Nevil

“ Arising from the window-seat, Nevil paced the room, then returned to the sometime Captain of the Cygnet. "Two things and I will let you go where you do the Queen and Francis Drake yeoman service. You will not slip a silken leash, but will abide with us in this town?"
"Ay," was the answer, "until your sick are recovered and your mariners are making sail I will stay."
Nevil hesitated. "For the present I accept your 'until.' And now I ask you to throw off this disguise. We are men of a like height and make. Yonder within the chamber are suits from which you may choose. Pray you dress at once." ”

“ It was too much for Nevil. In the passionate emotion of that moment, he flung himself on his knees beside the couch, poured forth the torrent of that overwhelming love—how it had lingered with him through years of hopelessness and misery; and he besought her, in agony, to say that she would live—live to bless him yet; and, as he spoke, the pious, the strong-hearted Nevil Herbert wept, till, as an infant, his very soul seemed powerless within him.
“And you have loved me thus!—you, the good, the noble, the exalted! Oh! I thought human love was all an idle dream—a vain delusion ”

“ Nevil, [5] who was then Dean of Canterbury, and Master of that College, to take him into his particular care, and provide him a tutor; which he did most gladly undertake, for he knew the excellencies of his mother, and how to value such a friendship. ”

“ He must feel that the hour of remorse was past; that of repentance and forgiveness come. He must be rewarded for all his goodness to her, by being made to love life for her sake. Neville, whose heart was free from every base alloy, would enter into these feelings. ”

“ Voyaging homewards through the spring seas, Neville saw life as an entangling thicket, the Woods of Westermain she had loved in her childhood, in which the scaly dragon squatted, the craving monster self that had to be subjugated before one could walk free in the enchanted woods. ”

“ There of all the world you might imagine Gods to sit. A crowd of mountains endless in range, erect, or flowing, shattered and arid, or leaning in smooth lustre, hangs above the gulf. The mountains are sovereign Alps, and the sea is beneath them. The whole gigantic body keeps the sea, as with a hand, to right and left.
Nevil's personal rapture craved for Renee with the second long breath he drew; and now the curtain of her tent-cabin parted, and greeting him with a half smile, she looked out. The Adriatic was dark, the Alps had heaven to themselves. ”

“ Living a good many miles apart, Lady Neville could send her stray sheep to service near Mrs. Gaunt; and vice versâ; and so, merciful, but discriminating, they saved many a poor girl who had been weak, not wicked.
So then, though they could not eat nor dance together in earthly mansions, they could do good together; and methinks, [Pg 625] in the eternal world, where years of social intercourse will prove less than cobwebs, these their joint acts of mercy will be links of a bright, strong chain, to bind their souls in everlasting amity. ”

“ Sir J. Wor. How now, son Count? what, ready, Master Nevill?
[76]
Nev. All ready, ready; only we tarry for our vizards and our caps: I put 'em to a knave to do, [62] because I would have 'em the better done.
Abra. If you put 'em to a knave, you are like to have 'em the worse done.
Nev. Your wit is most active: I called him knave in regard of his long stay, sir, not his work.
Abra. But, d'ye hear, Master Nevill? did you bespeak a vizard with a most terrible countenance for me?
Nev. A very devil's face: I fear nothing, but that it will fright the women. ”

“ Confin'st—nay, hast engross'd, virtue enough
To frame a spacious world of virtuous women,
Hadst thou been the beginning of thy sex,
I think the devil in the serpent's skin
Had wanted cunning to o'ercome thy goodness,
And all had liv'd and died in innocency—
The white original creation!
[Knocking within.
Who's there? Come in.
Enter Nevill.
Nev. What, up already, Scudmore! Ne'er a wench
With thee? Not [e'en] thy laundress?
Scud. Good morrow, my dear Nevill.
Nev. What's this? A letter? Sure, it is not so—
A letter written to Hieronimo. [10]
Scud. ”

“ And while Defoe excludes the most important feature of Neville's tract—woman—from his "Robinson Crusoe," issued in April, 1719, he too, four months after, published the "Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," in which woman has a share. ”

