Lord Goring

“ George Goring, on his arrival in the Low Countries, enlisted as a soldier, entered Lord Vere’s regiment, and soon gained a high command, distinguishing himself at the siege of Breda. On his return to England he was made Governor of Portsmouth, in which capacity he got into trouble with the Parliament, and was summoned before the House of Commons on suspicion of favouring the Royal cause. Anxious to provide for his own interests by pleasing both sides, he contrived to give satisfaction to the Parliament, and was therefore exonerated. ”

“ George Lord Goring the son is referred to in another speech preserved in Burton's Diary, and is there called "young Lord Goring." (iii. 206.)
Pepys mentions the return of "Lord Goring" from France, April 11, 1660 (vol. i. p. 54.) . Lord Braybrooke's note says that this was "Charles, who succeeded his father as second Earl of Norwich." Is it certain that this was not the old Earl of Norwich himself?
The death of the old Earl of Norwich is thus chronicled in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, p. 542.:—
"Jan. ”

“ In the second war Goring, who had been seeking to re-enter the Dutch service, commanded a brigade as well as a regiment (Peacock, Army Lists, p. 76; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640–1, p. 546) . The disputes between king and parliament afforded an opportunity which he resolved to use for his own advancement. ‘His ambition,’ says Clarendon, ‘was unlimited, and he was unrestrained by any respect to justice or good nature from pursuing the satisfaction thereof. Goring would without hesitation have broken any trust or done any act of treachery to have satisfied an ordinary passion or appetite ”

“ It was speedily discovered that Goring aimed at ousting Hopton from his command, and becoming himself lieutenant-general of the western army (ib. ix. 20) . The history of the disputes between Goring and the prince's council, disputes which paralysed the western army throughout 1645, is told in detail by Clarendon in the ninth book of his ‘History of the Rebellion.’ This portion of his narrative was written in 1646, and is founded throughout on authentic documents. At the end of April Goring was summoned to Oxford with all his cavalry in order to cover the junction of Rupert and the king. ”

“ Goring played a leading part in the second civil war. He had come over to England at the end of 1647 ‘under a pass from the parliament, and upon pretence of making his composition.’ According to Clarendon it was from the Earl of Holland that Goring received a commission to command the forces of Kent, and lead them wherever the king's service should make requisite (Rebellion, xi. 39) . ”

“ It was an impressive and heroic attitude.
“For Gorman, M.P.,” he said, “there are in the world no impossibilities. For his talents all careers are open doors. When Gorman, M.P., says ‘I do it,’ the damned thing at once is done. I offer—— But no. I do not offer where I trust—— I confer upon Gorman, M.P., the Order of the Royal Pink Vulture of Megalia, First Class. You are Knight Commander, my friend. You are also Count Gorman if you wish.” ”

“ But consider. There is an English proverb: the horse needs must trot along, trot smart, when it is the devil who drives.”
“He is the devil, that Emperor,” said Madame. “But not for any Emperor will I part with one single pearl.”
“Look here,” said Gorman. “There’s evidently been some mistake about Goldsturmer and the pearls. I don’t profess to understand what’s happening, but if I’m to help you in any way——”
“You are to help damnably,” said the King. “Are you not our friend?” ”

“ As she did so, Goring could little foresee a remarkable morning, an episode in his own life, he was to spend on the ramparts of that Belgian fortress. Nearer she drew to the shore, with its quaint houses of the Middle Ages, all crow-stepped gables and curious windows; nearer to the wharves, where lay piles of goods coming from or going to every part of the world; and now, dockmen, porters, hotel-touts, and wharfingers began to rush hurriedly, to and fro, while gendarmes in blue, with rifle and sword, smoked their cigarettes, looking placidly on; and Bevil Goring did so as one in a dream. ”

“ Occasionally a face betrayed fierce expectation of disorder, a sort of presentiment of what might occur; but the great day still hung heavily on their hands, and the men felt that their hour had not yet come, and that they must leave it to the psalm-singers and idlers to lead the way. About eleven o'clock Lord George Gordon appeared, and was received with acclamation. Mounted upon a table, he delivered some words which were quite lost, but his desperately energetic gestures were seen and were responded to with cries of "Down with popery!" "Death to the papists!" ”

