John Harrington

“ You remember what one of our leading Whigs said in convention many years ago—in the time, when to be a Whig was not to be a Webster Whig, with a fine speech for kidnapping. ‘Why, sir,’ foamed a slaveholder, ‘if your doctrines obtain, our slaves would cut our throats for us.’ ‘And in God’s name,’ said our Whig friend, tossing the words over his shoulder—‘in God’s name, why shouldn’t they!’”
“Oh, Harrington, Harrington,” said Emily, shaking her head, “is this you? I did not think John Harrington had the heart to hate any man—not even Lafitte—much less kill him, or see him killed.” ”

“ How can he eat, with the phantom of Rose there, covering her head, shuddering, loathing him? But he must appear in company: he has a coat, if he has not a skin. Let him button it, and march boldly. Our comedies are frequently youth's tragedies. We will smile reservedly as we mark Mr. Evan Harrington step into the midst of the fair society of the drawing- room. Rose is at the piano. Near her reclines the Countess de Saldar, fanning the languors from her cheeks, with a word for the diplomatist on one side, a whisper for Sir John Loring on the other, and a very quiet pair of eyes for everybody. ”

“ As idle as a painted cavalier upon a painted drop-scene, the figure of Mr. John Raikes was to be observed leaning with crossed legs against a shady pillar of the Green Dragon; eyeing alternately, with an indifference he did not care to conceal, the assiduous pecking in the dust of some cocks and hens that had strayed from the yard of the inn, and the sleepy blinking in the sun of an old dog at his feet: nor did Evan's appearance discompose the sad sedateness of his demeanour. ”

“ Miss Thorn was not used to considering American men as manly. She had read a great many books which made game of them, and showed how unused they were to all those good things which make up the life of an English country gentleman; she had met one or two Americans who turned up their noses in impotent scorn of all field sports except horse-racing, which they regarded from a financial point of view. Probably John Harrington had never killed a pheasant in his life. Lastly, he might be vain. A man with such a reputation for ability would most likely be conceited. ”

“ Harrington, too, instead of his children dividing and choosing their cake, might have alluded to those attractions and repulsions by which the balance of nature is preserved; or to those centripetal and centrifugal forces by which the heavenly bodies are continued in their orbits, instead of rushing to the sun, or flying off in tangents among comets and fixed stars; impelled or drawn by different forces in different directions, they are blessings to their own inhabitants and the neighboring systems; but if they were drawn only by one, they would introduce anarchy wherever they should go. ”

“ Emily, dear Emily, let us be calm—let us not make him suffer whom we love.”
“I will not,” she answered, lifting her beautiful agonized face, and controlling herself with a strong effort. “I will be calm. For your sake, John, for I love you as I never dreamed I could love.”
“Thanks, thanks,” faltered Harrington. “Dear Emily, dear Richard, think of Muriel. She is here, she you love so fondly remains to make life beautiful to you. Oh, think of that, and be filled with gladness and gratitude! There. I have much to say to you, but my strength fails me. Live happy. Love much. ”

“ Sure that he was about to confirm his suspicion, he read it again, gazed upon Beckley Court in the sultry light, and turned for Fallow field once more, devising to consult Mr. John Raikes on the subject.
The letter had a smack of crabbed age hardly counterfeit. The savour of an old eccentric's sour generosity was there. Evan fell into bitter laughter at the idea of Rose glancing over his shoulder and asking him what nine of him to a man meant. He heard her clear voice pursuing him. He could not get away from the mocking sound of Rose beseeching him to instruct her on that point. ”

“ Suddenly a noise was heard. 'Stop! stop!' cried the voice of John Raikes. 'When a lady and gentleman are talking together, sir, do you lean your long ears over them—ha?'
Looking round, Evan beheld Laxley a step behind, and Jack rushing up to him, seizing his collar, and instantly undergoing ignominious prostration for his heroic defence of the privacy of lovers.
'Stand aside'; said Laxley, imperiously. 'Rosey so you've come for me.
Take my arm. You are under my protection.'
Another forlorn 'Is it true?' Rose cast toward Evan with her eyes. ”

