Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1917-06-07

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90 over them flrst, and cut out any
advertisement or stray paragraph that
alluded to America. Right in the
midst of one of Napoleon's battles, or
one of Canning's speeches, poor Nolan
would find great hole, because on the
back of the page of that paper there
had been an advertisement of packet
for New York, or scrap from the
presidents message. say this was
the first time l ever heard Of this plan,
which afterwards had enough, and
more than enough, to do with. l re-
member 1t, because poor Phillips, who
was of the party, as soon as the allu'
sion to reading was made, told a story
of something which happened at the
Cape of Good Hope on Nolan's first
voyage; and it Is the only thing l ever
knew of that voyage. They had
touched at the Cape, and had done the
civil thing with the English admiral
and the fleet, and then, leaving for
long cruise up the Indian ocean, Phil
lips had borrowed a lot Of English
books from an officer, which, In those
days, as indeed in these, was quite
windfall. Among them, as the Devil
would order, was the Lay of the Last
MINSTREL" which they had all OF them
heard of, but which most Of them had
never seen, l think 1t could not have
been published long. Well, nobody
thought there could be any risk of any
thing national In that, though Phillips
swore old Shaw had cut out the
"Tempest" from Shakespeare before
he let Nolan have it, because he said,
1.-THE Bermudas ought to be ours and,
by Jove, should be one day." So No
Ian was permitted to join the circle
one afternoon when lot Of them sat
on deck smoking and reading aloud.
People do not do such things SO often
now, but when I was young we got
rid Of a great deal Of time so. Well,
so It happened that In his turn Nolan
took the book and read to the others;
and he read very well, as / know. No
body in the circle knew line OF the
poem, only It was all magic and Dor
der chivalry, and was ten thousand
years ago. Poor Nolan read steadily
through the fifth cantO, stopped min
ute and drank something, and then be-
gan, without q thought Of what was
coming
Breathes there the man. with soul 10
dead
Who never to himself hath said
1t seems impossible to US that any
body ever heard this for the first time;
but all these fellows did then, and
poor Nolan himself went on, still I'M
consciously or mechanically
This is my own. my native land!
Then they all saw something was
to pay; but he expected to get through,
1 suppose, turned little pale, but
plunged on
Whose heart hath ne'er within him
burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on foreign strand?-
II such there breathe. go, mark him we'll.
! BY this time the men were all be-
side themselves, wishing there was any
way to make him turn over two pages;
but he had not quite presence Of mind
for that; he gagged little, colored
crimson, and staggered on:
For him no minstrel raptures swell:
High though his titles, proud his name.
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim.
Despite these titles, power and pelf.
The wretch, concentered all In SELF
and here the poor fellow choked, could
not 20 on, but started up, swung the
book into the sea, vanished into his
stateroom, land by Jove," said Phil
lips, 1--WE did not see him for two
months again. And had to make up
some beggarly story to that English
surgeon why did not return his Wal.
ter Scott to him."
That story shows about the time
when Nolan's braggadocio must have
broken down. At first, they said, he
took very high tone, considered his
Imprisonment a mere farce, affected
to enjoy the voyage, and all that; but
Phillips said that after he came out Of
his stateroom he never was the same
man again. He never read aloud again,
unless it was the Bible or Shakespeare.
or something else he was sure Of. But
1t was not that merely. He never en-
tered in with the other young men ex-
actly as a companion again. He was
always shy afterward, when l knew
him, very seldom spoke, unless he
was spoken to, except to very few
friends. He lighted up occasionally,
I remember late in his life hearing
him fairly eloquent on something
which had been suggested to him by
one of Flechier's sermons, but gener.
ally he had the nervous, tired look OF
Q heart.wOunded man.
When Captain Shaw was coming
home-if. as l say, 1t was Shaw-rath-
er to the surprise Of everybody they
made one of the Windward islands,
and lay off and on for nearly week.
The boys said the officers were sick
of salt junk, and meant to have tur-
tie soup before they came home. But
after several days the Warren came to
the same rendezvous; they exchanged
signals; she sent to Phillips and these
homeward-bound men letters and pa
pers, and told them she was outward
bound, perhaps to the Mediterranean,
and took poor Nolan and his traps on
the boat back to try his second cruise.
He looked very blank when he was told
to get ready to join her. He had
known enough Of the signs Of the sky
to know that till that moment he was
going "home." But this was a dis
tinct evidence Of something he had not