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In the morning,on the 7th of May,1799,a man at the masthead of the Tigre sang out that he saw ships in the offing;& in reply to the signal that was hastily run up,he saw the distant vessels hoist friendly flags.That May morning was a busy time.The besieged Turks took heart of grace;the French outside,under the command of their great general,

But Philip walked with him the two or three miles in the most submissive silence, never uttering a syllable of regret or repentance; and before Justice Cholmley, of Holm-Fell Hall, he was sworn into his Majesty's service, under the name of Stephen Freeman. With a new name, he began a new life. Alas! the old life lives for ever!

Philip was tender even to humility in his conduct towards her. But nothing stirred her from her fortress of reserve. And he knew she was so different; he knew how loving, nay, passionate, was her nature—vehement, demonstrative—oh! how could he stir her once more into expression, even if the first show or speech she made was of anger?

and Sylvia was rather ashamed of her own yearnings for solitude and open air, and the sight and sound of the mother-like sea. She used to take off her hat, and sit there, her hands clasping her knees, the salt air lifting her bright curls, gazing at the distant horizon over the sea, in a sad dreaminess of thought; if she had been asked on what she meditated, she could not have told you.

Sitting in the dark parlour at the back of the shop, and doing 'white work,' was much more wearying to her than running out into the fields to bring up the cows, or spinning wool, or making up butter. She sometimes thought to herself that it was a strange kind of life where there were no out-door animals to look after; the 'ox and the ass' had hitherto come into all her ideas of humanity;

I tell thee my flesh and blood wasn't made for forgiving and forgetting. Once for all, thou must take my word. When I love I love, and when I hate I hate; and him as has done hard to me, or to mine, I may keep fra' striking or murdering, but I'll niver forgive. I should be just a monster, fit to be shown at a fair, if I could forgive him as got feyther hanged.

And in a greater degree than in most cases was the famous maxim of Rochefoucault true with them; for in the misfortunes of their friends they seemed to see some justification of their own. It was blind fate dealing out events, not that the events themselves were the inevitable consequences of folly or misconduct.

Philip reddened.Often as the idea of marriage had come into his mind,this was the first time it had been gravely suggested to him by another

I don't think Hester has any thought of matrimony

To be sure not;it is for you,or for William,to make her think.She,may-be,remembers enough of her mother's life with her father to make her slow to think on such things.But it's in her to think on matrimony; it's in all of us

Come down, peeping Tom,& don't be afeared, they called out.

I'm not afeared,said Philip; I'm no sailor for yo' t' impress me: nor have yo' any right to take that fellow; he's a Greenland specksioneer, under protection,as I know and can testify.

Yo' and yo'r testify go hang. Make haste, man and hear what this gem'man, as was in a dirty blubbery whale-ship, and is now in his Majesty's service, has got to say...

Bell Robson was not aware how deep down certain feelings had penetrated into the girl's heart who sat on the other side of the fire, with a little sad air diffused over her face & figure. Bell looked upon Sylvia as still a child, to be warned off forbidden things by threats of danger. But the forbidden thing was already tasted,& possible danger in its full acquisition only served to make it more precious-sweet.

Sylvia was by all acknowledged and treated as the belle...[...]... and, somehow, the more she yielded to this fascination the more she avoided Philip. He did not speak flatteringly— he did not pay compliments— he watched her with discontented, longing eyes, and grew more inclined every moment, as he remembered his anticipation of a happy evening, to cry out in his heart vanitas vanitatum...

But her ideal husband was different from Philip in every point, the two images never for an instant merged into one. To Philip she was the only woman in the world; it was the one subject on which he dared not consider, for fear that both conscience and judgment should decide against him, and that he should be convinced against his will that she was an unfit mate for him, that she never would be his,..

Amongst uneducated people—whose range of subjects and interest do not extend beyond their daily life—it is natural that when the first blush and hurry of youth is over, there should be no great pleasure in the conversation of the other sex. Men have plenty to say to men, which in their estimation (gained from tradition and experience) women cannot understand;

And now they came to the stile which had filled Philip's eye for some minutes past, and now would begin the delicious tête-à-tête walk, which Philip always tried to make as lingering as possible. To-day he was anxious to show his sympathy with Sylvia, as far as he could read what was passing in her mind; but how was he to guess the multitude of tangled thoughts in that unseen receptacle?

And for the time he was faithless. How came God to permit such cruel injustice of man? Permitting it, He could not be good. Then what was life,& what was death,but woe and despair? The beautiful solemn words of the ritual had done him good,& restored much of his faith. Though he could not understand why such sorrow had befallen him any more than before, he had come back to something of his childlike trust;

It was a good situation for that church.Homeward-bound sailors caught sight of the tower of St Nicholas,the first land object of all.They who went forth upon the great deep might carry solemn thoughts with them of the words they had heard there;not conscious thoughts,perhaps—rather a distinct if dim conviction that buying & selling,eating & marrying, even life & death, were not all the realities in existence...

