The Royal Oak, and Other Stories (Paperback)

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. 1845 edition. Excerpt: ... than once has he gone home wounded with the dirk, or bruised by a regular fisticuff encounter. There was living in the village, at this time, an intimate friend of mine, a physician and surgeon, who was often called, at night, to bind up the maimed or set the broken legs of our loyal citizens. Sometimes he chose not to risk his own limbs by visiting their place of reveling, and not unfrequently he arrived just soon enough to see some victim of alcoholic influence expire. On one occasion a more than usual noise disturbed the slumbers of the villagers, and our friend the physician, was called in an earnest manner. " He hastened to the spot, and found the revelers at the Oak more than usually sobered. Upon the ground, in front of the "hotel," lay two men. "Doctor, I'm afraid they've hurt each other," swaggered a drunken fellow, who had fallen beside them. Taking hold of the nearest one, the doctor raised his head a little from the ground. "Hurt," replied he, "hurt do you say, my friend? You should have called an undertaker, not a doctor, --the man is dead." "Dead, dead, doctor, did you say 1" said the drunken man, springing to his feet, and becoming at once sober. "And is he dead too 1" pointing at the man who lay motionless at his side. "Has my brother died a drunkard and a murderer " The doctor raised the hand of the man referred to and felt of his pulse. It still beat, though slowly. "You had better remove that dead body from this place," said the doctor, "and take yourself off with it, or expect to die like him, a drunkard and a murderer. I will see what can be done for this one, if the breath is still in his body." The dead man was the butcher, the father of William Becket, whom we shall more particularly introduce to the reader. Such...