Dundas

“ He looks straight into your eyes when he talks to you, as if he cared more for you than anyone else in the world: and if I were an artist, painting a picture of a dark young knight starting off for the crusades, I should ask Ivor Dundas to stand as my model. ”

“ On the 25th instant I anchored with the squardron as per margin (America, Edinburgh, Furieuse, Swallow, Cephalus, and Aurora, the latter a Sicilian Corvette,) off Lerici, the Hon. Captain Dundas having preceded us with the Edinburgh and Swallow, to accompany the movements of the troops under Major-General Montressor, dismantling the batteries as the enemy retired on their advance; a party of them endeavoured to re-occupy the castle of Lerici, but Captain Dundas, with the marines, was beforehand with them, and the enemy, after some firing from the boats of the squadron, retreated from the town. ”

“ Yet, on that I cannot quite blame him; for, on my honor, she provokes me beyond any woman breathing."
"Many women," replied Mary, smiling, "would esteem that a flattering instance of power."
"And, like everything that flatters," returned he, "it would tell a falsehood. A shrew can provoke a man who detests her. As to Miss Dundas, notwithstanding her parade of learning, she generally espouses the wrong side of the argument; and I may say with somebody, whose name I have forgotten, that any one who knows Diana Dundas never need be at a loss for a woman to call impertinent." ”

“ Dundas married, first, in 1712, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Robert Watson of Muirhouse, who, with four of his children, died in January 1734 of small-pox, and by her he had a son, Robert, afterwards lord president [see Dundas, Robert, of Arniston, the younger] , and other children; and, secondly, on 3 June 1734, Anne, daughter of Sir William Gordon, bart., of Invergordon, by whom he had five sons and a daughter. One of these sons, Henry, treasurer of the navy and first viscount Melville, is separately noticed. ”

“ Launce Blake knows her a great deal better, or thinks he does. In his own way he is almost as handsome as she is; a tall fair man, with eyes so dark a gray that they look black under their thick lashes and a smile as sweet as a woman's. But, as he sits in Mrs. Dundas's pretty room to-night, he is not smiling—he has come here from Colonel Frenche's, as his father guessed he would—he is looking very stern indeed, and "altogether unmanageable," as Kate Dundas says to herself. ”

“ By a daughter of Dundas of Dundas he had two sons—Sir James Livingstone of Callendar, and Alexander, ancestor of the Livingstones of Dunipace—and two daughters, Janet, married to Sir James Hamilton of Cadzow, and Elizabeth to James Dundas of Dundas. ”

“ I knew that Ivor Dundas spoke French as well as I; but I was not going to tell this Russian that fact.
“The adviser your friend has chosen,” Godensky went on, “happens to be a protégé of mine. I made him—gave him his first case, his first success; and have employed him more than once since. Odd, what a penchant Mr. Dundas seems to have for men in whom I, too, have confidence! Last night, it was Girard. To-day, it is Lenormand.” ”

“ I was distracted to find that my letters had disappeared, though I was thankful for Raoul’s sake, to have the necklace. Mr. Dundas believed that his own leather case with the letters must have been stolen from his pocket in the train, though he couldn’t imagine why the diamonds had been given to him instead. But he suspected a travelling companion of his, who had acted queerly; and he determined to try and find the man. He was to bring me news after the theatre at my house, about midnight. ”

“ As Dundas sat and gazed at the girl's intent head, with its fleecy tendrils and its massive coil, the great hounds beside her, all emblazoned by the firelight upon the brown wall near by, with the vast fireplace at hand, the whole less like reality than some artist's pictured fancy, he knew naught of a sudden entrance, until she moved, breaking the spell, and looked up to meet the displeasure in Roxby's eyes and the dark scowl on Emory Keenan's face. ”

“ Dundas, and that Philip on closer acquaintance was what he had proved himself to be, business man first, lover afterwards. And really Mr. Dundas’s pictures this year had been stupefyingly clever. They made one just gasp. Surely it would be silly to get somebody else to “do” one instead of him, just because Madge had found out her mistake in time, and he had assisted at the correction of it. ”

