Edward Langdale

“ But the eyes of Edward Langdale were fixed upon the mother and her son; and the thought of his own dear mother gave him the power—I might almost call it the faculty—of sympathizing with the noble-minded woman, to a degree that made the whole scene one of actual agony.
[197]
"I wish I could get out," he said, speaking to the old man, who was jammed up against him: "this is horrible. Can you not make way?"
"Try to force your way through the castle-wall," replied the other, cynically: "you have but to see a man die, young gentleman."
"Ay, but how?" said Edward. ”

“ Space is growing short, and we have much to tell. It was several weeks after the period of which we have just been writing when Edward Langdale and old Clement Tournon, now restored to health and some degree of strength, were in the cabinet of the great minister of France. Manifold papers were before them, and Richelieu's brow was cloudy and stern; but the old syndic of the goldsmiths of Rochelle was as calm, and seemingly as much at ease, as when he first encountered Edward Langdale in the streets of his city. ”

“ We left Edward Langdale at nightfall, and, by the reader's good leave, may as well take him up again about the same hour, but with an interval of some ten days. The interval measured upon the earth's surface must be equally great. When we last saw him he was entering a little town on [326] the frontiers of Burgundy, just after the cool sunset of a chilly spring day. ”

“ Edward handed it to him, and he examined it minutely. "'Edward Langdale and one companion,—to wit, the syndic Clement Tournon'!" he said. "Well, this is marvellous strange! I cannot let this pass without some further knowledge of so unaccountable a matter."
"Well, Monsieur Guiton," answered Edward, firmly, "pray remember that I, comparatively, a stranger to him, have perilled much to aid and rescue [361] a man who once showed me kindness, nursed me like a father when I was sick, and trusted me as he would his son when I had recovered ”

“ Her father was a good, brave soldier, and went at the darkest of times, because his country needed him, not for fame or enthusiasm. She has heard too much 210 of the dangers and struggles. Edward Langdale is full of soldierly ardor. They have had opportunities enough to be in love, and she rather shrinks from him. No, her husband, whoever he is, must be a civilian. ”

“ Neither make those sweet honest lips utter a word of falsehood, nor force them to betray a secret she thinks herself bound to keep. I will answer for her. She has heard me called by another name; but I could not have come into this country without obtaining the passport of Sir Peter Apsley,—a young man of my own age and height,—who had given up the intention of visiting France. My name is Edward Langdale, son of Sir Richard Langdale, of Buckley, of as good and old a family as his whose name I took. ”

“ It did require a great effort of courage to put that question, for, what between weakness and some other sensations, Lucette had got into a frame of mind which would have made it even pleasant for her to remain there in the Marais all her life,—if Edward Langdale had remained with her.
There is always a good effect produced by looking difficulties and unpleasant things of all sorts in the face. We either discover some [124] mode of getting rid of them, or else we learn to endure them. Very soon Edward and Lucette talked composedly over their future plans ”

“ Pierrot, mounted, led one horse beside the carriage; one of the guards led another, and the whole cortège set out for Nantes at a brisk pace of three miles an hour, or thereabouts. There are other countries in the world where one can still go at the same pace; but, as Nantes was about ninety miles distant, it was very evident three days must be consumed in the journey. Now, it was very pleasant to Edward Langdale to sit side by side with Lucette, especially when, by way of emphasis to any thing of particular importance he was saying, he took her soft little hand in his ”

“ Langdale came up with their son Edward, and Daffodil was glad to see him again. He was a nice, well-behaved lad, and very deferential to great-grandfather. The two soldiers talked over their battles and the state of the country. The preliminaries of peace were under way, but the settlement seemed to drag along. France still stood our friend.
Daffodil took him out to see the squirrels that came 80 at her call and inspected him with such curious, inquiring eyes that he laughed about it.
"You see they are not used to boys," she explained. ”

