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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:45 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:45 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12371-0.txt b/12371-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e9e0fe --- /dev/null +++ b/12371-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11226 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12371 *** + + THE EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER, + + AND + + Confessions of an Attorney. + + BY SAMUEL WARREN + + 1880 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +THE MARCH ASSIZE + +THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT + +THE CONTESTED MARRIAGE + +THE MOTHER AND SON + +"THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS" + +ESTHER MASON + +THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT + +THE SECOND MARRIAGE + +CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE + +"THE ACCOMMODATION BILL" + +THE REFUGEE + +THE LIFE POLICY + +BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY + +JANE ECCLES + +"EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER" + +THE CHEST OF DRAWERS + +THE PUZZLE + +THE ONE BLACK SPOT + +THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR + +A FASHIONABLE FORGER + +THE YOUNG ADVOCATE + +A MURDER IN THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES + + + + +CONFESSIONS OF AN ATTORNEY. + + + + +THE MARCH ASSIZE. + + +Something more than half a century ago, a person, in going along Holborn, +might have seen, near the corner of one of the thoroughfares which +diverge towards Russell Square, the respectable-looking shop of a glover +and haberdasher named James Harvey, a man generally esteemed by his +neighbors, and who was usually considered well to do in the world. Like +many London tradesmen, Harvey was originally from the country. He had +come up to town when a poor lad, to push his fortune, and by dint of +steadiness and civility, and a small property left him by a distant +relation, he had been able to get into business on his own account, and +to attain that most important element of success in London--"a +connection." Shortly after setting up in the world, he married a young +woman from his native town, to whom he had been engaged ever since his +school-days; and at the time our narrative commences he was the father of +three children. + +James Harvey's establishment was one of the best frequented of its class +in the street. You could never pass without seeing customers going in or +out. There was evidently not a little business going forward. But +although, to all appearance, a flourishing concern, the proprietor of the +establishment was surprised to find that he was continually pinched in +his circumstances. No matter what was the amount of business transacted +over the counter, he never got any richer. + +At the period referred to, shop-keeping had not attained that degree +of organization, with respect to counter-men and cashiers, which now +distinguishes the great houses of trade. The primitive till was not +yet superseded. This was the weak point in Harvey's arrangements; and +not to make a needless number of words about it, the poor man was +regularly robbed by a shopman, whose dexterity in pitching a guinea +into the drawer, so as to make it jump, unseen, with a jerk into his +hand, was worthy of Herr Dobler, or any other master of the sublime +art of jugglery. + +Good-natured and unsuspicious, perhaps also not sufficiently vigilant, +Harvey was long in discovering how he was pillaged. Cartwright, the name +of the person who was preying on his employer, was not a young man. He +was between forty and fifty years of age, and had been in various +situations, where he had always given satisfaction, except on the score +of being somewhat gay and somewhat irritable. Privately, he was a man of +loose habits, and for years his extravagances had been paid for by +property clandestinely abstracted from his too-confiding master. Slow to +believe in the reality of such wickedness, Mr. Harvey could with +difficulty entertain the suspicions which began to dawn on his mind. At +length all doubt was at an end. He detected Cartwright in the very act of +carrying off goods to a considerable amount. The man was tried at the Old +Bailey for the offence; but through a technical informality in the +indictment, acquitted. + +Unable to find employment, and with a character gone, the liberated thief +became savage, revengeful, and desperate. Instead of imputing his fall to +his own irregularities, he considered his late unfortunate employer as +the cause of his ruin; and now he bent all the energies of his dark +nature to destroy the reputation of the man whom he had betrayed and +plundered. Of all the beings self-delivered to the rule of unscrupulous +malignity, with whom it has been my fate to come professionally in +contact, I never knew one so utterly fiendish as this discomfited +pilferer. Frenzied with his imaginary wrongs, he formed the determination +to labor, even if it were for years, to ruin his victim. Nothing short of +death should divert him from this the darling object of his existence. + +Animated by these diabolical passions, Cartwright proceeded to his work. +Harvey, he had too good reason to know, was in debt to persons who had +made him advances; and by means of artfully-concocted anonymous letters, +evidently written by some one conversant with the matters on which he +wrote, he succeeded in alarming the haberdasher's creditors. The +consequences were--demands of immediate payment, and, in spite of the +debtor's explanations and promises, writs, heavy law expenses, ruinous +sacrifices, and ultimate bankruptcy. It may seem almost too marvelous for +belief, but the story of this terrible revenge and its consequences is no +fiction. Every incident in my narrative is true, and the whole may be +found in hard outline in the records of the courts with which a few years +ago I was familiar. + +The humiliated and distressed feelings of Harvey and his family may be +left to the imagination. When he found himself a ruined man, I dare say +his mental sufferings were sufficiently acute. Yet he did not sit down in +despair. To re-establish himself in business in England appeared +hopeless; but America presented itself as a scene where industry might +find a reward; and by the kindness of some friends, he was enabled to +make preparations to emigrate with his wife and children. Towards the +end of February he quitted London for one of the great seaports, where he +was to embark for Boston. On arriving there with his family, Mr. Harvey +took up his abode at a principal hotel. This, in a man of straitened +means, was doubtless imprudent; but he afterwards attempted to explain +the circumstance by saying, that as the ship in which he had engaged his +passage was to sail on the day after his arrival, he had preferred +incurring a slight additional expense rather than that his wife--who was +now, with failing spirits, nursing an infant--should be exposed to coarse +associations and personal discomfort. In the expectation, however, of +being only one night in the hotel, Harvey was unfortunately disappointed. +Ship-masters, especially those commanding emigrant vessels, were then, as +now, habitual promise-breakers; and although each succeeding sun was to +light them on their way, it was fully a fortnight before the ship stood +out to sea. By that time a second and more dire reverse had occurred in +the fortunes of the luckless Harvey. + +Cartwright, whose appetite for vengeance was but whetted by his first +success, had never lost sight of the movements of his victim; and now he +had followed him to the place of his embarkation, with an eager but +undefined purpose of working him some further and more deadly mischief. +Stealthily he hovered about the house which sheltered the unconscious +object of his malicious hate, plotting, as he afterwards confessed, the +wildest schemes for satiating his revenge. Several times he made excuses +for calling at the hotel, in the hope of observing the nature of the +premises, taking care, however, to avoid being seen by Mr. Harvey or his +family. A fortnight passed away, and the day of departure of the +emigrants arrived without the slightest opportunity occurring for the +gratification of his purposes. The ship was leaving her berth; most of +the passengers were on board; Mrs. Harvey and the children, with nearly +the whole of the luggage, were already safely in the vessel; Mr. Harvey +only remained on shore to purchase some trifling article, and to settle +his bill at the hotel on removing his last trunk. Cartwright had tracked +him all day; he could not attack him in the street; and he finally +followed him to the hotel, in order to wreak his vengeance on him in his +private apartment, of the situation of which he had informed himself. + +Harvey entered the hotel first, and before Cartwright came up, he had +gone down a passage into the bar to settle the bill which he had incurred +for the last two days. Not aware of this circumstance, Cartwright, in the +bustle which prevailed, went up stairs to Mr. Harvey's bedroom and +parlor, in neither of which, to his surprise, did he find the occupant; +and he turned away discomfited. Passing along towards the chief +staircase, he perceived a room of which the door was open, and that on +the table there lay a gold watch and appendages. Nobody was in the +apartment: the gentleman who occupied it had only a few moments before +gone to his bed-chamber for a brief space. Quick as lightning a +diabolical thought flashed through the brain of the villain, who had been +baffled in his original intentions. He recollected that he had seen a +trunk in Harvey's room, and that the keys hung in the lock. An +inconceivably short space of time served for him to seize the watch, to +deposit it at the bottom of Harvey's trunk, and to quit the hotel by a +back stair, which led by a short cut to the harbor. The whole transaction +was done unperceived, and the wretch at least departed unnoticed. + +Having finished his business at the bar, Mr. Harvey repaired to his room, +locked his trunk, which, being of a small and handy size, he mounted on +his shoulder, and proceeded to leave the house by the back stair, in +order to get as quickly as possible to the vessel. Little recked he of +the interruption which was to be presented to his departure. He had got +as far as the foot of the stair with his burden, when he was overtaken by +a waiter, who declared that he was going to leave the house clandestinely +without settling accounts. It is proper to mention that Mr. Harvey had +incurred the enmity of this particular waiter in consequence of having, +out of his slender resources, given him too small a gratuity on the +occasion of paying a former bill, and not aware of the second bill being +settled, the waiter was rather glad to have an opportunity of charging +him with a fraudulent design. In vain Mr. Harvey remonstrated, saying he +had paid for every thing. The waiter would not believe his statement, and +detained him "till he should hear better about it." + +"Let me go, fellow; I insist upon it," said Mr. Harvey, burning with +indignation. "I am already too late." + +"Not a step, till I ask master if accounts are squared." + +At this moment, while the altercation was at the hottest, a terrible +ringing of bells was heard, and above stairs was a loud noise of voices, +and of feet running to and fro. A chambermaid came hurriedly down the +stair, exclaiming that some one had stolen a gold watch from No. 17, and +that nobody ought to leave the house till it was found. The landlord +also, moved by the hurricane which had been raised, made his appearance +at the spot where Harvey was interrupted in his exit. + +"What on earth is all this noise about, John?" inquired the landlord of +the waiter. + +"Why, sir, I thought it rather strange for any gentleman to leave the +house by the back way, carrying his own portmanteau, and so I was making +a little breeze about it, fearing he had not paid his bill, when all of +a sudden Sally rushes down the stair and says as how No. 17 has missed +his gold watch, and that no one should quit the hotel." + +No. 17, an old, dry-looking military gentlemen, in a particularly high +passion, now showed himself on the scene, uttering terrible threats of +legal proceedings against the house for the loss he had sustained. + +Harvey was stupified and indignant, yet he could hardly help smiling at +the pother. "What," said he, "have I to do with all this? I have paid for +everything; I am surely entitled to go away if I like. Remember, that if +I lose my passage to Boston, you shall answer for it." + +"I very much regret detaining you, sir," replied the keeper of the hotel; +"but you hear there has been a robbery committed within the last few +minutes, and as it will be proper to search every one in the house, +surely you, who are on the point of departure, will have no objections to +be searched first, and then be at liberty to go?" + +There was something so perfectly reasonable in all this, that +Harvey stepped into an adjoining parlor, and threw open his trunk +for inspection, never doubting that his innocence would be +immediately manifest. + +The waiter, whose mean rapacity had been the cause of the detention, +acted as examiner. He pulled one article after another out of the trunk, +and at length--horror of horrors!--held up the missing watch with a look +of triumph and scorn! + +"Who put that there?" cried Harvey in an agony of mind which can be +better imagined than described. "Who has done me this grievous wrong? I +know nothing as to how the watch came into my trunk." + +No one answered this appeal. All present stood for a moment in +gloomy silence. + +"Sir," said the landlord to Harvey on recovering from his surprise, "I am +sorry for you. For the sake of a miserable trifle, you have brought ruin +and disgrace on yourself. This is a matter which concerns the honor of my +house, and cannot stop here. However much it is against my feelings, you +must go before a magistrate." + +"By all means," added No. 17, with the importance of an injured man. "A +pretty thing that one's watch is not safe in a house like this!" + +"John, send Boots for a constable," said the landlord. + +Harvey sat with his head leaning on his hand. A deadly cold +perspiration trickled down his brow. His heart swelled and beat as if +it would burst. What should he do? His whole prospects were in an +instant blighted. "Oh God! do not desert a frail and unhappy being: +give me strength to face this new and terrible misfortune," was a +prayer he internally uttered. A little revived, he started to his feet, +and addressing himself to the landlord, he said, "Take me to a +magistrate instantly, and let us have this diabolical plot unraveled. I +court inquiry into my character and conduct." + +"It is no use saying any more about it," answered the landlord; "here is +Boots with a constable, and let us all go away together to the nearest +magistrate. Boots, carry that trunk. John and Sally, you can follow us." + +And so the party, trunk and all, under the constable as conductor, +adjourned to the house of a magistrate in an adjacent street. +There the matter seemed so clear a case of felony--robbery in a +dwelling-house--that Harvey, all protestations to the contrary, was +fully committed for trial at the ensuing March assizes, then but a few +days distant. + +At the period at which these incidents occurred, I was a young man going +on my first circuits. I had not as yet been honored with perhaps more +than three or four briefs, and these only in cases so slightly productive +of fees, that I was compelled to study economy in my excursions. Instead +of taking up my residence at an inn when visiting ------, a considerable +seaport, where the court held its sittings, I dwelt in lodgings kept by a +widow lady, where, at a small expense, I could enjoy perfect quietness, +free from interruption. + +On the evening after my arrival on the March circuit of the year 17--, I +was sitting in my lodgings perusing a new work on criminal jurisprudence, +when the landlady, after tapping at the door, entered my room. + +"I am sorry to trouble you, sir," said she; "but a lady has called to +see you about a very distressing law case--very distressing indeed, +and a very strange case it is too. Only, if you could be so good as +to see her?" + +"Who is she?" + +"All I know about it is this: she is a Mrs. Harvey. She and her husband +and children were to sail yesterday for Boston. All were on board except +the husband; and he, on leaving the large hotel over the way, was taken +up for a robbery. Word was in the evening sent by the prisoner to his +wife to come on shore, with all her children and the luggage; and so she +came back in the pilot boat, and was in such a state of distress, that my +brother, who is on the preventive service, and saw her land, took pity on +her, and had her and her children and things taken to a lodging on the +quay. As my brother knows that we have a London lawyer staying here, he +has advised the poor woman to come and consult you about the case." + +"Well, I'll see what can be done. Please desire the lady to step in." + +A lady was shortly shown in. She had been pretty, and was so still, but +anxiety was pictured in her pale countenance. Her dress was plain, but +not inelegant; and altogether she had a neat and engaging appearance. + +"Be so good as to sit down," said I, bowing; "and tell me all you would +like to say." + +The poor woman burst into tears; but afterwards recovering herself, she +told me pretty nearly the whole of her history and that of her husband. + +Lawyers have occasion to see so much duplicity, that I did not all at +once give assent to the idea of Harvey being innocent of the crime of +which he stood charged. + +"There is something perfectly inexplicable in the case," I observed, "and +it would require sifting. Your husband, I hope has always borne a good +character?" + +"Perfectly so. He was no doubt unfortunate in business; but he got his +certificate on the first examination; and there are many who would +testify to his uprightness." And here again my client broke into tears, +as if overwhelmed with her recollections and prospects. + +"I think I recollect Mr. Harvey's shop," said I soothingly. "It seemed a +very respectable concern; and we must see what can be done. Keep up your +spirits; the only fear I have arises from the fact of Judge A ---- being +on the bench. He is usually considered severe, and if exculpatory +evidence fail, your husband may run the risk of being--transported." A +word of more terrific import, with which I was about to conclude, stuck +unuttered in my throat "Have you employed an attorney?" I added. + +"No; I have done nothing as yet, but apply to you, to beg of you to be my +husband's counsel." + +"Well, that must be looked to. I shall speak to a local agent, to prepare +and work out the case; and we shall all do our utmost to get an +acquittal. To-morrow I will call on your husband in prison." + +Many thanks were offered by the unfortunate lady, and she withdrew. + +I am not going to inflict on the reader a detailed account of this +remarkable trial, which turned, as barristers would say, on a beautiful +point of circumstantial evidence. Along with the attorney, a sharp enough +person in his way, I examined various parties at the hotel, and made +myself acquainted with the nature of the premises. The more we +investigated, however, the more dark and mysterious--always supposing +Harvey's innocence--did the whole case appear. There was not one +redeeming trait in the affair, except Harvey's previous good character; +and good character, by the law of England, goes for nothing in opposition +to facts proved to the satisfaction of a jury. It was likewise most +unfortunate that A ---- was to be the presiding judge. This man possessed +great forensic acquirements, and was of spotless private character; but, +like the majority of lawyers of that day--when it was no extraordinary +thing to hang twenty men in a morning at Newgate--he was a staunch +stickler for the gallows as the only effectual reformer and safeguard of +the social state. At this time he was but partially recovered from a long +and severe indisposition, and the traces of recent suffering were +distinctly apparent on his pale and passionless features. + +Harvey was arraigned in due form; the evidence was gone carefully +through; and everything, so far as I was concerned, was done that man +could do. But at the time to which I refer, counsel was not allowed to +address the court on behalf of the prisoner--a practice since introduced +from Scotland--and consequently I was allowed no opportunity to draw the +attention of the jury to the total want of any direct evidence of the +prisoner's guilt. Harvey himself tried to point out the unlikelihood of +his being guilty; but he was not a man gifted with dialectic qualities, +and his harangue fell pointless on the understandings of the twelve +common-place individuals who sat in the jury-box. The judge finally +proceeded to sum the evidence, and this he did emphatically _against_ the +prisoner--dwelling with much force on the suspicious circumstance of a +needy man taking up his abode at an expensive fashionable hotel; his +furtive descent from his apartments by the back stairs; the undoubted +fact of the watch being found in his trunk; the improbability of any one +putting it there but himself; and the extreme likelihood that the robbery +was effected in a few moments of time by the culprit, just as he passed +from the bar of the hotel to the room which he had occupied. "If," said +he to the jury, in concluding his address, "you can, after all these +circumstances, believe the prisoner to be innocent of the crime laid to +his charge, it is more than I can do. The thing seems to me as clear as +the sun at noonday. The evidence, in short, is irresistible; and if the +just and necessary provisions of the law are not enforced in such very +plain cases, then society will be dissolved, and security for property +there will be none. Gentlemen, retire and make up your verdict." + +The jury were not disposed to retire. After communing a few minutes +together, one of them stood up and delivered the verdict: it was +_Guilty!_ The judge assumed the crowning badge of the judicial +potentate--the black cap; and the clerk of arraigns asked the prisoner at +the bar, in the usual form, if he had anything to urge why sentence of +death should not be passed upon him. + +Poor Harvey! I durst scarcely look at him. As the sonorous words fell on +his ear, he was grasping nervously with shaking hands at the front of the +dock. He appeared stunned, bewildered, as a man but half-awakened from a +hideous dream might be supposed to look. He had comprehended, though he +had scarcely heard, the verdict; for on the instant, the voice which but +a few years before sang to him by the brook side, was ringing through his +brain, and he could recognize the little pattering feet of his children, +as, sobbing and clinging to their shrieking mother's dress, she and they +were hurried out of court The clerk, after a painful pause, repeated the +solemn formula. By a strong effort the doomed man mastered his agitation; +his pale countenance lighted up with indignant fire, and firm and +self-possessed, he thus replied to the fearful interrogatory:-- + +"Much could I say in the name, not of mercy, but of justice, why the +sentence about to be passed on me should not be pronounced; but nothing, +alas! that will avail me with you, pride-blinded ministers of death. You +fashion to yourselves--out of your own vain conceits do you +fashion--modes and instruments, by the aid of which you fondly imagine to +invest yourselves with attributes which belong only to Omniscience; and +now I warn you--and it is a voice from the tomb, in whose shadow I +already stand, which addresses you--that you are about to commit a most +cruel and deliberate murder." + +He paused, and the jury looked into each other's eyes for the courage +they could not find in their own hearts. The voice of conscience spoke, +but was only for a few moments audible. The suggestions that what grave +parliaments, learned judges, and all classes of "respectability" +sanctioned, could not be wrong, much less murderous or cruel, silenced +the "still, small" tones, and tranquilized the startled jurors. + +"Prisoner at the bar," said the judge with his cold, calm voice of +destiny, "I cannot listen to such observations: you have been found +guilty of a heinous offence by a jury of your countrymen after a patient +trial. With that finding I need scarcely say I entirely agree. I am as +satisfied of your guilt as if I had seen you commit the act with my own +bodily eyes. The circumstance of your being a person who, from habits and +education, should have been above committing so base a crime, only +aggravates your guilt. However, no matter who or what you have been, you +must expiate your offence on the scaffold. The law has very properly, for +the safety of society, decreed the punishment of death for such crimes: +our only and plain duty is to execute that law." + +The prisoner did not reply: he was leaning with his elbows on the front +of the dock, his bowed face covered with his outspread hands; and the +judge passed sentence of death in the accustomed form. The court then +rose, and a turnkey placed his hand upon the prisoner's arm, to lead him +away. Suddenly he uncovered his face, drew himself up to his full +height--he was a remarkably tall man--and glared fiercely round upon the +audience, like a wild animal at bay. "My lord," he cried, or rather +shouted, in an excited voice. The judge motioned impatiently to the +jailor, and strong hands impelled the prisoner from the front of the +dock. Bursting from them, he again sprang forward, and his arms +outstretched, whilst his glittering eye seemed to hold the judge +spell-bound, exclaimed, "My lord, before another month has passed away, +_you_ will appear at the bar of another world, to answer for the life, +the innocent life, which God bestowed upon me, but which you have +impiously cast away as a thing of naught and scorn!" He ceased, and was +at once borne off. The court, in some confusion, hastily departed. It was +thought at the time that the judge's evidently failing health had +suggested the prophecy to the prisoner. It only excited a few days' +wonder, and was forgotten. + +The position of a barrister in such circumstances is always painful. I +need hardly say that my own feelings were of a very distressing kind. +Conscious that if the unfortunate man really was guilty, he was at least +not deserving of capital punishment, I exerted myself to procure a +reprieve. In the first place I waited privately on the judge; but he +would listen to no proposal for a respite. Along with a number of +individuals--chiefly of the Society of Friends--I petitioned the crown +for a commutation of the sentence. But being unaccompanied with a +recommendation from the judge, the prayer of our petition was of course +disregarded: the law, it was said, must take its course. How much cruelty +has been exercised under shelter of that remorseless expression! + +I would willingly pass over the succeeding events. Unable to save his +life, I endeavored to soothe the few remaining hours of the doomed +convict, and frequently visited him in the condemned cell. The more I saw +of him, the deeper grew my sympathy in his case, which was that of no +vulgar felon. "I have been a most unfortunate man," said he one day to +me. "A destiny towards ruin in fortune and in life has pursued me. I feel +as if deserted by God and man; yet I know, or at least would persuade +myself, that Heaven will one day vindicate my innocence of this foul +charge. To think of being hanged like a dog for a crime at which my soul +revolts! Great is the crime of those imbecile jurors and that false and +hard-hearted judge, who thus, by an irreversible decree, consign a +fellow-mortal to a death of violence and disgrace. Oh God, help me--help +me to sustain that bitter, bitter hour!" And then the poor man would +throw himself on his bed and weep. + +But the parting with his wife and children. What pen can describe that +terrible interview! They knelt in prayer, their wobegone countenances +suffused in tears, and with hands clasped convulsively together. The +scene was too harrowing and sacred for the eye of a stranger. I rushed +from the cell, and buried myself in my lodgings, whence I did not remove +till all was over. Next day James Harvey, a victim of circumstantial +evidence, and of a barbarous criminal code, perished on the scaffold. + +Three weeks afterwards, the court arrived at a populous city in the west +of England. It had in the interval visited another assize town, and there +Judge A ---- had left three for execution. At the trials of these men, +however, I had not attended. So shocked had been my feelings with the +mournful event which had taken place at ------, that I had gone into +Wales for the sake of change of scene. After roaming about for a +fortnight amidst the wild solitudes of Caernarvonshire, I took the stage +for the city which I knew the court was to visit, and arrived on the day +previous to the opening of the assizes. + +"Well, are we to have a heavy calendar?" I inquired next morning of a +brother barrister on entering the court. + +"Rather light for a March assize," replied the impatient counsel as +he bustled onward. "There's Cartwright's case--highway robbery--in +which I am for the prosecution. He'll swing for it, and perhaps four +or five others." + +"A good hanging judge is A ----," said the under-sheriff, who at +this moment joined us, rubbing his hands, as if pleased with the +prospect of a few executions. "No chance of the prophecy yonder coming +to pass I suppose?" + +"Not in the least," replied the bustling counsel. "He never looked +better. His illness has gone completely off. And this day's work will +brighten him up." + +Cartwright's trial came on. I had never seen the man before, and was not +aware that this was the same person whom Harvey had incidentally told me +he had discharged for theft; the truth being, that till the last moment +of his existence, that unfortunate man had not known how much he had been +a sacrifice to this wretch's malice. + +The crime of which the villain now stood accused was that of robbing a +farmer of the paltry sum of eight shillings, in the neighborhood of +Ilfracombe. He pleaded not guilty, but put in no defence. A verdict was +recorded against him, and in due form A ---- sentenced him to be hanged. +An expression of fiendish malignancy gleamed over the haggard features of +the felon as he asked leave to address a few words to the court. It was +granted. Leaning forward, and raising his heavy, scowling eyes to the +judge, he thus began:--"There is something on my mind, my lord--a +dreadful crime--which, as I am to die for the eight shillings I took from +the farmer, I may as well confess. You may remember Harvey, my lord, whom +you hanged the other day at--?" + +"What of him, fellow?" replied the judge, his features suddenly +flushing crimson. + +"Why, my lord, only this--that he was as innocent of the crime for which +you hanged him as the child yet unborn! I did the deed! I put the watch +in his trunk!" And to the unutterable horror of the entire court he +related the whole particulars of the transaction, the origin of his +grudge against Harvey, and his delight on bringing him to the gallows. + +"Inhuman, execrable villain!" gasped the judge in extreme excitement. + +"Cleverly done, though! Was it not, my lord?" rejoined the ruffian with +bitter irony. "The evidence, you know, was irresistible; the crime as +clear as the sun at noonday; and if in such plain cases, the just and +necessary law was not enforced, society would be dissolved, and there +would be no security for property! These were your words, I think. How on +that occasion I admired your lordship's judgment and eloquence! Society +would be dissolved if an innocent man were not hanged! Ha!--ha!--ha! +Capital!--capital!" shouted the ferocious felon with demoniac glee, as he +marked the effect of his words on the countenance of the judge. + +"Remove the prisoner!" cried the sheriff. An officer was about to do so; +but the judge motioned him to desist. His lordship's features worked +convulsively. He seemed striving to speak, but the words would not come. + +"I suppose, my lord," continued Cartwright in low and hissing tones, as +the shadow of unutterable despair grew and settled on his face--"I +suppose you know that his wife destroyed herself. The coroner's jury said +she had fallen accidentally into the water, _I_ know better. She drowned +herself under the agonies of a broken heart! I saw her corpse, with the +dead baby in its arms; and then I felt, knew, that I was lost! Lost, +doomed to everlasting perdition! But, my lord,"--and here the wretch +broke into a howl wild and terrific--"_we_ shall go down together--down +to where your deserts are known. A--h--h! that pinches you, does it? +Hound of a judge! legal murderer! coward! I spurn and spit upon thee!" +The rest of the appalling objurgation was inarticulate, as the monster, +foaming and sputtering, was dragged by an officer from the dock. + +Judge A ---- had fallen forwards on his face, fainting and speechless +with the violence of his emotions. The black cap had dropped from his +brow. His hands were stretched out across the bench, and various members +of the bar rushed to his assistance. The court broke up in frightful +commotion. + +Two days afterwards the county paper had the following announcement:-- + +"Died at the Royal Hotel, ------, on the 27th instant, Judge A ----, from +an access of fever supervening upon a disorder from which he had +imperfectly recovered." + +The prophecy was fulfilled! + + + + +THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT. + + +About the commencement of the present century there stood, near the +centre of a rather extensive hamlet, not many miles distant from a +northern seaport town, a large, substantially-built, but somewhat +straggling building, known as Craig Farm (popularly _Crook_ Farm) House. +The farm consisted of about one hundred acres of tolerable arable and +meadow land; and at the time I have indicated, belonged to a farmer of +the name of Armstrong. He had purchased it about three years previously, +at a sale held, in pursuance of a decree of the High Court of Chancery, +for the purpose of liquidating certain costs incurred in the suit of +Craig _versus_ Craig, which the said high court had nursed so long and +successfully, as to enable the solicitor to the victorious claimant to +incarcerate his triumphant client for several years in the Fleet, in +"satisfaction" of the charges of victory remaining due after the proceeds +of the sale of Craig Farm had been deducted from the gross total. Farmer +Armstrong was married, but childless; his dame, like himself, was a +native of Devonshire. They bore the character of a plodding, taciturn, +morose-mannered couple: seldom leaving the farm except to attend market, +and rarely seen at church or chapel, they naturally enough became objects +of suspicion and dislike to the prying, gossiping villagers, to whom +mystery or reserve of any kind was of course exceedingly annoying and +unpleasant. + +Soon after Armstrong was settled in his new purchase another stranger +arrived, and took up his abode in the best apartments of the house. The +new-comer, a man of about fifty years of age, and evidently, from his +dress and gait, a sea-faring person, was as reserved and unsocial as his +landlord. His name, or at least that which he chose to be known by, was +Wilson. He had one child, a daughter, about thirteen years of age, whom +he placed at a boarding-school in the adjacent town. He seldom saw her; +the intercourse between the father and daughter being principally carried +on through Mary Strugnell, a widow of about thirty years of age, and a +native of the place. She was engaged as a servant to Mr. Wilson, and +seldom left Craig Farm except on Sunday afternoons, when, if the weather +was at all favorable, she paid a visit to an aunt living in the town; +there saw Miss Wilson; and returned home usually at half-past ten +o'clock--later rather than earlier. Armstrong was occasionally absent +from his home for several days together, on business, it was rumored, for +Wilson; and on the Sunday in the first week of January 1802, both he and +his wife had been away for upwards of a week, and were not yet returned. + +About a quarter-past ten o'clock on that evening the early-retiring +inhabitants of the hamlet were roused from their slumbers by a loud, +continuous knocking at the front door of Armstrong's house: louder and +louder, more and more vehement and impatient, resounded the blows upon +the stillness of the night, till the soundest sleepers were awakened. +Windows were hastily thrown open, and presently numerous footsteps +approached the scene of growing hubbub. The unwonted noise was caused, +it was found, by Farmer Armstrong, who accompanied by his wife, was +thundering vehemently upon the door with a heavy black-thorn stick. +Still no answer was obtained. Mrs. Strugnell, it was supposed, had not +returned from town; but where was Mr. Wilson, who was almost always at +home both day and night? Presently a lad called out that a white sheet +or cloth of some sort was hanging out of one of the back windows. This +announcement, confirming the vague apprehensions which had begun to +germinate in the wise heads of the villagers, disposed them to adopt a +more effectual mode of obtaining admission than knocking seemed likely +to prove. Johnson, the constable of the parish, a man of great +shrewdness, at once proposed to break in the door. Armstrong, who, as +well as his wife, was deadly pale, and trembling violently, either with +cold or agitation, hesitatingly consented, and crowbars being speedily +procured, an entrance was forced, and in rushed a score of excited men. +Armstrong's wife, it was afterwards remembered, caught hold of her +husband's arm in a hurried, frightened manner, whispered hastily in his +ear, and then both followed into the house. + +"Now, farmer," cried Johnson, as soon as he had procured a light, "lead +the way up stairs." + +Armstrong, who appeared to have somewhat recovered from his panic, darted +at once up the staircase, followed by the whole body of rustics. On +reaching the landing-place, he knocked at Mr. Wilson's bedroom door. No +answer was returned. Armstrong seemed to hesitate, but the constable at +once lifted the latch; they entered, and then a melancholy spectacle +presented itself. + +Wilson, completely dressed, lay extended on the floor a lifeless corpse. +He had been stabbed in two places in the breast with some sharp-pointed +instrument. Life was quite extinct. The window was open. On farther +inspection, several bundles containing many of Wilson's valuables in +jewelry and plate, together with clothes, shirts, silk handkerchiefs, +were found. The wardrobe and a secretary-bureau had been forced open. +The assassins had, it seemed, been disturbed, and had hurried off by the +window without their plunder. A hat was also picked up in the room, a +shiny, black hat, much too small for the deceased. The constable snatched +it up, and attempted to clap it on Armstrong's head, but it was not +nearly large enough. This, together with the bundles, dissipated a +suspicion which had been growing in Johnson's mind, and he roughly +exclaimed, "You need not look so scared, farmer; it's not you: that's +quite clear." + +To this remark neither Armstrong nor his wife answered a syllable, but +continued to gaze at the corpse, the bundles, and the broken locks, in +bewildered terror and astonishment. Presently some one asked if any body +had seen Mrs. Strugnell? + +The question roused Armstrong, and he said, "She is not come home: her +door is locked." + +"How do you know that?" cried the constable, turning sharply round, and +looking keenly in his face. "How do you know that?" + +"Because--because," stammered Armstrong, "because she always locks it +when she goes out." + +"Which is her room?" + +"The next to this." + +They hastened out, and found the next door was fast. + +"Are you there, Mrs. Strugnell?" shouted Johnson. + +There was no reply. + +"She is never home till half-past ten o'clock on Sunday evenings," +remarked Armstrong in a calmer voice. + +"The key is in the lock on the inside," cried a young man who had been +striving to peep through the key-hole. + +Armstrong, it was afterwards sworn, started as if he had been shot; +and his wife again clutched his arm with the same nervous, frenzied +gripe as before. + +"Mrs. Strugnell, are you there?" once more shouted the constable. He was +answered by a low moan. In an instant the frail door was burst in, and +Mrs. Strugnell was soon pulled out, apparently more dead than alive, from +underneath the bedstead, where she, in speechless consternation, lay +partially concealed. Placing her in a chair, they soon succeeded--much +more easily, indeed, than they anticipated--in restoring her to +consciousness. + +Nervously she glanced round the circle of eager faces that environed her, +till her eyes fell upon Armstrong and his wife, when she gave a loud +shriek, and muttering, "They, _they_ are the murderers!" swooned, or +appeared to do so, again instantly. + +The accused persons, in spite of their frenzied protestations of +innocence, were instantly seized and taken off to a place of security; +Mrs. Strugnell was conveyed to a neighbor's close by; the house was +carefully secured; and the agitated and wondering villagers departed to +their several homes, but not, I fancy, to sleep any more for that night. + +The deposition made by Mrs. Strugnell at the inquest on the body was in +substance as follows:-- + +"On the afternoon in question she had, in accordance with her usual +custom, proceeded to town. She called on her aunt, took tea with her, and +afterwards went to the Independent Chapel. After service, she called to +see Miss Wilson, but was informed that, in consequence of a severe cold, +the young lady was gone to bed. She then immediately proceeded homewards, +and consequently arrived at Craig Farm more than an hour before her usual +time. She let herself in with her latch key, and proceeded to her +bedroom. There was no light in Mr. Wilson's chamber, but she could hear +him moving about in it. She was just about to go down stairs, having put +away her Sunday bonnet and shawl, when she heard a noise, as of persons +entering by the back way, and walking gently across the kitchen floor. +Alarmed as to who it could be, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong not being expected +home for several days, she gently closed her door, and locked it. A few +minutes after, she heard stealthy steps ascending the creaking stairs, +and presently her door was tried, and a voice in a low hurried whisper +said, "Mary, are you there?" She was positive it was Mr. Armstrong's +voice, but was too terrified to answer. Then Mrs. Armstrong--she was sure +it was she--said also in a whisper, and as if addressing her husband, +"She is never back at this hour." A minute or so after there was a tap at +Mr. Wilson's door. She could not catch what answer was made; but by +Armstrong's reply, she gathered that Mr. Wilson had lain down, and did +not wish to be disturbed. He was often in the habit of lying down with +his clothes on. Armstrong said, "I will not disturb you, sir; I'll only +just put this parcel on the table." There is no lock to Mr. Wilson's +door. Armstrong stepped into the room, and almost immediately she heard a +sound as of a violent blow, followed by a deep groan and then all was +still. She was paralyzed with horror and affright. After the lapse of a +few seconds, a voice--Mrs. Armstrong's undoubtedly--asked in a tremulous +tone if "all was over?" Her husband answered "Yes: but where be the keys +of the writing-desk kept?" "In the little table-drawer," was the reply. +Armstrong then came out of the bedroom, and both went into Mr. Wilson's +sitting apartment. They soon returned, and crept stealthily along the +passage to their own bedroom on the same floor. They then went down +stairs to the kitchen. One of them--the woman, she had no doubt--went out +the back way, and heavy footsteps again ascended the stairs. Almost dead +with fright, she then crawled under the bedstead, and remembered no more +till she found herself surrounded by the villagers." + +In confirmation of this statement, a large clasp-knife belonging to +Armstrong, and with which it was evident the murder had been perpetrated, +was found in one corner of Wilson's bedroom; and a mortgage deed, for one +thousand pounds on Craig Farm, the property of Wilson, and which +Strugnell swore was always kept in the writing-desk in the front room, +was discovered in a chest in the prisoner's sleeping apartment, together +with nearly one hundred and fifty pounds in gold, silver, and county +bank-notes, although it was known that Armstrong had but a fortnight +before declined a very advantageous offer of some cows he was desirous of +purchasing, under the plea of being short of cash. Worse perhaps than +all, a key of the back-door was found in his pocket, which not only +confirmed Strugnell's evidence, but clearly demonstrated that the +knocking at the door for admittance, which had roused and alarmed the +hamlet, was a pure subterfuge. The conclusion, therefore, almost +universally arrived at throughout the neighborhood was, that Armstrong +and his wife were the guilty parties; and that the bundles, the broken +locks, the sheet hanging out of the window, the shiny, black hat, were, +like the knocking, mere cunning devices to mislead inquiry. + +The case excited great interest in the county, and I esteemed myself +professionally fortunate in being selected to hold the brief for the +prosecution. I had satisfied myself, by a perusal of the depositions, +that there was no doubt of the prisoners' guilt, and I determined that no +effort on my part should be spared to insure the accomplishment of the +ends of justice. I drew the indictment myself; and in my opening address +to the jury dwelt with all the force and eloquence of which I was master +upon the heinous nature of the crime, and the conclusiveness of the +evidence by which it had been brought home to the prisoners. I may here, +by way of parenthesis, mention that I resorted to a plan in my address to +the jury which I have seldom known to fail. It consisted in fixing my +eyes and addressing my language to each juror one after the other. In +this way each considers the address to be an appeal to his individual +intelligence, and responds to it by falling into the views of the +barrister. On this occasion the jury easily fell into the trap. I could +see that I had got them into the humor of putting confidence in the +evidence I had to produce. + +The trial proceeded. The cause of the death was scientifically stated by +two medical men. Next followed the evidence as to the finding of the +knife in the bedroom of the deceased; the discovery of the mortgage deed, +and the large sum of money, in the prisoners' sleeping apartment; the +finding the key of the back-door in the male prisoner's pocket; and his +demeanor and expressions on the night of the perpetration of the crime. +In his cross-examination of the constable, several facts perfectly new to +me were elicited by the very able counsel for the prisoners. Their +attorney had judiciously maintained the strictest secrecy as to the +nature of the defence, so that it now took me completely by surprise. The +constable, in reply to questions by counsel, stated that the pockets of +the deceased were empty; that not only his purse, but a gold watch, +chain, and seals, which he usually wore, had vanished, and no trace of +them had as yet been discovered. Many other things were also missing. A +young man of the name of Pearce, apparently a sailor, had been seen in +the village once or twice in the company of Mary Strugnell; but he did +not notice what sort of hat he generally wore; he had not seen Pearce +since the night the crime was committed; had not sought for him. + +Mary Strugnell was the next witness. She repeated her previous evidence +with precision and apparent sincerity, and then I abandoned her with a +mixed feeling of anxiety and curiosity, to the counsel for the defence. +A subtle and able cross-examination of more than two hours' duration +followed; and at its conclusion, I felt that the case for the +prosecution was so damaged, that a verdict of condemnation was, or ought +to be, out of the question. The salient points dwelt upon, and varied in +every possible way, in this long sifting, were these:--"What was the +reason she did not return in the evening in question to her aunt's to +supper as usual?" + +"She did not know, except that she wished to get home." + +"Did she keep company with a man of the name of Pearce?" + +"She had walked out with him once or twice." + +"When was the last time?" + +"She did not remember." + +"Did Pearce walk with her home on the night of the murder?" + +"No." + +"Not part of the way?" + +"Yes; part of the way." + +"Did Pearce sometimes wear a black, shiny hat?" + +"No--yes: she did not remember." + +"Where was Pearce now?" + +"She didn't know." + +"Had he disappeared since that Sunday evening?" + +"She didn't know." + +"Had she seen him since?" + +"No." + +"Had Mr. Wilson ever threatened to discharge her for insolence to Mrs. +Armstrong?" + +"Yes; but she knew he was not in earnest." + +"Was not the clasp-knife that had been found always left in the kitchen +for culinary purposes?" + +"No--not always; generally--but not _this _time that Armstrong went away, +she was sure." + +"Mary Strugnell, you be a false-sworn woman before God and man!" +interrupted the male prisoner with great violence of manner. + +The outbreak of the prisoner was checked and rebuked by the judge, and +the cross-examination soon afterwards closed. Had the counsel been +allowed to follow up his advantage by an address to the jury, he would, I +doubt not, spite of their prejudices against the prisoners, have obtained +an acquittal; but as it was, after a neutral sort of charge from the +judge, by no means the ablest that then adorned the bench, the jurors, +having deliberated for something more than half an hour, returned into +court with a verdict of "guilty" against both prisoners, accompanying it, +however, with a strong recommendation to mercy! + +"Mercy!" said the judge. "What for? On what ground?" + +The jurors stared at each other and at the judge: they had no reason to +give! The fact was, their conviction of the prisoners' guilt had been +very much shaken by the cross-examination of the chief witness for the +prosecution, and this recommendation was a compromise which conscience +made with doubt. I have known many such instances. + +The usual ridiculous formality of asking the wretched convicts what they +had to urge why sentence should not be passed upon them was gone through; +the judge, with unmoved feelings, put on the fatal cap; and then a new +and startling light burst upon the mysterious, bewildering affair. + +"Stop, my lord!" exclaimed Armstrong with rough vehemence. "Hear me +speak! I'll tell ye all about it; I will indeed, my lord. Quiet, +Martha, I tell ye. It's I, my lord, that's guilty, not the woman. God +bless ye, my lord; not the wife! Doant hurt the wife, and I'se tell ye +all about it. I _alone_ am guilty; not, the Lord be praised, of murder, +but of robbery!" + +"John!--John!" sobbed the wife, clinging passionately to her husband, +"let us die together!" + +"Quiet, Martha, I tell ye! Yes, my lord, I'se tell ye all about it. I was +gone away, wife and I, for more nor a week, to receive money for Mr. +Wilson, on account of smuggled goods--that money, my lord, as was found +in the chest. When we came home on that dreadful Sunday night, my lord, +we went in the back way; and hearing a noise, I went up stairs, and found +poor Wilson stone-dead on the floor. I were dreadful skeared, and let +drop the candle. I called to wife, and told her of it. She screamed out, +and amaist fainted away. And then, my lord, all at once the devil shot +into my head to keep the money I had brought; and knowing as the keys of +the desk where the mortgage writing was kept was in the bedroom, I crept +back, as that false-hearted woman said, got the keys, and took the deed; +and then I persuaded wife, who had been trembling in the kitchen all the +while, that we had better go out quiet again, as there was nobody in the +house but us: I had tried that woman's door--and we might perhaps be +taken for the murderers. And so we did; and that's the downright, honest +truth, my lord. I'm rightly served; but God bless you, doant hurt the +woman--my wife, my lord, these thirty years. Five-and-twenty years ago +come May, which I shall never see, we buried our two children. Had they +lived, I might have been a better man; but the place they left empty was +soon filled up by love of cursed lucre, and that has brought me here. I +deserve it; but oh, mercy, my lord! mercy, good gentlemen!"--turning from +the stony features of the judge to the jury, as if they could help +him--"not for me, but the wife. She be as innocent of this as a new-born +babe. It's I! I! scoundrel that I be, that has brought thee, Martha, to +this shameful pass!" The rugged man snatched his life-companion to his +breast with passionate emotion, and tears of remorse and agony streamed +down his rough cheeks. + +I was deeply affected, and felt that the man had uttered the whole truth. +It was evidently one of those cases in which a person liable to suspicion +damages his own cause by resorting to a trick. No doubt, by his act of +theft, Armstrong had been driven to an expedient which would not have +been adopted by a person perfectly innocent. And thus, from one thing to +another, the charge of murder had been fixed upon him and his hapless +wife. When his confession had been uttered, I felt a species of +self-accusation in having contributed to his destruction, and gladly +would I have undone the whole day's proceedings. The judge, on the +contrary, was quite undisturbed. Viewing the harangue of Armstrong as a +mere tissue of falsehood, he cooly pronounced sentence of death on the +prisoners. They were to be hanged on Monday. This was Friday. + +"A bad job!" whispered the counsel for the defence as he passed me. "That +witness of yours, the woman Strugnell, is the real culprit." + +I tasted no dinner that day: I was sick at heart; for I felt as if the +blood of two fellow-creatures was on my hands. In the evening I sallied +forth to the judge's lodgings. He listened to all I had to say; but was +quite imperturbable. The obstinate old man was satisfied that the +sentence was as it should be. I returned to my inn in a fever of despair. +Without the approval of the judge, I knew that an application to the +Secretary of State was futile. There was not even time to send to London, +unless the judge had granted a respite. + +All Saturday and Sunday I was in misery. I denounced capital punishment +as a gross iniquity--a national sin and disgrace; my feelings of course +being influenced somewhat by a recollection of that unhappy affair of +Harvey, noticed in my previous paper. I half resolved to give up the bar, +and rather go and sweep the streets for a livelihood, than run the risk +of getting poor people hanged who did not deserve it. + +On the Monday morning I was pacing up and down my break fast-room in the +next assize town, in a state of great excitement, when a chaise-and-four +drove rapidly up to the hotel, and out tumbled Johnson the constable. His +tale was soon told. On the previous evening, the landlady of the Black +Swan, a roadside public-house about four miles distant from the scene of +the murder, reading the name of Pearce in the report of the trial in the +Sunday county paper, sent for Johnston to state that that person had on +the fatal evening called and left a portmanteau in her charge, promising +to call for it in an hour, but had never been there since. On opening the +portmanteau, Wilson's watch, chains, and seals, and other property, were +discovered in it; and Johnson had, as soon as it was possible, set off in +search of me. Instantly, for there was not a moment to spare, I, in +company with Armstrong's counsel, sought the judge, and with some +difficulty obtained from him a formal order to the sheriff to suspend the +execution till further orders. Off I and the constable started, and +happily arrived in time to stay the execution, and deprive the +already-assembled mob of the brutal exhibition they so anxiously awaited. +On inquiring for Mary Strugnell, we found that she had absconded on the +evening of the trial. All search for her proved vain. + +Five months had passed away; the fate of Armstrong and his wife was still +undecided, when a message was brought to my chambers in the Temple from a +woman said to be dying in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It was Mary +Strugnell; who, when in a state of intoxication, had fallen down in front +of a carriage, as she was crossing near Holborn Hill, and had both her +legs broken. She was dying miserably, and had sent for me to make a full +confession relative to Wilson's murder. Armstrong's account was perfectly +correct. The deed was committed by Pearce, and they were packing up their +plunder when they were startled by the unexpected return of the +Armstrongs. Pearce, snatching up a bundle and a portmanteau, escaped by +the window; she had not nerve enough to attempt it, and crawled back to +her bedroom, where she, watching the doings of the farmer through the +chinks of the partition which separated her room from the passage, +concocted the story which convicted the prisoners. Pearce thinking +himself pursued, too heavily encumbered for rapid flight, left the +portmanteau as described, intending to call for it in the morning, if his +fears proved groundless. He, however, had not courage to risk calling +again, and made the best of his way to London. He was now in Newgate +under sentence of death for a burglary, accompanied by personal violence +to the inmates of the dwelling he and his gang had entered and robbed. I +took care to have the deposition of the dying wretch put into proper +form; and the result was, after a great deal of petitioning and worrying +of authorities, a full pardon for both Armstrong and his wife. They sold +Craig Farm, and removed to some other part of the country, where, I never +troubled myself to inquire. Deeply grateful was I to be able at last to +wash my hands of an affair, which had cost me so much anxiety and +vexation; albeit the lesson it afforded me of not coming hastily to +conclusions, even when the truth seems, as it were, upon the surface of +the matter, has not been, I trust, without its uses. + + + + +THE CONTESTED MARRIAGE. + + +I had just escaped to my chambers one winter afternoon from a heavy trial +"at bar" in the King's Bench, Westminster, and was poring over a case +upon which an "opinion" was urgently solicited, when my clerk entered +with a letter which he had been requested to deliver by a lady, who had +called twice before during the day for the purpose of seeing me. Vexed at +the interruption, I almost snatched the letter from the man's hand, +hastily broke the seal, and to my great surprise found it was from my +excellent old friend Sir Jasper Thornely of Thornely Hall, Lancashire. It +ran as follows:-- + +"My Dear ----, The bearer of this note is a lady whom I am desirous of +serving to the utmost extent of my ability. That she is really the widow +she represents herself to be, and her son consequently heir to the +magnificent estates now in possession of the Emsdales--you remember how +they tripped up my heels at the last election for the borough of ------ I +have no moral doubt whatever; but whether her claim can be legally +established is another affair. She will tell you the story herself. It +was a heartless business; but Sir Harry, who, you have no doubt heard, +broke his neck in a steeple-chase about ten months ago, was a sad wild +dog. My advice is, to look out for a sharp, clever, persevering attorney, +and set him upon a hunt for evidence. If he succeed, I undertake to pay +him a thousand pounds over and above his legal costs. He'll nose it out +for that, I should think!--Yours, truly, + +"Jasper Thornely. + +"P.S.--Emsdale's son, I have just heard--confound their +impudence!--intends, upon the strength of this accession of property, to +stand for the county against my old friend ----, at the dissolution, +which cannot now be far off. If you don't think one thousand pounds +enough, I'll double it. A cruelly, ill-used lady! and as to her son, he's +the very image of the late Sir Harry Compton. In haste--J.T. I re-open +the letter to enclose a cheque for a hundred pounds, which you will pay +the attorney on account. They'll die hard, you may be sure. If it could +come off next assizes, we should spoil them for the county--J.T." + +"Assizes"--"county"--"Sir Harry Compton," I involuntarily murmured, as I +finished the perusal of my old friend's incoherent epistle. "What on +earth can the eccentric old fox-hunter mean?" "Show the lady in," I added +in a louder tone to the clerk. She presently appeared, accompanied by a +remarkably handsome boy about six years of age, both attired in deep +mourning. The lady approached with a timid, furtive step and glance, as +if she were entering the den of some grim ogre, rather than the quiet +study of a civilized lawyer of mature age. I was at once struck by her +singular and touching loveliness. I have never seen a woman that so +completely realized the highest _Madonna_ type of youthful, matronly +beauty--its starlight radiance and mild serenity of sorrow. Her voice, +too, gentle and low, had a tone of patient sadness in it strangely +affecting. She was evidently a person, if not of high birth, of refined +manners and cultivated mind; and I soon ceased to wonder at warm-hearted +old Sir Jasper's enthusiasm in her cause. Habitually, however, on my +guard against first impressions, I courteously, but coldly, invited her +first to a seat, and next to a more intelligible relation of her business +with me than could be gathered from the letter of which she was the +bearer. She complied, and I was soon in possession of the following facts +and fancies:-- + +Violet Dalston and her sister Emily had lived for several years in close +and somewhat straitened retirement with their father, Captain Dalston, at +Rock Cottage, on the outskirts of a village about six miles distant from +Leeds, when Captain Dalston, who was an enthusiastic angler, introduced +to his home a gentleman about twenty-five years of age, of handsome +exterior and gentlemanly manners, with whom congeniality of tastes and +pursuits had made him acquainted. This stranger was introduced to Violet +(my interesting client) and her sister, as a Mr. Henry Grainger, the son +of a London merchant. The object of his wanderings through the English +counties was, he said, to recruit his health, which had become affected +by too close application to business, and to gratify his taste for +angling, sketching, and so on. He became a frequent visitor; and the +result, after the lapse of about three months, was a proposal for the +hand of Violet. His father allowed him, he stated, five hundred pounds +per annum; but in order not to mortally offend the old gentleman, who was +determined, if his son married at all, it should be either to rank or +riches, it would be necessary to conceal the marriage till after his +death. This commonplace story had been, it appeared, implicitly credited +by Captain Dalston; and Violet Dalston and Henry Grainger were united in +holy wedlock--not at the village church near where Captain Dalston +resided, but in one of the Leeds churches. The witnesses were the +bride's father and sister, and a Mr. Bilston, a neighbor. This marriage +had taken place rather more than seven years since, and its sole fruit +was the fine-looking boy who accompanied his mother to my office. Mr. +Grainger, soon after the marriage, persuaded the Dalstons to leave Rock +Cottage, and take up their abode in a picturesque village in Cumberland, +where he had purchased a small house, with some garden and ornamental +grounds attached. + +Five years rolled away--not, as I could discern, _too_ happily when the +very frequent absences of Violet's husband in London, as he alleged (all +her letters to him were directed to the post-office, St. Martin's le +Grand--till called for), were suddenly greatly prolonged; and on his +return home, after an absence of more than three months, he abruptly +informed the family that the affairs of his father, who was dying, had +been found to be greatly embarrassed, and that nothing was left for him +and them but emigration to America, with such means as might be saved +from the wreck of the elder Grainger's property. After much lamentation +and opposition on the part of Emily Dalston and her father, it was +finally conceded as Violet's husband wished; and the emigration was to +have taken place in the following spring, Henry Grainger to follow them +the instant he could wind up his father's affairs. About three months +before their intended departure--this very time twelvemonth, as nearly as +may be--Captain Dalston was suddenly called to London, to close the eyes +of an only sister. This sad duty fulfilled, he was about to return, when, +passing towards dusk down St. James Street, he saw Henry Grainger, +habited in a remarkable sporting-dress, standing with several other +gentlemen at the door of one of the club-houses. Hastening across the +street to accost him, he was arrested for a minute or so by a line of +carriages which turned sharply out of Piccadilly; and when he did reach +the other side, young Mr. Grainger and his companions had vanished. He +inquired of the porter, and was assured that no Mr. Grainger, senior or +junior, was known there. Persisting that he had seen him standing within +the doorway, and describing his dress, the man with an insolent laugh +exclaimed that the gentleman who wore that dress was the famous sporting +baronet, Sir Harry Compton! + +Bewildered, and suspecting he hardly knew what, Captain Dalston, in +defiance of young Grainger's oft-iterated injunctions, determined to call +at his father's residence, which he had always understood to be in +Leadenhall Street. No such name was, however, known there; and an +examination, to which he was advised, of the "Commercial Directory" +failed to discover the whereabout of the pretended London merchant. +Heart-sick and spirit-wearied, Captain Dalston returned home only to die. +A violent cold, caught by imprudently riding in such bitter weather as it +then was, on the outside of the coach, aggravated by distress of mind, +brought his already enfeebled frame to the grave in less than two months +after his arrival in Cumberland. He left his daughters utterly unprovided +for, except by the legal claim which the eldest possessed on a man who, +he feared, would turn out to be a worthless impostor. The penalty he paid +for consenting to so imprudent a marriage was indeed a heavy and bitter +one. Months passed away, and still no tidings of Violet's husband reached +the sisters' sad and solitary home. At length, stimulated by +apprehensions of approaching destitution--whose foot was already on the +threshold--and desirous of gratifying a whim of Emily's, Violet consented +to visit the neighborhood of Compton Castle (the seat, her sister had +ascertained, of the "celebrated sporting baronet," as the porter called +him) on their way to London, where they had relatives who, though not +rich, might possibly be able to assist them in obtaining some decent +means of maintenance. They alighted at the "Compton Arms," and the first +object which met the astonished gaze of the sisters as they entered the +principal sitting-room of the inn, was a full-length portrait of Violet's +husband, in the exact sporting-dress described to them by their father. +An ivory tablet attached to the lower part of the frame informed the +gazer that the picture was a copy, by permission, of the celebrated +portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, of Sir Harry Compton, Baronet. They were +confounded, overwhelmed, bewildered. Sir Harry, they found, had been +killed about eight months previously in a steeple-chase; and the castle +and estates had passed, in default of direct issue, to a distant +relative, Lord Emsdale. Their story was soon bruited about; and, in the +opinion of many persons, was confirmed beyond reasonable question by the +extraordinary likeness they saw or fancied between Violet's son and the +deceased baronet. Amongst others, Sir Jasper Thornely was a firm believer +in the identity of Henry Grainger and Sir Harry Compton; but +unfortunately, beyond the assertion of the sisters that the portrait of +Sir Harry was young Grainger's portrait, the real or imaginary likeness +of the child to his reputed father, and some score of letters addressed +to Violet by her husband, which Sir Jasper persisted were in Sir Harry's +handwriting, though few others did (the hand, I saw at a glance, was a +disguised one), not one tittle of evidence had he been able to procure +for love or money. As a last resource, he had consigned the case to me, +and the vulpine sagacity of a London attorney. + +I suppose my countenance must be what is called a "speaking" one, for I +had made no reply in words to this statement of a case upon which I and +a "London attorney" were to ground measures for wresting a magnificent +estate from the clutch of a powerful nobleman, and by "next assizes" +too--when the lady's beautiful eyes filled with tears, and turning to her +child, she murmured in that gentle, agitating voice of hers, "My poor +boy." The words I was about to utter died on my tongue, and I remained +silent for several minutes. After all, thought I, this lady is evidently +sincere in her expressed conviction that Sir Harry Compton was her +husband. If her surmise be correct, evidence of the truth may perhaps be +obtained by a keen search for it; and since Sir Jasper guarantees the +expenses--I rang the bell. "Step over to Cursitor Street," said I to the +clerk as soon as he entered; "and if Mr. Ferret is within, ask him to +step over immediately." Ferret was just the man for such a commission. +Indefatigable, resolute, sharp-witted, and of a ceaseless, remorseless +activity, a secret or a fact had need be very profoundly hidden for him +not to reach and fish it up. I have heard solemn doubts expressed by +attorneys opposed to him as to whether he ever really and truly slept at +all--that is, a genuine Christian sleep, as distinguished from a merely +canine one, with one eye always half open. Mr. Ferret had been for many +years Mr. Simpkins' managing clerk; but ambition, and the increasing +requirements of a considerable number of young Ferrets, determined him on +commencing business on his own account; and about six months previous to +the period of which I am now writing, a brass door-plate in Cursitor +Street, Chancery Lane, informed the public that Samuel Ferret, Esq., +Attorney-at-Law, might be consulted within. + +Mr. Samuel Ferret was fortunately at home; and after a very brief +interval, made his appearance, entering with a short professional bow to +me, and a very profound one to the lady, in whom his quick gray eye +seemed intuitively to espy a client. As soon as he was seated, I handed +him Sir Jasper's letter. He perused it carefully three times, examined +the seal attentively, and handed it back with--"An excellent letter as +far as it goes, and very much to the point. You intend, I suppose, that I +should undertake this little affair?" + +"Yes, if, after hearing the lady's case, you feel disposed to +venture upon it." + +Mr. Samuel Ferret's note-book was out in an instant; and the lady, +uninterrupted by a syllable from him, re-told her story. + +"Good, very good, as far as it goes," remarked undismayed Samuel Ferret +when she concluded; "only it can scarcely be said to go very far. Moral +presumption, which, in our courts unfortunately, isn't worth a groat. +Never mind. _Magna est veritas_, and so on. When, madam, did you say Sir +Harry--Mr. Grainger--first began to urge emigration?" + +"Between two and three years ago." + +"Have the goodness, if you please, to hand me the baronetage." I did so. +"Good," resumed Ferret, after turning over the leaves for a few seconds, +"very good, as far as it goes. It is now just two years and eight months +since Sir Harry succeeded his uncle in the title and estates. You would +no doubt soon have heard, madam, that your husband was dead. Truly the +heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; and +yet such conduct towards such a lady"--Ferret intended no mere +compliment; he was only giving utterance to the thoughts passing through +his brain; but his client's mounting color warned him to change the +topic, which he very adroitly did. "You intend, of course," said he, +addressing me, "to proceed at law? No rumble--tumble through the +spiritual courts?" + +"Certainly, if sufficient evidence to justify such a course can be +obtained." + +"Exactly: Doe, demise of Compton, _versus_ Emsdale; action in ejectment, +judgment of ouster. Our friend Doe, madam--a very accommodating fellow is +Doe--will, if we succeed, put you in possession as natural guardian of +your son. Well, sir," turning to me, "I may as well give you an +acknowledgment for that cheque. I undertake the business, and shall, if +possible, be off to Leeds by this evening's mail." The acknowledgment was +given, and Mr. Ferret, pocketing the cheque, departed in high glee. + +"The best man, madam, in all broad London," said I in answer to Mrs. +Grainger's somewhat puzzled look, "you could have retained. Fond as he +seems, and in fact is, of money--what sensible person is not?--Lord +Emsdale could not bribe him with his earldom, now that he is fairly +engaged in your behalf, I will not say to betray you, but to abate his +indefatigable activity in furtherance of your interests. Attorneys, +madam, be assured, whatever nursery tales may teach, have, the very +sharpest of them, their points of honor." The lady and her son departed, +and I turned again to the almost forgotten "case." + +Three weeks had nearly glided by, and still no tidings of Mr. Ferret. +Mrs. Grainger, and her sister Emily Dalston, a very charming person, had +called repeatedly; but as I of course had nothing to communicate, they +were still condemned to languish under the heart-sickness caused by hope +deferred. At last our emissary made his wished-for appearance. + +"Well, Mr. Ferret," said I, on entering my library, where I found him +composedly awaiting my arrival, "what success?" + +"Why, nothing of much consequence as yet," replied he; "I am, you know, +only, as it were, just commencing the investigation. The Leeds parson +that married them is dead, and the old clerk is paralytic, and has lost +his memory. If, however, they were both alive, and in sound health of +mind and body, they could, I fancy, help us but little, as Bilston tells +me neither the Dalstons nor Grainger had ever entered the church till the +morning of the wedding; and they soon afterwards removed to Cumberland, +so that it is scarcely possible either parson or clerk could prove that +Violet Dalston was married to Sir Harry Compton. A very intelligent +fellow is Bilston: he was present at the marriage, you remember; and a +glorious witness, if he had only something of importance to depose to; +powdered hair and a pigtail, double chin, and six feet in girth at least; +highly respectable--capital witness, very--only, unfortunately, he can +only testify that a person calling himself Grainger married Violet +Dalston; not much in that!" + +"So, then, your three weeks' labor has been entirely thrown away!" + +"Not so fast--not so fast--you jump too hastily at conclusions. The +Cumberland fellow that sold Grainger the house--only the equity of +redemption of it, by the way--there's a large mortgage on it--can prove +nothing. Nobody about there can, except the surgeon; _he_ can prove Mrs. +Grainger's _accouchement_--that is something. I have been killing myself +every evening this last week with grog and tobacco smoke at the "Compton +Arms," in the company of the castle servants, and if the calves' heads +_had_ known anything essential, I fancy I should have wormed it out of +them. They have, however, kindly furnished me with a scrawl of +introduction to the establishment now in town, some of whom I shall have +the honor to meet, in the character of an out-and-out liberal sporting +gentleman, at the "Albemarle Arms" this evening. I want to get hold of +his confidential valet, if he had one--those go-a-head fellows generally +have--a Swiss, or some other foreign animal." + +"Is this all?" + +"Why, no," rejoined Ferret, with a sharp twinkle of his sharp gray eye, +amounting almost to a wink; "there is one circumstance which I cannot +help thinking, though I scarcely know why, will put us, by the help of +patience and perseverance, on the right track. In a corner of the +registry of marriage there is written Z.Z. in bold letters. In no other +part of the book does this occur. What may that mean?" + +"Had the incumbent of the living a curate at the time?" + +"No. On that point I am unfortunately too well satisfied. Neither are +there any names with such initials in any of the Leeds churchyards. Still +this Z.Z. may be of importance, if we could but discover who he is. But +how?--that is the question. Advertise? Show our hands to the opposite +players, and find if Z.Z. is really an entity, and likely to be of +service, that when we want him in court, he is half way to America. No, +no; that would never do." + +Mr. Ferret I saw was getting into a brown study; and as I had +pressing business to despatch, I got rid of him as speedily as I +could, quite satisfied, spite of Z.Z., that Mrs. Grainger's chance of +becoming Lady Compton was about equal to mine of ascending the +British throne some fine day. + +Two days afterwards I received the following note:-- + +"Dear Sir--Z.Z. is the man! I'm off to Shropshire. Back, if possible, the +day after to-morrow. Not a word even to the ladies. Huzza! In haste, +Samuel Ferret." + +What could this mean? Spite of Mr. Ferret's injunction, I could not help +informing the sisters, who called soon after I received the note, that a +discovery, esteemed of importance by our emissary, had been made; and +they returned home with lightened hearts, after agreeing to repeat their +visit on the day Mr. Ferret had named for his return. + +On reaching my chambers about four o'clock in the afternoon of that day, +I found the ladies there, and in a state of great excitement. Mr. Ferret, +my clerk had informed them, had called twice, and seemed in the highest +spirits. We had wasted but a few minutes in conjectures when Mr. Ferret, +having ascended the stairs two or three at a time, burst, _sans +cérémonie_, into the apartment. + +"Good-day, sir. Lady Compton, your most obedient servant; madam, yours! +All right! Only just in time to get the writ sealed; served it myself a +quarter of an hour ago, just as his lordship was getting into his +carriage. Not a day to lose; just in time. Capital! Glorious!" + +"What do you mean, Mr. Ferret?" exclaimed Emily Dalston: her sister was +too agitated to speak. + +"What do I mean? Let us all four step, sir, into your inner sanctum, and +I'll soon tell you what I mean." + +We adjourned, accordingly, to an inner and more private room. Our +conference lasted about half an hour, at the end of which the ladies +took their leave: Lady Compton, her beautiful features alternately +irradiated and clouded by smiles and tears, murmuring in a broken, +agitated voice, as she shook hands with me, "You see, sir, he intended +at last to do us justice." + +The news that an action had been brought on behalf of an infant son of +the late Sir Harry Compton against the Earl of Emsdale, for the recovery +of the estates in the possession of that nobleman, produced the greatest +excitement in the part of the county where the property was situated. The +assize town was crowded, on the day the trial was expected to come on, by +the tenantry of the late baronet and their families, with whom the +present landlord was by no means popular. As I passed up the principal +street, towards the court-house, accompanied by my junior, I was received +with loud hurraings and waving of handkerchiefs, something after the +manner, I suppose, in which chivalrous steel-clad knights, about to do +battle in behalf of distressed damsels, were formerly received by the +miscellaneous spectators of the lists. Numerous favors, cockades, +streamers, of the Compton colors, used in election contests, purple and +orange, were also slyly exhibited, to be more ostentatiously displayed if +the Emsdale party should be beaten. On entering the court, I found it +crowded, as we say, to the ceiling. Not only every seat, but every inch +of standing-room that could be obtained, was occupied, and it was with +great difficulty the ushers of the court preserved a sufficiently clear +space for the ingress and egress of witnesses and counsel. Lord Emsdale, +pale and anxious, spite of manifest effort to appear contemptuously +indifferent, sat near the judge, who had just entered the court. The +Archbishop of York, whom we had subpoenaed, why, his Grace had openly +declared, he knew not, was also of course accommodated with a seat on the +bench. A formidable bar, led by the celebrated Mr. S ----, was, I saw, +arrayed against us, though what the case was they had to meet, so well +had Ferret kept his secret, they knew no more than did their horse-hair +wigs. Ferret had solemnly enjoined the sisters to silence, and no hint, I +need scarcely say, was likely to escape my lips. The jury, special of +course, were in attendance, and the case, "Doe, demise of Compton +_versus_ Emsdale," having been called, they were duly sworn to try the +issue. My junior, Mr. Frampton, was just rising "to state the case," as +it is technically called, when a tremendous shouting, rapidly increasing +in volume and distinctness, and mingled with the sound of carriage +wheels, was heard approaching, and presently Mr. Samuel Ferret appeared, +followed by Lady Compton and her son, the rear of the party brought up by +Sir Jasper Thornely, whose jolly fox-hunting face shone like a full-blown +peony. The lady, though painfully agitated, looked charmingly; and the +timid, appealing glance she unconsciously, as it were, threw round the +court, would, in a doubtful case, have secured a verdict. "Very well got +up, indeed," said Mr. S ----, in a voice sufficiently loud for the jury +to hear--"very effectively managed, upon my word." We were, however, in +too good-humor to heed taunts; and as soon as silence was restored, Mr. +Frampton briefly stated the case, and I rose to address the jury. My +speech was purposely brief, business-like, and confident. I detailed the +circumstances of the marriage of Violet Dalston, then only eighteen years +of age, with a Mr. Grainger; the birth of a son; and subsequent +disappearance of the husband; concluding by an assurance to the jury that +I should prove, by incontrovertible evidence, that Grainger was no other +person than the late Sir Harry Compton, baronet. This address by no means +lessened the vague apprehensions of the other side. A counsel that, +with such materials for eloquence, disdained having recourse to it, must +needs have a formidable case. The smiling countenances of Mr. S ---- and +his brethren became suddenly overcast, and the pallor and agitation of +Lord Emsdale sensibly increased. + +We proved our case clearly, step by step: the marriage, the accouchement, +the handwriting of Grainger--Bilston proved this--to the letters +addressed to his wife, were clearly established. The register of the +marriage was produced by the present clerk of the Leeds church; the +initials Z.Z. were pointed out; and at my suggestion the book was +deposited for the purposes of the trial with the clerk of the court. Not +a word of cross-examination had passed the lips of our learned friends on +the other side: they allowed our evidence to pass as utterly indifferent. +A change was at hand. + +Our next witness was James Kirby, groom to the late baronet and to the +present earl. After a few unimportant questions, I asked him if he had +ever seen that gentleman before, pointing to Mr. Ferret, who stood up for +the more facile recognition of his friend Kirby. + +"Oh yes, he remembered the gentleman well; and a very nice, good-natured, +soft sort of a gentleman he was. He treated witness at the "Albemarle +Arms," London, to as much brandy and water as he liked, out of respect to +his late master, whom the gentleman seemed uncommon fond of." + +"Well, and what return did you make for so much liberality?" + +"Return! very little I do assure ye. I told un how many horses Sir Harry +kept, and how many races he won; but I couldn't tell un much more, pump +as much as he would, because, do ye see, I didn't _know_ no more." + +An audible titter from the other side greeted the witness as he uttered +the last sentence. Mr. S ----, with one of his complacent glances at the +jury-box, remarking in a sufficiently loud whisper, "That he had never +heard a more conclusive reason for not telling in his life." + +"Did you mention that you were present at the death of the late baronet?" + +"Yes I did. I told un that I were within about three hundred red yards +of late master when he had that ugly fall; and that when I got up to +un, he sort of pulled me down, and whispered hoarse-like, 'Send for +Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman.' I remembered it, it was sich an +outlandish name like." + +"Oh, oh," thought I, as Mr. S ---- reached across the table for the +parish register, "Z.Z. is acquiring significance I perceive." + +"Well, and what did this gentleman say to that?" + +"Say? Why, nothing particular, only seemed quite joyful 'mazed like; and +when I asked un why, he said it was such a comfort to find his good +friend Sir Harry had such pious thoughts in his last moments." + +The laugh, quickly suppressed, that followed these words, did not come +from our learned friends on the other side. + +"Sir Harry used those words?" + +"He did; but as he died two or three minutes after, it were of course no +use to send for no parson whatsomever." + +"Exactly. That will do, unless the other side have any questions to ask." +No question _was_ put, and the witness went down. "Call," said I to the +crier of the court--"call the Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman." + +This was a bomb-shell. Lord Emsdale, the better to conceal his agitation, +descended from the bench and took his seat beside his counsel. The +Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman, examined by Mr. Frampton, deponed in +substance as follows:--"He was at present rector of Dunby, Shropshire, +and had been in holy orders more than twenty years. Was on a visit to the +Reverend Mr. Cramby at Leeds seven years ago, when one morning Mr. +Cramby, being much indisposed, requested him to perform the marriage +ceremony for a young couple then waiting in church. He complied, and +joined in wedlock Violet Dalston and Henry Grainger. The bride was the +lady now pointed out to him in court; the bridegroom he had discovered, +about two years ago, to be no other than the late Sir Harry Compton, +baronet. The initials Z.Z. were his, and written by him. The parish +clerk, a failing old man, had not officiated at the marriage; a nephew, +he believed, had acted for him, but he had entered the marriage in the +usual form afterwards." + +"How did you ascertain that Henry Grainger was the late Sir Harry +Compton?" + +"I was introduced to Sir Harry Compton in London, at the house of the +Archbishop of York, by his Grace himself." + +"I remember the incident distinctly, Mr. Zimmerman," said his Grace from +the bench. + +"Besides which," added the rector, "my present living was presented to +me, about eighteen months since, by the deceased baronet. I must further, +in justice to myself, explain that I immediately after the introduction, +sought an elucidation of the mystery from Sir Harry; and he then told me +that, in a freak of youthful passion, he had married Miss Dalston in the +name of Grainger, fearing his uncle's displeasure should it reach his +ears; that his wife had died in her first confinement, after giving birth +to a still-born child, and he now wished the matter to remain in +oblivion. He also showed me several letters, which I then believed +genuine, confirming his story. I heard no more of the matter till waited +upon by the attorney for the plaintiff, Mr. Ferret." + +A breathless silence prevailed during the delivery of this evidence. At +its conclusion, the dullest brain in court comprehended that the cause +was gained; and a succession of cheers, which could not be suppressed, +rang through the court, and were loudly echoed from without. Sir Jasper's +voice sounding high above all the rest. Suddenly, too, as if by magic, +almost everybody in court, save the jury and counsel, were decorated with +orange and purple favors, and a perfect shower of them fell at the feet +and about the persons of Lady Compton, her sister, who had by this time +joined her, and the infant Sir Henry. As soon as the expostulations and +menaces of the judge had restored silence and order, his lordship, +addressing Lord Emsdale's senior counsel, said, "Well, Brother S ----, +what course do you propose to adopt ?" + +"My lord," replied Mr. S ---- after a pause, "I and my learned friends +have thought it our duty to advise Lord Emsdale that further opposition +to the plaintiff's claim would prove ultimately futile; and I have +therefore to announce, my lord and gentlemen of the jury, that we +acquiesce in a verdict for the plaintiff." + +"You have counseled wisely," replied his lordship. "Gentlemen of the +jury, you will of course return a verdict for the plaintiff." + +The jury hastily and joyfully assented: the verdict was recorded, and the +court adjourned for an hour in the midst of tumultuous excitement. The +result of the trial flew through the crowd outside like wildfire; and +when Lady Compton and her son, after struggling through the +densely-crowded court, stepped into Sir Jasper's carriage, which was in +waiting at the door, the enthusiastic uproar that ensued--the hurrahing, +shouting, waving of hats and handkerchiefs--deafened and bewildered one; +and it was upwards of an hour ere the slow-moving chariot reached Sir +Jasper's mansion, though not more than half a mile distant from the town. +Mr. Ferret, mounted on the box, and almost smothered in purple and +orange, was a conspicuous object, and a prime favorite with the crowd. +The next day Lord Emsdale, glad, doubtless, to quit the neighborhood as +speedily as possible, left the castle, giving Lady Compton immediate +possession. The joy of the tenantry was unbounded, and under the wakeful +superintendence of Mr. Ferret, all claims against Lord Emsdale for +received rents, dilapidations, &c. were adjusted, we may be sure, _not_ +adversely to his client's interests; though he frequently complained, not +half so satisfactorily as if Lady Compton had not interfered, with what +Mr. Ferret deemed misplaced generosity in the matter. + +As I was obliged to proceed onwards with the circuit, I called at Compton +Castle to take leave of my interesting and fortunate client a few days +after her installation there. I was most gratefully received and +entertained. As I shook hands at parting, her ladyship, after pressing +upon me a diamond ring of great value, said, whilst her charming eyes +filled with regretful, yet joyful tears, "Do not forget that poor Henry +intended at last to do us justice." Prosperity, thought I, will not spoil +that woman. It _has_ not, as the world, were I authorized to communicate +her _real_ name, would readily acknowledge. + + + + +THE MOTHER AND SON. + + +Dinner had been over about half an hour one Sunday afternoon.--the only +day on which for years I had been able to enjoy a dinner--and I was +leisurely sipping a glass of wine, when a carriage drove rapidly up to +the door, a loud _rat-tat_ followed, and my friend Dr. Curteis, to my +great surprise, was announced. + +"I have called," said the doctor as we shook hands, "to ask you to +accompany me to Mount Place. I have just received a hurried note from +Miss Armitage, stating that her mother, after a very brief illness, is +rapidly sinking, and requesting my attendance, as well as that of a legal +gentleman, immediately." + +"Mrs. Armitage!" I exclaimed, inexpressibly shocked. "Why, it is scarcely +more than a fortnight ago that I met her at the Rochfords' in brilliant +health and spirits." + +"Even so. But will you accompany me? I don't know where to find any one +else for the moment, and time presses." + +"It is an attorney, probably, rather than a barrister, that is needed; +but under the circumstances, and knowing her as I do, I cannot hesitate." + +We were soon bowling along at a rapid pace, and in little more than an +hour reached the dying lady's residence, situated in the county of Essex, +and distant about ten miles from London. We entered together; and Dr. +Curteis, leaving me in the library, proceeded at once to the sick +chamber. About ten minutes afterwards the housekeeper, a tall, +foreign-looking, and rather handsome woman, came into the room, and +announced that the doctor wished to see me. She was deadly pale, and, I +observed, trembled like an aspen. I motioned her to precede me; and she, +with unsteady steps, immediately led the way. So great was her agitation, +that twice, in ascending the stairs, she only saved herself from falling +by grasping the banister-rail. The presage I drew from the exhibition of +such overpowering emotion, by a person whom I knew to have been long not +only in the service, but in the confidence of Mrs. Armitage, was soon +confirmed by Dr. Curteis, whom we met coming out of the chamber of the +expiring patient. + +"Step this way," said he, addressing me, and leading to an adjoining +apartment. "We do not require your attendance, Mrs. Bourdon," said he, as +soon as we reached it, to the housekeeper, who had swiftly followed us, +and now stood staring with eager eyes in the doctor's face, as if life +and death hung on his lips. "Have the goodness to leave us," he added +tartly, perceiving she did not stir, but continued her fearful, +scrutinizing glance. She started at his altered tone, flushed crimson, +then paled to a chalky whiteness, and muttering, left the apartment. + +"The danger of her mistress has bewildered her," I remarked. + +"Perhaps so," remarked Dr. Curteis. "Be that as it may, Mrs. Armitage is +beyond all human help. In another hour she will be, as we say, no more." + +"I feared so. What is the nature of her disorder?" + +"A rapid wasting away, as I am informed. The appearances presented are +those of a person expiring of atrophy, or extreme emaciation." + +"Indeed. And so sudden too!" + +"Yes. I am glad you are come, although your professional services will +not, it seems, be required--a neighboring attorney having performed the +necessary duty--something, I believe, relative to the will of the dying +lady. We will speak further together by and by. In the meantime," +continued Dr. Curteis, with a perceptible tremor in his voice, "it will +do neither of us any harm to witness the closing scene of the life of +Mary Rawdon, whom you and I twenty years ago worshipped as one of the +gentlest and most beautiful of beings with which the Creator ever graced +his universe. It will be a peaceful parting. Come." + +Just as, with noiseless footsteps, we entered the silent death-chamber, +the last rays of the setting sun were falling upon the figure of Ellen +Armitage--who knelt in speechless agony by the bedside of her expiring +parent--and faintly lighting up the pale, emaciated, sunken features of +the so lately brilliant, courted Mrs. Armitage! But for the ineffaceable +splendor of her deep-blue eyes, I should scarcely have recognized her. +Standing in the shadow, as thrown by the heavy bed-drapery, we gazed and +listened unperceived. + +"Ellen," murmured the dying lady, "come nearer to me. It is growing +dark, and I cannot see you plainly. Now, then, read to me, beginning at +the verse you finished with, as good Dr. Curteis entered. Ay," she +faintly whispered, "it is thus, Ellen, with thy hand clasped in mine, +and with the words of the holy book sounding from thy dear lips, that I +would pass away!" + +Ellen, interrupted only by her blinding tears, making sad stops, +complied. Twilight stole on, and threw its shadow over the solemn scene, +deepening its holiness of sorrow. Night came with all her train; and the +silver radiance kissed into ethereal beauty the pale face of the weeping +girl, still pursuing her sad and sacred task. We hesitated to disturb, by +the slightest movement the repose of a death-bed over which belief and +hope, those only potent ministers, shed light and calm! At length Dr. +Curteis advanced gently towards the bed, and taking the daughter's hand, +said in a low voice, "Had you not better retire, my dear young lady, for +a few moments?" She understood him, and rising from her knees, threw +herself in an ecstacy of grief upon the corpse, from which the spirit had +just passed away. Assistance was summoned, and the sobbing girl was borne +from the chamber. + +I descended, full of emotion, to the library, where Dr. Curteis promised +shortly to join me. Noiselessly entering the room, I came suddenly upon +the housekeeper and a tall young man, standing with their backs towards +me in the recesses of one of the windows, and partly shrouded by the +heavy cloth curtains. They were evidently in earnest conference, and +several words, the significance of which did not at the moment strike me, +reached my ears before they perceived my approach. The instant they did +so, they turned hastily round, and eyed me with an expression of flurried +alarm, which at the time surprised me not a little. "All is over, Mrs. +Bourdon," said I, finding she did not speak; "and your presence is +probably needed by Miss Armitage." A flash of intelligence, as I spoke, +passed between the pair; but whether indicative of grief or joy, so +momentary was the glance, I should have been puzzled to determine. The +housekeeper immediately left the room, keeping her eyes, as she passed, +fixed upon me with the same nervous apprehensive look which had before +irritated Dr. Curteis. The young man followed more slowly. He was a tall +and rather handsome youth, apparently about one or two-and-twenty years +of age. His hair was black as jet, and his dark eyes were of singular +brilliancy; but the expression, I thought, was scarcely a refined or +highly-intellectual one. His resemblance to Mrs. Bourdon, whose son +indeed he was, was very striking. He bowed slightly, but courteously, as +to an equal, as he closed the door, and I was left to the undisturbed +enjoyment of my own reflections, which, ill-defined and indistinct as +they were, were anything but pleasant company. My reverie was at length +interrupted by the entrance of the doctor, with the announcement that the +carriage was in waiting to re-convey us to town. + +We had journeyed several miles on our return before a word was spoken by +either of us. My companion was apparently even more painfully +pre-occupied than myself. He was, however, the first to break silence. +"The emaciated corpse we have just left little resembles the gay, +beautiful girl, for whose smiles you and I were once disposed to shoot +each other!" The doctor's voice trembled with emotion, and his face, I +perceived, was pale as marble. + +"Mary Rawdon," I remarked, "lives again in her daughter." + +"Yes; her very image. Do you know," continued he, speaking with rapid +energy, "I suspect Mary Rawdon--Mrs. Armitage, I would say--has been +foully, treacherously dealt with!" + +I started with amazement; and yet the announcement but embodied and gave +form and color to my own ill-defined and shadowy suspicions. + +"Good heavens! How? By whom?" + +"Unless I am greatly mistaken, she has been poisoned by an adept in the +use of such destructive agents." + +"Mrs. Bourdon?" + +"No; by her son. At least my suspicions point that way. She is probably +cognizant of the crime. But in order that you should understand the +grounds upon which my conjectures are principally founded, I must enter +into a short explanation. Mrs. Bourdon, a woman of Spanish extraction, +and who formerly occupied a much higher position than she does now, has +lived with Mrs. Armitage from the period of her husband's death, now +about sixteen years ago. Mrs. Bourdon has a son, a tall, good-looking +fellow enough, whom you may have seen." + +"He was with his mother in the library as I entered it after +leaving you." + +"Ah! well, hem! This boy, in his mother's opinion--but that perhaps is +somewhat excusable--exhibited early indications of having been born a +"genius." Mrs. Armitage, who had been first struck by the beauty of the +child, gradually acquired the same notion; and the result was, that he +was little by little invested--with at least her tacit approval--with the +privileges supposed to be the lawful inheritance of such gifted spirits; +namely, the right to be as idle as he pleased--geniuses, you know, can, +according to the popular notion, attain any conceivable amount of +knowledge _per saltum_ at a bound--and to exalt himself in the stilts of +his own conceit above the useful and honorable pursuits suited to the +station in life in which Providence had cast his lot. The fruit of such +training soon showed itself. Young Bourdon grew up a conceited and +essentially-ignorant puppy, capable of nothing but bad verses, and +thoroughly impressed with but one important fact, which was, that he, +Alfred Bourdon, was the most gifted and the most ill-used of all God's +creatures. To genius, in any intelligible sense of the term, he has in +truth no pretension. He is endowed, however, with a kind of reflective +talent, which is often mistaken by fools for _creative_ power. The morbid +fancies and melancholy scorn of a Byron, for instance, such gentry +reflect back from their foggy imaginations in exaggerated and distorted +feebleness of whining versicles, and so on with other lights celestial +or infernal. This, however, by the way. The only rational pursuit he ever +followed, and that only by fits and starts, and to gratify his faculty of +"wonder," I fancy, was chemistry. A small laboratory was fitted up for +him in the little summer-house you may have observed at the further +corner of the lawn. This study of his, if study such desultory snatches +at science may be called, led him, in his examination of vegetable +bodies, to a smattering acquaintance with botany, a science of which +Ellen Armitage is an enthusiastic student. They were foolishly permitted +to _botanize_ together, and the result was, that Alfred Bourdon, acting +upon the principle that genius--whether sham or real--levels all merely +mundane distinctions, had the impudence to aspire to the hand of Miss +Armitage. His passion, sincere or simulated, has never been, I have +reason to know, in the slightest degree reciprocated by its object; but +so blind is vanity, that when, about six weeks ago, an _éclaircissement_ +took place, and the fellow's dream was somewhat rudely dissipated, the +untoward rejection of his preposterous suit was, there is every reason to +believe, attributed by both mother and son to the repugnance of Mrs. +Armitage alone; and to this idiotic hallucination she has, I fear, fallen +a sacrifice. Judging from the emaciated appearance of the body, and other +phenomena communicated to me by her ordinary medical attendant--a +blundering ignoramus, who ought to have called in assistance long +before--she has been poisoned with _iodine_, which, administered in +certain quantities, would produce precisely the same symptoms. Happily +there is no mode of destroying human life which so surely leads to the +detection of the murderer as the use of such agents; and of this truth +the post mortem examination of the body, which takes place to-morrow +morning, will, if I am not grossly mistaken, supply another vivid +illustration. Legal assistance will no doubt be necessary, and I am sure +I do not err in expecting that _you_ will aid me in bringing to justice +the murderer of Mary Rawdon?" + +A pressure of his hand was my only answer. "I shall call for you at ten +o'clock" said he, as he put me down at my own door. I bowed, and the +carriage drove off. + +"Well!" said I, as Dr. Curteis and Mr. ---- the eminent surgeon entered +the library at Mount Place the following morning after a long absence. + +"As I anticipated," replied the doctor with a choking voice: "she has +been poisoned!" + +I started to my feet. "And the murderer?" + +"Our suspicions still point to young Bourdon; but the persons of both +mother and son have been secured." + +"Apart?" + +"Yes; and I have despatched a servant to request the presence of a +neighbor--a county magistrate. I expect him momently." + +After a brief consultation, we all three directed our steps to the +summer-house which contained young Bourdon's laboratory. In the room +itself nothing of importance was discovered; but in an enclosed recess, +which we broke open, we found a curiously-fashioned glass bottle half +full of iodine. + +"This is it!" said Mr. ----; "and in a powdered state too--just ready +for mixing with brandy or any other available dissolvent." The powder had +somewhat the appearance of fine black lead. Nothing further of any +consequence being observed, we returned to the house, where the +magistrate had already arrived. + +Alfred Bourdon was first brought in; and he having been duly cautioned +that he was not obliged to answer any question, and that what he did say +would be taken down, and, if necessary, used against him, I proposed the +following questions:-- + +"Have you the key of your laboratory?" + +"No; the door is always open." + +"Well, then, of any door or cupboard in the room?" + +At this question his face flushed purple: he stammered, "There is +no"--and abruptly paused. + +"Do I understand you to say there is no cupboard or place of concealment +in the room?" + +"No: here is the key." + +"Has any one had access to the cupboard or recess of which this is the +key, except yourself?" + +The young man shook as if smitten with ague: his lips chattered, but no +articulate sound escaped them. + +"You need not answer the question," said the magistrate, "unless you +choose to do so. I again warn you that all you say will, if necessary, +be used against you." + +"No one," he at length gasped, mastering his hesitation by a strong +exertion of the will--"no one can have had access to the place but +myself. I have never parted with the key." + +Mrs. Bourdon was now called in. After interchanging a glance of intense +agony, and, as it seemed to me, of affectionate intelligence with her +son, she calmly answered the questions put to her. They were unimportant, +except the last, and that acted upon her like a galvanic shock. It was +this--"Did you ever struggle with your son on the landing leading to the +bedroom of the deceased for the possession of this bottle?" and I held up +that which we had found in the recess. + +A slight scream escaped her lips; and then she stood rigid, erect, +motionless, glaring alternately at me and at the fatal bottle with eyes +that seemed starting from their sockets. I glanced towards the son; he +was also affected in a terrible manner. His knees smote each other, and a +clammy perspiration burst forth and settled upon his pallid forehead. + +"Again I caution you," iterated the magistrate, "that you are not bound +to answer any of these questions." + +The woman's lips moved. "No--never!" she almost inaudibly gasped, and +fell senseless on the floor. + +As soon as she was removed, Jane Withers was called. She deposed that +three days previously, as she was, just before dusk, arranging some linen +in a room a few yards distant from the bedroom of her late mistress, she +was surprised at hearing a noise just outside the door, as of persons +struggling and speaking in low but earnest tones. She drew aside a corner +of the muslin curtain of the window which locked upon the passage or +corridor, and there saw Mrs. Bourdon striving to wrest something from her +son's hand. She heard Mrs. Bourdon say, "You shall not do it, or you +shall not have it"--she could not be sure which. A noise of some sort +seemed to alarm them: they ceased struggling, and listened attentively +for a few seconds: then Alfred Bourdon stole off on tip-toe, leaving the +object in dispute, which witness could not see distinctly, in his +mother's hand. Mrs. Bourdon continued to listen, and presently Miss +Armitage, opening the door of her mother's chamber, called her by name. +She immediately placed what was in her hand on the marble top of a +side-table standing in the corridor, and hastened to Miss Armitage. +Witness left the room she had been in a few minutes afterwards, and, +curious to know what Mrs. Bourdon and her son had been struggling for, +went to the table to look at it. It was an oddly-shaped glass bottle, +containing a good deal of a blackish-gray powder, which, as she held it +up to the light, looked like black-lead! + +"Would you be able to swear to the bottle if you saw it?" + +"Certainly I should." + +"By what mark or token?" + +"The name of Valpy or Vulpy was cast into it--that is, the name was in +the glass itself." + +"Is this it?" + +"It is: I swear most positively." + +A letter was also read which had been taken from Bourdon's pocket. It was +much creased, and was proved to be in the handwriting of Mrs. Armitage. +It consisted of a severe rebuke at the young man's presumption in seeking +to address himself to her daughter, which insolent ingratitude, the +writer said, she should never, whilst she lived, either forget or +forgive. This last sentence was strongly underlined in a different ink +from that used by the writer of the letter. + +The surgeon deposed to the cause of death. It had been brought on by the +action of iodine, which, administered in certain quantities, produced +symptoms as of rapid atrophy, such as had appeared in Mrs. Armitage. The +glass bottle found in the recess contained iodine in a pulverized state. + +I deposed that, on entering the library on the previous evening I +overheard young Mr. Bourdon, addressing his mother, say, "Now that it is +done past recall, I will not shrink from any consequences, be they what +they may!" + +This was the substance of the evidence adduced; and the magistrate at +once committed Alfred Bourdon to Chelmsford jail, to take his trial at +the next assize for "wilful murder." A coroner's inquisition a few days +after also returned a verdict of "wilful murder" against him on the +same evidence. + +About an hour after his committal, and just previous to the arrival of +the vehicle which was to convey him to the county prison, Alfred Bourdon +requested an interview with me. I very reluctantly consented; but steeled +as I was against him, I could not avoid feeling dreadfully shocked at the +change which so brief an interval had wrought upon him. It had done the +work of years. Despair--black, utter despair--was written in every +lineament of his expressive countenance. + +"I have requested to see you," said the unhappy culprit, "rather than Dr. +Curteis, because he, I know, is bitterly prejudiced against me. But _you_ +will not refuse, I think, the solemn request of a dying man--for a dying +man I feel myself to be--however long or short the interval which stands +between me and the scaffold. It is not with a childish hope that any +assertion of mine can avail before the tribunal of the law against the +evidence adduced this day, that I, with all the solemnity befitting a man +whose days are numbered, declare to you that I am wholly innocent of the +crime laid to my charge. I have no such expectation; I seek only that +you, in pity of my youth and untimely fate, should convey to her whom I +have madly presumed to worship this message: 'Alfred Bourdon was mad, but +not blood-guilty; and of the crime laid to his charge he is innocent as +an unborn child.'" + +"The pure and holy passion, young man," said I, somewhat startled by his +impressive manner, "however presumptuous, as far as social considerations +are concerned, it might be, by which you affect to be inspired, is +utterly inconsistent with the cruel, dastardly crime of which such +damning evidence has an hour since been given"-- + +"Say no more, sir," interrupted Bourdon, sinking back in his seat, and +burying his face in his hands: "it were a bootless errand; she _could_ +not, in the face of that evidence, believe my unsupported assertion! It +were as well perhaps she did not. And yet, sir, it is hard to be +trampled into a felon's grave, loaded with the maledictions of those +whom you would coin your heart to serve and bless! Ah, sir," he +continued, whilst tears of agony streamed through his firmly-closed +fingers, "you cannot conceive the unutterable bitterness of the pang +which rends the heart of him who feels that he is not only despised, +but loathed, hated, execrated, by her whom his soul idolizes! Mine was +no boyish, transient passion: it has grown with my growth, and +strengthened with my strength. My life has been but one long dream of +her. All that my soul had drunk in of beauty in the visible earth and +heavens--the light of setting suns--the radiance of the silver +stars--the breath of summer flowers, together with all which we imagine +of celestial purity and grace, seemed to me in her incarnated, +concentrated, and combined! And now lost--lost--forever lost!" The +violence of his emotions choked his utterance; and deeply and painfully +affected, I hastened from his presence. + +Time sped as ever onwards, surely, silently; and justice, with her feet +of lead, but hands of iron, closed gradually upon her quarry. Alfred +Bourdon was arraigned before a jury of his countrymen, to answer finally +to the accusation of wilful murder preferred against him. + +The evidence, as given before the committing magistrate, and the +coroner's inquisition, was repeated with some addition of passionate +expressions used by the prisoner indicative of a desire to be avenged on +the deceased. The cross-examination by the counsel for the defense was +able, but failed to shake the case for the prosecution. His own +admission, that no one but himself had access to the recess where the +poison was found, told fatally against him. When called upon to address +the jury, he delivered himself of a speech rather than a defense; of an +oratorical effusion, instead of a vigorous, and, if possible, damaging +commentary upon the evidence arrayed against him. It was a labored, and +in part eloquent, exposition of the necessary fallibility of human +judgment, illustrated by numerous examples of erroneous verdicts. His +peroration I jotted down at the time:--"Thus, my lord and gentlemen of +the jury, is it abundantly manifest, not only by these examples, but by +the testimony which every man bears in his own breast, that God could not +have willed, could not have commanded, his creatures to perform a +pretended duty, which he vouchsafed them no power to perform righteously. +Oh, be sure that if he had intended, if he had commanded you to pronounce +irreversible decrees upon your fellow-man, quenching that life which is +his highest gift, he would have endowed you with gifts to perform that +duty rightly. Has he done so? Ask not alone the pages dripping with +innocent blood which I have quoted, but your own hearts! Are you, +according to the promise of the serpent-tempter, 'gods, knowing good from +evil?' of such clear omniscience, that you can hurl an unprepared soul +before the tribunal of its Maker, in the full assurance that you have +rightly loosed the silver cord which he had measured, have justly broken +the golden bowl which he had fashioned! Oh, my lord," he concluded, his +dark eyes flashing with excitement, "it is possible that the first +announcement of my innocence of this crime, to which you will give +credence, may be proclaimed from the awful tribunal of him who alone +cannot err! How if he, whose eye is even now upon us, should then +proclaim, '_I_ too, sat in judgment on the day when you presumed to doom +your fellow-worm; and _I_ saw that the murderer was not in the dock, but +on the bench!' Oh, my lord, think well of what you do--pause ere you +incur such fearful hazard; for be assured, that for all these things God +will also bring _you_ to judgment!" + +He ceased, and sank back exhausted. His fervid declamation produced a +considerable impression upon the auditory; but it soon disappeared before +the calm, impressive charge of the judge, who re-assured the startled +jury, by reminding them that their duty was to honestly execute the law, +not to dispute about its justice. For himself, he said, sustained by a +pure conscience, he was quite willing to incur the hazard hinted at by +the prisoner. After a careful and luminous summing up, the jury, with +very slight deliberation, returned a verdict of "Guilty." + +As the word passed the lips of the foreman of the jury, a piercing shriek +rang through the court. It proceeded from a tall figure in black, who, +with closely-drawn veil, had sat motionless during the trial, just before +the dock. It was the prisoner's mother. The next instant she rose, and +throwing back her veil wildly exclaimed, "He is innocent--innocent, I +tell ye! I alone"-- + +"Mother! mother! for the love of Heaven be silent!" shouted the prisoner +with frantic vehemence, and stretching himself over the front of the +dock, as if to grasp and restrain her. + +"Innocent, I tell you!" continued the woman. "I--I alone am the guilty +person! It was I alone that perpetrated the deed! He knew it not, +suspected it not, till it was too late. Here," she added, drawing a sheet +of paper from her bosom--"here is my confession, with each circumstance +detailed!" + +As she waved it over her head, it was snatched by her son, and, swift as +lightning, torn to shreds. "She is mad! Heed her not--believe her not!" +He at the same time shouted at the top of his powerful voice, "She is +distracted--mad! Now, my lord, your sentence! Come!" + +The tumult and excitement in the court no language which I can employ +would convey an adequate impression of. As soon as calm was partially +restored, Mrs. Bourdon was taken into custody: the prisoner was removed; +and the court adjourned, of course without passing sentence. + +It was even as his mother said! Subsequent investigation, aided by her +confessions, amply proved that the fearful crime was conceived and +perpetrated by her alone, in the frantic hope of securing for her +idolized son the hand and fortune of Miss Armitage. She had often been +present with him in his laboratory, and had thus become acquainted with +the uses to which certain agents could be put. She had purloined the key +of the recess; and he, unfortunately too late to prevent the perpetration +of the crime, had by mere accident discovered the abstraction of the +poison. His subsequent declarations had been made for the determined +purpose of saving his mother's life by the sacrifice of his own! + +The wretched woman was not reserved to fall before the justice of her +country. The hand of God smote her ere the scaffold was prepared for +her. She was smitten with frenzy, and died raving in the Metropolitan +Lunatic Asylum. Alfred Bourdon, after a lengthened imprisonment, was +liberated. He called on me, by appointment, a few days previous to +leaving this country forever; and I placed in his hands a small +pocket-Bible, on the fly-leaf of which was written one word--"Ellen!" +His dim eye lighted up with something of its old fire as he glanced at +the characters; he then closed the book, placed it in his bosom, and +waving me a mute farewell--I saw he durst not trust himself to +speak--hastily departed. I never saw him more! + + + + +"THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS." + + +In the month of February of the year following that which witnessed the +successful establishment of the claim of Sir Harry Compton's infant son +to his magnificent patrimony, Mr. Samuel Ferret was traveling post with +all the speed he could command towards Lancashire, in compliance with a +summons from Lady Compton, requesting, in urgent terms, his immediate +presence at the castle. It was wild and bitter weather, and the roads +were in many places rendered dangerous, and almost impassable, by the +drifting snow. Mr. Ferret, however, pressed onwards with his habitual +energy and perseverance; and, spite of all elemental and postboy +opposition, succeeded in accomplishing his journey in much less time +than, under the circumstances, could have been reasonably expected. But +swiftly as, for those slow times, he pushed on, it is necessary I should +anticipate, by a brief period, his arrival at his destination, in order +to put the reader in possession of the circumstances which had occasioned +the hurried and pressing message he had received. + +Two days before, as Lady Compton and her sister, who had been paying a +visit to Mrs. Arlington at the Grange, were returning home towards nine +o'clock in the evening, they observed, as the carriage turned a sharp +angle of the road leading through Compton Park, a considerable number of +lighted lanterns borne hurriedly to and fro in various directions, by +persons apparently in eager but bewildered pursuit of some missing +object. The carriage was stopped, and in answer to the servants' +inquiries, it was replied that Major Brandon's crazy niece had escaped +from her uncle's house; and although traced by the snow-tracks as far as +the entrance to the park, had not yet been recovered. Mrs. Brandon had +offered a reward of ten pounds to whoever should secure and reconduct her +home; hence the hot pursuit of the fugitive, who, it was now supposed, +must be concealed in the shrubberies. Rumors regarding this unfortunate +young lady, by no means favorable to the character of her relatives as +persons of humanity, had previously reached Lady Compton's ears; and she +determined to avail herself, if possible, of the present opportunity to +obtain a personal interview with the real or supposed lunatic. The men +who had been questioned were informed that only the castle servants could +be allowed to search for the missing person, either in the park or +shrubberies; and that if there, she would be taken care of, and restored +to her friends in the morning. The coachman was then ordered to drive on; +but the wheels had not made half-a-dozen revolutions, when a loud shout +at some distance, in the direction of the park, followed by a succession +of piercing screams, announced the discovery and capture of the object of +the chase. The horses were urged rapidly forward; and ere more than a +minute had elapsed, the carriage drew up within a few yards of the hunted +girl and her captors. The instant it stopped, Clara Brandon, liberating +herself by a frenzied effort from the rude grasp in which she was held by +an athletic young man, sprang wildly towards it, and with passionate +intreaty implored mercy and protection. The young man, a son of Mrs. +Brandon's by a former husband, immediately re-seized her; and with fierce +violence endeavored to wrench her hand from the handle of the carriage +door, which she clutched with desperate tenacity. The door flew open, +the sudden jerk disengaged her hold, and she struggled vainly in her +captor's powerful grasp. "Save me! save me!" she frantically exclaimed, +as she felt herself borne off. "You who are, they say, as kind and good +as you are beautiful and happy, save me from this cruel man!" + +Lady Compton, inexpressibly shocked by the piteous spectacle presented by +the unhappy girl--her scanty clothing soiled, disarrayed, and torn by the +violence of her struggles; her long flaxen tresses flowing disorderly +over her face and neck in tangled dishevelment; and the pale, haggard, +wild expression of her countenance--was for a few moments incapable of +speech. Her sister was more collected: "Violet," she instantly +remonstrated, "do not permit this brutal violence." + +"What right has she or any one to interfere with us?" demanded the young +man savagely. "This girl is Major Brandon's ward, as well as niece, and +_shall_ return to her lawful home! Stand back," continued he, addressing +the servants, who, at a gesture from Miss Dalston, barred his progress. +"Withstand me at your peril!" + +"Force her from him!" exclaimed Lady Compton, recovering her +voice. "Gently! gently! I will be answerable for her safe custody +till the morning." + +The athletic fellow struggled desperately; but however powerful and +determined, he was only one man against a score, nearly all the +bystanders being tenants or laborers on the Compton estates; and spite of +his furious efforts, and menaces of law and vengeance, Clara was torn +from him in a twinkling, and himself hurled with some violence prostrate +on the road. "Do not let them hurt the man," said Lady Compton, as the +servants placed the insensible girl in the carriage (she had fainted); +"and tell him that if he has really any legal claim to the custody of +this unfortunate person, he must prefer it in the morning." + +Immediately on arrival at the castle, the escaped prisoner was conveyed +to bed, and medical aid instantly summoned. When restored to +consciousness, whether from the effect of an excess of fever producing +temporary delirium, or from confirmed mental disease, her speech was +altogether wild and incoherent--the only at all consistent portions of +her ravings being piteously--iterated appeals to Lady Compton not to +surrender her to her aunt in-law, Mrs. Brandon, of whom she seemed to +entertain an overpowering, indefinable dread. It was evident she had been +subjected to extremely brutal treatment--such as, in these days of +improved legislation in such matters, and greatly advanced knowledge of +the origin and remedy of cerebral infirmity, would not be permitted +towards the meanest human being, much less a tenderly-nurtured, delicate +female. At length, under the influence of a composing draught, she sank +gradually to sleep; and Lady Compton having determined to rescue her, if +possible, from the suspicious custody of her relatives, and naturally +apprehensive of the legal difficulties which she could not doubt would +impede the execution of her generous, if somewhat Quixotic project, +resolved on at once sending off an express for Mr. Ferret, on whose +acumen and zeal she knew she could place the fullest reliance. + +Clara Brandon's simple history may be briefly summed up. She was the only +child of a Mr. Frederick Brandon, who, a widower in the second year of +his marriage, had since principally resided at the "Elms," a handsome +mansion and grounds which he had leased of the uncle of the late Sir +Harry Compton. At his decease, which occurred about two years previous to +poor Clara's escape from confinement, as just narrated, he bequeathed +his entire fortune, between two and three thousand pounds per annum, +chiefly secured on land, to his daughter; appointed his elder brother, +Major Brandon, sole executor of his will, and guardian of his child; and +in the event of her dying before she had attained her majority--of which +she wanted, at her father's death, upwards of three years--or without +lawful issue, the property was to go to the major, to be by him willed at +his pleasure. Major Brandon, whose physical and mental energies had been +prematurely broken down--he was only in his fifty-second year--either by +excess or hard service in the East, perhaps both, had married late in +life the widow of a brother officer, and the mother of a grown-up son. +The lady, a woman of inflexible will, considerable remains of a somewhat +masculine beauty, and about ten years her husband's junior, held him in a +state of thorough pupilage; and, unchecked by him, devoted all her +energies to bring about, by fair or foul means, a union between Clara and +her own son, a cub of some two or three-and-twenty years of age, whose +sole object in seconding his mother's views upon Clara was the +acquisition of her wealth. According to popular surmise and report, the +young lady's mental infirmity had been brought about by the persecutions +she had endured at the hands of Mrs. Brandon, with a view to force her +into a marriage she detested. The most reliable authority for the truth +of these rumors was Susan Hopley, now in the service of Lady Compton, but +who had lived for many years with Mr. Frederick Brandon and his daughter. +She had been discharged about six months after her master's decease by +Mrs. Major Brandon for alleged impertinence; and so thoroughly convinced +was Susan that the soon-afterwards alleged lunacy of Clara was but a +juggling pretence to excuse the restraint under which her aunt-in-law, +for the furtherance of her own vile purposes, had determined to keep +her, that although out of place at the time, she devoted all the savings +of her life, between eighty and ninety pounds, to procure "justice" for +the ill-used orphan. This article, Susan was advised, could be best +obtained of the lord chancellor; and proceedings were accordingly taken +before the keeper of the king's conscience, in order to change the +custody of the pretended lunatic. The affidavits filed in support of the +petition were, however, so loose and vague, and were met with such +positive counter-allegations, that the application was at once dismissed +with costs; and poor Susan--rash suitor for "justice"--reduced to +absolute penury. These circumstances becoming known to Lady Compton, +Susan was taken into her service; and it was principally owing to her +frequently-iterated version of the affair that Clara had been forcibly +rescued from Mrs. Brandon's son. + +On the following morning the patient was much calmer, though her mind +still wandered somewhat. Fortified by the authority of the physician, who +certified that to remove her, or even to expose her to agitation, would +be dangerous, if not fatal, Lady Compton not only refused to deliver her +up to Major and Mrs. Brandon, but to allow them to see her. Mrs. Brandon, +in a towering rage, posted off to the nearest magistrate, to demand the +assistance of peace-officers in obtaining possession of the person of the +fugitive. That functionary would, however, only so far comply with the +indignant lady's solicitations, as to send his clerk to the castle to +ascertain the reason of the young lady's detention; and when his +messenger returned with a note, enclosing a copy of the physician's +certificate, he peremptorily decided that the conduct of Lady Compton was +not only perfectly justifiable, but praiseworthy, and that the matter +must remain over till the patient was in a condition to be moved. Things +were precisely in this state, except that Clara Brandon had become +perfectly rational; and but for an irrepressible nervous dread of again +falling into the power of her unscrupulous relative, quite calm, when Mr. +Samuel Ferret made his wished-for appearance on the scene of action. + +Long and anxious was the conference which Mr. Ferret held with his +munificent client and her interesting protégée, if conference that may be +called in which the astute attorney enacted the part of listener only, +scarcely once opening his thin, cautious lips. In vain did his eager +brain silently ransack the whole armory of the law; no weapon could he +discern which afforded the slightest hope of fighting a successful battle +with a legally-appointed guardian for the custody of his ward. And yet +Mr. Ferret felt, as he looked upon the flashing eye and glowing +countenance of Lady Compton, as she recounted a few of the grievous +outrages inflicted upon the fair and helpless girl reclining beside +her--whose varying cheek and meek suffused eyes bore eloquent testimony +to the truth of the relation--that he would willingly exert a vigor even +_beyond_ the law to meet his client's wishes, could he but see his way to +a safe result. At length a ray of light, judging from his +suddenly-gleaming eyes, seemed to have broken upon the troubled chambers +of his brain, and he rose somewhat hastily from his chair. + +"By the by, I will just step and speak to this Susan Hopley, if your +ladyship can inform me in what part of the lower regions I am likely to +meet with her?" + +"Let me ring for her." + +"No; if you please not. What I have to ask her is of very little +importance; still, to summon her here might give rise to surmises, +reports, and so on, which it may be as well to avoid. I had much rather +see her accidentally, as it were." + +"As you please. You will find her somewhere about the housekeeper's +apartments. You know her by sight, I think?" + +"Perfectly; and with your leave I'll take the opportunity of directing +the horses to be put to. I must be in London by noon to-morrow if +possible;" and away Mr. Ferret bustled. + +"Susan," said Mr. Ferret a few minutes afterwards, "step this way; I want +to have a word with you. Now, tell me are you goose enough to expect you +will ever see the money again you so foolishly threw into the bottomless +pit of chancery?" + +"Of course I shall, Mr. Ferret, as soon as ever Miss Clara comes to her +own. She mentioned it only this morning, and said she was sorry she could +not repay me at once." + +"You are a sensible girl, Susan, though you _did_ go to law with the lord +chancellor! I want you to be off with me to London; and then perhaps we +may get your money sooner than you expect." + +"Oh, bother the money! Is that _all_ you want me to go to Lunnon for?" + +Mr. Ferret replied with a wink of such exceeding intelligence, that +Susan at once declared she should be ready to start in ten minutes at +the latest. + +"That's a good creature; and, Susan, as there's not the slightest +occasion to let all the world know who's going to run off with you, it +may be as well for you to take your bundle and step on a mile or so on +the road, say to the turn, just beyond the first turnpike." Susan nodded +with brisk good-humor, and disappeared in a twinkling. + +An hour afterwards, Mr. Ferret was on his way back to London, having +first impressed upon Lady Compton the necessity of immediately relieving +herself of the grave responsibility she had incurred towards Major +Brandon for the safe custody of his ward, by sending her home +immediately. He promised to return on the third day from his departure; +but on the nature of the measures he intended to adopt, or the hopes he +entertained of success, he was inflexibly silent; and he moreover +especially requested that no one, not even Miss Brandon, should know of +Susan Hopley's journey to the metropolis. + +Mr. Ferret, immediately on his arrival in town, called at my chambers, +and related with his usual minuteness and precision as many of the +foregoing particulars as he knew and thought proper to communicate to me. +For the rest I am indebted to subsequent conversations with the different +parties concerned. + +"Well," said I, as soon as he had concluded, "what course do you propose +to adopt?" + +"I wish you to apply, on this affidavit, for a writ of _habeas ad sub._, +to bring up the body of Clara Brandon. Judge Bailey will be at chambers +at three o'clock: it is now more than half-past two, and I can be off on +my return by four at latest." + +"A writ of habeas!" I exclaimed with astonishment. "Why, what end can +that answer? The lady will be remanded, and you and I shall be laughed at +for our pains." + +This writ of _habeas corpus "ad subjiciendum,_" I had better explain to +the non-professional reader, is the great _prerogative_ writ, the +operation of which is sometimes suspended by the legislature during +political panics. It is grounded on the principle that the sovereign has +at all times a right to inquire, through the judges of the superior +courts, by what authority his or her subject is held in constraint. It +issues, as a matter of right, upon the filing of an affidavit, averring +that to the best of the belief of the deponent the individual sought to +be brought up is illegally confined; and it is of the essence of the +proceeding, that the person alleged to be suffering unlawful constraint +should actually be brought before the "queen herself;" that is, before +one or more of the judges of the court which has issued the writ, who, if +they find _the detention illegal_, the only question at issue upon this +writ may discharge or bail the party. It was quite obvious, therefore, +that in this case such a proceeding would be altogether futile, as the +detention in the house of her guardian, under the sanction, too, of the +lord chancellor, the _ex-officio_ custodier of all lunatics--of a ward of +alleged disordered intellect--was clearly legal, at least _prima facie_ +so, and not to be disturbed under a _habeas ad sub_. at all events. + +"Perhaps so," replied Ferret quite coolly in reply to my exclamation; +"but I am determined to try every means of releasing the unfortunate +young lady from the cruel thraldom in which she is held by that harridan +of an aunt-in-law. She is no more really insane than you are; but at the +same time so excitable upon certain topics, that it might be perhaps +difficult to disabuse the chancellor or a jury of the impression so +industriously propagated to her prejudice. The peremptory rejection by +her guardian of young Burford's addresses, though sanctioned by her +father: you know the Burfords?" + +"Of Grosvenor Street you mean--the East India director?" + +"Yes, his son; and that reminds me that the declaration in that +everlasting exchequer case must be filed to-morrow. Confound it, how this +flying about the country puts one out! I thought some one had kidnapped +her son, or fired Compton Castle at least. By the way, I am much deceived +if there isn't a wedding there before long." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, Miss Dalston with Sir Jasper's eldest hope." + +"You don't mean it?" + +"_They_ do at all events, and that is much more to the purpose. A fine +young fellow enough, and sufficiently rich too"-- + +"All which rambling talk and anecdote," cried I, interrupting him, +"means, if I have any skill in reading Mr. Ferret, that that gentleman, +having some ulterior purpose in view, which I cannot for the moment +divine, is determined to have this writ, and does not wish to be pestered +with any argument on the subject. Be it so: it is your affair, not mine. +And now, as it is just upon three o'clock, let me see your affidavit." + +I ran it over. "Rather loose this, Mr. Ferret, but I suppose it will do." + +"Well, it _is_ rather loose, but I could not with safety sail much closer +to the wind. By the by, I think you had better first apply for a rule to +stay proceedings against the bail in that case of Turner; and after that +is decided, just ask for this writ, off-hand as it were, and as a matter +of course. His lordship may not then scrutinize the affidavit quite so +closely as if he thought counsel had been brought to chambers purposely +to apply for it." + +"Cautious, Mr. Ferret! Well, come along, and I'll see what I can do." + +The writ was obtained without difficulty; few questions were asked; and +at my request the judge made it returnable immediately. By four o'clock, +Mr. Ferret, who could fortunately sleep as well in a postchaise as in a +feather-bed, was, as he had promised himself, on his road to Lancashire +once more, where he had the pleasure of serving Major Brandon personally; +at the same time tendering in due form the one shilling per mile fixed by +the statute as preliminary traveling charges. The vituperative eloquence +showered upon Mr. Ferret by the Major's lady was, I afterwards heard, +extremely copious and varied, and was borne by him, as I could easily +believe, with the most philosophic composure. + +In due time the parties appeared before Mr. Justice Bailey. Miss Brandon +was accompanied by her uncle, his wife, and a solicitor; and spite of +everything I could urge, the judge, as I had forseen, refused to +interfere in the matter. The poor girl was dreadfully agitated, but kept, +nevertheless, her eyes upon Mr. Ferret, as the source from which, spite +of what was passing around her, effectual succor was sure to come. As for +that gentleman himself, he appeared composedly indifferent to the +proceedings; and indeed, I thought, seemed rather relieved than otherwise +when they terminated. I could not comprehend him. Mrs. Brandon, the +instant the case was decided, clutched Clara's arm within hers, and, +followed by her husband and the solicitor, sailed out of the apartment +with an air of triumphant disdain and pride. Miss Brandon looked round +for Ferret, but not perceiving him--he had left hastily an instant or two +before--her face became deadly pale, and the most piteous expression of +hopeless despair I had ever beheld broke from her troubled but +singularly-expressive eyes. I mechanically followed, with a half-formed +purpose of remonstrating with Major Brandon in behalf of the unfortunate +girl, and was by that means soon in possession of the key to Mr. Ferret's +apparently inexplicable conduct. + +The Brandon party walked very fast, and I had scarcely got up with +them as they were turning out of Chancery Lane into Fleet Street, when +two men, whose vocation no accustomed eye could for an instant +mistake, arrested their further progress. "This lady," said one of the +men, slightly touching Miss Brandon on the shoulder, "is, I believe, +Clara Brandon?" + +"Yes she is; and what of that, fellow?" demanded the major's lady with +indignant emphasis. + +"Not much, ma'am," replied the sheriff's officer, "when you are used to +it. It is my unpleasant duty to arrest her for the sum of eighty-seven +pounds, indorsed on this writ, issued at the suit of one Susan Hopley." + +"Arrest her!" exclaimed Mrs. Brandon; "why, she is a minor!" + +"Minor or major, ma'am, makes very little difference to us. She can plead +that hereafter, you know. In the meantime, miss, please to step into this +coach," replied the officer, holding the door open. + +"But she's a person of unsound mind," screamed the lady, as Clara, +nothing loath, sprang into the vehicle. + +"So are most people that do business with our establishment," responded +the imperturbable official, as he shut and fastened the door. "Here is my +card, sir," he added, addressing the attorney, who now came up. "You see +where to find the lady, if her friends wish to give bail to the sheriff, +or, what is always more satisfactory, pay the debt and costs." He then +jumped on the box, his follower got up behind, and away drove the coach, +leaving the discomfited major and his fiery better-half in a state of the +blankest bewilderment! + +"Why, what _is_ the meaning of this?" at length gasped Mrs. Brandon, +fiercely addressing the attorney, as if _he_, were a _particeps criminis_ +in the affair. + +"The meaning, my dear madame, is, that Miss Clara Brandon is arrested for +debt, and carried off to a sponging-house; and that unless you pay the +money, or file bail, she will tomorrow be lodged in jail," replied the +unmoved man of law. + +"Bail! money! How are we to do either in London, away from home?" +demanded the major with, for him, much emotion. + +I did not wait to hear more, but, almost suffocated with laughter at the +success of Ferret's audacious _ruse_, hastened over to the Temple. I was +just leaving chambers for the night--about ten o'clock I think it must +have been--when Ferret, in exuberant spirits, burst into the room. + +"Well, sir, what do you think _now_ of a writ _ad sub._?" + +"Why, I think, Mr. Ferret," replied I, looking as serious as I could, +"that yours is very sharp practice; that the purpose you have put it to +is an abuse of the writ; that the arrest is consequently illegal; and +that a judge would, upon motion, quash it with costs." + +"To be sure he would: who doubts that? Let him, and welcome! In the +meantime, Clara Brandon is safe beyond the reach of all the judges or +chancellors that ever wore horsehair, and that everlasting simpleton of a +major and his harridan wife roaming the metropolis like distracted +creatures; and that I take to be the real essence of the thing, whatever +the big-wigs may decide about the shells!" + +"I suppose the plaintiff soon discharged her debtor out of custody?" + +"Without loss of time, you may be sure. Miss Brandon, I may tell _you_, +is with the Rev. Mr. Derwent at Brompton. You know him: the newly-married +curate of St. Margaret's that was examined in that will case. Well him: +he is an intelligent, high-principled man; and I have no doubt that, +under his and Mrs. Derwent's care, all trace of Miss Brandon's mental +infirmity will disappear long before she attains her majority next June +twelvemonth; whilst the liberal sum per month which Lady Compton will +advance, will be of great service to him" + +"That appears all very good. But are you sure you can effectually +conceal the place of her retreat?" + +"I have no fear: the twigs that will entangle her precious guardians in +the labyrinths of a false clue are already set and limed. Before +to-morrow night they will have discovered, by means of their own +wonderfully-penetrative sagacity, that Clara has been spirited over to +France; and before three months are past, the same surprising +intelligence will rejoice in the discovery that she expired in a _maison +de santé_--fine comfortable repose, in which fool's paradise I hope to +have the honor of awakening them about next June twelvemonth, and not as +at present advised before!" + +Everything fortunately turned out as Mr. Ferret anticipated; and when a +few months had glided by, Clara Brandon was a memory only, save of course +to the few entrusted with the secret. + +The whirligig of time continued as ever to speed on its course, and bring +round in due season its destined revenges. The health, mental and bodily, +of Miss Brandon rapidly improved under the kind and judicious treatment +of Mr. and Mrs. Derwent; and long before the attainment of her majority, +were pronounced by competent authority to be thoroughly re-established. +The day following that which completed her twentyfirst year, Mr. Ferret, +armed with the necessary authority, had the pleasure of announcing to the +relict of Major Brandon (he had been dead some months), and to her brutal +son, that they must forthwith depart from the home in which they, to the +very moment of his announcement, thought themselves secure; and surrender +every shilling of the property they had so long dreamt was their own. +They were prostrated by the intelligence, and proved as mean and servile +in the hour of adversity, as they had been insolent and cruel in the day +of fancied success and prosperity. The pension of three hundred pounds a +year for both their lives, proffered by Miss Brandon, was eagerly +accepted; and they returned to the obscurity from which they had by +accident emerged. + +About six months afterwards, I had the pleasure of drawing up the +marriage settlement between Clara Brandon and Herbert Burford; and a +twelvemonth after, that of standing sponsor to one of the lustiest brats +ever sprinkled at a font: none of which delightful results, if we are to +believe Mr. Ferret, would have ever been arrived at had not he, at a very +critical moment, refused to take counsel's opinion upon the virtues, +capabilities, and powers contained in the great writ of _habeas corpus +ad subjiciendum_. + + + + +ESTHER MASON. + + +About forty years ago, Jabez Woodford, a foreman of shipwrights in the +Plymouth dockyard, whilst carelessly crossing one of the transverse beams +of a seventy-four gun-ship, building in that arsenal, missed his footing, +fell to the bottom of the hold of the huge vessel, and was killed on the +spot. He left a widow and one child--a boy seven years of age, of placid, +endearing disposition, but weak intellect--almost in a state of +destitution. He had been a coarse-tempered, improvident man; and like too +many of his class, in those days at least, dissipated the whole of his +large earnings in present sensuous indulgence, utterly careless or +unmindful of the future. Esther Woodford, who, at the time of her +husband's death, scarcely numbered five-and-twenty years, was still a +remarkably comely, as well as interesting, gentle-mannered person; and +moreover had, for her station in life, received a tolerable education. +Her rash, ill-assorted marriage with Woodford had been hastily contracted +when she was barely seventeen years of age, in consequence of a jealous +pique which she, for some silly reason or other, had conceived regarding +Henry Mason, an intelligent, young seafaring man, of fair prospects in +life, and frank disposition, with whom she had for some time previously, +as the west-country phrase has it, "kept company," and who was, moreover, +tenderly attached to her. Esther's married life was one long repentance +of the rash act; and the severance of the tie which bound her to an +ungenial mate--after the subsidence of the natural horror and compassion +excited by the sudden and frightful nature of the catastrophe--must have +been felt as a most blessed relief. A few weeks afterwards, she accepted +an asylum with her brother-in-law, Davies, a market-gardener in the +vicinity of Plymouth, where, by persevering industry with her needle, and +thrifty helpfulness in her sister's household duties, she endeavored to +compensate her kind-hearted relatives for the support of herself and +helpless, half-witted child. Mason she had never seen since the day +previous to her marriage; but she knew he was prospering in the busy +world, and that, some time before her husband's death, he had been +appointed chief-mate in a first-class merchant-ship trading to the +Pacific. He had sailed about a fortnight previous to that event; and now, +ten lazy months having slowly floated past, the lover of her youth, with +whom, in that last sunny day of her young life--how distant did it seem, +viewed through the long intervening vista of days and nights of grief and +tears!--she had danced so joyously beneath the flowering chestnut-trees, +was once more near her; and it was--oh happiness!--no longer a sin to +think of him--no longer a crime to recall and dwell upon the numberless +proofs of the deep affection, the strong love, he had once felt for her. +_Once_ felt! Perhaps even now!--How swiftly had the intelligence +communicated by her sympathizing sister tinted with bright hues the dark +curtain of the future! + +"And yet," murmured poor Esther, the flush of hope fading as suddenly as +it had arisen, as with meek sad eyes she glanced at the reflection of her +features in the small oval glass suspended above the mantel-piece--"I +almost doubt, Susy, dear, if he would recognize me; even if old feelings +and old times have not long since faded from his memory"-- + +"Stuff and trumpery about fading away!" broke in Mrs. Davies. "Henry +Mason is the same true-hearted man he was eight years ago; and as a +proof that he is, just read this letter, which I promised him to give +you. There, don't go falling into a flustration; don't now, Esther, +and to-morrow market-day and all! Don't cry, Esther," she added +vehemently, but at the same time sobbing furiously herself, and +throwing her arms round her sister's neck: "but perhaps--perhaps it +will do us good, both of us!" + +It may he necessary to state that I owe the foregoing particulars to the +interest felt by my wife--herself a native of beautiful Devon--in the +fortunes of this humble household. Esther was her foster-sister; and it +happened that just at this period, it being vacation-time, we were paying +a visit to a family in the neighborhood. A few hours after the receipt of +the welcome letter, my wife chanced to call on Esther relative to some +fancy needlework; and on her return, I was of course favored with very +full and florid details of this little bit of cottage romance; the which +I, from regard to the reader, have carefully noted down, and as briefly +as possible expressed. + +We met Henry Mason with his recovered treasure on the following evening; +and certainly a more favorable specimen of the vigorous, active, +bold-featured, frank-spoken British seaman I never met with. To his +comparatively excellent education--for which I understood he was indebted +to his mother, a superior woman, who, having fallen from one of the +little heights of society, had kept a school at Plymouth--in addition to +his correct and temperate habits, he was indebted for the rapid +advance--he was but a few months older than Esther--he had obtained in +the merchant service. The happiness which beamed upon Esther's face did +not appear to be of the exuberant, buoyant character that kindled the +ruddy cheek and ran over at the bright, honest eyes of the hardy sailor: +there seemed to mingle with it a half-doubting, trembling +apprehensiveness; albeit it was not difficult to perceive that, +sorrowfully as had passed her noon of prime, an "Indian summer" of the +soul was rising upon her brightened existence, and already with its first +faint flushes lighting up her meek, doubting eyes, and pale, changing +countenance. Willy, her feeble-minded child, frisked and gambolled by +their side; and altogether, a happier group than they would, I fancy, +have been difficult to find in all broad England. + +The next week they were married; and one of the partners in the firm by +which Mason was employed happening to dine with us on the day of the +wedding, the conversation turned for a few minutes on the bridegroom's +character and prospects. + +"He has the ring of true metal in him," I remarked; "and is, I should +suppose, a capital seaman?" + +"A first-rate one," replied Mr. Roberts. "Indeed so high is my father's +opinion of him, that he intends to confer upon him the command of a fine +brig now building for us in the Thames, and intended for the West India +trade. He possesses also singular courage and daring. Twice, under very +hazardous circumstances, he has successfully risked his life to save men +who had fallen overboard. He is altogether a skilful, gallant seaman." + +"Such a man," observed another of the company, "might surely have aspired +higher than to the hand of Esther Woodford, dove-eyed and interesting as +she may be?" + +"Perhaps so," returned Mr. Roberts a little curtly; "though +he, it seems, could not have thought so. Indeed it is chiefly of +simple-hearted, chivalrous-minded men like Mason that it can +be with general truth observed-- + +'On revient toujours à ses premiers amours.'" + +The subject then dropped, and it was a considerable time afterwards, and +under altogether altered circumstances, when the newly-married couple +once more crossed my path in life. + +It was about eight months after his marriage--though he had been +profitably enough employed in the interim--that Henry Mason, in +consequence of the welcome announcement that the new brig was at last +ready for her captain and cargo, arrived in London to enter upon his new +appointment. + +"These lodgings, Esther," said he, as he was preparing to go out, soon +after breakfast, on the morning after his arrival, "are scarcely the +thing; and as I, like you, am a stranger in Cockney-land, I had better +consult some of the firm upon the subject, before we decide upon +permanent ones. In the meantime, you and Willy must mind and keep in +doors when I am not with you, or I shall have one or other of you lost in +this great wilderness of a city. I shall return in two or three hours. I +will order something for dinner as I go along: I have your purse. +Good-by: God bless you both." + +Inquiring his way every two or three minutes, Mason presently found +himself in the vicinity of Tower Stairs. A scuffle in front of a +public-house attracted his attention; and his ready sympathies were in an +instant enlisted in behalf of a young sailor, vainly struggling in the +grasp of several athletic men, and crying lustily on the gaping +bystanders for help. Mason sprang forward, caught one of the assailants +by the collar, and hurled him with some violence against the wall. A +fierce outcry greeted this audacious interference with gentlemen who, in +those good old times, were but executing the law in a remarkably good old +manner. Lieutenant Donnagheu, a somewhat celebrated snapper-up of loose +mariners, emerged upon the scene; and in a few minutes was enabled to +exult in the secure possession of an additional prize in the unfortunate +Henry Mason, who, too late, discovered that he had embroiled himself with +a _pressgang_! Desperate, frenzied were the efforts he made to extricate +himself from the peril in which he had rashly involved himself. In vain! +His protestations that he was a mate, a captain, in the merchant service, +were unheeded or mocked at. + +To all his remonstrances he only got the professional answer--"His +majesty wants you, and that is enough; so come along, and no more +about it." + +Bruised, exhausted, almost mad, he was borne off in triumph to a boat, +into which he was thrust with several others, and swiftly rowed off to a +receiving-ship in the river. Even there his assertions and protestations +were of no avail. Nothing but an Admiralty order, the officer in command +candidly told him, should effect his liberation. His majesty was in need +of seamen; and he was evidently too smart a one to be deprived of the +glory of serving his country. "You must therefore," concluded the +officer, as he turned laughingly upon his heel, "do as thousands of +other fine fellows have been compelled to do--'grin and bear it.'" In +about three weeks from the date of his impressment Mason found himself +serving in the Mediterranean on board the "Active" frigate, Captain +Alexander Gordon, without having been permitted one opportunity of +communicating with the shore. This was certainly very sharp, but it was +not the less very _common_ practice in those great days of triumphant +battles by land and sea. + +Very drearily passed the time with the bereaved wife. Her husband had +promised to send home something for dinner, and various groceries; yet +hour after hour went past, and nothing arrived. Morning flushed into +noon, day faded to twilight, and still the well-known and always eager +step sounded not upon the stairs! What could have detained him from his +wife, shut up, imprisoned, as it were, in that hot, hurrying, stifling +city? She feared to listen to the suggestions of her boding heart; and +with feverish restlessness ran out upon the landing, and peered over the +stairs every time a knock or ring was heard at the street-door. This +strange behavior was, it seems, noticed by the landlady of the +lodging-house, and injuriously interpreted. A knock came to the door, and +that person entered to know at what time _Mrs_. ----, she had forgotten +the young woman's name, expected the dinner, she, the landlady, had +undertaken to cook. + +Esther timidly replied that her husband had promised to return in two or +three hours at latest; and that she did not comprehend his continued +absence--was indeed quite alarmed about it-- + +"Your husband!" said the woman, glancing insolently at Esther's figure. +"Are you sure he _is_ your husband?" + +The hot blood suffused the temples of the indignant wife as she said, +"This apartment, madam, I believe is mine?" + +"Oh, certainly, as long as you can pay for it;" and rudely slamming the +door, the landlady departed. + +The long wretched night at last over, Esther rose with the light; and +after giving her son his breakfast from the remains of that of the day +before, set off with him to the place of business of the Messrs. Roberts. +It was early, and one clerk only had as yet arrived at the office. He +informed her that Mr. Henry Mason had not been seen, and that the +partners were greatly annoyed about it, as his immediate presence was +absolutely necessary. + +Stunned, terrified, bewildered by the frightful calamity which she +believed had befallen her, she felt convinced that her husband had been +entrapped and murdered for the sake of the money he had about him: the +wretched woman tottered back to her lodgings, and threw herself on the +bed in wild despair. What was to be done for food even for her boy? Her +husband had not only his pocket-book with him containing his larger +money, but had taken her purse! She was alone and penniless in a strange +city! The hungry wailings of her witless child towards evening at length +aroused her from the stupor of despair into which she had fallen. The +miserable resource of pawning occurred to her: she could at least, by +pledging a part of her wardrobe, procure sustenance for her child till +she could hear from her sister; and with trembling hands she began +arranging a bundle of such things as she could best spare, when the +landlady abruptly entered the room, with a peremptory demand--as her +husband was not returned, and did not appear likely to do so--for a +month's rent in advance, that being the term the apartments were engaged +for. The tears, entreaties, expostulations of the miserable wife were of +no avail. Not one article, the woman declared, should leave her house +till her claim was settled. She affected to doubt, perhaps really did so, +that Esther was married; and hinted coarsely at an enforcement of the +laws against persons who had no visible means of subsistence. In a +paroxysm of despair, the unhappy woman rushed out of the house; and +accompanied by her hungry child, again sought the counting-house of the +Messrs. Roberts. She was now as much too late as she had been too early +in the morning: the partners and clerks had gone, and she appears to have +been treated with some rudeness by the porter, who was closing the +premises when she arrived. Possibly the wildness of her looks, and the +incoherence of her speech and manner, produced an impression unfavorable +to her. Retracing her steps--penniless, hungry, sick at heart--she +thought, as she afterwards declared, that she recognized my wife in one +of the numerous ladies seated before the counters of a fashionable shop +in one of the busiest thoroughfares. She entered, and not till she +approached close to the lady discovered her mistake. She turned +despairingly away; when a piece of rich lace, lying apparently unheeded +on the counter, met her eye, and a dreadful suggestion crossed her +fevered brain; here at least was the means of procuring food for her +wailing child. She glanced hastily and fearfully round. No eye, she +thought, observed her; and, horror of horrors! a moment afterwards she +had concealed the lace beneath her shawl, and with tottering feet was +hastily leaving the shop. She had not taken half-a-dozen steps when a +heavy hand was laid upon her shoulder, and a voice, as of a serpent +hissing in her ear, commanded her to restore the lace she had stolen. +Transfixed with shame and terror, she stood rooted to the spot, and the +lace fell on the floor. + +"Fetch an officer," said the harsh voice, addressing one of the shopmen. + +"No--no--no!" screamed the wretched woman, falling on her knees in wild +supplication. "For my child's sake--in mercy of the innocent babe as yet +unborn--pity and forgive me!" + +The harsh order was iterated; and Esther Mason, fainting with shame and +agony, was conveyed to the prison in Giltspur Street. The next day she +was fully committed to Newgate on the capital charge of privately +stealing in a shop to the value of five pounds. A few hours after her +incarceration within those terrible walls, she was prematurely delivered +of a female child. + +I have no moral doubt whatever, I never have had, that at the time of the +committal of the felonious act, the intellect of Esther Mason was +disordered. Any other supposition is inconsistent with the whole tenor +of her previous life and character "Lead us not into temptation" is +indeed the holiest, because the humblest prayer. + +Three weeks had elapsed before the first intimation of these events +reached me, in a note from the chaplain of Newgate, an excellent, +kind-hearted man, to whom Mrs. Mason had confided her sad story. I +immediately hastened to the prison; and in a long interview with her, +elicited the foregoing statement. I readily assured her that all which +legal skill could do to extricate her from the awful position in which +she stood, the gravity of which I did not affect to conceal, should be +done. The offence with which she was charged had supplied the scaffold +with numberless victims; and tradesmen were more than ever clamorous for +the stern execution of a law which, spite of experience, they still +regarded as the only safeguard of their property. My wife was overwhelmed +with grief; and in her anxiety to save her unhappy foster-sister, sought, +without my knowledge, an interview with the prosecutor, in the hope of +inducing him not to press the charge. Her efforts were unavailing. He had +suffered much, he said, from such practices, and was "upon principle" +determined to make an example of every offender he could catch. As to the +plea that the husband had been forcibly carried off by a pressgang, it +was absurd; for what would become of the property of tradesmen if the +wife of every sailor so entrapped were to be allowed to plunder shops +with impunity? This magnificent reasoning was of course unanswerable; and +the rebuked petitioner abandoned her bootless errand in despair. Messrs. +Roberts, I should have mentioned, had by some accident discovered the +nature of the misfortune which had befallen their officer, and had +already made urgent application to the Admiralty for his release. + +The Old Bailey sessions did not come on for some time: I, however, took +care to secure at once, as I did not myself practice in that court, the +highest talent which its bar afforded. Willy, who had been placed in a +workhouse by the authorities, we had properly taken care of till he could +be restored to his mother; or, in the event of her conviction, to his +relatives in Devonshire. + +The sessions were at last on: a "true bill" against Esther Mason for +shoplifting, as it was popularly termed, was unhesitatingly found, and +with a heavy heart I wended my way to the court to watch the proceedings. +A few minutes after I entered, Mr. Justice Le Blanc and Mr. Baron Wood, +who had assisted at an important case of stockjobbing conspiracy, just +over, left the bench: the learned recorder being doubtless considered +quite equal to the trial of a mere capital charge of theft. + +The prisoner was placed in the dock; but try as I might, I could not +look at her. It happened to be a calm bright summer day; the air, as if +in mockery of those death-sessions, humming with busy, lusty life; so +that, sitting with my back to the prisoner, I could, as it were, read +her demeanor in the shadow thrown by her figure on the opposite +sun-lighted wall. There she stood, during the brief moments which sealed +her earthly doom, with downcast eyes and utterly dejected posture; her +thin fingers playing mechanically with the flowers and sweet-scented +herbs spread scantily before her. The trial was very brief: the +evidence, emphatically conclusive, was confidently given, and vainly +cross-examined. Nothing remained but an elaborate _ad misericordiam_ +excusative defence, which had been prepared by me, and which the +prisoner begged her counsel might be allowed to read. This was of course +refused; the recorder remarking, they might as well allow counsel for +felons to _address_ juries, as read defences; and _that_, as every +practical man knew, would be utterly subversive of the due +administration of justice. The clerk of the court would read the paper, +if the prisoner felt too agitated to do so. This was done; and very +vilely done. The clerk, I dare say, read as well as he was able; but +old, near-sighted, and possessed of anything but a clear enunciation, +what could be expected? The defence, so read, produced not the slightest +effect either on the court or jury. The recorder briefly commented on +the conclusiveness of the evidence for the prosecution; and the jury, in +the same brief, business-like manner, returned a verdict of Guilty. + +"What have you to say," demanded the clerk, "why sentence of death should +not be pronounced upon you, according to law?" + +The shadow started convulsively as the terrible words fell from the man's +lips; and I saw that the suddenly-upraised eyes of the prisoner were +fastened on the face of the fearful questioner. The lips, too, appeared +to move; but no sound reached my ears. + +"Speak, woman," said the recorder; "if you have anything to urge before +sentence is pronounced." + +I started up, and turning to the prisoner, besought her in hurried +accents to speak. "Remind them of the infant at your breast--your +husband"-- + +"Who is that conferring with the prisoner?" demanded the judge in an +angry voice. + +I turned, and confronted him with a look as cold and haughty as his +own. He did not think proper to pursue the inquiry further; and after +muttering something about the necessity of not interrupting the +proceedings of the court, again asked the prisoner if she had +anything to urge. + +"Not for myself--not for my sake," at last faintly murmured the +trembling woman; "but for that of my poor dear infant--my poor witless +boy! I do not think, sir, I was in my right mind. I was starving. I was +friendless. My husband, too, whom you have heard"--She stopped abruptly; +a choking sob struggled in her throat; and but for the supporting arm of +one of the turnkeys, she would have fallen to the ground. + +"Unhappy, guilty woman," said the recorder, with the coolness of a demon, +"the plea of insanity you would set up is utterly untenable. Your +husband, it seems, is serving his majesty in the royal navy; defending +his country, whilst his wife was breaking its laws, by the commission of +a crime which, but for the stern repression of the law, would sap the +foundations of the security of property, and"-- + +I could endure no more. The atmosphere of the court seemed to stifle me; +and I rushed for relief into the open air. Before, however, I had reached +the street, a long, piercing scream informed me that the learned judge +_had done his duty_. + +No effort was spared during the interval which elapsed previous to the +recorder presenting his report to the privy-counsel--a peculiar +privilege at that time attached to the office--to procure a mitigation +of the sentence. A petition, setting forth the peculiar circumstances +of the case, was carefully prepared; and by the indefatigable exertions +of an excellent Quaker gentleman--whom, as he is still alive, and might +not choose to have his name blazoned to the world, I will call William +Friend--was soon very numerously signed. The prosecutor, however, +obstinately refused to attach his name to the document; and the absence +of his signature--so strangely did men reason on such matters in those +days--would, it was feared, weigh heavily against the success of the +petition. The amiable and enlightened Sir Samuel Romilly not only +attached his name, but aided us zealously by his advice and influence. +In short, nothing was omitted that appeared likely to attain the +desired object. + +Two days before the petition was to be forwarded to the proper quarter, +Henry Mason arrived in England, the exertions of his employers having +procured his discharge. The "Active" was one of Captain Hoste's squadron, +which obtained the celebrated victory off Lissa, over the Franco-Venetian +fleet commanded by Admiral Dobourdieu. Henry Mason, it appeared by the +testimonials of the captain and officers of his ship, had greatly +distinguished himself in the action. We inclosed these papers with the +petition; and then, having done all in our power, awaited with anxious +impatience the result of the recorder's report. It was announced to me, +as I was sitting somewhat later than usual at chambers, by Mr. William +Friend. The judgment to die was confirmed! All our representations had +not sufficed to counterbalance the supposed necessity of exhibiting +terrible examples of the fate awaiting the perpetrators of an offence +said to be greatly on the increase. Excellent William Friend wept like a +child as he made the announcement. + +There are many persons alive who recollect this horrible tragedy--this +national disgrace--this act of gross barbarity on the part of the great +personage, who, first having carried off the poor woman's husband, left +her to die for an act the very consequence of that robbery. Who among the +spectators can ever forget that heart-rending scene--the hangman taking +the baby from the breast of the wretched creature just before he put her +to death! But let us not rake up these terrible reminiscences. Let us +hope that the _truly guilty_ are forgiven. And let us take consolation +from reflecting that this event led the great Romilly to enter on his +celebrated career as a reformer of the criminal law. + +The remains of Esther Mason were obtained from the Newgate officials, +and quietly interred in St. Sepulchre's church-yard. A plain slab, with +her name only plainly chiselled upon it, was some time afterwards placed +above the grave. A few years ago I attended a funeral in the same +grave-yard; and after a slight search, discovered the spot. The +inscription, though of course much worn, was still quite legible. + +I had not seen Henry Mason since his return; but I was glad to hear from +Mr. William Friend that, after the first passionate burst of rage and +grief had subsided, he had, apparently at least, thanks to the tender and +pious expostulations of his wife--with whom, by the kind intervention of +the sheriffs, he was permitted long and frequent interviews--settled down +into calmness and resignation. One thing only he would not bear to hear +even from her, and that was any admission that she had been guilty of, +even the slightest offence. A hint of the kind, however unintentional, +would throw him into a paroxysm of fury; and the subject was consequently +in his presence studiously avoided. + +A few days after the execution, Mr. William Friend called on me just +after breakfast, accompanied by the bereaved husband. I never saw so +changed a man. All the warm kindliness of his nature had vanished, and +was replaced by a gloomy fierce austerity, altogether painful to +contemplate. + +"Well, sir," said he, as he barely touched my proffered hand, "they have +killed her, you see, spite of all you could say or do. It much availed +me, too, that I had helped to win their boasted victories;" and he +laughed with savage bitterness. + +"Henry--Henry!" exclaimed William Friend, in a reproving accent. + +"Well, well, sir," rejoined Mason, impatiently, "you are a good man, and +have of course your own notions on these matters; I also have mine. Or, +perhaps, you think it is only the blood of the rich and great which, shed +unjustly, brings forth the iron harvest? Forgive me," he added, checking +himself. "I respect you both; but my heart is turned to stone. You do not +know--none ever knew but I--how kind, how loving, how gentle was that +poor long-suffering girl." + +He turned from us to hide the terrible agony which convulsed him. + +"Henry," said Mr. Friend, taking him kindly by the hand, "we pity thee +sincerely, as thou knowest; but thy bitter, revengeful expressions are +unchristian, sinful. The authorities whom thou, not for the first time, +railest on so wildly, acted, be sure of it, from a sense of duty; a +mistaken one, in my opinion, doubtless; still"-- + +"Say no more, sir," interrupted Mason. "We differ in opinion upon the +subject. And now, gentlemen, farewell. I wished to see you, sir, before I +left this country forever, to thank you for your kind, though fruitless +exertions. Mr. Friend has promised to be steward for poor Willy of all I +can remit for his use. Farewell! God bless you both!" He was gone! + +War soon afterwards broke out with the United States of America, and Mr. +Friend discovered that one of the most active and daring officers in the +Republican navy was Henry Mason, who had entered the American service in +the maiden name of his wife; and that the large sums he had remitted from +time to time for the use of Willy, were the produce of his successful +depredations on British commerce. The instant Mr. Friend made the +discovery, he refused to pollute his hands with moneys so obtained, and +declined all further agency in the matter. Mason, however, contrived to +remit through some other channel to the Davies's, with whom the boy had +been placed; and a rapid improvement in their circumstances was soon +visible. These remittances ceased about the middle of 1814; and a +twelvemonth after the peace with America, we ascertained that Henry Mason +had been killed in the battle on Lake Champlain, where he had +distinguished himself, as everywhere else, by the reckless daring and +furious hate with which he fought against the country which, in his +unreasoning frenzy, he accused of the murder of his wife. He was +recognized by one of his former messmates in the "Active;" who, conveyed +a prisoner on board the American commander Macdonough's ship, recognized +him as he lay stretched on the deck, in the uniform of an American naval +officer; his countenance, even in death, wearing the same stormful +defiant expression which it assumed on the day that his beloved Esther +perished on the scaffold. + + + + +THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT + + +"It is really time that a properly-qualified governess had charge of +those girls," observed my wife, as Mary and Kate after a more than +usually boisterous romp with their papa, left the room for bed. I may +here remark, _inter alia_, that I once surprised a dignified and +highly-distinguished judge at a game of blindman's buff with his +children, and very heartily he appeared to enjoy it too. "It is really +time that a properly-qualified governess had charge of those girls. Susan +May did very well as a nursery teacher, but they are now far beyond her +control. _I_ cannot attend to their education, and as for you"--The +sentence was concluded by a shrug of the shoulders and a toss of the +head, eloquently expressive of the degree of estimation in which _my_ +governing powers were held. + +"Time enough, surely, for that," I exclaimed, as soon as I had composed +myself; for I was a little out of breath. "They may, I think, rub along +with Susan for another year or two, Mary is but seven years of age"-- + +"Eight years, if you please. She was eight years old last Thursday +three weeks." + +"Eight years! Then we must have been married nine; Bless me, how the time +has flown: it seems scarcely so many weeks!" + +"Nonsense," rejoined my wife with a sharpness of tone and a rigidity of +facial muscle which, considering the handsome compliment I had just paid +her, argued, I was afraid, a foregone conclusion. "You always have +recourse to some folly of that sort whenever I am desirous of entering +into a serious consultation on family affairs." + +There was some truth in this, I confess. The "consultations" which I +found profitable were not serious ones with my wife upon domestic +matters; leading, as they invariably did, to a diminution instead of an +increase of the little balance at the banker's. If such a proposition +could therefore be evaded or adjourned by even an extravagant compliment, +I considered it well laid out. But the expedient, I found, was one which +did not improve by use. For some time after marriage it answered +remarkably well; but each succeeding year of wedded bliss marked its +rapidly-declining efficacy. + +"Well, well; go on." + +"I say it is absolutely necessary that a first-rate governess should be +at once engaged. Lady Maldon has been here to-day, and she"-- + +"Oh, I thought it might be her new ladyship's suggestion. I wish the +'fountain of honor' was somewhat charier of its knights and ladies, and +then perhaps"-- + +"What, for mercy's sake, are you running on about?" interrupted the lady +with peremptory emphasis. "Fountains of honor, forsooth! One would +suppose, to hear you talk in that wild, nonsensical way, that you were +addressing a bench of judges sitting in _banco_, instead of a sensible +person solicitous for her and your children's welfare." + +"Bless the woman," thought I; "what an exalted idea she appears to have +of forensic eloquence! Proceed, my love," I continued; "there is a +difference certainly; and I am all attention." + +"Lady Maldon knows a young lady--a distant relative, in deed, of +hers--whom she is anxious to serve"-- + +"At our expense." + +"How can you be so ungenerous? Edith Willoughby is the orphan daughter of +the late Reverend Mr. Willoughby, curate of Heavy Tree in Warwickshire, I +believe; and was specially educated for a first-class governess and +teacher. She speaks French with the true Parisian accent, and her +Italian, Lady Maldon assures me, is pure Tuscan"-- + +"He-e-e-m!" + +"She dances with grace and elegance; plays the harp and piano with skill +and taste; is a thorough _artiste_ in drawing and painting; and is, +moreover, very handsome--though beauty, I admit, is an attribute which in +a governess might be very well dispensed with." + +"True; unless, indeed, it were catching." + +I need not prolong this connubial dialogue. It is sufficient to state +that Edith Willoughby was duly installed in office on the following day; +and that, much to my surprise, I found that her qualifications for the +charge she had undertaken were scarcely overcolored. She was a +well-educated, elegant, and beautiful girl, of refined and fascinating +manners, and possessed of one of the sweetest, gentlest dispositions that +ever charmed and graced the family and social circle. She was, I often +thought, for her own chance of happiness, too ductile, too readily +yielding to the wishes and fancies of others. In a very short time I came +to regard her as a daughter, and with my wife and children she was +speedily a prodigious favorite. Mary and Kate improved rapidly under her +judicious tuition, and I felt for once positively grateful to busy Lady +Maldon for her officious interference in my domestic arrangements. + +Edith Willoughby had been domiciled with us about two years, when Mr. +Harlowe, a gentleman of good descent and fine property, had occasion to +call several times at my private residence on business relating to the +purchase of a house in South Audley Street, the title to which exhibited +by the venders was not of the most satisfactory kind. On one occasion he +stayed to dine with us, and I noticed that he seemed much struck by the +appearance of our beautiful and accomplished governess. His evident +emotion startled and pained me in a much higher degree than I could have +easily accounted for even to myself. Mr. Harlowe was a widower, past his +first youth certainly, but scarcely more than two or three-and-thirty +years of age, wealthy, not ill-looking, and, as far as I knew, of average +character in society. Surely an excellent match, if it should come to +that, for an orphan girl rich only in fine talents and gentle affections. +But I could not think so. I disliked the man--_instinctively_ disliked +and distrusted him; for I could assign no very positive motive for my +antipathy. + +"The reason why, I cannot tell, +But I don't like thee, Dr. Fell." + +These lines indicate an unconquerable feeling which most persons have, I +presume, experienced; and which frequently, I think, results from a kind +of cumulative evidence of uncongeniality or unworthiness, made up of a +number of slight indices of character, which, separately, may appear of +little moment, but altogether, produce a strong, if undefinable, feeling +of aversion. Mr. Harlowe's manners were bland, polished, and insinuating; +his conversation was sparkling and instructive; but a cold sneer seemed +to play habitually about his lips, and at times there glanced forth a +concentrated, polished ferocity--so to speak--from his eyes, revealing +hard and stony depths, which I shuddered to think a being so pure and +gentle as Edith might be doomed to sound and fathom. That he was a man of +strong passions and determination of will, was testified by every curve +of his square, massive head, and every line of his full countenance. + +My aversion--reasonable or otherwise, as it might be--was not shared by +Miss Willoughby; and it was soon apparent that, fascinated, intoxicated +by her extreme beauty (the man was, I felt, incapable of love in its +high, generous, and spiritual sense), Mr. Harlowe had determined on +offering his hand and fortune to the unportioned orphan. He did so, and +was accepted. I did not conceal my dislike of her suitor from Edith; and +my wife--who, with feminine exaggeration of the hints I threw out, had +set him down as a kind of polished human tiger--with tears intreated her +to avoid the glittering snare. We of course had neither right nor power +to push our opposition beyond friendly warning and advice; and when we +found, thanks to Lady Maldon, who was vehemently in favor of the +match--to, in Edith's position, the dazzling temptation of a splendid +establishment, and to Mr. Harlowe's eloquent and impassioned +pleadings--that the rich man's offer was irrevocably accepted, we of +course forebore from continuing a useless and irritating resistance. Lady +Maldon had several times very plainly intimated that our aversion to the +marriage arose solely from a selfish desire of retaining the services of +her charming relative; so prone are the mean and selfish to impute +meanness and selfishness to others. + +I might, however, I reflected, be of service to Miss Willoughby, by +securing for her such a marriage settlement as would place her beyond the +reach of one possible consequence of caprice and change. I spoke to Mr. +Harlowe on the subject; and he, under the influence of headstrong, eager +passion, gave me, as I expected, _carte blanche_. I availed myself of the +license so readily afforded: a deed of settlement was drawn up, signed, +sealed, and attested in duplicate the day before the wedding; and Edith +Willoughby, as far as wealth and position in society were concerned, had +undoubtedly made a surprisingly good bargain. + +It happened that just as Lady Maldon, Edith Willoughby, and Mr. Harlowe +were leaving my chambers after the execution of the deed, Mr. Ferret the +attorney appeared on the stairs. His hands were full of papers, and he +was, as usual, in hot haste; but he stopped abruptly as his eye fell upon +the departing visitors, looked with startled earnestness at Miss +Willoughby, whom he knew, and then glanced at Mr. Harlowe with an +expression of angry surprise. That gentleman, who did not appear to +recognize the new-comer, returned his look with a supercilious, +contemptuous stare, and passed on with Edith--who had courteously saluted +the inattentive Mr. Ferret--followed by Lady Maldon. + +"What is the meaning of that ominous conjunction?" demanded Mr. Ferret as +the affianced pair disappeared together. + +"Marriage, Mr. Ferret! Do you know any just cause or impediment why they +should not be joined together in holy wedlock?" + +"The fellow's wife is dead then?" + +"Yes; she died about a twelvemonth ago. Did you know her?" + +"Not personally; by reputation only. A country attorney, Richards of +Braintree, for whom I transact London business sent me the draught of a +deed of separation--to which the unfortunate lady, rather than continue +to live with her husband, had consented--for counsel's opinion. I had an +interview with Mr. Harlowe himself upon the business; but I see he +affects to have forgotten me. I do not know much of the merits of the +case, but according to Richards--no great shakes of a fellow, between +ourselves--the former Mrs. Harlowe was a martyr to her husband's +calculated virulence and legal--at least not _illegal_, a great +distinction, in my opinion, though not so set down in the +books--despotism. He espoused her for her wealth: that secured, he was +desirous of ridding himself of the incumbrance to it. A common case!