Shining Ferry

d started on his customary stroll around the farm-building

in it for a day during the Civil War, and while inspecting the guns on a terraced walk above the harbour, had narrowly escaped a shot fired across from the town where Essex's troops lay in force. The shot killed a poor fisherman beside him, and His Majesty that afternoon gave thanks for his own preservation in the private chapel of Hall. In those da

e winding creeks of the river; other woodlands yet more distant, embowering the great mansion of Damelioc; the purple rise of a down capped by a monument commemorating ancient battles. The sc

s he lounged at church in his great pew, his eye fell on Rachel Rosewarne, a gipsy-looking girl, sitting under the gallery. This Rachel's father was a fisherman, tall of stature, who planted himself one night in the road as my lord galloped homeward to Damelioc. The horse shied, and the rider was thrown. Rosewarne picked him up, dusted his lac

wance, but kept them at Hall as her pensioners. In the year 1747, Charles (by this time a man of forty) had the temerity to get religion from the Rev. John Wesley. The great preacher had assembled a crowd on the green by the cross-roads beyond Parc-an-hal. Charles Rosewarne, who was stalling the cattle after milking-time, heard the outcries, and strolled up the road to look. Two hours later he returned, fell on his knees in the outer kitchen, and began to wrestle for

ce just eleven years, and, dying in 1771 of angina pectoris, left two married daughters and a son, Ni

ly gale, and had lain till morning in a cold pew of the disused chapel, whereby the child came to birth prematurely. This happened in 1771, the year that Nicholas took possession of the estate. He treated his old mother even worse, being fierce with her because of the small annual charge. She grew blind and demented toward the end, and was given a room in the west wing, over the counting-house. Nicholas removed the door-handle on the inside, and the wainscot there still showed a dull smear, rubbed by the poor creature's shoulder as she trotted round and round; also marks upon the door, where her fingers had grabbl

were lifting the body, when a cry from the women fetched them to the windows, in time to catch a glimpse of the foreigner sneaking away under cover of the low west wall. As he broke into a run the lightning flash

he king's shilling to be quit of his home, and was out in Philadelphia, fighting under Sir Henry Clinton. He returned in 1780 with a shattered kn

ematurely aged, might have been seen in the market-place, standing as nearly at 'Attention' as his knee-pan allowed beside a specimen apple tree, which he held to his shoulder like a musket. Thus he kept sentry-go against hard Fortune-a tall man with a patient face. Thanks to a natural

ly pew and listened to a dull sermon on the Parable of the Talents. He was a just child, and he could not unders

ng he had hit on a discovery which, new in those days, now informs the whole of co

500, at ten per cent, he made ￡50 a year. But if the servant with one talent can borrow four others, he has the same capital of ￡500. Suppose him t

t supper, "what ought the wicked se

plain enough, if you

t do you

othful servant,' it says, 'thou oughtest to have put my money to th

he ought to

, su

y, nodding, "I think he

"Setting yourself up agen' the Script

fath

his fist down on the table. "Go to bed!" he shouted. "Talk to

servant be making thirty per cent against the other's ten, he can afford for a time to abate

l wage, which he carefully put aside. Then in 1800 his uncle Michael died, and left him a legacy of ￡50. He invested it in the privateering trade, in which the harbour did a br

ts," he announced one day, as soon

en taking an in

Nanscawne property. You're making, one way and another, close on ￡500 a year, h

s abou

￡200 to ￡400 by growing corn, which you might grow yourse

abour. How can

ain on the uncum

Hall so long as I live! With blood and sweat I've paid off that mor

on cards and ropery. We'll raise the same money, and double it in three years. If we don

built for a long span; my father's sins have made life bitter to me, and I thank God the

ump at us. The two properties went together once, and when he hears our tale, he'll say to himself, 'Oho! here's a chance to get 'em to

he Union. Mr. Burke, as Martin rightly guessed, would have given something more than the value of Hall to add it to Damelioc; and so, when Nicholas Rosewarne drove over and petitioned for a loan of ￡1500, he l

ared far above ￡6 a quarter) Nicholas Rosewarne died a moderately rich man. By this time Martin had started a victualling yard in the town, a shipbuilding yard, and an emporium near the Barbican, Plymouth, where he purveyed ships' stores and slop-clothing for merchant seamen. He mad

er than profit, they set up a bank and issued their own notes-those for one or two pounds payable at their own house, and those for larger sums by their London agent. At first these notes would be cashed at once. By and by they began to pass as ordinary tender. Before long, people who possessed a heap of this paper learnt that the Rosewarnes w

after the funeral, Martin stuffed three stout rolls of bank-notes into his pocket, and rode over to Damelioc. Mr. Burke had for six years been Lord Killiow, in the peerage

he signed the receipts. "You are a vastly clever man, and

put in

t deal of your time," urged his lordship; for Martin had walked to the long window, an

Banking's the easiest business in the world. When it'

you mean. When I'm in the grave he must act acco

ur brother is an incurable gambler. He owes something like

e well

ant money, and what's to prevent me adding Damelioc

ewarne. I can tie up

said. "You can tie up the money with him. Or you may make me

oon as asked- all to hasten the end. Thus encouraged, the second Lord Killiow ran his constitution to a standstill, and succumbed in 1832. The heir was at that time an undergraduate at Christchurch, Oxford, and already the author of a treatise of one hundred and fifty pages on The Limits of the Human Intelligence. On leaving the University he put on a white hat and buff waistcoat, and made violent speeches ag

lmouth, and the issue of that marriage was a daughter, who grew up to marry a ship's captain, against he

s father could teach he learnt aptly. But his passions were his own, and from fifteen to eighteen a devil seemed to possess the lad. He had no sooner mastered the banking business than he flatly refused to cross the bank's threshold. For two years he

West India regiment. At any rate, one fine morning in 1838 he returned, bringing with him a wife and an infant son, and it appeared that somehow he had exo

, and in times of depression he bought them up, and made them pay good interest on their low prices. He bought up the sean-boats for miles along the coast, and took the pilchard-fishery into his hands. Regularly in the early spring a fleet sailed for the Mediterranean with f

a lady of good family on the shores of the Tamar. She bore him a daughter, Anne, who grew up to make an unhap

cres for the last time-knowing well that it might be the last-and across them to Damelioc, the wider acres of his stewardship, his eyes for one weak moment grew dim. He had reached the stile at the summit of Parc-an-hal

ht was falling fast, with a heavy dew. The children had left the

room, lit the lamp, and spent a couple of hours with

cked a hand-bag, crossed the fe