Arthur Hastings

“ But just as popular legend refused to credit the death of Arthur on that day at Camelot, or the fate of James IV of Scotland on Flodden Field, or the death of Harold at Hastings, so it refused to believe in that of Roderic. Racial sentiment refuses to admit the death of a popular leader, and have not legends been [206] afloat even in our own day concerning the lamented Lord Kitchener? ”

“ After he had gone, the Stroke looked up from his book for some time, while a tender smile softened his strong mouth. He had found a girl who could understand, and he hoped the same good fortune for his friend.
When the train passed through New Haven, Hastings wore a hang-dog air, fearing recognition. A runaway from New London the day before the race, his college town was the last place on earth in which he wished to be seen. As he neared New York he braced himself for the meeting with his mother, blindly fearing that she would be sorely disappointed in him. ”

“ To say that Hastings was a scrupulous politician according to modern ideas would be to say too much. No doubt he did irregular things; possibly he helped the ruin of Nand Kumar, certainly he transgressed the letter of the law in removing the unmanageable governor of Madras. In instigating, or conniving at, the spoliation of the Oudh dowagers he allowed a violation of the faith of treaties and of the delicacies of private life. But he saved and established the empire, which he would not have done had he listened to all possible objections or held his hand before a hostile confederacy. ”

“ Just alighted from the toils of the chase, Harry Hastings, then in his eightieth year, would partake of a substantial dinner, tipple his tankard of ale dry, take his customary nap, wake up, rub his eyes, and behold the "Anatomy of Melancholy" seated before the fire, his visage buried in an opened folio! A rare old boy must have been this Hastings. He is described as low of stature, but strong and active, of a ruddy complexion, with flaxen hair. His clothes were always of Lincoln green. His house was of the old fashion, in the midst of a large park well stocked with game. ”

“ Save for the few thousand white laborers who were supported by the oil industry, the whole resident population were negroes who were worked under imported white foremen in the rice and truck lands of the region.
The negroes were panic stricken by the Japanese invasion and made practically no resistance. In two or three days, the country for a forty-mile radius around Beaumont was cleared of Americans and practically the entire oil region of Texas with its vast storage tanks at Port Arthur on the Sabine River, were in the hands of the invaders. ”

“ I have a mind that can share thine objects, I have pride that can exult in thy power, courage to partake thy dangers, and devotion—" she hesitated, with the most charming blush—"but of that, sweet lord, thou shalt judge hereafter! This is my dowry,—it is all!"
"And all I ask or covet," said Hastings. ”

“ There have always been men of the Hastings name in the village. They came in the days of its first settlement. There are a score of them living here at this very minute. And, like the most of them in the early years of the republic, Donald Hastings followed the sea. Holiest, impetuous, young, as were so many of those sea captains in that golden era of the early nineteenth century, he left but one shadow on his memory—perhaps not altogether a shadow. Therein lies the story.
Above the junk the masts and spars of a ship loomed in the moonlight. ”

“ But I didn't steal the horse no how; and there he is, running away over the hill-side, and I shall never catch him; for this cursed fellow has well nigh broken my back."
"Served you quite right, my friend," replied the stranger, still keeping him tightly down with his foot. "How came you to use a cudgel to a man who had none? Take my advice, another time, and know your man before you meddle with him."
In the mean time Sir Philip Hastings had fallen into a profound reverie, only repeating to himself the words "John Groves." ”

“ It was in the years 893-897 that Hastings and his horde of followers infested the island, and in 900 Alfred died, so that his reign ended, as it had commenced, with protracted and desperate conflicts with the Danes.
Hastings was an old and successful soldier before he came to England. He had led a wild life for many years as a sea king on the German Ocean, performing deeds which in our day entail upon the perpetrator of them the infamy of piracy and murder, but which then entitled the hero of them to a very wide-spread and honorable fame. ”

“ If men truly great knew their own interest, it is thus that they would wish their minds to be portrayed.
Warren Hastings sprang from an ancient and illustrious race. It has been affirmed that his pedigree can be traced back to the great Danish sea-king, whose sails were long the terror of both coasts of the British Channel, and who, after many fierce and doubtful struggles, yielded at last to the valor and genius of Alfred. But the undoubted splendor of the line of Hastings needs no illustration from fable. One branch of that line wore, in the fourteenth century, the coronet of Pembroke. ”

“ This is my dowry,—it is all!”
“And all I ask or covet,” said Hastings. But his cheek had lost its first passionate glow. Lord of many a broad land and barony, victorious captain in many a foughten field, wise statesman in many a thoughtful stratagem, high in his king’s favour, and linked with a nation’s history,—William de Hastings at that hour was as far below as earth is to heaven the poor maiden whom he already repented to have so honoured, and whose sublime answer woke no echo from his heart. ”

“ Stung by the coldness even more than by the disdain of the Lady Bonville, and enraged to find that no taunt of his own, however galling, could ruffle a dignity which was an insult both to memory and to self-love, Hastings had exerted more than usual, both at the banquet and in the revel, those general powers of pleasing, which, even in an age when personal qualifications ranked so high, had yet made him no less renowned for successes in gallantry than the beautiful and youthful king. ”

“ They came at last, with a shuffle of feet and click of bayonets, the word was passed, the relief fell out, and away they went, crunch, crunch, across the gravel.
A mellow chime floated from the clock-tower of the palace, the deep bell of St. Sulpice, echoed the stroke. Hastings sat dreaming in the shadow of the god, and while he mused, somebody came and sat down beside him. At first he did not raise his head. It was only when she spoke that he sprang up. ”