--and +now, if you please, to business." + +I excused myself, as did my wife, from being present at the wedding; but +everything, I afterwards heard, passed off with great _éclat_. The +bridegroom was all fervor and obsequiousness; the bride all bashfulness +and beauty. The "happy pair," I saw by the afternoon newspapers, were to +pass the honeymoon at Mr. Harlowe's seat, Fairdown Park. The evening of +the marriage-day was anything, I remember, but a pleasant one to me. I +reached home by no means hilariously disposed, where I was greeted, by +way of revival, with the intelligence that my wife, after listening with +great energy to Lady Maldon's description of the wedding festivities for +two tremendous hours, had at last been relieved by copious hysteria, and +that Mary and Kate were in a fair way--if the exploit could be +accomplished by perseverance--of crying themselves to sleep. These were +our bridal compliments; much more flattering, I imagine, if not quite so +honey-accented, as the courtly phrases with which the votaries and the +victims of Hymen are alike usually greeted. + +Time, business, worldly hopes and cares, the triumphs and defeats of an +exciting profession, gradually weakened the impression made upon me by +the gentle virtues of Edith Willoughby; and when, about fifteen months +after the wedding, my wife informed me that she had been accosted by Mrs. +Harlowe at a shop in Bond Street, my first feeling was one of surprise, +not untinged with resentment, for what I deemed her ungrateful neglect. + +"She recognized you then?" I remarked. + +"Recognized me! What do you mean?" + +"I thought perhaps she might have forgotten your features, as she +evidently has our address." + +"If you had seen," replied my wife, "how pale, how cold, how utterly +desolate she looked, you would think less hardly of her. As soon as she +observed me, a slight scream escaped her; and then she glanced eagerly +and tremblingly around like a startled fawn. Her husband had passed out +of the shop to give, I think, some direction to the coachman. She +tottered towards me, and clasping me in her arms, burst into a passion of +tears. "Oh, why--why," I asked as soon as I could speak, "why have you +not written to us?" "I dared not!" she gasped. "But oh tell me, do +you--does your husband remember me with kindness? Can I still reckon on +his protection--his support?" I assured her you would receive her as your +own child: the whispered words had barely passed my lips, when Mr. +Harlowe, who had swiftly approached us unperceived, said, "Madam, the +carriage waits." His stern, pitiless eye glanced from his wife to me, and +stiffly bowing, he said, "Excuse me for interrupting your conversation; +but time presses. Good-day." A minute afterwards, the carriage drove +off." + +I was greatly shocked at this confirmation of my worst fears; and I +meditated with intense bitterness on the fate of a being of such meek +tenderness exposed to the heartless brutalities of a sated sensualist +like Harlowe. But what could be done? She had chosen, deliberately, +and after warning, chosen her lot, and must accept the consequences of +her choice. In all the strong statutes, and sharp biting laws of +England, there can be found no clause wherewith to shield a woman from +the "regulated" meanness and despotism of an unprincipled husband. +Resignation is the sole remedy, and therein the patient must minister +to herself. + +On the morning of the Sunday following Edith's brief interview with my +wife, and just as we were about to leave the house to attend divine +service, a cab drove furiously up to the door, and a violent summons by +both knocker and bell announced the arrival of some strangely-impatient +visitor. I stepped out upon the drawing-room landing, and looked over the +banister rail, curious to ascertain who had honored me with so peremptory +a call. The door was quickly opened, and in ran, or rather staggered, +Mrs. Harlowe, with a child in long clothes in her arms. + +"Shut--shut the door!" she faintly exclaimed, as she sank on one of the +hall seats. "Pray shut the door--I am pursued!" + +I hastened down, and was just in time to save her from falling on the +floor. She had fainted. I had her carried up stairs, and by the aid of +proper restoratives, she gradually recovered consciousness. The child, a +girl about four months old, was seized upon by Mary and Kate, and carried +off in triumph to the nursery. Sadly changed, indeed, as by the sickness +of the soul, was poor Edith. The radiant flush of youth and hope +rendering her sweet face eloquent of joy and pride, was replaced by the +cold, sad hues of wounded affections and proud despair. I could read in +her countenance, as in a book, the sad record of long months of wearing +sorrow, vain regrets, and bitter self-reproach. Her person, too, had lost +its rounded, airy, graceful outline, and had become thin and angular. +Her voice, albeit, was musical and gentle as ever, as she murmured, on +recovering her senses, "You will protect me from my--from that man?" As I +warmly pressed her hand, in emphatic assurance that I would shield her +against all comers, another loud summons was heard at the door. A minute +afterwards, a servant entered, and announced that Mr. Harlowe waited for +me below. I directed he should be shown into the library; and after +iterating my assurance to Edith that she was quite safe from violence +beneath my roof, and that I would presently return to hear her +explanation of the affair, I went down stairs. + +Mr. Harlowe, as I entered, was pacing rapidly up and down the apartment. +He turned to face me; and I thought he looked even more perturbed and +anxious than vengeful and angry. He, however, as I coldly bowed, and +demanded his business with me, instantly assumed a bullying air and tone. + +"Mrs. Harlowe is here: she has surreptitiously left South Audley Street +in a hired cab, and I have traced her to this house." + +"Well?" + +"Well! I trust it is well; and I insist that she instantly return to +her home." + +"Her _home_!" + +I used the word with an expression significative only of my sense of the +sort of "home" he had provided for the gentle girl he had sworn to love +and cherish; but the random shaft found a joint in his armor at which it +was not aimed. He visibly trembled, and turned pale. + +"She has had time to tell you all then! But be assured, sir, that nothing +she has heard or been told, however true it may be--_may_ be, remember, +I say--can be legally substantiated except by myself." + +What could the man mean? I was fairly puzzled: but, professionally +accustomed to conceal emotions of surprise and bewilderment, I coldly +replied--"I have left the lady who has sought the protection of her true +'home,' merely to ascertain the reason of this visit." + +"The reason of my visit!" he exclaimed with renewed fury: "to reconvey +her to South Audley Street. What else? If you refuse to give her up, I +shall apply to the police." + +I smiled, and approached the bell. + +"You will not surrender her then?" + +"To judicial process only: of that be assured. I have little doubt that, +when I am placed in full possession of all the facts of the case, I shall +be quite able to justify my conduct." He did not reply, and I continued: +"If you choose to wait here till I have heard Edith's statement, I will +at once frankly acquaint you with my final determination." + +"Be it so: and please to recollect, sir, that you have to deal with a man +not easily baffled or entrapped by legal subtlety or cunning." + +I reascended to the drawing-room; and finding Edith--thanks to the +ministrations, medicinal and oral, of my bustling and indignant +lady--much calmer, and thoroughly satisfied that nobody could or should +wrest her from us, begged her to relate unreservedly the cause or causes +which had led to her present position. She falteringly complied; and I +listened with throbbing pulse and burning cheeks to the sad story of her +wedded wretchedness, dating from within two or three months of the +marriage; and finally consummated by a disclosure that, if provable, +might consign Harlowe to the hulks. The tears, the agony, the despair of +the unhappy lady, excited in me a savageness of feeling, an eager thirst +for vengeance, which I had believed foreign to my nature. Edith divined +my thoughts, and taking my hand, said, "Never, sir, never will I appear +against him: the father of my little Helen shall never be publicly +accused by me." + +"You err, Edith," I rejoined; "it is a positive duty to bring so +consummate a villain to justice. He has evidently calculated on your +gentleness of disposition, and must be disappointed." + +I soon, however, found it was impossible to shake her resolution on +this point; and I returned with a heart full of grief and bitterness to +Mr. Harlowe. + +"You will oblige me, sir," I exclaimed as I entered the room, "by +leaving this house immediately: I would hold no further converse with so +vile a person." + +"How! Do you know to whom you presume to speak in this manner?" + +"Perfectly. You are one Harlowe, who, after a few months' residence with +a beautiful and amiable girl, had extinguished the passion which induced +him to offer her marriage, showered on her every species of insult and +indignity of which a cowardly and malignant nature is capable; and who, +finding that did not kill her, at length consummated, or revealed, I do +not yet know which term is most applicable, his utter baseness by causing +her to be informed that his first wife was still living." + +"Upon my honor, sir, I believed, when I married Miss Willoughby, that I +was a widower." + +"Your _honor!_ But except to prove that I _do_ thoroughly know and +appreciate the person I am addressing, I will not bandy words with you. +After that terrible disclosure--if, indeed, it be a disclosure, not an +invention--Ah, you start at that" + +"At your insolence, sir; not at your senseless surmises." + +"Time and the law will show. After, I repeat, this terrible disclosure or +invention, you, not content with obtaining from your victim's generosity +a positive promise that she would not send you to the hulks"-- + +"Sir, have a care." + +"Pooh! I say, not content with exacting this promise from your victim, +you, with your wife, or accomplice, threatened not only to take her child +from her, but to lock her up in a madhouse, unless she subscribed a +paper, confessing that she knew, when you espoused her, that you were a +married man. Now, sir, do I, or do I not, thoroughly know who and what +the man is I am addressing?" + +"Sir," returned Harlowe, recovering his audacity somewhat. "Spite of all +your hectoring and abuse, I defy you to obtain proof--legal +proof--whether what Edith has heard is true or false. The affair may +perhaps be arranged; let her return with me." + +"You know she would die first; but it is quite useless to prolong this +conversation; and I again request you to leave this house." + +"If Miss Willoughby would accept an allowance"-- + +The cool audacity of this proposal to make me an instrument in +compromising a felony exasperated me beyond all bounds. I rang the bell +violently, and desired the servant who answered it to show Mr. Harlowe +out of the house. Finding further persistence useless, the baffled +villain snatched up his hat, and with a look and gesture of rage and +contempt, hurried out of the apartment. + +The profession of a barrister necessarily begets habits of coolness and +reflection under the most exciting circumstances; but, I confess, that in +this instance my ordinary equanimity was so much disturbed, that it was +some time before I could command sufficient composure to reason calmly +upon the strange revelations made to me by Edith, and the nature of the +measures necessary to adopt in order to clear up the mystery attaching to +them. She persisted in her refusal to have recourse to legal measures +with a view to the punishment of Harlowe; and I finally determined--after +a conference with Mr. Ferret, who, having acted for the first Mrs. +Harlowe, I naturally conjectured must know something of her history and +connections--to take for the present no ostensible steps in the matter. +Mr. Ferret, like myself, was persuaded that the sham resuscitation of his +first wife was a mere trick, to enable Harlowe to rid himself of the +presence of a woman he no longer cared for. "I will take an opportunity," +said Mr. Ferret, "of quietly questioning Richards: he must have known the +first wife; Eleanor Wickham, I remember, was her maiden name; and if not +bought over by Harlowe--a by-no-means impossible purchase--can set us +right at once. I did not understand that the said Eleanor was at all +celebrated for beauty and accomplishments, such as you say Miss +Willoughby--Mrs. Harlowe, I mean--describes. She was a native of +Dorsetshire too, I remember; and the foreign Italian accent you mention, +is rarely, I fancy, picked up in that charming county. Some flashy +opera-dancer, depend upon it, whom he has contracted a passing fancy for: +a slippery gentleman certainly; but, with a little caution, we shall not +fail to trip his heels up, clever as he may be." + +A stronger wrestler than either of us was upon the track of the unhappy +man. Edith had not been with us above three weeks, when one of Mr. +Harlowe's servants called at my chambers to say that his master, in +consequence of a wound he had inflicted on his foot with an axe, whilst +amusing himself with cutting or pruning some trees in the grounds at +Fairdown, was seriously ill, and had expressed a wish to see me. I +could not leave town; but as it was important Mr. Harlowe should be +seen, I requested Mr. Ferret to proceed to Fairdown House. He did so, +and late in the evening returned with the startling intelligence that +Mr. Harlowe was dead! + +"Dead!" I exclaimed, much shocked. "Are you serious?" "As a judge. He +expired, about an hour after I reached the house, of tetanus, commonly +called locked-jaw. His body, by the contraction of the muscles, was bent +like a bow, and rested on his heels and the back part of his head. He was +incapable of speech long before I saw him; but there was a world of +agonized expression in his eyes!" + +"Dreadful! Your journey was useless then?" + +"Not precisely. I saw the pretended former wife: a splendid woman, and as +much Eleanor Wickham of Dorsetshire as I am. They mean, however, to show +fight, I think; for, as I left the place, I observed that delightful +knave Richards enter the house. I took the liberty of placing seals upon +the desks and cabinets, and directed the butler and other servants to see +that nothing was disturbed or removed till Mrs. Harlowe's--the true Mrs. +Harlowe's--arrival." + +The funeral was to take place on the following Wednesday; and it was +finally arranged that both of us would accompany Edith to Fairdown on the +day after it had taken place, and adopt such measures as circumstances +might render necessary. Mr. Ferret wrote to this effect to all parties +concerned. + +On arriving at the house, I, Ferret, and Mrs. Harlowe, proceeded at once +to the drawing-room, where we found the pretended wife seated in great +state, supported on one side by Mr. Richards, and on the other by Mr. +Quillet the eminent proctor. Edith was dreadfully agitated, and clung +frightened and trembling to my arm. I conducted her to a seat, and placed +myself beside her, leaving Mr. Ferret--whom so tremendous an array of law +and learning, evincing a determination to fight the matter out _à +l'outrance_, filled with exuberant glee--to open the conference. + +"Good-morning, madam," cried he, the moment he entered the room, and +quite unaffected by the lady's scornful and haughty stare: "good-morning; +I am delighted to see you in such excellent company. You do not, I hope, +forget that I once had the honor of transacting business for you?" + +"You had transactions of my business!" said the lady, "When, I pray you?" + +"God bless me!" cried Ferret, addressing Richards, "what a charming +Italian accent; and out of Dorsetshire too!" + +"Dorsetshire, sir?" exclaimed the lady. + +"Ay, Dorsetshire, to be sure. Why, Mr. Richards, our respected client +appears to have forgotten her place of birth! How very extraordinary!" + +Mr. Richards now interfered, to say that Mr. Ferret was apparently +laboring under a strange misapprehension. "This lady," continued he, "is +Madame Giulletta Corelli." + +"Whe--e--e--w!" rejoined Ferret, thrown for an instant off his balance by +the suddenness of the confession, and perhaps a little disappointed at so +placable a termination of the dispute--"Giulletta Corelli! What is the +meaning of this array then?" + +"I am glad, madam," said I, interposing for the first time in the +conversation, "for your own sake, that you have been advised not to +persist in the senseless as well as iniquitous scheme devised by the late +Mr. Harlowe; but this being the case, I am greatly at a loss to know why +either you or these legal gentlemen are here?" + +The brilliant eyes of the Italian flashed with triumphant scorn, and a +smile of contemptuous irony curled her beautiful lip as she +replied--"These legal gentlemen will not have much difficulty in +explaining my right to remain in my own house." + +"_Your_ house?" + +"Precisely, sir," replied Mr. Quillet. "This mansion, together with all +other property, real and personal, of which the deceased Henry Harlowe +died possessed, is bequeathed by will--dated about a month since--to this +lady, Giulletta Corelli." + +"A will!" exclaimed Mr. Ferret with an explosive shout, and turning to +me, whilst his sharp gray eyes danced with irrepressible mirth--"Did I +not tell you so?" + +"Your usual sagacity, Mr. Ferret, has not in this instance failed you. +Perhaps you will permit me to read the will? But before I do so," +continued Mr. Quillet, as he drew his gold-rimmed spectacles from their +morocco sheath--"you will allow me, if you please, to state that the +legatee, delicately appreciating the position of the widow, will allow +her any reasonable annuity--say five hundred pounds per annum for life." + +"Will she really though?" cried Mr. Ferret, boiling over with ecstacy. +"Madam, let me beg of you to confirm this gracious promise." + +"Certainly I do." + +"Capital!--glorious!" rejoined Ferret; and I thought he was about to +perform a salutatory movement, that must have brought his cranium into +damaging contact with the chandelier under which he was standing. "Is +it not delightful? How every one--especially an attorney--loves a +generous giver!" + +Mr. Richards appeared to be rendered somewhat uneasy by these strange +demonstrations. He knew Ferret well, and evidently suspected that +something was wrong somewhere. "Perhaps, Mr. Quillet," said he, "you had +better read the will at once." + +This was done: the instrument devised in legal and minute form all the +property, real and personal, to Giulletta Corelli--a natural-born subject +of his majesty, it appeared, though of foreign parentage, and of +partially foreign education. + +"Allow me to say," broke in Mr. Ferret, interrupting me as I was about to +speak--"allow me to say, Mr. Richards, that that will does you credit: it +is, I should say, a first-rate affair, for a country practitioner +especially. But of course you submitted the draught to counsel?" + +"Certainly I did," said Richards tartly. + +"No doubt--no doubt. Clearness and precision like that could only have +proceeded from a master's hand. I shall take a copy of that will, +Richards, for future guidance, you may depend, the instant it is +registered in Doctors' Commons." + +"Come, come, Mr. Ferret," said I; "this jesting is all very well; but it +is quite time the farce should end." + +"Farce!" exclaimed Mr. Richards. + +"Farce!" growled doubtful Mr. Quillet. + +"Farce!" murmured the beautiful Giulletta. + +"Farce!" cried Mr. Ferret. "My dear sir, it is about one of the most +charming and genteel comedies ever enacted on any stage, and the +principal part, too, by one of the most charming of prima donnas. Allow +me, sir--don't interrupt me! it is too delicious to be shared; it is, +indeed. Mr. Richards, and you, Mr. Quillet, will you permit me to observe +that this admirable will has _one_ slight defect?" + +"A defect!--where--how?" + +"It is really heart-breaking that so much skill and ingenuity should be +thrown away; but the fact is, gentlemen, that the excellent person who +signed it had no property to bequeath!" + +"How?" + +"Not a shilling's worth. Allow me, sir, if you please. This piece of +parchment, gentlemen, is, I have the pleasure to inform you, a marriage +settlement." + +"A marriage settlement!" exclaimed both the men of law in a breath. + +"A marriage settlement, by which, in the event of Mr. Harlowe's decease, +his entire property passes to his wife, in trust for the children, if +any; and if not, absolutely to herself." Ferret threw the deed on the +table, and then giving way to convulsive mirth, threw himself upon the +sofa, and fairly shouted with glee. + +Mr. Quillet seized the document, and, with Richards, eagerly perused it. +The proctor then rose, and bowing gravely to his astonished client, said, +"The will, madam, is waste paper. You have been deceived." He then left +the apartment. + +The consternation of the lady and her attorney may be conceived. Madam +Corelli, giving way to her fiery passions, vented her disappointment in +passionate reproaches of the deceased; the only effect of which was to +lay bare still more clearly than before her own cupidity and folly, and +to increase Edith's painful agitation. I led her down stairs to my wife, +who, I omitted to mention, had accompanied us from town, and remained in +the library with the children during our conference. In a very short +time afterwards Mr. Ferret had cleared the house of its intrusive guests, +and we had leisure to offer our condolences and congratulations to our +grateful and interesting client. It was long before Edith recovered her +former gaiety and health; and I doubt if she would ever have thoroughly +regained her old cheerfulness and elasticity of mind, had it not been for +her labor of love in superintending and directing the education of her +daughter Helen, a charming girl, who fortunately inherited nothing from +her father but his wealth. The last time I remember to have danced was at +Helen's wedding. She married a distinguished Irish gentleman, with whom, +and her mother, I perceive by the newspapers, she appeared at Queen +Victoria's court in Dublin, one, I am sure, of the brightest stars which +glittered in that galaxy of beauty and fashion. + + + + +THE SECOND MARRIAGE. + + +A busy day in the assize court at Chester, chequered, as usual, by +alternate victory and defeat, had just terminated, and I was walking +briskly forth, when an attorney of rather low _caste_ in his +profession--being principally employed as an intermediary between needy +felons and the counsel practising in the Crown Court--accosted me, and +presented a brief; at the same time tendering the fee of two guineas +marked upon it. + +"I am engaged to-morrow, Mr. Barnes," I exclaimed a little testily, "on +the civil side: besides, you know I very seldom take briefs in the Crown +Court, even if proffered in due time; and to-morrow will be the last day +of the assize in Chester! There are plenty of unemployed counsel who will +be glad of your brief." + +"It is a brief in an action of ejectment," replied the attorney--"Woodley +_versus_ Thorndyke; and is brought to recover possession of a freehold +estate now held and farmed by the defendant." + +"An action of ejectment to recover possession of a freehold estate! +defended, too, I know, by a powerful bar; for I was offered a brief, but +declined it. Mr. P ---- leads; and you bring me this for the plaintiff, +and at the last moment too! You must be crazed." + +"I told the plaintiff and her grandfather," rejoined Mr. Barnes, "that it +was too late to bespeak counsel's attention to the case; and that the +fee, all they have, with much difficulty, been able to raise, was +ridiculously small; but they insisted on my applying to you--Oh, here +they are!" + +We had by this time reached the street, and the attorney pointed towards +two figures standing in attitudes of anxious suspense near the gateway. +It was dusk, but there was quite sufficient light to distinguish the pale +and interesting features of a young female, dressed in faded and scanty +mourning, and accompanied by a respectable-looking old man with white +hair, and a countenance deeply furrowed by age and grief. + +"I told you, Miss Woodley," said the attorney, "that this gentleman would +decline the brief, especially with such a fee"-- + +"It is not the fee, man!" I observed, for I was somewhat moved by the +appealing dejection exhibited by the white-haired man and his timid +grand-daughter; "but what chance can I have of establishing this person's +right--if right she have--to the estate she claims, thus suddenly called +upon to act without previous consultation; and utterly ignorant, except +as far as this I perceive hastily-scrawled brief will instruct me, both +of the nature of the plaintiff's claim and of the defence intended to be +set up against it?" + +"If you would undertake it, sir," said the young woman with a tremulous, +hesitating voice and glistening eyes, "for _his_ sake"--and she glanced +at her aged companion--"who will else be helpless, homeless." + +"The blessing of those who are ready to perish will be yours, sir," said +the grandfather with meek solemnity, "if you will lend your aid in this +work of justice and mercy. We have no hope of withstanding the masterful +violence and wrong of wicked and powerful men except by the aid of the +law, which we have been taught will ever prove a strong tower of defence +to those who walk in the paths of peace and right." + +The earnestness of the old man's language and manner, and the pleading +gentleness of the young woman, forcibly impressed me; and, albeit, it was +a somewhat unprofessional mode of business, I determined to hear their +story from their own lips, rather than take it from the scrawled brief, +or through the verbal medium of their attorney. + +"You have been truly taught," I answered; "and if really entitled to the +property you claim, I know of no masterful men that in this land of +England can hinder you from obtaining possession of it. Come to my hotel +in about an hour and a-half from hence: I shall then have leisure to hear +what you have to say. This fee," I added, taking the two guineas from the +hand of the attorney, who still held the money ready for my acceptance, +"you must permit me to return. It is too much for you to pay for losing +your cause; and if I gain it--but mind I do not promise to take it into +court unless I am thoroughly satisfied you have right and equity on your +side--I shall expect a much heavier one. Mr. Barnes, I will see you, if +you please, early in the morning." I then bowed, and hastened on. + +Dinner was not ready when I arrived at the hotel; and during the short +time I had to wait, I more than half repented of having had anything to +do with this unfortunate suit. However, the pleadings of charity, the +suggestions of human kindness, reasserted their influence; and by the +time my new clients arrived, which they did very punctually at the hour I +had indicated, I had quite regained the equanimity I had momentarily +lost, and, thanks to mine host's excellent viands and generous wine, was, +for a lawyer, in a very amiable and benevolent humor indeed. + +Our conference was long, anxious, and unsatisfactory. I was obliged to +send for Barnes before it concluded, in order to thoroughly ascertain the +precise nature of the case intended to be set up for the defendant, and +the evidence likely to be adduced in support of it. No ray of consolation +or of hope came from that quarter. Still, the narrative I had just +listened to, bearing as it did the impress of truth and sincerity in +every sentence, strongly disposed me to believe that foul play has been +practised by the other side; and I determined, at all hazards, to go into +court, though with but faint hope indeed of a _present_ successful issue. + +"It appears more than probable," I remarked on dismissing my clients, +"that this will is a fabrication; but before such a question had been put +in issue before a jury, some producible evidence of its being so should +have been sought for and obtained. As it is, I can only watch the +defendant's proof of the genuineness of the instrument upon which he has +obtained probate: one or more of the attesting witnesses _may_, if fraud +has been practised, break down under a searching cross-examination, or +incidentally perhaps disclose matter for further investigation." + +"One of the attesting witnesses is, as I have already told you, dead," +observed Barnes; "and another, Elizabeth Wareing, has, I hear, to-day +left the country. An affidavit to that effect will no doubt be made +to-morrow, in order to enable them to give secondary evidence of her +attestation, though, swear as they may, I have not the slightest doubt +I could find her if time were allowed, and her presence would at all +avail us." + +"Indeed! This is very important. Would you, Mr. Barnes, have any +objection," I added, after a few moments' reflection, "to make oath, +should the turn of affairs to-morrow render your doing so desirable, of +your belief that you could, reasonable time being allowed, procure the +attendance of this woman--this Elizabeth Wareing?" + +"Not the slightest: though how that would help us to invalidate the will +Thorndyke claims under I do not understand." + +"Perhaps not. At all events do not fail to be early in court. The cause +is the first in to-morrow's list, remember." + +The story confided to me was a very sad, and, unfortunately in many of +its features, a very common one. Ellen, the only child of the old +gentleman, Thomas Ward, had early in life married Mr. James Woodley, a +wealthy yeoman, prosperously settled upon his paternal acres, which he +cultivated with great diligence and success. The issue of this +marriage--a very happy one, I was informed--was Mary Woodley, the +plaintiff in the present action. Mr. Woodley, who had now been dead +something more than two years, bequeathed the whole of his property, real +and personal, to his wife, in full confidence, as he expressed himself +but a few hours before he expired, that she would amply provide for his +and her child. The value of the property inherited by Mrs. Woodley under +this will amounted, according to a valuation made a few weeks after the +testator's decease, to between eight and nine thousand pounds. + +Respected as a widow, comfortable in circumstances, and with a daughter +to engage her affections, Mrs. Woodley might have passed the remainder of +her existence in happiness. But how frequently do women peril and lose +all by a second marriage! Such was the case with Mrs. Woodley: to the +astonishment of everybody, she threw herself away on a man almost unknown +in the district--a person of no fortune, of mean habits, and altogether +unworthy of accepting as a husband. Silas Thorndyke, to whom she thus +committed her happiness, had for a short time acted as bailiff on the +farm; and no sooner did he feel himself master, than his subserviency +was changed to selfish indifference, and that gradually assumed a coarser +character. He discovered that the property, by the will of Mr. Woodley, +was no secured against every chance or casualty to the use and enjoyment +of his wife, that it not only did not pass by marriage to the new +bridegroom, but she was unable to alienate or divest herself of any +portion of it during life. She could, however, dispose of it by will; but +in the event of her dying intestate, the whole descended to her daughter, +Mary Woodley. + +Incredibly savage was Thorndyke when he made that discovery; and bitter +and incessant were the indignities to which he subjected his unfortunate +wife, for the avowed purpose of forcing her to make a will entirely in +his favor, and of course disinheriting her daughter. These persecutions +failed of their object. An unexpected, quiet, passive, but unconquerable +resistance, was opposed by the, in all other things, cowed and submissive +woman, to this demand of her domineering husband. Her failing health--for +gently nurtured and tenderly cherished as she had ever been, the +callous brutality of her husband soon told upon the unhappy +creature--warned her that Mary would soon be an orphan, and that upon her +firmness it depended whether the child of him to whose memory she had +been, so fatally for herself, unfaithful, should be cast homeless and +penniless upon the world, or inherit the wealth to which, by every +principle of right and equity, she was entitled. Come what may, this +trust at least should not, she mentally resolved, be betrayed or paltered +with. Every imaginable expedient to vanquish her resolution was resorted +to. Thorndyke picked a quarrel with Ward her father, who had lived at +Dale Farm since the morrow of her marriage with Woodley, and the old +gentleman was compelled to leave, and take up his abode with a distant +and somewhat needy relative. Next Edward Wilford, the only son of a +neighboring and prosperous farmer, who had been betrothed to Mary Woodley +several months before her father's death, was brutally insulted, and +forbidden the house. All, however, failed to shake the mother's +resolution; and at length, finding all his efforts fruitless, Thorndyke +appeared to yield the point, and upon this subject at least ceased to +harass his unfortunate victim. + +Frequent private conferences were now held between Thorndyke, his two +daughters, and Elizabeth Wareing--a woman approaching middle-age, whom, +under the specious pretence that Mrs. Thorndyke's increasing ailments +rendered the services of an experienced matron indispensable, he had +lately installed at the farm. It was quite evident to both the mother and +daughter that a much greater degree of intimacy subsisted between the +master and housekeeper than their relative positions warranted; and from +some expressions heedlessly dropped by the woman, they suspected them to +have been once on terms of confidential intimacy. Thorndyke, I should +have mentioned, was not a native of these parts: he had answered Mr. +Woodley's advertisement for a bailiff, and his testimonials appearing +satisfactory, he had been somewhat precipitately engaged. A young man, +calling himself Edward Wareing, the son of Elizabeth Wareing, and said to +be engaged in an attorney's office in Liverpool, was also a not +unfrequent visitor at Dale Farm; and once he had the insolent presumption +to address a note to Mary Woodley, formally tendering his hand and +fortune! This, however, did not suit Mr. Thorndyke's views, and Mr. +Edward Wareing was very effectually rebuked and silenced by his proposed +father-in-law. + +Mrs. Thorndyke's health rapidly declined. The woman Wareing, touched +possibly by sympathy or remorse, exhibited considerable tenderness and +compassion towards the invalid; made her nourishing drinks, and +administered the medicine prescribed by the village practitioner--who, +after much delay and _pooh, poohing_ by Thorndyke, had been called +in--with her own hands. About three weeks previous to Mrs. Thorndyke's +death, a sort of reconciliation was patched up through her +instrumentality between the husband and wife; and an unwonted expression +of kindness and compassion, real or simulated, sat upon Thorndyke's +features every time he approached the dying woman. + +The sands of life ebbed swiftly with Mrs. Thorndyke. Infolded in the +gentle but deadly embrace with which consumption seizes its victims, she +wasted rapidly away; and, most perplexing symptoms of all, violent +retchings and nausea, especially after taking her medicine--which, +according to Davis, the village surgeon, was invariable of a sedative +character--aggravated and confirmed the fatal disease which was hurrying +her to the tomb. + +Not once during this last illness could Mary Woodley, by chance or +stratagem, obtain a moment's private interview with her mother, until a +few minutes before her decease. Until then, under one pretence or +another, either Elizabeth Wareing, one of Thorndyke's daughters, or +Thorndyke himself, was always present in the sick-chamber. It was +evening: darkness had for some time fallen: no light had yet been taken +into the dying woman's apartment; and the pale starlight which faintly +illumined the room served, as Mary Woodley softly approached on tiptoe to +the bedside of her, as she supposed, sleeping parent, but to deepen by +defining the shadows thrown by the full, heavy hangings, and the old +massive furniture. Gently, and with a beating heart, Mary Woodley drew +back the bed-curtain nearest the window. The feeble, uncertain light +flickered upon the countenance, distinct in its mortal paleness, of her +parent: the eyes recognized her, and a glance of infinite tenderness +gleamed for an instant in the rapidly-darkening orbs: the right arm +essayed to lift itself, as for one fast, last embrace. Vainly! Love, love +only, was strong, stronger than death, in the expiring mother's heart, +and the arm fell feebly back on the bedclothes. Mary Woodley bent down in +eager grief, for she felt instinctively that the bitter hour at last was +come: their lips met, and the last accents of the mother murmured, +"Beloved Mary, I--I have been true to you--no will--no"--A slight tremor +shook her frame: the spirit that looked in love from the windows of the +eyes departed on its heavenward journey, and the unconscious shell only +of what had once been her mother remained in the sobbing daughter's arms. + +I will not deny that this narrative, which I feel I have but coldly and +feebly rendered from its earnest, tearful tenderness, as related by Mary +Woodley, affected me considerably--case-hardened, as, to use an old +bar-pun, we barristers are supposed to be; nor will the reader be +surprised to hear that suspicions, graver even than those which pointed +to forgery, were evoked by the sad history. Much musing upon the strange +circumstances thus disclosed, and profoundly cogitative on the best mode +of action to be pursued, the "small hours," the first of them at least, +surprised me in my arm-chair. I started up, and hastened to bed, well +knowing from experience that a sleepless vigil is a wretched preparative +for a morrow of active exertion, whether of mind or body. + +I was betimes in court the next morning, and Mr. Barnes, proud as a +peacock of figuring as an attorney in an important civil suit, was soon +at my side. The case had excited more interest than I had supposed, and +the court was very early filled, Mary Woodley and her grandfather soon +arrived; and a murmur of commiseration ran through the auditory as they +took their seats by the side of Barnes. There was a strong bar arrayed +against us; and Mr. Silas Thorndyke, I noticed, was extremely busy and +important with whisperings and suggestions to his solicitor and +counsel--received, of course, as such meaningless familiarities usually +are, with barely civil indifference. + +Twelve common jurors were called and sworn well and truly to try the +issue, and I arose amidst breathless silence to address them. I at once +frankly stated the circumstances under which the brief had come into my +hands, and observed, that if, for lack of advised preparation, the +plaintiff's case failed on that day, another trial, under favor of the +court above, would, I doubt not, at no distant period of time reverse the +possibly at present unfavorable decision. "My learned friends on the +other side," I continued, "smile at this qualified admission of mine: let +them do so. If they apparently establish to-day the validity of a will +which strips an only child of the inheritance bequeathed by her father, +they will, I tell them emphatically, have obtained but a temporary +triumph for a person who--if I, if you, gentlemen of the jury, are to +believe the case intended to be set up as a bar to the plantiff's +claim--has succeeded by the grossest brutality, the most atrocious +devices, in bending the mind of the deceased Mrs. Thorndyke to his +selfish purposes. My learned friend need not interrupt me; I shall pursue +these observations for the present no further--merely adding that I, that +his lordship, that you, gentlemen of the jury, will require of him the +strictest proof--proof clear as light--that the instrument upon which he +relies to defeat the equitable, the righteous claim of the young and +amiable person by my side, is genuine, and not, as I verily believe "--I +looked, as I spoke, full in the face of Thorndyke--"FORGED." + +"My lord," exclaimed the opposing counsel, "this is really insufferable!" + +His lordship, however, did not interpose; and I went on to relate, in the +most telling manner of which I was capable, the history of the deceased +Mrs. Thorndyke's first and second marriages; the harmony and happiness of +the first--the wretchedness and cruelty which characterized the second. I +narrated also the dying words of Mrs. Thorndyke to her daughter, though +repeatedly interrupted by the defendant's counsel, who manifested great +indignation that a statement unsusceptible of legal proof should be +addressed to the court and jury. My address concluded, I put in James +Woodley's will; and, as the opposing counsel did not dispute its +validity, nor require proof of Mary Woodley's identity, I intimated that +the plaintiff's case was closed. + +The speech for the defendant was calm and guarded. It threw, or rather +attempted to throw, discredit on the death-bed "fiction," got up, Mr. +P ---- said, simply with a view to effect; and he concluded by averring +that he should be able to establish the genuineness of the will of Ellen +Thorndyke, now produced, by irresistible evidence. That done, however +much the jury might wish the property had been otherwise disposed of, +they would of course return a verdict in accordance with their oaths and +the law of the land. + +The first witness called was Thomas Headley, a smith, residing near Dale +Farm. He swore positively that the late Mrs. Thorndyke, whom he knew +well, had cheerfully signed the will now produced, after it had been +deliberately read over to her by her husband about a fortnight before her +death. Silas Thorndyke, John Cummins, Elizabeth Wareing, and witness, +were the only persons present. Mrs. Thorndyke expressed confidence that +her husband would provide for Mary Woodley. + +"And so I will," said sleek Silas, rising up and looking round upon the +auditory. "If she will return, I will be a father to her." + +No look, no sound of sympathy or approval, greeted this generous +declaration, and he sat down again not a little disconcerted. + +I asked this burly, half-drunken witness but one question--"When is your +marriage with Rebecca Thorndyke, the defendant's eldest daughter, to be +celebrated?" + +"I don't know, Mr. Lawyer; perhaps never." + +"That will do; you can go down." + +Mr. P ---- now rose to state that his client was unable to produce +Elizabeth Wareing, another of the attesting witnesses to the will, in +court. No suspicion that any opposition to the solemn testament made by +the deceased Mrs. Thorndyke would be attempted, had been entertained; +and the woman, unaware that her testimony would be required, had left +that part of the country. Every effort had been made by the defendant to +discover her abode without effect. It was believed she had gone to +America, where she had relatives. The defendant had filed an affidavit +setting forth these facts, and it was now prayed that secondary evidence +to establish the genuineness of Elizabeth Wareing's attesting signature +should be admitted. + +I of course vehemently opposed this demand, and broadly hinted that the +witness was purposely kept out of the way. + +"Will my learned friend," said Mr. P ---- with one of his sliest sneers, +"inform us what motive the defendant could possibly have to keep back a +witness so necessary to him?" + +"Elizabeth Wareing," I curtly replied, "may not, upon reflection, be +deemed a safe witness to subject to the ordeal of a cross-examination. +But to settle the matter, my lord," I exclaimed, "I have here an +affidavit of the plaintiff's attorney, in which he states that he has no +doubt of being able to find this important witness if time be allowed him +for the purpose; the defendant of course undertaking to call her when +produced." + +A tremendous clamor of counsel hereupon ensued, and fierce and angry grew +the war of words. The hubbub was at last terminated by the judge +recommending that, under the circumstances, "a juror should be +withdrawn." This suggestion, after some demur, was agreed to. One of the +jurors was whispered to come out of the box; then the clerk of the court +exclaimed, "My lord, there are only eleven men on the jury;" and by the +aid of this venerable, if clumsy expedient, the cause of Woodley _versus_ +Thorndyke was _de facto_ adjourned to a future day. + +I had not long returned to the hotel, when I was waited upon by Mr. +Wilford, senior, the father of the young man who had been forbidden to +visit Dale Farm by Thorndyke. His son, he informed me, was ill from +chagrin and anxiety--confined to his bed indeed; and Mary Woodley had +refused, it seemed, to accept pecuniary aid from either the father or the +son. Would I endeavor to terminate the estrangement which had for some +time unhappily existed, and persuade her to accept his, Wilford senior's, +freely-offered purse and services? I instantly accepted both the mission +and the large sum which the excellent man tendered. A part of the money I +gave Barnes to stimulate his exertions, and the rest I placed in the hand +of Mary Woodley's grandpapa, with a friendly admonition to him not to +allow his grandchild to make a fool of herself; an exhortation which +produced its effect in due season. + +Summer passed away, autumn had come and gone, and the winter assizes +were once more upon us. Regular proceedings had been taken, and the +action in ejectment of Woodley versus Thorndyke was once more on the +cause list of the Chester circuit court, marked this time as a special +jury case. Indefatigable as Mr. Barnes had been in his search for +Elizabeth Wareing, not the slightest trace of her could he discover; and +I went into court, therefore, with but slight expectation of invalidating +the, as I fully believed, fictitious will. We had, however, obtained a +good deal of information relative to the former history not only of the +absent Mrs. Wareing, but of Thorndyke himself; and it was quite within +the range of probabilities that something might come out, enabling me to +use that knowledge to good purpose. The plaintiff and old Mr. Ward were +seated in court beside Mr. Barnes, as on the former abortive trial; but +Mary Woodley had, fortunately for herself, lost much of the interest +which attaches to female comeliness and grace when associated in the mind +of the spectator with undeserved calamity and sorrow. The black dress +which she still wore--the orthodox twelve months of mourning for a parent +had not yet quite elapsed--was now fresh, and of fine quality, and the +pale lilies of her face were interspersed with delicate roses; whilst by +her side sat Mr. John Wilford, as happy-looking as if no such things as +perjurers, forgers, or adverse verdicts existed to disturb the peace of +the glad world. Altogether, we were decidedly less interesting than on +the former occasion. Edward Wareing, I must not omit to add, was, greatly +to our surprise, present. He sat, in great apparent amity, by the side of +Thorndyke. + +It was late in the afternoon, and twilight was gradually stealing over +the dingy court, when the case was called. The special jury answered to +their names, were duly sworn, and then nearly the same preliminary +speeches and admissions were made and put in as on the previous occasion. +Thomas Headley, the first witness called in support of the pretended +will, underwent a rigorous cross-examination; but I was unable to extract +anything of importance from him. + +"And now," said the defendant's leading counsel, "let me ask my +learned friend if he has succeeded in obtaining the attendance of +Elizabeth Wareing?" + +I was of course obliged to confess that we had been unable to find her; +and the judge remarked that in that ease he could receive secondary +evidence in proof of her attestation of the will. + +A whispered but manifestly eager conference here took place between the +defendant and his counsel, occasionally joined in by Edward Wareing. +There appeared to be indecision or hesitation in their deliberations; but +at last Mr. P ---- rose, and with some ostentation of manner addressed +the court. + +"In the discharge of my duty to the defendant in this action, my lord, +upon whose fair fame much undeserved obloquy has been cast by the +speeches of the plaintiff's counsel--speeches insupported by a shadow of +evidence--I have to state that, anxious above all things to stand +perfectly justified before his neighbors and society, he has, at great +trouble and expense, obtained the presence here to-day of the witness +Elizabeth Wareing. She had gone to reside in France with a respectable +English family in the situation of housekeeper. We shall now place her in +the witness-box, and having done so, I trust we shall hear no more of the +slanderous imputations so freely lavished upon my client. Call Elizabeth +Wareing into court." + +A movement of surprise and curiosity agitated the entire auditory at this +announcement. Mr. Silas Thorndyke's naturally cadaverous countenance +assumed an ashy hue, spite of his efforts to appear easy and jubilant; +and for the first time since the commencement of the proceedings I +entertained the hope of a successful issue. + +Mrs. Wareing appeared in answer to the call, and was duly sworn "to tell +the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." She was a +good-looking woman, of perhaps forty years of age, and bore a striking +resemblance to her son. She rapidly, smoothly, and unhesitatingly +confirmed the evidence of Headley to a tittle. She trembled, I observed, +excessively; and on the examining counsel intimating that he had no more +questions to ask, turned hastily to leave the box. + +"Stay--stay, my good woman," I exclaimed; "you and I must have some talk +together before we part." + +She started, and looked at me with frightened earnestness; and then her +nervous glances stole towards Mr. Silas Thorndyke. There was no comfort +there: in his countenance she only saw the reflex of the agitation and +anxiety which marked her own. Sleek Silas, I could see, already repented +of the rash move he had made, and would have given a good deal to get his +witness safely and quietly out of court. + +It was now nearly dark, and observing that it was necessary the court +and jury should see as well as hear the witness whilst under +examination, I requested that lights should be brought in. This was +done. Two candles were placed in front of the witness-box, one on each +side of Mrs. Wareing; a few others were disposed about the bench and +jury desks. The effect of this partial lighting of the gloomy old court +was, that the witness stood out in strong and bright relief from the +surrounding shadows, rendering the minutest change or play of her +features distinctly visible. Mr. Silas Thorndyke was, from his position, +thrown entirely into the shade, and any telegraphing between him and +the witness was thus rendered impossible. This preparation, as if for +some extraordinary and solemn purpose, together with the profound +silence which reigned in the court, told fearfully, as I expected, upon +the nerves of Mrs. Elizabeth Wareing. She already seemed as if about to +swoon with agitation and ill-defined alarm. + +"Pray, madam," said I, "is your name Wareing or Tucker?" + +She did not answer, and I repeated the question. "Tucker," she at last +replied in a tremulous whisper. + +"I thought so. And pray, Mrs. Tucker, were you ever 'in trouble' in +London for robbing your lodgings?" + +I thought she attempted to answer, but no sound passed her lips. One of +the ushers of the court handed her a glass of water at my suggestion, and +she seemed to recover somewhat. I pressed my question; and at last she +replied in the same low, agitated voice, "Yes, I have been." + +"I know you have. Mr. Silas Thorndyke, I believe, was your bail on that +occasion, and the matter was, I understand, compromised--arranged--at all +events the prosecution was not pressed. Is not that so?" + +"Yes--no--yes." + +"Very well: either answer will do. You lived also, I believe, with Mr. +Thorndyke, as his housekeeper of course, when he was in business as a +concocter and vender of infallible drugs and pills?" + +"Yes." + +"He was held to be skilful in the preparation of drugs, was he +not--well-versed in their properties?" + +"Yes--I believe so--I do not know. Why am I asked such questions?" + +"You will know presently. And now, woman, answer the question I am about +to put to you, as you will be compelled to answer it to God at the last +great day--What was the nature of the drug which you or he mixed with the +medicine prescribed for the late Mrs. Thorndyke?" + +A spasmodic shriek, checked by a desperate effort, partially escaped her, +and she stood fixedly gazing with starting eyes in my face. + +The profoundest silence reigned in the court as I iterated the question. + +"You must answer, woman," said the judge sternly, "unless you know your +answer will criminate yourself." + +The witness looked wildly round the court, as if in search of counsel or +sympathy; but encountering none but frowning and eager faces--Thorndyke +she could not discern in the darkness--she became giddy and +panic-stricken, and seemed to lose all presence of mind. + +"He--he--he," she at last gasped--"he mixed it. I do not know--But +how," she added, pushing back her hair, and pressing her hands against +her hot temples, "can this be? What can it mean?" + +A movement amongst the bystanders just at this moment attracted +the notice of the judge, and he immediately exclaimed, "The +defendant must not leave the court!" An officer placed himself +beside the wretched murderer as well as forger, and I resumed the +cross-examination of the witness. + +"Now, Mrs. Tucker, please to look at this letter." (It was that which had +been addressed to Mary Woodley by her son.) "That, I believe, is your +son's handwriting?" + +"Yes." + +"The body of this will has been written by the same hand. Now, woman, +answer. Was it your son--this young man who, you perceive, if guilty, +cannot escape from justice--was it he who forged the names of the +deceased Mrs. Thorndyke, and of John Cummins attached to it?" + +"Not he--not he!" shrieked the wretched woman. "It was +Thorndyke--Thorndyke himself." And then with a sudden revulsion of +feeling, as the consequences of what she had uttered flashed upon her, +she exclaimed, "Oh, Silas, what have I said?--what have I done?" + +"Hanged me, that's all, you accursed devil!" replied Thorndyke with +gloomy ferocity. "But I deserve it for trusting in such an idiot: dolt +and fool that I was for doing so." + +The woman sank down in strong convulsions, and was, by direction of the +judge, carried out of the hall. + +The anxious silence which pervaded the court during this scene, in which +the reader will have observed I played a bold, tentative, and +happily-successful game, was broken as the witness was borne off by a +loud murmur of indignation, followed by congratulatory exclamations on +the fortunate termination of the suit. The defendant's counsel threw up +their briefs, and a verdict was at once returned for the plaintiff. + +All the inculpated parties were speedily in custody; and the body of Mrs. +Thorndyke having been disinterred, it was discovered that she had been +destroyed by bichloride of mercury, of which a considerable quantity was +detected in the body. I was not present at the trial of Thorndyke and his +accomplices--he for murder, and Headley for perjury--but I saw by the +public prints that he was found guilty, and executed: Headley was +transported: the woman was, if I remember rightly, admitted evidence for +the crown. + +Mary Woodley was of course put into immediate possession of her paternal +inheritance; and is now--at least she was about four months ago, when I +dined with her and her husband at Dale Farm--a comely, prosperous matron; +and as happy as a woman with a numerous progeny and an easy-tempered +partner can in this, according to romance writers, vale of grief and +tears expect to be. The service I was fortunately enabled to render her +forms one of the most pleasing recollections of my life. + + + + +CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. + + +In the second year of my connection with the Northern Circuit, when even +_junior_ briefs were much less numerous than acceptable, I was agreeably +surprised, as I sat musing on the evening of my arrival in the ancient +city of York upon the capricious mode in which those powerful personages +the attorneys distributed their valuable favors, by the entrance of one +of the most eminent of the race practising in that part of the country, +and the forthwith tender of a bulky brief in the Crown Court, on which, +as my glance instinctively fell on the interesting figures, I perceived +that the large fee, in criminal cases, of fifty guineas was marked. The +local newspapers, from which I had occasionally seen extracts, had been +for some time busy with the case; and I knew it therefore to be, +relatively to the condition in life of the principal person implicated, +an important one. Rumor had assigned the conduct of the defence to an +eminent leader on the circuit--since, one of our ablest judges; and on +looking more closely at the brief, I perceived that that gentleman's name +had been crossed out, and mine substituted. The fee also--a much less +agreeable alteration--had been, I saw, considerably reduced; in +accordance, doubtless, with the attorney's appreciation of the difference +of value between a silk and a stuff gown. + +"You are not, sir, I believe, retained for the prosecution in the crown +against Everett?" said Mr. Sharpe in his brief, business manner. + +"I am not, Mr. Sharpe." + +"In that case, I beg to tender you the leading-brief for the defence. It +was intended, as you perceive, to place it in the hands of our great +_nisi prius_ leader, but he will be so completely occupied in that court, +that he has been compelled to decline it. He mentioned you; and from what +I have myself seen of you in several cases, I have no doubt my +unfortunate client will have ample justice done him. Mr. Kingston will be +with you." + +I thanked Mr. Sharpe for his compliment, and accepted his brief. As the +commission would be opened on the following morning, I at once applied +myself to a perusal of the bulky paper, aided as I read by the verbal +explanations and commentaries of Mr. Sharpe. Our conference lasted +several hours; and it was arranged that another should be held early the +next morning at Mr. Sharpe's office, at which Mr. Kingston would assist. + +Dark, intricate, compassed with fearful mystery, was the case so suddenly +submitted to my guidance; and the few faint gleams of light derived from +the attorney's research, prescience, and sagacity, served but to render +dimly visible a still profounder and blacker abyss of crime than that +disclosed by the evidence for the crown. Young as I then was in the +profession, no marvel that I felt oppressed by the weight of the +responsibility cast upon me; or that, when wearied with thinking, and +dizzy with profitless conjecture, I threw myself into bed, perplexing +images and shapes of guilt and terror pursued me through my troubled +sleep! Happily the next day was not that of trial; for I awoke with a +throbbing pulse and burning brain, and should have been but poorly +prepared for a struggle involving the issues of life and death. Extremely +sensitive, as, under the circumstances, I must necessarily have been, to +the arduous nature of the grave duties so unexpectedly devolved upon me; +the following _résumé_ of the chief incidents of the case, as confided to +me by Mr. Sharpe, will, I think, fully account to the reader for the +nervous irritability under which I for the moment, labored:-- + +Mr. Frederick Everett, the prisoner about to be arraigned before a jury +of his countrymen for the frightful crime of murder, had, with his +father, Captain Anthony Everett, resided for several years past at +Woodlands Manor-House, the seat of Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh, a rich, elderly +maiden lady, aunt to the first, and sister by marriage to the last-named +gentleman. A generous, pious, high-minded person Mrs. Fitzhugh was +represented to have been, but extremely sensitive withal on the score of +"family." The Fitzhughs of Yorkshire, she was wont to boast, "came in +with the Conqueror;" and any branch of the glorious tree then firmly +planted in the soil of England that degraded itself by an alliance with +wealth, beauty, or worth, dwelling without the pale of her narrow +prejudices, was inexorably cut off from her affections, and, as far as +she was able, from her memory. One--the principal of these offenders--had +been Mary Fitzhugh, her young, fair, gentle, and only sister. In utter +disdain and slight of the dignity of ancestry, she had chosen to unite +herself to a gentleman of the name of Mordaunt, who, though possessed of +great talents, an unspotted name, and, for his age, high rank in the +civil service of the East India Company, had--inexpiable misfortune--a +trader for his grandfather! This crime against her "house" Mrs. Eleanor +Fitzhugh resolved never to forgive; and she steadily returned, unopened, +the frequent letters addressed to her by her sister, who pined in her +distant Indian home for a renewal of the old sisterly love which had +watched over and gladdened her life from infancy to womanhood. A long +silence--a silence of many years--succeeded; broken at last by the sad +announcement that the unforgiven one had long since found an early grave +in a foreign land. The letter which brought the intelligence bore the +London post-mark, and was written by Captain Everett; to whom, it was +stated, Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh's sister, early widowed, had been united in +second nuptials, and by whom she had borne a son, Frederick Everett, now +nearly twenty years of age. The long-pent-up affection of Mrs. Fitzhugh +for her once idolized sister burst forth at this announcement of her +death with uncontrollable violence; and, as some atonement for her past +sinful obduracy, she immediately invited the husband and son of her +long-lost Mary to Woodlands Manor-House, to be henceforth, she said, she +hoped their home. Soon after their arrival, Mrs. Fitzhugh made a +will--the family property was entirely at her disposal--revoking a former +one, which bequeathed the whole of the real and personal property to a +distant relative whom she had never seen, and by which all was devised to +her nephew, who was immediately proclaimed sole heir to the Fitzhugh +estates, yielding a yearly rental of at least £12,000. Nay, so thoroughly +was she softened towards the memory of her deceased sister, that the +will--of which, as I have stated, no secret was made--provided, in the +event of Frederick dying childless, that the property should pass to his +father, Mary Fitzhugh's second husband. + +No two persons could be more unlike than were the father and +son--mentally, morally, physically. Frederick Everett was a fair-haired, +blue-eyed young man, of amiable, caressing manners, gentle disposition, +and ardent, poetic temperament. His father, on the contrary, was a +dark-featured, cold, haughty, repulsive man, ever apparently wrapped up +in selfish and moody reveries. Between him and his son there appeared to +exist but little of cordial intercourse, although the highly-sensitive +and religious tone of mind of Frederick Everett caused him to treat his +parent with unvarying deference and respect. + +The poetic temperament of Frederick Everett brought him at last, as +poetic temperaments are apt to do, into trouble. Youth, beauty, +innocence, and grace, united in the person of Lucy Carrington--the only +child of Mr. Stephen Carrington, a respectable retired merchant of +moderate means, residing within a few miles of Woodlands +Manor-House--crossed his path; and spite of his shield of many +quarterings, he was vanquished in an instant, and almost without +resistance. The at least tacit consent and approval of Mr. Carrington and +his fair daughter secured, Mr. Everett, junior--hasty, headstrong lover +that he was--immediately disclosed his matrimonial projects to his father +and aunt. Captain Everett received the announcement with a sarcastic +smile, coldly remarking, that if Mrs. Fitzhugh was satisfied, he had no +objection to offer. But, alas! no sooner did her nephew, with much +periphrastic eloquence, in part his passion for the daughter of a _mere_ +merchant to his aunt, than a vehement torrent of indignant rebuke broke +from her lips. She would die rather than consent to so degrading a +_mésalliance_; and should he persist in yielding to such gross +infatuation, she would not only disinherit, but banish him her house, and +cast him forth a beggar on the world. Language like this, one can easily +understand, provoked language from the indignant young man which in less +heated moments he would have disdained to utter; and the aunt and nephew +parted in fierce anger, and after mutual denunciation of each other--he +as a disobedient ingrate, she as an imperious, ungenerous tyrant. The +quarrel was with some difficulty patched up by Captain Everett; and with +the exception of the change which took place in the disappointed lover's +demeanor--from light-hearted gaiety to gloom and sullenness--things, +after a few days, went on pretty nearly as before. + +The sudden rupture of the hopes Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh had reposed in her +nephew as the restorer of the glories of her ancient "house," tarnished +by Mary Fitzhugh's marriage, affected dangerously, it soon appeared, that +lady's already failing health. A fortnight after the quarrel with her +nephew, she became alarmingly ill. Unusual and baffling symptoms showed +themselves; and after suffering during eight days from alternate acute +pain, and heavy, unconquerable drowsiness, she expired in her nephew's +arms. This sudden and fatal illness of his relative appeared to reawaken +all Frederick Everett's tenderness and affection for her. He was +incessant in his close attendance in the sick-chamber, permitting no one +else to administer to his aunt either aliment or medicine. On this latter +point, indeed, he insisted, with strange fierceness, taking the medicine +with his own hand from the man who brought it; and after administering +the prescribed quantity, carefully locking up the remainder in a cabinet +in his bed-room. + +On the morning of the day that Mrs. Fitzhugh died, her ordinary medical +attendant, Mr. Smith, terrified and perplexed by the urgency of the +symptoms exhibited by his patient, called in the aid of a +locally-eminent physician, Dr. Archer, or Archford--the name is not very +distinctly written in my memoranda of these occurrences; but we will +call him Archer--who at once changed the treatment till then pursued, +and ordered powerful emetics to be administered, without, however, as +we have seen, producing any saving or sensible effect. The grief of +Frederick Everett, when all hope was over, was unbounded. He threw +himself, in a paroxysm of remorse or frenzy, upon the bed, accusing +himself of having murdered her, with other strange and incoherent +expressions, upon which an intimation soon afterwards made by Dr. Archer +threw startling light. That gentleman, conjointly with Mr. Smith, +requested an immediate interview with Captain Everett, and Mr. Hardyman, +the deceased lady's land-steward and solicitor, who happened to be in +the house at the time. The request was of course complied with, and Dr. +Archer at once bluntly stated that, in his opinion, _poison_ had been +administered to the deceased lady, though of what precise kind he was +somewhat at a loss to conjecture--opium essentially, he thought, though +certainly not in any of its ordinary preparations--one of the alkaloids +probably which chemical science had recently discovered. Be this as it +may, a _post-mortem_ examination of the body would clear up all doubts, +and should take place as speedily as possible. Captain Everett at once +acceded to Dr. Archer's proposal, at the same time observing that he was +quite sure the result would entirely disprove that gentleman's +assumption. Mr. Hardyman also fully concurred in the necessity of a +rigid investigation; and the _post-mortem_ examination should, it was +arranged, take place early on the following morning. + +"I have another and very painful duty to perform," continued Dr. Archer, +addressing Captain Everett. "I find that your son, Mr. Frederick Everett, +alone administered medicine and aliment to Mrs. Fitzhugh during her +illness. Strange, possibly wholly frenzied expressions, but which sounded +vastly like cries of remorse, irrepressible by a person unused to crime, +escaped him in my hearing just after the close of the final scene; +and--But perhaps, Captain Everett, you had better retire: this is +scarcely a subject"-- + +"Go on, sir," said the captain, over whose countenance a strange +expression--to use Dr. Archer's own words--had _flashed_; "go on: I am +better now." + +"We all know," resumed Dr. Archer, "how greatly Mr. Frederick Everett +gains in wealth by his aunt's death; and that her decease, moreover, will +enable him to conclude the marriage to which she was so determinedly +opposed. I think, therefore, that, under all the circumstances, we shall +be fully justified in placing the young gentleman under such--I will not +say custody, but _surveillance_ as will prevent him either from leaving +the house, should he imagine himself suspected, or of destroying any +evidence which may possibly exist of his guilt, if indeed he be guilty." + +"I entirely agree with you, Dr. Archer," exclaimed Mr. Hardyman, who had +listened with much excitement to the doctor's narrative; "and will, upon +my own responsibility, take the necessary steps for effecting the object +you have in view." + +"Gentlemen," said Captain Everett, rising from his chair, "you will of +course do your duty; but I can take no part, nor offer any counsel, in +such a case; I must leave you to your own devices." He then left the +apartment. + +He had been gone but a few minutes, when Frederick Everett, still in a +state of terrible excitement, entered the room, strode fiercely up to Dr. +Archer, and demanded how he dared propose, as the butler had just +informed him he had done, a dissection of his aunt's body. + +"I will not permit it," continued the agitated young man: "I am master +here, and I say it shall not be done. What new horror would you +evoke? Is it not enough that one of the kindest, best of God's +creatures, has perished, but _another_ sacrifice must--What do I say? +Enough that I will not permit it. I have seen similar cases-very +similar cases in--in India!" + +The gentleman so strangely addressed had exchanged significant glances +during the delivery of this incoherent speech; and, quite confirmed in +their previous impression, Mr. Hardyman, as their spokesman, interrupted +the speaker, to inform him that _he_ was the suspected assassin of his +aunt! The accusing sentences had hardly passed the solicitor's lips, when +the furious young man sprang towards him with the bound of a tiger, and +at one blow prostrated him on the floor. He was immediately seized by the +two medical gentlemen, and help having been summoned, he was with much +difficulty secured, and placed in strict confinement, to await the result +of the next day's inquiry. + +The examination of the body disclosed the terrible fact, that the +deceased lady had perished by _acetate of morphine_; thus verifying the +sagacious guess of Dr. Archer. A minute search was immediately made +throughout Mr. Frederick Everett's apartments, and behind one of the +drawers of a cabinet in his bedroom--at the back of the shelf or +partition upon which the drawer rested, and of course completely hidden +by the drawer itself when in its place--was found a flat tin flask, +fluted on the outside, and closed with a screw stopper: it was loosely +enveloped in a sheet of brown paper, directed "--Everett, Esq., Woodlands +Manor-House, Yorkshire;" and upon close examination, a small quantity of +white powder, which proved to be _acetate of morphine_, was found in the +flask. Suspicion of young Everett's guilt now became conviction; and, as +if to confirm beyond all doubt the soundness of the chain of +circumstantial evidence in which he was immeshed, the butler, John +Darby, an aged and trusty servant of the late Mrs. Fitzhugh, made on the +next day the following deposition before the magistrates:-- + +"He had taken in, two days before his late mistress was seized with her +fatal illness, a small brown paper parcel which had been brought by coach +from London, and for which 2s. 10d carriage was charged and paid. The +paper found in Mr. Frederick Everett's cabinet was, he could positively +swear, from the date and figures marked on it, and the handwriting, the +paper wrapper of that parcel. He had given it to young Mr. Everett, who +happened to be in the library at the time. About five minutes afterwards, +he had occasion to return to the library, to inform him that some +fishing-tackle he had ordered was sent home. The door was ajar; and Mr. +Frederick did not at first perceive his entrance, as he was standing with +his back to the door. The paper parcel he, the butler, had just before +delivered was lying open on the table, and Mr. Everett held in one hand a +flat tin flask--the witness had no doubt the same found in the +cabinet--and in the other a note, which he was reading. He, the witness, +coughed, to attract Mr. Everett's attention, who hurriedly turned round, +clapped down the flask and the note, shuffling them under the paper +wrapper, as if to conceal them, and then, in a very confused manner, and +his face as red as flame, asked witness what he wanted there? Witness +thought this behavior very strange at the time; but the incident soon +passed from his mind, and he had thought no more of it till the finding +of the paper and flask as described by the other witnesses." + +Mr. Frederick Everett, who had manifested the strangest impassability, a +calmness as of despair, throughout the inquiry, which perplexed and +disheartened Mr. Sharpe, whose services had been retained by Captain +Everett, allowed even this mischievous evidence to pass without a word of +comment or explanation; and he was, as a matter of course, fully +committed for the wilful murder of his relative. The chain of +circumstantial evidence, motive included, was, it was felt, complete--not +a link was wanting. + +These were the chief incidents disclosed to me by Mr. Sharpe during our +long and painful consultation. Of the precise nature of the terrible +suspicions which haunted and disturbed me, I shall only in this place say +that neither Mr. Sharpe, nor, consequently, myself, would in all +probability have guessed or glanced at them, but for the persistent +assertions of Miss Carrington, that her lover was madly sacrificing +himself from some chimerical motive of honor or duty. + +"You do not know, Mr. Sharpe, as I do," she would frequently exclaim with +tearful vehemence, "the generous, child-like simplicity, the chivalric +enthusiasm, of his character, his utter abnegation of self, and readiness +on all occasions to sacrifice his own ease, his own wishes, to forward +the happiness of others; and, above all, his fantastic notions of +honor--duty, if you will--which would, I feel assured, prompt him to +incur any peril, death itself, to shield from danger any one who had +claims upon him either of blood or of affection. You know to whom my +suspicions point; and how dreadful to think that one so young, so brave, +so pious, and so true, should be sacrificed for such a monster as I +believe that man to be!" + +To all these passionate expostulations the attorney could only reply +that vague suspicions were not judicial proofs; and that if Mr. +Frederick Everett would persist in his obstinate reserve, a fatal result +was inevitable. But Mr. Sharpe readily consented to gratify the wishes +of Mr. Carrington and his daughter on one point: he returned the money, +not a very large sum, which Captain Everett had sent him, and agreed +that Mr. Carrington should supply the funds necessary for the defence of +the prisoner. + +Our consultation the next day at Mr. Sharpe's was a sad and hopeless one. +Nowhere did a gleam of cheerful light break in. The case was +overwhelmingly complete against the prisoner. The vague suspicions we +entertained pointed to a crime so monstrous, so incredible, that we felt +it could not be so much as hinted at upon such, legally considered, +slight grounds. The prisoner was said to be an eloquent speaker, and I +undertook to draw up the outline of a defence, impugning, with all the +dialectic skill I was master of, the conclusiveness of the evidence for +the crown. To this, and a host of testimony to character which we +proposed to call, rested our faint hopes of "a good deliverance!" + +Business was over, and we were taking a glass of wine with Mr. Sharpe, +when his chief clerk entered to say that Sergeant Edwards, an old +soldier--who had spoken to them some time before relative to a large +claim which he asserted he had against Captain Everett, arising out of a +legacy bequeathed to him in India, and the best mode of assuring its +payment by an annuity, as proposed by the captain--had now called to say +that the terms were at last finally arranged, and that he wished to know +when Mr. Sharpe would be at leisure to draw up the bond. "He need not +fear for his money!" exclaimed Sharpe tartly, "the captain will, I fear, +be rich enough before another week has passed over our heads. Tell him to +call to-morrow evening; I will see him after I return from court." A few +minutes afterwards, I and Mr. Kingston took our leave. + +The Crown Court was thronged to suffocation on the following morning, +and the excitement of the auditory appeared to be of the intensest kind. +Miss Carrington, closely veiled, sat beside her father on one of the +side-benches. A true bill against the prisoner had been found on the +previous afternoon; and the trial, it had been arranged, to suit the +convenience of counsel, should be first proceeded with. The court was +presided over by Mr. Justice Grose; and Mr. Gurney--afterwards Mr. Baron +Gurney--with another gentleman appeared for the prosecution. As soon as +the judge had taken his seat, the prisoner was ordered to be brought in, +and a hush of expectation pervaded the assembly. In a few minutes he made +his appearance in the dock. His aspect--calm, mournful, and full of +patient resignation--spoke strongly to the feelings of the audience, and +a low murmur of sympathy ran through the court. He bowed respectfully to +the bench, and then his sad, proud eye wandered round the auditory, till +it rested on the form of Lucy Carrington, who, overcome by sudden +emotion, had hidden her weeping face in her father's bosom. Strong +feeling, which he with difficulty mastered, shook his frame, and blanched +to a still deeper pallor his fine intellectual countenance. He slowly +withdrew his gaze from the agitating spectacle, and his troubled glance +meeting that of Mr. Sharpe, seemed to ask why proceedings, which _could_ +only have one termination, were delayed. He had not long to wait. The +jury were sworn, and Mr. Gurney rose to address them for the crown. +Clear, terse, logical, powerful without the slightest pretence to what is +called eloquence, his speech produced a tremendous impression upon all +who heard it; and few persons mentally withheld their assent to his +assertion, as he concluded what was evidently a painful task, "that +should he produce evidence substantiating the statement he had made, the +man who could then refuse to believe in the prisoner's guilt, would +equally refuse credence to actions witnessed by his own bodily eyes." + +The different witnesses were then called, and testified to the various +facts I have before related. Vainly did Mr. Kingston and I exert +ourselves to invalidate the irresistible proofs of guilt so +dispassionately detailed. "It is useless," whispered Mr. Sharpe, as I sat +down after the cross-examination of the aged butler. "You have done all +that could be done; but he is a doomed man, spite of his innocence, of +which I feel, every moment that I look at him, the more and more +convinced. God help us; we are poor, fallible creatures, with all our +scientific machinery for getting at truth!" + +The case for the crown was over, and the prisoner was told that now was +the time for him to address the jury in answer to the charge preferred +against him. He bowed courteously to the intimation, and drawing a paper +from his pocket, spoke, after a few preliminary words of course, nearly +as follows:-- + +"I hold in my hand a very acute and eloquent address prepared for me by +one of the able and zealous gentlemen who appears to-day as my counsel, +and which, but for the iniquitous law which prohibits the advocate of a +presumed felon, but possibly quite innocent person, from addressing the +jury, upon whose verdict his client's fate depends, would no doubt have +formed the subject-matter of an appeal to you not to yield credence to +the apparently irrefragable testimony arrayed against me. The substance +of this defence you must have gathered from the tenor of the +cross-examinations; but so little effect did it produce, I saw, in that +form, however ably done, and so satisfied am I that though it were +rendered with an angel's eloquence, it would prove utterly impotent to +shake the strong conclusions of my guilt, which you, short-sighted, +fallible mortals--short-sighted and fallible _because_ mortal!--I mean no +disrespect--must have drawn from the body of evidence you have heard, +that I will not weary you or myself by reading it. I will only observe +that it points especially to the _over_-roof, so to speak, arrayed +against me--to the folly of supposing that an intentional murderer would +ostentatiously persist in administering the fatal potion to the victim +with his own hands, carefully excluding all others from a chance of +incurring suspicion. There are other points, but this is by far the most +powerful one; and as I cannot believe _that_ will induce you to return a +verdict rescuing me from what the foolish world, judging from +appearances, will call a shameful death, but which I, knowing my own +heart, feel to be sanctified by the highest motives which can influence +man--it would be merely waste of time to repeat them. From the first +moment, gentlemen, that this accusation was preferred against me, I felt +that I had done with this world; and, young as I am, but for one beloved +being whose presence lighted up and irradiated this else cold and barren +earth, I should, with little reluctance, have accepted this gift of an +apparently severe, but perhaps merciful fate. This life, gentlemen," he +continued after a short pause, "it has been well said, is but a battle +and a march. I have been struck down early in the combat; but of what +moment is that, if it be found by Him who witnesses the world-unnoticed +deeds of _all_ his soldiers, that I have earned the victor's crown? Let +it be your consolation, gentlemen, if hereafter you should discover that +you have sent me to an undeserved death, that you at least will not have +hurried a soul spotted with the awful crime of murder before its Maker. +And oh," he exclaimed in conclusion, with solemn earnestness, "may _all_ +who have the guilt of blood upon them hasten, whilst life is still +granted them, to cleanse themselves by repentance of that foul sin, so +that not only the sacrifice of one poor life, but that most holy and +tremendous one offered in the world's consummate hour, may not for them +have been made in vain! My lord and gentlemen, I have no more to say. You +will doubtless do your duty: I _have_ done mine." + +I was about, a few minutes after the conclusion of this strange and +unexpected address, to call our witnesses to character, when, to the +surprise of the whole court, and the consternation of the prisoner, Miss +Carrington started up, threw aside her veil, and addressing the judge, +demanded to be heard. + +Queenly, graceful, and of touching loveliness did she look in her +vehemence of sorrow--radiant as sunlight in her days of joy she must have +been--as she stood up, affection-prompted, regardless of self, of the +world, to make one last effort to save her affianced husband. + +"What would you say, young lady?" said Mr. Justice Grose, kindly. "If you +have anything to testify in favor of the prisoner, you had better +communicate with his counsel." + +"Not that--not that," she hurriedly replied, as if fearful that her +strength would fail before she had enunciated her purpose. "Put, my lord, +put Frederick--the prisoner, I mean--on his oath. Bid him declare, as he +shall answer at the bar of Almighty God, who is the murderer for whom he +is about to madly sacrifice himself, and you will then find"-- + +"Your request is an absurd one," interrupted the judge with some +asperity. "I have no power to question a prisoner." + +"Then," shrieked the unfortunate lady, sinking back fainting and helpless +in her father's arms, "he is lost--lost!" + +She was immediately carried out of court; and as soon as the sensation +caused by so extraordinary and painful an incident had subsided, the +trial proceeded. A cloud of witnesses to character were called; the judge +summed up; the jury deliberated for a few minutes; and a verdict of +"guilty" was returned. Sentence to die on the day after the next +followed, and all was over! + +Yes; all was, we deemed, over; but happily a decree, reversing that of +Mr. Justice Grose, had gone forth in Heaven. I was sitting at home about +an hour after the court had closed, painfully musing on the events of +the day, when the door of the apartment suddenly flew open, and in +rushed Mr. Sharpe in a state of great excitement, accompanied by +Sergeant Edwards, whom the reader will remember had called the previous +day at that gentleman's house. In a few minutes I was in possession of +the following important information, elicited by Mr. Sharpe from the +half-willing, half-reluctant sergeant, whom he had found waiting for him +at his office:-- + +In the first place, Captain Everett was _not_ the father of the prisoner! +The young man was the son of Mary Fitzhugh by her _first_ marriage; and +his name, consequently, was Mordaunt, not Everett. His mother had +survived her second marriage barely six months. Everett, calculating +doubtless upon the great pecuniary advantages which would be likely to +result to himself as the reputed father of the heir to a splendid English +estate, should the quarrel with Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh--as he nothing +doubted--be ultimately made up, had brought his deceased wife's infant +son up as his own. This was the secret of Edwards and his wife; and to +purchase their silence, Captain Everett had agreed to give the bond for +an annuity which Mr. Sharpe was to draw up. The story of the legacy was a +mere pretence. When Edwards was in Yorkshire before, Everett pacified +him for the time with a sum of money, and a promise to do more for him as +soon as his reputed son came into the property. He then hurried the +_cidevant_ sergeant back to London; and at the last interview he had +with him, gave him a note addressed to a person living in one of the +streets--I forget which--leading out of the Haymarket, together with a +five-pound note, which he was to pay the person to whom the letter was +addressed for some very rare and valuable powder, which the captain +wanted for scientific purposes, and which Edwards was to forward by coach +to Woodlands Manor-House. Edwards obeyed his instructions, and delivered +the message to the queer bushy-bearded foreigner to whom it was +addressed, who told him that, if he brought him the sum of money +mentioned in the note on the following day, he should have the article +required. He also bade him bring a well-stoppered bottle to put it in. As +the bottle was to be sent by coach, Edwards purchased a tin flask, as +affording a better security against breakage; and having obtained the +powder, packed it nicely up, and told his niece, who was staying with him +at the time, to direct it, as he was in a hurry to go out, to Squire +Everett, Woodlands Manor-House, Yorkshire, and then take it to the +booking-office. He thought, of course, though he said _Squire_ in a +jocular way, that she would have directed it _Captain_ Everett, as she +knew him well; but it seemed she had not. Edwards had returned to +Yorkshire only two days since, to get his annuity settled, and +fortunately was present in court at the trial of Frederick Mordaunt, +_alias_ Everett, and at once recognized the tin flask as the one he had +purchased and forwarded to Woodlands, where it must in due course have +arrived on the day stated by the butler. Terrified and bewildered at the +consequences of what he had done, or helped to do, Edwards hastened to +Mr. Sharpe, who, by dint of exhortations, threats, and promises, +judiciously blended, induced him to make a clean breast of it. + +As much astounded as elated by this unlooked-for information, it was some +minutes before I could sufficiently concentrate my thoughts upon the +proper course to be pursued. I was not, however, long in deciding. +Leaving Mr. Sharpe to draw up an affidavit of the facts disclosed, I +hastened off to the jail, in order to obtain a thorough elucidation of +all the mysteries. + +The revulsion of feeling in the prisoner's mind when he learned that the +man for whom he had so recklessly sacrificed himself was not only _not_ +his father, but a cold-blooded villain, who, according to the testimony +of Sergeant Edwards, had embittered, perhaps shortened, his mother's last +hours, was immediate and excessive. "I should have taken Lucy's advice!" +he bitterly exclaimed, as he strode to and fro in his cell; "have told +the truth at all hazards, and have left the rest to God." His explanation +of the incidents that had so puzzled us all, was as simple as +satisfactory. He had always, from his earliest days, stood much in awe of +his father, who in the, to young Mordaunt, sacred character of parent, +exercised an irresistible control over him; and when the butler entered +the library, he believed for an instant it was his father who had +surprised him in the act of reading his correspondence; an act which, +however unintentional, would, he knew, excite Captain Everett's fiercest +wrath. Hence arose the dismay and confusion which the butler had +described. He re-sealed the parcel, and placed it in his reputed father's +dressing-room; and thought little more of the matter, till, on entering +his aunt's bedroom on the first evening of her illness, he beheld Everett +pour a small portion of white powder from the tin flask into the bottle +containing his aunt's medicine. The terrible truth at once flashed upon +him. A fierce altercation immediately ensued in the father's +dressing-room, whither Frederick followed him. Everett persisted that the +powder was a celebrated Eastern medicament, which would save, if anything +could, his aunt's life. The young man was not of course deceived by this +shallow falsehood, and from that moment administered the medicine to the +patient with his own hands, and kept the bottles which contained it +locked up in his cabinet. "On the very morning of my aunt's death, I +surprised him shutting and locking one of my cabinet drawers. So +dumbfounded was I with horror and dismay at the sight, that he left the +room by a side-door without observing me. You have now the key to my +conduct. I loathed to look upon the murderer; but I would have died a +thousand deaths rather than attempt to save my own life by the sacrifice +of a father's--how guilty soever he might be." + +Furnished with this explanation, and the affidavit of Edwards, I waited +upon the judge, and obtained not only a respite for the prisoner, but a +warrant for the arrest of Captain Everett. + +It was a busy evening. Edwards was despatched to London in the friendly +custody of an intelligent officer, to secure the person of the +foreign-looking vender of subtle poisons; and Mr. Sharpe, with two +constables, set off in a postchaise for Woodlands Manor-House. It was +late when they arrived there, and the servants informed them that Captain +Everett had already retired. They of course insisted upon seeing him; and +he presently appeared, wrapped in a dressing-gown, and haughtily demanded +their business with him at such an hour. The answer smote him as with a +thunderbolt, and he staggered backwards, till arrested by the wall of the +apartment, and then sank feebly, nervelessly, into a chair. Eagerly, +after a pause, he questioned the intruders upon the nature of the +evidence against him. Mr. Sharpe briefly replied that Edwards was in +custody, and had revealed everything. + +"Is it indeed so?" rejoined Everett, seeming to derive resolution and +fortitude from the very extremity of despair. "Then the game is +unquestionably lost. It was, however, boldly and skilfully played, and I +am not a man to whimper over a fatal turn of the dice. In a few minutes, +gentlemen," he added, "I shall have changed my dress, and be ready to +accompany you." + +"We cannot lose sight of you for an instant," replied Mr. Sharpe. "One of +the officers must accompany you." + +"Be it so: I shall not detain either him or you long." + +Captain Everett, followed by the officer, passed into his dressing-room. +He pulled off his gown; and pointing to a coat suspended on a peg at the +further extremity of the apartment, requested the constable to reach it +for him. The man hastened to comply with his wish. Swiftly, Everett +opened a dressing-case which stood on a table near him: the officer +heard the sharp clicking of a pistol-lock, and turned swiftly round. Too +late! A loud report rang through the house; the room was filled with +smoke; and the wretched assassin and suicide lay extended on the floor a +mangled corpse! + +It would be useless minutely to recapitulate, the final winding-up of +this eventful drama. Suffice it to record, that Mr. Frederick Mordaunt +was, after a slight delay, restored to freedom and a splendid position in +society. After the lapse of a decent interval, he espoused Lucy +Carrington. Their eldest son represents in this present parliament one of +the English boroughs, and is by no means an undistinguished member of the +Commons House. + + + + +"THE ACCOMMODATION BILL." + + +Such of the incidents of the following narrative as did not fall within +my own personal observation, were communicated to me by the late Mr. +Ralph Symonds, and the dying confessions of James Hornby, one of the +persons killed by the falling in of the iron roof of the Brunswick +Theatre. A conversation the other day with a son of Mr. Symonds, who has +been long settled in London, recalled the entire chain of circumstances +to my memory with all the vivid distinctness of a first impression. + +One evening towards the close of the year 1806, the Leeds coach brought +Mr. James Hornby to the village of Pool, on the Wharf, in the West-Riding +of Yorkshire. A small but respectable house on the confines of the place +had been prepared for his reception, and a few minutes after his descent +from the top of the coach, the pale, withered-looking man disappeared +within it. Except for occasional trips to Otley, a small market-town +distant about three miles from Pool, he rarely afterwards emerged from +its seclusion. It was not _Time_, we shall presently see--he was indeed +but four-and-forty years of age--that had bowed his figure, thinned his +whitening hair, and banished from his countenance all signs of healthy, +cheerful life. This, too, appeared to be the opinion of the gossips of +the village, who, congregated, as usual, to witness the arrival and +departure of the coach, indulged, thought Mr. Symonds, who was an inside +passenger proceeding on to Otley, in remarkably free-and-easy +commentaries upon the past, present, and future of the new-comer. + +"I mind him well," quavered an old white-haired man. "It's just +three-and-twenty years ago last Michaelmas. I remember it because of the +hard frost two years before, that young Jim Hornby left Otley to go to +Lunnon: just the place, I'm told, to give the finishing polish to such a +miscreant as he seemed likely to be. He was just out of his time to old +Hornby, his uncle, the grocer." + +"He that's left him such heaps of money?" + +"Ay, boy, the very same, though he wouldn't have given him or any one +else a cheese-paring whilst he lived. This one is a true chip of the +old block, I'll warrant. You noticed that he rode outside, bitter cold +as it is?". + +"Surely, Gaffer Hicks. But do ye mind what it was he went off in such a +skurry for? Tom Harris was saying last night at the Horse-Shoe, it was +something concerning a horse-race or a young woman; he warn't quite +sensible which." + +"I can't say," rejoined the more ancient oracle, "that I quite mind all +the ups and downs of it. Henry Burton horse-whipped him on the Doncaster +race-course, _that_ I know; but whether it was about Cinderella that had, +they said, been tampered with the night before the race, or Miss +Elizabeth Grainsford, whom Burton married a few weeks afterwards, I +can't, as Tom Harris says, quite clearly remember." + +"Old Hornby had a heavy grip of Burton's farm for a long time before he +died, they were saying yesterday at Otley. The sheepskins will now no +doubt be in the nephew's strong box." + +"True, lad; and let's hope Master Burton will be regular with his +payments; for if not, there's Jail and Ruin for him written in capital +letters on yon fellow's cast-iron phiz, I can see." + +The random hits of these Pool gossips, which were here interrupted by +the departure of the coach, were not very wide of the mark. James Hornby, +it was quite true, had been publicly horsewhipped twenty-three years +before by Henry Burton on the Doncaster race-course, ostensibly on +account of the sudden withdrawal of a horse that should have started, a +transaction with which young Hornby was in some measure mixed up; but +especially and really for having dared, upon the strength of presumptive +heirship to his uncle's wealth, to advance pretensions to the fair hand +of Elizabeth Gainsford, the eldest daughter of Mr. Robert Gainsford, +surgeon, of Otley--pretensions indirectly favored, it was said, by the +father, but contemptuously repudiated by the lady. Be this as it may, +three weeks after the races, Elizabeth Gainsford became Mrs. Burton, and +James Hornby hurried off to London, grudgingly furnished for the journey +by his uncle. He obtained a situation as shopman in one of the large +grocer establishments of the metropolis; and twenty-three years +afterwards, the attorney's letter, informing him that he had succeeded to +all his deceased uncle's property, found him in the same place, and in +the same capacity. + +A perfect yell of delight broke from the lips of the taciturn man as his +glance devoured the welcome intelligence. "At last!" he shouted with +maniacal glee; and fiercely crumpling the letter in his hand, as if he +held a living foe in his grasp, whilst a flash of fiendish passion broke +from the deep caverns of his sunken eyes--"at last I have thee on the +hip! Ah, mine enemy!--it is the dead--the dead alone that never return +to hurl back on the head of the wrong-doer the shame, the misery, the +ruin he inflicted in his hour of triumph!" The violence of passions +suddenly unreined after years of jealous curb and watchfulness for a +moment overcame him, and he reeled as if fainting, into a chair. The +fierce, stern nature of the man soon mastered the unwonted excitement, +and in a few minutes he was cold, silent, impassable as ever. The letter +which he despatched the same evening gave calm, business orders as to +his uncle's funeral, and other pressing matters upon which the attorney +had demanded instructions, and concluded by intimating that he should be +in Yorkshire before many days elapsed. He arrived, as we have seen, and +took up his abode at one of the houses bequeathed to him in Pool, which +happened to be unlet. + +Yes, for more than twenty bitter years James Hornby had savagely brooded +over the shame and wrong inflicted on him before the mocking eyes of a +brutal crowd by Henry Burton. Ever as the day's routine business closed, +and he retired to the dull solitude of his chamber, the last mind-picture +which faded on his waking sense was the scene on the crowded race-course, +with all its exasperating accessories--the merciless exultation of the +triumphant adversary--the jibes and laughter of his companions--the +hootings of the mob--to be again repeated with fantastic exaggeration in +the dreams which troubled and perplexed his broken sleep. No wonder that +the demons of Revenge and Hate, by whom he was thus goaded, should have +withered by their poisonous breath the healthful life which God had +given--have blasted with premature old age a body rocker with curses to +unblessed repose! It seemed, by his after-confessions, that he had really +loved Elizabeth Gainsford with all the energy of his violent, moody +nature, and that her image, fresh, lustrous, radiant, as in the dawn of +life, unceasingly haunted his imagination with visions of tenderness and +beauty, lost to him, as he believed, through the wiles, the calumnies, +and violence of his detested, successful rival. + +The matronly person who, a few days after the Christmas following +Hornby's arrival at Pool, was conversing with her husband in the parlor +of Grange farmhouse, scarcely realized the air-drawn image which dwelt in +the memory of the unforgiving, unforgetting man. Mrs. Burton was at this +time a comely dame, whose _embonpoint_ contour, however indicative of +florid health and serenity of temper, exhibited little of the airy +elegance and grace said to have distinguished the girlhood of Elizabeth +Gainsford. Her soft brown eyes were gentle and kind as ever, but the +brilliant lights of youth no longer sparkled in their quiet depths, and +time had not only "thinned her flowing hair"--necessitating caps--but had +brushed the roses from her cheeks, and swept away, with his searing hand, +the pale lilies from the furtive coverts whence they had glanced in +tremulous beauty, in life's sweet prime; yet for all that, and a great +deal more, Mrs. Burton, I have no manner of doubt, looked charmingly in +the bright fire-blaze which gleamed in chequered light and shade upon the +walls, pictures, curtains of the room, and the green leaves and scarlet +berries of the Christmas holly with which it was profusely decorated. +Three of her children--the eldest, Elizabeth, a resuscitation of her own +youth--were by her side, and opposite sat her husband, whose frank, +hearty countenance seemed to sparkle with careless mirth. + +"Hornby will be here presently, Elizabeth," said he. "What a +disappointment awaits the rascally curmudgeon! His uncle was a prince +compared to him." + +"Disappointment, Henry! to receive four hundred pounds he did not +expect?" + +"Ay, truly, dame. Lawyer Symonds' son Frank, a fine, good-hearted young +fellow as ever stepped in shoe-leather--Lizzy, girl, if that candle +were nearer your face it would light without a match"-- + +"Nonsense, father!" + +"Very likely. Frank Symonds, I was saying, believes, and so does his +father, that Hornby would rejoice at an opportunity of returning with +interest the smart score I marked upon his back three-and-twenty +years ago" + +"It was a thoughtless, cruel act, Henry," rejoined his wife, "and the +less said of it the better. I hope the fright we have had will induce you +to practice a better economy than heretofore; so that, instead of +allowing two years' interest to accumulate upon us, we may gradually +reduce the mortgage." + +"That we will, dear, depend upon it. We shall be pushed a little at +first: Kirkshaw, who lent me the two hundred and fifty, can only spare it +for a month; but no doubt the bank will do a bill for part of it by that +time. But sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Here is the money +for Hornby at all events: and here at last comes the shrivelled atomy; I +hear his horse. Fanny, light the candles." + +If Mrs. Burton had consciously or unconsciously entertained the +self-flattering notion that the still unwedded bachelor who had +unsuccessfully wooed her nearly a quarter of a century before, still +retained a feeling of regretful tenderness for her, she must have been +grievously surprised by the cold, unrecognizing glance which Hornby +threw on her as he entered, and curtly replied to her civil greeting. +_That_ was not the image stamped upon his heart and brain! But when her +eldest daughter approached the lights to place paper and pens upon the +table, the flashing glance and white quivering lip of the grave visitor +revealed the tempest of emotion which for an instant shook him. He +quickly suppressed all outward manifestation of feeling, and in a dry, +business tone, demanded if Mr. Burton was ready to pay the interest of +the mortgage. + +"Yes, thank God," replied Burton, "I am: here is the money in notes of +the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. Count them!" + +Hornby bent down over the notes, shading his face with his hand, as if +more accurately to examine them, and the glance of baffled rage which +swept across his features was not observed. + +"They are quite right," he said, rising from his chair; "and here is +your receipt." + +"Very Good! And now, Hornby, let us have a glass of wine together for the +sake of old times. Well, well; you need not look so fierce about it. Let +bygones be bygones, I say. Oh, if you _will_ go--go in God's name! +Good-night!" + +"Good-night!" + +"Baffled--foiled!" muttered Hornby as he rode homeward. "Where could he +get the money? Borrowed it, doubtless, but of whom? Well, +patience--patience! I shall grip thee yet, Henry Burton!" And the +possessed man turned round in his saddle, and shook his clenched hand in +the direction of the house he had quitted. He then steadily pursued his +way, and soon regained his hermitage. + +The month for which Burton had borrowed the two hundred and fifty pounds +passed rapidly--as months always do to borrowers--and expedient after +expedient for raising the money was tried in vain. This money must be +repaid, Kirkshaw had emphatically told him, on the day stipulated. Burton +applied to the bank at Leeds, with which he usually did business, to +discount an acceptance, guaranteed by one or two persons whose names he +mentioned. The answer was the usual civil refusal to accept the proffered +security for repayment--"the bank was just then full of discounts." +Burton ventured, as a last resource, to call on Hornby with a request +that, as the rapid advance in the market-value of land consequent on the +high war-prices obtained for its produce, had greatly increased the worth +of Grange Farm, he would add the required sum to the already-existing +mortgage. He was met by a prompt refusal. Mr. Hornby intended to +foreclose as speedily as possible the mortgages he already held, and +invest his capital in more profitable securities. "Well, then--would he +lend the amount at any interest he chose?" + +"The usury laws," replied Hornby, with his usual saturnine sneer, "would +prevent my acceptance of your obliging offer, even if I had the present +means, which I have not. My spare cash happens just now to be temporarily +locked up." + +Burton, half-crazed with anxiety, went the following day to the Leeds +bank with the proffer of a fresh name agreed to be lent him by its +owner. Useless! "They did not know the party." The applicant mused a +few moments, and then said, "Would you discount the note of Mr. James +Hornby of Pool?" + +"Certainly; with a great deal of pleasure." Burton hurried away; had his +horse instantly saddled, and gallopped off to Pool. Hornby was at home. + +"You hinted the other day," said Burton, "that if you had not been short +of present means you might have obliged me with the loan I required" + +"Did I?" + +"At least I so understood you. I am of course not ignorant, Mr. Hornby, +that there is no good blood between us two; but I also know that you are +fond of money, and that you are fully aware that I am quite safe for a +few hundred pounds. I am come, therefore, to offer you ten pounds _bonus_ +for your acceptance at one month for two hundred and fifty pounds." + +"What?" exclaimed Hornby with strange vehemence. "What" + +Burton repeated his offer, and Hornby turned away towards the window +without speaking. + +When he again faced Burton, his countenance wore its usual color; but +the expression of his eyes, the applicant afterwards remembered, was +wild and exulting. + +"Have you a bill stamp?" + +"Yes." + +"Then draw the bill at once, and I will accept it." + +Burton did not require to be twice told. The bill was quickly drawn; +Hornby took it to another table at the further end of the apartment, +slowly wrote his name across it, folded, and returned it to Burton, who +tendered the ten pounds he had offered, and a written acknowledgment that +the bill had been drawn and accepted for his (Burton's) accommodation. + +"I don't want your money, Henry Burton," said Hornby, putting back the +note and the memorandum. "I am not afraid of losing by this transaction. +You do not know me yet." + +"A queer stick," thought Burton, as he gained the street; "but Old Nick +is seldom so black as he's painted! He was a plaguy while, I thought, +signing his name; but I wish I could sign mine to such good purpose." + +Burton laid the accepted bill, face downwards, on the bank counter, took +a pen, indorsed, and passed it to the managing clerk. The gray-headed man +glanced sharply at the signature, and then at Burton, "Why, surely this +is not Mr. Hornby's signature? It does not at all resemble it!" + +"Not his signature!" exclaimed Burton; "what do you mean by that?" + +"Reynolds, look here," continued the clerk, addressing another of the +bank _employés_. Reynolds looked, and his immediate glance of surprise +and horror at Burton revealed the impression he had formed. + +"Please to step this way, Mr. Burton, to a private apartment," said +the manager. + +"No--no, I won't," stammered the unfortunate man, over whose mind a +dreadful suspicion had glanced with the suddenness of lightning. "I will +go back to Hornby;" and he made a desperate but vain effort to snatch the +fatal instrument. Then, pale and staggering with a confused terror and +bewilderment, he attempted to rush into the street. He was stopped, with +the help of the bystanders, by one of the clerks, who had jumped over the +counter for the purpose. + +The messenger despatched by the bankers to Hornby returned with an answer +that the alleged acceptance was a forgery. It was stated on the part of +Mr. Hornby that Mr. Burton had indeed requested him to lend two hundred +and fifty pounds, but he had refused. The frantic asseverations of poor +Burton were of course disregarded, and he was conveyed to jail. An +examination took place the next day before the magistrates, and the +result was, that the prisoner was fully committed on the then capital +charge for trial at the ensuing assize. + +It were useless, as painful, to dwell upon the consternation and agony +which fell upon the dwellers at Grange Farm when the terrible news +reached them. A confident belief in the perfect innocence of the +prisoner, participated by most persons who knew his character and that of +Hornby, and that it would be triumphantly vindicated on the day of trial, +which rapidly approached, alone enabled them to bear up against the blow, +and to await with trembling hope the verdict of a jury. + +It was at this crisis of the drama that I became an actor in it. I was +retained for the defence by my long-known and esteemed friend Symonds, +whose zeal for his client, stimulated by strong personal friendship, knew +no bounds. The acceptance, he informed me, so little resembled Hornby's +handwriting, that if Burton had unfolded the bill when given back to him +by the villain, he could hardly have failed to suspect the nature of the +diabolical snare set for his life. + +In those days, and until Mr., now Sir, Robert Peel's amendment of the +criminal law and practice of this country, the acceptor of a bill of +exchange, on the principle that he was _interested_ in denying the +genuineness of the signature, could not, according to the English law of +evidence, be called, on the part of the prosecution, to prove the +forgery; and of course, after what had taken place, we did not propose to +call Hornby for the defence. The evidence for the crown consisted, +therefore, on the day of trial, of the testimony of persons acquainted +with Hornby's signature, that the acceptance across the inculpated bill +was not in his handwriting. Burton's behavior at the bank, in endeavoring +to repossess himself of the bill by violence, was of course detailed, and +told heavily against him. + +All the time this testimony was being given, Hornby sat on one of the +front seats of the crowded court, exulting in the visible accomplishment +of his Satanic device. We could see but little of his face, which, +supported on his elbow, was partially concealed by a handkerchief he held +in his hand; but I, who narrowly observed him, could occasionally discern +flashes from under his pent brows--revealments of the fierce struggle +which raged within. + +The moment at last arrived for the prisoner, whose eyes had been for some +time fixed on Hornby, to speak or read his defence, and a breathless +silence pervaded the court. + +Burton started at the summons, like a man unexpectedly recalled to a +sense of an imperious, but for the moment forgotten, duty. + +"James Hornby!" he suddenly cried with a voice which rang through the +assembly like a trumpet, "stand up, and if you can face an innocent +man"-- + +Hornby, surprised out of his self-possession, mechanically obeyed the +strange order, sprang involuntarily to his feet, let fall the +handkerchief that had partially concealed his features, and nervously +confronted the prisoner. + +"Look at me, I say," continued Burton with increasing excitement; "and as +you hope to escape the terrors of the last judgment, answer truly: did +you not, with your own hand, and in my presence, sign that bill?"-- + +"This cannot be permitted," interrupted the judge. + +"If you do not speak," proceeded the prisoner, heedless of the +intimation from the bench; "or if you deny the truth, my life, as sure +as there is a God in heaven, will be required at your hands. If, in +consequence of your devilish plotting, these men consign me to a felon's +grave, I shall not be cold in it when you will be calling upon the +mountains to fall and cover you from the vengeance of the Judge of +heaven and earth! Speak, man--save me: save your own soul from mortal +peril whilst there is yet time for mercy and repentance!" + +Hornby's expression of surprise and confusion had gradually changed +during this appeal to its usual character of dogged impassibility. He +turned calmly and appealingly towards the bench. + +"You need not answer these wild adjurations, Mr. Hornby," said the judge, +as soon as he could make himself heard. + +A smile curled the fellow's lip as he bowed deferentially to his +lordship, and he sat down without uttering a syllable. + +"May the Lord, then, have mercy on my soul!" exclaimed the prisoner +solemnly. Then glancing at the bench and jury-box, he added, "And you, my +lord and gentlemen, work your will with my body as quickly as you may: I +am a lost man!" + +The calling of witnesses to character, the opening of the judge's charge, +pointing from its first sentence to a conviction, elicited no further +manifestation of feeling from the prisoner: he was as calm as despair. + +The judge had been speaking for perhaps ten minutes, when a bustle was +heard at the hall, as if persons were striving to force their way into +the body of the court in spite of the resistance of the officers. + +"Who is that disturbing the court?" demanded the judge angrily. + +"For the love of Heaven let me pass!" we heard uttered in passionate +tones by a female voice. "I must and will see the judge!" + +"Who can this be?" T inquired, addressing Mr. Symonds. + +"I cannot conceive," he replied; "surely not Mrs. Burton?" + +I had kept my eye, as I spoke, upon Hornby, and noticed that he exhibited +extraordinary emotion at the sound of the voice, to whomsoever it +belonged, and was now endeavoring to force his way through the crowded +and anxious auditory. + +"My lord," said I, "I have to request on the part of the prisoner that +the person desirous of admittance may be heard." + +"What has she to say? Or if a material witness, why have you not called +her at the proper time?" replied his lordship with some irritation. + +"My lord, I do not even now know her name; but in a case involving the +life of the prisoner, it is imperative that no chance be neglected"-- + +"Let the woman pass into the witness-box," interrupted the judge. + +The order brought before our eyes a pale, stunted woman, of about fifty +years of age, whose excited and by no means unintellectual features, and +hurried, earnest manner, seemed to betoken great and unusual feeling. + +"As I'm alive, Hornby's deformed housekeeper!" whispered Symonds. "This +poor devil's knot will be unraveled yet." + +The woman, whose countenance and demeanor, as she gave her evidence, +exhibited a serious, almost solemn intelligence, deposed to the +following effect:-- + +"Her name was Mary McGrath, and she was the daughter of Irish parents, +but born and brought up in England. She had been Mr. Hornby's +housekeeper, and remembered well the 4th of February last, when Mr. +Burton, the prisoner, called at the house. Witness was dusting in an +apartment close to her master's business-room, from which it was only +separated by a thin wooden partition. The door was partly open, and she +could see as well as hear what was going on without being seen herself. +She heard the conversation between the prisoner and her master; heard +Mr. Hornby agree to sign the paper--bill she ought to say--for two +hundred and fifty pounds; saw him do it, and then deliver it folded up +to Mr. Burton." + +A shout of execration burst from the auditory as these words were +uttered, and every eye was turned to the spot where Hornby had been +seated. He had disappeared during the previous confusion. + +"Silence!" exclaimed the judge sternly. "Why, woman," he added, "have you +never spoken of this before?" + +"Because, my lord," replied the witness with downcast looks, and in a +low, broken voice--"because I am a sinful, wicked creature. When my +master, the day after Mr. Burton had been taken up, discovered that I +knew his secret, he bribed me with money and great promises of more to +silence. I had been nearly all my life, gentlemen, poor and miserable, +almost an outcast, and the temptation was too strong for me. He +mistrusted me, however--for my mind, he saw, was sore troubled--and he +sent me off to London yesterday, to be out of the way till all was over. +The coach stopped at Leeds, and, as it was heavy upon me, I thought, +especially as it was the blessed Easter-time, that I would step to the +chapel. His holy name be praised that I did! The scales seemed to fall +from my eyes, and I saw clearer than I had before the terrible wickedness +I was committing. I told all to the priest, and he has brought me here to +make what amends I can for the sin and cruelty of which I have been +guilty. There--there is all that is left of the wages of crime," she +added, throwing a purse of money on the floor of the court; and then +bursting into a flood of tears, she exclaimed with passionate +earnestness, "for which may the Almighty of his infinite mercy pardon and +absolve me!" + +"Amen!" responded the deep husky voice of the prisoner, snatched back, as +it were, from the very verge of the grave to liberty and life. "Amen, +with all my soul!" + +The counsel for the crown, cross-examined the witness, but his efforts +only brought out her evidence in, if possible, a still clearer and more +trustworthy light. Not a thought of doubt was entertained by any person +in the court, and the jury, with the alacrity of men relieved of a +grievous burthen, and without troubling the judge to resume his +interrupted charge, returned a verdict of acquittal. + +The return of Burton to his home figured as an ovation in the Pool and +Otley annals. The greetings which met him on all sides were boisterous +and hearty, as English greetings usually are; and it was with some +difficulty the rustic constabulary could muster a sufficient force to +save Hornby's domicile from sack and destruction. All the windows were, +however, smashed, and that the mob felt was something at all events. + +Burton profited by the painful ordeal to which he had, primarily through +his own thoughtlessness, been exposed, and came in a few years to be +regarded as one of the most prosperous yeomen-farmers of Yorkshire. Mr. +Frank Symonds' union with Elizabeth Burton was in due time solemnized; +Mr. Wilberforce, the then popular member for the West Riding, I remember +hearing, stood sponsor to their eldest born; and Mary McGrath passed the +remainder of her life in the service of the family her testimony had +saved from disgrace and ruin. + +Mr. James Hornby disappeared from Yorkshire immediately after the trial, +and, except through his business agents, was not again heard of till the +catastrophe at the Brunswick Theatre, where he perished. He died +penitent, after expressing to Mr. Frank Symonds, for whom he had sent, +his deep sorrow for the evil deed he had planned, and, but for a +merciful interposition, would have accomplished. As a proof of the +sincerity of his repentance, he bequeathed the bulk of his property to +Mrs. Symonds, the daughter of the man he had pursued with such savage +and relentless hate! + + + + +THE REFUGEE. + + +The events which I am about to relate occurred towards the close of the +last century, some time before I was called to the bar, and do not +therefore in strictness fall within my own experiences as a barrister. +Still, as they came to my knowledge with much greater completeness than +if I had been only professionally engaged to assist in the catastrophe of +the drama through which they are evolved, and, as I conceive, throw a +strong light upon the practical working of our criminal jurisprudence, a +brief page of these slight leaves may not inappropriately record them. + +About the time I have indicated, a Mrs. Rushton, the widow of a gentleman +of commercial opulence, resided in Upper Harley Street, Cavendish Square. +She was a woman of "family," and by her marriage had greatly lowered +herself, in her relatives' opinion, by a union with a person who, however +wealthy and otherwise honorable, was so entirely the architect of his own +fortunes--owed all that he possessed so immediately to his own skill, +sagacity, and perseverance--that there was an unpleasant rumor abroad +about his widowed mother being indebted to her son's success in business +for having passed the last ten years of her life in ease and competence. +Mr. Rushton had left his widow a handsome annuity, and to his and her +only son a well-invested income of upwards of seven thousand a year. +Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Rushton, who inherited quite her +full share of family pride, if nothing else, had sought by every method +she could devise to re-enter the charmed circle from which her union with +a city merchant had excluded her. The most effectual mode of +accomplishing her purpose was, she knew, to bring about a marriage +between her son and a lady who would not be indisposed to accept of +wealth and a well-appointed establishment in Mayfair as a set-off against +birth and high connection. + +Arthur Rushton, at this time between two and three-and-twenty years of +age, was a mild, retiring, rather shy person, and endowed with a +tenderness of disposition, of which the tranquil depths had not as yet +been ruffled by the faintest breath of passion. His mother possessed +almost unbounded influence over him; and he ever listened with a smile, a +languid, half-disdainful one, to her eager speculations upon the numerous +eligible matches that would present themselves the instant the "season" +and their new establishment in Mayfair--of which the decoration and +furnishing engaged all her available time and attention--enabled them to +open the campaign with effect. Arthur Rushton and myself had been college +companions, and our friendly intimacy continued for several years +afterwards. At this period especially we were very cordial and unreserved +in our intercourse with each other. + +London at this time was crowded with French exiles, escaped from the +devouring sword of Robespierre and his helpers in the work of government +by the guillotine, almost all of whom claimed to be members of, or +closely connected with, the ancient nobility of France. Among these was +an elderly gentleman of the name of De Tourville, who, with his daughter +Eugénie, had for a considerable time occupied a first floor in King +Street, Holborn. Him I never saw in life, but Mademoiselle de Tourville +was one of the most accomplished, graceful, enchantingly-interesting +persons I have ever seen or known. There was a dangerous fascination in +the pensive tenderness through which her natural gaiety and archness of +manner would at intervals flash, like April sunlight glancing through +clouds and showers, which, the first time I saw her, painfully impressed +as much as it charmed me--perceiving, as I quickly did, that with her the +future peace, I could almost have said life, of Arthur Rushton was +irrevocably bound up. The fountains of his heart were for the first time +stirred to their inmost depths, and, situated as he and she were, what +but disappointment, bitterness, and anguish could well-up from those +troubled waters? Mademoiselle de Tourville, I could perceive, was fully +aware of the impression she had made upon the sensitive and amiable +Englishman; and I sometimes discovered an expression of pity--of +sorrowful tenderness, as it were--pass over her features as some +distincter revelation than usual of the nature of Arthur Rushton's +emotions flashed upon her. I also heard her express herself several +times, as overtly as she could, upon the _impossibility_ there existed +that she should, however much she might desire it, settle in England, or +even remain in it for any considerable length of time. All this I +understood, or thought I did, perfectly; but Rushton, bewildered, +entranced by feelings altogether new to him, saw nothing, heard nothing +but her presence, and felt, without reasoning upon it, that in that +delirious dream it was his fate either to live or else to bear no life. +Mrs. Rushton--and this greatly surprised me--absorbed in her matrimonial +and furnishing schemes and projects, saw nothing of what was going on. +Probably the notion that her son should for an instant think of allying +himself with an obscure, portionless foreigner, was, to a mind like hers, +too absurd to be for a moment entertained; or--But stay; borne along by +a crowd of rushing thoughts, I have, I find, somewhat anticipated the +regular march of my narrative. + +M. and Mademoiselle de Tourville, according to the after-testimony of +their landlord, Mr. Osborn, had, from the time of their arrival in +England, a very constant visitor at their lodgings in King Street. He was +a tall French gentleman, of perhaps thirty years of age, and +distinguished appearance. His name was La Houssaye. He was very +frequently with them indeed, and generally he and M. de Tourville would +go out together in the evening, the latter gentleman not returning home +till very late. This was more especially the case after Mademoiselle de +Tourville ceased to reside with her father. + +Among the fashionable articles with which Mrs. Rushton was anxious to +surround herself, was a companion of accomplishments and high-breeding, +who might help her to rub off the rust she feared to have contracted by +her connection with the city. A Parisian lady of high lineage and perfect +breeding might, she thought, be easily obtained; and an advertisement +brought Mademoiselle de Tourville to her house. Mrs. Rushton was +delighted with the air and manners of the charming applicant; and after a +slight inquiry by letter to an address of reference given by the young +lady, immediately engaged her, on exceedingly liberal terms, for six +months--that being the longest period for which Mademoiselle de Tourville +could undertake to remain. She also stipulated for permission to pass the +greater part of one day in the week--that which might happen to be most +convenient to Mrs. Rushton--with her father. One other condition +testified alike to M. de Tourville's present poverty and her own filial +piety: it was, that her salary should be paid weekly--she would not +accept it in advance--avowedly for her parent's necessities, who, poor +exile! and tears stood in Eugénie's dark lustrous eyes as she spoke, was +ever trembling on the brink of the grave from an affection of the heart +with which he had been long afflicted. Mademoiselle de Tourville, I +should state, spoke English exceedingly well as far as the rules of +syntax and the meanings of words went, and with an accent charming in its +very defectiveness. + +She had resided with Mrs. Rushton, who on all occasions treated her with +the greatest kindness and consideration, for rather more than two months, +when an incident occurred which caused the scales to fall suddenly from +the astonished mother's eyes, and in a moment revealed to her the extent +of the risk and mischief she had so heedlessly incurred. The carriage was +at the door, and it struck Mrs. Rushton as she was descending the stairs +that Mademoiselle de Tourville, who had complained of headache in the +morning, would like to take an airing with her. The sound of the harp +issuing from the drawing-room, and the faintly-distinguished tones of her +voice in some plaintive silver melody perhaps suggested the invitation; +and thither the mistress of the mansion at once proceeded. The +folding-doors of the back drawing-room were partially open when Mrs. +Rushton, on kind thoughts intent, entered the front apartment. +Mademoiselle de Tourville was seated with her back towards her at the +harp, pouring forth with her thrilling and delicious voice a French +romaunt; and there, with his head supported on his elbow, which rested on +the marble chimney-piece, stood her son, Arthur Rushton, gazing at the +apparently-unconscious songstress with a look so full of devoted +tenderness--so completely revealing the intensity of passion by which he +was possessed--that Mrs. Rushton started with convulsive affright, and +could not for several minutes give articulation to the dismay and rage +which choked her utterance Presently, however, her emotions found +expression, and a storm of vituperative abuse was showered upon the head +of the astonished Eugénie, designated as an artful _intrigante_, a +designing pauper, who had insinuated herself into the establishment for +the sole purpose of entrapping Mr. Arthur Rushton--with a great deal more +to the same effect. Mademoiselle de Tourville, who had first been too +much surprised by the unexpected suddenness of the attack to quite +comprehend the intent and direction of the blows, soon recovered her +self-possession and hauteur. A smile of contempt curled her beautiful +lip, as, taking advantage of a momentary pause in Mrs. Rushton's +breathless tirade, she said, "Permit me, madam, to observe that if, as +you seem to apprehend, your son has contemplated honoring me by the offer +of an alliance with his ancient House"--Her look at this moment glanced +upon the dreadfully agitated young man; the expression of disdainful +bitterness vanished in an instant from her voice and features; and after +a few moments, she added, with sad eyes bent upon the floor, "That he +could not have made a more unhappy choice--more unfortunate for him, more +impossible for me!" She then hastily left the apartment, and before a +quarter of an hour had elapsed, had left the house in a hackney-coach. + +The scene which followed between the mother and son was a violent and +distressing one. Mr. Rushton, goaded to fury by his mother's attack upon +Mademoiselle de Tourville, cast off the habit of deference and submission +which he had always worn in her presence, and asserted with vehemence his +right to wed with whom he pleased, and declared that no power on earth +should prevent him marrying the lady just driven ignominiously from the +house if she could be brought to accept the offer of his hand and +fortune! Mrs. Rushton fell into passionate hysterics; and her son, having +first summoned her maid, withdrew to ruminate on Mademoiselle de +Tourville's concluding sentence, which troubled him far more that what he +deemed the injustice of his mother. + +When Mrs. Rushton, by the aid of water, pungent essences, and the relief +which even an hour of time seldom fails to yield in such cases, had +partially recovered her equanimity, she determined, after careful +consideration of the best course of action, to consult a solicitor of +eminence, well acquainted with her late husband, upon the matter. She had +a dim notion that the Alien Act, if it could be put in motion, might rid +her of Mademoiselle de Tourville and her friends. Thus resolving, and +ever scrupulous as to appearances, she carefully smoothed her ruffled +plumage, changed her disordered dress, and directed the carriage, which +had been dismissed, to be again brought round to the door. "Mary," she +added a few moments afterwards, "bring me my jewel-case--the small one: +you will find it in Made--in that French person's dressing-room." + +Mary Austin reappeared in answer to the violent ringing of her impatient +lady's bell, and stated that the jewel-case could nowhere be found in +Mademoiselle's dressing-room. "Her clothes, everything belonging to her, +had been taken out of the wardrobe, and carried away, and perhaps that +also in mistake no doubt." + +"Nonsense, woman!" replied Mrs. Rushton. "I left it not long ago on her +toilet-glass. I intended to show her a purchase I had made, and not +finding her, left it as I tell you." + +Another search was made with the same ill-success. Mary Austin afterwards +said that when she returned to her mistress the second time, to say that +the jewel-case was certainly gone, an expression of satisfaction instead +of anger, it seemed to her, glanced across Mrs. Rushton's face, who +immediately left the room, and in a few minutes afterwards was driven +off in the carriage. + +About an hour after her departure I called in Harley Street for Arthur +Rushton, with whom I had engaged to go this evening to the theatre to +witness Mrs. Siddons's Lady Macbeth, which neither of us had yet seen. I +found him in a state of calmed excitement, if I may so express myself; +and after listening with much interest to the minute account he gave me +of what had passed, I, young and inexperienced as I was in such affairs, +took upon myself to suggest that, as the lady he nothing doubted was as +irreproachable in character as she was confessedly charming and +attractive in person and manners, and as he was unquestionably his own +master, Mrs. Rushton's opposition was not likely to be of long +continuance; and that as to Mademoiselle de Tourville's somewhat +discouraging expression, such sentences from the lips of ladies-- + + "That would be wooed, and not unsought be won"-- + +were seldom, if ever, I had understood, to be taken in a literal and +positive sense. Under this mild and soothing treatment, Mr. Rushton +gradually threw off a portion of the load that oppressed him, and we set +off in tolerably cheerful mood for the theatre. + +Mrs. Siddons' magnificent and appalling impersonation over, we left the +house; he, melancholy and sombre as I had found him in Harley Street, and +I in by no means a gay or laughing mood. We parted at my door, and +whether it was the effect of the tragedy, so wonderfully realized in its +chief creation, or whether coming events _do_ sometimes cast their +shadows before, I cannot say, but I know that an hour after Rushton's +departure I was still sitting alone, my brain throbbing with excitement, +and so nervous and impressionable, that a sudden, vehement knocking at +the street entrance caused me to spring up from my chair with a terrified +start, and before I could master the impulsive emotion, the room-door was +thrown furiously open, and in reeled Arthur Rushton--pale, haggard, +wild--his eyes ablaze with horror and affright! Had the ghost of Duncan +suddenly gleamed out of the viewless air I could not have been more +startled--awed! + +"She is dead!--poisoned!" he shrieked with maniacal fury; +"killed!--murdered!--and by _her_!" + +I gasped for breath, and could hardly articulate--"What! whom?" + +"My mother!" he shouted with the same furious vehemence--"Killed! by +_her_! Oh, horror!--horror!--horror!" and exhausted by the violence of +his emotions, the unfortunate gentleman staggered, shuddered violently, +as if shaken by an ague fit, and fell heavily--for I was too confounded +to yield him timely aid--on the floor. + +As soon as I could rally my scattered senses, I caused medical aid to be +summoned, and got him to bed. Blood was freely taken from both arms, and +he gradually recovered consciousness. Leaving him in kind and careful +hands, I hurried off to ascertain what possible foundation there could be +for the terrible tidings so strangely announced. + +I found the establishment in Harley Street in a state of the wildest +confusion and dismay. Mrs. Rushton _was_ dead; that, at all events, was +no figment of sudden insanity, and incredible, impossible rumors were +flying from mouth to mouth with bewildering rapidity and incoherence. +The name of Mademoiselle de Tourville was repeated in every variety of +abhorrent emphasis; but it was not till I obtained an interview with +Mrs. Rushton's solicitor that I could understand what really had +occurred, or, to speak more properly, what was suspected. Mrs. Rushton +had made a deposition, of which Mr. Twyte related to me the essential +points. The deceased lady had gone out in her carriage with the express +intention of calling on him, the solicitor, to ascertain if it would be +possible to apply the Alien Act to Mademoiselle de Tourville and her +father, in order to get them sent out of the country. Mr. Twyte did not +happen to be at home, and Mrs. Rushton immediately drove to the De +Tourvilles' lodgings in King Street, Holborn, with the design, she +admitted, of availing herself of what she was in her own mind satisfied +was the purely accidental taking away of a jewel-case, to terrify +Mademoiselle de Tourville, by the threat of a criminal charge, into +leaving the country, or at least to bind herself not to admit, under any +circumstances, of Mr. Arthur Rushton's addresses. She found Eugénie in a +state of extraordinary, and it seemed painful excitement; and the young +lady entreated that whatever Mrs. Rushton had to say should be reserved +for another opportunity, when she would calmly consider whatever Mrs. +Rushton had to urge. The unfortunate lady became somewhat irritated at +Mademoiselle de Tourville's obstinacy, and the unruffled contempt with +which she treated the charge of robbery, even after finding the missing +jewel-case in a band-box, into which it had been thrust with some +brushes and other articles in the hurry of leaving. Mrs. Rushton was +iterating her threats in a loud tone of voice, and moved towards the +bell to direct, she said, the landlord to send for a constable, but with +no intention whatever of doing so, when Mademoiselle de Tourville caught +her suddenly by the arm, and bade her step into the next room. Mrs. +Rushton mechanically obeyed, and was led in silence to the side of a +bed, of which Eugénie suddenly drew the curtain, and displayed to her, +with a significant and reproachful gesture, the pale, rigid countenance +of her father's corpse, who had, it appears, suddenly expired. The shock +was terrible. Mrs. Rushton staggered back into the sitting-room, sick +and faint, sank into a chair, and presently asked for a glass of wine. +"We have no wine," replied Mademoiselle de Tourville; "but there is a +cordial in the next room which may be better for you." She was absent +about a minute, and on returning, presented Mrs. Rushton with a large +wine-glassful of liquid, which the deceased lady eagerly swallowed. The +taste was strange, but not unpleasant; and instantly afterwards Mrs. +Rushton left the house. When the carriage reached Harley Street, she was +found to be in a state of great prostration: powerful stimulants were +administered, but her life was beyond the reach of medicine. She +survived just long enough to depose to the foregoing particulars; upon +which statement Mademoiselle de Tourville had been arrested, and was now +in custody. + +"You seem to have been very precipitate," I exclaimed as soon as the +solicitor had ceased speaking: "there appears to be as yet no proof that +the deceased lady died of other than natural causes." + +"You are mistaken," rejoined Mr. Twyte. "There is no doubt on the subject +in the minds of the medical gentlemen, although the _post-mortem_ +examination has not yet taken place. And, as if to put aside all doubt, +the bottle from which this Eugénie de Tourville admits she took the +cordial proves to contain distilled laurel-water, a deadly poison, +curiously colored and flavored." + +Greatly perturbed, shocked, astonished as I was, my mind refused to +admit, even for a moment, the probability, hardly the possibility, of +Eugénie de Tourville's guilt. The reckless malignancy of spirit evinced +by so atrocious an act dwelt not, I was sure, within that beauteous +temple. The motives alleged to have actuated her--fear of a criminal +charge, admitted to be absurd, and desire to rid herself of an obstacle +to her marriage with Arthur Rushton--seemed to me altogether strained and +inapplicable. The desperation of unreasoning hate could alone have +prompted such a deed; for detection was inevitable, had, in truth, been +courted rather than attempted to be avoided. + +My reasoning made no change in the conclusions of Mr. Twyte the attorney +for the prosecution, and I hastened home to administer such consolation +to Arthur Rushton as might consist in the assurance of my firm conviction +that his beloved mother's life had not been wilfully taken away by +Eugénie de Tourville. I found him still painfully agitated; and the +medical attendant told me it was feared by Dr. ---- that brain fever +would supervene if the utmost care was not taken to keep him as quiet and +composed as, under the circumstances, was possible. I was, however, +permitted a few minutes' conversation with him; and my reasoning, or, +more correctly, my confidently-expressed belief--for his mind seemed +incapable of following my argument, which it indeed grasped faintly at, +but slipped from, as it were, in an instant--appeared to relieve him +wonderfully. I also promised him that no legal or pecuniary assistance +should be wanting in the endeavor to clear Mademoiselle de Tourville of +the dreadful imputation preferred against her. I then left him. The +anticipation of the physician was unfortunately realized: the next +morning he was in a raging fever, and his life, I was informed, was in +very imminent danger. + +It was a distracting time; but I determinedly, and with much self-effort, +kept down the nervous agitation which might have otherwise rendered me +incapable of fulfilling the duties I had undertaken to perform. By +eleven o'clock in the forenoon I had secured the active and zealous +services of Mr. White, one of the most celebrated of the criminal +attorneys of that day. By application in the proper quarter, we obtained +immediate access to the prisoner, who was temporarily confined in a +separate room in the Red-Lion Square Lock-up House. Mademoiselle de +Tourville, although exceedingly pale, agitated, and nervous, still looked +as lustrously pure, as radiantly innocent of evil thought or deed, as on +the day that I first beheld her. The practiced eye of the attorney +scanned her closely. "As innocent of this charge," he whispered, "as you +or I." I tendered my services to the unfortunate young lady with an +earnestness of manner which testified more than any words could have done +how entirely my thoughts acquitted her of offence. Her looks thanked me; +and when I hinted at the promise exacted of me by Arthur Rushton, a +bright blush for an instant mantled the pale marble of her cheeks and +forehead, indicating with the tears, which suddenly filled and trembled +in her beautiful eyes, a higher sentiment, I thought, than mere +gratitude. She gave us her unreserved confidence; by which, after careful +sifting, we obtained only the following by no means entirely satisfactory +results:-- + +Mademoiselle de Tourville and her father had escaped from the Terrorists +of France by the aid of, and in company with, the Chevalier la Houssaye, +with whom M. de Tourville had previously had but very slight +acquaintance. The chevalier soon professed a violent admiration for +Eugénie; and having contrived to lay M. de Tourville under heavy +pecuniary obligations at play--many of them Mademoiselle de Tourville had +only very lately discovered--prevailed upon his debtor to exert his +influence with his daughter to accept La Houssaye's hand in marriage. +After much resistance, Mademoiselle de Tourville, overcome by the +commands, entreaties, prayers of her father, consented, but only on +condition that the marriage should not take place till their return to +France, which it was thought need not be very long delayed, and that no +more money obligations should in the meantime be incurred by her father. +La Houssaye vehemently objected to delay; but finding Eugénie inexorable, +sullenly acquiesced. It was precisely at this time that the engagement +with Mrs. Rushton was accepted. On the previous afternoon Mademoiselle de +Tourville, on leaving Harley Street after the scene with the deceased +lady, went directly home, and there found both her father and the +chevalier in hot contention and excitement. As soon as La Houssaye saw +her, he seized his hat, and rushed out of the apartment and house. Her +father, who was greatly excited, had barely time to say that he had +fortunately discovered the chevalier to be a married man, whose wife, a +woman of property, was still living in Languedoc, when what had always +been predicted would follow any unusual agitation happened: M. de +Tourville suddenly placed his hand on his side, uttered a broken +exclamation, fell into a chair, and expired. It was about two hours after +this melancholy event that Mrs. Rushton arrived. The account before given +of the interview which followed was substantially confirmed by +Mademoiselle de Tourville; who added, that the cordial she had given Mrs. +Rushton was one her father was in the constant habit of taking when in +the slightest degree excited, and that she was about to give him some +when he suddenly fell dead. + +We had no doubt, none whatever, that this was the whole, literal truth, +as far as the knowledge of Mademoiselle de Tourville extended; but how +could we impart that impression to an Old Bailey jury of those days, +deprived as we should be of the aid of counsel to address the jury, when +in reality a speech, pointing to the improbabilities arising from +character, and the altogether _un_guilty-like mode of administering the +fatal liquid, was the only possible defence? Cross-examination promised +nothing; for the evidence would consist of the dying deposition of Mrs. +Rushton, the finding of the laurel-water, and the medical testimony as to +the cause of death. The only person upon whom suspicion glanced was La +Houssaye, and that in a vague and indistinct manner. Still, it was +necessary to find him without delay, and Mr. White at once sought him at +his lodgings, of which Mademoiselle de Tourville furnished the address. +He had left the house suddenly with all his luggage early in the morning, +and our efforts to trace him proved fruitless. In the meantime the +_post-mortem_ examination of the body had taken place, and a verdict of +willful murder against Eugénie de Tourville been unhesitatingly returned. +She was soon afterwards committed to Newgate for trial. + +The Old Bailey session was close at hand, and Arthur Rushton, though +immediate danger was over, was still in too delicate and precarious a +state to be informed of the true position of affairs when the final day +of trial arrived. The case had excited little public attention. It was +not the fashion in those days to exaggerate the details of crime, and, +_especially before trial_, give the wings of the morning to every fact +or fiction that rumor with her busy tongue obscurely whispered. Twenty +lines of the "Times" would contain the published record of the +commitment of Eugénie de Tourville for poisoning her mistress, Caroline +Rushton; and, alas! spite of the crippled but earnest efforts of the +eminent counsel we had retained, and the eloquent innocence of her +appearance and demeanor, her conviction and condemnation to death +without hope of mercy! My brain swam as the measured tones of the +recorder, commanding the almost immediate and violent destruction of +that beauteous masterpiece of God, fell upon my ear; and had not Mr. +White, who saw how greatly I was affected, fairly dragged me out of +court into the open air, I should have fainted. I scarcely remember how +I got home--in a coach, I believe; but face Rushton after that dreadful +scene with a kindly-meant deception--_lie_--in my mouth, I could not, +had a king's crown been the reward. I retired to my chamber, and on the +plea of indisposition directed that I should on no account be disturbed. +Night had fallen, and it was growing somewhat late, when I was startled +out of the painful reverie in which I was still absorbed by the sudden +pulling up of a furiously-driven coach, followed by a thundering summons +at the door, similar to that which aroused me on the evening of Mrs. +Rushton's death. I seized my hat, rushed down stairs, and opened the +door. It was Mr. White! + +"Well!--well!" I ejaculated. + +"Quick--quick!" he exclaimed in reply. "La Houssaye--he is found--has +sent for us--quick! for life--life is on our speed!" + +I was in the vehicle in an instant. In less than ten minutes we had +reached our destination--a house in Duke Street, Manchester Square. + +"He is still alive," replied a young man in answer to Mr. White's hurried +inquiry. We rapidly ascended the stairs, and in the front apartment of +the first floor beheld one of the saddest, mournfulest spectacles which +the world can offer--a fine, athletic man, still in the bloom of natural +health and vigor, and whose pale features, but for the tracings there of +fierce, ungoverned passions, were strikingly handsome and intellectual, +stretched by his own act upon the bed of death! It was La Houssaye! Two +gentlemen were with him--one a surgeon, and the other evidently a +clergyman, and, as I subsequently found, a magistrate, who had been sent +for by the surgeon. A faint smile gleamed over the face of the dying man +as we entered, and he motioned feebly to a sheet of paper, which, closely +written upon, was lying upon a table placed near the sofa upon which the +unhappy suicide was reclining. Mr. White snatched, and eagerly perused +it. I could see by the vivid lighting up of his keen gray eye that it +was, in his opinion, satisfactory and sufficient. + +"This," said Mr. White, "is your solemn deposition, knowing yourself to +be dying?" + +"Yes, yes," murmured La Houssaye; "the truth--the truth!" + +"The declaration of a man," said the clergyman with some asperity of +tone, "who defyingly, unrepentingly, rushes into the presence of his +Creator, can be of little value!" + +"Ha!" said the dying man, rousing himself by a strong effort; +"I repent--yes--yes--I repent! I believe--do you hear?