Wyatt

“ In fact, it was dark when Wyatt wakened, and, leaving the rest still torpid with slumber and fatigue, descended to the large main room of the cabin.
The callow members of the household had retired to rest, but the elders of the band of moonshiners were up and still actively astir, and Wyatt experienced a prescient vicarious qualm to note their lack of heed or secrecy—the noisy shifting of heavy weights (barrels, kegs, bags of apples, and peaches for pomace) , the loud voices and unguarded words. ”

“ Wyatt was kept in the Tower till the 11th of April, when he was executed. Unlike Suffolk, he tried to exculpate others, declaring in his last moments that neither the Princess Elizabeth nor Courtenay, who were suspected of being privy to his designs, knew anything of them. Wyatt seems to have been a brave and honest man, who believed himself acting the part of a patriot in endeavouring to preserve the country from the Spanish yoke, and who, in the sincerity of his own heart, had too confidently trusted to the assurances of faithless men. ”

“ Wyatt was continually repeating to himself, though when he sprang through the door he could scarcely draw his breath because of some mysterious, invisible clutch at his throat.
He sought to ascribe this symptom to the density of the pervasive fog without, that impenetrably cloaked all the world; one might wonder how a man could find his way through the opaque white vapor. It was, however, an accustomed medium to the young mountaineer, and his feet, too, had something of that unclassified muscular instinct, apart from reason, which guides in an oft-trodden path. ”

“ Wyatt collected a considerable force at Rochester and marched upon London, when taking the first to the left, then the second to the right, they found themselves masters of Southwark. He had intended to give battle in Bermondsey, and put a cannon at the corner of the street, but it did not go off so well as he expected. In the meantime the queen's forces began pouring upon him some of the juice of the grape, from the Tower, and intimating to his followers that it might affect their heads, he withdrew as far as Kingston. ”

“ Wyatt, as if unconscious that he had left the great body of his army behind him, and had now the enemy betwixt it and himself, rushed along past Charing Cross and through the Strand to Ludgate, in the fond hope still that the citizens would admit him and join him. In the passages of the Strand were posted bodies of soldiers under the Earl of Worcester and the contemptible Courtenay, who, on the sight of Wyatt, fled. It was supposed to be cowardice on his part, but was most probably treason, for he had engaged to unite with Wyatt, but had not the honesty to do one thing or another. ”

“ That is not the end of the poem. Wyatt points the moral. "Alas," he says, "how men do seek the best and find the worst." "Although thy head were hooped with gold," thou canst not rid thyself of care. Content thyself, then, with what is allotted thee and use it well.
This satire Wyatt wrote while living quietly in the country, having barely escaped with his life from the King's wrath. But although he escaped the scaffold, he died soon after in his King's service. Riding on the King's business in the autumn of 1542 he became overheated, fell into a fever, and died. ”

“ Wyatt wrote “specials” and occasional exposés and news features, not because he urgently had to, but because he liked to. A benevolent uncle's will had permitted him bachelor rooms in Trinity Court, also a very reputable-appearing roadster and a decent amount of leisure; but still, week by week, he turned out much copy. If writing is in a man's blood, what uncle's will ever shall eradicate it?
Wyatt's present objective was Newspaper Row, where he sought his good friend John Lomax, who had charge of the Boston Messenger's “bone yard.” ”

“ Wyatt watched him, thinking He will raise that gun and fire and that will be the end of it.
The man's voice reached him, thin with distance and surprise. "Hey, it's a man. It's human. It ain't no monster after all—"
From inside the open hatch of the globe Wyatt heard a radio-transmitted voice speaking.
"If you will withdraw your—er—aircraft as a sign of good faith, our representatives will come to—"
Wyatt didn't hear the rest of it too clearly. He was struggling with the reaction of relief. Not only for Earth, but for himself. ”

“ Several of these have been engraved for the ‘Art Journal.’ The ‘Penelope’ was a commission given by the queen to Wyatt at the time of his only visit to England in 1841. His whole life was otherwise passed in Rome, where he died, unmarried, on 29 May 1850, and was buried in the protestant cemetery. Some of his works were shown at the London exhibition of 1851, and were awarded a gold medal. Wyatt was a highly accomplished artist, particularly excelling in his female figures, which in purity of form and beauty of line rivalled those of his master Canova. ”

