Lancaster

“ It was Clive, Lord Lancaster.
Something like a shudder passed over her as this dead Lancaster, gone from the ways of men more than a century ago, recalled to her the living one.
"What do all the paltry aims and ambitions of our life matter, after all?" the girl asked herself, soberly. "The grave awaits us all at last! ”

“ Who was light and lithe of person,
Who was full of life and vigor,
Who had visited the city,
The good city of Lancaster;
Who had joined her sports and pastimes,
Eager for the hour’s amusement,
Ever foremost in adventure ”

“ Finds the city of Lancaster,
In praiseworthy competition
With the spirit of the present.
Still the waxing, waning moonlight,
Sees her changing with the cycle.
Now the light’ning wires unite her
With the world in speedy transit ”

“ She was more than pretty, this girl—she was rarely beautiful. She was of medium height and size, and her figure was symmetry itself, all its delicious curves and slender outlines defined at their best by the close-fitting black jersey waist she wore buttoned up to the graceful white throat that had a trick of holding itself high, as if innocently proud of the fair face that shone above it—the face that Captain Lancaster gazed at in wonder for a moment, and then in the most lively and decided disapprobation. ”

“ Lady Lancaster dimly felt something in the suave, silver-sweet tones that vaguely angered her.
"You are very excusable, Miss West," she said, tartly and insultingly. "One has to pardon much to American impudence and ignorance."
Leonora looked at her with the full gaze of her clear orbs.
"I hardly think I understand you, Lady Lancaster," said she, calmly.
"I fail to make my meaning clear, do I?" cried the dowager, furious. "Tell me this, then. How dared you come into my drawing-room and play on the piano?"
"Your drawing-room?" the girl lifted her eyes in gentle, courteous inquiry. ”

“ LANCASTER CASTLE
“A TRADITION PREVAILS THAT THIS FORTRESS HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY TAKEN BY CROMWELL, AND THAT HE PLANTED HIS CANNON ON A CIRCULAR MOUNT AT THE SOUTH-WEST SIDE OF THE TOWN, ON HILL MEADOW.”—Baines’s History of Lancashire.
Well does Lancaster deserve the name which the Romans gave to it, of the green city; and the beautiful scenery, for many miles around, may be considered as its delightful gardens. There are no huge rocks frowning, like tyrants, in the country which they have ruined, and blighting with sickness and poverty, all that is healthful and rich. ”

“ And the city of Lancaster,
Ever foremost in her duty,
Gave her mite of men and warriors
To the ranks and to the hardships,
Gave her fighting men to suffer
[90] In the civil war that deluged
All this mighty West Republic
In eighteen hundred one and sixty. ”

“ Still nature pleaded to the filial heart of John De Lancaster—That mangled corpse, on which you look, gave life to you, and was your father—Keenly he felt the appeal, and, whilst his eyes dwelt on the piteous object, the big tears rolled down his cheeks: nor could he quite abstain from exclamation, or keep his fiery spirit in command, whilst the last words his dying father uttered still sounded in his ears—Never, he cried, bear witness for me, Nature! ”

“ Of victorious Lancaster,
When the tramp of full two hundred
[68] Broke upon the early watches;
When two hundred men, exultant,
Started forth in marching columns,
With the drum and fife resounding,
Started forth to meet the victors. ”

“ The sad city of Lancaster.
And the dead, one hundred sixteen,
White and black, were laid to slumber,
Laid to rest from toil forever,
In the old, neglected graveyard.
It was not so old in those days;
Flowers bloomed upon the hillocks,
Blossoms waved among the grasses;
Now, sweet flowers of remembrance,
[57] Live among the few survivors
Of that sleeping generation;
Live with those whose hearts are faithful
To the victims of the death-knell,
Of the fatal epidemic
Of eighteen hundred three and thirty. ”

“ Lancaster, by far the most powerful subject in England, was the centre and head of this movement. He was first prince of the blood; possessed of immense estates, which were on the eve, by his marriage with the heiress of the Earl of Lincoln, of being increased to no less than sis earldoms, including all those powers and jurisdictions which in that age were attached to land, and made the great noble a species of king on his own estates, and over a great number of influential vassals, many of them being what were called lesser barons and knights. Lancaster was turbulent, ambitious, and haughty. ”