--and +repent--believe. Put that down," he added, in tones momently feebler +and more husky, as he pointed to the paper; "put that down, or--or +perhaps--Eu--génie--perhaps"-- + +As he spoke, the faint light that had momently kindled his glazing eye +was suddenly quenched; he remained for perhaps half a minute raised on +his elbow, and with his outstretched finger pointing towards the paper, +gazing blindly upon vacancy. Then the arm dropped, and he fell back dead! + +We escaped as quickly as we could from this fearful death-room, and I +found that the deposition which Mr. White brought away with him gave a +full, detailed account, written in the French language, of the +circumstances which led to the death of Mrs. Rushton. + +La Houssaye, finding that M. de Tourville had by some means discovered +the secret of his previous marriage, and that consequently all hope of +obtaining the hand of Eugénie, whom he loved with all the passion of his +fiery nature, would be gone unless De Tourville could be prevented from +communicating with his daughter, resolved to compass the old man's +instant destruction. The chevalier persuaded himself that, as he should +manage it, death would be attributed to the affection of the heart, from +which M. de Tourville had so long suffered. He procured the distilled +laurel-water--how and from whom was minutely explained--colored, flavored +it to resemble as nearly as possible the cordial which he knew M. de +Tourville--and he only--was in the habit of frequently taking. A +precisely-similar bottle he also procured--the shop at which it was +purchased was described--and when he called in King Street, he found no +difficulty, in an unobserved moment, of substituting one bottle for the +other. That containing the real cordial he was still in possession of, +and it would be found in his valise The unexpected arrival of +Mademoiselle de Tourville frustrated his design, and he rushed in fury +and dismay from the house. A few hours afterwards, he heard of the sudden +death of M. de Tourville, and attributing it to his having taken a +portion of the simulated cordial, he, La Houssaye, fearful of +consequences, hastily and secretly changed his abode. He had subsequently +kept silence till the conviction of Eugénie left him no other +alternative, if he would not see her perish on the scaffold, than a full +and unreserved confession. This done--Eugénie saved, but lost to him--he +had nothing more to live for in the world, and should leave it. + +This was the essence of the document; and all the parts of it which were +capable of corroborative proof having been substantiated, a free pardon +issued from the crown--the technical mode of quashing an unjust criminal +verdict--and Mademoiselle de Tourville was restored to liberty. + +She did not return to France. Something more perhaps than a year after +the demonstration of her innocence, she was married to Arthur Rushton in +the Sardinian Catholic Chapel, London, the bridegroom having by her +influence been induced to embrace the faith of Rome. The establishments +in Harley Street and Mayfair were broken up; and the newly-espoused pair +settled in the county of Galway, Ireland, where Mr. Rushton made +extensive landed purchases. They have lived very happily a long life, +have been blessed with a large and amiable family, and are now--for they +are both yet alive--surrounded with grandchildren innumerable. + + + + +EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER. + + + + +THE LIFE POLICY. + + +Besides being the confidential advisers, attorneys are the "confessors" +of modern England; and the revelations--delicate, serious, not +unfrequently involving life as well as fortune and character--confided to +the purchased fidelity and professional honor of men whom romancers of +all ages have stereotyped as the ghouls and vampires of civilized +society, are, it is impossible to deny, as rarely divulged as those which +the penitents of the Greek and Latin churches impart to their spiritual +guides and helpers; and this possibly for the somewhat vulgar, but very +sufficient reason, that "a breach of confidence" would as certainly +involve the professional ruin of an attorney as the commission of a +felony. An able but eccentric jurisconsult, Mr. Jeremy Bentham, was +desirous that attorneys should be compelled to disclose on oath whatever +guilty secrets might be confided to them by their clients; the only +objection to which ingenious device for the conviction of rogues being, +that if such a power existed, there would be no secrets to disclose; and, +as a necessary consequence, that the imperfectly-informed attorney would +be unable to render his client the justice to which every person, however +criminal, is clearly entitled--that of having his or her case presented +before the court appointed to decide upon it in the best and most +advantageous manner possible. Let it not be forgotten either that the +attorney is the only real, practical defender of the humble and needy +against the illegal oppressions of the rich and powerful--the shrewd, +indomitable agent who gives prosaic reality to the figurative eloquence +of old Chancellor Fortescue, when he says, "that the lightning may flash +through, the thunder shake, the tempest beat, upon the English peasant's +hut, but the king of England, with all his army, cannot lift the latch to +enter in." The chancellor of course meant, that in this country +overbearing violence cannot defy, or put itself in the place of the law. +This is quite true; and why? Chiefly because the attorney is ready, in +all cases of provable illegality, with his potent strip of parchment +summoning the great man before "her Sovereign Lady the Queen," there to +answer for his acts; and the richer the offender, the more keen and eager +Mr. Attorney to prosecute the suit, however needy his own client; for he +is then sure of his costs, if he succeed! Again, I cheerfully admit the +extreme vulgarity of the motive; but its effect in protecting the legal +rights of the humble is not, I contend, lessened because the reward of +exertion and success is counted out in good, honest sovereigns, or notes +of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. + +Thus much by way of conciliatory prologue to the narrative of a few +incidents revealed in the attorney's privileged confessional; throughout +which I have of course, in order to avoid any possible recognition of +those events or incidents, changed the name of every person concerned. + +Our old city firm, then, which, I am happy to say, still flourishes +under the able direction of our active successors, I will +call--adopting the nomenclature appropriated to us by imaginative +ladies and gentlemen who favor the world with fancy pen-and-ink +portraits of the lawyer tribe--that of Flint and Sharp; Sharp being +myself, and Flint the silver-haired old bachelor we buried a few weeks +since in Kensal Green Cemetery. + +"Mr. Andrews," said a clerk as he threw open the door of the inner office +one afternoon; "Mr. Jesse Andrews." + +"Good-day, Mr. Andrews," was my prompt and civil greeting: "I have good +news for you. Take a chair." + +The good-humored, rather intelligent, and somewhat clouded countenance of +the new-comer brightened up at these words. "News from my Cousin +Archibald?" he asked, as he seated himself. + +"Yes: He laments your late failure, and commiserates the changed position +and prospects of your wife and boy, little Archibald, his godson. You he +has not much compassion for, inasmuch as he attributes your misfortunes +entirely to mismanagement, and the want of common prudence." + +"Candid, certainly," grumbled out Mr. Jesse Andrews; "but an odd sort of +good news!" + +"His deeds are kinder than his words. He will allow, till Archibald +attains his majority--Let me see--how old is that boy of yours now?" + +"Ten. He was two years old when his godfather went to India." + +"Well, then, you will receive two hundred pounds per annum, payable +half-yearly, in advance, for the next ten years--that is, of course, if +your son lives--in order to enable you to bring him up, and educate him +properly. After that period has elapsed, your cousin intimates that he +will place the young man advantageously, and I do not doubt will do +something for you, should you not by that time have conquered a fair +position for yourself." + +"Is that all?" said Mr. Andrews. + +"All! Why, what did you expect?" + +"Two or three thousand pounds to set me afloat again. I know of a safe +speculation, that with, say three thousand pounds capital, would realize +a handsome fortune in no time." + +Mr. Jesse Andrews, I may observe, was one of that numerous class of +persons who are always on the threshold of realizing millions--the only +and constant obstacle being the want of a sufficient "capital." + +I condoled with him upon his disappointment; but as words, however civil, +avail little in the way of "capital," Mr. Jesse Andrews, having pocketed +the first half-yearly installment of the annuity, made his exit in by no +means a gracious or grateful frame of mind. + +Two other half-yearly payments were duly paid him. When he handed me the +receipt on the last occasion, he said, in a sort of off-hand, careless +way, "I suppose, if Archy were to die, these payments would cease?" + +"Perhaps not," I replied unthinkingly. "At all events, not, I should say, +till you and your wife were in some way provided for. But your son is not +ill?" I added. + +"No, no; not at present," replied Andrews, coloring, and with a confusion +of manner which surprised me not a little. It flashed across my mind that +the boy was dead, and that Andrews, in order not to risk the withdrawal +or suspension of the annuity, had concealed the fact from us. + +"Let me see," I resumed, "we have your present address--Norton +Folgate, I think?" + +"Yes, certainly you have." + +"I shall very likely call in a day or two to see Mrs. Andrew! and +your son." + +The man smiled in a reassured, half-sardonic manner. "Do," he answered. +"Archy is alive, and very well, thank God!" + +This confidence dispelled the suspicion I had momentarily entertained, +and five or six weeks passed away, during which Andrews and his +affairs were almost as entirely absent from my thoughts as if no such +man existed. + +About the expiration of that time, Mr. Jesse Andrews unexpectedly +revisited the office, and as soon as I was disengaged, was ushered into +my private room. He was habited in the deepest mourning, and it naturally +struck me that either his wife or son was dead--an impression, however, +which a closer examination of his countenance did not confirm, knowing as +I did, how affectionate a husband and father he was, with all his faults +and follies, reputed to be. He looked flurried, nervous, certainly; but +there was no grief, no sorrow in the restless, disturbed glances which he +directed to the floor, the ceiling, the window, the fire-place, the +chairs, the table--everywhere, in fact, except towards my face. + +"What is the matter, Mr. Andrews?" I gravely inquired, seeing that he did +not appear disposed to open the conversation. + +"A great calamity, sir--a great calamity," he hurriedly and confusedly +answered, his face still persistently averted from me--"has happened! +Archy is dead!" + +"Dead!" I exclaimed, considerably shocked. "God bless me! when did +this happen?" + +"Three weeks ago," was the reply. "He died of cholera." + +"Of cholera!" This occurred, I should state, in 1830. + +"Yes: he was very assiduously attended throughout his sufferings, +which were protracted and severe, by the eminent Dr. Parkinson, a +highly-respectable and skilled practitioner, as you doubtless, sir, +are aware." + +I could not comprehend the man. This dry, unconcerned, business-sort of +gabble was not the language of a suddenly-bereaved parent, and one, too, +who had lost a considerable annuity by his son's death. What could it +mean? I was in truth fairly puzzled. + +After a considerable interval of silence, which Mr. Andrews, whose eyes +continued to wander in every direction except that of mine, showed no +inclination to break, I said--"It will be necessary for me to write +immediately to your cousin, Mr. Archibald Andrews. I trust, for your +sake, the annuity will be continued; but of course, till I hear from him, +the half-yearly payments must be suspended." + +"Certainly, certainly: I naturally expected that would be the case," said +Andrews, still in the same quick, hurried tone. "Quite so." + +"You have nothing further to say, I suppose?" I remarked, after another +dead pause, during which it was very apparent that he was laboring with +something to which he nervously hesitated to give utterance. + +"No--yes--that is, I wished to consult you upon a matter of +business--connected with--with a life-assurance office." + +"A life-assurance office?" + +"Yes." The man's pale face flushed crimson, and his speech became +more and more hurried as he went on. "Yes; fearing, Mr. Sharp, that +should Archy die, we might be left without resource, I resolved, +after mature deliberation, to effect an insurance on his life for +four thousand pounds." + +"Four thousand pounds!" + +"Yes. All necessary preliminaries were gone through. The medical +gentleman--since dead of the cholera, by the way--examined the boy of +course, and the insurance was legally effected for four thousand pounds, +payable at his death." + +I did not speak; a suspicion too horrible to be hinted at held me dumb. + +"Unfortunately," Andrews continued, "this insurance was only effected +about a fortnight before poor Archy's death, and the office refuses +payment, although, as I have told you, the lad was attended to the very +hour of his death by Dr. Parkinson, a highly-respectable, most +unexceptionable gentleman. Very much so indeed." + +"I quite agree in that," I answered after a while. "Dr. Parkinson is a +highly-respectable and eminent man. What reason," I added, "do the +company assign for non-payment?" + +"The very recent completion of the policy." + +"Nonsense! How can that fact, standing alone, affect your claim?" + +"I do not know," Andrews replied; and all this time I had not been able +to look fairly in his face; "but they do refuse; and I am anxious that +your firm should take the matter in hand, and sue them for the amount." + +"I must first see Dr. Parkinson," I answered, "and convince myself that +there is no legitimate reason for repudiating the policy." + +"Certainly, certainly," he replied. + +"I will write to you to-morrow," I said, rising to terminate the +conference, "after I have seen Dr. Parkinson, and state whether we will +or not take proceedings against the insurance company on your behalf." + +He thanked me, and hurried off. + +Dr. Parkinson confirmed Mr. Jesse Andrews in every particular. He had +attended the boy, a fine, light-haired lad of eleven or twelve years of +age, from not long after his seizure till his death. He suffered +dreadfully, and died unmistakably of Asiatic cholera, and of nothing +else; of which same disease a servant and a female lodger in the same +house had died just previously. "It is of course," Dr. Parkinson remarked +in conclusion, "as unfortunate for the company as it is strangely lucky +for Andrews; but there is no valid reason for refusing payment." + +Upon this representation we wrote the next day to the assurance people, +threatening proceedings on behalf of Mr. Jesse Andrews. + +Early on the morrow one of the managing-directors called on us, to state +the reasons which induced the company to hesitate at recognizing the +plaintiff's claim. In addition to the doubts suggested by the brief time +which had elapsed from the date of the policy to the death of the child, +there were several other slight circumstances of corroborative suspicion. +The chief of these was, that a neighbor had declared he heard the father +indulging in obstreperous mirth in a room adjoining that in which the +corpse lay only about two hours after his son had expired. This unseemly, +scandalous hilarity of her husband, the wife appeared to faintly +remonstrate against. The directors had consequently resolved _non +obstante_ Dr. Parkinson's declaration, who might, they argued, have been +deceived, to have the body exhumed in order to a post-mortem examination +as to the true cause of death. If the parents voluntarily agreed to this +course, a judicial application to enforce it would be unnecessary, and +all doubts on the matter could be quietly set at rest. I thought the +proposal, under the circumstances, reasonable, and called on Mr. and Mrs. +Andrews to obtain their concurrence. Mrs. Andrews was, I found, absent +in the country, but her husband was at home; and he, on hearing the +proposal, was, I thought, a good deal startled--shocked rather--a natural +emotion perhaps. + +"Who--who," he said, after a few moments' silent reflection--"who is to +conduct this painful, revolting inquiry?" + +"Dr. Parkinson will be present, with Mr. Humphrey the surgeon, and Dr. +Curtis the newly-appointed physician to the assurance office, in place of +Dr. Morgan who died, as you are aware, a short time since of cholera." + +"True. Ah, well, then," he answered almost with alacrity, "be it as they +wish. Dr. Parkinson will see fair-play." + +The examination was effected, and the result was a confirmation, beyond +doubt or quibble, that death, as Dr. Parkinson had declared, had been +solely occasioned by cholera. The assurance company still hesitated; but +as this conduct could now only be looked upon as perverse obstinacy, we +served them with a writ at once. They gave in; and the money was handed +over to Mr. Jesse Andrews, whose joy at his sudden riches did not, I was +forced to admit, appear to be in the slightest degree damped by any +feeling of sadness for the loss of an only child. + +We wrote to inform Mr. Archibald Andrews of these occurrences, and to +request further instructions with regard to the annuity hitherto paid to +his cousin. A considerable time would necessarily elapse before an +answer could be received, and in the meantime Mr. Jesse Andrews plunged +headlong into the speculation he had been long hankering to engage in, +and was as he informed me a few weeks afterwards, on the royal road to a +magnificent fortune. + +Clouds soon gathered over this brilliant prospect. The partner, whose +persuasive tongue and brilliant imagination had induced Mr. Andrews to +join him with his four thousand pounds, proved to be an arrant cheat and +swindler; and Mr. Andrews's application to us for legal help and redress +was just too late to prevent the accomplished dealer in moonshine and +delusion from embarking at Liverpool for America, with every penny of the +partnership funds in his pockets! + +A favorable reply from Mr. Archibald Andrews had now become a question of +vital importance to his cousin, who very impatiently awaited its arrival. +It came at last. Mr. Andrews had died rather suddenly at Bombay a short +time before my letter arrived there, after executing in triplicate a +will, of which one of the copies was forwarded to me. By this instrument +his property--about thirty-five thousand pounds, the greatest portion of +which had been remitted from time to time for investment in the British +funds--was disposed of as follows:--Five thousand pounds to his cousin +Jesse Andrews, for the purpose of educating and maintaining Archibald +Andrews, the testator's godson, till he should have attained the age of +twentyone, and the whole of the remaining thirty thousand pounds to be +then paid over to Archibald with accumulated interest. In the event, +however, of the death of his godson, the entire property was devised to +another more distant and wealthier cousin, Mr. Newton, and his son +Charles, on precisely similar conditions, with the exception that an +annuity of seventy pounds, payable to Jesse Andrews and his wife during +their lives, was charged upon it. + +Two letters were dispatched the same evening--one to the fortunate +cousin, Mr. Newton, who lived within what was then known as the twopenny +post delivery, and another to Mr. Jesse Andrews, who had taken up his +temporary abode in a cottage near St. Alban's, Hertfordshire. These +missives informed both gentlemen of the arrival of the Indian mail, and +the, to them, important dispatches it contained. + +Mr. Newton was early at the office on the following morning, and perused +the will with huge content. He was really quite sorry, though, for poor +Cousin Jesse: the loss of his son was a sad stroke, much worse than this +of a fortune which he might have expected to follow as a matter of +course. And the annuity, Mr. Newton thoughtfully observed, was, after +all, no contemptible provision for two persons, without family, and of +modest requirements. + +A very different scene was enacted when, late in the evening, and just as +I was about to leave the office, Mr. Jesse Andrews rushed in, white as a +sheet, haggard, and wild with passion. "What devil's fables are these you +write me?" he, burst forth the instant he had gained the threshold of the +room. "How dare you," he went on, almost shrieking with fury--"how dare +you attempt to palm off these accursed lies on me? Archy rich--rich--and +I--. But it is a lie!--an infernal device got up to torture me--to +drive me wild, distracted--mad!" The excited man literally foamed with +rage, and so astonished was I, that it was a minute or two before I could +speak or move. + +At last I rose, closed the door, (for the clerks in the outer office were +hearers and witnesses of this outbreak,) and led the way to an inner and +more private apartment. "Come with me, Mr. Andrews," I said, "and let us +talk this matter calmly over." + +He mechanically followed, threw himself into a chair, and listened with +frenzied impatience to the reading of the will. + +"A curse is upon me," he shouted, jumping up as I concluded, "the curse +of God--a judgment upon the crime I but the other day committed--a crime +as I thought--dolt, idiot that I was--so cunningly contrived, so cleverly +executed! Fool, villain, madman that I have been; for now, when fortune +is tendered for my acceptance, I dare not put forth my hand to grasp it; +fortune, too, not only for me, but--. O God, it will kill us both, Martha +as well as me, though I alone am to blame for this infernal chance!" + +This outburst appeared to relieve him, and he sank back into his chair +somewhat calmer. I could understand nothing of all that rhapsody, +knowing, as I did, that his son Archibald had died from natural causes. +"It _is_ a severe blow," I said, in as soothing a tone as I could +assume--"a very great disappointment; still, you are secured from extreme +poverty--from anything like absolute want"-- + +"It is not that--it is not that!" he broke in, though not quite so wildly +as before. "Look you, Mr. Sharp, I will tell you all! There may be some +mode of extrication from this terrible predicament, and I must have your +advice professionally upon it." + +"Go on; I will advise you to the best of my ability." + +"Here it is, then: Archy, my son Archy, is alive!--alive! and well in +health as either you or I!" + +I was thunderstruck. Here was indeed a revelation. + +"Alive and well," continued Andrews. "Listen! when the cholera began to +spread so rapidly, I bethought me of insuring the boy's life in case of +the worst befalling, but not, as I hope for mercy, with the slightest +thought of harming a hair of his head. This was done. Very soon the +terrific disease approached our neighborhood, and my wife took Archy to a +country lodging, returning herself the same evening. The next day our +only servant was attacked and died. A few hours after that our +first-floor lodger, a widow of the name of Mason, who had been with us +but a very short time, was attacked. She suffered dreadfully; and her +son, a boy about the age of Archy, and with just his hair and +complexion, took ill also. The woman was delirious with pain; and before +effective medical aid could be obtained--she was seized in the middle of +the night--she expired. Her son who had been removed into another room, +became rapidly worse, and we sent for Dr. Parkinson; the poor fellow was +partially delirious with pain, and clung piteously round my wife's neck, +calling her mother, and imploring her to relieve him. Dr. Parkinson +arrived, and at first sight of the boy, said, 'Your son is very ill, +Mrs. Andrews--I fear, past recovery; but we will see what can be done.' I +swear to you, Mr. Sharp, that it was not till this moment the device +which has ruined us, flashed across my brain. I cautioned my wife in a +whisper not to undeceive the doctor, who prescribed the most active +remedies, and was in the room, when the lad died. You know the rest. And +now, sir, tell me, can anything be done--any device suggested to retrieve +this miserable blunder, this terrible mistake?" + +"This infamous crime, you should say, Mr. Andrews," I replied; "for the +commission of which you are liable to be transported for life." + +"Yes, crime; no doubt that is the true word! But must the innocent child +suffer for his father's offence?" + +"That is the only consideration that could induce me to wag a finger in +the business. Like many other clever rogues, you are caught in the trap +you limed for others. Come to me tomorrow; I will think over the matter +between this and then; but at present I can say nothing. Stay," I added, +as his hand was on the door; "the identity of your son can be proved, I +suppose, by better evidence than your own?" + +"Certainly, certainly." + +"That, will do, then; I will see you in the morning." + +If it should cross the mind of any reader that I ought to have given +this self-confessed felon into custody, I beg to remind him that, for the +reasons previously stated, such a course on my part was out of the +question--impossible; and that, had it not been impossible I should do +so, Mr. Jesse Andrews would not have intrusted me with his criminal +secret. The only question now therefore was, how, without compromising +this guilty client, the godfather's legacy could be secured for the +innocent son. + +A conference the next morning with Mr. Flint resulted in our sending for +Mr. Jesse Andrews, and advising him, for fear of accidents or +miscarriage in our plans, to betake himself to the kingdom of France for +a short time. We had then no treaty of extradition with that country. As +soon as I knew he was safely out of the realm, I waited upon the +insurance people. + +"The money ought not to have been received by Jesse Andrews, you say, Mr. +Sharp?" observed the managing-gentleman, looking keenly in my face. + +"Precisely. It ought not to have been received by him." + +"And _why_ not, Mr. Sharp?" + +"That is quite an unnecessary question, and one that, you know, I should +not answer, if I could. That which chiefly concerns you is, that I am +ready to return the four thousand pounds at once, here on the spot, and +that delays are dangerous. If you refuse, why, of course--and I rose from +my chair--I must take back the money." + +"Stay--stay! I will just consult with one or two gentlemen, and be with +you again almost immediately." + +In about five minutes he returned. "Well, Mr. Sharp," he said, "we had, +I suppose; better take the money--obtained, as you say, by mistake." + +"Not at all; I said nothing about mistake. I told you it ought not to +have been received by Andrews!" + +"Well--well. I understand. I must, I suppose, give you a receipt?" + +"Undoubtedly; and, if you please, precisely in this form." + +I handed him a copy on a slip of paper. He ran it over, smiled, +transcribed it on a stamp, signed it, and, as I handed him a check for +the amount, placed it in my hands. We mutually bowed, and I went my way. + +Notwithstanding Mr. Newton's opposition, who was naturally furious at the +unexpected turn the affair had taken, the identity of the boy--whom that +gentleman persisted in asserting to be dead and buried--was clearly +established; and Mr. Archibald Andrews, on the day he became of age, +received possession of his fortune. The four thousand pounds had of +course been repaid out of Jesse Andrews's legacy. That person has, so to +speak, since skulked through life, a mark for the covert scorn of every +person acquainted with the very black transaction here recorded. This was +doubtless a much better fate than he deserved; and in strict, or poetical +justice, his punishment ought unquestionably to have been much +greater--more apparent also, than it was, for example's sake. But I am a +man not of fiction, but of fact, and consequently relate events, not as +they precisely ought, but as they do, occasionally occur in lawyers' +offices, and other unpoetical nooks and corners of this prosaic, +matter-of-fact, working-day world. + + + + +BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY? + + +The firm of Flint and Sharp enjoyed, whether deservedly or not, when I +was connected with it, as it still does, a high reputation for keen +practice and shrewd business-management. This kind of professional fame +is usually far more profitable than the drum-and-trumpet variety of the +same article; or at least we found it so; and often, from blush of morn +to far later than dewy eve--which natural phenomena, by the way, were +only emblematically observed by me during thirty busy years in the +extinguishment of the street lamps at dawn, and their re-illumination at +dusk--did I and my partner incessantly pursue our golden avocations; +deferring what are usually esteemed the pleasures of life--its banquets, +music, flowers, and lettered ease--till the toil, and heat, and hurry of +the day were past, and a calm, luminous evening, unclouded by care or +anxiety, had arrived. This conduct may or may not have been wise; but at +all events it daily increased the connection and transactions of the +firm, and ultimately anchored us both very comfortably in the three per +cents; and this too, I am bold to say, not without our having effected +some good in our generation. This boast of mine the following passage in +the life of a distinguished client--known, I am quite sure, by reputation +to most of the readers of these papers, whom our character for practical +sagacity and professional shrewdness brought us--will, I think, be +admitted in some degree to substantiate. + +Our connection was a mercantile rather than an aristocratic one, and my +surprise was therefore considerable, when, on looking through the +office-blinds to ascertain what vehicle it was that had driven so rapidly +up to the door, I observed a handsomely-appointed carriage with a coronet +emblazoned on the panels, out of which a tall footman was handing a lady +attired in deep but elegant mourning, and closely veiled. I instantly +withdrew to my private room, and desired that the lady should be +immediately admitted. Greatly was my surprise increased when the graceful +and still youthful visitor withdrew her veil, and disclosed the features +of the Countess of Seyton, upon whose mild, luminous beauty, as rendered +by the engraving from Sir Thomas Lawrence's picture, I had so frequently +gazed with admiration. That rare and touching beauty was clouded now; and +an intense expression of anxiety, fear--almost terror--gleamed from out +the troubled depths of her fine dark eyes. + +"The Countess of Seyton!" I half-involuntarily exclaimed, as with my very +best bow I handed her ladyship a chair. + +"Yes; and you are a partner of this celebrated firm, are you not?" + +I bowed again still more profoundly to this compliment, and modestly +admitted that I was the Sharp of the firm her ladyship was pleased to +entitle "celebrated." + +"Then, Mr. Sharp, I have to consult you professionally upon a matter of +the utmost--the most vital importance to me and mine." Her ladyship then, +with some confusion of manner, as if she did not know whether what she +was doing was in accordance with strict etiquette or not, placed a Bank +of England note, by way of retainer, before me. I put it back, explaining +what the usage really was, and the countess replaced it in her purse. + +"We shall he proud to render your ladyship any assistance in our power," +I said; "but I understood the Messrs. Jackson enjoyed the confidence of +the house of Seyton?" + +"Precisely. They are, so to speak, the hereditary solicitors of the +family more than of any individual member of it; and therefore, though +highly respectable persons, unfit to advise me in this particular matter. +Besides," she added with increasing tremor and hesitation, "to deal with, +and if possible foil, the individual by whom I am persecuted, requires an +agent of keener sagacity than either of those gentlemen can boast of; +sharper, more resolute men; more--you understand what I mean?" + +"Perfectly, madam; and allow me to suggest that it is probable our +interview may be a somewhat prolonged one--your ladyship's carriage, +which may attract attention, should be at once dismissed. The office of +the family solicitors is, you are aware, not far off; and as we could not +explain to them the reason which induces your ladyship to honor us with +your confidence, it will be as well to avoid any chance of inquiry." + +Lady Seyton acquiesced in my suggestion: the carriage was ordered home, +and Mr. Flint entering just at the time, we both listened with +earnestness and anxiety to her communication. It is needless to repeat +verbatim the somewhat prolix, exclamative narration of the countess; the +essential facts were as follows:-- + +The Countess of Seyton, previous to her first marriage, was Miss Clara +Hayley, second daughter of the Reverend John Hayley, the rector of a +parish in Devonshire. She married, when only nineteen years of age, a +Captain Gosford. Her husband was ten years older than herself, and, as +she discovered after marriage, was cursed with a morose and churlish +temper and disposition. Previous to her acquaintance with Gosford, she +had been intimate with, almost betrothed to, Mr. Arthur Kingston, a young +gentleman connected with the peerage, and at that time heir-apparent to +the great expectancies and actual poverty of his father, Sir Arthur +Kingston. The haughty baronet, the instant he was made aware of the +nature of his son's intimacy with the rector's daughter, packed the young +man off to the continent on his travels. The Reverend John Hayley and his +beautiful Clara were as proud as the baronet, and extremely indignant +that it should be thought either of them wished to entrap or delude +Arthur Kingston into an unequal or ineligible marriage. This feeling of +pride and resentment aided the success of Mr. Gosford's suit, and Clara +Hayley, like many other rash, high-notioned young ladies, doomed herself +to misery, in order to show the world, and Mr. Arthur Kingston and his +proud father especially, that she had a spirit. The union was a most +unhappy one. One child only, which died in its infancy, was born to them; +and after being united somewhat more than two years, a separation, +vehemently insisted on by the wife's father, took place, and the +unhappily-wedded daughter returned to her parent's roof. Mr. Gosford--he +had some time before sold out of the army--traveled about the country in +search of amusement, and latterly of health, (for his unhappy cankerous +temper at last affected and broke down his never very robust physical +constitution), accompanied for the twelvemonth preceding his death by a +young man belonging to the medical profession, of the name of Chilton. +Mr. and Mrs. Gosford had been separated a few days less than three years +when the husband died, at the village of Swords in Ireland, and not far +distant from Dublin. The intelligence was first conveyed to the widow by +a paragraph in the "Freeman's Journal," a Dublin newspaper; and by the +following post a letter arrived from Mr. Chilton, inclosing a ring which +the deceased had requested should be sent to his wife, and a note, +dictated just previous to his death-hour, in which he expressed regret +for the past, and admitted that he alone had been to blame for the +unhappy separation. A copy of his will, made nearly a twelvemonth +previously, was also forwarded, by which he bequeathed his property, +amounting to about three hundred pounds per annum, to a distant relative +then residing in New Holland. By a memorandum of a subsequent date, Mr. +Chilton was to have all the money and other personals he might die in +actual possession of, after defraying the necessary funeral expenses. +This will, Mr. Chilton stated, the deceased gentleman had expressed a +wish in his last moments to alter, but death had been too sudden for him +to be able to give effect to that good, but too long-delayed intention. + +It cannot be supposed that the long-before practically widowed wife +grieved much at the final breaking of the chain which bound her to so +ungenial a mate; but as Lady Seyton was entirely silent upon the subject, +our supposition can only rest upon the fact, that Arthur Kingston--who +had some time previously, in consequence of the death of the Earl of +Seyton and his only son, an always-weakly child, preceded a few months by +that of his own father, the baronet, succeeded to the earldom and +estates--hastened home, on seeing the announcement of Gosford's death in +the Dublin paper, from the continent, where he had continued to reside +since his compelled-departure six years before; and soon afterwards found +his way into Devonshire, and so successfully pressed the renewed offer of +his hand, that the wedding took place slightly within six months after +the decease of Mr. Gosford. Life passed brilliantly and happily with the +earl and countess--to whom three children (a boy and two girls) were +born--till about five months previous to the present time, when the earl, +from being caught, when out riding, in a drenching shower of rain, was +attacked by fever, and after an acute illness of only two or three days' +duration, expired. The present earl was at the time just turned of five +years of age. + +This blow, we comprehended from the sudden tears which filled the +beautiful eyes of the countess as she spoke of the earl's decease, was a +severe one. Still, the grief of widowhood must have been greatly assuaged +by love for her children, and not inconsiderably, after a while, we may +be sure, by the brilliant position in which she was left--as, in addition +to being splendidly jointured, she was appointed by her husband's will +sole guardian of the young lord, her son. + +A terrible reverse awaited her. She was sitting with her father the +rector, and her still unmarried sister, Jane Hayley, in the drawing-room +of Seyton House, when a note was brought to her, signed Edward Chilton, +the writer of which demanded an immediate and private interview, on, he +alleged, the most important business. Lady Seyton remembered the name, +and immediately acceded to the man's request. He announced in a brusque, +insolent tone and manner, that Mr. Gosford had not died at the time his +death was announced to her, having then only fallen into a state of +syncope, from which he had unexpectedly recovered, and had lived six +months longer. "The truth is," added Chilton, "that, chancing the other +day to be looking over a 'peerage,' I noticed for the first time the date +of your marriage with the late Earl of Seyton, and I have now to inform +you that it took place precisely eight days previous to Mr. Gosford's +death; that it was consequently no marriage at all; and that your son is +no more Earl of Seyton than I am." + +This dreadful announcement, as one might expect, completely overcame the +countess. She fainted, but not till she had heard and comprehended +Chilton's hurried injunctions to secrecy and silence. He rang the bell +for assistance, and then left the house. The mental agony of Lady Seyton +on recovering consciousness was terrible, and she with great difficulty +succeeded in concealing its cause from her anxious and wondering +relatives. Another interview with Chilton appeared to confirm the truth +of his story beyond doubt or question. He produced a formally-drawn-up +document, signed by one Pierce Cunningham, grave-digger of Swords, which +set forth that Charles Gosford was buried on the 26th of June, 1832, and +that the inscription on his tombstone set forth that he had died June 23d +of that year. Also a written averment of Patrick Mullins of Dublin, that +he had lettered the stone at the head of the grave of Charles Gosford in +Swords burying-ground in 1832, and that its date was, as stated by Pierce +Cunningham, June 23, 1832. + +"Have you copies of those documents?" asked Mr. Flint. + +"Yes: I have brought them with me," the countess replied, and handed them +to Mr. Flint. "In my terror and extremity," continued her ladyship, "and +unguided by counsel--for, till now I have not dared to speak upon the +subject to any person--I have given this Chilton, at various times, large +sums of money--but he is insatiable; and only yesterday--I cannot +repeat his audacious proposal--you will find it in this note." + +"Marriage!" exclaimed Mr. Flint with a burst. He had read the note over +my shoulder. "The scoundrel!" + +My worthy partner was rather excited. The truth was he had a Clara of +his own at home--a dead sister's child--very pretty, just about +marriageable, and a good deal resembling, as he told me afterwards, our +new and interesting client. + +"I would die a thousand deaths rather," resumed Lady Seyton, in a low, +tremulous voice, as she let fall her veil. "Can there," she added in a +still fainter voice, "be anything done--anything"-- + +"That depends entirely," interrupted Mr. Flint, "upon whether this fine +story is or is not a fabrication, got up for the purpose of extorting +money. It seems to me, I must say, amazingly like one." + +"Do you really think so?" exclaimed the lady with joyful vehemence. The +notion that Chilton was perhaps imposing on her credulity and fears +seemed not to have struck her before. + +"What do you think, Sharp?" said my partner. + +I hesitated to give an opinion, as I did not share in the hope +entertained by Flint. Detection was so certain, that I doubted if so +cunning a person as Chilton appeared to be would have ventured on a fraud +so severely punishable. "Suppose," I said, avoiding an answer, "as this +note appoints an interview at three o'clock to-day at Seyton House, we +meet him there instead of your ladyship? A little talk with the fellow +might be serviceable." + +Lady Seyton eagerly agreed to this proposal; and it was arranged that we +should be at Seyton House half an hour before the appointed time, in +readiness for the gentleman. Lady Seyton left in a hackney-coach, +somewhat relieved, I thought, by having confided the oppressive secret to +us, and with a nascent hope slightly flushing her pale, dejected +countenance. + +The firm of Flint and Sharp had then a long conference together, during +which the lady's statement and Mr. Chilton's documents were, the reader +may be sure, very minutely conned over, analyzed, and commented upon. +Finally, it was resolved that, if the approaching interview, the manner +of which we agreed upon, did not prove satisfactory, Mr. Flint should +immediately proceed to Ireland, and personally ascertain the truth or +falsehood of the facts alleged by Chilton. + +"Mr. Chilton is announced," said Lady Seyton, hurriedly entering the +library in Grosvenor Square, where Mr. Flint and myself were seated. "I +need not be present, I think you said?" she added, in great tremor. + +"Certainly not, madam," I replied. "We shall do better alone." + +She retired instantly. Flint rose and stationed himself close by the +door. Presently a sounding, confident step was heard along the passage, +the library door swung back on its noiseless hinges, and in stalked a man +of apparently about thirty-five years of age, tall, genteel, and +soldier-looking. He started back on seeing me, recognizing, I perceived, +my vocation, at a glance. + +"How is this?" he exclaimed. "I expected"-- + +"The Countess of Seyton. True; but her ladyship has deputed me to confer +with you on the business mentioned in your note." + +"I shall have nothing to say to you," he replied abruptly, and turned +to leave the room. Mr. Flint had shut, and was standing with his back +to the door. + +"You can't go," he said, in his coolest manner. "The police are +within call." + +"The police! What the devil do you mean?" cried Chilton, angrily; but, +spite of his assurance, visibly trembling beneath Flint's searching, +half-sneering look. + +"Nothing very remarkable," replied that gentleman, "or unusual in our +profession. Come, sit down; we are lawyers; you are a man of business, we +know. I dare say we shall soon understand each other." + +Mr. Chilton sat down, and moodily awaited what was next to come. + +"You are aware," said Mr. Flint, "that you have rendered yourself liable +to transportation?" + +"What"' exclaimed Chilton, flashing crimson, and starting to his +feet. "What!" + +"To transportation," continued my imperturbable partner, "for seven, ten, +fourteen years, or for life, at the discretion of the judge; but, +considering the frequency of the crime of late, I should say there is a +strong probability that _you_ will be a _lifer_!" + +"What devil's gibberish is this?" exclaimed Chilton, frightened, but +still fierce. "I can prove everything I have said. Mr. Gosford, I +tell you"-- + +"Well, well," interrupted Mr. Flint; "put it in that light, how you +please; turn it which way you will; it's like the key in Blue Beard, +which, I dare say, you have read of; rub it out on one side, and up it +comes on the other. Say, by way of argument, that you have _not_ obtained +money by unfounded threats--a crime which the law holds tantamount to +highway robbery. You have in that case obtained money for compromising a +felony--that of polygamy. An awful position, my good sir, choose which +you will." + +Utterly chop-fallen was the lately triumphant man; but he speedily +rallied. + +"I care not," he at length said. "Punish me you may; but the pride of +this sham countess and the sham earl will be brought low. And I tell you +once for all," he added, rising at the same time, and speaking in +ringing, wrathful tones, "that I defy you, and will either be handsomely +remunerated for silence, or I will at once inform the Honorable James +Kingston that he is the true Earl of Seyton." + +"And I tell _you_," retorted Flint, "that if you attempt to leave this +room, I will give you into custody at once, and transport you, whatever +may be the consequence to others. Come, come, let us have no more +nonsense or bluster. We have strong reasons for believing that the story +by which you have been extorting money, is a fabrication. If it be so, +rely upon it we shall detect and punish you. Your only safe course is to +make a clean breast of it whilst there is yet time. Out with it, man, at +once, and you shall go Scot-free; nay, have a few score pounds more--say +a hundred. Be wise in time, I counsel you." + +Chilton hesitated; his white lips quivered. There _was_ something +to reveal. + +"I cannot," he muttered, after a considerable pause. "There is nothing to +disclose." + +"You will not! Then your fate be on your own head. I have done with you." + +It was now my turn. "Come, come," I said, "it is useless urging this +man further. How much do you expect? The insolent proposal contained +in your note is, you well know, out of the question. How much _money_ +do you expect for keeping this wretched affair secret? State your +terms at once." + +"A thousand per annum," was the reply, "and the first year down." + +"Modest, upon my word! But I suppose we must comply." I wrote out an +agreement. "Will you sign this?" + +He ran it over. "Yes; Lady Seyton, as she calls herself, will take care +it never sees the light." + +I withdrew, and in two or three minutes returned with a check. "Her +ladyship has no present cash at the bankers," I said, "and is obliged to +post-date this check twelve days." + +The rascal grumbled a good deal; but as there was no help for it, he took +the security, signed the agreement, and walked off. + +"A sweet nut that for the devil to crack," observed Mr. Flint, looking +savagely after him. "I am in hopes we shall trounce him yet, bravely as +he carries it. The check of course is not payable to order or bearer" + +"Certainly not; and before twelve days are past, you will have returned +from Ireland. The agreement may be, I thought, of use with Cunningham or +Mullins. If they have been conspiring together, they will scarcely admire +the light in which you can place the arrangement, as affording proof that +he means to keep the lion's share of the reward to himself." + +"Exactly. At all events we shall get at the truth, whatever it be." + +The same evening Mr. Flint started for Dublin _viâ_ Holyhead. + +I received in due course a letter from him dated the day after his +arrival there. It was anything but a satisfactory one. The date on the +grave-stone had been truly represented, and Mullins who erected it was a +highly respectable man. Flint had also seen the grave-digger, but could +make nothing out of him. There was no regular register of deaths kept in +Swords except that belonging to Cunningham; and the minister who buried +Gosford, and who lived at that time in Dublin, had been dead some time. +This was disheartening and melancholy enough; and, as if to give our +unfortunate client the _coup-de-grace_, Mr. Jackson, junior, marched into +the office just after I had read it, to say that, having been referred by +Lady Seyton to us for explanations, with respect to a statement made by a +Mr. Edward Chilton to the Honorable James Kingston, for whom they, the +Messrs. Jackson, were now acting, by which it appeared that the said +Honorable James Kingston was, in fact, the true Earl of Seyton, he, Mr. +Jackson, junior, would be happy to hear what I had to say upon the +subject! It needed but this. Chilton had, as I feared he would, after +finding we had been consulted, sold his secret, doubtless advantageously, +to the heir-at-law. There was still, however, a chance that something +favorable might turn up, and, as I had no notion of throwing that chance +away, I carelessly replied that we had reason to believe Chilton's story +was a malicious fabrication, and that we should of course throw on them +the onus of judicial proof that Gosford was still alive when the late +earl's marriage was solemnized. Finally, however, to please Mr. Jackson, +who professed to be very anxious, for the lady's sake, to avoid +unnecessary éclat, and to arrange the affair as quietly as possible, I +agreed to meet him at Lady Seyton's in four days from that time, and hear +the evidence upon which he relied. This could not at all events render +our position worse; and it was, meanwhile, agreed that the matter should +be kept as far as possible profoundly secret. + +Three days passed without any further tidings from Mr. Flint, and I +vehemently feared that his journey had proved a fruitless one, when, on +the evening previous to the day appointed for the conference at Seyton +House, a hackney-coach drove rapidly up to the office door, and out +popped Mr. Flint, followed by two strangers, whom he very watchfully +escorted into the house. + +"Mr. Patrick Mullins and Mr. Pierce Cunningham," said Flint as he shook +hands with me in a way which, in conjunction with the merry sparkle of +his eyes, and the boisterous tone of his voice, assured me all was right. +"Mr. Pierce Cunningham will sleep here to-night," he added; "so Collins +had better engage a bed out." + +Cunningham, an ill-looking lout of a fellow, muttered, that he chose "to +sleep at a tavern." + +"Not if I know it, my fine fellow," rejoined Mr. Flint. "You mean well, I +dare say; but I cannot lose sight of you for all that. You either sleep +here or at a station-house." + +The man stared with surprise and alarm; but knowing refusal or resistance +to be hopeless, sullenly assented to the arrangement, and withdrew to the +room appointed for him, vigilantly guarded. For Mr. Mullins we engaged a +bed at a neighboring tavern. + +Mr. Flint's mission had been skillfully and successfully accomplished. He +was convinced, by the sullen confusion of manner manifested by +Cunningham, that some villainous agency had been at work, and he again +waited on Mullins, the stone-cutter. "Who gave you the order for the +grave-stone?" he asked. Mr. Mullins referred to his book, and answered +that he received it by letter. "Had he got that letter?" "Very likely," +he replied, "as he seldom destroyed business papers of any kind." "A +search was instituted, and finally this letter," said Mr. Flint, "worth +an earl's coronet, torn and dirty as it is, turned up." This invaluable +document, which bore the London postdate of June 23, 1832, ran as +follows:-- + +"Anglesea Hotel, Haymarket, London, _June_ 23, 1832. + +"Sir--Please to erect a plain tomb-stone at the head of Charles +Gosford, Esquire's grave, who died a few month's since at Swords, aged +thirty-two years. This is all that need be inscribed upon it. You are +referred to Mr. Guinness of Sackville Street, Dublin, for payment. Your +obedient servant, + +"Edward Chilton." + +"You see," continued Flint, "the fellow had inadvertently left out the +date of Gosford's death, merely stating it occurred a few months +previously; and Mullins concluded that, in entering the order in his +day-book, he must have somehow or other confounded the date of the letter +with that of Gosford's decease. Armed with this precious discovery, I +again sought Cunningham, and by dint of promises and threats, at last got +the truth out of the rascal. It was this:--Chilton, who returned to this +country from the Cape, where he had resided for three years previously, +about two months ago, having some business to settle in Dublin, went over +there, and one day visited Swords, read the inscription on Charles +Gosford's grave-stone, and immediately sought out the grave-digger, and +asked him if he had any record of that gentleman's burial. Cunningham +said he had, and produced his book, by which it appeared that it took +place December 24, 1831. "That cannot be," remarked Chilton, and he +referred to the head-stone. Cunningham said he had noticed the mistake a +few days after it was erected; but thinking it of no consequence, and +never having, that he knew of, seen Mr. Mullins since, he had said, and +indeed thought, nothing about it. To conclude the story--Chilton +ultimately, by payment of ten pounds down, and liberal promises for the +future, prevailed upon the grave-digger to lend himself to the infamous +device the sight of the grave-stone had suggested to his fertile, +unscrupulous brain." + +This was indeed a glorious success and the firm of Flint and Sharp drank +the Countess of Seyton's health that evening with great enthusiasm, and +gleefully "thought of the morrow." + +We found the drawing-room of Seyton House occupied by the Honorable James +Kingston, his solicitors, the Messrs. Jackson, Lady Seyton, and her +father and sister, to whom she had at length disclosed the source of her +disquietude. The children were leaving the apartment as we entered it, +and the grief-dimmed eyes of the countess rested sadly upon her +bright-eyed boy as he slowly withdrew with his sisters. That look changed +to one of wild surprise as it encountered Mr. Flint's shining, +good-humored countenance. I was more composed and reserved than my +partner, though feeling as vividly as he did the satisfaction of being +able not only to dispel Lady Seyton's anguish, but to extinguish the +exultation, and trample on the hopes, of the Honorable James Kingston, a +stiff, grave, middle-aged piece of hypocritical propriety, who was +surveying from out the corners of his affectedly-unobservant eyes the +furniture and decorations of the splendid apartment, and hugging himself +with the thought that all that was his! Business was immediately +proceeded with. Chilton was called in. He repeated his former story +verbatim, and with much fluency and confidence. He then placed in the +hands of Jackson, senior, the vouchers signed by Cunningham and Mullins. +The transient light faded from Lady Seyton's countenance as she turned +despairingly, almost accusingly, towards us. + +"What answer have you to make to this gentleman's statement, thus +corroborated?" demanded Jackson, senior. + +"Quite a remarkable one," replied Mr. Flint, as he rang the bell. "Desire +the gentlemen in the library to step up," he added to the footman who +answered the summons. In about three minutes in marched Cunningham and +Mullins, followed by two police-officers. An irrepressible exclamation of +terror escaped Chilton, which was immediately echoed by Mr. Flint's +direction to the police, as he pointed towards the trembling caitiff: +"That is your man--secure him." + +A storm of exclamations, questions, remonstrances, instantly broke forth, +and it was several minutes before attention could be obtained for the +statements of our two Irish witnesses and the reading of the +happily-found letter. The effect of the evidence adduced was decisive, +electrical. Lady Seyton, as its full significance flashed upon her, +screamed with convulsive joy, and I thought must have fainted from excess +of emotion. The Rev. John Hayley returned audible thanks to God in a +voice quivering with rapture, and Miss Hayley ran out of the apartment, +and presently returned with the children, who were immediately +half-smothered with their mother's ecstatic kisses. All was for a few +minutes bewilderment, joy, rapture! Flint persisted to his dying day, +that Lady Seyton threw her arms round his neck, and kissed his bald old +forehead. This, however, I cannot personally vouch for, as my attention +was engaged at the moment by the adverse claimant, the Honorable James +Kingston, who exhibited one of the most irresistibly comic, wo-begone, +lackadaisical aspects it is possible to conceive. He made a hurried and +most undignified exit, and was immediately followed by the discomfited +"family" solicitors. Chilton was conveyed to a station-house, and the +next day was fully committed for trial. He was convicted at the next +sessions, and sentenced to seven years' transportation; and the +"celebrated" firm of Flint and Sharp, derived considerable lustre, and +more profit, from this successful stroke of professional dexterity. + + + + +JANE ECCLES + + +The criminal business of the office was, during the first three or four +years of our partnership, entirely superintended by Mr. Flint; he being +more _an fait_, from early practice, than myself in the art and mystery +of prosecuting and defending felons, and I was thus happily relieved of +duties which, in the days when George III. was king, were frequently very +oppressive and revolting. The criminal practitioner dwelt in an +atmosphere tainted alike with cruelty and crime, and pulsating +alternately with merciless decrees of death, and the shrieks and wailings +of sentenced guilt. And not always guilt! There exist many records of +proofs, incontestable, but obtained too late, of innocence having been +legally strangled on the gallows in other cases than that of Eliza +Fenning. How could it be otherwise with a criminal code crowded in every +line with penalties of death, nothing but--death? Juster, wiser times +have dawned upon us, in which truer notions prevail of what man owes to +man, even when sitting in judgment on transgressors; and this we owe, let +us not forget, to the exertions of a band of men who, undeterred by the +sneers of the reputedly wise and _practical_ men of the world, and the +taunts of "influential" newspapers, persisted in teaching that the rights +of property could be more firmly cemented than by the shedding of +blood--law, justice, personal security more effectually vindicated than +by the gallows. Let me confess that I also was, for many years, amongst +the mockers, and sincerely held such "theorists" and "dreamers" as Sir +Samuel Romilly and his fellow-workers in utter contempt. Not so my +partner, Mr. Flint. Constantly in the presence of criminal judges and +juries, he had less confidence in the unerring verity of their decisions +than persons less familiar with them, or who see them only through the +medium of newspapers. Nothing could exceed his distress of mind if, in +cases in which he was prosecuting attorney, a convict died persisting in +his innocence, or without a full confession of guilt. And to such a pitch +did this morbidly-sensitive feeling at length arrive, that he all at once +refused to undertake, or in any way meddle with, criminal prosecutions, +and they were consequently turned over to our head clerk, with occasional +assistance from me if there happened to be a press of business of the +sort. Mr. Flint still, however, retained a monopoly of the _defences_, +except when, from some temporary cause or other, he happened to be +otherwise engaged, when they fell to me. One of these I am about to +relate, the result of which, whatever other impression it produced, +thoroughly cured me--as it may the reader--of any propensity to sneer or +laugh at criminal-law reformers and denouncers of the gallows. + +One forenoon, during the absence of Mr. Flint in Wiltshire, a Mrs. +Margaret Davies called at the office, in apparently great distress of +mind. This lady, I must premise, was an old, or at all events an elderly +maiden, of some four-and-forty years of age--I have heard a very intimate +female friend of hers say she would never see fifty again, but this was +spite--and possessed of considerable house property in rather poor +localities. She found abundant employment for energies which might +otherwise have turned to cards and scandal, in collecting her weekly, +monthly, and quarterly rents, and in promoting, or fancying she did, the +religious and moral welfare of her tenants. Very bare-faced, I well knew, +were the impositions practiced upon her credulous good-nature in money +matters, and I strongly suspected the spiritual and moral promises and +performances of her motley tenantry exhibited as much discrepancy as +those pertaining to rent. Still, deceived or cheated as she might be, +good Mrs. Davies never wearied in what she conceived to be well-doing, +and was ever ready to pour balm and oil into the wounds of the sufferer, +however self-inflicted or deserved. + +"What is the matter now?" I asked as soon as the good lady was seated, +and had untied and loosened her bonnet, and thrown back her shawl, fast +walking having heated her prodigiously. "Nothing worse than +transportation is, I hope, likely to befall any of those interesting +clients of yours?" + +"You are a hard-hearted man, Mr. Sharp," replied Mrs. Davies between a +smile and a cry; "but being a lawyer, that is of course natural, and, as +I am not here to consult you as a Christian, of no consequence." + +"Complimentary, Mrs. Davies; but pray, go on." + +"You know Jane Eccles, one of my tenants in Bank Buildings--the +embroidress who adopted her sister's orphan child?" + +"I remember her name. She obtained, if I recollect rightly, a balance of +wages for her due to the child's father, a mate, who died at sea. Well, +what has befallen her?" + +"A terrible accusation has been preferred against her," rejoined Mrs. +Davies; "but as for a moment believing it, that is quite out of the +question. Jane Eccles," continued the warm-hearted lady, at the same time +extracting a crumpled newspaper from the miscellaneous contents of her +reticule--"Jane Eccles works hard from morning till night, keeps herself +to herself; her little nephew and her rooms are always as clean and nice +as a new pin; she attends church regularly; and pays her rent punctually +to the day. This disgraceful story, therefore," he added, placing the +journal in my hands, "_cannot_ be true." + +I glanced over the police news:--'Uttering forged Bank-of-England notes, +knowing them to be forged;' I exclaimed, "The devil!" + +"There's no occasion to be spurting that name out so loudly, Mr. Sharp," +said Mrs. Davies with some asperity, "especially in a lawyer's office. +People have been wrongfully accused before to-day, I suppose?" + +I was intent on the report, and not answering, she continued, "I heard +nothing of it till I read the shameful account in the paper half an hour +agone. The poor slandered girl was, I dare say, afraid or ashamed to +send for me." + +"This appears to be a very bad case, Mrs. Davies," I said at length. +"Three forged ten-pound notes changed in one day at different shops each +time, under the pretence of purchasing articles of small amount, and +another ten-pound note found in her pocket! All that has, I must say, a +very ugly look." + +"I don't care," exclaimed Mrs. Davies quite fiercely, "if it looks as +ugly as sin, or if the whole Bank of England was found in her pocket! I +know Jane Eccles well; she nursed me last spring through the fever; and I +would be upon my oath that the whole story, from beginning to end, is an +invention of the devil, or something worse." + +"Jane Eccles," I persisted, "appears to have been unable or unwilling to +give the slightest explanation as to how she became possessed of the +spurious notes. Who is this brother of hers, 'of such highly respectable +appearance,' according to the report, who was permitted a private +interview with her previous to the examination?" + +"She has no brother that I have ever heard of," said Mrs. Davies. "It +must be a mistake of the papers." + +"That is not likely. You observed of course that she was fully +committed--and no wonder!" + +Mrs. Davies's faith in the young woman's integrity was not to be shaken +by any evidence save that of her own bodily eyes, and I agreed to see +Jane Eccles on the morrow, and make the best arrangements for the +defence--at Mrs. Davies' charge--which the circumstances and the short +time I should have for preparation--the Old Bailey session would be on in +a few days--permitted. The matter so far settled, Mrs. Margaret hurried +off to see what had become of little Henry, the prisoner's nephew. + +I visited Jane Eccles the next day in Newgate. She was a well-grown young +woman of about two or three-and-twenty--not exactly pretty perhaps, but +very well-looking. Her brown hair was plainly worn, without a cap, and +the expression of her face was, I thought, one of sweetness and humility, +contradicted in some degree by rather harsh lines about the mouth, +denoting strong will and purpose. As a proof of the existence of this +last characteristic, I may here mention that, when her first overweening +confidence had yielded to doubt, she, although dotingly fond of her +nephew, at this time about eight years of age, firmly refused to see him, +"in order," she once said to me--and the thought brought a deadly pallor +to her face--in order that, should the worst befall, her memory might +not be involuntarily connected in his mind with images of dungeons, and +disgrace, and shame. Jane Eccles had received what is called in the +country, "a good schooling," and the books Mrs. Davies had lent her she +had eagerly perused. She was therefore to a certain extent a cultivated +person; and her speech and manners were mild, gentle, and, so to speak, +religious. I generally found, when I visited her, a Bible or prayer-book +in her hand. This, however, from my experience, comparatively slight +though it was, did not much impress me in her favor--devotional sentiment +so easily, for a brief time, assumed, being in nine such cases out of ten +a hypocritical deceit. Still she, upon the whole, made a decidedly +favorable impression on me, and I no longer so much wondered at the +bigotry of unbelief manifested by Mrs. Davies in behalf of her apparently +amiable and grateful protégée. + +But beyond the moral doubt thus suggested of the prisoner's guilt, my +interviews with her utterly failed to extract anything from her in +rebutment of the charge upon which she was about to be arraigned. At +first she persisted in asserting that the prosecution was based upon +manifest error; that the impounded notes, instead of being forged, were +genuine Bank-of-England paper. It was some time before I succeeded in +convincing her that this hope, to which she so eagerly, desperately +clung, was a fallacious one. I did so at last; and either, thought I, as +I marked her varying color and faltering voice, "either you are a +consummate actress, or else the victim of some frightful delusion or +conspiracy." + +"I will see you, if you please, to-morrow," she said, looking up from the +chair upon which, with her head bowed and her face covered with her +hands, she had been seated for several minutes in silence. "My thoughts +are confused now, but to-morrow I shall be more composed; better able to +decide if--to talk, I mean, of this unhappy business." + +I thought it better to comply without remonstrance, and at once +took my leave. + +When I returned the next afternoon, the governor of the prison informed +me that the brother of my client, James Eccles, quite a dashing +gentleman, had had a long interview with her. He had left about two hours +before, with the intention, he said, of calling upon me. + +I was conducted to the room where my conferences with the prisoner +usually took place. In a few minutes she appeared, much flushed and +excited, it seemed to be alternately with trembling joy and hope, and +doubt, and nervous fear. + +"Well," I said, "I trust you are now ready to give me your unreserved +confidence, without which, be assured, that any reasonable hope of a +successful issue from the peril in which you are involved is out of the +question." + +The varying emotions I have noticed were clearly traceable as they swept +over her tell-tale countenance during the minute or so that elapsed +before she spoke. + +"Tell me candidly, sir," she said at last, "whether, if I owned to you +that the notes were given to me by a--a person, whom I cannot, if I +would, produce, to purchase various articles at different shops, and +return him--the person I mean--the change; and that I made oath this was +done by me in all innocence of heart, as the God of heaven and earth +truly knows it was, it would avail me?" + +"Not in the least," I replied, angry at such trifling. "How can you ask +such a question? We must _find_ the person who, you intimate, has +deceived you, and placed your life in peril; and if that can be proved, +hang him instead of you. I speak plainly, Miss Eccles," I added in a +milder tone; "perhaps you may think unfeelingly, but there is no further +time for playing with this dangerous matter. To-morrow a true bill will +be found against you, and your trial may then come on immediately. If you +are careless for yourself, you ought to have some thought for the +sufferings of your excellent friend, Mrs. Davies; for your nephew, soon +perhaps to be left friendless and destitute." + +"Oh spare me--spare me!" sobbed the unhappy young woman, sinking +nervelessly into a seat. "Have pity upon me, wretched, bewildered as I +am!" Tears relieved her, and after awhile, she said, "It is useless, sir, +to prolong this interview. I could not, I solemnly assure you, if I +would, tell you where to search for or find the person of whom I spoke. +And," she added, whilst the lines about her mouth of which I have spoken, +grew distinct and rigid, "I would not if I could. What indeed would it, +as I have been told and believe, avail, but to cause the death of two +deceived innocent persons instead of one? Besides," she continued, trying +to speak with firmness, and repress the shudder which crept over and +shook her as with ague--"besides, whatever the verdict, the penalty will +not, cannot, I am sure, I know, be--be"-- + +I understood her plainly enough, although her resolution failed to +sustain her through the sentence. + +"Who is this brother--James Eccles, he calls himself--whom you saw at the +police-office, and who has twice been here, I understand--once to-day?" + +A quick start revealed the emotion with which she heard the question, +and her dilated eyes rested upon me for a moment with eager scrutiny. +She speedily recovered her presence of mind, and with her eyes again +fixed on the floor, said in a quivering voice, "My brother! Yes--as you +say--my brother." + +"Mrs. Davies says you have no brother!" I sharply rejoined. + +"Good Mrs. Davies," she replied in a tone scarcely above a whisper, and +without raising her head, "does not know all our family." + +A subterfuge was, I was confident, concealed in these words; but after +again and again urging her to confide in me, and finding warning and +persuasion alike useless, I withdrew, discomfited and angry, and withal +as much concerned and grieved as baffled and indignant. On going out, I +arranged with the governor that the "brother," if he again made his +appearance, should be detained, _bongré malgré_, till my arrival. Our +precaution was too late--he did not reappear; and so little notice had +any one taken of his person, that to advertise a description of him with +a reward for his apprehension was hopeless. + +A true bill was found, and two hours afterwards Jane Eccles was placed in +the dock. The trial did not last more than twenty minutes, at the end of +which, an unhesitating verdict of guilty was returned, and she was duly +sentenced to be hanged by the neck till she was dead. We had retained the +ablest counsel practicing in the court, but, with no tangible defence, +their efforts were merely thrown away. Upon being asked what she had to +say why the sentence of the law should not be carried into effect? she +repeated her previous statement--that the notes had been given her to +change by a person in whom she reposed the utmost confidence; and that +she had not the slightest thought of evil or fraud in what she did. That +person, however, she repeated once more, could not be produced. Her +assertions only excited a derisive smile; and all necessary forms having +been gone through, she was removed from the bar. + +The unhappy woman bore the ordeal through which she had just passed with +much firmness. Once only, whilst sentence was being passed, her +high-strung resolution appeared to falter and give way. I was watching +her intently, and I observed that she suddenly directed a piercing look +towards a distant part of the crowded court. In a moment her eye +lightened, the expression of extreme horror which had momently darkened +her countenance passed away, and her partial composure returned. I had +instinctively, as it were, followed her glance, and thought I detected a +tall man enveloped in a cloak engaged in dumb momentary communication +with her. I jumped up from my seat, and hastened as quickly as I could +through the thronged passages to the spot, and looked eagerly around, but +the man, whosoever he might be, was gone. + +The next act in this sad drama was the decision of the Privy Council upon +the recorder's report. It came. Several were reprieved, but amongst them +was _not_ Jane Eccles. She and nine others were to perish at eight +o'clock on the following morning. + +The anxiety and worry inseparable from this most unhappy affair, which, +from Mr. Flint's protracted absence, I had exclusively to bear, fairly +knocked me up, and on the evening of the day on which the decision of the +Council was received, I went to bed much earlier than usual, and really +ill. Sleep I could not, and I was tossing restlessly about, vainly +endeavoring to banish from my mind the gloomy and terrible images +connected with the wretched girl and her swiftly-coming fate, when a +quick tap sounded on the door, and a servant's voice announced that one +of the clerks had brought a letter which the superscription directed to +be read without a moment's delay. I sprang out of bed, snatched the +letter, and eagerly ran it over. It was from the Newgate chaplain, a very +worthy, humane gentleman, and stated that, on hearing the result of the +deliberations of the Privy Council, all the previous stoicism and +fortitude exhibited by Jane Eccles had completely given way, and she had +abandoned herself to the wildest terror and despair. As soon as she could +speak coherently, she implored the governor with frantic earnestness to +send for me. As this was not only quite useless in the opinion of that +official, but against the rules, the prisoner's request was not complied +with. The chaplain, however, thinking it might be as well that I should +know of her desire to see me, had of his own accord sent me this note. He +thought that possibly the sheriffs would permit me to have a brief +interview with the condemned prisoner in the morning, if I arrived +sufficiently early; and although it could avail nothing as regarded her +fate in this world, still it might perhaps calm the frightful tumult of +emotion by which she was at present tossed and shaken, and enable her to +meet the inevitable hour with fortitude and resignation. + +It was useless to return to bed after receiving such a communication, +and I forthwith dressed myself, determined to sit up and read, if I +could, till the hour at which I might hope to be admitted to the jail, +should strike. Slowly and heavily the dark night limped away, and as the +first rays of the cold wintry dawn reached the earth, I sallied forth. A +dense, brutal crowd were already assembled in front of the prison, and +hundreds of well-dressed sight-seers occupied the opposite windows, +morbidly eager for the rising of the curtain upon the mournful tragedy +about to be enacted. I obtained admission without much difficulty, but, +till the arrival of the sheriffs, no conference with the condemned +prisoners could be possibly permitted. Those important functionaries +happened on this morning to arrive unusually late, and I paced up and +down the paved corridor in a fever of impatience and anxiety. They were +at last announced, but before I could, in the hurry and confusion, +obtain speech of either of them, the dismal bell tolled out, and I felt +with a shudder that it was no longer possible to effect my object. +"Perhaps it is better so," observed the reverend chaplain, in a whisper. +"She has been more composed for the last two or three hours, and is now, +I trust, in a better frame of mind for death." I turned, sick at heart, +to leave the place, and in my agitation missing the right way, came +directly in view of the terrible procession. Jane Eccles saw me, and a +terrific scream, followed by frantic heart-rending appeals to me to save +her, burst with convulsive effort from her white quivering lips. Never +will the horror of that moment pass from my remembrance. I staggered +back, as if every spasmodic word struck me like a blow; and then, +directed by one of the turnkeys, sped in an opposite direction as fast +as my trembling limbs could carry me--the shrieks of the wretched +victim, the tolling of the dreadful bell, and the obscene jeers and +mocks of the foul crowd through which I had to force my way, evoking a +confused tumult of disgust and horror in my brain, which, if long +continued, would have driven me mad. On reaching home, I was bled +freely, and got to bed. This treatment, I have no doubt, prevented a +violent access of fever; for, as it was, several days passed before I +could be safely permitted to re-engage in business. + +On revisiting the office, a fragment of a letter written by Jane Eccles +a few hours previous to her death, and evidently addressed to Mrs. +Davies, was placed by Mr. Flint, who had by this time returned, before +me. The following is an exact copy of it, with the exception that the +intervals which I have marked with dots,.... were filled with erasures +and blots, and that every word seemed to have been traced by a hand +smitten with palsy:-- + +"From my Death-place, _Midnight._ + +"Dear Madam--No, beloved friend--mother, let me call you.... Oh kind, +gentle mother, I am to die ... to be killed in a few hours by cruel +men!--I, so young, so unprepared for death, and yet guiltless! Oh never +doubt that I am guiltless of the offence for which they will have the +heart to hang me.... Nobody, they say, can save me now; yet if I could +see the lawyer.... I have been deceived, cruelly deceived, madam--buoyed +up by lying hopes, till just now the thunder burst, and I--oh God!.... As +they spoke, the fearful chapter in the Testament came bodily before +me--the rending of the vail in twain, the terrible darkness, and the +opened graves!.... I did not write for this, but my brain aches and +dazzles.... It is too late--too late, they all tell me! ... Ah, if these +dreadful laws were not so swift, I might yet--but no; _he_ clearly proved +to me how useless.... I must not think of that.... It is of my nephew, of +your Henry, child of my affections, that I would speak. Oh, would that +I.... But hark!--they are coming.... The day has dawned ... to me the day +of judgment!...." + +This incoherent scrawl only confirmed my previous suspicions, but it was +useless to dwell further on the melancholy subject. The great axe had +fallen, and whether justly or unjustly, would, I feared, as in many, very +many other cases, never be clearly ascertained in this world. I was +mistaken. Another case of "uttering forged Bank-of-England notes, knowing +them to be forged," which came under our cognizance a few months +afterwards, revived the fading memory of Jane Eccles's early doom, and +cleared up every obscurity connected with it. + +The offender in this new case, was a tall, dark-complexioned, handsome +man, of about thirty years of age, of the name of Justin Arnold. His lady +mother, whose real name I shall conceal under that of Barton, retained us +for her son's defence, and from her, and other sources, we learned the +following particulars:-- + +Justin Arnold was the lady's son by a former marriage. Mrs. Barton, a +still splendid woman, had, in second nuptials, espoused a very wealthy +person, and from time to time had covertly supplied Justin Arnold's +extravagance. This, however, from the wild course the young man pursued, +could not be forever continued, and after many warnings the supplies were +stopped. Incapable of reformation, Justin Arnold, in order to obtain the +means of dissipation, connected himself with a cleverly-organized band of +swindlers and forgers, who so adroitly managed their nefarious business, +that, till his capture, they had contrived to keep themselves clear of +the law--the inferior tools and dupes having been alone caught in its +fatal meshes. The defence, under these circumstances necessarily a +difficult, almost impossible one, was undertaken by Mr. Flint, and +conducted by him with his accustomed skill and energy. + +I took a very slight interest in the matter, and heard very little +concerning it till its judicial conclusion by the conviction of the +offender, and his condemnation to death. The decision on the +recorder's report was this time communicated to the authorities of +Newgate on a Saturday, so that the batch ordered for execution, +amongst whom was Justin Arnold, would not be hanged till the Monday +morning. Rather late in the evening a note once more reached me from +the chaplain of the prison. Justin Arnold wished to see me--_me_, not +Mr. Flint. He had something of importance to communicate, he said, +relative to a person in whom I had once felt great interest. It +flashed across me that this Justin might be the "brother" of Jane +Eccles, and I determined to see him. I immediately sought out one of +the sheriffs, and obtained an order empowering me to see the prisoner +on the afternoon of the morrow, (Sunday). + +I found that the convict had expressed great anxiety lest I should +decline to see him. My hoped-for visit was the only matter which +appeared to occupy the mind or excite the care of the mocking, +desperate young man; even the early and shameful termination of his own +life on the morrow, he seemed to be utterly reckless of. Thus prepared, +I was the less surprised at the scene which awaited me in the +prisoner's cell, where I found him in angry altercation with the pale +and affrighted chaplain. + +I had never seen Justin Arnold before, this I was convinced of the +instant I saw him; but he knew and greeted me instantly by name. His +swarthy, excited features were flushed and angry; and after briefly +thanking me for complying with his wishes, he added in a violent rapid +tone, "This good man has been teasing me. He says, and truly, that I have +defied God by my life; and now he wishes me to mock that inscrutable +Being, on the eve of death, by words without sense, meaning, or truth!" + +"No, no, no!" ejaculated the reverend gentleman. "I exhorted you to true +repentance, to peace, charity, to"-- + +"True repentance, peace, charity!" broke in the prisoner, with a scornful +burst; "when my heart is full of rage, and bitterness, and despair! Give +me _time_ for this repentance which you say is so needful--time to lure +back long since banished hope, and peace, and faith! Poh!--you but flout +me with words without meaning. I am unfit, you say, for the presence of +men, but quite fit for that of God, before whom you are about to +arrogantly cast me! Be it so--my deeds are upon my head! It is at least +not my fault that I am hurled to judgment before the Eternal Judge +himself commanded my presence there!" + +"He may be unworthy to live," murmured the scared chaplain, "but oh, how +utterly unfit to die!" + +"That is true," rejoined Justin Arnold, with undiminished vehemence. +"Those, if you will, are words of truth and sense--go you and preach them +to the makers and executioners of English law. In the meantime I would +speak privately with this gentleman." + +The reverend pastor, with a mute gesture of compassion, sorrow, and +regret, was about to leave the cell, when he was stayed by the prisoner, +who exclaimed, "Now, I think of it, you had better, sir, remain. The +statement I am about to make cannot, for the sake of the victim's +reputation, and for her friends' sake, have too many witnesses. You both +remember Jane Eccles?" A broken exclamation from both of us answered him, +and he quickly added--"Ah, you already guess the truth, I see. Well, I do +not wonder you should start and turn pale. It _was_ a cruel, shameless +deed--a dastardly murder if there was ever one. In as few words as +possible, so you interrupt me not, I will relate _my_ share in the +atrocious business." He spoke rapidly, and once or twice during the brief +recital, the moistened eye and husky voice betrayed emotions which his +pride would have concealed. + +"Jane and I were born in Hertfordshire, within a short distance of each +other. I knew her from a child. She was better off then, I worse than we +subsequently became--she by her father's bankruptcy, I by my mo--, by +Mrs. Barton's wealthy marriage. She was about nineteen, I twenty-four, +when I left the country for London. That she loved me with all the +fervor of a trusting woman I well knew; and I had, too, for some time +known that she must be either honorably wooed or not at all. That with +me, was out of the question, and, as I told you, I came about that time +to London. You can, I dare say, imagine the rest. We were--I and my +friends, I mean--at a loss for agents to dispose of our wares, and at the +same time pressed for money. I met Jane Eccles by accident. Genteel, of +graceful address and winning manners, she was just fitted for our +purpose. I feigned re-awakened love, proffered marriage, and a home +across the Atlantic, as soon as certain trifling but troublesome affairs +which momently harassed me were arranged. She believed me. I got her to +change a considerable number of notes under various pretexts, but that +they were forged she had not and could not have the remotest suspicion. +You know the catastrophe. After her apprehension I visited this prison as +her brother, and buoyed her up to the last with illusions of certain +pardon and release, whatever the verdict, through the influence of my +wealthy father-in-law, of our immediate union afterwards, and tranquil +American home. It is needless to say more. She trusted me, and I +sacrificed her; less flagrant instances of a like nature occur every day. +And now, gentlemen, I would fain be alone." + +"Remorseless villain!" I could not help exclaiming under my breath as he +moved away. + +He turned quickly back, and looking me in the face, without the slightest +anger, said, "An execrable villain if you like--not a remorseless one! +Her death alone sits near, and troubles my, to all else, hardened +conscience. And let me tell you, reverend sir," he continued, resuming +his former bitterness as he addressed the chaplain--"let me tell you that +it was not the solemn words of the judge the other day, but her pale, +reproachful image, standing suddenly beside me in the dock, just as she +looked when I passed my last deception on her, that caused the tremor and +affright, complacently attributed by that grave functionary to his own +sepulchral eloquence. After all, her death cannot be exclusively laid to +my charge. Those who tried her would not believe her story, and yet it +was true as death. Had they not been so confident in their own unerring +wisdom, they might have doomed her to some punishment short of the +scaffold, and could now have retrieved their error. But I am weary, and +would, I repeat, be alone. Farewell!" He threw himself on the rude +pallet, and we silently withdrew. + +A paper embodying Justin Arnold's declaration was forwarded to the +secretary of state, and duly acknowledged, accompanied by an official +expression of mild regret that it had not been made in time to save the +life of Jane Eccles. No further notice was taken of the matter, and the +record of the young woman's judicial sacrifice still doubtless encumbers +the archives of the Home Office, forming, with numerous others of like +character, the dark, sanguine background upon which the achievements of +the great and good men who have so successfully purged the old Draco code +that now a faint vestige only of the old barbarism remains, stands out in +bright relief and changeless lustre. + + + + +"EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER." + + +A smarter trader, a keener appreciator of the tendencies to a rise or +fall in colonial produce--sugars more especially--than John Linden, of +Mincing Lane, it would have been difficult to point out in the wide city +of London. He was not so immensely rich as many others engaged in the +same merchant-traffic as himself; nothing at all like it, indeed, for I +doubt that he could at any time have been esteemed worth more than from +eighty to ninety thousand pounds; but his transactions, although limited +in extent when compared with those of the mammoth colonial houses, almost +always returned more or less of profit; the result of his remarkable +keenness and sagacity in scenting hurricanes, black insurrections, and +emancipation bills, whilst yet inappreciable, or deemed afar off, by less +sensitive organizations. At least to this wonderful prescience of future +sugar-value did Mr. Linden himself attribute his rise in the world, and +gradual increase in rotundity, riches, and respectability. This constant +success engendered, as it is too apt to do, inordinate egotism, conceit, +self-esteem, vanity. There was scarcely a social, governmental, or +economical problem which he did not believe himself capable of solving as +easily as he could eat his dinner when hungry. "Common-sense +business-habits"--his favorite phrase--he believed to be quite sufficient +for the elucidation of the most difficult question in law, physic, or +divinity. The science of law, especially, he held to be an alphabet which +any man--of common sense and business habits--could as easily master as +he could count five on his fingers; and there was no end to his ridicule +of the men with horse-hair head-dresses, and their quirks, quiddits, +cases, tenures, and such-like devil's lingo. Lawyers, according to him, +were a set of thorough humbugs and impostors, who gained their living by +false pretence--that of affording advice and counsel, which every sane +man could better render himself. He was unmistakably mad upon this +subject, and he carried his insane theory into practice. He drew his own +leases, examined the titles of some house-property he purchased, and set +his hand and seal to the final deeds, guided only by his own common-sense +spectacles. Once he bid, at the Auction Mart, as high as fifty-three +thousand pounds for the Holmford estate, Herefordshire; and had he not +been outbidden by young Palliser, son of the then recently-deceased +eminent distiller, who was eager to obtain the property, with a view to a +seat in parliament which its possession was said to almost insure--he +would, I had not at the time the slightest doubt, have completed the +purchase, without for a moment dreaming of submitting the vender's title +to the scrutiny of a professional adviser. Mr. Linden, I should mention, +had been for some time desirous of resigning his business in Mincing Lane +to his son, Thomas Linden, the only child born to him by his long-since +deceased wife, and of retiring, an estated squire-arch, to the _otium +cum._, or _sine dignitate_, as the case might be, of a country life; and +this disposition had of late been much quickened by daily-increasing +apprehensions of negro emancipation and revolutionary interference with +differential duties--changes which, in conjunction with others of similar +character, would infallibly bring about that utter commercial ruin which +Mr. Linden, like every other rich and about-to-retire merchant or +tradesman whom I have ever known, constantly prophesied to be near at +hand and inevitable. + +With such a gentleman the firm of Flint & Sharp had only professional +interviews, when procrastinating or doubtful debtors required that he +should put on the screw--a process which, I have no doubt, he would +himself have confidently performed, but for the waste of valuable time +which doing so would necessarily involve. Both Flint and myself were, +however, privately intimate with him--Flint more especially, who had +known him from boyhood--and we frequently dined with him on a Sunday at +his little box at Fulham. Latterly, we had on these occasions met there a +Mrs. Arnold and her daughter Catherine--an apparently amiable, and +certainly very pretty and interesting young person--to whom, Mr. Linden +confidentially informed us, his son Tom had been for some time engaged. + +"I don't know much about her family," observed Mr. Linden one day, in the +course of a gossip at the office, "but she moves in very respectable +society. Tom met her at the Slades'; but I _do_ know she has something +like thirty-five thousand pounds in the funds. The instant I was informed +how matters stood with the young folk, I, as a matter of common sense and +business, asked the mother, Mrs. Arnold, for a reference to her banker or +solicitor--there being no doubt that a woman and a minor would be in +lawyers' leading-strings--and she referred me to Messrs. Dobson of +Chancery Lane. You know the Dobsons?" + +"Perfectly,--what was the reply?" + +"That Catherine Arnold, when she came of age--it wants but a very short +time of that now--would be entitled to the capital of thirty-four +thousand seven hundred pounds, bequeathed by an uncle, and now lodged in +the funds in the names of the trustees, Crowther & Jenkins, of Leadenhall +Street, by whom the interest on that sum was regularly paid, +half-yearly, through the Messrs. Dobson, for the maintenance and +education of the heiress. A common-sense, business-like letter in every +respect, and extremely satisfactory; and as soon as he pleases, after +Catherine Arnold comes of age, and into actual possession of her fortune, +Tom may have her, with my blessing over the bargain." + +I dined at Laurel Villa, Fulham, about two months after this +conversation, and Linden and I found ourselves alone over the +dessert--the young people having gone out for a stroll, attracted +doubtless by the gay aspect of the Thames, which flows past the miniature +grounds attached to the villa. Never had I seen Mr. Linden in so gay, so +mirthful a mood. + +"Pass the decanter," he exclaimed, the instant the door had closed upon +Tom and his _fiancée_. "Pass the decanter, Sharp; I have news for you, my +boy, now they are gone." + +"Indeed! and what may the news be?" + +"Fill a bumper for yourself, and I'll give you a toast. Here's to the +health and prosperity of the proprietor of the Holmford estate; and may +he live a thousand years, and one over!--Hip--hip--hurra!" + +He swallowed his glass of wine, and then, in his intensity of glee, +laughed himself purple. + +"You needn't stare so," he said, as soon as he had partially recovered +breath; "I am the proprietor of the Holmford property--bought it for +fifty-six thousand pounds of that young scant-grace and spendthrift, +Palliser--fifteen thousand pounds less than what it cost him, with the +outlay he has made upon it. Signed, sealed, delivered, paid for +yesterday. Ha! ha! ho! Leave John Linden alone for a bargain! It's worth +seventy thousand pounds if it's worth a shilling. I say," continued he, +after a renewed spasm of exuberant mirth, "not a word about it to +anybody--mind! I promised Palliser, who is quietly packing up to be off +to Italy, or Australia, or Constantinople, or the devil--all of them, +perhaps, in succession--not to mention a word about it till he was well +off--you understand? Ha! ha!--ho! ho!" again burst out Mr. Linden. "I +pity the poor creditors though! Bless you! I shouldn't have had it at +anything like the price, only for his knowing that I was not likely to be +running about exposing the affair, by asking lawyers whether an estate in +a family's possession, as this was in Dursley's for three hundred years, +had a good title or not. So be careful not to drop a word, even to +Tom--for my honor's sake. A delicious bargain, and no mistake! Worth, if +a penny, seventy thousand pounds. Ha! ha!--ho! ho!" + +"Then you have really parted with that enormous sum of money without +having had the title to the estate professionally examined?" + +"Title! Fiddlestick! I looked over the deeds myself. Besides, haven't I +told you the ancestors of Dursley, from whose executors Palliser +purchased the estate, were in possession of it for centuries. What better +title than prescription can there be?" + +"That may be true enough; but still"-- + +"I ought, you think, to have risked losing the bargain by delay, and have +squandered time and money upon fellows in horse-hair wigs, in order to +ascertain what I sufficiently well knew already? Pooh! I am not in my +second childhood yet!" + +It was useless to argue with him; besides the mischief, if mischief there +was, had been done, and the not long-delayed entrance of the young couple +necessitating a change of topic, I innocently inquired what he thought of +the Negro Emancipation Bill which Mr. Stanley, as the organ of the +ministry, had introduced a few evenings previously? and was rewarded by a +perfect deluge of loquacious indignation and invective--during a pause in +which hurly-burly of angry words I contrived to effect my escape. + +"Crowther & Jenkins!" exclaimed one morning, Mr. Flint, looking up from +the "Times" newspaper he held in his hand. "Crowther & Jenkins!--what is +it we know about Crowther & Jenkins?" + +The question was addressed to me, and I, like my partner, could not at +the moment precisely recall why those names sounded upon our ears with a +certain degree of interest as well as familiarity. "Crowther & Jenkins!" +I echoed. "True; what _do_ we know about Crowther & Jenkins? Oh, I have +it!--they are the executors of a will under which young Linden's pretty +bride, that is to be, inherits her fortune." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Flint, as he put down the paper, and looked me +gravely in the face--"I remember now; their names are in the list of +bankrupts. A failure in the gambling corn-trade too. I hope they have not +been speculating with the young woman's money." + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Mr. Linden was announced, +and presently in walked that gentleman in a state of considerable +excitement. + +"I told you," he began, "some time ago about Crowther & Jenkins being the +persons in whose names Catherine Arnold's money stood in the funds?" + +"Yes," replied Flint; "and I see by the 'Gazette' they are bankrupts, +and, by your face, that they have speculated with your intended +daughter-in-law's money, and lost it!" + +"Positively so!" rejoined Mr. Linden, with great heat. "Drew it out many +months ago! But they have exceedingly wealthy connections--at least +Crowther has--who will, I suppose, arrange Miss Arnold's claim rather +than their relative should be arraigned for felony." + +"Felony!--you are mistaken, my good sir. There is no felony--no _legal_ +felony, I mean--in the matter. Miss Arnold can only prove against the +estate like any other creditor." + +"The devil she can't! Tom, then, must look out for another wife, for I am +credibly informed there won't be a shilling in the pound." + +And so it turned out. The great corn-firm had been insolvent for years; +and after speculating desperately, and to a frightful extent, with a view +to recover themselves, had failed to an enormous amount--their assets, +comparatively speaking, proving to be _nil_. + +The ruin spread around, chiefly on account of the vast quantity of +accommodation-paper they had afloat, was terrible; but upon no one did +the blow fall with greater severity than on young Linden and his promised +wife. His father ordered him to instantly break off all acquaintance with +Miss Arnold; and on the son, who was deeply attached to her, peremptorily +refusing to do so, Linden, senior, threatened to turn him out of doors, +and ultimately disinherit him. Angry, indignant, and in love, Thomas +Linden did a very rash and foolish thing; he persuaded Catherine Arnold +to consent to a private marriage, arguing that if the indissoluble knot +were once fairly tied, his father would, as a matter of course--he being +an only child--become reconciled to what he could no longer hope to +prevent or remedy. + +The imprudent young man deceived both himself and her who trusted in his +pleasing plausibilities. Ten minutes after he had disclosed the marriage +to his father, he was turned, almost penniless, out of doors; and the +exasperated and inexorable old man refused to listen to any +representation in his favor, by whomsoever proffered, and finally, even +to permit the mention of his name in his hearing. + +"It's of no use," said Mr. Flint, on returning for the last time, from a +mission undertaken to extort, if possible, some provision against +absolute starvation for the newly-wedded couple. "He is as cold and hard +as adamant, and I think, if possible, even more of a tiger than before. +He will be here presently to give instructions for his will." + +"His will! Surely he will draw that up himself after his own +common-sense, business fashion?" + +"He would unquestionably have done so a short time since; but some events +that have lately occurred have considerably shaken his estimate of his +own infallibility, and he is, moreover, determined, he says, that there +shall be no mistake as to effectually disinheriting his son. He has made +two or three heavy losses, and his mind is altogether in a very cankered, +distempered state." + +Mr. Linden called, as he had promised to do, and gave us the written +heads of a will which he desired to have at once formally drawn up. By +this instrument he devised the Holmford estate, and all other property, +real and personal, of which he might die possessed, to certain charitable +institutions, in varying proportions, payable as soon after his death as +the property could be turned into money. "The statute of mortmain does +not give me much uneasiness," remarked the vindictive old man with a +bitter smile. "I shall last some time yet. I would have left it all to +you, Flint," he added, "only that I knew you would defeat my purpose by +giving it back to that disobedient, ungrateful, worthless boy." + +"Do leave it to me," rejoined Mr. Flint, with grave emphasis, "and I +promise you faithfully this--that the wish respecting it, whatever it may +be, which trembles on your lip as you are about to leave this world for +another, and when it may be too late to formally revoke the testament you +now propose, shall be strictly carried out. That time cannot be a very +distant one, John Linden, for a man whose hair is white as yours." + +It was preaching to the winds. He was deaf, blind, mute, to every attempt +at changing his resolve. The will was drawn in accordance with his +peremptorily-iterated instructions, and duly signed, sealed, and +attested. Not very long afterwards, Mr. Linden disposed of his business +in Mincing Lane, and retired to Holmford, but with nothing like the +money-fortune he had once calculated upon, the losses alluded to by Mr. +Flint, and followed by others, having considerably diminished his wealth. + +We ultimately obtained a respectable and remunerative situation for +Thomas Linden in a mercantile house at Belfast, with which we were +professionally acquainted, and after securing berths in the _Erin_ +steamer, he, with his wife and mother-in-law, came, with a kind of +hopeful sadness in their looks and voices, to bid us farewell--for a very +long time, they and we also feared-- + +For an eternity, it seemed, on reading the account of the loss of the +_Erin_, a few days afterwards, with every soul on board! Their names were +published with those of the other passengers who had embarked, and we had +of course concluded that they had perished, when a letter reached us from +Belfast, stating that, through some delay on the part of Mrs. Arnold, +they had happily lost their passage in the _Erin_, and embarked in the +next steamer for Belfast, where they arrived in perfect safety. We +forwarded this intelligence to Holmford, but it elicited no reply. + +We heard nothing of Mr. Linden for about two months, except by +occasional notices in the "Hereford Times", which he regularly forwarded +to the office, relative to the improvements on the Holmford estate, +either actually begun or contemplated by its new proprietor. He very +suddenly reappeared. I was cooling my heels in the waiting-room of the +chambers of the Barons of the Exchequer, Chancery Lane, awaiting my turn +of admission, when one of our clerks came in, half-breathless with haste. +"You are wanted, sir, immediately; Mr. Flint is out, and Mr. Linden is at +the office raving like a mad-man." I instantly transferred the business I +was in attendance at chambers upon, to the clerk, and with the help of a +cab soon reached home. + +Mr. Linden was not _raving_ when I arrived. The violence of the paroxysm +of rage and terror by which he was possessed had passed away, and he +looked, as I entered, the image of pale, rigid, iron, dumb despair. He +held a letter and a strip of parchment in his hand; these he presented, +and with white, stammering lips, bade me read. The letter was from an +attorney of the name of Sawbridge, giving notice of an action of +ejectment, to oust him from the possession of the Holmford estate, the +property, according to Mr. Sawbridge, of one Edwin Majoribanks; and the +strip of parchment was the writ by which the letter had been quickly +followed. I was astounded; and my scared looks questioned Mr. Linden for +further information. + +"I do not quite understand it," he said in a hoarse, palpitating voice. +"No possession or title in the venders; a niece not of age--executors no +power to sell--Palliser discovered it, robbed me, absconded, and I, oh +God! am a miserable beggar!" + +The last words were uttered with a convulsive scream, and after a few +frightful struggles he fell down in a fit. I had him conveyed to bed, +and as soon as he was somewhat recovered, I hastened off to ascertain +from Sawbridge, whom I knew very intimately, the nature of the claim +intended to be set up for the plaintiff, Edwin Majoribanks. + +I met Sawbridge just as he was leaving his office, and as he was in too +great a hurry to turn back, I walked along with him, and he rapidly +detailed the chief facts about to be embodied in the plaintiff's +declaration. Archibald Dursley, once a London merchant, and who died a +bachelor, had bequeathed his estate, real and personal, to his brother +Charles, and a niece, his sister's child--two-thirds to the niece, and +one-third to the brother. The Holmford property, the will directed, +should be sold by public auction when the niece came of age, unless she, +by marriage or otherwise, was enabled, within six months after attaining +her majority, to pay over to Charles Dursley his third in money, +according to a valuation made for the purpose by competent assessors. The +brother, Charles Dursley, had urged upon the executors to anticipate the +time directed by the will for the sale of the property; and having +persuaded the niece to give a written authorization for the immediate +sale, the executors, chiefly, Sawbridge supposed, prompted by their own +necessities, sold the estate accordingly. But the niece not being of age +when she signed the authority to sell, her consent was of no legal value; +and she having since died intestate, Edwin Majoribanks, her cousin and +undoubted heir-at-law--for the property could not have passed from her, +even by marriage--now claimed the estate. Charles Dursley, the brother, +was dead; "and," continued Mr. Sawbridge, "the worst of it is, Linden +will never get a farthing of his purchase-money from the venders, for +they are bankrupt, nor from Palliser, who has made permanent arrangements +for continuing abroad, out of harm's reach. It is just as I tell you," +he added, as we shook hands at parting; "but you will of course see the +will, and satisfy yourself. Good-by." + +Here was a precious result of amateur common-sense lawyership! Linden +could only have examined the abstract of title furnished him by +Palliser's attorney, and not the right of Dursley's executors to sell; or +had not been aware that the niece could not during her minority, +subscribe an effective legal consent. + +I found Mr. Flint at the office, and quickly imparted the astounding +news. He was as much taken aback as myself. + +"The obstinate, pig-headed old ass!" he exclaimed; "it almost serves him +right, if only for his Tom-fool nonsense of 'Every man his own lawyer.' +What did you say was the niece's name?" + +"Well, I don't remember that Sawbridge told me--he was in such a hurry; +but suppose you go at once and look over the will?" + +"True: I will do so;" and away he went. + +"This is a very singular affair, Sharp," said Mr. Flint on his return +from Doctors' Commons, at the same time composedly seating himself, +hooking his thumbs into the arm-holes of his waistcoat, crossing his +legs, and tilting his chair back on its hind legs. "A very singular +affair. Whom, in the name of the god of thieves--Mercury, wasn't he +called?--do you suppose the bankrupt executors to be? No other," +continued Mr. Flint with a sudden burst, "than Crowther & Jenkins!" + +"The devil!--and the niece then is"-- + +"Catherine Arnold--Tom Linden's wife--supposed to have been drowned in +the _Erin_! That's check-mate, I rather fancy--not only to Mr. Edwin +Majoribanks, but some one else we know of. The old fellow up stairs +won't refuse to acknowledge his daughter-in-law now, I fancy!" + +This was indeed a happy change in the fortunes of the House of Linden; +and we discussed, with much alacrity, the best mode of turning +disclosures so momentous and surprising to the best account. As a first +step, a letter with an inclosure, was dispatched to Belfast, requiring +the return of Thomas Linden and family immediately; and the next was to +plead in form to the action. This done, we awaited Catherine Linden's +arrival in London, and Mr. Linden senior's convalescence--for his mental +agitation had resulted in a sharp fit of illness--to effect a +satisfactory and just arrangement. + +Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Linden and Mrs. Arnold arrived by the earliest +steamer that left Belfast after the receipt of our letter; and much +astonished were they by the intelligence that awaited them. Catherine +Linden was for confirming the validity of the sale of the Holmford estate +by her now authoritative consent at once, as a mere act of common justice +and good faith; but this, looking at the total loss of fortune she had +sustained by the knavery of the executors, and the obstinate, mulish +temper of the father-in-law, from whom she had already received such +harsh treatment, could not for a moment be permitted; and it was finally +resolved to take advantage of the legal position in which she stood, to +enforce a due present provision for herself and husband, and their +ultimate succession to the estate. + +John Linden gradually recovered; and as soon as it was deemed prudent to +do so, we informed him that the niece was not dead, as the plaintiff in +the action of ejectment had supposed, and that of course, if she could +now be persuaded to ratify the imperative consent she had formerly +subscribed, he might retain Holmford. At first he received the +intelligence as a gleam of light and hope, but he soon relapsed into +doubt and gloom. "What chance was there," he hopelessly argued, "that, +holding the legal power, she would not exercise it?" It was not, he said, +in human nature to do otherwise; and he commissioned us to make liberal +offers for a compromise. Half--he would be content to lose half his +purchase-money; even a greater sacrifice than that he would agree +to--anything, indeed, that would not be utter ruin--that did not involve +utter beggary and destitution in old age. + +Three days after this conversation, I announced to him that the lady and +her husband were below and desirous of seeing him. + +"What do they say?" he eagerly demanded. "Will they accept of +half--two-thirds? What do they say?" + +"I cannot precisely tell you. They wish to see you alone, and you can +urge your own views and offers." He trembled violently, and shrank +nervously back as I placed my hand on the door-handle of the private +office. He presently recovered in some degree his self-possession, passed +in, and I withdrew from the humiliating, but salutary spectacle, of +obdurate tyrant-power compelled to humble itself before those whom it had +previously scorned and trampled upon. + +The legal arrangements which Flint and I had suggested were effected, and +Linden, senior, accompanied by his son, daughter-in-law, and Mrs. Arnold, +set off in restored amity for Holmford House. Edwin Majoribanks abandoned +his action, and Palliser, finding that matters were satisfactorily +arranged, retired to England. We afterwards knew that he had discovered +the defect of title, on applying to a well-known conveyancer, to raise a +considerable sum by way of mortgage, and that his first step was to +threaten legal proceedings against Crowther & Jenkins for the recovery of +his money; but a hint he obtained of the futility of proceedings against +them, determined him to offer the estate at a low figure to Linden, +relying upon that gentleman's ostentatious contempt of lawyers that the +blot in the title, subjected only to his own common-sense spectacles, +would not be perceived. + + + + +THE CHEST OF DRAWERS. + + +I am about to relate a rather curious piece of domestic history, some +of the incidents of which, revealed at the time of their occurrence in +contemporary law reports, may be in the remembrance of many readers. It +took place in one of the midland counties, and at a place which I shall +call Watley; the names of the chief actors who figured in it must also, +to spare their modesty of their blushes, as the case may be, be +changed; and should one of those persons, spite of these precautions, +apprehend unpleasant recognition, he will be able to console himself +with the reflection, that all I state beyond that which may be gathered +from the records of the law courts will be generally ascribed to the +fancy or invention of the writer. And it is as well, perhaps, that it +should be so. + +Caleb Jennings, a shoemaker, cobler, snob--using the last word in its +genuine classical sense, and by no means according to the modern +interpretation by which it is held to signify a genteel sneak or +pretender--he was anything but that--occupied, some twelve or thirteen +years ago, a stall at Watley, which, according to the traditions of the +place, had been hereditary in his family for several generations. He may +also be said to have flourished there, after the manner of cobblers; for +this, it must be remembered, was in the good old times, before the +gutta-percha revolution had carried ruin and dismay into the +stalls--those of cobblers--which in considerable numbers existed +throughout the kingdom. Like all his fraternity whom I have ever fallen +in with or heard of, Caleb was a sturdy radical of the Major Cartwright +and Henry Hunt school; and being withal industrious, tolerably skillful, +not inordinately prone to the observance of Saint Mondays, possessed, +moreover, of a neatly-furnished sleeping and eating apartment in the +house of which the projecting first floor, supported on stone pillars, +over-shadowed his humble work-place, he vaunted himself to be as really +rich as an estated squire, and far more independent. + +There was some truth in this boast, as the case which procured us the +honor of Mr. Jennings's acquaintance sufficiently proved. We were +employed to bring an action against a wealthy gentleman of the vicinity +of Watley for a brutal and unprovoked assault he had committed, when in a +state of partial inebriety, upon a respectable London tradesman who had +visited the place on business. On the day of trial our witnesses appeared +to have become suddenly afflicted with an almost total loss of memory; +and we were only saved from an adverse verdict by the plain, +straight-forward evidence of Caleb, upon whose sturdy nature the various +arts which soften or neutralize hostile evidence had been tried in vain. +Mr. Flint, who personally superintended the case, took quite a liking to +the man; and it thus happened that we were called upon sometime +afterwards to aid the said Caleb in extricating himself from the +extraordinary and perplexing difficulty in which he suddenly and +unwittingly found himself involved. + +The projecting first floor of the house beneath which the humble +work-shop of Caleb Jennings modestly disclosed itself, had been occupied +for many years by an ailing and somewhat aged gentleman of the name of +Lisle. This Mr. Ambrose Lisle was a native of Watley, and had been a +prosperous merchant of the city of London. Since his return, after about +twenty years' absence, he had shut himself up in almost total seclusion, +nourishing a cynical bitterness and acrimony of temper which gradually +withered up the sources of health and life, till at length it became as +visible to himself as it had for sometime been to others, that the oil of +existence was expended, burnt up, and that but a few weak flickers more, +and the ailing man's plaints and griefs would be hushed in the dark +silence of the grave. + +Mr. Lisle had no relatives at Watley, and the only individual with whom +he was on terms of personal intimacy, was Mr. Peter Sowerby, an attorney +of the place, who had for many years transacted all his business. This +man visited Mr. Lisle most evenings, played at chess with him, and +gradually acquired an influence over his client which that weak gentleman +had once or twice feebly, but vainly endeavored to shake off. To this +clever attorney, it was rumored, Mr. Lisle had bequeathed all his wealth. + +This piece of information had been put in circulation by Caleb Jennings, +who was a sort of humble favorite of Mr. Lisle's, or, at all events, was +regarded by the misanthrope with less dislike than he manifested towards +others. Caleb cultivated a few flowers in a little plot of ground at the +back of the house, and Mr. Lisle would sometimes accept a rose or a bunch +of violets from him. Other slight services--especially since the recent +death of his old and garrulous woman-servant, Esther May, who had +accompanied him from London, and with whom Mr. Jennings had always been +upon terms of gossiping intimacy--had led to certain familiarities of +intercourse; and it thus happened that the inquisitive shoemaker became +partially acquainted with the history of the wrongs and griefs which +preyed upon, and shortened the life of the prematurely-aged man. + +The substance of this every-day, common-place story, as related to us by +Jennings, and subsequently enlarged and colored from other sources, may +be very briefly told. + +Ambrose Lisle, in consequence of an accident which occurred in his +infancy, was slightly deformed. His right shoulder--as I understood, for +I never saw him--grew out, giving an ungraceful and somewhat comical +twist to his figure, which, in female eyes--youthful ones at least--sadly +marred the effect of his intelligent and handsome countenance. This +personal defect rendered him shy and awkward in the presence of women of +his own class of society; and he had attained the ripe age of +thirty-seven years, and was a rich and prosperous man, before he gave the +slightest token of an inclination towards matrimony. About a twelvemonth +previous to that period of his life, the deaths--quickly following each +other--of a Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, threw their eldest daughter, Lucy, upon +Mr. Lisle's hands. Mr. Lisle had been left an orphan at a very early age, +and Mrs. Stevens--his aunt, and then a maiden lady--had, in accordance +with his father's will, taken charge of himself and brother till they +severally attained their majority. Long, however, before that, she +married Mr. Stevens, by whom she had two children--Lucy and Emily. Her +husband, whom she survived but two months, died insolvent; and in +obedience to the dying wishes of his aunt, for whom he appears to have +felt the tenderest esteem, he took the eldest of her orphan children to +his home, intending to regard and provide for her as his own adopted +child and heiress. Emily, the other sister, found refuge in the house of +a still more distant relative than himself. + +The Stevenses had gone to live in a remote part of England--Yorkshire, I +believe--and it thus fell out, that, till his cousin Lucy arrived at her +new home, he had not seen her for more than ten years. The pale, and +somewhat plain child, as he had esteemed her, he was startled to find had +become a charming woman; and her naturally gay and joyous temperament, +quick talents, and fresh young beauty, rapidly acquired an overwhelming +influence over him. Strenuously, but vainly, he struggled against the +growing infatuation--argued, reasoned with himself--passed in review the +insurmountable objections to such a union, the difference of age--he, +leading towards thirty-seven, she, barely twenty-one: he, crooked, +deformed, of reserved, taciturn temper--she, full of young life, and +grace, and beauty. It was useless; and nearly a year had passed in the +bootless struggle, when Lucy Stevens, who had vainly striven to blind +herself to the nature of the emotions by which her cousin and guardian +was animated towards her, intimated a wish to accept her sister Emily's +invitation to pass two or three months with her. This brought the affair +to a crisis. Buoying himself up with the illusions which people in such +an unreasonable frame of mind create for themselves, he suddenly entered +the sitting-room set apart for her private use, with the desperate purpose +of making his beautiful cousin a formal offer of his hand. She was not in +the apartment, but her opened writing-desk, and a partly-finished letter +lying on it, showed that she had been recently there, and would probably +soon return. Mr. Lisle took two or three agitated turns about the room, +one of which brought him close to the writing-desk, and his glance +involuntarily fell upon the unfinished letter. Had a deadly serpent +leaped suddenly at his throat, the shock could not have been greater. At +the head of the sheet of paper was a clever pen-and-ink sketch of Lucy +Stevens and himself--he, kneeling to her in a lovelorn, ludicrous +attitude, and she, laughing immoderately at his lachrymose and pitiful +aspect and speech. The letter was addressed to her sister Emily; and the +enraged lover saw not only that his supposed secret was fully known, but +that he himself was mocked, laughed at, for his doting folly. At least +this was his interpretation of the words which swam before his eyes. At +the instant Lucy returned, and a torrent of imprecation burst from the +furious man, in which wounded self-love, rageful pride, and long pent-up +passion, found utterance in wild and bitter words. Half an hour +afterwards Lucy Stevens had left the merchant's house--for ever, as it +proved. She, indeed, on arriving at her sister's, sent a letter, +supplicating forgiveness for the thoughtless, and, as he deemed it, +insulting sketch, intended only for Emily's eye; but he replied merely by +a note written by one of his clerks, informing Miss Stevens that Mr. +Lisle declined any further correspondence with her. + +The ire of the angered and vindictive man had, however, begun sensibly to +abate, and old thoughts, memories, duties, suggested partly by the blank +which Lucy's absence made in his house, partly by remembrance of the +solemn promise he had made her mother, were strongly reviving in his +mind, when he read the announcement of marriage in a provincial journal, +directed to him, as he believed, in the bride's hand-writing; but this +was an error, her sister having sent the newspaper. Mr. Lisle also +construed this into a deliberate mockery and insult, and from that hour +strove to banish all images and thoughts connected with his cousin, from +his heart and memory. + +He unfortunately adopted the very worst course possible for effecting +this object. Had he remained amid the buzz and tumult of active life, a +mere sentimental disappointment, such as thousands of us have sustained +and afterwards forgotten, would, there can be little doubt, have soon +ceased to afflict him. He chose to retire from business, visited Watley, +and habits of miserliness growing rapidly upon his cankered mind, never +afterwards removed from the lodgings he had hired on first arriving +there. Thus madly hugging to himself sharp-pointed memories, which a +sensible man would have speedily cast off and forgotten, the sour +misanthrope passed a useless, cheerless, weary existence, to which death +must have been a welcome relief. + +Matters were in this state with the morose and aged man--aged mentally +and corporeally, although his years were but fifty-eight--when Mr. Flint +made Mr. Jennings's acquaintance. Another month or so had passed away +when Caleb's attention was one day about noon claimed by a young man +dressed in mourning, accompanied by a female similarly attired, and from +their resemblance to each other he conjectured were brother and sister. +The stranger wished to know if that was the house in which Mr. Ambrose +Lisle resided. Jennings said it was; and with civil alacrity left his +stall and rang the front-door bell. The summons was answered by the +landlady's servant, who, since Esther May's death, had waited on the +first-floor lodger; and the visitors were invited to go up stairs. Caleb, +much wondering who they might be, returned to his stall, and from thence +passed into his eating and sleeping-room just below Mr. Lisle's +apartments. He was in the act of taking a pipe from the mantel-shelf, in +order to the more deliberate and satisfactory cogitation on such an +unusual event, when he was startled by a loud shout, or scream rather, +from above. The quivering and excited voice was that of Mr. Lisle, and +the outcry was immediately followed by an explosion of unintelligible +exclamations from several persons. Caleb was up stairs in an instant, +and found himself in the midst of a strangely-perplexing and distracted +scene. Mr. Lisle, pale as his shirt, shaking in every limb, and his eyes +on fire with passion, was hurling forth a torrent of vituperation and +reproach at the young woman, whom he evidently mistook for some one else; +whilst she, extremely terrified, and unable to stand but for the +assistance of her companion, was tendering a letter in her outstretched +hand, and uttering broken sentences, which her own agitation and the fury +of Mr. Lisle's invectives rendered totally incomprehensible. At last the +fierce old man struck the letter from her hand, and with frantic rage +ordered both the strangers to leave the room. Caleb urged them to comply, +and accompanied them down stairs. When they reached the street, he +observed a woman on the other side of the way, dressed in mourning, and +much older apparently, though he could not well see her face through the +thick veil she wore, than she who had thrown Mr. Lisle into such an agony +of rage, apparently waiting for them. To her the young people immediately +hastened, and after a brief conference the three turned away up the +street, and Mr. Jennings saw no more of them. + +A quarter of an hour afterwards the house-servant informed Caleb that Mr. +Lisle had retired to bed, and although still in great agitation, and, as +she feared, seriously indisposed, would not permit Dr. Clarke to be sent +for. So sudden and violent a hurricane in the usually dull and drowsy +atmosphere in which Jennings lived, excited and disturbed him greatly; +the hours, however, flew past without bringing any relief to his +curiosity, and evening was falling, when a peculiar knocking on the floor +over-head announced that Mr. Lisle desired his presence. That gentleman +was sitting up in bed, and in the growing darkness his face could not be +very distinctly seen; but Caleb instantly observed a vivid and unusual +light in the old man's eyes. The letter so strangely delivered was lying +open before him; and unless the shoe-mender was greatly mistaken, there +were stains of recent tears upon Mr. Lisie's furrowed and hollow cheeks. +The voice, too, it struck Caleb, though eager, was gentle and wavering. +"It was a mistake, Jennings," he said; "I was mad for the moment. Are +they gone?" he added in a yet more subdued and gentle tone. Caleb +informed him of what he had seen; and as he did so, the strange light in +the old man's eyes seemed to quiver and sparkle with a yet intenser +emotion than before. Presently he shaded them with his hand, and remained +several minutes silent. He then said with a firmer voice, "I shall be +glad if you will step to Mr. Sowerby, and tell him I am too unwell to see +him this evening. But be sure to say nothing else," he eagerly added, as +Caleb turned away in compliance with his request; "and when you come +back, let me see you again." + +When Jennings returned, he found to his great surprise Mr. Lisle up and +nearly dressed; and his astonishment increased a hundred-fold upon +hearing that gentleman say, in a quick but perfectly collected and +decided manner, that he should set off for London by the mail-train. + +"For London--and by night!" exclaimed Caleb, scarcely sure that he +heard aright. + +"Yes--yes! I shall not be observed in the dark," sharply rejoined Mr. +Lisle; "and you, Caleb, must keep my secret from every body, especially +from Sowerby. I shall be here in time to see him to-morrow night, and he +will be none the wiser." This was said with a slight chuckle; and as soon +as his simple preparations were complete, Mr. Lisle, well wrapped up, +and his face almost hidden by shawls, locked his door, and assisted by +Jennings, stole furtively down stairs, and reached unrecognized the +railway station just in time for the train. + +It was quite dark the next evening when Mr. Lisle returned; and so well +had he managed, that Mr. Sowerby, who paid his usual visit about half an +hour afterwards, had evidently heard nothing of the suspicious absence of +his esteemed client from Watley. The old man exulted over the success of +his deception to Caleb, the next morning, but dropped no hint as to the +object of his sudden journey. + +Three days passed without the occurrence of any incident tending to the +enlightenment of Mr. Jennings upon these mysterious events, which, +however, he plainly saw had lamentably shaken the long-since failing man. +On the afternoon of the fourth day, Mr. Lisle walked, or rather tottered, +into Caleb's stall, and seated himself on the only vacant stool it +contained. His manner was confused, and frequently purposeless, and there +was an anxious, flurried expression in his face, which Jennings did not +at all like. He remained silent for some time, with the exception of +partially inaudible snatches of comment or questionings, apparently +addressed to himself. At last he said, "I shall take a longer journey +to-morrow, Caleb--much longer; let me see--where did I say? Ah, yes! to +Glasgow; to be sure to Glasgow!" + +"To Glasgow, and to-morrow!" exclaimed the astounded cobbler. + +"No, no--not Glasgow; they have removed," feebly rejoined Mr. Lisle. +"But Lucy has written it down for me. True--true; and to-morrow I +shall set out." + +The strange expression of Mr. Lisle's face became momentarily more +strongly marked, and Jennings, greatly alarmed, said, "You are ill, Mr. +Lisle; let me run for Dr. Clarke." + +"No--no," he murmured, at the same time striving to rise from his seat, +which he could only accomplish by Caleb's assistance, and so supported, +he staggered indoors. "I shall be better to-morrow," he said faintly, and +then slowly added, "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow! Ah, me! Yes, +as I said, to-morrow, I"--He paused abruptly, and they gained his +apartment. He seated himself, and then Jennings, at his mute +solicitation, assisted him to bed. + +He lay some time with his eyes closed; and Caleb could feel--for Mr. +Lisle held him firmly by the hand, as if to prevent his going away--a +convulsive shudder pass over his frame. At last he slowly opened his +eyes, and Caleb saw that he was indeed about to depart upon the long +journey from which there is no return. The lips of the dying man worked +inarticulately for some moments; and then with a mighty effort, as it +seemed, he said, whilst his trembling hand pointed feebly to a bureau +chest of drawers that stood in the room, "There--there, for Lucy; there, +the secret place is"--Some inaudible words followed, and then after a +still mightier struggle than before, he gasped out, "No word--no +word--to--to Sowerby--for her--Lucy." + +More was said, but undistinguishable by mortal ear; and after gazing with +an expression of indescribable anxiety in the scared face of his +awe-struck listener, the wearied eyes slowly reclosed--the deep silence +flowed past; then the convulsive shudder came again, and he was dead! + +Caleb Jennings tremblingly summoned the house-servant and the landlady, +and was still confusedly pondering the broken sentences uttered by the +dying man, when Mr. Sowerby hurriedly arrived. The attorney's first care +was to assume the direction of affairs, and to place seals upon every +article containing or likely to contain anything of value belonging to +the deceased. This done, he went away to give directions for the funeral, +which took place a few days afterwards; and it was then formally +announced that Mr. Sowerby succeeded by will to the large property of +Ambrose Lisle; under trust, however, for the family, if any, of Robert +Lisle, the deceased's brother, who had gone when very young to India, and +had not been heard of for many years--a condition which did not at all +mar the joy of the crafty lawyer, he having long since instituted private +inquiries, which perfectly satisfied him, that the said Robert Lisle had +died, unmarried, at Calcutta. + +Mr. Jennings was in a state of great dubiety and consternation. Sowerby +had emptied the chest of drawers of every valuable it contained; and +unless he had missed the secret receptacle Mr. Lisle had spoken of, the +deceased's intentions, whatever they might have been, were clearly +defeated. And if he had _not_ discovered it, how could he, Jennings, get +at the drawers to examine them? A fortunate chance brought some relief to +his perplexities. Ambrose Lisle's furniture was advertised to be sold by +auction, and Caleb resolved to purchase the bureau chest of drawers at +almost any price, although to do so would oblige him to break into his +rent-money, then nearly due. The day of sale came, and, the important lot +in its turn was put up. In one of the drawers there were a number of +loose newspapers, and other valueless scraps; and Caleb, with a sly grin, +asked the auctioneer, if he sold the article with all its contents. "Oh, +yes," said Sowerby, who was watching the sale; "the buyer may have all it +contains over his bargain, and much good may it do him." A laugh followed +the attorney's sneering remark, and the biddings went on. "I want it," +observed Caleb "because it just fits a recess like this one in my room +underneath." This he said to quiet a suspicion he thought he saw +gathering upon the attorney's brow. It was finally knocked down to Caleb +at £5 10s., a sum considerably beyond its real value; and he had to +borrow a sovereign in order to clear his speculative purchase. This done, +he carried off his prize, and as soon as the closing of the house for the +night secured him from interruption, he set eagerly to work in search of +the secret drawer. A long and patient examination was richly rewarded. +Behind one of the small drawers of the _secrétaire_ portion of the piece +of furniture was another small one, curiously concealed, which contained +Bank-of-England notes to the amount of £200, tied up with a letter, upon +the back of which was written, in the deceased's hand-writing, "To take +with me." The letter which Caleb, although he read print with facility, +had much difficulty in making out, was that which Mr. Lisle had struck +from the young woman's hand a few weeks before, and proved to be a very +affecting appeal from Lucy Stevens, now Lucy Warner, and a widow, with +two grown-up children. Her husband had died in insolvent circumstances, +and she and her sister Emily, who was still single, were endeavoring to +carry on a school at Bristol, which promised to be sufficiently +prosperous if the sum of about £150 could be raised, to save the +furniture from her deceased husband's creditors. The claim was pressing, +for Mr. Warner had been dead nearly a year, and Mr. Lisle being the only +relative Mrs. Warner had in the world, she had ventured to entreat his +assistance for her mother's sake. There could be no moral doubt, +therefore, that this money was intended for Mrs. Warner's relief; and +early in the morning Mr. Caleb Jennings dressed himself in his Sunday's +suit, and with a brief announcement to his landlady that he was about to +leave Watley for a day or two, on a visit to a friend, set off for the +railway station. He had not proceeded far when a difficulty struck +him--the bank-notes were all twenties; and were he to change a +twenty-pound note at the station, where he was well known, great would be +the tattle and wonderment, if nothing worse, that would ensue. So Caleb +tried his credit again, borrowed sufficient for his journey to London, +and there changed one of the notes. + +He soon reached Bristol, and blessed was the relief which the sum of +money he brought afforded Mrs. Warner. She expressed much sorrow for the +death of Mr. Lisle, and great gratitude to Caleb. The worthy man +accepted with some reluctance one of the notes, or at least as much as +remained of that which he had changed; and after exchanging promises +with the widow and her relatives to keep the matter secret, departed +homewards. The young woman, Mrs. Warner's daughter, who had brought the +letter to Watley, was, Caleb noticed, the very image of her mother, or, +rather, of what her mother must have been when young. This remarkable +resemblance it was, no doubt, which had for the moment so confounded and +agitated Mr. Lisle. + +Nothing occurred for about a fortnight after Caleb's return to disquiet +him, and he had begun to feel tolerably sure that his discovery of the +notes would remain unsuspected, when, one afternoon, the sudden and +impetuous entrance of Mr. Sowerby into his stall caused him to jump up +from his seat with surprise and alarm. The attorney's face was deathly +white, his eyes glared like a wild beast's, and his whole appearance +exhibited uncontrollable agitation. "A word with you, Mr. Jennings," he +gasped--"a word in private, and at once!" Caleb, in scarcely less +consternation than his visitor, led the way into his inner room, and +closed the door. + +"Restore--give back," screamed the attorney, vainly struggling to +dissemble the agitation which convulsed him--"that--that which you have +purloined from the chest of drawers!" + +The hot blood rushed to Caleb's face and temples; the wild vehemence and +suddenness of the demand confounded him; and certain previous dim +suspicions that the law might not only pronounce what he had done +illegal, but possibly felonious, returned upon him with terrible force, +and he quite lost his presence of mind. + +"I can't--I can't," he stammered. "It's gone--given away"-- + +"Gone!" shouted, or, more correctly, howled--Sowerby, at the +same time flying at Caleb's throat as if he would throttle him. +"Gone--given away! You lie--you want to drive a bargain with +me--dog!--liar!--rascal!--thief!" + +This was a species of attack which Jennings was at no loss how to meet. +He shook the attorney roughly off, and hurled him, in the midst of his +vituperation, to the further end of the room. + +They then stood glaring at each other in silence, till the attorney, +mastering himself as well as he could, essayed another and more rational +mode of attaining his purpose:-- + +"Come, come, Jennings," he said, "don't be a fool. Let us understand each +other. I have just discovered a paper, a memorandum of what you have +found in the drawers, and to obtain which you bought them. I don't care +for the money--keep it; only give me the papers--documents." + +"Papers--documents!" ejaculated Caleb, in unfeigned surprise. + +"Yes--yes; of use to me only. You, I remember, cannot read writing; but +they are of great consequence to me--to me only, I tell you." + +"You can't mean Mrs. Warner's letter?" + +"No--no; curse the letter! You are playing with a tiger! Keep the money, +I tell you; but give up the papers--documents--or I'll transport you!" +shouted Sowerby with reviving fury. + +Caleb, thoroughly bewildered, could only mechanically ejaculate that he +had no papers or documents. + +The rage of the attorney when he found he could extract nothing from +Jennings was frightful. He literally foamed with passion, uttered the +wildest threats; and then suddenly changing his key, offered the +astounded cobbler one--two--three thousand pounds--any sum he chose to +name, for the papers--documents! This scene of alternate violence and +cajolery lasted nearly an hour; and then Sowerby rushed from the house as +if pursued by the furies, and leaving his auditor in a state of thorough +bewilderment and dismay. It occurred to Caleb, as soon as his mind had +settled into something like order, that there might be another secret +drawer; and the recollection of Mr. Lisle's journey to London recurred +suggestively to him. Another long and eager search, however, proved +fruitless; and the suspicion was given up, or, more correctly, weakened. + +As soon as it was light the next morning, Mr. Sowerby was again with +him. He was more guarded now, and was at length convinced that Jennings +had no paper or document to give up. "It was only some important +memoranda," observed the attorney carelessly, "that would save me a +world of trouble in a lawsuit I shall have to bring against some heavy +debtors to Mr. Lisle's estate; but I must do as well as I can without +them. Good morning." Just as he reached the door a sudden thought +appeared to strike him. He stopped and said, "By the way, Jennings, in +the hurry of business I forgot that Mr. Lisle had told me the chest of +drawers you bought, and a few other articles, were family relics which +he wished to be given to certain parties he named. The other things I +have got; and you, I suppose, will let me have the drawers for--say a +pound profit on your bargain?" + +Caleb was not the acutest man in the world; but this sudden proposition, +carelessly as it was made, suggested curious thoughts. "No," he answered; +"I shall not part with it. I shall keep it as a memorial of Mr. Lisle." + +Sowerby's face assumed as Caleb spoke, a ferocious expression. "Shall +you?" said he. "Then, be sure, my fine fellow, that you shall also have +something to remember me by as long as you live." + +He then went away, and a few days afterwards Caleb was served with a writ +for the recovery of the two hundred pounds. + +The affair made a great noise in the place; and Caleb's conduct being +very generally approved, a subscription was set on foot to defray the +cost of defending the action--one Hayling, a rival attorney to Sowerby, +having asserted that the words used by the proprietor of the chest of +drawers at the sale barred his claim to the money found in them. This +wise gentleman was intrusted with the defence; and strange to say, the +jury--a common one--spite of the direction of the judge returned a +verdict for the defendant, upon the ground that Sowerby's jocular or +sneering remark amounted to a serious, valid leave and license to sell +two hundred pounds for five pounds ten shillings! + +Sowerby obtained, as a matter of course, a rule for a new trial; and a +fresh action was brought. All at once Hayling refused to go on, alleging +deficiency of funds. He told Jennings that in his opinion it would be +better that he should give in to Sowerby's whim, who only wanted the +drawers in order to comply with the testator's wishes. "Besides," +remarked Hayling in conclusion, "he is sure to get the article, you know, +when it comes to be sold under a writ of _fi fa_." A few days after this +conversation it was ascertained that Hayling was to succeed to Sowerby's +business, the latter gentleman being about to retire upon the fortune +bequeathed him by Mr. Lisle. + +At last Caleb, driven nearly out of his senses, though still doggedly +obstinate, by the harassing perplexities in which he found himself, +thought of applying to us. + +"A very curious affair, upon my word," remarked Mr. Flint, as soon as +Caleb had unburdened himself of the story of his woes and cares; "and in +my opinion by no means explainable by Sowerby's anxiety to fulfill the +testator's wishes. He cannot expect to get two hundred pence out of you; +and Mrs. Warner, you say, is equally unable to pay. Very odd indeed. +Perhaps if we could get time, something might turn up." + +With this view Flint looked over the papers Caleb had brought, and found +the declaration was in _trover_--a manifest error--the notes never +admittedly having been in Sowerby's actual possession. We accordingly +demurred to the form of action, and the proceedings were set aside. This, +however, proved of no ultimate benefit. Sowerby persevered, and a fresh +action was instituted against the unhappy shoe-mender. So utterly +overcrowed and disconsolate was poor Caleb, that he determined to give up +the drawers which was all Sowerby even now required, and so wash his +hands of the unfortunate business. Previous, however, to this being done, +it was determined that another thorough and scientific examination of +the mysterious piece of furniture should be made; and for this purpose +Mr. Flint obtained a workman skilled in the mysteries of secret +contrivances, from the desk and dressing-case establishment in King +Street, Holborn, and proceeded with him to Watley. + +The man performed his task with great care and skill; every depth and +width was guaged and measured, in order to ascertain if there were any +false bottoms or backs; and the workman finally pronounced that there was +no concealed receptacle in the article. + +"I am sure there is," persisted Flint, whom disappointment as usual +rendered but the more obstinate; "and so is Sowerby: and he knows too, +that it is so cunningly contrived as to be undiscoverable, except by a +person in the secret, which he no doubt at first imagined Caleb to be. +I'll tell you what we'll do--You have the necessary tools with you. Split +the confounded chest of drawers into shreds--I'll be answerable for the +consequences." + +This was done carefully and methodically, but for some time without +result. At length the large drawer next the floor had to be knocked to +pieces; and as it fell apart, one section of the bottom, which, like all +the others, was divided into two compartments, dropped asunder, and +discovered a parchment laid flat between the two thin leaves, which, when +pressed together in the grooves of the drawer, presented precisely the +same appearance as the rest. Flint snatched up the parchment, and his +eager eye had scarcely rested an instant on the writing, when a shout of +triumph burst from him. It was the last will and testament of Ambrose +Lisle, dated August 21, 1838--the day of his last hurried visit to +London. It revoked the former will, and bequeathed the whole of his +property, in equal portions, to his cousins Lucy Warner and Emily +Stevens, with succession to their children; but with reservation of +one-half to his brother Robert or children, should he be alive, or have +left offspring. + +Great, it may be supposed was the jubilation of Caleb Jennings at this +discovery; and all Watley, by his agency, was in a marvelously short +space of time in a very similar state of excitement. It was very late +that night when he reached his bed; and how he got there at all, and what +precisely had happened, except, indeed, that he had somewhere picked up a +splitting headache, was, for some time after he awoke the next morning, +very confusedly remembered. + +Mr. Flint, by reflection, was by no means so exultant as the worthy +shoe-mender. The odd mode of packing away a deed of such importance, with +_no assignable motive for doing so_, except the needless awe with which +Sowerby was said to have inspired his feeble-spirited client, together +with what Caleb had said of the shattered state of the deceased's mind +after the interview with Mrs. Warner's daughter, suggested fears that +Sowerby might dispute, and perhaps successfully, the validity of this +last will. My excellent partner, however, determined, as was his wont, to +put a bold face on the matter; and first clearly settling in his own mind +what he should and what he should _not_ say, waited upon Mr. Sowerby. The +news had preceded him, and he was at once surprised and delighted to find +that the nervous crest-fallen attorney was quite unaware of the +advantages of his position. On condition of not being called to account +for the moneys he had received and expended, about £1200, he destroyed +the former will in Mr. Flint's presence, and gave up, at once, all the +deceased's papers. From these we learned that Mr. Lisle had written a +letter to Mrs. Warner, stating what he had done, and where the will would +be found, and that only herself and Jennings would know the secret. Prom +infirmity of purpose, or from having subsequently determined on a +personal interview, the letter was not posted; and Sowerby subsequently +discovered it, together with a memorandum of the numbers of the +bank-notes found by Caleb in the secret drawer--the eccentric gentleman +appears to have had quite a mania for such hiding-places--of a +writing-desk. + +The affair was thus happily terminated; Mrs. Warner, her children, and +sister, were enriched, and Caleb Jennings was set up in a good way of +business in his native place, where he still flourishes. Over the +centre of his shop there is a large nondescript sign, surmounted by a +golden boot, which upon a close inspection is found to bear a +resemblance to a huge bureau chest of drawers, all the circumstances +connected with which may be heard, for the asking, and in much fuller +detail than I have given, from the lips of the owner of the +establishment, by any lady or gentleman who will take the trouble of a +journey to Watley for that purpose. + + + + +THE PUZZLE. + + +Tempus fugit! The space of but a few brief yesterdays seems to have +passed since the occurrence of the following out-of-the-way +incidents--out-of-the-way, even in our profession, fertile as it is in +startling experiences; and yet the faithful and unerring tell-tale and +monitor, Anno Domini 1851, instructs me that a quarter of a century has +nearly slipped by since the first scene in the complicated play of +circumstances opened upon me. The date I remember well, for the +Tower-guns had been proclaiming with their thunder-throats the victory of +Navarino but a short time before a clerk announced, "William Martin, with +a message from Major Stewart." + +This William Martin was a rather sorry curiosity in his way. He was now +in the service of our old client, Major Stewart; and a tall, good-looking +fellow enough, spite of a very decided cast in his eyes, which the +rascal, when in his cups--no unusual occurrence--declared he had caught +from his former masters--Edward Thorneycroft, Esq., an enormously rich +and exceedingly yellow East India director, and his son, Mr. Henry +Thorneycroft, with whom, until lately transferred to Major Stewart's +service, he had lived from infancy--his mother and father having formed +part of the elder Thorneycroft's establishment when he was born. He had a +notion in his head that he had better blood in his veins than the world +supposed, and was excessively fond of aping the gentleman; and this he +did, I must say, with the ease and assurance of a stage-player. His name +was scarcely out of the clerk's lips when he entered the inner office +with a great effort at steadiness and deliberation, closed the door very +carefully and importantly, hung his hat with much precision on a brass +peg, and then steadying himself by the door-handle, surveyed the +situation and myself with staring lack-lustre eyes and infinite gravity. +I saw what was the matter. + +"You have been in the 'Sun,' Mr. Martin?" + +A wink, inexpressible by words, replied to me, and I could see by the +motion of the fellow's lips that speech was attempted; but it came so +thick that it was several minutes before I made out that he meant to +say the British had been knocking the Turks about like bricks, and +that he had been patriotically drinking the healths of the said +British or bricks. + +"Have the goodness, sir, to deliver your message, and then instantly +leave the office." + +"Old Tho-o-o-rney," was the hiccoughed reply, "has smoked the--the +plot. Young Thorney's done for. Ma-a-aried in a false name; +tra-ansportation--of course." + +"What gibberish is this about old Thorney and young Thorney? Do you not +come from Major Stewart?" + +"Ye-e-es, that's right; the route's arrived for the old trump; wishes +to--to see you" + +"Major Stewart dying! Why, you are a more disgraceful scamp than I +believed you to be. Send this fellow away," I added to a clerk who +answered my summons. I then hastened off, and was speedily rattling over +the stones towards Baker Street, Portman Square, where Major Stewart +resided. As I left the office I heard Martin beg the clerk to lead him to +the pump previous to sending him off--no doubt for the purpose of +sobering himself somewhat previous to reappearing before the major, +whose motives for hiring or retaining such a fellow in his modest +establishment I could not understand. + +"You were expected more than an hour ago," said Dr. Hampton, who was just +leaving the house. "The major is now, I fear, incapable of business." + +There was no time for explanation, and I hastily entered the +sick-chamber. Major Stewart, though rapidly sinking, recognized me; and +in obedience to a gesture from her master the aged, weeping house-keeper +left the room. The major's daughter, Rosamond Stewart, had been absent +with her aunt, her father's maiden sister, on a visit, I understood, to +some friends in Scotland, and had not, I concluded, been made acquainted +with the major's illness, which had only assumed a dangerous character a +few days previously. The old soldier was dying calmly and +painlessly--rather from exhaustion of strength, a general failure of the +powers of life, than from any especial disease. A slight flush tinged the +mortal pallor of his face as I entered, and the eyes emitted a +slightly-reproachful expression. + +"It is not more, my dear sir," I replied softly but eagerly to his look, +"than a quarter of an hour ago that I received your message." + +I do not know whether he comprehended or even distinctly heard what I +said, for his feeble but extremely anxious glance was directed whilst +I spoke to a large oil-portrait of Rosamond Stewart, suspended over +the mantel-piece. The young lady was a splendid, dark-eyed beauty, +and of course the pride and darling of her father. Presently +wrenching, as it were, his eyes from the picture, he looked in my +face with great earnestness, and bending my ear close to his lips, I +heard him feebly and brokenly say, "A question to ask you, that's +all; read--read!" His hand motioned towards a letter which lay open +on the bed; I ran it over, and the major's anxiety was at once +explained. Rosamond Stewart had, I found, been a short time +previously married in Scotland to Henry Thorneycroft, the son of the +wealthy East India director. Finding his illness becoming serious, +the major had anticipated the time and mode in which the young people +had determined to break the intelligence to the irascible father of +the bridegroom, and the result was the furious and angry letter in +reply which I was perusing. Mr. Thorneycroft would never, he +declared, recognize the marriage of his undutiful nephew--nephew, +_not_ son; for he was, the letter announced, the child of an only +sister, whose marriage had also mortally offended Mr. Thorneycroft, +and had been brought up from infancy as his (Mr. Thorneycroft's) son, +in order that the hated name of Allerton, to which the boy was alone +legally entitled, might never offend his ear. There was something +added insinuative of a doubt of the legality of the marriage, in +consequence of the misnomer of the bridegroom at the ceremony. + +"One question," muttered the major, as I finished the perusal of the +letter--"Is Rosamond's marriage legal?" + +"No question about it. How could any one suppose that an involuntary +misdescription can affect such a contract?" + +"Enough--enough!" he gasped. "A great load is gone!--the rest is with +God. Beloved Rosamond"--The slight whisper was no longer audible; sighs, +momently becoming fainter and weaker, followed--ceased, and in little +more than ten minutes after the last word was spoken, life was extinct. I +rang the bell, and turned to leave the room, and as I did so surprised +Martin on the other side of the bed. He had been listening, screened by +the thick damask curtains, and appeared to be a good deal sobered. I +made no remark, and proceeded on down stairs. The man followed, and as +soon as we had gained the hall said quickly, yet hesitatingly, +"Sir--sir!" + +"Well, what have you to say?" + +"Nothing very particular, sir. But did I understand you to say just now, +that it was of no consequence if a man married in a false name?" + +"That depends upon circumstances. Why do you ask?" + +"Oh, nothing--nothing; only I have heard it's transportation, especially +if there's money." + +"Perhaps you are right. Anything else?" + +"No," said he, opening the door; "that's all--mere curiosity." + +I heard nothing more of the family for some time, except with reference +to Major Stewart's personal property, about £4000 bequeathed to his +daughter, with a charge thereon of an annuity of £20 a year for Mrs. +Leslie, the aged house-keeper; the necessary business connected with +which we transacted. But about a twelvemonth after the major's death, the +marriage of the elder Thorneycroft with a widow of the same name as +himself, and a cousin, the paper stated, was announced; and pretty nearly +a year and a half subsequent to the appearance of this ominous paragraph, +the decease of Mr. Henry Thorneycroft at Lausanne, in Switzerland, who +had left, it was added in the newspaper stock-phrase of journalism, a +young widow and two sons to mourn their irreparable loss. Silence again, +as far as we were concerned, settled upon the destinies of the +descendants of our old military client, till one fine morning a letter +from Dr. Hampton informed us of the sudden death by apoplexy, a few days +previously, of the East India director. Dr. Hampton further hinted that +he should have occasion to write us again in a day or two, relative to +the deceased's affairs, which, owing to Mr. Thorneycroft's unconquerable +aversion to making a will, had, it was feared, been left in an extremely +unsatisfactory state. Dr. Hampton had written to us, at the widow's +request, in consequence of his having informed her that we had been the +professional advisers of Major Stewart, and were in all probability those +of his daughter, Mrs. Henry Allerton. + +We did not quite comprehend the drift of this curious epistle; but +although not specially instructed, we determined at once to write to Mrs. +Rosamond Thorneycroft or Allerton, who with her family was still abroad, +and in the meantime take such formal steps in her behalf as might appear +necessary. + +We were not long in doubt as to the motives of the extremely civil +application to ourselves on the part of the widow of the East India +director. The deceased's wealth had been almost all invested in land, +which went, he having died intestate, to his nephew's son, Henry +Allerton; and the personals in which the widow would share were +consequently of very small amount. Mrs. Thorneycroft was, therefore, +anxious to propose, through us, a more satisfactory and equitable +arrangement. We could of course say nothing till the arrival of Mrs. +Rosamond Allerton, for which, however, we had only a brief time to wait. +There were, we found, no indisposition on that lady's part to act with +generosity towards Mr. Thorneycroft's widow--a showy, vulgarish person, +by the way, of about forty years of age--but there was a legal difficulty +in the way, in consequence of the heir-at-law being a minor. Mrs. +Thorneycroft became at length terribly incensed, and talked a good deal +of angry nonsense about disputing the claim of Henry Allerton's son to +the estates, on the ground that his marriage, having been contracted in +a wrong name, was null and void. Several annoying paragraphs got in +consequence into the Sunday newspapers, and these brought about a +terrible disclosure. + +About twelve o'clock one day, the Widow Thorneycroft bounced +unceremoniously into the office, dragging in with her a comely and rather +interesting-looking young woman, but of a decidedly rustic complexion and +accent, and followed by a grave, middle-aged clergyman. The widow's large +eyes sparkled with strong excitement, and her somewhat swarthy features +were flushed with hot blood. + +"I have brought you," she burst out abruptly, "the real Mrs. +Allerton, and"-- + +"No, no!" interrupted the young woman, who appeared much +agitated--"Thorneycroft, not Allerton!"-- + +"I know, child--I know; but that is nothing to the purpose. This young +person, Mr. Sharp, is, I repeat, the true and lawful Mrs. Henry +Allerton." + +"Pooh!" I answered; "do you take us for idiots? This," I added with some +sternness, "is either a ridiculous misapprehension or an attempt at +imposture, and I am very careless which it may be." + +"You are mistaken, sir," rejoined the clergyman mildly. "This young woman +was certainly married by me at Swindon church, Wilts, to a gentleman of +the name of Henry Thorneycroft, who, it appears from the newspapers, +confirmed by this lady, was no other than Mr. Henry Allerton. This +marriage, we find, took place six months previously to that contracted +with Rosamond Stewart. I have further to say that this young woman, Maria +Emsbury, is a very respectable person, and that her marriage-portion, of +a little more than eight hundred pounds, was given to her husband, whom +she has only seen thrice since her marriage, to support himself till the +death of his reputed father, constantly asserted by him to be imminent." + +"A story very smoothly told, and I have no doubt in your opinion quite +satisfactory; but there is one slight matter which I fancy you will find +somewhat difficult of proof--I mean the identity of Maria Emsbury's +husband with the son or nephew of the late Mr. Thorneycroft." + +"He always said he was the son of the rich East Indian, Mr. +Thorneycroft," said the young woman with a hysterical sob; "and here," +she added, "is his picture in his wedding-dress--that of an officer of +the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. He gave it me the day before the wedding." + +I almost snatched the portrait. Sure enough it was a miniature of Henry +Allerton--there could be no doubt about that. + +Mr. Flint, who had been busy with some papers, here approached and +glanced at the miniature. + +I was utterly confounded, and my partner, I saw, was equally dismayed; +and no wonder, entertaining as we both did the highest respect and +admiration for the high-minded and beautiful daughter of Major Stewart. + +The Widow Thorneycroft's exultation was exuberant. + +"As this only legal marriage," said she, "has been blessed with no issue, +I am of course, as you must be aware, the legitimate heiress-at-law, as +my deceased husband's nearest blood-relative. I shall, however," she +added, "take care to amply provide for my widowed niece-in-law." + +The young woman made a profound rustic courtesy, and tears of unaffected +gratitude, I observed, filled her eyes. + +The game was not, however, to be quite so easily surrendered as they +appeared to imagine. "Tut! tut!" exclaimed Mr. Flint bluntly--"this may +be mere practice. Who knows how the portrait has been obtained?" + +The girl's eyes flashed with honest anger. There was no practice about +her I felt assured. "Here are other proofs: My husband's signet-ring, +left accidentally, I think, with me, and two letters which I from +curiosity took out of his coat-pocket--the day, I am pretty sure it was, +after we were married." + +"If this cumulative circumstantial evidence does not convince you, +gentlemen," added the Rev. Mr. Wishart, "I have direct personal testimony +to offer. You know Mr. Angerstein of Bath?" + +"I do." + +"Well, Mr. Henry Thorneycroft or Allerton, was at the time this marriage +took place, on a visit to that gentleman; and I myself saw the +bridegroom, whom I had united a fortnight previously in Swindon church, +walking arm-and-arm with Mr. Angerstein in Sydney Gardens, Bath. I was at +some little distance, but I recognized both distinctly, and bowed. Mr. +Angerstein returned my salutation, and he recollects the circumstance +distinctly. The gentleman walking with him in the uniform of the +Gloucestershire Yeomanry was, Mr. Angerstein is prepared to depose, Mr. +Henry Thorneycroft or Allerton." + +"You waste time, reverend sir," said Mr. Flint with an affectation of +firmness and unconcern he was, I knew, far from feeling. "We are the +attorneys of Mrs. Rosamond Allerton, and shall, I dare say, if you push +us to it, be able to tear this ingeniously-colored cobweb of yours to +shreds. If you determine on going to law, your solicitor can serve us; we +will enter an appearance, and our client will be spared unnecessary +annoyance." + +They were about to leave, when, as ill-luck would have it, one of the +clerks who, deceived by the momentary silence, and from not having been +at home when the unwelcome visitors arrived, believed we were disengaged, +opened the door, and admitted Mrs. Rosamond Allerton and her aunt, Miss +Stewart. Before we could interpose with a word, the Widow Thorneycroft +burst out with the whole story in a torrent of exultant Volubility that +it was impossible to check or restrain. + +For awhile contemptuous incredulity, indignant scorn, upheld the assailed +lady; but as proof after proof was hurled at her, reinforced by the grave +soberness of the clergyman and the weeping sympathy of the young woman, +her firmness gave way, and she swooned in her aunt's arms. We should have +more peremptorily interfered but for our unfortunate client's deprecatory +gestures. She seemed determined to hear the worst at once. Now, however, +we had the office cleared of the intruders without much ceremony and, as +soon as the horror-stricken lady was sufficiently recovered, she was +conducted to her carriage, and after arranging for an early interview on +the morrow, was driven off. + +I found our interesting, and, I feared, deeply-injured client much +recovered from the shock which on the previous day had overwhelmed her; +and although exceedingly pale--lustrously so, as polished Parian +marble--and still painfully agitated, there was hope, almost confidence, +in her eye and tone. + +"There is some terrible misapprehension in this frightful affair, Mr. +Sharp," she began. "Henry, my husband, was utterly incapable of a mean or +dishonest act, much less of such utter baseness as this of which he is +accused. They also say, do they not," she continued, with a smile of +haughty contempt, "that he robbed the young woman of her poor dowry--some +eight hundred pounds? A proper story!" + +"That, I confess, from what little I know of Mr. Henry Thorneycroft, +stamps the whole affair as a fabrication; and yet the Reverend Mr. +Wishart--a gentleman of high character, I understand--is very positive. +The young woman, too, appeared truthful and sincere." + +"Yes--it cannot be denied. Let me say also--for it is best to look at +the subject on its darkest side--I find, on looking over my letters, +that my husband was staying with Mr. Angerstein at the time stated. He +was also at that period in the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. I gave William +Martin, but the other day, a suit of his regimentals very little the +worse for wear." + +"You forget to state, Rosamond," said Miss Stewart, who was sitting +beside her niece, "that Martin, who was with his young master at Bath, is +willing to make oath that no such marriage took place as asserted, at +Swindon church." + +"That alone would, I fear, my good madam, very little avail. Can I see +William Martin?" + +"Certainly." The bell was rung, and the necessary order given. + +"This Martin is much changed for the better, I hear?" + +"O yes, entirely so," said Miss Stewart. "He is also exceedingly attached +to us all, the children especially; and his grief and anger, when +informed of what had occurred, thoroughly attest his faithfulness and +sincerity." + +Martin entered, and was, I thought, somewhat confused by my apparently +unexpected presence. A look at his face and head dissipated a +half-suspicion that had arisen in both Flint's mind and my own. + +I asked him a few questions relative to the sojourn of his master +at Bath, and then said, "I wish you to go with me and Bee this +Maria Emsbury." + +As I spoke, something seemed to attract Martin's attention in the +street, and suddenly turning round, his arm swept a silver pastil-stand +off the table. He stooped down to gather up the dispersed pastils, and as +he did so, said, in answer to my request, "that he had not the slightest +objection to do so." + +"That being the case, we will set off at once, as she and her friends are +probably at the office by this time. They are desirous of settling the +matter off-hand," I added with a smile, addressing Mrs. Allerton, "and +avoiding, if possible, the delays and uncertainties of the law." + +As I anticipated, the formidable trio were with Mr. Flint. I introduced +Martin, and as I did so, watched, with an anxiety I could hardly have +given a reason for, the effect of his appearance upon the young woman. I +observed nothing. He was evidently an utter stranger to her, although, +from the involuntary flush which crossed his features, it occurred to me +that he was in some way an accomplice with his deceased master in the +cruel and infamous crime which had, I strongly feared, been perpetrated. + +"Was this person present at your marriage?" I asked. + +"Certainly not. But I think--now I look at him--that I have seen him +somewhere--about Swindon, it must have been." + +William Martin mumbled out that he had never been in Swindon; neither, he +was sure, had his master. + +"What is that?" said the girl, looking sharply up, and suddenly +coloring--"What is that?" + +Martin, a good deal abashed, again mumbled out his belief that young Mr. +Thorneycroft, as he was then called, had never been at Swindon. + +The indignant scarlet deepened on the young woman's face and temples, and +she looked at Martin with fixed attention and surprise. Presently +recovering, as if from some vague confusedness of mind, she said, "What +you _believe_, can be no consequence--truth is truth, for all that." + +The Rev. Mr. Wishart here interposed, remarking that as it was quite +apparent we were determined to defend the usurpation by Miss Rosamond +Stewart--a lady to be greatly pitied, no doubt--of another's right, it +was useless to prolong or renew the interview; and all three took +immediate leave. A few minutes afterward Martin also departed, still +vehemently asserting that no such marriage ever took place at Swindon or +anywhere else. + +No stone, as people say, was left unturned by us, in the hope of +discovering some clue that might enable us to unravel the tangled web of +coherent, yet, looking at the character of young Mr. Allerton, +_improbable_ circumstance. We were unsuccessful, and unfortunately many +other particulars which came to light but deepened the adverse complexion +of the case. Two respectable persons living at Swindon were ready to +depose on oath that they had on more than one occasion seen Maria +Emsbury's sweetheart with Mr. Angerstein at Bath--once especially at the +theatre, upon the benefit-night of the great Edmund Kean, who had been +playing there for a few nights. + +The entire case, fully stated, was ultimately laid by us before eminent +counsel--one of whom is now, by the by, a chief-justice--and we were +advised that the evidence as set forth by us could not be contended +against with any chance of success. This sad result was communicated by +me to Mrs. Allerton, as she still unswervingly believed herself to be, +and was borne with more constancy and firmness than I had expected. Her +faith in her husband's truth and honor was not in the slightest degree +shaken by the accumulated proofs. She would not, however, attempt to +resist them before a court of law. Something would, she was confident, +thereafter come to light that would vindicate the truth, and confiding in +our zeal and watchfulness, she, her aunt, and children, would in the +meantime shelter themselves from the gaze of the world in their former +retreat at Lausanne. + +This being the unhappy lady's final determination, I gave the other side +notice that we should be ready on a given day to surrender possession of +the house and effects in South Audley Street, which the Widow +Thorneycroft had given up to her supposed niece-in-law and family on +their arrival in England, and to re-obtain which, and thereby decide the +whole question in dispute, legal proceedings had already been commenced. + +On the morning appointed for the purpose--having taken leave of the +ladies the day previously--I proceeded to South Audley Street, to +formally give up possession, under protest, however. The niece and aunt +were not yet gone. This, I found, was owing to Martin, who, according to +the ladies, was so beside himself with grief and rage that he had been +unable to expedite as he ought to have done, the packing intrusted to his +care. I was vexed at this, as the Widow Thorneycroft, her protégée, and +the Rev. Mr. Wishart, accompanied by a solicitor, were shortly expected; +and it was desirable that a meeting of the antagonistic parties should be +avoided. I descended to the lower regions to remonstrate with and hurry +Martin, and found, as I feared, that his former evil habits had returned +upon him. It was not yet twelve o'clock, and he was already partially +intoxicated, and pale, trembling, and nervous from the effects, it was +clear to me, of the previous night's debauch. + +"Your mistress is grossly deceived in you!" I angrily exclaimed; "and if +my advice were taken, you would be turned out of the house at once +without a character. There, don't attempt to bamboozle me with that +nonsense; I've seen fellows crying drunk before now." + +He stammered out some broken excuses, to which I very impatiently +listened; and so thoroughly muddled did his brain appear, that he either +could not or would not comprehend the possibility of Mrs. Allerton and +her children being turned out of house and home, as he expressed it, and +over and over again asked me if nothing could yet be done to prevent it. +I was completely disgusted with the fellow, and sharply bidding him +hasten his preparations for departure, rejoined the ladies, who were by +this time assembled in the back drawing-room, ready shawled and bonneted +for their journey. It was a sad sight. Rosamond Stewart's splendid face +was shadowed by deep and bitter grief, borne, it is true, with pride and +fortitude; but it was easy to see its throbbing pulsations through all +the forced calmness of the surface. Her aunt, of a weaker nature, sobbed +loudly in the fullness of her grief; and the children, shrinking +instinctively in the chilling atmosphere of a great calamity, clung, +trembling and half-terrified, the eldest especially, to their mother. I +did not insult them with phrases of condolence, but turned the +conversation, if such it could be called, upon their future home and +prospects in Switzerland. Some time had thus elapsed when my combative +propensities were suddenly aroused by the loud dash of a carriage to the +door, and the peremptory rat-tat-tat which followed. I felt my cheek +flame as I said, "They demand admittance as if in possession of an +assured, decided right. It is not yet too late to refuse possession, and +take the chances of the law's uncertainty." + +Mrs. Allerton shook her head with decisive meaning. "I could not bear +it," she said in a tone of sorrowful gentleness. "But I trust we shall +not be intruded upon." + +I hurried out of the apartment, and met the triumphant claimants. I +explained the cause of the delay, and suggested that Mrs. Thorneycroft +and her friends could amuse themselves in the garden whilst the +solicitor and I ran over the inventory of the chief valuables to be +surrendered together. + +This was agreed to. A minute or two before the conclusion of this +necessary formality, I received a message from the ladies, expressive of +a wish to be gone at once, if I would escort them to the hotel; and +Martin, who was nowhere to be found, could follow. I hastened to comply +with their wishes; and we were just about to issue from the front +drawing-room, into which we had passed through the folding-doors, when we +were confronted by the widow and her party, who had just reached the +landing of the great staircase. We drew back in silence. The mutual +confusion into which we were thrown caused a momentary hesitation only, +and we were passing on when the butler suddenly appeared. + +"A gentleman," he said, "an officer, is at the door, who wishes to see a +Miss Maria Emsbury, formerly of Swindon." + +I stared at the man, discerned a strange expression in his face, +and it glanced across me at the same moment that I had heard no +knock at the door. + +"See Miss Emsbury!" exclaimed the Widow Thorneycroft, recovering her +speech--"there is no such person here!" + +"Pardon me, madam," I cried, catching eagerly at the interruption, as a +drowning man is said to do at a straw--"this young person _was_ at least +Miss Emsbury. Desire the officer to walk up." The butler vanished +instantly, and we all huddled back disorderly into the drawing-room, some +one closing the door after us. I felt the grasp of Mrs. Allerton's arm +tighten convulsively round mine, and her breath I heard, came quick and +short. I was hardly less agitated myself. + +Steps--slow and deliberate steps--were presently heard ascending the +stairs, the door opened, and in walked a gentleman in the uniform of a +yeomanry officer, whom at the first glance I could have sworn to be the +deceased Mr. Henry Allerton. A slight exclamation of terror escaped Mrs. +Allerton, followed by a loud hysterical scream from the Swindon young +woman, as she staggered forward towards the stranger, exclaiming, "Oh, +merciful God!