“ Such interpretations seem to fit the work better than that of a German critic, who sees in the book a sort of Utopia, a model community, or an exhibition in the development of law and order. Free love led to license, maids were ravished, and the complete promiscuity of intercourse disgusted Pine, who sought to suppress it by force and, in killing the leader of a revolt, a man with negro blood in his veins, to impose punishments for acts which he had himself done. The ground for believing that Neville had any such purpose when he wrote the book is too slight to be accepted. ”

“ Neju began to speak. He spoke slowly. "I have just seen the god-men chase and kill. They are controlled by demons that cannot be appeased. One has only to hear them—the hate in their voices—to know." He swallowed and looked around at the green brilliant foliage and listened to the life movements in the trees. "I said that we should move away into the forest.... But now.... I cannot think like a demon, but I somehow see that ... unlike the Old Gods ... the demons will not leave us to the world in peace. They are creatures of hate, who will hunt us out, little by little, and destroy us all...." ”

“ The young hunter cleared his throat again. "They are not Gods, but still I should not have harmed the god-man, last night, at the wall. We do not mean them any harm." He paused. "Only the demon."
The hunters nodded.
"They will thank us for destroying the demon."
"The god-men, themselves, have killed four of us," Neju said suddenly.
"They cannot help themselves," the young hunter insisted. "They must do the demon's will." He paused again. "They cannot be gods, to obey the demon, but we should not harm them." ”

“ Now there have come to our world some demons who control god-men." He wrinkled his brow, trying to state the case as dearly as possible.
"These demons are very bad. They kill our people." He paused a moment. "We want you to help us kill these demons so the god-men will be free and we can live without fear."
Neju waited. The ground did not tremble. The moon did not darken. The Old Gods did not answer.
"Maybe we haven't any right to ask, for ourselves," Neju said. "But for the god-men, who are your brothers from the sky. Help us to free them, Old Gods. ”

“ Not a big beast, you will say; but in the wild he ruled big, being snaky and of a fighting turn, so to say. He was, in fact, the very devil, and he looked it—hard as nickel-steel. A dull, tawny devil, with a peculiar purplish sheen in some lights—due to the longer hair—on his short, hard coat, turning black on his throat, legs, and tail—as if he had walked in black somewhere—and finished off with patches of creamy white on head and ears. There was an extraordinary air of hard, tough, cool, cruel, fighting-power and slow ferocity about the beast—a very natural born gladiator of the wild places. ”

“ I am militant not against man, but the devil, who goes about seeking what he may devour.”
“Oh! does he so?” said the baron: “then I take it that makes you look for him so often in my buttery. Will you cast out the devil whose name is Legion, when you cannot cast out the imp whose name is Love?”
“Marriages,” said the friar, “are made in heaven. Love is God’s work, and therewith I meddle not.” ”

“ I can wonder at nothing save my marvellous ill luck. This tale points a moral, Baron Ned. If one belongs to the devil, one should stand by one's master. Hell is swifter in revenge than heaven in reward. ”

“ Lastly, devils, whose name was legion, and to whose forms and distorted and menacing countenances superstition had annexed the most frightful ideas, crowded in countless multitudes upon the spectator, whose breath was flame, whose dances were full of terror, and whose strength infinitely exceeded every thing human. ”

“ A devil entering a hovel is set upon by a peasant, who pummels him with a stick, while an old man cries out, "Hit him hard, hard, my son; he is an aristocrat;" and under the whole is written, "Is the devil, then, to be always at our door?" Again, we have the three orders forging the constitution with great ardor, the blacksmith holding the book on the anvil, while the priest and noble swing the sledge-hammer. ”

“ When the devil enters into a nayre, he goes with a naked sword before the king, shaking and trembling and giving himself many wounds, saying, "I am such or such a god, and am come to tell thee such and such a thing," crying out, and behaving himself like a madman or one possessed. ”

“ We are all, as I may say, my son, beset by devils in this infidel land. They are worshipped on the altars of the false gods, and they live in the hearts of the idolaters. But if thou hast no heavy sin on thy soul, these are such devils as thou canst better exorcise with the sword, than I, perhaps, with prayers. ”

