Cresswell

“ Cresswell, however, was viewed by James and his ministers with so evil an eye that they directed the ambassador to hold no correspondence with him. For some time Cornwallis disregarded this injunction, but eventually he came to an open rupture with the jesuit, whom he describes as a vain-glorious man, observing that ‘he played on Cresswell's vain-glory to discover his secrets’ (Winwood, vols. ii. and iii. passim; Butler, Hist. Memorials of the English Catholics, 3rd edit. ii. 224–6) . ”

“ The Tolliver girls had simple dresses made, embroidery was ordered from town, and soon there would be the gardens and cotton fields. Mrs. Cresswell would saunter down of mornings. Sometimes she would talk to the big girls and play with the children; sometimes she would sit hidden in the forest, listening and glimpsing and thinking, thinking, till her head whirled and the world danced red before her eyes, today she rose wearily, for it was near noon, and started home. She saw Alwyn swing along the road to the school dining-room where he had charge of the students at the noonday meal. ”

“ Within a week the case was called, and they filed into the courtroom. Cresswell's lawyer saw only this black woman—no other lawyer or sign of one appeared to represent her. The place soon filled with a lazy, tobacco-chewing throng of white men. A few blacks whispered in one corner. The dirty stove was glowing with pine-wood and the Judge sat at a desk.
"Where's your lawyer?" he asked sharply of Zora. ”

“ Cresswell whistled, and stared at his fag.
“Was it signed ‘Junius,’ and done up in a ball?” he asked, excitedly.
“Yes. Did you send it?”
“And was it in printed letters, so that nobody could tell the writing?”
“Yes. Do you know about it, I say?”
“No,” said Cresswell; “no more does anybody. Your chum’s had a letter from the ghost!”
“The what?”
“The Templeton ghost, my boy.”
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” said Dick.
“That’s all right. No more do I. But those who do, say its a bad sign to get a letter from ours. Forbes got one early last term.”
“Do you really mean—?” began Dick. ”

“ He doesn’t hurt,” said the boy. “It’s beasts like Mansfield, and Cresswell, and that lot who come down on you.”
Dick would fain have inquired what sort of fellow Cresswell was, but he was too anxious not to let the affair of the whipper-in leak out, and refrained. He asked a few vague questions about the Sixth generally, and gathered from his companion that, with a very few exceptions, they were all “beasts” in school, that one or two of them were rather good at cricket, and swimming, and football, and that the monitorial system at Templeton, and at all other public schools, required revision. ”

“ Instantly there was a stampede of the Den, and cries of “a fight!” shook the halls and passages of Templeton.
The Sixth heard it in their lofty regions, whither they had retired after the fatigue of levée.
“Pity to stop it,” said Birket, who reported the state of the matter to the seniors. “It’ll do good.”
“Who’s the better man?” asked Cresswell.
“Culver, I fancy.”
“Humph!” said the captain, “you’d better be there to see fair play, Birket; and Cresswell will come down and stop it in ten minutes. Eh, Cress?” ”

“ Dat was cotton."
"You know the Cresswells, then?"
"Know dem? I knowed dem afore dey was born."
"They are—wealthy people?"
"Dey rolls in money and dey'se quality, too. No shoddy upstarts dem, but born to purple, lady, born to purple. Old Gen'ral Cresswell had niggers and acres no end back dere in Carolina. He brung a part of dem here and here his son, de father of dis Colonel Cresswell, was born. De son—I knowed him well—he had a tousand niggers and ten tousand acres afore de war." ”

“ Cresswell, and nephew of Sir C. Cresswell (above) , b. 1829. 49th Regt. Crimea, W. Indies, &c. Deputy Judge Advocate to the Forces. Retired Capt. 1868.
Cresswell,* Frederick, 1859-61. Son of Rev. O. J. Cresswell, b. 1848. Sarum Theol. Coll. Curate of St. John's, Clerkenwell.
Cresswell, George, 1845-48. Brother of E. J. Cresswell (above) , b. 1832. 89th Regt. Was paralysed from exposure in the trenches (Crimean War) . Medal and pension. Capt. of Invalid's Royal Hosp., Kilmainham.
Crewe, , 1800. Left the same year.
Croft, Richard, 1822. Son of Sir Richard Croft, Bart. b. 1808. Ball. Coll. ”

