Ansell

“ Huzza, Huzza, Huzza, my boys, Huzza! ’Tis Britannia boys, Britannia rules the waves.’ Another Dutchman complains, ‘O Mynheer Jan English you vill break my back.’ But the relentless sailor who bestrides him takes out his tobacco-box, and says, ‘Now for a quid of comfort! pretty gig for Jack Tars. Good bye to your bombast, we’re going to Dover, Was ever poor Boney, so fairly done over.’
A most remarkable caricature by Ansell (October 25, 1804) shows to what length party spirit will lead men—making truth entirely subservient to party purposes. ”

“ Iohn Mansell departing foorth of the towre to the Thames, with the countesse de Lisle, and other ladies that were strangers borne, sailed into France, and landed at Whitsand, where the said Mansell hearing that the lord Henrie, sonne to the king of Almaine, that then held with the barons was in those parts, he caused the lord Ingram de Fines to staie him as prisoner, and so he remained, till king Henrie vpon the agréement betwixt him and the barons, found meanes to get him released, and so then he returned into England. ”

“ Do you see Ansdell, ahead there?”
“Yes;—is he the man who told you about Workman and me?”
John ignored the question. “Ansdell is one of the cleverest men going; he’s head and shoulders over anybody else there is in Tecumseh, or in this part of the State. For you to know him will be a college education in itself. He is more than a big lawyer, he is a student and thinker; more than that, he is a reformer; best of all, he is a man of the world, who has sown more wild oats than would fill Albert’s new bins, and there’s not an atom of nonsense about him. He knows about you. ”

“ From above a black-marble mantelpiece a man looked down at him with jovial eyes, a man in a high collar and huge black neckerchief, who might have been the grandfather or great-grandfather of Guy and Hildred Ansley. He had the fat good humor of the one and the bright intelligence of the other, the source in his genial self of types so widely different.
Young Miss Ansley tripped in with the coat across her arm. "I'm sure my father and mother will want to thank you when they come back. Guy's been very naughty. He's always forbidden to leave the Square when he goes out of doors. ”

“ But Annesley's lion neither struck nor crouched. He stood by her side as a protector. "Knight" seemed more and more appropriate as a name for him. Though there were roughnesses and crudenesses in his manner and choice of words, all he did and said made Annesley sure that she had been right in her first impression. Not a cultured gentleman like Archdeacon Smith, or Annesley's dead father, and the few men who had come near her in early childhood before her home fell to pieces, he was a gentleman at heart, she told herself, and in all essentials. ”

“ Undershell. Prefer it! If it were only possible! But they know—they know! What's the use of talking like that?
Tredwell (to himself) . I know where I am now! (Aloud.) They know nothink up to the present, Mr. Undershell, nor yet I see no occasion why they should—leastwise from any of Us.
Undershell. But they know I'm here; how am I to account for all the time——?
Tredwell. Excuse me, sir. I thought of that, and it occurred to me as it might be more agreeable to your feelings, sir, if I conveyed an impression that you had only just arrived—'aving missed your train, sir.
Undershell (overjoyed) . ”

“ Annister’s part would be comparatively simple. He would merely carry out his orders. Rook, eying him now in a close-lipped silence, watched as a spider watches from his ambush. Annister would be needing money; if the lawyer knew his man, and he thought that he did, here was something that would be a lever, and a powerful one.
Annister lifted his head, then he brought his hand, palm downward, to the desk-top. It was a movement, slow, even, controlled.
“I’m with you,” he said.
“Good!” exclaimed the lawyer. “Now—I want you to go over to the club; there are a few men there I’d like you to meet. ”

“ The man apologised for what he conceived to be a mistake. 'We've orders to look out for a young gent about the size of yours, sir,' he explained; 'no offence meant, I'm sure,' and he went away satisfied.
A very few minutes more and the train rolled in to the terminus, under the same wide arch beneath which Paul had stood, helpless and bewildered, a week ago.
'Now my advice to you, young man,' said Mr. Goldicutt, as he put Paul into a cab, and pressed half-a-sovereign into his unwilling hand, 'is to go straight home to Papa and tell him all about it. ”