“ This was in March 1801, when Pitt resigned office, and Dundas along with him, and a new ministry was formed under Pitt’s temporary substitute, Mr. Addington, afterwards Lord Sidmouth. Dundas out of power was a conception totally new to the Scottish mind,—an association, or rather a dissociation, of ideas utterly paralysing. “For a while,” says Lord Brougham, “all was uncertainty and consternation; all were seen fluttering about like birds in an eclipse or a thunderstorm; no man could tell whom he might trust; nay, worse still, no man could tell of whom he might ask anything.” ”

“ A rabbit sitting motionless on the front piazza did not draw back, although observing them with sedate eyes as he poised himself upright on his haunches, with his listless fore-paws suspended in the air, and it occurred to Dundas that he was probably unfamiliar with the presence of human beings, and had never heard the crack of a gun. ”

“ Dundas was another of his hopes. 'The excellent Langton says it is disgraceful, it is utter folly in Pitt not to attach to his administration a man of my popular and pleasant talents.' Dundas, however, after having been given a margin of two months for a reply, has made no sign; 'how can I delude myself? I will tell you,' he informs Temple, 'Lord Lonsdale shews me more and more regard. ”

“ No one knew what had become of her, and no one knew where to look for her; for the sole information gathered by the scared neighbors was, that Leam Dundas was missing and no one had seen her go.
She was thought by some to have simply run away after the manner of undisciplined youth aiming at mock heroism; but where, or with whom? for, said the keen-eyed women and large-mouthed men, incredulous of maiden meditation fancy free, a pretty young thing of nineteen would never have left her comfortable home, her father, friends and good name, without some lover stirring in the matter. ”

“ The good Baron may yet be alive; but if not, we will do our best. Yes," she added, clasping the little one in her arms, "you shall be in the place of my little Francis."
"Dear wife!" exclaimed Gaspard, interrupting her, "I ought not to have doubted you; but I felt half-afraid I had added to your cares and troubles by bringing this poor little one to you."
"No, no," cried Katherine, "we must never repent of doing a good action;—our adopted child may yet bring us a blessing." ”

“ One day when the poor fellow broke down, as was not unusual with him when asking about Leam—and Mr. Dundas read him like a book, all save that one black page where the beloved name stood inscribed in letters of his own heart's blood between the words "crime" and "murder"—with a woman's liking for saying pleasant things which soothed those who heard them, and did no hurt to those who said them save for the insignificant [pg 731] manner in which falsehood hurts the soul, Sebastian, laying his hand kindly on the poor fellow's angular shoulder, said, "I am sorry to know as much as I do, Alick. ”

“ Now, I am engaged to marry a man whom I worship. I would gladly die for him. Ivor Dundas knows that, and is glad. But the other man is jealous. He wouldn’t understand—he would want to kill me and himself and Ivor Dundas, if he knew that Ivor was in my house last night. He was there too, and I lied to him about Ivor. How could I expect him to believe the real truth now? He is a man. But you will believe, because you are a woman, like myself, and I think the woman Ivor Dundas loves. ”

“ He listened patiently till she ended, then he drew himself up. "Thanks!" he drawled affectedly. "You are very kind both to Miss Dundas and myself. All the world knows that the most vigilant overseer a pretty girl can have is a pretty woman. When the reputation of Miss Dundas is endangered by me, it will then be time for her father to interfere. Meanwhile, thanks! I like her quite well enough to take care of her."
"Now, Adelaide, you have vexed him," said Josephine in dismay as Edgar strode back to where Leam remained waiting for him. ”

“ General Francis Dundas (Army List for 1815, p. 3) was Colonel of the 71st Highland Light Infantry. He had served in the American War, and afterwards at the Cape. At the time of the alarm of a French invasion, of England in 1804-5, he commanded a portion of the English forces assembled on the south coast under Sir David Dundas, the Commander-in-Chief, who married an aunt of Sir William De Lancey. Sir David Dundas was at this time Governor of Chelsea Hospital, where he died at the age of eighty-five, on the 18th February 1820.— (See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xvi., p. 185.) ”