“ In 1639 he opposed the levy of ship-money on Yorkshire. 'I hear,' writes Strafford, 'my old friend Sir Marmaduke Langdale appears in the head of this business; that gentlemen I fear carries an itch about with him, that will never let him take rest, till at one time or other he happen to be thoroughly clawed indeed' (Strafford Letters, ii. 308; cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 222) . Nevertheless, when the civil war began, Langdale, no doubt because of the severity of the parliament against catholics, adopted the king's cause with the greatest devotion. ”

“ VICISSITUDES IN HIGH LIFE.
The London papers lately recorded the death of a lady who was the representative and last descendant, save one sister, of a house famous in English history. This was Lady Langdale, widow of Bickersteth, first and last Lord Langdale, and sister of Harley, last earl of Oxford. Lady Langdale had but one child, who married Count Teleki, a Hungarian nobleman, and pre-deceased her mother, dying childless. Lord Langdale was the son of Mr. Bickersteth, surgeon, of Kirby-Lonsdale, Westmoreland. ”

“ Langdale was so proud and enthusiastic, giving every one his due with no narrowness.
Then he said, "Oh, Daffodil, are you really going home?"
"They have sent for me. The winter has gone!" and there was a piquant smile hovering about her face.
"It has been such a short winter I have not done half the things I planned to do. But I am resolved to run away some time in the summer. It is ungrateful not to visit mother. And I do want to see the town, and all the old friends."
"Oh, do come!" There was a joyous light in her eyes, and a sweetness played about her lips. ”

“ The last died without issue in 1777, and the title became extinct. In the year 1836, an eminent King’s Counsel—still remembered by some persons—named Henry Bickersteth became Master of the Rolls, and was raised to the peerage as Lord Langdale, but so far as we know he was in no way connected with the Langdale family, and there is no Lord Langdale now. The wife of this peer, who was Master of the Rolls, was Lady Jane Harley, daughter of the Earl of Oxford; and this celebrated title will furnish another instance of the loss of titular honours by one family, and their resumption by another. ”

“ He plays a good deal, and wins oftener than he loses, but that's luck and knowledge. Like so many young men, he came over to seek his fortune. He was in Virginia, was some general's aide, I believe. Why are you so eager to know his record?"
"Why?" laughing softly. "I think he is very much smitten with Daffodil Carrick. She is pretty and sweet, a most admirable daughter, but, somehow, the beaux do not flock about her. She will make some one a lovely wife."
"Young Langdale has a fancy for her." ”

“ Langton was one of the “ordainers” elected in 1310, and it was probably his connexion with this body that led to his losing the office of chancellor about this time. He continued, however, to take part in public affairs; mediating between the king and Earl Thomas of Lancaster in 1318, and attempting to do so between Edward and his rebellious barons in 1321. He died in June or July 1337. Langton built the chapterhouse at Chichester, and was a benefactor of the university of Oxford. ”

“ King’s Langley is a large and interesting village. The river Gade flows between the main street and the station, L.&N.W.R. Paper and straw plait are both made largely. The village owes its name to the fact that Henry III. built a palace on a spot still marked by a few fragments of ruin a little W. from the church, and the royal manor became known as Langley Regis, whereas the Langley on the E. side of the river belonged to the Abbey of St. Albans, and was called Abbot’s Langley (q.v.) . Edmund de Langley, fifth son of Edward III., was born in this palace in 1344. ”

“ It is noteworthy that during his imprisonment Langton still received writs of summons to parliament and to furnish his contingents for the king's wars (Parl. Writs) .
Langton had been too long a minister, and was too unfriendly to the constitutional opposition, to care to remain a martyr. He had great experience and ability, and as Edward's difficulties increased the king bethought himself that his imprisoned enemy might still be of service to him. The declaration of Winchelsea for the ordainers and against the king made Langton most willing to come to terms with Edward. ”

“ Lord Langdale died in April 1851; [1] he was succeeded in the Mastership of the Rolls by Lord Romilly, then Sir John. A happier choice could not have been made. To Lord Langdale belongs the credit of carrying out the grand scheme for consolidating [Pg 296] the various collections of documents, which, as we have said, had up to this time been widely dispersed, and the very existence of the larger mass of which was known only to a few experts. ”