“ Wyatt had committed his adventures to paper before starting, and had disposed of the MS. to a publisher. The book sold well, and the sixth edition was called for in 1755, but in it no further particulars are given of Wyatt, so that it must be assumed either that he was then dead or that he was still abroad.
What strikes one in reading his Memoirs is the indefatigable energy and the resourcefulness of the man. He could turn his hand to anything. He kept his eyes open, and was ever eager to acquire information.
His Life and Surprising Adventures has his portrait in copper plate prefixed to it. ”

“ It was not long before her confidence in the commander of the royal troops was justified, and news was brought that put an end to all fear. Wyatt was taken.
308 At the head of that body of his men who had been allowed to clear the enemy’s lines, he had ridden on towards the City, had passed Temple Bar and Fleet Street, till Ludgate was reached. There he halted. He had kept his tryst, fulfilled the pledge he had given, and knocked, as he had promised, at the gate. Let them open to him; Wyatt was there—successful so long, he may have thought there was magic in the name—Wyatt was there ”

“ A Spanish gentleman was so delighted with the house of Dr. Ross that he asked Wyatt to build him one. Wyatt agreed, but in the midst of the work was arrested by soldiers from Grand Canary and conveyed thither to be examined by the Inquisition, which supposed him to be a Freemason. He had happily provided himself with letters of recommendation from a number of leading men in the isle of Teneriffe to whom he had done services, and in return for blackening their suits they did their best to whiten his [Pg 114] character. ”

“ Wyatt's hand quivered out in desperate appeal. “We've got to spare her, to protect her from—”
“You seem to have rather a close personal interest in Miss Forrester. You might at least introduce yourself!”
“I'm Rodman Wyatt, and if I'm not engaged to Disney, I—well, I don't know who is! So you see—”
“I see that you're as bad as a reporter, or worse; and God knows they're the most accursed breed that ever infested honest people's affairs!” The old doctor, quite out of breath with growing indignation, got up and obesely confronted Wyatt. ”

“ If Thoreau is right in saying that the whole life of a man may be referred to a few deep experiences, this moment in Wyatt's life was crucial.
“Now for Veazie!”
Wyatt's thought centered on this last remaining peril. Were Veazie to be rounded up and made to talk—but Wyatt refused to dwell on what the newspapers would do then.
“God! If only Veazie's home—if only I can catch him!”
Forgotten now were all Wyatt's professional instincts. His story of all stories, the “scoop” that would have set his name on pinnacles of newspaper achievement—down it had crashed to ruin. ”

“ Wondering, waiting, Wyatt regarded the Universe. The stars looked icily back.
At last, almost completely broken, Wyatt went to bed.
eauclaire's first days passed very quickly. He spent them in combing the ship, seeking her out in her deepest layers, watching and touching and loving. The ship was to him like a woman; the first few days were his honeymoon. Because there is no lonelier job that a man can have, it was nearly always this way with men in the Command. ”

“ Like Wyatt's, his verses are poor stuff, but a sympathetic ear can catch in them something of the accent that distinguishes the verse of Sidney and Spenser. He is greater than Wyatt, not so much for greater skill as for more boldness in experiment. Wyatt in his sonnets had used the Petrarchan or Italian form, the form used later in England by Milton and in the nineteenth century by Rossetti. He built up each poem, that is, in two parts, the octave, a two-rhymed section of eight lines at the beginning, followed by the sestet, a six line close with three rhymes. ”

“ Next day the kind old lady sent him a pair of silk stockings, a hat, a black silk waistcoat, and a dollar in money.
Wyatt was now transferred to the castle at Laguna, above Santa Cruz, where he found five-and-twenty English prisoners, among whom was a physician, Dr. Ross. It was some time before he was healed of his wounds, but eventually did recover.
One day a man came to the castle with a drum on his back, and Wyatt at once asked him to be allowed to beat it. To this he consented, and Wyatt beat a march. ”

“ As a kind of spell, cast by the fingers of steel and the superhuman flexibility of his opponent's wrist, a palsy was creeping up his outstretched arm. And one twitch of relaxation, he knew, and he was sped! Now, whether from the depth of his own need, or whether the spirit of the master were hovering over a beloved scholar in his dire extremity—who shall say?—certain it was that the very tones of Saviolo were now recalling to Wyatt's brain a favorite axiom of the fence-school:
"Chi para, busca; chi tira, tocca!" (He who parries, only seeketh; he who thrusts finds!) ”