“ Gaspard, smiling, pointed to the child on his mother's lap. "John, John!" cried the boy, "father has brought back our little brother!"
John, having embraced his good father, ran to look as Michael desired.
"Yes, yes," said he, "our little Francis is come back; the good God has given him to us again. Oh, what pretty blue eyes and curling hair!"
The two boys kissed the child, thus offering to it the love they had for their little brother. Poor Katherine's tears fell fast as the loss of her little one was thus recalled to her. ”

“ He followed Dundas to Paris on the bare suspicion that there’d been, communication between the two, and he was preparing a report for me when—Dundas called on him.”
“What connection can Ivor Dundas’ coming to Paris have with Raoul du Laurier?” I dared to ask.
“You know best as to that.”
“They have never met. Both are men of honour, and—”
“Men of honour are tricked by women sometimes, and then they have to suffer for being fools, as if they had been villains. Think what such a man—a man of honour, as you say—would feel when he found out the woman!” ”

“ After docking and refitting his ship at Plymouth, Captain Dundas proceeded to North Yarmouth, from whence he conveyed the Duke d’Angouleme to Gottenburg. On the 11th June, 1808, the boats of the Euryalus, assisted by those of the Cruiser sloop of war, burnt two Danish transports, and captured a gun-vessel, mounting two long 18-pounders, with a complement of 64 men, moored within half pistol-shot of a 3-gun battery, near the entrance of the Naskon, in the Great Belt. Although the enemy’s troops lined the beach, the British had only 1 man wounded. ”

“ He was appointed quartermaster-general in Ireland in 1778, promoted colonel in 1781, and made lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd Irish horse in 1782, when he again had leisure to study the military systems of the continent. He attended the Prussian autumn manœuvres in Pomerania, Silesia, and Magdeburg in 1785, 1786, and 1787, and in 1788 he brought out the results of his long study in his great work, 'The Principles of Military Movements, chiefly applicable to Infantry.' The publication of this book made his reputation, and for the next ten years Dundas was constantly employed. ”

“ Robert Dundas, son of the last, successively Solicitor-General and Lord Advocate, M.P. for the county of Edinburgh, judge of the Court of Session 1737, Lord President 1748, died in 1753 (father of Henry, Viscount Melville) ; Robert Dundas, son of the last, successively Solicitor-General and Lord Advocate, and member for the county, Lord President from 1760 to 1787; Robert Dundas, son of the last, successively Solicitor-General and Lord Advocate, Lord Chief Baron from 1801 to 1819; all these judges, except the Chief Baron, had been known in Scotland by the title of Lord Arniston. ”

“ Not like a spy, but like a girl who thinks she may have done a man an injustice. It’s for his sake I ask you to stay. And if you won’t, I must stay alone. If you insist on going away, I’ll get out and stand in the street, either until Ivor Dundas has come, or until I’m sure he isn’t coming. ”

“ Wraxall, while admitting Dundas’s appearance to be “manly and advantageous,” avers that his conviviality was part of a deep-laid scheme for managing men and tightening his grip on the Administration; for “never did any man conceal deeper views of every kind under the appearance of careless inattention to self-interest.” The same insinuation is wittily conveyed by the authors of “The Rolliad” in a skit on the Cabinet Meetings which Dundas was supposed to hold in his villa. ”

“ Byron
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Footnote 1:
Henry Dundas (1742-1811) , created Viscount Melville in 1802, Lord Advocate (1775-83) , made himself useful to Lord North's Government as a shrewd, hard-working man of business, a ready speaker — in broad Scotch, and a consummate election agent. For twenty years he was the right-hand man of Pitt —
"Too proud from pilfered greatness to descend,
Too humble not to call Dundas his friend."
Not only was he Pitt's political colleague, but in private life his boon companion. A well-known epigram commemorates in a dialogue their convivial habits —
Pitt. ”

“ Non est inventus. Of many an ancient story-teller we may say, as Sheridan said of Dundas, "the right honourable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts." ”

“ Secretary Dundas was read, which stated in substance that, as he did not approve of the dangerous principles which then prevailed in Scotland, and was friend to the constitution of his country, he thought it his duty to communicate to him, as a good subject, what information he could procure of the proceedings of those who styled themselves “Friends of the People.” From an acquaintance with several of the leading men among them, he flattered himself he had this in his power; and he then went on to mention some of the names of those leading men in Perth, Dundee, and Edinburgh. ”