--my husband!" and then fell, overcome with emotion, in his +outstretched arms. + +"Yes," said the Rev. Mr. Wishart promptly, "that is certainly the +gentleman I united to Maria Emsbury. What can be the meaning of +this scene?" + +"Is that sufficient, Mr. Sharp?" exclaimed the officer, in a voice that +removed all doubt. + +"Quite, quite," I shouted--"more than enough!" + +"Very well, then," said William Martin, dashing off his black curling +wig, removing his whiskers of the same color, and giving his own light, +but now cropped head of hair and clean-shaved cheeks to view. "Now, then, +send for the police, and let them transport me--I richly merit it. I +married this young woman in a false name; I robbed her of her money, and +I deserve the hulks, if anybody ever did." + +You might have heard a pin drop in the apartment whilst the repentant +rascal thus spoke; and when he ceased, Mrs. Allerton, unable to bear up +against the tumultuous emotion which his words excited, sank without +breath or sensation upon a sofa. Assistance was summoned; and whilst the +as yet imperfectly-informed servants were running from one to another +with restoratives, I had leisure to look around. The Widow Thorneycroft, +who had dropped into a chair, sat gazing in bewildered dismay upon the +stranger, who still held her lately-discovered niece-in-law in his arms; +and I could see the hot perspiration which had gathered on her brow run +in large drops down the white channels which they traced through the +thick rouge of her cheeks. But the reader's fancy will supply the best +image of this unexpected and extraordinary scene. I cleared the house of +intruders and visitors as speedily as possible, well assured that matters +would now adjust themselves without difficulty. + +And so it proved. Martin was not sent to the hulks, though no question +that he amply deserved a punishment as great as that. The self-sacrifice, +as he deemed it, which he at last made, pleaded for him, and so did his +pretty-looking wife; and the upshot was, that the mistaken bride's dowry +was restored, with something over, and that a tavern was taken for them +in Piccadilly--the White Bear, I think it was--where they lived +comfortably and happily, I have heard, for a considerable time, and +having considerably added to their capital, removed to a hotel of a +higher grade in the city, where they now reside. It was not at all +surprising that the clergyman and others had been deceived. The disguise, +and Martin's imitative talent, might have misled persons on their guard, +much more men unsuspicious of deception. The cast in the eyes, as well as +a general resemblance of features, also of course greatly aided the +imposture. + +Of Mrs. Rosamond Allerton, I have only to say, for it is all I know, that +she is rich, unwedded, and still splendidly beautiful, though of course +somewhat _passé_ compared with herself twenty years since. Happy, too, I +have no doubt she is, judging from the placid brightness of her aspect +the last time I saw her beneath the transept of the Crystal Palace, on +the occasion of its opening by the Queen. I remember wondering at the +time, if she often recalled to mind the passage in her life which I have +here recorded. + + + + +THE ONE BLACK SPOT. + + +On the evening of a bleak, cold March day, in an early year of this +century, a woman, scantily clad, led a boy about eight years old, along +the high-road towards the old city of Exeter. They crept close to the +hedge-side to shelter themselves from the clouds of dust, which the +sudden gusts of east wind blew in their faces. + +They had walked many miles, and the boy limped painfully. He often looked +up anxiously into his mother's face, and asked if they had much farther +to go? She scarcely appeared to notice his inquiries; her fixed eyes and +sunken cheek gave evidence that sorrow absorbed all her thoughts. When he +spoke, she drew him closer to her side, but made no reply; until, at +length, the child, wondering at her silence, began to sob. She stopped +and looked at her child for a moment, her eyes filled with tears. They +had gained the top of a hill, from which was visible in the distance, the +dark massive towers of the cathedral and the church-spires of the city; +she pointed them out, and said, "We shall soon be there, Ned." Then, +sitting down on a tree that was felled by the road-side, she took "Ned" +on her lap, and, bending over him, wept aloud. + +"Are you very tired, mother?" said the boy, trying to comfort her. "'Tis +a long way--but don't cry--we shall see father when we come there." + +"Yes--you will see your father once more." + +She checked herself; and, striving to dry her tears, sat looking +wistfully towards the place of her destination. + +The tramp of horses, coming up the hill they had just ascended, drew the +boy's attention to that direction. In a moment he had sprung from his +mother, and was shouting, with child-like delight, at the appearance of a +gay cavalcade which approached. About thirty men on horseback, in crimson +liveries, surrounded two carriages, one of which contained two of His +Majesty's Judges, accompanied by the High Sheriff of the county, who, +with his javelin-men, was conducting them to the city, in which the Lent +Assizes were about to be held. + +The woman knelt until the carriages and the gaudy javelin-men had turned +the corner at the foot of a hill, and were no longer visible; with her +hands clasped together, she had prayed to God to temper with mercy the +heart of the Judge, before whom her unfortunate husband, now in jail, +would have to stand his trial. Then, taking the boy again by the +hand--unable to explain to him what he had seen--she pursued her way with +him, silently, along the dusty road. + +As they drew nearer to the city, they overtook various groups of +stragglers, who had deemed it their duty, in spite of the inclement +weather to wander some miles out of the city to catch an early glimpse of +"My Lord Judge," and the gay Sheriff's officers. Troops, also, of +itinerant ballad-singers, rope-dancers, mountebanks, and caravans of wild +beasts, still followed the Judges, as they had done throughout the +circuit. "Walk more slowly, Ned," said the mother, checking the boy's +desire to follow the shows. "I am very tired; let us rest a little here." +They lingered until the crowd was far ahead of them--and were left alone +on the road. + +Late in the evening, as the last stragglers were returning home, the +wayfarers found themselves in the suburbs of the city, and the forlorn +woman looked around anxiously for a lodging. She feared the noisy people +in the streets; and, turning timidly towards an old citizen who stood by +his garden-gate, chatting to his housekeeper, and watching the +passers-by--there was a kindness in his look which gave her +confidence--so, with a homely courtesy, she ventured to inquire of him +where she might find a decent resting-place. + +"Have you never been here before?" he asked. + +"Never but once, sir, when I was a child, many years ago." + +"What part of the country do you come from?" + +"Uffeulme." + +"Uffeulme? How did you get here?" + +"We have walked." + +"You don't say that you have trudged all the way with that youngster?" + +The housekeeper drowned the reply by loudly announcing to the old +gentleman that his supper was waiting--"We have no lodgings, my good +woman," she said, turning away from the gate. + +"Stop, Martha, stop," said the citizen. "Can't we direct them +somewhere?--you see they are strangers. I wonder where they could get +a lodging?" + +"I am sure I don't know," replied Martha, peevishly; "your supper will be +cold--come in!" + +"We've had no supper," said the boy. + +"Poor little fellow!" said the old gentleman; "then I am sure you shall +not go without. Martha, the bread and cheese!" And, opening the +garden-gate, he made the travelers enter and sit down in the +summer-house, whilst he went to fetch them a draught of cider. + +In spite of Martha's grumbling, he managed to get a substantial repast; +but it grieved him that the woman, though she thanked him very gratefully +and humbly, appeared unable to eat. + +"Your boy eats heartily," said he, "but I am afraid you don't enjoy it." + +With a choking utterance she thanked him, but could not eat. + +The good old man was striving, as well as he could, to explain to +them their way to a part of the city, where they might find a +lodging, when the garden-gate opened, and a young man gave to the +host a hearty greeting. + +At the sound of his voice, the cup the woman held in her hand, fell to +the ground. This drew the youth's attention to her; he looked earnestly +at her for a moment, and with an exclamation of surprise, said, "Why, +this is Susan Harvey?" + +The woman hid her face in her hands, and moaned. + +"Do you know her, then, Alfred?" said the uncle. + +"She nursed me when I was a little sickly boy," replied the youth; "she +lived many years in my father's house." + +"Then I am sure you will take her to some lodging to-night, for she is +quite a stranger here. There is Martha calling to me again; she is not +in the best temper to-night, so I had better go in, and I leave them to +your care." + +"Oh! tell me, Mr. Gray, have you seen him?" cried the woman eagerly. + +"I have been with him to-day, Susan," said Gray, kindly taking her +hand--"do not be cast down; all that can be done for Martin, shall be +done. Let me take you where you can rest to-night, and to-morrow you can +be with him." + +The weary little boy had fallen asleep on the seat; the mother strove to +arouse him, but Alfred Gray prevented her, by taking the little fellow +in his arms. He carried him by her side through the streets; she could +utter no words of gratitude, but her tears flowed fast, and told how the +young man's sympathy had fallen like balm upon her wounded heart. "God +has taken pity on me," she said, when they parted. + +With a quick step Alfred regained his uncle's cottage; he had a +difficult task to accomplish. Martin Harvey, now awaiting his trial for +poaching, and for being concerned in an affray with Sir George Roberts' +game-keepers, had once been his father's apprentice. Young Gray had +been endeavoring to procure for him all the legal help which the laws +then allowed; but his own means were limited, and, when he met Susan +and her boy in the garden, he had come to visit his uncle to ask his +assistance. He had now returned on the same errand. He pleaded +earnestly, and with caution, but was repulsed. It was in vain he urged +the poverty of agricultural laborers at that season, and the temptation +which an abundance of game afforded to half-starved men and their +wretched families. + +"Nonsense, Alfred!" said old Mr. Gray. "I would not grudge you the money +if you did not want it for a bad purpose. You must not excuse men who go +out with guns and fire at their fellow-creatures in the dark." + +"Martin did not fire, uncle--that is what I want to prove, and save him, +if I can, from transportation. He has a wife and child." + +"Wife and child!" repeated the old man thoughtfully. "You did not tell me +he had a wife and child; that poor woman came from Uffeulme." + +"Providence must have guided her," said the younger Gray. "It was indeed +Harvey's wife and son whom you so lately relieved." + +"You shall have the money. I have all through life prayed that my heart +may not be hardened; and I find, old as I am, that, every day I have +fresh lessons to learn." + +The next morning, while Alfred held anxious consultation with the +lawyers, the wife and husband met within the prison walls. They sat +together in silence, for neither could speak a single word of hope. The +boy never forgot that long and dreary day, during which he watched, with +wondering thoughts, the sad faces of his ruined parents. + +The Crown Court of the Castle was next morning crowded to overflowing. +Among the struggling crowd that vainly sought to gain admission, was +Martin Harvey's wife. She was rudely repulsed by the door-keepers, who +"wondered what women wanted in such places." She still strove to keep her +ground, and watched with piteous looks the doors of the court. She braved +the heat and pressure for some time; but a sickly faintness at length +came over her. She was endeavoring to retreat into the open air, when she +felt some one touch her shoulder, and turning, saw Alfred Gray making his +way toward her. After a moment's pause in the cool air, he led her round +to a side-door, through which there was a private entrance into the +court. He whispered a word to an officer, who admitted them, and pointed +to a seat behind the dock, where they were screened from observation, and +where the woman could see her husband standing between his two +fellow-prisoners. + +The prisoners were listening anxiously to the evidence which the +principal game-keeper was offering against them. The first, a man about +sixty, excited greater interest than the others. He earnestly attended to +what was going on, but gave no sign of fear, as to the result. Brushing +back his gray locks, he gazed round the court, with something like a +smile. This man's life had been a strange one. Early in his career he +had been ejected from a farm which he had held under the father of the +present prosecutor, Sir George Roberts; he soon after lost what little +property had been left him, and, in despair enlisted--was sent abroad +with his regiment--and for many years shared in the toils and +achievements of our East Indian warfare. Returning home on a small +pension, he fixed his abode in his native village, and sought to indulge +his old enmity against the family that had injured him by every kind of +annoyance in his power. The present baronet, a narrow-minded tyrannical +man, afforded by his unpopularity good opportunity to old Ralph Somers to +induce others to join him in his schemes of mischief and revenge. "The +game," which was plentiful on the estate, and the preservation of which +was Sir George's chief delight, formed the principal object of attack; +the poverty of the laborers tempted them to follow the old soldier, who +managed affairs so warily, that for nine years he had been an object of +the utmost terror and hatred to Sir George and his keepers, whilst all +their efforts to detect and capture him had, until now, been fruitless. + +Martin Harvey, who stood by his side with his shattered arm in a sling, +bore marks of acute mental suffering and remorse; but his countenance was +stamped with its original, open, manly expression--a face often to be +seen among a group of English farm laborers, expressive of a warm heart, +full of both courage and kindness. + +The evidence was soon given. The game-keepers, on the night of the 24th +of February, were apprised that poachers were in the plantations. Taking +with them a stronger force than usual, all well-armed, they discovered +the objects of their search, in a lane leading out into the fields, and +shouted to them to surrender. They distinctly saw their figures flying +before them, and when they approached them, one of the fugitives turned +round and fired, wounding one of the keepers' legs with a quantity of +small shot. The keeper immediately fired in return, and brought down a +poacher; old Ralph's voice was heard shouting to them to desist, and upon +coming up they found him standing by the side of Martin Harvey, who had +fallen severely wounded. Three guns lay by them, one of which had been +discharged, but no one could swear who had fired it; search was made all +night for the other man, but without success. + +When the prisoners were called on for their defence, they looked at one +another for a moment as if neither wished to speak first; Ralph, however, +began. He had little to say. Casting a look of defiance at Sir George and +his lady, who sat in a side-gallery above the court, he freely confessed +that hatred to the man who had injured him in his youth, and who had +treated him with harshness on his return from abroad, had been the motive +of his encouraging and aiding in these midnight depredations; he +expressed sorrow for having occasioned trouble to his neighbor Harvey. +"What I can say will be of little use to me here," said Martin Harvey, in +a hollow voice; "I am ruined, beyond redress; but I was a very poor man +when I first joined, with others, in snaring game; I often wanted bread, +and saw my wife and child pinched for food also. The rich people say game +belongs to them; but--well--all I can say more is, that I take God to +witness I never lifted a murderous gun against my fellow-man; he who did +it has escaped; and I have suffered this broken limb--but that I don't +mind--I have worse than that to bear--I have broken my wife's heart, and +my child will be left an orphan." + +His voice failed. There was an uneasy movement among the audience: and +a lady, who had been leaning over the rails of the side-gallery +listening with deep attention, fainted, and was carried out of court. +The prisoner's pale wife, who had bowed her head behind him in silent +endurance, heard a whisper among the bystanders that it was Lady +Roberts, and a hope entered her mind that the lady's tender heart might +feel for them. + +"Have you any witnesses to call?" asked the Judge. + +Martin looked round with a vacant gaze; the attorney whispered to him, +and beckoned to Alfred Gray. + +Alfred went into the witness-box, and told of the honesty, sobriety, and +good conduct of Martin Harvey, during all the years he was in his +father's house--"He was there before I was born," said the young man, +"and only left when I was obliged to leave also, sixteen years after. A +better man never broke bread--he was beloved by every body who knew him. +Till now his character was never tainted. It's the one black spot." + +The Judge commenced summing up; it was evident to all who had paid +attention to the evidence, that the conviction of two of the prisoners +was certain. Alfred Gray knew this, and strove to induce the wife to +leave with him before the fatal close of proceedings; but she shook her +head and would not go. "I shall have strength to bear it," she said. + +He sat down by her side, and heard the fearful verdict of "guilty" +pronounced against her husband and Ralph Somers; and then the dreaded +doom of transportation for life awarded to them. As they turned to leave +the dock, Martin looked down upon the crushed and broken-hearted being +whom he had sworn to protect and cherish through life, and in spite of +every effort to repress it, a cry of agony burst from his lips; it was +answered by a fainter sound, and Alfred Gray lifted the helpless, +lifeless woman from the ground, and carried her into the open air. + +Months passed; and on the day when the convict ship, with its freight of +heavy hearts, began its silent course over the greatwaters, the widowed +wife took her fatherless child by the hand, and again traversed the weary +road which led them to their desolated home. + +The kindness of the Grays had supplied a few immediate necessaries. Some +one had told her of women having, by the aid of friends, managed to meet +their husbands once more in those distant parts of the earth; and this +knowledge once in her agitated mind, raised a hope which inspired her to +pursue her daily task without fainting, and to watch an opportunity of +making an attempt which she had meditated, even during that dreadful day +of Martin's trial. She resolved to seek admission into Sir George +Roberts' mansion, and appeal to the pity of his wife. It was told in the +village that Lady Roberts had implored her husband to interpose in behalf +of the men; that his angry and passionate refusal had caused a breach +between them; that they had lived unhappily ever since; that he had +strictly forbidden any one to mention the subject, or to convey to Lady +Roberts any remarks that were made in the neighborhood. + +Susan Harvey trembled when she entered the mansion, and timidly asked +leave to speak to Lady Roberts. + +The servant she addressed had known her husband, and pitied her distress; +and, fearing lest Sir George might pass, he led her into his pantry, +watching an opportunity to let the lady know of her being there. + +After a time Lady Roberts' maid came, and beckoned her to follow +up-stairs. In a few moments the soft voice of the lady of the mansion was +cheering her with kind words, and encouraging her to disclose her wishes. + +Before she had concluded, a step was heard without, at which the lady +started and turned pale. Before there was time for retreat Sir George +hastily entered the apartment. + +"Who have you here, Lady Roberts?" + +"One who has a request to make, I believe," said the lady, mildly. "I +wish a few moments with her." + +"Have the goodness to walk out of this house," said the baronet to Susan. +"Lady Roberts, I know this woman and I will not allow you to harbor such +people here." + +Although the convict's wife never again ventured into that house, her +wants, and those of her child, were, during three years, ministered to by +the secret agency of the Good Heart that lived so sadly there; and when, +at the expiration of that period, Lady Roberts died, a trusty messenger +brought to the cottage a little legacy--sufficient, if ever news came of +Martin, to enable the wife and child, from whom he was separated, to make +their way across the earth, and to meet him again. + +But during those weary years no tidings of his fate had reached either +his wife or Alfred Gray--to whom he had promised to write when he reached +his destination. Another year dragged its slow course over the home of +affliction, and poor Susan's hopes grew fainter day by day. Her sinking +frame gave evidence of the sickness that cometh from the heart. + +One summer evening, in the next year, Alfred Gray, entered his uncle's +garden with a letter, and was soon seated in the summer-house reading it +aloud to his uncle and Martha. Tears stood in the old man's eyes, as some +touching detail of suffering or privation was related. And, indeed, the +letter told of little beside. It was from Martin. Soon after his arrival +in the settlement, Martin had written to Alfred, but the letter had never +reached England--not an unusual occurrence in those times. After waiting +long, and getting no reply, he was driven by harsh treatment, and the +degradation attending the life he led, to attempt, with old Ralph, an +escape from the settlement. In simple language, he recorded the dreary +life they led in the woods; how, after a time, old Ralph sickened and +died; and how, in a desolate place, where the footsteps of man had, +perhaps, never trod before, Martin Harvey had dug a grave, and buried his +old companion. After that, unable to endure the terrible solitude, he had +sought his way back to his former master, and had been treated more +harshly than before. Fever and disease had wasted his frame, until he had +prayed that he might die and be at rest; but God had been merciful to +him, and had inclined the heart of one for whom he labored, who listened +with compassion to his story, took him under his roof, and restored him +to health. And now, Martin had obtained a ticket of leave, and served his +kind master for wages, which he was carefully hoarding to send to Alfred +Gray, as soon as he should hear from him that those he loved were still +preserved, and would come and embrace him once more in that distant land. + +"They shall go at once, Alfred," said old Mr. Gray, the moment the last +sentence was read; "they shall not wait; we will provide the +means--hey, Martha?" + +He did not now fear to appeal to his companion. Martha had grown kinder +of late, and she confessed she had learned of her cousin what gives most +comfort to those who are drawing near their journey's end. "I can help +them a little," she said. + +"We will all help a little," Alfred replied. "I shall be off at break of +day to-morrow, on neighbor Collins's pony, and shall give him no rest +until he sets me down at Uffeulme." + +Accordingly, early next morning, Alfred Gray was riding briskly along +through the pleasant green lanes which led toward his native village. It +was the middle of June, bright, warm, sunny weather; and the young man's +spirits was unusually gay, everything around him tending to heighten the +delight which the good news he carried had inspired him with. The pony +stepped out bravely, and was only checked when Alfred came in sight of +the dear old home of his childhood, and heard the well-known chimes +calling the villagers to their morning service, for it was Sunday. Then +for a few moments the young man proceeded more slowly, and his +countenance wore a more saddened look, as the blessed recollections of +early loves and affections with which the scene was associated in his +mind, claimed their power over all other thoughts. The voice of an old +friend, from an apple-orchard hard by, recalled him from his reveries. + +He shook hands through the hedge. "I will come and see you in the +evening, Fred. I must hasten on now. She will go to church this morning, +and I must go with her." + +"Who?" asked the other. + +Alfred pointed to the cottage where Susan Harvey dwelt. "I bring her good +news--I have a letter. Martin is living and well." + +The friend shook his head. + +Alfred dismounted, and walked towards Susan Harvey's cottage. The door +was closed, and when he looked through the window he could see no one +inside. He lifted the latch softly and entered. There was no one there; +but his entrance had been heard, and a moment after, a fine stout lad +came out of the inner chamber, took Alfred's proffered hand, and in +answer to his inquiries, burst into tears. + +"She says she cannot live long, sir; but she told me last night, that +before she died, you would come and tell us news of father. She has been +saying all the past week that we should hear from him soon." + +Whilst the boy spoke, Alfred heard a weak voice, calling his name from +the inner room. + +"Go in," he said, "and tell her I am here." + +The boy did so, and then beckoned him to enter. + +Susan's submissive features were but little changed, from the time when +her husband was taken from her; but the weak and wasted form that strove +to raise itself in vain, as Alfred approached the bed-side, too plainly +revealed that the struggle was drawing to a close--that the time of rest +was at hand. + +"Thank God, you are come," she said; "you have heard from him? Tell me +quickly, for my time is short." + +"I come to tell you good news, Susan. You may yet be restored to him." + +"I shall not see Martin in this world again, Mr. Gray; but I shall close +my eyes in peace. If you know where he is, and can tell me that my boy +shall go and be with him, and tell him how, through these long weary +years, we loved him, and thought of him, and prayed for him--" Here she +broke off, and beckoned the boy to her. She held his hands within her +own, whilst Alfred Gray read from the letter all that would comfort her. + +When he had done, she said, "God will bless you--you have been very good +to us in our misery. Now, will you promise me one thing more? Will you +send my boy to his father, when I am gone?" + +The promise was made; and the boy knelt long by her bedside, listening +to the words of love and consolation which, with her latest breath, she +uttered for the sake of him who, she hoped, would hear them again from +his child's lips. + + * * * * * + +Nearly forty years have passed since they laid her among the graves of +the humble villagers of Uffeulme. Few remain now who remember her story +or her name--but, on the other side of the world, amid scenery all +unlike to that in which she dwelt, there stands a cheerful settler's +home, and under the shadow of tall acacia trees which surround the +little garden in which some few English flowers are blooming, there are +sitting, in the cool of the summer evening, a group whose faces are all +of the Anglo-Saxon mould. A happy looking couple, in the prime of life, +are there, with children playing around them; and one little gentle +girl, they call Susan, is sitting on the knee of an aged, white-haired +man, looking lovingly into his face, and wondering why his eye so +watches the setting sun every night, as it sinks behind the blue waters +in the distance. Two tall, handsome lads, with guns on their shoulders, +enter the garden, and hasten to show the old man the fruits of their +day's exploits. + +"We have been lucky to-day, grandfather," says the younger; "but Alfred +says these birds are not like the birds in old England." + +"You should hear the sailors talk about the game in England, Martin," +replies the brother. + +"Grandfather has told us all about England, except the 'birds.' He thinks +we should run away, if he were to describe them." + +The old man looks steadily at the boys for a moment, and his eyes fill +with tears. "It is a glorious land," he says, with a faltering voice; "it +is our country; but, Alfred, Martin, you will never leave this happy home +to go there. Birds there are the rich man's property, and you would not +dare carry those guns of yours over English ground. If ever you go there, +your father will tell you where there is a church-yard--and among the +graves of the poor, there is one--" + +He stopped, for Edward Harvey came to the place where his father sat, and +took his trembling hand within his own; the boys obeyed their mother's +signal, and followed her into the house; the two men remained sitting +together, until the silent stars came out. + +Then the aged man, leaning on his son's arm, rejoined the family at the +supper-table--and the peace of God rested on the solitary home. Edward +Harvey had faithfully kept within his heart, the memory of his mother's +dying commands. + +Martin, his father, had nobly effaced the one Black Spot. + + + + +THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR. + + +One morning, about five years ago, I called by appointment on Mr. John +Balance, the fashionable pawnbroker, to accompany him to Liverpool, in +pursuit of a Levanting customer--for Balance, in addition to pawning, +does a little business in the sixty per cent. line. It rained in torrents +when the cab stopped at the passage which leads past the pawning-boxes to +his private door. The cabman rang twice, and at length Balance appeared, +looming through the mist and rain in the entry, illuminated by his +perpetual cigar. As I eyed him rather impatiently, remembering that +trains wait for no man, something like a hairy dog, or a bundle of rags, +rose up at his feet, and barred his passage for a moment. Then Balance +cried out with an exclamation, in answer apparently to a something I +could not hear, "What, man alive!--slept in the passage!--there, take +that, and get some breakfast, for Heaven's sake!" So saying, he jumped +into the "Hansom," and we bowled away at ten miles an hour, just catching +the Express as the doors of the station were closing. My curiosity was +full set--for although Balance can be free with his money, it is not +exactly to beggars that his generosity is usually displayed; so when +comfortably ensconced in a _coupé_ I finished with-- + +"You are liberal with your money this morning; pray, how often do you +give silver to street-cadgers?--because I shall know now what walk to +take when flats and sharps leave off buying law." + +Balance, who would have made an excellent parson if he had not been bred +to a case-hardening trade, and has still a soft bit left in his heart +that is always fighting with his hard head, did not smile at all, but +looked as grim as if squeezing a lemon into his Saturday night's punch. +He answered slowly, "A cadger--yes; a beggar--a miserable wretch, he is +now; but, let me tell you, Master David, that that miserable bundle of +rags was born and bred a gentleman--the son of a nobleman, the husband of +an heiress, and has sat and dined at tables where you and I, Master +David, are only allowed to view the plate by favor of the butler. I have +lent him thousands, and been well paid. The last thing I had from him was +his court-suit; and I hold now his bill for one hundred pounds that will +be paid, I expect, when he dies." + +"Why, what nonsense you are talking! you must be dreaming this morning. +However, we are alone; I'll light a weed, in defiance of Railway-law, +while you spin that yarn; for, true or untrue, it will fill up the time +to Liverpool." + +"As for yarn," replied Balance, "the whole story is short enough; and as +for truth, that you may easily find out if you like to take the trouble. +I thought the poor wretch was dead, and I own it put me out meeting him +this morning, for I had a curious dream last night." + +"Oh, hang your dreams! Tell us about this gentleman beggar that bleeds +you of half-crowns--that melts the heart even of a pawnbroker!" + +"Well, then, that beggar is the illegitimate son of the late Marquis of +Hoopborough by a Spanish lady of rank. He received a first rate +education, and was brought up in his father's house. At a very early age +he obtained an appointment in a public office, was presented by the +marquis at court, and received into the first society, where his handsome +person and agreeable manners made him a great favorite. Soon after coming +of age, he married the daughter of Sir E. Bumper, who brought him a very +handsome fortune, which was strictly settled on herself. They lived in +splendid style, kept several carriages, a house in town, and a place in +the country. For some reason or other, idleness, or to please his lady's +pride he said, he resigned his appointment. His father died, and left him +nothing; indeed, he seemed at that time very handsomely provided for. + +"Very soon Mr. and Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy began to disagree. She was cold, +correct--he was hot and random. He was quite dependent on her, and she +made him feel it. When he began to get into debt, he came to me. At +length some shocking quarrel occurred--some case of jealousy on the +wife's side, not without reason, I believe; and the end of it was, Mr. +Fitz-Roy was turned out of doors. The house was his wife's, the furniture +was his wife's, and the fortune was his wife's--he was, in fact, her +pensioner. He left with a few hundred pounds ready money, and some +personal jewelry, and went to a hotel. On these and credit he lived. +Being illegitimate, he had no relations--being a fool, when he spent his +money, he lost his friends. The world took his wife's part, when they +found she had the fortune, and the only parties who interfered were her +relatives, who did their best to make the quarrel incurable. To crown +all, one night he was run over by a cab, was carried to a hospital, and +lay there for months, and was, during several weeks of the time, +unconscious. A message to the wife, by the hands of one of his debauched +companions, sent by a humane surgeon, obtained an intimation that 'if he +died, Mr. Croak, the undertaker to the family, had orders to see to the +funeral,' and that Mrs. Molinos was on the point of starting for the +Continent, not to return for some years. When Fitz-Roy was discharged, he +came to me, limping on two sticks, to pawn his court-suit, and told me +his story. I was really sorry for the fellow--such a handsome, +thoroughbred-looking man. He was going then into the west somewhere, to +try to hunt out a friend. 'What to do, Balance,' he said, 'I don't know. +I can't dig, and unless somebody will make me their gamekeeper, I must +starve, or beg, as my Jezebel bade me, when we parted!' + +"I lost sight of Molinos for a long time, and when I next came upon him +it was in the Rookery of Westminster, in a low lodging-house, where I was +searching with an officer for stolen goods. He was pointed out to me as +the 'gentleman-cadger,' because he was so free with his money when 'in +luck.' He recognized me, but turned away then. I have since seen him, and +relieved him more than once, although he never asks for anything. How he +lives, Heaven knows. Without money, without friends, without useful +education of any kind, he tramps the country, as you saw him, perhaps +doing a little hop-picking or hay-making, in season, only happy when he +obtains the means to get drunk. I have heard through the kitchen whispers +that you know come to me, that he is entitled to some property; and I +expect if he were to die his wife would pay the hundred pound bill I +hold; at any rate, what I have told you I know to be true, and the bundle +of rags I relieved just now is known in every thieves' lodging in England +as the 'gentleman cadger.'" + +This story produced an impression on me: I am fond of speculation, and +like the excitement of a legal hunt as much as some do a fox-chase. A +gentleman, a beggar--a wife rolling in wealth--rumors of unknown property +due to the husband;--it seemed as if there were pickings for me amidst +this carrion of pauperism. + +Before returning from Liverpool, I had purchased the gentleman beggar's +acceptance from Balance. I then inserted in the "Times" the following +advertisement: "_Horatio Molinos Fitz-Roy_.--If this gentleman will apply +to David Discount, Esq., Solicitor, St. James's, he will hear of +something to his advantage. Any person furnishing Mr. R's correct +address, shall receive £1 1s. reward. He was last seen," &c. Within +twenty-four hours I had ample proof of the wide circulation of the +"Times." My office was besieged with beggars of every degree, men and +women, lame and blind, Irish, Scotch, and English--some on crutches, some +in bowls, some in go-carts. They all knew him as "the gentleman," and I +must do the regular fraternity of tramps the justice to say, that not one +would answer a question until he made certain that I meant the +"gentleman" no harm. + +One evening, about three weeks after the appearance of the advertisement, +my clerk announced "another beggar." There came in an old man leaning +upon a staff, clad in a soldier's greatcoat, all patched and torn, with a +battered hat, from under which a mass of tangled hair fell over his +shoulders and half concealed his face. The beggar, in a weak, wheezy, +hesitating tone, said, "You have advertized for Molinos Fitz-Roy. I hope +you don't mean him any harm; he is sunk, I think, too low for enmity now; +and surely no one would sport with such misery as his." These last words +were uttered in a sort of piteous whisper. + +I answered quickly, "Heaven forbid I should sport with misery--I mean and +hope to do him good, as well as myself." + +"Then, sir, I am Molinos Fitz-Roy!" + +While we were conversing candles had been brought in. I have not very +tender nerves--my head would not agree with them--but I own I started and +shuddered when I saw and knew that the wretched creature before me was +under thirty years of age, and once a gentleman. Sharp, aquiline +features, reduced to literal skin and bone, were begrimed and covered +with dry fair hair; the white teeth of the half-open mouth chattered with +eagerness, and made more hideous the foul pallor of the rest of the +countenance. As he stood leaning on a staff half bent, his long, yellow +bony fingers clasped over the crutch-head of his stick, he was indeed a +picture of misery, famine, squalor, and premature age, too horrible to +dwell upon. I made him sit down, sent for some refreshment which he +devoured like a ghoul, and set to work to unravel his story. It was +difficult to keep him to the point; but with pains I learned what +convinced me that he was entitled to some property, whether great or +small there was no evidence. On parting, I said, "Now, Mr. F, you must +stay in town while I make proper inquiries. What allowance will be enough +to keep you comfortably?" + +He answered humbly after much pressing, "Would you think ten shillings +too much?" + +I don't like, if I do those things at all, to do them shabbily--so I +said, "Come every Saturday and you shall have a pound." He was profuse in +thanks, of course, as all such men are as long as distress lasts. + +I had previously learned that my ragged client's wife was in England, +living in a splendid house in Hyde Park Gardens, under her maiden name. +On the following day the Earl of Owing called upon me, wanting five +thousand pounds by five o'clock the same evening. It was a case of life +or death with him, so I made my terms and took advantage of his pressure +to execute a _coup de main._ I proposed that he should drive me home to +receive the money, calling at Mrs. Molinos in Hyde Park Gardens, on our +way. I knew that the coronet and liveries of his father, the Marquis, +would ensure me an audience with Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy. + +My scheme answered. I was introduced into the lady's presence. She was, +and probably is, a very stately, handsome woman, with a pale complexion, +high solid forehead, regular features, thin, pinched, self-satisfied +mouth. My interview was very short. I plunged into the middle of the +affair, but had scarcely mentioned the word _husband_, when she +interrupted me with, "I presume you have lent this profligate person +money, and want me to pay you." She paused, and then said, "He shall not +have a farthing." As she spoke, her white face became scarlet. + +"But, Madam, the man is starving. I have strong reasons for believing he +is entitled to property, and if you refuse any assistance, I must take +other measures." She rang the bell, wrote something rapidly on a card, +and, as the footman appeared, pushed it towards me across the table, with +the air of touching a toad, saying, "There, sir, is the address of my +solicitors; apply to them if you think you have any claim. Robert, show +the person out, and take care he is not admitted again." + +So far I had effected nothing; and, to tell the truth, felt rather +crest-fallen under the influence of that grand manner peculiar to certain +great ladies and to all great actresses. + +My next visit was to the attorneys, Messrs. Leasem and Fashun, of +Lincoln's Inn Square; and there I was at home. I had had dealings with +the firm before. They are agents for half the aristocracy, who always +run in crowds like sheep after the same wine-merchants, the same +architects, the same horse-dealers, and the same law-agents. It may be +doubted whether the quality of law and land management they get on this +principle is quite equal to their wine and horses. At any rate, my +friends of Lincoln's Inn, like others of the same class, are +distinguished by their courteous manners, deliberate proceedings, +innocence of legal technicalities, long credit and heavy charges. Leasem, +the elder partner, wears powder and a huge bunch of seals, lives in Queen +Square, drives a brougham, gives the dinners and does the cordial +department. He is so strict in performing the latter duty, that he once +addressed a poacher who had shot a Duke's keeper, as "my dear creature," +although he afterwards hung him. + +Fashun has chambers in St. James Street, drives a cab, wears a tip, and +does the grand haha style. + +My business lay with Leasem. The interviews and letters passing were +numerous. However, it came at last to the following dialogue:-- + +"Well, my dear Mr. Discount," began Mr. Leasem, who hates me like poison, +"I'm really very sorry for that poor dear Molinos--knew his father well; +a great man, a perfect gentleman; but you know what women are, eh, Mr. +Discount? My client won't advance a shilling; she knows it would only be +wasted in low dissipation. Now, don't you think (this was said very +insinuatingly)--don't you think he had better be sent to the work-house? +Very comfortable accommodation there, I can assure you--meat twice a +week, and excellent soup; and then, Mr. D., we might consider about +allowing you something for that bill." + +"Mr. Leasem, can you reconcile it to your conscience to make such an +arrangement? Here's a wife rolling in luxury, and a husband starving!" + +"No, Mr. Discount, not starving; there is the work-house, as I observed +before; besides, allow me to suggest that these appeals to feeling are +quite unprofessional--quite unprofessional." + +"But, Mr. Leasem, touching this property which the poor man is +entitled to?" + +"Why, there again, Mr. D., you must excuse me; you really must. I don't +say he is, I don't say he is not. If you know he is entitled to +property, I am sure you know how to proceed; the law is open to you, +Mr. Discount--the law is open; and a man of your talent will know how +to use it." + +"Then, Mr. Leasem, you mean that I must, in order to right this starving +man, file a Bill of Discovery, to extract from you the particulars of his +rights. You have the Marriage Settlement, and all the information, and +you decline to allow a pension, or afford any information; the man is to +starve, or go to the work-house?" + +"Why, Mr. D., you are so quick and violent, it really is not +professional; but you see, (here a subdued smile of triumph,) it has been +decided that a solicitor is not bound to afford such information as you +ask, to the injury of his client." + +"Then you mean that this poor Molinos may rot and starve, while you keep +secret from him, at his wife's request, his title to an income, and that +the Court of Chancery will back you in this iniquity?" + +I kept repeating the word "starve," because I saw it made my respectable +opponent wince. "Well, then, just listen to me: I know that in the happy +state of our equity law, Chancery can't help my client; but I have +another plan--I shall go hence to my office, issue a writ, and take your +client's husband in execution--as soon as he is lodged in jail, I shall +file his schedule in the Insolvent Court, and when he comes up for his +discharge, I shall put you in the witness-box, and examine you on oath, +'touching any property of which you know the insolvent to be possessed,' +and where will be your privileged communications then?" + +The respectable Leasem's face lengthened in a twinkling, his comfortable +confident air vanished, he ceased twiddling his gold chain, and at length +he muttered, "Suppose we pay the debt?" + +"Why, then, I'll arrest him the day after for another." + +"But, my dear Mr. Discount, surely such conduct would not be quite +respectable?" + +"That's my business; my client has been wronged, I am determined to +right him, and when the aristocratic firm of Leasem and Fashun takes +refuge according to the custom of respectable repudiators, in the cool +arbors of the Court of Chancery, why, a mere bill-discounting attorney +like David Discount, need not hesitate about cutting a bludgeon out of +the Insolvent Court." + +"Well, well, Mr. D., you are so warm--so fiery; we must deliberate, we +must consult. You will give me until the day after to-morrow, and then +we'll write you our final determination; in the meantime, send us a copy +of your authority to act for Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy." + +Of course I lost no time in getting the gentleman beggar to sign a +proper letter. + +On the appointed day came a communication with the L. and F. seal, which +I opened, not without unprofessional eagerness. It was as follows:-- + +_"In re Molinos Fitz-Roy and Another._ + +"Sir,--In answer to your application on behalf of Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy, +we beg to inform you that, under the administration of a paternal aunt +who died intestate, your client is entitled to two thousand five hundred +pounds eight shillings and sixpence, Three per Cents.; one thousand five +hundred pounds nineteen shillings and fourpence, Three per Cents., +Reduced; one thousand pounds, Long Annuities; five hundred pounds, Bank +Stock; three thousand five hundred pounds, India Stock, besides other +securities, making up about ten thousand pounds, which we are prepared to +transfer over to Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy's direction forthwith." + +Here was a windfall! It quite took away my breath. + +At dusk came my gentleman beggar, and what puzzled me was how to break +the news to him. Being very much overwhelmed with business that day, I +had not much time for consideration. He came in rather better dressed +than when I first saw him, with only a week's beard on his chin; but, +as usual, not quite sober. Six weeks had elapsed since our first +interview. He was still the humble, trembling, low-voiced creature, I +first knew him. + +After a prelude, I said, "I find, Mr. F., you are entitled to something; +pray, what do you mean to give me in addition to my bill, for obtaining +it?" He answered rapidly, "Oh, take half; if there is one hundred pounds, +take half--if there is five hundred pounds, take half." + +"No, no; Mr. F., I don't do business in that way, I shall be satisfied +with ten per cent." + +It was so settled. I then led him out into the street, impelled to tell +him the news, yet dreading the effect; not daring to make the revelation +in my office, for fear of a scene. + +I began hesitatingly, "Mr. Fitz-Roy, I am happy to say that I find you +are entitled to ... ten thousand pounds!" + +"Ten thousand pounds!" he echoed. "Ten thousand pounds!" he shrieked. +"Ten thousand pounds!" he yelled; seizing my arm violently. "You are a +brick--Here, cab! cab!" Several drove up--the shout might have been heard +a mile off. He jumped in the first. + +"Where to?" said the driver. + +"To a tailor's, you rascal!" + +"Ten thousand pounds! ha, ha, ha!" he repeated hysterically, when in the +cab; and every moment grasping my arm. Presently he subsided, looked me +straight in the face, and muttered with agonizing fervor, "What a jolly +brick you are!" + +The tailor, the hosier, the boot-maker, the hair-dresser, were in turn +visited by this poor pagan of externals. As by degrees under their hands +he emerged from the beggar to the gentleman, his spirits rose; his eyes +brightened; he walked erect, but always nervously grasping my +arm--fearing, apparently, to lose sight of me for a moment, lest his +fortune, should vanish with me. The impatient pride with which he gave +his orders to the astonished tradesman for the finest and best of +everything, and the amazed air of the fashionable hairdresser when he +presented his matted locks and stubble chin, to be "cut and shaved," may +be _acted_--it cannot be described. + +By the time the external transformation was complete, and I +sat down in a Cafe in the Haymarket opposite a haggard but handsome +thoroughbred-looking man, whose air, with the exception of the wild eyes +and deeply browned face, did not differ from the stereotyped men about +town sitting around us, Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy had already almost +forgotten the past. He bullied the waiter, and criticised the wine, as if +he had done nothing else but dine and drink and scold there all the days +of his life. + +Once he wished to drink my health, and would have proclaimed his whole +story to the coffee-room assembly, in a raving style. When I left he +almost wept in terror at the idea of losing sight of me. But, allowing +for these ebullitions--the natural result of such a whirl of events--he +was wonderfully calm and self-possessed. + +The next day, his first care was to distribute fifty pounds among his +friends, the cadgers, at a "house of call" in Westminster, and formally +to dissolve his connection with them; those present undertaking for the +"fraternity," that for the future he should never be noticed by them in +public or private. + +I cannot follow his career much further. Adversity had taught him +nothing. He was soon again surrounded by the well-bred vampires who had +forgotten him when penniless; but they amused him, and that was enough. +The ten thousand pounds were rapidly melting when he invited me to a +grand dinner at Richmond, which included a dozen of the most agreeable, +good-looking, well-dressed dandies of London, interspersed with a display +of pretty butterfly bonnets. We dined deliciously, and drank as men do of +iced wines in the dog-days--looking down from Richmond Hill. + +One of the pink-bonnets crowned Fitz-Roy with a wreath of flowers; he +looked--less the intellect--as handsome as Alcibiades. Intensely +excited and flushed, he rose with a champagne glass in his hand to +propose my health. + +The oratorical powers of his father had not descended on him. Jerking +out sentences by spasms, at length he said, "I was a beggar--I am a +gentleman--thanks to this--" + +Here he leaned on my shoulder heavily a moment, and then fell back. We +raised him, loosened his neckcloth-- + +"Fainted!" said the ladies-- + +"Drunk!" said the gentlemen-- + +He was _dead_! + + + + +A FASHIONABLE FORGER. + + +I am an attorney and a bill-discounter. As it is my vocation to lend +money at high interest to extravagant people, my connection principally +lies among "fools," sometimes among rogues "of quality." Mine is a +pursuit which a prejudiced world either holds in sovereign contempt, or +visits with envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness; but to my mind, there +are many callings, with finer names, that are no better. It gives me two +things which I love--money and power; but I cannot deny that it brings +with it a bad name. The case lies between character and money, and +involves a matter of taste. Some people like character; I prefer money. +If I am hated and despised, I chuckle over the "per contra." I find it +pleasant for members of a proud aristocracy to condescend from their high +estate to fawn, feign, flatter; to affect even mirthful familiarity in +order to gain my good-will. I am no Shylock. No client can accuse me of +desiring either his flesh or his blood. Sentimental vengeance is no item +in my stock in trade. Gold and bank-notes satisfy my "rage;" or, if need +be, a good mortgage. Far from seeking revenge, the worst defaulter I ever +had dealings with cannot deny that I am always willing to accept a good +post-obit. + +I say again, I am daily brought in contact with all ranks of society, +from the poverty-stricken patentee to the peer; and I am no more +surprised at receiving an application from a duchess than from a pet +opera-dancer. In my ante room wait, at this moment, a crowd of +borrowers. Among the men, (beardless folly and mustachioed craft are most +prominent,) there is a handsome young fellow, with an elaborate cane and +wonderfully vacant countenance, who is anticipating in feeble follies, an +estate that has been in the possession of his ancestors since the reign +of Henry the Eighth--there is a hairy, high-nosed, broken-down +nondescript, in appearance something between a horse-dealer and a +pugilist. He is an old Etonian. Five years ago he drove his four-in-hand; +he is now waiting to beg a sovereign, having been just discharged from +the Insolvent Court, for the second time. Among the women, a pretty +actress, who, a few years since, looked forward to a supper of steak and +onions, with bottled stout, on a Saturday night, as a great treat, now +finds one hundred pounds a month insufficient to pay her wine merchant +and her confectioner. I am obliged to deal with each case according to +its peculiarities. Genuine undeserved Ruin seldom knocks at my doer. Mine +is a perpetual battle with people who imbibe trickery at the same rate as +they dissolve their fortunes. I am a hard man, of course. I should not be +fit for my pursuit if I were not; but when, by a remote chance, honest +misfortune pays me a visit, as Rothschilds amused himself at times by +giving a beggar a guinea, so I occasionally treat myself to the luxury of +doing a kind action. My favorite subjects for this unnatural generosity, +are the very young or the poor, innocent, helpless people, who are unfit +for the war of life. Many among my clients (especially those tempered in +the "ice book" of fashion and high-life--polished and passionless) would +be too much for me, if I had not made the face, the eye, the accent, as +much my study as the mere legal and financial points of discount To show +what I mean, I will relate what happened to me not long since:-- + +One day, a middle-aged man in the usual costume of a West-End shopman, +who had sent in his name as Mr. Axminster, was shown into my private +room. After a little hesitation, he said, "Although you do not know me, +living at this end of the town, I know you very well by reputation, and +that you discount bills. I have a bill here which I want to get +discounted. I am in the employ of Messrs. Russle and Smooth. The bill is +drawn by one of our best customers, the Hon. Miss Snape, niece of Lord +Blimley, and accepted by Major Munge, whom, no doubt, you know by name. +She has dealt with us for some years--is very, very extravagant; but +always pays." He put the acceptance--which was for two hundred +pounds--into my hands. + +I looked at it as scrutinizingly as I usually do at such paper The +Major's signature was familiar to me; but having succeeded to a great +estate, he had long ceased to be a customer. I instantly detected a +forgery; by whom?--was the question. Could it be the man before me? +Experience told me it was not. Perhaps there was something in the +expression of my countenance which Mr. Axminster did not like, for he +said, "It is good for the amount, I presume?" + +I replied, "Pray, sir, from whom did you get this bill?" + +"From Miss Snape herself." + +"Have you circulated any other bills made by the same drawer?" + +"O yes!" said the draper, without hesitation; "I have paid away a bill +for one hundred pounds to Mr. Sparkle, the jeweller, to whom Miss Snape +owed twenty pounds. They gave me the difference." + +"And how long has that bill to run now?" + +"About a fortnight." + +"Did you indorse it?" + +"I did. Mr. Sparkle required me to do so, to show that the bill came +properly into his possession." + +"This second bill, you say is urgently required to enable Miss Snape to +leave town?" + +"Yes; she is going to Brighton for the winter." + +I gave Mr. Axminster a steady, piercing look of inquiry. "Pray, sir," I +said, "could you meet that one hundred pounds bill, supposing it could +not be paid by the accepter?" + +"Meet it!" The poor fellow wiped from his forehead the perspiration which +suddenly broke out at the bare hint of a probability that the bill would +be dishonored--"Meet it? O no! I am a married man, with a family, and +have nothing but my salary to depend on." + +"Then the sooner you get it taken up, and the less you have to do with +Miss Snape's bill affairs, the better." + +"She has always been punctual hitherto." + +"That may be." I pointed to the cross-writing on the document, and said +deliberately, "_This_ bill is a forgery!" + +At these words the poor man turned pale. He snatched up the document, and +with many incoherent protestations, was rushing toward the door, when I +called to him in an authoritative tone, to stop. He paused--his manner +indicating not only doubt, but fear. I said to him, "Don't flurry +yourself; I only want to serve you. You tell me that you are a married +man, with children, dependent on daily labor for daily bread, and that +you have done a little discounting for Miss Snape, out of your earnings. +Now, although I am a bill-discounter, I don't like to see such men +victimized. Look at the body of this bill--look at the signature of your +lady-customer, the drawer. Don't you detect the same fine, thin, +sharp-pointed handwriting in the words 'Accepted, Dymmock Munge." The +man, convinced against his will, was at first overcome. When he +recovered, he raved; he would expose the Honorable Miss Snape, if it cost +him his bread--he would go at once to the police office. I stopped him, +by saying roughly, "Don't be a fool! Any such steps would seal your ruin. +Take my advice; return the bill to the lady, saying, simply, that you +cannot get it discounted. Leave the rest to me, and I think the bill you +have indorsed to Sparkle will be paid." Comforted by this assurance, +Axminster, fearfully changed from the nervous, but smug, hopeful man of +the morning, departed. It now remained for me to exert what skill I +possessed, to bring about the desired result. I lost no time in writing a +letter to the Honorable Miss Snape, of which the following is a copy:-- + +"Madam,--A bill, purporting to be drawn by you, has been offered to me +for discount. There is something wrong about it; and, though a stranger +to you, I advise you to lose no time in getting it back into your own +hands.--D.D." + +I intended to deal with the affair quietly, and without any view to +profit. The fact is, that I was sorry--you may laugh--but I really was +sorry to think that a young girl might have given way to temptation under +pressure of pecuniary difficulties. If it had been a man's case, I doubt +whether I should have interfered. By the return of post, a lady's maid +entered my room, profusely decorated with ringlets, lace, and perfumed +with patchouli. She brought a letter from her mistress. It ran thus:-- + +"Sir,--I cannot sufficiently express my thanks for your kindness in +writing to me on the subject of the bills, of which I had also heard a +few hours previously. As a perfect stranger to you, I cannot estimate +your kind consideration at too high a value. I trust the matter will be +explained; but I should much like to see you. If you would be kind +enough to write a note as soon as you receive this, I will order it to +be sent to me at once to Tyburn Square. I will wait on you at any hour +on Friday you may appoint. I believe that I am not mistaken in supposing +that you transact business for my friend, Sir John Markham, and you will +therefore know the inclosed to be his handwriting. Again thanking you +most gratefully, allow me to remain your much and deeply obliged, +JULIANA SNAPE." + +This note was written upon delicate French paper embossed with a coat of +arms. It was in a fancy envelope--the whole richly perfumed, and +redolent of rank and fashion. Its contents were an implied confession of +forgery. Silence, or three lines of indignation, would have been the +only innocent answer to my letter. But Miss Snape thanked me. She let me +know, by implication that she was on intimate terms with a name good on +a West-End bill. My answer was, that I should be alone on the following +afternoon at five. + +At the hour fixed, punctual to a moment, a brougham drew up at the corner +of the street next to my chambers. The Honorable Miss Snape's card was +handed in. Presently, she entered, swimming into my room, richly, yet +simply dressed in the extreme of Parisian good taste. She was pale--or +rather colorless. She had fair hair, fine teeth, and a fashionable voice. +She threw herself gracefully into the chair I handed to her, and began by +uncoiling a string of phrases, to the effect that her visit was merely to +consult me on "unavoidable pecuniary difficulties." + +According to my mode, I allowed her to talk; putting in only an +occasional word of question that seemed rather a random observation than +a significant query. At length after walking round and round the subject, +like a timid horse in a field around a groom with a sieve of oats, she +came nearer and nearer the subject. When she had fairly approached the +point, she stopped, as if her courage had failed her. But she soon +recovered, and observed, "I cannot think why you should take the trouble +to write so to me, a perfect stranger." Another pause--"I wonder no one +ever suspected me before." + +Here was a confession and a key to character. The cold gray eye, the thin +compressed lips, which I had had time to observe, were true indexes to +the "lady's inner heart;" selfish calculating, utterly devoid of +conscience; unable to conceive the existence of spontaneous kindness; +utterly indifferent to anything except discovery, and almost indifferent +to that, because convinced that no serious consequences could affect a +lady of her rank and influence. + +"Madam," I replied, "as long as you dealt with tradesmen accustomed to +depend on aristocratic customers, your rank and position, and their +large profits, protected you from suspicion; but you have made a mistake +in descending from your vantage ground to make a poor shopman your +innocent accomplice--a man who will be keenly alive to anything +that may injure his wife or children. His terrors--but for my +interposition--would have ruined you utterly. Tell me, how many of these +things have you put afloat?" + +She seemed a little taken a-back by this speech, but was wonderfully +firm. She passed her white, jewelled hand over her eyes, seemed +calculating, and then whispered, with a confiding look of innocent +helplessness, admirably assumed, "About as many as amount to twelve +hundred pounds." + +"And what means have you for meeting them?" + +At this question so plainly put, her face flushed. She half rose from her +chair, and exclaimed in the true tone of aristocratic _hauteur_, "Really, +sir, I do not know what right you have to ask me that question." + +I laughed a little, though not very loud. It was rude, I own; but who +could have helped it? I replied, speaking low, but slowly and +distinctly--"You forget. I did not send for you; you came to me. You have +forged bills to the amount of twelve hundred pounds. Yours is not the +case of a ruined merchant or an ignorant over-tempted clerk. In your case +a jury"--(she shuddered at that word)--"would find no extenuating +circumstances; and if you should fall into the hands of justice you will +be convicted, degraded, clothed in a prison-dress, and transported for +life. I do not want to speak harshly; but I insist that you find means to +take up the bill which Mr. Axminster has so unwittingly endorsed!" + +The Honorable Miss Snape's grand manner melted away. She wept. She seized +and pressed my hand. She cast up her eyes, full of tears, and went +through the part of a repentant victim with great fervor. She would do +anything--anything in the world to save the poor man. Indeed, she had +intended to appropriate part of the two hundred pound bill to that +purpose. She forgot her first statement, that she wanted the money to go +out of town. Without interrupting, I let her go on and degrade herself by +a simulated passion of repentance, regret, and thankfulness to me, under +which she hid her fear and her mortification at being detected. I at +length put an end to a scene of admirable acting, by recommending her to +go abroad immediately, to place herself out of reach of any sudden +discovery; and then lay her case fully before her friends, who would no +doubt feel bound to come forward with the full amount of the forged +bills. "But," she exclaimed, with an entreating air, "I have no money; I +cannot go without money!" To that observation I did not respond although +I am sure she expected that I should, check-book in hand, offer her a +loan. I do not say so without reason; for, the very next week, this +honorable young lady came again, and, with sublime assurance and a number +of very charming, winning speeches, (which might have had their effect +upon a younger man), asked me to lend her one hundred pounds, in order +that she might take the advice I had so obligingly given her, and retire +into private life for a certain time in the country. I do meet with a +great many impudent people in the course of my calling--I am not very +deficient in assurance myself--but this actually took away my breath. + +"Really, madam," I answered, "you pay a very ill-compliment to my gray +hairs, and would fain make me a very ill return for the service I have +done you, when you ask me to lend a hundred pounds to a young lady who +owns to having forged to the extent of one thousand two hundred pounds, +and to owing eight hundred pounds besides. I wished to save a personage +of your years and position from a disgraceful career; but I am too good a +trustee for my children to lend money to anybody in such a dangerous +position as yourself." + +"Oh!" she answered, quite unabashed, without a trace of the fearful, +tender pleading of the previous week's interview--quite as if I had been +an accomplice, "I can give you excellent security." + +"That alters the case; I can lend any amount on good security." + +"Well, sir, I can get the acceptance of three friends of ample means" + +"Do you mean to tell me, Miss Snape, that you will write down the names +of three parties who will accept a bill for one hundred pounds for you?" + +Yes, she could, and did actually write down the names of three +distinguished men. Now I knew for certain, that not one of those noblemen +would have put his name to a bill on any account whatever for his dearest +friend; but, in her unabashed self-confidence, she thought of passing +another forgery _on me_. I closed the conference by saying, "I cannot +assist you;" and she retired with the air of an injured person. In the +course of a few days, I heard from Mr. Axminster, that his liability of +one hundred pounds had been duly honored. + +In my active and exciting life, one day extinguishes the recollection +of the events of the preceding day; and, for a time, I thought no more +about the fashionable forger. I had taken it for granted that, +heartily frightened, although not repenting, she had paused in her +felonious pursuits. + +My business one day led me to the establishment of one of the most +wealthy and respectable legal firms in the city, where I am well known, +and, I believe, valued; for at all times I am most politely, I may say, +most cordially received. Mutual profits create a wonderful freemasonry +between those who have not any other sympathy or sentiment. Politics, +religion, morality, difference of rank, are all equalized and +republicanized by the division of an account. No sooner had I entered the +_sanctum_, than the senior partner, Mr. Precepts, began to quiz his +junior, Mr. Jones, with, "Well, Jones must never joke friend Discount +anymore about usury. Just imagine," he continued, addressing me, "Jones +has himself been discounting a bill for a lady; and a deuced pretty one +too. He sat next her at dinner in Grosvenor Square, last week. Next day +she gave him a call here, and he could not refuse her extraordinary +request. Gad, it is hardly fair for Jones to be poaching on your domains +of West-End paper!" + +Mr. Jones smiled quietly, as he observed, "Why, you see, she is the niece +of one of our best clients; and really I was so taken by surprise, that I +did not know how to refuse." + +"Pray," said I, interrupting his excuses, "does your young lady's name +begin with S.? Has she not a very pale face, and cold gray eye?" + +The partners stared. + +"Ah! I see it is so; and can at once tell you that the bill is not +worth a rush." + +"Why, you don't mean--?" + +"I mean simply that the acceptance is, I'll lay you a wager, a forgery." + +"A forgery!" + +"A forgery," I repeated as distinctly as possible. + +Mr. Jones hastily, and with broken ejaculations, called for the cash-box. +With trembling hands he took out the bill, and followed my finger with +eager, watchful eyes, as I pointed out the proofs of my assertion. A long +pause was broken by my mocking laugh; for, at the moment, my sense of +politeness could not restrain my satisfaction at the signal defeat which +had attended the first experiment of these highly respectable gentlemen +in the science of usury. + +The partners did not have recourse to the police. They did not propose a +consultation with either Mr. Forrester or Mr. Field; but they took +certain steps, under my recommendation; the result of which was that at +an early day, an aunt of the Honorable Miss Snape was driven, to save so +near a connection from transportation, to sell out some fourteen hundred +pounds of stock, and all the forgeries were taken up. + +One would have thought that the lady who had thus so narrowly escaped, +had had enough--but forgery, like opium-eating, is one of those charming +vices which is never abandoned, when once adopted. The forger enjoys not +only the pleasure of obtaining money so easily, but the triumph of +befooling sharp men of the world. Dexterous penmanship is a source of the +same sort of pride as that which animates the skillful rifleman, the +practiced duellist, or well-trained billiard-player. With a clean Gillott +he fetches down a capitalist, at three or six months, for a cool hundred +or a round thousand; just as a Scrope drops over a stag at ten, or a +Gordon Cumming a monstrous male elephant at a hundred paces. + +As I before observed, my connection especially lies among the +improvident--among those who will be ruined--who are being ruined--and +who have been ruined. To the last class belongs Francis Fisherton, once +a gentleman, now without a shilling or a principle; but rich in +mother-wit--in fact, a _farceur_, after Paul de Kock's own heart. Having +in by-gone days been one of my willing victims, he occasionally finds +pleasure and profit in guiding others through the gate he frequented, as +long as able to pay the tolls. In truth, he is what is called a +"discount agent." + +One day I received a note from him, to say that he would call on me at +three o'clock the next day to introduce a lady of family, who wanted a +bill "done" for one hundred pounds. So ordinary a transaction merely +needed a memorandum in my diary, "Tuesday, 3 p.m.; F.F., £100 Bill." The +hour came and passed; but no Frank, which was strange--because every one +must have observed, that, however dilatory people are in paying, they are +wonderfully punctual when they expect to receive money. + +At five o'clock, in rushed my Jackall. His story, disentangled from +oaths and ejaculations, amounted to this:--In answer to one of the +advertisements he occasionally addresses "To the Embarrassed," in the +columns of the "Times," he received a note from a lady, who said she was +anxious to get a "bill done"--the acceptance of a well-known man of rank +and fashion. A correspondence was opened, and an appointment made. At the +hour fixed, neatly shaved, brushed, gloved, booted--the revival, in +short, of that high-bred Frank Fisherton who was so famous + +"In his hot youth, when Crockford's was the thing." + +glowing with only one glass of brandy, "just to steady his nerves," he +met the lady at a West-End pastry-cook's. + +After a few words (for all the material questions had been settled by +correspondence) she stepped into a brougham, and invited Frank to take a +seat beside her. Elated with a compliment of late years so rare, he +commenced planning the orgies which were to reward him for weeks of +enforced fasting, when the coachman, reverentially touching his hat, +looked down from his seat for orders. + +"To ninety-nine, George Street, St. James," cried Fisherton, in his +loudest tones. + +In an instant the young lady's pale face changed to scarlet, and then to +ghastly green. In a whisper, rising to a scream, she exclaimed, "Good +heavens! you do not mean to go to _that_ man's house," (meaning me.) +"Indeed, I cannot go to him, on any account; he is a most horrid man, I +am told, and charges most extravagantly." + +"Madam," answered Frank, in great perturbation, "I beg your pardon, but +you have been grossly misinformed. I have known that excellent man these +twenty years, and have paid him hundreds on hundreds; but never so much +by ten per cent. as you offered me for discounting your bill." + +"Sir, I cannot have anything to do with your friend." Then, violently, +pulling the check-string, "Stop," she gasped, "and _will you_ have the +goodness to get out?" + +"And so I got out," continued Fisherton, "and lost my time; and the heavy +investment I made in getting myself up for the assignation--new primrose +gloves, and a shilling to the hair-dresser--hang her! But, did you ever +know anything like the prejudices that must prevail against you? I am +disgusted with human nature. Could you lend me half a sovereign till +Saturday?" + +I smiled. I sacrificed the half sovereign, and let him go, for he is not +exactly the person to whom it was advisable to intrust all the secrets +relating to the Honorable Miss Snape. Since that day I look each morning +in the police reports with considerable interest; but, up to the present +hour, the Honorable Miss Snape has lived and thrived in the best society. + + + + +THE YOUNG ADVOCATE. + + +Antoine de Chaulieu was the son of a poor gentleman of Normandy, with a +long genealogy, a short rent-roll, and a large family. Jacques Rollet +was the son of a brewer, who did not know who his grandfather was; but +he had a long purse and only two children. As these youths flourished in +the early days of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and were near +neighbors, they naturally hated each other. Their enmity commenced at +school, where the delicate and refined De Chaulieu, being the only +gentilhomme among the scholars, was the favorite of the master, (who was +a bit of an aristocrat in his heart,) although he was about the worst +dressed boy in the establishment, and never had a sou to spend; while +Jacques Rollet, sturdy and rough, with smart clothes and plenty of +money, got flogged six days in the week, ostensibly for being stupid and +not learning his lessons,--which, indeed, he did not,--but, in reality, +for constantly quarrelling with and insulting De Chaulieu, who had not +strength to cope with him. When they left the academy, the feud +continued in all its vigor, and was fostered by a thousand little +circumstances arising out of the state of the times, till a separation +ensued in consequence of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu's undertaking +the expense of sending him to Paris to study the law, and of maintaining +him there during the necessary period. + +With the progress of events came some degree of reaction in favor of +birth and nobility, and then Antoine, who had passed for the bar, began +to hold up his head and endeavored to push his fortunes; but fate seemed +against him. He felt certain that if he possessed any gift in the world +it was that of eloquence, but he could get no cause to plead; and his +aunt dying inopportunely, first his resources failed, and then his +health. He had no sooner returned to his home, than, to complicate his +difficulties completely, he fell in love with Mademoiselle Natalie de +Bellefonds, who had just returned from Paris, where she had been +completing her education. To expatiate on the perfections of Mademoiselle +Natalie would be a waste of ink and paper; it is sufficient to say that +she really was a very charming girl, with a fortune which, though not +large, would have been a most desirable acquisition to De Chaulieu, who +had nothing. Neither was the fair Natalie indisposed to listen to his +addresses; but her father could not be expected to countenance the suit +of a gentleman, however well born, who had not a ten-sous piece in the +world, and whose prospects were a blank. + +While the ambitious and lovesick young barrister was thus pining in +unwelcome obscurity, his old acquaintance, Jacques Rollet, had been +acquiring an undesirable notoriety. There was nothing really bad in +Jacques' disposition, but having been bred up a democrat, with a hatred +of the nobility, he could not easily accommodate his rough humor to treat +them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult them. The +liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought him into +contact with the higher classes of society, had led him into many +scrapes, out of which his father's money had one way or another released +him; but that source of safety had now failed. Old Rollet, having been +too busy with the affairs of the nation to attend to his business, had +died insolvent, leaving his son with nothing but his own wits to help him +out of future difficulties, and it was not long before their exercise was +called for. Claudine Rollet, his sister, who was a very pretty girl, had +attracted the attention of Mademoiselle de Bellefonds' brother, Alphonse; +and as he paid her more attention than from such a quarter was agreeable +to Jacques, the young men had more than one quarrel on the subject, on +which occasions they had each, characteristically, given vent to their +enmity, the one in contemptuous monosyllables, and the other in a volley +of insulting words. But Claudine had another lover more nearly of her own +condition of life; this was Claperon, the deputy-governor of the Rouen +jail, with whom she made acquaintance during one or two compulsory visits +paid by her brother to that functionary; but Claudine, who was a bit of a +coquette, though she did not altogether reject his suit, gave him little +encouragement, so that betwixt hopes and fears, and doubts and +jealousies, poor Claperon led a very uneasy kind of life. + +Affairs had been for some time in this position, when, one fine morning, +Alphonse de Bellefonds was not to be found in his chamber when his +servant went to call him; neither had his bed been slept in. He had been +observed to go out rather late on the preceding evening, but whether or +not he had returned, nobody could tell. He had not appeared at supper, +but that was too ordinary an event to awaken suspicion; and little alarm +was excited till several hours had elapsed, when inquiries were +instituted and a search commenced, which terminated in the discovery of +his body, a good deal mangled, lying at the bottom of a pond which had +belonged to the old brewery. Before any investigations had been made, +every person had jumped to the conclusion that the young man had been +murdered, and that Jacques Rollet was the assassin. There was a strong +presumption in favor of that opinion, which further perquisitions tended +to confirm. Only the day before, Jacques had been heard to threaten M. de +Bellefonds with speedy vengeance. On the fatal evening, Alphonse and +Claudine had been seen together in the neighborhood of the now dismantled +brewery; and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and democracy, was in bad odor +with the prudent and respectable part of society, it was not easy for him +to bring witnesses to character, or prove an unexceptionable alibi. As +for the Bellefonds and De Chaulieus, and the aristocracy in general, they +entertained no doubt of his guilt; and finally, the magistrates coming to +the same opinion, Jacques Rollet was committed for trial, and as a +testimony of good will Antoine de Chaulieu was selected by the injured +family to conduct the prosecution. + +Here, at last, was the opportunity he had sighed for! So interesting a +case, too, furnishing such ample occasion for passion, pathos, +indignation! And how eminently fortunate that the speech which he set +himself with ardor to prepare, would be delivered in the presence of the +father and brother of his mistress, and perhaps of the lady herself! The +evidence against Jacques, it is true, was altogether presumptive; there +was no proof whatever that he had committed the crime; and for his own +part he stoutly denied it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained no doubt +of his guilt, and his speech was certainly well calculated to carry +conviction into the bosom of others. It was of the highest importance to +his own reputation that he should procure a verdict, and he confidently +assured the afflicted and enraged family of the victim that their +vengeance should be satisfied. Under these circumstances could any thing +be more unwelcome than a piece of intelligence that was privately +conveyed to him late on the evening before the trial was to come on, +which tended strongly to exculpate the prisoner, without indicating any +other person as the criminal? Here was an opportunity lost. The first +step of the ladder on which he was to rise to fame, fortune, and a wife, +was slipping from under his feet! + +Of course, so interesting a trial was anticipated with great eagerness by +the public, and the court was crowded with all the beauty and fashion of +Rouen. Though Jacques Rollet persisted in asserting his innocence, +founding his defence chiefly on circumstances which were strongly +corroborated by the information that had reached De Chaulieu the +preceding evening, he was convicted. + +In spite of the very strong doubts he privately entertained respecting +the justice of the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the first flush +of success, amid a crowd of congratulating friends, and the approving +smiles of his mistress, felt gratified and happy; his speech had, for the +time being, not only convinced others, but himself; warmed with his own +eloquence, he believed what he said. But when the glow was over, and he +found himself alone, he did not feel so comfortable. A latent doubt of +Rollet's guilt now burnt strongly in his mind, and he felt that the blood +of the innocent would be on his head. It is true there was yet time to +save the life of the prisoner; but to admit Jacques innocent was to take +the glory out of his own speech, and turn the sting of his argument +against himself. Besides, if he produced the witness who had secretly +given him the information, he should be self-condemned, for he could not +conceal that he had been aware of the circumstance before the trial. + +Matters having gone so far, therefore, it was necessary that Jacques +Rollet should die; so the affair took its course; and early one morning +the guillotine was erected in the courtyard of the jail, three criminals +ascended the scaffold, and three heads fell into the basket which were +presently afterwards, with the trunks that had been attached to them, +buried in a corner of the cemetery. + +Antoine de Chaulieu was now fairly started in his career, and his success +was as rapid as the first step towards it had been tardy. He took a +pretty apartment in the Hotel de Marboeuf Rue Grange-Batelière, and in a +short time was looked upon as one of the most rising young advocates in +Paris. His success in one line brought him success in another; he was +soon a favorite in society, and an object of interest to speculating +mothers; but his affections still adhered to his old love, Natalie de +Bellefonds, whose family now gave their assent to the match,--at least, +prospectively,--a circumstance which furnished such an additional +incentive to his exertions, that in about two years from the date of his +first brilliant speech, he was in a sufficiently flourishing condition to +offer the young lady a suitable home. In anticipation of the happy event, +he engaged and furnished a suit of apartments in the Rue du Helder; and +as it was necessary that the bride should come to Paris to provide her +trousseau, it was agreed that the wedding should take place there, +instead of at Bellefonds, as had been first projected--an arrangement the +more desirable, that a press of business rendered M. de Chaulieu's +absence from Paris inconvenient. + +Brides and bridegrooms in France, except of the very high classes, are +not much in the habit of making those honeymoon excursions so universal +in this country. A day spent in visiting Versailles, or St. Cloud, or +even the public places of the city, is generally all that precedes the +settling down into the habits of daily life. In the present instance, St. +Denis was selected, from the circumstance of Natalie having a younger +sister at school there, and also because she had a particular desire to +see the abbey. + +The wedding was to take place on a Thursday; and on the Wednesday +evening, having spent some hours most agreeably with Natalie, Antoine de +Chaulieu returned to spend his last night in his bachelor apartments. His +wardrobe and other small possessions had already been packed up and sent +to his future home; and there was nothing left in his room now but his +new wedding suit, which he inspected with considerable satisfaction +before he undressed and lay down to sleep. Sleep, however, was somewhat +slow to visit him; and the clock had struck one before he closed his +eyes. When he opened them again, it was broad daylight; and his first +thought was, had he overslept himself? He sat up in bed to look at the +clock, which was exactly opposite; and as he did so, in the large mirror +over the fireplace he perceived a figure standing behind him. As the +dilated eyes met his own, he saw it was the face of Jacques Rollet. +Overcome with horror, he sank back on his pillow, and it was some minutes +before he ventured to look again in that direction; when he did so, the +figure had disappeared. + +The sudden revulsion of feeling such a vision was calculated to occasion +in a man elate with joy, may be conceived. For some time after the death +of his former foe, he had been visited by not unfrequent twinges of +conscience; but of late, borne along by success, and the hurry of +Parisian life, these unpleasant remembrances had grown rarer, till at +length they had faded away altogether. Nothing had been further from his +thoughts than Jacques Rollet, when he closed his eyes on the preceding +night, nor when he opened them to that sun which was to shine on what he +expected to be the happiest day of his life. Where were the high-strung +nerves now? the elastic frame? the bounding heart? + +Heavily and slowly he arose from his bed, for it was time to do so; and +with a trembling hand and quivering knees, he went through the processes +of the toilet, gashing his cheek with the razor, and spilling the water +over his well-polished boots. When he was dressed, scarcely venturing to +cast a glance in the mirror as he passed it, he quitted the room, and +descended the stairs, taking the key of the door with him for the purpose +of leaving it with the porter: the man, however, being absent, he laid it +on the table in his lodge, and with a relaxed and languid step proceeded +on his way to the church, where presently arrived the fair Natalie and +her friends. How difficult it was now to look happy with that pallid face +and extinguished eye! + +"How pale you are! Has any thing happened? You are surely ill," were the +exclamations that met him on all sides. He tried to carry it off as well +as he could, but felt that the movements he would have wished to appear +alert were only convulsive, and that the smiles with which he attempted +to relax his features were but distorted grimaces. However, the church +was not the place for further inquiries; and while Natalie gently pressed +his hand in token of sympathy, they advanced to the altar, and the +ceremony was performed; after which they stepped into the carriages +waiting at the door, and drove to the apartments of Madame de Bellefonds, +where an elegant _déjeuner_ was prepared. + +"What ails you, my dear husband?" inquired Natalie, as soon as they +were alone. + +"Nothing, love," he replied; "nothing, I assure you, but a restless night +and a little overwork, in order that I might have to-day free to enjoy my +happiness." + +"Are you quite sure? Is there nothing else?" + +"Nothing, indeed; and pray don't take notice of it; it only makes +me worse." + +Natalie was not deceived, but she saw that what he said was true; notice +made him worse; so she contented herself with observing him quietly, and +saying nothing; but, as he _felt_ she was observing him, she might almost +better have spoken; words are often less embarrassing things than too +curious eyes. + +When they reached Madame de Bellefond's he had the same sort of +questioning and scrutiny to undergo, till he grew quite impatient under +it, and betrayed a degree of temper altogether unusual with him. Then +every body looked astonished; some whispered their remarks, and others +expressed them by their wondering eyes, till his brow knit, and his +pallid cheeks became flushed with anger. Neither could he divert +attention by eating; his parched mouth would not allow him to swallow any +thing but liquids, of which, however, he indulged in copious libations; +and it was an exceeding relief to him when the carriage, which was to +convey them to St. Denis, being announced, furnished an excuse for +hastily leaving the table. Looking at his watch, he declared it was late; +and Natalie, who saw how eager he was to be gone, threw her shawl over +her shoulders, and bidding her friends _good morning_, they hurried away. + +It was a fine sunny day in June; and as they drove along the crowded +boulevards, and through the Porte St. Denis, the young bride and +bridegroom, to avoid each other's eyes, affected to be gazing out of the +windows; but when they reached the part of the road where there was +nothing but trees on each side, they felt it necessary to draw in their +heads, and make an attempt at conversation, De Chaulieu put his arm round +his wife's waist, and tried to rouse himself from his depression; but it +had by this time so reacted upon her, that she could not respond to his +efforts, and thus the conversation languished, till both felt glad when +they reached their destination, which would, at all events, furnish them +something to talk about. + +Having quitted the carriage, and ordered a dinner at the Hotel de +l'Abbaye, the young couple proceeded to visit Mademoiselle Hortense de +Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see her sister and new brother-in-law, +and doubly so when she found that they had obtained permission to take +her out to spend the afternoon with them. As there is little to be seen +at St. Denis but the Abbey, on quitting that part of it devoted to +education, they proceeded to visit the church, with its various objects +of interest; and as De Chaulieu's thoughts were now forced into another +direction, his cheerfulness began insensibly to return. Natalie looked so +beautiful, too, and the affection betwixt the two young sisters was so +pleasant to behold! And they spent a couple of hours wandering about with +Hortense, who was almost as well informed as the Suisse, till the brazen +doors were opened which admitted them to the Royal vault. Satisfied, at +length, with what they had seen, they began to think of returning to the +inn, the more especially as De Chaulieu, who had not eaten a morsel of +food since the previous evening, owned to being hungry; so they directed +their steps to the door, lingering here and there as they went, to +inspect a monument or a painting, when, happening to turn his head aside +to see if his wife, who had stopped to take a last look at the tomb of +King Dagobert, was following, he beheld with horror the face of Jacques +Rollet appearing from behind a column! At the same instant his wife +joined him, and took his arm, inquiring if he was not very much delighted +with what he had seen. He attempted to say yes, but the word would not be +forced out; and staggering out of the door, he alleged that a sudden +faintness had overcome him. + +They conducted him to the Hotel, but Natalie now became seriously +alarmed; and well she might. His complexion looked ghastly, his limbs +shook, and his features bore an expression of indescribable horror and +anguish. What could be the meaning of so extraordinary a change in the +gay, witty, prosperous De Chaulieu, who, till that morning, seemed not to +have a care in the world? For, plead illness as he might, she felt +certain, from the expression of his features, that his sufferings were +not of the body but of the mind; and, unable to imagine any reason for +such extraordinary manifestations, of which she had never before seen a +symptom, but a sudden aversion to herself, and regret for the step he had +taken, her pride took the alarm, and, concealing the distress she really +felt, she began to assume a haughty and reserved manner towards him, +which he naturally interpreted into an evidence of anger and contempt. +The dinner was placed upon the table; but De Chaulieu's appetite, of +which he had lately boasted, was quite gone, nor was his wife better able +to eat. The young sister alone did justice to the repast; but although +the bridegroom could not eat, he could swallow champagne in such copious +draughts, that ere long the terror and remorse that the apparition of +Jacques Rollet had awakened in his breast were drowned in intoxication. +Amazed and indignant, poor Natalie sat silently observing this elect of +her heart, till overcome with disappointment and grief, she quitted the +room with her sister, and retired to another apartment, where she gave +free vent to her feelings in tears. + +After passing a couple of hours in confidences and lamentations, they +recollected that the hours of liberty granted, as an especial favor, to +Mademoiselle Hortense, had expired; but ashamed to exhibit her husband in +his present condition to the eyes of strangers, Natalie prepared to +re-conduct her to the _Maison Royale_ herself. Looking into the +dining-room as they passed, they saw De Chaulieu lying on a sofa fast +asleep, in which state he continued when his wife returned. At length, +however, the driver of their carriage begged to know if Monsieur and +Madame were ready to return to Paris, and it became necessary to arouse +him. The transitory effects of the champagne had now subsided; but when +De Chaulieu recollected what had happened, nothing could exceed his shame +and mortification. So engrossing indeed were these sensations that they +quite overpowered his previous one, and, in his present vexation, he, for +the moment, forgot his fears. He knelt at his wife's feet, begged her +pardon a thousand times, swore that he adored her, and declared that the +illness and the effect of the wine had been purely the consequences of +fasting and over-work. It was not the easiest thing in the world to +re-assure a woman whose pride, affection, and taste, had been so severely +wounded; but Natalie tried to believe, or to appear to do so, and a sort +of reconciliation ensued, not quite sincere on the part of the wife, and +very humbling on the part of the husband. Under these circumstances it +was impossible that he should recover his spirits or facility of manner; +his gaiety was forced, his tenderness constrained; his heart was heavy +within him; and ever and anon the source whence all this disappointment +and woe had sprung would recur to his perplexed and tortured mind. + +Thus mutually pained and distrustful, they returned to Paris, which they +reached about nine o'clock. In spite of her depression, Natalie, who had +not seen her new apartments, felt some curiosity about them, whilst De +Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting the elegant home he had +prepared for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they stepped out of the +carriage, the gates of the Hotel were thrown open, the _concierge_ rang +the bell which announced to the servants that their master and mistress +had arrived, and whilst these domestics appeared above, holding lights +over the balustrades, Natalie, followed by her husband, ascended the +stairs. But when they reached the landing-place of the first flight, they +saw the figure of a man standing in a corner as if to make way for them; +the flash from above fell upon his face, and again Antoine de Chaulieu +recognized the features of Jacques Rollet! + +From the circumstance of his wife's preceding him, the figure was not +observed by De Chaulieu till he was lifting his foot to place it on the +top stair: the sudden shock caused him to miss the step, and, without +uttering a sound, he fell back, and never stopped till he reached the +stones at the bottom. The screams of Natalie brought the concierge from +below and the maids from above, and an attempt was made to raise the +unfortunate man from the ground; but with cries of anguish he besought +them to desist. + +"Let me," he said, "die here! What a fearful vengeance is thine! O, +Natalie, Natalie!" he exclaimed to his wife, who was kneeling beside him, +"to win fame, and fortune, and yourself, I committed a dreadful crime! +With lying words I argued away the life of a fellow-creature, whom, +whilst I uttered them, I half believed to be innocent; and now, when I +have attained all I desired, and reached the summit of my hopes, the +Almighty has sent him back upon the earth to blast me with the sight. +Three times this day--three times this day! Again! again!"--and as he +spoke, his wild and dilated eyes fixed themselves on one of the +individuals that surrounded him. + +"He is delirious," said they. + +"No," said the stranger! "What he says is true enough,--at least in +part;" and bending over the expiring man, he added, "May Heaven forgive +you, Antoine de Chaulieu! I was not executed; one who well knew my +innocence saved my life. I may name him, for he is beyond the reach of +the law now,--it was Claperon, the jailor, who loved Claudine, and had +himself killed Alphonse de Bellefonds from jealousy. An unfortunate +wretch had been several years in the jail for a murder committed during +the frenzy of a fit of insanity. Long confinement had reduced him to +idiocy. To save my life Claperon substituted the senseless being for me, +on the scaffold; he was executed in my stead. He has quitted the country, +and I have been a vagabond on the face of the earth ever since that time. +At length I obtained, through the assistance of my sister, the situation +of concierge in the Hotel Marboeuf, in the Rue Grange-Batelière. I +entered on my new place yesterday evening, and was desired to awaken the +gentleman on the third floor at seven o'clock. When I entered the room to +do so, you were asleep, but before I had time to speak you awoke, and I +recognized your features in the glass. Knowing that I could not vindicate +my innocence if you chose to seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus +starting for St. Denis, I got on it with a vague idea of getting on to +Calais, and crossing the Channel to England. But having only a franc or +two in my pocket, or indeed in the world, I did not know how to procure +the means of going forward; and whilst I was lounging about the place, +forming first one plan and then another, I saw you in the church, and +concluding you were in pursuit of me, I thought the best way of eluding +your vigilance was to make my way back to Paris as fast as I could; so I +set off instantly, and walked all the way; but having no money to pay my +night's lodging, I came here to borrow a couple of livres of my sister +Claudine, who lives in the fifth story." + +"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed the dying man; "that sin is off my soul! +Natalie, dear wife, farewell! Forgive, forgive all!" + +These were the last words he uttered; the priest, who had been +summoned in haste, held up the cross before his failing sight; a few +strong convulsions shook the poor bruised and mangled frame; and then +all was still. + +And thus ended the Young Advocate's Wedding Day. + + + + +A MURDER IN THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES. + + +There is, perhaps, no country or climate more beautiful than England, as +seen in one of its rural landscapes, when the sun has just risen upon a +cloudless summer's dawn. The very feeling that the delightful freshness +of the moment will not be entirely destroyed during the whole day, +renders the prospect more agreeable than the anticipated fiery advance of +the sun in southern or tropical lands. Exhilaration and gladness are the +marked characteristics of an English summer morning. So it ever is, and +so it was hundreds of years ago, when occurred the events we are about to +narrate. How lovely then, on such a morning as we allude to, looked that +rich vale in the centre of Gloucestershire, through which the lordly +Severn flows! The singing of the birds, the reflective splendor of the +silvery waters, the glittering of the dew as it dazzled and +disappeared--all combined to charm sound, sight, and sense, and to +produce a strong feeling of joy. But the horseman, who was passing +through this graceful scene, scarcely needed the aid of any external +object to enhance the pleasurable sensation that already filled his +breast. The stately horse on which he sat, seemed, by its light steps, +and by ever and anon proudly prancing, to share in the animation of its +rider. So, the noble stag-hound that followed, and continually looked up +contentedly at its master, appeared, likewise, a participator in the +general content. The stranger had indeed cause to rejoice, for he was +upon the fairest errand. He bad wooed and won the gentle heiress of a +proud, but good-hearted Gloucestershire baron--he had wooed and won her, +too, with the full consent of father, kinsmen, and friends, and he was +now on his way to the baron's castle to arrange with his betrothed the +ceremonial of the nuptials. Ride on, thou gallant knight, ride on, and +swifter too; for though the day will be yet early when thou arrivest, +thou wilt find thyself expected within the Gothic enciente of the Baron +de Botetourt's dwelling. A banner waves from the topmost tower to do thee +honor and welcome; there walks, too, by the battlements, one whose night +has been sleepless because of thee, whose thoughts and whose whole +existence centre in thee, whose look firmly attaches to the road that +brings thee to her. Ride on then speedily, Sir Knight, to the happiness +thy virtue and thy deeds have so well deserved. + +This lover is no ordinary suitor: he is of mingled Saxon and Norman noble +blood, the recent companion-in-arms of Richard Coeur de Lion. His name is +Ralph de Sudley, and though he has passed his thirtieth year, the effect +of long toil and war scarcely appears upon his handsome and still very +youthful countenance. Yet the knight has seen and endured much: he has +been with Richard at the siege and capture of Acre, and at the battle of +Azotus. When Conrad of Montferrat fell by the dagger of the assassins, +Sir Ralph took a prominent part in the stormy debates which ensued among +the Crusaders. He even proposed with his men-at-arms, and those who would +follow him, to invade the territory of the Lord of the Mountain, and to +avenge in his blood the death which that king of murderers had caused to +be done to Conrad. This event made so deep an impression on his mind, +that he still took every opportunity of urging upon his own and other +Christian governments the necessity of extirpating these eastern +assassins. On his return from the crusades, Sir Ralph found the daughter +of his friend, the Baron de Botetourt, just verging into beauteous +womanhood. The glory of his reputation, and the graces of his person, +gained her heart at once; the Lady Alianore, though much his junior in +years, loved the knight fondly and devotedly. + +Sir Ralph has reached the portcullis of the castle; the wardour and +men-at-arms are there to receive him with full honors, though he comes +privately, without his armor or his followers: he wears the civil but +costly dress of the period, with no other weapon than a slight sword at +his side. But the baron will have each advent of his future son-in-law +welcomed as an approach of state. + +"Grammercy, Sir Baron," observed the knight, as after passing through a +crowd of domestics, he grasped his host's hand upon the threshold, "one +would imagine me Richard of England himself, or rather Saladin, that +greatest and most gaudy of Oriental Soldans, to see this pompous prelude +to my disjune with your lovely daughter and yourself." + +"Nay, Ralph de Sudley," replied the baron, "my castle must needs put on +its best looks, when it beholds the entry of one who is to be its lord +and protector when I shall be no more. But I see you are all impatience +to go within; and, in truth, the sooner your first interview be over the +better, for the table is prepared, and the pasty awaits us, and the +chaplain too, whose inward man, after the morning's Mass, craves some +solid refreshment." + +"A moment, my worthiest of friends, and I am with you," said the knight, +as he hurried by: in another instant the Lady Alianore was in his +embrace. Need we repeat the oft-told tale of love? Need we describe the +day of delight Sir Ralph passed in the castle, lingering from hour to +hour until the dusk? O, there is some one we must depict, the lady +herself, who so subdued and softened this knightly soul. There, one hand +upon the shoulder of her lover, her other hand locked in his, she sits +listening to his words, and luxuriating in his discourse. The Lady +Alianore, somewhat tall in stature, but perfect in form, has a face of +dazzling beauty, yet the bewitching sweetness of her smile is tempered by +a certain dignity of countenance, to which her dark, raven hair, and +darker eyes, do not a little contribute; her hands, and the foot that +peeps from beneath, her graceful robe, are of exquisite smallness, and +bespeak the purest Norman blood. Her extreme fairness, shaded by her +sable locks, form a strong contrast to the auburn hair and ruddy visage +of the stalwart warrior beside her. + +"This will indeed be too much, Ralph," observed the lady; "a monarch, his +queen, and his court, to come to this out-of-the-way castle, to honor the +wedding of a lone damsel like myself; I can hardly support the idea of so +much splendor." + +"Fear not, my beloved," replied the knight, "Richard is homely enough, +and all good nature. Moreover, it is but a return of civility; for I it +was who accompanied him to the altar, where he obtained the hand of +Berengaria of Navarre; the office was a dangerous one then, since I +incurred by it the wrath of Philip of France. And why, dearest, should +not every magnificence attend our nuptials? It is the outward emblem of +our great content--a mark, like those gorgeous ceremonies that accompany +the festive prayers of the Church, which tell the people of the earth of +a joy having something of the gladness and glory of Heaven in it." + +"Be it as you wish, my own true knight; yet I almost feel that I am too +happy. May God bless and protect us!" + +Thus passed this bright day, until the approach of dusk imperatively +compelled the enraptured lovers to separate. The knight had urgent +business to settle, early on the morrow, at his own castle, before +setting out for London, to announce to the king the day fixed for the +espousal, and to beg from the monarch the fulfilment of the promise he +had made, to be present in person with his court, at the wedding of his +gallant and faithful vassal. The knight was therefore forced to depart +ere the gloom advanced; for though his journey lay in a friendly and +peaceful country, it was not the habit in those days to be abroad much +after dusk, without an efficient escort. + +Sir Ralph reluctantly quitted his betrothed: he made his escape moreover +from the baron and the chaplain, who prayed his further tarrying, to +share in another flagon of Rhenish about to be produced. The horse and +dog were at the porch, and, in a few minutes, the knight had passed the +drawbridge, and was in the same fair road again. + +"I have known Sir Ralph from his birth," observed the baron to the +chaplain, "and I love him as my own son. The king may well come here to +see him wedded; for he has not a nobler, braver, or more generous knight +within his realm." + +"Truly, Sir Baron, he is endowed with much excellence," replied the +priest; "I do greatly admire his strong denunciation against the Templars +and other warlike orders, who tolerate the protracted existence of that +band of murderers in the past who have their daggers ever pointed +against the sons of the Church. Sir Ralph speaks on this subject like a +true soldier of the Cross." + +"Very true," retorted the baron, "yet I wish our chevaliers would cease +to think of foreign broils and questions, and attend to affairs at home. +This Rhenish is perfect: after all, wine is the only thing really good +that originates beyond our seas." + +Their discourse had scarcely proceeded farther, when it was suddenly +interrupted by the loud howling and barking of a dog. The baron and the +chaplain started up. "It is Leo, Sir Ralph's dog," exclaimed the former, +"what in God's name can be the matter?" and the two rushed out. + +The Lady Alianore, at her orisons above, heard the same terrible howl and +bark. She instantly descended to the courtyard; as she came there, the +outer gate was opened, and Leo, the knight's dog, flew past the wardour, +and ran to the feet of the lady. The animal's mouth was blood-stained, +and his glaring eye-balls and ruffled crest showed the extent of his fury +and despair. + +"Something dreadful has happened to Sir Ralph," she cried, and urged +by the dog, who had seized her robe, she hurried through the gate, +and crossed the drawbridge, with a rapidity those who followed could +not arrest. + +When the baron, his chaplain, and his domestics had proceeded a little +beyond a quarter of a mile upon the road, a fearful sight met their view. + +The knight lay dead upon the green sward by the side of the highway; a +poignard which had effected the mortal wound, still rested fixed into his +back. His body was locked fast in the embrace of the Lady Alianore, who +lay senseless upon it: the dog stood by, howling piteously. No trace +could be discovered of who had done the deed. No proof was there beyond +the dagger itself, which was of Oriental fashion, and bore the +inscription in Latin _Hoc propter verba tua_; naught beyond that and +another circumstance, which went to show that the knight had been slain +by an eastern enemy. The dog, as he re-entered the castle, called +attention to some pieces of blood-stained rag, which, from their +appearance, had dropped from his mouth; one of these, the innermost, was +in texture and pattern evidently part of a Syrian garment. + +The Lady Alianore did not die under this dreadful calamity: she lived to +mourn. The knight was interred within the precinct of the Abbey Church of +Gloucester; his tomb and effigy were in a niche at an angle of the +cloisters. Here would Alianore continually come, accompanied by Leo, who, +since his master's death, never left her side; here would she stop, +fixedly gazing upon the monument, the tear in her eye, and the chill of +hopeless sorrow in her heart. There are, indeed, few of us, who, +wandering through the interior of some noble ecclesiastical edifice, can +suppress a feeling of melancholy, when we view the sepulchre of a knight +of repute, who has died in his prime, in the midst of his achievements +and his fame, and who, clad in the harness of his pride, lies +outstretched in the marble before us. Courage and courtesy, chivalry and +Christianity, are buried there--there the breast, replete with honor, the +heart to feel, and the right arm to defend. The monument tells of the +sudden extinguishment of some bright light that shone in a semi-barbarous +age, which had its main civilization and refinement from knights and +churchmen solely. If this sight would sadden a stranger soul, what must +have been the deep grief of the lady as she contemplated the cold +memorial of Sir Ralph, and felt that the consummation of her whole +earthly comfort was there entombed! A secret sentiment that satisfied, or +rather softened her mental agony, brought her again and again to the +place--ay, again and again to gaze upon the grave, and then to retire +into the church to long and ardent prayer. + +About two years after the knight had been dead, the Lady Alianore was one +morning departing through the cloisters from a visit to the tomb, when +her attention was suddenly arrested by a low growl from the dog who +accompanied her. She turned back, and saw two persons in the garb of +foreign merchants or traders, the one pointing out to the other the +knight's monumental effigy. Scarcely had she made the observation, when +Leo rushed from her side, and flew at the throat of him who was +exhibiting the grave; in an instant he brought him to the ground; the +other endeavored to escape, but some sacristans who heard the noise, +hastened to the spot, and the men were arrested. + +On examination, the two pretended merchants were found to wear eastern +habilaments beneath their long gowns, and the cloth of the turban was +concealed under the broad brimmed hat of each. They both had daggers, and +upon the arm of the one the dog had seized, there was the deep scar of +what seemed to be a desperate bite. Further proof became needless, for +when every chance of escape was gone, they made a full confession, and +appeared to glory in it. They were emissaries from the Old Man of the +Mountain. The one on a previous occasion had journeyed from the far east +to do his fearful master's bidding, and had stabbed the knight in the +back, on the evening he rode in his gladness from the abode of his +affianced bride. The fanatic himself narrowly escaped destruction at the +time; for the dog had fixed his teeth into his arm, and it was only by +allowing the flesh to be torn out, (his dagger was in his victim,) that +he contrived to reach a swift Arabian horse, which bore him from the +scene. He had since returned to Phoenicia, and had once more come to +England, bringing with him a comrade to remove a doubt expressed by his +master, and to testify to the monarch of the Mountain how effectively his +object had been accomplished. + +The Baron de Botetourt, with the assent of the crown, caused the two +miscreants to be hanged upon a gibbet on the summit of his castle, their +turbans tied to their heels. Leo, as if he had nothing more to live for, +soon after pined and died. The Lady Alianore, retired into a convent, and +eventually became its abbess. During the course of her monastic life, she +preserved in silence her undying regret for the knight, and the +recollection of her happiness, so miserably thwarted. She was always kind +and gentle, yet always also dignified and reserved. On her death-bed, she +requested that her remains might be interred in the Abbey of Gloucester, +nigh unto the tomb of Sir Ralph de Sudley, and that her monumental tablet +should contain no more than her name and state, and an inscription +pointing out the extreme vanity of all human felicity. Such a memorial, +it is said, was, until entirely effaced by time, to be seen, read, and +thought upon, within the cloisters of Gloucester's time-honored and +sanctified cathedral. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Experiences of a Barrister, and +Confessions of an Attorney, by Samuel Warren + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12371 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney + +Author: Samuel Warren + +Release Date: May 18, 2004 [EBook #12371] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + THE EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER, + + AND + + Confessions of an Attorney. + + BY SAMUEL WARREN + + 1880 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +THE MARCH ASSIZE + +THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT + +THE CONTESTED MARRIAGE + +THE MOTHER AND SON + +"THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS" + +ESTHER MASON + +THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT + +THE SECOND MARRIAGE + +CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE + +"THE ACCOMMODATION BILL" + +THE REFUGEE + +THE LIFE POLICY + +BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY + +JANE ECCLES + +"EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER" + +THE CHEST OF DRAWERS + +THE PUZZLE + +THE ONE BLACK SPOT + +THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR + +A FASHIONABLE FORGER + +THE YOUNG ADVOCATE + +A MURDER IN THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES + + + + +CONFESSIONS OF AN ATTORNEY. + + + + +THE MARCH ASSIZE. + + +Something more than half a century ago, a person, in going along Holborn, +might have seen, near the corner of one of the thoroughfares which +diverge towards Russell Square, the respectable-looking shop of a glover +and haberdasher named James Harvey, a man generally esteemed by his +neighbors, and who was usually considered well to do in the world. Like +many London tradesmen, Harvey was originally from the country. He had +come up to town when a poor lad, to push his fortune, and by dint of +steadiness and civility, and a small property left him by a distant +relation, he had been able to get into business on his own account, and +to attain that most important element of success in London--"a +connection." Shortly after setting up in the world, he married a young +woman from his native town, to whom he had been engaged ever since his +school-days; and at the time our narrative commences he was the father of +three children. + +James Harvey's establishment was one of the best frequented of its class +in the street. You could never pass without seeing customers going in or +out. There was evidently not a little business going forward. But +although, to all appearance, a flourishing concern, the proprietor of the +establishment was surprised to find that he was continually pinched in +his circumstances. No matter what was the amount of business transacted +over the counter, he never got any richer. + +At the period referred to, shop-keeping had not attained that degree +of organization, with respect to counter-men and cashiers, which now +distinguishes the great houses of trade. The primitive till was not +yet superseded. This was the weak point in Harvey's arrangements; and +not to make a needless number of words about it, the poor man was +regularly robbed by a shopman, whose dexterity in pitching a guinea +into the drawer, so as to make it jump, unseen, with a jerk into his +hand, was worthy of Herr Dobler, or any other master of the sublime +art of jugglery. + +Good-natured and unsuspicious, perhaps also not sufficiently vigilant, +Harvey was long in discovering how he was pillaged. Cartwright, the name +of the person who was preying on his employer, was not a young man. He +was between forty and fifty years of age, and had been in various +situations, where he had always given satisfaction, except on the score +of being somewhat gay and somewhat irritable. Privately, he was a man of +loose habits, and for years his extravagances had been paid for by +property clandestinely abstracted from his too-confiding master. Slow to +believe in the reality of such wickedness, Mr. Harvey could with +difficulty entertain the suspicions which began to dawn on his mind. At +length all doubt was at an end. He detected Cartwright in the very act of +carrying off goods to a considerable amount. The man was tried at the Old +Bailey for the offence; but through a technical informality in the +indictment, acquitted. + +Unable to find employment, and with a character gone, the liberated thief +became savage, revengeful, and desperate. Instead of imputing his fall to +his own irregularities, he considered his late unfortunate employer as +the cause of his ruin; and now he bent all the energies of his dark +nature to destroy the reputation of the man whom he had betrayed and +plundered. Of all the beings self-delivered to the rule of unscrupulous +malignity, with whom it has been my fate to come professionally in +contact, I never knew one so utterly fiendish as this discomfited +pilferer. Frenzied with his imaginary wrongs, he formed the determination +to labor, even if it were for years, to ruin his victim. Nothing short of +death should divert him from this the darling object of his existence. + +Animated by these diabolical passions, Cartwright proceeded to his work. +Harvey, he had too good reason to know, was in debt to persons who had +made him advances; and by means of artfully-concocted anonymous letters, +evidently written by some one conversant with the matters on which he +wrote, he succeeded in alarming the haberdasher's creditors. The +consequences were--demands of immediate payment, and, in spite of the +debtor's explanations and promises, writs, heavy law expenses, ruinous +sacrifices, and ultimate bankruptcy. It may seem almost too marvelous for +belief, but the story of this terrible revenge and its consequences is no +fiction. Every incident in my narrative is true, and the whole may be +found in hard outline in the records of the courts with which a few years +ago I was familiar. + +The humiliated and distressed feelings of Harvey and his family may be +left to the imagination. When he found himself a ruined man, I dare say +his mental sufferings were sufficiently acute. Yet he did not sit down in +despair. To re-establish himself in business in England appeared +hopeless; but America presented itself as a scene where industry might +find a reward; and by the kindness of some friends, he was enabled to +make preparations to emigrate with his wife and children. Towards the +end of February he quitted London for one of the great seaports, where he +was to embark for Boston. On arriving there with his family, Mr. Harvey +took up his abode at a principal hotel. This, in a man of straitened +means, was doubtless imprudent; but he afterwards attempted to explain +the circumstance by saying, that as the ship in which he had engaged his +passage was to sail on the day after his arrival, he had preferred +incurring a slight additional expense rather than that his wife--who was +now, with failing spirits, nursing an infant--should be exposed to coarse +associations and personal discomfort. In the expectation, however, of +being only one night in the hotel, Harvey was unfortunately disappointed. +Ship-masters, especially those commanding emigrant vessels, were then, as +now, habitual promise-breakers; and although each succeeding sun was to +light them on their way, it was fully a fortnight before the ship stood +out to sea. By that time a second and more dire reverse had occurred in +the fortunes of the luckless Harvey. + +Cartwright, whose appetite for vengeance was but whetted by his first +success, had never lost sight of the movements of his victim; and now he +had followed him to the place of his embarkation, with an eager but +undefined purpose of working him some further and more deadly mischief. +Stealthily he hovered about the house which sheltered the unconscious +object of his malicious hate, plotting, as he afterwards confessed, the +wildest schemes for satiating his revenge. Several times he made excuses +for calling at the hotel, in the hope of observing the nature of the +premises, taking care, however, to avoid being seen by Mr. Harvey or his +family. A fortnight passed away, and the day of departure of the +emigrants arrived without the slightest opportunity occurring for the +gratification of his purposes. The ship was leaving her berth; most of +the passengers were on board; Mrs. Harvey and the children, with nearly +the whole of the luggage, were already safely in the vessel; Mr. Harvey +only remained on shore to purchase some trifling article, and to settle +his bill at the hotel on removing his last trunk. Cartwright had tracked +him all day; he could not attack him in the street; and he finally +followed him to the hotel, in order to wreak his vengeance on him in his +private apartment, of the situation of which he had informed himself. + +Harvey entered the hotel first, and before Cartwright came up, he had +gone down a passage into the bar to settle the bill which he had incurred +for the last two days. Not aware of this circumstance, Cartwright, in the +bustle which prevailed, went up stairs to Mr. Harvey's bedroom and +parlor, in neither of which, to his surprise, did he find the occupant; +and he turned away discomfited. Passing along towards the chief +staircase, he perceived a room of which the door was open, and that on +the table there lay a gold watch and appendages. Nobody was in the +apartment: the gentleman who occupied it had only a few moments before +gone to his bed-chamber for a brief space. Quick as lightning a +diabolical thought flashed through the brain of the villain, who had been +baffled in his original intentions. He recollected that he had seen a +trunk in Harvey's room, and that the keys hung in the lock. An +inconceivably short space of time served for him to seize the watch, to +deposit it at the bottom of Harvey's trunk, and to quit the hotel by a +back stair, which led by a short cut to the harbor. The whole transaction +was done unperceived, and the wretch at least departed unnoticed. + +Having finished his business at the bar, Mr. Harvey repaired to his room, +locked his trunk, which, being of a small and handy size, he mounted on +his shoulder, and proceeded to leave the house by the back stair, in +order to get as quickly as possible to the vessel. Little recked he of +the interruption which was to be presented to his departure. He had got +as far as the foot of the stair with his burden, when he was overtaken by +a waiter, who declared that he was going to leave the house clandestinely +without settling accounts. It is proper to mention that Mr. Harvey had +incurred the enmity of this particular waiter in consequence of having, +out of his slender resources, given him too small a gratuity on the +occasion of paying a former bill, and not aware of the second bill being +settled, the waiter was rather glad to have an opportunity of charging +him with a fraudulent design. In vain Mr. Harvey remonstrated, saying he +had paid for every thing. The waiter would not believe his statement, and +detained him "till he should hear better about it." + +"Let me go, fellow; I insist upon it," said Mr. Harvey, burning with +indignation. "I am already too late." + +"Not a step, till I ask master if accounts are squared." + +At this moment, while the altercation was at the hottest, a terrible +ringing of bells was heard, and above stairs was a loud noise of voices, +and of feet running to and fro. A chambermaid came hurriedly down the +stair, exclaiming that some one had stolen a gold watch from No. 17, and +that nobody ought to leave the house till it was found. The landlord +also, moved by the hurricane which had been raised, made his appearance +at the spot where Harvey was interrupted in his exit. + +"What on earth is all this noise about, John?" inquired the landlord of +the waiter. + +"Why, sir, I thought it rather strange for any gentleman to leave the +house by the back way, carrying his own portmanteau, and so I was making +a little breeze about it, fearing he had not paid his bill, when all of +a sudden Sally rushes down the stair and says as how No. 17 has missed +his gold watch, and that no one should quit the hotel." + +No. 17, an old, dry-looking military gentlemen, in a particularly high +passion, now showed himself on the scene, uttering terrible threats of +legal proceedings against the house for the loss he had sustained. + +Harvey was stupified and indignant, yet he could hardly help smiling at +the pother. "What," said he, "have I to do with all this? I have paid for +everything; I am surely entitled to go away if I like. Remember, that if +I lose my passage to Boston, you shall answer for it." + +"I very much regret detaining you, sir," replied the keeper of the hotel; +"but you hear there has been a robbery committed within the last few +minutes, and as it will be proper to search every one in the house, +surely you, who are on the point of departure, will have no objections to +be searched first, and then be at liberty to go?" + +There was something so perfectly reasonable in all this, that +Harvey stepped into an adjoining parlor, and threw open his trunk +for inspection, never doubting that his innocence would be +immediately manifest. + +The waiter, whose mean rapacity had been the cause of the detention, +acted as examiner. He pulled one article after another out of the trunk, +and at length--horror of horrors!--held up the missing watch with a look +of triumph and scorn! + +"Who put that there?" cried Harvey in an agony of mind which can be +better imagined than described. "Who has done me this grievous wrong? I +know nothing as to how the watch came into my trunk." + +No one answered this appeal. All present stood for a moment in +gloomy silence. + +"Sir," said the landlord to Harvey on recovering from his surprise, "I am +sorry for you. For the sake of a miserable trifle, you have brought ruin +and disgrace on yourself. This is a matter which concerns the honor of my +house, and cannot stop here. However much it is against my feelings, you +must go before a magistrate." + +"By all means," added No. 17, with the importance of an injured man. "A +pretty thing that one's watch is not safe in a house like this!" + +"John, send Boots for a constable," said the landlord. + +Harvey sat with his head leaning on his hand. A deadly cold +perspiration trickled down his brow. His heart swelled and beat as if +it would burst. What should he do? His whole prospects were in an +instant blighted. "Oh God! do not desert a frail and unhappy being: +give me strength to face this new and terrible misfortune," was a +prayer he internally uttered. A little revived, he started to his feet, +and addressing himself to the landlord, he said, "Take me to a +magistrate instantly, and let us have this diabolical plot unraveled. I +court inquiry into my character and conduct." + +"It is no use saying any more about it," answered the landlord; "here is +Boots with a constable, and let us all go away together to the nearest +magistrate. Boots, carry that trunk. John and Sally, you can follow us." + +And so the party, trunk and all, under the constable as conductor, +adjourned to the house of a magistrate in an adjacent street. +There the matter seemed so clear a case of felony--robbery in a +dwelling-house--that Harvey, all protestations to the contrary, was +fully committed for trial at the ensuing March assizes, then but a few +days distant. + +At the period at which these incidents occurred, I was a young man going +on my first circuits. I had not as yet been honored with perhaps more +than three or four briefs, and these only in cases so slightly productive +of fees, that I was compelled to study economy in my excursions. Instead +of taking up my residence at an inn when visiting ------, a considerable +seaport, where the court held its sittings, I dwelt in lodgings kept by a +widow lady, where, at a small expense, I could enjoy perfect quietness, +free from interruption. + +On the evening after my arrival on the March circuit of the year 17--, I +was sitting in my lodgings perusing a new work on criminal jurisprudence, +when the landlady, after tapping at the door, entered my room. + +"I am sorry to trouble you, sir," said she; "but a lady has called to +see you about a very distressing law case--very distressing indeed, +and a very strange case it is too. Only, if you could be so good as +to see her?" + +"Who is she?" + +"All I know about it is this: she is a Mrs. Harvey. She and her husband +and children were to sail yesterday for Boston. All were on board except +the husband; and he, on leaving the large hotel over the way, was taken +up for a robbery. Word was in the evening sent by the prisoner to his +wife to come on shore, with all her children and the luggage; and so she +came back in the pilot boat, and was in such a state of distress, that my +brother, who is on the preventive service, and saw her land, took pity on +her, and had her and her children and things taken to a lodging on the +quay. As my brother knows that we have a London lawyer staying here, he +has advised the poor woman to come and consult you about the case." + +"Well, I'll see what can be done. Please desire the lady to step in." + +A lady was shortly shown in. She had been pretty, and was so still, but +anxiety was pictured in her pale countenance. Her dress was plain, but +not inelegant; and altogether she had a neat and engaging appearance. + +"Be so good as to sit down," said I, bowing; "and tell me all you would +like to say." + +The poor woman burst into tears; but afterwards recovering herself, she +told me pretty nearly the whole of her history and that of her husband. + +Lawyers have occasion to see so much duplicity, that I did not all at +once give assent to the idea of Harvey being innocent of the crime of +which he stood charged. + +"There is something perfectly inexplicable in the case," I observed, "and +it would require sifting. Your husband, I hope has always borne a good +character?" + +"Perfectly so. He was no doubt unfortunate in business; but he got his +certificate on the first examination; and there are many who would +testify to his uprightness." And here again my client broke into tears, +as if overwhelmed with her recollections and prospects. + +"I think I recollect Mr. Harvey's shop," said I soothingly. "It seemed a +very respectable concern; and we must see what can be done. Keep up your +spirits; the only fear I have arises from the fact of Judge A ---- being +on the bench. He is usually considered severe, and if exculpatory +evidence fail, your husband may run the risk of being--transported." A +word of more terrific import, with which I was about to conclude, stuck +unuttered in my throat "Have you employed an attorney?" I added. + +"No; I have done nothing as yet, but apply to you, to beg of you to be my +husband's counsel." + +"Well, that must be looked to. I shall speak to a local agent, to prepare +and work out the case; and we shall all do our utmost to get an +acquittal. To-morrow I will call on your husband in prison." + +Many thanks were offered by the unfortunate lady, and she withdrew. + +I am not going to inflict on the reader a detailed account of this +remarkable trial, which turned, as barristers would say, on a beautiful +point of circumstantial evidence. Along with the attorney, a sharp enough +person in his way, I examined various parties at the hotel, and made +myself acquainted with the nature of the premises. The more we +investigated, however, the more dark and mysterious--always supposing +Harvey's innocence--did the whole case appear. There was not one +redeeming trait in the affair, except Harvey's previous good character; +and good character, by the law of England, goes for nothing in opposition +to facts proved to the satisfaction of a jury. It was likewise most +unfortunate that A ---- was to be the presiding judge. This man possessed +great forensic acquirements, and was of spotless private character; but, +like the majority of lawyers of that day--when it was no extraordinary +thing to hang twenty men in a morning at Newgate--he was a staunch +stickler for the gallows as the only effectual reformer and safeguard of +the social state. At this time he was but partially recovered from a long +and severe indisposition, and the traces of recent suffering were +distinctly apparent on his pale and passionless features. + +Harvey was arraigned in due form; the evidence was gone carefully +through; and everything, so far as I was concerned, was done that man +could do. But at the time to which I refer, counsel was not allowed to +address the court on behalf of the prisoner--a practice since introduced +from Scotland--and consequently I was allowed no opportunity to draw the +attention of the jury to the total want of any direct evidence of the +prisoner's guilt. Harvey himself tried to point out the unlikelihood of +his being guilty; but he was not a man gifted with dialectic qualities, +and his harangue fell pointless on the understandings of the twelve +common-place individuals who sat in the jury-box. The judge finally +proceeded to sum the evidence, and this he did emphatically _against_ the +prisoner--dwelling with much force on the suspicious circumstance of a +needy man taking up his abode at an expensive fashionable hotel; his +furtive descent from his apartments by the back stairs; the undoubted +fact of the watch being found in his trunk; the improbability of any one +putting it there but himself; and the extreme likelihood that the robbery +was effected in a few moments of time by the culprit, just as he passed +from the bar of the hotel to the room which he had occupied. "If," said +he to the jury, in concluding his address, "you can, after all these +circumstances, believe the prisoner to be innocent of the crime laid to +his charge, it is more than I can do. The thing seems to me as clear as +the sun at noonday. The evidence, in short, is irresistible; and if the +just and necessary provisions of the law are not enforced in such very +plain cases, then society will be dissolved, and security for property +there will be none. Gentlemen, retire and make up your verdict." + +The jury were not disposed to retire. After communing a few minutes +together, one of them stood up and delivered the verdict: it was +_Guilty!_ The judge assumed the crowning badge of the judicial +potentate--the black cap; and the clerk of arraigns asked the prisoner at +the bar, in the usual form, if he had anything to urge why sentence of +death should not be passed upon him. + +Poor Harvey! I durst scarcely look at him. As the sonorous words fell on +his ear, he was grasping nervously with shaking hands at the front of the +dock. He appeared stunned, bewildered, as a man but half-awakened from a +hideous dream might be supposed to look. He had comprehended, though he +had scarcely heard, the verdict; for on the instant, the voice which but +a few years before sang to him by the brook side, was ringing through his +brain, and he could recognize the little pattering feet of his children, +as, sobbing and clinging to their shrieking mother's dress, she and they +were hurried out of court The clerk, after a painful pause, repeated the +solemn formula. By a strong effort the doomed man mastered his agitation; +his pale countenance lighted up with indignant fire, and firm and +self-possessed, he thus replied to the fearful interrogatory:-- + +"Much could I say in the name, not of mercy, but of justice, why the +sentence about to be passed on me should not be pronounced; but nothing, +alas! that will avail me with you, pride-blinded ministers of death. You +fashion to yourselves--out of your own vain conceits do you +fashion--modes and instruments, by the aid of which you fondly imagine to +invest yourselves with attributes which belong only to Omniscience; and +now I warn you--and it is a voice from the tomb, in whose shadow I +already stand, which addresses you--that you are about to commit a most +cruel and deliberate murder." + +He paused, and the jury looked into each other's eyes for the courage +they could not find in their own hearts. The voice of conscience spoke, +but was only for a few moments audible. The suggestions that what grave +parliaments, learned judges, and all classes of "respectability" +sanctioned, could not be wrong, much less murderous or cruel, silenced +the "still, small" tones, and tranquilized the startled jurors. + +"Prisoner at the bar," said the judge with his cold, calm voice of +destiny, "I cannot listen to such observations: you have been found +guilty of a heinous offence by a jury of your countrymen after a patient +trial. With that finding I need scarcely say I entirely agree. I am as +satisfied of your guilt as if I had seen you commit the act with my own +bodily eyes. The circumstance of your being a person who, from habits and +education, should have been above committing so base a crime, only +aggravates your guilt. However, no matter who or what you have been, you +must expiate your offence on the scaffold. The law has very properly, for +the safety of society, decreed the punishment of death for such crimes: +our only and plain duty is to execute that law." + +The prisoner did not reply: he was leaning with his elbows on the front +of the dock, his bowed face covered with his outspread hands; and the +judge passed sentence of death in the accustomed form. The court then +rose, and a turnkey placed his hand upon the prisoner's arm, to lead him +away. Suddenly he uncovered his face, drew himself up to his full +height--he was a remarkably tall man--and glared fiercely round upon the +audience, like a wild animal at bay. "My lord," he cried, or rather +shouted, in an excited voice. The judge motioned impatiently to the +jailor, and strong hands impelled the prisoner from the front of the +dock. Bursting from them, he again sprang forward, and his arms +outstretched, whilst his glittering eye seemed to hold the judge +spell-bound, exclaimed, "My lord, before another month has passed away, +_you_ will appear at the bar of another world, to answer for the life, +the innocent life, which God bestowed upon me, but which you have +impiously cast away as a thing of naught and scorn!" He ceased, and was +at once borne off. The court, in some confusion, hastily departed. It was +thought at the time that the judge's evidently failing health had +suggested the prophecy to the prisoner. It only excited a few days' +wonder, and was forgotten. + +The position of a barrister in such circumstances is always painful. I +need hardly say that my own feelings were of a very distressing kind. +Conscious that if the unfortunate man really was guilty, he was at least +not deserving of capital punishment, I exerted myself to procure a +reprieve. In the first place I waited privately on the judge; but he +would listen to no proposal for a respite. Along with a number of +individuals--chiefly of the Society of Friends--I petitioned the crown +for a commutation of the sentence. But being unaccompanied with a +recommendation from the judge, the prayer of our petition was of course +disregarded: the law, it was said, must take its course. How much cruelty +has been exercised under shelter of that remorseless expression! + +I would willingly pass over the succeeding events. Unable to save his +life, I endeavored to soothe the few remaining hours of the doomed +convict, and frequently visited him in the condemned cell. The more I saw +of him, the deeper grew my sympathy in his case, which was that of no +vulgar felon. "I have been a most unfortunate man," said he one day to +me. "A destiny towards ruin in fortune and in life has pursued me. I feel +as if deserted by God and man; yet I know, or at least would persuade +myself, that Heaven will one day vindicate my innocence of this foul +charge. To think of being hanged like a dog for a crime at which my soul +revolts! Great is the crime of those imbecile jurors and that false and +hard-hearted judge, who thus, by an irreversible decree, consign a +fellow-mortal to a death of violence and disgrace. Oh God, help me--help +me to sustain that bitter, bitter hour!" And then the poor man would +throw himself on his bed and weep. + +But the parting with his wife and children. What pen can describe that +terrible interview! They knelt in prayer, their wobegone countenances +suffused in tears, and with hands clasped convulsively together. The +scene was too harrowing and sacred for the eye of a stranger. I rushed +from the cell, and buried myself in my lodgings, whence I did not remove +till all was over. Next day James Harvey, a victim of circumstantial +evidence, and of a barbarous criminal code, perished on the scaffold. + +Three weeks afterwards, the court arrived at a populous city in the west +of England. It had in the interval visited another assize town, and there +Judge A ---- had left three for execution. At the trials of these men, +however, I had not attended. So shocked had been my feelings with the +mournful event which had taken place at ------, that I had gone into +Wales for the sake of change of scene. After roaming about for a +fortnight amidst the wild solitudes of Caernarvonshire, I took the stage +for the city which I knew the court was to visit, and arrived on the day +previous to the opening of the assizes. + +"Well, are we to have a heavy calendar?" I inquired next morning of a +brother barrister on entering the court. + +"Rather light for a March assize," replied the impatient counsel as +he bustled onward. "There's Cartwright's case--highway robbery--in +which I am for the prosecution. He'll swing for it, and perhaps four +or five others." + +"A good hanging judge is A ----," said the under-sheriff, who at +this moment joined us, rubbing his hands, as if pleased with the +prospect of a few executions. "No chance of the prophecy yonder coming +to pass I suppose?" + +"Not in the least," replied the bustling counsel. "He never looked +better. His illness has gone completely off. And this day's work will +brighten him up." + +Cartwright's trial came on. I had never seen the man before, and was not +aware that this was the same person whom Harvey had incidentally told me +he had discharged for theft; the truth being, that till the last moment +of his existence, that unfortunate man had not known how much he had been +a sacrifice to this wretch's malice. + +The crime of which the villain now stood accused was that of robbing a +farmer of the paltry sum of eight shillings, in the neighborhood of +Ilfracombe. He pleaded not guilty, but put in no defence. A verdict was +recorded against him, and in due form A ---- sentenced him to be hanged. +An expression of fiendish malignancy gleamed over the haggard features of +the felon as he asked leave to address a few words to the court. It was +granted. Leaning forward, and raising his heavy, scowling eyes to the +judge, he thus began:--"There is something on my mind, my lord--a +dreadful crime--which, as I am to die for the eight shillings I took from +the farmer, I may as well confess. You may remember Harvey, my lord, whom +you hanged the other day at--?" + +"What of him, fellow?" replied the judge, his features suddenly +flushing crimson. + +"Why, my lord, only this--that he was as innocent of the crime for which +you hanged him as the child yet unborn! I did the deed! I put the watch +in his trunk!" And to the unutterable horror of the entire court he +related the whole particulars of the transaction, the origin of his +grudge against Harvey, and his delight on bringing him to the gallows. + +"Inhuman, execrable villain!" gasped the judge in extreme excitement. + +"Cleverly done, though! Was it not, my lord?" rejoined the ruffian with +bitter irony. "The evidence, you know, was irresistible; the crime as +clear as the sun at noonday; and if in such plain cases, the just and +necessary law was not enforced, society would be dissolved, and there +would be no security for property! These were your words, I think. How on +that occasion I admired your lordship's judgment and eloquence! Society +would be dissolved if an innocent man were not hanged! Ha!--ha!--ha! +Capital!--capital!" shouted the ferocious felon with demoniac glee, as he +marked the effect of his words on the countenance of the judge. + +"Remove the prisoner!" cried the sheriff. An officer was about to do so; +but the judge motioned him to desist. His lordship's features worked +convulsively. He seemed striving to speak, but the words would not come. + +"I suppose, my lord," continued Cartwright in low and hissing tones, as +the shadow of unutterable despair grew and settled on his face--"I +suppose you know that his wife destroyed herself. The coroner's jury said +she had fallen accidentally into the water, _I_ know better. She drowned +herself under the agonies of a broken heart! I saw her corpse, with the +dead baby in its arms; and then I felt, knew, that I was lost! Lost, +doomed to everlasting perdition! But, my lord,"--and here the wretch +broke into a howl wild and terrific--"_we_ shall go down together--down +to where your deserts are known. A--h--h! that pinches you, does it? +Hound of a judge! legal murderer! coward! I spurn and spit upon thee!" +The rest of the appalling objurgation was inarticulate, as the monster, +foaming and sputtering, was dragged by an officer from the dock. + +Judge A ---- had fallen forwards on his face, fainting and speechless +with the violence of his emotions. The black cap had dropped from his +brow. His hands were stretched out across the bench, and various members +of the bar rushed to his assistance. The court broke up in frightful +commotion. + +Two days afterwards the county paper had the following announcement:-- + +"Died at the Royal Hotel, ------, on the 27th instant, Judge A ----, from +an access of fever supervening upon a disorder from which he had +imperfectly recovered." + +The prophecy was fulfilled! + + + + +THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT. + + +About the commencement of the present century there stood, near the +centre of a rather extensive hamlet, not many miles distant from a +northern seaport town, a large, substantially-built, but somewhat +straggling building, known as Craig Farm (popularly _Crook_ Farm) House. +The farm consisted of about one hundred acres of tolerable arable and +meadow land; and at the time I have indicated, belonged to a farmer of +the name of Armstrong. He had purchased it about three years previously, +at a sale held, in pursuance of a decree of the High Court of Chancery, +for the purpose of liquidating certain costs incurred in the suit of +Craig _versus_ Craig, which the said high court had nursed so long and +successfully, as to enable the solicitor to the victorious claimant to +incarcerate his triumphant client for several years in the Fleet, in +"satisfaction" of the charges of victory remaining due after the proceeds +of the sale of Craig Farm had been deducted from the gross total. Farmer +Armstrong was married, but childless; his dame, like himself, was a +native of Devonshire. They bore the character of a plodding, taciturn, +morose-mannered couple: seldom leaving the farm except to attend market, +and rarely seen at church or chapel, they naturally enough became objects +of suspicion and dislike to the prying, gossiping villagers, to whom +mystery or reserve of any kind was of course exceedingly annoying and +unpleasant. + +Soon after Armstrong was settled in his new purchase another stranger +arrived, and took up his abode in the best apartments of the house. The +new-comer, a man of about fifty years of age, and evidently, from his +dress and gait, a sea-faring person, was as reserved and unsocial as his +landlord. His name, or at least that which he chose to be known by, was +Wilson. He had one child, a daughter, about thirteen years of age, whom +he placed at a boarding-school in the adjacent town. He seldom saw her; +the intercourse between the father and daughter being principally carried +on through Mary Strugnell, a widow of about thirty years of age, and a +native of the place. She was engaged as a servant to Mr. Wilson, and +seldom left Craig Farm except on Sunday afternoons, when, if the weather +was at all favorable, she paid a visit to an aunt living in the town; +there saw Miss Wilson; and returned home usually at half-past ten +o'clock--later rather than earlier. Armstrong was occasionally absent +from his home for several days together, on business, it was rumored, for +Wilson; and on the Sunday in the first week of January 1802, both he and +his wife had been away for upwards of a week, and were not yet returned. + +About a quarter-past ten o'clock on that evening the early-retiring +inhabitants of the hamlet were roused from their slumbers by a loud, +continuous knocking at the front door of Armstrong's house: louder and +louder, more and more vehement and impatient, resounded the blows upon +the stillness of the night, till the soundest sleepers were awakened. +Windows were hastily thrown open, and presently numerous footsteps +approached the scene of growing hubbub. The unwonted noise was caused, +it was found, by Farmer Armstrong, who accompanied by his wife, was +thundering vehemently upon the door with a heavy black-thorn stick. +Still no answer was obtained. Mrs. Strugnell, it was supposed, had not +returned from town; but where was Mr. Wilson, who was almost always at +home both day and night? Presently a lad called out that a white sheet +or cloth of some sort was hanging out of one of the back windows. This +announcement, confirming the vague apprehensions which had begun to +germinate in the wise heads of the villagers, disposed them to adopt a +more effectual mode of obtaining admission than knocking seemed likely +to prove. Johnson, the constable of the parish, a man of great +shrewdness, at once proposed to break in the door. Armstrong, who, as +well as his wife, was deadly pale, and trembling violently, either with +cold or agitation, hesitatingly consented, and crowbars being speedily +procured, an entrance was forced, and in rushed a score of excited men. +Armstrong's wife, it was afterwards remembered, caught hold of her +husband's arm in a hurried, frightened manner, whispered hastily in his +ear, and then both followed into the house. + +"Now, farmer," cried Johnson, as soon as he had procured a light, "lead +the way up stairs." + +Armstrong, who appeared to have somewhat recovered from his panic, darted +at once up the staircase, followed by the whole body of rustics. On +reaching the landing-place, he knocked at Mr. Wilson's bedroom door. No +answer was returned. Armstrong seemed to hesitate, but the constable at +once lifted the latch; they entered, and then a melancholy spectacle +presented itself. + +Wilson, completely dressed, lay extended on the floor a lifeless corpse. +He had been stabbed in two places in the breast with some sharp-pointed +instrument. Life was quite extinct. The window was open. On farther +inspection, several bundles containing many of Wilson's valuables in +jewelry and plate, together with clothes, shirts, silk handkerchiefs, +were found. The wardrobe and a secretary-bureau had been forced open. +The assassins had, it seemed, been disturbed, and had hurried off by the +window without their plunder. A hat was also picked up in the room, a +shiny, black hat, much too small for the deceased. The constable snatched +it up, and attempted to clap it on Armstrong's head, but it was not +nearly large enough. This, together with the bundles, dissipated a +suspicion which had been growing in Johnson's mind, and he roughly +exclaimed, "You need not look so scared, farmer; it's not you: that's +quite clear." + +To this remark neither Armstrong nor his wife answered a syllable, but +continued to gaze at the corpse, the bundles, and the broken locks, in +bewildered terror and astonishment. Presently some one asked if any body +had seen Mrs. Strugnell? + +The question roused Armstrong, and he said, "She is not come home: her +door is locked." + +"How do you know that?" cried the constable, turning sharply round, and +looking keenly in his face. "How do you know that?" + +"Because--because," stammered Armstrong, "because she always locks it +when she goes out." + +"Which is her room?" + +"The next to this." + +They hastened out, and found the next door was fast. + +"Are you there, Mrs. Strugnell?" shouted Johnson. + +There was no reply. + +"She is never home till half-past ten o'clock on Sunday evenings," +remarked Armstrong in a calmer voice. + +"The key is in the lock on the inside," cried a young man who had been +striving to peep through the key-hole. + +Armstrong, it was afterwards sworn, started as if he had been shot; +and his wife again clutched his arm with the same nervous, frenzied +gripe as before. + +"Mrs. Strugnell, are you there?" once more shouted the constable. He was +answered by a low moan. In an instant the frail door was burst in, and +Mrs. Strugnell was soon pulled out, apparently more dead than alive, from +underneath the bedstead, where she, in speechless consternation, lay +partially concealed. Placing her in a chair, they soon succeeded--much +more easily, indeed, than they anticipated--in restoring her to +consciousness. + +Nervously she glanced round the circle of eager faces that environed her, +till her eyes fell upon Armstrong and his wife, when she gave a loud +shriek, and muttering, "They, _they_ are the murderers!" swooned, or +appeared to do so, again instantly. + +The accused persons, in spite of their frenzied protestations of +innocence, were instantly seized and taken off to a place of security; +Mrs. Strugnell was conveyed to a neighbor's close by; the house was +carefully secured; and the agitated and wondering villagers departed to +their several homes, but not, I fancy, to sleep any more for that night. + +The deposition made by Mrs. Strugnell at the inquest on the body was in +substance as follows:-- + +"On the afternoon in question she had, in accordance with her usual +custom, proceeded to town. She called on her aunt, took tea with her, and +afterwards went to the Independent Chapel. After service, she called to +see Miss Wilson, but was informed that, in consequence of a severe cold, +the young lady was gone to bed. She then immediately proceeded homewards, +and consequently arrived at Craig Farm more than an hour before her usual +time. She let herself in with her latch key, and proceeded to her +bedroom. There was no light in Mr. Wilson's chamber, but she could hear +him moving about in it. She was just about to go down stairs, having put +away her Sunday bonnet and shawl, when she heard a noise, as of persons +entering by the back way, and walking gently across the kitchen floor. +Alarmed as to who it could be, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong not being expected +home for several days, she gently closed her door, and locked it. A few +minutes after, she heard stealthy steps ascending the creaking stairs, +and presently her door was tried, and a voice in a low hurried whisper +said, "Mary, are you there?" She was positive it was Mr. Armstrong's +voice, but was too terrified to answer. Then Mrs. Armstrong--she was sure +it was she--said also in a whisper, and as if addressing her husband, +"She is never back at this hour." A minute or so after there was a tap at +Mr. Wilson's door. She could not catch what answer was made; but by +Armstrong's reply, she gathered that Mr. Wilson had lain down, and did +not wish to be disturbed. He was often in the habit of lying down with +his clothes on. Armstrong said, "I will not disturb you, sir; I'll only +just put this parcel on the table." There is no lock to Mr. Wilson's +door. Armstrong stepped into the room, and almost immediately she heard a +sound as of a violent blow, followed by a deep groan and then all was +still. She was paralyzed with horror and affright. After the lapse of a +few seconds, a voice--Mrs. Armstrong's undoubtedly--asked in a tremulous +tone if "all was over?" Her husband answered "Yes: but where be the keys +of the writing-desk kept?" "In the little table-drawer," was the reply. +Armstrong then came out of the bedroom, and both went into Mr. Wilson's +sitting apartment. They soon returned, and crept stealthily along the +passage to their own bedroom on the same floor. They then went down +stairs to the kitchen. One of them--the woman, she had no doubt--went out +the back way, and heavy footsteps again ascended the stairs. Almost dead +with fright, she then crawled under the bedstead, and remembered no more +till she found herself surrounded by the villagers." + +In confirmation of this statement, a large clasp-knife belonging to +Armstrong, and with which it was evident the murder had been perpetrated, +was found in one corner of Wilson's bedroom; and a mortgage deed, for one +thousand pounds on Craig Farm, the property of Wilson, and which +Strugnell swore was always kept in the writing-desk in the front room, +was discovered in a chest in the prisoner's sleeping apartment, together +with nearly one hundred and fifty pounds in gold, silver, and county +bank-notes, although it was known that Armstrong had but a fortnight +before declined a very advantageous offer of some cows he was desirous of +purchasing, under the plea of being short of cash. Worse perhaps than +all, a key of the back-door was found in his pocket, which not only +confirmed Strugnell's evidence, but clearly demonstrated that the +knocking at the door for admittance, which had roused and alarmed the +hamlet, was a pure subterfuge. The conclusion, therefore, almost +universally arrived at throughout the neighborhood was, that Armstrong +and his wife were the guilty parties; and that the bundles, the broken +locks, the sheet hanging out of the window, the shiny, black hat, were, +like the knocking, mere cunning devices to mislead inquiry. + +The case excited great interest in the county, and I esteemed myself +professionally fortunate in being selected to hold the brief for the +prosecution. I had satisfied myself, by a perusal of the depositions, +that there was no doubt of the prisoners' guilt, and I determined that no +effort on my part should be spared to insure the accomplishment of the +ends of justice. I drew the indictment myself; and in my opening address +to the jury dwelt with all the force and eloquence of which I was master +upon the heinous nature of the crime, and the conclusiveness of the +evidence by which it had been brought home to the prisoners. I may here, +by way of parenthesis, mention that I resorted to a plan in my address to +the jury which I have seldom known to fail. It consisted in fixing my +eyes and addressing my language to each juror one after the other. In +this way each considers the address to be an appeal to his individual +intelligence, and responds to it by falling into the views of the +barrister. On this occasion the jury easily fell into the trap. I could +see that I had got them into the humor of putting confidence in the +evidence I had to produce. + +The trial proceeded. The cause of the death was scientifically stated by +two medical men. Next followed the evidence as to the finding of the +knife in the bedroom of the deceased; the discovery of the mortgage deed, +and the large sum of money, in the prisoners' sleeping apartment; the +finding the key of the back-door in the male prisoner's pocket; and his +demeanor and expressions on the night of the perpetration of the crime. +In his cross-examination of the constable, several facts perfectly new to +me were elicited by the very able counsel for the prisoners. Their +attorney had judiciously maintained the strictest secrecy as to the +nature of the defence, so that it now took me completely by surprise. The +constable, in reply to questions by counsel, stated that the pockets of +the deceased were empty; that not only his purse, but a gold watch, +chain, and seals, which he usually wore, had vanished, and no trace of +them had as yet been discovered. Many other things were also missing. A +young man of the name of Pearce, apparently a sailor, had been seen in +the village once or twice in the company of Mary Strugnell; but he did +not notice what sort of hat he generally wore; he had not seen Pearce +since the night the crime was committed; had not sought for him. + +Mary Strugnell was the next witness. She repeated her previous evidence +with precision and apparent sincerity, and then I abandoned her with a +mixed feeling of anxiety and curiosity, to the counsel for the defence. +A subtle and able cross-examination of more than two hours' duration +followed; and at its conclusion, I felt that the case for the +prosecution was so damaged, that a verdict of condemnation was, or ought +to be, out of the question. The salient points dwelt upon, and varied in +every possible way, in this long sifting, were these:--"What was the +reason she did not return in the evening in question to her aunt's to +supper as usual?" + +"She did not know, except that she wished to get home." + +"Did she keep company with a man of the name of Pearce?" + +"She had walked out with him once or twice." + +"When was the last time?" + +"She did not remember." + +"Did Pearce walk with her home on the night of the murder?" + +"No." + +"Not part of the way?" + +"Yes; part of the way." + +"Did Pearce sometimes wear a black, shiny hat?" + +"No--yes: she did not remember." + +"Where was Pearce now?" + +"She didn't know." + +"Had he disappeared since that Sunday evening?" + +"She didn't know." + +"Had she seen him since?" + +"No." + +"Had Mr. Wilson ever threatened to discharge her for insolence to Mrs. +Armstrong?" + +"Yes; but she knew he was not in earnest." + +"Was not the clasp-knife that had been found always left in the kitchen +for culinary purposes?" + +"No--not always; generally--but not _this _time that Armstrong went away, +she was sure." + +"Mary Strugnell, you be a false-sworn woman before God and man!" +interrupted the male prisoner with great violence of manner. + +The outbreak of the prisoner was checked and rebuked by the judge, and +the cross-examination soon afterwards closed. Had the counsel been +allowed to follow up his advantage by an address to the jury, he would, I +doubt not, spite of their prejudices against the prisoners, have obtained +an acquittal; but as it was, after a neutral sort of charge from the +judge, by no means the ablest that then adorned the bench, the jurors, +having deliberated for something more than half an hour, returned into +court with a verdict of "guilty" against both prisoners, accompanying it, +however, with a strong recommendation to mercy! + +"Mercy!" said the judge. "What for? On what ground?" + +The jurors stared at each other and at the judge: they had no reason to +give! The fact was, their conviction of the prisoners' guilt had been +very much shaken by the cross-examination of the chief witness for the +prosecution, and this recommendation was a compromise which conscience +made with doubt. I have known many such instances. + +The usual ridiculous formality of asking the wretched convicts what they +had to urge why sentence should not be passed upon them was gone through; +the judge, with unmoved feelings, put on the fatal cap; and then a new +and startling light burst upon the mysterious, bewildering affair. + +"Stop, my lord!" exclaimed Armstrong with rough vehemence. "Hear me +speak! I'll tell ye all about it; I will indeed, my lord. Quiet, +Martha, I tell ye. It's I, my lord, that's guilty, not the woman. God +bless ye, my lord; not the wife! Doant hurt the wife, and I'se tell ye +all about it. I _alone_ am guilty; not, the Lord be praised, of murder, +but of robbery!" + +"John!--John!" sobbed the wife, clinging passionately to her husband, +"let us die together!" + +"Quiet, Martha, I tell ye! Yes, my lord, I'se tell ye all about it. I was +gone away, wife and I, for more nor a week, to receive money for Mr. +Wilson, on account of smuggled goods--that money, my lord, as was found +in the chest. When we came home on that dreadful Sunday night, my lord, +we went in the back way; and hearing a noise, I went up stairs, and found +poor Wilson stone-dead on the floor. I were dreadful skeared, and let +drop the candle. I called to wife, and told her of it. She screamed out, +and amaist fainted away. And then, my lord, all at once the devil shot +into my head to keep the money I had brought; and knowing as the keys of +the desk where the mortgage writing was kept was in the bedroom, I crept +back, as that false-hearted woman said, got the keys, and took the deed; +and then I persuaded wife, who had been trembling in the kitchen all the +while, that we had better go out quiet again, as there was nobody in the +house but us: I had tried that woman's door--and we might perhaps be +taken for the murderers. And so we did; and that's the downright, honest +truth, my lord. I'm rightly served; but God bless you, doant hurt the +woman--my wife, my lord, these thirty years. Five-and-twenty years ago +come May, which I shall never see, we buried our two children. Had they +lived, I might have been a better man; but the place they left empty was +soon filled up by love of cursed lucre, and that has brought me here. I +deserve it; but oh, mercy, my lord! mercy, good gentlemen!"