Blennerhassett Author:Charles Felton Pidgin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II A SHRINE OF LIBERTY THE light from the great candelabrum fell upon the wine in the glass and cast a blood-red shadow upon the damask tablecloth ... more »beneath. The wineglass was lifted high above his head and the holder uttered in French the sentiment, " To the memory of those brave Frenchmen who died in defence of liberty, and to secure the preservation of human rights." As those words, spoken in an impassioned manner, fell from the lips of the speaker, his hearers arose to their feet with one accord and the toast was drunk standing. The guests resumed their seats. The gentleman who responded to the toast also spoke in French, and gave a dramatic, recital of those terrible events, which, some years before, had taken place in the fair land of France and had been followed by that Reign of Terror, at the contemplation of which the whole civilized world had stood aghast. The sentiments of the after-dinner orator were loudly applauded and it was evident that the minds of his auditors were in full accord with the sentiments which he expressed. But to this apparent unanimity there was one notable exception. A gentleman who sat at the right hand of the host had not arisen when the toast was proposed, and the wine remained untasted in his glass. The occasion was a merry dinner party given by the owner of the old colonial mansion, known as Richmond Hill, to some of his New York friends and to somevisitors from France who were his guests while in this country. At the head of the table sat a man small in stature and slight in figure, but with a face finely cut and almost classic in its mold. From beneath his eyebrows gleamed a pair of remarkable eyes: one moment bright and piercing; the next, influenced by sympathy, full of a deep and tender light. No matter how they mi...« less