William Langton

“ I demanded, barring his way.
“Police be hanged!” he cried impatiently. “Have I not already told you? I have no time to argue. Langton must not see me—he must know nothing of me. A word from you would mean loss incalculable, and all hope of elucidating the mystery would instantly be at an end. Which way did young Langton go?”
“Towards Clarence Gate,” I replied almost mechanically, for his sudden appearance there had startled me.
“Good!” he cried; “then I’ll go in the opposite direction. Be silent, Holford, and rely upon me. Whatever you may discover, do not betray any surprise. ”

“ Inq. post mortem, i. 300) . He was the nephew of William Langton, dean of York; but there seems no reason for making him a kinsman to John Langton [q.v.] , bishop of Chichester and chancellor, his contemporary. Neither can any real connection be traced between him and Stephen Langton [q.v.] , archbishop of Canterbury (Hill, Hist. of Langton, p. 17) . He started life as a poor man (Hemingburgh, ii. 272) , and became a clerk of the king's chancery. ”

“ Therefore it is awarded, deemed and ordained that the said Lawrence de Standish should take out a writ of right to the advowson of the said church against Thomas the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Sir Ralph Langton, Henry Brightley, and William Langton, parson of the church of Wigan, and James Langton, returnable before the Justices at Lancaster at the sessions next to be held there or elsewhere within the county of Lancaster, to show his title and have his champion ready. ”

“ Annalists of the time noticed that younger men inclined to the side of the insurgents, while the older remained with the king. This fact in some cases divided families, as in the case of the Marshals, William the elder staying with John, while William the younger was with the barons. That one abode in the king's company does not indicate, however, that his sympathies in this struggle were on that side. Stephen Langton was in form with the king and acted as his representative in the negotiations, though it was universally known that he supported the reforms asked for. ”

“ The handsome girl exchanged glances with her lover, glances which showed me plainly that they were acting in accordance with some premeditated plan. Leonard Langton was a sharp, shrewd, far-seeing man, or he would never have held the appointment of private secretary to Sir Albert Oppenheim.
“Well, Mr Holford,” he said, “why don’t you speak candidly and openly? You are, I take it, eager to make terms with your enemies, eh?”
“But who are my enemies?” I cried blankly. “As far as I’m aware, I’ve made none!”
“A man arouses enmity often without intention,” was his reply. ”

“ Ethelwynn, the calm, sweet, clear-eyed girl, so content in her great love for Leonard Langton, though she had actually witnessed her father lying dead and cold, yet now refused to presume his death! Why? Doctor Flynn I disliked instinctively; Langton was evidently playing a double game, having denied all knowledge of Kirk, whereas the latter was his friend; Antonio and Pietro were away; while Kirk himself, silent and cunning, was pretending a complete ignorance which was only ill-feigned. ”

“ Need I tell you, either, how, just a year later, Ethelwynn, who had inherited the great fortune accruing from her father’s discoveries, was married to Leonard Langton, both my wife and myself being honoured guests at the wedding?
Flynn has not been heard of since; but Antonio is still all-powerful at the pretty house Langton has taken in Hill Street, and on more than one occasion Mabel and I have been guests at the bright, breezy seaside house overlooking the Goodwins, beyond Broadstairs. ”

“ Why has Antonio fled to France?”
“We must ask the Professor,” replied the inspector. “He may have been sent by his master upon perfectly legitimate business. He was entirely trusted, you say.”
“But he saw me in the buffet at Calais, and, turning, hurried away,” Langton said. “In other circumstances he would certainly have raised his hat in greeting; he is a most polite, tactful man.” ”

“ As Anselm had withstood William the Red, as Theobald had withstood Stephen, so Langton prepared to withstand and rescue his country from the tyranny of John. He had already forced him to swear to observe the laws of Edward the Confessor, in other words the traditional liberties of the realm. When the baronage refused to sail for Poitou, saying that they owed service to him in England, but not in foreign lands, he compelled the king to deal with them not by arms, but by process of law. ”