--turning from +the stony features of the judge to the jury, as if they could help +him--"not for me, but the wife. She be as innocent of this as a new-born +babe. It's I! I! scoundrel that I be, that has brought thee, Martha, to +this shameful pass!" The rugged man snatched his life-companion to his +breast with passionate emotion, and tears of remorse and agony streamed +down his rough cheeks. + +I was deeply affected, and felt that the man had uttered the whole truth. +It was evidently one of those cases in which a person liable to suspicion +damages his own cause by resorting to a trick. No doubt, by his act of +theft, Armstrong had been driven to an expedient which would not have +been adopted by a person perfectly innocent. And thus, from one thing to +another, the charge of murder had been fixed upon him and his hapless +wife. When his confession had been uttered, I felt a species of +self-accusation in having contributed to his destruction, and gladly +would I have undone the whole day's proceedings. The judge, on the +contrary, was quite undisturbed. Viewing the harangue of Armstrong as a +mere tissue of falsehood, he cooly pronounced sentence of death on the +prisoners. They were to be hanged on Monday. This was Friday. + +"A bad job!" whispered the counsel for the defence as he passed me. "That +witness of yours, the woman Strugnell, is the real culprit." + +I tasted no dinner that day: I was sick at heart; for I felt as if the +blood of two fellow-creatures was on my hands. In the evening I sallied +forth to the judge's lodgings. He listened to all I had to say; but was +quite imperturbable. The obstinate old man was satisfied that the +sentence was as it should be. I returned to my inn in a fever of despair. +Without the approval of the judge, I knew that an application to the +Secretary of State was futile. There was not even time to send to London, +unless the judge had granted a respite. + +All Saturday and Sunday I was in misery. I denounced capital punishment +as a gross iniquity--a national sin and disgrace; my feelings of course +being influenced somewhat by a recollection of that unhappy affair of +Harvey, noticed in my previous paper. I half resolved to give up the bar, +and rather go and sweep the streets for a livelihood, than run the risk +of getting poor people hanged who did not deserve it. + +On the Monday morning I was pacing up and down my break fast-room in the +next assize town, in a state of great excitement, when a chaise-and-four +drove rapidly up to the hotel, and out tumbled Johnson the constable. His +tale was soon told. On the previous evening, the landlady of the Black +Swan, a roadside public-house about four miles distant from the scene of +the murder, reading the name of Pearce in the report of the trial in the +Sunday county paper, sent for Johnston to state that that person had on +the fatal evening called and left a portmanteau in her charge, promising +to call for it in an hour, but had never been there since. On opening the +portmanteau, Wilson's watch, chains, and seals, and other property, were +discovered in it; and Johnson had, as soon as it was possible, set off in +search of me. Instantly, for there was not a moment to spare, I, in +company with Armstrong's counsel, sought the judge, and with some +difficulty obtained from him a formal order to the sheriff to suspend the +execution till further orders. Off I and the constable started, and +happily arrived in time to stay the execution, and deprive the +already-assembled mob of the brutal exhibition they so anxiously awaited. +On inquiring for Mary Strugnell, we found that she had absconded on the +evening of the trial. All search for her proved vain. + +Five months had passed away; the fate of Armstrong and his wife was still +undecided, when a message was brought to my chambers in the Temple from a +woman said to be dying in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It was Mary +Strugnell; who, when in a state of intoxication, had fallen down in front +of a carriage, as she was crossing near Holborn Hill, and had both her +legs broken. She was dying miserably, and had sent for me to make a full +confession relative to Wilson's murder. Armstrong's account was perfectly +correct. The deed was committed by Pearce, and they were packing up their +plunder when they were startled by the unexpected return of the +Armstrongs. Pearce, snatching up a bundle and a portmanteau, escaped by +the window; she had not nerve enough to attempt it, and crawled back to +her bedroom, where she, watching the doings of the farmer through the +chinks of the partition which separated her room from the passage, +concocted the story which convicted the prisoners. Pearce thinking +himself pursued, too heavily encumbered for rapid flight, left the +portmanteau as described, intending to call for it in the morning, if his +fears proved groundless. He, however, had not courage to risk calling +again, and made the best of his way to London. He was now in Newgate +under sentence of death for a burglary, accompanied by personal violence +to the inmates of the dwelling he and his gang had entered and robbed. I +took care to have the deposition of the dying wretch put into proper +form; and the result was, after a great deal of petitioning and worrying +of authorities, a full pardon for both Armstrong and his wife. They sold +Craig Farm, and removed to some other part of the country, where, I never +troubled myself to inquire. Deeply grateful was I to be able at last to +wash my hands of an affair, which had cost me so much anxiety and +vexation; albeit the lesson it afforded me of not coming hastily to +conclusions, even when the truth seems, as it were, upon the surface of +the matter, has not been, I trust, without its uses. + + + + +THE CONTESTED MARRIAGE. + + +I had just escaped to my chambers one winter afternoon from a heavy trial +"at bar" in the King's Bench, Westminster, and was poring over a case +upon which an "opinion" was urgently solicited, when my clerk entered +with a letter which he had been requested to deliver by a lady, who had +called twice before during the day for the purpose of seeing me. Vexed at +the interruption, I almost snatched the letter from the man's hand, +hastily broke the seal, and to my great surprise found it was from my +excellent old friend Sir Jasper Thornely of Thornely Hall, Lancashire. It +ran as follows:-- + +"My Dear ----, The bearer of this note is a lady whom I am desirous of +serving to the utmost extent of my ability. That she is really the widow +she represents herself to be, and her son consequently heir to the +magnificent estates now in possession of the Emsdales--you remember how +they tripped up my heels at the last election for the borough of ------ I +have no moral doubt whatever; but whether her claim can be legally +established is another affair. She will tell you the story herself. It +was a heartless business; but Sir Harry, who, you have no doubt heard, +broke his neck in a steeple-chase about ten months ago, was a sad wild +dog. My advice is, to look out for a sharp, clever, persevering attorney, +and set him upon a hunt for evidence. If he succeed, I undertake to pay +him a thousand pounds over and above his legal costs. He'll nose it out +for that, I should think!--Yours, truly, + +"Jasper Thornely. + +"P.S.--Emsdale's son, I have just heard--confound their +impudence!--intends, upon the strength of this accession of property, to +stand for the county against my old friend ----, at the dissolution, +which cannot now be far off. If you don't think one thousand pounds +enough, I'll double it. A cruelly, ill-used lady! and as to her son, he's +the very image of the late Sir Harry Compton. In haste--J.T. I re-open +the letter to enclose a cheque for a hundred pounds, which you will pay +the attorney on account. They'll die hard, you may be sure. If it could +come off next assizes, we should spoil them for the county--J.T." + +"Assizes"--"county"--"Sir Harry Compton," I involuntarily murmured, as I +finished the perusal of my old friend's incoherent epistle. "What on +earth can the eccentric old fox-hunter mean?" "Show the lady in," I added +in a louder tone to the clerk. She presently appeared, accompanied by a +remarkably handsome boy about six years of age, both attired in deep +mourning. The lady approached with a timid, furtive step and glance, as +if she were entering the den of some grim ogre, rather than the quiet +study of a civilized lawyer of mature age. I was at once struck by her +singular and touching loveliness. I have never seen a woman that so +completely realized the highest _Madonna_ type of youthful, matronly +beauty--its starlight radiance and mild serenity of sorrow. Her voice, +too, gentle and low, had a tone of patient sadness in it strangely +affecting. She was evidently a person, if not of high birth, of refined +manners and cultivated mind; and I soon ceased to wonder at warm-hearted +old Sir Jasper's enthusiasm in her cause. Habitually, however, on my +guard against first impressions, I courteously, but coldly, invited her +first to a seat, and next to a more intelligible relation of her business +with me than could be gathered from the letter of which she was the +bearer. She complied, and I was soon in possession of the following facts +and fancies:-- + +Violet Dalston and her sister Emily had lived for several years in close +and somewhat straitened retirement with their father, Captain Dalston, at +Rock Cottage, on the outskirts of a village about six miles distant from +Leeds, when Captain Dalston, who was an enthusiastic angler, introduced +to his home a gentleman about twenty-five years of age, of handsome +exterior and gentlemanly manners, with whom congeniality of tastes and +pursuits had made him acquainted. This stranger was introduced to Violet +(my interesting client) and her sister, as a Mr. Henry Grainger, the son +of a London merchant. The object of his wanderings through the English +counties was, he said, to recruit his health, which had become affected +by too close application to business, and to gratify his taste for +angling, sketching, and so on. He became a frequent visitor; and the +result, after the lapse of about three months, was a proposal for the +hand of Violet. His father allowed him, he stated, five hundred pounds +per annum; but in order not to mortally offend the old gentleman, who was +determined, if his son married at all, it should be either to rank or +riches, it would be necessary to conceal the marriage till after his +death. This commonplace story had been, it appeared, implicitly credited +by Captain Dalston; and Violet Dalston and Henry Grainger were united in +holy wedlock--not at the village church near where Captain Dalston +resided, but in one of the Leeds churches. The witnesses were the +bride's father and sister, and a Mr. Bilston, a neighbor. This marriage +had taken place rather more than seven years since, and its sole fruit +was the fine-looking boy who accompanied his mother to my office. Mr. +Grainger, soon after the marriage, persuaded the Dalstons to leave Rock +Cottage, and take up their abode in a picturesque village in Cumberland, +where he had purchased a small house, with some garden and ornamental +grounds attached. + +Five years rolled away--not, as I could discern, _too_ happily when the +very frequent absences of Violet's husband in London, as he alleged (all +her letters to him were directed to the post-office, St. Martin's le +Grand--till called for), were suddenly greatly prolonged; and on his +return home, after an absence of more than three months, he abruptly +informed the family that the affairs of his father, who was dying, had +been found to be greatly embarrassed, and that nothing was left for him +and them but emigration to America, with such means as might be saved +from the wreck of the elder Grainger's property. After much lamentation +and opposition on the part of Emily Dalston and her father, it was +finally conceded as Violet's husband wished; and the emigration was to +have taken place in the following spring, Henry Grainger to follow them +the instant he could wind up his father's affairs. About three months +before their intended departure--this very time twelvemonth, as nearly as +may be--Captain Dalston was suddenly called to London, to close the eyes +of an only sister. This sad duty fulfilled, he was about to return, when, +passing towards dusk down St. James Street, he saw Henry Grainger, +habited in a remarkable sporting-dress, standing with several other +gentlemen at the door of one of the club-houses. Hastening across the +street to accost him, he was arrested for a minute or so by a line of +carriages which turned sharply out of Piccadilly; and when he did reach +the other side, young Mr. Grainger and his companions had vanished. He +inquired of the porter, and was assured that no Mr. Grainger, senior or +junior, was known there. Persisting that he had seen him standing within +the doorway, and describing his dress, the man with an insolent laugh +exclaimed that the gentleman who wore that dress was the famous sporting +baronet, Sir Harry Compton! + +Bewildered, and suspecting he hardly knew what, Captain Dalston, in +defiance of young Grainger's oft-iterated injunctions, determined to call +at his father's residence, which he had always understood to be in +Leadenhall Street. No such name was, however, known there; and an +examination, to which he was advised, of the "Commercial Directory" +failed to discover the whereabout of the pretended London merchant. +Heart-sick and spirit-wearied, Captain Dalston returned home only to die. +A violent cold, caught by imprudently riding in such bitter weather as it +then was, on the outside of the coach, aggravated by distress of mind, +brought his already enfeebled frame to the grave in less than two months +after his arrival in Cumberland. He left his daughters utterly unprovided +for, except by the legal claim which the eldest possessed on a man who, +he feared, would turn out to be a worthless impostor. The penalty he paid +for consenting to so imprudent a marriage was indeed a heavy and bitter +one. Months passed away, and still no tidings of Violet's husband reached +the sisters' sad and solitary home. At length, stimulated by +apprehensions of approaching destitution--whose foot was already on the +threshold--and desirous of gratifying a whim of Emily's, Violet consented +to visit the neighborhood of Compton Castle (the seat, her sister had +ascertained, of the "celebrated sporting baronet," as the porter called +him) on their way to London, where they had relatives who, though not +rich, might possibly be able to assist them in obtaining some decent +means of maintenance. They alighted at the "Compton Arms," and the first +object which met the astonished gaze of the sisters as they entered the +principal sitting-room of the inn, was a full-length portrait of Violet's +husband, in the exact sporting-dress described to them by their father. +An ivory tablet attached to the lower part of the frame informed the +gazer that the picture was a copy, by permission, of the celebrated +portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, of Sir Harry Compton, Baronet. They were +confounded, overwhelmed, bewildered. Sir Harry, they found, had been +killed about eight months previously in a steeple-chase; and the castle +and estates had passed, in default of direct issue, to a distant +relative, Lord Emsdale. Their story was soon bruited about; and, in the +opinion of many persons, was confirmed beyond reasonable question by the +extraordinary likeness they saw or fancied between Violet's son and the +deceased baronet. Amongst others, Sir Jasper Thornely was a firm believer +in the identity of Henry Grainger and Sir Harry Compton; but +unfortunately, beyond the assertion of the sisters that the portrait of +Sir Harry was young Grainger's portrait, the real or imaginary likeness +of the child to his reputed father, and some score of letters addressed +to Violet by her husband, which Sir Jasper persisted were in Sir Harry's +handwriting, though few others did (the hand, I saw at a glance, was a +disguised one), not one tittle of evidence had he been able to procure +for love or money. As a last resource, he had consigned the case to me, +and the vulpine sagacity of a London attorney. + +I suppose my countenance must be what is called a "speaking" one, for I +had made no reply in words to this statement of a case upon which I and +a "London attorney" were to ground measures for wresting a magnificent +estate from the clutch of a powerful nobleman, and by "next assizes" +too--when the lady's beautiful eyes filled with tears, and turning to her +child, she murmured in that gentle, agitating voice of hers, "My poor +boy." The words I was about to utter died on my tongue, and I remained +silent for several minutes. After all, thought I, this lady is evidently +sincere in her expressed conviction that Sir Harry Compton was her +husband. If her surmise be correct, evidence of the truth may perhaps be +obtained by a keen search for it; and since Sir Jasper guarantees the +expenses--I rang the bell. "Step over to Cursitor Street," said I to the +clerk as soon as he entered; "and if Mr. Ferret is within, ask him to +step over immediately." Ferret was just the man for such a commission. +Indefatigable, resolute, sharp-witted, and of a ceaseless, remorseless +activity, a secret or a fact had need be very profoundly hidden for him +not to reach and fish it up. I have heard solemn doubts expressed by +attorneys opposed to him as to whether he ever really and truly slept at +all--that is, a genuine Christian sleep, as distinguished from a merely +canine one, with one eye always half open. Mr. Ferret had been for many +years Mr. Simpkins' managing clerk; but ambition, and the increasing +requirements of a considerable number of young Ferrets, determined him on +commencing business on his own account; and about six months previous to +the period of which I am now writing, a brass door-plate in Cursitor +Street, Chancery Lane, informed the public that Samuel Ferret, Esq., +Attorney-at-Law, might be consulted within. + +Mr. Samuel Ferret was fortunately at home; and after a very brief +interval, made his appearance, entering with a short professional bow to +me, and a very profound one to the lady, in whom his quick gray eye +seemed intuitively to espy a client. As soon as he was seated, I handed +him Sir Jasper's letter. He perused it carefully three times, examined +the seal attentively, and handed it back with--"An excellent letter as +far as it goes, and very much to the point. You intend, I suppose, that I +should undertake this little affair?" + +"Yes, if, after hearing the lady's case, you feel disposed to +venture upon it." + +Mr. Samuel Ferret's note-book was out in an instant; and the lady, +uninterrupted by a syllable from him, re-told her story. + +"Good, very good, as far as it goes," remarked undismayed Samuel Ferret +when she concluded; "only it can scarcely be said to go very far. Moral +presumption, which, in our courts unfortunately, isn't worth a groat. +Never mind. _Magna est veritas_, and so on. When, madam, did you say Sir +Harry--Mr. Grainger--first began to urge emigration?" + +"Between two and three years ago." + +"Have the goodness, if you please, to hand me the baronetage." I did so. +"Good," resumed Ferret, after turning over the leaves for a few seconds, +"very good, as far as it goes. It is now just two years and eight months +since Sir Harry succeeded his uncle in the title and estates. You would +no doubt soon have heard, madam, that your husband was dead. Truly the +heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; and +yet such conduct towards such a lady"--Ferret intended no mere +compliment; he was only giving utterance to the thoughts passing through +his brain; but his client's mounting color warned him to change the +topic, which he very adroitly did. "You intend, of course," said he, +addressing me, "to proceed at law? No rumble--tumble through the +spiritual courts?" + +"Certainly, if sufficient evidence to justify such a course can be +obtained." + +"Exactly: Doe, demise of Compton, _versus_ Emsdale; action in ejectment, +judgment of ouster. Our friend Doe, madam--a very accommodating fellow is +Doe--will, if we succeed, put you in possession as natural guardian of +your son. Well, sir," turning to me, "I may as well give you an +acknowledgment for that cheque. I undertake the business, and shall, if +possible, be off to Leeds by this evening's mail." The acknowledgment was +given, and Mr. Ferret, pocketing the cheque, departed in high glee. + +"The best man, madam, in all broad London," said I in answer to Mrs. +Grainger's somewhat puzzled look, "you could have retained. Fond as he +seems, and in fact is, of money--what sensible person is not?--Lord +Emsdale could not bribe him with his earldom, now that he is fairly +engaged in your behalf, I will not say to betray you, but to abate his +indefatigable activity in furtherance of your interests. Attorneys, +madam, be assured, whatever nursery tales may teach, have, the very +sharpest of them, their points of honor." The lady and her son departed, +and I turned again to the almost forgotten "case." + +Three weeks had nearly glided by, and still no tidings of Mr. Ferret. +Mrs. Grainger, and her sister Emily Dalston, a very charming person, had +called repeatedly; but as I of course had nothing to communicate, they +were still condemned to languish under the heart-sickness caused by hope +deferred. At last our emissary made his wished-for appearance. + +"Well, Mr. Ferret," said I, on entering my library, where I found him +composedly awaiting my arrival, "what success?" + +"Why, nothing of much consequence as yet," replied he; "I am, you know, +only, as it were, just commencing the investigation. The Leeds parson +that married them is dead, and the old clerk is paralytic, and has lost +his memory. If, however, they were both alive, and in sound health of +mind and body, they could, I fancy, help us but little, as Bilston tells +me neither the Dalstons nor Grainger had ever entered the church till the +morning of the wedding; and they soon afterwards removed to Cumberland, +so that it is scarcely possible either parson or clerk could prove that +Violet Dalston was married to Sir Harry Compton. A very intelligent +fellow is Bilston: he was present at the marriage, you remember; and a +glorious witness, if he had only something of importance to depose to; +powdered hair and a pigtail, double chin, and six feet in girth at least; +highly respectable--capital witness, very--only, unfortunately, he can +only testify that a person calling himself Grainger married Violet +Dalston; not much in that!" + +"So, then, your three weeks' labor has been entirely thrown away!" + +"Not so fast--not so fast--you jump too hastily at conclusions. The +Cumberland fellow that sold Grainger the house--only the equity of +redemption of it, by the way--there's a large mortgage on it--can prove +nothing. Nobody about there can, except the surgeon; _he_ can prove Mrs. +Grainger's _accouchement_--that is something. I have been killing myself +every evening this last week with grog and tobacco smoke at the "Compton +Arms," in the company of the castle servants, and if the calves' heads +_had_ known anything essential, I fancy I should have wormed it out of +them. They have, however, kindly furnished me with a scrawl of +introduction to the establishment now in town, some of whom I shall have +the honor to meet, in the character of an out-and-out liberal sporting +gentleman, at the "Albemarle Arms" this evening. I want to get hold of +his confidential valet, if he had one--those go-a-head fellows generally +have--a Swiss, or some other foreign animal." + +"Is this all?" + +"Why, no," rejoined Ferret, with a sharp twinkle of his sharp gray eye, +amounting almost to a wink; "there is one circumstance which I cannot +help thinking, though I scarcely know why, will put us, by the help of +patience and perseverance, on the right track. In a corner of the +registry of marriage there is written Z.Z. in bold letters. In no other +part of the book does this occur. What may that mean?" + +"Had the incumbent of the living a curate at the time?" + +"No. On that point I am unfortunately too well satisfied. Neither are +there any names with such initials in any of the Leeds churchyards. Still +this Z.Z. may be of importance, if we could but discover who he is. But +how?--that is the question. Advertise? Show our hands to the opposite +players, and find if Z.Z. is really an entity, and likely to be of +service, that when we want him in court, he is half way to America. No, +no; that would never do." + +Mr. Ferret I saw was getting into a brown study; and as I had +pressing business to despatch, I got rid of him as speedily as I +could, quite satisfied, spite of Z.Z., that Mrs. Grainger's chance of +becoming Lady Compton was about equal to mine of ascending the +British throne some fine day. + +Two days afterwards I received the following note:-- + +"Dear Sir--Z.Z. is the man! I'm off to Shropshire. Back, if possible, the +day after to-morrow. Not a word even to the ladies. Huzza! In haste, +Samuel Ferret." + +What could this mean? Spite of Mr. Ferret's injunction, I could not help +informing the sisters, who called soon after I received the note, that a +discovery, esteemed of importance by our emissary, had been made; and +they returned home with lightened hearts, after agreeing to repeat their +visit on the day Mr. Ferret had named for his return. + +On reaching my chambers about four o'clock in the afternoon of that day, +I found the ladies there, and in a state of great excitement. Mr. Ferret, +my clerk had informed them, had called twice, and seemed in the highest +spirits. We had wasted but a few minutes in conjectures when Mr. Ferret, +having ascended the stairs two or three at a time, burst, _sans +cérémonie_, into the apartment. + +"Good-day, sir. Lady Compton, your most obedient servant; madam, yours! +All right! Only just in time to get the writ sealed; served it myself a +quarter of an hour ago, just as his lordship was getting into his +carriage. Not a day to lose; just in time. Capital! Glorious!" + +"What do you mean, Mr. Ferret?" exclaimed Emily Dalston: her sister was +too agitated to speak. + +"What do I mean? Let us all four step, sir, into your inner sanctum, and +I'll soon tell you what I mean." + +We adjourned, accordingly, to an inner and more private room. Our +conference lasted about half an hour, at the end of which the ladies +took their leave: Lady Compton, her beautiful features alternately +irradiated and clouded by smiles and tears, murmuring in a broken, +agitated voice, as she shook hands with me, "You see, sir, he intended +at last to do us justice." + +The news that an action had been brought on behalf of an infant son of +the late Sir Harry Compton against the Earl of Emsdale, for the recovery +of the estates in the possession of that nobleman, produced the greatest +excitement in the part of the county where the property was situated. The +assize town was crowded, on the day the trial was expected to come on, by +the tenantry of the late baronet and their families, with whom the +present landlord was by no means popular. As I passed up the principal +street, towards the court-house, accompanied by my junior, I was received +with loud hurraings and waving of handkerchiefs, something after the +manner, I suppose, in which chivalrous steel-clad knights, about to do +battle in behalf of distressed damsels, were formerly received by the +miscellaneous spectators of the lists. Numerous favors, cockades, +streamers, of the Compton colors, used in election contests, purple and +orange, were also slyly exhibited, to be more ostentatiously displayed if +the Emsdale party should be beaten. On entering the court, I found it +crowded, as we say, to the ceiling. Not only every seat, but every inch +of standing-room that could be obtained, was occupied, and it was with +great difficulty the ushers of the court preserved a sufficiently clear +space for the ingress and egress of witnesses and counsel. Lord Emsdale, +pale and anxious, spite of manifest effort to appear contemptuously +indifferent, sat near the judge, who had just entered the court. The +Archbishop of York, whom we had subpoenaed, why, his Grace had openly +declared, he knew not, was also of course accommodated with a seat on the +bench. A formidable bar, led by the celebrated Mr. S ----, was, I saw, +arrayed against us, though what the case was they had to meet, so well +had Ferret kept his secret, they knew no more than did their horse-hair +wigs. Ferret had solemnly enjoined the sisters to silence, and no hint, I +need scarcely say, was likely to escape my lips. The jury, special of +course, were in attendance, and the case, "Doe, demise of Compton +_versus_ Emsdale," having been called, they were duly sworn to try the +issue. My junior, Mr. Frampton, was just rising "to state the case," as +it is technically called, when a tremendous shouting, rapidly increasing +in volume and distinctness, and mingled with the sound of carriage +wheels, was heard approaching, and presently Mr. Samuel Ferret appeared, +followed by Lady Compton and her son, the rear of the party brought up by +Sir Jasper Thornely, whose jolly fox-hunting face shone like a full-blown +peony. The lady, though painfully agitated, looked charmingly; and the +timid, appealing glance she unconsciously, as it were, threw round the +court, would, in a doubtful case, have secured a verdict. "Very well got +up, indeed," said Mr. S ----, in a voice sufficiently loud for the jury +to hear--"very effectively managed, upon my word." We were, however, in +too good-humor to heed taunts; and as soon as silence was restored, Mr. +Frampton briefly stated the case, and I rose to address the jury. My +speech was purposely brief, business-like, and confident. I detailed the +circumstances of the marriage of Violet Dalston, then only eighteen years +of age, with a Mr. Grainger; the birth of a son; and subsequent +disappearance of the husband; concluding by an assurance to the jury that +I should prove, by incontrovertible evidence, that Grainger was no other +person than the late Sir Harry Compton, baronet. This address by no means +lessened the vague apprehensions of the other side. A counsel that, +with such materials for eloquence, disdained having recourse to it, must +needs have a formidable case. The smiling countenances of Mr. S ---- and +his brethren became suddenly overcast, and the pallor and agitation of +Lord Emsdale sensibly increased. + +We proved our case clearly, step by step: the marriage, the accouchement, +the handwriting of Grainger--Bilston proved this--to the letters +addressed to his wife, were clearly established. The register of the +marriage was produced by the present clerk of the Leeds church; the +initials Z.Z. were pointed out; and at my suggestion the book was +deposited for the purposes of the trial with the clerk of the court. Not +a word of cross-examination had passed the lips of our learned friends on +the other side: they allowed our evidence to pass as utterly indifferent. +A change was at hand. + +Our next witness was James Kirby, groom to the late baronet and to the +present earl. After a few unimportant questions, I asked him if he had +ever seen that gentleman before, pointing to Mr. Ferret, who stood up for +the more facile recognition of his friend Kirby. + +"Oh yes, he remembered the gentleman well; and a very nice, good-natured, +soft sort of a gentleman he was. He treated witness at the "Albemarle +Arms," London, to as much brandy and water as he liked, out of respect to +his late master, whom the gentleman seemed uncommon fond of." + +"Well, and what return did you make for so much liberality?" + +"Return! very little I do assure ye. I told un how many horses Sir Harry +kept, and how many races he won; but I couldn't tell un much more, pump +as much as he would, because, do ye see, I didn't _know_ no more." + +An audible titter from the other side greeted the witness as he uttered +the last sentence. Mr. S ----, with one of his complacent glances at the +jury-box, remarking in a sufficiently loud whisper, "That he had never +heard a more conclusive reason for not telling in his life." + +"Did you mention that you were present at the death of the late baronet?" + +"Yes I did. I told un that I were within about three hundred red yards +of late master when he had that ugly fall; and that when I got up to +un, he sort of pulled me down, and whispered hoarse-like, 'Send for +Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman.' I remembered it, it was sich an +outlandish name like." + +"Oh, oh," thought I, as Mr. S ---- reached across the table for the +parish register, "Z.Z. is acquiring significance I perceive." + +"Well, and what did this gentleman say to that?" + +"Say? Why, nothing particular, only seemed quite joyful 'mazed like; and +when I asked un why, he said it was such a comfort to find his good +friend Sir Harry had such pious thoughts in his last moments." + +The laugh, quickly suppressed, that followed these words, did not come +from our learned friends on the other side. + +"Sir Harry used those words?" + +"He did; but as he died two or three minutes after, it were of course no +use to send for no parson whatsomever." + +"Exactly. That will do, unless the other side have any questions to ask." +No question _was_ put, and the witness went down. "Call," said I to the +crier of the court--"call the Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman." + +This was a bomb-shell. Lord Emsdale, the better to conceal his agitation, +descended from the bench and took his seat beside his counsel. The +Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman, examined by Mr. Frampton, deponed in +substance as follows:--"He was at present rector of Dunby, Shropshire, +and had been in holy orders more than twenty years. Was on a visit to the +Reverend Mr. Cramby at Leeds seven years ago, when one morning Mr. +Cramby, being much indisposed, requested him to perform the marriage +ceremony for a young couple then waiting in church. He complied, and +joined in wedlock Violet Dalston and Henry Grainger. The bride was the +lady now pointed out to him in court; the bridegroom he had discovered, +about two years ago, to be no other than the late Sir Harry Compton, +baronet. The initials Z.Z. were his, and written by him. The parish +clerk, a failing old man, had not officiated at the marriage; a nephew, +he believed, had acted for him, but he had entered the marriage in the +usual form afterwards." + +"How did you ascertain that Henry Grainger was the late Sir Harry +Compton?" + +"I was introduced to Sir Harry Compton in London, at the house of the +Archbishop of York, by his Grace himself." + +"I remember the incident distinctly, Mr. Zimmerman," said his Grace from +the bench. + +"Besides which," added the rector, "my present living was presented to +me, about eighteen months since, by the deceased baronet. I must further, +in justice to myself, explain that I immediately after the introduction, +sought an elucidation of the mystery from Sir Harry; and he then told me +that, in a freak of youthful passion, he had married Miss Dalston in the +name of Grainger, fearing his uncle's displeasure should it reach his +ears; that his wife had died in her first confinement, after giving birth +to a still-born child, and he now wished the matter to remain in +oblivion. He also showed me several letters, which I then believed +genuine, confirming his story. I heard no more of the matter till waited +upon by the attorney for the plaintiff, Mr. Ferret." + +A breathless silence prevailed during the delivery of this evidence. At +its conclusion, the dullest brain in court comprehended that the cause +was gained; and a succession of cheers, which could not be suppressed, +rang through the court, and were loudly echoed from without. Sir Jasper's +voice sounding high above all the rest. Suddenly, too, as if by magic, +almost everybody in court, save the jury and counsel, were decorated with +orange and purple favors, and a perfect shower of them fell at the feet +and about the persons of Lady Compton, her sister, who had by this time +joined her, and the infant Sir Henry. As soon as the expostulations and +menaces of the judge had restored silence and order, his lordship, +addressing Lord Emsdale's senior counsel, said, "Well, Brother S ----, +what course do you propose to adopt ?" + +"My lord," replied Mr. S ---- after a pause, "I and my learned friends +have thought it our duty to advise Lord Emsdale that further opposition +to the plaintiff's claim would prove ultimately futile; and I have +therefore to announce, my lord and gentlemen of the jury, that we +acquiesce in a verdict for the plaintiff." + +"You have counseled wisely," replied his lordship. "Gentlemen of the +jury, you will of course return a verdict for the plaintiff." + +The jury hastily and joyfully assented: the verdict was recorded, and the +court adjourned for an hour in the midst of tumultuous excitement. The +result of the trial flew through the crowd outside like wildfire; and +when Lady Compton and her son, after struggling through the +densely-crowded court, stepped into Sir Jasper's carriage, which was in +waiting at the door, the enthusiastic uproar that ensued--the hurrahing, +shouting, waving of hats and handkerchiefs--deafened and bewildered one; +and it was upwards of an hour ere the slow-moving chariot reached Sir +Jasper's mansion, though not more than half a mile distant from the town. +Mr. Ferret, mounted on the box, and almost smothered in purple and +orange, was a conspicuous object, and a prime favorite with the crowd. +The next day Lord Emsdale, glad, doubtless, to quit the neighborhood as +speedily as possible, left the castle, giving Lady Compton immediate +possession. The joy of the tenantry was unbounded, and under the wakeful +superintendence of Mr. Ferret, all claims against Lord Emsdale for +received rents, dilapidations, &c. were adjusted, we may be sure, _not_ +adversely to his client's interests; though he frequently complained, not +half so satisfactorily as if Lady Compton had not interfered, with what +Mr. Ferret deemed misplaced generosity in the matter. + +As I was obliged to proceed onwards with the circuit, I called at Compton +Castle to take leave of my interesting and fortunate client a few days +after her installation there. I was most gratefully received and +entertained. As I shook hands at parting, her ladyship, after pressing +upon me a diamond ring of great value, said, whilst her charming eyes +filled with regretful, yet joyful tears, "Do not forget that poor Henry +intended at last to do us justice." Prosperity, thought I, will not spoil +that woman. It _has_ not, as the world, were I authorized to communicate +her _real_ name, would readily acknowledge. + + + + +THE MOTHER AND SON. + + +Dinner had been over about half an hour one Sunday afternoon.--the only +day on which for years I had been able to enjoy a dinner--and I was +leisurely sipping a glass of wine, when a carriage drove rapidly up to +the door, a loud _rat-tat_ followed, and my friend Dr. Curteis, to my +great surprise, was announced. + +"I have called," said the doctor as we shook hands, "to ask you to +accompany me to Mount Place. I have just received a hurried note from +Miss Armitage, stating that her mother, after a very brief illness, is +rapidly sinking, and requesting my attendance, as well as that of a legal +gentleman, immediately." + +"Mrs. Armitage!" I exclaimed, inexpressibly shocked. "Why, it is scarcely +more than a fortnight ago that I met her at the Rochfords' in brilliant +health and spirits." + +"Even so. But will you accompany me? I don't know where to find any one +else for the moment, and time presses." + +"It is an attorney, probably, rather than a barrister, that is needed; +but under the circumstances, and knowing her as I do, I cannot hesitate." + +We were soon bowling along at a rapid pace, and in little more than an +hour reached the dying lady's residence, situated in the county of Essex, +and distant about ten miles from London. We entered together; and Dr. +Curteis, leaving me in the library, proceeded at once to the sick +chamber. About ten minutes afterwards the housekeeper, a tall, +foreign-looking, and rather handsome woman, came into the room, and +announced that the doctor wished to see me. She was deadly pale, and, I +observed, trembled like an aspen. I motioned her to precede me; and she, +with unsteady steps, immediately led the way. So great was her agitation, +that twice, in ascending the stairs, she only saved herself from falling +by grasping the banister-rail. The presage I drew from the exhibition of +such overpowering emotion, by a person whom I knew to have been long not +only in the service, but in the confidence of Mrs. Armitage, was soon +confirmed by Dr. Curteis, whom we met coming out of the chamber of the +expiring patient. + +"Step this way," said he, addressing me, and leading to an adjoining +apartment. "We do not require your attendance, Mrs. Bourdon," said he, as +soon as we reached it, to the housekeeper, who had swiftly followed us, +and now stood staring with eager eyes in the doctor's face, as if life +and death hung on his lips. "Have the goodness to leave us," he added +tartly, perceiving she did not stir, but continued her fearful, +scrutinizing glance. She started at his altered tone, flushed crimson, +then paled to a chalky whiteness, and muttering, left the apartment. + +"The danger of her mistress has bewildered her," I remarked. + +"Perhaps so," remarked Dr. Curteis. "Be that as it may, Mrs. Armitage is +beyond all human help. In another hour she will be, as we say, no more." + +"I feared so. What is the nature of her disorder?" + +"A rapid wasting away, as I am informed. The appearances presented are +those of a person expiring of atrophy, or extreme emaciation." + +"Indeed. And so sudden too!" + +"Yes. I am glad you are come, although your professional services will +not, it seems, be required--a neighboring attorney having performed the +necessary duty--something, I believe, relative to the will of the dying +lady. We will speak further together by and by. In the meantime," +continued Dr. Curteis, with a perceptible tremor in his voice, "it will +do neither of us any harm to witness the closing scene of the life of +Mary Rawdon, whom you and I twenty years ago worshipped as one of the +gentlest and most beautiful of beings with which the Creator ever graced +his universe. It will be a peaceful parting. Come." + +Just as, with noiseless footsteps, we entered the silent death-chamber, +the last rays of the setting sun were falling upon the figure of Ellen +Armitage--who knelt in speechless agony by the bedside of her expiring +parent--and faintly lighting up the pale, emaciated, sunken features of +the so lately brilliant, courted Mrs. Armitage! But for the ineffaceable +splendor of her deep-blue eyes, I should scarcely have recognized her. +Standing in the shadow, as thrown by the heavy bed-drapery, we gazed and +listened unperceived. + +"Ellen," murmured the dying lady, "come nearer to me. It is growing +dark, and I cannot see you plainly. Now, then, read to me, beginning at +the verse you finished with, as good Dr. Curteis entered. Ay," she +faintly whispered, "it is thus, Ellen, with thy hand clasped in mine, +and with the words of the holy book sounding from thy dear lips, that I +would pass away!" + +Ellen, interrupted only by her blinding tears, making sad stops, +complied. Twilight stole on, and threw its shadow over the solemn scene, +deepening its holiness of sorrow. Night came with all her train; and the +silver radiance kissed into ethereal beauty the pale face of the weeping +girl, still pursuing her sad and sacred task. We hesitated to disturb, by +the slightest movement the repose of a death-bed over which belief and +hope, those only potent ministers, shed light and calm! At length Dr. +Curteis advanced gently towards the bed, and taking the daughter's hand, +said in a low voice, "Had you not better retire, my dear young lady, for +a few moments?" She understood him, and rising from her knees, threw +herself in an ecstacy of grief upon the corpse, from which the spirit had +just passed away. Assistance was summoned, and the sobbing girl was borne +from the chamber. + +I descended, full of emotion, to the library, where Dr. Curteis promised +shortly to join me. Noiselessly entering the room, I came suddenly upon +the housekeeper and a tall young man, standing with their backs towards +me in the recesses of one of the windows, and partly shrouded by the +heavy cloth curtains. They were evidently in earnest conference, and +several words, the significance of which did not at the moment strike me, +reached my ears before they perceived my approach. The instant they did +so, they turned hastily round, and eyed me with an expression of flurried +alarm, which at the time surprised me not a little. "All is over, Mrs. +Bourdon," said I, finding she did not speak; "and your presence is +probably needed by Miss Armitage." A flash of intelligence, as I spoke, +passed between the pair; but whether indicative of grief or joy, so +momentary was the glance, I should have been puzzled to determine. The +housekeeper immediately left the room, keeping her eyes, as she passed, +fixed upon me with the same nervous apprehensive look which had before +irritated Dr. Curteis. The young man followed more slowly. He was a tall +and rather handsome youth, apparently about one or two-and-twenty years +of age. His hair was black as jet, and his dark eyes were of singular +brilliancy; but the expression, I thought, was scarcely a refined or +highly-intellectual one. His resemblance to Mrs. Bourdon, whose son +indeed he was, was very striking. He bowed slightly, but courteously, as +to an equal, as he closed the door, and I was left to the undisturbed +enjoyment of my own reflections, which, ill-defined and indistinct as +they were, were anything but pleasant company. My reverie was at length +interrupted by the entrance of the doctor, with the announcement that the +carriage was in waiting to re-convey us to town. + +We had journeyed several miles on our return before a word was spoken by +either of us. My companion was apparently even more painfully +pre-occupied than myself. He was, however, the first to break silence. +"The emaciated corpse we have just left little resembles the gay, +beautiful girl, for whose smiles you and I were once disposed to shoot +each other!" The doctor's voice trembled with emotion, and his face, I +perceived, was pale as marble. + +"Mary Rawdon," I remarked, "lives again in her daughter." + +"Yes; her very image. Do you know," continued he, speaking with rapid +energy, "I suspect Mary Rawdon--Mrs. Armitage, I would say--has been +foully, treacherously dealt with!" + +I started with amazement; and yet the announcement but embodied and gave +form and color to my own ill-defined and shadowy suspicions. + +"Good heavens! How? By whom?" + +"Unless I am greatly mistaken, she has been poisoned by an adept in the +use of such destructive agents." + +"Mrs. Bourdon?" + +"No; by her son. At least my suspicions point that way. She is probably +cognizant of the crime. But in order that you should understand the +grounds upon which my conjectures are principally founded, I must enter +into a short explanation. Mrs. Bourdon, a woman of Spanish extraction, +and who formerly occupied a much higher position than she does now, has +lived with Mrs. Armitage from the period of her husband's death, now +about sixteen years ago. Mrs. Bourdon has a son, a tall, good-looking +fellow enough, whom you may have seen." + +"He was with his mother in the library as I entered it after +leaving you." + +"Ah! well, hem! This boy, in his mother's opinion--but that perhaps is +somewhat excusable--exhibited early indications of having been born a +"genius." Mrs. Armitage, who had been first struck by the beauty of the +child, gradually acquired the same notion; and the result was, that he +was little by little invested--with at least her tacit approval--with the +privileges supposed to be the lawful inheritance of such gifted spirits; +namely, the right to be as idle as he pleased--geniuses, you know, can, +according to the popular notion, attain any conceivable amount of +knowledge _per saltum_ at a bound--and to exalt himself in the stilts of +his own conceit above the useful and honorable pursuits suited to the +station in life in which Providence had cast his lot. The fruit of such +training soon showed itself. Young Bourdon grew up a conceited and +essentially-ignorant puppy, capable of nothing but bad verses, and +thoroughly impressed with but one important fact, which was, that he, +Alfred Bourdon, was the most gifted and the most ill-used of all God's +creatures. To genius, in any intelligible sense of the term, he has in +truth no pretension. He is endowed, however, with a kind of reflective +talent, which is often mistaken by fools for _creative_ power. The morbid +fancies and melancholy scorn of a Byron, for instance, such gentry +reflect back from their foggy imaginations in exaggerated and distorted +feebleness of whining versicles, and so on with other lights celestial +or infernal. This, however, by the way. The only rational pursuit he ever +followed, and that only by fits and starts, and to gratify his faculty of +"wonder," I fancy, was chemistry. A small laboratory was fitted up for +him in the little summer-house you may have observed at the further +corner of the lawn. This study of his, if study such desultory snatches +at science may be called, led him, in his examination of vegetable +bodies, to a smattering acquaintance with botany, a science of which +Ellen Armitage is an enthusiastic student. They were foolishly permitted +to _botanize_ together, and the result was, that Alfred Bourdon, acting +upon the principle that genius--whether sham or real--levels all merely +mundane distinctions, had the impudence to aspire to the hand of Miss +Armitage. His passion, sincere or simulated, has never been, I have +reason to know, in the slightest degree reciprocated by its object; but +so blind is vanity, that when, about six weeks ago, an _éclaircissement_ +took place, and the fellow's dream was somewhat rudely dissipated, the +untoward rejection of his preposterous suit was, there is every reason to +believe, attributed by both mother and son to the repugnance of Mrs. +Armitage alone; and to this idiotic hallucination she has, I fear, fallen +a sacrifice. Judging from the emaciated appearance of the body, and other +phenomena communicated to me by her ordinary medical attendant--a +blundering ignoramus, who ought to have called in assistance long +before--she has been poisoned with _iodine_, which, administered in +certain quantities, would produce precisely the same symptoms. Happily +there is no mode of destroying human life which so surely leads to the +detection of the murderer as the use of such agents; and of this truth +the post mortem examination of the body, which takes place to-morrow +morning, will, if I am not grossly mistaken, supply another vivid +illustration. Legal assistance will no doubt be necessary, and I am sure +I do not err in expecting that _you_ will aid me in bringing to justice +the murderer of Mary Rawdon?" + +A pressure of his hand was my only answer. "I shall call for you at ten +o'clock" said he, as he put me down at my own door. I bowed, and the +carriage drove off. + +"Well!" said I, as Dr. Curteis and Mr. ---- the eminent surgeon entered +the library at Mount Place the following morning after a long absence. + +"As I anticipated," replied the doctor with a choking voice: "she has +been poisoned!" + +I started to my feet. "And the murderer?" + +"Our suspicions still point to young Bourdon; but the persons of both +mother and son have been secured." + +"Apart?" + +"Yes; and I have despatched a servant to request the presence of a +neighbor--a county magistrate. I expect him momently." + +After a brief consultation, we all three directed our steps to the +summer-house which contained young Bourdon's laboratory. In the room +itself nothing of importance was discovered; but in an enclosed recess, +which we broke open, we found a curiously-fashioned glass bottle half +full of iodine. + +"This is it!" said Mr. ----; "and in a powdered state too--just ready +for mixing with brandy or any other available dissolvent." The powder had +somewhat the appearance of fine black lead. Nothing further of any +consequence being observed, we returned to the house, where the +magistrate had already arrived. + +Alfred Bourdon was first brought in; and he having been duly cautioned +that he was not obliged to answer any question, and that what he did say +would be taken down, and, if necessary, used against him, I proposed the +following questions:-- + +"Have you the key of your laboratory?" + +"No; the door is always open." + +"Well, then, of any door or cupboard in the room?" + +At this question his face flushed purple: he stammered, "There is +no"--and abruptly paused. + +"Do I understand you to say there is no cupboard or place of concealment +in the room?" + +"No: here is the key." + +"Has any one had access to the cupboard or recess of which this is the +key, except yourself?" + +The young man shook as if smitten with ague: his lips chattered, but no +articulate sound escaped them. + +"You need not answer the question," said the magistrate, "unless you +choose to do so. I again warn you that all you say will, if necessary, +be used against you." + +"No one," he at length gasped, mastering his hesitation by a strong +exertion of the will--"no one can have had access to the place but +myself. I have never parted with the key." + +Mrs. Bourdon was now called in. After interchanging a glance of intense +agony, and, as it seemed to me, of affectionate intelligence with her +son, she calmly answered the questions put to her. They were unimportant, +except the last, and that acted upon her like a galvanic shock. It was +this--"Did you ever struggle with your son on the landing leading to the +bedroom of the deceased for the possession of this bottle?" and I held up +that which we had found in the recess. + +A slight scream escaped her lips; and then she stood rigid, erect, +motionless, glaring alternately at me and at the fatal bottle with eyes +that seemed starting from their sockets. I glanced towards the son; he +was also affected in a terrible manner. His knees smote each other, and a +clammy perspiration burst forth and settled upon his pallid forehead. + +"Again I caution you," iterated the magistrate, "that you are not bound +to answer any of these questions." + +The woman's lips moved. "No--never!" she almost inaudibly gasped, and +fell senseless on the floor. + +As soon as she was removed, Jane Withers was called. She deposed that +three days previously, as she was, just before dusk, arranging some linen +in a room a few yards distant from the bedroom of her late mistress, she +was surprised at hearing a noise just outside the door, as of persons +struggling and speaking in low but earnest tones. She drew aside a corner +of the muslin curtain of the window which locked upon the passage or +corridor, and there saw Mrs. Bourdon striving to wrest something from her +son's hand. She heard Mrs. Bourdon say, "You shall not do it, or you +shall not have it"--she could not be sure which. A noise of some sort +seemed to alarm them: they ceased struggling, and listened attentively +for a few seconds: then Alfred Bourdon stole off on tip-toe, leaving the +object in dispute, which witness could not see distinctly, in his +mother's hand. Mrs. Bourdon continued to listen, and presently Miss +Armitage, opening the door of her mother's chamber, called her by name. +She immediately placed what was in her hand on the marble top of a +side-table standing in the corridor, and hastened to Miss Armitage. +Witness left the room she had been in a few minutes afterwards, and, +curious to know what Mrs. Bourdon and her son had been struggling for, +went to the table to look at it. It was an oddly-shaped glass bottle, +containing a good deal of a blackish-gray powder, which, as she held it +up to the light, looked like black-lead! + +"Would you be able to swear to the bottle if you saw it?" + +"Certainly I should." + +"By what mark or token?" + +"The name of Valpy or Vulpy was cast into it--that is, the name was in +the glass itself." + +"Is this it?" + +"It is: I swear most positively." + +A letter was also read which had been taken from Bourdon's pocket. It was +much creased, and was proved to be in the handwriting of Mrs. Armitage. +It consisted of a severe rebuke at the young man's presumption in seeking +to address himself to her daughter, which insolent ingratitude, the +writer said, she should never, whilst she lived, either forget or +forgive. This last sentence was strongly underlined in a different ink +from that used by the writer of the letter. + +The surgeon deposed to the cause of death. It had been brought on by the +action of iodine, which, administered in certain quantities, produced +symptoms as of rapid atrophy, such as had appeared in Mrs. Armitage. The +glass bottle found in the recess contained iodine in a pulverized state. + +I deposed that, on entering the library on the previous evening I +overheard young Mr. Bourdon, addressing his mother, say, "Now that it is +done past recall, I will not shrink from any consequences, be they what +they may!" + +This was the substance of the evidence adduced; and the magistrate at +once committed Alfred Bourdon to Chelmsford jail, to take his trial at +the next assize for "wilful murder." A coroner's inquisition a few days +after also returned a verdict of "wilful murder" against him on the +same evidence. + +About an hour after his committal, and just previous to the arrival of +the vehicle which was to convey him to the county prison, Alfred Bourdon +requested an interview with me. I very reluctantly consented; but steeled +as I was against him, I could not avoid feeling dreadfully shocked at the +change which so brief an interval had wrought upon him. It had done the +work of years. Despair--black, utter despair--was written in every +lineament of his expressive countenance. + +"I have requested to see you," said the unhappy culprit, "rather than Dr. +Curteis, because he, I know, is bitterly prejudiced against me. But _you_ +will not refuse, I think, the solemn request of a dying man--for a dying +man I feel myself to be--however long or short the interval which stands +between me and the scaffold. It is not with a childish hope that any +assertion of mine can avail before the tribunal of the law against the +evidence adduced this day, that I, with all the solemnity befitting a man +whose days are numbered, declare to you that I am wholly innocent of the +crime laid to my charge. I have no such expectation; I seek only that +you, in pity of my youth and untimely fate, should convey to her whom I +have madly presumed to worship this message: 'Alfred Bourdon was mad, but +not blood-guilty; and of the crime laid to his charge he is innocent as +an unborn child.'" + +"The pure and holy passion, young man," said I, somewhat startled by his +impressive manner, "however presumptuous, as far as social considerations +are concerned, it might be, by which you affect to be inspired, is +utterly inconsistent with the cruel, dastardly crime of which such +damning evidence has an hour since been given"-- + +"Say no more, sir," interrupted Bourdon, sinking back in his seat, and +burying his face in his hands: "it were a bootless errand; she _could_ +not, in the face of that evidence, believe my unsupported assertion! It +were as well perhaps she did not. And yet, sir, it is hard to be +trampled into a felon's grave, loaded with the maledictions of those +whom you would coin your heart to serve and bless! Ah, sir," he +continued, whilst tears of agony streamed through his firmly-closed +fingers, "you cannot conceive the unutterable bitterness of the pang +which rends the heart of him who feels that he is not only despised, +but loathed, hated, execrated, by her whom his soul idolizes! Mine was +no boyish, transient passion: it has grown with my growth, and +strengthened with my strength. My life has been but one long dream of +her. All that my soul had drunk in of beauty in the visible earth and +heavens--the light of setting suns--the radiance of the silver +stars--the breath of summer flowers, together with all which we imagine +of celestial purity and grace, seemed to me in her incarnated, +concentrated, and combined! And now lost--lost--forever lost!" The +violence of his emotions choked his utterance; and deeply and painfully +affected, I hastened from his presence. + +Time sped as ever onwards, surely, silently; and justice, with her feet +of lead, but hands of iron, closed gradually upon her quarry. Alfred +Bourdon was arraigned before a jury of his countrymen, to answer finally +to the accusation of wilful murder preferred against him. + +The evidence, as given before the committing magistrate, and the +coroner's inquisition, was repeated with some addition of passionate +expressions used by the prisoner indicative of a desire to be avenged on +the deceased. The cross-examination by the counsel for the defense was +able, but failed to shake the case for the prosecution. His own +admission, that no one but himself had access to the recess where the +poison was found, told fatally against him. When called upon to address +the jury, he delivered himself of a speech rather than a defense; of an +oratorical effusion, instead of a vigorous, and, if possible, damaging +commentary upon the evidence arrayed against him. It was a labored, and +in part eloquent, exposition of the necessary fallibility of human +judgment, illustrated by numerous examples of erroneous verdicts. His +peroration I jotted down at the time:--"Thus, my lord and gentlemen of +the jury, is it abundantly manifest, not only by these examples, but by +the testimony which every man bears in his own breast, that God could not +have willed, could not have commanded, his creatures to perform a +pretended duty, which he vouchsafed them no power to perform righteously. +Oh, be sure that if he had intended, if he had commanded you to pronounce +irreversible decrees upon your fellow-man, quenching that life which is +his highest gift, he would have endowed you with gifts to perform that +duty rightly. Has he done so? Ask not alone the pages dripping with +innocent blood which I have quoted, but your own hearts! Are you, +according to the promise of the serpent-tempter, 'gods, knowing good from +evil?' of such clear omniscience, that you can hurl an unprepared soul +before the tribunal of its Maker, in the full assurance that you have +rightly loosed the silver cord which he had measured, have justly broken +the golden bowl which he had fashioned! Oh, my lord," he concluded, his +dark eyes flashing with excitement, "it is possible that the first +announcement of my innocence of this crime, to which you will give +credence, may be proclaimed from the awful tribunal of him who alone +cannot err! How if he, whose eye is even now upon us, should then +proclaim, '_I_ too, sat in judgment on the day when you presumed to doom +your fellow-worm; and _I_ saw that the murderer was not in the dock, but +on the bench!' Oh, my lord, think well of what you do--pause ere you +incur such fearful hazard; for be assured, that for all these things God +will also bring _you_ to judgment!" + +He ceased, and sank back exhausted. His fervid declamation produced a +considerable impression upon the auditory; but it soon disappeared before +the calm, impressive charge of the judge, who re-assured the startled +jury, by reminding them that their duty was to honestly execute the law, +not to dispute about its justice. For himself, he said, sustained by a +pure conscience, he was quite willing to incur the hazard hinted at by +the prisoner. After a careful and luminous summing up, the jury, with +very slight deliberation, returned a verdict of "Guilty." + +As the word passed the lips of the foreman of the jury, a piercing shriek +rang through the court. It proceeded from a tall figure in black, who, +with closely-drawn veil, had sat motionless during the trial, just before +the dock. It was the prisoner's mother. The next instant she rose, and +throwing back her veil wildly exclaimed, "He is innocent--innocent, I +tell ye! I alone"-- + +"Mother! mother! for the love of Heaven be silent!" shouted the prisoner +with frantic vehemence, and stretching himself over the front of the +dock, as if to grasp and restrain her. + +"Innocent, I tell you!" continued the woman. "I--I alone am the guilty +person! It was I alone that perpetrated the deed! He knew it not, +suspected it not, till it was too late. Here," she added, drawing a sheet +of paper from her bosom--"here is my confession, with each circumstance +detailed!" + +As she waved it over her head, it was snatched by her son, and, swift as +lightning, torn to shreds. "She is mad! Heed her not--believe her not!" +He at the same time shouted at the top of his powerful voice, "She is +distracted--mad! Now, my lord, your sentence! Come!" + +The tumult and excitement in the court no language which I can employ +would convey an adequate impression of. As soon as calm was partially +restored, Mrs. Bourdon was taken into custody: the prisoner was removed; +and the court adjourned, of course without passing sentence. + +It was even as his mother said! Subsequent investigation, aided by her +confessions, amply proved that the fearful crime was conceived and +perpetrated by her alone, in the frantic hope of securing for her +idolized son the hand and fortune of Miss Armitage. She had often been +present with him in his laboratory, and had thus become acquainted with +the uses to which certain agents could be put. She had purloined the key +of the recess; and he, unfortunately too late to prevent the perpetration +of the crime, had by mere accident discovered the abstraction of the +poison. His subsequent declarations had been made for the determined +purpose of saving his mother's life by the sacrifice of his own! + +The wretched woman was not reserved to fall before the justice of her +country. The hand of God smote her ere the scaffold was prepared for +her. She was smitten with frenzy, and died raving in the Metropolitan +Lunatic Asylum. Alfred Bourdon, after a lengthened imprisonment, was +liberated. He called on me, by appointment, a few days previous to +leaving this country forever; and I placed in his hands a small +pocket-Bible, on the fly-leaf of which was written one word--"Ellen!" +His dim eye lighted up with something of its old fire as he glanced at +the characters; he then closed the book, placed it in his bosom, and +waving me a mute farewell--I saw he durst not trust himself to +speak--hastily departed. I never saw him more! + + + + +"THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS." + + +In the month of February of the year following that which witnessed the +successful establishment of the claim of Sir Harry Compton's infant son +to his magnificent patrimony, Mr. Samuel Ferret was traveling post with +all the speed he could command towards Lancashire, in compliance with a +summons from Lady Compton, requesting, in urgent terms, his immediate +presence at the castle. It was wild and bitter weather, and the roads +were in many places rendered dangerous, and almost impassable, by the +drifting snow. Mr. Ferret, however, pressed onwards with his habitual +energy and perseverance; and, spite of all elemental and postboy +opposition, succeeded in accomplishing his journey in much less time +than, under the circumstances, could have been reasonably expected. But +swiftly as, for those slow times, he pushed on, it is necessary I should +anticipate, by a brief period, his arrival at his destination, in order +to put the reader in possession of the circumstances which had occasioned +the hurried and pressing message he had received. + +Two days before, as Lady Compton and her sister, who had been paying a +visit to Mrs. Arlington at the Grange, were returning home towards nine +o'clock in the evening, they observed, as the carriage turned a sharp +angle of the road leading through Compton Park, a considerable number of +lighted lanterns borne hurriedly to and fro in various directions, by +persons apparently in eager but bewildered pursuit of some missing +object. The carriage was stopped, and in answer to the servants' +inquiries, it was replied that Major Brandon's crazy niece had escaped +from her uncle's house; and although traced by the snow-tracks as far as +the entrance to the park, had not yet been recovered. Mrs. Brandon had +offered a reward of ten pounds to whoever should secure and reconduct her +home; hence the hot pursuit of the fugitive, who, it was now supposed, +must be concealed in the shrubberies. Rumors regarding this unfortunate +young lady, by no means favorable to the character of her relatives as +persons of humanity, had previously reached Lady Compton's ears; and she +determined to avail herself, if possible, of the present opportunity to +obtain a personal interview with the real or supposed lunatic. The men +who had been questioned were informed that only the castle servants could +be allowed to search for the missing person, either in the park or +shrubberies; and that if there, she would be taken care of, and restored +to her friends in the morning. The coachman was then ordered to drive on; +but the wheels had not made half-a-dozen revolutions, when a loud shout +at some distance, in the direction of the park, followed by a succession +of piercing screams, announced the discovery and capture of the object of +the chase. The horses were urged rapidly forward; and ere more than a +minute had elapsed, the carriage drew up within a few yards of the hunted +girl and her captors. The instant it stopped, Clara Brandon, liberating +herself by a frenzied effort from the rude grasp in which she was held by +an athletic young man, sprang wildly towards it, and with passionate +intreaty implored mercy and protection. The young man, a son of Mrs. +Brandon's by a former husband, immediately re-seized her; and with fierce +violence endeavored to wrench her hand from the handle of the carriage +door, which she clutched with desperate tenacity. The door flew open, +the sudden jerk disengaged her hold, and she struggled vainly in her +captor's powerful grasp. "Save me! save me!" she frantically exclaimed, +as she felt herself borne off. "You who are, they say, as kind and good +as you are beautiful and happy, save me from this cruel man!" + +Lady Compton, inexpressibly shocked by the piteous spectacle presented by +the unhappy girl--her scanty clothing soiled, disarrayed, and torn by the +violence of her struggles; her long flaxen tresses flowing disorderly +over her face and neck in tangled dishevelment; and the pale, haggard, +wild expression of her countenance--was for a few moments incapable of +speech. Her sister was more collected: "Violet," she instantly +remonstrated, "do not permit this brutal violence." + +"What right has she or any one to interfere with us?" demanded the young +man savagely. "This girl is Major Brandon's ward, as well as niece, and +_shall_ return to her lawful home! Stand back," continued he, addressing +the servants, who, at a gesture from Miss Dalston, barred his progress. +"Withstand me at your peril!" + +"Force her from him!" exclaimed Lady Compton, recovering her +voice. "Gently! gently! I will be answerable for her safe custody +till the morning." + +The athletic fellow struggled desperately; but however powerful and +determined, he was only one man against a score, nearly all the +bystanders being tenants or laborers on the Compton estates; and spite of +his furious efforts, and menaces of law and vengeance, Clara was torn +from him in a twinkling, and himself hurled with some violence prostrate +on the road. "Do not let them hurt the man," said Lady Compton, as the +servants placed the insensible girl in the carriage (she had fainted); +"and tell him that if he has really any legal claim to the custody of +this unfortunate person, he must prefer it in the morning." + +Immediately on arrival at the castle, the escaped prisoner was conveyed +to bed, and medical aid instantly summoned. When restored to +consciousness, whether from the effect of an excess of fever producing +temporary delirium, or from confirmed mental disease, her speech was +altogether wild and incoherent--the only at all consistent portions of +her ravings being piteously--iterated appeals to Lady Compton not to +surrender her to her aunt in-law, Mrs. Brandon, of whom she seemed to +entertain an overpowering, indefinable dread. It was evident she had been +subjected to extremely brutal treatment--such as, in these days of +improved legislation in such matters, and greatly advanced knowledge of +the origin and remedy of cerebral infirmity, would not be permitted +towards the meanest human being, much less a tenderly-nurtured, delicate +female. At length, under the influence of a composing draught, she sank +gradually to sleep; and Lady Compton having determined to rescue her, if +possible, from the suspicious custody of her relatives, and naturally +apprehensive of the legal difficulties which she could not doubt would +impede the execution of her generous, if somewhat Quixotic project, +resolved on at once sending off an express for Mr. Ferret, on whose +acumen and zeal she knew she could place the fullest reliance. + +Clara Brandon's simple history may be briefly summed up. She was the only +child of a Mr. Frederick Brandon, who, a widower in the second year of +his marriage, had since principally resided at the "Elms," a handsome +mansion and grounds which he had leased of the uncle of the late Sir +Harry Compton. At his decease, which occurred about two years previous to +poor Clara's escape from confinement, as just narrated, he bequeathed +his entire fortune, between two and three thousand pounds per annum, +chiefly secured on land, to his daughter; appointed his elder brother, +Major Brandon, sole executor of his will, and guardian of his child; and +in the event of her dying before she had attained her majority--of which +she wanted, at her father's death, upwards of three years--or without +lawful issue, the property was to go to the major, to be by him willed at +his pleasure. Major Brandon, whose physical and mental energies had been +prematurely broken down--he was only in his fifty-second year--either by +excess or hard service in the East, perhaps both, had married late in +life the widow of a brother officer, and the mother of a grown-up son. +The lady, a woman of inflexible will, considerable remains of a somewhat +masculine beauty, and about ten years her husband's junior, held him in a +state of thorough pupilage; and, unchecked by him, devoted all her +energies to bring about, by fair or foul means, a union between Clara and +her own son, a cub of some two or three-and-twenty years of age, whose +sole object in seconding his mother's views upon Clara was the +acquisition of her wealth. According to popular surmise and report, the +young lady's mental infirmity had been brought about by the persecutions +she had endured at the hands of Mrs. Brandon, with a view to force her +into a marriage she detested. The most reliable authority for the truth +of these rumors was Susan Hopley, now in the service of Lady Compton, but +who had lived for many years with Mr. Frederick Brandon and his daughter. +She had been discharged about six months after her master's decease by +Mrs. Major Brandon for alleged impertinence; and so thoroughly convinced +was Susan that the soon-afterwards alleged lunacy of Clara was but a +juggling pretence to excuse the restraint under which her aunt-in-law, +for the furtherance of her own vile purposes, had determined to keep +her, that although out of place at the time, she devoted all the savings +of her life, between eighty and ninety pounds, to procure "justice" for +the ill-used orphan. This article, Susan was advised, could be best +obtained of the lord chancellor; and proceedings were accordingly taken +before the keeper of the king's conscience, in order to change the +custody of the pretended lunatic. The affidavits filed in support of the +petition were, however, so loose and vague, and were met with such +positive counter-allegations, that the application was at once dismissed +with costs; and poor Susan--rash suitor for "justice"--reduced to +absolute penury. These circumstances becoming known to Lady Compton, +Susan was taken into her service; and it was principally owing to her +frequently-iterated version of the affair that Clara had been forcibly +rescued from Mrs. Brandon's son. + +On the following morning the patient was much calmer, though her mind +still wandered somewhat. Fortified by the authority of the physician, who +certified that to remove her, or even to expose her to agitation, would +be dangerous, if not fatal, Lady Compton not only refused to deliver her +up to Major and Mrs. Brandon, but to allow them to see her. Mrs. Brandon, +in a towering rage, posted off to the nearest magistrate, to demand the +assistance of peace-officers in obtaining possession of the person of the +fugitive. That functionary would, however, only so far comply with the +indignant lady's solicitations, as to send his clerk to the castle to +ascertain the reason of the young lady's detention; and when his +messenger returned with a note, enclosing a copy of the physician's +certificate, he peremptorily decided that the conduct of Lady Compton was +not only perfectly justifiable, but praiseworthy, and that the matter +must remain over till the patient was in a condition to be moved. Things +were precisely in this state, except that Clara Brandon had become +perfectly rational; and but for an irrepressible nervous dread of again +falling into the power of her unscrupulous relative, quite calm, when Mr. +Samuel Ferret made his wished-for appearance on the scene of action. + +Long and anxious was the conference which Mr. Ferret held with his +munificent client and her interesting protégée, if conference that may be +called in which the astute attorney enacted the part of listener only, +scarcely once opening his thin, cautious lips. In vain did his eager +brain silently ransack the whole armory of the law; no weapon could he +discern which afforded the slightest hope of fighting a successful battle +with a legally-appointed guardian for the custody of his ward. And yet +Mr. Ferret felt, as he looked upon the flashing eye and glowing +countenance of Lady Compton, as she recounted a few of the grievous +outrages inflicted upon the fair and helpless girl reclining beside +her--whose varying cheek and meek suffused eyes bore eloquent testimony +to the truth of the relation--that he would willingly exert a vigor even +_beyond_ the law to meet his client's wishes, could he but see his way to +a safe result. At length a ray of light, judging from his +suddenly-gleaming eyes, seemed to have broken upon the troubled chambers +of his brain, and he rose somewhat hastily from his chair. + +"By the by, I will just step and speak to this Susan Hopley, if your +ladyship can inform me in what part of the lower regions I am likely to +meet with her?" + +"Let me ring for her." + +"No; if you please not. What I have to ask her is of very little +importance; still, to summon her here might give rise to surmises, +reports, and so on, which it may be as well to avoid. I had much rather +see her accidentally, as it were." + +"As you please. You will find her somewhere about the housekeeper's +apartments. You know her by sight, I think?" + +"Perfectly; and with your leave I'll take the opportunity of directing +the horses to be put to. I must be in London by noon to-morrow if +possible;" and away Mr. Ferret bustled. + +"Susan," said Mr. Ferret a few minutes afterwards, "step this way; I want +to have a word with you. Now, tell me are you goose enough to expect you +will ever see the money again you so foolishly threw into the bottomless +pit of chancery?" + +"Of course I shall, Mr. Ferret, as soon as ever Miss Clara comes to her +own. She mentioned it only this morning, and said she was sorry she could +not repay me at once." + +"You are a sensible girl, Susan, though you _did_ go to law with the lord +chancellor! I want you to be off with me to London; and then perhaps we +may get your money sooner than you expect." + +"Oh, bother the money! Is that _all_ you want me to go to Lunnon for?" + +Mr. Ferret replied with a wink of such exceeding intelligence, that +Susan at once declared she should be ready to start in ten minutes at +the latest. + +"That's a good creature; and, Susan, as there's not the slightest +occasion to let all the world know who's going to run off with you, it +may be as well for you to take your bundle and step on a mile or so on +the road, say to the turn, just beyond the first turnpike." Susan nodded +with brisk good-humor, and disappeared in a twinkling. + +An hour afterwards, Mr. Ferret was on his way back to London, having +first impressed upon Lady Compton the necessity of immediately relieving +herself of the grave responsibility she had incurred towards Major +Brandon for the safe custody of his ward, by sending her home +immediately. He promised to return on the third day from his departure; +but on the nature of the measures he intended to adopt, or the hopes he +entertained of success, he was inflexibly silent; and he moreover +especially requested that no one, not even Miss Brandon, should know of +Susan Hopley's journey to the metropolis. + +Mr. Ferret, immediately on his arrival in town, called at my chambers, +and related with his usual minuteness and precision as many of the +foregoing particulars as he knew and thought proper to communicate to me. +For the rest I am indebted to subsequent conversations with the different +parties concerned. + +"Well," said I, as soon as he had concluded, "what course do you propose +to adopt?" + +"I wish you to apply, on this affidavit, for a writ of _habeas ad sub._, +to bring up the body of Clara Brandon. Judge Bailey will be at chambers +at three o'clock: it is now more than half-past two, and I can be off on +my return by four at latest." + +"A writ of habeas!" I exclaimed with astonishment. "Why, what end can +that answer? The lady will be remanded, and you and I shall be laughed at +for our pains." + +This writ of _habeas corpus "ad subjiciendum,_" I had better explain to +the non-professional reader, is the great _prerogative_ writ, the +operation of which is sometimes suspended by the legislature during +political panics. It is grounded on the principle that the sovereign has +at all times a right to inquire, through the judges of the superior +courts, by what authority his or her subject is held in constraint. It +issues, as a matter of right, upon the filing of an affidavit, averring +that to the best of the belief of the deponent the individual sought to +be brought up is illegally confined; and it is of the essence of the +proceeding, that the person alleged to be suffering unlawful constraint +should actually be brought before the "queen herself;" that is, before +one or more of the judges of the court which has issued the writ, who, if +they find _the detention illegal_, the only question at issue upon this +writ may discharge or bail the party. It was quite obvious, therefore, +that in this case such a proceeding would be altogether futile, as the +detention in the house of her guardian, under the sanction, too, of the +lord chancellor, the _ex-officio_ custodier of all lunatics--of a ward of +alleged disordered intellect--was clearly legal, at least _prima facie_ +so, and not to be disturbed under a _habeas ad sub_. at all events. + +"Perhaps so," replied Ferret quite coolly in reply to my exclamation; +"but I am determined to try every means of releasing the unfortunate +young lady from the cruel thraldom in which she is held by that harridan +of an aunt-in-law. She is no more really insane than you are; but at the +same time so excitable upon certain topics, that it might be perhaps +difficult to disabuse the chancellor or a jury of the impression so +industriously propagated to her prejudice. The peremptory rejection by +her guardian of young Burford's addresses, though sanctioned by her +father: you know the Burfords?" + +"Of Grosvenor Street you mean--the East India director?" + +"Yes, his son; and that reminds me that the declaration in that +everlasting exchequer case must be filed to-morrow. Confound it, how this +flying about the country puts one out! I thought some one had kidnapped +her son, or fired Compton Castle at least. By the way, I am much deceived +if there isn't a wedding there before long." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, Miss Dalston with Sir Jasper's eldest hope." + +"You don't mean it?" + +"_They_ do at all events, and that is much more to the purpose. A fine +young fellow enough, and sufficiently rich too"-- + +"All which rambling talk and anecdote," cried I, interrupting him, +"means, if I have any skill in reading Mr. Ferret, that that gentleman, +having some ulterior purpose in view, which I cannot for the moment +divine, is determined to have this writ, and does not wish to be pestered +with any argument on the subject. Be it so: it is your affair, not mine. +And now, as it is just upon three o'clock, let me see your affidavit." + +I ran it over. "Rather loose this, Mr. Ferret, but I suppose it will do." + +"Well, it _is_ rather loose, but I could not with safety sail much closer +to the wind. By the by, I think you had better first apply for a rule to +stay proceedings against the bail in that case of Turner; and after that +is decided, just ask for this writ, off-hand as it were, and as a matter +of course. His lordship may not then scrutinize the affidavit quite so +closely as if he thought counsel had been brought to chambers purposely +to apply for it." + +"Cautious, Mr. Ferret! Well, come along, and I'll see what I can do." + +The writ was obtained without difficulty; few questions were asked; and +at my request the judge made it returnable immediately. By four o'clock, +Mr. Ferret, who could fortunately sleep as well in a postchaise as in a +feather-bed, was, as he had promised himself, on his road to Lancashire +once more, where he had the pleasure of serving Major Brandon personally; +at the same time tendering in due form the one shilling per mile fixed by +the statute as preliminary traveling charges. The vituperative eloquence +showered upon Mr. Ferret by the Major's lady was, I afterwards heard, +extremely copious and varied, and was borne by him, as I could easily +believe, with the most philosophic composure. + +In due time the parties appeared before Mr. Justice Bailey. Miss Brandon +was accompanied by her uncle, his wife, and a solicitor; and spite of +everything I could urge, the judge, as I had forseen, refused to +interfere in the matter. The poor girl was dreadfully agitated, but kept, +nevertheless, her eyes upon Mr. Ferret, as the source from which, spite +of what was passing around her, effectual succor was sure to come. As for +that gentleman himself, he appeared composedly indifferent to the +proceedings; and indeed, I thought, seemed rather relieved than otherwise +when they terminated. I could not comprehend him. Mrs. Brandon, the +instant the case was decided, clutched Clara's arm within hers, and, +followed by her husband and the solicitor, sailed out of the apartment +with an air of triumphant disdain and pride. Miss Brandon looked round +for Ferret, but not perceiving him--he had left hastily an instant or two +before--her face became deadly pale, and the most piteous expression of +hopeless despair I had ever beheld broke from her troubled but +singularly-expressive eyes. I mechanically followed, with a half-formed +purpose of remonstrating with Major Brandon in behalf of the unfortunate +girl, and was by that means soon in possession of the key to Mr. Ferret's +apparently inexplicable conduct. + +The Brandon party walked very fast, and I had scarcely got up with +them as they were turning out of Chancery Lane into Fleet Street, when +two men, whose vocation no accustomed eye could for an instant +mistake, arrested their further progress. "This lady," said one of the +men, slightly touching Miss Brandon on the shoulder, "is, I believe, +Clara Brandon?" + +"Yes she is; and what of that, fellow?" demanded the major's lady with +indignant emphasis. + +"Not much, ma'am," replied the sheriff's officer, "when you are used to +it. It is my unpleasant duty to arrest her for the sum of eighty-seven +pounds, indorsed on this writ, issued at the suit of one Susan Hopley." + +"Arrest her!" exclaimed Mrs. Brandon; "why, she is a minor!" + +"Minor or major, ma'am, makes very little difference to us. She can plead +that hereafter, you know. In the meantime, miss, please to step into this +coach," replied the officer, holding the door open. + +"But she's a person of unsound mind," screamed the lady, as Clara, +nothing loath, sprang into the vehicle. + +"So are most people that do business with our establishment," responded +the imperturbable official, as he shut and fastened the door. "Here is my +card, sir," he added, addressing the attorney, who now came up. "You see +where to find the lady, if her friends wish to give bail to the sheriff, +or, what is always more satisfactory, pay the debt and costs." He then +jumped on the box, his follower got up behind, and away drove the coach, +leaving the discomfited major and his fiery better-half in a state of the +blankest bewilderment! + +"Why, what _is_ the meaning of this?" at length gasped Mrs. Brandon, +fiercely addressing the attorney, as if _he_, were a _particeps criminis_ +in the affair. + +"The meaning, my dear madame, is, that Miss Clara Brandon is arrested for +debt, and carried off to a sponging-house; and that unless you pay the +money, or file bail, she will tomorrow be lodged in jail," replied the +unmoved man of law. + +"Bail! money! How are we to do either in London, away from home?" +demanded the major with, for him, much emotion. + +I did not wait to hear more, but, almost suffocated with laughter at the +success of Ferret's audacious _ruse_, hastened over to the Temple. I was +just leaving chambers for the night--about ten o'clock I think it must +have been--when Ferret, in exuberant spirits, burst into the room. + +"Well, sir, what do you think _now_ of a writ _ad sub._?" + +"Why, I think, Mr. Ferret," replied I, looking as serious as I could, +"that yours is very sharp practice; that the purpose you have put it to +is an abuse of the writ; that the arrest is consequently illegal; and +that a judge would, upon motion, quash it with costs." + +"To be sure he would: who doubts that? Let him, and welcome! In the +meantime, Clara Brandon is safe beyond the reach of all the judges or +chancellors that ever wore horsehair, and that everlasting simpleton of a +major and his harridan wife roaming the metropolis like distracted +creatures; and that I take to be the real essence of the thing, whatever +the big-wigs may decide about the shells!" + +"I suppose the plaintiff soon discharged her debtor out of custody?" + +"Without loss of time, you may be sure. Miss Brandon, I may tell _you_, +is with the Rev. Mr. Derwent at Brompton. You know him: the newly-married +curate of St. Margaret's that was examined in that will case. Well him: +he is an intelligent, high-principled man; and I have no doubt that, +under his and Mrs. Derwent's care, all trace of Miss Brandon's mental +infirmity will disappear long before she attains her majority next June +twelvemonth; whilst the liberal sum per month which Lady Compton will +advance, will be of great service to him" + +"That appears all very good. But are you sure you can effectually +conceal the place of her retreat?" + +"I have no fear: the twigs that will entangle her precious guardians in +the labyrinths of a false clue are already set and limed. Before +to-morrow night they will have discovered, by means of their own +wonderfully-penetrative sagacity, that Clara has been spirited over to +France; and before three months are past, the same surprising +intelligence will rejoice in the discovery that she expired in a _maison +de santé_--fine comfortable repose, in which fool's paradise I hope to +have the honor of awakening them about next June twelvemonth, and not as +at present advised before!" + +Everything fortunately turned out as Mr. Ferret anticipated; and when a +few months had glided by, Clara Brandon was a memory only, save of course +to the few entrusted with the secret. + +The whirligig of time continued as ever to speed on its course, and bring +round in due season its destined revenges. The health, mental and bodily, +of Miss Brandon rapidly improved under the kind and judicious treatment +of Mr. and Mrs. Derwent; and long before the attainment of her majority, +were pronounced by competent authority to be thoroughly re-established. +The day following that which completed her twentyfirst year, Mr. Ferret, +armed with the necessary authority, had the pleasure of announcing to the +relict of Major Brandon (he had been dead some months), and to her brutal +son, that they must forthwith depart from the home in which they, to the +very moment of his announcement, thought themselves secure; and surrender +every shilling of the property they had so long dreamt was their own. +They were prostrated by the intelligence, and proved as mean and servile +in the hour of adversity, as they had been insolent and cruel in the day +of fancied success and prosperity. The pension of three hundred pounds a +year for both their lives, proffered by Miss Brandon, was eagerly +accepted; and they returned to the obscurity from which they had by +accident emerged. + +About six months afterwards, I had the pleasure of drawing up the +marriage settlement between Clara Brandon and Herbert Burford; and a +twelvemonth after, that of standing sponsor to one of the lustiest brats +ever sprinkled at a font: none of which delightful results, if we are to +believe Mr. Ferret, would have ever been arrived at had not he, at a very +critical moment, refused to take counsel's opinion upon the virtues, +capabilities, and powers contained in the great writ of _habeas corpus +ad subjiciendum_. + + + + +ESTHER MASON. + + +About forty years ago, Jabez Woodford, a foreman of shipwrights in the +Plymouth dockyard, whilst carelessly crossing one of the transverse beams +of a seventy-four gun-ship, building in that arsenal, missed his footing, +fell to the bottom of the hold of the huge vessel, and was killed on the +spot. He left a widow and one child--a boy seven years of age, of placid, +endearing disposition, but weak intellect--almost in a state of +destitution. He had been a coarse-tempered, improvident man; and like too +many of his class, in those days at least, dissipated the whole of his +large earnings in present sensuous indulgence, utterly careless or +unmindful of the future. Esther Woodford, who, at the time of her +husband's death, scarcely numbered five-and-twenty years, was still a +remarkably comely, as well as interesting, gentle-mannered person; and +moreover had, for her station in life, received a tolerable education. +Her rash, ill-assorted marriage with Woodford had been hastily contracted +when she was barely seventeen years of age, in consequence of a jealous +pique which she, for some silly reason or other, had conceived regarding +Henry Mason, an intelligent, young seafaring man, of fair prospects in +life, and frank disposition, with whom she had for some time previously, +as the west-country phrase has it, "kept company," and who was, moreover, +tenderly attached to her. Esther's married life was one long repentance +of the rash act; and the severance of the tie which bound her to an +ungenial mate--after the subsidence of the natural horror and compassion +excited by the sudden and frightful nature of the catastrophe--must have +been felt as a most blessed relief. A few weeks afterwards, she accepted +an asylum with her brother-in-law, Davies, a market-gardener in the +vicinity of Plymouth, where, by persevering industry with her needle, and +thrifty helpfulness in her sister's household duties, she endeavored to +compensate her kind-hearted relatives for the support of herself and +helpless, half-witted child. Mason she had never seen since the day +previous to her marriage; but she knew he was prospering in the busy +world, and that, some time before her husband's death, he had been +appointed chief-mate in a first-class merchant-ship trading to the +Pacific. He had sailed about a fortnight previous to that event; and now, +ten lazy months having slowly floated past, the lover of her youth, with +whom, in that last sunny day of her young life--how distant did it seem, +viewed through the long intervening vista of days and nights of grief and +tears!--she had danced so joyously beneath the flowering chestnut-trees, +was once more near her; and it was--oh happiness!--no longer a sin to +think of him--no longer a crime to recall and dwell upon the numberless +proofs of the deep affection, the strong love, he had once felt for her. +_Once_ felt! Perhaps even now!--How swiftly had the intelligence +communicated by her sympathizing sister tinted with bright hues the dark +curtain of the future! + +"And yet," murmured poor Esther, the flush of hope fading as suddenly as +it had arisen, as with meek sad eyes she glanced at the reflection of her +features in the small oval glass suspended above the mantel-piece--"I +almost doubt, Susy, dear, if he would recognize me; even if old feelings +and old times have not long since faded from his memory"-- + +"Stuff and trumpery about fading away!" broke in Mrs. Davies. "Henry +Mason is the same true-hearted man he was eight years ago; and as a +proof that he is, just read this letter, which I promised him to give +you. There, don't go falling into a flustration; don't now, Esther, +and to-morrow market-day and all! Don't cry, Esther," she added +vehemently, but at the same time sobbing furiously herself, and +throwing her arms round her sister's neck: "but perhaps--perhaps it +will do us good, both of us!" + +It may he necessary to state that I owe the foregoing particulars to the +interest felt by my wife--herself a native of beautiful Devon--in the +fortunes of this humble household. Esther was her foster-sister; and it +happened that just at this period, it being vacation-time, we were paying +a visit to a family in the neighborhood. A few hours after the receipt of +the welcome letter, my wife chanced to call on Esther relative to some +fancy needlework; and on her return, I was of course favored with very +full and florid details of this little bit of cottage romance; the which +I, from regard to the reader, have carefully noted down, and as briefly +as possible expressed. + +We met Henry Mason with his recovered treasure on the following evening; +and certainly a more favorable specimen of the vigorous, active, +bold-featured, frank-spoken British seaman I never met with. To his +comparatively excellent education--for which I understood he was indebted +to his mother, a superior woman, who, having fallen from one of the +little heights of society, had kept a school at Plymouth--in addition to +his correct and temperate habits, he was indebted for the rapid +advance--he was but a few months older than Esther--he had obtained in +the merchant service. The happiness which beamed upon Esther's face did +not appear to be of the exuberant, buoyant character that kindled the +ruddy cheek and ran over at the bright, honest eyes of the hardy sailor: +there seemed to mingle with it a half-doubting, trembling +apprehensiveness; albeit it was not difficult to perceive that, +sorrowfully as had passed her noon of prime, an "Indian summer" of the +soul was rising upon her brightened existence, and already with its first +faint flushes lighting up her meek, doubting eyes, and pale, changing +countenance. Willy, her feeble-minded child, frisked and gambolled by +their side; and altogether, a happier group than they would, I fancy, +have been difficult to find in all broad England. + +The next week they were married; and one of the partners in the firm by +which Mason was employed happening to dine with us on the day of the +wedding, the conversation turned for a few minutes on the bridegroom's +character and prospects. + +"He has the ring of true metal in him," I remarked; "and is, I should +suppose, a capital seaman?" + +"A first-rate one," replied Mr. Roberts. "Indeed so high is my father's +opinion of him, that he intends to confer upon him the command of a fine +brig now building for us in the Thames, and intended for the West India +trade. He possesses also singular courage and daring. Twice, under very +hazardous circumstances, he has successfully risked his life to save men +who had fallen overboard. He is altogether a skilful, gallant seaman." + +"Such a man," observed another of the company, "might surely have aspired +higher than to the hand of Esther Woodford, dove-eyed and interesting as +she may be?" + +"Perhaps so," returned Mr. Roberts a little curtly; "though +he, it seems, could not have thought so. Indeed it is chiefly of +simple-hearted, chivalrous-minded men like Mason that it can +be with general truth observed-- + +'On revient toujours à ses premiers amours.'" + +The subject then dropped, and it was a considerable time afterwards, and +under altogether altered circumstances, when the newly-married couple +once more crossed my path in life. + +It was about eight months after his marriage--though he had been +profitably enough employed in the interim--that Henry Mason, in +consequence of the welcome announcement that the new brig was at last +ready for her captain and cargo, arrived in London to enter upon his new +appointment. + +"These lodgings, Esther," said he, as he was preparing to go out, soon +after breakfast, on the morning after his arrival, "are scarcely the +thing; and as I, like you, am a stranger in Cockney-land, I had better +consult some of the firm upon the subject, before we decide upon +permanent ones. In the meantime, you and Willy must mind and keep in +doors when I am not with you, or I shall have one or other of you lost in +this great wilderness of a city. I shall return in two or three hours. I +will order something for dinner as I go along: I have your purse. +Good-by: God bless you both." + +Inquiring his way every two or three minutes, Mason presently found +himself in the vicinity of Tower Stairs. A scuffle in front of a +public-house attracted his attention; and his ready sympathies were in an +instant enlisted in behalf of a young sailor, vainly struggling in the +grasp of several athletic men, and crying lustily on the gaping +bystanders for help. Mason sprang forward, caught one of the assailants +by the collar, and hurled him with some violence against the wall. A +fierce outcry greeted this audacious interference with gentlemen who, in +those good old times, were but executing the law in a remarkably good old +manner. Lieutenant Donnagheu, a somewhat celebrated snapper-up of loose +mariners, emerged upon the scene; and in a few minutes was enabled to +exult in the secure possession of an additional prize in the unfortunate +Henry Mason, who, too late, discovered that he had embroiled himself with +a _pressgang_! Desperate, frenzied were the efforts he made to extricate +himself from the peril in which he had rashly involved himself. In vain! +His protestations that he was a mate, a captain, in the merchant service, +were unheeded or mocked at. + +To all his remonstrances he only got the professional answer--"His +majesty wants you, and that is enough; so come along, and no more +about it." + +Bruised, exhausted, almost mad, he was borne off in triumph to a boat, +into which he was thrust with several others, and swiftly rowed off to a +receiving-ship in the river. Even there his assertions and protestations +were of no avail. Nothing but an Admiralty order, the officer in command +candidly told him, should effect his liberation. His majesty was in need +of seamen; and he was evidently too smart a one to be deprived of the +glory of serving his country. "You must therefore," concluded the +officer, as he turned laughingly upon his heel, "do as thousands of +other fine fellows have been compelled to do--'grin and bear it.'" In +about three weeks from the date of his impressment Mason found himself +serving in the Mediterranean on board the "Active" frigate, Captain +Alexander Gordon, without having been permitted one opportunity of +communicating with the shore. This was certainly very sharp, but it was +not the less very _common_ practice in those great days of triumphant +battles by land and sea. + +Very drearily passed the time with the bereaved wife. Her husband had +promised to send home something for dinner, and various groceries; yet +hour after hour went past, and nothing arrived. Morning flushed into +noon, day faded to twilight, and still the well-known and always eager +step sounded not upon the stairs! What could have detained him from his +wife, shut up, imprisoned, as it were, in that hot, hurrying, stifling +city? She feared to listen to the suggestions of her boding heart; and +with feverish restlessness ran out upon the landing, and peered over the +stairs every time a knock or ring was heard at the street-door. This +strange behavior was, it seems, noticed by the landlady of the +lodging-house, and injuriously interpreted. A knock came to the door, and +that person entered to know at what time _Mrs_. ----, she had forgotten +the young woman's name, expected the dinner, she, the landlady, had +undertaken to cook. + +Esther timidly replied that her husband had promised to return in two or +three hours at latest; and that she did not comprehend his continued +absence--was indeed quite alarmed about it-- + +"Your husband!" said the woman, glancing insolently at Esther's figure. +"Are you sure he _is_ your husband?" + +The hot blood suffused the temples of the indignant wife as she said, +"This apartment, madam, I believe is mine?" + +"Oh, certainly, as long as you can pay for it;" and rudely slamming the +door, the landlady departed. + +The long wretched night at last over, Esther rose with the light; and +after giving her son his breakfast from the remains of that of the day +before, set off with him to the place of business of the Messrs. Roberts. +It was early, and one clerk only had as yet arrived at the office. He +informed her that Mr. Henry Mason had not been seen, and that the +partners were greatly annoyed about it, as his immediate presence was +absolutely necessary. + +Stunned, terrified, bewildered by the frightful calamity which she +believed had befallen her, she felt convinced that her husband had been +entrapped and murdered for the sake of the money he had about him: the +wretched woman tottered back to her lodgings, and threw herself on the +bed in wild despair. What was to be done for food even for her boy? Her +husband had not only his pocket-book with him containing his larger +money, but had taken her purse! She was alone and penniless in a strange +city! The hungry wailings of her witless child towards evening at length +aroused her from the stupor of despair into which she had fallen. The +miserable resource of pawning occurred to her: she could at least, by +pledging a part of her wardrobe, procure sustenance for her child till +she could hear from her sister; and with trembling hands she began +arranging a bundle of such things as she could best spare, when the +landlady abruptly entered the room, with a peremptory demand--as her +husband was not returned, and did not appear likely to do so--for a +month's rent in advance, that being the term the apartments were engaged +for. The tears, entreaties, expostulations of the miserable wife were of +no avail. Not one article, the woman declared, should leave her house +till her claim was settled. She affected to doubt, perhaps really did so, +that Esther was married; and hinted coarsely at an enforcement of the +laws against persons who had no visible means of subsistence. In a +paroxysm of despair, the unhappy woman rushed out of the house; and +accompanied by her hungry child, again sought the counting-house of the +Messrs. Roberts. She was now as much too late as she had been too early +in the morning: the partners and clerks had gone, and she appears to have +been treated with some rudeness by the porter, who was closing the +premises when she arrived. Possibly the wildness of her looks, and the +incoherence of her speech and manner, produced an impression unfavorable +to her. Retracing her steps--penniless, hungry, sick at heart--she +thought, as she afterwards declared, that she recognized my wife in one +of the numerous ladies seated before the counters of a fashionable shop +in one of the busiest thoroughfares. She entered, and not till she +approached close to the lady discovered her mistake. She turned +despairingly away; when a piece of rich lace, lying apparently unheeded +on the counter, met her eye, and a dreadful suggestion crossed her +fevered brain; here at least was the means of procuring food for her +wailing child. She glanced hastily and fearfully round. No eye, she +thought, observed her; and, horror of horrors! a moment afterwards she +had concealed the lace beneath her shawl, and with tottering feet was +hastily leaving the shop. She had not taken half-a-dozen steps when a +heavy hand was laid upon her shoulder, and a voice, as of a serpent +hissing in her ear, commanded her to restore the lace she had stolen. +Transfixed with shame and terror, she stood rooted to the spot, and the +lace fell on the floor. + +"Fetch an officer," said the harsh voice, addressing one of the shopmen. + +"No--no--no!" screamed the wretched woman, falling on her knees in wild +supplication. "For my child's sake--in mercy of the innocent babe as yet +unborn--pity and forgive me!" + +The harsh order was iterated; and Esther Mason, fainting with shame and +agony, was conveyed to the prison in Giltspur Street. The next day she +was fully committed to Newgate on the capital charge of privately +stealing in a shop to the value of five pounds. A few hours after her +incarceration within those terrible walls, she was prematurely delivered +of a female child. + +I have no moral doubt whatever, I never have had, that at the time of the +committal of the felonious act, the intellect of Esther Mason was +disordered. Any other supposition is inconsistent with the whole tenor +of her previous life and character "Lead us not into temptation" is +indeed the holiest, because the humblest prayer. + +Three weeks had elapsed before the first intimation of these events +reached me, in a note from the chaplain of Newgate, an excellent, +kind-hearted man, to whom Mrs. Mason had confided her sad story. I +immediately hastened to the prison; and in a long interview with her, +elicited the foregoing statement. I readily assured her that all which +legal skill could do to extricate her from the awful position in which +she stood, the gravity of which I did not affect to conceal, should be +done. The offence with which she was charged had supplied the scaffold +with numberless victims; and tradesmen were more than ever clamorous for +the stern execution of a law which, spite of experience, they still +regarded as the only safeguard of their property. My wife was overwhelmed +with grief; and in her anxiety to save her unhappy foster-sister, sought, +without my knowledge, an interview with the prosecutor, in the hope of +inducing him not to press the charge. Her efforts were unavailing. He had +suffered much, he said, from such practices, and was "upon principle" +determined to make an example of every offender he could catch. As to the +plea that the husband had been forcibly carried off by a pressgang, it +was absurd; for what would become of the property of tradesmen if the +wife of every sailor so entrapped were to be allowed to plunder shops +with impunity? This magnificent reasoning was of course unanswerable; and +the rebuked petitioner abandoned her bootless errand in despair. Messrs. +Roberts, I should have mentioned, had by some accident discovered the +nature of the misfortune which had befallen their officer, and had +already made urgent application to the Admiralty for his release. + +The Old Bailey sessions did not come on for some time: I, however, took +care to secure at once, as I did not myself practice in that court, the +highest talent which its bar afforded. Willy, who had been placed in a +workhouse by the authorities, we had properly taken care of till he could +be restored to his mother; or, in the event of her conviction, to his +relatives in Devonshire. + +The sessions were at last on: a "true bill" against Esther Mason for +shoplifting, as it was popularly termed, was unhesitatingly found, and +with a heavy heart I wended my way to the court to watch the proceedings. +A few minutes after I entered, Mr. Justice Le Blanc and Mr. Baron Wood, +who had assisted at an important case of stockjobbing conspiracy, just +over, left the bench: the learned recorder being doubtless considered +quite equal to the trial of a mere capital charge of theft. + +The prisoner was placed in the dock; but try as I might, I could not +look at her. It happened to be a calm bright summer day; the air, as if +in mockery of those death-sessions, humming with busy, lusty life; so +that, sitting with my back to the prisoner, I could, as it were, read +her demeanor in the shadow thrown by her figure on the opposite +sun-lighted wall. There she stood, during the brief moments which sealed +her earthly doom, with downcast eyes and utterly dejected posture; her +thin fingers playing mechanically with the flowers and sweet-scented +herbs spread scantily before her. The trial was very brief: the +evidence, emphatically conclusive, was confidently given, and vainly +cross-examined. Nothing remained but an elaborate _ad misericordiam_ +excusative defence, which had been prepared by me, and which the +prisoner begged her counsel might be allowed to read. This was of course +refused; the recorder remarking, they might as well allow counsel for +felons to _address_ juries, as read defences; and _that_, as every +practical man knew, would be utterly subversive of the due +administration of justice. The clerk of the court would read the paper, +if the prisoner felt too agitated to do so. This was done; and very +vilely done. The clerk, I dare say, read as well as he was able; but +old, near-sighted, and possessed of anything but a clear enunciation, +what could be expected? The defence, so read, produced not the slightest +effect either on the court or jury. The recorder briefly commented on +the conclusiveness of the evidence for the prosecution; and the jury, in +the same brief, business-like manner, returned a verdict of Guilty. + +"What have you to say," demanded the clerk, "why sentence of death should +not be pronounced upon you, according to law?" + +The shadow started convulsively as the terrible words fell from the man's +lips; and I saw that the suddenly-upraised eyes of the prisoner were +fastened on the face of the fearful questioner. The lips, too, appeared +to move; but no sound reached my ears. + +"Speak, woman," said the recorder; "if you have anything to urge before +sentence is pronounced." + +I started up, and turning to the prisoner, besought her in hurried +accents to speak. "Remind them of the infant at your breast--your +husband"-- + +"Who is that conferring with the prisoner?" demanded the judge in an +angry voice. + +I turned, and confronted him with a look as cold and haughty as his +own. He did not think proper to pursue the inquiry further; and after +muttering something about the necessity of not interrupting the +proceedings of the court, again asked the prisoner if she had +anything to urge. + +"Not for myself--not for my sake," at last faintly murmured the +trembling woman; "but for that of my poor dear infant--my poor witless +boy! I do not think, sir, I was in my right mind. I was starving. I was +friendless. My husband, too, whom you have heard"--She stopped abruptly; +a choking sob struggled in her throat; and but for the supporting arm of +one of the turnkeys, she would have fallen to the ground. + +"Unhappy, guilty woman," said the recorder, with the coolness of a demon, +"the plea of insanity you would set up is utterly untenable. Your +husband, it seems, is serving his majesty in the royal navy; defending +his country, whilst his wife was breaking its laws, by the commission of +a crime which, but for the stern repression of the law, would sap the +foundations of the security of property, and"-- + +I could endure no more. The atmosphere of the court seemed to stifle me; +and I rushed for relief into the open air. Before, however, I had reached +the street, a long, piercing scream informed me that the learned judge +_had done his duty_. + +No effort was spared during the interval which elapsed previous to the +recorder presenting his report to the privy-counsel--a peculiar +privilege at that time attached to the office--to procure a mitigation +of the sentence. A petition, setting forth the peculiar circumstances +of the case, was carefully prepared; and by the indefatigable exertions +of an excellent Quaker gentleman--whom, as he is still alive, and might +not choose to have his name blazoned to the world, I will call William +Friend--was soon very numerously signed. The prosecutor, however, +obstinately refused to attach his name to the document; and the absence +of his signature--so strangely did men reason on such matters in those +days--would, it was feared, weigh heavily against the success of the +petition. The amiable and enlightened Sir Samuel Romilly not only +attached his name, but aided us zealously by his advice and influence. +In short, nothing was omitted that appeared likely to attain the +desired object. + +Two days before the petition was to be forwarded to the proper quarter, +Henry Mason arrived in England, the exertions of his employers having +procured his discharge. The "Active" was one of Captain Hoste's squadron, +which obtained the celebrated victory off Lissa, over the Franco-Venetian +fleet commanded by Admiral Dobourdieu. Henry Mason, it appeared by the +testimonials of the captain and officers of his ship, had greatly +distinguished himself in the action. We inclosed these papers with the +petition; and then, having done all in our power, awaited with anxious +impatience the result of the recorder's report. It was announced to me, +as I was sitting somewhat later than usual at chambers, by Mr. William +Friend. The judgment to die was confirmed! All our representations had +not sufficed to counterbalance the supposed necessity of exhibiting +terrible examples of the fate awaiting the perpetrators of an offence +said to be greatly on the increase. Excellent William Friend wept like a +child as he made the announcement. + +There are many persons alive who recollect this horrible tragedy--this +national disgrace--this act of gross barbarity on the part of the great +personage, who, first having carried off the poor woman's husband, left +her to die for an act the very consequence of that robbery. Who among the +spectators can ever forget that heart-rending scene--the hangman taking +the baby from the breast of the wretched creature just before he put her +to death! But let us not rake up these terrible reminiscences. Let us +hope that the _truly guilty_ are forgiven. And let us take consolation +from reflecting that this event led the great Romilly to enter on his +celebrated career as a reformer of the criminal law. + +The remains of Esther Mason were obtained from the Newgate officials, +and quietly interred in St. Sepulchre's church-yard. A plain slab, with +her name only plainly chiselled upon it, was some time afterwards placed +above the grave. A few years ago I attended a funeral in the same +grave-yard; and after a slight search, discovered the spot. The +inscription, though of course much worn, was still quite legible. + +I had not seen Henry Mason since his return; but I was glad to hear from +Mr. William Friend that, after the first passionate burst of rage and +grief had subsided, he had, apparently at least, thanks to the tender and +pious expostulations of his wife--with whom, by the kind intervention of +the sheriffs, he was permitted long and frequent interviews--settled down +into calmness and resignation. One thing only he would not bear to hear +even from her, and that was any admission that she had been guilty of, +even the slightest offence. A hint of the kind, however unintentional, +would throw him into a paroxysm of fury; and the subject was consequently +in his presence studiously avoided. + +A few days after the execution, Mr. William Friend called on me just +after breakfast, accompanied by the bereaved husband. I never saw so +changed a man. All the warm kindliness of his nature had vanished, and +was replaced by a gloomy fierce austerity, altogether painful to +contemplate. + +"Well, sir," said he, as he barely touched my proffered hand, "they have +killed her, you see, spite of all you could say or do. It much availed +me, too, that I had helped to win their boasted victories;" and he +laughed with savage bitterness. + +"Henry--Henry!" exclaimed William Friend, in a reproving accent. + +"Well, well, sir," rejoined Mason, impatiently, "you are a good man, and +have of course your own notions on these matters; I also have mine. Or, +perhaps, you think it is only the blood of the rich and great which, shed +unjustly, brings forth the iron harvest? Forgive me," he added, checking +himself. "I respect you both; but my heart is turned to stone. You do not +know--none ever knew but I--how kind, how loving, how gentle was that +poor long-suffering girl." + +He turned from us to hide the terrible agony which convulsed him. + +"Henry," said Mr. Friend, taking him kindly by the hand, "we pity thee +sincerely, as thou knowest; but thy bitter, revengeful expressions are +unchristian, sinful. The authorities whom thou, not for the first time, +railest on so wildly, acted, be sure of it, from a sense of duty; a +mistaken one, in my opinion, doubtless; still"-- + +"Say no more, sir," interrupted Mason. "We differ in opinion upon the +subject. And now, gentlemen, farewell. I wished to see you, sir, before I +left this country forever, to thank you for your kind, though fruitless +exertions. Mr. Friend has promised to be steward for poor Willy of all I +can remit for his use. Farewell! God bless you both!" He was gone! + +War soon afterwards broke out with the United States of America, and Mr. +Friend discovered that one of the most active and daring officers in the +Republican navy was Henry Mason, who had entered the American service in +the maiden name of his wife; and that the large sums he had remitted from +time to time for the use of Willy, were the produce of his successful +depredations on British commerce. The instant Mr. Friend made the +discovery, he refused to pollute his hands with moneys so obtained, and +declined all further agency in the matter. Mason, however, contrived to +remit through some other channel to the Davies's, with whom the boy had +been placed; and a rapid improvement in their circumstances was soon +visible. These remittances ceased about the middle of 1814; and a +twelvemonth after the peace with America, we ascertained that Henry Mason +had been killed in the battle on Lake Champlain, where he had +distinguished himself, as everywhere else, by the reckless daring and +furious hate with which he fought against the country which, in his +unreasoning frenzy, he accused of the murder of his wife. He was +recognized by one of his former messmates in the "Active;" who, conveyed +a prisoner on board the American commander Macdonough's ship, recognized +him as he lay stretched on the deck, in the uniform of an American naval +officer; his countenance, even in death, wearing the same stormful +defiant expression which it assumed on the day that his beloved Esther +perished on the scaffold. + + + + +THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT + + +"It is really time that a properly-qualified governess had charge of +those girls," observed my wife, as Mary and Kate after a more than +usually boisterous romp with their papa, left the room for bed. I may +here remark, _inter alia_, that I once surprised a dignified and +highly-distinguished judge at a game of blindman's buff with his +children, and very heartily he appeared to enjoy it too. "It is really +time that a properly-qualified governess had charge of those girls. Susan +May did very well as a nursery teacher, but they are now far beyond her +control. _I_ cannot attend to their education, and as for you"--The +sentence was concluded by a shrug of the shoulders and a toss of the +head, eloquently expressive of the degree of estimation in which _my_ +governing powers were held. + +"Time enough, surely, for that," I exclaimed, as soon as I had composed +myself; for I was a little out of breath. "They may, I think, rub along +with Susan for another year or two, Mary is but seven years of age"-- + +"Eight years, if you please. She was eight years old last Thursday +three weeks." + +"Eight years! Then we must have been married nine; Bless me, how the time +has flown: it seems scarcely so many weeks!" + +"Nonsense," rejoined my wife with a sharpness of tone and a rigidity of +facial muscle which, considering the handsome compliment I had just paid +her, argued, I was afraid, a foregone conclusion. "You always have +recourse to some folly of that sort whenever I am desirous of entering +into a serious consultation on family affairs." + +There was some truth in this, I confess. The "consultations" which I +found profitable were not serious ones with my wife upon domestic +matters; leading, as they invariably did, to a diminution instead of an +increase of the little balance at the banker's. If such a proposition +could therefore be evaded or adjourned by even an extravagant compliment, +I considered it well laid out. But the expedient, I found, was one which +did not improve by use. For some time after marriage it answered +remarkably well; but each succeeding year of wedded bliss marked its +rapidly-declining efficacy. + +"Well, well; go on." + +"I say it is absolutely necessary that a first-rate governess should be +at once engaged. Lady Maldon has been here to-day, and she"-- + +"Oh, I thought it might be her new ladyship's suggestion. I wish the +'fountain of honor' was somewhat charier of its knights and ladies, and +then perhaps"-- + +"What, for mercy's sake, are you running on about?" interrupted the lady +with peremptory emphasis. "Fountains of honor, forsooth! One would +suppose, to hear you talk in that wild, nonsensical way, that you were +addressing a bench of judges sitting in _banco_, instead of a sensible +person solicitous for her and your children's welfare." + +"Bless the woman," thought I; "what an exalted idea she appears to have +of forensic eloquence! Proceed, my love," I continued; "there is a +difference certainly; and I am all attention." + +"Lady Maldon knows a young lady--a distant relative, in deed, of +hers--whom she is anxious to serve"-- + +"At our expense." + +"How can you be so ungenerous? Edith Willoughby is the orphan daughter of +the late Reverend Mr. Willoughby, curate of Heavy Tree in Warwickshire, I +believe; and was specially educated for a first-class governess and +teacher. She speaks French with the true Parisian accent, and her +Italian, Lady Maldon assures me, is pure Tuscan"-- + +"He-e-e-m!" + +"She dances with grace and elegance; plays the harp and piano with skill +and taste; is a thorough _artiste_ in drawing and painting; and is, +moreover, very handsome--though beauty, I admit, is an attribute which in +a governess might be very well dispensed with." + +"True; unless, indeed, it were catching." + +I need not prolong this connubial dialogue. It is sufficient to state +that Edith Willoughby was duly installed in office on the following day; +and that, much to my surprise, I found that her qualifications for the +charge she had undertaken were scarcely overcolored. She was a +well-educated, elegant, and beautiful girl, of refined and fascinating +manners, and possessed of one of the sweetest, gentlest dispositions that +ever charmed and graced the family and social circle. She was, I often +thought, for her own chance of happiness, too ductile, too readily +yielding to the wishes and fancies of others. In a very short time I came +to regard her as a daughter, and with my wife and children she was +speedily a prodigious favorite. Mary and Kate improved rapidly under her +judicious tuition, and I felt for once positively grateful to busy Lady +Maldon for her officious interference in my domestic arrangements. + +Edith Willoughby had been domiciled with us about two years, when Mr. +Harlowe, a gentleman of good descent and fine property, had occasion to +call several times at my private residence on business relating to the +purchase of a house in South Audley Street, the title to which exhibited +by the venders was not of the most satisfactory kind. On one occasion he +stayed to dine with us, and I noticed that he seemed much struck by the +appearance of our beautiful and accomplished governess. His evident +emotion startled and pained me in a much higher degree than I could have +easily accounted for even to myself. Mr. Harlowe was a widower, past his +first youth certainly, but scarcely more than two or three-and-thirty +years of age, wealthy, not ill-looking, and, as far as I knew, of average +character in society. Surely an excellent match, if it should come to +that, for an orphan girl rich only in fine talents and gentle affections. +But I could not think so. I disliked the man--_instinctively_ disliked +and distrusted him; for I could assign no very positive motive for my +antipathy. + +"The reason why, I cannot tell, +But I don't like thee, Dr. Fell." + +These lines indicate an unconquerable feeling which most persons have, I +presume, experienced; and which frequently, I think, results from a kind +of cumulative evidence of uncongeniality or unworthiness, made up of a +number of slight indices of character, which, separately, may appear of +little moment, but altogether, produce a strong, if undefinable, feeling +of aversion. Mr. Harlowe's manners were bland, polished, and insinuating; +his conversation was sparkling and instructive; but a cold sneer seemed +to play habitually about his lips, and at times there glanced forth a +concentrated, polished ferocity--so to speak--from his eyes, revealing +hard and stony depths, which I shuddered to think a being so pure and +gentle as Edith might be doomed to sound and fathom. That he was a man of +strong passions and determination of will, was testified by every curve +of his square, massive head, and every line of his full countenance. + +My aversion--reasonable or otherwise, as it might be--was not shared by +Miss Willoughby; and it was soon apparent that, fascinated, intoxicated +by her extreme beauty (the man was, I felt, incapable of love in its +high, generous, and spiritual sense), Mr. Harlowe had determined on +offering his hand and fortune to the unportioned orphan. He did so, and +was accepted. I did not conceal my dislike of her suitor from Edith; and +my wife--who, with feminine exaggeration of the hints I threw out, had +set him down as a kind of polished human tiger--with tears intreated her +to avoid the glittering snare. We of course had neither right nor power +to push our opposition beyond friendly warning and advice; and when we +found, thanks to Lady Maldon, who was vehemently in favor of the +match--to, in Edith's position, the dazzling temptation of a splendid +establishment, and to Mr. Harlowe's eloquent and impassioned +pleadings--that the rich man's offer was irrevocably accepted, we of +course forebore from continuing a useless and irritating resistance. Lady +Maldon had several times very plainly intimated that our aversion to the +marriage arose solely from a selfish desire of retaining the services of +her charming relative; so prone are the mean and selfish to impute +meanness and selfishness to others. + +I might, however, I reflected, be of service to Miss Willoughby, by +securing for her such a marriage settlement as would place her beyond the +reach of one possible consequence of caprice and change. I spoke to Mr. +Harlowe on the subject; and he, under the influence of headstrong, eager +passion, gave me, as I expected, _carte blanche_. I availed myself of the +license so readily afforded: a deed of settlement was drawn up, signed, +sealed, and attested in duplicate the day before the wedding; and Edith +Willoughby, as far as wealth and position in society were concerned, had +undoubtedly made a surprisingly good bargain. + +It happened that just as Lady Maldon, Edith Willoughby, and Mr. Harlowe +were leaving my chambers after the execution of the deed, Mr. Ferret the +attorney appeared on the stairs. His hands were full of papers, and he +was, as usual, in hot haste; but he stopped abruptly as his eye fell upon +the departing visitors, looked with startled earnestness at Miss +Willoughby, whom he knew, and then glanced at Mr. Harlowe with an +expression of angry surprise. That gentleman, who did not appear to +recognize the new-comer, returned his look with a supercilious, +contemptuous stare, and passed on with Edith--who had courteously saluted +the inattentive Mr. Ferret--followed by Lady Maldon. + +"What is the meaning of that ominous conjunction?" demanded Mr. Ferret as +the affianced pair disappeared together. + +"Marriage, Mr. Ferret! Do you know any just cause or impediment why they +should not be joined together in holy wedlock?" + +"The fellow's wife is dead then?" + +"Yes; she died about a twelvemonth ago. Did you know her?" + +"Not personally; by reputation only. A country attorney, Richards of +Braintree, for whom I transact London business sent me the draught of a +deed of separation--to which the unfortunate lady, rather than continue +to live with her husband, had consented--for counsel's opinion. I had an +interview with Mr. Harlowe himself upon the business; but I see he +affects to have forgotten me. I do not know much of the merits of the +case, but according to Richards--no great shakes of a fellow, between +ourselves--the former Mrs. Harlowe was a martyr to her husband's +calculated virulence and legal--at least not _illegal_, a great +distinction, in my opinion, though not so set down in the +books--despotism. He espoused her for her wealth: that secured, he was +desirous of ridding himself of the incumbrance to it. A common case!--and +now, if you please, to business." + +I excused myself, as did my wife, from being present at the wedding; but +everything, I afterwards heard, passed off with great _éclat_. The +bridegroom was all fervor and obsequiousness; the bride all bashfulness +and beauty. The "happy pair," I saw by the afternoon newspapers, were to +pass the honeymoon at Mr. Harlowe's seat, Fairdown Park. The evening of +the marriage-day was anything, I remember, but a pleasant one to me. I +reached home by no means hilariously disposed, where I was greeted, by +way of revival, with the intelligence that my wife, after listening with +great energy to Lady Maldon's description of the wedding festivities for +two tremendous hours, had at last been relieved by copious hysteria, and +that Mary and Kate were in a fair way--if the exploit could be +accomplished by perseverance--of crying themselves to sleep. These were +our bridal compliments; much more flattering, I imagine, if not quite so +honey-accented, as the courtly phrases with which the votaries and the +victims of Hymen are alike usually greeted. + +Time, business, worldly hopes and cares, the triumphs and defeats of an +exciting profession, gradually weakened the impression made upon me by +the gentle virtues of Edith Willoughby; and when, about fifteen months +after the wedding, my wife informed me that she had been accosted by Mrs. +Harlowe at a shop in Bond Street, my first feeling was one of surprise, +not untinged with resentment, for what I deemed her ungrateful neglect. + +"She recognized you then?" I remarked. + +"Recognized me! What do you mean?" + +"I thought perhaps she might have forgotten your features, as she +evidently has our address." + +"If you had seen," replied my wife, "how pale, how cold, how utterly +desolate she looked, you would think less hardly of her. As soon as she +observed me, a slight scream escaped her; and then she glanced eagerly +and tremblingly around like a startled fawn. Her husband had passed out +of the shop to give, I think, some direction to the coachman. She +tottered towards me, and clasping me in her arms, burst into a passion of +tears. "Oh, why--why," I asked as soon as I could speak, "why have you +not written to us?" "I dared not!" she gasped. "But oh tell me, do +you--does your husband remember me with kindness? Can I still reckon on +his protection--his support?" I assured her you would receive her as your +own child: the whispered words had barely passed my lips, when Mr. +Harlowe, who had swiftly approached us unperceived, said, "Madam, the +carriage waits." His stern, pitiless eye glanced from his wife to me, and +stiffly bowing, he said, "Excuse me for interrupting your conversation; +but time presses. Good-day." A minute afterwards, the carriage drove +off." + +I was greatly shocked at this confirmation of my worst fears; and I +meditated with intense bitterness on the fate of a being of such meek +tenderness exposed to the heartless brutalities of a sated sensualist +like Harlowe. But what could be done? She had chosen, deliberately, +and after warning, chosen her lot, and must accept the consequences of +her choice. In all the strong statutes, and sharp biting laws of +England, there can be found no clause wherewith to shield a woman from +the "regulated" meanness and despotism of an unprincipled husband. +Resignation is the sole remedy, and therein the patient must minister +to herself. + +On the morning of the Sunday following Edith's brief interview with my +wife, and just as we were about to leave the house to attend divine +service, a cab drove furiously up to the door, and a violent summons by +both knocker and bell announced the arrival of some strangely-impatient +visitor. I stepped out upon the drawing-room landing, and looked over the +banister rail, curious to ascertain who had honored me with so peremptory +a call. The door was quickly opened, and in ran, or rather staggered, +Mrs. Harlowe, with a child in long clothes in her arms. + +"Shut--shut the door!" she faintly exclaimed, as she sank on one of the +hall seats. "Pray shut the door--I am pursued!" + +I hastened down, and was just in time to save her from falling on the +floor. She had fainted. I had her carried up stairs, and by the aid of +proper restoratives, she gradually recovered consciousness. The child, a +girl about four months old, was seized upon by Mary and Kate, and carried +off in triumph to the nursery. Sadly changed, indeed, as by the sickness +of the soul, was poor Edith. The radiant flush of youth and hope +rendering her sweet face eloquent of joy and pride, was replaced by the +cold, sad hues of wounded affections and proud despair. I could read in +her countenance, as in a book, the sad record of long months of wearing +sorrow, vain regrets, and bitter self-reproach. Her person, too, had lost +its rounded, airy, graceful outline, and had become thin and angular. +Her voice, albeit, was musical and gentle as ever, as she murmured, on +recovering her senses, "You will protect me from my--from that man?" As I +warmly pressed her hand, in emphatic assurance that I would shield her +against all comers, another loud summons was heard at the door. A minute +afterwards, a servant entered, and announced that Mr. Harlowe waited for +me below. I directed he should be shown into the library; and after +iterating my assurance to Edith that she was quite safe from violence +beneath my roof, and that I would presently return to hear her +explanation of the affair, I went down stairs. + +Mr. Harlowe, as I entered, was pacing rapidly up and down the apartment. +He turned to face me; and I thought he looked even more perturbed and +anxious than vengeful and angry. He, however, as I coldly bowed, and +demanded his business with me, instantly assumed a bullying air and tone. + +"Mrs. Harlowe is here: she has surreptitiously left South Audley Street +in a hired cab, and I have traced her to this house." + +"Well?" + +"Well! I trust it is well; and I insist that she instantly return to +her home." + +"Her _home_!" + +I used the word with an expression significative only of my sense of the +sort of "home" he had provided for the gentle girl he had sworn to love +and cherish; but the random shaft found a joint in his armor at which it +was not aimed. He visibly trembled, and turned pale. + +"She has had time to tell you all then! But be assured, sir, that nothing +she has heard or been told, however true it may be--_may_ be, remember, +I say--can be legally substantiated except by myself." + +What could the man mean? I was fairly puzzled: but, professionally +accustomed to conceal emotions of surprise and bewilderment, I coldly +replied--"I have left the lady who has sought the protection of her true +'home,' merely to ascertain the reason of this visit." + +"The reason of my visit!" he exclaimed with renewed fury: "to reconvey +her to South Audley Street. What else? If you refuse to give her up, I +shall apply to the police." + +I smiled, and approached the bell. + +"You will not surrender her then?" + +"To judicial process only: of that be assured. I have little doubt that, +when I am placed in full possession of all the facts of the case, I shall +be quite able to justify my conduct." He did not reply, and I continued: +"If you choose to wait here till I have heard Edith's statement, I will +at once frankly acquaint you with my final determination." + +"Be it so: and please to recollect, sir, that you have to deal with a man +not easily baffled or entrapped by legal subtlety or cunning." + +I reascended to the drawing-room; and finding Edith--thanks to the +ministrations, medicinal and oral, of my bustling and indignant +lady--much calmer, and thoroughly satisfied that nobody could or should +wrest her from us, begged her to relate unreservedly the cause or causes +which had led to her present position. She falteringly complied; and I +listened with throbbing pulse and burning cheeks to the sad story of her +wedded wretchedness, dating from within two or three months of the +marriage; and finally consummated by a disclosure that, if provable, +might consign Harlowe to the hulks. The tears, the agony, the despair of +the unhappy lady, excited in me a savageness of feeling, an eager thirst +for vengeance, which I had believed foreign to my nature. Edith divined +my thoughts, and taking my hand, said, "Never, sir, never will I appear +against him: the father of my little Helen shall never be publicly +accused by me." + +"You err, Edith," I rejoined; "it is a positive duty to bring so +consummate a villain to justice. He has evidently calculated on your +gentleness of disposition, and must be disappointed." + +I soon, however, found it was impossible to shake her resolution on +this point; and I returned with a heart full of grief and bitterness to +Mr. Harlowe. + +"You will oblige me, sir," I exclaimed as I entered the room, "by +leaving this house immediately: I would hold no further converse with so +vile a person." + +"How! Do you know to whom you presume to speak in this manner?" + +"Perfectly. You are one Harlowe, who, after a few months' residence with +a beautiful and amiable girl, had extinguished the passion which induced +him to offer her marriage, showered on her every species of insult and +indignity of which a cowardly and malignant nature is capable; and who, +finding that did not kill her, at length consummated, or revealed, I do +not yet know which term is most applicable, his utter baseness by causing +her to be informed that his first wife was still living." + +"Upon my honor, sir, I believed, when I married Miss Willoughby, that I +was a widower." + +"Your _honor!_ But except to prove that I _do_ thoroughly know and +appreciate the person I am addressing, I will not bandy words with you. +After that terrible disclosure--if, indeed, it be a disclosure, not an +invention--Ah, you start at that" + +"At your insolence, sir; not at your senseless surmises." + +"Time and the law will show. After, I repeat, this terrible disclosure or +invention, you, not content with obtaining from your victim's generosity +a positive promise that she would not send you to the hulks"-- + +"Sir, have a care." + +"Pooh! I say, not content with exacting this promise from your victim, +you, with your wife, or accomplice, threatened not only to take her child +from her, but to lock her up in a madhouse, unless she subscribed a +paper, confessing that she knew, when you espoused her, that you were a +married man. Now, sir, do I, or do I not, thoroughly know who and what +the man is I am addressing?" + +"Sir," returned Harlowe, recovering his audacity somewhat. "Spite of all +your hectoring and abuse, I defy you to obtain proof--legal +proof--whether what Edith has heard is true or false. The affair may +perhaps be arranged; let her return with me." + +"You know she would die first; but it is quite useless to prolong this +conversation; and I again request you to leave this house." + +"If Miss Willoughby would accept an allowance"-- + +The cool audacity of this proposal to make me an instrument in +compromising a felony exasperated me beyond all bounds. I rang the bell +violently, and desired the servant who answered it to show Mr. Harlowe +out of the house. Finding further persistence useless, the baffled +villain snatched up his hat, and with a look and gesture of rage and +contempt, hurried out of the apartment. + +The profession of a barrister necessarily begets habits of coolness and +reflection under the most exciting circumstances; but, I confess, that in +this instance my ordinary equanimity was so much disturbed, that it was +some time before I could command sufficient composure to reason calmly +upon the strange revelations made to me by Edith, and the nature of the +measures necessary to adopt in order to clear up the mystery attaching to +them. She persisted in her refusal to have recourse to legal measures +with a view to the punishment of Harlowe; and I finally determined--after +a conference with Mr. Ferret, who, having acted for the first Mrs. +Harlowe, I naturally conjectured must know something of her history and +connections--to take for the present no ostensible steps in the matter. +Mr. Ferret, like myself, was persuaded that the sham resuscitation of his +first wife was a mere trick, to enable Harlowe to rid himself of the +presence of a woman he no longer cared for. "I will take an opportunity," +said Mr. Ferret, "of quietly questioning Richards: he must have known the +first wife; Eleanor Wickham, I remember, was her maiden name; and if not +bought over by Harlowe--a by-no-means impossible purchase--can set us +right at once. I did not understand that the said Eleanor was at all +celebrated for beauty and accomplishments, such as you say Miss +Willoughby--Mrs. Harlowe, I mean--describes. She was a native of +Dorsetshire too, I remember; and the foreign Italian accent you mention, +is rarely, I fancy, picked up in that charming county. Some flashy +opera-dancer, depend upon it, whom he has contracted a passing fancy for: +a slippery gentleman certainly; but, with a little caution, we shall not +fail to trip his heels up, clever as he may be." + +A stronger wrestler than either of us was upon the track of the unhappy +man. Edith had not been with us above three weeks, when one of Mr. +Harlowe's servants called at my chambers to say that his master, in +consequence of a wound he had inflicted on his foot with an axe, whilst +amusing himself with cutting or pruning some trees in the grounds at +Fairdown, was seriously ill, and had expressed a wish to see me. I +could not leave town; but as it was important Mr. Harlowe should be +seen, I requested Mr. Ferret to proceed to Fairdown House. He did so, +and late in the evening returned with the startling intelligence that +Mr. Harlowe was dead! + +"Dead!" I exclaimed, much shocked. "Are you serious?" "As a judge. He +expired, about an hour after I reached the house, of tetanus, commonly +called locked-jaw. His body, by the contraction of the muscles, was bent +like a bow, and rested on his heels and the back part of his head. He was +incapable of speech long before I saw him; but there was a world of +agonized expression in his eyes!" + +"Dreadful! Your journey was useless then?" + +"Not precisely. I saw the pretended former wife: a splendid woman, and as +much Eleanor Wickham of Dorsetshire as I am. They mean, however, to show +fight, I think; for, as I left the place, I observed that delightful +knave Richards enter the house. I took the liberty of placing seals upon +the desks and cabinets, and directed the butler and other servants to see +that nothing was disturbed or removed till Mrs. Harlowe's--the true Mrs. +Harlowe's--arrival." + +The funeral was to take place on the following Wednesday; and it was +finally arranged that both of us would accompany Edith to Fairdown on the +day after it had taken place, and adopt such measures as circumstances +might render necessary. Mr. Ferret wrote to this effect to all parties +concerned. + +On arriving at the house, I, Ferret, and Mrs. Harlowe, proceeded at once +to the drawing-room, where we found the pretended wife seated in great +state, supported on one side by Mr. Richards, and on the other by Mr. +Quillet the eminent proctor. Edith was dreadfully agitated, and clung +frightened and trembling to my arm. I conducted her to a seat, and placed +myself beside her, leaving Mr. Ferret--whom so tremendous an array of law +and learning, evincing a determination to fight the matter out _à +l'outrance_, filled with exuberant glee--to open the conference. + +"Good-morning, madam," cried he, the moment he entered the room, and +quite unaffected by the lady's scornful and haughty stare: "good-morning; +I am delighted to see you in such excellent company. You do not, I hope, +forget that I once had the honor of transacting business for you?" + +"You had transactions of my business!" said the lady, "When, I pray you?" + +"God bless me!" cried Ferret, addressing Richards, "what a charming +Italian accent; and out of Dorsetshire too!" + +"Dorsetshire, sir?" exclaimed the lady. + +"Ay, Dorsetshire, to be sure. Why, Mr. Richards, our respected client +appears to have forgotten her place of birth! How very extraordinary!" + +Mr. Richards now interfered, to say that Mr. Ferret was apparently +laboring under a strange misapprehension. "This lady," continued he, "is +Madame Giulletta Corelli." + +"Whe--e--e--w!" rejoined Ferret, thrown for an instant off his balance by +the suddenness of the confession, and perhaps a little disappointed at so +placable a termination of the dispute--"Giulletta Corelli! What is the +meaning of this array then?" + +"I am glad, madam," said I, interposing for the first time in the +conversation, "for your own sake, that you have been advised not to +persist in the senseless as well as iniquitous scheme devised by the late +Mr. Harlowe; but this being the case, I am greatly at a loss to know why +either you or these legal gentlemen are here?" + +The brilliant eyes of the Italian flashed with triumphant scorn, and a +smile of contemptuous irony curled her beautiful lip as she +replied--"These legal gentlemen will not have much difficulty in +explaining my right to remain in my own house." + +"_Your_ house?" + +"Precisely, sir," replied Mr. Quillet. "This mansion, together with all +other property, real and personal, of which the deceased Henry Harlowe +died possessed, is bequeathed by will--dated about a month since--to this +lady, Giulletta Corelli." + +"A will!" exclaimed Mr. Ferret with an explosive shout, and turning to +me, whilst his sharp gray eyes danced with irrepressible mirth--"Did I +not tell you so?" + +"Your usual sagacity, Mr. Ferret, has not in this instance failed you. +Perhaps you will permit me to read the will? But before I do so," +continued Mr. Quillet, as he drew his gold-rimmed spectacles from their +morocco sheath--"you will allow me, if you please, to state that the +legatee, delicately appreciating the position of the widow, will allow +her any reasonable annuity--say five hundred pounds per annum for life." + +"Will she really though?" cried Mr. Ferret, boiling over with ecstacy. +"Madam, let me beg of you to confirm this gracious promise." + +"Certainly I do." + +"Capital!--glorious!" rejoined Ferret; and I thought he was about to +perform a salutatory movement, that must have brought his cranium into +damaging contact with the chandelier under which he was standing. "Is +it not delightful? How every one--especially an attorney--loves a +generous giver!" + +Mr. Richards appeared to be rendered somewhat uneasy by these strange +demonstrations. He knew Ferret well, and evidently suspected that +something was wrong somewhere. "Perhaps, Mr. Quillet," said he, "you had +better read the will at once." + +This was done: the instrument devised in legal and minute form all the +property, real and personal, to Giulletta Corelli--a natural-born subject +of his majesty, it appeared, though of foreign parentage, and of +partially foreign education. + +"Allow me to say," broke in Mr. Ferret, interrupting me as I was about to +speak--"allow me to say, Mr. Richards, that that will does you credit: it +is, I should say, a first-rate affair, for a country practitioner +especially. But of course you submitted the draught to counsel?" + +"Certainly I did," said Richards tartly. + +"No doubt--no doubt. Clearness and precision like that could only have +proceeded from a master's hand. I shall take a copy of that will, +Richards, for future guidance, you may depend, the instant it is +registered in Doctors' Commons." + +"Come, come, Mr. Ferret," said I; "this jesting is all very well; but it +is quite time the farce should end." + +"Farce!" exclaimed Mr. Richards. + +"Farce!" growled doubtful Mr. Quillet. + +"Farce!" murmured the beautiful Giulletta. + +"Farce!" cried Mr. Ferret. "My dear sir, it is about one of the most +charming and genteel comedies ever enacted on any stage, and the +principal part, too, by one of the most charming of prima donnas. Allow +me, sir--don't interrupt me! it is too delicious to be shared; it is, +indeed. Mr. Richards, and you, Mr. Quillet, will you permit me to observe +that this admirable will has _one_ slight defect?" + +"A defect!--where--how?" + +"It is really heart-breaking that so much skill and ingenuity should be +thrown away; but the fact is, gentlemen, that the excellent person who +signed it had no property to bequeath!" + +"How?" + +"Not a shilling's worth. Allow me, sir, if you please. This piece of +parchment, gentlemen, is, I have the pleasure to inform you, a marriage +settlement." + +"A marriage settlement!" exclaimed both the men of law in a breath. + +"A marriage settlement, by which, in the event of Mr. Harlowe's decease, +his entire property passes to his wife, in trust for the children, if +any; and if not, absolutely to herself." Ferret threw the deed on the +table, and then giving way to convulsive mirth, threw himself upon the +sofa, and fairly shouted with glee. + +Mr. Quillet seized the document, and, with Richards, eagerly perused it. +The proctor then rose, and bowing gravely to his astonished client, said, +"The will, madam, is waste paper. You have been deceived." He then left +the apartment. + +The consternation of the lady and her attorney may be conceived. Madam +Corelli, giving way to her fiery passions, vented her disappointment in +passionate reproaches of the deceased; the only effect of which was to +lay bare still more clearly than before her own cupidity and folly, and +to increase Edith's painful agitation. I led her down stairs to my wife, +who, I omitted to mention, had accompanied us from town, and remained in +the library with the children during our conference. In a very short +time afterwards Mr. Ferret had cleared the house of its intrusive guests, +and we had leisure to offer our condolences and congratulations to our +grateful and interesting client. It was long before Edith recovered her +former gaiety and health; and I doubt if she would ever have thoroughly +regained her old cheerfulness and elasticity of mind, had it not been for +her labor of love in superintending and directing the education of her +daughter Helen, a charming girl, who fortunately inherited nothing from +her father but his wealth. The last time I remember to have danced was at +Helen's wedding. She married a distinguished Irish gentleman, with whom, +and her mother, I perceive by the newspapers, she appeared at Queen +Victoria's court in Dublin, one, I am sure, of the brightest stars which +glittered in that galaxy of beauty and fashion. + + + + +THE SECOND MARRIAGE. + + +A busy day in the assize court at Chester, chequered, as usual, by +alternate victory and defeat, had just terminated, and I was walking +briskly forth, when an attorney of rather low _caste_ in his +profession--being principally employed as an intermediary between needy +felons and the counsel practising in the Crown Court--accosted me, and +presented a brief; at the same time tendering the fee of two guineas +marked upon it. + +"I am engaged to-morrow, Mr. Barnes," I exclaimed a little testily, "on +the civil side: besides, you know I very seldom take briefs in the Crown +Court, even if proffered in due time; and to-morrow will be the last day +of the assize in Chester! There are plenty of unemployed counsel who will +be glad of your brief." + +"It is a brief in an action of ejectment," replied the attorney--"Woodley +_versus_ Thorndyke; and is brought to recover possession of a freehold +estate now held and farmed by the defendant." + +"An action of ejectment to recover possession of a freehold estate! +defended, too, I know, by a powerful bar; for I was offered a brief, but +declined it. Mr. P ---- leads; and you bring me this for the plaintiff, +and at the last moment too! You must be crazed." + +"I told the plaintiff and her grandfather," rejoined Mr. Barnes, "that it +was too late to bespeak counsel's attention to the case; and that the +fee, all they have, with much difficulty, been able to raise, was +ridiculously small; but they insisted on my applying to you--Oh, here +they are!" + +We had by this time reached the street, and the attorney pointed towards +two figures standing in attitudes of anxious suspense near the gateway. +It was dusk, but there was quite sufficient light to distinguish the pale +and interesting features of a young female, dressed in faded and scanty +mourning, and accompanied by a respectable-looking old man with white +hair, and a countenance deeply furrowed by age and grief. + +"I told you, Miss Woodley," said the attorney, "that this gentleman would +decline the brief, especially with such a fee"-- + +"It is not the fee, man!" I observed, for I was somewhat moved by the +appealing dejection exhibited by the white-haired man and his timid +grand-daughter; "but what chance can I have of establishing this person's +right--if right she have--to the estate she claims, thus suddenly called +upon to act without previous consultation; and utterly ignorant, except +as far as this I perceive hastily-scrawled brief will instruct me, both +of the nature of the plaintiff's claim and of the defence intended to be +set up against it?" + +"If you would undertake it, sir," said the young woman with a tremulous, +hesitating voice and glistening eyes, "for _his_ sake"--and she glanced +at her aged companion--"who will else be helpless, homeless." + +"The blessing of those who are ready to perish will be yours, sir," said +the grandfather with meek solemnity, "if you will lend your aid in this +work of justice and mercy. We have no hope of withstanding the masterful +violence and wrong of wicked and powerful men except by the aid of the +law, which we have been taught will ever prove a strong tower of defence +to those who walk in the paths of peace and right." + +The earnestness of the old man's language and manner, and the pleading +gentleness of the young woman, forcibly impressed me; and, albeit, it was +a somewhat unprofessional mode of business, I determined to hear their +story from their own lips, rather than take it from the scrawled brief, +or through the verbal medium of their attorney. + +"You have been truly taught," I answered; "and if really entitled to the +property you claim, I know of no masterful men that in this land of +England can hinder you from obtaining possession of it. Come to my hotel +in about an hour and a-half from hence: I shall then have leisure to hear +what you have to say. This fee," I added, taking the two guineas from the +hand of the attorney, who still held the money ready for my acceptance, +"you must permit me to return. It is too much for you to pay for losing +your cause; and if I gain it--but mind I do not promise to take it into +court unless I am thoroughly satisfied you have right and equity on your +side--I shall expect a much heavier one. Mr. Barnes, I will see you, if +you please, early in the morning." I then bowed, and hastened on. + +Dinner was not ready when I arrived at the hotel; and during the short +time I had to wait, I more than half repented of having had anything to +do with this unfortunate suit. However, the pleadings of charity, the +suggestions of human kindness, reasserted their influence; and by the +time my new clients arrived, which they did very punctually at the hour I +had indicated, I had quite regained the equanimity I had momentarily +lost, and, thanks to mine host's excellent viands and generous wine, was, +for a lawyer, in a very amiable and benevolent humor indeed. + +Our conference was long, anxious, and unsatisfactory. I was obliged to +send for Barnes before it concluded, in order to thoroughly ascertain the +precise nature of the case intended to be set up for the defendant, and +the evidence likely to be adduced in support of it. No ray of consolation +or of hope came from that quarter. Still, the narrative I had just +listened to, bearing as it did the impress of truth and sincerity in +every sentence, strongly disposed me to believe that foul play has been +practised by the other side; and I determined, at all hazards, to go into +court, though with but faint hope indeed of a _present_ successful issue. + +"It appears more than probable," I remarked on dismissing my clients, +"that this will is a fabrication; but before such a question had been put +in issue before a jury, some producible evidence of its being so should +have been sought for and obtained. As it is, I can only watch the +defendant's proof of the genuineness of the instrument upon which he has +obtained probate: one or more of the attesting witnesses _may_, if fraud +has been practised, break down under a searching cross-examination, or +incidentally perhaps disclose matter for further investigation." + +"One of the attesting witnesses is, as I have already told you, dead," +observed Barnes; "and another, Elizabeth Wareing, has, I hear, to-day +left the country. An affidavit to that effect will no doubt be made +to-morrow, in order to enable them to give secondary evidence of her +attestation, though, swear as they may, I have not the slightest doubt +I could find her if time were allowed, and her presence would at all +avail us." + +"Indeed! This is very important. Would you, Mr. Barnes, have any +objection," I added, after a few moments' reflection, "to make oath, +should the turn of affairs to-morrow render your doing so desirable, of +your belief that you could, reasonable time being allowed, procure the +attendance of this woman--this Elizabeth Wareing?" + +"Not the slightest: though how that would help us to invalidate the will +Thorndyke claims under I do not understand." + +"Perhaps not. At all events do not fail to be early in court. The cause +is the first in to-morrow's list, remember." + +The story confided to me was a very sad, and, unfortunately in many of +its features, a very common one. Ellen, the only child of the old +gentleman, Thomas Ward, had early in life married Mr. James Woodley, a +wealthy yeoman, prosperously settled upon his paternal acres, which he +cultivated with great diligence and success. The issue of this +marriage--a very happy one, I was informed--was Mary Woodley, the +plaintiff in the present action. Mr. Woodley, who had now been dead +something more than two years, bequeathed the whole of his property, real +and personal, to his wife, in full confidence, as he expressed himself +but a few hours before he expired, that she would amply provide for his +and her child. The value of the property inherited by Mrs. Woodley under +this will amounted, according to a valuation made a few weeks after the +testator's decease, to between eight and nine thousand pounds. + +Respected as a widow, comfortable in circumstances, and with a daughter +to engage her affections, Mrs. Woodley might have passed the remainder of +her existence in happiness. But how frequently do women peril and lose +all by a second marriage! Such was the case with Mrs. Woodley: to the +astonishment of everybody, she threw herself away on a man almost unknown +in the district--a person of no fortune, of mean habits, and altogether +unworthy of accepting as a husband. Silas Thorndyke, to whom she thus +committed her happiness, had for a short time acted as bailiff on the +farm; and no sooner did he feel himself master, than his subserviency +was changed to selfish indifference, and that gradually assumed a coarser +character. He discovered that the property, by the will of Mr. Woodley, +was no secured against every chance or casualty to the use and enjoyment +of his wife, that it not only did not pass by marriage to the new +bridegroom, but she was unable to alienate or divest herself of any +portion of it during life. She could, however, dispose of it by will; but +in the event of her dying intestate, the whole descended to her daughter, +Mary Woodley. + +Incredibly savage was Thorndyke when he made that discovery; and bitter +and incessant were the indignities to which he subjected his unfortunate +wife, for the avowed purpose of forcing her to make a will entirely in +his favor, and of course disinheriting her daughter. These persecutions +failed of their object. An unexpected, quiet, passive, but unconquerable +resistance, was opposed by the, in all other things, cowed and submissive +woman, to this demand of her domineering husband. Her failing health--for +gently nurtured and tenderly cherished as she had ever been, the +callous brutality of her husband soon told upon the unhappy +creature--warned her that Mary would soon be an orphan, and that upon her +firmness it depended whether the child of him to whose memory she had +been, so fatally for herself, unfaithful, should be cast homeless and +penniless upon the world, or inherit the wealth to which, by every +principle of right and equity, she was entitled. Come what may, this +trust at least should not, she mentally resolved, be betrayed or paltered +with. Every imaginable expedient to vanquish her resolution was resorted +to. Thorndyke picked a quarrel with Ward her father, who had lived at +Dale Farm since the morrow of her marriage with Woodley, and the old +gentleman was compelled to leave, and take up his abode with a distant +and somewhat needy relative. Next Edward Wilford, the only son of a +neighboring and prosperous farmer, who had been betrothed to Mary Woodley +several months before her father's death, was brutally insulted, and +forbidden the house. All, however, failed to shake the mother's +resolution; and at length, finding all his efforts fruitless, Thorndyke +appeared to yield the point, and upon this subject at least ceased to +harass his unfortunate victim. + +Frequent private conferences were now held between Thorndyke, his two +daughters, and Elizabeth Wareing--a woman approaching middle-age, whom, +under the specious pretence that Mrs. Thorndyke's increasing ailments +rendered the services of an experienced matron indispensable, he had +lately installed at the farm. It was quite evident to both the mother and +daughter that a much greater degree of intimacy subsisted between the +master and housekeeper than their relative positions warranted; and from +some expressions heedlessly dropped by the woman, they suspected them to +have been once on terms of confidential intimacy. Thorndyke, I should +have mentioned, was not a native of these parts: he had answered Mr. +Woodley's advertisement for a bailiff, and his testimonials appearing +satisfactory, he had been somewhat precipitately engaged. A young man, +calling himself Edward Wareing, the son of Elizabeth Wareing, and said to +be engaged in an attorney's office in Liverpool, was also a not +unfrequent visitor at Dale Farm; and once he had the insolent presumption +to address a note to Mary Woodley, formally tendering his hand and +fortune! This, however, did not suit Mr. Thorndyke's views, and Mr. +Edward Wareing was very effectually rebuked and silenced by his proposed +father-in-law. + +Mrs. Thorndyke's health rapidly declined. The woman Wareing, touched +possibly by sympathy or remorse, exhibited considerable tenderness and +compassion towards the invalid; made her nourishing drinks, and +administered the medicine prescribed by the village practitioner--who, +after much delay and _pooh, poohing_ by Thorndyke, had been called +in--with her own hands. About three weeks previous to Mrs. Thorndyke's +death, a sort of reconciliation was patched up through her +instrumentality between the husband and wife; and an unwonted expression +of kindness and compassion, real or simulated, sat upon Thorndyke's +features every time he approached the dying woman. + +The sands of life ebbed swiftly with Mrs. Thorndyke. Infolded in the +gentle but deadly embrace with which consumption seizes its victims, she +wasted rapidly away; and, most perplexing symptoms of all, violent +retchings and nausea, especially after taking her medicine--which, +according to Davis, the village surgeon, was invariable of a sedative +character--aggravated and confirmed the fatal disease which was hurrying +her to the tomb. + +Not once during this last illness could Mary Woodley, by chance or +stratagem, obtain a moment's private interview with her mother, until a +few minutes before her decease. Until then, under one pretence or +another, either Elizabeth Wareing, one of Thorndyke's daughters, or +Thorndyke himself, was always present in the sick-chamber. It was +evening: darkness had for some time fallen: no light had yet been taken +into the dying woman's apartment; and the pale starlight which faintly +illumined the room served, as Mary Woodley softly approached on tiptoe to +the bedside of her, as she supposed, sleeping parent, but to deepen by +defining the shadows thrown by the full, heavy hangings, and the old +massive furniture. Gently, and with a beating heart, Mary Woodley drew +back the bed-curtain nearest the window. The feeble, uncertain light +flickered upon the countenance, distinct in its mortal paleness, of her +parent: the eyes recognized her, and a glance of infinite tenderness +gleamed for an instant in the rapidly-darkening orbs: the right arm +essayed to lift itself, as for one fast, last embrace. Vainly! Love, love +only, was strong, stronger than death, in the expiring mother's heart, +and the arm fell feebly back on the bedclothes. Mary Woodley bent down in +eager grief, for she felt instinctively that the bitter hour at last was +come: their lips met, and the last accents of the mother murmured, +"Beloved Mary, I--I have been true to you--no will--no"--A slight tremor +shook her frame: the spirit that looked in love from the windows of the +eyes departed on its heavenward journey, and the unconscious shell only +of what had once been her mother remained in the sobbing daughter's arms. + +I will not deny that this narrative, which I feel I have but coldly and +feebly rendered from its earnest, tearful tenderness, as related by Mary +Woodley, affected me considerably--case-hardened, as, to use an old +bar-pun, we barristers are supposed to be; nor will the reader be +surprised to hear that suspicions, graver even than those which pointed +to forgery, were evoked by the sad history. Much musing upon the strange +circumstances thus disclosed, and profoundly cogitative on the best mode +of action to be pursued, the "small hours," the first of them at least, +surprised me in my arm-chair. I started up, and hastened to bed, well +knowing from experience that a sleepless vigil is a wretched preparative +for a morrow of active exertion, whether of mind or body. + +I was betimes in court the next morning, and Mr. Barnes, proud as a +peacock of figuring as an attorney in an important civil suit, was soon +at my side. The case had excited more interest than I had supposed, and +the court was very early filled, Mary Woodley and her grandfather soon +arrived; and a murmur of commiseration ran through the auditory as they +took their seats by the side of Barnes. There was a strong bar arrayed +against us; and Mr. Silas Thorndyke, I noticed, was extremely busy and +important with whisperings and suggestions to his solicitor and +counsel--received, of course, as such meaningless familiarities usually +are, with barely civil indifference. + +Twelve common jurors were called and sworn well and truly to try the +issue, and I arose amidst breathless silence to address them. I at once +frankly stated the circumstances under which the brief had come into my +hands, and observed, that if, for lack of advised preparation, the +plaintiff's case failed on that day, another trial, under favor of the +court above, would, I doubt not, at no distant period of time reverse the +possibly at present unfavorable decision. "My learned friends on the +other side," I continued, "smile at this qualified admission of mine: let +them do so. If they apparently establish to-day the validity of a will +which strips an only child of the inheritance bequeathed by her father, +they will, I tell them emphatically, have obtained but a temporary +triumph for a person who--if I, if you, gentlemen of the jury, are to +believe the case intended to be set up as a bar to the plantiff's +claim--has succeeded by the grossest brutality, the most atrocious +devices, in bending the mind of the deceased Mrs. Thorndyke to his +selfish purposes. My learned friend need not interrupt me; I shall pursue +these observations for the present no further--merely adding that I, that +his lordship, that you, gentlemen of the jury, will require of him the +strictest proof--proof clear as light--that the instrument upon which he +relies to defeat the equitable, the righteous claim of the young and +amiable person by my side, is genuine, and not, as I verily believe "--I +looked, as I spoke, full in the face of Thorndyke--"FORGED." + +"My lord," exclaimed the opposing counsel, "this is really insufferable!" + +His lordship, however, did not interpose; and I went on to relate, in the +most telling manner of which I was capable, the history of the deceased +Mrs. Thorndyke's first and second marriages; the harmony and happiness of +the first--the wretchedness and cruelty which characterized the second. I +narrated also the dying words of Mrs. Thorndyke to her daughter, though +repeatedly interrupted by the defendant's counsel, who manifested great +indignation that a statement unsusceptible of legal proof should be +addressed to the court and jury. My address concluded, I put in James +Woodley's will; and, as the opposing counsel did not dispute its +validity, nor require proof of Mary Woodley's identity, I intimated that +the plaintiff's case was closed. + +The speech for the defendant was calm and guarded. It threw, or rather +attempted to throw, discredit on the death-bed "fiction," got up, Mr. +P ---- said, simply with a view to effect; and he concluded by averring +that he should be able to establish the genuineness of the will of Ellen +Thorndyke, now produced, by irresistible evidence. That done, however +much the jury might wish the property had been otherwise disposed of, +they would of course return a verdict in accordance with their oaths and +the law of the land. + +The first witness called was Thomas Headley, a smith, residing near Dale +Farm. He swore positively that the late Mrs. Thorndyke, whom he knew +well, had cheerfully signed the will now produced, after it had been +deliberately read over to her by her husband about a fortnight before her +death. Silas Thorndyke, John Cummins, Elizabeth Wareing, and witness, +were the only persons present. Mrs. Thorndyke expressed confidence that +her husband would provide for Mary Woodley. + +"And so I will," said sleek Silas, rising up and looking round upon the +auditory. "If she will return, I will be a father to her." + +No look, no sound of sympathy or approval, greeted this generous +declaration, and he sat down again not a little disconcerted. + +I asked this burly, half-drunken witness but one question--"When is your +marriage with Rebecca Thorndyke, the defendant's eldest daughter, to be +celebrated?" + +"I don't know, Mr. Lawyer; perhaps never." + +"That will do; you can go down." + +Mr. P ---- now rose to state that his client was unable to produce +Elizabeth Wareing, another of the attesting witnesses to the will, in +court. No suspicion that any opposition to the solemn testament made by +the deceased Mrs. Thorndyke would be attempted, had been entertained; +and the woman, unaware that her testimony would be required, had left +that part of the country. Every effort had been made by the defendant to +discover her abode without effect. It was believed she had gone to +America, where she had relatives. The defendant had filed an affidavit +setting forth these facts, and it was now prayed that secondary evidence +to establish the genuineness of Elizabeth Wareing's attesting signature +should be admitted. + +I of course vehemently opposed this demand, and broadly hinted that the +witness was purposely kept out of the way. + +"Will my learned friend," said Mr. P ---- with one of his sliest sneers, +"inform us what motive the defendant could possibly have to keep back a +witness so necessary to him?" + +"Elizabeth Wareing," I curtly replied, "may not, upon reflection, be +deemed a safe witness to subject to the ordeal of a cross-examination. +But to settle the matter, my lord," I exclaimed, "I have here an +affidavit of the plaintiff's attorney, in which he states that he has no +doubt of being able to find this important witness if time be allowed him +for the purpose; the defendant of course undertaking to call her when +produced." + +A tremendous clamor of counsel hereupon ensued, and fierce and angry grew +the war of words. The hubbub was at last terminated by the judge +recommending that, under the circumstances, "a juror should be +withdrawn." This suggestion, after some demur, was agreed to. One of the +jurors was whispered to come out of the box; then the clerk of the court +exclaimed, "My lord, there are only eleven men on the jury;" and by the +aid of this venerable, if clumsy expedient, the cause of Woodley _versus_ +Thorndyke was _de facto_ adjourned to a future day. + +I had not long returned to the hotel, when I was waited upon by Mr. +Wilford, senior, the father of the young man who had been forbidden to +visit Dale Farm by Thorndyke. His son, he informed me, was ill from +chagrin and anxiety--confined to his bed indeed; and Mary Woodley had +refused, it seemed, to accept pecuniary aid from either the father or the +son. Would I endeavor to terminate the estrangement which had for some +time unhappily existed, and persuade her to accept his, Wilford senior's, +freely-offered purse and services? I instantly accepted both the mission +and the large sum which the excellent man tendered. A part of the money I +gave Barnes to stimulate his exertions, and the rest I placed in the hand +of Mary Woodley's grandpapa, with a friendly admonition to him not to +allow his grandchild to make a fool of herself; an exhortation which +produced its effect in due season. + +Summer passed away, autumn had come and gone, and the winter assizes +were once more upon us. Regular proceedings had been taken, and the +action in ejectment of Woodley versus Thorndyke was once more on the +cause list of the Chester circuit court, marked this time as a special +jury case. Indefatigable as Mr. Barnes had been in his search for +Elizabeth Wareing, not the slightest trace of her could he discover; and +I went into court, therefore, with but slight expectation of invalidating +the, as I fully believed, fictitious will. We had, however, obtained a +good deal of information relative to the former history not only of the +absent Mrs. Wareing, but of Thorndyke himself; and it was quite within +the range of probabilities that something might come out, enabling me to +use that knowledge to good purpose. The plaintiff and old Mr. Ward were +seated in court beside Mr. Barnes, as on the former abortive trial; but +Mary Woodley had, fortunately for herself, lost much of the interest +which attaches to female comeliness and grace when associated in the mind +of the spectator with undeserved calamity and sorrow. The black dress +which she still wore--the orthodox twelve months of mourning for a parent +had not yet quite elapsed--was now fresh, and of fine quality, and the +pale lilies of her face were interspersed with delicate roses; whilst by +her side sat Mr. John Wilford, as happy-looking as if no such things as +perjurers, forgers, or adverse verdicts existed to disturb the peace of +the glad world. Altogether, we were decidedly less interesting than on +the former occasion. Edward Wareing, I must not omit to add, was, greatly +to our surprise, present. He sat, in great apparent amity, by the side of +Thorndyke. + +It was late in the afternoon, and twilight was gradually stealing over +the dingy court, when the case was called. The special jury answered to +their names, were duly sworn, and then nearly the same preliminary +speeches and admissions were made and put in as on the previous occasion. +Thomas Headley, the first witness called in support of the pretended +will, underwent a rigorous cross-examination; but I was unable to extract +anything of importance from him. + +"And now," said the defendant's leading counsel, "let me ask my +learned friend if he has succeeded in obtaining the attendance of +Elizabeth Wareing?" + +I was of course obliged to confess that we had been unable to find her; +and the judge remarked that in that ease he could receive secondary +evidence in proof of her attestation of the will. + +A whispered but manifestly eager conference here took place between the +defendant and his counsel, occasionally joined in by Edward Wareing. +There appeared to be indecision or hesitation in their deliberations; but +at last Mr. P ---- rose, and with some ostentation of manner addressed +the court. + +"In the discharge of my duty to the defendant in this action, my lord, +upon whose fair fame much undeserved obloquy has been cast by the +speeches of the plaintiff's counsel--speeches insupported by a shadow of +evidence--I have to state that, anxious above all things to stand +perfectly justified before his neighbors and society, he has, at great +trouble and expense, obtained the presence here to-day of the witness +Elizabeth Wareing. She had gone to reside in France with a respectable +English family in the situation of housekeeper. We shall now place her in +the witness-box, and having done so, I trust we shall hear no more of the +slanderous imputations so freely lavished upon my client. Call Elizabeth +Wareing into court." + +A movement of surprise and curiosity agitated the entire auditory at this +announcement. Mr. Silas Thorndyke's naturally cadaverous countenance +assumed an ashy hue, spite of his efforts to appear easy and jubilant; +and for the first time since the commencement of the proceedings I +entertained the hope of a successful issue. + +Mrs. Wareing appeared in answer to the call, and was duly sworn "to tell +the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." She was a +good-looking woman, of perhaps forty years of age, and bore a striking +resemblance to her son. She rapidly, smoothly, and unhesitatingly +confirmed the evidence of Headley to a tittle. She trembled, I observed, +excessively; and on the examining counsel intimating that he had no more +questions to ask, turned hastily to leave the box. + +"Stay--stay, my good woman," I exclaimed; "you and I must have some talk +together before we part." + +She started, and looked at me with frightened earnestness; and then her +nervous glances stole towards Mr. Silas Thorndyke. There was no comfort +there: in his countenance she only saw the reflex of the agitation and +anxiety which marked her own. Sleek Silas, I could see, already repented +of the rash move he had made, and would have given a good deal to get his +witness safely and quietly out of court. + +It was now nearly dark, and observing that it was necessary the court +and jury should see as well as hear the witness whilst under +examination, I requested that lights should be brought in. This was +done. Two candles were placed in front of the witness-box, one on each +side of Mrs. Wareing; a few others were disposed about the bench and +jury desks. The effect of this partial lighting of the gloomy old court +was, that the witness stood out in strong and bright relief from the +surrounding shadows, rendering the minutest change or play of her +features distinctly visible. Mr. Silas Thorndyke was, from his position, +thrown entirely into the shade, and any telegraphing between him and +the witness was thus rendered impossible. This preparation, as if for +some extraordinary and solemn purpose, together with the profound +silence which reigned in the court, told fearfully, as I expected, upon +the nerves of Mrs. Elizabeth Wareing. She already seemed as if about to +swoon with agitation and ill-defined alarm. + +"Pray, madam," said I, "is your name Wareing or Tucker?" + +She did not answer, and I repeated the question. "Tucker," she at last +replied in a tremulous whisper. + +"I thought so. And pray, Mrs. Tucker, were you ever 'in trouble' in +London for robbing your lodgings?" + +I thought she attempted to answer, but no sound passed her lips. One of +the ushers of the court handed her a glass of water at my suggestion, and +she seemed to recover somewhat. I pressed my question; and at last she +replied in the same low, agitated voice, "Yes, I have been." + +"I know you have. Mr. Silas Thorndyke, I believe, was your bail on that +occasion, and the matter was, I understand, compromised--arranged--at all +events the prosecution was not pressed. Is not that so?" + +"Yes--no--yes." + +"Very well: either answer will do. You lived also, I believe, with Mr. +Thorndyke, as his housekeeper of course, when he was in business as a +concocter and vender of infallible drugs and pills?" + +"Yes." + +"He was held to be skilful in the preparation of drugs, was he +not--well-versed in their properties?" + +"Yes--I believe so--I do not know. Why am I asked such questions?" + +"You will know presently. And now, woman, answer the question I am about +to put to you, as you will be compelled to answer it to God at the last +great day--What was the nature of the drug which you or he mixed with the +medicine prescribed for the late Mrs. Thorndyke?" + +A spasmodic shriek, checked by a desperate effort, partially escaped her, +and she stood fixedly gazing with starting eyes in my face. + +The profoundest silence reigned in the court as I iterated the question. + +"You must answer, woman," said the judge sternly, "unless you know your +answer will criminate yourself." + +The witness looked wildly round the court, as if in search of counsel or +sympathy; but encountering none but frowning and eager faces--Thorndyke +she could not discern in the darkness--she became giddy and +panic-stricken, and seemed to lose all presence of mind. + +"He--he--he," she at last gasped--"he mixed it. I do not know--But +how," she added, pushing back her hair, and pressing her hands against +her hot temples, "can this be? What can it mean?" + +A movement amongst the bystanders just at this moment attracted +the notice of the judge, and he immediately exclaimed, "The +defendant must not leave the court!" An officer placed himself +beside the wretched murderer as well as forger, and I resumed the +cross-examination of the witness. + +"Now, Mrs. Tucker, please to look at this letter." (It was that which had +been addressed to Mary Woodley by her son.) "That, I believe, is your +son's handwriting?" + +"Yes." + +"The body of this will has been written by the same hand. Now, woman, +answer. Was it your son--this young man who, you perceive, if guilty, +cannot escape from justice--was it he who forged the names of the +deceased Mrs. Thorndyke, and of John Cummins attached to it?" + +"Not he--not he!" shrieked the wretched woman. "It was +Thorndyke--Thorndyke himself." And then with a sudden revulsion of +feeling, as the consequences of what she had uttered flashed upon her, +she exclaimed, "Oh, Silas, what have I said?