Читать книгу The Flogging Parson - George Forbes - Страница 7

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"For some time," says Richard Hale, "I continued as manager of the Brush Farm at Parramatta, frequently receiving from Mr. Cox his assurance that I was giving him every satisfaction. I treated his assigned servants under me as human beings, and they were not slow to recognise their improved condition at the farm, in return for which they rendered more willing, and, therefore, better service than could be expected from men in their condition if treated like slaves. Some of them interested me, two in particular, whose histories I learnt from their own lips, and which may be told in the following words:—

"Young Poole was a North Country villain of the first order; he had not attained majority before he rendered himself notorious as a housebreaker. Disdaining common robberies, and petty thefts, he embarked on a grander scale, and was implicated in some of the most flagrant burglaries known to the police at that time. He was the natural son of a wealthy gentleman, well known in that part of the country; his features were handsome, and his manners singularly pleasing and prepossessing. Up to the age of 15, his father had spared no expense on his education, when he abandoned him to the indulgence of a silly, ignorant mother, who, vain of her son's appearance and understanding, suffered him to range in idleness and profligacy, supplying his wants at a rate considerably beyond what the limits of her income prudently permitted; but all was insufficient for his inordinate desires, which nearly ruined her, and this was ultimately effected by persuading her to dispose of the few trinkets, and better articles of furniture, which, together with an annuity, she possessed from the man who had betrayed her, under the pretence of supporting her son as a gentleman.

"She was now reduced to the necessity of using her needle to obtain a livelihood. By this time Poole was 17 years of age, when, impatient of the privations of the poverty he had occasioned, he forsook his mother, and soon after joined a band of thieves of whom he became the most hardened, and, as for a long period he escaped detection, was also the most daring. At length he was apprehended, and transported for life beyond the seas.

"Conversing with him upon his condition, he betrayed no emotion save regret at the loss of his liberty. He cursed his father for begetting, educating, and then abandoning him without a trade or other means of earning a subsistence, and he held his mother in utter contempt. Of neither had he heard for years, and he desired never even to think of them again. The recollection of them excited none but the worst feelings. He appeared to hold them responsible for his fate, and attributed all his vices to his birth and breeding. He was the slave of impetuous passions that were never controlled by the reins of self-government. His general course of life gave him no uneasiness; on the contrary, in proportion as his deeds had been bold and dangerous, rose his excitement in recounting them. Poole was a very singular character. Some of the events in his life were marked with great atrocity, but his manners and conduct were so gentle and docile that it was impossible not to feel interested in his welfare. His person and bearing were those of a gentleman.

"Another interesting lad about 19, from Lancashire, also excited in me a strong feeling of compassion. He was born of respectable parents, but his mother, having been early left a widow, he remembered little of his father. The charge of bringing him up, therefore, devolved upon her, a duty which it appeared she tenderly and religiously performed. He received a decent, plain education, which, with his natural abilities, might have rendered him an honorable and useful member of society; but, in spite of the care bestowed upon him, he trod another and more dangerous path. In due time he was articled an attorney, where, for a season, he conducted himself well, but the principles of virtue instilled into his youth had no deeply-rooted foundation. He discarded the precepts of his mother, and sinned wilfully. From bad company and evil habits he became impatient of restraint, quitted his master, and abandoned his parent for a set of lawless men.

"During this period, all communication between the mother and son was cut off. Of his pursuits, or his fate, she was altogether ignorant, but, during the painful interval, she was a prey to the keenest anxiety, and had the gravest forebodings regarding him. In an evil hour, the tidings reached her that he in whom all her earthly happiness was centred, her only child whom she had reared with such affectionate solicitude, was a robber in the hands of justice. This intelligence was soon followed by a letter from the lad himself, dated from his prison in London, replete with expressions of repentance and self-accusation, in which he implored his parent to visit him. The rod of affliction had already fallen, with accumulated heaviness, upon her, and bowed her to the very earth; her cup of misery was now full to overflowing, but the mother's affection overcame all obstacles. In a few short hours her peaceful cottage was deserted, and she was on the road to the metropolis. She believed she had wrought herself to the pang of an interview with her lost and guilty child, and fondly hoped yet to lead him to repentance by her prayers and her presence. But she had over-rated her powers. When arrived at Newgate, in a tremulous voice, she requested to see her son, and was conducted to his cell, the sight of his pale visage, sunken eye, emaciated form, and his person heavily ironed, contrasted with the brilliancy of youth and innocence in which she had last beheld him, was more than she could bear; she fell upon his neck in an agony of grief, known to mothers only, clasped him to her heart, uttered a piteous cry, and fell lifeless on the floor.

"Thus was the wretched convict in an instant left a miserable, friendless orphan. The affecting manner in which this poor lad spoke of his mother, and accused himself of being her murderer was extremely touching."