“ Even Muriel looked amazed. But Harrington, unconscious of their wondering looks, sat in sad abstraction, brooding on his forlorn determination.
“That will compromise no one but the captain of the brig,” he said presently. “A writ of habeas corpus would involve Atkins, but a rescue of this sort concerns only myself and that captain.”
“But, dear John,” said Emily, with a slight shiver, “there will be men on board the vessel, and they will never permit this.”
Harrington’s broad nostrils quivered in the marble stillness of his face, and his blue eyes gleamed. ”

“ Rose would not be so philosophic as her mother. She would grasp at every chance to excuse the deed. He cried out against his scheming sister in an agony, and while he did so, encountered Miss Carrington and Miss. Bonner in deep converse. Juliana pinched her arm,, whereupon Miss Carrington said: 'You look merry this morning, Mr. Harrington': for he was unawares smiling at the image of himself in the mirror of John Raikes. That smile, transformed to a chuckling grimace, travelled to Rose before they met. ”

“ That’s a comfort. An’ all the men saved, includin’ the poor old moke of a doctor. That’s another comfort. But he died. An’, somehow, I kinder feel that’s a comfort too, John. For he died in the Lord.”
The light lay softly on the pale and kindled features of Harrington, and the fragrance of the garden floated through his brain like incense.
“It was a manly way to leave the world,” he said. “Life is sweet to me with the memory of such a father.”
“You think of him often, John,” murmured the Captain.
“Often, Eldad, often. Never as one dead. Always as one alive and well.” ”

“ But, John, look a-here. Siven of them fellers, you know. Sposin you find them in the boat all together, like Brown’s cows, when he had but one? What’ll you do then?”
“It’s not likely,” replied Harrington. “Men love their ease too much to be out in the night when it’s not necessary. For my own part, I think Atkins has managed this matter like a fool. Two men would have answered his purpose perfectly, and he puts eight there. ”

“ Harrington, who was just putting out his hand to unfasten the carriage door, leaned forward, while Emily turned away. The young man felt, with a delicious thrill, the balmy breath of Muriel on his cheek, and her soft lips touch his ear, and the hot blood flew to his face before she had spoken a word.
[172]
“John,” she whispered, “you write your article to make some money. ”

“ On the grounds of common sense, on the grounds of propriety, and consideration of what was due to themselves, all agreed to condemn the notion of Rose casting herself away on Evan. Lady Jocelyn agreed with Mrs. Shorne; Sir Franks with his brother, and Sir John. But as to what they were to do, they were divided. Lady Jocelyn said she should not prevent Rose from writing to Evan, if she had the wish to do so.
“Folly must come out,” said her ladyship. “It’s a combustible material. I won’t have her health injured. She shall go into the world more. ”

“ Mr. Atkins was thinking of Harrington, if Harrington could but have known it. The moment Mrs. Eastman had told him that Antony had been sheltered in her house, a feeling [483] had come to him that the young scholar, whose dauntless temper he had some notion of, might possibly attempt a rescue, and he took his measures accordingly. This accounted, too, for Antony not being on board the Soliman.
“But look a-here, John,” pursued the Captain. “Satan’s niver onready to play ye a trick, an’ there’s no countin’ on what’s likely with him. ”

“ Sir Robert Harrington, the first of the name settled at Aldingham, which he had acquired in right of his wife, had two sons, the younger of whom, Michael Harrington had—8 Edward II. (1314–15) —a grant of free-warren in Alinthwaite (Allithwaite) , in which township Wraysholme is situated, but the property eventually passed to the descendants of the elder brother, Sir John, a great-grandson of whom, Sir William Harrington, Knight of the Garter, was standard-bearer at the battle of Agincourt, where he is erroneously said to have lost his life. ”

“ The change of name to John Henry, and the victory into a defeat, is not significant, and is easily accounted for by oral transmission. The same process of reasoning as applied heretofore identifies John Henry with John Hardy, who could not have died at the end of a drilling-contest. Most likely the ballad celebrating the prowess of John Hardy gradually, in its earlier making, enhanced that prowess, and, by the natural tendency to a tragic ending, finally sang of his defeat and death.
Whether the drilling-contest be fact or fiction, is not important. ”

