The Project Gutenberg EBook of Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens

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Title: Barnaby Rudge

Author: Charles Dickens

Release Date: April 27, 2006 [EBook #917]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARNABY RUDGE ***

Produced by Donald Lainson

BARNABY RUDGE

A TALE OF THE RIOTS OF 'EIGHTY

by Charles Dickens

Contibutor's Note:

I've left in archaic forms such as 'to-morrow' or 'to-day' as they
occured in my copy. Also please be aware if spell-checking, that within
dialog many 'mispelled' words exist, i.e. 'wery' for 'very', as intended
by the author.

D.L.

PREFACE

The late Mr Waterton having, some time ago, expressed his opinion that
ravens are gradually becoming extinct in England, I offered the few
following words about my experience of these birds.

The raven in this story is a compound of two great originals, of whom I
was, at different times, the proud possessor. The first was in the bloom
of his youth, when he was discovered in a modest retirement in London,
by a friend of mine, and given to me. He had from the first, as Sir Hugh
Evans says of Anne Page, 'good gifts', which he improved by study and
attention in a most exemplary manner. He slept in a stable--generally
on horseback--and so terrified a Newfoundland dog by his preternatural
sagacity, that he has been known, by the mere superiority of his genius,
to walk off unmolested with the dog's dinner, from before his face. He
was rapidly rising in acquirements and virtues, when, in an evil hour,
his stable was newly painted. He observed the workmen closely, saw that
they were careful of the paint, and immediately burned to possess it. On
their going to dinner, he ate up all they had left behind, consisting of
a pound or two of white lead; and this youthful indiscretion terminated
in death.

While I was yet inconsolable for his loss, another friend of mine
in Yorkshire discovered an older and more gifted raven at a village
public-house, which he prevailed upon the landlord to part with for a
consideration, and sent up to me. The first act of this Sage, was, to
administer to the effects of his predecessor, by di