“ By this time no English ships are left on the sea. It is an under-water boat of the Emperor, and she comes to seek the petrol stored in the cave.”
“Liable to disappointment then,” said Gorman. “That petrol’s gone.”
“I know it,” said the King, “therefore I say ‘Behold destiny.’ But I, Gorman, I laugh at destiny. I mock. I snap the finger and thumb of my hand. So.” He snapped the fingers of both hands with airy defiance. “I am a king. I play a game until the end. I die game-playing. And Corinne will not grieve too much. On Salissa I think Corinne loves less than in Paris. Hurrah, Gorman. ”

“ His action is most noble. He is a good sporter. I will now go back to Paris. The Emperor can say no more to me. The young fellow Phillips has married the girl.”
“Not quite married her,” said Gorman, “but it’s nearly the same thing.”
The King waved his hand airily.
“It is quite the same thing. No man of honour—the young fellow Phillips is above all a man of honour—would go backwards from his word. Besides there is your English court of broken promises of marriage. He would not face that. I write at once to the Emperor. I tell him that I regret, that I am desolate, but I can do no more. ”

“ Oh, Sir Gorman, M.P., you would do it at once if you understood. Poor Konrad! He is having so much delight with me in Paris. This time only in our lives it has come to us to have enough money and to be in Paris. It is cruel—so cruel that the Emperor should say: ‘No. Give back the money. Go from Paris. Be starved. Have no pearls, no joy.’ But you will save us. Say you will save us. ”

“ For the part taken by Goring’s army in the operations of the Naseby campaign see Great Rebellion. After the decisive defeat of the king, the army of Fairfax marched into the west and defeated Goring in a disastrous fight at Langport on the 10th of July. He made no further serious resistance to the parliamentary general, but wasted his time in frivolous amusements, and in November he obtained leave to quit his disorganized forces and retire to France on the ground of health. ”

“ This appointment was made ‘by the king's special direction, and at the earnest desire of the whole association.’ The prince's council supported Hopton, but Goring, anxious to secure the chief command himself, intrigued against Hopton, refused to obey the council, and succeeded in preventing either from exercising any control over his army (ib. ix. 20, 83) . After Goring's retirement to France, Hopton was appointed commander-in-chief of the ‘dissolute, undisciplined, wicked, beaten army’ he left behind him. Other men would have refused the hopeless task. ”

“ Ascher admired Gorman’s art as an orator enough to make her forgive the vile purpose for which it was used.
When I began to listen to the speech again Gorman had reached his peroration.
The arts of war, he said, were the natural fruits of the human intellect in a society organised on an aristocratic basis. The development of the arts of peace and pleasure followed the birth of democracy. Tyrants and robber barons in old days loved to fight and lived to kill. The common, kindly men and women of our time, the now at length sovereign people, lived to love and desire peace above all things. ”

“ Gorman propounds a somewhat similar philosophy of life, and occasionally talks about faith in the same rapt way. I do not suppose that he actually holds the faith he preaches, certainly not as Mrs. Ascher and the bishop hold theirs. No Irishman is, or ever can be, a Liberal after the English fashion; but Gorman does talk about the spirit of democracy and says he looks forward to its guiding Humanity to a great end, universal peace. ”

“ What the devil does the fellow mean?' exclaimed Goring, who was prompt enough to ire, as he started up from the table on seeing an officer of gendarmes, with his sword at his side, without salute or moving his cap, bluntly enter the room, while giving an order to some others who were outside.
We have said that Bevil Goring had promised to write to Laura Dalton reporting what discoveries he made of the fate of Alison. ”

“ John Goring.
“He is,” said the young priest, “without exception the most repulsive human being I have ever met in my life. Our worthy Romer is an angel of light compared with him.”
With Mr. Goring still as their topic, they strolled amicably together towards the same gap in the hedge, through which the apologist of the papacy had emerged an hour before. There they separated; Vennie returning to the vicarage, and the young clergyman carrying off Mr. Taxater to supper with him in his house by the church. ”

