Sheppey

“ The general slipperiness of things has been a great boon to Sheppy. Although I have seen him lose his footing several times, he gets along much better than the cows or the colts. As it is his daily chore to start the animals on their way to the Government drain to get their drink, he is now able to satisfy some old grudges. In ordinary weather he has to be very watchful for flying heels and prodding horns, but just now the animals have to concentrate their minds on keeping their feet under them, and are at a disadvantage when it comes to self-defence. ”

“ Up to Hinchingbroke, and there with Mr. Sheply did look all over the house, and I do, I confess, like well of the alteracions, and do like the staircase, but there being nothing to make the outside more regular and modern, I am not satisfied with it, but do think it to be too much to be laid out upon it. Thence with Sheply to Huntingdon to the Crown, and there did sit and talk, and eat a breakfast of cold roast beef, and so he to St. Ives Market, and I to Sir Robert Bernard's for council, having a letter from my Lord Sandwich to that end. ”

“ Thence to White Hall with him, and so walked to the old Exchange and back to Povy's to dinner, where great and good company; among others Sir John Skeffington, whom I knew at Magdalen College, a fellow-commoner, my fellow-pupil, but one with whom I had no great acquaintance, he being then, God knows, much above me. Here I was afresh delighted with Mr. Povy's house and pictures of perspective, being strange things to think how they do delude one's eye, that methinks it would make a man doubtful of swearing that ever he saw any thing. ”

“ If that kind of conduct on the part of a cow is not human I should like to know what it is.
Sheppy, being an intelligent dog, has a lot of characteristics that we flatter ourselves by calling human. For instance, he has an orderly way of doing things that often attracts my admiration. Now that he has settled down and outgrown the freaks of puppyhood he acts as if he felt himself one of the family, with quite a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. Every morning when he is turned [Pg 226] out he takes a trip around the farm, apparently to see that everything is right. ”

“ Oh, 'when I was Sheppard's age'! Well, next come some allusions to the places where he has visited, and his spiritual exercises there. I don't know that the boys are quite old enough to enter into this yet. Thee'd better read it thyself, Dorothy. I'm keeping all father's letters for the boys to read, when they are old enough to appreciate them."
"Well, I think thee might read us about where he's been preachin'! We can understand a great deal more than thee thinks we can!" said Shep, in an injured voice. "Reuby, he can preach some himself! ”

“ Sebastian Shepley.
Like all successful doctors, Shepley owed something to his personality. There was that in him which inspired others with a sense of his capacity. Not very much of a gentleman, but very much of a man; of gigantic size and easy rough address, he suggested all that was most cheerful and prosperous in life. Shepley had been through half the campaigns of the war, and now that peace was proclaimed he had the good luck to obtain an appointment under the then celebrated Dr. Joseph Barrington of Harley Street, Surgeon in Ordinary to his newly ascended Majesty King George the First. ”

“ Looks like his Master, lean, and full of scurf,
Not caring for the Pipe or Whistle: this man may
(If he be well wrought) do a deed of wonder,
Forcing me passage to my long desires:
And here he comes, as fitly to my purpose,
As my quick thoughts could wish for.
Enter Shepherd.
Shep. Fresh Beauty, let me not be thought uncivil,
Thus to be Partner of your loneness: 'twas
My Love (that ever working passion) drew
Me to this place to seek some remedy
For my sick Soul: be not unkind and fair,
For such the mighty Cupid in his doom
Hath sworn to be aveng'd on ”

“ I’ve been picking up knowledge of men for a while along back; and I’ve come to prize more highly the personal history of dogs; and Shep was worth a biography for its own sake, to say nothing of the value of a typical case. He was a woolly collie, who would cheerfully have given up his life for the cows and sheep. Anything in his line, that a dog could grasp, Shep knew, and he was busier than a cranberry-merchant the year around, and the happiest thing on the farm. Then our folks moved to Mayville, and took him along. He wasn’t fitted for town life at all. ”