--what have I done?" + +"Hanged me, that's all, you accursed devil!" replied Thorndyke with +gloomy ferocity. "But I deserve it for trusting in such an idiot: dolt +and fool that I was for doing so." + +The woman sank down in strong convulsions, and was, by direction of the +judge, carried out of the hall. + +The anxious silence which pervaded the court during this scene, in which +the reader will have observed I played a bold, tentative, and +happily-successful game, was broken as the witness was borne off by a +loud murmur of indignation, followed by congratulatory exclamations on +the fortunate termination of the suit. The defendant's counsel threw up +their briefs, and a verdict was at once returned for the plaintiff. + +All the inculpated parties were speedily in custody; and the body of Mrs. +Thorndyke having been disinterred, it was discovered that she had been +destroyed by bichloride of mercury, of which a considerable quantity was +detected in the body. I was not present at the trial of Thorndyke and his +accomplices--he for murder, and Headley for perjury--but I saw by the +public prints that he was found guilty, and executed: Headley was +transported: the woman was, if I remember rightly, admitted evidence for +the crown. + +Mary Woodley was of course put into immediate possession of her paternal +inheritance; and is now--at least she was about four months ago, when I +dined with her and her husband at Dale Farm--a comely, prosperous matron; +and as happy as a woman with a numerous progeny and an easy-tempered +partner can in this, according to romance writers, vale of grief and +tears expect to be. The service I was fortunately enabled to render her +forms one of the most pleasing recollections of my life. + + + + +CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. + + +In the second year of my connection with the Northern Circuit, when even +_junior_ briefs were much less numerous than acceptable, I was agreeably +surprised, as I sat musing on the evening of my arrival in the ancient +city of York upon the capricious mode in which those powerful personages +the attorneys distributed their valuable favors, by the entrance of one +of the most eminent of the race practising in that part of the country, +and the forthwith tender of a bulky brief in the Crown Court, on which, +as my glance instinctively fell on the interesting figures, I perceived +that the large fee, in criminal cases, of fifty guineas was marked. The +local newspapers, from which I had occasionally seen extracts, had been +for some time busy with the case; and I knew it therefore to be, +relatively to the condition in life of the principal person implicated, +an important one. Rumor had assigned the conduct of the defence to an +eminent leader on the circuit--since, one of our ablest judges; and on +looking more closely at the brief, I perceived that that gentleman's name +had been crossed out, and mine substituted. The fee also--a much less +agreeable alteration--had been, I saw, considerably reduced; in +accordance, doubtless, with the attorney's appreciation of the difference +of value between a silk and a stuff gown. + +"You are not, sir, I believe, retained for the prosecution in the crown +against Everett?" said Mr. Sharpe in his brief, business manner. + +"I am not, Mr. Sharpe." + +"In that case, I beg to tender you the leading-brief for the defence. It +was intended, as you perceive, to place it in the hands of our great +_nisi prius_ leader, but he will be so completely occupied in that court, +that he has been compelled to decline it. He mentioned you; and from what +I have myself seen of you in several cases, I have no doubt my +unfortunate client will have ample justice done him. Mr. Kingston will be +with you." + +I thanked Mr. Sharpe for his compliment, and accepted his brief. As the +commission would be opened on the following morning, I at once applied +myself to a perusal of the bulky paper, aided as I read by the verbal +explanations and commentaries of Mr. Sharpe. Our conference lasted +several hours; and it was arranged that another should be held early the +next morning at Mr. Sharpe's office, at which Mr. Kingston would assist. + +Dark, intricate, compassed with fearful mystery, was the case so suddenly +submitted to my guidance; and the few faint gleams of light derived from +the attorney's research, prescience, and sagacity, served but to render +dimly visible a still profounder and blacker abyss of crime than that +disclosed by the evidence for the crown. Young as I then was in the +profession, no marvel that I felt oppressed by the weight of the +responsibility cast upon me; or that, when wearied with thinking, and +dizzy with profitless conjecture, I threw myself into bed, perplexing +images and shapes of guilt and terror pursued me through my troubled +sleep! Happily the next day was not that of trial; for I awoke with a +throbbing pulse and burning brain, and should have been but poorly +prepared for a struggle involving the issues of life and death. Extremely +sensitive, as, under the circumstances, I must necessarily have been, to +the arduous nature of the grave duties so unexpectedly devolved upon me; +the following _résumé_ of the chief incidents of the case, as confided to +me by Mr. Sharpe, will, I think, fully account to the reader for the +nervous irritability under which I for the moment, labored:-- + +Mr. Frederick Everett, the prisoner about to be arraigned before a jury +of his countrymen for the frightful crime of murder, had, with his +father, Captain Anthony Everett, resided for several years past at +Woodlands Manor-House, the seat of Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh, a rich, elderly +maiden lady, aunt to the first, and sister by marriage to the last-named +gentleman. A generous, pious, high-minded person Mrs. Fitzhugh was +represented to have been, but extremely sensitive withal on the score of +"family." The Fitzhughs of Yorkshire, she was wont to boast, "came in +with the Conqueror;" and any branch of the glorious tree then firmly +planted in the soil of England that degraded itself by an alliance with +wealth, beauty, or worth, dwelling without the pale of her narrow +prejudices, was inexorably cut off from her affections, and, as far as +she was able, from her memory. One--the principal of these offenders--had +been Mary Fitzhugh, her young, fair, gentle, and only sister. In utter +disdain and slight of the dignity of ancestry, she had chosen to unite +herself to a gentleman of the name of Mordaunt, who, though possessed of +great talents, an unspotted name, and, for his age, high rank in the +civil service of the East India Company, had--inexpiable misfortune--a +trader for his grandfather! This crime against her "house" Mrs. Eleanor +Fitzhugh resolved never to forgive; and she steadily returned, unopened, +the frequent letters addressed to her by her sister, who pined in her +distant Indian home for a renewal of the old sisterly love which had +watched over and gladdened her life from infancy to womanhood. A long +silence--a silence of many years--succeeded; broken at last by the sad +announcement that the unforgiven one had long since found an early grave +in a foreign land. The letter which brought the intelligence bore the +London post-mark, and was written by Captain Everett; to whom, it was +stated, Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh's sister, early widowed, had been united in +second nuptials, and by whom she had borne a son, Frederick Everett, now +nearly twenty years of age. The long-pent-up affection of Mrs. Fitzhugh +for her once idolized sister burst forth at this announcement of her +death with uncontrollable violence; and, as some atonement for her past +sinful obduracy, she immediately invited the husband and son of her +long-lost Mary to Woodlands Manor-House, to be henceforth, she said, she +hoped their home. Soon after their arrival, Mrs. Fitzhugh made a +will--the family property was entirely at her disposal--revoking a former +one, which bequeathed the whole of the real and personal property to a +distant relative whom she had never seen, and by which all was devised to +her nephew, who was immediately proclaimed sole heir to the Fitzhugh +estates, yielding a yearly rental of at least £12,000. Nay, so thoroughly +was she softened towards the memory of her deceased sister, that the +will--of which, as I have stated, no secret was made--provided, in the +event of Frederick dying childless, that the property should pass to his +father, Mary Fitzhugh's second husband. + +No two persons could be more unlike than were the father and +son--mentally, morally, physically. Frederick Everett was a fair-haired, +blue-eyed young man, of amiable, caressing manners, gentle disposition, +and ardent, poetic temperament. His father, on the contrary, was a +dark-featured, cold, haughty, repulsive man, ever apparently wrapped up +in selfish and moody reveries. Between him and his son there appeared to +exist but little of cordial intercourse, although the highly-sensitive +and religious tone of mind of Frederick Everett caused him to treat his +parent with unvarying deference and respect. + +The poetic temperament of Frederick Everett brought him at last, as +poetic temperaments are apt to do, into trouble. Youth, beauty, +innocence, and grace, united in the person of Lucy Carrington--the only +child of Mr. Stephen Carrington, a respectable retired merchant of +moderate means, residing within a few miles of Woodlands +Manor-House--crossed his path; and spite of his shield of many +quarterings, he was vanquished in an instant, and almost without +resistance. The at least tacit consent and approval of Mr. Carrington and +his fair daughter secured, Mr. Everett, junior--hasty, headstrong lover +that he was--immediately disclosed his matrimonial projects to his father +and aunt. Captain Everett received the announcement with a sarcastic +smile, coldly remarking, that if Mrs. Fitzhugh was satisfied, he had no +objection to offer. But, alas! no sooner did her nephew, with much +periphrastic eloquence, in part his passion for the daughter of a _mere_ +merchant to his aunt, than a vehement torrent of indignant rebuke broke +from her lips. She would die rather than consent to so degrading a +_mésalliance_; and should he persist in yielding to such gross +infatuation, she would not only disinherit, but banish him her house, and +cast him forth a beggar on the world. Language like this, one can easily +understand, provoked language from the indignant young man which in less +heated moments he would have disdained to utter; and the aunt and nephew +parted in fierce anger, and after mutual denunciation of each other--he +as a disobedient ingrate, she as an imperious, ungenerous tyrant. The +quarrel was with some difficulty patched up by Captain Everett; and with +the exception of the change which took place in the disappointed lover's +demeanor--from light-hearted gaiety to gloom and sullenness--things, +after a few days, went on pretty nearly as before. + +The sudden rupture of the hopes Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh had reposed in her +nephew as the restorer of the glories of her ancient "house," tarnished +by Mary Fitzhugh's marriage, affected dangerously, it soon appeared, that +lady's already failing health. A fortnight after the quarrel with her +nephew, she became alarmingly ill. Unusual and baffling symptoms showed +themselves; and after suffering during eight days from alternate acute +pain, and heavy, unconquerable drowsiness, she expired in her nephew's +arms. This sudden and fatal illness of his relative appeared to reawaken +all Frederick Everett's tenderness and affection for her. He was +incessant in his close attendance in the sick-chamber, permitting no one +else to administer to his aunt either aliment or medicine. On this latter +point, indeed, he insisted, with strange fierceness, taking the medicine +with his own hand from the man who brought it; and after administering +the prescribed quantity, carefully locking up the remainder in a cabinet +in his bed-room. + +On the morning of the day that Mrs. Fitzhugh died, her ordinary medical +attendant, Mr. Smith, terrified and perplexed by the urgency of the +symptoms exhibited by his patient, called in the aid of a +locally-eminent physician, Dr. Archer, or Archford--the name is not very +distinctly written in my memoranda of these occurrences; but we will +call him Archer--who at once changed the treatment till then pursued, +and ordered powerful emetics to be administered, without, however, as +we have seen, producing any saving or sensible effect. The grief of +Frederick Everett, when all hope was over, was unbounded. He threw +himself, in a paroxysm of remorse or frenzy, upon the bed, accusing +himself of having murdered her, with other strange and incoherent +expressions, upon which an intimation soon afterwards made by Dr. Archer +threw startling light. That gentleman, conjointly with Mr. Smith, +requested an immediate interview with Captain Everett, and Mr. Hardyman, +the deceased lady's land-steward and solicitor, who happened to be in +the house at the time. The request was of course complied with, and Dr. +Archer at once bluntly stated that, in his opinion, _poison_ had been +administered to the deceased lady, though of what precise kind he was +somewhat at a loss to conjecture--opium essentially, he thought, though +certainly not in any of its ordinary preparations--one of the alkaloids +probably which chemical science had recently discovered. Be this as it +may, a _post-mortem_ examination of the body would clear up all doubts, +and should take place as speedily as possible. Captain Everett at once +acceded to Dr. Archer's proposal, at the same time observing that he was +quite sure the result would entirely disprove that gentleman's +assumption. Mr. Hardyman also fully concurred in the necessity of a +rigid investigation; and the _post-mortem_ examination should, it was +arranged, take place early on the following morning. + +"I have another and very painful duty to perform," continued Dr. Archer, +addressing Captain Everett. "I find that your son, Mr. Frederick Everett, +alone administered medicine and aliment to Mrs. Fitzhugh during her +illness. Strange, possibly wholly frenzied expressions, but which sounded +vastly like cries of remorse, irrepressible by a person unused to crime, +escaped him in my hearing just after the close of the final scene; +and--But perhaps, Captain Everett, you had better retire: this is +scarcely a subject"-- + +"Go on, sir," said the captain, over whose countenance a strange +expression--to use Dr. Archer's own words--had _flashed_; "go on: I am +better now." + +"We all know," resumed Dr. Archer, "how greatly Mr. Frederick Everett +gains in wealth by his aunt's death; and that her decease, moreover, will +enable him to conclude the marriage to which she was so determinedly +opposed. I think, therefore, that, under all the circumstances, we shall +be fully justified in placing the young gentleman under such--I will not +say custody, but _surveillance_ as will prevent him either from leaving +the house, should he imagine himself suspected, or of destroying any +evidence which may possibly exist of his guilt, if indeed he be guilty." + +"I entirely agree with you, Dr. Archer," exclaimed Mr. Hardyman, who had +listened with much excitement to the doctor's narrative; "and will, upon +my own responsibility, take the necessary steps for effecting the object +you have in view." + +"Gentlemen," said Captain Everett, rising from his chair, "you will of +course do your duty; but I can take no part, nor offer any counsel, in +such a case; I must leave you to your own devices." He then left the +apartment. + +He had been gone but a few minutes, when Frederick Everett, still in a +state of terrible excitement, entered the room, strode fiercely up to Dr. +Archer, and demanded how he dared propose, as the butler had just +informed him he had done, a dissection of his aunt's body. + +"I will not permit it," continued the agitated young man: "I am master +here, and I say it shall not be done. What new horror would you +evoke? Is it not enough that one of the kindest, best of God's +creatures, has perished, but _another_ sacrifice must--What do I say? +Enough that I will not permit it. I have seen similar cases-very +similar cases in--in India!" + +The gentleman so strangely addressed had exchanged significant glances +during the delivery of this incoherent speech; and, quite confirmed in +their previous impression, Mr. Hardyman, as their spokesman, interrupted +the speaker, to inform him that _he_ was the suspected assassin of his +aunt! The accusing sentences had hardly passed the solicitor's lips, when +the furious young man sprang towards him with the bound of a tiger, and +at one blow prostrated him on the floor. He was immediately seized by the +two medical gentlemen, and help having been summoned, he was with much +difficulty secured, and placed in strict confinement, to await the result +of the next day's inquiry. + +The examination of the body disclosed the terrible fact, that the +deceased lady had perished by _acetate of morphine_; thus verifying the +sagacious guess of Dr. Archer. A minute search was immediately made +throughout Mr. Frederick Everett's apartments, and behind one of the +drawers of a cabinet in his bedroom--at the back of the shelf or +partition upon which the drawer rested, and of course completely hidden +by the drawer itself when in its place--was found a flat tin flask, +fluted on the outside, and closed with a screw stopper: it was loosely +enveloped in a sheet of brown paper, directed "--Everett, Esq., Woodlands +Manor-House, Yorkshire;" and upon close examination, a small quantity of +white powder, which proved to be _acetate of morphine_, was found in the +flask. Suspicion of young Everett's guilt now became conviction; and, as +if to confirm beyond all doubt the soundness of the chain of +circumstantial evidence in which he was immeshed, the butler, John +Darby, an aged and trusty servant of the late Mrs. Fitzhugh, made on the +next day the following deposition before the magistrates:-- + +"He had taken in, two days before his late mistress was seized with her +fatal illness, a small brown paper parcel which had been brought by coach +from London, and for which 2s. 10d carriage was charged and paid. The +paper found in Mr. Frederick Everett's cabinet was, he could positively +swear, from the date and figures marked on it, and the handwriting, the +paper wrapper of that parcel. He had given it to young Mr. Everett, who +happened to be in the library at the time. About five minutes afterwards, +he had occasion to return to the library, to inform him that some +fishing-tackle he had ordered was sent home. The door was ajar; and Mr. +Frederick did not at first perceive his entrance, as he was standing with +his back to the door. The paper parcel he, the butler, had just before +delivered was lying open on the table, and Mr. Everett held in one hand a +flat tin flask--the witness had no doubt the same found in the +cabinet--and in the other a note, which he was reading. He, the witness, +coughed, to attract Mr. Everett's attention, who hurriedly turned round, +clapped down the flask and the note, shuffling them under the paper +wrapper, as if to conceal them, and then, in a very confused manner, and +his face as red as flame, asked witness what he wanted there? Witness +thought this behavior very strange at the time; but the incident soon +passed from his mind, and he had thought no more of it till the finding +of the paper and flask as described by the other witnesses." + +Mr. Frederick Everett, who had manifested the strangest impassability, a +calmness as of despair, throughout the inquiry, which perplexed and +disheartened Mr. Sharpe, whose services had been retained by Captain +Everett, allowed even this mischievous evidence to pass without a word of +comment or explanation; and he was, as a matter of course, fully +committed for the wilful murder of his relative. The chain of +circumstantial evidence, motive included, was, it was felt, complete--not +a link was wanting. + +These were the chief incidents disclosed to me by Mr. Sharpe during our +long and painful consultation. Of the precise nature of the terrible +suspicions which haunted and disturbed me, I shall only in this place say +that neither Mr. Sharpe, nor, consequently, myself, would in all +probability have guessed or glanced at them, but for the persistent +assertions of Miss Carrington, that her lover was madly sacrificing +himself from some chimerical motive of honor or duty. + +"You do not know, Mr. Sharpe, as I do," she would frequently exclaim with +tearful vehemence, "the generous, child-like simplicity, the chivalric +enthusiasm, of his character, his utter abnegation of self, and readiness +on all occasions to sacrifice his own ease, his own wishes, to forward +the happiness of others; and, above all, his fantastic notions of +honor--duty, if you will--which would, I feel assured, prompt him to +incur any peril, death itself, to shield from danger any one who had +claims upon him either of blood or of affection. You know to whom my +suspicions point; and how dreadful to think that one so young, so brave, +so pious, and so true, should be sacrificed for such a monster as I +believe that man to be!" + +To all these passionate expostulations the attorney could only reply +that vague suspicions were not judicial proofs; and that if Mr. +Frederick Everett would persist in his obstinate reserve, a fatal result +was inevitable. But Mr. Sharpe readily consented to gratify the wishes +of Mr. Carrington and his daughter on one point: he returned the money, +not a very large sum, which Captain Everett had sent him, and agreed +that Mr. Carrington should supply the funds necessary for the defence of +the prisoner. + +Our consultation the next day at Mr. Sharpe's was a sad and hopeless one. +Nowhere did a gleam of cheerful light break in. The case was +overwhelmingly complete against the prisoner. The vague suspicions we +entertained pointed to a crime so monstrous, so incredible, that we felt +it could not be so much as hinted at upon such, legally considered, +slight grounds. The prisoner was said to be an eloquent speaker, and I +undertook to draw up the outline of a defence, impugning, with all the +dialectic skill I was master of, the conclusiveness of the evidence for +the crown. To this, and a host of testimony to character which we +proposed to call, rested our faint hopes of "a good deliverance!" + +Business was over, and we were taking a glass of wine with Mr. Sharpe, +when his chief clerk entered to say that Sergeant Edwards, an old +soldier--who had spoken to them some time before relative to a large +claim which he asserted he had against Captain Everett, arising out of a +legacy bequeathed to him in India, and the best mode of assuring its +payment by an annuity, as proposed by the captain--had now called to say +that the terms were at last finally arranged, and that he wished to know +when Mr. Sharpe would be at leisure to draw up the bond. "He need not +fear for his money!" exclaimed Sharpe tartly, "the captain will, I fear, +be rich enough before another week has passed over our heads. Tell him to +call to-morrow evening; I will see him after I return from court." A few +minutes afterwards, I and Mr. Kingston took our leave. + +The Crown Court was thronged to suffocation on the following morning, +and the excitement of the auditory appeared to be of the intensest kind. +Miss Carrington, closely veiled, sat beside her father on one of the +side-benches. A true bill against the prisoner had been found on the +previous afternoon; and the trial, it had been arranged, to suit the +convenience of counsel, should be first proceeded with. The court was +presided over by Mr. Justice Grose; and Mr. Gurney--afterwards Mr. Baron +Gurney--with another gentleman appeared for the prosecution. As soon as +the judge had taken his seat, the prisoner was ordered to be brought in, +and a hush of expectation pervaded the assembly. In a few minutes he made +his appearance in the dock. His aspect--calm, mournful, and full of +patient resignation--spoke strongly to the feelings of the audience, and +a low murmur of sympathy ran through the court. He bowed respectfully to +the bench, and then his sad, proud eye wandered round the auditory, till +it rested on the form of Lucy Carrington, who, overcome by sudden +emotion, had hidden her weeping face in her father's bosom. Strong +feeling, which he with difficulty mastered, shook his frame, and blanched +to a still deeper pallor his fine intellectual countenance. He slowly +withdrew his gaze from the agitating spectacle, and his troubled glance +meeting that of Mr. Sharpe, seemed to ask why proceedings, which _could_ +only have one termination, were delayed. He had not long to wait. The +jury were sworn, and Mr. Gurney rose to address them for the crown. +Clear, terse, logical, powerful without the slightest pretence to what is +called eloquence, his speech produced a tremendous impression upon all +who heard it; and few persons mentally withheld their assent to his +assertion, as he concluded what was evidently a painful task, "that +should he produce evidence substantiating the statement he had made, the +man who could then refuse to believe in the prisoner's guilt, would +equally refuse credence to actions witnessed by his own bodily eyes." + +The different witnesses were then called, and testified to the various +facts I have before related. Vainly did Mr. Kingston and I exert +ourselves to invalidate the irresistible proofs of guilt so +dispassionately detailed. "It is useless," whispered Mr. Sharpe, as I sat +down after the cross-examination of the aged butler. "You have done all +that could be done; but he is a doomed man, spite of his innocence, of +which I feel, every moment that I look at him, the more and more +convinced. God help us; we are poor, fallible creatures, with all our +scientific machinery for getting at truth!" + +The case for the crown was over, and the prisoner was told that now was +the time for him to address the jury in answer to the charge preferred +against him. He bowed courteously to the intimation, and drawing a paper +from his pocket, spoke, after a few preliminary words of course, nearly +as follows:-- + +"I hold in my hand a very acute and eloquent address prepared for me by +one of the able and zealous gentlemen who appears to-day as my counsel, +and which, but for the iniquitous law which prohibits the advocate of a +presumed felon, but possibly quite innocent person, from addressing the +jury, upon whose verdict his client's fate depends, would no doubt have +formed the subject-matter of an appeal to you not to yield credence to +the apparently irrefragable testimony arrayed against me. The substance +of this defence you must have gathered from the tenor of the +cross-examinations; but so little effect did it produce, I saw, in that +form, however ably done, and so satisfied am I that though it were +rendered with an angel's eloquence, it would prove utterly impotent to +shake the strong conclusions of my guilt, which you, short-sighted, +fallible mortals--short-sighted and fallible _because_ mortal!--I mean no +disrespect--must have drawn from the body of evidence you have heard, +that I will not weary you or myself by reading it. I will only observe +that it points especially to the _over_-roof, so to speak, arrayed +against me--to the folly of supposing that an intentional murderer would +ostentatiously persist in administering the fatal potion to the victim +with his own hands, carefully excluding all others from a chance of +incurring suspicion. There are other points, but this is by far the most +powerful one; and as I cannot believe _that_ will induce you to return a +verdict rescuing me from what the foolish world, judging from +appearances, will call a shameful death, but which I, knowing my own +heart, feel to be sanctified by the highest motives which can influence +man--it would be merely waste of time to repeat them. From the first +moment, gentlemen, that this accusation was preferred against me, I felt +that I had done with this world; and, young as I am, but for one beloved +being whose presence lighted up and irradiated this else cold and barren +earth, I should, with little reluctance, have accepted this gift of an +apparently severe, but perhaps merciful fate. This life, gentlemen," he +continued after a short pause, "it has been well said, is but a battle +and a march. I have been struck down early in the combat; but of what +moment is that, if it be found by Him who witnesses the world-unnoticed +deeds of _all_ his soldiers, that I have earned the victor's crown? Let +it be your consolation, gentlemen, if hereafter you should discover that +you have sent me to an undeserved death, that you at least will not have +hurried a soul spotted with the awful crime of murder before its Maker. +And oh," he exclaimed in conclusion, with solemn earnestness, "may _all_ +who have the guilt of blood upon them hasten, whilst life is still +granted them, to cleanse themselves by repentance of that foul sin, so +that not only the sacrifice of one poor life, but that most holy and +tremendous one offered in the world's consummate hour, may not for them +have been made in vain! My lord and gentlemen, I have no more to say. You +will doubtless do your duty: I _have_ done mine." + +I was about, a few minutes after the conclusion of this strange and +unexpected address, to call our witnesses to character, when, to the +surprise of the whole court, and the consternation of the prisoner, Miss +Carrington started up, threw aside her veil, and addressing the judge, +demanded to be heard. + +Queenly, graceful, and of touching loveliness did she look in her +vehemence of sorrow--radiant as sunlight in her days of joy she must have +been--as she stood up, affection-prompted, regardless of self, of the +world, to make one last effort to save her affianced husband. + +"What would you say, young lady?" said Mr. Justice Grose, kindly. "If you +have anything to testify in favor of the prisoner, you had better +communicate with his counsel." + +"Not that--not that," she hurriedly replied, as if fearful that her +strength would fail before she had enunciated her purpose. "Put, my lord, +put Frederick--the prisoner, I mean--on his oath. Bid him declare, as he +shall answer at the bar of Almighty God, who is the murderer for whom he +is about to madly sacrifice himself, and you will then find"-- + +"Your request is an absurd one," interrupted the judge with some +asperity. "I have no power to question a prisoner." + +"Then," shrieked the unfortunate lady, sinking back fainting and helpless +in her father's arms, "he is lost--lost!" + +She was immediately carried out of court; and as soon as the sensation +caused by so extraordinary and painful an incident had subsided, the +trial proceeded. A cloud of witnesses to character were called; the judge +summed up; the jury deliberated for a few minutes; and a verdict of +"guilty" was returned. Sentence to die on the day after the next +followed, and all was over! + +Yes; all was, we deemed, over; but happily a decree, reversing that of +Mr. Justice Grose, had gone forth in Heaven. I was sitting at home about +an hour after the court had closed, painfully musing on the events of +the day, when the door of the apartment suddenly flew open, and in +rushed Mr. Sharpe in a state of great excitement, accompanied by +Sergeant Edwards, whom the reader will remember had called the previous +day at that gentleman's house. In a few minutes I was in possession of +the following important information, elicited by Mr. Sharpe from the +half-willing, half-reluctant sergeant, whom he had found waiting for him +at his office:-- + +In the first place, Captain Everett was _not_ the father of the prisoner! +The young man was the son of Mary Fitzhugh by her _first_ marriage; and +his name, consequently, was Mordaunt, not Everett. His mother had +survived her second marriage barely six months. Everett, calculating +doubtless upon the great pecuniary advantages which would be likely to +result to himself as the reputed father of the heir to a splendid English +estate, should the quarrel with Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh--as he nothing +doubted--be ultimately made up, had brought his deceased wife's infant +son up as his own. This was the secret of Edwards and his wife; and to +purchase their silence, Captain Everett had agreed to give the bond for +an annuity which Mr. Sharpe was to draw up. The story of the legacy was a +mere pretence. When Edwards was in Yorkshire before, Everett pacified +him for the time with a sum of money, and a promise to do more for him as +soon as his reputed son came into the property. He then hurried the +_cidevant_ sergeant back to London; and at the last interview he had +with him, gave him a note addressed to a person living in one of the +streets--I forget which--leading out of the Haymarket, together with a +five-pound note, which he was to pay the person to whom the letter was +addressed for some very rare and valuable powder, which the captain +wanted for scientific purposes, and which Edwards was to forward by coach +to Woodlands Manor-House. Edwards obeyed his instructions, and delivered +the message to the queer bushy-bearded foreigner to whom it was +addressed, who told him that, if he brought him the sum of money +mentioned in the note on the following day, he should have the article +required. He also bade him bring a well-stoppered bottle to put it in. As +the bottle was to be sent by coach, Edwards purchased a tin flask, as +affording a better security against breakage; and having obtained the +powder, packed it nicely up, and told his niece, who was staying with him +at the time, to direct it, as he was in a hurry to go out, to Squire +Everett, Woodlands Manor-House, Yorkshire, and then take it to the +booking-office. He thought, of course, though he said _Squire_ in a +jocular way, that she would have directed it _Captain_ Everett, as she +knew him well; but it seemed she had not. Edwards had returned to +Yorkshire only two days since, to get his annuity settled, and +fortunately was present in court at the trial of Frederick Mordaunt, +_alias_ Everett, and at once recognized the tin flask as the one he had +purchased and forwarded to Woodlands, where it must in due course have +arrived on the day stated by the butler. Terrified and bewildered at the +consequences of what he had done, or helped to do, Edwards hastened to +Mr. Sharpe, who, by dint of exhortations, threats, and promises, +judiciously blended, induced him to make a clean breast of it. + +As much astounded as elated by this unlooked-for information, it was some +minutes before I could sufficiently concentrate my thoughts upon the +proper course to be pursued. I was not, however, long in deciding. +Leaving Mr. Sharpe to draw up an affidavit of the facts disclosed, I +hastened off to the jail, in order to obtain a thorough elucidation of +all the mysteries. + +The revulsion of feeling in the prisoner's mind when he learned that the +man for whom he had so recklessly sacrificed himself was not only _not_ +his father, but a cold-blooded villain, who, according to the testimony +of Sergeant Edwards, had embittered, perhaps shortened, his mother's last +hours, was immediate and excessive. "I should have taken Lucy's advice!" +he bitterly exclaimed, as he strode to and fro in his cell; "have told +the truth at all hazards, and have left the rest to God." His explanation +of the incidents that had so puzzled us all, was as simple as +satisfactory. He had always, from his earliest days, stood much in awe of +his father, who in the, to young Mordaunt, sacred character of parent, +exercised an irresistible control over him; and when the butler entered +the library, he believed for an instant it was his father who had +surprised him in the act of reading his correspondence; an act which, +however unintentional, would, he knew, excite Captain Everett's fiercest +wrath. Hence arose the dismay and confusion which the butler had +described. He re-sealed the parcel, and placed it in his reputed father's +dressing-room; and thought little more of the matter, till, on entering +his aunt's bedroom on the first evening of her illness, he beheld Everett +pour a small portion of white powder from the tin flask into the bottle +containing his aunt's medicine. The terrible truth at once flashed upon +him. A fierce altercation immediately ensued in the father's +dressing-room, whither Frederick followed him. Everett persisted that the +powder was a celebrated Eastern medicament, which would save, if anything +could, his aunt's life. The young man was not of course deceived by this +shallow falsehood, and from that moment administered the medicine to the +patient with his own hands, and kept the bottles which contained it +locked up in his cabinet. "On the very morning of my aunt's death, I +surprised him shutting and locking one of my cabinet drawers. So +dumbfounded was I with horror and dismay at the sight, that he left the +room by a side-door without observing me. You have now the key to my +conduct. I loathed to look upon the murderer; but I would have died a +thousand deaths rather than attempt to save my own life by the sacrifice +of a father's--how guilty soever he might be." + +Furnished with this explanation, and the affidavit of Edwards, I waited +upon the judge, and obtained not only a respite for the prisoner, but a +warrant for the arrest of Captain Everett. + +It was a busy evening. Edwards was despatched to London in the friendly +custody of an intelligent officer, to secure the person of the +foreign-looking vender of subtle poisons; and Mr. Sharpe, with two +constables, set off in a postchaise for Woodlands Manor-House. It was +late when they arrived there, and the servants informed them that Captain +Everett had already retired. They of course insisted upon seeing him; and +he presently appeared, wrapped in a dressing-gown, and haughtily demanded +their business with him at such an hour. The answer smote him as with a +thunderbolt, and he staggered backwards, till arrested by the wall of the +apartment, and then sank feebly, nervelessly, into a chair. Eagerly, +after a pause, he questioned the intruders upon the nature of the +evidence against him. Mr. Sharpe briefly replied that Edwards was in +custody, and had revealed everything. + +"Is it indeed so?" rejoined Everett, seeming to derive resolution and +fortitude from the very extremity of despair. "Then the game is +unquestionably lost. It was, however, boldly and skilfully played, and I +am not a man to whimper over a fatal turn of the dice. In a few minutes, +gentlemen," he added, "I shall have changed my dress, and be ready to +accompany you." + +"We cannot lose sight of you for an instant," replied Mr. Sharpe. "One of +the officers must accompany you." + +"Be it so: I shall not detain either him or you long." + +Captain Everett, followed by the officer, passed into his dressing-room. +He pulled off his gown; and pointing to a coat suspended on a peg at the +further extremity of the apartment, requested the constable to reach it +for him. The man hastened to comply with his wish. Swiftly, Everett +opened a dressing-case which stood on a table near him: the officer +heard the sharp clicking of a pistol-lock, and turned swiftly round. Too +late! A loud report rang through the house; the room was filled with +smoke; and the wretched assassin and suicide lay extended on the floor a +mangled corpse! + +It would be useless minutely to recapitulate, the final winding-up of +this eventful drama. Suffice it to record, that Mr. Frederick Mordaunt +was, after a slight delay, restored to freedom and a splendid position in +society. After the lapse of a decent interval, he espoused Lucy +Carrington. Their eldest son represents in this present parliament one of +the English boroughs, and is by no means an undistinguished member of the +Commons House. + + + + +"THE ACCOMMODATION BILL." + + +Such of the incidents of the following narrative as did not fall within +my own personal observation, were communicated to me by the late Mr. +Ralph Symonds, and the dying confessions of James Hornby, one of the +persons killed by the falling in of the iron roof of the Brunswick +Theatre. A conversation the other day with a son of Mr. Symonds, who has +been long settled in London, recalled the entire chain of circumstances +to my memory with all the vivid distinctness of a first impression. + +One evening towards the close of the year 1806, the Leeds coach brought +Mr. James Hornby to the village of Pool, on the Wharf, in the West-Riding +of Yorkshire. A small but respectable house on the confines of the place +had been prepared for his reception, and a few minutes after his descent +from the top of the coach, the pale, withered-looking man disappeared +within it. Except for occasional trips to Otley, a small market-town +distant about three miles from Pool, he rarely afterwards emerged from +its seclusion. It was not _Time_, we shall presently see--he was indeed +but four-and-forty years of age--that had bowed his figure, thinned his +whitening hair, and banished from his countenance all signs of healthy, +cheerful life. This, too, appeared to be the opinion of the gossips of +the village, who, congregated, as usual, to witness the arrival and +departure of the coach, indulged, thought Mr. Symonds, who was an inside +passenger proceeding on to Otley, in remarkably free-and-easy +commentaries upon the past, present, and future of the new-comer. + +"I mind him well," quavered an old white-haired man. "It's just +three-and-twenty years ago last Michaelmas. I remember it because of the +hard frost two years before, that young Jim Hornby left Otley to go to +Lunnon: just the place, I'm told, to give the finishing polish to such a +miscreant as he seemed likely to be. He was just out of his time to old +Hornby, his uncle, the grocer." + +"He that's left him such heaps of money?" + +"Ay, boy, the very same, though he wouldn't have given him or any one +else a cheese-paring whilst he lived. This one is a true chip of the +old block, I'll warrant. You noticed that he rode outside, bitter cold +as it is?". + +"Surely, Gaffer Hicks. But do ye mind what it was he went off in such a +skurry for? Tom Harris was saying last night at the Horse-Shoe, it was +something concerning a horse-race or a young woman; he warn't quite +sensible which." + +"I can't say," rejoined the more ancient oracle, "that I quite mind all +the ups and downs of it. Henry Burton horse-whipped him on the Doncaster +race-course, _that_ I know; but whether it was about Cinderella that had, +they said, been tampered with the night before the race, or Miss +Elizabeth Grainsford, whom Burton married a few weeks afterwards, I +can't, as Tom Harris says, quite clearly remember." + +"Old Hornby had a heavy grip of Burton's farm for a long time before he +died, they were saying yesterday at Otley. The sheepskins will now no +doubt be in the nephew's strong box." + +"True, lad; and let's hope Master Burton will be regular with his +payments; for if not, there's Jail and Ruin for him written in capital +letters on yon fellow's cast-iron phiz, I can see." + +The random hits of these Pool gossips, which were here interrupted by +the departure of the coach, were not very wide of the mark. James Hornby, +it was quite true, had been publicly horsewhipped twenty-three years +before by Henry Burton on the Doncaster race-course, ostensibly on +account of the sudden withdrawal of a horse that should have started, a +transaction with which young Hornby was in some measure mixed up; but +especially and really for having dared, upon the strength of presumptive +heirship to his uncle's wealth, to advance pretensions to the fair hand +of Elizabeth Gainsford, the eldest daughter of Mr. Robert Gainsford, +surgeon, of Otley--pretensions indirectly favored, it was said, by the +father, but contemptuously repudiated by the lady. Be this as it may, +three weeks after the races, Elizabeth Gainsford became Mrs. Burton, and +James Hornby hurried off to London, grudgingly furnished for the journey +by his uncle. He obtained a situation as shopman in one of the large +grocer establishments of the metropolis; and twenty-three years +afterwards, the attorney's letter, informing him that he had succeeded to +all his deceased uncle's property, found him in the same place, and in +the same capacity. + +A perfect yell of delight broke from the lips of the taciturn man as his +glance devoured the welcome intelligence. "At last!" he shouted with +maniacal glee; and fiercely crumpling the letter in his hand, as if he +held a living foe in his grasp, whilst a flash of fiendish passion broke +from the deep caverns of his sunken eyes--"at last I have thee on the +hip! Ah, mine enemy!--it is the dead--the dead alone that never return +to hurl back on the head of the wrong-doer the shame, the misery, the +ruin he inflicted in his hour of triumph!" The violence of passions +suddenly unreined after years of jealous curb and watchfulness for a +moment overcame him, and he reeled as if fainting, into a chair. The +fierce, stern nature of the man soon mastered the unwonted excitement, +and in a few minutes he was cold, silent, impassable as ever. The letter +which he despatched the same evening gave calm, business orders as to +his uncle's funeral, and other pressing matters upon which the attorney +had demanded instructions, and concluded by intimating that he should be +in Yorkshire before many days elapsed. He arrived, as we have seen, and +took up his abode at one of the houses bequeathed to him in Pool, which +happened to be unlet. + +Yes, for more than twenty bitter years James Hornby had savagely brooded +over the shame and wrong inflicted on him before the mocking eyes of a +brutal crowd by Henry Burton. Ever as the day's routine business closed, +and he retired to the dull solitude of his chamber, the last mind-picture +which faded on his waking sense was the scene on the crowded race-course, +with all its exasperating accessories--the merciless exultation of the +triumphant adversary--the jibes and laughter of his companions--the +hootings of the mob--to be again repeated with fantastic exaggeration in +the dreams which troubled and perplexed his broken sleep. No wonder that +the demons of Revenge and Hate, by whom he was thus goaded, should have +withered by their poisonous breath the healthful life which God had +given--have blasted with premature old age a body rocker with curses to +unblessed repose! It seemed, by his after-confessions, that he had really +loved Elizabeth Gainsford with all the energy of his violent, moody +nature, and that her image, fresh, lustrous, radiant, as in the dawn of +life, unceasingly haunted his imagination with visions of tenderness and +beauty, lost to him, as he believed, through the wiles, the calumnies, +and violence of his detested, successful rival. + +The matronly person who, a few days after the Christmas following +Hornby's arrival at Pool, was conversing with her husband in the parlor +of Grange farmhouse, scarcely realized the air-drawn image which dwelt in +the memory of the unforgiving, unforgetting man. Mrs. Burton was at this +time a comely dame, whose _embonpoint_ contour, however indicative of +florid health and serenity of temper, exhibited little of the airy +elegance and grace said to have distinguished the girlhood of Elizabeth +Gainsford. Her soft brown eyes were gentle and kind as ever, but the +brilliant lights of youth no longer sparkled in their quiet depths, and +time had not only "thinned her flowing hair"--necessitating caps--but had +brushed the roses from her cheeks, and swept away, with his searing hand, +the pale lilies from the furtive coverts whence they had glanced in +tremulous beauty, in life's sweet prime; yet for all that, and a great +deal more, Mrs. Burton, I have no manner of doubt, looked charmingly in +the bright fire-blaze which gleamed in chequered light and shade upon the +walls, pictures, curtains of the room, and the green leaves and scarlet +berries of the Christmas holly with which it was profusely decorated. +Three of her children--the eldest, Elizabeth, a resuscitation of her own +youth--were by her side, and opposite sat her husband, whose frank, +hearty countenance seemed to sparkle with careless mirth. + +"Hornby will be here presently, Elizabeth," said he. "What a +disappointment awaits the rascally curmudgeon! His uncle was a prince +compared to him." + +"Disappointment, Henry! to receive four hundred pounds he did not +expect?" + +"Ay, truly, dame. Lawyer Symonds' son Frank, a fine, good-hearted young +fellow as ever stepped in shoe-leather--Lizzy, girl, if that candle +were nearer your face it would light without a match"-- + +"Nonsense, father!" + +"Very likely. Frank Symonds, I was saying, believes, and so does his +father, that Hornby would rejoice at an opportunity of returning with +interest the smart score I marked upon his back three-and-twenty +years ago" + +"It was a thoughtless, cruel act, Henry," rejoined his wife, "and the +less said of it the better. I hope the fright we have had will induce you +to practice a better economy than heretofore; so that, instead of +allowing two years' interest to accumulate upon us, we may gradually +reduce the mortgage." + +"That we will, dear, depend upon it. We shall be pushed a little at +first: Kirkshaw, who lent me the two hundred and fifty, can only spare it +for a month; but no doubt the bank will do a bill for part of it by that +time. But sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Here is the money +for Hornby at all events: and here at last comes the shrivelled atomy; I +hear his horse. Fanny, light the candles." + +If Mrs. Burton had consciously or unconsciously entertained the +self-flattering notion that the still unwedded bachelor who had +unsuccessfully wooed her nearly a quarter of a century before, still +retained a feeling of regretful tenderness for her, she must have been +grievously surprised by the cold, unrecognizing glance which Hornby +threw on her as he entered, and curtly replied to her civil greeting. +_That_ was not the image stamped upon his heart and brain! But when her +eldest daughter approached the lights to place paper and pens upon the +table, the flashing glance and white quivering lip of the grave visitor +revealed the tempest of emotion which for an instant shook him. He +quickly suppressed all outward manifestation of feeling, and in a dry, +business tone, demanded if Mr. Burton was ready to pay the interest of +the mortgage. + +"Yes, thank God," replied Burton, "I am: here is the money in notes of +the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. Count them!" + +Hornby bent down over the notes, shading his face with his hand, as if +more accurately to examine them, and the glance of baffled rage which +swept across his features was not observed. + +"They are quite right," he said, rising from his chair; "and here is +your receipt." + +"Very Good! And now, Hornby, let us have a glass of wine together for the +sake of old times. Well, well; you need not look so fierce about it. Let +bygones be bygones, I say. Oh, if you _will_ go--go in God's name! +Good-night!" + +"Good-night!" + +"Baffled--foiled!" muttered Hornby as he rode homeward. "Where could he +get the money? Borrowed it, doubtless, but of whom? Well, +patience--patience! I shall grip thee yet, Henry Burton!" And the +possessed man turned round in his saddle, and shook his clenched hand in +the direction of the house he had quitted. He then steadily pursued his +way, and soon regained his hermitage. + +The month for which Burton had borrowed the two hundred and fifty pounds +passed rapidly--as months always do to borrowers--and expedient after +expedient for raising the money was tried in vain. This money must be +repaid, Kirkshaw had emphatically told him, on the day stipulated. Burton +applied to the bank at Leeds, with which he usually did business, to +discount an acceptance, guaranteed by one or two persons whose names he +mentioned. The answer was the usual civil refusal to accept the proffered +security for repayment--"the bank was just then full of discounts." +Burton ventured, as a last resource, to call on Hornby with a request +that, as the rapid advance in the market-value of land consequent on the +high war-prices obtained for its produce, had greatly increased the worth +of Grange Farm, he would add the required sum to the already-existing +mortgage. He was met by a prompt refusal. Mr. Hornby intended to +foreclose as speedily as possible the mortgages he already held, and +invest his capital in more profitable securities. "Well, then--would he +lend the amount at any interest he chose?" + +"The usury laws," replied Hornby, with his usual saturnine sneer, "would +prevent my acceptance of your obliging offer, even if I had the present +means, which I have not. My spare cash happens just now to be temporarily +locked up." + +Burton, half-crazed with anxiety, went the following day to the Leeds +bank with the proffer of a fresh name agreed to be lent him by its +owner. Useless! "They did not know the party." The applicant mused a +few moments, and then said, "Would you discount the note of Mr. James +Hornby of Pool?" + +"Certainly; with a great deal of pleasure." Burton hurried away; had his +horse instantly saddled, and gallopped off to Pool. Hornby was at home. + +"You hinted the other day," said Burton, "that if you had not been short +of present means you might have obliged me with the loan I required" + +"Did I?" + +"At least I so understood you. I am of course not ignorant, Mr. Hornby, +that there is no good blood between us two; but I also know that you are +fond of money, and that you are fully aware that I am quite safe for a +few hundred pounds. I am come, therefore, to offer you ten pounds _bonus_ +for your acceptance at one month for two hundred and fifty pounds." + +"What?" exclaimed Hornby with strange vehemence. "What" + +Burton repeated his offer, and Hornby turned away towards the window +without speaking. + +When he again faced Burton, his countenance wore its usual color; but +the expression of his eyes, the applicant afterwards remembered, was +wild and exulting. + +"Have you a bill stamp?" + +"Yes." + +"Then draw the bill at once, and I will accept it." + +Burton did not require to be twice told. The bill was quickly drawn; +Hornby took it to another table at the further end of the apartment, +slowly wrote his name across it, folded, and returned it to Burton, who +tendered the ten pounds he had offered, and a written acknowledgment that +the bill had been drawn and accepted for his (Burton's) accommodation. + +"I don't want your money, Henry Burton," said Hornby, putting back the +note and the memorandum. "I am not afraid of losing by this transaction. +You do not know me yet." + +"A queer stick," thought Burton, as he gained the street; "but Old Nick +is seldom so black as he's painted! He was a plaguy while, I thought, +signing his name; but I wish I could sign mine to such good purpose." + +Burton laid the accepted bill, face downwards, on the bank counter, took +a pen, indorsed, and passed it to the managing clerk. The gray-headed man +glanced sharply at the signature, and then at Burton, "Why, surely this +is not Mr. Hornby's signature? It does not at all resemble it!" + +"Not his signature!" exclaimed Burton; "what do you mean by that?" + +"Reynolds, look here," continued the clerk, addressing another of the +bank _employés_. Reynolds looked, and his immediate glance of surprise +and horror at Burton revealed the impression he had formed. + +"Please to step this way, Mr. Burton, to a private apartment," said +the manager. + +"No--no, I won't," stammered the unfortunate man, over whose mind a +dreadful suspicion had glanced with the suddenness of lightning. "I will +go back to Hornby;" and he made a desperate but vain effort to snatch the +fatal instrument. Then, pale and staggering with a confused terror and +bewilderment, he attempted to rush into the street. He was stopped, with +the help of the bystanders, by one of the clerks, who had jumped over the +counter for the purpose. + +The messenger despatched by the bankers to Hornby returned with an answer +that the alleged acceptance was a forgery. It was stated on the part of +Mr. Hornby that Mr. Burton had indeed requested him to lend two hundred +and fifty pounds, but he had refused. The frantic asseverations of poor +Burton were of course disregarded, and he was conveyed to jail. An +examination took place the next day before the magistrates, and the +result was, that the prisoner was fully committed on the then capital +charge for trial at the ensuing assize. + +It were useless, as painful, to dwell upon the consternation and agony +which fell upon the dwellers at Grange Farm when the terrible news +reached them. A confident belief in the perfect innocence of the +prisoner, participated by most persons who knew his character and that of +Hornby, and that it would be triumphantly vindicated on the day of trial, +which rapidly approached, alone enabled them to bear up against the blow, +and to await with trembling hope the verdict of a jury. + +It was at this crisis of the drama that I became an actor in it. I was +retained for the defence by my long-known and esteemed friend Symonds, +whose zeal for his client, stimulated by strong personal friendship, knew +no bounds. The acceptance, he informed me, so little resembled Hornby's +handwriting, that if Burton had unfolded the bill when given back to him +by the villain, he could hardly have failed to suspect the nature of the +diabolical snare set for his life. + +In those days, and until Mr., now Sir, Robert Peel's amendment of the +criminal law and practice of this country, the acceptor of a bill of +exchange, on the principle that he was _interested_ in denying the +genuineness of the signature, could not, according to the English law of +evidence, be called, on the part of the prosecution, to prove the +forgery; and of course, after what had taken place, we did not propose to +call Hornby for the defence. The evidence for the crown consisted, +therefore, on the day of trial, of the testimony of persons acquainted +with Hornby's signature, that the acceptance across the inculpated bill +was not in his handwriting. Burton's behavior at the bank, in endeavoring +to repossess himself of the bill by violence, was of course detailed, and +told heavily against him. + +All the time this testimony was being given, Hornby sat on one of the +front seats of the crowded court, exulting in the visible accomplishment +of his Satanic device. We could see but little of his face, which, +supported on his elbow, was partially concealed by a handkerchief he held +in his hand; but I, who narrowly observed him, could occasionally discern +flashes from under his pent brows--revealments of the fierce struggle +which raged within. + +The moment at last arrived for the prisoner, whose eyes had been for some +time fixed on Hornby, to speak or read his defence, and a breathless +silence pervaded the court. + +Burton started at the summons, like a man unexpectedly recalled to a +sense of an imperious, but for the moment forgotten, duty. + +"James Hornby!" he suddenly cried with a voice which rang through the +assembly like a trumpet, "stand up, and if you can face an innocent +man"-- + +Hornby, surprised out of his self-possession, mechanically obeyed the +strange order, sprang involuntarily to his feet, let fall the +handkerchief that had partially concealed his features, and nervously +confronted the prisoner. + +"Look at me, I say," continued Burton with increasing excitement; "and as +you hope to escape the terrors of the last judgment, answer truly: did +you not, with your own hand, and in my presence, sign that bill?"-- + +"This cannot be permitted," interrupted the judge. + +"If you do not speak," proceeded the prisoner, heedless of the +intimation from the bench; "or if you deny the truth, my life, as sure +as there is a God in heaven, will be required at your hands. If, in +consequence of your devilish plotting, these men consign me to a felon's +grave, I shall not be cold in it when you will be calling upon the +mountains to fall and cover you from the vengeance of the Judge of +heaven and earth! Speak, man--save me: save your own soul from mortal +peril whilst there is yet time for mercy and repentance!" + +Hornby's expression of surprise and confusion had gradually changed +during this appeal to its usual character of dogged impassibility. He +turned calmly and appealingly towards the bench. + +"You need not answer these wild adjurations, Mr. Hornby," said the judge, +as soon as he could make himself heard. + +A smile curled the fellow's lip as he bowed deferentially to his +lordship, and he sat down without uttering a syllable. + +"May the Lord, then, have mercy on my soul!" exclaimed the prisoner +solemnly. Then glancing at the bench and jury-box, he added, "And you, my +lord and gentlemen, work your will with my body as quickly as you may: I +am a lost man!" + +The calling of witnesses to character, the opening of the judge's charge, +pointing from its first sentence to a conviction, elicited no further +manifestation of feeling from the prisoner: he was as calm as despair. + +The judge had been speaking for perhaps ten minutes, when a bustle was +heard at the hall, as if persons were striving to force their way into +the body of the court in spite of the resistance of the officers. + +"Who is that disturbing the court?" demanded the judge angrily. + +"For the love of Heaven let me pass!" we heard uttered in passionate +tones by a female voice. "I must and will see the judge!" + +"Who can this be?" T inquired, addressing Mr. Symonds. + +"I cannot conceive," he replied; "surely not Mrs. Burton?" + +I had kept my eye, as I spoke, upon Hornby, and noticed that he exhibited +extraordinary emotion at the sound of the voice, to whomsoever it +belonged, and was now endeavoring to force his way through the crowded +and anxious auditory. + +"My lord," said I, "I have to request on the part of the prisoner that +the person desirous of admittance may be heard." + +"What has she to say? Or if a material witness, why have you not called +her at the proper time?" replied his lordship with some irritation. + +"My lord, I do not even now know her name; but in a case involving the +life of the prisoner, it is imperative that no chance be neglected"-- + +"Let the woman pass into the witness-box," interrupted the judge. + +The order brought before our eyes a pale, stunted woman, of about fifty +years of age, whose excited and by no means unintellectual features, and +hurried, earnest manner, seemed to betoken great and unusual feeling. + +"As I'm alive, Hornby's deformed housekeeper!" whispered Symonds. "This +poor devil's knot will be unraveled yet." + +The woman, whose countenance and demeanor, as she gave her evidence, +exhibited a serious, almost solemn intelligence, deposed to the +following effect:-- + +"Her name was Mary McGrath, and she was the daughter of Irish parents, +but born and brought up in England. She had been Mr. Hornby's +housekeeper, and remembered well the 4th of February last, when Mr. +Burton, the prisoner, called at the house. Witness was dusting in an +apartment close to her master's business-room, from which it was only +separated by a thin wooden partition. The door was partly open, and she +could see as well as hear what was going on without being seen herself. +She heard the conversation between the prisoner and her master; heard +Mr. Hornby agree to sign the paper--bill she ought to say--for two +hundred and fifty pounds; saw him do it, and then deliver it folded up +to Mr. Burton." + +A shout of execration burst from the auditory as these words were +uttered, and every eye was turned to the spot where Hornby had been +seated. He had disappeared during the previous confusion. + +"Silence!" exclaimed the judge sternly. "Why, woman," he added, "have you +never spoken of this before?" + +"Because, my lord," replied the witness with downcast looks, and in a +low, broken voice--"because I am a sinful, wicked creature. When my +master, the day after Mr. Burton had been taken up, discovered that I +knew his secret, he bribed me with money and great promises of more to +silence. I had been nearly all my life, gentlemen, poor and miserable, +almost an outcast, and the temptation was too strong for me. He +mistrusted me, however--for my mind, he saw, was sore troubled--and he +sent me off to London yesterday, to be out of the way till all was over. +The coach stopped at Leeds, and, as it was heavy upon me, I thought, +especially as it was the blessed Easter-time, that I would step to the +chapel. His holy name be praised that I did! The scales seemed to fall +from my eyes, and I saw clearer than I had before the terrible wickedness +I was committing. I told all to the priest, and he has brought me here to +make what amends I can for the sin and cruelty of which I have been +guilty. There--there is all that is left of the wages of crime," she +added, throwing a purse of money on the floor of the court; and then +bursting into a flood of tears, she exclaimed with passionate +earnestness, "for which may the Almighty of his infinite mercy pardon and +absolve me!" + +"Amen!" responded the deep husky voice of the prisoner, snatched back, as +it were, from the very verge of the grave to liberty and life. "Amen, +with all my soul!" + +The counsel for the crown, cross-examined the witness, but his efforts +only brought out her evidence in, if possible, a still clearer and more +trustworthy light. Not a thought of doubt was entertained by any person +in the court, and the jury, with the alacrity of men relieved of a +grievous burthen, and without troubling the judge to resume his +interrupted charge, returned a verdict of acquittal. + +The return of Burton to his home figured as an ovation in the Pool and +Otley annals. The greetings which met him on all sides were boisterous +and hearty, as English greetings usually are; and it was with some +difficulty the rustic constabulary could muster a sufficient force to +save Hornby's domicile from sack and destruction. All the windows were, +however, smashed, and that the mob felt was something at all events. + +Burton profited by the painful ordeal to which he had, primarily through +his own thoughtlessness, been exposed, and came in a few years to be +regarded as one of the most prosperous yeomen-farmers of Yorkshire. Mr. +Frank Symonds' union with Elizabeth Burton was in due time solemnized; +Mr. Wilberforce, the then popular member for the West Riding, I remember +hearing, stood sponsor to their eldest born; and Mary McGrath passed the +remainder of her life in the service of the family her testimony had +saved from disgrace and ruin. + +Mr. James Hornby disappeared from Yorkshire immediately after the trial, +and, except through his business agents, was not again heard of till the +catastrophe at the Brunswick Theatre, where he perished. He died +penitent, after expressing to Mr. Frank Symonds, for whom he had sent, +his deep sorrow for the evil deed he had planned, and, but for a +merciful interposition, would have accomplished. As a proof of the +sincerity of his repentance, he bequeathed the bulk of his property to +Mrs. Symonds, the daughter of the man he had pursued with such savage +and relentless hate! + + + + +THE REFUGEE. + + +The events which I am about to relate occurred towards the close of the +last century, some time before I was called to the bar, and do not +therefore in strictness fall within my own experiences as a barrister. +Still, as they came to my knowledge with much greater completeness than +if I had been only professionally engaged to assist in the catastrophe of +the drama through which they are evolved, and, as I conceive, throw a +strong light upon the practical working of our criminal jurisprudence, a +brief page of these slight leaves may not inappropriately record them. + +About the time I have indicated, a Mrs. Rushton, the widow of a gentleman +of commercial opulence, resided in Upper Harley Street, Cavendish Square. +She was a woman of "family," and by her marriage had greatly lowered +herself, in her relatives' opinion, by a union with a person who, however +wealthy and otherwise honorable, was so entirely the architect of his own +fortunes--owed all that he possessed so immediately to his own skill, +sagacity, and perseverance--that there was an unpleasant rumor abroad +about his widowed mother being indebted to her son's success in business +for having passed the last ten years of her life in ease and competence. +Mr. Rushton had left his widow a handsome annuity, and to his and her +only son a well-invested income of upwards of seven thousand a year. +Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Rushton, who inherited quite her +full share of family pride, if nothing else, had sought by every method +she could devise to re-enter the charmed circle from which her union with +a city merchant had excluded her. The most effectual mode of +accomplishing her purpose was, she knew, to bring about a marriage +between her son and a lady who would not be indisposed to accept of +wealth and a well-appointed establishment in Mayfair as a set-off against +birth and high connection. + +Arthur Rushton, at this time between two and three-and-twenty years of +age, was a mild, retiring, rather shy person, and endowed with a +tenderness of disposition, of which the tranquil depths had not as yet +been ruffled by the faintest breath of passion. His mother possessed +almost unbounded influence over him; and he ever listened with a smile, a +languid, half-disdainful one, to her eager speculations upon the numerous +eligible matches that would present themselves the instant the "season" +and their new establishment in Mayfair--of which the decoration and +furnishing engaged all her available time and attention--enabled them to +open the campaign with effect. Arthur Rushton and myself had been college +companions, and our friendly intimacy continued for several years +afterwards. At this period especially we were very cordial and unreserved +in our intercourse with each other. + +London at this time was crowded with French exiles, escaped from the +devouring sword of Robespierre and his helpers in the work of government +by the guillotine, almost all of whom claimed to be members of, or +closely connected with, the ancient nobility of France. Among these was +an elderly gentleman of the name of De Tourville, who, with his daughter +Eugénie, had for a considerable time occupied a first floor in King +Street, Holborn. Him I never saw in life, but Mademoiselle de Tourville +was one of the most accomplished, graceful, enchantingly-interesting +persons I have ever seen or known. There was a dangerous fascination in +the pensive tenderness through which her natural gaiety and archness of +manner would at intervals flash, like April sunlight glancing through +clouds and showers, which, the first time I saw her, painfully impressed +as much as it charmed me--perceiving, as I quickly did, that with her the +future peace, I could almost have said life, of Arthur Rushton was +irrevocably bound up. The fountains of his heart were for the first time +stirred to their inmost depths, and, situated as he and she were, what +but disappointment, bitterness, and anguish could well-up from those +troubled waters? Mademoiselle de Tourville, I could perceive, was fully +aware of the impression she had made upon the sensitive and amiable +Englishman; and I sometimes discovered an expression of pity--of +sorrowful tenderness, as it were--pass over her features as some +distincter revelation than usual of the nature of Arthur Rushton's +emotions flashed upon her. I also heard her express herself several +times, as overtly as she could, upon the _impossibility_ there existed +that she should, however much she might desire it, settle in England, or +even remain in it for any considerable length of time. All this I +understood, or thought I did, perfectly; but Rushton, bewildered, +entranced by feelings altogether new to him, saw nothing, heard nothing +but her presence, and felt, without reasoning upon it, that in that +delirious dream it was his fate either to live or else to bear no life. +Mrs. Rushton--and this greatly surprised me--absorbed in her matrimonial +and furnishing schemes and projects, saw nothing of what was going on. +Probably the notion that her son should for an instant think of allying +himself with an obscure, portionless foreigner, was, to a mind like hers, +too absurd to be for a moment entertained; or--But stay; borne along by +a crowd of rushing thoughts, I have, I find, somewhat anticipated the +regular march of my narrative. + +M. and Mademoiselle de Tourville, according to the after-testimony of +their landlord, Mr. Osborn, had, from the time of their arrival in +England, a very constant visitor at their lodgings in King Street. He was +a tall French gentleman, of perhaps thirty years of age, and +distinguished appearance. His name was La Houssaye. He was very +frequently with them indeed, and generally he and M. de Tourville would +go out together in the evening, the latter gentleman not returning home +till very late. This was more especially the case after Mademoiselle de +Tourville ceased to reside with her father. + +Among the fashionable articles with which Mrs. Rushton was anxious to +surround herself, was a companion of accomplishments and high-breeding, +who might help her to rub off the rust she feared to have contracted by +her connection with the city. A Parisian lady of high lineage and perfect +breeding might, she thought, be easily obtained; and an advertisement +brought Mademoiselle de Tourville to her house. Mrs. Rushton was +delighted with the air and manners of the charming applicant; and after a +slight inquiry by letter to an address of reference given by the young +lady, immediately engaged her, on exceedingly liberal terms, for six +months--that being the longest period for which Mademoiselle de Tourville +could undertake to remain. She also stipulated for permission to pass the +greater part of one day in the week--that which might happen to be most +convenient to Mrs. Rushton--with her father. One other condition +testified alike to M. de Tourville's present poverty and her own filial +piety: it was, that her salary should be paid weekly--she would not +accept it in advance--avowedly for her parent's necessities, who, poor +exile! and tears stood in Eugénie's dark lustrous eyes as she spoke, was +ever trembling on the brink of the grave from an affection of the heart +with which he had been long afflicted. Mademoiselle de Tourville, I +should state, spoke English exceedingly well as far as the rules of +syntax and the meanings of words went, and with an accent charming in its +very defectiveness. + +She had resided with Mrs. Rushton, who on all occasions treated her with +the greatest kindness and consideration, for rather more than two months, +when an incident occurred which caused the scales to fall suddenly from +the astonished mother's eyes, and in a moment revealed to her the extent +of the risk and mischief she had so heedlessly incurred. The carriage was +at the door, and it struck Mrs. Rushton as she was descending the stairs +that Mademoiselle de Tourville, who had complained of headache in the +morning, would like to take an airing with her. The sound of the harp +issuing from the drawing-room, and the faintly-distinguished tones of her +voice in some plaintive silver melody perhaps suggested the invitation; +and thither the mistress of the mansion at once proceeded. The +folding-doors of the back drawing-room were partially open when Mrs. +Rushton, on kind thoughts intent, entered the front apartment. +Mademoiselle de Tourville was seated with her back towards her at the +harp, pouring forth with her thrilling and delicious voice a French +romaunt; and there, with his head supported on his elbow, which rested on +the marble chimney-piece, stood her son, Arthur Rushton, gazing at the +apparently-unconscious songstress with a look so full of devoted +tenderness--so completely revealing the intensity of passion by which he +was possessed--that Mrs. Rushton started with convulsive affright, and +could not for several minutes give articulation to the dismay and rage +which choked her utterance Presently, however, her emotions found +expression, and a storm of vituperative abuse was showered upon the head +of the astonished Eugénie, designated as an artful _intrigante_, a +designing pauper, who had insinuated herself into the establishment for +the sole purpose of entrapping Mr. Arthur Rushton--with a great deal more +to the same effect. Mademoiselle de Tourville, who had first been too +much surprised by the unexpected suddenness of the attack to quite +comprehend the intent and direction of the blows, soon recovered her +self-possession and hauteur. A smile of contempt curled her beautiful +lip, as, taking advantage of a momentary pause in Mrs. Rushton's +breathless tirade, she said, "Permit me, madam, to observe that if, as +you seem to apprehend, your son has contemplated honoring me by the offer +of an alliance with his ancient House"--Her look at this moment glanced +upon the dreadfully agitated young man; the expression of disdainful +bitterness vanished in an instant from her voice and features; and after +a few moments, she added, with sad eyes bent upon the floor, "That he +could not have made a more unhappy choice--more unfortunate for him, more +impossible for me!" She then hastily left the apartment, and before a +quarter of an hour had elapsed, had left the house in a hackney-coach. + +The scene which followed between the mother and son was a violent and +distressing one. Mr. Rushton, goaded to fury by his mother's attack upon +Mademoiselle de Tourville, cast off the habit of deference and submission +which he had always worn in her presence, and asserted with vehemence his +right to wed with whom he pleased, and declared that no power on earth +should prevent him marrying the lady just driven ignominiously from the +house if she could be brought to accept the offer of his hand and +fortune! Mrs. Rushton fell into passionate hysterics; and her son, having +first summoned her maid, withdrew to ruminate on Mademoiselle de +Tourville's concluding sentence, which troubled him far more that what he +deemed the injustice of his mother. + +When Mrs. Rushton, by the aid of water, pungent essences, and the relief +which even an hour of time seldom fails to yield in such cases, had +partially recovered her equanimity, she determined, after careful +consideration of the best course of action, to consult a solicitor of +eminence, well acquainted with her late husband, upon the matter. She had +a dim notion that the Alien Act, if it could be put in motion, might rid +her of Mademoiselle de Tourville and her friends. Thus resolving, and +ever scrupulous as to appearances, she carefully smoothed her ruffled +plumage, changed her disordered dress, and directed the carriage, which +had been dismissed, to be again brought round to the door. "Mary," she +added a few moments afterwards, "bring me my jewel-case--the small one: +you will find it in Made--in that French person's dressing-room." + +Mary Austin reappeared in answer to the violent ringing of her impatient +lady's bell, and stated that the jewel-case could nowhere be found in +Mademoiselle's dressing-room. "Her clothes, everything belonging to her, +had been taken out of the wardrobe, and carried away, and perhaps that +also in mistake no doubt." + +"Nonsense, woman!" replied Mrs. Rushton. "I left it not long ago on her +toilet-glass. I intended to show her a purchase I had made, and not +finding her, left it as I tell you." + +Another search was made with the same ill-success. Mary Austin afterwards +said that when she returned to her mistress the second time, to say that +the jewel-case was certainly gone, an expression of satisfaction instead +of anger, it seemed to her, glanced across Mrs. Rushton's face, who +immediately left the room, and in a few minutes afterwards was driven +off in the carriage. + +About an hour after her departure I called in Harley Street for Arthur +Rushton, with whom I had engaged to go this evening to the theatre to +witness Mrs. Siddons's Lady Macbeth, which neither of us had yet seen. I +found him in a state of calmed excitement, if I may so express myself; +and after listening with much interest to the minute account he gave me +of what had passed, I, young and inexperienced as I was in such affairs, +took upon myself to suggest that, as the lady he nothing doubted was as +irreproachable in character as she was confessedly charming and +attractive in person and manners, and as he was unquestionably his own +master, Mrs. Rushton's opposition was not likely to be of long +continuance; and that as to Mademoiselle de Tourville's somewhat +discouraging expression, such sentences from the lips of ladies-- + + "That would be wooed, and not unsought be won"-- + +were seldom, if ever, I had understood, to be taken in a literal and +positive sense. Under this mild and soothing treatment, Mr. Rushton +gradually threw off a portion of the load that oppressed him, and we set +off in tolerably cheerful mood for the theatre. + +Mrs. Siddons' magnificent and appalling impersonation over, we left the +house; he, melancholy and sombre as I had found him in Harley Street, and +I in by no means a gay or laughing mood. We parted at my door, and +whether it was the effect of the tragedy, so wonderfully realized in its +chief creation, or whether coming events _do_ sometimes cast their +shadows before, I cannot say, but I know that an hour after Rushton's +departure I was still sitting alone, my brain throbbing with excitement, +and so nervous and impressionable, that a sudden, vehement knocking at +the street entrance caused me to spring up from my chair with a terrified +start, and before I could master the impulsive emotion, the room-door was +thrown furiously open, and in reeled Arthur Rushton--pale, haggard, +wild--his eyes ablaze with horror and affright! Had the ghost of Duncan +suddenly gleamed out of the viewless air I could not have been more +startled--awed! + +"She is dead!--poisoned!" he shrieked with maniacal fury; +"killed!--murdered!--and by _her_!" + +I gasped for breath, and could hardly articulate--"What! whom?" + +"My mother!" he shouted with the same furious vehemence--"Killed! by +_her_! Oh, horror!--horror!--horror!" and exhausted by the violence of +his emotions, the unfortunate gentleman staggered, shuddered violently, +as if shaken by an ague fit, and fell heavily--for I was too confounded +to yield him timely aid--on the floor. + +As soon as I could rally my scattered senses, I caused medical aid to be +summoned, and got him to bed. Blood was freely taken from both arms, and +he gradually recovered consciousness. Leaving him in kind and careful +hands, I hurried off to ascertain what possible foundation there could be +for the terrible tidings so strangely announced. + +I found the establishment in Harley Street in a state of the wildest +confusion and dismay. Mrs. Rushton _was_ dead; that, at all events, was +no figment of sudden insanity, and incredible, impossible rumors were +flying from mouth to mouth with bewildering rapidity and incoherence. +The name of Mademoiselle de Tourville was repeated in every variety of +abhorrent emphasis; but it was not till I obtained an interview with +Mrs. Rushton's solicitor that I could understand what really had +occurred, or, to speak more properly, what was suspected. Mrs. Rushton +had made a deposition, of which Mr. Twyte related to me the essential +points. The deceased lady had gone out in her carriage with the express +intention of calling on him, the solicitor, to ascertain if it would be +possible to apply the Alien Act to Mademoiselle de Tourville and her +father, in order to get them sent out of the country. Mr. Twyte did not +happen to be at home, and Mrs. Rushton immediately drove to the De +Tourvilles' lodgings in King Street, Holborn, with the design, she +admitted, of availing herself of what she was in her own mind satisfied +was the purely accidental taking away of a jewel-case, to terrify +Mademoiselle de Tourville, by the threat of a criminal charge, into +leaving the country, or at least to bind herself not to admit, under any +circumstances, of Mr. Arthur Rushton's addresses. She found Eugénie in a +state of extraordinary, and it seemed painful excitement; and the young +lady entreated that whatever Mrs. Rushton had to say should be reserved +for another opportunity, when she would calmly consider whatever Mrs. +Rushton had to urge. The unfortunate lady became somewhat irritated at +Mademoiselle de Tourville's obstinacy, and the unruffled contempt with +which she treated the charge of robbery, even after finding the missing +jewel-case in a band-box, into which it had been thrust with some +brushes and other articles in the hurry of leaving. Mrs. Rushton was +iterating her threats in a loud tone of voice, and moved towards the +bell to direct, she said, the landlord to send for a constable, but with +no intention whatever of doing so, when Mademoiselle de Tourville caught +her suddenly by the arm, and bade her step into the next room. Mrs. +Rushton mechanically obeyed, and was led in silence to the side of a +bed, of which Eugénie suddenly drew the curtain, and displayed to her, +with a significant and reproachful gesture, the pale, rigid countenance +of her father's corpse, who had, it appears, suddenly expired. The shock +was terrible. Mrs. Rushton staggered back into the sitting-room, sick +and faint, sank into a chair, and presently asked for a glass of wine. +"We have no wine," replied Mademoiselle de Tourville; "but there is a +cordial in the next room which may be better for you." She was absent +about a minute, and on returning, presented Mrs. Rushton with a large +wine-glassful of liquid, which the deceased lady eagerly swallowed. The +taste was strange, but not unpleasant; and instantly afterwards Mrs. +Rushton left the house. When the carriage reached Harley Street, she was +found to be in a state of great prostration: powerful stimulants were +administered, but her life was beyond the reach of medicine. She +survived just long enough to depose to the foregoing particulars; upon +which statement Mademoiselle de Tourville had been arrested, and was now +in custody. + +"You seem to have been very precipitate," I exclaimed as soon as the +solicitor had ceased speaking: "there appears to be as yet no proof that +the deceased lady died of other than natural causes." + +"You are mistaken," rejoined Mr. Twyte. "There is no doubt on the subject +in the minds of the medical gentlemen, although the _post-mortem_ +examination has not yet taken place. And, as if to put aside all doubt, +the bottle from which this Eugénie de Tourville admits she took the +cordial proves to contain distilled laurel-water, a deadly poison, +curiously colored and flavored." + +Greatly perturbed, shocked, astonished as I was, my mind refused to +admit, even for a moment, the probability, hardly the possibility, of +Eugénie de Tourville's guilt. The reckless malignancy of spirit evinced +by so atrocious an act dwelt not, I was sure, within that beauteous +temple. The motives alleged to have actuated her--fear of a criminal +charge, admitted to be absurd, and desire to rid herself of an obstacle +to her marriage with Arthur Rushton--seemed to me altogether strained and +inapplicable. The desperation of unreasoning hate could alone have +prompted such a deed; for detection was inevitable, had, in truth, been +courted rather than attempted to be avoided. + +My reasoning made no change in the conclusions of Mr. Twyte the attorney +for the prosecution, and I hastened home to administer such consolation +to Arthur Rushton as might consist in the assurance of my firm conviction +that his beloved mother's life had not been wilfully taken away by +Eugénie de Tourville. I found him still painfully agitated; and the +medical attendant told me it was feared by Dr. ---- that brain fever +would supervene if the utmost care was not taken to keep him as quiet and +composed as, under the circumstances, was possible. I was, however, +permitted a few minutes' conversation with him; and my reasoning, or, +more correctly, my confidently-expressed belief--for his mind seemed +incapable of following my argument, which it indeed grasped faintly at, +but slipped from, as it were, in an instant--appeared to relieve him +wonderfully. I also promised him that no legal or pecuniary assistance +should be wanting in the endeavor to clear Mademoiselle de Tourville of +the dreadful imputation preferred against her. I then left him. The +anticipation of the physician was unfortunately realized: the next +morning he was in a raging fever, and his life, I was informed, was in +very imminent danger. + +It was a distracting time; but I determinedly, and with much self-effort, +kept down the nervous agitation which might have otherwise rendered me +incapable of fulfilling the duties I had undertaken to perform. By +eleven o'clock in the forenoon I had secured the active and zealous +services of Mr. White, one of the most celebrated of the criminal +attorneys of that day. By application in the proper quarter, we obtained +immediate access to the prisoner, who was temporarily confined in a +separate room in the Red-Lion Square Lock-up House. Mademoiselle de +Tourville, although exceedingly pale, agitated, and nervous, still looked +as lustrously pure, as radiantly innocent of evil thought or deed, as on +the day that I first beheld her. The practiced eye of the attorney +scanned her closely. "As innocent of this charge," he whispered, "as you +or I." I tendered my services to the unfortunate young lady with an +earnestness of manner which testified more than any words could have done +how entirely my thoughts acquitted her of offence. Her looks thanked me; +and when I hinted at the promise exacted of me by Arthur Rushton, a +bright blush for an instant mantled the pale marble of her cheeks and +forehead, indicating with the tears, which suddenly filled and trembled +in her beautiful eyes, a higher sentiment, I thought, than mere +gratitude. She gave us her unreserved confidence; by which, after careful +sifting, we obtained only the following by no means entirely satisfactory +results:-- + +Mademoiselle de Tourville and her father had escaped from the Terrorists +of France by the aid of, and in company with, the Chevalier la Houssaye, +with whom M. de Tourville had previously had but very slight +acquaintance. The chevalier soon professed a violent admiration for +Eugénie; and having contrived to lay M. de Tourville under heavy +pecuniary obligations at play--many of them Mademoiselle de Tourville had +only very lately discovered--prevailed upon his debtor to exert his +influence with his daughter to accept La Houssaye's hand in marriage. +After much resistance, Mademoiselle de Tourville, overcome by the +commands, entreaties, prayers of her father, consented, but only on +condition that the marriage should not take place till their return to +France, which it was thought need not be very long delayed, and that no +more money obligations should in the meantime be incurred by her father. +La Houssaye vehemently objected to delay; but finding Eugénie inexorable, +sullenly acquiesced. It was precisely at this time that the engagement +with Mrs. Rushton was accepted. On the previous afternoon Mademoiselle de +Tourville, on leaving Harley Street after the scene with the deceased +lady, went directly home, and there found both her father and the +chevalier in hot contention and excitement. As soon as La Houssaye saw +her, he seized his hat, and rushed out of the apartment and house. Her +father, who was greatly excited, had barely time to say that he had +fortunately discovered the chevalier to be a married man, whose wife, a +woman of property, was still living in Languedoc, when what had always +been predicted would follow any unusual agitation happened: M. de +Tourville suddenly placed his hand on his side, uttered a broken +exclamation, fell into a chair, and expired. It was about two hours after +this melancholy event that Mrs. Rushton arrived. The account before given +of the interview which followed was substantially confirmed by +Mademoiselle de Tourville; who added, that the cordial she had given Mrs. +Rushton was one her father was in the constant habit of taking when in +the slightest degree excited, and that she was about to give him some +when he suddenly fell dead. + +We had no doubt, none whatever, that this was the whole, literal truth, +as far as the knowledge of Mademoiselle de Tourville extended; but how +could we impart that impression to an Old Bailey jury of those days, +deprived as we should be of the aid of counsel to address the jury, when +in reality a speech, pointing to the improbabilities arising from +character, and the altogether _un_guilty-like mode of administering the +fatal liquid, was the only possible defence? Cross-examination promised +nothing; for the evidence would consist of the dying deposition of Mrs. +Rushton, the finding of the laurel-water, and the medical testimony as to +the cause of death. The only person upon whom suspicion glanced was La +Houssaye, and that in a vague and indistinct manner. Still, it was +necessary to find him without delay, and Mr. White at once sought him at +his lodgings, of which Mademoiselle de Tourville furnished the address. +He had left the house suddenly with all his luggage early in the morning, +and our efforts to trace him proved fruitless. In the meantime the +_post-mortem_ examination of the body had taken place, and a verdict of +willful murder against Eugénie de Tourville been unhesitatingly returned. +She was soon afterwards committed to Newgate for trial. + +The Old Bailey session was close at hand, and Arthur Rushton, though +immediate danger was over, was still in too delicate and precarious a +state to be informed of the true position of affairs when the final day +of trial arrived. The case had excited little public attention. It was +not the fashion in those days to exaggerate the details of crime, and, +_especially before trial_, give the wings of the morning to every fact +or fiction that rumor with her busy tongue obscurely whispered. Twenty +lines of the "Times" would contain the published record of the +commitment of Eugénie de Tourville for poisoning her mistress, Caroline +Rushton; and, alas! spite of the crippled but earnest efforts of the +eminent counsel we had retained, and the eloquent innocence of her +appearance and demeanor, her conviction and condemnation to death +without hope of mercy! My brain swam as the measured tones of the +recorder, commanding the almost immediate and violent destruction of +that beauteous masterpiece of God, fell upon my ear; and had not Mr. +White, who saw how greatly I was affected, fairly dragged me out of +court into the open air, I should have fainted. I scarcely remember how +I got home--in a coach, I believe; but face Rushton after that dreadful +scene with a kindly-meant deception--_lie_--in my mouth, I could not, +had a king's crown been the reward. I retired to my chamber, and on the +plea of indisposition directed that I should on no account be disturbed. +Night had fallen, and it was growing somewhat late, when I was startled +out of the painful reverie in which I was still absorbed by the sudden +pulling up of a furiously-driven coach, followed by a thundering summons +at the door, similar to that which aroused me on the evening of Mrs. +Rushton's death. I seized my hat, rushed down stairs, and opened the +door. It was Mr. White! + +"Well!--well!" I ejaculated. + +"Quick--quick!" he exclaimed in reply. "La Houssaye--he is found--has +sent for us--quick! for life--life is on our speed!" + +I was in the vehicle in an instant. In less than ten minutes we had +reached our destination--a house in Duke Street, Manchester Square. + +"He is still alive," replied a young man in answer to Mr. White's hurried +inquiry. We rapidly ascended the stairs, and in the front apartment of +the first floor beheld one of the saddest, mournfulest spectacles which +the world can offer--a fine, athletic man, still in the bloom of natural +health and vigor, and whose pale features, but for the tracings there of +fierce, ungoverned passions, were strikingly handsome and intellectual, +stretched by his own act upon the bed of death! It was La Houssaye! Two +gentlemen were with him--one a surgeon, and the other evidently a +clergyman, and, as I subsequently found, a magistrate, who had been sent +for by the surgeon. A faint smile gleamed over the face of the dying man +as we entered, and he motioned feebly to a sheet of paper, which, closely +written upon, was lying upon a table placed near the sofa upon which the +unhappy suicide was reclining. Mr. White snatched, and eagerly perused +it. I could see by the vivid lighting up of his keen gray eye that it +was, in his opinion, satisfactory and sufficient. + +"This," said Mr. White, "is your solemn deposition, knowing yourself to +be dying?" + +"Yes, yes," murmured La Houssaye; "the truth--the truth!" + +"The declaration of a man," said the clergyman with some asperity of +tone, "who defyingly, unrepentingly, rushes into the presence of his +Creator, can be of little value!" + +"Ha!" said the dying man, rousing himself by a strong effort; +"I repent--yes--yes--I repent! I believe--do you hear?--and +repent--believe. Put that down," he added, in tones momently feebler +and more husky, as he pointed to the paper; "put that down, or--or +perhaps--Eu--génie--perhaps"-- + +As he spoke, the faint light that had momently kindled his glazing eye +was suddenly quenched; he remained for perhaps half a minute raised on +his elbow, and with his outstretched finger pointing towards the paper, +gazing blindly upon vacancy. Then the arm dropped, and he fell back dead! + +We escaped as quickly as we could from this fearful death-room, and I +found that the deposition which Mr. White brought away with him gave a +full, detailed account, written in the French language, of the +circumstances which led to the death of Mrs. Rushton. + +La Houssaye, finding that M. de Tourville had by some means discovered +the secret of his previous marriage, and that consequently all hope of +obtaining the hand of Eugénie, whom he loved with all the passion of his +fiery nature, would be gone unless De Tourville could be prevented from +communicating with his daughter, resolved to compass the old man's +instant destruction. The chevalier persuaded himself that, as he should +manage it, death would be attributed to the affection of the heart, from +which M. de Tourville had so long suffered. He procured the distilled +laurel-water--how and from whom was minutely explained--colored, flavored +it to resemble as nearly as possible the cordial which he knew M. de +Tourville--and he only--was in the habit of frequently taking. A +precisely-similar bottle he also procured--the shop at which it was +purchased was described--and when he called in King Street, he found no +difficulty, in an unobserved moment, of substituting one bottle for the +other. That containing the real cordial he was still in possession of, +and it would be found in his valise The unexpected arrival of +Mademoiselle de Tourville frustrated his design, and he rushed in fury +and dismay from the house. A few hours afterwards, he heard of the sudden +death of M. de Tourville, and attributing it to his having taken a +portion of the simulated cordial, he, La Houssaye, fearful of +consequences, hastily and secretly changed his abode. He had subsequently +kept silence till the conviction of Eugénie left him no other +alternative, if he would not see her perish on the scaffold, than a full +and unreserved confession. This done--Eugénie saved, but lost to him--he +had nothing more to live for in the world, and should leave it. + +This was the essence of the document; and all the parts of it which were +capable of corroborative proof having been substantiated, a free pardon +issued from the crown--the technical mode of quashing an unjust criminal +verdict--and Mademoiselle de Tourville was restored to liberty. + +She did not return to France. Something more perhaps than a year after +the demonstration of her innocence, she was married to Arthur Rushton in +the Sardinian Catholic Chapel, London, the bridegroom having by her +influence been induced to embrace the faith of Rome. The establishments +in Harley Street and Mayfair were broken up; and the newly-espoused pair +settled in the county of Galway, Ireland, where Mr. Rushton made +extensive landed purchases. They have lived very happily a long life, +have been blessed with a large and amiable family, and are now--for they +are both yet alive--surrounded with grandchildren innumerable. + + + + +EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER. + + + + +THE LIFE POLICY. + + +Besides being the confidential advisers, attorneys are the "confessors" +of modern England; and the revelations--delicate, serious, not +unfrequently involving life as well as fortune and character--confided to +the purchased fidelity and professional honor of men whom romancers of +all ages have stereotyped as the ghouls and vampires of civilized +society, are, it is impossible to deny, as rarely divulged as those which +the penitents of the Greek and Latin churches impart to their spiritual +guides and helpers; and this possibly for the somewhat vulgar, but very +sufficient reason, that "a breach of confidence" would as certainly +involve the professional ruin of an attorney as the commission of a +felony. An able but eccentric jurisconsult, Mr. Jeremy Bentham, was +desirous that attorneys should be compelled to disclose on oath whatever +guilty secrets might be confided to them by their clients; the only +objection to which ingenious device for the conviction of rogues being, +that if such a power existed, there would be no secrets to disclose; and, +as a necessary consequence, that the imperfectly-informed attorney would +be unable to render his client the justice to which every person, however +criminal, is clearly entitled--that of having his or her case presented +before the court appointed to decide upon it in the best and most +advantageous manner possible. Let it not be forgotten either that the +attorney is the only real, practical defender of the humble and needy +against the illegal oppressions of the rich and powerful--the shrewd, +indomitable agent who gives prosaic reality to the figurative eloquence +of old Chancellor Fortescue, when he says, "that the lightning may flash +through, the thunder shake, the tempest beat, upon the English peasant's +hut, but the king of England, with all his army, cannot lift the latch to +enter in." The chancellor of course meant, that in this country +overbearing violence cannot defy, or put itself in the place of the law. +This is quite true; and why? Chiefly because the attorney is ready, in +all cases of provable illegality, with his potent strip of parchment +summoning the great man before "her Sovereign Lady the Queen," there to +answer for his acts; and the richer the offender, the more keen and eager +Mr. Attorney to prosecute the suit, however needy his own client; for he +is then sure of his costs, if he succeed! Again, I cheerfully admit the +extreme vulgarity of the motive; but its effect in protecting the legal +rights of the humble is not, I contend, lessened because the reward of +exertion and success is counted out in good, honest sovereigns, or notes +of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. + +Thus much by way of conciliatory prologue to the narrative of a few +incidents revealed in the attorney's privileged confessional; throughout +which I have of course, in order to avoid any possible recognition of +those events or incidents, changed the name of every person concerned. + +Our old city firm, then, which, I am happy to say, still flourishes +under the able direction of our active successors, I will +call--adopting the nomenclature appropriated to us by imaginative +ladies and gentlemen who favor the world with fancy pen-and-ink +portraits of the lawyer tribe--that of Flint and Sharp; Sharp being +myself, and Flint the silver-haired old bachelor we buried a few weeks +since in Kensal Green Cemetery. + +"Mr. Andrews," said a clerk as he threw open the door of the inner office +one afternoon; "Mr. Jesse Andrews." + +"Good-day, Mr. Andrews," was my prompt and civil greeting: "I have good +news for you. Take a chair." + +The good-humored, rather intelligent, and somewhat clouded countenance of +the new-comer brightened up at these words. "News from my Cousin +Archibald?" he asked, as he seated himself. + +"Yes: He laments your late failure, and commiserates the changed position +and prospects of your wife and boy, little Archibald, his godson. You he +has not much compassion for, inasmuch as he attributes your misfortunes +entirely to mismanagement, and the want of common prudence." + +"Candid, certainly," grumbled out Mr. Jesse Andrews; "but an odd sort of +good news!" + +"His deeds are kinder than his words. He will allow, till Archibald +attains his majority--Let me see--how old is that boy of yours now?" + +"Ten. He was two years old when his godfather went to India." + +"Well, then, you will receive two hundred pounds per annum, payable +half-yearly, in advance, for the next ten years--that is, of course, if +your son lives--in order to enable you to bring him up, and educate him +properly. After that period has elapsed, your cousin intimates that he +will place the young man advantageously, and I do not doubt will do +something for you, should you not by that time have conquered a fair +position for yourself." + +"Is that all?" said Mr. Andrews. + +"All! Why, what did you expect?" + +"Two or three thousand pounds to set me afloat again. I know of a safe +speculation, that with, say three thousand pounds capital, would realize +a handsome fortune in no time." + +Mr. Jesse Andrews, I may observe, was one of that numerous class of +persons who are always on the threshold of realizing millions--the only +and constant obstacle being the want of a sufficient "capital." + +I condoled with him upon his disappointment; but as words, however civil, +avail little in the way of "capital," Mr. Jesse Andrews, having pocketed +the first half-yearly installment of the annuity, made his exit in by no +means a gracious or grateful frame of mind. + +Two other half-yearly payments were duly paid him. When he handed me the +receipt on the last occasion, he said, in a sort of off-hand, careless +way, "I suppose, if Archy were to die, these payments would cease?" + +"Perhaps not," I replied unthinkingly. "At all events, not, I should say, +till you and your wife were in some way provided for. But your son is not +ill?" I added. + +"No, no; not at present," replied Andrews, coloring, and with a confusion +of manner which surprised me not a little. It flashed across my mind that +the boy was dead, and that Andrews, in order not to risk the withdrawal +or suspension of the annuity, had concealed the fact from us. + +"Let me see," I resumed, "we have your present address--Norton +Folgate, I think?" + +"Yes, certainly you have." + +"I shall very likely call in a day or two to see Mrs. Andrew! and +your son." + +The man smiled in a reassured, half-sardonic manner. "Do," he answered. +"Archy is alive, and very well, thank God!" + +This confidence dispelled the suspicion I had momentarily entertained, +and five or six weeks passed away, during which Andrews and his +affairs were almost as entirely absent from my thoughts as if no such +man existed. + +About the expiration of that time, Mr. Jesse Andrews unexpectedly +revisited the office, and as soon as I was disengaged, was ushered into +my private room. He was habited in the deepest mourning, and it naturally +struck me that either his wife or son was dead--an impression, however, +which a closer examination of his countenance did not confirm, knowing as +I did, how affectionate a husband and father he was, with all his faults +and follies, reputed to be. He looked flurried, nervous, certainly; but +there was no grief, no sorrow in the restless, disturbed glances which he +directed to the floor, the ceiling, the window, the fire-place, the +chairs, the table--everywhere, in fact, except towards my face. + +"What is the matter, Mr. Andrews?" I gravely inquired, seeing that he did +not appear disposed to open the conversation. + +"A great calamity, sir--a great calamity," he hurriedly and confusedly +answered, his face still persistently averted from me--"has happened! +Archy is dead!" + +"Dead!" I exclaimed, considerably shocked. "God bless me! when did +this happen?" + +"Three weeks ago," was the reply. "He died of cholera." + +"Of cholera!" This occurred, I should state, in 1830. + +"Yes: he was very assiduously attended throughout his sufferings, +which were protracted and severe, by the eminent Dr. Parkinson, a +highly-respectable and skilled practitioner, as you doubtless, sir, +are aware." + +I could not comprehend the man. This dry, unconcerned, business-sort of +gabble was not the language of a suddenly-bereaved parent, and one, too, +who had lost a considerable annuity by his son's death. What could it +mean? I was in truth fairly puzzled. + +After a considerable interval of silence, which Mr. Andrews, whose eyes +continued to wander in every direction except that of mine, showed no +inclination to break, I said--"It will be necessary for me to write +immediately to your cousin, Mr. Archibald Andrews. I trust, for your +sake, the annuity will be continued; but of course, till I hear from him, +the half-yearly payments must be suspended." + +"Certainly, certainly: I naturally expected that would be the case," said +Andrews, still in the same quick, hurried tone. "Quite so." + +"You have nothing further to say, I suppose?" I remarked, after another +dead pause, during which it was very apparent that he was laboring with +something to which he nervously hesitated to give utterance. + +"No--yes--that is, I wished to consult you upon a matter of +business--connected with--with a life-assurance office." + +"A life-assurance office?" + +"Yes." The man's pale face flushed crimson, and his speech became +more and more hurried as he went on. "Yes; fearing, Mr. Sharp, that +should Archy die, we might be left without resource, I resolved, +after mature deliberation, to effect an insurance on his life for +four thousand pounds." + +"Four thousand pounds!" + +"Yes. All necessary preliminaries were gone through. The medical +gentleman--since dead of the cholera, by the way--examined the boy of +course, and the insurance was legally effected for four thousand pounds, +payable at his death." + +I did not speak; a suspicion too horrible to be hinted at held me dumb. + +"Unfortunately," Andrews continued, "this insurance was only effected +about a fortnight before poor Archy's death, and the office refuses +payment, although, as I have told you, the lad was attended to the very +hour of his death by Dr. Parkinson, a highly-respectable, most +unexceptionable gentleman. Very much so indeed." + +"I quite agree in that," I answered after a while. "Dr. Parkinson is a +highly-respectable and eminent man. What reason," I added, "do the +company assign for non-payment?" + +"The very recent completion of the policy." + +"Nonsense! How can that fact, standing alone, affect your claim?" + +"I do not know," Andrews replied; and all this time I had not been able +to look fairly in his face; "but they do refuse; and I am anxious that +your firm should take the matter in hand, and sue them for the amount." + +"I must first see Dr. Parkinson," I answered, "and convince myself that +there is no legitimate reason for repudiating the policy." + +"Certainly, certainly," he replied. + +"I will write to you to-morrow," I said, rising to terminate the +conference, "after I have seen Dr. Parkinson, and state whether we will +or not take proceedings against the insurance company on your behalf." + +He thanked me, and hurried off. + +Dr. Parkinson confirmed Mr. Jesse Andrews in every particular. He had +attended the boy, a fine, light-haired lad of eleven or twelve years of +age, from not long after his seizure till his death. He suffered +dreadfully, and died unmistakably of Asiatic cholera, and of nothing +else; of which same disease a servant and a female lodger in the same +house had died just previously. "It is of course," Dr. Parkinson remarked +in conclusion, "as unfortunate for the company as it is strangely lucky +for Andrews; but there is no valid reason for refusing payment." + +Upon this representation we wrote the next day to the assurance people, +threatening proceedings on behalf of Mr. Jesse Andrews. + +Early on the morrow one of the managing-directors called on us, to state +the reasons which induced the company to hesitate at recognizing the +plaintiff's claim. In addition to the doubts suggested by the brief time +which had elapsed from the date of the policy to the death of the child, +there were several other slight circumstances of corroborative suspicion. +The chief of these was, that a neighbor had declared he heard the father +indulging in obstreperous mirth in a room adjoining that in which the +corpse lay only about two hours after his son had expired. This unseemly, +scandalous hilarity of her husband, the wife appeared to faintly +remonstrate against. The directors had consequently resolved _non +obstante_ Dr. Parkinson's declaration, who might, they argued, have been +deceived, to have the body exhumed in order to a post-mortem examination +as to the true cause of death. If the parents voluntarily agreed to this +course, a judicial application to enforce it would be unnecessary, and +all doubts on the matter could be quietly set at rest. I thought the +proposal, under the circumstances, reasonable, and called on Mr. and Mrs. +Andrews to obtain their concurrence. Mrs. Andrews was, I found, absent +in the country, but her husband was at home; and he, on hearing the +proposal, was, I thought, a good deal startled--shocked rather--a natural +emotion perhaps. + +"Who--who," he said, after a few moments' silent reflection--"who is to +conduct this painful, revolting inquiry?" + +"Dr. Parkinson will be present, with Mr. Humphrey the surgeon, and Dr. +Curtis the newly-appointed physician to the assurance office, in place of +Dr. Morgan who died, as you are aware, a short time since of cholera." + +"True. Ah, well, then," he answered almost with alacrity, "be it as they +wish. Dr. Parkinson will see fair-play." + +The examination was effected, and the result was a confirmation, beyond +doubt or quibble, that death, as Dr. Parkinson had declared, had been +solely occasioned by cholera. The assurance company still hesitated; but +as this conduct could now only be looked upon as perverse obstinacy, we +served them with a writ at once. They gave in; and the money was handed +over to Mr. Jesse Andrews, whose joy at his sudden riches did not, I was +forced to admit, appear to be in the slightest degree damped by any +feeling of sadness for the loss of an only child. + +We wrote to inform Mr. Archibald Andrews of these occurrences, and to +request further instructions with regard to the annuity hitherto paid to +his cousin. A considerable time would necessarily elapse before an +answer could be received, and in the meantime Mr. Jesse Andrews plunged +headlong into the speculation he had been long hankering to engage in, +and was as he informed me a few weeks afterwards, on the royal road to a +magnificent fortune. + +Clouds soon gathered over this brilliant prospect. The partner, whose +persuasive tongue and brilliant imagination had induced Mr. Andrews to +join him with his four thousand pounds, proved to be an arrant cheat and +swindler; and Mr. Andrews's application to us for legal help and redress +was just too late to prevent the accomplished dealer in moonshine and +delusion from embarking at Liverpool for America, with every penny of the +partnership funds in his pockets! + +A favorable reply from Mr. Archibald Andrews had now become a question of +vital importance to his cousin, who very impatiently awaited its arrival. +It came at last. Mr. Andrews had died rather suddenly at Bombay a short +time before my letter arrived there, after executing in triplicate a +will, of which one of the copies was forwarded to me. By this instrument +his property--about thirty-five thousand pounds, the greatest portion of +which had been remitted from time to time for investment in the British +funds--was disposed of as follows:--Five thousand pounds to his cousin +Jesse Andrews, for the purpose of educating and maintaining Archibald +Andrews, the testator's godson, till he should have attained the age of +twentyone, and the whole of the remaining thirty thousand pounds to be +then paid over to Archibald with accumulated interest. In the event, +however, of the death of his godson, the entire property was devised to +another more distant and wealthier cousin, Mr. Newton, and his son +Charles, on precisely similar conditions, with the exception that an +annuity of seventy pounds, payable to Jesse Andrews and his wife during +their lives, was charged upon it. + +Two letters were dispatched the same evening--one to the fortunate +cousin, Mr. Newton, who lived within what was then known as the twopenny +post delivery, and another to Mr. Jesse Andrews, who had taken up his +temporary abode in a cottage near St. Alban's, Hertfordshire. These +missives informed both gentlemen of the arrival of the Indian mail, and +the, to them, important dispatches it contained. + +Mr. Newton was early at the office on the following morning, and perused +the will with huge content. He was really quite sorry, though, for poor +Cousin Jesse: the loss of his son was a sad stroke, much worse than this +of a fortune which he might have expected to follow as a matter of +course. And the annuity, Mr. Newton thoughtfully observed, was, after +all, no contemptible provision for two persons, without family, and of +modest requirements. + +A very different scene was enacted when, late in the evening, and just as +I was about to leave the office, Mr. Jesse Andrews rushed in, white as a +sheet, haggard, and wild with passion. "What devil's fables are these you +write me?" he, burst forth the instant he had gained the threshold of the +room. "How dare you," he went on, almost shrieking with fury--"how dare +you attempt to palm off these accursed lies on me? Archy rich--rich--and +I--. But it is a lie!--an infernal device got up to torture me--to +drive me wild, distracted--mad!" The excited man literally foamed with +rage, and so astonished was I, that it was a minute or two before I could +speak or move. + +At last I rose, closed the door, (for the clerks in the outer office were +hearers and witnesses of this outbreak,) and led the way to an inner and +more private apartment. "Come with me, Mr. Andrews," I said, "and let us +talk this matter calmly over." + +He mechanically followed, threw himself into a chair, and listened with +frenzied impatience to the reading of the will. + +"A curse is upon me," he shouted, jumping up as I concluded, "the curse +of God--a judgment upon the crime I but the other day committed--a crime +as I thought--dolt, idiot that I was--so cunningly contrived, so cleverly +executed! Fool, villain, madman that I have been; for now, when fortune +is tendered for my acceptance, I dare not put forth my hand to grasp it; +fortune, too, not only for me, but--. O God, it will kill us both, Martha +as well as me, though I alone am to blame for this infernal chance!" + +This outburst appeared to relieve him, and he sank back into his chair +somewhat calmer. I could understand nothing of all that rhapsody, +knowing, as I did, that his son Archibald had died from natural causes. +"It _is_ a severe blow," I said, in as soothing a tone as I could +assume--"a very great disappointment; still, you are secured from extreme +poverty--from anything like absolute want"-- + +"It is not that--it is not that!" he broke in, though not quite so wildly +as before. "Look you, Mr. Sharp, I will tell you all! There may be some +mode of extrication from this terrible predicament, and I must have your +advice professionally upon it." + +"Go on; I will advise you to the best of my ability." + +"Here it is, then: Archy, my son Archy, is alive!--alive! and well in +health as either you or I!" + +I was thunderstruck. Here was indeed a revelation. + +"Alive and well," continued Andrews. "Listen! when the cholera began to +spread so rapidly, I bethought me of insuring the boy's life in case of +the worst befalling, but not, as I hope for mercy, with the slightest +thought of harming a hair of his head. This was done. Very soon the +terrific disease approached our neighborhood, and my wife took Archy to a +country lodging, returning herself the same evening. The next day our +only servant was attacked and died. A few hours after that our +first-floor lodger, a widow of the name of Mason, who had been with us +but a very short time, was attacked. She suffered dreadfully; and her +son, a boy about the age of Archy, and with just his hair and +complexion, took ill also. The woman was delirious with pain; and before +effective medical aid could be obtained--she was seized in the middle of +the night--she expired. Her son who had been removed into another room, +became rapidly worse, and we sent for Dr. Parkinson; the poor fellow was +partially delirious with pain, and clung piteously round my wife's neck, +calling her mother, and imploring her to relieve him. Dr. Parkinson +arrived, and at first sight of the boy, said, 'Your son is very ill, +Mrs. Andrews--I fear, past recovery; but we will see what can be done.' I +swear to you, Mr. Sharp, that it was not till this moment the device +which has ruined us, flashed across my brain. I cautioned my wife in a +whisper not to undeceive the doctor, who prescribed the most active +remedies, and was in the room, when the lad died. You know the rest. And +now, sir, tell me, can anything be done--any device suggested to retrieve +this miserable blunder, this terrible mistake?" + +"This infamous crime, you should say, Mr. Andrews," I replied; "for the +commission of which you are liable to be transported for life." + +"Yes, crime; no doubt that is the true word! But must the innocent child +suffer for his father's offence?" + +"That is the only consideration that could induce me to wag a finger in +the business. Like many other clever rogues, you are caught in the trap +you limed for others. Come to me tomorrow; I will think over the matter +between this and then; but at present I can say nothing. Stay," I added, +as his hand was on the door; "the identity of your son can be proved, I +suppose, by better evidence than your own?" + +"Certainly, certainly." + +"That, will do, then; I will see you in the morning." + +If it should cross the mind of any reader that I ought to have given +this self-confessed felon into custody, I beg to remind him that, for the +reasons previously stated, such a course on my part was out of the +question--impossible; and that, had it not been impossible I should do +so, Mr. Jesse Andrews would not have intrusted me with his criminal +secret. The only question now therefore was, how, without compromising +this guilty client, the godfather's legacy could be secured for the +innocent son. + +A conference the next morning with Mr. Flint resulted in our sending for +Mr. Jesse Andrews, and advising him, for fear of accidents or +miscarriage in our plans, to betake himself to the kingdom of France for +a short time. We had then no treaty of extradition with that country. As +soon as I knew he was safely out of the realm, I waited upon the +insurance people. + +"The money ought not to have been received by Jesse Andrews, you say, Mr. +Sharp?" observed the managing-gentleman, looking keenly in my face. + +"Precisely. It ought not to have been received by him." + +"And _why_ not, Mr. Sharp?" + +"That is quite an unnecessary question, and one that, you know, I should +not answer, if I could. That which chiefly concerns you is, that I am +ready to return the four thousand pounds at once, here on the spot, and +that delays are dangerous. If you refuse, why, of course--and I rose from +my chair--I must take back the money." + +"Stay--stay! I will just consult with one or two gentlemen, and be with +you again almost immediately." + +In about five minutes he returned. "Well, Mr. Sharp," he said, "we had, +I suppose; better take the money--obtained, as you say, by mistake." + +"Not at all; I said nothing about mistake. I told you it ought not to +have been received by Andrews!" + +"Well--well. I understand. I must, I suppose, give you a receipt?" + +"Undoubtedly; and, if you please, precisely in this form." + +I handed him a copy on a slip of paper. He ran it over, smiled, +transcribed it on a stamp, signed it, and, as I handed him a check for +the amount, placed it in my hands. We mutually bowed, and I went my way. + +Notwithstanding Mr. Newton's opposition, who was naturally furious at the +unexpected turn the affair had taken, the identity of the boy--whom that +gentleman persisted in asserting to be dead and buried--was clearly +established; and Mr. Archibald Andrews, on the day he became of age, +received possession of his fortune. The four thousand pounds had of +course been repaid out of Jesse Andrews's legacy. That person has, so to +speak, since skulked through life, a mark for the covert scorn of every +person acquainted with the very black transaction here recorded. This was +doubtless a much better fate than he deserved; and in strict, or poetical +justice, his punishment ought unquestionably to have been much +greater--more apparent also, than it was, for example's sake. But I am a +man not of fiction, but of fact, and consequently relate events, not as +they precisely ought, but as they do, occasionally occur in lawyers' +offices, and other unpoetical nooks and corners of this prosaic, +matter-of-fact, working-day world. + + + + +BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY? + + +The firm of Flint and Sharp enjoyed, whether deservedly or not, when I +was connected with it, as it still does, a high reputation for keen +practice and shrewd business-management. This kind of professional fame +is usually far more profitable than the drum-and-trumpet variety of the +same article; or at least we found it so; and often, from blush of morn +to far later than dewy eve--which natural phenomena, by the way, were +only emblematically observed by me during thirty busy years in the +extinguishment of the street lamps at dawn, and their re-illumination at +dusk--did I and my partner incessantly pursue our golden avocations; +deferring what are usually esteemed the pleasures of life--its banquets, +music, flowers, and lettered ease--till the toil, and heat, and hurry of +the day were past, and a calm, luminous evening, unclouded by care or +anxiety, had arrived. This conduct may or may not have been wise; but at +all events it daily increased the connection and transactions of the +firm, and ultimately anchored us both very comfortably in the three per +cents; and this too, I am bold to say, not without our having effected +some good in our generation. This boast of mine the following passage in +the life of a distinguished client--known, I am quite sure, by reputation +to most of the readers of these papers, whom our character for practical +sagacity and professional shrewdness brought us--will, I think, be +admitted in some degree to substantiate. + +Our connection was a mercantile rather than an aristocratic one, and my +surprise was therefore considerable, when, on looking through the +office-blinds to ascertain what vehicle it was that had driven so rapidly +up to the door, I observed a handsomely-appointed carriage with a coronet +emblazoned on the panels, out of which a tall footman was handing a lady +attired in deep but elegant mourning, and closely veiled. I instantly +withdrew to my private room, and desired that the lady should be +immediately admitted. Greatly was my surprise increased when the graceful +and still youthful visitor withdrew her veil, and disclosed the features +of the Countess of Seyton, upon whose mild, luminous beauty, as rendered +by the engraving from Sir Thomas Lawrence's picture, I had so frequently +gazed with admiration. That rare and touching beauty was clouded now; and +an intense expression of anxiety, fear--almost terror--gleamed from out +the troubled depths of her fine dark eyes. + +"The Countess of Seyton!" I half-involuntarily exclaimed, as with my very +best bow I handed her ladyship a chair. + +"Yes; and you are a partner of this celebrated firm, are you not?" + +I bowed again still more profoundly to this compliment, and modestly +admitted that I was the Sharp of the firm her ladyship was pleased to +entitle "celebrated." + +"Then, Mr. Sharp, I have to consult you professionally upon a matter of +the utmost--the most vital importance to me and mine." Her ladyship then, +with some confusion of manner, as if she did not know whether what she +was doing was in accordance with strict etiquette or not, placed a Bank +of England note, by way of retainer, before me. I put it back, explaining +what the usage really was, and the countess replaced it in her purse. + +"We shall he proud to render your ladyship any assistance in our power," +I said; "but I understood the Messrs. Jackson enjoyed the confidence of +the house of Seyton?" + +"Precisely. They are, so to speak, the hereditary solicitors of the +family more than of any individual member of it; and therefore, though +highly respectable persons, unfit to advise me in this particular matter. +Besides," she added with increasing tremor and hesitation, "to deal with, +and if possible foil, the individual by whom I am persecuted, requires an +agent of keener sagacity than either of those gentlemen can boast of; +sharper, more resolute men; more--you understand what I mean?" + +"Perfectly, madam; and allow me to suggest that it is probable our +interview may be a somewhat prolonged one--your ladyship's carriage, +which may attract attention, should be at once dismissed. The office of +the family solicitors is, you are aware, not far off; and as we could not +explain to them the reason which induces your ladyship to honor us with +your confidence, it will be as well to avoid any chance of inquiry." + +Lady Seyton acquiesced in my suggestion: the carriage was ordered home, +and Mr. Flint entering just at the time, we both listened with +earnestness and anxiety to her communication. It is needless to repeat +verbatim the somewhat prolix, exclamative narration of the countess; the +essential facts were as follows:-- + +The Countess of Seyton, previous to her first marriage, was Miss Clara +Hayley, second daughter of the Reverend John Hayley, the rector of a +parish in Devonshire. She married, when only nineteen years of age, a +Captain Gosford. Her husband was ten years older than herself, and, as +she discovered after marriage, was cursed with a morose and churlish +temper and disposition. Previous to her acquaintance with Gosford, she +had been intimate with, almost betrothed to, Mr. Arthur Kingston, a young +gentleman connected with the peerage, and at that time heir-apparent to +the great expectancies and actual poverty of his father, Sir Arthur +Kingston. The haughty baronet, the instant he was made aware of the +nature of his son's intimacy with the rector's daughter, packed the young +man off to the continent on his travels. The Reverend John Hayley and his +beautiful Clara were as proud as the baronet, and extremely indignant +that it should be thought either of them wished to entrap or delude +Arthur Kingston into an unequal or ineligible marriage. This feeling of +pride and resentment aided the success of Mr. Gosford's suit, and Clara +Hayley, like many other rash, high-notioned young ladies, doomed herself +to misery, in order to show the world, and Mr. Arthur Kingston and his +proud father especially, that she had a spirit. The union was a most +unhappy one. One child only, which died in its infancy, was born to them; +and after being united somewhat more than two years, a separation, +vehemently insisted on by the wife's father, took place, and the +unhappily-wedded daughter returned to her parent's roof. Mr. Gosford--he +had some time before sold out of the army--traveled about the country in +search of amusement, and latterly of health, (for his unhappy cankerous +temper at last affected and broke down his never very robust physical +constitution), accompanied for the twelvemonth preceding his death by a +young man belonging to the medical profession, of the name of Chilton. +Mr. and Mrs. Gosford had been separated a few days less than three years +when the husband died, at the village of Swords in Ireland, and not far +distant from Dublin. The intelligence was first conveyed to the widow by +a paragraph in the "Freeman's Journal," a Dublin newspaper; and by the +following post a letter arrived from Mr. Chilton, inclosing a ring which +the deceased had requested should be sent to his wife, and a note, +dictated just previous to his death-hour, in which he expressed regret +for the past, and admitted that he alone had been to blame for the +unhappy separation. A copy of his will, made nearly a twelvemonth +previously, was also forwarded, by which he bequeathed his property, +amounting to about three hundred pounds per annum, to a distant relative +then residing in New Holland. By a memorandum of a subsequent date, Mr. +Chilton was to have all the money and other personals he might die in +actual possession of, after defraying the necessary funeral expenses. +This will, Mr. Chilton stated, the deceased gentleman had expressed a +wish in his last moments to alter, but death had been too sudden for him +to be able to give effect to that good, but too long-delayed intention. + +It cannot be supposed that the long-before practically widowed wife +grieved much at the final breaking of the chain which bound her to so +ungenial a mate; but as Lady Seyton was entirely silent upon the subject, +our supposition can only rest upon the fact, that Arthur Kingston--who +had some time previously, in consequence of the death of the Earl of +Seyton and his only son, an always-weakly child, preceded a few months by +that of his own father, the baronet, succeeded to the earldom and +estates--hastened home, on seeing the announcement of Gosford's death in +the Dublin paper, from the continent, where he had continued to reside +since his compelled-departure six years before; and soon afterwards found +his way into Devonshire, and so successfully pressed the renewed offer of +his hand, that the wedding took place slightly within six months after +the decease of Mr. Gosford. Life passed brilliantly and happily with the +earl and countess--to whom three children (a boy and two girls) were +born--till about five months previous to the present time, when the earl, +from being caught, when out riding, in a drenching shower of rain, was +attacked by fever, and after an acute illness of only two or three days' +duration, expired. The present earl was at the time just turned of five +years of age. + +This blow, we comprehended from the sudden tears which filled the +beautiful eyes of the countess as she spoke of the earl's decease, was a +severe one. Still, the grief of widowhood must have been greatly assuaged +by love for her children, and not inconsiderably, after a while, we may +be sure, by the brilliant position in which she was left--as, in addition +to being splendidly jointured, she was appointed by her husband's will +sole guardian of the young lord, her son. + +A terrible reverse awaited her. She was sitting with her father the +rector, and her still unmarried sister, Jane Hayley, in the drawing-room +of Seyton House, when a note was brought to her, signed Edward Chilton, +the writer of which demanded an immediate and private interview, on, he +alleged, the most important business. Lady Seyton remembered the name, +and immediately acceded to the man's request. He announced in a brusque, +insolent tone and manner, that Mr. Gosford had not died at the time his +death was announced to her, having then only fallen into a state of +syncope, from which he had unexpectedly recovered, and had lived six +months longer. "The truth is," added Chilton, "that, chancing the other +day to be looking over a 'peerage,' I noticed for the first time the date +of your marriage with the late Earl of Seyton, and I have now to inform +you that it took place precisely eight days previous to Mr. Gosford's +death; that it was consequently no marriage at all; and that your son is +no more Earl of Seyton than I am." + +This dreadful announcement, as one might expect, completely overcame the +countess. She fainted, but not till she had heard and comprehended +Chilton's hurried injunctions to secrecy and silence. He rang the bell +for assistance, and then left the house. The mental agony of Lady Seyton +on recovering consciousness was terrible, and she with great difficulty +succeeded in concealing its cause from her anxious and wondering +relatives. Another interview with Chilton appeared to confirm the truth +of his story beyond doubt or question. He produced a formally-drawn-up +document, signed by one Pierce Cunningham, grave-digger of Swords, which +set forth that Charles Gosford was buried on the 26th of June, 1832, and +that the inscription on his tombstone set forth that he had died June 23d +of that year. Also a written averment of Patrick Mullins of Dublin, that +he had lettered the stone at the head of the grave of Charles Gosford in +Swords burying-ground in 1832, and that its date was, as stated by Pierce +Cunningham, June 23, 1832. + +"Have you copies of those documents?" asked Mr. Flint. + +"Yes: I have brought them with me," the countess replied, and handed them +to Mr. Flint. "In my terror and extremity," continued her ladyship, "and +unguided by counsel--for, till now I have not dared to speak upon the +subject to any person--I have given this Chilton, at various times, large +sums of money--but he is insatiable; and only yesterday--I cannot +repeat his audacious proposal--you will find it in this note." + +"Marriage!" exclaimed Mr. Flint with a burst. He had read the note over +my shoulder. "The scoundrel!" + +My worthy partner was rather excited. The truth was he had a Clara of +his own at home--a dead sister's child--very pretty, just about +marriageable, and a good deal resembling, as he told me afterwards, our +new and interesting client. + +"I would die a thousand deaths rather," resumed Lady Seyton, in a low, +tremulous voice, as she let fall her veil. "Can there," she added in a +still fainter voice, "be anything done--anything"-- + +"That depends entirely," interrupted Mr. Flint, "upon whether this fine +story is or is not a fabrication, got up for the purpose of extorting +money. It seems to me, I must say, amazingly like one." + +"Do you really think so?" exclaimed the lady with joyful vehemence. The +notion that Chilton was perhaps imposing on her credulity and fears +seemed not to have struck her before. + +"What do you think, Sharp?" said my partner. + +I hesitated to give an opinion, as I did not share in the hope +entertained by Flint. Detection was so certain, that I doubted if so +cunning a person as Chilton appeared to be would have ventured on a fraud +so severely punishable. "Suppose," I said, avoiding an answer, "as this +note appoints an interview at three o'clock to-day at Seyton House, we +meet him there instead of your ladyship? A little talk with the fellow +might be serviceable." + +Lady Seyton eagerly agreed to this proposal; and it was arranged that we +should be at Seyton House half an hour before the appointed time, in +readiness for the gentleman. Lady Seyton left in a hackney-coach, +somewhat relieved, I thought, by having confided the oppressive secret to +us, and with a nascent hope slightly flushing her pale, dejected +countenance. + +The firm of Flint and Sharp had then a long conference together, during +which the lady's statement and Mr. Chilton's documents were, the reader +may be sure, very minutely conned over, analyzed, and commented upon. +Finally, it was resolved that, if the approaching interview, the manner +of which we agreed upon, did not prove satisfactory, Mr. Flint should +immediately proceed to Ireland, and personally ascertain the truth or +falsehood of the facts alleged by Chilton. + +"Mr. Chilton is announced," said Lady Seyton, hurriedly entering the +library in Grosvenor Square, where Mr. Flint and myself were seated. "I +need not be present, I think you said?" she added, in great tremor. + +"Certainly not, madam," I replied. "We shall do better alone." + +She retired instantly. Flint rose and stationed himself close by the +door. Presently a sounding, confident step was heard along the passage, +the library door swung back on its noiseless hinges, and in stalked a man +of apparently about thirty-five years of age, tall, genteel, and +soldier-looking. He started back on seeing me, recognizing, I perceived, +my vocation, at a glance. + +"How is this?" he exclaimed. "I expected"-- + +"The Countess of Seyton. True; but her ladyship has deputed me to confer +with you on the business mentioned in your note." + +"I shall have nothing to say to you," he replied abruptly, and turned +to leave the room. Mr. Flint had shut, and was standing with his back +to the door. + +"You can't go," he said, in his coolest manner. "The police are +within call." + +"The police! What the devil do you mean?" cried Chilton, angrily; but, +spite of his assurance, visibly trembling beneath Flint's searching, +half-sneering look. + +"Nothing very remarkable," replied that gentleman, "or unusual in our +profession. Come, sit down; we are lawyers; you are a man of business, we +know. I dare say we shall soon understand each other." + +Mr. Chilton sat down, and moodily awaited what was next to come. + +"You are aware," said Mr. Flint, "that you have rendered yourself liable +to transportation?" + +"What"' exclaimed Chilton, flashing crimson, and starting to his +feet. "What!" + +"To transportation," continued my imperturbable partner, "for seven, ten, +fourteen years, or for life, at the discretion of the judge; but, +considering the frequency of the crime of late, I should say there is a +strong probability that _you_ will be a _lifer_!" + +"What devil's gibberish is this?" exclaimed Chilton, frightened, but +still fierce. "I can prove everything I have said. Mr. Gosford, I +tell you"-- + +"Well, well," interrupted Mr. Flint; "put it in that light, how you +please; turn it which way you will; it's like the key in Blue Beard, +which, I dare say, you have read of; rub it out on one side, and up it +comes on the other. Say, by way of argument, that you have _not_ obtained +money by unfounded threats--a crime which the law holds tantamount to +highway robbery. You have in that case obtained money for compromising a +felony--that of polygamy. An awful position, my good sir, choose which +you will." + +Utterly chop-fallen was the lately triumphant man; but he speedily +rallied. + +"I care not," he at length said. "Punish me you may; but the pride of +this sham countess and the sham earl will be brought low. And I tell you +once for all," he added, rising at the same time, and speaking in +ringing, wrathful tones, "that I defy you, and will either be handsomely +remunerated for silence, or I will at once inform the Honorable James +Kingston that he is the true Earl of Seyton." + +"And I tell _you_," retorted Flint, "that if you attempt to leave this +room, I will give you into custody at once, and transport you, whatever +may be the consequence to others. Come, come, let us have no more +nonsense or bluster. We have strong reasons for believing that the story +by which you have been extorting money, is a fabrication. If it be so, +rely upon it we shall detect and punish you. Your only safe course is to +make a clean breast of it whilst there is yet time. Out with it, man, at +once, and you shall go Scot-free; nay, have a few score pounds more--say +a hundred. Be wise in time, I counsel you." + +Chilton hesitated; his white lips quivered. There _was_ something +to reveal. + +"I cannot," he muttered, after a considerable pause. "There is nothing to +disclose." + +"You will not! Then your fate be on your own head. I have done with you." + +It was now my turn. "Come, come," I said, "it is useless urging this +man further. How much do you expect? The insolent proposal contained +in your note is, you well know, out of the question. How much _money_ +do you expect for keeping this wretched affair secret? State your +terms at once." + +"A thousand per annum," was the reply, "and the first year down." + +"Modest, upon my word! But I suppose we must comply." I wrote out an +agreement. "Will you sign this?" + +He ran it over. "Yes; Lady Seyton, as she calls herself, will take care +it never sees the light." + +I withdrew, and in two or three minutes returned with a check. "Her +ladyship has no present cash at the bankers," I said, "and is obliged to +post-date this check twelve days." + +The rascal grumbled a good deal; but as there was no help for it, he took +the security, signed the agreement, and walked off. + +"A sweet nut that for the devil to crack," observed Mr. Flint, looking +savagely after him. "I am in hopes we shall trounce him yet, bravely as +he carries it. The check of course is not payable to order or bearer" + +"Certainly not; and before twelve days are past, you will have returned +from Ireland. The agreement may be, I thought, of use with Cunningham or +Mullins. If they have been conspiring together, they will scarcely admire +the light in which you can place the arrangement, as affording proof that +he means to keep the lion's share of the reward to himself." + +"Exactly. At all events we shall get at the truth, whatever it be." + +The same evening Mr. Flint started for Dublin _viâ_ Holyhead. + +I received in due course a letter from him dated the day after his +arrival there. It was anything but a satisfactory one. The date on the +grave-stone had been truly represented, and Mullins who erected it was a +highly respectable man. Flint had also seen the grave-digger, but could +make nothing out of him. There was no regular register of deaths kept in +Swords except that belonging to Cunningham; and the minister who buried +Gosford, and who lived at that time in Dublin, had been dead some time. +This was disheartening and melancholy enough; and, as if to give our +unfortunate client the _coup-de-grace_, Mr. Jackson, junior, marched into +the office just after I had read it, to say that, having been referred by +Lady Seyton to us for explanations, with respect to a statement made by a +Mr. Edward Chilton to the Honorable James Kingston, for whom they, the +Messrs. Jackson, were now acting, by which it appeared that the said +Honorable James Kingston was, in fact, the true Earl of Seyton, he, Mr. +Jackson, junior, would be happy to hear what I had to say upon the +subject! It needed but this. Chilton had, as I feared he would, after +finding we had been consulted, sold his secret, doubtless advantageously, +to the heir-at-law. There was still, however, a chance that something +favorable might turn up, and, as I had no notion of throwing that chance +away, I carelessly replied that we had reason to believe Chilton's story +was a malicious fabrication, and that we should of course throw on them +the onus of judicial proof that Gosford was still alive when the late +earl's marriage was solemnized. Finally, however, to please Mr. Jackson, +who professed to be very anxious, for the lady's sake, to avoid +unnecessary éclat, and to arrange the affair as quietly as possible, I +agreed to meet him at Lady Seyton's in four days from that time, and hear +the evidence upon which he relied. This could not at all events render +our position worse; and it was, meanwhile, agreed that the matter should +be kept as far as possible profoundly secret. + +Three days passed without any further tidings from Mr. Flint, and I +vehemently feared that his journey had proved a fruitless one, when, on +the evening previous to the day appointed for the conference at Seyton +House, a hackney-coach drove rapidly up to the office door, and out +popped Mr. Flint, followed by two strangers, whom he very watchfully +escorted into the house. + +"Mr. Patrick Mullins and Mr. Pierce Cunningham," said Flint as he shook +hands with me in a way which, in conjunction with the merry sparkle of +his eyes, and the boisterous tone of his voice, assured me all was right. +"Mr. Pierce Cunningham will sleep here to-night," he added; "so Collins +had better engage a bed out." + +Cunningham, an ill-looking lout of a fellow, muttered, that he chose "to +sleep at a tavern." + +"Not if I know it, my fine fellow," rejoined Mr. Flint. "You mean well, I +dare say; but I cannot lose sight of you for all that. You either sleep +here or at a station-house." + +The man stared with surprise and alarm; but knowing refusal or resistance +to be hopeless, sullenly assented to the arrangement, and withdrew to the +room appointed for him, vigilantly guarded. For Mr. Mullins we engaged a +bed at a neighboring tavern. + +Mr. Flint's mission had been skillfully and successfully accomplished. He +was convinced, by the sullen confusion of manner manifested by +Cunningham, that some villainous agency had been at work, and he again +waited on Mullins, the stone-cutter. "Who gave you the order for the +grave-stone?" he asked. Mr. Mullins referred to his book, and answered +that he received it by letter. "Had he got that letter?" "Very likely," +he replied, "as he seldom destroyed business papers of any kind." "A +search was instituted, and finally this letter," said Mr. Flint, "worth +an earl's coronet, torn and dirty as it is, turned up." This invaluable +document, which bore the London postdate of June 23, 1832, ran as +follows:-- + +"Anglesea Hotel, Haymarket, London, _June_ 23, 1832. + +"Sir--Please to erect a plain tomb-stone at the head of Charles +Gosford, Esquire's grave, who died a few month's since at Swords, aged +thirty-two years. This is all that need be inscribed upon it. You are +referred to Mr. Guinness of Sackville Street, Dublin, for payment. Your +obedient servant, + +"Edward Chilton." + +"You see," continued Flint, "the fellow had inadvertently left out the +date of Gosford's death, merely stating it occurred a few months +previously; and Mullins concluded that, in entering the order in his +day-book, he must have somehow or other confounded the date of the letter +with that of Gosford's decease. Armed with this precious discovery, I +again sought Cunningham, and by dint of promises and threats, at last got +the truth out of the rascal. It was this:--Chilton, who returned to this +country from the Cape, where he had resided for three years previously, +about two months ago, having some business to settle in Dublin, went over +there, and one day visited Swords, read the inscription on Charles +Gosford's grave-stone, and immediately sought out the grave-digger, and +asked him if he had any record of that gentleman's burial. Cunningham +said he had, and produced his book, by which it appeared that it took +place December 24, 1831. "That cannot be," remarked Chilton, and he +referred to the head-stone. Cunningham said he had noticed the mistake a +few days after it was erected; but thinking it of no consequence, and +never having, that he knew of, seen Mr. Mullins since, he had said, and +indeed thought, nothing about it. To conclude the story--Chilton +ultimately, by payment of ten pounds down, and liberal promises for the +future, prevailed upon the grave-digger to lend himself to the infamous +device the sight of the grave-stone had suggested to his fertile, +unscrupulous brain." + +This was indeed a glorious success and the firm of Flint and Sharp drank +the Countess of Seyton's health that evening with great enthusiasm, and +gleefully "thought of the morrow." + +We found the drawing-room of Seyton House occupied by the Honorable James +Kingston, his solicitors, the Messrs. Jackson, Lady Seyton, and her +father and sister, to whom she had at length disclosed the source of her +disquietude. The children were leaving the apartment as we entered it, +and the grief-dimmed eyes of the countess rested sadly upon her +bright-eyed boy as he slowly withdrew with his sisters. That look changed +to one of wild surprise as it encountered Mr. Flint's shining, +good-humored countenance. I was more composed and reserved than my +partner, though feeling as vividly as he did the satisfaction of being +able not only to dispel Lady Seyton's anguish, but to extinguish the +exultation, and trample on the hopes, of the Honorable James Kingston, a +stiff, grave, middle-aged piece of hypocritical propriety, who was +surveying from out the corners of his affectedly-unobservant eyes the +furniture and decorations of the splendid apartment, and hugging himself +with the thought that all that was his! Business was immediately +proceeded with. Chilton was called in. He repeated his former story +verbatim, and with much fluency and confidence. He then placed in the +hands of Jackson, senior, the vouchers signed by Cunningham and Mullins. +The transient light faded from Lady Seyton's countenance as she turned +despairingly, almost accusingly, towards us. + +"What answer have you to make to this gentleman's statement, thus +corroborated?" demanded Jackson, senior. + +"Quite a remarkable one," replied Mr. Flint, as he rang the bell. "Desire +the gentlemen in the library to step up," he added to the footman who +answered the summons. In about three minutes in marched Cunningham and +Mullins, followed by two police-officers. An irrepressible exclamation of +terror escaped Chilton, which was immediately echoed by Mr. Flint's +direction to the police, as he pointed towards the trembling caitiff: +"That is your man--secure him." + +A storm of exclamations, questions, remonstrances, instantly broke forth, +and it was several minutes before attention could be obtained for the +statements of our two Irish witnesses and the reading of the +happily-found letter. The effect of the evidence adduced was decisive, +electrical. Lady Seyton, as its full significance flashed upon her, +screamed with convulsive joy, and I thought must have fainted from excess +of emotion. The Rev. John Hayley returned audible thanks to God in a +voice quivering with rapture, and Miss Hayley ran out of the apartment, +and presently returned with the children, who were immediately +half-smothered with their mother's ecstatic kisses. All was for a few +minutes bewilderment, joy, rapture! Flint persisted to his dying day, +that Lady Seyton threw her arms round his neck, and kissed his bald old +forehead. This, however, I cannot personally vouch for, as my attention +was engaged at the moment by the adverse claimant, the Honorable James +Kingston, who exhibited one of the most irresistibly comic, wo-begone, +lackadaisical aspects it is possible to conceive. He made a hurried and +most undignified exit, and was immediately followed by the discomfited +"family" solicitors. Chilton was conveyed to a station-house, and the +next day was fully committed for trial. He was convicted at the next +sessions, and sentenced to seven years' transportation; and the +"celebrated" firm of Flint and Sharp, derived considerable lustre, and +more profit, from this successful stroke of professional dexterity. + + + + +JANE ECCLES + + +The criminal business of the office was, during the first three or four +years of our partnership, entirely superintended by Mr. Flint; he being +more _an fait_, from early practice, than myself in the art and mystery +of prosecuting and defending felons, and I was thus happily relieved of +duties which, in the days when George III. was king, were frequently very +oppressive and revolting. The criminal practitioner dwelt in an +atmosphere tainted alike with cruelty and crime, and pulsating +alternately with merciless decrees of death, and the shrieks and wailings +of sentenced guilt. And not always guilt! There exist many records of +proofs, incontestable, but obtained too late, of innocence having been +legally strangled on the gallows in other cases than that of Eliza +Fenning. How could it be otherwise with a criminal code crowded in every +line with penalties of death, nothing but--death? Juster, wiser times +have dawned upon us, in which truer notions prevail of what man owes to +man, even when sitting in judgment on transgressors; and this we owe, let +us not forget, to the exertions of a band of men who, undeterred by the +sneers of the reputedly wise and _practical_ men of the world, and the +taunts of "influential" newspapers, persisted in teaching that the rights +of property could be more firmly cemented than by the shedding of +blood--law, justice, personal security more effectually vindicated than +by the gallows. Let me confess that I also was, for many years, amongst +the mockers, and sincerely held such "theorists" and "dreamers" as Sir +Samuel Romilly and his fellow-workers in utter contempt. Not so my +partner, Mr. Flint. Constantly in the presence of criminal judges and +juries, he had less confidence in the unerring verity of their decisions +than persons less familiar with them, or who see them only through the +medium of newspapers. Nothing could exceed his distress of mind if, in +cases in which he was prosecuting attorney, a convict died persisting in +his innocence, or without a full confession of guilt. And to such a pitch +did this morbidly-sensitive feeling at length arrive, that he all at once +refused to undertake, or in any way meddle with, criminal prosecutions, +and they were consequently turned over to our head clerk, with occasional +assistance from me if there happened to be a press of business of the +sort. Mr. Flint still, however, retained a monopoly of the _defences_, +except when, from some temporary cause or other, he happened to be +otherwise engaged, when they fell to me. One of these I am about to +relate, the result of which, whatever other impression it produced, +thoroughly cured me--as it may the reader--of any propensity to sneer or +laugh at criminal-law reformers and denouncers of the gallows. + +One forenoon, during the absence of Mr. Flint in Wiltshire, a Mrs. +Margaret Davies called at the office, in apparently great distress of +mind. This lady, I must premise, was an old, or at all events an elderly +maiden, of some four-and-forty years of age--I have heard a very intimate +female friend of hers say she would never see fifty again, but this was +spite--and possessed of considerable house property in rather poor +localities. She found abundant employment for energies which might +otherwise have turned to cards and scandal, in collecting her weekly, +monthly, and quarterly rents, and in promoting, or fancying she did, the +religious and moral welfare of her tenants. Very bare-faced, I well knew, +were the impositions practiced upon her credulous good-nature in money +matters, and I strongly suspected the spiritual and moral promises and +performances of her motley tenantry exhibited as much discrepancy as +those pertaining to rent. Still, deceived or cheated as she might be, +good Mrs. Davies never wearied in what she conceived to be well-doing, +and was ever ready to pour balm and oil into the wounds of the sufferer, +however self-inflicted or deserved. + +"What is the matter now?" I asked as soon as the good lady was seated, +and had untied and loosened her bonnet, and thrown back her shawl, fast +walking having heated her prodigiously. "Nothing worse than +transportation is, I hope, likely to befall any of those interesting +clients of yours?" + +"You are a hard-hearted man, Mr. Sharp," replied Mrs. Davies between a +smile and a cry; "but being a lawyer, that is of course natural, and, as +I am not here to consult you as a Christian, of no consequence." + +"Complimentary, Mrs. Davies; but pray, go on." + +"You know Jane Eccles, one of my tenants in Bank Buildings--the +embroidress who adopted her sister's orphan child?" + +"I remember her name. She obtained, if I recollect rightly, a balance of +wages for her due to the child's father, a mate, who died at sea. Well, +what has befallen her?" + +"A terrible accusation has been preferred against her," rejoined Mrs. +Davies; "but as for a moment believing it, that is quite out of the +question. Jane Eccles," continued the warm-hearted lady, at the same time +extracting a crumpled newspaper from the miscellaneous contents of her +reticule--"Jane Eccles works hard from morning till night, keeps herself +to herself; her little nephew and her rooms are always as clean and nice +as a new pin; she attends church regularly; and pays her rent punctually +to the day. This disgraceful story, therefore," he added, placing the +journal in my hands, "_cannot_ be true." + +I glanced over the police news:--'Uttering forged Bank-of-England notes, +knowing them to be forged;' I exclaimed, "The devil!" + +"There's no occasion to be spurting that name out so loudly, Mr. Sharp," +said Mrs. Davies with some asperity, "especially in a lawyer's office. +People have been wrongfully accused before to-day, I suppose?" + +I was intent on the report, and not answering, she continued, "I heard +nothing of it till I read the shameful account in the paper half an hour +agone. The poor slandered girl was, I dare say, afraid or ashamed to +send for me." + +"This appears to be a very bad case, Mrs. Davies," I said at length. +"Three forged ten-pound notes changed in one day at different shops each +time, under the pretence of purchasing articles of small amount, and +another ten-pound note found in her pocket! All that has, I must say, a +very ugly look." + +"I don't care," exclaimed Mrs. Davies quite fiercely, "if it looks as +ugly as sin, or if the whole Bank of England was found in her pocket! I +know Jane Eccles well; she nursed me last spring through the fever; and I +would be upon my oath that the whole story, from beginning to end, is an +invention of the devil, or something worse." + +"Jane Eccles," I persisted, "appears to have been unable or unwilling to +give the slightest explanation as to how she became possessed of the +spurious notes. Who is this brother of hers, 'of such highly respectable +appearance,' according to the report, who was permitted a private +interview with her previous to the examination?" + +"She has no brother that I have ever heard of," said Mrs. Davies. "It +must be a mistake of the papers." + +"That is not likely. You observed of course that she was fully +committed--and no wonder!" + +Mrs. Davies's faith in the young woman's integrity was not to be shaken +by any evidence save that of her own bodily eyes, and I agreed to see +Jane Eccles on the morrow, and make the best arrangements for the +defence--at Mrs. Davies' charge--which the circumstances and the short +time I should have for preparation--the Old Bailey session would be on in +a few days--permitted. The matter so far settled, Mrs. Margaret hurried +off to see what had become of little Henry, the prisoner's nephew. + +I visited Jane Eccles the next day in Newgate. She was a well-grown young +woman of about two or three-and-twenty--not exactly pretty perhaps, but +very well-looking. Her brown hair was plainly worn, without a cap, and +the expression of her face was, I thought, one of sweetness and humility, +contradicted in some degree by rather harsh lines about the mouth, +denoting strong will and purpose. As a proof of the existence of this +last characteristic, I may here mention that, when her first overweening +confidence had yielded to doubt, she, although dotingly fond of her +nephew, at this time about eight years of age, firmly refused to see him, +"in order," she once said to me--and the thought brought a deadly pallor +to her face--in order that, should the worst befall, her memory might +not be involuntarily connected in his mind with images of dungeons, and +disgrace, and shame. Jane Eccles had received what is called in the +country, "a good schooling," and the books Mrs. Davies had lent her she +had eagerly perused. She was therefore to a certain extent a cultivated +person; and her speech and manners were mild, gentle, and, so to speak, +religious. I generally found, when I visited her, a Bible or prayer-book +in her hand. This, however, from my experience, comparatively slight +though it was, did not much impress me in her favor--devotional sentiment +so easily, for a brief time, assumed, being in nine such cases out of ten +a hypocritical deceit. Still she, upon the whole, made a decidedly +favorable impression on me, and I no longer so much wondered at the +bigotry of unbelief manifested by Mrs. Davies in behalf of her apparently +amiable and grateful protégée. + +But beyond the moral doubt thus suggested of the prisoner's guilt, my +interviews with her utterly failed to extract anything from her in +rebutment of the charge upon which she was about to be arraigned. At +first she persisted in asserting that the prosecution was based upon +manifest error; that the impounded notes, instead of being forged, were +genuine Bank-of-England paper. It was some time before I succeeded in +convincing her that this hope, to which she so eagerly, desperately +clung, was a fallacious one. I did so at last; and either, thought I, as +I marked her varying color and faltering voice, "either you are a +consummate actress, or else the victim of some frightful delusion or +conspiracy." + +"I will see you, if you please, to-morrow," she said, looking up from the +chair upon which, with her head bowed and her face covered with her +hands, she had been seated for several minutes in silence. "My thoughts +are confused now, but to-morrow I shall be more composed; better able to +decide if--to talk, I mean, of this unhappy business." + +I thought it better to comply without remonstrance, and at once +took my leave. + +When I returned the next afternoon, the governor of the prison informed +me that the brother of my client, James Eccles, quite a dashing +gentleman, had had a long interview with her. He had left about two hours +before, with the intention, he said, of calling upon me. + +I was conducted to the room where my conferences with the prisoner +usually took place. In a few minutes she appeared, much flushed and +excited, it seemed to be alternately with trembling joy and hope, and +doubt, and nervous fear. + +"Well," I said, "I trust you are now ready to give me your unreserved +confidence, without which, be assured, that any reasonable hope of a +successful issue from the peril in which you are involved is out of the +question." + +The varying emotions I have noticed were clearly traceable as they swept +over her tell-tale countenance during the minute or so that elapsed +before she spoke. + +"Tell me candidly, sir," she said at last, "whether, if I owned to you +that the notes were given to me by a--a person, whom I cannot, if I +would, produce, to purchase various articles at different shops, and +return him--the person I mean--the change; and that I made oath this was +done by me in all innocence of heart, as the God of heaven and earth +truly knows it was, it would avail me?" + +"Not in the least," I replied, angry at such trifling. "How can you ask +such a question? We must _find_ the person who, you intimate, has +deceived you, and placed your life in peril; and if that can be proved, +hang him instead of you. I speak plainly, Miss Eccles," I added in a +milder tone; "perhaps you may think unfeelingly, but there is no further +time for playing with this dangerous matter. To-morrow a true bill will +be found against you, and your trial may then come on immediately. If you +are careless for yourself, you ought to have some thought for the +sufferings of your excellent friend, Mrs. Davies; for your nephew, soon +perhaps to be left friendless and destitute." + +"Oh spare me--spare me!" sobbed the unhappy young woman, sinking +nervelessly into a seat. "Have pity upon me, wretched, bewildered as I +am!" Tears relieved her, and after awhile, she said, "It is useless, sir, +to prolong this interview. I could not, I solemnly assure you, if I +would, tell you where to search for or find the person of whom I spoke. +And," she added, whilst the lines about her mouth of which I have spoken, +grew distinct and rigid, "I would not if I could. What indeed would it, +as I have been told and believe, avail, but to cause the death of two +deceived innocent persons instead of one? Besides," she continued, trying +to speak with firmness, and repress the shudder which crept over and +shook her as with ague--"besides, whatever the verdict, the penalty will +not, cannot, I am sure, I know, be--be"-- + +I understood her plainly enough, although her resolution failed to +sustain her through the sentence. + +"Who is this brother--James Eccles, he calls himself--whom you saw at the +police-office, and who has twice been here, I understand--once to-day?" + +A quick start revealed the emotion with which she heard the question, +and her dilated eyes rested upon me for a moment with eager scrutiny. +She speedily recovered her presence of mind, and with her eyes again +fixed on the floor, said in a quivering voice, "My brother! Yes--as you +say--my brother." + +"Mrs. Davies says you have no brother!" I sharply rejoined. + +"Good Mrs. Davies," she replied in a tone scarcely above a whisper, and +without raising her head, "does not know all our family." + +A subterfuge was, I was confident, concealed in these words; but after +again and again urging her to confide in me, and finding warning and +persuasion alike useless, I withdrew, discomfited and angry, and withal +as much concerned and grieved as baffled and indignant. On going out, I +arranged with the governor that the "brother," if he again made his +appearance, should be detained, _bongré malgré_, till my arrival. Our +precaution was too late--he did not reappear; and so little notice had +any one taken of his person, that to advertise a description of him with +a reward for his apprehension was hopeless. + +A true bill was found, and two hours afterwards Jane Eccles was placed in +the dock. The trial did not last more than twenty minutes, at the end of +which, an unhesitating verdict of guilty was returned, and she was duly +sentenced to be hanged by the neck till she was dead. We had retained the +ablest counsel practicing in the court, but, with no tangible defence, +their efforts were merely thrown away. Upon being asked what she had to +say why the sentence of the law should not be carried into effect? she +repeated her previous statement--that the notes had been given her to +change by a person in whom she reposed the utmost confidence; and that +she had not the slightest thought of evil or fraud in what she did. That +person, however, she repeated once more, could not be produced. Her +assertions only excited a derisive smile; and all necessary forms having +been gone through, she was removed from the bar. + +The unhappy woman bore the ordeal through which she had just passed with +much firmness. Once only, whilst sentence was being passed, her +high-strung resolution appeared to falter and give way. I was watching +her intently, and I observed that she suddenly directed a piercing look +towards a distant part of the crowded court. In a moment her eye +lightened, the expression of extreme horror which had momently darkened +her countenance passed away, and her partial composure returned. I had +instinctively, as it were, followed her glance, and thought I detected a +tall man enveloped in a cloak engaged in dumb momentary communication +with her. I jumped up from my seat, and hastened as quickly as I could +through the thronged passages to the spot, and looked eagerly around, but +the man, whosoever he might be, was gone. + +The next act in this sad drama was the decision of the Privy Council upon +the recorder's report. It came. Several were reprieved, but amongst them +was _not_ Jane Eccles. She and nine others were to perish at eight +o'clock on the following morning. + +The anxiety and worry inseparable from this most unhappy affair, which, +from Mr. Flint's protracted absence, I had exclusively to bear, fairly +knocked me up, and on the evening of the day on which the decision of the +Council was received, I went to bed much earlier than usual, and really +ill. Sleep I could not, and I was tossing restlessly about, vainly +endeavoring to banish from my mind the gloomy and terrible images +connected with the wretched girl and her swiftly-coming fate, when a +quick tap sounded on the door, and a servant's voice announced that one +of the clerks had brought a letter which the superscription directed to +be read without a moment's delay. I sprang out of bed, snatched the +letter, and eagerly ran it over. It was from the Newgate chaplain, a very +worthy, humane gentleman, and stated that, on hearing the result of the +deliberations of the Privy Council, all the previous stoicism and +fortitude exhibited by Jane Eccles had completely given way, and she had +abandoned herself to the wildest terror and despair. As soon as she could +speak coherently, she implored the governor with frantic earnestness to +send for me. As this was not only quite useless in the opinion of that +official, but against the rules, the prisoner's request was not complied +with. The chaplain, however, thinking it might be as well that I should +know of her desire to see me, had of his own accord sent me this note. He +thought that possibly the sheriffs would permit me to have a brief +interview with the condemned prisoner in the morning, if I arrived +sufficiently early; and although it could avail nothing as regarded her +fate in this world, still it might perhaps calm the frightful tumult of +emotion by which she was at present tossed and shaken, and enable her to +meet the inevitable hour with fortitude and resignation. + +It was useless to return to bed after receiving such a communication, +and I forthwith dressed myself, determined to sit up and read, if I +could, till the hour at which I might hope to be admitted to the jail, +should strike. Slowly and heavily the dark night limped away, and as the +first rays of the cold wintry dawn reached the earth, I sallied forth. A +dense, brutal crowd were already assembled in front of the prison, and +hundreds of well-dressed sight-seers occupied the opposite windows, +morbidly eager for the rising of the curtain upon the mournful tragedy +about to be enacted. I obtained admission without much difficulty, but, +till the arrival of the sheriffs, no conference with the condemned +prisoners could be possibly permitted. Those important functionaries +happened on this morning to arrive unusually late, and I paced up and +down the paved corridor in a fever of impatience and anxiety. They were +at last announced, but before I could, in the hurry and confusion, +obtain speech of either of them, the dismal bell tolled out, and I felt +with a shudder that it was no longer possible to effect my object. +"Perhaps it is better so," observed the reverend chaplain, in a whisper. +"She has been more composed for the last two or three hours, and is now, +I trust, in a better frame of mind for death." I turned, sick at heart, +to leave the place, and in my agitation missing the right way, came +directly in view of the terrible procession. Jane Eccles saw me, and a +terrific scream, followed by frantic heart-rending appeals to me to save +her, burst with convulsive effort from her white quivering lips. Never +will the horror of that moment pass from my remembrance. I staggered +back, as if every spasmodic word struck me like a blow; and then, +directed by one of the turnkeys, sped in an opposite direction as fast +as my trembling limbs could carry me--the shrieks of the wretched +victim, the tolling of the dreadful bell, and the obscene jeers and +mocks of the foul crowd through which I had to force my way, evoking a +confused tumult of disgust and horror in my brain, which, if long +continued, would have driven me mad. On reaching home, I was bled +freely, and got to bed. This treatment, I have no doubt, prevented a +violent access of fever; for, as it was, several days passed before I +could be safely permitted to re-engage in business. + +On revisiting the office, a fragment of a letter written by Jane Eccles +a few hours previous to her death, and evidently addressed to Mrs. +Davies, was placed by Mr. Flint, who had by this time returned, before +me. The following is an exact copy of it, with the exception that the +intervals which I have marked with dots,.... were filled with erasures +and blots, and that every word seemed to have been traced by a hand +smitten with palsy:-- + +"From my Death-place, _Midnight._ + +"Dear Madam--No, beloved friend--mother, let me call you.... Oh kind, +gentle mother, I am to die ... to be killed in a few hours by cruel +men!