“ Nothing he said had the slightest influence on Konrad Karl.
“But,” the King used to reply, “you do not understand. I am a king.”
“Well,” said Donovan, “according to my notions that’s the same thing, only more so.”
“Ah, no,” said the King. “Ah, damn it, no. A king is not bourgeois, what you call citizen. That is the point. It is because I am a king that the Emperor interferes. If I were a citizen, but——”
He shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
Gorman tried him along a different line.
“Look here,” he said, “the Emperor has got himself into a nasty mess. He’s in for a big war. ”

“ The promise of important affairs for discussion was another lure. Gorman loves important affairs, especially those of other people. But the mention of the Emperor interested him most. The introduction of his name made it certain that the important affairs were those of Salissa. And Gorman had always been anxious to understand in what way the Emperor was mixed up with Megalia and how he came to exercise an influence over that independent state. ”

“ Arus was fortunate in being thrown in with a chief of more than usual intelligence—Gorm by name. Gorm cannot be explained, any more than Genghis Khan, Othman, Attila, or any of those individuals, who, born in naked lands among untutored barbarians, yet possess the instinct for conquest and empire-building. In a sort of bastard-Bossonian, the priest made the chief understand his purpose, and though extremely puzzled, Gorm gave him permission to remain among his tribe unbutchered—a case unique in the history of the race. ”

“ Its King could, he supposed, cede a portion of territory to a foreign power without consulting any other monarch. Yet the Emperor evidently had to be considered, might put a stop to the whole business. Konrad Karl had no doubts about that, and he ought to know.
I am sure that I should be doing Gorman an injustice if I were to represent him as anxious only about the commission. He had a queer liking for the unfortunate Konrad Karl. He wanted—as everybody who knew her did—to gratify Miss Daisy Donovan. And he took a sporting interest in the sale of Salissa. ”

“ King Konrad Karl waved his hand. Then he stood up, swallowed half a glass of brandy and laid down his cigar.
“I am Konrad Karl of Megalia,” he said. “I am a black sheep, very black. I am a blackguard. You say it, Donovan. You say it, Gorman, my friend.”
“I didn’t,” said Gorman.
“Cut that part,” said Donovan. “Nobody wants to start in abusing you.”
“I am,” said the King with an air of simple pride, “I am a blackguard, the blackest guard of all. Good. But I am a King and I am a gentleman. Good. I know that poor Corinne must go. She cannot stay here. That is what you would say, and you are right. ”

“ On September 23, the Earl answers, ‘One of my servants knows you since Vienna.’ Goring, as we know, had been in the Austrian service. ‘I will go to the Tuileries when it begins to grow dark, if it does not rain, for it would seem too od that I had choose to walk in rain, and my footman would suspect, and perhaps spye. I shall walk along the step or terrace before the house in the garden.’ [132a]
So difficult is it for an ambassador to dabble in treasonable intrigue, especially when old, and when the weather is wet. Let us suppose that Goring and the Earl met. ”

“ Sir Bartholomew, on reflection, was inclined to agree with Gorman. Mere recognition, though agreeable to any king, is unsubstantial, and the support suggested was evidently doubtful.
“What else?” He spoke in a very confidential tone. “What other inducement would you suggest our offering? We are prepared to go a long way—to do a good deal——”
“Unfortunately for you,” said Gorman, “the king is pretty well off at present. He got £6,000 three weeks ago out of Bilkins—the man who ran the egg swindle—and until that’s spent he won’t feel the need of money. ”

“ Je déclare qu'il est incorrigible. Gendarmes, remenez-le à Prison—Rue des Beguines,' exclaimed the Préfet, furiously.
'This is beyond a joke now, by Jove; it is as well the mess don't know of it,' was Goring's first thought. 'I should be quizzed to death as the agitator of Republican principles in Belgium. And this cursed confusion and detention will prevent me from discovering Alison.'
He was now deprived of her ring, in spite of all his protestations and supplications that it might be left with him; his watch and purse were also taken from him ”