Buckhart

“ Bucky laughed. “You’re ce’tainly the queerest kid I’ve run up against. I guess you didn’t scramble up in this rough-and-tumble West like I did. You’re too soft for this country.” He let his firm brown fingers travel over the lad’s curly hair and down the smooth cheek. “There it is again. Shrinking away as if I was going to hurt you. I’ll bet a biscuit you never licked the stuffing out of another fellow in your life.” ”

“ Burckhardt's resolution was unconquerable, and his patience in the desert almost equal to that of the camel. Science had never a more faithful servant; but then he neglected to seek information by giving it, and the disguise under which he travelled concealed not only his person, but his mind. All civilized men, from the philosopher down to the mountebank, carry with them a fund either of instruction or amusement; and the old fable of the basket-maker explains how possible it is for any one to make himself, at least, useful to uncivilized tribes ”

“ She told me that Buckhurst came to her house here in Paradise early in September; that while in Paris, pondering on what I had said, she had determined to withdraw herself absolutely from all organized socialistic associations during the war; that she believed she could do the greatest good by living a natural and cheerful life, by maintaining the position that birth and fortune had given her, and by using that position and fortune for the benefit of those less fortunate. ”

“ I shall keep my rooms. But I shall probably live at the club. The young people ought to be alone, for a while. There are readjustments—You never married, Buckham?”
“No, Mr. Spencer. I intended to, at one time. I came to this country to make a home, and as I was rather a long time about it, she married some one else.”
Clayton caught the echo of an old pain in Buckham's repressed voice. Buckham, too! Was there in the life of every man some woman tragedy? Buckham, sitting alone in his west window and looking toward the sunset, Buckham had his memories. ”

“ Graham," she said. "Godfrey promised to call for me there."
"Well! No good crying over spilt milk," said Mr. Graham, standing and shaking down his trousers—after a habit he had—with his hands in his pockets. "Things will never be the same again in our day, Miss Ethel."
"No." Mrs. Bradford, who had been silent, as she often was, unexpectedly entered the conversation, saying in her heavy voice: "Things will never be the same again." ”

“ They lay down side by side, not more than a foot apart, glaring insanely into one another's eyes. And then Buckley broke out into horrible tears.
"Give it me!" he implored. "Let me have it! We'll share the bottle between us, every drop of it, then we shall go to sleep and wake no more. We've disappointed those chaps long enough; they're waiting for us!"
As Buckley spoke, he pointed with a shaking forefinger to three or four great black objects wheeling round slowly and majestically in the brazen sky overhead. And there was no reason to tell Macardie what they were. ”

“ It stood there in the midst of the grass field—as if it were leading on—while in the distance the wind from the east was blowing the smoke like flags from the long row of chimney-tops in Emerald Avenue.
At last Miss Ethel said with a sort of doubtful hopefulness, as if keeping her courage up before those advancing hordes: "Perhaps nobody will want to buy the land there. Always heard it was boggy."
Mrs. Bradford shook her head silently and went in, followed by her sister: in a world where all things were now odiously possible, one had to take what came and make the best of it. ”

“ When I attain the lofty, dispassionate level I have never attained? That will not be while this war endures.”
“Who knows?” said Buckhurst, gently. 106
“I know!” replied the Countess, the pale flames in her cheeks deepening again.
“And yet,” observed Buckhurst, patiently, “you are going to Paradise to work for the Internationale.”
“I shall try to do my work and love France,” she said, steadily. “I cannot believe that one renders the other impossible.”
“Yet,” said I, “if you teach the nation non-resistance, what would become of the armies of France?” ”

“ Falconer went on—“Georgiana’s favourite brother, Buckhurst—did you never hear it? In days of yore, there was an attachment—Buckhurst, you know, is very ardent in his attachments—desperately in love he was—and no wonder. But at that time he was nobody—he was unprovided for, and the young lady had a good fortune then—her father would have him go to the bar—against the commissioner’s wishes. You know a young man will do any thing if he is in love, and is encouraged—I don’t know how the thing went on, or off, but Buckhurst found himself disappointed at last, and was so miserable about it! ”