“ The enormous number of the Sepoys enabled them to outflank the scanty British force, and nothing remained but retreat. There were many individual acts of gallantry; but, in broken, desperately fighting [158] clusters, the 32nd had to fall back, many of the men dropping from exhaustion or sunstroke while they tried to fight. An officer in the battle has described the huge mass of the Sepoys as it pressed on the flank of the retreating British. “The plain,” he says, “was one moving mass of men. ”

“ Shep was returning to his flocks. He had kept faith, after all. He was only a dog, yet to Hugh his fidelity was a clear, bright shaft of light in an impenetrable darkness. No scales of earth could measure the difference that it made to him. ”

“ In the dry moat outside the gate, the cloister-pupils had hidden themselves. "Long life to the Duchess of Suabia! Hail! hail!--and she must not forget to send us the Felchen!" was loudly shouted after her, as a parting salutation.
"He who as reward for his bad behaviour, obtains three holidays, and the best fish of the lake, may well shout," said Master Spazzo.
Slowly the Abbot went back to the monastery, and as soon as he got there, he sent for Ekkehard the custodian.
"A dispensation has come for you. You are to take a volume of Virgil to the Duchess Hadwig, and become her teacher. ”

“ After office done, I went down to the Towre Wharf, where Mr. Creed and Shepley was ready with three chests of the crusados, being about L6000, ready to bring to shore to my house, which they did, and put it in my further cellar, and Mr. Shepley took the key. I to my father and Dr. Williams and Tom Trice, by appointment, in the Old Bayly, to Short's, the alehouse, but could come to no terms with T. Trice. Thence to the Wardrobe, where I found my Lady come from Hampton Court, where the Queen hath used her very civilly; and my Lady tells me is a most pretty woman, at which I am glad. ”

“ Through what strange ambushes, through what dusky by-paths, doth Fate oft-times overtake us! We look back along the broad highway we have been traversing, and seeing no black shadow dogging our footsteps, we go rejoicing on our way; when suddenly, from some near-at-hand shrub, is shot a poisoned arrow, and the sunlight fades from our eyes for ever.
“And now, after this little skirmish,” said Skeggs, “we come back to my first question: What can you afford to give me for the document in my pocket?”
“Suppose I say that I will give you nothing—what then?” said Kester, sullenly. ”

“ While we were on the top of the cliffe, we saw and heard our guns in the fleet go off for the same joy. And it being a pretty fair day we could see above twenty miles into France. Being returned on board, my Lord called for Mr. Sheply's book of Paul's, by which we were confirmed in our wager. After that to supper and then to musique, and so to bed. The pain that I have got last night by cold is not yet gone, but troubles me at the time of . . . . This day, it is thought, the King do enter the city of London. ”

“ The Duchess descended into the courtyard, bestowing a friendly nod on Ekkehard, on account of his kindliness and compassion. The trespass of the monastery's vassal against her subject, raised her just resentment.
"That shall not be forgotten," said she. "Be comforted my poor mouse-catcher, for they shall pay thee damages for thy wounded pate, that will equal a dowry. And for the broken peace of the realm, we shall decree the highest possible fine. A few pounds of silver, shall not be sufficient. These convent-people, grow to be as insolent as their masters!" ”

“ So it may be that Shepperalk's fabulous blood stirred in those lonely mountains away at the edge of the world to rumours that only the airy twilight knew and only confided secretly to the bat, for Shepperalk was more legendary even than man. Certain it was that he headed from the first for the city of Zretazoola, where Sombelenë in her temple dwelt; though all the mundane plain, its rivers and mountains, lay between Shepperalk's home and the city he sought. ”

“ Thirsting for the coming battle, the troops left the court-yard; each heart swelling with the soul-stirring conviction, that a great and important moment was at hand. The monks of St. Gall, mustered sixty-four, those of the Reichenau ninety, and of the arrier-ban men, there were above five hundred. Close by the standard of the cross of the brotherhood of St. Gall, walked Ekkehard. It was a crucifix, veiled in black crape, with long black streamers; as the monastery's banner had been left behind.
On the balcony stood the Duchess, waving her white handkerchief. ”

