FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  
that he could not burden the estate, which was entailed upon his heirs male. Besides his financial embarrassments, the duke was afflicted with another evil--he was consumed with a fever too common with prince and with peasant, as well as with peer--the fever of a land hunger. The prince desires to add province to province; the peer to add manor to manor; the peasant to own a little home of his own, and then to add acre to acre. The Lord of Lone glorying in his earthly paradise, wished to see it enlarged, wished to add one estate to another until he should become the largest land-owner in Scotland, or have his land-hunger appeased. He bought up all the land adjoining Lone, that could be purchased at any price, paying a little cash down, and giving notes for the balance on each purchase. Thus, in the course of three years, Lone was nearly doubled in territorial extent. But the older creditors became clamorous. Bond, and mortgage holders threatened foreclosure, and the financial affairs of the "mad duke," outwardly and apparently so prosperous, were really very desperate. The family were seriously in danger of expulsion from Lone. It was at this crisis that the devoted son came to the help of his father--not wisely, as many people thought then--not fortunately, as it turned out. To prevent his father from being compelled to leave Lone, and to protect him from the persecution of creditors, the young Marquis of Arondelle performed an act of self-sacrifice and filial devotion seldom equalled in the world's history. He renounced all his own entailed rights, and sold all his prospective life interest in Lone. His was a young, strong life, good for fifty or sixty years longer. His interest brought a sum large enough to pay off the mortgage on Lone and to settle all others of his father's outstanding debts. Thus peaceable possession of Lone might have been secured to the family during the natural life of the duke. At the demise of the duke, instead of descending to his son and heir, it would pass into the possession of other parties, with whom it would remain as long the heir should live. Thus, I say, by the sacrifice of the son the peace of the father might have been secured--for a time. And all might have gone well at Lone but for one unlucky event which finally set the seal on the ruin of the ducal family. And yet that event was intended as an honor, and considered as an honor. In a word the Queen, the Prince
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

father

 
family
 

wished

 

secured

 

interest

 

creditors

 

mortgage

 

possession

 
sacrifice
 

prince


peasant

 

financial

 

estate

 

entailed

 

hunger

 
province
 

Marquis

 

longer

 
equalled
 

persecution


devotion

 

brought

 

Arondelle

 

history

 
prospective
 

filial

 

rights

 

renounced

 

seldom

 

strong


performed

 

remain

 
unlucky
 
finally
 

Prince

 

considered

 

intended

 

natural

 

peaceable

 

settle


outstanding

 
demise
 

protect

 

parties

 

descending

 

prosperous

 

adjoining

 

purchased

 
bought
 
appeased