Shirley Charlotte BrontĂ« (free ebook reader for pc .txt) đ
- Author: Charlotte Brontë
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âYou are all right; only you forget the true parallel. France is Israel, and Napoleon is Moses. Europe, with her old overgorged empires and rotten dynasties, is corrupt Egypt; gallant France is the Twelve Tribes, and her fresh and vigorous Usurper the Shepherd of Horeb.â
âI scorn to answer you.â
Moore accordingly answered himselfâ âat least, he subjoined to what he had just said an additional observation in a lower voice.
âOh, in Italy he was as great as any Moses! He was the right thing there, fit to head and organize measures for the regeneration of nations. It puzzles me to this day how the conqueror of Lodi should have condescended to become an emperor, a vulgar, a stupid humbug; and still more how a people who had once called themselves republicans should have sunk again to the grade of mere slaves. I despise France! If England had gone as far on the march of civilization as France did, she would hardly have retreated so shamelessly.â
âYou donât mean to say that besotted imperial France is any worse than bloody republican France?â demanded Helstone fiercely.
âI mean to say nothing, but I can think what I please, you know, Mr. Helstone, both about France and England; and about revolutions, and regicides, and restorations in general; and about the divine right of kings, which you often stickle for in your sermons, and the duty of nonresistance, and the sanity of war, andâ ââ
Mr. Mooreâs sentence was here cut short by the rapid rolling up of a gig, and its sudden stoppage in the middle of the road. Both he and the rector had been too much occupied with their discourse to notice its approach till it was close upon them.
âNah, maister; did thâ wagons hit home?â demanded a voice from the vehicle.
âCan that be Joe Scott?â
âAy, ay!â returned another voice; for the gig contained two persons, as was seen by the glimmer of its lamp. The men with the lanterns had now fallen into the rear, or rather, the equestrians of the rescue-party had outridden the pedestrians. âAy, Mr. Moore, itâs Joe Scott. Iâm bringing him back to you in a bonny pickle. I fand him on the top of the moor yonder, him and three others. What will you give me for restoring him to you?â
âWhy, my thanks, I believe; for I could better have afforded to lose a better man. That is you, I suppose, Mr. Yorke, by your voice?â
âAy, lad, itâs me. I was coming home from Stilbroâ market, and just as I got to the middle of the moor, and was whipping on as swift as the wind (for these, they say, are not safe times, thanks to a bad government!), I heard a groan. I pulled up. Some would have whipt on faster; but Iâve naught to fear that I know of. I donât believe thereâs a lad in these parts would harm meâ âat least, Iâd give them as good as I got if they offered to do it. I said, âIs there aught wrong anywhere?â âDeed is there,â somebody says, speaking out of the ground, like. âWhatâs to do? Be sharp and tell me,â I ordered. âNobbut four on us ligging in a ditch,â says Joe, as quiet as could be. I telled âem more shame to âem, and bid them get up and move on, or Iâd lend them a lick of the gig-whip; for my notion was they were all fresh. âWeâd haâ done that an hour sinâ, but weâre teed wiâ a bit oâ band,â says Joe. So in a while I got down and loosed âem wiâ my penknife; and Scott would ride wiâ me, to tell me all how it happened; and tâ others are coming on as fast as their feet will bring them.â
âWell, I am greatly obliged to you, Mr. Yorke.â
âAre you, my lad? You know youâre not. However, here are the rest approaching. And here, by the Lord, is another set with lights in their pitchers, like the army of Gideon; and as weâve thâ parson wiâ, usâ âgood evening, Mr. Helstoneâ âweâse do.â
Mr. Helstone returned the salutation of the individual in the gig very stiffly indeed. That individual proceededâ â
âWeâre eleven strong men, and thereâs both horses and chariots amang us. If we could only fall in wiâ some of these starved ragamuffins of frame-breakers we could win a grand victory. We could ivâry one be a Wellingtonâ âthat would please ye, Mr. Helstoneâ âand sich paragraphs as we could contrive for tâ papers! Briarfield suld be famous. But weâse hev a column and a half iâ thâ Stilbro Courier ower this job, as it is, I dare say. Iâse expect no less.â
âAnd Iâll promise you no less, Mr. Yorke, for Iâll write the article myself,â returned the rector.
âTo be sureâ âsartainly! And mind ye recommend weel that them âat brake tâ bits oâ frames, and teed Joe Scottâs legs wiâ band, suld be hung without benefit oâ clergy. Itâs a hanging matter, or suld be. No doubt oâ that.â
âIf I judged them Iâd give them short shrift!â cried Moore. âBut
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