“ Hastings had imprudently avowed an interest in the prosperity of the house of Palmer & Co. in a letter to Sir William Rumbold, who had married his ward, and was one of the partners of the firm. In consequence of this the motives of Hastings were mistrusted by the directors, and, justly indignant at their suspicions, he sent in his resignation in 1821. ”

“ Undoubtedly, the British troops were mercenaries; but so they had been from the very beginning, and the exchequer of the Company was at the time very low, whilst behind everything was the great company of British shareholders clamouring for a dividend. Blame may be poured as vitriol on the reputations of many men, but the great offender was the general greed of gold in England.
Hastings, however, was already on his defence for this apparently unnecessary war (which yet brought in grist to the mill) when he was appointed the first Governor-General of India under the New Act. ”

“ She is first in your thoughts, I am sure," advised the Stroke, with a perceptible shade of disbelief. "Just let her see that you are sound and lusty, that's what she will care most about. She will be sorry for your sake, not for her own."
Throwing himself across his cot, Hastings looked out of the nearest window, down the river to where the flag above the Harvard Quarters slashed the sky like a ribbon of flame. There were the enemy whom he had helped to defeat, and now it seemed an honorable thing, greatly to be desired, even to row on a beaten crew. ”

“ Hastings began well and ended ill." "Will ye yield you to King Charles?" asked Hastings. "We yield," was the answer, "to none; all that we shall take by our arms we will keep as our right. Go and tell this, if thou wilt, to the King, whose envoy thou boastest to be."
Hastings returned to the Gallo-Frankish army, and Rollo prepared to march on Paris. Hastings had gone back somewhat troubled in mind. Now there was among the Franks one Count Tetbold (Thibault) , who greatly coveted the countship of Chartres, and he said to Hastings: "Why slumberest thou softly? ”

“ Leaping on his palfrey, Hastings rode back to the Tower, dismounted at the gate, passed on to the little postern in the inner court, and paused not till he was in Warner’s room. “How now, friend Adam? Thou art idle.”
“Lord Hastings, I am ill.”
“And thy child not with thee?”
“She is gone to her grace the duchess, to pray her to grant me leave to go home, and waste no more life on making gold.”
“Home! Go hence! We cannot hear it! The duchess must not grant it. I will not suffer the king to lose so learned a philosopher.” ”

“ They met at Alipore, a southern suburb of Calcutta, at 6 a.m. on 17 Aug. 1780. Deliberately choosing a place full of light, and making the seconds measure the shortest distance they could be induced to adopt, Hastings received his adversary's fire, which he instantly returned with such effect that Francis fell dangerously wounded. Had Francis been killed, Hastings must have been tried for murder. Had Hastings fallen, Francis would, at least till another man could come out from home, or say for eighteen months, have had all the powers and patronage of governor-general. ”

“ The grandest view of Hastings is that of the Old Town from hard by the modern, but picturesque, Lifeboat House, whence you see the great East Hill looming magnificently up above the huddled houses that, whether they be of old red brick or tarred wood, are all, in the mass, artistically “right.” It is, in the summer, a crowded quarter, for the excursionists who feel a little abashed by the stucco magnificences and primnesses of newer Hastings and St. Leonards, and cannot elsewhere come into close communion with the untamed sea, find here an ideal dumping-ground for babies and provision-baskets. ”

“ Hastings replied, profanely.
"Why don't you try to get something to do?" asked Earle of the sad-visaged husband, a day or two after.
"What is there to do? Everything is flat; there is neither business nor money in this cursed country. I've stayed here trying to sell my mine, until I'm dead broke; nothing to live on here, and nothing to get out with. What I'm to do with my wife there, I don't know. Let her die, perhaps, and throw her bones up that ravine to bleach in the sun. ”

“ When she afterwards proposed to the council that her son, Edward V, should be escorted to London with a strong army, Hastings passionately demanded whether the army was intended ‘against the people of England or against the good Duke of Gloucester.’ He threatened to retire to Calais if Rivers approached with an army. When, however, Gloucester tried by means of William Catesby [q. v.] to bring Hastings into his designs, Hastings seemed disposed to join the queen's party. ”

“ Often and ever the words of Hastings, at the house of Lady Longueville, rang in her ear, and thrilled through the solitude of night,—"Whoever is fair and chaste, gentle and loving, is in the eyes of William de Hastings the mate and equal of a king." ”

“ Hastings died in 1312 or 1313. His second wife was Isabella, daughter of the elder Hugh le Despenser. Hastings, who was one of the most wealthy and powerful nobles of his time, stood high in the regard of the king and is lauded by the chroniclers.
His eldest son John (d. 1325) , who succeeded to the barony, was the father of Laurence Hastings, who was created earl of Pembroke in 1339, the earls of Pembroke retaining the barony of Hastings until 1389. A younger son by a second marriage, Sir Hugh Hastings (c. 1307–1347) , saw a good deal of military service in France ”

“ In December 1764 Hastings returned to England in his majesty's ship Medway. While his colleagues had been making their fortunes by corruption and private trade, he had continued honourably poor. He was, however, able to buy an annuity of 200l. for the widow of his uncle Howard, who was left in poverty, and to pass some years in London, keeping himself before the India House with a view to speedy re-employment. In the meantime his active mind had struck out the project for the improvement of the minds and habits of Indian civilians, afterwards realised by the East India College at Haileybury ”

“ Discussions over rival plans of Indian administration diffused a sense of national responsibility for its good government, and there was a general resolve that the security against injustice and misrule which was enjoyed by the poorest Englishman should be enjoyed by the poorest Hindoo. It was this resolve which expressed itself in 1786 in the trial of Warren Hastings. Hastings returned from India at the close of the war with the hope of rewards as great as those of Clive. He had saved all that Clive had won. He had laid the foundation of a vast empire in the East. ”