“ You will not go to school to-morrow. Do you understand? That is all. Have you anything to say?"
Wyatt reflected.
"No, I don't think——"
His eye fell on a tray bearing a decanter and a syphon.
"Oh, yes," he said. "Can't I mix you a whisky-and soda, father, before I go off to bed?"
"Well?" said Mike.
Wyatt kicked off his slippers, and began to undress.
"What happened?"
"We chatted."
"Has he let you off?"
"Like a gun. I shoot off almost immediately. Tomorrow I take a well-earned rest away from school, and the day after I become the gay young bank-clerk, all amongst the ink and ledgers." ”

“ He opened his eyes, and saw a dark figure silhouetted against the light of the window. He sat up in bed.
"Hullo," he said. "Is that you, Wyatt?"
"Are you awake?" said Wyatt. "Sorry if I've spoiled your beauty sleep."
"Are you going out?"
"I am," said Wyatt. "The cats are particularly strong on the wing just now. Mustn't miss a chance like this. Specially as there's a good moon, too. I shall be deadly."
"I say, can't I come too?"
A moonlight prowl, with or without an air-pistol, would just have suited Mike's mood.
"No, you can't," said Wyatt. ”

“ Henry and Paul were eager enough to see but the [Pg 253] schoolmaster was perhaps the most eager of all. This was something new in his experience. He had heard much of Braxton Wyatt, the renegade, once a pupil of his, and he did not understand how one of white blood and training could turn aside to join the Indians, and to become a more ruthless enemy of his own people than the savages themselves. Yet there could be no doubt of its truth, and now that he saw Wyatt he understood. Evil passions make an evil face. ”

“ A moment thus; then—for all eyes were upon her—I lifted her head, kissed her, and gave her to Lady Wyatt, whom I found at my side. “I commend my wife to your ladyship’s care,” I said. “As you are woman, deal sisterly by her!”
“You may trust me, sir,” she made answer, the tears upon her cheeks. “I did not know,—I did not understand.... Dear heart, come away,—come away with Margaret Wyatt.”
Clayborne opened the door of the cabin, and stood aside with a low bow. The men who had sat to judge me rose; only the King’s favourite kept his seat. ”

“ When the sun was rising on a brilliant new morning, he went back to the ship.
"They had a man here once," he said to Wyatt, "who was as good a writer as there ever was. He wrote a book which these people use as their Bible. It's like our Bible sometimes, but mostly it's just the opposite. It preaches that a man shouldn't worship anything. Would you like to hear some of it?"
Wyatt had been pinned down and he had to listen, feeling sorry for Beauclaire, who had such a long way to go. His thoughts were on Donna, who had gone out alone to walk in the woods and say goodbye to her world. ”

“ On the 29th May, 1741, James Wyatt had entered as trumpeter on board the Revenge, privateer, and was away on her almost two years, during which time he had undergone as many hardships as ever man did enough to break down the health of one who did not possess a constitution of iron. ”

“ And Mike rapidly explained the situation.
“But how the dickens did he hear you, if you were in the dining-room?” asked Wyatt. “It’s miles from his bedroom. You must tread like a policeman.”
“It wasn’t that. The thing was, you see, it was rather a rotten thing to do, I suppose, but I turned on the gramophone.”
“You—what?”
“The gramophone. It started playing ‘The Quaint Old Bird.’ Ripping it was, till Wain came along.”
Wyatt doubled up with noiseless laughter.
“You’re a genius,” he said. “I never saw such a man. Well, what’s the game now? What’s the idea?” ”

“ In Wyatt’s Complaint we hear a strain of manly grief which commands attention, and we listen to it with respect for the sake of him that suffers. Surrey’s distress is painted in such natural terms, that we make it our own, and recognise in his sorrows emotions which we are conscious of having felt ourselves.
[786] Wyatt’s best poem, in this style, the Epistle to John Poins, is a very close imitation of the tenth satire of Alamanni; it is abridged, but every thought and every verse in the English is taken from the Italian. Dr. Nott has been aware of this ”