“ Particularly was Colonel Cresswell stirred to action. He realized that in Bles and Zora he was dealing with a younger class of educated black folk, who were learning to fight with new weapons. They were, he was sure, as dissolute and weak as their parents, but they were shrewder and more aspiring. They must be crushed, and crushed quickly. To this end he had recourse to two sources of help—Johnson and the whites in town. ”

“ Senator Smith was unconvinced. Alwyn struck him as a well-balanced fellow, and he thought he deserved the office. He would, however, warn him to make no further speeches like that of last night. Cresswell mentioned Stillings as a good, inoffensive Negro who knew his place and could be kept track of.
"Stillings is a good man," admitted Smith; "but Alwyn is better. However, I'll bear what you say in mind."
Cresswell found Mr. Easterly in Mrs. Vanderpool's parlor, and that gentleman was annoyed at the news. ”

“ Cresswell, Cartwright, Swinstead, and others of their sort rallied round him, and, at the risk of their own popularity, and sometimes against their better judgment, took up the rule of iron. Even the hermit Freckleton came out of his den now and then on the side of justice.
The cad Bull, who had neither the wit nor the temper to play a double part, threw up his monitorship in disgust and went over to the enemy, carrying with him one or two of the empty heads of the Fifth. Pledge alone looked on the whole revolution as a joke. ”

“ By profession a mining engineer, he led the forces of revolt in the historic industrial upheaval in the Rand in what Smuts denounced as a [Pg 30] "Syndicalist Conspiracy." Riot, bloodshed, and confusion reigned for a considerable period at Johannesburg and large bodies of troops had to be called out to restore order. At the very moment that we sat down to dine that night no one knew just what Cresswell and the Labourites with their new-won power would do. Smuts, as Minister of Finance, had deported some of Cresswell's men and Cresswell himself narrowly escaped drastic punishment. ”

“ Cresswell finally thrust his food away. He knew that Mrs. Grey helped Miss Smith's school, and supposed she would continue to do so; with that in mind he had striven to impress her, hoping that she might trust his judgment in later years. He had no idea, however, that she meant to endow the school, or entertained wholesale plans for Negro education. The knowledge made him suspicious. Why had neither Mary nor John Taylor mentioned this? Was there, after all, some "nigger-loving" conspiracy back of the cotton combine? ”

“ But what is Sir Cresswell about with that big volume of light legal literature? I hope he is going to pay attention to so important a case. Not a bit of it. He has thrown himself back in his chair with a pile of such volumes before him, and is obviously about to give himself up to an afternoon of intellectual recreation. What can this mean? I soon saw the state of the case. It was the Judge upon his right hand who was to hold the fate of poor Mrs. Barber in the scales of justice. He was a very old man, but seemed very gentle and good-humoured. ”

“ After Brougham and Scarlett had left the northern circuit Cresswell and Alexander became the leaders. In 1830 Cresswell was appointed recorder of Hull, in 1834 was made a king's counsel, and from 1834 to 1842 was also solicitor-general for the county palatine of Durham. At the general election of 1837 he was returned in the conservative interest for Liverpool, and again in July 1841 defeated the whig member, Mr. William Ewart, and Lord Palmerston, who was at the bottom of the poll. He was always a strong tory. ”

“ He replied that the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Oxford, Lord Sussex, and Sir William Fitzwilliam were with the king. “God save the king!” they said; “as long as noblemen of the true blood rule about the king all will be well. But how of Cromwell? Is he put from the council or no?” Cresswell said that he was still on the council. “Then, whatsoever the Lord Darcy say to you,” they answered, “show the king and the lords that until our petitions are granted we will take no pardon till we have our will.” Darcy had by this time secured a private room and a few private moments. ”

“ Like Pontifex, he seemed but little concerned, either with the cheers of his friends or the few howls of his mutinous juniors. He was used to noises, and they made very little difference to him one way or another. Cresswell, on the contrary, seemed decidedly pleased, when cheers and cries of “Well run!” greeted his appearance; and most of the other monitors—Cartwright, the quick-tempered, warm-hearted Templeton football captain; Freckleton, the studious “dark man;” Bull, the “knowing one,” with his horse-shoe pin; Pledge, the smirking “spider;” ”

“ Dick and Heathcote blushed up guiltily, and rushed their indiscreet chum off before he had time to unbosom himself further.
Cresswell, with the grin still on his honest face, turned into Freckleton’s study.
“By Jove! old man,” said he, “you’ll have a lot to answer for, the rate you’re going on. There are three youngsters—my fag Dick and his two chums—going to run this hunt through, because their names are not on your precious list. They’ll kill themselves.” ”

