Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-09-04
SHOOTING THE RAPIDS.

Curious, isn't it, how the old Gus
toners still hold their own? Here is
the fashion of penance by pilgrimage
still in vogue, with the additional ag-
gravation of calling it travelling for
pleasure "
"Well, Edward" said sweet voice,
"that's very pretty compliment to us
your companions. think / ought to
make you do penance for that
'"That's right, Miss Wentworth; keep
him in order" chimed in third
speaker. However, going abroad has
this one advantage for us English, that
there we can sometimes venture to
seem amused without thereby commit
ting the seven deadly sins in one"
Such was the chat which passed
among the group of four-two ladies
and two gentlemen-seated at lunch on
the balcony of the Hotel du Rim, at
Schaffhausen, one sunny afternoon in
the latter part of May. The first
speaker was fine looking young man
of three-and-twenty, whose comely fea-
lures, dark curling hair, and tail, well
of Handsome Ned given him by his
intimates. Young, rich, good-looking,
popular with high and low, in the plen-
itude of health and vigor, lately be-
trothed TO the charming girl whose soft
lustrous eyes were watching him half
tenderly, half archly, from the other
side of the board-Viscount Montague
might fairly account himself an ex-
tremely lucky young fellow But upon
that bright young face, firm and manly
as it was, brooded the doomed look
which haunts one in the portraits of
Montrose, of Claverhouse, of Charles
-ominously bearing out the gloomy
tradition current among the elders of
his native country, that ''the last Of the
Montagues" was SO in a double sense,
and that with him the grand old line
which had left its mark upon every age
of English history since the days of the
Tudors was doomed to pass away for
ever.
Beside him sat his inseparable associ-
ate, Sedley Burdett, whose square,
muscular figure, and frank sunburnt
face, looked the very embodiment of
young England at its best. Side by
side, the two young men had shot
buffaloes on American prairies, stalked
moose through Canadian forests,
'bowled over'' royal tigers in Bengal,
and hobnobbed with negro kings on the
coast of Africa, and they were now
fdate de anieua, escorting the Flower OF
Kent" and her mother on the inevitable
tour through Switzerland, not without
g secret hope that some unscaled noun
tain might afford them a chance of
he o.on6 old
British way.
''Did you see how old Johann eyed
me as he brought in the lunch?'' said
Montague. ''He's evidently a devout
believer in the Continental creed, that
an Englishman's natural pastime is to
knock somebody down, or set house
on fire, or make heavy bet that he'll
jump headforcnost out of the window,
and then do it forthwith
''Aye," laughed Burdett, '.just what
Dr. Buchanan said to me yesterday:
Mein Herr, those countrymen Of yours!
When l was practicing in SaXony, l
had no peace for them! First thing in
the morning, king! king! at my door.
what is it?' AN Highlander, who has
broken his leg in trying to scale the
1GuIClS-lOlu. NllSh liz O1AO S'Oi
assembled yet L set the Herr Eng
lander's leg, and am making him COM
Portable, when king! king! again.
what nowP' San Highlander, nearly
drowned in swimming across the Elbe
for wager 1 wrap the Herr Eng
lander in hot blankets, and bring him to.
Before half an hour is over, king!
king! once more. 'Mein Herr, what
the matter?' AN Highlander, who has
broken a blood-vesSel in trying to run
twelve miles an hour, because somebody
said he couldn't Mein Herr, am
sorry to have to say if, but your country
men are equally devoid of fear and of
reason
''But you won't do any more of these
horrihlo Jhings now, Edward" said
Marion Wentworth, entreatingly; you
promised to be more careful, you know,
while YOU were with u.s.
Don't be frightened, my child"
answered the viscount, with his gay
laugh; .'Fbelieve me, Ihave no intention
of being killed any sooner than is nee
essarv Would you believe it, Sed? this
unreasonable young woman is making
herself miserable, and daily expecting
a notification to attend my funeral, on
no better grounds than an old monks
prophecy
An old Monks prophecy?" echoed
Durdett, inquiringly.
''What, haven't you heard OF it?'
cried Montague. "Well, this is treat,
to find one man to whom that story's
new. You must know, then Gas those
fellows in Sanford and Merton keep
saying), that the estate which Harry
the Eighth bestowed upon my respected
ancestor, Sir Anthony Browne, included
Battle Abbey and the lands belonging
to it; and mighty short work he made
of the poor old monks, if all tales be
true. But after they were expelled, it
began to be whispered that one monk
still remained in the old walls, and that