“ Two days after this Lord Buckhurst, with a brilliant suite, arrived in Paris, ostensibly to congratulate Charles IX. on his marriage, but with secret instructions from the Queen to negotiate with Catharine again about the Anjou match. Fêtes and banquets, masques and coursing, kept Buckhurst brilliantly busy until the eve of his departure, when Cavalcanti came and asked him whether he would not like to see the new gardens of the Tuilleries, of which Catharine was extremely proud. ”

“ In 1567 he was created Baron Buckhurst. In 1571 he was sent on a special mission to Charles IX. of France to negotiate the proposed marriage of his royal mistress, Queen Elizabeth, with the Duke of Anjou; and later on he was deputed to convey the sentence of her doom to Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1587 he went on a mission to the Low Countries, and figured prominently in almost all the incidents of the eventful period in which he lived. After the death of Elizabeth, Lord Buckhurst was created, [1061] by James I., Earl of Dorset, and was continued in his office of Lord High Treasurer of England. ”

“ I shouted to Otto. "Fetch one of the women and some water!"
My outcry brought Ilga onto the landing.
"What has befallen?" she asked, leaning over the rail.
"'Tis but a swoon," I replied; "nothing more. There is no cause for alarm."
"Poor creature!" she said tenderly, and came running down the stairs. "Let me look, Mr. Buckler. Ailments, you know, are a woman's province."
I was kneeling by the couch, supporting Lady Tracy's head upon my arm, and I drew aside, but without removing my arm. Ilga caught sight of her face, and stopped. ”

“ What Master Frank needs is a first-class dressing-down, and here the little cuss has got me bluffed to a fare-you-well so that I’m mum as a hooter on the nest,” he admitted to himself ruefully. “Just when something comes up that needs a good round damn I catch that big brown Sunday school eye of his, and it’s Bucky back to Webster’s unabridged. I’ve got to quit trailing with him, or I’ll be joining the church first thing I know. He makes me feel like I want to be good, confound the little swindle.” ”

“ Riding two and two, a score of them, they came to the old moss-green house beyond Tarporley. Maids and men running up swept the ground in bows and curtsies. Then it was told Sir Bertram that the Lady Elinor was in the apple-orchard. So Sir Bertram's great charger, Bedivere, must needs pick his feet daintily down the narrow path and through the narrow gap in the high yew hedge, and the huge pair of them, man and horse, backed by the golden sun of a morning in June, came to the orchard and the Dew Pond and a vision. ”

“ Buckrow, and I'll have the life of ye if ye don't come up."
"Petrak was the one what killed the mate," said Buckrow. "It was Petrak done for the Dutchman, sir. I ain't no murderer, sir, Mr. Harris, but a sailorman what does his duty as he sees it, sir."
"Come on deck then and we'll see about that," said Harris, who seemed to think that Buckrow's play of fear of him was genuine.
"Come down and get me. Ye don't dare come down, ye big bucko. I know the likes of ye! Come down and get me, if ye dare."
"Is this mutiny? I'll have the lot of ye hanged! ”

“ The first thing Bucky did after leaving the two young women was to go down in person with one of the guards to the cell of David Henderson. The occupant of the cell was asleep, but he woke up when the two men entered.
“Who is it?” he demanded.
“Webb Mackenzie’s man come to release you,” answered Bucky.
The prisoner fell to trembling like an aspen. “God, man, do you mean it?” he begged. “You wouldn’t deceive an old man who has lived fifteen years in hell?”
“It’s true, friend, every word of it. You’ll live to ride the range again and count your cattle on the free hillside. ”

“ The jolly troop of huntsmen retired from the inhospitable gate of Wolf's Crag, execrating, as they descended the steep pathway, the niggard and unworthy disposition of the proprietor, and damning, with more than sylvan licence, both the castle and its inhabitants. Bucklaw, with many qualities which would have made him a man of worth and judgment in more favourable circumstances, had been so utterly neglected in point of education, that he was apt to think and feel according to the ideas of the companions of his pleasures. ”