--I, so young, so unprepared for death, and yet guiltless! Oh never +doubt that I am guiltless of the offence for which they will have the +heart to hang me.... Nobody, they say, can save me now; yet if I could +see the lawyer.... I have been deceived, cruelly deceived, madam--buoyed +up by lying hopes, till just now the thunder burst, and I--oh God!.... As +they spoke, the fearful chapter in the Testament came bodily before +me--the rending of the vail in twain, the terrible darkness, and the +opened graves!.... I did not write for this, but my brain aches and +dazzles.... It is too late--too late, they all tell me! ... Ah, if these +dreadful laws were not so swift, I might yet--but no; _he_ clearly proved +to me how useless.... I must not think of that.... It is of my nephew, of +your Henry, child of my affections, that I would speak. Oh, would that +I.... But hark!--they are coming.... The day has dawned ... to me the day +of judgment!...." + +This incoherent scrawl only confirmed my previous suspicions, but it was +useless to dwell further on the melancholy subject. The great axe had +fallen, and whether justly or unjustly, would, I feared, as in many, very +many other cases, never be clearly ascertained in this world. I was +mistaken. Another case of "uttering forged Bank-of-England notes, knowing +them to be forged," which came under our cognizance a few months +afterwards, revived the fading memory of Jane Eccles's early doom, and +cleared up every obscurity connected with it. + +The offender in this new case, was a tall, dark-complexioned, handsome +man, of about thirty years of age, of the name of Justin Arnold. His lady +mother, whose real name I shall conceal under that of Barton, retained us +for her son's defence, and from her, and other sources, we learned the +following particulars:-- + +Justin Arnold was the lady's son by a former marriage. Mrs. Barton, a +still splendid woman, had, in second nuptials, espoused a very wealthy +person, and from time to time had covertly supplied Justin Arnold's +extravagance. This, however, from the wild course the young man pursued, +could not be forever continued, and after many warnings the supplies were +stopped. Incapable of reformation, Justin Arnold, in order to obtain the +means of dissipation, connected himself with a cleverly-organized band of +swindlers and forgers, who so adroitly managed their nefarious business, +that, till his capture, they had contrived to keep themselves clear of +the law--the inferior tools and dupes having been alone caught in its +fatal meshes. The defence, under these circumstances necessarily a +difficult, almost impossible one, was undertaken by Mr. Flint, and +conducted by him with his accustomed skill and energy. + +I took a very slight interest in the matter, and heard very little +concerning it till its judicial conclusion by the conviction of the +offender, and his condemnation to death. The decision on the +recorder's report was this time communicated to the authorities of +Newgate on a Saturday, so that the batch ordered for execution, +amongst whom was Justin Arnold, would not be hanged till the Monday +morning. Rather late in the evening a note once more reached me from +the chaplain of the prison. Justin Arnold wished to see me--_me_, not +Mr. Flint. He had something of importance to communicate, he said, +relative to a person in whom I had once felt great interest. It +flashed across me that this Justin might be the "brother" of Jane +Eccles, and I determined to see him. I immediately sought out one of +the sheriffs, and obtained an order empowering me to see the prisoner +on the afternoon of the morrow, (Sunday). + +I found that the convict had expressed great anxiety lest I should +decline to see him. My hoped-for visit was the only matter which +appeared to occupy the mind or excite the care of the mocking, +desperate young man; even the early and shameful termination of his own +life on the morrow, he seemed to be utterly reckless of. Thus prepared, +I was the less surprised at the scene which awaited me in the +prisoner's cell, where I found him in angry altercation with the pale +and affrighted chaplain. + +I had never seen Justin Arnold before, this I was convinced of the +instant I saw him; but he knew and greeted me instantly by name. His +swarthy, excited features were flushed and angry; and after briefly +thanking me for complying with his wishes, he added in a violent rapid +tone, "This good man has been teasing me. He says, and truly, that I have +defied God by my life; and now he wishes me to mock that inscrutable +Being, on the eve of death, by words without sense, meaning, or truth!" + +"No, no, no!" ejaculated the reverend gentleman. "I exhorted you to true +repentance, to peace, charity, to"-- + +"True repentance, peace, charity!" broke in the prisoner, with a scornful +burst; "when my heart is full of rage, and bitterness, and despair! Give +me _time_ for this repentance which you say is so needful--time to lure +back long since banished hope, and peace, and faith! Poh!--you but flout +me with words without meaning. I am unfit, you say, for the presence of +men, but quite fit for that of God, before whom you are about to +arrogantly cast me! Be it so--my deeds are upon my head! It is at least +not my fault that I am hurled to judgment before the Eternal Judge +himself commanded my presence there!" + +"He may be unworthy to live," murmured the scared chaplain, "but oh, how +utterly unfit to die!" + +"That is true," rejoined Justin Arnold, with undiminished vehemence. +"Those, if you will, are words of truth and sense--go you and preach them +to the makers and executioners of English law. In the meantime I would +speak privately with this gentleman." + +The reverend pastor, with a mute gesture of compassion, sorrow, and +regret, was about to leave the cell, when he was stayed by the prisoner, +who exclaimed, "Now, I think of it, you had better, sir, remain. The +statement I am about to make cannot, for the sake of the victim's +reputation, and for her friends' sake, have too many witnesses. You both +remember Jane Eccles?" A broken exclamation from both of us answered him, +and he quickly added--"Ah, you already guess the truth, I see. Well, I do +not wonder you should start and turn pale. It _was_ a cruel, shameless +deed--a dastardly murder if there was ever one. In as few words as +possible, so you interrupt me not, I will relate _my_ share in the +atrocious business." He spoke rapidly, and once or twice during the brief +recital, the moistened eye and husky voice betrayed emotions which his +pride would have concealed. + +"Jane and I were born in Hertfordshire, within a short distance of each +other. I knew her from a child. She was better off then, I worse than we +subsequently became--she by her father's bankruptcy, I by my mo--, by +Mrs. Barton's wealthy marriage. She was about nineteen, I twenty-four, +when I left the country for London. That she loved me with all the +fervor of a trusting woman I well knew; and I had, too, for some time +known that she must be either honorably wooed or not at all. That with +me, was out of the question, and, as I told you, I came about that time +to London. You can, I dare say, imagine the rest. We were--I and my +friends, I mean--at a loss for agents to dispose of our wares, and at the +same time pressed for money. I met Jane Eccles by accident. Genteel, of +graceful address and winning manners, she was just fitted for our +purpose. I feigned re-awakened love, proffered marriage, and a home +across the Atlantic, as soon as certain trifling but troublesome affairs +which momently harassed me were arranged. She believed me. I got her to +change a considerable number of notes under various pretexts, but that +they were forged she had not and could not have the remotest suspicion. +You know the catastrophe. After her apprehension I visited this prison as +her brother, and buoyed her up to the last with illusions of certain +pardon and release, whatever the verdict, through the influence of my +wealthy father-in-law, of our immediate union afterwards, and tranquil +American home. It is needless to say more. She trusted me, and I +sacrificed her; less flagrant instances of a like nature occur every day. +And now, gentlemen, I would fain be alone." + +"Remorseless villain!" I could not help exclaiming under my breath as he +moved away. + +He turned quickly back, and looking me in the face, without the slightest +anger, said, "An execrable villain if you like--not a remorseless one! +Her death alone sits near, and troubles my, to all else, hardened +conscience. And let me tell you, reverend sir," he continued, resuming +his former bitterness as he addressed the chaplain--"let me tell you that +it was not the solemn words of the judge the other day, but her pale, +reproachful image, standing suddenly beside me in the dock, just as she +looked when I passed my last deception on her, that caused the tremor and +affright, complacently attributed by that grave functionary to his own +sepulchral eloquence. After all, her death cannot be exclusively laid to +my charge. Those who tried her would not believe her story, and yet it +was true as death. Had they not been so confident in their own unerring +wisdom, they might have doomed her to some punishment short of the +scaffold, and could now have retrieved their error. But I am weary, and +would, I repeat, be alone. Farewell!" He threw himself on the rude +pallet, and we silently withdrew. + +A paper embodying Justin Arnold's declaration was forwarded to the +secretary of state, and duly acknowledged, accompanied by an official +expression of mild regret that it had not been made in time to save the +life of Jane Eccles. No further notice was taken of the matter, and the +record of the young woman's judicial sacrifice still doubtless encumbers +the archives of the Home Office, forming, with numerous others of like +character, the dark, sanguine background upon which the achievements of +the great and good men who have so successfully purged the old Draco code +that now a faint vestige only of the old barbarism remains, stands out in +bright relief and changeless lustre. + + + + +"EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER." + + +A smarter trader, a keener appreciator of the tendencies to a rise or +fall in colonial produce--sugars more especially--than John Linden, of +Mincing Lane, it would have been difficult to point out in the wide city +of London. He was not so immensely rich as many others engaged in the +same merchant-traffic as himself; nothing at all like it, indeed, for I +doubt that he could at any time have been esteemed worth more than from +eighty to ninety thousand pounds; but his transactions, although limited +in extent when compared with those of the mammoth colonial houses, almost +always returned more or less of profit; the result of his remarkable +keenness and sagacity in scenting hurricanes, black insurrections, and +emancipation bills, whilst yet inappreciable, or deemed afar off, by less +sensitive organizations. At least to this wonderful prescience of future +sugar-value did Mr. Linden himself attribute his rise in the world, and +gradual increase in rotundity, riches, and respectability. This constant +success engendered, as it is too apt to do, inordinate egotism, conceit, +self-esteem, vanity. There was scarcely a social, governmental, or +economical problem which he did not believe himself capable of solving as +easily as he could eat his dinner when hungry. "Common-sense +business-habits"--his favorite phrase--he believed to be quite sufficient +for the elucidation of the most difficult question in law, physic, or +divinity. The science of law, especially, he held to be an alphabet which +any man--of common sense and business habits--could as easily master as +he could count five on his fingers; and there was no end to his ridicule +of the men with horse-hair head-dresses, and their quirks, quiddits, +cases, tenures, and such-like devil's lingo. Lawyers, according to him, +were a set of thorough humbugs and impostors, who gained their living by +false pretence--that of affording advice and counsel, which every sane +man could better render himself. He was unmistakably mad upon this +subject, and he carried his insane theory into practice. He drew his own +leases, examined the titles of some house-property he purchased, and set +his hand and seal to the final deeds, guided only by his own common-sense +spectacles. Once he bid, at the Auction Mart, as high as fifty-three +thousand pounds for the Holmford estate, Herefordshire; and had he not +been outbidden by young Palliser, son of the then recently-deceased +eminent distiller, who was eager to obtain the property, with a view to a +seat in parliament which its possession was said to almost insure--he +would, I had not at the time the slightest doubt, have completed the +purchase, without for a moment dreaming of submitting the vender's title +to the scrutiny of a professional adviser. Mr. Linden, I should mention, +had been for some time desirous of resigning his business in Mincing Lane +to his son, Thomas Linden, the only child born to him by his long-since +deceased wife, and of retiring, an estated squire-arch, to the _otium +cum._, or _sine dignitate_, as the case might be, of a country life; and +this disposition had of late been much quickened by daily-increasing +apprehensions of negro emancipation and revolutionary interference with +differential duties--changes which, in conjunction with others of similar +character, would infallibly bring about that utter commercial ruin which +Mr. Linden, like every other rich and about-to-retire merchant or +tradesman whom I have ever known, constantly prophesied to be near at +hand and inevitable. + +With such a gentleman the firm of Flint & Sharp had only professional +interviews, when procrastinating or doubtful debtors required that he +should put on the screw--a process which, I have no doubt, he would +himself have confidently performed, but for the waste of valuable time +which doing so would necessarily involve. Both Flint and myself were, +however, privately intimate with him--Flint more especially, who had +known him from boyhood--and we frequently dined with him on a Sunday at +his little box at Fulham. Latterly, we had on these occasions met there a +Mrs. Arnold and her daughter Catherine--an apparently amiable, and +certainly very pretty and interesting young person--to whom, Mr. Linden +confidentially informed us, his son Tom had been for some time engaged. + +"I don't know much about her family," observed Mr. Linden one day, in the +course of a gossip at the office, "but she moves in very respectable +society. Tom met her at the Slades'; but I _do_ know she has something +like thirty-five thousand pounds in the funds. The instant I was informed +how matters stood with the young folk, I, as a matter of common sense and +business, asked the mother, Mrs. Arnold, for a reference to her banker or +solicitor--there being no doubt that a woman and a minor would be in +lawyers' leading-strings--and she referred me to Messrs. Dobson of +Chancery Lane. You know the Dobsons?" + +"Perfectly,--what was the reply?" + +"That Catherine Arnold, when she came of age--it wants but a very short +time of that now--would be entitled to the capital of thirty-four +thousand seven hundred pounds, bequeathed by an uncle, and now lodged in +the funds in the names of the trustees, Crowther & Jenkins, of Leadenhall +Street, by whom the interest on that sum was regularly paid, +half-yearly, through the Messrs. Dobson, for the maintenance and +education of the heiress. A common-sense, business-like letter in every +respect, and extremely satisfactory; and as soon as he pleases, after +Catherine Arnold comes of age, and into actual possession of her fortune, +Tom may have her, with my blessing over the bargain." + +I dined at Laurel Villa, Fulham, about two months after this +conversation, and Linden and I found ourselves alone over the +dessert--the young people having gone out for a stroll, attracted +doubtless by the gay aspect of the Thames, which flows past the miniature +grounds attached to the villa. Never had I seen Mr. Linden in so gay, so +mirthful a mood. + +"Pass the decanter," he exclaimed, the instant the door had closed upon +Tom and his _fiancée_. "Pass the decanter, Sharp; I have news for you, my +boy, now they are gone." + +"Indeed! and what may the news be?" + +"Fill a bumper for yourself, and I'll give you a toast. Here's to the +health and prosperity of the proprietor of the Holmford estate; and may +he live a thousand years, and one over!--Hip--hip--hurra!" + +He swallowed his glass of wine, and then, in his intensity of glee, +laughed himself purple. + +"You needn't stare so," he said, as soon as he had partially recovered +breath; "I am the proprietor of the Holmford property--bought it for +fifty-six thousand pounds of that young scant-grace and spendthrift, +Palliser--fifteen thousand pounds less than what it cost him, with the +outlay he has made upon it. Signed, sealed, delivered, paid for +yesterday. Ha! ha! ho! Leave John Linden alone for a bargain! It's worth +seventy thousand pounds if it's worth a shilling. I say," continued he, +after a renewed spasm of exuberant mirth, "not a word about it to +anybody--mind! I promised Palliser, who is quietly packing up to be off +to Italy, or Australia, or Constantinople, or the devil--all of them, +perhaps, in succession--not to mention a word about it till he was well +off--you understand? Ha! ha!--ho! ho!" again burst out Mr. Linden. "I +pity the poor creditors though! Bless you! I shouldn't have had it at +anything like the price, only for his knowing that I was not likely to be +running about exposing the affair, by asking lawyers whether an estate in +a family's possession, as this was in Dursley's for three hundred years, +had a good title or not. So be careful not to drop a word, even to +Tom--for my honor's sake. A delicious bargain, and no mistake! Worth, if +a penny, seventy thousand pounds. Ha! ha!--ho! ho!" + +"Then you have really parted with that enormous sum of money without +having had the title to the estate professionally examined?" + +"Title! Fiddlestick! I looked over the deeds myself. Besides, haven't I +told you the ancestors of Dursley, from whose executors Palliser +purchased the estate, were in possession of it for centuries. What better +title than prescription can there be?" + +"That may be true enough; but still"-- + +"I ought, you think, to have risked losing the bargain by delay, and have +squandered time and money upon fellows in horse-hair wigs, in order to +ascertain what I sufficiently well knew already? Pooh! I am not in my +second childhood yet!" + +It was useless to argue with him; besides the mischief, if mischief there +was, had been done, and the not long-delayed entrance of the young couple +necessitating a change of topic, I innocently inquired what he thought of +the Negro Emancipation Bill which Mr. Stanley, as the organ of the +ministry, had introduced a few evenings previously? and was rewarded by a +perfect deluge of loquacious indignation and invective--during a pause in +which hurly-burly of angry words I contrived to effect my escape. + +"Crowther & Jenkins!" exclaimed one morning, Mr. Flint, looking up from +the "Times" newspaper he held in his hand. "Crowther & Jenkins!--what is +it we know about Crowther & Jenkins?" + +The question was addressed to me, and I, like my partner, could not at +the moment precisely recall why those names sounded upon our ears with a +certain degree of interest as well as familiarity. "Crowther & Jenkins!" +I echoed. "True; what _do_ we know about Crowther & Jenkins? Oh, I have +it!--they are the executors of a will under which young Linden's pretty +bride, that is to be, inherits her fortune." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Flint, as he put down the paper, and looked me +gravely in the face--"I remember now; their names are in the list of +bankrupts. A failure in the gambling corn-trade too. I hope they have not +been speculating with the young woman's money." + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Mr. Linden was announced, +and presently in walked that gentleman in a state of considerable +excitement. + +"I told you," he began, "some time ago about Crowther & Jenkins being the +persons in whose names Catherine Arnold's money stood in the funds?" + +"Yes," replied Flint; "and I see by the 'Gazette' they are bankrupts, +and, by your face, that they have speculated with your intended +daughter-in-law's money, and lost it!" + +"Positively so!" rejoined Mr. Linden, with great heat. "Drew it out many +months ago! But they have exceedingly wealthy connections--at least +Crowther has--who will, I suppose, arrange Miss Arnold's claim rather +than their relative should be arraigned for felony." + +"Felony!--you are mistaken, my good sir. There is no felony--no _legal_ +felony, I mean--in the matter. Miss Arnold can only prove against the +estate like any other creditor." + +"The devil she can't! Tom, then, must look out for another wife, for I am +credibly informed there won't be a shilling in the pound." + +And so it turned out. The great corn-firm had been insolvent for years; +and after speculating desperately, and to a frightful extent, with a view +to recover themselves, had failed to an enormous amount--their assets, +comparatively speaking, proving to be _nil_. + +The ruin spread around, chiefly on account of the vast quantity of +accommodation-paper they had afloat, was terrible; but upon no one did +the blow fall with greater severity than on young Linden and his promised +wife. His father ordered him to instantly break off all acquaintance with +Miss Arnold; and on the son, who was deeply attached to her, peremptorily +refusing to do so, Linden, senior, threatened to turn him out of doors, +and ultimately disinherit him. Angry, indignant, and in love, Thomas +Linden did a very rash and foolish thing; he persuaded Catherine Arnold +to consent to a private marriage, arguing that if the indissoluble knot +were once fairly tied, his father would, as a matter of course--he being +an only child--become reconciled to what he could no longer hope to +prevent or remedy. + +The imprudent young man deceived both himself and her who trusted in his +pleasing plausibilities. Ten minutes after he had disclosed the marriage +to his father, he was turned, almost penniless, out of doors; and the +exasperated and inexorable old man refused to listen to any +representation in his favor, by whomsoever proffered, and finally, even +to permit the mention of his name in his hearing. + +"It's of no use," said Mr. Flint, on returning for the last time, from a +mission undertaken to extort, if possible, some provision against +absolute starvation for the newly-wedded couple. "He is as cold and hard +as adamant, and I think, if possible, even more of a tiger than before. +He will be here presently to give instructions for his will." + +"His will! Surely he will draw that up himself after his own +common-sense, business fashion?" + +"He would unquestionably have done so a short time since; but some events +that have lately occurred have considerably shaken his estimate of his +own infallibility, and he is, moreover, determined, he says, that there +shall be no mistake as to effectually disinheriting his son. He has made +two or three heavy losses, and his mind is altogether in a very cankered, +distempered state." + +Mr. Linden called, as he had promised to do, and gave us the written +heads of a will which he desired to have at once formally drawn up. By +this instrument he devised the Holmford estate, and all other property, +real and personal, of which he might die possessed, to certain charitable +institutions, in varying proportions, payable as soon after his death as +the property could be turned into money. "The statute of mortmain does +not give me much uneasiness," remarked the vindictive old man with a +bitter smile. "I shall last some time yet. I would have left it all to +you, Flint," he added, "only that I knew you would defeat my purpose by +giving it back to that disobedient, ungrateful, worthless boy." + +"Do leave it to me," rejoined Mr. Flint, with grave emphasis, "and I +promise you faithfully this--that the wish respecting it, whatever it may +be, which trembles on your lip as you are about to leave this world for +another, and when it may be too late to formally revoke the testament you +now propose, shall be strictly carried out. That time cannot be a very +distant one, John Linden, for a man whose hair is white as yours." + +It was preaching to the winds. He was deaf, blind, mute, to every attempt +at changing his resolve. The will was drawn in accordance with his +peremptorily-iterated instructions, and duly signed, sealed, and +attested. Not very long afterwards, Mr. Linden disposed of his business +in Mincing Lane, and retired to Holmford, but with nothing like the +money-fortune he had once calculated upon, the losses alluded to by Mr. +Flint, and followed by others, having considerably diminished his wealth. + +We ultimately obtained a respectable and remunerative situation for +Thomas Linden in a mercantile house at Belfast, with which we were +professionally acquainted, and after securing berths in the _Erin_ +steamer, he, with his wife and mother-in-law, came, with a kind of +hopeful sadness in their looks and voices, to bid us farewell--for a very +long time, they and we also feared-- + +For an eternity, it seemed, on reading the account of the loss of the +_Erin_, a few days afterwards, with every soul on board! Their names were +published with those of the other passengers who had embarked, and we had +of course concluded that they had perished, when a letter reached us from +Belfast, stating that, through some delay on the part of Mrs. Arnold, +they had happily lost their passage in the _Erin_, and embarked in the +next steamer for Belfast, where they arrived in perfect safety. We +forwarded this intelligence to Holmford, but it elicited no reply. + +We heard nothing of Mr. Linden for about two months, except by +occasional notices in the "Hereford Times", which he regularly forwarded +to the office, relative to the improvements on the Holmford estate, +either actually begun or contemplated by its new proprietor. He very +suddenly reappeared. I was cooling my heels in the waiting-room of the +chambers of the Barons of the Exchequer, Chancery Lane, awaiting my turn +of admission, when one of our clerks came in, half-breathless with haste. +"You are wanted, sir, immediately; Mr. Flint is out, and Mr. Linden is at +the office raving like a mad-man." I instantly transferred the business I +was in attendance at chambers upon, to the clerk, and with the help of a +cab soon reached home. + +Mr. Linden was not _raving_ when I arrived. The violence of the paroxysm +of rage and terror by which he was possessed had passed away, and he +looked, as I entered, the image of pale, rigid, iron, dumb despair. He +held a letter and a strip of parchment in his hand; these he presented, +and with white, stammering lips, bade me read. The letter was from an +attorney of the name of Sawbridge, giving notice of an action of +ejectment, to oust him from the possession of the Holmford estate, the +property, according to Mr. Sawbridge, of one Edwin Majoribanks; and the +strip of parchment was the writ by which the letter had been quickly +followed. I was astounded; and my scared looks questioned Mr. Linden for +further information. + +"I do not quite understand it," he said in a hoarse, palpitating voice. +"No possession or title in the venders; a niece not of age--executors no +power to sell--Palliser discovered it, robbed me, absconded, and I, oh +God! am a miserable beggar!" + +The last words were uttered with a convulsive scream, and after a few +frightful struggles he fell down in a fit. I had him conveyed to bed, +and as soon as he was somewhat recovered, I hastened off to ascertain +from Sawbridge, whom I knew very intimately, the nature of the claim +intended to be set up for the plaintiff, Edwin Majoribanks. + +I met Sawbridge just as he was leaving his office, and as he was in too +great a hurry to turn back, I walked along with him, and he rapidly +detailed the chief facts about to be embodied in the plaintiff's +declaration. Archibald Dursley, once a London merchant, and who died a +bachelor, had bequeathed his estate, real and personal, to his brother +Charles, and a niece, his sister's child--two-thirds to the niece, and +one-third to the brother. The Holmford property, the will directed, +should be sold by public auction when the niece came of age, unless she, +by marriage or otherwise, was enabled, within six months after attaining +her majority, to pay over to Charles Dursley his third in money, +according to a valuation made for the purpose by competent assessors. The +brother, Charles Dursley, had urged upon the executors to anticipate the +time directed by the will for the sale of the property; and having +persuaded the niece to give a written authorization for the immediate +sale, the executors, chiefly, Sawbridge supposed, prompted by their own +necessities, sold the estate accordingly. But the niece not being of age +when she signed the authority to sell, her consent was of no legal value; +and she having since died intestate, Edwin Majoribanks, her cousin and +undoubted heir-at-law--for the property could not have passed from her, +even by marriage--now claimed the estate. Charles Dursley, the brother, +was dead; "and," continued Mr. Sawbridge, "the worst of it is, Linden +will never get a farthing of his purchase-money from the venders, for +they are bankrupt, nor from Palliser, who has made permanent arrangements +for continuing abroad, out of harm's reach. It is just as I tell you," +he added, as we shook hands at parting; "but you will of course see the +will, and satisfy yourself. Good-by." + +Here was a precious result of amateur common-sense lawyership! Linden +could only have examined the abstract of title furnished him by +Palliser's attorney, and not the right of Dursley's executors to sell; or +had not been aware that the niece could not during her minority, +subscribe an effective legal consent. + +I found Mr. Flint at the office, and quickly imparted the astounding +news. He was as much taken aback as myself. + +"The obstinate, pig-headed old ass!" he exclaimed; "it almost serves him +right, if only for his Tom-fool nonsense of 'Every man his own lawyer.' +What did you say was the niece's name?" + +"Well, I don't remember that Sawbridge told me--he was in such a hurry; +but suppose you go at once and look over the will?" + +"True: I will do so;" and away he went. + +"This is a very singular affair, Sharp," said Mr. Flint on his return +from Doctors' Commons, at the same time composedly seating himself, +hooking his thumbs into the arm-holes of his waistcoat, crossing his +legs, and tilting his chair back on its hind legs. "A very singular +affair. Whom, in the name of the god of thieves--Mercury, wasn't he +called?--do you suppose the bankrupt executors to be? No other," +continued Mr. Flint with a sudden burst, "than Crowther & Jenkins!" + +"The devil!--and the niece then is"-- + +"Catherine Arnold--Tom Linden's wife--supposed to have been drowned in +the _Erin_! That's check-mate, I rather fancy--not only to Mr. Edwin +Majoribanks, but some one else we know of. The old fellow up stairs +won't refuse to acknowledge his daughter-in-law now, I fancy!" + +This was indeed a happy change in the fortunes of the House of Linden; +and we discussed, with much alacrity, the best mode of turning +disclosures so momentous and surprising to the best account. As a first +step, a letter with an inclosure, was dispatched to Belfast, requiring +the return of Thomas Linden and family immediately; and the next was to +plead in form to the action. This done, we awaited Catherine Linden's +arrival in London, and Mr. Linden senior's convalescence--for his mental +agitation had resulted in a sharp fit of illness--to effect a +satisfactory and just arrangement. + +Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Linden and Mrs. Arnold arrived by the earliest +steamer that left Belfast after the receipt of our letter; and much +astonished were they by the intelligence that awaited them. Catherine +Linden was for confirming the validity of the sale of the Holmford estate +by her now authoritative consent at once, as a mere act of common justice +and good faith; but this, looking at the total loss of fortune she had +sustained by the knavery of the executors, and the obstinate, mulish +temper of the father-in-law, from whom she had already received such +harsh treatment, could not for a moment be permitted; and it was finally +resolved to take advantage of the legal position in which she stood, to +enforce a due present provision for herself and husband, and their +ultimate succession to the estate. + +John Linden gradually recovered; and as soon as it was deemed prudent to +do so, we informed him that the niece was not dead, as the plaintiff in +the action of ejectment had supposed, and that of course, if she could +now be persuaded to ratify the imperative consent she had formerly +subscribed, he might retain Holmford. At first he received the +intelligence as a gleam of light and hope, but he soon relapsed into +doubt and gloom. "What chance was there," he hopelessly argued, "that, +holding the legal power, she would not exercise it?" It was not, he said, +in human nature to do otherwise; and he commissioned us to make liberal +offers for a compromise. Half--he would be content to lose half his +purchase-money; even a greater sacrifice than that he would agree +to--anything, indeed, that would not be utter ruin--that did not involve +utter beggary and destitution in old age. + +Three days after this conversation, I announced to him that the lady and +her husband were below and desirous of seeing him. + +"What do they say?" he eagerly demanded. "Will they accept of +half--two-thirds? What do they say?" + +"I cannot precisely tell you. They wish to see you alone, and you can +urge your own views and offers." He trembled violently, and shrank +nervously back as I placed my hand on the door-handle of the private +office. He presently recovered in some degree his self-possession, passed +in, and I withdrew from the humiliating, but salutary spectacle, of +obdurate tyrant-power compelled to humble itself before those whom it had +previously scorned and trampled upon. + +The legal arrangements which Flint and I had suggested were effected, and +Linden, senior, accompanied by his son, daughter-in-law, and Mrs. Arnold, +set off in restored amity for Holmford House. Edwin Majoribanks abandoned +his action, and Palliser, finding that matters were satisfactorily +arranged, retired to England. We afterwards knew that he had discovered +the defect of title, on applying to a well-known conveyancer, to raise a +considerable sum by way of mortgage, and that his first step was to +threaten legal proceedings against Crowther & Jenkins for the recovery of +his money; but a hint he obtained of the futility of proceedings against +them, determined him to offer the estate at a low figure to Linden, +relying upon that gentleman's ostentatious contempt of lawyers that the +blot in the title, subjected only to his own common-sense spectacles, +would not be perceived. + + + + +THE CHEST OF DRAWERS. + + +I am about to relate a rather curious piece of domestic history, some +of the incidents of which, revealed at the time of their occurrence in +contemporary law reports, may be in the remembrance of many readers. It +took place in one of the midland counties, and at a place which I shall +call Watley; the names of the chief actors who figured in it must also, +to spare their modesty of their blushes, as the case may be, be +changed; and should one of those persons, spite of these precautions, +apprehend unpleasant recognition, he will be able to console himself +with the reflection, that all I state beyond that which may be gathered +from the records of the law courts will be generally ascribed to the +fancy or invention of the writer. And it is as well, perhaps, that it +should be so. + +Caleb Jennings, a shoemaker, cobler, snob--using the last word in its +genuine classical sense, and by no means according to the modern +interpretation by which it is held to signify a genteel sneak or +pretender--he was anything but that--occupied, some twelve or thirteen +years ago, a stall at Watley, which, according to the traditions of the +place, had been hereditary in his family for several generations. He may +also be said to have flourished there, after the manner of cobblers; for +this, it must be remembered, was in the good old times, before the +gutta-percha revolution had carried ruin and dismay into the +stalls--those of cobblers--which in considerable numbers existed +throughout the kingdom. Like all his fraternity whom I have ever fallen +in with or heard of, Caleb was a sturdy radical of the Major Cartwright +and Henry Hunt school; and being withal industrious, tolerably skillful, +not inordinately prone to the observance of Saint Mondays, possessed, +moreover, of a neatly-furnished sleeping and eating apartment in the +house of which the projecting first floor, supported on stone pillars, +over-shadowed his humble work-place, he vaunted himself to be as really +rich as an estated squire, and far more independent. + +There was some truth in this boast, as the case which procured us the +honor of Mr. Jennings's acquaintance sufficiently proved. We were +employed to bring an action against a wealthy gentleman of the vicinity +of Watley for a brutal and unprovoked assault he had committed, when in a +state of partial inebriety, upon a respectable London tradesman who had +visited the place on business. On the day of trial our witnesses appeared +to have become suddenly afflicted with an almost total loss of memory; +and we were only saved from an adverse verdict by the plain, +straight-forward evidence of Caleb, upon whose sturdy nature the various +arts which soften or neutralize hostile evidence had been tried in vain. +Mr. Flint, who personally superintended the case, took quite a liking to +the man; and it thus happened that we were called upon sometime +afterwards to aid the said Caleb in extricating himself from the +extraordinary and perplexing difficulty in which he suddenly and +unwittingly found himself involved. + +The projecting first floor of the house beneath which the humble +work-shop of Caleb Jennings modestly disclosed itself, had been occupied +for many years by an ailing and somewhat aged gentleman of the name of +Lisle. This Mr. Ambrose Lisle was a native of Watley, and had been a +prosperous merchant of the city of London. Since his return, after about +twenty years' absence, he had shut himself up in almost total seclusion, +nourishing a cynical bitterness and acrimony of temper which gradually +withered up the sources of health and life, till at length it became as +visible to himself as it had for sometime been to others, that the oil of +existence was expended, burnt up, and that but a few weak flickers more, +and the ailing man's plaints and griefs would be hushed in the dark +silence of the grave. + +Mr. Lisle had no relatives at Watley, and the only individual with whom +he was on terms of personal intimacy, was Mr. Peter Sowerby, an attorney +of the place, who had for many years transacted all his business. This +man visited Mr. Lisle most evenings, played at chess with him, and +gradually acquired an influence over his client which that weak gentleman +had once or twice feebly, but vainly endeavored to shake off. To this +clever attorney, it was rumored, Mr. Lisle had bequeathed all his wealth. + +This piece of information had been put in circulation by Caleb Jennings, +who was a sort of humble favorite of Mr. Lisle's, or, at all events, was +regarded by the misanthrope with less dislike than he manifested towards +others. Caleb cultivated a few flowers in a little plot of ground at the +back of the house, and Mr. Lisle would sometimes accept a rose or a bunch +of violets from him. Other slight services--especially since the recent +death of his old and garrulous woman-servant, Esther May, who had +accompanied him from London, and with whom Mr. Jennings had always been +upon terms of gossiping intimacy--had led to certain familiarities of +intercourse; and it thus happened that the inquisitive shoemaker became +partially acquainted with the history of the wrongs and griefs which +preyed upon, and shortened the life of the prematurely-aged man. + +The substance of this every-day, common-place story, as related to us by +Jennings, and subsequently enlarged and colored from other sources, may +be very briefly told. + +Ambrose Lisle, in consequence of an accident which occurred in his +infancy, was slightly deformed. His right shoulder--as I understood, for +I never saw him--grew out, giving an ungraceful and somewhat comical +twist to his figure, which, in female eyes--youthful ones at least--sadly +marred the effect of his intelligent and handsome countenance. This +personal defect rendered him shy and awkward in the presence of women of +his own class of society; and he had attained the ripe age of +thirty-seven years, and was a rich and prosperous man, before he gave the +slightest token of an inclination towards matrimony. About a twelvemonth +previous to that period of his life, the deaths--quickly following each +other--of a Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, threw their eldest daughter, Lucy, upon +Mr. Lisle's hands. Mr. Lisle had been left an orphan at a very early age, +and Mrs. Stevens--his aunt, and then a maiden lady--had, in accordance +with his father's will, taken charge of himself and brother till they +severally attained their majority. Long, however, before that, she +married Mr. Stevens, by whom she had two children--Lucy and Emily. Her +husband, whom she survived but two months, died insolvent; and in +obedience to the dying wishes of his aunt, for whom he appears to have +felt the tenderest esteem, he took the eldest of her orphan children to +his home, intending to regard and provide for her as his own adopted +child and heiress. Emily, the other sister, found refuge in the house of +a still more distant relative than himself. + +The Stevenses had gone to live in a remote part of England--Yorkshire, I +believe--and it thus fell out, that, till his cousin Lucy arrived at her +new home, he had not seen her for more than ten years. The pale, and +somewhat plain child, as he had esteemed her, he was startled to find had +become a charming woman; and her naturally gay and joyous temperament, +quick talents, and fresh young beauty, rapidly acquired an overwhelming +influence over him. Strenuously, but vainly, he struggled against the +growing infatuation--argued, reasoned with himself--passed in review the +insurmountable objections to such a union, the difference of age--he, +leading towards thirty-seven, she, barely twenty-one: he, crooked, +deformed, of reserved, taciturn temper--she, full of young life, and +grace, and beauty. It was useless; and nearly a year had passed in the +bootless struggle, when Lucy Stevens, who had vainly striven to blind +herself to the nature of the emotions by which her cousin and guardian +was animated towards her, intimated a wish to accept her sister Emily's +invitation to pass two or three months with her. This brought the affair +to a crisis. Buoying himself up with the illusions which people in such +an unreasonable frame of mind create for themselves, he suddenly entered +the sitting-room set apart for her private use, with the desperate purpose +of making his beautiful cousin a formal offer of his hand. She was not in +the apartment, but her opened writing-desk, and a partly-finished letter +lying on it, showed that she had been recently there, and would probably +soon return. Mr. Lisle took two or three agitated turns about the room, +one of which brought him close to the writing-desk, and his glance +involuntarily fell upon the unfinished letter. Had a deadly serpent +leaped suddenly at his throat, the shock could not have been greater. At +the head of the sheet of paper was a clever pen-and-ink sketch of Lucy +Stevens and himself--he, kneeling to her in a lovelorn, ludicrous +attitude, and she, laughing immoderately at his lachrymose and pitiful +aspect and speech. The letter was addressed to her sister Emily; and the +enraged lover saw not only that his supposed secret was fully known, but +that he himself was mocked, laughed at, for his doting folly. At least +this was his interpretation of the words which swam before his eyes. At +the instant Lucy returned, and a torrent of imprecation burst from the +furious man, in which wounded self-love, rageful pride, and long pent-up +passion, found utterance in wild and bitter words. Half an hour +afterwards Lucy Stevens had left the merchant's house--for ever, as it +proved. She, indeed, on arriving at her sister's, sent a letter, +supplicating forgiveness for the thoughtless, and, as he deemed it, +insulting sketch, intended only for Emily's eye; but he replied merely by +a note written by one of his clerks, informing Miss Stevens that Mr. +Lisle declined any further correspondence with her. + +The ire of the angered and vindictive man had, however, begun sensibly to +abate, and old thoughts, memories, duties, suggested partly by the blank +which Lucy's absence made in his house, partly by remembrance of the +solemn promise he had made her mother, were strongly reviving in his +mind, when he read the announcement of marriage in a provincial journal, +directed to him, as he believed, in the bride's hand-writing; but this +was an error, her sister having sent the newspaper. Mr. Lisle also +construed this into a deliberate mockery and insult, and from that hour +strove to banish all images and thoughts connected with his cousin, from +his heart and memory. + +He unfortunately adopted the very worst course possible for effecting +this object. Had he remained amid the buzz and tumult of active life, a +mere sentimental disappointment, such as thousands of us have sustained +and afterwards forgotten, would, there can be little doubt, have soon +ceased to afflict him. He chose to retire from business, visited Watley, +and habits of miserliness growing rapidly upon his cankered mind, never +afterwards removed from the lodgings he had hired on first arriving +there. Thus madly hugging to himself sharp-pointed memories, which a +sensible man would have speedily cast off and forgotten, the sour +misanthrope passed a useless, cheerless, weary existence, to which death +must have been a welcome relief. + +Matters were in this state with the morose and aged man--aged mentally +and corporeally, although his years were but fifty-eight--when Mr. Flint +made Mr. Jennings's acquaintance. Another month or so had passed away +when Caleb's attention was one day about noon claimed by a young man +dressed in mourning, accompanied by a female similarly attired, and from +their resemblance to each other he conjectured were brother and sister. +The stranger wished to know if that was the house in which Mr. Ambrose +Lisle resided. Jennings said it was; and with civil alacrity left his +stall and rang the front-door bell. The summons was answered by the +landlady's servant, who, since Esther May's death, had waited on the +first-floor lodger; and the visitors were invited to go up stairs. Caleb, +much wondering who they might be, returned to his stall, and from thence +passed into his eating and sleeping-room just below Mr. Lisle's +apartments. He was in the act of taking a pipe from the mantel-shelf, in +order to the more deliberate and satisfactory cogitation on such an +unusual event, when he was startled by a loud shout, or scream rather, +from above. The quivering and excited voice was that of Mr. Lisle, and +the outcry was immediately followed by an explosion of unintelligible +exclamations from several persons. Caleb was up stairs in an instant, +and found himself in the midst of a strangely-perplexing and distracted +scene. Mr. Lisle, pale as his shirt, shaking in every limb, and his eyes +on fire with passion, was hurling forth a torrent of vituperation and +reproach at the young woman, whom he evidently mistook for some one else; +whilst she, extremely terrified, and unable to stand but for the +assistance of her companion, was tendering a letter in her outstretched +hand, and uttering broken sentences, which her own agitation and the fury +of Mr. Lisle's invectives rendered totally incomprehensible. At last the +fierce old man struck the letter from her hand, and with frantic rage +ordered both the strangers to leave the room. Caleb urged them to comply, +and accompanied them down stairs. When they reached the street, he +observed a woman on the other side of the way, dressed in mourning, and +much older apparently, though he could not well see her face through the +thick veil she wore, than she who had thrown Mr. Lisle into such an agony +of rage, apparently waiting for them. To her the young people immediately +hastened, and after a brief conference the three turned away up the +street, and Mr. Jennings saw no more of them. + +A quarter of an hour afterwards the house-servant informed Caleb that Mr. +Lisle had retired to bed, and although still in great agitation, and, as +she feared, seriously indisposed, would not permit Dr. Clarke to be sent +for. So sudden and violent a hurricane in the usually dull and drowsy +atmosphere in which Jennings lived, excited and disturbed him greatly; +the hours, however, flew past without bringing any relief to his +curiosity, and evening was falling, when a peculiar knocking on the floor +over-head announced that Mr. Lisle desired his presence. That gentleman +was sitting up in bed, and in the growing darkness his face could not be +very distinctly seen; but Caleb instantly observed a vivid and unusual +light in the old man's eyes. The letter so strangely delivered was lying +open before him; and unless the shoe-mender was greatly mistaken, there +were stains of recent tears upon Mr. Lisie's furrowed and hollow cheeks. +The voice, too, it struck Caleb, though eager, was gentle and wavering. +"It was a mistake, Jennings," he said; "I was mad for the moment. Are +they gone?" he added in a yet more subdued and gentle tone. Caleb +informed him of what he had seen; and as he did so, the strange light in +the old man's eyes seemed to quiver and sparkle with a yet intenser +emotion than before. Presently he shaded them with his hand, and remained +several minutes silent. He then said with a firmer voice, "I shall be +glad if you will step to Mr. Sowerby, and tell him I am too unwell to see +him this evening. But be sure to say nothing else," he eagerly added, as +Caleb turned away in compliance with his request; "and when you come +back, let me see you again." + +When Jennings returned, he found to his great surprise Mr. Lisle up and +nearly dressed; and his astonishment increased a hundred-fold upon +hearing that gentleman say, in a quick but perfectly collected and +decided manner, that he should set off for London by the mail-train. + +"For London--and by night!" exclaimed Caleb, scarcely sure that he +heard aright. + +"Yes--yes! I shall not be observed in the dark," sharply rejoined Mr. +Lisle; "and you, Caleb, must keep my secret from every body, especially +from Sowerby. I shall be here in time to see him to-morrow night, and he +will be none the wiser." This was said with a slight chuckle; and as soon +as his simple preparations were complete, Mr. Lisle, well wrapped up, +and his face almost hidden by shawls, locked his door, and assisted by +Jennings, stole furtively down stairs, and reached unrecognized the +railway station just in time for the train. + +It was quite dark the next evening when Mr. Lisle returned; and so well +had he managed, that Mr. Sowerby, who paid his usual visit about half an +hour afterwards, had evidently heard nothing of the suspicious absence of +his esteemed client from Watley. The old man exulted over the success of +his deception to Caleb, the next morning, but dropped no hint as to the +object of his sudden journey. + +Three days passed without the occurrence of any incident tending to the +enlightenment of Mr. Jennings upon these mysterious events, which, +however, he plainly saw had lamentably shaken the long-since failing man. +On the afternoon of the fourth day, Mr. Lisle walked, or rather tottered, +into Caleb's stall, and seated himself on the only vacant stool it +contained. His manner was confused, and frequently purposeless, and there +was an anxious, flurried expression in his face, which Jennings did not +at all like. He remained silent for some time, with the exception of +partially inaudible snatches of comment or questionings, apparently +addressed to himself. At last he said, "I shall take a longer journey +to-morrow, Caleb--much longer; let me see--where did I say? Ah, yes! to +Glasgow; to be sure to Glasgow!" + +"To Glasgow, and to-morrow!" exclaimed the astounded cobbler. + +"No, no--not Glasgow; they have removed," feebly rejoined Mr. Lisle. +"But Lucy has written it down for me. True--true; and to-morrow I +shall set out." + +The strange expression of Mr. Lisle's face became momentarily more +strongly marked, and Jennings, greatly alarmed, said, "You are ill, Mr. +Lisle; let me run for Dr. Clarke." + +"No--no," he murmured, at the same time striving to rise from his seat, +which he could only accomplish by Caleb's assistance, and so supported, +he staggered indoors. "I shall be better to-morrow," he said faintly, and +then slowly added, "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow! Ah, me! Yes, +as I said, to-morrow, I"--He paused abruptly, and they gained his +apartment. He seated himself, and then Jennings, at his mute +solicitation, assisted him to bed. + +He lay some time with his eyes closed; and Caleb could feel--for Mr. +Lisle held him firmly by the hand, as if to prevent his going away--a +convulsive shudder pass over his frame. At last he slowly opened his +eyes, and Caleb saw that he was indeed about to depart upon the long +journey from which there is no return. The lips of the dying man worked +inarticulately for some moments; and then with a mighty effort, as it +seemed, he said, whilst his trembling hand pointed feebly to a bureau +chest of drawers that stood in the room, "There--there, for Lucy; there, +the secret place is"--Some inaudible words followed, and then after a +still mightier struggle than before, he gasped out, "No word--no +word--to--to Sowerby--for her--Lucy." + +More was said, but undistinguishable by mortal ear; and after gazing with +an expression of indescribable anxiety in the scared face of his +awe-struck listener, the wearied eyes slowly reclosed--the deep silence +flowed past; then the convulsive shudder came again, and he was dead! + +Caleb Jennings tremblingly summoned the house-servant and the landlady, +and was still confusedly pondering the broken sentences uttered by the +dying man, when Mr. Sowerby hurriedly arrived. The attorney's first care +was to assume the direction of affairs, and to place seals upon every +article containing or likely to contain anything of value belonging to +the deceased. This done, he went away to give directions for the funeral, +which took place a few days afterwards; and it was then formally +announced that Mr. Sowerby succeeded by will to the large property of +Ambrose Lisle; under trust, however, for the family, if any, of Robert +Lisle, the deceased's brother, who had gone when very young to India, and +had not been heard of for many years--a condition which did not at all +mar the joy of the crafty lawyer, he having long since instituted private +inquiries, which perfectly satisfied him, that the said Robert Lisle had +died, unmarried, at Calcutta. + +Mr. Jennings was in a state of great dubiety and consternation. Sowerby +had emptied the chest of drawers of every valuable it contained; and +unless he had missed the secret receptacle Mr. Lisle had spoken of, the +deceased's intentions, whatever they might have been, were clearly +defeated. And if he had _not_ discovered it, how could he, Jennings, get +at the drawers to examine them? A fortunate chance brought some relief to +his perplexities. Ambrose Lisle's furniture was advertised to be sold by +auction, and Caleb resolved to purchase the bureau chest of drawers at +almost any price, although to do so would oblige him to break into his +rent-money, then nearly due. The day of sale came, and, the important lot +in its turn was put up. In one of the drawers there were a number of +loose newspapers, and other valueless scraps; and Caleb, with a sly grin, +asked the auctioneer, if he sold the article with all its contents. "Oh, +yes," said Sowerby, who was watching the sale; "the buyer may have all it +contains over his bargain, and much good may it do him." A laugh followed +the attorney's sneering remark, and the biddings went on. "I want it," +observed Caleb "because it just fits a recess like this one in my room +underneath." This he said to quiet a suspicion he thought he saw +gathering upon the attorney's brow. It was finally knocked down to Caleb +at £5 10s., a sum considerably beyond its real value; and he had to +borrow a sovereign in order to clear his speculative purchase. This done, +he carried off his prize, and as soon as the closing of the house for the +night secured him from interruption, he set eagerly to work in search of +the secret drawer. A long and patient examination was richly rewarded. +Behind one of the small drawers of the _secrétaire_ portion of the piece +of furniture was another small one, curiously concealed, which contained +Bank-of-England notes to the amount of £200, tied up with a letter, upon +the back of which was written, in the deceased's hand-writing, "To take +with me." The letter which Caleb, although he read print with facility, +had much difficulty in making out, was that which Mr. Lisle had struck +from the young woman's hand a few weeks before, and proved to be a very +affecting appeal from Lucy Stevens, now Lucy Warner, and a widow, with +two grown-up children. Her husband had died in insolvent circumstances, +and she and her sister Emily, who was still single, were endeavoring to +carry on a school at Bristol, which promised to be sufficiently +prosperous if the sum of about £150 could be raised, to save the +furniture from her deceased husband's creditors. The claim was pressing, +for Mr. Warner had been dead nearly a year, and Mr. Lisle being the only +relative Mrs. Warner had in the world, she had ventured to entreat his +assistance for her mother's sake. There could be no moral doubt, +therefore, that this money was intended for Mrs. Warner's relief; and +early in the morning Mr. Caleb Jennings dressed himself in his Sunday's +suit, and with a brief announcement to his landlady that he was about to +leave Watley for a day or two, on a visit to a friend, set off for the +railway station. He had not proceeded far when a difficulty struck +him--the bank-notes were all twenties; and were he to change a +twenty-pound note at the station, where he was well known, great would be +the tattle and wonderment, if nothing worse, that would ensue. So Caleb +tried his credit again, borrowed sufficient for his journey to London, +and there changed one of the notes. + +He soon reached Bristol, and blessed was the relief which the sum of +money he brought afforded Mrs. Warner. She expressed much sorrow for the +death of Mr. Lisle, and great gratitude to Caleb. The worthy man +accepted with some reluctance one of the notes, or at least as much as +remained of that which he had changed; and after exchanging promises +with the widow and her relatives to keep the matter secret, departed +homewards. The young woman, Mrs. Warner's daughter, who had brought the +letter to Watley, was, Caleb noticed, the very image of her mother, or, +rather, of what her mother must have been when young. This remarkable +resemblance it was, no doubt, which had for the moment so confounded and +agitated Mr. Lisle. + +Nothing occurred for about a fortnight after Caleb's return to disquiet +him, and he had begun to feel tolerably sure that his discovery of the +notes would remain unsuspected, when, one afternoon, the sudden and +impetuous entrance of Mr. Sowerby into his stall caused him to jump up +from his seat with surprise and alarm. The attorney's face was deathly +white, his eyes glared like a wild beast's, and his whole appearance +exhibited uncontrollable agitation. "A word with you, Mr. Jennings," he +gasped--"a word in private, and at once!" Caleb, in scarcely less +consternation than his visitor, led the way into his inner room, and +closed the door. + +"Restore--give back," screamed the attorney, vainly struggling to +dissemble the agitation which convulsed him--"that--that which you have +purloined from the chest of drawers!" + +The hot blood rushed to Caleb's face and temples; the wild vehemence and +suddenness of the demand confounded him; and certain previous dim +suspicions that the law might not only pronounce what he had done +illegal, but possibly felonious, returned upon him with terrible force, +and he quite lost his presence of mind. + +"I can't--I can't," he stammered. "It's gone--given away"-- + +"Gone!" shouted, or, more correctly, howled--Sowerby, at the +same time flying at Caleb's throat as if he would throttle him. +"Gone--given away! You lie--you want to drive a bargain with +me--dog!--liar!--rascal!--thief!" + +This was a species of attack which Jennings was at no loss how to meet. +He shook the attorney roughly off, and hurled him, in the midst of his +vituperation, to the further end of the room. + +They then stood glaring at each other in silence, till the attorney, +mastering himself as well as he could, essayed another and more rational +mode of attaining his purpose:-- + +"Come, come, Jennings," he said, "don't be a fool. Let us understand each +other. I have just discovered a paper, a memorandum of what you have +found in the drawers, and to obtain which you bought them. I don't care +for the money--keep it; only give me the papers--documents." + +"Papers--documents!" ejaculated Caleb, in unfeigned surprise. + +"Yes--yes; of use to me only. You, I remember, cannot read writing; but +they are of great consequence to me--to me only, I tell you." + +"You can't mean Mrs. Warner's letter?" + +"No--no; curse the letter! You are playing with a tiger! Keep the money, +I tell you; but give up the papers--documents--or I'll transport you!" +shouted Sowerby with reviving fury. + +Caleb, thoroughly bewildered, could only mechanically ejaculate that he +had no papers or documents. + +The rage of the attorney when he found he could extract nothing from +Jennings was frightful. He literally foamed with passion, uttered the +wildest threats; and then suddenly changing his key, offered the +astounded cobbler one--two--three thousand pounds--any sum he chose to +name, for the papers--documents! This scene of alternate violence and +cajolery lasted nearly an hour; and then Sowerby rushed from the house as +if pursued by the furies, and leaving his auditor in a state of thorough +bewilderment and dismay. It occurred to Caleb, as soon as his mind had +settled into something like order, that there might be another secret +drawer; and the recollection of Mr. Lisle's journey to London recurred +suggestively to him. Another long and eager search, however, proved +fruitless; and the suspicion was given up, or, more correctly, weakened. + +As soon as it was light the next morning, Mr. Sowerby was again with +him. He was more guarded now, and was at length convinced that Jennings +had no paper or document to give up. "It was only some important +memoranda," observed the attorney carelessly, "that would save me a +world of trouble in a lawsuit I shall have to bring against some heavy +debtors to Mr. Lisle's estate; but I must do as well as I can without +them. Good morning." Just as he reached the door a sudden thought +appeared to strike him. He stopped and said, "By the way, Jennings, in +the hurry of business I forgot that Mr. Lisle had told me the chest of +drawers you bought, and a few other articles, were family relics which +he wished to be given to certain parties he named. The other things I +have got; and you, I suppose, will let me have the drawers for--say a +pound profit on your bargain?" + +Caleb was not the acutest man in the world; but this sudden proposition, +carelessly as it was made, suggested curious thoughts. "No," he answered; +"I shall not part with it. I shall keep it as a memorial of Mr. Lisle." + +Sowerby's face assumed as Caleb spoke, a ferocious expression. "Shall +you?" said he. "Then, be sure, my fine fellow, that you shall also have +something to remember me by as long as you live." + +He then went away, and a few days afterwards Caleb was served with a writ +for the recovery of the two hundred pounds. + +The affair made a great noise in the place; and Caleb's conduct being +very generally approved, a subscription was set on foot to defray the +cost of defending the action--one Hayling, a rival attorney to Sowerby, +having asserted that the words used by the proprietor of the chest of +drawers at the sale barred his claim to the money found in them. This +wise gentleman was intrusted with the defence; and strange to say, the +jury--a common one--spite of the direction of the judge returned a +verdict for the defendant, upon the ground that Sowerby's jocular or +sneering remark amounted to a serious, valid leave and license to sell +two hundred pounds for five pounds ten shillings! + +Sowerby obtained, as a matter of course, a rule for a new trial; and a +fresh action was brought. All at once Hayling refused to go on, alleging +deficiency of funds. He told Jennings that in his opinion it would be +better that he should give in to Sowerby's whim, who only wanted the +drawers in order to comply with the testator's wishes. "Besides," +remarked Hayling in conclusion, "he is sure to get the article, you know, +when it comes to be sold under a writ of _fi fa_." A few days after this +conversation it was ascertained that Hayling was to succeed to Sowerby's +business, the latter gentleman being about to retire upon the fortune +bequeathed him by Mr. Lisle. + +At last Caleb, driven nearly out of his senses, though still doggedly +obstinate, by the harassing perplexities in which he found himself, +thought of applying to us. + +"A very curious affair, upon my word," remarked Mr. Flint, as soon as +Caleb had unburdened himself of the story of his woes and cares; "and in +my opinion by no means explainable by Sowerby's anxiety to fulfill the +testator's wishes. He cannot expect to get two hundred pence out of you; +and Mrs. Warner, you say, is equally unable to pay. Very odd indeed. +Perhaps if we could get time, something might turn up." + +With this view Flint looked over the papers Caleb had brought, and found +the declaration was in _trover_--a manifest error--the notes never +admittedly having been in Sowerby's actual possession. We accordingly +demurred to the form of action, and the proceedings were set aside. This, +however, proved of no ultimate benefit. Sowerby persevered, and a fresh +action was instituted against the unhappy shoe-mender. So utterly +overcrowed and disconsolate was poor Caleb, that he determined to give up +the drawers which was all Sowerby even now required, and so wash his +hands of the unfortunate business. Previous, however, to this being done, +it was determined that another thorough and scientific examination of +the mysterious piece of furniture should be made; and for this purpose +Mr. Flint obtained a workman skilled in the mysteries of secret +contrivances, from the desk and dressing-case establishment in King +Street, Holborn, and proceeded with him to Watley. + +The man performed his task with great care and skill; every depth and +width was guaged and measured, in order to ascertain if there were any +false bottoms or backs; and the workman finally pronounced that there was +no concealed receptacle in the article. + +"I am sure there is," persisted Flint, whom disappointment as usual +rendered but the more obstinate; "and so is Sowerby: and he knows too, +that it is so cunningly contrived as to be undiscoverable, except by a +person in the secret, which he no doubt at first imagined Caleb to be. +I'll tell you what we'll do--You have the necessary tools with you. Split +the confounded chest of drawers into shreds--I'll be answerable for the +consequences." + +This was done carefully and methodically, but for some time without +result. At length the large drawer next the floor had to be knocked to +pieces; and as it fell apart, one section of the bottom, which, like all +the others, was divided into two compartments, dropped asunder, and +discovered a parchment laid flat between the two thin leaves, which, when +pressed together in the grooves of the drawer, presented precisely the +same appearance as the rest. Flint snatched up the parchment, and his +eager eye had scarcely rested an instant on the writing, when a shout of +triumph burst from him. It was the last will and testament of Ambrose +Lisle, dated August 21, 1838--the day of his last hurried visit to +London. It revoked the former will, and bequeathed the whole of his +property, in equal portions, to his cousins Lucy Warner and Emily +Stevens, with succession to their children; but with reservation of +one-half to his brother Robert or children, should he be alive, or have +left offspring. + +Great, it may be supposed was the jubilation of Caleb Jennings at this +discovery; and all Watley, by his agency, was in a marvelously short +space of time in a very similar state of excitement. It was very late +that night when he reached his bed; and how he got there at all, and what +precisely had happened, except, indeed, that he had somewhere picked up a +splitting headache, was, for some time after he awoke the next morning, +very confusedly remembered. + +Mr. Flint, by reflection, was by no means so exultant as the worthy +shoe-mender. The odd mode of packing away a deed of such importance, with +_no assignable motive for doing so_, except the needless awe with which +Sowerby was said to have inspired his feeble-spirited client, together +with what Caleb had said of the shattered state of the deceased's mind +after the interview with Mrs. Warner's daughter, suggested fears that +Sowerby might dispute, and perhaps successfully, the validity of this +last will. My excellent partner, however, determined, as was his wont, to +put a bold face on the matter; and first clearly settling in his own mind +what he should and what he should _not_ say, waited upon Mr. Sowerby. The +news had preceded him, and he was at once surprised and delighted to find +that the nervous crest-fallen attorney was quite unaware of the +advantages of his position. On condition of not being called to account +for the moneys he had received and expended, about £1200, he destroyed +the former will in Mr. Flint's presence, and gave up, at once, all the +deceased's papers. From these we learned that Mr. Lisle had written a +letter to Mrs. Warner, stating what he had done, and where the will would +be found, and that only herself and Jennings would know the secret. Prom +infirmity of purpose, or from having subsequently determined on a +personal interview, the letter was not posted; and Sowerby subsequently +discovered it, together with a memorandum of the numbers of the +bank-notes found by Caleb in the secret drawer--the eccentric gentleman +appears to have had quite a mania for such hiding-places--of a +writing-desk. + +The affair was thus happily terminated; Mrs. Warner, her children, and +sister, were enriched, and Caleb Jennings was set up in a good way of +business in his native place, where he still flourishes. Over the +centre of his shop there is a large nondescript sign, surmounted by a +golden boot, which upon a close inspection is found to bear a +resemblance to a huge bureau chest of drawers, all the circumstances +connected with which may be heard, for the asking, and in much fuller +detail than I have given, from the lips of the owner of the +establishment, by any lady or gentleman who will take the trouble of a +journey to Watley for that purpose. + + + + +THE PUZZLE. + + +Tempus fugit! The space of but a few brief yesterdays seems to have +passed since the occurrence of the following out-of-the-way +incidents--out-of-the-way, even in our profession, fertile as it is in +startling experiences; and yet the faithful and unerring tell-tale and +monitor, Anno Domini 1851, instructs me that a quarter of a century has +nearly slipped by since the first scene in the complicated play of +circumstances opened upon me. The date I remember well, for the +Tower-guns had been proclaiming with their thunder-throats the victory of +Navarino but a short time before a clerk announced, "William Martin, with +a message from Major Stewart." + +This William Martin was a rather sorry curiosity in his way. He was now +in the service of our old client, Major Stewart; and a tall, good-looking +fellow enough, spite of a very decided cast in his eyes, which the +rascal, when in his cups--no unusual occurrence--declared he had caught +from his former masters--Edward Thorneycroft, Esq., an enormously rich +and exceedingly yellow East India director, and his son, Mr. Henry +Thorneycroft, with whom, until lately transferred to Major Stewart's +service, he had lived from infancy--his mother and father having formed +part of the elder Thorneycroft's establishment when he was born. He had a +notion in his head that he had better blood in his veins than the world +supposed, and was excessively fond of aping the gentleman; and this he +did, I must say, with the ease and assurance of a stage-player. His name +was scarcely out of the clerk's lips when he entered the inner office +with a great effort at steadiness and deliberation, closed the door very +carefully and importantly, hung his hat with much precision on a brass +peg, and then steadying himself by the door-handle, surveyed the +situation and myself with staring lack-lustre eyes and infinite gravity. +I saw what was the matter. + +"You have been in the 'Sun,' Mr. Martin?" + +A wink, inexpressible by words, replied to me, and I could see by the +motion of the fellow's lips that speech was attempted; but it came so +thick that it was several minutes before I made out that he meant to +say the British had been knocking the Turks about like bricks, and +that he had been patriotically drinking the healths of the said +British or bricks. + +"Have the goodness, sir, to deliver your message, and then instantly +leave the office." + +"Old Tho-o-o-rney," was the hiccoughed reply, "has smoked the--the +plot. Young Thorney's done for. Ma-a-aried in a false name; +tra-ansportation--of course." + +"What gibberish is this about old Thorney and young Thorney? Do you not +come from Major Stewart?" + +"Ye-e-es, that's right; the route's arrived for the old trump; wishes +to--to see you" + +"Major Stewart dying! Why, you are a more disgraceful scamp than I +believed you to be. Send this fellow away," I added to a clerk who +answered my summons. I then hastened off, and was speedily rattling over +the stones towards Baker Street, Portman Square, where Major Stewart +resided. As I left the office I heard Martin beg the clerk to lead him to +the pump previous to sending him off--no doubt for the purpose of +sobering himself somewhat previous to reappearing before the major, +whose motives for hiring or retaining such a fellow in his modest +establishment I could not understand. + +"You were expected more than an hour ago," said Dr. Hampton, who was just +leaving the house. "The major is now, I fear, incapable of business." + +There was no time for explanation, and I hastily entered the +sick-chamber. Major Stewart, though rapidly sinking, recognized me; and +in obedience to a gesture from her master the aged, weeping house-keeper +left the room. The major's daughter, Rosamond Stewart, had been absent +with her aunt, her father's maiden sister, on a visit, I understood, to +some friends in Scotland, and had not, I concluded, been made acquainted +with the major's illness, which had only assumed a dangerous character a +few days previously. The old soldier was dying calmly and +painlessly--rather from exhaustion of strength, a general failure of the +powers of life, than from any especial disease. A slight flush tinged the +mortal pallor of his face as I entered, and the eyes emitted a +slightly-reproachful expression. + +"It is not more, my dear sir," I replied softly but eagerly to his look, +"than a quarter of an hour ago that I received your message." + +I do not know whether he comprehended or even distinctly heard what I +said, for his feeble but extremely anxious glance was directed whilst +I spoke to a large oil-portrait of Rosamond Stewart, suspended over +the mantel-piece. The young lady was a splendid, dark-eyed beauty, +and of course the pride and darling of her father. Presently +wrenching, as it were, his eyes from the picture, he looked in my +face with great earnestness, and bending my ear close to his lips, I +heard him feebly and brokenly say, "A question to ask you, that's +all; read--read!" His hand motioned towards a letter which lay open +on the bed; I ran it over, and the major's anxiety was at once +explained. Rosamond Stewart had, I found, been a short time +previously married in Scotland to Henry Thorneycroft, the son of the +wealthy East India director. Finding his illness becoming serious, +the major had anticipated the time and mode in which the young people +had determined to break the intelligence to the irascible father of +the bridegroom, and the result was the furious and angry letter in +reply which I was perusing. Mr. Thorneycroft would never, he +declared, recognize the marriage of his undutiful nephew--nephew, +_not_ son; for he was, the letter announced, the child of an only +sister, whose marriage had also mortally offended Mr. Thorneycroft, +and had been brought up from infancy as his (Mr. Thorneycroft's) son, +in order that the hated name of Allerton, to which the boy was alone +legally entitled, might never offend his ear. There was something +added insinuative of a doubt of the legality of the marriage, in +consequence of the misnomer of the bridegroom at the ceremony. + +"One question," muttered the major, as I finished the perusal of the +letter--"Is Rosamond's marriage legal?" + +"No question about it. How could any one suppose that an involuntary +misdescription can affect such a contract?" + +"Enough--enough!" he gasped. "A great load is gone!--the rest is with +God. Beloved Rosamond"--The slight whisper was no longer audible; sighs, +momently becoming fainter and weaker, followed--ceased, and in little +more than ten minutes after the last word was spoken, life was extinct. I +rang the bell, and turned to leave the room, and as I did so surprised +Martin on the other side of the bed. He had been listening, screened by +the thick damask curtains, and appeared to be a good deal sobered. I +made no remark, and proceeded on down stairs. The man followed, and as +soon as we had gained the hall said quickly, yet hesitatingly, +"Sir--sir!" + +"Well, what have you to say?" + +"Nothing very particular, sir. But did I understand you to say just now, +that it was of no consequence if a man married in a false name?" + +"That depends upon circumstances. Why do you ask?" + +"Oh, nothing--nothing; only I have heard it's transportation, especially +if there's money." + +"Perhaps you are right. Anything else?" + +"No," said he, opening the door; "that's all--mere curiosity." + +I heard nothing more of the family for some time, except with reference +to Major Stewart's personal property, about £4000 bequeathed to his +daughter, with a charge thereon of an annuity of £20 a year for Mrs. +Leslie, the aged house-keeper; the necessary business connected with +which we transacted. But about a twelvemonth after the major's death, the +marriage of the elder Thorneycroft with a widow of the same name as +himself, and a cousin, the paper stated, was announced; and pretty nearly +a year and a half subsequent to the appearance of this ominous paragraph, +the decease of Mr. Henry Thorneycroft at Lausanne, in Switzerland, who +had left, it was added in the newspaper stock-phrase of journalism, a +young widow and two sons to mourn their irreparable loss. Silence again, +as far as we were concerned, settled upon the destinies of the +descendants of our old military client, till one fine morning a letter +from Dr. Hampton informed us of the sudden death by apoplexy, a few days +previously, of the East India director. Dr. Hampton further hinted that +he should have occasion to write us again in a day or two, relative to +the deceased's affairs, which, owing to Mr. Thorneycroft's unconquerable +aversion to making a will, had, it was feared, been left in an extremely +unsatisfactory state. Dr. Hampton had written to us, at the widow's +request, in consequence of his having informed her that we had been the +professional advisers of Major Stewart, and were in all probability those +of his daughter, Mrs. Henry Allerton. + +We did not quite comprehend the drift of this curious epistle; but +although not specially instructed, we determined at once to write to Mrs. +Rosamond Thorneycroft or Allerton, who with her family was still abroad, +and in the meantime take such formal steps in her behalf as might appear +necessary. + +We were not long in doubt as to the motives of the extremely civil +application to ourselves on the part of the widow of the East India +director. The deceased's wealth had been almost all invested in land, +which went, he having died intestate, to his nephew's son, Henry +Allerton; and the personals in which the widow would share were +consequently of very small amount. Mrs. Thorneycroft was, therefore, +anxious to propose, through us, a more satisfactory and equitable +arrangement. We could of course say nothing till the arrival of Mrs. +Rosamond Allerton, for which, however, we had only a brief time to wait. +There were, we found, no indisposition on that lady's part to act with +generosity towards Mr. Thorneycroft's widow--a showy, vulgarish person, +by the way, of about forty years of age--but there was a legal difficulty +in the way, in consequence of the heir-at-law being a minor. Mrs. +Thorneycroft became at length terribly incensed, and talked a good deal +of angry nonsense about disputing the claim of Henry Allerton's son to +the estates, on the ground that his marriage, having been contracted in +a wrong name, was null and void. Several annoying paragraphs got in +consequence into the Sunday newspapers, and these brought about a +terrible disclosure. + +About twelve o'clock one day, the Widow Thorneycroft bounced +unceremoniously into the office, dragging in with her a comely and rather +interesting-looking young woman, but of a decidedly rustic complexion and +accent, and followed by a grave, middle-aged clergyman. The widow's large +eyes sparkled with strong excitement, and her somewhat swarthy features +were flushed with hot blood. + +"I have brought you," she burst out abruptly, "the real Mrs. +Allerton, and"-- + +"No, no!" interrupted the young woman, who appeared much +agitated--"Thorneycroft, not Allerton!"-- + +"I know, child--I know; but that is nothing to the purpose. This young +person, Mr. Sharp, is, I repeat, the true and lawful Mrs. Henry +Allerton." + +"Pooh!" I answered; "do you take us for idiots? This," I added with some +sternness, "is either a ridiculous misapprehension or an attempt at +imposture, and I am very careless which it may be." + +"You are mistaken, sir," rejoined the clergyman mildly. "This young woman +was certainly married by me at Swindon church, Wilts, to a gentleman of +the name of Henry Thorneycroft, who, it appears from the newspapers, +confirmed by this lady, was no other than Mr. Henry Allerton. This +marriage, we find, took place six months previously to that contracted +with Rosamond Stewart. I have further to say that this young woman, Maria +Emsbury, is a very respectable person, and that her marriage-portion, of +a little more than eight hundred pounds, was given to her husband, whom +she has only seen thrice since her marriage, to support himself till the +death of his reputed father, constantly asserted by him to be imminent." + +"A story very smoothly told, and I have no doubt in your opinion quite +satisfactory; but there is one slight matter which I fancy you will find +somewhat difficult of proof--I mean the identity of Maria Emsbury's +husband with the son or nephew of the late Mr. Thorneycroft." + +"He always said he was the son of the rich East Indian, Mr. +Thorneycroft," said the young woman with a hysterical sob; "and here," +she added, "is his picture in his wedding-dress--that of an officer of +the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. He gave it me the day before the wedding." + +I almost snatched the portrait. Sure enough it was a miniature of Henry +Allerton--there could be no doubt about that. + +Mr. Flint, who had been busy with some papers, here approached and +glanced at the miniature. + +I was utterly confounded, and my partner, I saw, was equally dismayed; +and no wonder, entertaining as we both did the highest respect and +admiration for the high-minded and beautiful daughter of Major Stewart. + +The Widow Thorneycroft's exultation was exuberant. + +"As this only legal marriage," said she, "has been blessed with no issue, +I am of course, as you must be aware, the legitimate heiress-at-law, as +my deceased husband's nearest blood-relative. I shall, however," she +added, "take care to amply provide for my widowed niece-in-law." + +The young woman made a profound rustic courtesy, and tears of unaffected +gratitude, I observed, filled her eyes. + +The game was not, however, to be quite so easily surrendered as they +appeared to imagine. "Tut! tut!" exclaimed Mr. Flint bluntly--"this may +be mere practice. Who knows how the portrait has been obtained?" + +The girl's eyes flashed with honest anger. There was no practice about +her I felt assured. "Here are other proofs: My husband's signet-ring, +left accidentally, I think, with me, and two letters which I from +curiosity took out of his coat-pocket--the day, I am pretty sure it was, +after we were married." + +"If this cumulative circumstantial evidence does not convince you, +gentlemen," added the Rev. Mr. Wishart, "I have direct personal testimony +to offer. You know Mr. Angerstein of Bath?" + +"I do." + +"Well, Mr. Henry Thorneycroft or Allerton, was at the time this marriage +took place, on a visit to that gentleman; and I myself saw the +bridegroom, whom I had united a fortnight previously in Swindon church, +walking arm-and-arm with Mr. Angerstein in Sydney Gardens, Bath. I was at +some little distance, but I recognized both distinctly, and bowed. Mr. +Angerstein returned my salutation, and he recollects the circumstance +distinctly. The gentleman walking with him in the uniform of the +Gloucestershire Yeomanry was, Mr. Angerstein is prepared to depose, Mr. +Henry Thorneycroft or Allerton." + +"You waste time, reverend sir," said Mr. Flint with an affectation of +firmness and unconcern he was, I knew, far from feeling. "We are the +attorneys of Mrs. Rosamond Allerton, and shall, I dare say, if you push +us to it, be able to tear this ingeniously-colored cobweb of yours to +shreds. If you determine on going to law, your solicitor can serve us; we +will enter an appearance, and our client will be spared unnecessary +annoyance." + +They were about to leave, when, as ill-luck would have it, one of the +clerks who, deceived by the momentary silence, and from not having been +at home when the unwelcome visitors arrived, believed we were disengaged, +opened the door, and admitted Mrs. Rosamond Allerton and her aunt, Miss +Stewart. Before we could interpose with a word, the Widow Thorneycroft +burst out with the whole story in a torrent of exultant Volubility that +it was impossible to check or restrain. + +For awhile contemptuous incredulity, indignant scorn, upheld the assailed +lady; but as proof after proof was hurled at her, reinforced by the grave +soberness of the clergyman and the weeping sympathy of the young woman, +her firmness gave way, and she swooned in her aunt's arms. We should have +more peremptorily interfered but for our unfortunate client's deprecatory +gestures. She seemed determined to hear the worst at once. Now, however, +we had the office cleared of the intruders without much ceremony and, as +soon as the horror-stricken lady was sufficiently recovered, she was +conducted to her carriage, and after arranging for an early interview on +the morrow, was driven off. + +I found our interesting, and, I feared, deeply-injured client much +recovered from the shock which on the previous day had overwhelmed her; +and although exceedingly pale--lustrously so, as polished Parian +marble--and still painfully agitated, there was hope, almost confidence, +in her eye and tone. + +"There is some terrible misapprehension in this frightful affair, Mr. +Sharp," she began. "Henry, my husband, was utterly incapable of a mean or +dishonest act, much less of such utter baseness as this of which he is +accused. They also say, do they not," she continued, with a smile of +haughty contempt, "that he robbed the young woman of her poor dowry--some +eight hundred pounds? A proper story!" + +"That, I confess, from what little I know of Mr. Henry Thorneycroft, +stamps the whole affair as a fabrication; and yet the Reverend Mr. +Wishart--a gentleman of high character, I understand--is very positive. +The young woman, too, appeared truthful and sincere." + +"Yes--it cannot be denied. Let me say also--for it is best to look at +the subject on its darkest side--I find, on looking over my letters, +that my husband was staying with Mr. Angerstein at the time stated. He +was also at that period in the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. I gave William +Martin, but the other day, a suit of his regimentals very little the +worse for wear." + +"You forget to state, Rosamond," said Miss Stewart, who was sitting +beside her niece, "that Martin, who was with his young master at Bath, is +willing to make oath that no such marriage took place as asserted, at +Swindon church." + +"That alone would, I fear, my good madam, very little avail. Can I see +William Martin?" + +"Certainly." The bell was rung, and the necessary order given. + +"This Martin is much changed for the better, I hear?" + +"O yes, entirely so," said Miss Stewart. "He is also exceedingly attached +to us all, the children especially; and his grief and anger, when +informed of what had occurred, thoroughly attest his faithfulness and +sincerity." + +Martin entered, and was, I thought, somewhat confused by my apparently +unexpected presence. A look at his face and head dissipated a +half-suspicion that had arisen in both Flint's mind and my own. + +I asked him a few questions relative to the sojourn of his master +at Bath, and then said, "I wish you to go with me and Bee this +Maria Emsbury." + +As I spoke, something seemed to attract Martin's attention in the +street, and suddenly turning round, his arm swept a silver pastil-stand +off the table. He stooped down to gather up the dispersed pastils, and as +he did so, said, in answer to my request, "that he had not the slightest +objection to do so." + +"That being the case, we will set off at once, as she and her friends are +probably at the office by this time. They are desirous of settling the +matter off-hand," I added with a smile, addressing Mrs. Allerton, "and +avoiding, if possible, the delays and uncertainties of the law." + +As I anticipated, the formidable trio were with Mr. Flint. I introduced +Martin, and as I did so, watched, with an anxiety I could hardly have +given a reason for, the effect of his appearance upon the young woman. I +observed nothing. He was evidently an utter stranger to her, although, +from the involuntary flush which crossed his features, it occurred to me +that he was in some way an accomplice with his deceased master in the +cruel and infamous crime which had, I strongly feared, been perpetrated. + +"Was this person present at your marriage?" I asked. + +"Certainly not. But I think--now I look at him--that I have seen him +somewhere--about Swindon, it must have been." + +William Martin mumbled out that he had never been in Swindon; neither, he +was sure, had his master. + +"What is that?" said the girl, looking sharply up, and suddenly +coloring--"What is that?" + +Martin, a good deal abashed, again mumbled out his belief that young Mr. +Thorneycroft, as he was then called, had never been at Swindon. + +The indignant scarlet deepened on the young woman's face and temples, and +she looked at Martin with fixed attention and surprise. Presently +recovering, as if from some vague confusedness of mind, she said, "What +you _believe_, can be no consequence--truth is truth, for all that." + +The Rev. Mr. Wishart here interposed, remarking that as it was quite +apparent we were determined to defend the usurpation by Miss Rosamond +Stewart--a lady to be greatly pitied, no doubt--of another's right, it +was useless to prolong or renew the interview; and all three took +immediate leave. A few minutes afterward Martin also departed, still +vehemently asserting that no such marriage ever took place at Swindon or +anywhere else. + +No stone, as people say, was left unturned by us, in the hope of +discovering some clue that might enable us to unravel the tangled web of +coherent, yet, looking at the character of young Mr. Allerton, +_improbable_ circumstance. We were unsuccessful, and unfortunately many +other particulars which came to light but deepened the adverse complexion +of the case. Two respectable persons living at Swindon were ready to +depose on oath that they had on more than one occasion seen Maria +Emsbury's sweetheart with Mr. Angerstein at Bath--once especially at the +theatre, upon the benefit-night of the great Edmund Kean, who had been +playing there for a few nights. + +The entire case, fully stated, was ultimately laid by us before eminent +counsel--one of whom is now, by the by, a chief-justice--and we were +advised that the evidence as set forth by us could not be contended +against with any chance of success. This sad result was communicated by +me to Mrs. Allerton, as she still unswervingly believed herself to be, +and was borne with more constancy and firmness than I had expected. Her +faith in her husband's truth and honor was not in the slightest degree +shaken by the accumulated proofs. She would not, however, attempt to +resist them before a court of law. Something would, she was confident, +thereafter come to light that would vindicate the truth, and confiding in +our zeal and watchfulness, she, her aunt, and children, would in the +meantime shelter themselves from the gaze of the world in their former +retreat at Lausanne. + +This being the unhappy lady's final determination, I gave the other side +notice that we should be ready on a given day to surrender possession of +the house and effects in South Audley Street, which the Widow +Thorneycroft had given up to her supposed niece-in-law and family on +their arrival in England, and to re-obtain which, and thereby decide the +whole question in dispute, legal proceedings had already been commenced. + +On the morning appointed for the purpose--having taken leave of the +ladies the day previously--I proceeded to South Audley Street, to +formally give up possession, under protest, however. The niece and aunt +were not yet gone. This, I found, was owing to Martin, who, according to +the ladies, was so beside himself with grief and rage that he had been +unable to expedite as he ought to have done, the packing intrusted to his +care. I was vexed at this, as the Widow Thorneycroft, her protégée, and +the Rev. Mr. Wishart, accompanied by a solicitor, were shortly expected; +and it was desirable that a meeting of the antagonistic parties should be +avoided. I descended to the lower regions to remonstrate with and hurry +Martin, and found, as I feared, that his former evil habits had returned +upon him. It was not yet twelve o'clock, and he was already partially +intoxicated, and pale, trembling, and nervous from the effects, it was +clear to me, of the previous night's debauch. + +"Your mistress is grossly deceived in you!" I angrily exclaimed; "and if +my advice were taken, you would be turned out of the house at once +without a character. There, don't attempt to bamboozle me with that +nonsense; I've seen fellows crying drunk before now." + +He stammered out some broken excuses, to which I very impatiently +listened; and so thoroughly muddled did his brain appear, that he either +could not or would not comprehend the possibility of Mrs. Allerton and +her children being turned out of house and home, as he expressed it, and +over and over again asked me if nothing could yet be done to prevent it. +I was completely disgusted with the fellow, and sharply bidding him +hasten his preparations for departure, rejoined the ladies, who were by +this time assembled in the back drawing-room, ready shawled and bonneted +for their journey. It was a sad sight. Rosamond Stewart's splendid face +was shadowed by deep and bitter grief, borne, it is true, with pride and +fortitude; but it was easy to see its throbbing pulsations through all +the forced calmness of the surface. Her aunt, of a weaker nature, sobbed +loudly in the fullness of her grief; and the children, shrinking +instinctively in the chilling atmosphere of a great calamity, clung, +trembling and half-terrified, the eldest especially, to their mother. I +did not insult them with phrases of condolence, but turned the +conversation, if such it could be called, upon their future home and +prospects in Switzerland. Some time had thus elapsed when my combative +propensities were suddenly aroused by the loud dash of a carriage to the +door, and the peremptory rat-tat-tat which followed. I felt my cheek +flame as I said, "They demand admittance as if in possession of an +assured, decided right. It is not yet too late to refuse possession, and +take the chances of the law's uncertainty." + +Mrs. Allerton shook her head with decisive meaning. "I could not bear +it," she said in a tone of sorrowful gentleness. "But I trust we shall +not be intruded upon." + +I hurried out of the apartment, and met the triumphant claimants. I +explained the cause of the delay, and suggested that Mrs. Thorneycroft +and her friends could amuse themselves in the garden whilst the +solicitor and I ran over the inventory of the chief valuables to be +surrendered together. + +This was agreed to. A minute or two before the conclusion of this +necessary formality, I received a message from the ladies, expressive of +a wish to be gone at once, if I would escort them to the hotel; and +Martin, who was nowhere to be found, could follow. I hastened to comply +with their wishes; and we were just about to issue from the front +drawing-room, into which we had passed through the folding-doors, when we +were confronted by the widow and her party, who had just reached the +landing of the great staircase. We drew back in silence. The mutual +confusion into which we were thrown caused a momentary hesitation only, +and we were passing on when the butler suddenly appeared. + +"A gentleman," he said, "an officer, is at the door, who wishes to see a +Miss Maria Emsbury, formerly of Swindon." + +I stared at the man, discerned a strange expression in his face, +and it glanced across me at the same moment that I had heard no +knock at the door. + +"See Miss Emsbury!" exclaimed the Widow Thorneycroft, recovering her +speech--"there is no such person here!" + +"Pardon me, madam," I cried, catching eagerly at the interruption, as a +drowning man is said to do at a straw--"this young person _was_ at least +Miss Emsbury. Desire the officer to walk up." The butler vanished +instantly, and we all huddled back disorderly into the drawing-room, some +one closing the door after us. I felt the grasp of Mrs. Allerton's arm +tighten convulsively round mine, and her breath I heard, came quick and +short. I was hardly less agitated myself. + +Steps--slow and deliberate steps--were presently heard ascending the +stairs, the door opened, and in walked a gentleman in the uniform of a +yeomanry officer, whom at the first glance I could have sworn to be the +deceased Mr. Henry Allerton. A slight exclamation of terror escaped Mrs. +Allerton, followed by a loud hysterical scream from the Swindon young +woman, as she staggered forward towards the stranger, exclaiming, "Oh, +merciful God!--my husband!" and then fell, overcome with emotion, in his +outstretched arms. + +"Yes," said the Rev. Mr. Wishart promptly, "that is certainly the +gentleman I united to Maria Emsbury. What can be the meaning of +this scene?" + +"Is that sufficient, Mr. Sharp?" exclaimed the officer, in a voice that +removed all doubt. + +"Quite, quite," I shouted--"more than enough!" + +"Very well, then," said William Martin, dashing off his black curling +wig, removing his whiskers of the same color, and giving his own light, +but now cropped head of hair and clean-shaved cheeks to view. "Now, then, +send for the police, and let them transport me--I richly merit it. I +married this young woman in a false name; I robbed her of her money, and +I deserve the hulks, if anybody ever did." + +You might have heard a pin drop in the apartment whilst the repentant +rascal thus spoke; and when he ceased, Mrs. Allerton, unable to bear up +against the tumultuous emotion which his words excited, sank without +breath or sensation upon a sofa. Assistance was summoned; and whilst the +as yet imperfectly-informed servants were running from one to another +with restoratives, I had leisure to look around. The Widow Thorneycroft, +who had dropped into a chair, sat gazing in bewildered dismay upon the +stranger, who still held her lately-discovered niece-in-law in his arms; +and I could see the hot perspiration which had gathered on her brow run +in large drops down the white channels which they traced through the +thick rouge of her cheeks. But the reader's fancy will supply the best +image of this unexpected and extraordinary scene. I cleared the house of +intruders and visitors as speedily as possible, well assured that matters +would now adjust themselves without difficulty. + +And so it proved. Martin was not sent to the hulks, though no question +that he amply deserved a punishment as great as that. The self-sacrifice, +as he deemed it, which he at last made, pleaded for him, and so did his +pretty-looking wife; and the upshot was, that the mistaken bride's dowry +was restored, with something over, and that a tavern was taken for them +in Piccadilly--the White Bear, I think it was--where they lived +comfortably and happily, I have heard, for a considerable time, and +having considerably added to their capital, removed to a hotel of a +higher grade in the city, where they now reside. It was not at all +surprising that the clergyman and others had been deceived. The disguise, +and Martin's imitative talent, might have misled persons on their guard, +much more men unsuspicious of deception. The cast in the eyes, as well as +a general resemblance of features, also of course greatly aided the +imposture. + +Of Mrs. Rosamond Allerton, I have only to say, for it is all I know, that +she is rich, unwedded, and still splendidly beautiful, though of course +somewhat _passé_ compared with herself twenty years since. Happy, too, I +have no doubt she is, judging from the placid brightness of her aspect +the last time I saw her beneath the transept of the Crystal Palace, on +the occasion of its opening by the Queen. I remember wondering at the +time, if she often recalled to mind the passage in her life which I have +here recorded. + + + + +THE ONE BLACK SPOT. + + +On the evening of a bleak, cold March day, in an early year of this +century, a woman, scantily clad, led a boy about eight years old, along +the high-road towards the old city of Exeter. They crept close to the +hedge-side to shelter themselves from the clouds of dust, which the +sudden gusts of east wind blew in their faces. + +They had walked many miles, and the boy limped painfully. He often looked +up anxiously into his mother's face, and asked if they had much farther +to go? She scarcely appeared to notice his inquiries; her fixed eyes and +sunken cheek gave evidence that sorrow absorbed all her thoughts. When he +spoke, she drew him closer to her side, but made no reply; until, at +length, the child, wondering at her silence, began to sob. She stopped +and looked at her child for a moment, her eyes filled with tears. They +had gained the top of a hill, from which was visible in the distance, the +dark massive towers of the cathedral and the church-spires of the city; +she pointed them out, and said, "We shall soon be there, Ned." Then, +sitting down on a tree that was felled by the road-side, she took "Ned" +on her lap, and, bending over him, wept aloud. + +"Are you very tired, mother?" said the boy, trying to comfort her. "'Tis +a long way--but don't cry--we shall see father when we come there." + +"Yes--you will see your father once more." + +She checked herself; and, striving to dry her tears, sat looking +wistfully towards the place of her destination. + +The tramp of horses, coming up the hill they had just ascended, drew the +boy's attention to that direction. In a moment he had sprung from his +mother, and was shouting, with child-like delight, at the appearance of a +gay cavalcade which approached. About thirty men on horseback, in crimson +liveries, surrounded two carriages, one of which contained two of His +Majesty's Judges, accompanied by the High Sheriff of the county, who, +with his javelin-men, was conducting them to the city, in which the Lent +Assizes were about to be held. + +The woman knelt until the carriages and the gaudy javelin-men had turned +the corner at the foot of a hill, and were no longer visible; with her +hands clasped together, she had prayed to God to temper with mercy the +heart of the Judge, before whom her unfortunate husband, now in jail, +would have to stand his trial. Then, taking the boy again by the +hand--unable to explain to him what he had seen--she pursued her way with +him, silently, along the dusty road. + +As they drew nearer to the city, they overtook various groups of +stragglers, who had deemed it their duty, in spite of the inclement +weather to wander some miles out of the city to catch an early glimpse of +"My Lord Judge," and the gay Sheriff's officers. Troops, also, of +itinerant ballad-singers, rope-dancers, mountebanks, and caravans of wild +beasts, still followed the Judges, as they had done throughout the +circuit. "Walk more slowly, Ned," said the mother, checking the boy's +desire to follow the shows. "I am very tired; let us rest a little here." +They lingered until the crowd was far ahead of them--and were left alone +on the road. + +Late in the evening, as the last stragglers were returning home, the +wayfarers found themselves in the suburbs of the city, and the forlorn +woman looked around anxiously for a lodging. She feared the noisy people +in the streets; and, turning timidly towards an old citizen who stood by +his garden-gate, chatting to his housekeeper, and watching the +passers-by--there was a kindness in his look which gave her +confidence--so, with a homely courtesy, she ventured to inquire of him +where she might find a decent resting-place. + +"Have you never been here before?" he asked. + +"Never but once, sir, when I was a child, many years ago." + +"What part of the country do you come from?" + +"Uffeulme." + +"Uffeulme? How did you get here?" + +"We have walked." + +"You don't say that you have trudged all the way with that youngster?" + +The housekeeper drowned the reply by loudly announcing to the old +gentleman that his supper was waiting--"We have no lodgings, my good +woman," she said, turning away from the gate. + +"Stop, Martha, stop," said the citizen. "Can't we direct them +somewhere?--you see they are strangers. I wonder where they could get +a lodging?" + +"I am sure I don't know," replied Martha, peevishly; "your supper will be +cold--come in!" + +"We've had no supper," said the boy. + +"Poor little fellow!" said the old gentleman; "then I am sure you shall +not go without. Martha, the bread and cheese!" And, opening the +garden-gate, he made the travelers enter and sit down in the +summer-house, whilst he went to fetch them a draught of cider. + +In spite of Martha's grumbling, he managed to get a substantial repast; +but it grieved him that the woman, though she thanked him very gratefully +and humbly, appeared unable to eat. + +"Your boy eats heartily," said he, "but I am afraid you don't enjoy it." + +With a choking utterance she thanked him, but could not eat. + +The good old man was striving, as well as he could, to explain to +them their way to a part of the city, where they might find a +lodging, when the garden-gate opened, and a young man gave to the +host a hearty greeting. + +At the sound of his voice, the cup the woman held in her hand, fell to +the ground. This drew the youth's attention to her; he looked earnestly +at her for a moment, and with an exclamation of surprise, said, "Why, +this is Susan Harvey?" + +The woman hid her face in her hands, and moaned. + +"Do you know her, then, Alfred?" said the uncle. + +"She nursed me when I was a little sickly boy," replied the youth; "she +lived many years in my father's house." + +"Then I am sure you will take her to some lodging to-night, for she is +quite a stranger here. There is Martha calling to me again; she is not +in the best temper to-night, so I had better go in, and I leave them to +your care." + +"Oh! tell me, Mr. Gray, have you seen him?" cried the woman eagerly. + +"I have been with him to-day, Susan," said Gray, kindly taking her +hand--"do not be cast down; all that can be done for Martin, shall be +done. Let me take you where you can rest to-night, and to-morrow you can +be with him." + +The weary little boy had fallen asleep on the seat; the mother strove to +arouse him, but Alfred Gray prevented her, by taking the little fellow +in his arms. He carried him by her side through the streets; she could +utter no words of gratitude, but her tears flowed fast, and told how the +young man's sympathy had fallen like balm upon her wounded heart. "God +has taken pity on me," she said, when they parted. + +With a quick step Alfred regained his uncle's cottage; he had a +difficult task to accomplish. Martin Harvey, now awaiting his trial for +poaching, and for being concerned in an affray with Sir George Roberts' +game-keepers, had once been his father's apprentice. Young Gray had +been endeavoring to procure for him all the legal help which the laws +then allowed; but his own means were limited, and, when he met Susan +and her boy in the garden, he had come to visit his uncle to ask his +assistance. He had now returned on the same errand. He pleaded +earnestly, and with caution, but was repulsed. It was in vain he urged +the poverty of agricultural laborers at that season, and the temptation +which an abundance of game afforded to half-starved men and their +wretched families. + +"Nonsense, Alfred!" said old Mr. Gray. "I would not grudge you the money +if you did not want it for a bad purpose. You must not excuse men who go +out with guns and fire at their fellow-creatures in the dark." + +"Martin did not fire, uncle--that is what I want to prove, and save him, +if I can, from transportation. He has a wife and child." + +"Wife and child!" repeated the old man thoughtfully. "You did not tell me +he had a wife and child; that poor woman came from Uffeulme." + +"Providence must have guided her," said the younger Gray. "It was indeed +Harvey's wife and son whom you so lately relieved." + +"You shall have the money. I have all through life prayed that my heart +may not be hardened; and I find, old as I am, that, every day I have +fresh lessons to learn." + +The next morning, while Alfred held anxious consultation with the +lawyers, the wife and husband met within the prison walls. They sat +together in silence, for neither could speak a single word of hope. The +boy never forgot that long and dreary day, during which he watched, with +wondering thoughts, the sad faces of his ruined parents. + +The Crown Court of the Castle was next morning crowded to overflowing. +Among the struggling crowd that vainly sought to gain admission, was +Martin Harvey's wife. She was rudely repulsed by the door-keepers, who +"wondered what women wanted in such places." She still strove to keep her +ground, and watched with piteous looks the doors of the court. She braved +the heat and pressure for some time; but a sickly faintness at length +came over her. She was endeavoring to retreat into the open air, when she +felt some one touch her shoulder, and turning, saw Alfred Gray making his +way toward her. After a moment's pause in the cool air, he led her round +to a side-door, through which there was a private entrance into the +court. He whispered a word to an officer, who admitted them, and pointed +to a seat behind the dock, where they were screened from observation, and +where the woman could see her husband standing between his two +fellow-prisoners. + +The prisoners were listening anxiously to the evidence which the +principal game-keeper was offering against them. The first, a man about +sixty, excited greater interest than the others. He earnestly attended to +what was going on, but gave no sign of fear, as to the result. Brushing +back his gray locks, he gazed round the court, with something like a +smile. This man's life had been a strange one. Early in his career he +had been ejected from a farm which he had held under the father of the +present prosecutor, Sir George Roberts; he soon after lost what little +property had been left him, and, in despair enlisted--was sent abroad +with his regiment--and for many years shared in the toils and +achievements of our East Indian warfare. Returning home on a small +pension, he fixed his abode in his native village, and sought to indulge +his old enmity against the family that had injured him by every kind of +annoyance in his power. The present baronet, a narrow-minded tyrannical +man, afforded by his unpopularity good opportunity to old Ralph Somers to +induce others to join him in his schemes of mischief and revenge. "The +game," which was plentiful on the estate, and the preservation of which +was Sir George's chief delight, formed the principal object of attack; +the poverty of the laborers tempted them to follow the old soldier, who +managed affairs so warily, that for nine years he had been an object of +the utmost terror and hatred to Sir George and his keepers, whilst all +their efforts to detect and capture him had, until now, been fruitless. + +Martin Harvey, who stood by his side with his shattered arm in a sling, +bore marks of acute mental suffering and remorse; but his countenance was +stamped with its original, open, manly expression--a face often to be +seen among a group of English farm laborers, expressive of a warm heart, +full of both courage and kindness. + +The evidence was soon given. The game-keepers, on the night of the 24th +of February, were apprised that poachers were in the plantations. Taking +with them a stronger force than usual, all well-armed, they discovered +the objects of their search, in a lane leading out into the fields, and +shouted to them to surrender. They distinctly saw their figures flying +before them, and when they approached them, one of the fugitives turned +round and fired, wounding one of the keepers' legs with a quantity of +small shot. The keeper immediately fired in return, and brought down a +poacher; old Ralph's voice was heard shouting to them to desist, and upon +coming up they found him standing by the side of Martin Harvey, who had +fallen severely wounded. Three guns lay by them, one of which had been +discharged, but no one could swear who had fired it; search was made all +night for the other man, but without success. + +When the prisoners were called on for their defence, they looked at one +another for a moment as if neither wished to speak first; Ralph, however, +began. He had little to say. Casting a look of defiance at Sir George and +his lady, who sat in a side-gallery above the court, he freely confessed +that hatred to the man who had injured him in his youth, and who had +treated him with harshness on his return from abroad, had been the motive +of his encouraging and aiding in these midnight depredations; he +expressed sorrow for having occasioned trouble to his neighbor Harvey. +"What I can say will be of little use to me here," said Martin Harvey, in +a hollow voice; "I am ruined, beyond redress; but I was a very poor man +when I first joined, with others, in snaring game; I often wanted bread, +and saw my wife and child pinched for food also. The rich people say game +belongs to them; but--well--all I can say more is, that I take God to +witness I never lifted a murderous gun against my fellow-man; he who did +it has escaped; and I have suffered this broken limb--but that I don't +mind--I have worse than that to bear--I have broken my wife's heart, and +my child will be left an orphan." + +His voice failed. There was an uneasy movement among the audience: and +a lady, who had been leaning over the rails of the side-gallery +listening with deep attention, fainted, and was carried out of court. +The prisoner's pale wife, who had bowed her head behind him in silent +endurance, heard a whisper among the bystanders that it was Lady +Roberts, and a hope entered her mind that the lady's tender heart might +feel for them. + +"Have you any witnesses to call?" asked the Judge. + +Martin looked round with a vacant gaze; the attorney whispered to him, +and beckoned to Alfred Gray. + +Alfred went into the witness-box, and told of the honesty, sobriety, and +good conduct of Martin Harvey, during all the years he was in his +father's house--"He was there before I was born," said the young man, +"and only left when I was obliged to leave also, sixteen years after. A +better man never broke bread--he was beloved by every body who knew him. +Till now his character was never tainted. It's the one black spot." + +The Judge commenced summing up; it was evident to all who had paid +attention to the evidence, that the conviction of two of the prisoners +was certain. Alfred Gray knew this, and strove to induce the wife to +leave with him before the fatal close of proceedings; but she shook her +head and would not go. "I shall have strength to bear it," she said. + +He sat down by her side, and heard the fearful verdict of "guilty" +pronounced against her husband and Ralph Somers; and then the dreaded +doom of transportation for life awarded to them. As they turned to leave +the dock, Martin looked down upon the crushed and broken-hearted being +whom he had sworn to protect and cherish through life, and in spite of +every effort to repress it, a cry of agony burst from his lips; it was +answered by a fainter sound, and Alfred Gray lifted the helpless, +lifeless woman from the ground, and carried her into the open air. + +Months passed; and on the day when the convict ship, with its freight of +heavy hearts, began its silent course over the greatwaters, the widowed +wife took her fatherless child by the hand, and again traversed the weary +road which led them to their desolated home. + +The kindness of the Grays had supplied a few immediate necessaries. Some +one had told her of women having, by the aid of friends, managed to meet +their husbands once more in those distant parts of the earth; and this +knowledge once in her agitated mind, raised a hope which inspired her to +pursue her daily task without fainting, and to watch an opportunity of +making an attempt which she had meditated, even during that dreadful day +of Martin's trial. She resolved to seek admission into Sir George +Roberts' mansion, and appeal to the pity of his wife. It was told in the +village that Lady Roberts had implored her husband to interpose in behalf +of the men; that his angry and passionate refusal had caused a breach +between them; that they had lived unhappily ever since; that he had +strictly forbidden any one to mention the subject, or to convey to Lady +Roberts any remarks that were made in the neighborhood. + +Susan Harvey trembled when she entered the mansion, and timidly asked +leave to speak to Lady Roberts. + +The servant she addressed had known her husband, and pitied her distress; +and, fearing lest Sir George might pass, he led her into his pantry, +watching an opportunity to let the lady know of her being there. + +After a time Lady Roberts' maid came, and beckoned her to follow +up-stairs. In a few moments the soft voice of the lady of the mansion was +cheering her with kind words, and encouraging her to disclose her wishes. + +Before she had concluded, a step was heard without, at which the lady +started and turned pale. Before there was time for retreat Sir George +hastily entered the apartment. + +"Who have you here, Lady Roberts?" + +"One who has a request to make, I believe," said the lady, mildly. "I +wish a few moments with her." + +"Have the goodness to walk out of this house," said the baronet to Susan. +"Lady Roberts, I know this woman and I will not allow you to harbor such +people here." + +Although the convict's wife never again ventured into that house, her +wants, and those of her child, were, during three years, ministered to by +the secret agency of the Good Heart that lived so sadly there; and when, +at the expiration of that period, Lady Roberts died, a trusty messenger +brought to the cottage a little legacy--sufficient, if ever news came of +Martin, to enable the wife and child, from whom he was separated, to make +their way across the earth, and to meet him again. + +But during those weary years no tidings of his fate had reached either +his wife or Alfred Gray--to whom he had promised to write when he reached +his destination. Another year dragged its slow course over the home of +affliction, and poor Susan's hopes grew fainter day by day. Her sinking +frame gave evidence of the sickness that cometh from the heart. + +One summer evening, in the next year, Alfred Gray, entered his uncle's +garden with a letter, and was soon seated in the summer-house reading it +aloud to his uncle and Martha. Tears stood in the old man's eyes, as some +touching detail of suffering or privation was related. And, indeed, the +letter told of little beside. It was from Martin. Soon after his arrival +in the settlement, Martin had written to Alfred, but the letter had never +reached England--not an unusual occurrence in those times. After waiting +long, and getting no reply, he was driven by harsh treatment, and the +degradation attending the life he led, to attempt, with old Ralph, an +escape from the settlement. In simple language, he recorded the dreary +life they led in the woods; how, after a time, old Ralph sickened and +died; and how, in a desolate place, where the footsteps of man had, +perhaps, never trod before, Martin Harvey had dug a grave, and buried his +old companion. After that, unable to endure the terrible solitude, he had +sought his way back to his former master, and had been treated more +harshly than before. Fever and disease had wasted his frame, until he had +prayed that he might die and be at rest; but God had been merciful to +him, and had inclined the heart of one for whom he labored, who listened +with compassion to his story, took him under his roof, and restored him +to health. And now, Martin had obtained a ticket of leave, and served his +kind master for wages, which he was carefully hoarding to send to Alfred +Gray, as soon as he should hear from him that those he loved were still +preserved, and would come and embrace him once more in that distant land. + +"They shall go at once, Alfred," said old Mr. Gray, the moment the last +sentence was read; "they shall not wait; we will provide the +means--hey, Martha?" + +He did not now fear to appeal to his companion. Martha had grown kinder +of late, and she confessed she had learned of her cousin what gives most +comfort to those who are drawing near their journey's end. "I can help +them a little," she said. + +"We will all help a little," Alfred replied. "I shall be off at break of +day to-morrow, on neighbor Collins's pony, and shall give him no rest +until he sets me down at Uffeulme." + +Accordingly, early next morning, Alfred Gray was riding briskly along +through the pleasant green lanes which led toward his native village. It +was the middle of June, bright, warm, sunny weather; and the young man's +spirits was unusually gay, everything around him tending to heighten the +delight which the good news he carried had inspired him with. The pony +stepped out bravely, and was only checked when Alfred came in sight of +the dear old home of his childhood, and heard the well-known chimes +calling the villagers to their morning service, for it was Sunday. Then +for a few moments the young man proceeded more slowly, and his +countenance wore a more saddened look, as the blessed recollections of +early loves and affections with which the scene was associated in his +mind, claimed their power over all other thoughts. The voice of an old +friend, from an apple-orchard hard by, recalled him from his reveries. + +He shook hands through the hedge. "I will come and see you in the +evening, Fred. I must hasten on now. She will go to church this morning, +and I must go with her." + +"Who?" asked the other. + +Alfred pointed to the cottage where Susan Harvey dwelt. "I bring her good +news--I have a letter. Martin is living and well." + +The friend shook his head. + +Alfred dismounted, and walked towards Susan Harvey's cottage. The door +was closed, and when he looked through the window he could see no one +inside. He lifted the latch softly and entered. There was no one there; +but his entrance had been heard, and a moment after, a fine stout lad +came out of the inner chamber, took Alfred's proffered hand, and in +answer to his inquiries, burst into tears. + +"She says she cannot live long, sir; but she told me last night, that +before she died, you would come and tell us news of father. She has been +saying all the past week that we should hear from him soon." + +Whilst the boy spoke, Alfred heard a weak voice, calling his name from +the inner room. + +"Go in," he said, "and tell her I am here." + +The boy did so, and then beckoned him to enter. + +Susan's submissive features were but little changed, from the time when +her husband was taken from her; but the weak and wasted form that strove +to raise itself in vain, as Alfred approached the bed-side, too plainly +revealed that the struggle was drawing to a close--that the time of rest +was at hand. + +"Thank God, you are come," she said; "you have heard from him? Tell me +quickly, for my time is short." + +"I come to tell you good news, Susan. You may yet be restored to him." + +"I shall not see Martin in this world again, Mr. Gray; but I shall close +my eyes in peace. If you know where he is, and can tell me that my boy +shall go and be with him, and tell him how, through these long weary +years, we loved him, and thought of him, and prayed for him--" Here she +broke off, and beckoned the boy to her. She held his hands within her +own, whilst Alfred Gray read from the letter all that would comfort her. + +When he had done, she said, "God will bless you--you have been very good +to us in our misery. Now, will you promise me one thing more? Will you +send my boy to his father, when I am gone?" + +The promise was made; and the boy knelt long by her bedside, listening +to the words of love and consolation which, with her latest breath, she +uttered for the sake of him who, she hoped, would hear them again from +his child's lips. + + * * * * * + +Nearly forty years have passed since they laid her among the graves of +the humble villagers of Uffeulme. Few remain now who remember her story +or her name--but, on the other side of the world, amid scenery all +unlike to that in which she dwelt, there stands a cheerful settler's +home, and under the shadow of tall acacia trees which surround the +little garden in which some few English flowers are blooming, there are +sitting, in the cool of the summer evening, a group whose faces are all +of the Anglo-Saxon mould. A happy looking couple, in the prime of life, +are there, with children playing around them; and one little gentle +girl, they call Susan, is sitting on the knee of an aged, white-haired +man, looking lovingly into his face, and wondering why his eye so +watches the setting sun every night, as it sinks behind the blue waters +in the distance. Two tall, handsome lads, with guns on their shoulders, +enter the garden, and hasten to show the old man the fruits of their +day's exploits. + +"We have been lucky to-day, grandfather," says the younger; "but Alfred +says these birds are not like the birds in old England." + +"You should hear the sailors talk about the game in England, Martin," +replies the brother. + +"Grandfather has told us all about England, except the 'birds.' He thinks +we should run away, if he were to describe them." + +The old man looks steadily at the boys for a moment, and his eyes fill +with tears. "It is a glorious land," he says, with a faltering voice; "it +is our country; but, Alfred, Martin, you will never leave this happy home +to go there. Birds there are the rich man's property, and you would not +dare carry those guns of yours over English ground. If ever you go there, +your father will tell you where there is a church-yard--and among the +graves of the poor, there is one--" + +He stopped, for Edward Harvey came to the place where his father sat, and +took his trembling hand within his own; the boys obeyed their mother's +signal, and followed her into the house; the two men remained sitting +together, until the silent stars came out. + +Then the aged man, leaning on his son's arm, rejoined the family at the +supper-table--and the peace of God rested on the solitary home. Edward +Harvey had faithfully kept within his heart, the memory of his mother's +dying commands. + +Martin, his father, had nobly effaced the one Black Spot. + + + + +THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR. + + +One morning, about five years ago, I called by appointment on Mr. John +Balance, the fashionable pawnbroker, to accompany him to Liverpool, in +pursuit of a Levanting customer--for Balance, in addition to pawning, +does a little business in the sixty per cent. line. It rained in torrents +when the cab stopped at the passage which leads past the pawning-boxes to +his private door. The cabman rang twice, and at length Balance appeared, +looming through the mist and rain in the entry, illuminated by his +perpetual cigar. As I eyed him rather impatiently, remembering that +trains wait for no man, something like a hairy dog, or a bundle of rags, +rose up at his feet, and barred his passage for a moment. Then Balance +cried out with an exclamation, in answer apparently to a something I +could not hear, "What, man alive!--slept in the passage!--there, take +that, and get some breakfast, for Heaven's sake!" So saying, he jumped +into the "Hansom," and we bowled away at ten miles an hour, just catching +the Express as the doors of the station were closing. My curiosity was +full set--for although Balance can be free with his money, it is not +exactly to beggars that his generosity is usually displayed; so when +comfortably ensconced in a _coupé_ I finished with-- + +"You are liberal with your money this morning; pray, how often do you +give silver to street-cadgers?--because I shall know now what walk to +take when flats and sharps leave off buying law." + +Balance, who would have made an excellent parson if he had not been bred +to a case-hardening trade, and has still a soft bit left in his heart +that is always fighting with his hard head, did not smile at all, but +looked as grim as if squeezing a lemon into his Saturday night's punch. +He answered slowly, "A cadger--yes; a beggar--a miserable wretch, he is +now; but, let me tell you, Master David, that that miserable bundle of +rags was born and bred a gentleman--the son of a nobleman, the husband of +an heiress, and has sat and dined at tables where you and I, Master +David, are only allowed to view the plate by favor of the butler. I have +lent him thousands, and been well paid. The last thing I had from him was +his court-suit; and I hold now his bill for one hundred pounds that will +be paid, I expect, when he dies." + +"Why, what nonsense you are talking! you must be dreaming this morning. +However, we are alone; I'll light a weed, in defiance of Railway-law, +while you spin that yarn; for, true or untrue, it will fill up the time +to Liverpool." + +"As for yarn," replied Balance, "the whole story is short enough; and as +for truth, that you may easily find out if you like to take the trouble. +I thought the poor wretch was dead, and I own it put me out meeting him +this morning, for I had a curious dream last night." + +"Oh, hang your dreams! Tell us about this gentleman beggar that bleeds +you of half-crowns--that melts the heart even of a pawnbroker!" + +"Well, then, that beggar is the illegitimate son of the late Marquis of +Hoopborough by a Spanish lady of rank. He received a first rate +education, and was brought up in his father's house. At a very early age +he obtained an appointment in a public office, was presented by the +marquis at court, and received into the first society, where his handsome +person and agreeable manners made him a great favorite. Soon after coming +of age, he married the daughter of Sir E. Bumper, who brought him a very +handsome fortune, which was strictly settled on herself. They lived in +splendid style, kept several carriages, a house in town, and a place in +the country. For some reason or other, idleness, or to please his lady's +pride he said, he resigned his appointment. His father died, and left him +nothing; indeed, he seemed at that time very handsomely provided for. + +"Very soon Mr. and Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy began to disagree. She was cold, +correct--he was hot and random. He was quite dependent on her, and she +made him feel it. When he began to get into debt, he came to me. At +length some shocking quarrel occurred--some case of jealousy on the +wife's side, not without reason, I believe; and the end of it was, Mr. +Fitz-Roy was turned out of doors. The house was his wife's, the furniture +was his wife's, and the fortune was his wife's--he was, in fact, her +pensioner. He left with a few hundred pounds ready money, and some +personal jewelry, and went to a hotel. On these and credit he lived. +Being illegitimate, he had no relations--being a fool, when he spent his +money, he lost his friends. The world took his wife's part, when they +found she had the fortune, and the only parties who interfered were her +relatives, who did their best to make the quarrel incurable. To crown +all, one night he was run over by a cab, was carried to a hospital, and +lay there for months, and was, during several weeks of the time, +unconscious. A message to the wife, by the hands of one of his debauched +companions, sent by a humane surgeon, obtained an intimation that 'if he +died, Mr. Croak, the undertaker to the family, had orders to see to the +funeral,' and that Mrs. Molinos was on the point of starting for the +Continent, not to return for some years. When Fitz-Roy was discharged, he +came to me, limping on two sticks, to pawn his court-suit, and told me +his story. I was really sorry for the fellow--such a handsome, +thoroughbred-looking man. He was going then into the west somewhere, to +try to hunt out a friend. 'What to do, Balance,' he said, 'I don't know. +I can't dig, and unless somebody will make me their gamekeeper, I must +starve, or beg, as my Jezebel bade me, when we parted!' + +"I lost sight of Molinos for a long time, and when I next came upon him +it was in the Rookery of Westminster, in a low lodging-house, where I was +searching with an officer for stolen goods. He was pointed out to me as +the 'gentleman-cadger,' because he was so free with his money when 'in +luck.' He recognized me, but turned away then. I have since seen him, and +relieved him more than once, although he never asks for anything. How he +lives, Heaven knows. Without money, without friends, without useful +education of any kind, he tramps the country, as you saw him, perhaps +doing a little hop-picking or hay-making, in season, only happy when he +obtains the means to get drunk. I have heard through the kitchen whispers +that you know come to me, that he is entitled to some property; and I +expect if he were to die his wife would pay the hundred pound bill I +hold; at any rate, what I have told you I know to be true, and the bundle +of rags I relieved just now is known in every thieves' lodging in England +as the 'gentleman cadger.'" + +This story produced an impression on me: I am fond of speculation, and +like the excitement of a legal hunt as much as some do a fox-chase. A +gentleman, a beggar--a wife rolling in wealth--rumors of unknown property +due to the husband;--it seemed as if there were pickings for me amidst +this carrion of pauperism. + +Before returning from Liverpool, I had purchased the gentleman beggar's +acceptance from Balance. I then inserted in the "Times" the following +advertisement: "_Horatio Molinos Fitz-Roy_.--If this gentleman will apply +to David Discount, Esq., Solicitor, St. James's, he will hear of +something to his advantage. Any person furnishing Mr. R's correct +address, shall receive £1 1s. reward. He was last seen," &c. Within +twenty-four hours I had ample proof of the wide circulation of the +"Times." My office was besieged with beggars of every degree, men and +women, lame and blind, Irish, Scotch, and English--some on crutches, some +in bowls, some in go-carts. They all knew him as "the gentleman," and I +must do the regular fraternity of tramps the justice to say, that not one +would answer a question until he made certain that I meant the +"gentleman" no harm. + +One evening, about three weeks after the appearance of the advertisement, +my clerk announced "another beggar." There came in an old man leaning +upon a staff, clad in a soldier's greatcoat, all patched and torn, with a +battered hat, from under which a mass of tangled hair fell over his +shoulders and half concealed his face. The beggar, in a weak, wheezy, +hesitating tone, said, "You have advertized for Molinos Fitz-Roy. I hope +you don't mean him any harm; he is sunk, I think, too low for enmity now; +and surely no one would sport with such misery as his." These last words +were uttered in a sort of piteous whisper. + +I answered quickly, "Heaven forbid I should sport with misery--I mean and +hope to do him good, as well as myself." + +"Then, sir, I am Molinos Fitz-Roy!" + +While we were conversing candles had been brought in. I have not very +tender nerves--my head would not agree with them--but I own I started and +shuddered when I saw and knew that the wretched creature before me was +under thirty years of age, and once a gentleman. Sharp, aquiline +features, reduced to literal skin and bone, were begrimed and covered +with dry fair hair; the white teeth of the half-open mouth chattered with +eagerness, and made more hideous the foul pallor of the rest of the +countenance. As he stood leaning on a staff half bent, his long, yellow +bony fingers clasped over the crutch-head of his stick, he was indeed a +picture of misery, famine, squalor, and premature age, too horrible to +dwell upon. I made him sit down, sent for some refreshment which he +devoured like a ghoul, and set to work to unravel his story. It was +difficult to keep him to the point; but with pains I learned what +convinced me that he was entitled to some property, whether great or +small there was no evidence. On parting, I said, "Now, Mr. F, you must +stay in town while I make proper inquiries. What allowance will be enough +to keep you comfortably?" + +He answered humbly after much pressing, "Would you think ten shillings +too much?" + +I don't like, if I do those things at all, to do them shabbily--so I +said, "Come every Saturday and you shall have a pound." He was profuse in +thanks, of course, as all such men are as long as distress lasts. + +I had previously learned that my ragged client's wife was in England, +living in a splendid house in Hyde Park Gardens, under her maiden name. +On the following day the Earl of Owing called upon me, wanting five +thousand pounds by five o'clock the same evening. It was a case of life +or death with him, so I made my terms and took advantage of his pressure +to execute a _coup de main._ I proposed that he should drive me home to +receive the money, calling at Mrs. Molinos in Hyde Park Gardens, on our +way. I knew that the coronet and liveries of his father, the Marquis, +would ensure me an audience with Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy. + +My scheme answered. I was introduced into the lady's presence. She was, +and probably is, a very stately, handsome woman, with a pale complexion, +high solid forehead, regular features, thin, pinched, self-satisfied +mouth. My interview was very short. I plunged into the middle of the +affair, but had scarcely mentioned the word _husband_, when she +interrupted me with, "I presume you have lent this profligate person +money, and want me to pay you." She paused, and then said, "He shall not +have a farthing." As she spoke, her white face became scarlet. + +"But, Madam, the man is starving. I have strong reasons for believing he +is entitled to property, and if you refuse any assistance, I must take +other measures." She rang the bell, wrote something rapidly on a card, +and, as the footman appeared, pushed it towards me across the table, with +the air of touching a toad, saying, "There, sir, is the address of my +solicitors; apply to them if you think you have any claim. Robert, show +the person out, and take care he is not admitted again." + +So far I had effected nothing; and, to tell the truth, felt rather +crest-fallen under the influence of that grand manner peculiar to certain +great ladies and to all great actresses. + +My next visit was to the attorneys, Messrs. Leasem and Fashun, of +Lincoln's Inn Square; and there I was at home. I had had dealings with +the firm before. They are agents for half the aristocracy, who always +run in crowds like sheep after the same wine-merchants, the same +architects, the same horse-dealers, and the same law-agents. It may be +doubted whether the quality of law and land management they get on this +principle is quite equal to their wine and horses. At any rate, my +friends of Lincoln's Inn, like others of the same class, are +distinguished by their courteous manners, deliberate proceedings, +innocence of legal technicalities, long credit and heavy charges. Leasem, +the elder partner, wears powder and a huge bunch of seals, lives in Queen +Square, drives a brougham, gives the dinners and does the cordial +department. He is so strict in performing the latter duty, that he once +addressed a poacher who had shot a Duke's keeper, as "my dear creature," +although he afterwards hung him. + +Fashun has chambers in St. James Street, drives a cab, wears a tip, and +does the grand haha style. + +My business lay with Leasem. The interviews and letters passing were +numerous. However, it came at last to the following dialogue:-- + +"Well, my dear Mr. Discount," began Mr. Leasem, who hates me like poison, +"I'm really very sorry for that poor dear Molinos--knew his father well; +a great man, a perfect gentleman; but you know what women are, eh, Mr. +Discount? My client won't advance a shilling; she knows it would only be +wasted in low dissipation. Now, don't you think (this was said very +insinuatingly)--don't you think he had better be sent to the work-house? +Very comfortable accommodation there, I can assure you--meat twice a +week, and excellent soup; and then, Mr. D., we might consider about +allowing you something for that bill." + +"Mr. Leasem, can you reconcile it to your conscience to make such an +arrangement? Here's a wife rolling in luxury, and a husband starving!" + +"No, Mr. Discount, not starving; there is the work-house, as I observed +before; besides, allow me to suggest that these appeals to feeling are +quite unprofessional--quite unprofessional." + +"But, Mr. Leasem, touching this property which the poor man is +entitled to?" + +"Why, there again, Mr. D., you must excuse me; you really must. I don't +say he is, I don't say he is not. If you know he is entitled to +property, I am sure you know how to proceed; the law is open to you, +Mr. Discount--the law is open; and a man of your talent will know how +to use it." + +"Then, Mr. Leasem, you mean that I must, in order to right this starving +man, file a Bill of Discovery, to extract from you the particulars of his +rights. You have the Marriage Settlement, and all the information, and +you decline to allow a pension, or afford any information; the man is to +starve, or go to the work-house?" + +"Why, Mr. D., you are so quick and violent, it really is not +professional; but you see, (here a subdued smile of triumph,) it has been +decided that a solicitor is not bound to afford such information as you +ask, to the injury of his client." + +"Then you mean that this poor Molinos may rot and starve, while you keep +secret from him, at his wife's request, his title to an income, and that +the Court of Chancery will back you in this iniquity?" + +I kept repeating the word "starve," because I saw it made my respectable +opponent wince. "Well, then, just listen to me: I know that in the happy +state of our equity law, Chancery can't help my client; but I have +another plan--I shall go hence to my office, issue a writ, and take your +client's husband in execution--as soon as he is lodged in jail, I shall +file his schedule in the Insolvent Court, and when he comes up for his +discharge, I shall put you in the witness-box, and examine you on oath, +'touching any property of which you know the insolvent to be possessed,' +and where will be your privileged communications then?" + +The respectable Leasem's face lengthened in a twinkling, his comfortable +confident air vanished, he ceased twiddling his gold chain, and at length +he muttered, "Suppose we pay the debt?" + +"Why, then, I'll arrest him the day after for another." + +"But, my dear Mr. Discount, surely such conduct would not be quite +respectable?" + +"That's my business; my client has been wronged, I am determined to +right him, and when the aristocratic firm of Leasem and Fashun takes +refuge according to the custom of respectable repudiators, in the cool +arbors of the Court of Chancery, why, a mere bill-discounting attorney +like David Discount, need not hesitate about cutting a bludgeon out of +the Insolvent Court." + +"Well, well, Mr. D., you are so warm--so fiery; we must deliberate, we +must consult. You will give me until the day after to-morrow, and then +we'll write you our final determination; in the meantime, send us a copy +of your authority to act for Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy." + +Of course I lost no time in getting the gentleman beggar to sign a +proper letter. + +On the appointed day came a communication with the L. and F. seal, which +I opened, not without unprofessional eagerness. It was as follows:-- + +_"In re Molinos Fitz-Roy and Another._ + +"Sir,--In answer to your application on behalf of Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy, +we beg to inform you that, under the administration of a paternal aunt +who died intestate, your client is entitled to two thousand five hundred +pounds eight shillings and sixpence, Three per Cents.; one thousand five +hundred pounds nineteen shillings and fourpence, Three per Cents., +Reduced; one thousand pounds, Long Annuities; five hundred pounds, Bank +Stock; three thousand five hundred pounds, India Stock, besides other +securities, making up about ten thousand pounds, which we are prepared to +transfer over to Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy's direction forthwith." + +Here was a windfall! It quite took away my breath. + +At dusk came my gentleman beggar, and what puzzled me was how to break +the news to him. Being very much overwhelmed with business that day, I +had not much time for consideration. He came in rather better dressed +than when I first saw him, with only a week's beard on his chin; but, +as usual, not quite sober. Six weeks had elapsed since our first +interview. He was still the humble, trembling, low-voiced creature, I +first knew him. + +After a prelude, I said, "I find, Mr. F., you are entitled to something; +pray, what do you mean to give me in addition to my bill, for obtaining +it?" He answered rapidly, "Oh, take half; if there is one hundred pounds, +take half--if there is five hundred pounds, take half." + +"No, no; Mr. F., I don't do business in that way, I shall be satisfied +with ten per cent." + +It was so settled. I then led him out into the street, impelled to tell +him the news, yet dreading the effect; not daring to make the revelation +in my office, for fear of a scene. + +I began hesitatingly, "Mr. Fitz-Roy, I am happy to say that I find you +are entitled to ... ten thousand pounds!" + +"Ten thousand pounds!" he echoed. "Ten thousand pounds!" he shrieked. +"Ten thousand pounds!" he yelled; seizing my arm violently. "You are a +brick--Here, cab! cab!" Several drove up--the shout might have been heard +a mile off. He jumped in the first. + +"Where to?" said the driver. + +"To a tailor's, you rascal!" + +"Ten thousand pounds! ha, ha, ha!" he repeated hysterically, when in the +cab; and every moment grasping my arm. Presently he subsided, looked me +straight in the face, and muttered with agonizing fervor, "What a jolly +brick you are!" + +The tailor, the hosier, the boot-maker, the hair-dresser, were in turn +visited by this poor pagan of externals. As by degrees under their hands +he emerged from the beggar to the gentleman, his spirits rose; his eyes +brightened; he walked erect, but always nervously grasping my +arm--fearing, apparently, to lose sight of me for a moment, lest his +fortune, should vanish with me. The impatient pride with which he gave +his orders to the astonished tradesman for the finest and best of +everything, and the amazed air of the fashionable hairdresser when he +presented his matted locks and stubble chin, to be "cut and shaved," may +be _acted_--it cannot be described. + +By the time the external transformation was complete, and I +sat down in a Cafe in the Haymarket opposite a haggard but handsome +thoroughbred-looking man, whose air, with the exception of the wild eyes +and deeply browned face, did not differ from the stereotyped men about +town sitting around us, Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy had already almost +forgotten the past. He bullied the waiter, and criticised the wine, as if +he had done nothing else but dine and drink and scold there all the days +of his life. + +Once he wished to drink my health, and would have proclaimed his whole +story to the coffee-room assembly, in a raving style. When I left he +almost wept in terror at the idea of losing sight of me. But, allowing +for these ebullitions--the natural result of such a whirl of events--he +was wonderfully calm and self-possessed. + +The next day, his first care was to distribute fifty pounds among his +friends, the cadgers, at a "house of call" in Westminster, and formally +to dissolve his connection with them; those present undertaking for the +"fraternity," that for the future he should never be noticed by them in +public or private. + +I cannot follow his career much further. Adversity had taught him +nothing. He was soon again surrounded by the well-bred vampires who had +forgotten him when penniless; but they amused him, and that was enough. +The ten thousand pounds were rapidly melting when he invited me to a +grand dinner at Richmond, which included a dozen of the most agreeable, +good-looking, well-dressed dandies of London, interspersed with a display +of pretty butterfly bonnets. We dined deliciously, and drank as men do of +iced wines in the dog-days--looking down from Richmond Hill. + +One of the pink-bonnets crowned Fitz-Roy with a wreath of flowers; he +looked--less the intellect--as handsome as Alcibiades. Intensely +excited and flushed, he rose with a champagne glass in his hand to +propose my health. + +The oratorical powers of his father had not descended on him. Jerking +out sentences by spasms, at length he said, "I was a beggar--I am a +gentleman--thanks to this--" + +Here he leaned on my shoulder heavily a moment, and then fell back. We +raised him, loosened his neckcloth-- + +"Fainted!" said the ladies-- + +"Drunk!" said the gentlemen-- + +He was _dead_! + + + + +A FASHIONABLE FORGER. + + +I am an attorney and a bill-discounter. As it is my vocation to lend +money at high interest to extravagant people, my connection principally +lies among "fools," sometimes among rogues "of quality." Mine is a +pursuit which a prejudiced world either holds in sovereign contempt, or +visits with envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness; but to my mind, there +are many callings, with finer names, that are no better. It gives me two +things which I love--money and power; but I cannot deny that it brings +with it a bad name. The case lies between character and money, and +involves a matter of taste. Some people like character; I prefer money. +If I am hated and despised, I chuckle over the "per contra." I find it +pleasant for members of a proud aristocracy to condescend from their high +estate to fawn, feign, flatter; to affect even mirthful familiarity in +order to gain my good-will. I am no Shylock. No client can accuse me of +desiring either his flesh or his blood. Sentimental vengeance is no item +in my stock in trade. Gold and bank-notes satisfy my "rage;" or, if need +be, a good mortgage. Far from seeking revenge, the worst defaulter I ever +had dealings with cannot deny that I am always willing to accept a good +post-obit. + +I say again, I am daily brought in contact with all ranks of society, +from the poverty-stricken patentee to the peer; and I am no more +surprised at receiving an application from a duchess than from a pet +opera-dancer. In my ante room wait, at this moment, a crowd of +borrowers. Among the men, (beardless folly and mustachioed craft are most +prominent,) there is a handsome young fellow, with an elaborate cane and +wonderfully vacant countenance, who is anticipating in feeble follies, an +estate that has been in the possession of his ancestors since the reign +of Henry the Eighth--there is a hairy, high-nosed, broken-down +nondescript, in appearance something between a horse-dealer and a +pugilist. He is an old Etonian. Five years ago he drove his four-in-hand; +he is now waiting to beg a sovereign, having been just discharged from +the Insolvent Court, for the second time. Among the women, a pretty +actress, who, a few years since, looked forward to a supper of steak and +onions, with bottled stout, on a Saturday night, as a great treat, now +finds one hundred pounds a month insufficient to pay her wine merchant +and her confectioner. I am obliged to deal with each case according to +its peculiarities. Genuine undeserved Ruin seldom knocks at my doer. Mine +is a perpetual battle with people who imbibe trickery at the same rate as +they dissolve their fortunes. I am a hard man, of course. I should not be +fit for my pursuit if I were not; but when, by a remote chance, honest +misfortune pays me a visit, as Rothschilds amused himself at times by +giving a beggar a guinea, so I occasionally treat myself to the luxury of +doing a kind action. My favorite subjects for this unnatural generosity, +are the very young or the poor, innocent, helpless people, who are unfit +for the war of life. Many among my clients (especially those tempered in +the "ice book" of fashion and high-life--polished and passionless) would +be too much for me, if I had not made the face, the eye, the accent, as +much my study as the mere legal and financial points of discount To show +what I mean, I will relate what happened to me not long since:-- + +One day, a middle-aged man in the usual costume of a West-End shopman, +who had sent in his name as Mr. Axminster, was shown into my private +room. After a little hesitation, he said, "Although you do not know me, +living at this end of the town, I know you very well by reputation, and +that you discount bills. I have a bill here which I want to get +discounted. I am in the employ of Messrs. Russle and Smooth. The bill is +drawn by one of our best customers, the Hon. Miss Snape, niece of Lord +Blimley, and accepted by Major Munge, whom, no doubt, you know by name. +She has dealt with us for some years--is very, very extravagant; but +always pays." He put the acceptance--which was for two hundred +pounds--into my hands. + +I looked at it as scrutinizingly as I usually do at such paper The +Major's signature was familiar to me; but having succeeded to a great +estate, he had long ceased to be a customer. I instantly detected a +forgery; by whom?