Gascoigne

“ An extravagantly-illuminated room, a crimson-shaded lamp on the table, cards scattered in all directions, comfort to correspond. Major Gascoigne, in evening dress, leaning back in his chair, smoking, listening with obvious rapture to a pretty girl—yes, a smartly-dressed girl—a complete stranger to them, who was evidently supremely at home, and singing to a gaily-decorated mandoline. ”

“ Marwar was a capital centre, she had gathered this information en route; Indian people were approachable, hospitable, and not too inquisitive; appearances go far, when one sails away from a—reputation.
Then by a wonderful stroke of luck she encountered Philip Gascoigne; as good-looking as ever; no longer the impetuous boy, the impassioned subaltern, but a cool, self-reliant, distinguished Philip, with a fine position, a heavy purse, and a dear, simple, appreciative wife. ”

“ In due time Captain Gascoigne returned to the East, via America and Japan, and Angel passed into the hands of her grandmother. She grew up and left school with sincere regret, and many injunctions from Miss Morton, who deplored the departure of her favourite pupil, and contemplated her future with considerable apprehension. She had heard of Lady Augusta Gascoigne as a lively, worldly matron, fond of cards, racing, and racketing. What a guide and counsellor for a girl of eighteen! ”

“ Could they believe their eyes? Was this how Major Gascoigne, the eligible but impregnable bachelor, spent the time when he was supposed to be deeply immersed in his work—and his duty?
Mrs. Flant rapped her knuckles against the window pane; the summons was imperious. Gascoigne jumped to his feet; his face was a shade graver, as he said:
"It is some people who have lost their way."
"Why, of course, it never rains but it pours," said [Pg 170] Angel, putting down the mandoline with a gesture of impatience, as her cousin opened the door and admitted the drenched wayfarers. ”

“ Gascoigne started up as if he had been struck; he followed her glance, and beheld a pair of weird visages glowering through the darkness. The face of Mrs. Flant—a woman with a tongue—and the face of her sister, Miss Ball, both acquaintances from Marwar.
These two ladies had been in desperate extremities; they had, in spite of all advice, insisted on descending—roads or no roads—to Marwar for a ball. Their jampannis and coolies had missed the path, night had fallen, the storm had burst, and there they all were benighted in the jungle. ”

“ Gascoigne had presence of mind to avail himself of this fortunate mistake. "I am alone, worthy Moor," replied he, pulling the muslin over his face, "and I pine for a companion. I have been charmed by the nightingale on the roof of your dwelling; but I thought not to meet the face of a man when I took courage to climb this ladder."
"If the Frankish lily will have courage to descend, she can sit by the side of the dark violet."
Gascoigne thought it advisable to make no reply.
"Fear not," said the old Moor; "what is an old man but a woman!" ”

“ He was self-reliant, able, and energetic, and if reserved and given to sarcasm, Gascoigne was popular, being generous and hospitable to a fault. His bungalow was well appointed; all that it wanted was a mistress (so said the ladies of the station) . But Philip Gascoigne's thoughts did not lean towards matrimony; his tastes were solitary and simple; when away on duty or on the frontier, no one lived a harder or more frugal life. ”

“ Gascoigne hastened away, and soon returned with three of the cutter's men; the rest had sunk, probably killed or wounded by the discharge of the broadside.
"Thank God, there's three saved!" said Jack, "for we have lost too many. We must now see if any of these poor fellows are yet alive, and clear the decks of the remnants of those who have been blown to pieces. I say, Ned, where should we have been if we had boarded with the pinnace?"
"You always fall upon your feet, Easy," replied Gascoigne; "but that does not prove that you are right." ”

“ The only benefice which he retained, his prebend at Wells, was of the small value of eight marks yearly (ib. ii. 517 a) .
Gascoigne died 13 March 1457–8, according to the brass (now destroyed) upon his grave, having made his will on the previous day. The will, which was proved 27 March, is printed in the ‘Munimenta Academica Oxon.’ ii. 671 f. By it Gascoigne devised most of his books to the recently founded monastery of Sion in Middlesex. He had already presented many books to Balliol, Oriel, Lincoln, Durham, and All Souls' Colleges (see Coxe, Catal. index; Rogers, intr. vii) . ”