“ Lancaster’s look, like a boy’s who has been found out in gentleness, always more mortifying to an American lad than detection in naughtiness—together with her impressions of life amid venerable, yet vividly existent faith, she was getting the revelation of two beautiful souls, the elderly woman’s, the twenty-seven years younger man’s, who knew and loved these things because they were part of them. ”

“ Accept my thanks, sir, for the kind welcome you have offered me in the name of the inhabitants of Lancaster. In returning to this country after so long an absence; in receiving such proofs of gratitude and affection wherever I go; in witnessing the prosperity of this land,—a prosperity you are pleased to say, I have been instrumental in promoting;—I feel emotions for which no language is adequate. In meeting again my former friends, in seeing the children and grand children of those who were my companions in the war of the revolution, I feel a gratification which no words can express. ”

“ Get thee hence, blind bard, and be merry!
Old David devoutly drew the ring on his finger, and with a profound obeisance replied—I thank you and I bless you, my munificent patron. I will drink prosperity to the illustrious house of De Lancaster and the new-born heir thereof. It has stood from the time when the old world was deluged, may it stand till the time when the new one shall be dissolved! ”

“ O’er the city of Lancaster;
Still the ever-moving cycle
Bears her swiftly on its pinions.
’Twas the year of eighteen hundred
One and forty when the Christians
Of the sect called Presbyterian,
Built themselves a house of worship,
Built themselves a sanctuary,
On the street that leads to southward,
From the entrance to the city. ”

“ Lancaster answered, gravely. "Nothing but what is done every day by idle, rich men—winning an innocent, fresh young heart in a careless flirtation, and then leaving it to break."
De Vere dropped his fine Havana into the waves and looked around.
"Look here, Lancaster," he said, "tell me one thing. Do you want Miss West for yourself?"
"I don't understand you," haughtily, with a hot flush mounting to his brow.
"I mean you are warning me off because you're in love with the little thing yourself? Do you want to win her—to make her my lady?" ”

“ You are not at the beck and call of a relative who gives you the most troublesome commissions to execute without so much as saying 'by your leave,'" growled Lancaster.
The young lieutenant laughed lazily.
"You have had a letter from my lady?" he said.
"Yes. Look here, De Vere, I wonder if she thinks I belong to her wholly? Must one be a white slave for the sake of coming into twenty thousand a year?"
"It is worth lots of toadying," declared De Vere, emphatically.
"I used to like Aunt Lydia—rather—before my uncle died," said Lancaster, reflectively. "She was always tart and waspish. ”

“ Many days and nights he wandered
O’er the turf of good old Garrard,
Now in sight, perchance in hearing,
Of the birds and beasts and reptiles,
[7] Roaming wild and roaming lonely,
In the groves of fair Lancaster. ”

“ Lady Lancaster, filled with chagrin and despair, sat gazing on the floor in silence. The thought of losing this trusty, capable woman, who had belonged to the staff of Lancaster Park so long, was most annoying to her. It had come upon her with all the suddenness of a calamity. She viewed it as nothing less.
She was an old woman, and she disliked exceedingly to have new faces around her. Under Mrs. West's efficient régime the affairs of the house had gone on with the precision and regularity of clock-work. It would take a new woman years to attain to her proficiency. ”

“ Lady Lancaster was pleased to be very gracious indeed to her returned nephew.
"Ah, you are as big and handsome as ever, Clive!" she said, "and well, of course. I believe you never were sick in your life?"
"Hardly ever," he replied, with a laugh, adding, with veiled anxiety: "I hear that you have killed the fatted calf in my honor, Aunt Lydia. Whom have you staying with you?" ”

“ And the monarchs of the forest,
Of the forest bought with bloodshed,
Fell with echoes loud and startling,
’Mid the lonely hills and valleys.
And the white man built a city,
In the woodland once so peaceful,
In the woodland once so warlike,
Built a fair and goodly city,
’Twas the city of Lancaster,
Yes, a stranger travelled westward,
From the land of trade and commerce,
Of William Penn and “loving brothers,”
And the stranger’s name was Paulding.
With his compass, chain, and log-book,
He marked out this modest city,
[9] On the pattern of his birthplace,
And they christened it Lancaster. ”

“ It is equally true that Lancaster was their favourite, and that they would willingly accept him as king; and had he been content to accept the crown as the popular gift, he would have had the highest possible title to it, far beyond any hereditary plea. But Lancaster disdained that only valid ground of right, and determined to claim it by descent. Than this there could be nothing more palpably untenable, for the Earl of March, the grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III., was the true heir. ”