“ I moved a little distance along, recognising in the man just returned from the Continent the grey, thin, sinister face of Kershaw Kirk.
My first impulse was to rush forward and demand of him the truth; indeed, to charge him with a secret crime, and to insist on knowing the whereabouts of my beloved Mabel. But it struck me at that instant that the two men who had met him had agreed between themselves upon a course of secrecy, and that they were therefore misleading him. Had not Ethelwynn already told me of Langton’s suspicion of this man, who was to me and mine such a mystery? ”

“ Yea, I see; and doubtless she owneth both the two, and is of the greatest of the folk of this fair city; for on the maiden’s ankle I saw an iron ring, which betokeneth thralldom amongst these aliens. But this is strange! for notest thou not how the folk in the street heed not this quaint show; nay not even the stately lady, though she be as lovely as a goddess of the gentiles, and beareth on her gems that would buy Langton twice over; surely they must be over-wont to strange and gallant sights. But now, master, but now!”
“Yea, what is it?” said Walter. ”

“ I queried.
“No,” replied Langton promptly; “both front and back doors are in Sussex Place. The door leading to the park was bricked up by the Professor, as he was always afraid that undesirable people might enter and steal the secrets of his experiments. There are two locked doors leading to the laboratory, of which he always keeps the keys. I’ll show you them in a moment.” And he led the way across the landing from the study to the boudoir. ”

“ It was not there!
Already evidences of the double tragedy had been removed. Was it for that reason, in order to remove them, that Kershaw Kirk had been there?
“Why!” exclaimed Langton. “Look! the furnace is alight. ”

“ He annulled the election of Reginald as altogether illegal, and that of Bishop John, because it was made before the other was declared void; and then, on the ground that the church of Canterbury should no longer be left desolate, commanded the monks, whom John had sent over to uphold his cause, to elect Stephen Langton, an Englishman, and a cardinal of high position and character. ”

“ The latter, having confessed that they had given John a secret pledge to elect none but the bishop of Norwich, were released from the promise by Innocent; and at his suggestion elected Stephen Langton, who was consecrated by the pope on the 17th of June 1207. On hearing the news the king banished the monks of Canterbury and lodged a protest with the pope, in which he threatened to prevent any English appeals from being brought to Rome. ”

“ The authorities are mainly those for the reign of John. No contemporary biography has come down to us. Some letters, by Langton and others, relating to the quarrel over his election are preserved in a Canterbury Chronicle (ed. W. Stubbs in the “Rolls” edition of Gervase of Canterbury, vol. ii.) ”

“ Oliver de Langton, late of Wigan, gentleman; William de Langton, late of Wigan, gentleman; and many others, chiefly from Wigan and the neighbourhood, including Margaret Holerobyn of Wigan, concubine of the aforesaid James de Langton. The above mentioned Edward de Langton, son of James, was accused of concealing two Wigan men who had committed murder. The morals of the English people generally, both clergy and laity, were deplorably low at that period, and the numerous ecclesiastical abuses which occurred were rapidly preparing the way for the reformation. ”

“ The Professor is always so very careful of his experiments and the contents of his laboratory that the house is never left untenanted.”
“I’ve called quite by chance and upon business,” I explained. “I’m a motor-car engineer, and I live in Chiswick. My name is Holford.”
“Mine’s Langton—Leonard Langton,” he answered. Then, after a second’s hesitation, he added, “Ethelwynn—Miss Greer—is to become my wife. ”

“ Langton entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1757, at the age of sixteen. [46] The Doctor, who [176] had known him about three years, followed his career at the university with interest, writing to Langton’s tutor, then “dear Tom Warton,” just appointed to the professorship of poetry held by his father, and afterwards poet-laureate: “I see your pupil: his mind is as exalted as his stature,” and to Langton’s self the sweet generality: “I love, dear sir, to think of you.” He even paid his Freshman a visit, and swam sportively across a dangerous pool in the Isis, in the teeth of his warning ”

“ It follows that Langton must have found the thing out somewhere. I don't say for certain that he found it in a manuscript in the college library. I only say that, considering all the circumstances of the case, he's more likely to have found it there than anywhere else. That may not strike you as a very good hypothesis; but unless you have a better one to propose, it seems to me quite good enough to go on with. ”