“ If he ever is down in the mouth, I think he was so last night after it was all over.”
“I thought so too,” said Freckleton; “that is, I shouldn’t call it down in the mouth. He had headache; that’s about the same thing.”
“He’s staked high. No one else would have dared to challenge the whole school in the way he did,” said Cresswell, dropping his voice, but still, in the quiet air, not quite beyond Dick’s hearing.
“It answered; it brought the right fellows to the front.”
“And shut the wrong fellows hopelessly out?”
“I hope not. Many of them are only fools. ”

“ Father said I was to be on my guard against fellows who flattered me, so I must keep my eyes open, or some one will be trying to make a fool of me. If Cresswell’s a nice fellow, I’ll have a talk with him to-morrow about young Aspinall, and see if we can’t do anything to give him a leg up, poor young beggar. I wonder if I’m an ass to accept the whipping-in so easily? Any how, I suppose I can resign if it’s too much grind. Heigho! I’m sleepy.”
Chapter Six. How our heroes begin to feel at home.
Heathcote awoke early the next morning with his friend the junior seriously on his mind. ”

“ Has made himself very popular by erecting a Manufactory of Guns, but it is poorly carried on. His wife is the most notable woman in the County for Housew'fery, but I should like her much better if she would keep a cleaner house. He has got a very good plantation, takes every [135] mean art to render himself popular amongst a set of ignorant Dutchmen that are settled in his neighbourhood. Dirty in person and principle."
Though much embarrassed by his poverty Cresswell refuses a commission as a captain of Engineers at $3 per day offered to him by Colonel Green and Colonel Grayson. ”

“ Son of John Coxhead, 47, Russell Square, b. 1853. In business in London.
Coyle, Lewis Henry, 1842-44. Son of Rev. Miles Coyle. b. 1826. Wadh. Coll. Oxf. Holy Orders, d. 1862.
Cranfield, Edward, 1818.
Craster, Thomas William, 1875. Eldest son of John Craster, of Craster, Northumberland, b. 1860.
Cranford, Thomas Robertson, 1811-12, b. 1803. Went to Eton.
Cresswell (Sir) Cresswell Easterby (Knt.) , 1806-8. 4th son of Francis Easterby, of Blackheath, who assumed the name of Cresswell on his marriage, b. 1793. Em. Coll. Cam. Barrister. M.P. for Liverpool 1837-41. ”

“ About a week or ten days after this, Creswell came to my mother, one morning, and told her that all the French servants talked of going away, because there was a revenant in the house; adding that there seemed to be a strange story attached to the place, which was said, together with some other property, to have belonged to a young man, whose guardian, who was also his uncle, had treated him cruelly and confined him in an iron cage ”

“ There was really nothing to be said for Mr Karswell. Nobody knew what he did with himself: his servants were a horrible set of people; he had invented a new religion for himself, and practised no one could tell what appalling rites; he was very easily offended, and never forgave anybody; he had a dreadful face (so the lady insisted, her husband somewhat demurring) ; he never did a kind action, and whatever influence he did exert was mischievous. 'Do the poor man justice, dear,' the husband interrupted. 'You forget the treat he gave the school children.' 'Forget it, indeed! ”

“ The next morning Creswell called at the lodgings of his friend. “I am glad,” said he, “that you were not disappointed in Miss Grainger.”
“Disappointed!—she is the most fascinating woman I ever met with—full of sweetness, feeling, and intellect! I do not remember to have enjoyed a conversation more in my life than the one we had as I escorted her home last night”
“Why, Saybrooke! you certainly did not do that? she is unquestionably large enough to take care of herself!”
“You are an impudent dog, Creswell,” returned Saybrooke, laughing. ”

“ Henry had so greedily imbibed the incense offered him in the proposal of Cromwell, that he already began to talk loftily of having no superior but God, and grew furious with Cromwell for not carrying the thing he had promised off-hand, without any regard to its transcendent difficulty. "Mother of God!" he exclaimed, in a towering passion, to Cromwell and the commissioners for the business, "you have played me a shrewd turn. I thought to have made fools of those prelates, and now you have so ordered the business that they are likely to make a fool of me, as they have done of you already. ”