Roturier

“ One day King Rother was seated on his throne surrounded by his counsellors, watching now the people, now the sports, and now the restless waves that were beating against the shore. There was a troubled look upon his face. Turning to his old and faithful banner-bearer, Duke Berchther of Meran, who sat beside him, “Look,” he said, “do you see how the waves raise their foam-crowned heads high in the air, dash forward, and then vanish without leaving a trace behind? The kings of the earth resemble them in this, so indeed do all men.” ”

“ Returning home, a few leaves were placed in the live-box, and on examination with the power of sixty diameters they disclosed a specimen of, perhaps, the most beautiful of all the rotifers, the Stephanoceros Eichornii. In this elegant creature an oval body, somewhat expanded at the top, is supported upon a tapering stalk, and stands in a gelatinous bottle, composed of irregular rings superimposed one upon the other, as if thrown off by successive efforts, the upper ones being inverted and attached to the body of the animal. ”

“ Let the seigneurs defend themselves!"
"By the death of Christ! This old man has gone crazy!" cried Rothbert beyond himself with rage and yet not daring fully to give a loose to his pent-up anger. "How could we defend ourselves without the aid of the people! Could I repel thirty thousand Northmans with the two thousand soldiers that I keep in my duchy of France?"
"Oh, I know it! You can do nothing without the people. Your brother, Count Eudes, knew it also. At the approach of the pirates he sought to propitiate the people, and convoked the deans of the guilds at his little castle of Paris. ”

“ His confinement, however, although it contributed not a little to the peace of the town, operated unfavorably upon Roderick himself. In solitude his melancholy grew more black and sullen. He spent whole days--indeed, it was his sole occupation--in communing with the serpent. A conversation was sustained, in which, as it seemed, the hidden monster bore a part, though unintelligibly to the listeners, and inaudible except in a hiss. Singular as it may appear, the sufferer had now contracted a sort of affection for his tormentor, mingled, however, with the intensest loathing and horror. ”

“ Roderick saw, and was mortified by this; the more so, as he felt it was occasioned by his own folly; and he struggled to do something to retrieve the confidence he had lost. There is, perhaps, no situation more painful to a noble, high-spirited mind, than the consciousness of error; and the feelings of Roderick upon this occasion were an ample penance for his faults. ”

“ These were followed by the merry fairies and elves; then by the buccaneers and the captive prisoners; and the rear was brought up by MacProspero, as Lord Rotherwood called him, with his niece on his arm and his nephew by his side.
When the central stall, or bothie, in the Carrara grounds was reached, after passing in full state and order over two of the bridges, the procession halted before a group of the Rotherwood family, Sir Jasper and Lady Merrifield, Lady Flight, and other local grandees, with the clergy, who had declined to walk in procession. ”

“ One day a polyzoon caught a large rotifer, (R. vulgaris,) which, with several others of its tribe, had been walking over the cœnœcium, and swimming amongst the tentacles, as if unconscious of danger. All of a sudden it went down the whirlpool leading to the mouth, was rolled up by a process that could not be traced, and without an instant's loss of time, was seen shooting down in rapid descent to the gulf below, where it looked a potato-shaped mass, utterly destitute of its characteristic [123] living form. ”

“ Must he draw his revolver and simply sell his life as dearly as possible?
It may be sweet to die for one's country, but most men much prefer to live, especially when health and wealth and honor are their inheritance by right of birth.
Roderic never felt less like giving up the ghost in all his life than he did just then.
He had been far down below zero up to the moment when he discovered that it was not Georgia who accompanied Julio, and then of a sudden his spirits took a bound that sent them away above fever heat; life assumed a rosy hue, and happiness came again within his grasp. ”

“ The King had not moved away from the chair against which he had staggered, and the prints of his nails were on its arm. He was as though he had hardened to stone. “To show you that I am stronger than you, though I face you with bare hands,” he said. “To show you that you dare not kill me.”
“Dare not!” Rothgar’s laughter was a hideous thing as he cleared at a bound the space between them. His sword was full-drawn now. “Shout for your guards! It may be that they will get here in time.” ”

