Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1828 edition. Excerpt: ... " I hope not!" cried Sir Ambrose; " I hope it's no treason, duke--but I must confess I wish your daughter had never been Queen, if she can't leave things as they are." " I am pretty much of your opinion: they are such wildgoose schemes that she takes into her head!" said the duke piteously. " Only imagine, Sir Ambrose, she showed me this morning a plan for making aerial bridges to convey heavy weights from one steeple to another; a machine for stamping shoes and boots at one blow out of a solid piece of leather; a steam-engine for milking cows; and an elastic summer-house that might be folded up so as to be put into a man's pocket!" " It is really provoking; and Edmund is quite as scheming and visionary. I absolutely think, if we were both to die, they would not feel more than a temporary uneasiness at our loss, their minds are so completely occupied in these gigantic projects." " I fear so indeed; all things were otherwise formerly, I remember the time," &c. But why detail their reminiscences; it may be easily imagined how comfortably two old men would amuse themselves over a good fire, commenting on the glorious days when they were young; when all went right, or, what was nearly the same thing, when all appeared to them to do so; quite forgetting that age has other eyes than youth, and that the change was in themselves, not the times: we have other things to attend to. Clara was at a splendid party given by Elvira, and Father Morris soon left the duke's library to join her. It was a ball; and the splendid court of Claudia seemed yet more brilliant under the reign of her successor. It was the first time Clara had ever been at court, and the effect the gorgeous magnificence of the scene had upon her was powerful in the extreme. She...
