Gratis anhelans, multa agendo, nihil agens.--PHAEDRUS.
[“Panting and labouring in vain; doing much,--effecting nothing.”]
Upon entering the town, the streets displayed all the bustle and
excitement which the approaching meeting was eminently calculated to
create in a place ordinarily quiescent and undisturbed: groups of men
were scattered in different parts, conversing with great eagerness;
while here and there some Demosthenes of the town, impatient of the
coming strife, was haranguing his little knot of admiring friends,
and preparing his oratorical organs by petty skirmishing for the grand
battle of the morrow. Now and then the eye roved upon the gaunt forms
of Lord Ulswater’s troopers, as they strolled idly along the streets, in
pairs, perfectly uninterested by the great event which set all the
more peaceable inmates of the town in a ferment, and returning, with
a slighting and supercilious glance, the angry looks and muttered
anathemas which, ever and anon, the hardier spirits of the petitioning
party liberally bestowed upon them.
As Wolfe and his comrade entered the main street, the former was
accosted by some one of his compatriots, who, seizing him by the arm,
was about to apprise the neighbouring idlers, by a sudden exclamation,
of the welcome entrance of the eloquent and noted republican. But Wolfe
perceived and thwarted his design.
“Hush!” said he, in a low voice; “I am only now on my way to an old
friend, who seems a man of influence in these parts, and may be of avail
to us on the morrow; keep silence, therefore, with regard to my coming
till I return. I would not have my errand interrupted.”
“As you will,” said the brother spirit: “but whom have you here,
a fellow-labourer?” and the reformer pointed to Cole, who, with an
expression of shrewd humour, blended with a sort of philosophical
compassion, stood at a little distance waiting for Wolfe, and eying the
motley groups assembled before him.
“No,” answered Wolfe; “he is some vain and idle sower of unprofitable
flowers; a thing who loves poetry, and, for aught I know, writes it: but
that reminds me that I must rid myself of his company; yet stay; do you
know this neighbourhood sufficiently to serve me as a guide?”
“Ay,” quoth the other; “I was born within three miles of the town.”
“Indeed!” rejoined Wolfe; “then perhaps you can tell me if there is any
way of reaching a place called Mordaunt Court without passing through
the more public and crowded thoroughfares.”
“To be sure,” rejoined the brother spirit; “you have only to turn to the
right up yon hill, and you will in an instant be out of the purlieus
and precincts of W----, and on your shortest road to Mordaunt Court; but
surely it is not to its owner that you are bound?”
“And why not?” said Wolfe.
“Because,” replied the other, “he is the wealthiest, the highest, and,
as report says, the haughtiest aristocrat of these parts.”
“So much the better, then,” said Wolfe, “can he aid us in obtaining a
quiet hearing to-morrow, undisturbed by those liveried varlets of hire,
who are termed, in sooth, Britain’s defence! Much better, when we think
of all they cost us to pamper and to clothe, should they be termed
Britain’s ruin: but farewell for the present; we shall meet to-night;
your lodgings--?”
“Yonder,” said the other, pointing to a small inn opposite; and Wolfe,
nodding his adieu, returned to Cole, whose vivacious and restless nature
had already made him impatient of his companion’s delay.
“I must take my leave of you now,” said Wolfe, “which I do with a hearty
exhortation that you will change your studies, fit only for effeminate
and enslaved minds.”
“And I return the exhortation,” answered Cole. “Your studies seem to me
tenfold more crippling than mine: mine take all this earth’s restraints
from me, and yours seem only to remind you that all earth is restraint:
mine show me whatever worlds the fondest fancy could desire; yours only
the follies and chains of this. In short, while ‘my mind to me a kingdom
is,’ yours seems to consider the whole universe itself nothing but
a great meeting for the purpose of abusing ministers and demanding
reform!”
Not too well pleased by this answer, and at the same time indisposed to
the delay of further reply, Wolfe contented himself with an iron
sneer of disdain, and, turning on his heel, strode rapidly away in the
direction his friend had indicated.
Meanwhile, Cole followed him with his eye till he was out of sight,
and then muttered to himself, “Never was there a fitter addition to old
Barclay’s ‘Ship of Fools’! I should not wonder if this man’s patriotism
leads him from despising the legislature into breaking the law;
and, faith, the surest way to the gallows is less through vice than
discontent: yet I would fain hope better things for him; for, methinks,
he is neither a common declaimer nor an ordinary man.”
With these words the honest Cole turned away, and, strolling towards the
Golden Fleece, soon found himself in the hospitable mansion of Mistress
and Mister Merrylack.
While the ex-king was taking his ease at his inn, Wolfe proceeded
to Mordaunt Court. The result of the meeting that there ensued was a
determination on the part of Algernon to repair immediately to W----.