“ Rotgier, who had fought in many wars and battles, either in troop or singly, knew by experience that there are some people, like birds of prey, who are born to fight, being specially gifted by Nature, who bestows all things, with what others only attain after years of training, and he at the same time observed that he was now dealing with one of those. ”

“ Another kind of rotifer was abundant—the Philodina, which belongs to the same family as the common wheel-bearer, namely, the Philodinæa. The Philodina is a good deal like the common wheel-bearer, or Rotifer vulgaris, but is usually of a stouter build, and carries his eyes in a different place. In the common rotifer these organs are situated on the proboscis, while those of the Philodina are lower, and said to be "cervical." The changes of form in this rotifer are still more remarkable than in the common wheel-bearer. ”

“ Roderic bore no animosity toward the veteran—indeed, he had rather grown fond of him in times past, and the fact that he was of kin to Georgia added something to this feeling.
At the same time he wished the big senor anywhere else than here just at present.
There is such a thing as being in the way—at times even three can make a crowd.
You see, Roderic was no different from the same old general run of lovers—every man must be a law unto himself when he finds circumstances surrounding him with a network of this kind. ”

“ In spite of his anxiety, a fine spiritual exaltation flooded him. So far he had stood the acid test, had come through without dishonor. He might be a coward; at least, he was not a quitter. Plenty of men would have done his day's work without a tremor. What brought comfort to Roy's soul was that he had been able to do it at all.
Mrs. Rothgerber greeted him with exclamations of delight. The message of Rutherford had frightened her even though she did not entirely understand it. ”

“ So he begged his lord to wrap a cloak around his head that he might get the courage to ask a boon. When that had been done, he stabbed. Do you want me to cover my eyes?”
With a hoarse cry, Rothgar flung his sword back to his sheath, recoiling,—there was even a kind of fear in his manner: “A fool would I be, to set your ghost free to follow me with that look on its face! Keep your life—and instead I will torture every Angle I can get under my grip, for it is they who have turned a great hero into a nithing—may they despise you as you have despised your people for their sakes!” ”

“ Here it was that the great and glorious King Rother, the father of his people and the terror of his foes, held court amongst the dukes, counts and nobles of the land. The race-course was close to the sea, and there the young warriors were wont to 29 congregate, to throw the spear and practise such sports as teach agility, while the women and maidens looked on and distributed prizes to the successful candidates for honour. ”

“ The slashing of the rain upon the window-panes penetrated her consciousness. “What a wet night!” she murmured.
“Yes, fiendish,” said Rotherby. “But I’ll soon have you out of it. You’re dead beat, aren’t you?”
“Very, very tired,” she answered, and dropped back into silence.
The car slid on through the night. They turned out of the glaring streets, and in the dimness Frances closed her eyes again. She did not want to talk; and Rotherby’s mood seemed to coincide with hers, for he sat in utter silence by her side. ”

“ It was said, too, that an answering hiss came from the vitals of the shipmaster, as if a snake were actually lurking there and had been aroused by the call of its brother reptile. If there were in fact any such sound, it might have been caused by a malicious exercise of ventriloquism on the part of Roderick.
Thus making his own actual serpent—if a serpent there actually was in his bosom—the type of each man’s fatal error, or hoarded sin, or unquiet conscience, and striking his sting so unremorsefully into the sorest spot, we may well imagine that Roderick became the pest of the city. ”

“ Jack Rotherfield burst into the group and threw himself on the ground beside the dead woman. Unprincipled as he was, guilty as he was, not one of the three persons present could fail to be moved by the anguish in his face. Solemn as the moment was, and deeply as they were all impressed by the swiftness of the unexpected and as yet imperfectly understood tragedy, not one of those three, Sir Robert, Rhoda, or Mrs. Hawkes, showed half the despair which convulsed the features of the young man. ”