“ Poor Marco! he was doomed never to behold the realization of those gay visions of his bold and heroic fancy.
"Yet, signor," he continued, "if I cannot lead in the assault, I will endeavour to be the second man within the breach."
"Young Morley, of the 20th, has sent in his name," said Gascoigne; who at that moment approached, with a number of notes in his hand. "The little fool!" muttered the general; "poor boy—he has seen little enough of life yet to be in such a hurry to quit it. Does he lead the stormers?"
"No—Dundas, of ours," replied Gascoigne, who was a 62nd man. ”

“ GEORGE GASCOIGNE. Gascoigne was born in 1540, in Essex, of an ancient family. He was educated at Cambridge, and entered at Gray's Inn, but was disinherited by his father for extravagance, and betook himself to Holland, where he obtained a commission from the Prince of Orange. After various vicissitudes of fortune, being at one time taken prisoner by the Spaniards, and at another receiving a reward from the Prince of three hundred guilders above his pay for his brave conduct at the siege of Middleburg, he returned to England. ”

“ And having issued these orders, he departed to his damp quarters, where he experienced exasperating difficulties in finding his belongings, which had been hurled into the tent pell-mell. He had no looking-glass; he was actually obliged to do his tie at the back of his silver flask. How a woman upset a house! As Gascoigne searched wildly for a handkerchief, his thoughts were inhospitable—his mental expressions impassioned. ”

“ Gascoigne dismounted hastily and putting his hand upon her shoulder, said, "Come, Angel, this is very bad. You are a silly child, and imagine things—it's all the hot weather, and you are feeling a bit slack and out of sorts. You will soon be up in the hills, gathering pine cones and orchids." ”

“ He is the very Don Silvio who was murdering Don Rebiera, when we came to his assistance and saved him."
"I do believe you are right, Gascoigne."
"I'm positive of it," replied Gascoigne; "I never made a mistake in my life." ”

“ You are the only Gascoigne I know, and you understand that Richard and Angel could never live together. He detests her; she loathes him. On the other hand—she loves you."
Gascoigne was about to speak, but once more she prevented him.
"It is a strange legacy to bequeath to a young man, and you are but six-and-twenty, Phil—I am leaving in your charge a child of nine, uneducated, undisciplined, and born and bred in India. But you are well off—you have a private income, and she will not cost you much. ”

“ Jack rallied Gascoigne upon his fancy, which could end in nothing.
"Perhaps not," replied Gascoigne; "and I should have cared nothing about it, if she had not sung so well. I really believe the way to my heart is through my ear;—however, I shall try to-night, and soon find if she has the feeling which I think she has. Now let us go back; I'm tired of looking at women with garments up to their eyes, and men in dirt up to their foreheads."
As they entered the house they heard an altercation between Mr and Miss Hicks. ”

“ Here Angel laughed, and looked over at her companion with mischievous and triumphant eyes.
"And there was war in Hill Street," said Gascoigne, wondering how he was to deal with this daring insurrectionary charge, in whom the elements were mixed indeed.
"Civil war, I should call it," she responded. "I took the poor little love affair in hand and patched up the pieces. I scraped acquaintance with Dr. Marsh. He is a good man, works among the poor as well as the rich, and has a very keen sense of honour."
Gascoigne now threw away his unfinished cheroot and sat forward with folded hands. ”

“ I leaped out, and, to my surprise, perceived the casement unbolted and open; admitting, at once, the cold sea-breeze, and dull grey morning light.
"Castelermo—signor, rouse! It wants but twenty minutes to the time, by my watch."
"And ten by mine," said Gascoigne, putting in his head: he was closely muffled up in his cloak. "What! only turning out; eh, Dundas?"
"It is all very well for you to be in a hurry," said I, pettishly. "You Irishmen take these affairs quite as matters of course. ”

“ I must continue at the helm, for the higher she is forced up the better chance for us; but we may not meet again, so if we do not, good-bye and God bless you."
"Gascoigne," said Jack, "you are hurt, and I am not; your shoulder is stiff, and you can hardly move your left arm. Now I can steer for the rocks as well as you. Do you go to the bow, and there you will have a better chance—By-the-bye," continued he, picking up his pistols, and sticking them into his waist, "I won't leave them, they've served us too good a turn already. Gascoigne, give me the helm."
"No, no, Easy." ”