“ Mrs Fortescue sprang indignantly to her feet. People never spoke directly about money at Langdale. No one ever before had alluded to the fact that she had made a nice harvest out of the girls. No one had been so ill-bred; but now it flashed across her mind that it was true: it also came over her that she had been envied amongst the most aristocratic members of society in Langdale, because of her chaperonage of Brenda and Florence Heathcote. ”

“ Lord Langdale’s I feel most, as I was often with him, and as he has given me, at all times, and at some particularly of a comparatively recent date, such proof of affection and, what is more, of thorough esteem and regard, as I shall never forget.... ”

“ Friends and enemies alike admitted that they fought like heroes, though some Scottish authorities attribute the defeat to the inefficiency of Langdale's scouts (ib. pp. 434, 436, 442; Clarendon, xi. 48, 75; Burnet, p. 453; Langdale's own narrative is printed in Lancashire Civil War Tracts, p. 267) . Langdale accompanied Hamilton's march as far as Uttoxeter, fled with a few officers to avoid surrendering, and was captured on 23 Aug. ”

“ Now the girl was sitting on a log near the fire, on which her father, at Langdon's command, had heaped wet gulfweed to smudge the hayhennies away. The men, lulled by heat, by the gossip of the brook, by digestion and nicotine, lay in the warm sand, squinting out at the sailless and rolling immensities of a sea pure turquoise as a porcelain tub full of bluing-water on a Monday mom. They drowsed, and so did noontide.
“Quite like the Garden of Eden, eh?” remarked Langdon lazily. “Palms, beach and sea will feed us. Nothing to do but take the goods the gods provide us. ”

“ In the form of his poem, Langland has followed the fashionable poets of his day, and has adopted the machinery of a dream. All that he tells us [Pg 85] passed before him in a vision. Some few touches show that he too was not wanting in some growing sense of the beauties of nature, particularly in the opening of the poem, when he tells us that he wandered on the Malvern Hills on a May morning. When weary of wandering, he laid himself down
"Under a broad bank, by a burn's side ”

“ On 14 March Langton was restored to his office of treasurer until the next parliament should assemble (ib. ii. 159) . He was believed to have betrayed the secrets of the confederate nobles to the king as the price of this advancement (Flores Hist. iii. 148) . The growing troubles of Edward from the lords ordainers are the best explanation of his falling back on his father's old minister; but Langton never got more than a half support from Edward II, 'ad semigratiam regis recipitur' (Trokelowe, p. 64) , and the ordainers, headed by the irreconcilable Winchelsea, soon turned against him. ”

“ Langford, he is not a lending, but a taking man.'
'If we worked out the first debt, we can work out the second,' said Honor. 'I know that you can get nothing from Chimsworthy, and I do not suppose you can get anything from Langford, nevertheless you might try. Mr. Langford knows you to be an industrious and a conscientious man. He has but to look in your face, father, to be sure that you would rather be cheated than cheat any one. Try Mr. Taverner Langford to-morrow.'
'It is no good,' sighed Oliver. 'Only wear out shoe leather for nothing. You go if you think anything of the chance. ”

“ Langdale was, at the Reformation, in worse case than Ambleside, where the townsfolk were rich enough to put both chapel and school on a sound financial basis. The Little Langdale chapel ceased to be. The one in Great Langdale, bereft of its particular ministering priest, was threatened with a like fate. Probably it was never closed, however. An intelligent native would be found to act as clerk for a nominal wage, and occasionally the rector would visit it, and would administer the Easter communion to those who were too old or ill to cross the fell. ”

“ He is not a bad fellow, his blood is against his doing menial work. When he mounts to his proper place you will see he will be a credit to us all. You don't take razors to cut cabbages. I, also, will no longer be forced to earn my livelihood by carrying. If your mind be healthy, Honor, you will see how unbecoming it is for a Luxmore to be a common carrier. Lord bless me! When I am at Coombe Park, you at Langford, and Kate at Chimsworthy, what a power we shall be in the place. Why, I may even become a feoffee of Coryndon's Charity! Langford is rich. He has a good estate. ”