“ He would have no half-gods, this blunt, absorbed business-man of the land. Thorough as he was in every detail of his work, he carried the same demand for perfection even to his private, human joy. It had always been said of the Lancasters that they would have the best—the best stuff, the best workmen, the best methods, no matter at what cost. And the last Lancaster of all added that, in little things like love and marriage, he would also have the best—or go wanting them.
He had had a very pleasant day in Manchester. ”

“ There was a flush on his face, a frown between his eyebrows.
"You did not, really, did you?" she asked, naïvely.
"I did," curtly.
"Don't tease him about it. He was furiously angry because you ran away and came by yourself," said De Vere. He was beginning to turn the tables on Lancaster now, and he enjoyed it immensely.
"But I did not come by myself. My friends where I boarded—Mrs. Norton and her husband—came with me. I did not know Captain Lancaster was coming for me. If I had known I should have waited," apologetically.
"You do not know what you missed by not waiting," said De Vere. ”

“ Lancaster looked at him imploringly.
"Say what you are going to say, De Vere," he said, almost roughly, in the misery that filled his voice; "but, for God's sake, don't chaff! Think what I've endured already. I love Leonora to madness. If you think there's any hope for me, say so at once and put me out of misery."
"Lancaster, I'm sorry for you, upon my soul, but I don't think there's any chance for you at all. Miss West told me quite frankly that she was in love with another man."
Lancaster gives a great start. He says, hurriedly:
"Who is the happy man?" ”

“ The impressive approach to Lancaster Castle is by way of John o’ Gaunt’s gateway, one of the many works added by that historic personage, Shakespeare’s “time-honoured Lancaster,” when his father, Edward the Third, created him Duke of Lancaster and raised Lancashire in consequence to the condition of County Palatine. The “time-honoured” one himself stands in effigy in a niche over the door-way. One would like to think the statue contemporary with him, but the guide-books, from which no derogatory secrets are hid, tell the disappointing tale that it dates only from 1822. ”

“ In the history of Lancaster.
Of the offices and store-rooms,
Of the dwellings and the households,
Of affairs of public moment,
Of the hidden and domestic,
[107] Of the groups of Mystic Brothers,
Of the Masons and Odd-Fellows,
Of ye ancient Sons of Temperance,
All the secrets of the bygone,
Speaking from the smoking ruins.
So there rose another structure,
Phœnix-like, upon the ashes.
Where the merchants and the tradesmen,
Can pursue their avocations. ”

“ Alas for thee, poor babe! being so fathered and so mothered, child, from whom can’st thou derive or heart or head—?
From you, his grandfather, replied Cecilia: Come, come, my dearest sir, I’ll not allow of this despondency. Rise from your chair, and come with me and visit this new scyon of your stock! Look in his lovely face; contemplate the bright promise of a true De Lancaster, a virtuous hero, born to crown your name with honour: See him! you’ll own how Providence has blessed you, and blush for having doubted. ”

“ Does she think she will capture an earl or a duke?" she sneered, and De Vere answered, coldly:
"I do not believe that she has any matrimonial designs on any one, Lady Lancaster. She returns to America in a very few days."
Lady Lancaster was so surprised that she gave vent to her relief in a hasty exclamation:
"Thank Heaven! And I devoutly wish that she had remained there."
"There are more persons than one who will agree with your ladyship there," he said, betrayed into a laugh at her naïveté. ”

“ To this Robert De Lancaster gravely answered, that certainly there was nothing wanting to complete his wishes but her consent.
Why that is what I have always intimated to her, cried the baronet, that she had nothing to do but to say yes, and I was ready to strike hands upon the word and clinch the bargain. When a thing can so easily be set to rights, it is rather surprising to me, that she can hesitate about it. ”

“ I didn't. I thought he was nothing but a soldier. He—he told me that he was as poor as—as a church-mouse!" faltered Leonora, as red as a rose, and with a lump in her throat. She was just on the point of breaking down and crying with vexation. How had he dared chaff her so?
"Well, so he is poor—not as poor as a church-mouse, of course, for he has Lancaster Park and five thousand acres of woodland; but then he has no money—it was all squandered by the dead-and-gone lords of Lancaster. ”