Strachan

“ With the mêlée at its height, Strachan gathered his men, and led them off quietly towards the British lines.
The journey back was hardly less eventful than the outgoing trip, though it was a great deal slower. [Pg 93] Leading his men through the dark, Strachan made as straight a line as possible for the town where he had left the brigade. One might have imagined that the military ardour which had fired these troopers throughout the day would have been temporarily damped, but there was no sign of it. ”

“ Strachan liked to listen to his yarns, and was in consequence rather a favourite of his. And if you are going on a campaign, it is not half a bad thing to be on good terms with a doctor, a quartermaster, or any other staff officer. They always have a bite or a drop of something should you happen to come across them when nobody else has. ”

“ Besides his work on Greek, comparative philology, and Celtic, Strachan also taught Sanskrit at Manchester. In 1900 Aberdeen University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. No good portrait of Strachan exists, and the bronze bust in the possession of Manchester University only faintly resembles him. His Celtic books were purchased by Manchester University. ”

“ Mr. Strachan, for one, beheld a fellow-man fighting for a manhood that was more to him than life, against a degradation worse than death; and he wished himself back at his farm.
Not so Dr. Sullivan, whose consternation lasted but a moment. The next, he was in the thick of it, rallying the constables, flourishing his cane, and leading a rush which made the rebel slip beneath the triangles and take to his heels. The pack followed, all but Dr. Sullivan, who now fell back, with the sun glistening on his white hair, and a gnarled hand shading his eyes. ”

“ Every man had his rifle in his hand, ready to sell his life as dearly as he could; but the Arabs did not issue from their cover, and they sped on at a sharp trot unmolested, Strachan keeping a correct course by a compass he had, with an ingenious phosphorescent contrivance, by which he could distinguish the north point. When an hour had elapsed they all began to breathe more freely, for it is uncanny work expecting to be attacked every minute in the dark. ”

“ For the passion of a multitude of folk with one heart's desire, thrilling to the one word and the one hope, had taken hold on us. The like was never seen upon the wild mountains of the south.
Then, as though to recall us to earth, from the green meads of the Minnoch side there came one running to pass the word that the enemy was in sight. Two companies of Strachan's Dragoons, with all Claverhouse's levies, were riding from Straiton as fast as their horses could carry them. ”

“ Strachan, shaking his head again.
“But it is mine,” cried the doctor. “They are never any good until they feel your power. They never feel your power until they have first felt the lash:” And he emphasised the sentiment by giving the table a cut with his cane.
“I have not always found it so,” maintained the other. “In your place I should have let that man go to quarter sessions. There are the makings of a desperate criminal in him, or I’m much mistaken.”
Dr. Sullivan flushed and brightened beneath his white hairs, like a man on his mettle. “Desperate criminal?” ”

“ Then I will!” said Dr. Sullivan. “I’ll take the responsibility upon myself!”
“I won’t be a party to any further irregularity,” said Strachan, “and it’s a clear case for quarter sessions, if ever there was one. That’s my only point. The man deserves it, of course.”
Yet he retired into the justice-room and shut the door, but failed to shut out the rasping sound of Dr. Sullivan’s voice, exultantly doubling the sentence, and crying to the ex-butcher to lay on the whip-cord as he had never laid it on before. ”

“ Perhaps I may be pardoned a reference rather personal to myself, but I cannot forget that my last communication from the Master was a most touching and sympathetic letter when that beloved son fell at the head of his company on the blood-stained field of Loos. ‘Another name,’ wrote Strachan-Davidson, ‘on the list of honour on the Chapel door; no College gathering will ever be the same without our beloved “Tortoise”’ ”

“ As for the mere body without it, it is of no more value than an empty champagne bottle. When there was light enough they went on again, and in due time reached the ambulance. And Green, having seen his friend made as comfortable as was possible under the circumstances, returned to the bivouac of the regiment, where everybody was glad to hear that Tom Strachan was found alive, and that there was a good chance for him, for his good humour and high spirits had made him a general favourite. ”