“ So stood events: hardly had the devil hidden the moon in his pocket, when all at once it grew so dark that many could not have found their way to the brandy-shop, still less to the clerk's. The witch, finding herself suddenly in darkness, shrieked aloud. The devil coming near her, took her hand, and began to whisper to her those same things which are usually whispered to all womankind.
How oddly things go on in this world of ours! Every one who lives in it endeavours to copy and ape his neighbour. ”

“ I must tell you, my dear creature, you have, by an evil chance, arrived in a most evil locality, for this quarter of the town is the devil's own country, and he is scarcely like to make you free of it. ”

“ Then shall come the Devil and three or four devils with him, carrying in their hands chains and iron fetters, which they shall put on the necks of Adam and Eve. And some shall push and others pull them to hell: and hard by hell shall be other devils ready to meet them, who shall hold high revel at their fall. And certain other devils shall point them out as they come, and shall snatch them up and carry them into hell; and there shall they make a great smoke arise, and call aloud to each other with glee in their hell, and clash their pots and kettles, that they may be heard without. ”

“ Every one in the castle gave his or her version of the devil with a drawn sword, and they all believed it was a real devil. The good lady, who held the key of the mystery, was very glad to see them of that opinion. Ever after that the said devil continued to do the work that everyone does so willingly, though the husband, and everybody except a discreet waiting woman, were ignorant of the fact. ”

“ At Hurdwar, in the great fair, among jugglers and tumblers, horse-tamers and snake-charmers, fakirs and pilgrims, I saw a small boy possessed of a devil,—an authentic devil, as of yore, meet for miraculous driving-out. ”

“ Will you undertake to make her renounce the earl, who, I believe, is the devil incarnate? Will you undertake that?”
“Will I undertake,” said the friar, “to make Trent run westward, or to make flame burn downward, or to make a tree grow with its head in the earth and its root in the air?”
“So then,” said the baron, “a girl’s mind is as hard to change as nature and the elements, and it is easier to make her renounce the devil than a lover. Are you a match for the devil, and no match for a man?” ”

“ And I saw the devils hovering about over the young man like flies, and some of them wished to settle on his eyes, and some on his mouth, and behold, the angel of the Lord was going round him, and was driving away from him the devils with a sword of fire; now the devils did not dare to approach the elder man. ”

“ It is a question, not yet determined by the learned, whether the word Devil be singular, that is to say, the name of a person standing by himself, or a noun of multitude; if it be a singular, and so must be used personally only as a proper name, it consequently implies one imperial devil, monarch, or god of the whole clan of Hell; justly distinguished by term, The Devil, or as the Scots call him, The muckle-horned Dee’l, or as others in a wilder dialect, The Devil of Hell, that is to say, The Devil of a devil ”

“ If such escapes, O London, reign in thee,
Repent, for why each sin shall punish'd be!
Repent, amend, repent, the hour is nigh!
Defer not time! who knows when he shall die?
SCENE IV.—A Public Place in Nineveh.
Enter one clad in Devil's attire.
Devil. Longer lives a merry man than a sad; and because I mean to make myself pleasant this night, I have put myself into this attire, to make a clown afraid that passeth this way: for of late there have appeared many strange apparitions, to the great fear and terror of the citizens.—O, here my young master comes. ”

“ When we had proceeded a little way onward from the accursed beach, towards the wild place of Damnation, I perceived, by their own light, innumerable men and women here and there; and devils without number and without rest, incessantly employing their strength in tormenting. Yes, there they were, devils and damned, the devils roaring with their own torments, and making the damned roar, by means of the torments which they inflicted upon them. ”

“ Nine devils against one soldier were, however, too much, and while he laid about lustily on those before him, those behind pulled his hair and pinched him miserably.
"Ay, ay, you pack of devils, now you are too hard for me," said he; "but wait a bit. I wish all the nine devils were in my knapsack," cried he, and it was no sooner said than done. ”

“ These are the devils who enter in by legions and take possession of the empty minds of those who do nob create for themselves. You can see them in all their uncouth and horrible yet filmy shapes, some like grovelling swine, some like rapacious beasts and birds, with their bat-wings and combination of bestial forms covering the surface of the earth like a dense smoke all intertwined and loathsome to behold, as you can see the creation of purity, self-sacrifice and noble purpose fluttering like white doves and sea-birds in and out that black turgid cloud. ”