Serang

“ It is one thing to sow the seed of an accident and another to see the monstrous fruit hanging over your head ready to fall in the sound of agitated voices.
"There's no danger," he muttered thickly.
The horror of incertitude had seized upon Captain Whalley, the miserable mistrust of men, of things--of the very earth. He had steered that very course thirty-six times by the same compass--if anything was certain in this world it was its absolute, unerring correctness. Then what had happened? Did the Serang lie? Why lie? Why? ”

“ Less than two hours after Desmond reached Calcutta two budgeros left Cruttenden Ghat. Each was provided with a double complement of men, and although the sails filled with a strong following wind, their oars were kept constantly in play. The passengers on board were for the most part unaccustomed to this luxurious mode of traveling. There were a dozen lascars; Hossain the serang; Karim, the man saved by Desmond at Chandernagore; Bulger and the second mate of the Hormuzzeer, and Mr. Toley, who, like Desmond and the serang, was clothed, much to Bulger's amusement, as a fairly well-to-do ryot. ”

“ And the Resident at Serang, who is lord of the Residency of Bantam, where live five times a hundred thousand men, desires that justice shall be done in his dominion, and that righteousness shall reign in those parts that obey him. ”

“ She shewed them the great serang—Captain of the Chinese—driving them off the beach and telling them to begone back into the wilderness, and, vaguely, the fight where Raft had saved her from death or worse——
“Ah, Mon Dieu, what a man,” cried a female voice down the table.
Cléo stopped.
“Yes, Madame la Comtesse,” said she, “but a man beyond the pale, a man to be ashamed of, a man who, were he to sit in the lounge of this hotel and smoke his pipe, would drive all the other guests away. A common sailor. A man rough from the sea and illiterate.” ”

“ He feared that the crew might set fire to the ship, if resistance was too strenuous and costly to their side, leaving, then, in the boats. He feared the heat, thirst, hunger. He thought of a sortie, but to emerge through the cuddy-door would mean that they would be cut down by men who could stand beside the opening and hack at them. And, if the men were killed—what of the women? He thrust that lead aside, welcoming the sight of Badoun.
From somewhere the serang had produced a Malay sword. The skipper thought grimly of the motto—strip a Malay and you'll always find a kris. ”

“ Chiefs distinguished by these personal marks shall be the allies and neighbours of the last Seaforth; and when he looks around him and sees them, he may know that his sons are doomed to death, that his broad lands shall pass away to the stranger, and that his race shall come to an end.”
When the seer had ended this prediction, he threw his white stone into a small loch, and declared that whoever should find that stone would be similarly gifted. Then submitting to his fate, he was at once executed, and this wild and fearful doom ended his strange and uncanny life. ”

“ The Roman matron added her importunate request.
“O sirs! he is a kind and upright man when the demon doth not possess him! Can you cast out the foul spirit? Behold when it useth him he is exceeding fierce, so that he must needs be bound with chains. Silver and gold in abundance shall be yours if peradventure you can compass his release.”
“We come not for silver and gold!” said Serenus; “but in the name of the Eternal Spirit of Goodness, to bring joy, peace, and salvation to this house. Thy husband shall be restored.” ”

“ SIR PETER. Aye and what is very extraordinary in all our disputes she is always in the wrong! But Lady Sneerwell, and the Set she meets at her House, encourage the perverseness of her Disposition—then to complete my vexations—Maria—my Ward—whom I ought to have the Power of a Father over, is determined to turn Rebel too and absolutely refuses the man whom I have long resolved on for her husband—meaning I suppose, to bestow herself on his profligate Brother. ”

“ Hast thou forgotten that the Gentiles and they that worship other gods are the enemies of the Most High?”
The calm dignity of Serenus was unmoved, and his face almost shone with an inner light which seemed to fill him.
“The God of all the earth hath no enemies, whether Jew or Gentile. He cannot know enmity; for it is not, save in the hearts of such as separate themselves from him. They dwell in the darkness which they only have made by their own vain and base imaginings.” ”