“ Richard Langton, the next rector, who succeeded Nicholas Towneley in 1532, was the second son of Sir Thomas Langton, knight, [1] of Walton in le Dale, the patron of the church. Had he outlived his father he would have become the head of the family and Baron of Newton, for his elder brother Edward Langton died before his father without surviving issue. But Sir Thomas Langton outlived all his sons, and at his death, in 1569, he was succeeded by the son of his younger son Leonard. ”

“ It is noteworthy that during his imprisonment Langton still received writs of summons to parliament and to furnish his contingents for the king's wars (Parl. Writs) .
Langton had been too long a minister, and was too unfriendly to the constitutional opposition, to care to remain a martyr. He had great experience and ability, and as Edward's difficulties increased the king bethought himself that his imprisoned enemy might still be of service to him. The declaration of Winchelsea for the ordainers and against the king made Langton most willing to come to terms with Edward. ”

“ Langton was one of the “ordainers” elected in 1310, and it was probably his connexion with this body that led to his losing the office of chancellor about this time. He continued, however, to take part in public affairs; mediating between the king and Earl Thomas of Lancaster in 1318, and attempting to do so between Edward and his rebellious barons in 1321. He died in June or July 1337. Langton built the chapterhouse at Chichester, and was a benefactor of the university of Oxford. ”

“ I got nothin' against him."
"You'd better not have," said Langton, implacably. "Come here." He took him out into the doctor's front office and talked to him for some little time while I told the doctor of my adventure.
"Who is Langton when he is at home?" I asked him.
He chuckled. "He is the best man for you to have in this city if Coll McSheen is your enemy. He is a retainer of Mr. Leigh's."
Just then Langton and the thug came in.
"Say, I'm sorry I took a hand in that job," said the latter. "But that skunk that runned away, he put 't up, and he said 's another friend of his got him to do it." ”

“ Until he entered upon his duties as Deputy Inspector-General, General Langton has been engaged in banking and other financial pursuits. General Joseph Graham Langton, on Oct. 7, 1891, married Margaret J., daughter of John Pearey, contractor, of Toronto. ”

“ It was not so much that his associates were below his own capacity—for Langton, though sensible and well bred, was not highly talented or refined—but that he lived without any steady purpose, that he had no one to attract him to his home, that he too easily allow'd himself to be tempted—which caused his life to be, of late, one continued scene of dissatisfaction. ”

“ And as she drank, the man's heart had beaten with a dull sense of pity, the while his baser nature called out, "Fool! it is HIS place, not yours, to suffer for her."
At daylight the boat was close in to the land, and Langton, in his cool, cynical fashion, told his wife and Enderby to finish up the last of the meat and biscuit—for if they capsized getting through into the lagoon, he said, they would never want any more. He had eaten all he wanted unknown to the others, and looked with an unmoved face at Enderby soaking some biscuit in the tin for his wife. ”

“ It is figured on p. 16 of Hill's 'History of Langton.' His cousin, Edmund Peveril, was his next heir, and, despite all his misfortunes, he left land in eleven counties (Cal. Inq. post mortem, i. 300) . He is described as always dealing moderately with the people as an official (Ann. Dunst. in Ann. Mon. iii. 400) , and as 'homo imaginosus et cautissimus' (Hemingburgh, ii. 272) .
Despite the cares of state Langton found time and money to be a munificent benefactor to his church and see. About 1300 he began the building at Lichfield of the lady-chapel in which he was buried. ”

“ He was a member of the royal council from this time until his dismissal at the request of parliament in 1315. He died in November 1321, and was buried in Lichfield cathedral, which was improved and enriched at his expense. Langton appears to have been no relation of his contemporary, John Langton, bishop of Chichester.
LANGTRY, LILLIE (1852- ) , English actress, was the daughter of the Rev. W. C. le Breton, dean of Jersey, and married in 1874 Edward Langtry (d. 1897) . For many years she was famous as one of the most beautiful women in England. ”