“ Annister, though you have guessed something from the change in the expression of his countenance. For years he has been like a carrier of typhoid, spreading the contagion of his own sinful nature wherever he went, himself unpunished, even admired, looked up to and patterned after. Do you want to keep such a man alive? Do you think, do you really believe, Dr. Annister, that the genius of such [Pg 327] a man as that, whatever it is, could make amends to the world for all the evil that he does?”
“You forget, Mr. Gordon, that it is no part of my purpose to keep him as he is. ”

“ Then, standing in the doorway, Annister's eyes narrowed; he stood rigid, tense.
For the man facing him across the stained and battered desk, lean head like a vulture’s set upon wide shoulders; mouth like a straight gash with its thin, bloodless lips; cold eyes fixed upon him in a silent, ophidian brightness—was— the "third light," as he had called him —the man whom he had met for a moment back there in the smoker of the Transcontinental. ”

“ Even half a century after their association had been broken up the memory of their inhuman barbarity was so vivid that no Spanish prisoner ever mounted Anson's deck without a lively dread, which was only equalled by the general surprise at his kindly and courteous treatment. The sight of an English sailor woke terror in every heart. ”

“ Has he told you?” asked Sir Stafford.
“Grounsell? no, sir. I did not even hear of his arrival. What are his tidings?”
“The saddest, perhaps, one friend can bring another,” sighed Onslow, as he covered his eyes with his hand. “Nay, nay, I am wrong,” said he, rapidly. “So long as Sydney and yourself are spared to me I have no right to say this; still, George, it is a terrible blow that strikes a man down from affluence to poverty, and, in place of wealth and power, leaves him nothing but insignificance and ruin!” ”

“ But, at all events, you come back here an altogether different being. Am I right in saying so?'
'Perfectly,' said Paul, overjoyed at being so thoroughly understood, 'perfectly. You're a very intelligent young man, sir. Shake hands. Why, I shouldn't be surprised, after that, if you knew how it all happened?'
'That too,' said Mr. Blinkhorn smiling, 'I can guess. It arose, I doubt not, in a wish?'
'Yes,' cried Paul, 'you've hit it again. You're a conjurer, sir, by Gad you are!'
'Don't say "by Gad," Bultitude; it's inconsistent. ”

“ Anson, with many more of our officers, and great part of our crew, amounting in the whole to one hundred and thirteen persons. Thus were we all, both at sea and on shore, reduced to the utmost despair by this catastrophe; those on shore conceiving they had no means left them ever to leave the island, and we on board utterly unprepared to struggle with the fury of the seas and winds we were now exposed to, and expecting each moment to be our last. ”

“ Bultitude for the moment: "Nothing can be too bad for the little scoundrel!" he said, between his teeth.
"He shall have it, sir, I swear to you; he shall be made to repent this as long as he lives. This insult to me (and of course to you also) shall be amply atoned for. If you will have the goodness to deliver him over to my hands, I will carry him back at once to Market Rodwell, and to-morrow, sir, to-morrow, I will endeavour to awaken his conscience in a way he will remember!" ”

“ Guy levelled his firearm. It is exasperating when a sister can't enter into the spirit of the thing better than that. Who ever heard of a sentry being told, on challenging, 'not to be a donkey'? 'My orders are to fire on all suspicious persons,' he informed her.
Hazel stopped both her ears. 'No, Guy, please—it makes me jump so.'
'There's no cap on,' said he.
'Then there's a ramrod, or a pea, or something horrid,' she objected; 'do turn it the other way.'
'Hazel's all right, Guy,' said Jack, in rebuke of this excessive zeal; 'we can let her pass.'
'As if I wanted to pass!' exclaimed Hazel. ”

“ Jolland had been kind to him, too, in a careless sort of way, and at some cost to himself; so it was with more mildness than temper that he answered him.
'You're on the wrong tack, my boy, the wrong tack. I've no wish to tell tales of anyone, as I've been trying to explain to your friends. There's something the matter with me which you wouldn't understand if I told you.'
'Oh, I didn't know,' said Jolland, mollified; 'if it's only physic you want.'
'Whatever it is,' said Paul, not caring to undeceive him, 'it won't affect you or anyone here, but myself. You're not a bad young fellow, I believe. ”