“ He dashed to the front of the little house, and peered out upon the plains.
Several forms, hitherto hidden by the tall prairie grass, were now dancing up and down in savage glee.
“We’re hemmed in,” despairingly said the borderer. “To go out by either door would be to get a bullet, or a dozen of them, through your body. We must stay here as long as we can, and trust for something to turn up to aid us, and if nothing does come, then we’ll die together in the cabin. You and the children had better die than fall into the hands of those brutes yonder.” ”

“ Up and down through the Bad Lands, in gambling hells, in vicious resorts, in the hiding places where thugs and crooks burrowed themselves away from the daylight, through the heart and the outskirts of the underworld travelled the fiat, whispered out of mouths crooked to one side—death to the Gray Seal! ”

“ SURFACE. I have not seen either since I saw you—but I can inform you that they are at present at Variance—some of your stories have taken good effect on Maria.
LADY SNEERWELL. Ah! my dear Verjuice the merit of this belongs to you. But do your Brother's Distresses encrease?
SURFACE. Every hour. I am told He had another execution in his house yesterday—in short his Dissipation and extravagance exceed anything I have ever heard of.
LADY SNEERWELL. Poor Charles!
SURFACE. True Madam—notwithstanding his Vices one can't help feeling for him—ah poor Charles! ”

“ They must be driven out or destroyed, otherwise great harm will befall the church of our fathers. It hath come to my ears, O Almon! that my former enemy, the false teacher Serenus, hath joined himself to these blasphemers, and that the Rabban hath put him away from the Assembly. It behooveth us to be vigilant, else this heresy may spread even to the overthrow of our nation and people. I shall counsel with the High Priest on the morrow, and take measures to rid the Holy City of these [pg 151] deceivers who are persuading the common people with their vain pretensions. ”

“ Railed at by a populace who angrily demanded at its hands this criminal of criminals, mocked at and threatened by a virulent press, stung to madness by the knowledge of its own impotence, flaunted impudently to its face by this mysterious Gray Seal to whose door the law laid a hundred crimes, for whom the bars of a death cell in Sing Sing was the certain goal could he but be caught, the police, to a man, was like an uncaged beast that, flicked to the raw by some unseen assailant and murderous in its fury, was crouched to strike. ”

“ Now, young disputant, finish thine oration!”
Victor Serenus still stood calmly in his place in the tribune, without a trace, either of anger or fear, in his countenance. The noise was stilled, and he resumed.
“Men of the assembly, and friends! The time is at hand for a proclamation of righteousness. We declare that the cup of Pharisaical hypocrisy and violence is filled to the full. The spirit of the prophets of Israel is worm-eaten and corrupted, and the ordinances of the Law have become a stumbling-block. I proclaim deliverance from the bondage and leadership of blind guides. ”

“ They did not till the ground, nor breed cattle, nor deal in merchandise, but they lived by spoiling of their neighbours’ goods. And they had this evil custom also, that they lived on the flesh of men, devouring all strangers whom they might chance to find within their borders. Some of these savages, as they wandered in the forest, chanced to see Serena, as she lay asleep. ”

“ As Searle hurled each epithet, he worked his passion higher and shook an offensively, impudently accusing finger at the defendant; "this hypocrite!—this paddler of the palms of neurasthenic women!—this associate of criminals!—this shepherd of black sheep, who now sits here with a sneer upon his lips—lips which have just committed the most appalling sacrilege by seeking to cloak the guilt of a dastardly act with the sacred gown of a priest of God!" ”

“ When Menar es Sena saw herself in this state of abjection and humiliation, she cried out and wept; but none succoured her. Then said she to the queen, ‘O my sister, how is thy heart hardened against me? Hast thou no mercy on me nor on these little children?’ But her words only hardened her sister’s heart and she reviled her, saying, ‘O wanton! O harlot! May God have no mercy on whoso hath mercy on thee! How should I have pity on thee, O traitress?’ ‘I appeal to the Lord of the Heavens,’ replied Menar es Sena, ‘concerning that wherewith thou reproached me and whereof I am innocent! ”