“ You’ve only to put up your name, and there you are—an independent gentleman! By Jove! this isn’t such a dull world. John Raikes! thou livest in times. I feel warm in the sun of your prosperity, Harrington. Now listen to me. Propound thou no inquiries anywhere about the old fellow who gave the supper. Humour his whim—he won’t have it. All Fallowfield is paid to keep him secret; I know it for a fact. I plied my rustic friends every night. ‘Eat you yer victuals, and drink yer beer, and none o’ yer pryin’s and peerin’s among we!’ That’s my rebuff from Farmer Broadmead. ”

“ For a white man contemporary with the steel-driller to possess the same name and attributes as he, to operate in the early part of his career in the same region, to drift later to the same locality, to commit the same crime, and to pay the same penalty, is not believable. There remains the belief that John Hardy died from the effects of the drilling-contest. ”

“ Juliana saw Rose go up to Evan, and make him introduce her to his mother. She turned lividly white, and went to a corner of the park by herself, and cried bitterly.
Lady Jocelyn, Sir Franks, and Sir John, remained by the tables, but before the guests were out of ear-shot, the individual signalled from Olympus presented himself.
“There are times when one can’t see what else to do but to lie,” said her ladyship to Sir Franks, “and when we do lie the only way is to lie intrepidly.” ”

“ She covered her eyes with her hand, as Harrington sadly withdrew to his chair.
“But, look here, now,” said Wentworth, “aren’t you all too fast? There may be another brig Soliman, you know.”
“Perhaps,” replied Harrington; “but I fear not. It is unlikely, I think, that two vessels of the same name would be in the New Orleans cotton trade.”
“Who is this Driscoll, John?” asked Emily.
“Driscoll is a stevedore,” he replied, “who fell into the hold of the Soliman, last winter, as they were unlading, and broke his leg. ”

“ I’ve dressed him out, John, in some of my old clothes, and made him look quite decent.”
“That’s right, Eldad,” said Harrington. “I’ll make it up to you.”
The Captain laid down his knife, and with his head all askew, looked at Harrington.
“You’ll make it up to me, John?” he remarked, blandly, with a great disposition to swear. “By the spoon of horn, I’d like to catch you at it! The best suit of clothes I’ve got in the house wouldn’t be too good for a man that’s gone through what he has—leastways, if they was fit for him, which they ain’t ”

“ What would your business be worth if it weren't for John Carmichael? Ask Harrington here. Go out and ask your bank—"
"I don't believe we need to discuss this any further—" Mr. Dround began.
"Yes, we will! Get somebody else to do your dirty business for you. For, let me tell you right here, Henry I. Dround, that I don't go broke with you, not for all your college talk and prin-ci-ples."
Mr. Dround pointed to the door. He was trembling again. I took the big Irishman by the arm and led him [Pg 144] from the office. ”

“ Fisher, pouring out his coffee.
“I hurried home as quick as I could, Hannah,” replied the young man. “Well, Sophy, you look as bright as gold this morning. The jewellers would put you in a box of pink cotton.”
Sophronia, a plump and pretty little miss, with blue eyes, a charming little snub nose, and a dimple in her chin, smiled coquettishly at this compliment, and glanced at the smiling face of the speaker.
“My!” she exclaimed, saucily, “how smart you are, John! I wish I could say such pretty things to you.”
“Well, try,” jested Harrington. ”

“ He was a mangificent [sic!] specimen of the genus Homo, was reported to be six feet two, and weighed two hundred and twenty-five or thirty pounds, was straight as an arrow, and was one of the most handsome men in the country, and, as one informant told me, was as 'black as a kittle in hell.' "Whenever there was any spectacular performance along the lines of drilling, John Hardy was put on the job; and it is said that be could drill more steel than any two men of his day, He was a great gambler, and was notorious all through the country for his luck in gambling. ”

“ The name of the place, Shawnee Camp, is exactly correct; but the number of men killed is increased to two, and the murderer is caught because he refused to run. Not only does the bulk of the ballad deal with this incident in the career of John Hardy, but the prominent places, the beginning and the end, are given to it. The older incident of the steel-drilling contest is, however, clearly remembered and vigorously expressed, though evidently on the way to forgetfulness. ”