“ Upon this their first meeting with the white troops, the Sepoys were confident of success. They were greatly superior in force; they had been carefully drilled in the English system; they were led by their native regimental officers; and they had been for so many years pampered and indulged by government that they regarded themselves as being, man for man, fully equal to the British. Thus, then, they began the fight with a confidence of victory, which, however great their superiority in numbers, was never again felt by the mutineers throughout the war. ”

“ He seems to be a fine civil gentleman. To my Lord's, and did give up my audit of his accounts, which I had been then two days about, and was well received by my Lord. I dined with my Lord and Lady, and we had a venison pasty. Mr. Shepley and I went into London, and calling upon Mr. Pinkney, the goldsmith, he took us to the tavern, and gave us a pint of wine, and there fell into our company old Mr. Flower and another gentleman; who tell us how a Scotch knight was killed basely the other day at the Fleece in Covent Garden, where there had been a great many formerly killed. ”

“ Sheppy, the collie, did something that should give him a high place in the rank of intelligent dogs, but no one will give him credit for it. Unfortunately, Sheppy's range of virtues is very limited. No one had the time or knew how to train him properly, and beyond keeping the hens away from the house and chasing the cows from the wire fence near by, he does nothing of value. It seems impossible to make him understand what is wanted when the cows are to be [Pg 160] brought home at milking time, and even when he does go after them he always goes at their heads and turns them back. ”

“ But here's to Barbara Iverk, the fair maid of Shepey!"
"The fair maid of Shepey!" repeated Grimstone, after drinking the toast. "That title ought to be given to the mistress, not the maid; and I care not if I wind up the evening with a cup of Canary to the health of Lady Constance——"
"Peace, sir!" exclaimed the stranger, who had heretofore taken no note of their rioting: "I shall offer chastisement to any man who profanes that Lady's name at a vulgar revel."
"Adad! and adad, young sir, ye're a game one! What's in any woman, that a man can't name her? Flesh is flesh! ”

“ And if thou dost glory in thy wisdom, thou dost not in it excel the Prince of Tyre, whom Ezekiel reproached, saying unto him:—Art thou wiser than Daniel, or hast thou seen by thy wisdom the things that are hid? [22] And if thy mind is puffed up by thy years, that they are many; they are not more in number than those of the Prince of Tyre who ruled the Kingdom during the days of twenty-two Kings of the house of Judah, that is, for four hundred and forty years. ”

“ Yet the mutineers, with muskets levelled from the shoulder, stand like posts, and draw not a trigger — a few strides more and bayonet and sabre would have crossed each other — when lo! in an instant up sprang hundreds of Sepoys on every side as if out of the very ground itself. ”

“ On Thursday the 15th of this Instant October, at between One and Two in the Afternoon, William Austin, an Assistant to the Keepers, a Man reputed to be a very diligent, and faithful Servant, went to Sheppard in the strong Room, call'd the Castle, with his Necessaries, as was his Custom every Day. There went along with him Captain Geary, the Keeper of New Prison, Mr. Gough, belonging to the Gate-house in Westminster, and two other Gentlemen, who had the Curiosity to see the Prisoner, Austin very strictly examined his Fetters, and his Hand-Cuffs, and found them very Safe ”

“ Skeggs’s casual remark about the pedlar and his wife, unheeded at the time, now flashed vividly across Kester’s mind.
“You will have to wait here till I can get assistance,” he said, in answer to his companion’s question. “There is no help for it.”
“I suppose not,” growled Skeggs. “Was ever anything so cursedly unfortunate?”
“Sedgeley is the nearest place to this,” said Kester. “There are plenty of men there who know the moor thoroughly. I will send half a dozen of them to your help.” ”

“ But Jonathan Wild unfortunately happen'd to be gone upon a wrong Scent after him to Sturbridge, and Lost a Share of the Glory.
His Escape and his being so suddenly Re-taken made such a Noise in the Town, that it was thought all the common People would have gone Mad about him; there being not a Porter to be had for Love nor Money, nor getting into an Ale-house, for Butchers; Shoemakers and Barbers, all engag'd in Controversies, and Wagers, about Sheppard. Newgate Night and Day surrounded with the Curious from St. Giles's and Rag-Fair, and Tyburn Road daily lin'd with Women and Children ”