“ If it hadn't been for Petrak I never could have handled him. They can't bear the thought of a rope. Whenever there was a hanging I took them to see it. Being a man of the cloth, I was admitted to all sorts of places, and, while I didn't travel openly with my men, I could mingle with them more or less in the character of a missionary."
He looked up at Buckrow, who stood over us scowling suspiciously, and his hand was close to his pistol.
"What's wrong, Bucky?" purred Thirkle, moistening a cigar between his lips and giving Buckrow a searching glance. ”

“ But no man was a more generous friend to him, than that Mecaenas of all learned and witty men, Charles Lord Buckhurst, the late Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, who, being himself an excellent poet, knew how to set a just value upon the ingenious performances of others, and has often taken care privately to relieve and supply the necessities of those, whose modesty would endeavour to conceal them ”

“ Lord Buckhurst was, in fact, a persona grata at court: a man of wit, a poet, a dramatist. Also a man of tact and management, for in his old age, in 1603, he was created Earl of Dorset by Gloriana’s successor, James the First.
And so the descent continued from first to seventh earl, who succeeded like chapters in a history, of which a new volume opened with the seventh earl being created a duke. ”

“ Never before had there been such a stir among the placid frogs of Lily Pond. In fact, they were taken quite by surprise, and with no little difficulty. Timmy captured a huge bag of them and set off on his journey to the tailor’s.
Mr. Buckram, the fashionable tailor, was an elderly gentleman, and a nervous one, and, when disturbed, inclined to be peevish. Mr. Buckram was also very particular both about his own attire and that of his customers, and prided himself on the neat-as-a-pin appearance of his shop. ”

“ If he took up that devil-may-care challenge he must fight it out alone. Moreover, as his furtive glance went round the ring of faces, he doubted whether a rope and the nearest telegraph pole might not be his fate if he went the limit. Sourly he accepted defeat, raging in his craven spirit at the necessity.
“Hell! I don’t fight with boys,” he snarled,
“So?”
Bucky moved forward with the curious lightness of a man spring-footed. His gaze held the other’s shifting eyes as he plucked the knife from his opponent’s hand. ”

“ Mrs. Stamford—you first. Mr. Deane—you didn’t take any.”
“Wise chap. Knew better,” said Dick.
Andy lifted an anxious face from the hole under the gooseberry bushes.
“You surely don’t think——” he began, aghast.
“Rubbish. Of course not. Here, Elizabeth, pop in your lot,” said Norah briskly, but in a guarded tone, and with an eye on the windows of the house. “Give me the spade. I’ll pat him down. Now, let’s creep back to the house. Oh, isn’t it lovely? Don’t you feel as if you had murdered somebody and just been burying the body?” ”

“ Burkham!" cried Valentine. "What Burkham is that? We've a member of the Ragamuffins called Burkham, a surgeon, who does a little in the literary line."
"The Mr. Burkham who attended my poor dear husband was a very young man," answered Georgy; "a fair man, with a fresh colour and a hesitating manner. I should have been so much better satisfied if he had been older."
"That is the man," said Valentine. "The Burkham I know is fresh-coloured and fair, and cannot be much over thirty."
"Are you and he particularly intimate?" asked George Sheldon, carelessly. ”

“ Good-looking and fluent, he fascinated women, and won the confidence of Bernard Knipperdollinck, a revolutionary cloth merchant, who gave him his daughter in marriage. The Münster Anabaptists took up arms on the 9th of February 1534 (see Anabaptists) . On the death of Matthysz (1534) , Buckholdt succeeded him as prophet, added his widow to the number of his wives, and organized a new constitution for Münster, with twelve elders (suggested by the tribes of Israel) and other officers of a theocracy, but soon superseded these, making himself king of the new Zion. ”

“ The commissioner frets because the price of iniquity has not yet been received—the living of Chipping Friars is not yet Buckhurst’s. The poor paralytic incumbent, for whose death he is praying daily, is still living; and, as Buckhurst says, may shake on many a long year. How Buckhurst lives in the mean time at the rate he does I cannot tell you—that art of living in style upon nothing is an art which I see practised by numbers, but which is still a mystery to me. However, the Falconers seem in great favour at present; the commissioner hopes Lord Oldborough may do something for Buckhurst. ”