted approval, and affection, too, while Duncan lowered the partly uplifted arm, and permitted the anger to die out of his face slowly. ”

“ He had turned white. She took him in her arms, to comfort and hearten him—an unfailing device: her kisses, her warm, ample bosom, her close embrace; he was by these always consoled....
Next day, then, in accordance with the woman's device, the boy and his mother set out with the veiled man for the Church of the Lifted Cross, where the obsequies of Senator Boligand were to take place. It was sad weather—a cold rain falling, the city gray, all the world black-clad and dripping and sour of countenance. The veiled man said never a word ”

“ The white men are to be captured and shot with arrows. The magic machine that is a bird and a fish176 will be destroyed, and the two black kings may then go free because they speak in our tongue, and are therefore brothers.”
“That is pleasant news,” said Duncan. “When will they do this?”
“To-day, if they can. I was with them at the council. I told them that I loved you, and would make you the mate of the Princess Ilalah. But to that my father would not agree. He says you must die.” ”

“ Isn’t much use no more. Wisht I had my bes’ one. This here,’ says he, ‘is got three big nicks. But, anyhow, Arch,’ says he, ‘I won’t hurt you no more’n I can help!’
“Then, sir, knife in hand an’ murder hot in his heart, he bore down on Archibald Shott. ’Twas all over in a flash: Arch, lean an’ nimble as a imp, leaped the rail an’ put off over the ice toward the Black Bight cliffs, with Slow Jim in chase. Skipper Alex whistled ‘Whew!’ an’ looked perfeckly stupid along o’ s’prise ”

“ Advena said.
"But we're just as much obliged," remarked Stella.
"A lot of our church people are going to stay at home election day," declared Abby; "they won't vote for Lorne, and they won't vote against imperialism, so they'll just sulk. Silly, I call it."
"Good enough business for us," said Alec.
"Well, what I want to know is," said Mrs Murchison, "whether you are coming to the church you were born and brought up in, Abby, or not, tonight? There's the first bell." ”

“ The door was open; she stood in it for an instant with eyes nerved to receive the tragedy. The room seemed curiously empty of any such thing, a door opposite was also open, with an arched verandah outside; the low sun streamed through this upon the floor with its usual tranquillity. Beyond the arches, netted to keep the crows away, it made pictures with the tops of the trees. There was the small iron bed with the confused outline under the bedclothes, very quiet, and the Sister—the whitewashed wall rose sharp behind her black draperies—sitting with a book in her hands. ”

“ Moreover, it appeared to her suspicious intelligence that these young men were too eager for information. Who were they? She had not been long in charge of the office at Point-o'-Bay Cove. She did not know them. And why should they demand to know the contents of the telegram before undertaking the responsibility of its delivery?
As for the degree of peril in a crossing of Scalawag Run, she was not aware of it; she was from St. John's, not out-port born. The ice in the swell of the sea, with fog creeping around Point-o'-Bay in a rising wind, meant nothing to her experience. ”

“ She puckered her brow—a sad little frown: but sweet, as well, for, downcast or gay, my sister could be naught else, did she try it.
“Is you thinkin’ so, Davy?” she asked, pulling idly at her dust-rag. “Ah, well!” she sighed.
“Why,” I exclaimed, “’tis the queerest I ever knowed!”
“I been thinkin’,” she mused, “that I’d get the house tidied up—while the doctor’s away.”
“Oh, was you?”
“Ay,” she said, looking up; “for he’ve such a wonderful distaste for dust an’ confusion. An’ I’ll have the house all in order,” she added, with a wan smile, “when he gets back.”
’Tis the way of women to hope ”

“ She had won him to consent to the murder, but she doubted his resolution; and she feared that the natural tenderness of his disposition (more humane than her own) would come between, and defeat the purpose. So with her own hands armed with a dagger, she approached the king's bed; having taken care to ply the grooms of his chamber so with wine, that they slept intoxicated, and careless of their charge. There lay Duncan in a sound sleep after the fatigues of his journey, and as she viewed him earnestly, there was something in his face, as he slept, which resembled her own father ”

“ A clean man: a big, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, long-legged body, with a soul to match it—a glowing heart and a purpose lifted high. There was no mistaking the man by men.
John Fairmeadow, clad like a lumber-jack, upright, now, in the full stature of a man, body and soul, grinned like a delighted schoolboy. His fine head was thrown back, in the pride of clean, sure strength; his broad face was in a rosy glow; his great chest still heaved with the labour of a stormy trail; his gray eyes flashed and twinkled in the soft light of Pale Peter's many lamps. ”

“ And so I am not ashamed to say that Duncan was one of those rara aves--boys who think. I do not care to study the characters of boys who are not just a little bit out of the common run. Ordinary boys are as common as sand-martins in an old gravel-pit, and they are not worth writing about.
Well brought up as he had been, so far away in the lonesome wilds of the Scottish Highlands, and having few companions save his brother and parents, it is but little wonder that he dearly loved his father and mother. ”

“ He taught himself drawing during his service, and in 1839 left the army with a high character. He next obtained an appointment as master-at-arms in the Albert, which with the Wilberforce and the Soudan sailed on the Niger expedition in 1842. On the voyage out he was wounded by a poisoned arrow in a conflict with the natives at the Cape de Verde Isles. Duncan held a conspicuous position in all the treaties made with the native chiefs. He was selected to march at the head of his party, in the cumbrous uniform of a lifeguardsman, when the heat was fearful even to the natives themselves. ”

“ I’m too small potatoes.”
“There’s a lot of feeling for old Ormiston. Folks out there on the Reserve don’t know how to show it enough.”
“They’ve shown it a great deal too much. We don’t want to win on ‘feeling,’ or have it said either. And we were as near as possible having to take the case to the Hamilton Assizes.”
“I guess you were—I guess you were.” Mr Winter’s suddenly increased gravity expressed his appreciation of the danger. “I saw Lister of the Bank the day they heard from Toronto—rule refused. Never saw a man more put out. Seems they considered the thing as good as settled. ”