“ When the momentary confusion was over, and the square again compact, Strachan found an opportunity of slipping fresh cartridges into his revolver; the work in prospect did not look like being suited to an empty pistol. He had hardly done it before they were under the parapet of the earthwork.
Here there was a pause; the Arabs, not dashing out, the British, after their late experience, apparently not quite knowing whether they ought to break the square formation by dashing in. Not to mention that the Arabs were ticklish gentlemen to tumble over a bank into the middle of! ”

“ The very next warrant makes John Strachan Captain of one of "ye two companies of Dragoons to be forthwith leavied." It was followed under the same date by others, one making John Inglis Captain of the other company, one making John Lauder Lieutenant of Strachan's company, and another making William Cleland Lieutenant of Inglis's company. Then followed still two more, one appointing John Livingston Ensign in Strachan's and the other, Henry Dundas, Ensign under Inglis. ”

“ And in effect Whaup and Strachan now walked into the counsel's apartment, demure, shaven, and well dressed—altogether two very different looking individuals from the tatterdemalions of yesterday.
"Good morning, Fred," cried Whaup; "Servant, Mr Hedger—lots of work going, eh? Are the pleas nearly over yet?" ”

“ I was twelve years old when you left Harton, and I have altered a bit since, no doubt. You were seventeen, and have not changed so much.”
“I am very glad to see you, anyhow,” said Reece, “and we will have a good chat presently. Just now I must not lose my opportunity; the rocks seem pretty crowded. The beggars are blazing away from every crevice about them.”
Strachan wisely asked no questions, but watched and followed. The Arabs had evidently gathered in considerable numbers about the pile of boulders among which the gun-cotton mine was buried. ”

“ And he unwound it from its wrappings and produced it.
“And because a rascal clerk ran away with that bit of parchment, Kavanagh had to enlist as a private, and you had to go wandering over the world for years, leaving your mother and sister in poverty and anxiety!” said Tom Strachan, meditatively. “People are always talking about red tape in the army ”

“ To return to Strachan-Davidson, the appreciative notice printed in The Times of March 29 says that when he and his friends were disappointed at his being passed over for the Mastership of Balliol on Jowett’s death in 1893 he bore it ‘like an angel.’ The expression is by no means too strong; whatever were his personal feelings, he sank them altogether in the interest of the College he loved, and devoted all his energies to help to make Dr. Caird’s Mastership a success. ”

“ Alison answered, “I know all that, but”—and her grave little face was set like a flint—“you’re not in it yet, you’re not fighting, and only countries that are fighting with us can have their flags on the doll’s house. Mr. Strachan’s most partickler about that. My daddy’s been wounded twice.”
“Wouldn’t he have it at the back?” Barbara suggested. She couldn’t bear people to be hurt, and George looked very much hurt.
“No, thank you,” he said haughtily. “If it can’t be put with the others, you needn’t have it at all. It’s a great flag.”
“I know,” said Alison, “and I’m awfully sorry. Mr. ”

“ While daylight lasted the men inside watched Osman Digna’s seemingly innumerable soldiers dodging about, and when night fell the knowledge that they were there unseen, and might attack on all sides at any moment, was really calculated to try the nerves. For there is nothing more unpleasant than the idea of any one pouncing upon you suddenly in the dark. But the nerves of our friends were getting pretty well seasoned by this time. Only Green, who was very frank, observed to Strachan that it seemed very lonely now the cavalry had gone. ”

“ What does posterity think of Hippias and Tarquin and Coriolanus, who did the same? [22] "Is not his cause then a good one? Nay, it is the best in the world; but it will be played for, mark my words, most foully." ”

“ There never was a man of less equable temperament than Cicero, nor one born more completely under the influence of the planet Mercury. In the stir of life and action he is alert and sanguine; when he is struck down by misfortune he becomes nerveless and depressed, and all that remains of his ingenuity is employed in devising fresh reasons for torturing himself. ”