“ Rotherby explained, and struck the hilt of his sword. “I might pick a quarrel with him. 'Twould not be difficult. Come upon him unawares, say, and strike him. That should force a fight.”
“Tusk, fool! He's all empanoplied in virtue where you are concerned. He'd use the matter of your affair with Caryll as a reason not to meet you, whatever you might do, and he'd set his grooms to punish any indignity you might put upon him.” ”

“ King Roderic fell passionately in love with her, and, being unable to overcome her virtuous resolution by persuasion, resorted to violence. The girl found means to inform her father of what had occurred. "By the living God!" exclaimed the count, in a paroxysm of rage, "I will be revenged." But, dissembling his wrath, he crossed over into Spain, had [29] an understanding with Oppas, the Archbishop of Toledo, and other disaffected ecclesiastics, and, under specious pretences, lulled the suspicions of Roderic, and brought his daughter away. ”

“ It was only natural that Roderic, coming thus upon the man he had hated so bitterly in the past, should grind his teeth and feel a mad desire to plant his fist square between those black dare devil eyes that had wrought such accursed mischief for years back. ”

“ I am very sorry for that contradiction,’ said Lily; ‘I hope people will not fancy we do not like it.’
‘No, it will only prove my greatness,’ said Lord Rotherwood. ‘Your Marques, was China in the map, so absorbing all beholders that the magnanimous Mohuns themselves—’
‘What nonsense, Rotherwood,’ said Jane, sharply; ‘can’t you suppose that one may shut one’s eyes to what one does not wish to see.’
The singular inappropriateness of this answer occasioned a general roar of laughter, and she looked in perplexity. ”

“ Roderic, without losing time, made a dive at the two soldiers, having whipped out his revolver.
"Surrender!" he exclaimed, not forgetting to put the emphatic word in Spanish as became the character he represented.
To his disgust the fellow who held the lantern was so overwhelmed by his alarm that his fingers lost their grip, consequently the article of illumination fell from his grasp and as Roderic's little affair had taken a notion to go out, owing to the abrupt movement he made, they found themselves enveloped in darkness that was not excelled by that of Egypt when the plague came. ”

“ This is most often some floating one-celled creature of the water-drop jungle, such as a protozoan elephant.
The male rotifer is usually much smaller than the female—sometimes nothing more than an appendage she carries about with her. The fantastic worlds of all sorts of rotifers are predominantly feminine worlds. For some species, in fact, males never have been found, but there is little doubt that they exist. ”

“ Roderic met Julio in Ponce at the time he was saying good-bye to Leon and his wife; the ex-toreador and beau of San Juan was thinking of migrating to Spain, since he could not hope to win many fresh laurels in a land where the stars and stripes waved, and where men had a stern code of morals for such sad flirts as he.
Of General Porfidio, Roderic had seen quite considerable while in the hospital, and the old warrior will always have a warm place in Roderic's heart; nor can he ever forget that awful duel with swords in the East India bungalow of Rathmines road, Dublin. ”

“ The rule which thou hast taken on thyself
Toledo ratifies: ’tis meet for Spain,
And as the will divine, to be received,
Observed, and spread abroad. Come hither thou,
Who for thyself hath chosen the good part;
Let me lay hands on thee, and consecrate
Thy life unto the Lord.
Me! Roderick cried;
Me? sinner that I am!... and while he spake
His wither’d cheek grew paler, and his limbs
Shook. As thou goest among the infidels,
Pursued the Primate, many thou wilt find
Fallen from the faith ”

“ A chance was given them to speak of the future in the land where fate was taking them as fast as steam could drive, and Roderic improved the opportunity to arrange it so that he might be sure of meeting Georgia should fortune allow him to enter San Juan ere it was surrendered to General Miles or those under him.
It looked rosy enough just then while her loved presence beamed upon him—perhaps later on, with lowering clouds of misfortune shrouding his future, Roderic might [137] have cause for doubts and fears that it would require all his personal valor to scatter. ”