The Hour and the Man: A Historical Romance, Volume 1

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Harper and brothers, 1841 - English fiction - 382 pages
 

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Contents

I
3
II
11
III
28
IV
34
V
46
VI
57
VII
72
VIII
83
XII
145
XIII
148
XIV
158
XV
163
XVI
173
XVII
177
XVIII
181
XIX
190

IX
88
X
96
XI
125
XX
200
XXI
210
XXII
216

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Page 53 - Nothing that we can accept. I have written a letter in reply, saying that I cannot yield myself to the will of any member of the nation, seeing that, since nations began, obedience has been due only to kings. We have lost the King of France ; but we are beloved by the monarch of Spain, who faithfully rewards our services, and never intermits his protection and indulgence. Thus, I cannot acknowledge the authority of these commissaries till they shall have enthroned a king. Such is the letter which,...
Page 7 - Negro," said her father, smiling. "He was a slave, but he was a white." "Is that the reason you read that book so much more than any other?" "Partly ; but partly because I like what is in it." . "What is in it — any stories?" asked Denis. "It is all about bearing and forbearing. It has taught me many things which you will have to learn by-and-by. I shall teach you some of them out of this book.
Page 56 - He has shed the blood of wife and child ; he has fasted and prayed ; he has suffered beyond the power of language to express, and yet he has received nothing from these gods — they have heard no supplication, they have answered no prayer. You may reply that your God " sends his rain on the just and on the unjust," and that this fact proves that he is merciful to all alike. I answer, that your God sends his pestilence on the just and on the unjust — that His earthquakes devour and.
Page 67 - You will give up your command?" "I shall." "And your boys—what will you do with them?" " Send them whence they came for the present. I shall dismiss them by one road, while the resignation of my rank goes by another—'' "And you, yourself by a third?" "When I have declared myself to General Hermona." " Have you thoughts of taking your soldiers with you?
Page 4 - ... can describe the mood in which Mirabeau and Danton received the news that their decree had been torn in pieces and trampled under foot by the petty legislature of an island colony, and their comrade drawn and quartered by the orders of its Governor. Robespierre rushed to the tribune and shouted, "Perish the colonies rather than sacrifice one iota of our principles!
Page 49 - Danton had audaciously informed the representatives of France that their refusal to declare the throne vacant would be the signal for a general insurrection.
Page 30 - Tell me how it appears to you, and then I will tell you how it appears to me." "It appears to me, then, that if the whites are to blame toward those who are in their power; if they have been cruel to the Oges and their party; if they have oppressed their Negroes, as they too often have, our duty is clear — to bear and forbear, to do them good in return for their evil. To rise against them cunningly, to burn their plantations, and murder them — to do this is to throw back the Gospel in the face...
Page 72 - No help ! no guidance !" thought he. " I am desolate and alone. I never thought to have been left without a guide from God. He leaves me with my sins upon my soul, unconfessed, unabsolved; and, thus burdened and rebuked, I must enter upon the course which I dare not refuse. But this voice within me which bids me go : whence and what is it? Whence is it but from God? And how can I therefore say that I am alone? There is no man that I can rely on ; not even one of Christ's anointed priests ; but is...
Page 66 - ... true; but they struggled for this, and that, and the other right and privilege existing in societies of those who are fully admitted to be men. In the struggle, crime has been victorious, and they have killed their king. The object of my devotion will now be nothing that has to be wrenched from an anointed ruler, nothing which can be gained by violence ; nothing but that which, being already granted, requires only to be cherished, and may best be cherished in peace — the manhood of my race....
Page 65 - If I, hitherto a slave, and wanting, therefore, the wisdom of a free man, find myself engaged on the wrong side — fighting against the providence of God — is there not hope that I may be forgiven on turning to the right ? ' ' "How the wrong side, my son? Are you not fighting for your king, and for the allies of France?" "I have been so pledged and so engaged ; and I do not say that I was wrong when I so engaged and so pledged myself. But if I had been as wise as a free man should be, I should...

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