The Chainbearer; Or, The Littlepage Manuscripts

"The steady brain, the sinewy limb, To leap, to climb, to dive, to swim: The iron frame, inured to bear Each dire inclemency of air; Nor less confirmed to undergo Fatigue's fain...

It will be seen that, while I got a degree, and what is called an education, the latter was obtained by studies of a very desultory character. There is no question that learning...

Happy, happy Lilacsbush! Never can I forget the delight with which I roamed over its heights and glens, and how I rioted in the pleasure of feeling I was again a sort of master...

_Beat._ "Against my will, I am sent to bid you come in to dinner." _Bene._ "Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains." _Beat._ "I took no more pains for these thanks, than You...

"He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway between him and Benedick; the one is too like an image, and says nothing; and the other, too like my lady's eldest so...

"They love their land, because it is their own, And scorn to give aught other reason why; Would shake hands with a king upon his throne, And think it kindness to his majesty; A...

"Who is that graceful female here With yon red hunter of the deer? Of gentle mien and shape, she seems For civil halls design'd; Yet with the stately savage walks, As she were o...

"With what free growth the elm and plane Fling their huge arms across my way; Gray, old, and cumber'd with a train Of vines, as huge, and old, and gray! Free stray the lucid str...

"O masters! if I were disposed to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, Who, you all know, are honorable men; I will not do...

The ceremony of the introduction was not half through, when there was a noisy summons to the pike-poles. This called away the crowd in a body; a raising in the country being an...

"The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not woo'd in good time; if the prince be too important, tell him there is measure for every thing, and so dance out the answer...

"I ought not to leave you in any doubts as to my meaning, Mr. Littlepage," resumed Ursula, after a short pause. "Priscilla Bayard is very dear to me, and is well worthy of all y...

A month glided swiftly by. During that interval, Frank Malbone was fully installed, and Andries consented to suspend operations with his chain until this necessary work was comp...

"Intent to blend her with his lot, Fate formed her all that he was not; And, as by mere unlikeness thought, Associate we see, Their hearts, from very difference, caught A perfec...

"Fie, fie, fond love, thou art so full of fear, As one with treasure laden, hemmed with thieves, Trifles, unwitnessed with eye or ear, Thy coward heart with false bethinking gri...

For the first half hour after I left Ursula Malbone's hut, I was literally unconscious of whither I was going, or of what I was about. I can recollect nothing but having passed...

"He stepped before the monarch's chair, And stood with rustic plainness there, And little reverence made; Nor head, nor body, bowed nor bent, But on the desk his arm he leant, A...

There I stood alone and unarmed, in the centre of six athletic men--for Lowiny had been sent to assemble her brothers, a business in which she was aided by Prudence's blowing a...

Thousandacres and the magistrate held their way directly toward the storehouse; and the log of the sentinel offering a comfortable seat, that functionary was dismissed, when the...

"I mark'd his desultory pace, His gestures strange, and varying face, With many a muttered sound; And ah! too late, aghast, I view'd The reeking blade, the hand imbru'd: He fell...

"Was she not all my fondest wish could frame? Did ever mind so much of heaven partake? Did she not love me with the purest flame? And give up friends and fortune for my sake? Th...

Thousandacres had not altogether neglected forms, though so much set against the spirit of the law. We found a sort of court collected before the door of his dwelling, with hims...

That was a somewhat breathless moment. The intensity with which I had listened for any sound that might announce my discovery, was really painful. I almost fancied I heard a sho...

"My love is young--but other loves are young; And other loves are fair, and so is mine; An air divine discloses whence he sprung; He is my love that boasts that air divine."--SH...

A pause succeeded this little opening, during which the assembly was waiting for the arrival of Ursula Malbone, and the semi-savage guardian that "set" so much by her, as not to...

"Ye midnight shades, o'er nature spread! Dumb silence of the dreary hour! In honor of th' approaching dead, Around your awful terrors pour. Yes, pour around, On this pale ground...

Thousandacres had been shot in his chair, by one of the rifles first discharged that night. As it turned out, he was the only one that we could ascertain was hurt; though there...

"Thence cum we to the horrour and the hel, The large great kyngdomes, and the dreadful raygne Of Pluto in his trone where he dyd dwell, The wyde waste places, and the hugye play...

"Mild as a babe reclines himself to rest, And smiling sleeps upon the mother's breast-- Tranquil, and with a patriarch's hope, he gave His soul to heaven, his body to the grave....

