Paul's with our heads
as to go against this decision."
They then settled to put in a single plea, that Sir Charles was insane
at the time of his capture.
This done, to gain time, Wheeler called on Sharpe, and, after several
conferences, got the case compounded by an apology, a solemn
retractation in writing, and the payment of four thousand pounds; his
counsel assured him his client was very lucky to get off so cheap.
Bassett paid the money, with the assistance of his wife's father: but
it was a sickener; it broke his spirit, and even injured his health for
some time.
Sir Charles improved the village with the money, and gave a copy-hold
tenement to each of the men Bassett had got imprisoned. So they and
their sons and their grandsons lived rent free--no, now I think of it,
they had to pay four pence a year to the Lord of the Manor.
Defeated at every point, and at last punished severely, Richard Bassett
fell into a deep dejection and solitary brooding of a sort very
dangerous to the reason. He would not go out-of-doors to give his
enemies a triumph. He used to sit by the fire and mutter, "Blow upon
blow, blow upon blow. My poor boy will never be lord of Huntercombe
now!" and so on.
Wheeler pitied him, but could not rouse him. At last a person for whose
narrow attainments and simplicity he had a profound, though, to do him
justice, a civil contempt, ventured to his rescue.
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