“ I always knew I was made for Society. If only this coat was easier under the arms!
Thomas (behind him—in a discreet whisper) . Beg your pardon, sir, but I was requested to 'and you this note, and wait for an answer.
Spurrell (opening it, and reading) . "Mr. Galfrid Undershell thinks that the gentleman who is occupying the Verney Chamber has, doubtless by inadvertence, put on Mr. Undershell's evening clothes. As he requires them immediately, he will be obliged by an early appointment being made, with a view to their return." (To himself.) Oh, Lor! Then it wasn't Sir Rupert, after all! ”

“ He led Paul on to the platform again and opened a sort of cupboard or closet. 'That's where we keeps the brooms and lamp-rags, and them,' he said; 'it ain't what you may call tidy, but if I lock you in no one won't trouble you.'
It was perfectly dark and the rags smelt unpleasantly, but Mr. Bultitude was very glad of this second ark of refuge, even though he did bruise his legs over the broom-handles; he was gladder still by-and-by, when he heard a rapid heavy footfall outside, and a voice he knew only too well, saying, 'I want to see the station-master. Ha, there he is. ”

“ Both vessels and stores were bad and the sailors were old Chelsea pensioners; yet Anson, in spite of these disadvantages, achieved a brilliant reputation by the heroism, prudence, diligence, and humanity he displayed. After his little fleet of seven vessels had been scattered by a storm in doubling Cape Horn, he landed at Juan Fernandez, where he was soon joined by three of his ships, which arrived in a dismantled condition. While he remained on this island, he exhibited his native tenderness of character by the assiduity with which he cared for the sick. ”

“ Hamilton—I do not think it necessary to subject poor Annesley to a further operation. Let time work its own cure. I left you full of hope, believing that he and Lady Elaine Seabright had been the victims of a misunderstanding, and with the confident intention of bringing them together again. However, I was mistaken in my lady, and send to you papers containing the news of her engagement to another man. This may serve to dissipate any lingering doubts if Sir Harold should recover sooner than we expect. ”

“ Annister drew a faint, hissing breath. In the star-shine, for there was no moon, the fingers showed in a luminous grayness against the sill, clawlike, malformed, like the talons of a beast, which in effect they were.
Annister knew them upon the instant, for, in far-off Java, for instance, he had seen those hands, or, rather, the same and yet not the same. And in that instant he had acted.
Both hands upon the window-sash, he brought it down with a crash upon those fingers; there followed a yelp of pain, inhuman, doglike—a groaning curse—the slam of a falling ladder—a heavy thud—silence. ”

“ I was the best ten stone seven man in England the year I fought Black Joe, and I 'm as tough this minute, so that Norfolk Island needn't frighten me; but the Hon. Annesley Beecher would n't like it, I 'll promise him. He 'd have precious pains in the shoulder-blades, and very sore feelings about the small of the back, after the first day's stone-breaking. Now, don't provoke me, that's all. When the world has gone so bad with a man as it has with me the last year or two, it's not safe to provoke him,—it is not.”
“I never meant to anger you, old fellow,” began Annesley. ”

“ Ansley was near a window, where she could to some extent shield herself by looking out. She left to her husband the duty of speaking the first word.
"It all depends, my dear fellow, on your being accepted by Henry Whitelaw as his son."
There was another silence. "Is that final, sir?"
"I'm afraid it is."
"Is there no way by which I can be taken as myself?"
Mrs. Ansley turned from her contemplation of the [Pg 421] Lion and the Unicorn on the Old State House. "No one is ever taken as himself. We all have to be taken with the circumstances that surround us." ”

“ Anson, was intended to pass round Cape Horn into the South Seas, and there to range along the coast, cruising upon the enemy in those parts, and attempting their settlements. On the 28th of June, 1740, the Duke of Newcastle, Principal Secretary of State, delivered to him His Majesty's instructions. On the receipt of these, Mr. Anson immediately repaired to Spithead, with a resolution to sail with the first fair wind, flattering himself that all his delays were now at an end. ”