“ VERJUICE.
She certainly has Talents. LADY SNEERWELL.
But her manner is gross. VERJUICE.
'Tis very true. She generally designs well [,] has a free tongue and a bold invention—but her colouring is too dark and her outline often extravagant—She wants that delicacy of Tint—and mellowness of sneer—which distinguish your Ladyship's Scandal. LADY SNEERWELL.
Ah you are Partial Verjuice. VERJUICE.
Not in the least—everybody allows that Lady Sneerwell can do more with a word or a Look than many can with the most laboured Detail even when they happen to have a little truth on their side to support it. ”

“ The time when this happened is not so very remote as to lead us to suppose that tradition could so grossly blunder as to record such a horrible and barbarous murder by a lady so widely and well-known as Lady Seaforth was, had it not taken place.
It is too much to suppose that if the seer had been allowed to die a peaceful and natural death, that such a story as this would have ever originated, be carried down and believed in from generation to generation, and be so well authenticated in many quarters as it now is. ”

“ Betrayed, as they believed, by the one who, though unknown to them; they had counted the greatest among themselves, and each one fearful that his own betrayal might come next, every crook, every thug in the Bad Lands now eyed his oldest pal with suspicion and distrust, and each was a self-constituted sleuth, with the prod of self-preservation behind him, sworn to the accomplishment of that unhallowed slogan—death to the Gray Seal. ”

“ The third evening, just at the set of the sun, sped the youngest king on the Sun-horse, sped fast, for he had been delayed somewhat; but as a pool of blood crimsoned the ground before the bridge, he halted, and observing it, exclaimed: It has been some unheard-of criminal who has dared to kill a man in my kingdom.” Scarcely had these words escaped his lips when the seer posted himself before him with drawn sword, vigorously urging him to defend himself for having cast a slur upon the honour of a seer. ”

“ If he was not a prisoner, but another mysterious man, who had to be saved from the waves of the Neva, how could the sentry know anything about him? And then again, it could not have happened as it was whispered in frivolous society. In society much is accepted in a light-hearted and frivolous manner, but those who live in monasteries and conventual houses look upon all this much more seriously and are quite conversant with the real things of this world. ”

“ His plan to rescue Mabel Dane and her father was set at naught. The brigands led him across the rope bridge, and he was cast into a leaking and vile smelling hut for the night.
Frank’s sensations were not of the pleasantest. But he bore up bravely.
But the next morning he was led from his prison house by an armed guard.
He was placed with his back to a tall palm tree, and an armed guard at fifty paces covered him with their carbines.
Red Muriel stood by with a cruel smile upon his dark face.
“This time, senor,” he said, derisively and vengefully, “no power on earth shall save you. ”

“ It does not do away with a man of God to pelt him with nicknames and opprobrious epithets. Persecution may end his earthly career, but it cannot confute his claim nor invalidate his testimony. The name of the martyred modern Seer, despite the clouds of calumny enveloping it, shines out from amidst the darkness that comprehended him not. His glorious Lord and Master, crucified as an imposter, put to death for maintaining that he was more than the world believed him to be, gave the only Name given under heaven whereby men can be saved. ”

“ But I realized for thee, that he, being perfect Goodness, hath already answered every desire for help. All change and conformity must be within ourselves. They who are unbelieving, ignorantly pray for that which is around them as free as the air of heaven. The Father’s table is loaded for his children, while they turn their backs upon it, and beseech him for bread.”
“But, O Serenus! while I feel new life, I cannot understand how it can come unless it be sent.”
“God is Spirit, and his tabernacle is not far away, but within his children. ”

“ Never was a man more thoroughly boxed in. As I realized how little chance there was of any outside interference, how my captor, even if he was seen leaving the house by the officer on duty, would be taken for myself and so allowed to escape, I own that I felt my position a hopeless one. But anger is a powerful stimulant, and I was mortally angry, not only with Sears, but with myself. ”