“ With rare exceptions his verse, ‘in the measure of xij in the first line and xiiij in the second,’ is now unreadable. As a literary pioneer, however, Gascoigne's position is important. ‘Master Gascoigne,’ writes Nash (pref. to Greene, Menaphon, 1589) , ‘is not to be abridged of his deserved esteem, who first beat the path to that perfection which our best poets have aspired to since his departure.’ His ‘Supposes,’ after Ariosto, is the earliest extant comedy in English prose; his ‘Jocasta,’ after Euripides, is the second earliest tragedy in blank verse ”

“ Here she is capering over the waves instead of being tied by the nose with a cable and anchor."
"That's a touch of the sentimental, Jack," replied Gascoigne; "but she is no more free than she was when at anchor, for she now is forced to act in obedience to her steersman and go just where he pleases. You may just as well say that a horse, if taken out of the stable, is free, with the curb, and his rider on his back."
"That's a touch of the rational, Ned, which destroys the illusion. Never mind, we are free, at all events. What machines we are on board of a man-of-war! ”

“ She angrily refused to follow her sister's example to be led across blindfolded by Gascoigne, she simply sat in her jampan (hill-chair) , and there lifted up her voice and wept.
Whatever Major Gascoigne's mental remarks were, outwardly, he was the personification of politeness, encouragement, and cajolery. At last the lady was persuaded, and was hoisted on the back of a grunting Pahari with the shoulders of an Atlas, and with her eyelids squeezed tightly together, her long feet dangling helplessly, was safely borne to the other side. Thus she got across one of the "bad bits." ”

“ Gascoigne went to the helm, brought the boat up to the wind, and then they resumed their conversation.
"That rascal of a boy gave me a devil of a lick on the shoulder; I don't know whether he has hurt me—at all events it's my left shoulder, so I can steer just as well. I wonder whether the fellows are dead."
"The padrone is, at all events," replied Jack. "It was as much as I could do to get my legs from under him—but we'll wait till daylight before we see to that—in the meantime, I'll load the pistols again." ”

“ After all, there’s nothing like argument; so having settled that point, let us go to dinner.”
Having finished their meal, Jack went forward and observed the land ahead; they steered the same course for three or four hours.
“We must haul our wind more,” said Gascoigne; “it will not do to put into any small town: we have now to choose, whether we shall land on the coast and sink the speronare, or land at some large town.”
“We must argue that point,” replied Jack.
“In the meantime, do you take the helm, for my arm is quite tired,” replied Gascoigne: “you can steer well enough ”

“ Gascoigne stared. He could not imagine what was coming.
"The duel between three can only be fought upon the principle of the triangle," the gunner went on. "You observe," he said, taking a piece of chalk and making a triangle on the table, "in this figure we have three points, each equidistant from each other; and we have three combatants, so that, placing one at each point, it is all fair play for the three. Mr. Easy, for instance, stands here, the boatswain here, and the purser's steward at the third corner. Now, if the distance is fairly measured it will be all right." ”

“ Easy fires at Mr. Biggs, Mr. Biggs fires at Mr. Easthupp, and Mr. Easthupp fires at Mr. Easy, so that you perceive that each party has his shot at one, and at the same time receives the fire of another."
Gascoigne was in ecstasies at the novelty of the proceeding.
"Upon my word, Mr. Tallboys, I give you great credit. You have a profound mathematical head, and I am delighted with your arrangement. I shall insist upon Mr. Easy consenting to your excellent and scientific proposal."
Gascoigne went out and told Jack what the gunner had proposed, at which Jack laughed heartily. ”

“ Mr. Gascoigne taught an Irish boy the way, and he flew over a river in Lancashire (or therabout) , but when he was up in the ayre, the people gave a shoute, wherat the boy being frighted, he fell downe on the other side of the river, and broke his legges, and when he came to himselfe, he sayd that he thought the people had seen some strange apparition, which fancy amazed him. This was anno 1635, and he spake it in the Royall Societie, upon the account of the flyeing at Paris, two yeares since. Vide the Transactions. ”