There was a tolerable crop of rosy apples still hanging on the grey old trees,& here and there they showed ruddy in the green bosses of untrimmed grass.Why the fruit was not gathered,as it was evidently ripe,would have puzzled any one not acquainted with the Corney family to say; but to them it was always a maxim in practice, if not in precept, 'Do nothing to-day that you can put off till to-morrow,'...

What I think and say is this. Laws is made for to keep some folks fra' harming others. Press-gangs & coast-guards harm me i' my business,& keep me fra' getting what I want. Theerefore, what I think & say is this: Measter Cholmley should put down press-gangs & coast-guards. If that theere isn't reason I ax yo' to tell me what is? an' if Measter Cholmley don't do what I ax him, he may go whistle for my vote, he may.

I'm for fair play wi' the French as much as any man,as long as we can be sure o' beating them;but, I say, make sure o' that,& then give them ivery advantage. Now I reckon Government is not sure as yet,for i' the papers it said as half th' ships i' th' Channel hadn't got their proper complement o' men;& all as I say is, let Government judge a bit for us;& if they say they're hampered for want o' men, why we must..

Molly took the joke without disclaimer & without offence. She rather liked the unfounded idea of her having a sweetheart,& was rather surprised to think how devoid of foundation the notion was. If she could have a new cloak as Sylvia was going to have,then, indeed,there might be a chance! Until some such good luck,it was as well to laugh & blush as if the surmise of her having a lover was not very far from the truth

There the old stone cross was raised by the monks long ago; now worn and mutilated, no one esteemed it as a holy symbol, but only as the Butter Cross, where market-women clustered on Wednesday,& whence the town crier made all his proclamations of household sales, things lost or found, beginning with 'Oh! yes, oh! yes, oh! yes!' & ending with 'God bless the king & the lord of this manor,' & a very brisk 'Amen’

A Yorkshireman once said to me, 'My county folk are all alike. Their first thought is how to resist. Why! I myself, if I hear a man say it is a fine day, catch myself trying to find out that it is no such thing. It is so in thought; it is so in word; it is so in deed.

The men thus pressed were taken from the near grasp of parents or wives,& were often deprived of the hard earnings of years,which remained in the hands of the masters of the merchantman in which they had served,subject to all the chances of honesty or dishonesty,life or death. Now all this tyranny (for I can use no other word) is marvellous to us; we cannot imagine how it is that a nation submitted to it for so long

Since the termination of the American war,there had been nothing to call for any unusual energy in manning the navy;& the grants required by Government for this purpose diminished with every year of peace.In 1792 this grant touched its minimum for many years.In 1793 the proceedings of the French had set Europe on fire,& the English were raging with anti-Gallican excitement,...

But at that time gardening was not a popular art in any part of England; in the north it is not yet. Noblemen and gentlemen may have beautiful gardens; but farmers and day-labourers care little for them north of the Trent, which is all I can answer for.

Margaret was watching Mr. Thornton’s face. He never looked at her; so she might study him unobserved, and note the changes which even this short time had wrought in him. Only at some unexpected mot of Mr. Lennox’s, his face flashed out into the old look of intense enjoyment; the merry brightness returned to his eyes, the lips just parted to suggest the brilliant smile of former days..

She used to sit long hours upon the beach,gazing intently on the waves as they chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore,—or she looked out upon the more distant heave,& sparkle against the sky,& heard, without being conscious of hearing, the eternal psalm, which went up continually. She was soothed without knowing how or why. Listlessly she sat there, on the ground, her hands clasped round her knees..

I did not think I had been so old, said Margaret after a pause of silence; and she turned away sighing.

Yes! said Mr. Bell. It is the first changes among familiar things that make such a mystery of time to the young, afterwards we lose the sense of the mysterious. I take changes in all I see as a matter of course. The instability of all human things is familiar to me, to you it is new and oppressive.

& though his heart beat thick with longing love...No! said he,I put it to the touch once,& I lost it all. Let her go,—with her stony heart,& her beauty;—how set & terrible her look is now, for all her loveliness of feature! She is afraid I shall speak what will require some stern repression. Let her go. Beauty & heiress as she may be, she will find it hard to meet with a truer heart than mine. Let her go!

whatever had happened to him, he could never have spoken of that time, when he could have seen her every day—when he had her within his grasp, as it were—as a time of suffering. It had been a royal time of luxury to him, with all its stings and contumelies, compared to the poverty that crept round & clipped the anticipation of the future down to sordid fact,& life without an atmosphere of either hope or fear