The Battle Of The Strong [A Romance of Two Kingdoms], Volume 1.

ep up from the Antarctic world with the devouring force of a monstrous serpent projecting itself towards its prey. The captain of these tides, travelling up through the Atlantic at a thousand miles

he flumes of sea, they turn furiously, and smite the cliffs and rocks and walls of their prison-house. With the frenzied winds helping them, the island coasts and Norman shores are battered by their hopeless onset: and in that channel between Alderney and Cap d

, an unseen power drags him exultingly out to the main- and he returns no more. Many a Jersey boatman, many a fisherman who has lived his whole life in sight of the Paternosters on the north, the Ecrehos on the east, the Dog's Nest on the south, or the Corbiere on the west, has in some helpless m

little country has coiled in upon itself, and the people have drooped to see but just their own selves reflected in all the dwellers of the land, whichever way they turn. A hundred years ago, however, there was a greater and more general lightness of heart and vivacity of spirit than now. Then the song of the harvester and the fisherman, the boat-builder and the stocking-knitter, was heard on a summer afternoon, or from the veille of a winter night when the dim c

………

in port had vanished up the Channel; and at Elizabeth Castle, Mont Orgueil, the Blue Barracks and the Hospital, three British regiments

and there remained only a pleasant dampness which made sod and sand firm yet springy to the foot. As the day wore on, the air became mor

s and looked out upon the calm sea almost washing its foundations, and over the dark range of rocks, which, when the tide was out, showed like a vast gridiron blackened by fires. Near by, some loit

e green promontory above might be seen two-thirds of the south coast of the island-to the right St. Aubin's Bay, to the left Greve d'Azette, with its fields of volcanic-looking rocks, and St. Clement's Bay beyond. Than this no

and now upon the town. It was a lad of not more than sixteen years, erect, well- poised, having an air of self-reliance, even of

ge with a man, in La Rue d'Egypte, near the old prison, even then called the Vier Prison. Stooping, the man had kissed the child, and she, indignant, snatching the cap from his head, had thrown it into the stream runn

h his long stick, tied with a sort of tassel of office. Presently he saw the child turn at the call of a woman in the Place du Vier Prison, who appeared t

nd strong, and the carriage of his body was light, for he had a healthy enjoyment of all physical sensations and all the obvious drolleries of life. A broad sort of humour was written upon every feature; in the full, quizzical eye, in the wid

ce, where stood the Cohue Royale and house of legislature. In the belfry of this court- house, the bell was ringing to call the Jurats together for a meeting of the States. A monstrous tin pan

icane! Chic

vote had helped to elect, and this was his revenge-so successful that, for generations, when the bell called t

icane! Chic

illy himself could not have fared better. It was not due to the fact that the youth came of an old Jersey family, nor by reason that he was genial and hand

bie flowing through it, till he passed under the archway of the Vier Prison, making

ge opened, and the child came

was not fashionably dressed, she was distinguished in appearance, w

said the young gentl

e-" responded the l

affair from the hill, through my tele

nners," responded the lady, looking dow

capable of tossing the Bailly's hat into the stream; yet looking closely, there might be seen in her eyes a slumberous sort of fire, a touch of mystery. They were neither blue nor grey, but a mingling of both, growing to the most tender, greyish so

ittle lady?" asked d'

," she answ

p. Won't you c

r mother, regarded him a

Philip

child was sensitive and serious, and he only s

" came the re

Landresse, Philip stooped to say good

smile flitted over her fac

y homeward. "Good-bye, sir-Philip" -the child's arrangement of words was odd and amusing, and at the same ti

self, with a jerk of the head-"