"_King._--It is a glorious one, and well sets off Our scene of mercy; to the dead we tender Our sorrow; to the living, ample wishes Of future happiness."--BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

My uncle Ro and myself had been travelling together in the East, and had been absent from home fully five years when we reached Paris. For eighteen months neither of us had seen...

I did not get into my bed that night until two, nor was I out of it until half-past nine. It was near eleven when Jacob came to tell me his master was in the _salle a manger_, a...

"Oh, when shall I visit the land of my birth, The loveliest land on the face of the earth? When shall I those scenes of affection explore, Our forests, our fountains, Our hamlet...

_Cit._ "Speak, speak." _I Cit._ "You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?" _Cit._ "Resolved, resolved." _I Cit._ "First you know, Caius Marcus is chief enemy to the pe...

"And she hath smiles to earth unknown-- Smiles, that with motion of their own Do spread, and sink, and rise: That come and go with endless play And ever, as they pass away, Are...

"Oh, sic a geek she gave her head, And sic a toss she gave her feather; Man, saw ye ne'er a bonnier lass Before, among the blooming heather?" --ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

At the springs we parted, Mr. Warren and his friends finding a conveyance, with their own horses, in readiness to carry them the remainder of the distance. As for my uncle and m...

"I see thee still, Remembrance, faithful to her trust, Calls thee in beauty from the dust; Thou comest in the morning light, Thou'rt with me through the gloomy night; In dreams...

It was now necessary to determine what course we ought next to pursue. It might appear presuming in men of our pursuits to go to the Nest before the appointed time; and did we p...

There they sat, those four young creatures, a perfect galaxy of bright and beaming eyes. There was not a plain face among them; and I was struck with the circumstance of how rar...

Half an hour later, Uncle Ro and myself were seated at table, eating our dinners as quietly as if we were in an inn. The footman who had set the table was an old family servant,...

"There shall be, in England, seven half penny loaves sold for a penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer; all the realm sh...

After an early breakfast, next morning, the signs of preparation for a start became very apparent in the family. Not only Miller, but his wife and daughter, intended to go down...

All this was so suddenly done as scarce to leave us time to think. There was one instant, notwithstanding, while two Injins were assisting Mary Warren to jump from the wagon, wh...

As I knew Mary must have communicated to her father my real name, I did not hesitate, as I ought to have done in my actual dress and in my assumed character, about following the...

In a minute or two the tumult ceased, and a singular scene presented itself. The church had four separate groups or parties left in it, beside the Injins, who crowded the main a...

"If he were with me, King of Tuscarora, Gazing as I upon thy portrait now, In all its medalled, fringed, and bearded glory, Its eyes' dark beauty, and its thoughtful brow--

"Nobody can say"--answered Tubbs, giving a loud hem, as if determined to brazen the matter out. "Maybe the gentleman will be glad to compromise the matter. It's ag'in law, I bel...

"With look, like patient Job's, eschewing evil; With motions graceful as a bird's in air; Thou art, in sober truth, the veriest devil That e'er clinched fingers in a captive's h...

It wanted about an hour to sunset--or sun-_down_, to use our common Americanism--when we all left the new quarters of our red brethren, in order to visit the huts. As the moment...

That night was passed under my own roof, in the family circle. Although my presence on the estate was now generally known, to all who were interested in it, I cannot say that I...

Besides the house with its walls of stone, however, there were numerous out-buildings. The carriage-house, stables, and home-barn were all of stone also; but a brand thrown into...

"Ye say they all have passed away, That noble race and brave: That their light canoes have vanished From off the crested wave: That 'mid the forests where they roamed There ring...

"Well may we sing her beauties This pleasant land of ours, Her sunny smiles, her golden fruits, And all her world of flowers. And well would they persuade us now, In moments all...

"There is a pure republic--wild, yet strong-- A 'fierce democracie,' where all are true To what themselves have voted--right or wrong-- And to their laws denominated blue; (If r...

"If men desire the rights of property, they must take their consequences; distinction in social classes. Without the rights of property civilization can hardly exist, while the...

"And underneath that face like summer's dreams, Its lips as moveless, and its cheek as clear, Slumbers a whirlwind of the heart's emotions, Love, hatred, pride, hope, sorrow--al...

"Hope--that thy wrongs will be by the Great Spirit Remembered and revenged when thou art gone; Sorrow--that none are left thee to inherit Thy name, thy fame, thy passions, and t...

I have said that my narrative of the manner in which justice is sometimes meted out among us was not without its effect on even that rude band of selfish and envious rioters: ru...

Although experience has shown that the appearance of a sheriff is by no means a pledge of the appearance of a friend of the law in this anti-rent movement, in our instance the f...