“ For my own part, since I drew near to the city, I have been incessantly planning and speaking and acting for peace; but a strange madness has possessed not only bad men, but even those who are esteemed good, so that all desire to fight, while I cry out in vain that nothing is more wretched than a civil war. ”

“ For this mad adventure it is, that nature has fashioned you, that choice has trained you, that fortune has spared you. You never loved peace, nor even war unless it were war as a pirate. You have found for yourself a gang of ruffians, recruited from among broken men, whom not only all luck but all hope has deserted. ”

“ This letter was written in December, 61 B.C. In the following February he refers [54] again to the same topic. "My chief want at present is a man with whom to share all my anxieties, one who loves me, and has sense, and with whom I can talk without pretence or reserve or concealment. For my brother, the most open and loving soul in the world, is gone. Metellus is not a man, but just a desert island— shore and sky and utter desolation. ”

“ How can you find a victim more sweet for Publius Lentulus, that Lentulus who tried to slaughter you in the arms of your wives and children and to bury you beneath the ashes of our country, than by sating with the blood of Lucius Flaccus that bitter hatred which he had for all of us. ”

“ We must turn again to Cicero for a summing up of the condition of the subjects of Rome under this dreadful yoke. "All the provinces are mourning, all the free states are complaining, every principality utters its protest against our greed and our insolence; within the bounds set by the Ocean there is no spot so distant or so retired that the lewdness and evil dealing of our nation have not found the way thither. The tribes of the earth overpower the Roman People beyond its endurance, not with force, not with arms, not with war, but with their sorrow, their tears, their lamentation." ”

“ But I am astonished at those men of sense and character, first, that they listen so readily when they hear a great citizen and a noble servant of the commonwealth traduced by the tongue of a scoundrel; next, that they hold a doctrine most contrary to their own interests, that the glory and dignity of any man are at the mercy of the insults of a rascal, bankrupt in fortune and reputation ”

“ Most laudable, or rather I should say lovable, is this feeling of good neighbourship, which keeps the constant fashion of the olden time, not shadowed by thoughts of evil, not practised in untruths, not veneered with false colours, undisciplined in the arts of the suburb and of the city. ”

“ But if you wish to be the instrument of my praise and my reputation, then set forth with all your crew of reprobates, betake yourself to Manlius, summon all criminals to your standard, sever yourself from every honest man, declare war against your country, glory in the act of impiety, that it may be clear that you have not been thrust forth among strangers, but that you have sought the company of your fellows. ”

“ All the horrors of the barbarian invasion and all the darkness of the Middle Ages were not a price too heavy to pay for the infusion of fresher and stronger blood, and the revival of the sense of dignity in mankind. ”

“ Consider within yourself which is the more proper course, and which the more useful for our side, to avenge the death of Cæsar or the death of Trebonius, and whether it is more right for us to battle with each other that the crushed cause of the Pompeians may revive again, or to come to terms and cease to make sport for our enemies." Antony says that Cicero looks on like a lanista, or trainer, who has set a brace of gladiators to fight, sure to profit whichever falls, and this in fact bluntly represents the real state of the case. ”

“ Cicero made many mistakes as a politician. His forecast is often wrong; he is often taken by surprise; sometimes by the over-refining of his own subtle intellect, sometimes by applying the casuistry of his Greek book-learning too readily to the practical conduct of affairs, he allows himself to be led astray, where a man of less discursive mind might have shaped his course better. ”

“ Cæsar as consul had done fearful mischief to Rome, but the Romans might well condone it in consideration of the splendid deeds of the proconsul. The doubt arose when men looked to the future. Cæsar had shown himself utterly unscrupulous; he had trampled on all law and constitution. Could such a man be trusted with power? Would not the acquiescence in Cæsar's supremacy mean the servitude of the commonwealth? These anxieties, though but dimly felt, certainly affected the minds both of Cicero and Pompey at this time. ”