--was the question. Could it be the man before me? +Experience told me it was not. Perhaps there was something in the +expression of my countenance which Mr. Axminster did not like, for he +said, "It is good for the amount, I presume?" + +I replied, "Pray, sir, from whom did you get this bill?" + +"From Miss Snape herself." + +"Have you circulated any other bills made by the same drawer?" + +"O yes!" said the draper, without hesitation; "I have paid away a bill +for one hundred pounds to Mr. Sparkle, the jeweller, to whom Miss Snape +owed twenty pounds. They gave me the difference." + +"And how long has that bill to run now?" + +"About a fortnight." + +"Did you indorse it?" + +"I did. Mr. Sparkle required me to do so, to show that the bill came +properly into his possession." + +"This second bill, you say is urgently required to enable Miss Snape to +leave town?" + +"Yes; she is going to Brighton for the winter." + +I gave Mr. Axminster a steady, piercing look of inquiry. "Pray, sir," I +said, "could you meet that one hundred pounds bill, supposing it could +not be paid by the accepter?" + +"Meet it!" The poor fellow wiped from his forehead the perspiration which +suddenly broke out at the bare hint of a probability that the bill would +be dishonored--"Meet it? O no! I am a married man, with a family, and +have nothing but my salary to depend on." + +"Then the sooner you get it taken up, and the less you have to do with +Miss Snape's bill affairs, the better." + +"She has always been punctual hitherto." + +"That may be." I pointed to the cross-writing on the document, and said +deliberately, "_This_ bill is a forgery!" + +At these words the poor man turned pale. He snatched up the document, and +with many incoherent protestations, was rushing toward the door, when I +called to him in an authoritative tone, to stop. He paused--his manner +indicating not only doubt, but fear. I said to him, "Don't flurry +yourself; I only want to serve you. You tell me that you are a married +man, with children, dependent on daily labor for daily bread, and that +you have done a little discounting for Miss Snape, out of your earnings. +Now, although I am a bill-discounter, I don't like to see such men +victimized. Look at the body of this bill--look at the signature of your +lady-customer, the drawer. Don't you detect the same fine, thin, +sharp-pointed handwriting in the words 'Accepted, Dymmock Munge." The +man, convinced against his will, was at first overcome. When he +recovered, he raved; he would expose the Honorable Miss Snape, if it cost +him his bread--he would go at once to the police office. I stopped him, +by saying roughly, "Don't be a fool! Any such steps would seal your ruin. +Take my advice; return the bill to the lady, saying, simply, that you +cannot get it discounted. Leave the rest to me, and I think the bill you +have indorsed to Sparkle will be paid." Comforted by this assurance, +Axminster, fearfully changed from the nervous, but smug, hopeful man of +the morning, departed. It now remained for me to exert what skill I +possessed, to bring about the desired result. I lost no time in writing a +letter to the Honorable Miss Snape, of which the following is a copy:-- + +"Madam,--A bill, purporting to be drawn by you, has been offered to me +for discount. There is something wrong about it; and, though a stranger +to you, I advise you to lose no time in getting it back into your own +hands.--D.D." + +I intended to deal with the affair quietly, and without any view to +profit. The fact is, that I was sorry--you may laugh--but I really was +sorry to think that a young girl might have given way to temptation under +pressure of pecuniary difficulties. If it had been a man's case, I doubt +whether I should have interfered. By the return of post, a lady's maid +entered my room, profusely decorated with ringlets, lace, and perfumed +with patchouli. She brought a letter from her mistress. It ran thus:-- + +"Sir,--I cannot sufficiently express my thanks for your kindness in +writing to me on the subject of the bills, of which I had also heard a +few hours previously. As a perfect stranger to you, I cannot estimate +your kind consideration at too high a value. I trust the matter will be +explained; but I should much like to see you. If you would be kind +enough to write a note as soon as you receive this, I will order it to +be sent to me at once to Tyburn Square. I will wait on you at any hour +on Friday you may appoint. I believe that I am not mistaken in supposing +that you transact business for my friend, Sir John Markham, and you will +therefore know the inclosed to be his handwriting. Again thanking you +most gratefully, allow me to remain your much and deeply obliged, +JULIANA SNAPE." + +This note was written upon delicate French paper embossed with a coat of +arms. It was in a fancy envelope--the whole richly perfumed, and +redolent of rank and fashion. Its contents were an implied confession of +forgery. Silence, or three lines of indignation, would have been the +only innocent answer to my letter. But Miss Snape thanked me. She let me +know, by implication that she was on intimate terms with a name good on +a West-End bill. My answer was, that I should be alone on the following +afternoon at five. + +At the hour fixed, punctual to a moment, a brougham drew up at the corner +of the street next to my chambers. The Honorable Miss Snape's card was +handed in. Presently, she entered, swimming into my room, richly, yet +simply dressed in the extreme of Parisian good taste. She was pale--or +rather colorless. She had fair hair, fine teeth, and a fashionable voice. +She threw herself gracefully into the chair I handed to her, and began by +uncoiling a string of phrases, to the effect that her visit was merely to +consult me on "unavoidable pecuniary difficulties." + +According to my mode, I allowed her to talk; putting in only an +occasional word of question that seemed rather a random observation than +a significant query. At length after walking round and round the subject, +like a timid horse in a field around a groom with a sieve of oats, she +came nearer and nearer the subject. When she had fairly approached the +point, she stopped, as if her courage had failed her. But she soon +recovered, and observed, "I cannot think why you should take the trouble +to write so to me, a perfect stranger." Another pause--"I wonder no one +ever suspected me before." + +Here was a confession and a key to character. The cold gray eye, the thin +compressed lips, which I had had time to observe, were true indexes to +the "lady's inner heart;" selfish calculating, utterly devoid of +conscience; unable to conceive the existence of spontaneous kindness; +utterly indifferent to anything except discovery, and almost indifferent +to that, because convinced that no serious consequences could affect a +lady of her rank and influence. + +"Madam," I replied, "as long as you dealt with tradesmen accustomed to +depend on aristocratic customers, your rank and position, and their +large profits, protected you from suspicion; but you have made a mistake +in descending from your vantage ground to make a poor shopman your +innocent accomplice--a man who will be keenly alive to anything +that may injure his wife or children. His terrors--but for my +interposition--would have ruined you utterly. Tell me, how many of these +things have you put afloat?" + +She seemed a little taken a-back by this speech, but was wonderfully +firm. She passed her white, jewelled hand over her eyes, seemed +calculating, and then whispered, with a confiding look of innocent +helplessness, admirably assumed, "About as many as amount to twelve +hundred pounds." + +"And what means have you for meeting them?" + +At this question so plainly put, her face flushed. She half rose from her +chair, and exclaimed in the true tone of aristocratic _hauteur_, "Really, +sir, I do not know what right you have to ask me that question." + +I laughed a little, though not very loud. It was rude, I own; but who +could have helped it? I replied, speaking low, but slowly and +distinctly--"You forget. I did not send for you; you came to me. You have +forged bills to the amount of twelve hundred pounds. Yours is not the +case of a ruined merchant or an ignorant over-tempted clerk. In your case +a jury"--(she shuddered at that word)--"would find no extenuating +circumstances; and if you should fall into the hands of justice you will +be convicted, degraded, clothed in a prison-dress, and transported for +life. I do not want to speak harshly; but I insist that you find means to +take up the bill which Mr. Axminster has so unwittingly endorsed!" + +The Honorable Miss Snape's grand manner melted away. She wept. She seized +and pressed my hand. She cast up her eyes, full of tears, and went +through the part of a repentant victim with great fervor. She would do +anything--anything in the world to save the poor man. Indeed, she had +intended to appropriate part of the two hundred pound bill to that +purpose. She forgot her first statement, that she wanted the money to go +out of town. Without interrupting, I let her go on and degrade herself by +a simulated passion of repentance, regret, and thankfulness to me, under +which she hid her fear and her mortification at being detected. I at +length put an end to a scene of admirable acting, by recommending her to +go abroad immediately, to place herself out of reach of any sudden +discovery; and then lay her case fully before her friends, who would no +doubt feel bound to come forward with the full amount of the forged +bills. "But," she exclaimed, with an entreating air, "I have no money; I +cannot go without money!" To that observation I did not respond although +I am sure she expected that I should, check-book in hand, offer her a +loan. I do not say so without reason; for, the very next week, this +honorable young lady came again, and, with sublime assurance and a number +of very charming, winning speeches, (which might have had their effect +upon a younger man), asked me to lend her one hundred pounds, in order +that she might take the advice I had so obligingly given her, and retire +into private life for a certain time in the country. I do meet with a +great many impudent people in the course of my calling--I am not very +deficient in assurance myself--but this actually took away my breath. + +"Really, madam," I answered, "you pay a very ill-compliment to my gray +hairs, and would fain make me a very ill return for the service I have +done you, when you ask me to lend a hundred pounds to a young lady who +owns to having forged to the extent of one thousand two hundred pounds, +and to owing eight hundred pounds besides. I wished to save a personage +of your years and position from a disgraceful career; but I am too good a +trustee for my children to lend money to anybody in such a dangerous +position as yourself." + +"Oh!" she answered, quite unabashed, without a trace of the fearful, +tender pleading of the previous week's interview--quite as if I had been +an accomplice, "I can give you excellent security." + +"That alters the case; I can lend any amount on good security." + +"Well, sir, I can get the acceptance of three friends of ample means" + +"Do you mean to tell me, Miss Snape, that you will write down the names +of three parties who will accept a bill for one hundred pounds for you?" + +Yes, she could, and did actually write down the names of three +distinguished men. Now I knew for certain, that not one of those noblemen +would have put his name to a bill on any account whatever for his dearest +friend; but, in her unabashed self-confidence, she thought of passing +another forgery _on me_. I closed the conference by saying, "I cannot +assist you;" and she retired with the air of an injured person. In the +course of a few days, I heard from Mr. Axminster, that his liability of +one hundred pounds had been duly honored. + +In my active and exciting life, one day extinguishes the recollection +of the events of the preceding day; and, for a time, I thought no more +about the fashionable forger. I had taken it for granted that, +heartily frightened, although not repenting, she had paused in her +felonious pursuits. + +My business one day led me to the establishment of one of the most +wealthy and respectable legal firms in the city, where I am well known, +and, I believe, valued; for at all times I am most politely, I may say, +most cordially received. Mutual profits create a wonderful freemasonry +between those who have not any other sympathy or sentiment. Politics, +religion, morality, difference of rank, are all equalized and +republicanized by the division of an account. No sooner had I entered the +_sanctum_, than the senior partner, Mr. Precepts, began to quiz his +junior, Mr. Jones, with, "Well, Jones must never joke friend Discount +anymore about usury. Just imagine," he continued, addressing me, "Jones +has himself been discounting a bill for a lady; and a deuced pretty one +too. He sat next her at dinner in Grosvenor Square, last week. Next day +she gave him a call here, and he could not refuse her extraordinary +request. Gad, it is hardly fair for Jones to be poaching on your domains +of West-End paper!" + +Mr. Jones smiled quietly, as he observed, "Why, you see, she is the niece +of one of our best clients; and really I was so taken by surprise, that I +did not know how to refuse." + +"Pray," said I, interrupting his excuses, "does your young lady's name +begin with S.? Has she not a very pale face, and cold gray eye?" + +The partners stared. + +"Ah! I see it is so; and can at once tell you that the bill is not +worth a rush." + +"Why, you don't mean--?" + +"I mean simply that the acceptance is, I'll lay you a wager, a forgery." + +"A forgery!" + +"A forgery," I repeated as distinctly as possible. + +Mr. Jones hastily, and with broken ejaculations, called for the cash-box. +With trembling hands he took out the bill, and followed my finger with +eager, watchful eyes, as I pointed out the proofs of my assertion. A long +pause was broken by my mocking laugh; for, at the moment, my sense of +politeness could not restrain my satisfaction at the signal defeat which +had attended the first experiment of these highly respectable gentlemen +in the science of usury. + +The partners did not have recourse to the police. They did not propose a +consultation with either Mr. Forrester or Mr. Field; but they took +certain steps, under my recommendation; the result of which was that at +an early day, an aunt of the Honorable Miss Snape was driven, to save so +near a connection from transportation, to sell out some fourteen hundred +pounds of stock, and all the forgeries were taken up. + +One would have thought that the lady who had thus so narrowly escaped, +had had enough--but forgery, like opium-eating, is one of those charming +vices which is never abandoned, when once adopted. The forger enjoys not +only the pleasure of obtaining money so easily, but the triumph of +befooling sharp men of the world. Dexterous penmanship is a source of the +same sort of pride as that which animates the skillful rifleman, the +practiced duellist, or well-trained billiard-player. With a clean Gillott +he fetches down a capitalist, at three or six months, for a cool hundred +or a round thousand; just as a Scrope drops over a stag at ten, or a +Gordon Cumming a monstrous male elephant at a hundred paces. + +As I before observed, my connection especially lies among the +improvident--among those who will be ruined--who are being ruined--and +who have been ruined. To the last class belongs Francis Fisherton, once +a gentleman, now without a shilling or a principle; but rich in +mother-wit--in fact, a _farceur_, after Paul de Kock's own heart. Having +in by-gone days been one of my willing victims, he occasionally finds +pleasure and profit in guiding others through the gate he frequented, as +long as able to pay the tolls. In truth, he is what is called a +"discount agent." + +One day I received a note from him, to say that he would call on me at +three o'clock the next day to introduce a lady of family, who wanted a +bill "done" for one hundred pounds. So ordinary a transaction merely +needed a memorandum in my diary, "Tuesday, 3 p.m.; F.F., £100 Bill." The +hour came and passed; but no Frank, which was strange--because every one +must have observed, that, however dilatory people are in paying, they are +wonderfully punctual when they expect to receive money. + +At five o'clock, in rushed my Jackall. His story, disentangled from +oaths and ejaculations, amounted to this:--In answer to one of the +advertisements he occasionally addresses "To the Embarrassed," in the +columns of the "Times," he received a note from a lady, who said she was +anxious to get a "bill done"--the acceptance of a well-known man of rank +and fashion. A correspondence was opened, and an appointment made. At the +hour fixed, neatly shaved, brushed, gloved, booted--the revival, in +short, of that high-bred Frank Fisherton who was so famous + +"In his hot youth, when Crockford's was the thing." + +glowing with only one glass of brandy, "just to steady his nerves," he +met the lady at a West-End pastry-cook's. + +After a few words (for all the material questions had been settled by +correspondence) she stepped into a brougham, and invited Frank to take a +seat beside her. Elated with a compliment of late years so rare, he +commenced planning the orgies which were to reward him for weeks of +enforced fasting, when the coachman, reverentially touching his hat, +looked down from his seat for orders. + +"To ninety-nine, George Street, St. James," cried Fisherton, in his +loudest tones. + +In an instant the young lady's pale face changed to scarlet, and then to +ghastly green. In a whisper, rising to a scream, she exclaimed, "Good +heavens! you do not mean to go to _that_ man's house," (meaning me.) +"Indeed, I cannot go to him, on any account; he is a most horrid man, I +am told, and charges most extravagantly." + +"Madam," answered Frank, in great perturbation, "I beg your pardon, but +you have been grossly misinformed. I have known that excellent man these +twenty years, and have paid him hundreds on hundreds; but never so much +by ten per cent. as you offered me for discounting your bill." + +"Sir, I cannot have anything to do with your friend." Then, violently, +pulling the check-string, "Stop," she gasped, "and _will you_ have the +goodness to get out?" + +"And so I got out," continued Fisherton, "and lost my time; and the heavy +investment I made in getting myself up for the assignation--new primrose +gloves, and a shilling to the hair-dresser--hang her! But, did you ever +know anything like the prejudices that must prevail against you? I am +disgusted with human nature. Could you lend me half a sovereign till +Saturday?" + +I smiled. I sacrificed the half sovereign, and let him go, for he is not +exactly the person to whom it was advisable to intrust all the secrets +relating to the Honorable Miss Snape. Since that day I look each morning +in the police reports with considerable interest; but, up to the present +hour, the Honorable Miss Snape has lived and thrived in the best society. + + + + +THE YOUNG ADVOCATE. + + +Antoine de Chaulieu was the son of a poor gentleman of Normandy, with a +long genealogy, a short rent-roll, and a large family. Jacques Rollet +was the son of a brewer, who did not know who his grandfather was; but +he had a long purse and only two children. As these youths flourished in +the early days of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and were near +neighbors, they naturally hated each other. Their enmity commenced at +school, where the delicate and refined De Chaulieu, being the only +gentilhomme among the scholars, was the favorite of the master, (who was +a bit of an aristocrat in his heart,) although he was about the worst +dressed boy in the establishment, and never had a sou to spend; while +Jacques Rollet, sturdy and rough, with smart clothes and plenty of +money, got flogged six days in the week, ostensibly for being stupid and +not learning his lessons,--which, indeed, he did not,--but, in reality, +for constantly quarrelling with and insulting De Chaulieu, who had not +strength to cope with him. When they left the academy, the feud +continued in all its vigor, and was fostered by a thousand little +circumstances arising out of the state of the times, till a separation +ensued in consequence of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu's undertaking +the expense of sending him to Paris to study the law, and of maintaining +him there during the necessary period. + +With the progress of events came some degree of reaction in favor of +birth and nobility, and then Antoine, who had passed for the bar, began +to hold up his head and endeavored to push his fortunes; but fate seemed +against him. He felt certain that if he possessed any gift in the world +it was that of eloquence, but he could get no cause to plead; and his +aunt dying inopportunely, first his resources failed, and then his +health. He had no sooner returned to his home, than, to complicate his +difficulties completely, he fell in love with Mademoiselle Natalie de +Bellefonds, who had just returned from Paris, where she had been +completing her education. To expatiate on the perfections of Mademoiselle +Natalie would be a waste of ink and paper; it is sufficient to say that +she really was a very charming girl, with a fortune which, though not +large, would have been a most desirable acquisition to De Chaulieu, who +had nothing. Neither was the fair Natalie indisposed to listen to his +addresses; but her father could not be expected to countenance the suit +of a gentleman, however well born, who had not a ten-sous piece in the +world, and whose prospects were a blank. + +While the ambitious and lovesick young barrister was thus pining in +unwelcome obscurity, his old acquaintance, Jacques Rollet, had been +acquiring an undesirable notoriety. There was nothing really bad in +Jacques' disposition, but having been bred up a democrat, with a hatred +of the nobility, he could not easily accommodate his rough humor to treat +them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult them. The +liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought him into +contact with the higher classes of society, had led him into many +scrapes, out of which his father's money had one way or another released +him; but that source of safety had now failed. Old Rollet, having been +too busy with the affairs of the nation to attend to his business, had +died insolvent, leaving his son with nothing but his own wits to help him +out of future difficulties, and it was not long before their exercise was +called for. Claudine Rollet, his sister, who was a very pretty girl, had +attracted the attention of Mademoiselle de Bellefonds' brother, Alphonse; +and as he paid her more attention than from such a quarter was agreeable +to Jacques, the young men had more than one quarrel on the subject, on +which occasions they had each, characteristically, given vent to their +enmity, the one in contemptuous monosyllables, and the other in a volley +of insulting words. But Claudine had another lover more nearly of her own +condition of life; this was Claperon, the deputy-governor of the Rouen +jail, with whom she made acquaintance during one or two compulsory visits +paid by her brother to that functionary; but Claudine, who was a bit of a +coquette, though she did not altogether reject his suit, gave him little +encouragement, so that betwixt hopes and fears, and doubts and +jealousies, poor Claperon led a very uneasy kind of life. + +Affairs had been for some time in this position, when, one fine morning, +Alphonse de Bellefonds was not to be found in his chamber when his +servant went to call him; neither had his bed been slept in. He had been +observed to go out rather late on the preceding evening, but whether or +not he had returned, nobody could tell. He had not appeared at supper, +but that was too ordinary an event to awaken suspicion; and little alarm +was excited till several hours had elapsed, when inquiries were +instituted and a search commenced, which terminated in the discovery of +his body, a good deal mangled, lying at the bottom of a pond which had +belonged to the old brewery. Before any investigations had been made, +every person had jumped to the conclusion that the young man had been +murdered, and that Jacques Rollet was the assassin. There was a strong +presumption in favor of that opinion, which further perquisitions tended +to confirm. Only the day before, Jacques had been heard to threaten M. de +Bellefonds with speedy vengeance. On the fatal evening, Alphonse and +Claudine had been seen together in the neighborhood of the now dismantled +brewery; and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and democracy, was in bad odor +with the prudent and respectable part of society, it was not easy for him +to bring witnesses to character, or prove an unexceptionable alibi. As +for the Bellefonds and De Chaulieus, and the aristocracy in general, they +entertained no doubt of his guilt; and finally, the magistrates coming to +the same opinion, Jacques Rollet was committed for trial, and as a +testimony of good will Antoine de Chaulieu was selected by the injured +family to conduct the prosecution. + +Here, at last, was the opportunity he had sighed for! So interesting a +case, too, furnishing such ample occasion for passion, pathos, +indignation! And how eminently fortunate that the speech which he set +himself with ardor to prepare, would be delivered in the presence of the +father and brother of his mistress, and perhaps of the lady herself! The +evidence against Jacques, it is true, was altogether presumptive; there +was no proof whatever that he had committed the crime; and for his own +part he stoutly denied it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained no doubt +of his guilt, and his speech was certainly well calculated to carry +conviction into the bosom of others. It was of the highest importance to +his own reputation that he should procure a verdict, and he confidently +assured the afflicted and enraged family of the victim that their +vengeance should be satisfied. Under these circumstances could any thing +be more unwelcome than a piece of intelligence that was privately +conveyed to him late on the evening before the trial was to come on, +which tended strongly to exculpate the prisoner, without indicating any +other person as the criminal? Here was an opportunity lost. The first +step of the ladder on which he was to rise to fame, fortune, and a wife, +was slipping from under his feet! + +Of course, so interesting a trial was anticipated with great eagerness by +the public, and the court was crowded with all the beauty and fashion of +Rouen. Though Jacques Rollet persisted in asserting his innocence, +founding his defence chiefly on circumstances which were strongly +corroborated by the information that had reached De Chaulieu the +preceding evening, he was convicted. + +In spite of the very strong doubts he privately entertained respecting +the justice of the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the first flush +of success, amid a crowd of congratulating friends, and the approving +smiles of his mistress, felt gratified and happy; his speech had, for the +time being, not only convinced others, but himself; warmed with his own +eloquence, he believed what he said. But when the glow was over, and he +found himself alone, he did not feel so comfortable. A latent doubt of +Rollet's guilt now burnt strongly in his mind, and he felt that the blood +of the innocent would be on his head. It is true there was yet time to +save the life of the prisoner; but to admit Jacques innocent was to take +the glory out of his own speech, and turn the sting of his argument +against himself. Besides, if he produced the witness who had secretly +given him the information, he should be self-condemned, for he could not +conceal that he had been aware of the circumstance before the trial. + +Matters having gone so far, therefore, it was necessary that Jacques +Rollet should die; so the affair took its course; and early one morning +the guillotine was erected in the courtyard of the jail, three criminals +ascended the scaffold, and three heads fell into the basket which were +presently afterwards, with the trunks that had been attached to them, +buried in a corner of the cemetery. + +Antoine de Chaulieu was now fairly started in his career, and his success +was as rapid as the first step towards it had been tardy. He took a +pretty apartment in the Hotel de Marboeuf Rue Grange-Batelière, and in a +short time was looked upon as one of the most rising young advocates in +Paris. His success in one line brought him success in another; he was +soon a favorite in society, and an object of interest to speculating +mothers; but his affections still adhered to his old love, Natalie de +Bellefonds, whose family now gave their assent to the match,--at least, +prospectively,--a circumstance which furnished such an additional +incentive to his exertions, that in about two years from the date of his +first brilliant speech, he was in a sufficiently flourishing condition to +offer the young lady a suitable home. In anticipation of the happy event, +he engaged and furnished a suit of apartments in the Rue du Helder; and +as it was necessary that the bride should come to Paris to provide her +trousseau, it was agreed that the wedding should take place there, +instead of at Bellefonds, as had been first projected--an arrangement the +more desirable, that a press of business rendered M. de Chaulieu's +absence from Paris inconvenient. + +Brides and bridegrooms in France, except of the very high classes, are +not much in the habit of making those honeymoon excursions so universal +in this country. A day spent in visiting Versailles, or St. Cloud, or +even the public places of the city, is generally all that precedes the +settling down into the habits of daily life. In the present instance, St. +Denis was selected, from the circumstance of Natalie having a younger +sister at school there, and also because she had a particular desire to +see the abbey. + +The wedding was to take place on a Thursday; and on the Wednesday +evening, having spent some hours most agreeably with Natalie, Antoine de +Chaulieu returned to spend his last night in his bachelor apartments. His +wardrobe and other small possessions had already been packed up and sent +to his future home; and there was nothing left in his room now but his +new wedding suit, which he inspected with considerable satisfaction +before he undressed and lay down to sleep. Sleep, however, was somewhat +slow to visit him; and the clock had struck one before he closed his +eyes. When he opened them again, it was broad daylight; and his first +thought was, had he overslept himself? He sat up in bed to look at the +clock, which was exactly opposite; and as he did so, in the large mirror +over the fireplace he perceived a figure standing behind him. As the +dilated eyes met his own, he saw it was the face of Jacques Rollet. +Overcome with horror, he sank back on his pillow, and it was some minutes +before he ventured to look again in that direction; when he did so, the +figure had disappeared. + +The sudden revulsion of feeling such a vision was calculated to occasion +in a man elate with joy, may be conceived. For some time after the death +of his former foe, he had been visited by not unfrequent twinges of +conscience; but of late, borne along by success, and the hurry of +Parisian life, these unpleasant remembrances had grown rarer, till at +length they had faded away altogether. Nothing had been further from his +thoughts than Jacques Rollet, when he closed his eyes on the preceding +night, nor when he opened them to that sun which was to shine on what he +expected to be the happiest day of his life. Where were the high-strung +nerves now? the elastic frame? the bounding heart? + +Heavily and slowly he arose from his bed, for it was time to do so; and +with a trembling hand and quivering knees, he went through the processes +of the toilet, gashing his cheek with the razor, and spilling the water +over his well-polished boots. When he was dressed, scarcely venturing to +cast a glance in the mirror as he passed it, he quitted the room, and +descended the stairs, taking the key of the door with him for the purpose +of leaving it with the porter: the man, however, being absent, he laid it +on the table in his lodge, and with a relaxed and languid step proceeded +on his way to the church, where presently arrived the fair Natalie and +her friends. How difficult it was now to look happy with that pallid face +and extinguished eye! + +"How pale you are! Has any thing happened? You are surely ill," were the +exclamations that met him on all sides. He tried to carry it off as well +as he could, but felt that the movements he would have wished to appear +alert were only convulsive, and that the smiles with which he attempted +to relax his features were but distorted grimaces. However, the church +was not the place for further inquiries; and while Natalie gently pressed +his hand in token of sympathy, they advanced to the altar, and the +ceremony was performed; after which they stepped into the carriages +waiting at the door, and drove to the apartments of Madame de Bellefonds, +where an elegant _déjeuner_ was prepared. + +"What ails you, my dear husband?" inquired Natalie, as soon as they +were alone. + +"Nothing, love," he replied; "nothing, I assure you, but a restless night +and a little overwork, in order that I might have to-day free to enjoy my +happiness." + +"Are you quite sure? Is there nothing else?" + +"Nothing, indeed; and pray don't take notice of it; it only makes +me worse." + +Natalie was not deceived, but she saw that what he said was true; notice +made him worse; so she contented herself with observing him quietly, and +saying nothing; but, as he _felt_ she was observing him, she might almost +better have spoken; words are often less embarrassing things than too +curious eyes. + +When they reached Madame de Bellefond's he had the same sort of +questioning and scrutiny to undergo, till he grew quite impatient under +it, and betrayed a degree of temper altogether unusual with him. Then +every body looked astonished; some whispered their remarks, and others +expressed them by their wondering eyes, till his brow knit, and his +pallid cheeks became flushed with anger. Neither could he divert +attention by eating; his parched mouth would not allow him to swallow any +thing but liquids, of which, however, he indulged in copious libations; +and it was an exceeding relief to him when the carriage, which was to +convey them to St. Denis, being announced, furnished an excuse for +hastily leaving the table. Looking at his watch, he declared it was late; +and Natalie, who saw how eager he was to be gone, threw her shawl over +her shoulders, and bidding her friends _good morning_, they hurried away. + +It was a fine sunny day in June; and as they drove along the crowded +boulevards, and through the Porte St. Denis, the young bride and +bridegroom, to avoid each other's eyes, affected to be gazing out of the +windows; but when they reached the part of the road where there was +nothing but trees on each side, they felt it necessary to draw in their +heads, and make an attempt at conversation, De Chaulieu put his arm round +his wife's waist, and tried to rouse himself from his depression; but it +had by this time so reacted upon her, that she could not respond to his +efforts, and thus the conversation languished, till both felt glad when +they reached their destination, which would, at all events, furnish them +something to talk about. + +Having quitted the carriage, and ordered a dinner at the Hotel de +l'Abbaye, the young couple proceeded to visit Mademoiselle Hortense de +Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see her sister and new brother-in-law, +and doubly so when she found that they had obtained permission to take +her out to spend the afternoon with them. As there is little to be seen +at St. Denis but the Abbey, on quitting that part of it devoted to +education, they proceeded to visit the church, with its various objects +of interest; and as De Chaulieu's thoughts were now forced into another +direction, his cheerfulness began insensibly to return. Natalie looked so +beautiful, too, and the affection betwixt the two young sisters was so +pleasant to behold! And they spent a couple of hours wandering about with +Hortense, who was almost as well informed as the Suisse, till the brazen +doors were opened which admitted them to the Royal vault. Satisfied, at +length, with what they had seen, they began to think of returning to the +inn, the more especially as De Chaulieu, who had not eaten a morsel of +food since the previous evening, owned to being hungry; so they directed +their steps to the door, lingering here and there as they went, to +inspect a monument or a painting, when, happening to turn his head aside +to see if his wife, who had stopped to take a last look at the tomb of +King Dagobert, was following, he beheld with horror the face of Jacques +Rollet appearing from behind a column! At the same instant his wife +joined him, and took his arm, inquiring if he was not very much delighted +with what he had seen. He attempted to say yes, but the word would not be +forced out; and staggering out of the door, he alleged that a sudden +faintness had overcome him. + +They conducted him to the Hotel, but Natalie now became seriously +alarmed; and well she might. His complexion looked ghastly, his limbs +shook, and his features bore an expression of indescribable horror and +anguish. What could be the meaning of so extraordinary a change in the +gay, witty, prosperous De Chaulieu, who, till that morning, seemed not to +have a care in the world? For, plead illness as he might, she felt +certain, from the expression of his features, that his sufferings were +not of the body but of the mind; and, unable to imagine any reason for +such extraordinary manifestations, of which she had never before seen a +symptom, but a sudden aversion to herself, and regret for the step he had +taken, her pride took the alarm, and, concealing the distress she really +felt, she began to assume a haughty and reserved manner towards him, +which he naturally interpreted into an evidence of anger and contempt. +The dinner was placed upon the table; but De Chaulieu's appetite, of +which he had lately boasted, was quite gone, nor was his wife better able +to eat. The young sister alone did justice to the repast; but although +the bridegroom could not eat, he could swallow champagne in such copious +draughts, that ere long the terror and remorse that the apparition of +Jacques Rollet had awakened in his breast were drowned in intoxication. +Amazed and indignant, poor Natalie sat silently observing this elect of +her heart, till overcome with disappointment and grief, she quitted the +room with her sister, and retired to another apartment, where she gave +free vent to her feelings in tears. + +After passing a couple of hours in confidences and lamentations, they +recollected that the hours of liberty granted, as an especial favor, to +Mademoiselle Hortense, had expired; but ashamed to exhibit her husband in +his present condition to the eyes of strangers, Natalie prepared to +re-conduct her to the _Maison Royale_ herself. Looking into the +dining-room as they passed, they saw De Chaulieu lying on a sofa fast +asleep, in which state he continued when his wife returned. At length, +however, the driver of their carriage begged to know if Monsieur and +Madame were ready to return to Paris, and it became necessary to arouse +him. The transitory effects of the champagne had now subsided; but when +De Chaulieu recollected what had happened, nothing could exceed his shame +and mortification. So engrossing indeed were these sensations that they +quite overpowered his previous one, and, in his present vexation, he, for +the moment, forgot his fears. He knelt at his wife's feet, begged her +pardon a thousand times, swore that he adored her, and declared that the +illness and the effect of the wine had been purely the consequences of +fasting and over-work. It was not the easiest thing in the world to +re-assure a woman whose pride, affection, and taste, had been so severely +wounded; but Natalie tried to believe, or to appear to do so, and a sort +of reconciliation ensued, not quite sincere on the part of the wife, and +very humbling on the part of the husband. Under these circumstances it +was impossible that he should recover his spirits or facility of manner; +his gaiety was forced, his tenderness constrained; his heart was heavy +within him; and ever and anon the source whence all this disappointment +and woe had sprung would recur to his perplexed and tortured mind. + +Thus mutually pained and distrustful, they returned to Paris, which they +reached about nine o'clock. In spite of her depression, Natalie, who had +not seen her new apartments, felt some curiosity about them, whilst De +Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting the elegant home he had +prepared for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they stepped out of the +carriage, the gates of the Hotel were thrown open, the _concierge_ rang +the bell which announced to the servants that their master and mistress +had arrived, and whilst these domestics appeared above, holding lights +over the balustrades, Natalie, followed by her husband, ascended the +stairs. But when they reached the landing-place of the first flight, they +saw the figure of a man standing in a corner as if to make way for them; +the flash from above fell upon his face, and again Antoine de Chaulieu +recognized the features of Jacques Rollet! + +From the circumstance of his wife's preceding him, the figure was not +observed by De Chaulieu till he was lifting his foot to place it on the +top stair: the sudden shock caused him to miss the step, and, without +uttering a sound, he fell back, and never stopped till he reached the +stones at the bottom. The screams of Natalie brought the concierge from +below and the maids from above, and an attempt was made to raise the +unfortunate man from the ground; but with cries of anguish he besought +them to desist. + +"Let me," he said, "die here! What a fearful vengeance is thine! O, +Natalie, Natalie!" he exclaimed to his wife, who was kneeling beside him, +"to win fame, and fortune, and yourself, I committed a dreadful crime! +With lying words I argued away the life of a fellow-creature, whom, +whilst I uttered them, I half believed to be innocent; and now, when I +have attained all I desired, and reached the summit of my hopes, the +Almighty has sent him back upon the earth to blast me with the sight. +Three times this day--three times this day! Again! again!"--and as he +spoke, his wild and dilated eyes fixed themselves on one of the +individuals that surrounded him. + +"He is delirious," said they. + +"No," said the stranger! "What he says is true enough,--at least in +part;" and bending over the expiring man, he added, "May Heaven forgive +you, Antoine de Chaulieu! I was not executed; one who well knew my +innocence saved my life. I may name him, for he is beyond the reach of +the law now,--it was Claperon, the jailor, who loved Claudine, and had +himself killed Alphonse de Bellefonds from jealousy. An unfortunate +wretch had been several years in the jail for a murder committed during +the frenzy of a fit of insanity. Long confinement had reduced him to +idiocy. To save my life Claperon substituted the senseless being for me, +on the scaffold; he was executed in my stead. He has quitted the country, +and I have been a vagabond on the face of the earth ever since that time. +At length I obtained, through the assistance of my sister, the situation +of concierge in the Hotel Marboeuf, in the Rue Grange-Batelière. I +entered on my new place yesterday evening, and was desired to awaken the +gentleman on the third floor at seven o'clock. When I entered the room to +do so, you were asleep, but before I had time to speak you awoke, and I +recognized your features in the glass. Knowing that I could not vindicate +my innocence if you chose to seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus +starting for St. Denis, I got on it with a vague idea of getting on to +Calais, and crossing the Channel to England. But having only a franc or +two in my pocket, or indeed in the world, I did not know how to procure +the means of going forward; and whilst I was lounging about the place, +forming first one plan and then another, I saw you in the church, and +concluding you were in pursuit of me, I thought the best way of eluding +your vigilance was to make my way back to Paris as fast as I could; so I +set off instantly, and walked all the way; but having no money to pay my +night's lodging, I came here to borrow a couple of livres of my sister +Claudine, who lives in the fifth story." + +"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed the dying man; "that sin is off my soul! +Natalie, dear wife, farewell! Forgive, forgive all!" + +These were the last words he uttered; the priest, who had been +summoned in haste, held up the cross before his failing sight; a few +strong convulsions shook the poor bruised and mangled frame; and then +all was still. + +And thus ended the Young Advocate's Wedding Day. + + + + +A MURDER IN THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES. + + +There is, perhaps, no country or climate more beautiful than England, as +seen in one of its rural landscapes, when the sun has just risen upon a +cloudless summer's dawn. The very feeling that the delightful freshness +of the moment will not be entirely destroyed during the whole day, +renders the prospect more agreeable than the anticipated fiery advance of +the sun in southern or tropical lands. Exhilaration and gladness are the +marked characteristics of an English summer morning. So it ever is, and +so it was hundreds of years ago, when occurred the events we are about to +narrate. How lovely then, on such a morning as we allude to, looked that +rich vale in the centre of Gloucestershire, through which the lordly +Severn flows! The singing of the birds, the reflective splendor of the +silvery waters, the glittering of the dew as it dazzled and +disappeared--all combined to charm sound, sight, and sense, and to +produce a strong feeling of joy. But the horseman, who was passing +through this graceful scene, scarcely needed the aid of any external +object to enhance the pleasurable sensation that already filled his +breast. The stately horse on which he sat, seemed, by its light steps, +and by ever and anon proudly prancing, to share in the animation of its +rider. So, the noble stag-hound that followed, and continually looked up +contentedly at its master, appeared, likewise, a participator in the +general content. The stranger had indeed cause to rejoice, for he was +upon the fairest errand. He bad wooed and won the gentle heiress of a +proud, but good-hearted Gloucestershire baron--he had wooed and won her, +too, with the full consent of father, kinsmen, and friends, and he was +now on his way to the baron's castle to arrange with his betrothed the +ceremonial of the nuptials. Ride on, thou gallant knight, ride on, and +swifter too; for though the day will be yet early when thou arrivest, +thou wilt find thyself expected within the Gothic enciente of the Baron +de Botetourt's dwelling. A banner waves from the topmost tower to do thee +honor and welcome; there walks, too, by the battlements, one whose night +has been sleepless because of thee, whose thoughts and whose whole +existence centre in thee, whose look firmly attaches to the road that +brings thee to her. Ride on then speedily, Sir Knight, to the happiness +thy virtue and thy deeds have so well deserved. + +This lover is no ordinary suitor: he is of mingled Saxon and Norman noble +blood, the recent companion-in-arms of Richard Coeur de Lion. His name is +Ralph de Sudley, and though he has passed his thirtieth year, the effect +of long toil and war scarcely appears upon his handsome and still very +youthful countenance. Yet the knight has seen and endured much: he has +been with Richard at the siege and capture of Acre, and at the battle of +Azotus. When Conrad of Montferrat fell by the dagger of the assassins, +Sir Ralph took a prominent part in the stormy debates which ensued among +the Crusaders. He even proposed with his men-at-arms, and those who would +follow him, to invade the territory of the Lord of the Mountain, and to +avenge in his blood the death which that king of murderers had caused to +be done to Conrad. This event made so deep an impression on his mind, +that he still took every opportunity of urging upon his own and other +Christian governments the necessity of extirpating these eastern +assassins. On his return from the crusades, Sir Ralph found the daughter +of his friend, the Baron de Botetourt, just verging into beauteous +womanhood. The glory of his reputation, and the graces of his person, +gained her heart at once; the Lady Alianore, though much his junior in +years, loved the knight fondly and devotedly. + +Sir Ralph has reached the portcullis of the castle; the wardour and +men-at-arms are there to receive him with full honors, though he comes +privately, without his armor or his followers: he wears the civil but +costly dress of the period, with no other weapon than a slight sword at +his side. But the baron will have each advent of his future son-in-law +welcomed as an approach of state. + +"Grammercy, Sir Baron," observed the knight, as after passing through a +crowd of domestics, he grasped his host's hand upon the threshold, "one +would imagine me Richard of England himself, or rather Saladin, that +greatest and most gaudy of Oriental Soldans, to see this pompous prelude +to my disjune with your lovely daughter and yourself." + +"Nay, Ralph de Sudley," replied the baron, "my castle must needs put on +its best looks, when it beholds the entry of one who is to be its lord +and protector when I shall be no more. But I see you are all impatience +to go within; and, in truth, the sooner your first interview be over the +better, for the table is prepared, and the pasty awaits us, and the +chaplain too, whose inward man, after the morning's Mass, craves some +solid refreshment." + +"A moment, my worthiest of friends, and I am with you," said the knight, +as he hurried by: in another instant the Lady Alianore was in his +embrace. Need we repeat the oft-told tale of love? Need we describe the +day of delight Sir Ralph passed in the castle, lingering from hour to +hour until the dusk? O, there is some one we must depict, the lady +herself, who so subdued and softened this knightly soul. There, one hand +upon the shoulder of her lover, her other hand locked in his, she sits +listening to his words, and luxuriating in his discourse. The Lady +Alianore, somewhat tall in stature, but perfect in form, has a face of +dazzling beauty, yet the bewitching sweetness of her smile is tempered by +a certain dignity of countenance, to which her dark, raven hair, and +darker eyes, do not a little contribute; her hands, and the foot that +peeps from beneath, her graceful robe, are of exquisite smallness, and +bespeak the purest Norman blood. Her extreme fairness, shaded by her +sable locks, form a strong contrast to the auburn hair and ruddy visage +of the stalwart warrior beside her. + +"This will indeed be too much, Ralph," observed the lady; "a monarch, his +queen, and his court, to come to this out-of-the-way castle, to honor the +wedding of a lone damsel like myself; I can hardly support the idea of so +much splendor." + +"Fear not, my beloved," replied the knight, "Richard is homely enough, +and all good nature. Moreover, it is but a return of civility; for I it +was who accompanied him to the altar, where he obtained the hand of +Berengaria of Navarre; the office was a dangerous one then, since I +incurred by it the wrath of Philip of France. And why, dearest, should +not every magnificence attend our nuptials? It is the outward emblem of +our great content--a mark, like those gorgeous ceremonies that accompany +the festive prayers of the Church, which tell the people of the earth of +a joy having something of the gladness and glory of Heaven in it." + +"Be it as you wish, my own true knight; yet I almost feel that I am too +happy. May God bless and protect us!" + +Thus passed this bright day, until the approach of dusk imperatively +compelled the enraptured lovers to separate. The knight had urgent +business to settle, early on the morrow, at his own castle, before +setting out for London, to announce to the king the day fixed for the +espousal, and to beg from the monarch the fulfilment of the promise he +had made, to be present in person with his court, at the wedding of his +gallant and faithful vassal. The knight was therefore forced to depart +ere the gloom advanced; for though his journey lay in a friendly and +peaceful country, it was not the habit in those days to be abroad much +after dusk, without an efficient escort. + +Sir Ralph reluctantly quitted his betrothed: he made his escape moreover +from the baron and the chaplain, who prayed his further tarrying, to +share in another flagon of Rhenish about to be produced. The horse and +dog were at the porch, and, in a few minutes, the knight had passed the +drawbridge, and was in the same fair road again. + +"I have known Sir Ralph from his birth," observed the baron to the +chaplain, "and I love him as my own son. The king may well come here to +see him wedded; for he has not a nobler, braver, or more generous knight +within his realm." + +"Truly, Sir Baron, he is endowed with much excellence," replied the +priest; "I do greatly admire his strong denunciation against the Templars +and other warlike orders, who tolerate the protracted existence of that +band of murderers in the past who have their daggers ever pointed +against the sons of the Church. Sir Ralph speaks on this subject like a +true soldier of the Cross." + +"Very true," retorted the baron, "yet I wish our chevaliers would cease +to think of foreign broils and questions, and attend to affairs at home. +This Rhenish is perfect: after all, wine is the only thing really good +that originates beyond our seas." + +Their discourse had scarcely proceeded farther, when it was suddenly +interrupted by the loud howling and barking of a dog. The baron and the +chaplain started up. "It is Leo, Sir Ralph's dog," exclaimed the former, +"what in God's name can be the matter?" and the two rushed out. + +The Lady Alianore, at her orisons above, heard the same terrible howl and +bark. She instantly descended to the courtyard; as she came there, the +outer gate was opened, and Leo, the knight's dog, flew past the wardour, +and ran to the feet of the lady. The animal's mouth was blood-stained, +and his glaring eye-balls and ruffled crest showed the extent of his fury +and despair. + +"Something dreadful has happened to Sir Ralph," she cried, and urged +by the dog, who had seized her robe, she hurried through the gate, +and crossed the drawbridge, with a rapidity those who followed could +not arrest. + +When the baron, his chaplain, and his domestics had proceeded a little +beyond a quarter of a mile upon the road, a fearful sight met their view. + +The knight lay dead upon the green sward by the side of the highway; a +poignard which had effected the mortal wound, still rested fixed into his +back. His body was locked fast in the embrace of the Lady Alianore, who +lay senseless upon it: the dog stood by, howling piteously. No trace +could be discovered of who had done the deed. No proof was there beyond +the dagger itself, which was of Oriental fashion, and bore the +inscription in Latin _Hoc propter verba tua_; naught beyond that and +another circumstance, which went to show that the knight had been slain +by an eastern enemy. The dog, as he re-entered the castle, called +attention to some pieces of blood-stained rag, which, from their +appearance, had dropped from his mouth; one of these, the innermost, was +in texture and pattern evidently part of a Syrian garment. + +The Lady Alianore did not die under this dreadful calamity: she lived to +mourn. The knight was interred within the precinct of the Abbey Church of +Gloucester; his tomb and effigy were in a niche at an angle of the +cloisters. Here would Alianore continually come, accompanied by Leo, who, +since his master's death, never left her side; here would she stop, +fixedly gazing upon the monument, the tear in her eye, and the chill of +hopeless sorrow in her heart. There are, indeed, few of us, who, +wandering through the interior of some noble ecclesiastical edifice, can +suppress a feeling of melancholy, when we view the sepulchre of a knight +of repute, who has died in his prime, in the midst of his achievements +and his fame, and who, clad in the harness of his pride, lies +outstretched in the marble before us. Courage and courtesy, chivalry and +Christianity, are buried there--there the breast, replete with honor, the +heart to feel, and the right arm to defend. The monument tells of the +sudden extinguishment of some bright light that shone in a semi-barbarous +age, which had its main civilization and refinement from knights and +churchmen solely. If this sight would sadden a stranger soul, what must +have been the deep grief of the lady as she contemplated the cold +memorial of Sir Ralph, and felt that the consummation of her whole +earthly comfort was there entombed! A secret sentiment that satisfied, or +rather softened her mental agony, brought her again and again to the +place--ay, again and again to gaze upon the grave, and then to retire +into the church to long and ardent prayer. + +About two years after the knight had been dead, the Lady Alianore was one +morning departing through the cloisters from a visit to the tomb, when +her attention was suddenly arrested by a low growl from the dog who +accompanied her. She turned back, and saw two persons in the garb of +foreign merchants or traders, the one pointing out to the other the +knight's monumental effigy. Scarcely had she made the observation, when +Leo rushed from her side, and flew at the throat of him who was +exhibiting the grave; in an instant he brought him to the ground; the +other endeavored to escape, but some sacristans who heard the noise, +hastened to the spot, and the men were arrested. + +On examination, the two pretended merchants were found to wear eastern +habilaments beneath their long gowns, and the cloth of the turban was +concealed under the broad brimmed hat of each. They both had daggers, and +upon the arm of the one the dog had seized, there was the deep scar of +what seemed to be a desperate bite. Further proof became needless, for +when every chance of escape was gone, they made a full confession, and +appeared to glory in it. They were emissaries from the Old Man of the +Mountain. The one on a previous occasion had journeyed from the far east +to do his fearful master's bidding, and had stabbed the knight in the +back, on the evening he rode in his gladness from the abode of his +affianced bride. The fanatic himself narrowly escaped destruction at the +time; for the dog had fixed his teeth into his arm, and it was only by +allowing the flesh to be torn out, (his dagger was in his victim,) that +he contrived to reach a swift Arabian horse, which bore him from the +scene. He had since returned to Phoenicia, and had once more come to +England, bringing with him a comrade to remove a doubt expressed by his +master, and to testify to the monarch of the Mountain how effectively his +object had been accomplished. + +The Baron de Botetourt, with the assent of the crown, caused the two +miscreants to be hanged upon a gibbet on the summit of his castle, their +turbans tied to their heels. Leo, as if he had nothing more to live for, +soon after pined and died. The Lady Alianore, retired into a convent, and +eventually became its abbess. During the course of her monastic life, she +preserved in silence her undying regret for the knight, and the +recollection of her happiness, so miserably thwarted. She was always kind +and gentle, yet always also dignified and reserved. On her death-bed, she +requested that her remains might be interred in the Abbey of Gloucester, +nigh unto the tomb of Sir Ralph de Sudley, and that her monumental tablet +should contain no more than her name and state, and an inscription +pointing out the extreme vanity of all human felicity. Such a memorial, +it is said, was, until entirely effaced by time, to be seen, read, and +thought upon, within the cloisters of Gloucester's time-honored and +sanctified cathedral. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Experiences of a Barrister, and +Confessions of an Attorney, by Samuel Warren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER *** + +***** This file should be named 12371-8.txt or 12371-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/3/7/12371/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/12371-8.zip b/old/12371-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b69302b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12371-8.zip diff --git a/old/12371.txt b/old/12371.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b87ea7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12371.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11651 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Experiences of a Barrister, and +Confessions of an Attorney, by Samuel Warren + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney + +Author: Samuel Warren + +Release Date: May 18, 2004 [EBook #12371] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + THE EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER, + + AND + + Confessions of an Attorney. + + BY SAMUEL WARREN + + 1880 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +THE MARCH ASSIZE + +THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT + +THE CONTESTED MARRIAGE + +THE MOTHER AND SON + +"THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS" + +ESTHER MASON + +THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT + +THE SECOND MARRIAGE + +CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE + +"THE ACCOMMODATION BILL" + +THE REFUGEE + +THE LIFE POLICY + +BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY + +JANE ECCLES + +"EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER" + +THE CHEST OF DRAWERS + +THE PUZZLE + +THE ONE BLACK SPOT + +THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR + +A FASHIONABLE FORGER + +THE YOUNG ADVOCATE + +A MURDER IN THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES + + + + +CONFESSIONS OF AN ATTORNEY. + + + + +THE MARCH ASSIZE. + + +Something more than half a century ago, a person, in going along Holborn, +might have seen, near the corner of one of the thoroughfares which +diverge towards Russell Square, the respectable-looking shop of a glover +and haberdasher named James Harvey, a man generally esteemed by his +neighbors, and who was usually considered well to do in the world. Like +many London tradesmen, Harvey was originally from the country. He had +come up to town when a poor lad, to push his fortune, and by dint of +steadiness and civility, and a small property left him by a distant +relation, he had been able to get into business on his own account, and +to attain that most important element of success in London--"a +connection." Shortly after setting up in the world, he married a young +woman from his native town, to whom he had been engaged ever since his +school-days; and at the time our narrative commences he was the father of +three children. + +James Harvey's establishment was one of the best frequented of its class +in the street. You could never pass without seeing customers going in or +out. There was evidently not a little business going forward. But +although, to all appearance, a flourishing concern, the proprietor of the +establishment was surprised to find that he was continually pinched in +his circumstances. No matter what was the amount of business transacted +over the counter, he never got any richer. + +At the period referred to, shop-keeping had not attained that degree +of organization, with respect to counter-men and cashiers, which now +distinguishes the great houses of trade. The primitive till was not +yet superseded. This was the weak point in Harvey's arrangements; and +not to make a needless number of words about it, the poor man was +regularly robbed by a shopman, whose dexterity in pitching a guinea +into the drawer, so as to make it jump, unseen, with a jerk into his +hand, was worthy of Herr Dobler, or any other master of the sublime +art of jugglery. + +Good-natured and unsuspicious, perhaps also not sufficiently vigilant, +Harvey was long in discovering how he was pillaged. Cartwright, the name +of the person who was preying on his employer, was not a young man. He +was between forty and fifty years of age, and had been in various +situations, where he had always given satisfaction, except on the score +of being somewhat gay and somewhat irritable. Privately, he was a man of +loose habits, and for years his extravagances had been paid for by +property clandestinely abstracted from his too-confiding master. Slow to +believe in the reality of such wickedness, Mr. Harvey could with +difficulty entertain the suspicions which began to dawn on his mind. At +length all doubt was at an end. He detected Cartwright in the very act of +carrying off goods to a considerable amount. The man was tried at the Old +Bailey for the offence; but through a technical informality in the +indictment, acquitted. + +Unable to find employment, and with a character gone, the liberated thief +became savage, revengeful, and desperate. Instead of imputing his fall to +his own irregularities, he considered his late unfortunate employer as +the cause of his ruin; and now he bent all the energies of his dark +nature to destroy the reputation of the man whom he had betrayed and +plundered. Of all the beings self-delivered to the rule of unscrupulous +malignity, with whom it has been my fate to come professionally in +contact, I never knew one so utterly fiendish as this discomfited +pilferer. Frenzied with his imaginary wrongs, he formed the determination +to labor, even if it were for years, to ruin his victim. Nothing short of +death should divert him from this the darling object of his existence. + +Animated by these diabolical passions, Cartwright proceeded to his work. +Harvey, he had too good reason to know, was in debt to persons who had +made him advances; and by means of artfully-concocted anonymous letters, +evidently written by some one conversant with the matters on which he +wrote, he succeeded in alarming the haberdasher's creditors. The +consequences were--demands of immediate payment, and, in spite of the +debtor's explanations and promises, writs, heavy law expenses, ruinous +sacrifices, and ultimate bankruptcy. It may seem almost too marvelous for +belief, but the story of this terrible revenge and its consequences is no +fiction. Every incident in my narrative is true, and the whole may be +found in hard outline in the records of the courts with which a few years +ago I was familiar. + +The humiliated and distressed feelings of Harvey and his family may be +left to the imagination. When he found himself a ruined man, I dare say +his mental sufferings were sufficiently acute. Yet he did not sit down in +despair. To re-establish himself in business in England appeared +hopeless; but America presented itself as a scene where industry might +find a reward; and by the kindness of some friends, he was enabled to +make preparations to emigrate with his wife and children. Towards the +end of February he quitted London for one of the great seaports, where he +was to embark for Boston. On arriving there with his family, Mr. Harvey +took up his abode at a principal hotel. This, in a man of straitened +means, was doubtless imprudent; but he afterwards attempted to explain +the circumstance by saying, that as the ship in which he had engaged his +passage was to sail on the day after his arrival, he had preferred +incurring a slight additional expense rather than that his wife--who was +now, with failing spirits, nursing an infant--should be exposed to coarse +associations and personal discomfort. In the expectation, however, of +being only one night in the hotel, Harvey was unfortunately disappointed. +Ship-masters, especially those commanding emigrant vessels, were then, as +now, habitual promise-breakers; and although each succeeding sun was to +light them on their way, it was fully a fortnight before the ship stood +out to sea. By that time a second and more dire reverse had occurred in +the fortunes of the luckless Harvey. + +Cartwright, whose appetite for vengeance was but whetted by his first +success, had never lost sight of the movements of his victim; and now he +had followed him to the place of his embarkation, with an eager but +undefined purpose of working him some further and more deadly mischief. +Stealthily he hovered about the house which sheltered the unconscious +object of his malicious hate, plotting, as he afterwards confessed, the +wildest schemes for satiating his revenge. Several times he made excuses +for calling at the hotel, in the hope of observing the nature of the +premises, taking care, however, to avoid being seen by Mr. Harvey or his +family. A fortnight passed away, and the day of departure of the +emigrants arrived without the slightest opportunity occurring for the +gratification of his purposes. The ship was leaving her berth; most of +the passengers were on board; Mrs. Harvey and the children, with nearly +the whole of the luggage, were already safely in the vessel; Mr. Harvey +only remained on shore to purchase some trifling article, and to settle +his bill at the hotel on removing his last trunk. Cartwright had tracked +him all day; he could not attack him in the street; and he finally +followed him to the hotel, in order to wreak his vengeance on him in his +private apartment, of the situation of which he had informed himself. + +Harvey entered the hotel first, and before Cartwright came up, he had +gone down a passage into the bar to settle the bill which he had incurred +for the last two days. Not aware of this circumstance, Cartwright, in the +bustle which prevailed, went up stairs to Mr. Harvey's bedroom and +parlor, in neither of which, to his surprise, did he find the occupant; +and he turned away discomfited. Passing along towards the chief +staircase, he perceived a room of which the door was open, and that on +the table there lay a gold watch and appendages. Nobody was in the +apartment: the gentleman who occupied it had only a few moments before +gone to his bed-chamber for a brief space. Quick as lightning a +diabolical thought flashed through the brain of the villain, who had been +baffled in his original intentions. He recollected that he had seen a +trunk in Harvey's room, and that the keys hung in the lock. An +inconceivably short space of time served for him to seize the watch, to +deposit it at the bottom of Harvey's trunk, and to quit the hotel by a +back stair, which led by a short cut to the harbor. The whole transaction +was done unperceived, and the wretch at least departed unnoticed. + +Having finished his business at the bar, Mr. Harvey repaired to his room, +locked his trunk, which, being of a small and handy size, he mounted on +his shoulder, and proceeded to leave the house by the back stair, in +order to get as quickly as possible to the vessel. Little recked he of +the interruption which was to be presented to his departure. He had got +as far as the foot of the stair with his burden, when he was overtaken by +a waiter, who declared that he was going to leave the house clandestinely +without settling accounts. It is proper to mention that Mr. Harvey had +incurred the enmity of this particular waiter in consequence of having, +out of his slender resources, given him too small a gratuity on the +occasion of paying a former bill, and not aware of the second bill being +settled, the waiter was rather glad to have an opportunity of charging +him with a fraudulent design. In vain Mr. Harvey remonstrated, saying he +had paid for every thing. The waiter would not believe his statement, and +detained him "till he should hear better about it." + +"Let me go, fellow; I insist upon it," said Mr. Harvey, burning with +indignation. "I am already too late." + +"Not a step, till I ask master if accounts are squared." + +At this moment, while the altercation was at the hottest, a terrible +ringing of bells was heard, and above stairs was a loud noise of voices, +and of feet running to and fro. A chambermaid came hurriedly down the +stair, exclaiming that some one had stolen a gold watch from No. 17, and +that nobody ought to leave the house till it was found. The landlord +also, moved by the hurricane which had been raised, made his appearance +at the spot where Harvey was interrupted in his exit. + +"What on earth is all this noise about, John?" inquired the landlord of +the waiter. + +"Why, sir, I thought it rather strange for any gentleman to leave the +house by the back way, carrying his own portmanteau, and so I was making +a little breeze about it, fearing he had not paid his bill, when all of +a sudden Sally rushes down the stair and says as how No. 17 has missed +his gold watch, and that no one should quit the hotel." + +No. 17, an old, dry-looking military gentlemen, in a particularly high +passion, now showed himself on the scene, uttering terrible threats of +legal proceedings against the house for the loss he had sustained. + +Harvey was stupified and indignant, yet he could hardly help smiling at +the pother. "What," said he, "have I to do with all this? I have paid for +everything; I am surely entitled to go away if I like. Remember, that if +I lose my passage to Boston, you shall answer for it." + +"I very much regret detaining you, sir," replied the keeper of the hotel; +"but you hear there has been a robbery committed within the last few +minutes, and as it will be proper to search every one in the house, +surely you, who are on the point of departure, will have no objections to +be searched first, and then be at liberty to go?" + +There was something so perfectly reasonable in all this, that +Harvey stepped into an adjoining parlor, and threw open his trunk +for inspection, never doubting that his innocence would be +immediately manifest. + +The waiter, whose mean rapacity had been the cause of the detention, +acted as examiner. He pulled one article after another out of the trunk, +and at length--horror of horrors!--held up the missing watch with a look +of triumph and scorn! + +"Who put that there?" cried Harvey in an agony of mind which can be +better imagined than described. "Who has done me this grievous wrong? I +know nothing as to how the watch came into my trunk." + +No one answered this appeal. All present stood for a moment in +gloomy silence. + +"Sir," said the landlord to Harvey on recovering from his surprise, "I am +sorry for you. For the sake of a miserable trifle, you have brought ruin +and disgrace on yourself. This is a matter which concerns the honor of my +house, and cannot stop here. However much it is against my feelings, you +must go before a magistrate." + +"By all means," added No. 17, with the importance of an injured man. "A +pretty thing that one's watch is not safe in a house like this!" + +"John, send Boots for a constable," said the landlord. + +Harvey sat with his head leaning on his hand. A deadly cold +perspiration trickled down his brow. His heart swelled and beat as if +it would burst. What should he do? His whole prospects were in an +instant blighted. "Oh God! do not desert a frail and unhappy being: +give me strength to face this new and terrible misfortune," was a +prayer he internally uttered. A little revived, he started to his feet, +and addressing himself to the landlord, he said, "Take me to a +magistrate instantly, and let us have this diabolical plot unraveled. I +court inquiry into my character and conduct." + +"It is no use saying any more about it," answered the landlord; "here is +Boots with a constable, and let us all go away together to the nearest +magistrate. Boots, carry that trunk. John and Sally, you can follow us." + +And so the party, trunk and all, under the constable as conductor, +adjourned to the house of a magistrate in an adjacent street. +There the matter seemed so clear a case of felony--robbery in a +dwelling-house--that Harvey, all protestations to the contrary, was +fully committed for trial at the ensuing March assizes, then but a few +days distant. + +At the period at which these incidents occurred, I was a young man going +on my first circuits. I had not as yet been honored with perhaps more +than three or four briefs, and these only in cases so slightly productive +of fees, that I was compelled to study economy in my excursions. Instead +of taking up my residence at an inn when visiting ------, a considerable +seaport, where the court held its sittings, I dwelt in lodgings kept by a +widow lady, where, at a small expense, I could enjoy perfect quietness, +free from interruption. + +On the evening after my arrival on the March circuit of the year 17--, I +was sitting in my lodgings perusing a new work on criminal jurisprudence, +when the landlady, after tapping at the door, entered my room. + +"I am sorry to trouble you, sir," said she; "but a lady has called to +see you about a very distressing law case--very distressing indeed, +and a very strange case it is too. Only, if you could be so good as +to see her?" + +"Who is she?" + +"All I know about it is this: she is a Mrs. Harvey. She and her husband +and children were to sail yesterday for Boston. All were on board except +the husband; and he, on leaving the large hotel over the way, was taken +up for a robbery. Word was in the evening sent by the prisoner to his +wife to come on shore, with all her children and the luggage; and so she +came back in the pilot boat, and was in such a state of distress, that my +brother, who is on the preventive service, and saw her land, took pity on +her, and had her and her children and things taken to a lodging on the +quay. As my brother knows that we have a London lawyer staying here, he +has advised the poor woman to come and consult you about the case." + +"Well, I'll see what can be done. Please desire the lady to step in." + +A lady was shortly shown in. She had been pretty, and was so still, but +anxiety was pictured in her pale countenance. Her dress was plain, but +not inelegant; and altogether she had a neat and engaging appearance. + +"Be so good as to sit down," said I, bowing; "and tell me all you would +like to say." + +The poor woman burst into tears; but afterwards recovering herself, she +told me pretty nearly the whole of her history and that of her husband. + +Lawyers have occasion to see so much duplicity, that I did not all at +once give assent to the idea of Harvey being innocent of the crime of +which he stood charged. + +"There is something perfectly inexplicable in the case," I observed, "and +it would require sifting. Your husband, I hope has always borne a good +character?" + +"Perfectly so. He was no doubt unfortunate in business; but he got his +certificate on the first examination; and there are many who would +testify to his uprightness." And here again my client broke into tears, +as if overwhelmed with her recollections and prospects. + +"I think I recollect Mr. Harvey's shop," said I soothingly. "It seemed a +very respectable concern; and we must see what can be done. Keep up your +spirits; the only fear I have arises from the fact of Judge A ---- being +on the bench. He is usually considered severe, and if exculpatory +evidence fail, your husband may run the risk of being--transported." A +word of more terrific import, with which I was about to conclude, stuck +unuttered in my throat "Have you employed an attorney?" I added. + +"No; I have done nothing as yet, but apply to you, to beg of you to be my +husband's counsel." + +"Well, that must be looked to. I shall speak to a local agent, to prepare +and work out the case; and we shall all do our utmost to get an +acquittal. To-morrow I will call on your husband in prison." + +Many thanks were offered by the unfortunate lady, and she withdrew. + +I am not going to inflict on the reader a detailed account of this +remarkable trial, which turned, as barristers would say, on a beautiful +point of circumstantial evidence. Along with the attorney, a sharp enough +person in his way, I examined various parties at the hotel, and made +myself acquainted with the nature of the premises. The more we +investigated, however, the more dark and mysterious--always supposing +Harvey's innocence--did the whole case appear. There was not one +redeeming trait in the affair, except Harvey's previous good character; +and good character, by the law of England, goes for nothing in opposition +to facts proved to the satisfaction of a jury. It was likewise most +unfortunate that A ---- was to be the presiding judge. This man possessed +great forensic acquirements, and was of spotless private character; but, +like the majority of lawyers of that day--when it was no extraordinary +thing to hang twenty men in a morning at Newgate--he was a staunch +stickler for the gallows as the only effectual reformer and safeguard of +the social state. At this time he was but partially recovered from a long +and severe indisposition, and the traces of recent suffering were +distinctly apparent on his pale and passionless features. + +Harvey was arraigned in due form; the evidence was gone carefully +through; and everything, so far as I was concerned, was done that man +could do. But at the time to which I refer, counsel was not allowed to +address the court on behalf of the prisoner--a practice since introduced +from Scotland--and consequently I was allowed no opportunity to draw the +attention of the jury to the total want of any direct evidence of the +prisoner's guilt. Harvey himself tried to point out the unlikelihood of +his being guilty; but he was not a man gifted with dialectic qualities, +and his harangue fell pointless on the understandings of the twelve +common-place individuals who sat in the jury-box. The judge finally +proceeded to sum the evidence, and this he did emphatically _against_ the +prisoner--dwelling with much force on the suspicious circumstance of a +needy man taking up his abode at an expensive fashionable hotel; his +furtive descent from his apartments by the back stairs; the undoubted +fact of the watch being found in his trunk; the improbability of any one +putting it there but himself; and the extreme likelihood that the robbery +was effected in a few moments of time by the culprit, just as he passed +from the bar of the hotel to the room which he had occupied. "If," said +he to the jury, in concluding his address, "you can, after all these +circumstances, believe the prisoner to be innocent of the crime laid to +his charge, it is more than I can do. The thing seems to me as clear as +the sun at noonday. The evidence, in short, is irresistible; and if the +just and necessary provisions of the law are not enforced in such very +plain cases, then society will be dissolved, and security for property +there will be none. Gentlemen, retire and make up your verdict." + +The jury were not disposed to retire. After communing a few minutes +together, one of them stood up and delivered the verdict: it was +_Guilty!_ The judge assumed the crowning badge of the judicial +potentate--the black cap; and the clerk of arraigns asked the prisoner at +the bar, in the usual form, if he had anything to urge why sentence of +death should not be passed upon him. + +Poor Harvey! I durst scarcely look at him. As the sonorous words fell on +his ear, he was grasping nervously with shaking hands at the front of the +dock. He appeared stunned, bewildered, as a man but half-awakened from a +hideous dream might be supposed to look. He had comprehended, though he +had scarcely heard, the verdict; for on the instant, the voice which but +a few years before sang to him by the brook side, was ringing through his +brain, and he could recognize the little pattering feet of his children, +as, sobbing and clinging to their shrieking mother's dress, she and they +were hurried out of court The clerk, after a painful pause, repeated the +solemn formula. By a strong effort the doomed man mastered his agitation; +his pale countenance lighted up with indignant fire, and firm and +self-possessed, he thus replied to the fearful interrogatory:-- + +"Much could I say in the name, not of mercy, but of justice, why the +sentence about to be passed on me should not be pronounced; but nothing, +alas! that will avail me with you, pride-blinded ministers of death. You +fashion to yourselves--out of your own vain conceits do you +fashion--modes and instruments, by the aid of which you fondly imagine to +invest yourselves with attributes which belong only to Omniscience; and +now I warn you--and it is a voice from the tomb, in whose shadow I +already stand, which addresses you--that you are about to commit a most +cruel and deliberate murder." + +He paused, and the jury looked into each other's eyes for the courage +they could not find in their own hearts. The voice of conscience spoke, +but was only for a few moments audible. The suggestions that what grave +parliaments, learned judges, and all classes of "respectability" +sanctioned, could not be wrong, much less murderous or cruel, silenced +the "still, small" tones, and tranquilized the startled jurors. + +"Prisoner at the bar," said the judge with his cold, calm voice of +destiny, "I cannot listen to such observations: you have been found +guilty of a heinous offence by a jury of your countrymen after a patient +trial. With that finding I need scarcely say I entirely agree. I am as +satisfied of your guilt as if I had seen you commit the act with my own +bodily eyes. The circumstance of your being a person who, from habits and +education, should have been above committing so base a crime, only +aggravates your guilt. However, no matter who or what you have been, you +must expiate your offence on the scaffold. The law has very properly, for +the safety of society, decreed the punishment of death for such crimes: +our only and plain duty is to execute that law." + +The prisoner did not reply: he was leaning with his elbows on the front +of the dock, his bowed face covered with his outspread hands; and the +judge passed sentence of death in the accustomed form. The court then +rose, and a turnkey placed his hand upon the prisoner's arm, to lead him +away. Suddenly he uncovered his face, drew himself up to his full +height--he was a remarkably tall man--and glared fiercely round upon the +audience, like a wild animal at bay. "My lord," he cried, or rather +shouted, in an excited voice. The judge motioned impatiently to the +jailor, and strong hands impelled the prisoner from the front of the +dock. Bursting from them, he again sprang forward, and his arms +outstretched, whilst his glittering eye seemed to hold the judge +spell-bound, exclaimed, "My lord, before another month has passed away, +_you_ will appear at the bar of another world, to answer for the life, +the innocent life, which God bestowed upon me, but which you have +impiously cast away as a thing of naught and scorn!" He ceased, and was +at once borne off. The court, in some confusion, hastily departed. It was +thought at the time that the judge's evidently failing health had +suggested the prophecy to the prisoner. It only excited a few days' +wonder, and was forgotten. + +The position of a barrister in such circumstances is always painful. I +need hardly say that my own feelings were of a very distressing kind. +Conscious that if the unfortunate man really was guilty, he was at least +not deserving of capital punishment, I exerted myself to procure a +reprieve. In the first place I waited privately on the judge; but he +would listen to no proposal for a respite. Along with a number of +individuals--chiefly of the Society of Friends--I petitioned the crown +for a commutation of the sentence. But being unaccompanied with a +recommendation from the judge, the prayer of our petition was of course +disregarded: the law, it was said, must take its course. How much cruelty +has been exercised under shelter of that remorseless expression! + +I would willingly pass over the succeeding events. Unable to save his +life, I endeavored to soothe the few remaining hours of the doomed +convict, and frequently visited him in the condemned cell. The more I saw +of him, the deeper grew my sympathy in his case, which was that of no +vulgar felon. "I have been a most unfortunate man," said he one day to +me. "A destiny towards ruin in fortune and in life has pursued me. I feel +as if deserted by God and man; yet I know, or at least would persuade +myself, that Heaven will one day vindicate my innocence of this foul +charge. To think of being hanged like a dog for a crime at which my soul +revolts! Great is the crime of those imbecile jurors and that false and +hard-hearted judge, who thus, by an irreversible decree, consign a +fellow-mortal to a death of violence and disgrace. Oh God, help me--help +me to sustain that bitter, bitter hour!" And then the poor man would +throw himself on his bed and weep. + +But the parting with his wife and children. What pen can describe that +terrible interview! They knelt in prayer, their wobegone countenances +suffused in tears, and with hands clasped convulsively together. The +scene was too harrowing and sacred for the eye of a stranger. I rushed +from the cell, and buried myself in my lodgings, whence I did not remove +till all was over. Next day James Harvey, a victim of circumstantial +evidence, and of a barbarous criminal code, perished on the scaffold. + +Three weeks afterwards, the court arrived at a populous city in the west +of England. It had in the interval visited another assize town, and there +Judge A ---- had left three for execution. At the trials of these men, +however, I had not attended. So shocked had been my feelings with the +mournful event which had taken place at ------, that I had gone into +Wales for the sake of change of scene. After roaming about for a +fortnight amidst the wild solitudes of Caernarvonshire, I took the stage +for the city which I knew the court was to visit, and arrived on the day +previous to the opening of the assizes. + +"Well, are we to have a heavy calendar?" I inquired next morning of a +brother barrister on entering the court. + +"Rather light for a March assize," replied the impatient counsel as +he bustled onward. "There's Cartwright's case--highway robbery--in +which I am for the prosecution. He'll swing for it, and perhaps four +or five others." + +"A good hanging judge is A ----," said the under-sheriff, who at +this moment joined us, rubbing his hands, as if pleased with the +prospect of a few executions. "No chance of the prophecy yonder coming +to pass I suppose?" + +"Not in the least," replied the bustling counsel. "He never looked +better. His illness has gone completely off. And this day's work will +brighten him up." + +Cartwright's trial came on. I had never seen the man before, and was not +aware that this was the same person whom Harvey had incidentally told me +he had discharged for theft; the truth being, that till the last moment +of his existence, that unfortunate man had not known how much he had been +a sacrifice to this wretch's malice. + +The crime of which the villain now stood accused was that of robbing a +farmer of the paltry sum of eight shillings, in the neighborhood of +Ilfracombe. He pleaded not guilty, but put in no defence. A verdict was +recorded against him, and in due form A ---- sentenced him to be hanged. +An expression of fiendish malignancy gleamed over the haggard features of +the felon as he asked leave to address a few words to the court. It was +granted. Leaning forward, and raising his heavy, scowling eyes to the +judge, he thus began:--"There is something on my mind, my lord--a +dreadful crime--which, as I am to die for the eight shillings I took from +the farmer, I may as well confess. You may remember Harvey, my lord, whom +you hanged the other day at--?" + +"What of him, fellow?" replied the judge, his features suddenly +flushing crimson. + +"Why, my lord, only this--that he was as innocent of the crime for which +you hanged him as the child yet unborn! I did the deed! I put the watch +in his trunk!" And to the unutterable horror of the entire court he +related the whole particulars of the transaction, the origin of his +grudge against Harvey, and his delight on bringing him to the gallows. + +"Inhuman, execrable villain!" gasped the judge in extreme excitement. + +"Cleverly done, though! Was it not, my lord?" rejoined the ruffian with +bitter irony. "The evidence, you know, was irresistible; the crime as +clear as the sun at noonday; and if in such plain cases, the just and +necessary law was not enforced, society would be dissolved, and there +would be no security for property! These were your words, I think. How on +that occasion I admired your lordship's judgment and eloquence! Society +would be dissolved if an innocent man were not hanged! Ha!--ha!--ha! +Capital!--capital!" shouted the ferocious felon with demoniac glee, as he +marked the effect of his words on the countenance of the judge. + +"Remove the prisoner!" cried the sheriff. An officer was about to do so; +but the judge motioned him to desist. His lordship's features worked +convulsively. He seemed striving to speak, but the words would not come. + +"I suppose, my lord," continued Cartwright in low and hissing tones, as +the shadow of unutterable despair grew and settled on his face--"I +suppose you know that his wife destroyed herself. The coroner's jury said +she had fallen accidentally into the water, _I_ know better. She drowned +herself under the agonies of a broken heart! I saw her corpse, with the +dead baby in its arms; and then I felt, knew, that I was lost! Lost, +doomed to everlasting perdition! But, my lord,"--and here the wretch +broke into a howl wild and terrific--"_we_ shall go down together--down +to where your deserts are known. A--h--h! that pinches you, does it? +Hound of a judge! legal murderer! coward! I spurn and spit upon thee!" +The rest of the appalling objurgation was inarticulate, as the monster, +foaming and sputtering, was dragged by an officer from the dock. + +Judge A ---- had fallen forwards on his face, fainting and speechless +with the violence of his emotions. The black cap had dropped from his +brow. His hands were stretched out across the bench, and various members +of the bar rushed to his assistance. The court broke up in frightful +commotion. + +Two days afterwards the county paper had the following announcement:-- + +"Died at the Royal Hotel, ------, on the 27th instant, Judge A ----, from +an access of fever supervening upon a disorder from which he had +imperfectly recovered." + +The prophecy was fulfilled! + + + + +THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT. + + +About the commencement of the present century there stood, near the +centre of a rather extensive hamlet, not many miles distant from a +northern seaport town, a large, substantially-built, but somewhat +straggling building, known as Craig Farm (popularly _Crook_ Farm) House. +The farm consisted of about one hundred acres of tolerable arable and +meadow land; and at the time I have indicated, belonged to a farmer of +the name of Armstrong. He had purchased it about three years previously, +at a sale held, in pursuance of a decree of the High Court of Chancery, +for the purpose of liquidating certain costs incurred in the suit of +Craig _versus_ Craig, which the said high court had nursed so long and +successfully, as to enable the solicitor to the victorious claimant to +incarcerate his triumphant client for several years in the Fleet, in +"satisfaction" of the charges of victory remaining due after the proceeds +of the sale of Craig Farm had been deducted from the gross total. Farmer +Armstrong was married, but childless; his dame, like himself, was a +native of Devonshire. They bore the character of a plodding, taciturn, +morose-mannered couple: seldom leaving the farm except to attend market, +and rarely seen at church or chapel, they naturally enough became objects +of suspicion and dislike to the prying, gossiping villagers, to whom +mystery or reserve of any kind was of course exceedingly annoying and +unpleasant. + +Soon after Armstrong was settled in his new purchase another stranger +arrived, and took up his abode in the best apartments of the house. The +new-comer, a man of about fifty years of age, and evidently, from his +dress and gait, a sea-faring person, was as reserved and unsocial as his +landlord. His name, or at least that which he chose to be known by, was +Wilson. He had one child, a daughter, about thirteen years of age, whom +he placed at a boarding-school in the adjacent town. He seldom saw her; +the intercourse between the father and daughter being principally carried +on through Mary Strugnell, a widow of about thirty years of age, and a +native of the place. She was engaged as a servant to Mr. Wilson, and +seldom left Craig Farm except on Sunday afternoons, when, if the weather +was at all favorable, she paid a visit to an aunt living in the town; +there saw Miss Wilson; and returned home usually at half-past ten +o'clock--later rather than earlier. Armstrong was occasionally absent +from his home for several days together, on business, it was rumored, for +Wilson; and on the Sunday in the first week of January 1802, both he and +his wife had been away for upwards of a week, and were not yet returned. + +About a quarter-past ten o'clock on that evening the early-retiring +inhabitants of the hamlet were roused from their slumbers by a loud, +continuous knocking at the front door of Armstrong's house: louder and +louder, more and more vehement and impatient, resounded the blows upon +the stillness of the night, till the soundest sleepers were awakened. +Windows were hastily thrown open, and presently numerous footsteps +approached the scene of growing hubbub. The unwonted noise was caused, +it was found, by Farmer Armstrong, who accompanied by his wife, was +thundering vehemently upon the door with a heavy black-thorn stick. +Still no answer was obtained. Mrs. Strugnell, it was supposed, had not +returned from town; but where was Mr. Wilson, who was almost always at +home both day and night? Presently a lad called out that a white sheet +or cloth of some sort was hanging out of one of the back windows. This +announcement, confirming the vague apprehensions which had begun to +germinate in the wise heads of the villagers, disposed them to adopt a +more effectual mode of obtaining admission than knocking seemed likely +to prove. Johnson, the constable of the parish, a man of great +shrewdness, at once proposed to break in the door. Armstrong, who, as +well as his wife, was deadly pale, and trembling violently, either with +cold or agitation, hesitatingly consented, and crowbars being speedily +procured, an entrance was forced, and in rushed a score of excited men. +Armstrong's wife, it was afterwards remembered, caught hold of her +husband's arm in a hurried, frightened manner, whispered hastily in his +ear, and then both followed into the house. + +"Now, farmer," cried Johnson, as soon as he had procured a light, "lead +the way up stairs." + +Armstrong, who appeared to have somewhat recovered from his panic, darted +at once up the staircase, followed by the whole body of rustics. On +reaching the landing-place, he knocked at Mr. Wilson's bedroom door. No +answer was returned. Armstrong seemed to hesitate, but the constable at +once lifted the latch; they entered, and then a melancholy spectacle +presented itself. + +Wilson, completely dressed, lay extended on the floor a lifeless corpse. +He had been stabbed in two places in the breast with some sharp-pointed +instrument. Life was quite extinct. The window was open. On farther +inspection, several bundles containing many of Wilson's valuables in +jewelry and plate, together with clothes, shirts, silk handkerchiefs, +were found. The wardrobe and a secretary-bureau had been forced open. +The assassins had, it seemed, been disturbed, and had hurried off by the +window without their plunder. A hat was also picked up in the room, a +shiny, black hat, much too small for the deceased. The constable snatched +it up, and attempted to clap it on Armstrong's head, but it was not +nearly large enough. This, together with the bundles, dissipated a +suspicion which had been growing in Johnson's mind, and he roughly +exclaimed, "You need not look so scared, farmer; it's not you: that's +quite clear." + +To this remark neither Armstrong nor his wife answered a syllable, but +continued to gaze at the corpse, the bundles, and the broken locks, in +bewildered terror and astonishment. Presently some one asked if any body +had seen Mrs. Strugnell? + +The question roused Armstrong, and he said, "She is not come home: her +door is locked." + +"How do you know that?" cried the constable, turning sharply round, and +looking keenly in his face. "How do you know that?" + +"Because--because," stammered Armstrong, "because she always locks it +when she goes out." + +"Which is her room?" + +"The next to this." + +They hastened out, and found the next door was fast. + +"Are you there, Mrs. Strugnell?" shouted Johnson. + +There was no reply. + +"She is never home till half-past ten o'clock on Sunday evenings," +remarked Armstrong in a calmer voice. + +"The key is in the lock on the inside," cried a young man who had been +striving to peep through the key-hole. + +Armstrong, it was afterwards sworn, started as if he had been shot; +and his wife again clutched his arm with the same nervous, frenzied +gripe as before. + +"Mrs. Strugnell, are you there?" once more shouted the constable. He was +answered by a low moan. In an instant the frail door was burst in, and +Mrs. Strugnell was soon pulled out, apparently more dead than alive, from +underneath the bedstead, where she, in speechless consternation, lay +partially concealed. Placing her in a chair, they soon succeeded--much +more easily, indeed, than they anticipated--in restoring her to +consciousness. + +Nervously she glanced round the circle of eager faces that environed her, +till her eyes fell upon Armstrong and his wife, when she gave a loud +shriek, and muttering, "They, _they_ are the murderers!" swooned, or +appeared to do so, again instantly. + +The accused persons, in spite of their frenzied protestations of +innocence, were instantly seized and taken off to a place of security; +Mrs. Strugnell was conveyed to a neighbor's close by; the house was +carefully secured; and the agitated and wondering villagers departed to +their several homes, but not, I fancy, to sleep any more for that night. + +The deposition made by Mrs. Strugnell at the inquest on the body was in +substance as follows:-- + +"On the afternoon in question she had, in accordance with her usual +custom, proceeded to town. She called on her aunt, took tea with her, and +afterwards went to the Independent Chapel. After service, she called to +see Miss Wilson, but was informed that, in consequence of a severe cold, +the young lady was gone to bed. She then immediately proceeded homewards, +and consequently arrived at Craig Farm more than an hour before her usual +time. She let herself in with her latch key, and proceeded to her +bedroom. There was no light in Mr. Wilson's chamber, but she could hear +him moving about in it. She was just about to go down stairs, having put +away her Sunday bonnet and shawl, when she heard a noise, as of persons +entering by the back way, and walking gently across the kitchen floor. +Alarmed as to who it could be, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong not being expected +home for several days, she gently closed her door, and locked it. A few +minutes after, she heard stealthy steps ascending the creaking stairs, +and presently her door was tried, and a voice in a low hurried whisper +said, "Mary, are you there?" She was positive it was Mr. Armstrong's +voice, but was too terrified to answer. Then Mrs. Armstrong--she was sure +it was she--said also in a whisper, and as if addressing her husband, +"She is never back at this hour." A minute or so after there was a tap at +Mr. Wilson's door. She could not catch what answer was made; but by +Armstrong's reply, she gathered that Mr. Wilson had lain down, and did +not wish to be disturbed. He was often in the habit of lying down with +his clothes on. Armstrong said, "I will not disturb you, sir; I'll only +just put this parcel on the table." There is no lock to Mr. Wilson's +door. Armstrong stepped into the room, and almost immediately she heard a +sound as of a violent blow, followed by a deep groan and then all was +still. She was paralyzed with horror and affright. After the lapse of a +few seconds, a voice--Mrs. Armstrong's undoubtedly--asked in a tremulous +tone if "all was over?" Her husband answered "Yes: but where be the keys +of the writing-desk kept?" "In the little table-drawer," was the reply. +Armstrong then came out of the bedroom, and both went into Mr. Wilson's +sitting apartment. They soon returned, and crept stealthily along the +passage to their own bedroom on the same floor. They then went down +stairs to the kitchen. One of them--the woman, she had no doubt--went out +the back way, and heavy footsteps again ascended the stairs. Almost dead +with fright, she then crawled under the bedstead, and remembered no more +till she found herself surrounded by the villagers." + +In confirmation of this statement, a large clasp-knife belonging to +Armstrong, and with which it was evident the murder had been perpetrated, +was found in one corner of Wilson's bedroom; and a mortgage deed, for one +thousand pounds on Craig Farm, the property of Wilson, and which +Strugnell swore was always kept in the writing-desk in the front room, +was discovered in a chest in the prisoner's sleeping apartment, together +with nearly one hundred and fifty pounds in gold, silver, and county +bank-notes, although it was known that Armstrong had but a fortnight +before declined a very advantageous offer of some cows he was desirous of +purchasing, under the plea of being short of cash. Worse perhaps than +all, a key of the back-door was found in his pocket, which not only +confirmed Strugnell's evidence, but clearly demonstrated that the +knocking at the door for admittance, which had roused and alarmed the +hamlet, was a pure subterfuge. The conclusion, therefore, almost +universally arrived at throughout the neighborhood was, that Armstrong +and his wife were the guilty parties; and that the bundles, the broken +locks, the sheet hanging out of the window, the shiny, black hat, were, +like the knocking, mere cunning devices to mislead inquiry. + +The case excited great interest in the county, and I esteemed myself +professionally fortunate in being selected to hold the brief for the +prosecution. I had satisfied myself, by a perusal of the depositions, +that there was no doubt of the prisoners' guilt, and I determined that no +effort on my part should be spared to insure the accomplishment of the +ends of justice. I drew the indictment myself; and in my opening address +to the jury dwelt with all the force and eloquence of which I was master +upon the heinous nature of the crime, and the conclusiveness of the +evidence by which it had been brought home to the prisoners. I may here, +by way of parenthesis, mention that I resorted to a plan in my address to +the jury which I have seldom known to fail. It consisted in fixing my +eyes and addressing my language to each juror one after the other. In +this way each considers the address to be an appeal to his individual +intelligence, and responds to it by falling into the views of the +barrister. On this occasion the jury easily fell into the trap. I could +see that I had got them into the humor of putting confidence in the +evidence I had to produce. + +The trial proceeded. The cause of the death was scientifically stated by +two medical men. Next followed the evidence as to the finding of the +knife in the bedroom of the deceased; the discovery of the mortgage deed, +and the large sum of money, in the prisoners' sleeping apartment; the +finding the key of the back-door in the male prisoner's pocket; and his +demeanor and expressions on the night of the perpetration of the crime. +In his cross-examination of the constable, several facts perfectly new to +me were elicited by the very able counsel for the prisoners. Their +attorney had judiciously maintained the strictest secrecy as to the +nature of the defence, so that it now took me completely by surprise. The +constable, in reply to questions by counsel, stated that the pockets of +the deceased were empty; that not only his purse, but a gold watch, +chain, and seals, which he usually wore, had vanished, and no trace of +them had as yet been discovered. Many other things were also missing. A +young man of the name of Pearce, apparently a sailor, had been seen in +the village once or twice in the company of Mary Strugnell; but he did +not notice what sort of hat he generally wore; he had not seen Pearce +since the night the crime was committed; had not sought for him. + +Mary Strugnell was the next witness. She repeated her previous evidence +with precision and apparent sincerity, and then I abandoned her with a +mixed feeling of anxiety and curiosity, to the counsel for the defence. +A subtle and able cross-examination of more than two hours' duration +followed; and at its conclusion, I felt that the case for the +prosecution was so damaged, that a verdict of condemnation was, or ought +to be, out of the question. The salient points dwelt upon, and varied in +every possible way, in this long sifting, were these:--"What was the +reason she did not return in the evening in question to her aunt's to +supper as usual?" + +"She did not know, except that she wished to get home." + +"Did she keep company with a man of the name of Pearce?" + +"She had walked out with him once or twice." + +"When was the last time?" + +"She did not remember." + +"Did Pearce walk with her home on the night of the murder?" + +"No." + +"Not part of the way?" + +"Yes; part of the way." + +"Did Pearce sometimes wear a black, shiny hat?" + +"No--yes: she did not remember." + +"Where was Pearce now?" + +"She didn't know." + +"Had he disappeared since that Sunday evening?" + +"She didn't know." + +"Had she seen him since?" + +"No." + +"Had Mr. Wilson ever threatened to discharge her for insolence to Mrs. +Armstrong?" + +"Yes; but she knew he was not in earnest." + +"Was not the clasp-knife that had been found always left in the kitchen +for culinary purposes?" + +"No--not always; generally--but not _this _time that Armstrong went away, +she was sure." + +"Mary Strugnell, you be a false-sworn woman before God and man!" +interrupted the male prisoner with great violence of manner. + +The outbreak of the prisoner was checked and rebuked by the judge, and +the cross-examination soon afterwards closed. Had the counsel been +allowed to follow up his advantage by an address to the jury, he would, I +doubt not, spite of their prejudices against the prisoners, have obtained +an acquittal; but as it was, after a neutral sort of charge from the +judge, by no means the ablest that then adorned the bench, the jurors, +having deliberated for something more than half an hour, returned into +court with a verdict of "guilty" against both prisoners, accompanying it, +however, with a strong recommendation to mercy! + +"Mercy!" said the judge. "What for? On what ground?" + +The jurors stared at each other and at the judge: they had no reason to +give! The fact was, their conviction of the prisoners' guilt had been +very much shaken by the cross-examination of the chief witness for the +prosecution, and this recommendation was a compromise which conscience +made with doubt. I have known many such instances. + +The usual ridiculous formality of asking the wretched convicts what they +had to urge why sentence should not be passed upon them was gone through; +the judge, with unmoved feelings, put on the fatal cap; and then a new +and startling light burst upon the mysterious, bewildering affair. + +"Stop, my lord!" exclaimed Armstrong with rough vehemence. "Hear me +speak! I'll tell ye all about it; I will indeed, my lord. Quiet, +Martha, I tell ye. It's I, my lord, that's guilty, not the woman. God +bless ye, my lord; not the wife! Doant hurt the wife, and I'se tell ye +all about it. I _alone_ am guilty; not, the Lord be praised, of murder, +but of robbery!" + +"John!--John!" sobbed the wife, clinging passionately to her husband, +"let us die together!" + +"Quiet, Martha, I tell ye! Yes, my lord, I'se tell ye all about it. I was +gone away, wife and I, for more nor a week, to receive money for Mr. +Wilson, on account of smuggled goods--that money, my lord, as was found +in the chest. When we came home on that dreadful Sunday night, my lord, +we went in the back way; and hearing a noise, I went up stairs, and found +poor Wilson stone-dead on the floor. I were dreadful skeared, and let +drop the candle. I called to wife, and told her of it. She screamed out, +and amaist fainted away. And then, my lord, all at once the devil shot +into my head to keep the money I had brought; and knowing as the keys of +the desk where the mortgage writing was kept was in the bedroom, I crept +back, as that false-hearted woman said, got the keys, and took the deed; +and then I persuaded wife, who had been trembling in the kitchen all the +while, that we had better go out quiet again, as there was nobody in the +house but us: I had tried that woman's door--and we might perhaps be +taken for the murderers. And so we did; and that's the downright, honest +truth, my lord. I'm rightly served; but God bless you, doant hurt the +woman--my wife, my lord, these thirty years. Five-and-twenty years ago +come May, which I shall never see, we buried our two children. Had they +lived, I might have been a better man; but the place they left empty was +soon filled up by love of cursed lucre, and that has brought me here. I +deserve it; but oh, mercy, my lord! mercy, good gentlemen!"--turning from +the stony features of the judge to the jury, as if they could help +him--"not for me, but the wife. She be as innocent of this as a new-born +babe. It's I! I! scoundrel that I be, that has brought thee, Martha, to +this shameful pass!" The rugged man snatched his life-companion to his +breast with passionate emotion, and tears of remorse and agony streamed +down his rough cheeks. + +I was deeply affected, and felt that the man had uttered the whole truth. +It was evidently one of those cases in which a person liable to suspicion +damages his own cause by resorting to a trick. No doubt, by his act of +theft, Armstrong had been driven to an expedient which would not have +been adopted by a person perfectly innocent. And thus, from one thing to +another, the charge of murder had been fixed upon him and his hapless +wife. When his confession had been uttered, I felt a species of +self-accusation in having contributed to his destruction, and gladly +would I have undone the whole day's proceedings. The judge, on the +contrary, was quite undisturbed. Viewing the harangue of Armstrong as a +mere tissue of falsehood, he cooly pronounced sentence of death on the +prisoners. They were to be hanged on Monday. This was Friday. + +"A bad job!" whispered the counsel for the defence as he passed me. "That +witness of yours, the woman Strugnell, is the real culprit." + +I tasted no dinner that day: I was sick at heart; for I felt as if the +blood of two fellow-creatures was on my hands. In the evening I sallied +forth to the judge's lodgings. He listened to all I had to say; but was +quite imperturbable. The obstinate old man was satisfied that the +sentence was as it should be. I returned to my inn in a fever of despair. +Without the approval of the judge, I knew that an application to the +Secretary of State was futile. There was not even time to send to London, +unless the judge had granted a respite. + +All Saturday and Sunday I was in misery. I denounced capital punishment +as a gross iniquity--a national sin and disgrace; my feelings of course +being influenced somewhat by a recollection of that unhappy affair of +Harvey, noticed in my previous paper. I half resolved to give up the bar, +and rather go and sweep the streets for a livelihood, than run the risk +of getting poor people hanged who did not deserve it. + +On the Monday morning I was pacing up and down my break fast-room in the +next assize town, in a state of great excitement, when a chaise-and-four +drove rapidly up to the hotel, and out tumbled Johnson the constable. His +tale was soon told. On the previous evening, the landlady of the Black +Swan, a roadside public-house about four miles distant from the scene of +the murder, reading the name of Pearce in the report of the trial in the +Sunday county paper, sent for Johnston to state that that person had on +the fatal evening called and left a portmanteau in her charge, promising +to call for it in an hour, but had never been there since. On opening the +portmanteau, Wilson's watch, chains, and seals, and other property, were +discovered in it; and Johnson had, as soon as it was possible, set off in +search of me. Instantly, for there was not a moment to spare, I, in +company with Armstrong's counsel, sought the judge, and with some +difficulty obtained from him a formal order to the sheriff to suspend the +execution till further orders. Off I and the constable started, and +happily arrived in time to stay the execution, and deprive the +already-assembled mob of the brutal exhibition they so anxiously awaited. +On inquiring for Mary Strugnell, we found that she had absconded on the +evening of the trial. All search for her proved vain. + +Five months had passed away; the fate of Armstrong and his wife was still +undecided, when a message was brought to my chambers in the Temple from a +woman said to be dying in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It was Mary +Strugnell; who, when in a state of intoxication, had fallen down in front +of a carriage, as she was crossing near Holborn Hill, and had both her +legs broken. She was dying miserably, and had sent for me to make a full +confession relative to Wilson's murder. Armstrong's account was perfectly +correct. The deed was committed by Pearce, and they were packing up their +plunder when they were startled by the unexpected return of the +Armstrongs. Pearce, snatching up a bundle and a portmanteau, escaped by +the window; she had not nerve enough to attempt it, and crawled back to +her bedroom, where she, watching the doings of the farmer through the +chinks of the partition which separated her room from the passage, +concocted the story which convicted the prisoners. Pearce thinking +himself pursued, too heavily encumbered for rapid flight, left the +portmanteau as described, intending to call for it in the morning, if his +fears proved groundless. He, however, had not courage to risk calling +again, and made the best of his way to London. He was now in Newgate +under sentence of death for a burglary, accompanied by personal violence +to the inmates of the dwelling he and his gang had entered and robbed. I +took care to have the deposition of the dying wretch put into proper +form; and the result was, after a great deal of petitioning and worrying +of authorities, a full pardon for both Armstrong and his wife. They sold +Craig Farm, and removed to some other part of the country, where, I never +troubled myself to inquire. Deeply grateful was I to be able at last to +wash my hands of an affair, which had cost me so much anxiety and +vexation; albeit the lesson it afforded me of not coming hastily to +conclusions, even when the truth seems, as it were, upon the surface of +the matter, has not been, I trust, without its uses. + + + + +THE CONTESTED MARRIAGE. + + +I had just escaped to my chambers one winter afternoon from a heavy trial +"at bar" in the King's Bench, Westminster, and was poring over a case +upon which an "opinion" was urgently solicited, when my clerk entered +with a letter which he had been requested to deliver by a lady, who had +called twice before during the day for the purpose of seeing me. Vexed at +the interruption, I almost snatched the letter from the man's hand, +hastily broke the seal, and to my great surprise found it was from my +excellent old friend Sir Jasper Thornely of Thornely Hall, Lancashire. It +ran as follows:-- + +"My Dear ----, The bearer of this note is a lady whom I am desirous of +serving to the utmost extent of my ability. That she is really the widow +she represents herself to be, and her son consequently heir to the +magnificent estates now in possession of the Emsdales--you remember how +they tripped up my heels at the last election for the borough of ------ I +have no moral doubt whatever; but whether her claim can be legally +established is another affair. She will tell you the story herself. It +was a heartless business; but Sir Harry, who, you have no doubt heard, +broke his neck in a steeple-chase about ten months ago, was a sad wild +dog. My advice is, to look out for a sharp, clever, persevering attorney, +and set him upon a hunt for evidence. If he succeed, I undertake to pay +him a thousand pounds over and above his legal costs. He'll nose it out +for that, I should think!--Yours, truly, + +"Jasper Thornely. + +"P.S.--Emsdale's son, I have just heard--confound their +impudence!--intends, upon the strength of this accession of property, to +stand for the county against my old friend ----, at the dissolution, +which cannot now be far off. If you don't think one thousand pounds +enough, I'll double it. A cruelly, ill-used lady! and as to her son, he's +the very image of the late Sir Harry Compton. In haste--J.T. I re-open +the letter to enclose a cheque for a hundred pounds, which you will pay +the attorney on account. They'll die hard, you may be sure. If it could +come off next assizes, we should spoil them for the county--J.T." + +"Assizes"--"county"--"Sir Harry Compton," I involuntarily murmured, as I +finished the perusal of my old friend's incoherent epistle. "What on +earth can the eccentric old fox-hunter mean?" "Show the lady in," I added +in a louder tone to the clerk. She presently appeared, accompanied by a +remarkably handsome boy about six years of age, both attired in deep +mourning. The lady approached with a timid, furtive step and glance, as +if she were entering the den of some grim ogre, rather than the quiet +study of a civilized lawyer of mature age. I was at once struck by her +singular and touching loveliness. I have never seen a woman that so +completely realized the highest _Madonna_ type of youthful, matronly +beauty--its starlight radiance and mild serenity of sorrow. Her voice, +too, gentle and low, had a tone of patient sadness in it strangely +affecting. She was evidently a person, if not of high birth, of refined +manners and cultivated mind; and I soon ceased to wonder at warm-hearted +old Sir Jasper's enthusiasm in her cause. Habitually, however, on my +guard against first impressions, I courteously, but coldly, invited her +first to a seat, and next to a more intelligible relation of her business +with me than could be gathered from the letter of which she was the +bearer. She complied, and I was soon in possession of the following facts +and fancies:-- + +Violet Dalston and her sister Emily had lived for several years in close +and somewhat straitened retirement with their father, Captain Dalston, at +Rock Cottage, on the outskirts of a village about six miles distant from +Leeds, when Captain Dalston, who was an enthusiastic angler, introduced +to his home a gentleman about twenty-five years of age, of handsome +exterior and gentlemanly manners, with whom congeniality of tastes and +pursuits had made him acquainted. This stranger was introduced to Violet +(my interesting client) and her sister, as a Mr. Henry Grainger, the son +of a London merchant. The object of his wanderings through the English +counties was, he said, to recruit his health, which had become affected +by too close application to business, and to gratify his taste for +angling, sketching, and so on. He became a frequent visitor; and the +result, after the lapse of about three months, was a proposal for the +hand of Violet. His father allowed him, he stated, five hundred pounds +per annum; but in order not to mortally offend the old gentleman, who was +determined, if his son married at all, it should be either to rank or +riches, it would be necessary to conceal the marriage till after his +death. This commonplace story had been, it appeared, implicitly credited +by Captain Dalston; and Violet Dalston and Henry Grainger were united in +holy wedlock--not at the village church near where Captain Dalston +resided, but in one of the Leeds churches. The witnesses were the +bride's father and sister, and a Mr. Bilston, a neighbor. This marriage +had taken place rather more than seven years since, and its sole fruit +was the fine-looking boy who accompanied his mother to my office. Mr. +Grainger, soon after the marriage, persuaded the Dalstons to leave Rock +Cottage, and take up their abode in a picturesque village in Cumberland, +where he had purchased a small house, with some garden and ornamental +grounds attached. + +Five years rolled away--not, as I could discern, _too_ happily when the +very frequent absences of Violet's husband in London, as he alleged (all +her letters to him were directed to the post-office, St. Martin's le +Grand--till called for), were suddenly greatly prolonged; and on his +return home, after an absence of more than three months, he abruptly +informed the family that the affairs of his father, who was dying, had +been found to be greatly embarrassed, and that nothing was left for him +and them but emigration to America, with such means as might be saved +from the wreck of the elder Grainger's property. After much lamentation +and opposition on the part of Emily Dalston and her father, it was +finally conceded as Violet's husband wished; and the emigration was to +have taken place in the following spring, Henry Grainger to follow them +the instant he could wind up his father's affairs. About three months +before their intended departure--this very time twelvemonth, as nearly as +may be--Captain Dalston was suddenly called to London, to close the eyes +of an only sister. This sad duty fulfilled, he was about to return, when, +passing towards dusk down St. James Street, he saw Henry Grainger, +habited in a remarkable sporting-dress, standing with several other +gentlemen at the door of one of the club-houses. Hastening across the +street to accost him, he was arrested for a minute or so by a line of +carriages which turned sharply out of Piccadilly; and when he did reach +the other side, young Mr. Grainger and his companions had vanished. He +inquired of the porter, and was assured that no Mr. Grainger, senior or +junior, was known there. Persisting that he had seen him standing within +the doorway, and describing his dress, the man with an insolent laugh +exclaimed that the gentleman who wore that dress was the famous sporting +baronet, Sir Harry Compton! + +Bewildered, and suspecting he hardly knew what, Captain Dalston, in +defiance of young Grainger's oft-iterated injunctions, determined to call +at his father's residence, which he had always understood to be in +Leadenhall Street. No such name was, however, known there; and an +examination, to which he was advised, of the "Commercial Directory" +failed to discover the whereabout of the pretended London merchant. +Heart-sick and spirit-wearied, Captain Dalston returned home only to die. +A violent cold, caught by imprudently riding in such bitter weather as it +then was, on the outside of the coach, aggravated by distress of mind, +brought his already enfeebled frame to the grave in less than two months +after his arrival in Cumberland. He left his daughters utterly unprovided +for, except by the legal claim which the eldest possessed on a man who, +he feared, would turn out to be a worthless impostor. The penalty he paid +for consenting to so imprudent a marriage was indeed a heavy and bitter +one. Months passed away, and still no tidings of Violet's husband reached +the sisters' sad and solitary home. At length, stimulated by +apprehensions of approaching destitution--whose foot was already on the +threshold--and desirous of gratifying a whim of Emily's, Violet consented +to visit the neighborhood of Compton Castle (the seat, her sister had +ascertained, of the "celebrated sporting baronet," as the porter called +him) on their way to London, where they had relatives who, though not +rich, might possibly be able to assist them in obtaining some decent +means of maintenance. They alighted at the "Compton Arms," and the first +object which met the astonished gaze of the sisters as they entered the +principal sitting-room of the inn, was a full-length portrait of Violet's +husband, in the exact sporting-dress described to them by their father. +An ivory tablet attached to the lower part of the frame informed the +gazer that the picture was a copy, by permission, of the celebrated +portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, of Sir Harry Compton, Baronet. They were +confounded, overwhelmed, bewildered. Sir Harry, they found, had been +killed about eight months previously in a steeple-chase; and the castle +and estates had passed, in default of direct issue, to a distant +relative, Lord Emsdale. Their story was soon bruited about; and, in the +opinion of many persons, was confirmed beyond reasonable question by the +extraordinary likeness they saw or fancied between Violet's son and the +deceased baronet. Amongst others, Sir Jasper Thornely was a firm believer +in the identity of Henry Grainger and Sir Harry Compton; but +unfortunately, beyond the assertion of the sisters that the portrait of +Sir Harry was young Grainger's portrait, the real or imaginary likeness +of the child to his reputed father, and some score of letters addressed +to Violet by her husband, which Sir Jasper persisted were in Sir Harry's +handwriting, though few others did (the hand, I saw at a glance, was a +disguised one), not one tittle of evidence had he been able to procure +for love or money. As a last resource, he had consigned the case to me, +and the vulpine sagacity of a London attorney. + +I suppose my countenance must be what is called a "speaking" one, for I +had made no reply in words to this statement of a case upon which I and +a "London attorney" were to ground measures for wresting a magnificent +estate from the clutch of a powerful nobleman, and by "next assizes" +too--when the lady's beautiful eyes filled with tears, and turning to her +child, she murmured in that gentle, agitating voice of hers, "My poor +boy." The words I was about to utter died on my tongue, and I remained +silent for several minutes. After all, thought I, this lady is evidently +sincere in her expressed conviction that Sir Harry Compton was her +husband. If her surmise be correct, evidence of the truth may perhaps be +obtained by a keen search for it; and since Sir Jasper guarantees the +expenses--I rang the bell. "Step over to Cursitor Street," said I to the +clerk as soon as he entered; "and if Mr. Ferret is within, ask him to +step over immediately." Ferret was just the man for such a commission. +Indefatigable, resolute, sharp-witted, and of a ceaseless, remorseless +activity, a secret or a fact had need be very profoundly hidden for him +not to reach and fish it up. I have heard solemn doubts expressed by +attorneys opposed to him as to whether he ever really and truly slept at +all--that is, a genuine Christian sleep, as distinguished from a merely +canine one, with one eye always half open. Mr. Ferret had been for many +years Mr. Simpkins' managing clerk; but ambition, and the increasing +requirements of a considerable number of young Ferrets, determined him on +commencing business on his own account; and about six months previous to +the period of which I am now writing, a brass door-plate in Cursitor +Street, Chancery Lane, informed the public that Samuel Ferret, Esq., +Attorney-at-Law, might be consulted within. + +Mr. Samuel Ferret was fortunately at home; and after a very brief +interval, made his appearance, entering with a short professional bow to +me, and a very profound one to the lady, in whom his quick gray eye +seemed intuitively to espy a client. As soon as he was seated, I handed +him Sir Jasper's letter. He perused it carefully three times, examined +the seal attentively, and handed it back with--"An excellent letter as +far as it goes, and very much to the point. You intend, I suppose, that I +should undertake this little affair?" + +"Yes, if, after hearing the lady's case, you feel disposed to +venture upon it." + +Mr. Samuel Ferret's note-book was out in an instant; and the lady, +uninterrupted by a syllable from him, re-told her story. + +"Good, very good, as far as it goes," remarked undismayed Samuel Ferret +when she concluded; "only it can scarcely be said to go very far. Moral +presumption, which, in our courts unfortunately, isn't worth a groat. +Never mind. _Magna est veritas_, and so on. When, madam, did you say Sir +Harry--Mr. Grainger--first began to urge emigration?" + +"Between two and three years ago." + +"Have the goodness, if you please, to hand me the baronetage." I did so. +"Good," resumed Ferret, after turning over the leaves for a few seconds, +"very good, as far as it goes. It is now just two years and eight months +since Sir Harry succeeded his uncle in the title and estates. You would +no doubt soon have heard, madam, that your husband was dead. Truly the +heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; and +yet such conduct towards such a lady"--Ferret intended no mere +compliment; he was only giving utterance to the thoughts passing through +his brain; but his client's mounting color warned him to change the +topic, which he very adroitly did. "You intend, of course," said he, +addressing me, "to proceed at law? No rumble--tumble through the +spiritual courts?" + +"Certainly, if sufficient evidence to justify such a course can be +obtained." + +"Exactly: Doe, demise of Compton, _versus_ Emsdale; action in ejectment, +judgment of ouster. Our friend Doe, madam--a very accommodating fellow is +Doe--will, if we succeed, put you in possession as natural guardian of +your son. Well, sir," turning to me, "I may as well give you an +acknowledgment for that cheque. I undertake the business, and shall, if +possible, be off to Leeds by this evening's mail." The acknowledgment was +given, and Mr. Ferret, pocketing the cheque, departed in high glee. + +"The best man, madam, in all broad London," said I in answer to Mrs. +Grainger's somewhat puzzled look, "you could have retained. Fond as he +seems, and in fact is, of money--what sensible person is not?--Lord +Emsdale could not bribe him with his earldom, now that he is fairly +engaged in your behalf, I will not say to betray you, but to abate his +indefatigable activity in furtherance of your interests. Attorneys, +madam, be assured, whatever nursery tales may teach, have, the very +sharpest of them, their points of honor." The lady and her son departed, +and I turned again to the almost forgotten "case." + +Three weeks had nearly glided by, and still no tidings of Mr. Ferret. +Mrs. Grainger, and her sister Emily Dalston, a very charming person, had +called repeatedly; but as I of course had nothing to communicate, they +were still condemned to languish under the heart-sickness caused by hope +deferred. At last our emissary made his wished-for appearance. + +"Well, Mr. Ferret," said I, on entering my library, where I found him +composedly awaiting my arrival, "what success?" + +"Why, nothing of much consequence as yet," replied he; "I am, you know, +only, as it were, just commencing the investigation. The Leeds parson +that married them is dead, and the old clerk is paralytic, and has lost +his memory. If, however, they were both alive, and in sound health of +mind and body, they could, I fancy, help us but little, as Bilston tells +me neither the Dalstons nor Grainger had ever entered the church till the +morning of the wedding; and they soon afterwards removed to Cumberland, +so that it is scarcely possible either parson or clerk could prove that +Violet Dalston was married to Sir Harry Compton. A very intelligent +fellow is Bilston: he was present at the marriage, you remember; and a +glorious witness, if he had only something of importance to depose to; +powdered hair and a pigtail, double chin, and six feet in girth at least; +highly respectable--capital witness, very--only, unfortunately, he can +only testify that a person calling himself Grainger married Violet +Dalston; not much in that!" + +"So, then, your three weeks' labor has been entirely thrown away!" + +"Not so fast--not so fast--you jump too hastily at conclusions. The +Cumberland fellow that sold Grainger the house--only the equity of +redemption of it, by the way--there's a large mortgage on it--can prove +nothing. Nobody about there can, except the surgeon; _he_ can prove Mrs. +Grainger's _accouchement_--that is something. I have been killing myself +every evening this last week with grog and tobacco smoke at the "Compton +Arms," in the company of the castle servants, and if the calves' heads +_had_ known anything essential, I fancy I should have wormed it out of +them. They have, however, kindly furnished me with a scrawl of +introduction to the establishment now in town, some of whom I shall have +the honor to meet, in the character of an out-and-out liberal sporting +gentleman, at the "Albemarle Arms" this evening. I want to get hold of +his confidential valet, if he had one--those go-a-head fellows generally +have--a Swiss, or some other foreign animal." + +"Is this all?" + +"Why, no," rejoined Ferret, with a sharp twinkle of his sharp gray eye, +amounting almost to a wink; "there is one circumstance which I cannot +help thinking, though I scarcely know why, will put us, by the help of +patience and perseverance, on the right track. In a corner of the +registry of marriage there is written Z.Z. in bold letters. In no other +part of the book does this occur. What may that mean?" + +"Had the incumbent of the living a curate at the time?" + +"No. On that point I am unfortunately too well satisfied. Neither are +there any names with such initials in any of the Leeds churchyards. Still +this Z.Z. may be of importance, if we could but discover who he is. But +how?--that is the question. Advertise? Show our hands to the opposite +players, and find if Z.Z. is really an entity, and likely to be of +service, that when we want him in court, he is half way to America. No, +no; that would never do." + +Mr. Ferret I saw was getting into a brown study; and as I had +pressing business to despatch, I got rid of him as speedily as I +could, quite satisfied, spite of Z.Z., that Mrs. Grainger's chance of +becoming Lady Compton was about equal to mine of ascending the +British throne some fine day. + +Two days afterwards I received the following note:-- + +"Dear Sir--Z.Z. is the man! I'm off to Shropshire. Back, if possible, the +day after to-morrow. Not a word even to the ladies. Huzza! In haste, +Samuel Ferret." + +What could this mean? Spite of Mr. Ferret's injunction, I could not help +informing the sisters, who called soon after I received the note, that a +discovery, esteemed of importance by our emissary, had been made; and +they returned home with lightened hearts, after agreeing to repeat their +visit on the day Mr. Ferret had named for his return. + +On reaching my chambers about four o'clock in the afternoon of that day, +I found the ladies there, and in a state of great excitement. Mr. Ferret, +my clerk had informed them, had called twice, and seemed in the highest +spirits. We had wasted but a few minutes in conjectures when Mr. Ferret, +having ascended the stairs two or three at a time, burst, _sans +ceremonie_, into the apartment. + +"Good-day, sir. Lady Compton, your most obedient servant; madam, yours! +All right! Only just in time to get the writ sealed; served it myself a +quarter of an hour ago, just as his lordship was getting into his +carriage. Not a day to lose; just in time. Capital! Glorious!" + +"What do you mean, Mr. Ferret?" exclaimed Emily Dalston: her sister was +too agitated to speak. + +"What do I mean? Let us all four step, sir, into your inner sanctum, and +I'll soon tell you what I mean." + +We adjourned, accordingly, to an inner and more private room. Our +conference lasted about half an hour, at the end of which the ladies +took their leave: Lady Compton, her beautiful features alternately +irradiated and clouded by smiles and tears, murmuring in a broken, +agitated voice, as she shook hands with me, "You see, sir, he intended +at last to do us justice." + +The news that an action had been brought on behalf of an infant son of +the late Sir Harry Compton against the Earl of Emsdale, for the recovery +of the estates in the possession of that nobleman, produced the greatest +excitement in the part of the county where the property was situated. The +assize town was crowded, on the day the trial was expected to come on, by +the tenantry of the late baronet and their families, with whom the +present landlord was by no means popular. As I passed up the principal +street, towards the court-house, accompanied by my junior, I was received +with loud hurraings and waving of handkerchiefs, something after the +manner, I suppose, in which chivalrous steel-clad knights, about to do +battle in behalf of distressed damsels, were formerly received by the +miscellaneous spectators of the lists. Numerous favors, cockades, +streamers, of the Compton colors, used in election contests, purple and +orange, were also slyly exhibited, to be more ostentatiously displayed if +the Emsdale party should be beaten. On entering the court, I found it +crowded, as we say, to the ceiling. Not only every seat, but every inch +of standing-room that could be obtained, was occupied, and it was with +great difficulty the ushers of the court preserved a sufficiently clear +space for the ingress and egress of witnesses and counsel. Lord Emsdale, +pale and anxious, spite of manifest effort to appear contemptuously +indifferent, sat near the judge, who had just entered the court. The +Archbishop of York, whom we had subpoenaed, why, his Grace had openly +declared, he knew not, was also of course accommodated with a seat on the +bench. A formidable bar, led by the celebrated Mr. S ----, was, I saw, +arrayed against us, though what the case was they had to meet, so well +had Ferret kept his secret, they knew no more than did their horse-hair +wigs. Ferret had solemnly enjoined the sisters to silence, and no hint, I +need scarcely say, was likely to escape my lips. The jury, special of +course, were in attendance, and the case, "Doe, demise of Compton +_versus_ Emsdale," having been called, they were duly sworn to try the +issue. My junior, Mr. Frampton, was just rising "to state the case," as +it is technically called, when a tremendous shouting, rapidly increasing +in volume and distinctness, and mingled with the sound of carriage +wheels, was heard approaching, and presently Mr. Samuel Ferret appeared, +followed by Lady Compton and her son, the rear of the party brought up by +Sir Jasper Thornely, whose jolly fox-hunting face shone like a full-blown +peony. The lady, though painfully agitated, looked charmingly; and the +timid, appealing glance she unconsciously, as it were, threw round the +court, would, in a doubtful case, have secured a verdict. "Very well got +up, indeed," said Mr. S ----, in a voice sufficiently loud for the jury +to hear--"very effectively managed, upon my word." We were, however, in +too good-humor to heed taunts; and as soon as silence was restored, Mr. +Frampton briefly stated the case, and I rose to address the jury. My +speech was purposely brief, business-like, and confident. I detailed the +circumstances of the marriage of Violet Dalston, then only eighteen years +of age, with a Mr. Grainger; the birth of a son; and subsequent +disappearance of the husband; concluding by an assurance to the jury that +I should prove, by incontrovertible evidence, that Grainger was no other +person than the late Sir Harry Compton, baronet. This address by no means +lessened the vague apprehensions of the other side. A counsel that, +with such materials for eloquence, disdained having recourse to it, must +needs have a formidable case. The smiling countenances of Mr. S ---- and +his brethren became suddenly overcast, and the pallor and agitation of +Lord Emsdale sensibly increased. + +We proved our case clearly, step by step: the marriage, the accouchement, +the handwriting of Grainger--Bilston proved this--to the letters +addressed to his wife, were clearly established. The register of the +marriage was produced by the present clerk of the Leeds church; the +initials Z.Z. were pointed out; and at my suggestion the book was +deposited for the purposes of the trial with the clerk of the court. Not +a word of cross-examination had passed the lips of our learned friends on +the other side: they allowed our evidence to pass as utterly indifferent. +A change was at hand. + +Our next witness was James Kirby, groom to the late baronet and to the +present earl. After a few unimportant questions, I asked him if he had +ever seen that gentleman before, pointing to Mr. Ferret, who stood up for +the more facile recognition of his friend Kirby. + +"Oh yes, he remembered the gentleman well; and a very nice, good-natured, +soft sort of a gentleman he was. He treated witness at the "Albemarle +Arms," London, to as much brandy and water as he liked, out of respect to +his late master, whom the gentleman seemed uncommon fond of." + +"Well, and what return did you make for so much liberality?" + +"Return! very little I do assure ye. I told un how many horses Sir Harry +kept, and how many races he won; but I couldn't tell un much more, pump +as much as he would, because, do ye see, I didn't _know_ no more." + +An audible titter from the other side greeted the witness as he uttered +the last sentence. Mr. S ----, with one of his complacent glances at the +jury-box, remarking in a sufficiently loud whisper, "That he had never +heard a more conclusive reason for not telling in his life." + +"Did you mention that you were present at the death of the late baronet?" + +"Yes I did. I told un that I were within about three hundred red yards +of late master when he had that ugly fall; and that when I got up to +un, he sort of pulled me down, and whispered hoarse-like, 'Send for +Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman.' I remembered it, it was sich an +outlandish name like." + +"Oh, oh," thought I, as Mr. S ---- reached across the table for the +parish register, "Z.Z. is acquiring significance I perceive." + +"Well, and what did this gentleman say to that?" + +"Say? Why, nothing particular, only seemed quite joyful 'mazed like; and +when I asked un why, he said it was such a comfort to find his good +friend Sir Harry had such pious thoughts in his last moments." + +The laugh, quickly suppressed, that followed these words, did not come +from our learned friends on the other side. + +"Sir Harry used those words?" + +"He did; but as he died two or three minutes after, it were of course no +use to send for no parson whatsomever." + +"Exactly. That will do, unless the other side have any questions to ask." +No question _was_ put, and the witness went down. "Call," said I to the +crier of the court--"call the Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman." + +This was a bomb-shell. Lord Emsdale, the better to conceal his agitation, +descended from the bench and took his seat beside his counsel. The +Reverend Zachariah Zimmerman, examined by Mr. Frampton, deponed in +substance as follows:--"He was at present rector of Dunby, Shropshire, +and had been in holy orders more than twenty years. Was on a visit to the +Reverend Mr. Cramby at Leeds seven years ago, when one morning Mr. +Cramby, being much indisposed, requested him to perform the marriage +ceremony for a young couple then waiting in church. He complied, and +joined in wedlock Violet Dalston and Henry Grainger. The bride was the +lady now pointed out to him in court; the bridegroom he had discovered, +about two years ago, to be no other than the late Sir Harry Compton, +baronet. The initials Z.Z. were his, and written by him. The parish +clerk, a failing old man, had not officiated at the marriage; a nephew, +he believed, had acted for him, but he had entered the marriage in the +usual form afterwards." + +"How did you ascertain that Henry Grainger was the late Sir Harry +Compton?" + +"I was introduced to Sir Harry Compton in London, at the house of the +Archbishop of York, by his Grace himself." + +"I remember the incident distinctly, Mr. Zimmerman," said his Grace from +the bench. + +"Besides which," added the rector, "my present living was presented to +me, about eighteen months since, by the deceased baronet. I must further, +in justice to myself, explain that I immediately after the introduction, +sought an elucidation of the mystery from Sir Harry; and he then told me +that, in a freak of youthful passion, he had married Miss Dalston in the +name of Grainger, fearing his uncle's displeasure should it reach his +ears; that his wife had died in her first confinement, after giving birth +to a still-born child, and he now wished the matter to remain in +oblivion. He also showed me several letters, which I then believed +genuine, confirming his story. I heard no more of the matter till waited +upon by the attorney for the plaintiff, Mr. Ferret." + +A breathless silence prevailed during the delivery of this evidence. At +its conclusion, the dullest brain in court comprehended that the cause +was gained; and a succession of cheers, which could not be suppressed, +rang through the court, and were loudly echoed from without. Sir Jasper's +voice sounding high above all the rest. Suddenly, too, as if by magic, +almost everybody in court, save the jury and counsel, were decorated with +orange and purple favors, and a perfect shower of them fell at the feet +and about the persons of Lady Compton, her sister, who had by this time +joined her, and the infant Sir Henry. As soon as the expostulations and +menaces of the judge had restored silence and order, his lordship, +addressing Lord Emsdale's senior counsel, said, "Well, Brother S ----, +what course do you propose to adopt ?" + +"My lord," replied Mr. S ---- after a pause, "I and my learned friends +have thought it our duty to advise Lord Emsdale that further opposition +to the plaintiff's claim would prove ultimately futile; and I have +therefore to announce, my lord and gentlemen of the jury, that we +acquiesce in a verdict for the plaintiff." + +"You have counseled wisely," replied his lordship. "Gentlemen of the +jury, you will of course return a verdict for the plaintiff." + +The jury hastily and joyfully assented: the verdict was recorded, and the +court adjourned for an hour in the midst of tumultuous excitement. The +result of the trial flew through the crowd outside like wildfire; and +when Lady Compton and her son, after struggling through the +densely-crowded court, stepped into Sir Jasper's carriage, which was in +waiting at the door, the enthusiastic uproar that ensued--the hurrahing, +shouting, waving of hats and handkerchiefs--deafened and bewildered one; +and it was upwards of an hour ere the slow-moving chariot reached Sir +Jasper's mansion, though not more than half a mile distant from the town. +Mr. Ferret, mounted on the box, and almost smothered in purple and +orange, was a conspicuous object, and a prime favorite with the crowd. +The next day Lord Emsdale, glad, doubtless, to quit the neighborhood as +speedily as possible, left the castle, giving Lady Compton immediate +possession. The joy of the tenantry was unbounded, and under the wakeful +superintendence of Mr. Ferret, all claims against Lord Emsdale for +received rents, dilapidations, &c. were adjusted, we may be sure, _not_ +adversely to his client's interests; though he frequently complained, not +half so satisfactorily as if Lady Compton had not interfered, with what +Mr. Ferret deemed misplaced generosity in the matter. + +As I was obliged to proceed onwards with the circuit, I called at Compton +Castle to take leave of my interesting and fortunate client a few days +after her installation there. I was most gratefully received and +entertained. As I shook hands at parting, her ladyship, after pressing +upon me a diamond ring of great value, said, whilst her charming eyes +filled with regretful, yet joyful tears, "Do not forget that poor Henry +intended at last to do us justice." Prosperity, thought I, will not spoil +that woman. It _has_ not, as the world, were I authorized to communicate +her _real_ name, would readily acknowledge. + + + + +THE MOTHER AND SON. + + +Dinner had been over about half an hour one Sunday afternoon.--the only +day on which for years I had been able to enjoy a dinner--and I was +leisurely sipping a glass of wine, when a carriage drove rapidly up to +the door, a loud _rat-tat_ followed, and my friend Dr. Curteis, to my +great surprise, was announced. + +"I have called," said the doctor as we shook hands, "to ask you to +accompany me to Mount Place. I have just received a hurried note from +Miss Armitage, stating that her mother, after a very brief illness, is +rapidly sinking, and requesting my attendance, as well as that of a legal +gentleman, immediately." + +"Mrs. Armitage!" I exclaimed, inexpressibly shocked. "Why, it is scarcely +more than a fortnight ago that I met her at the Rochfords' in brilliant +health and spirits." + +"Even so. But will you accompany me? I don't know where to find any one +else for the moment, and time presses." + +"It is an attorney, probably, rather than a barrister, that is needed; +but under the circumstances, and knowing her as I do, I cannot hesitate." + +We were soon bowling along at a rapid pace, and in little more than an +hour reached the dying lady's residence, situated in the county of Essex, +and distant about ten miles from London. We entered together; and Dr. +Curteis, leaving me in the library, proceeded at once to the sick +chamber. About ten minutes afterwards the housekeeper, a tall, +foreign-looking, and rather handsome woman, came into the room, and +announced that the doctor wished to see me. She was deadly pale, and, I +observed, trembled like an aspen. I motioned her to precede me; and she, +with unsteady steps, immediately led the way. So great was her agitation, +that twice, in ascending the stairs, she only saved herself from falling +by grasping the banister-rail. The presage I drew from the exhibition of +such overpowering emotion, by a person whom I knew to have been long not +only in the service, but in the confidence of Mrs. Armitage, was soon +confirmed by Dr. Curteis, whom we met coming out of the chamber of the +expiring patient. + +"Step this way," said he, addressing me, and leading to an adjoining +apartment. "We do not require your attendance, Mrs. Bourdon," said he, as +soon as we reached it, to the housekeeper, who had swiftly followed us, +and now stood staring with eager eyes in the doctor's face, as if life +and death hung on his lips. "Have the goodness to leave us," he added +tartly, perceiving she did not stir, but continued her fearful, +scrutinizing glance. She started at his altered tone, flushed crimson, +then paled to a chalky whiteness, and muttering, left the apartment. + +"The danger of her mistress has bewildered her," I remarked. + +"Perhaps so," remarked Dr. Curteis. "Be that as it may, Mrs. Armitage is +beyond all human help. In another hour she will be, as we say, no more." + +"I feared so. What is the nature of her disorder?" + +"A rapid wasting away, as I am informed. The appearances presented are +those of a person expiring of atrophy, or extreme emaciation." + +"Indeed. And so sudden too!" + +"Yes. I am glad you are come, although your professional services will +not, it seems, be required--a neighboring attorney having performed the +necessary duty--something, I believe, relative to the will of the dying +lady. We will speak further together by and by. In the meantime," +continued Dr. Curteis, with a perceptible tremor in his voice, "it will +do neither of us any harm to witness the closing scene of the life of +Mary Rawdon, whom you and I twenty years ago worshipped as one of the +gentlest and most beautiful of beings with which the Creator ever graced +his universe. It will be a peaceful parting. Come." + +Just as, with noiseless footsteps, we entered the silent death-chamber, +the last rays of the setting sun were falling upon the figure of Ellen +Armitage--who knelt in speechless agony by the bedside of her expiring +parent--and faintly lighting up the pale, emaciated, sunken features of +the so lately brilliant, courted Mrs. Armitage! But for the ineffaceable +splendor of her deep-blue eyes, I should scarcely have recognized her. +Standing in the shadow, as thrown by the heavy bed-drapery, we gazed and +listened unperceived. + +"Ellen," murmured the dying lady, "come nearer to me. It is growing +dark, and I cannot see you plainly. Now, then, read to me, beginning at +the verse you finished with, as good Dr. Curteis entered. Ay," she +faintly whispered, "it is thus, Ellen, with thy hand clasped in mine, +and with the words of the holy book sounding from thy dear lips, that I +would pass away!" + +Ellen, interrupted only by her blinding tears, making sad stops, +complied. Twilight stole on, and threw its shadow over the solemn scene, +deepening its holiness of sorrow. Night came with all her train; and the +silver radiance kissed into ethereal beauty the pale face of the weeping +girl, still pursuing her sad and sacred task. We hesitated to disturb, by +the slightest movement the repose of a death-bed over which belief and +hope, those only potent ministers, shed light and calm! At length Dr. +Curteis advanced gently towards the bed, and taking the daughter's hand, +said in a low voice, "Had you not better retire, my dear young lady, for +a few moments?" She understood him, and rising from her knees, threw +herself in an ecstacy of grief upon the corpse, from which the spirit had +just passed away. Assistance was summoned, and the sobbing girl was borne +from the chamber. + +I descended, full of emotion, to the library, where Dr. Curteis promised +shortly to join me. Noiselessly entering the room, I came suddenly upon +the housekeeper and a tall young man, standing with their backs towards +me in the recesses of one of the windows, and partly shrouded by the +heavy cloth curtains. They were evidently in earnest conference, and +several words, the significance of which did not at the moment strike me, +reached my ears before they perceived my approach. The instant they did +so, they turned hastily round, and eyed me with an expression of flurried +alarm, which at the time surprised me not a little. "All is over, Mrs. +Bourdon," said I, finding she did not speak; "and your presence is +probably needed by Miss Armitage." A flash of intelligence, as I spoke, +passed between the pair; but whether indicative of grief or joy, so +momentary was the glance, I should have been puzzled to determine. The +housekeeper immediately left the room, keeping her eyes, as she passed, +fixed upon me with the same nervous apprehensive look which had before +irritated Dr. Curteis. The young man followed more slowly. He was a tall +and rather handsome youth, apparently about one or two-and-twenty years +of age. His hair was black as jet, and his dark eyes were of singular +brilliancy; but the expression, I thought, was scarcely a refined or +highly-intellectual one. His resemblance to Mrs. Bourdon, whose son +indeed he was, was very striking. He bowed slightly, but courteously, as +to an equal, as he closed the door, and I was left to the undisturbed +enjoyment of my own reflections, which, ill-defined and indistinct as +they were, were anything but pleasant company. My reverie was at length +interrupted by the entrance of the doctor, with the announcement that the +carriage was in waiting to re-convey us to town. + +We had journeyed several miles on our return before a word was spoken by +either of us. My companion was apparently even more painfully +pre-occupied than myself. He was, however, the first to break silence. +"The emaciated corpse we have just left little resembles the gay, +beautiful girl, for whose smiles you and I were once disposed to shoot +each other!" The doctor's voice trembled with emotion, and his face, I +perceived, was pale as marble. + +"Mary Rawdon," I remarked, "lives again in her daughter." + +"Yes; her very image. Do you know," continued he, speaking with rapid +energy, "I suspect Mary Rawdon--Mrs. Armitage, I would say--has been +foully, treacherously dealt with!" + +I started with amazement; and yet the announcement but embodied and gave +form and color to my own ill-defined and shadowy suspicions. + +"Good heavens! How? By whom?" + +"Unless I am greatly mistaken, she has been poisoned by an adept in the +use of such destructive agents." + +"Mrs. Bourdon?" + +"No; by her son. At least my suspicions point that way. She is probably +cognizant of the crime. But in order that you should understand the +grounds upon which my conjectures are principally founded, I must enter +into a short explanation. Mrs. Bourdon, a woman of Spanish extraction, +and who formerly occupied a much higher position than she does now, has +lived with Mrs. Armitage from the period of her husband's death, now +about sixteen years ago. Mrs. Bourdon has a son, a tall, good-looking +fellow enough, whom you may have seen." + +"He was with his mother in the library as I entered it after +leaving you." + +"Ah! well, hem! This boy, in his mother's opinion--but that perhaps is +somewhat excusable--exhibited early indications of having been born a +"genius." Mrs. Armitage, who had been first struck by the beauty of the +child, gradually acquired the same notion; and the result was, that he +was little by little invested--with at least her tacit approval--with the +privileges supposed to be the lawful inheritance of such gifted spirits; +namely, the right to be as idle as he pleased--geniuses, you know, can, +according to the popular notion, attain any conceivable amount of +knowledge _per saltum_ at a bound--and to exalt himself in the stilts of +his own conceit above the useful and honorable pursuits suited to the +station in life in which Providence had cast his lot. The fruit of such +training soon showed itself. Young Bourdon grew up a conceited and +essentially-ignorant puppy, capable of nothing but bad verses, and +thoroughly impressed with but one important fact, which was, that he, +Alfred Bourdon, was the most gifted and the most ill-used of all God's +creatures. To genius, in any intelligible sense of the term, he has in +truth no pretension. He is endowed, however, with a kind of reflective +talent, which is often mistaken by fools for _creative_ power. The morbid +fancies and melancholy scorn of a Byron, for instance, such gentry +reflect back from their foggy imaginations in exaggerated and distorted +feebleness of whining versicles, and so on with other lights celestial +or infernal. This, however, by the way. The only rational pursuit he ever +followed, and that only by fits and starts, and to gratify his faculty of +"wonder," I fancy, was chemistry. A small laboratory was fitted up for +him in the little summer-house you may have observed at the further +corner of the lawn. This study of his, if study such desultory snatches +at science may be called, led him, in his examination of vegetable +bodies, to a smattering acquaintance with botany, a science of which +Ellen Armitage is an enthusiastic student. They were foolishly permitted +to _botanize_ together, and the result was, that Alfred Bourdon, acting +upon the principle that genius--whether sham or real--levels all merely +mundane distinctions, had the impudence to aspire to the hand of Miss +Armitage. His passion, sincere or simulated, has never been, I have +reason to know, in the slightest degree reciprocated by its object; but +so blind is vanity, that when, about six weeks ago, an _eclaircissement_ +took place, and the fellow's dream was somewhat rudely dissipated, the +untoward rejection of his preposterous suit was, there is every reason to +believe, attributed by both mother and son to the repugnance of Mrs. +Armitage alone; and to this idiotic hallucination she has, I fear, fallen +a sacrifice. Judging from the emaciated appearance of the body, and other +phenomena communicated to me by her ordinary medical attendant--a +blundering ignoramus, who ought to have called in assistance long +before--she has been poisoned with _iodine_, which, administered in +certain quantities, would produce precisely the same symptoms. Happily +there is no mode of destroying human life which so surely leads to the +detection of the murderer as the use of such agents; and of this truth +the post mortem examination of the body, which takes place to-morrow +morning, will, if I am not grossly mistaken, supply another vivid +illustration. Legal assistance will no doubt be necessary, and I am sure +I do not err in expecting that _you_ will aid me in bringing to justice +the murderer of Mary Rawdon?" + +A pressure of his hand was my only answer. "I shall call for you at ten +o'clock" said he, as he put me down at my own door. I bowed, and the +carriage drove off. + +"Well!" said I, as Dr. Curteis and Mr. ---- the eminent surgeon entered +the library at Mount Place the following morning after a long absence. + +"As I anticipated," replied the doctor with a choking voice: "she has +been poisoned!" + +I started to my feet. "And the murderer?" + +"Our suspicions still point to young Bourdon; but the persons of both +mother and son have been secured." + +"Apart?" + +"Yes; and I have despatched a servant to request the presence of a +neighbor--a county magistrate. I expect him momently." + +After a brief consultation, we all three directed our steps to the +summer-house which contained young Bourdon's laboratory. In the room +itself nothing of importance was discovered; but in an enclosed recess, +which we broke open, we found a curiously-fashioned glass bottle half +full of iodine. + +"This is it!" said Mr. ----; "and in a powdered state too--just ready +for mixing with brandy or any other available dissolvent." The powder had +somewhat the appearance of fine black lead. Nothing further of any +consequence being observed, we returned to the house, where the +magistrate had already arrived. + +Alfred Bourdon was first brought in; and he having been duly cautioned +that he was not obliged to answer any question, and that what he did say +would be taken down, and, if necessary, used against him, I proposed the +following questions:-- + +"Have you the key of your laboratory?" + +"No; the door is always open." + +"Well, then, of any door or cupboard in the room?" + +At this question his face flushed purple: he stammered, "There is +no"--and abruptly paused. + +"Do I understand you to say there is no cupboard or place of concealment +in the room?" + +"No: here is the key." + +"Has any one had access to the cupboard or recess of which this is the +key, except yourself?" + +The young man shook as if smitten with ague: his lips chattered, but no +articulate sound escaped them. + +"You need not answer the question," said the magistrate, "unless you +choose to do so. I again warn you that all you say will, if necessary, +be used against you." + +"No one," he at length gasped, mastering his hesitation by a strong +exertion of the will--"no one can have had access to the place but +myself. I have never parted with the key." + +Mrs. Bourdon was now called in. After interchanging a glance of intense +agony, and, as it seemed to me, of affectionate intelligence with her +son, she calmly answered the questions put to her. They were unimportant, +except the last, and that acted upon her like a galvanic shock. It was +this--"Did you ever struggle with your son on the landing leading to the +bedroom of the deceased for the possession of this bottle?" and I held up +that which we had found in the recess. + +A slight scream escaped her lips; and then she stood rigid, erect, +motionless, glaring alternately at me and at the fatal bottle with eyes +that seemed starting from their sockets. I glanced towards the son; he +was also affected in a terrible manner. His knees smote each other, and a +clammy perspiration burst forth and settled upon his pallid forehead. + +"Again I caution you," iterated the magistrate, "that you are not bound +to answer any of these questions." + +The woman's lips moved. "No--never!" she almost inaudibly gasped, and +fell senseless on the floor. + +As soon as she was removed, Jane Withers was called. She deposed that +three days previously, as she was, just before dusk, arranging some linen +in a room a few yards distant from the bedroom of her late mistress, she +was surprised at hearing a noise just outside the door, as of persons +struggling and speaking in low but earnest tones. She drew aside a corner +of the muslin curtain of the window which locked upon the passage or +corridor, and there saw Mrs. Bourdon striving to wrest something from her +son's hand. She heard Mrs. Bourdon say, "You shall not do it, or you +shall not have it"--she could not be sure which. A noise of some sort +seemed to alarm them: they ceased struggling, and listened attentively +for a few seconds: then Alfred Bourdon stole off on tip-toe, leaving the +object in dispute, which witness could not see distinctly, in his +mother's hand. Mrs. Bourdon continued to listen, and presently Miss +Armitage, opening the door of her mother's chamber, called her by name. +She immediately placed what was in her hand on the marble top of a +side-table standing in the corridor, and hastened to Miss Armitage. +Witness left the room she had been in a few minutes afterwards, and, +curious to know what Mrs. Bourdon and her son had been struggling for, +went to the table to look at it. It was an oddly-shaped glass bottle, +containing a good deal of a blackish-gray powder, which, as she held it +up to the light, looked like black-lead! + +"Would you be able to swear to the bottle if you saw it?" + +"Certainly I should." + +"By what mark or token?" + +"The name of Valpy or Vulpy was cast into it--that is, the name was in +the glass itself." + +"Is this it?" + +"It is: I swear most positively." + +A letter was also read which had been taken from Bourdon's pocket. It was +much creased, and was proved to be in the handwriting of Mrs. Armitage. +It consisted of a severe rebuke at the young man's presumption in seeking +to address himself to her daughter, which insolent ingratitude, the +writer said, she should never, whilst she lived, either forget or +forgive. This last sentence was strongly underlined in a different ink +from that used by the writer of the letter. + +The surgeon deposed to the cause of death. It had been brought on by the +action of iodine, which, administered in certain quantities, produced +symptoms as of rapid atrophy, such as had appeared in Mrs. Armitage. The +glass bottle found in the recess contained iodine in a pulverized state. + +I deposed that, on entering the library on the previous evening I +overheard young Mr. Bourdon, addressing his mother, say, "Now that it is +done past recall, I will not shrink from any consequences, be they what +they may!" + +This was the substance of the evidence adduced; and the magistrate at +once committed Alfred Bourdon to Chelmsford jail, to take his trial at +the next assize for "wilful murder." A coroner's inquisition a few days +after also returned a verdict of "wilful murder" against him on the +same evidence. + +About an hour after his committal, and just previous to the arrival of +the vehicle which was to convey him to the county prison, Alfred Bourdon +requested an interview with me. I very reluctantly consented; but steeled +as I was against him, I could not avoid feeling dreadfully shocked at the +change which so brief an interval had wrought upon him. It had done the +work of years. Despair--black, utter despair--was written in every +lineament of his expressive countenance. + +"I have requested to see you," said the unhappy culprit, "rather than Dr. +Curteis, because he, I know, is bitterly prejudiced against me. But _you_ +will not refuse, I think, the solemn request of a dying man--for a dying +man I feel myself to be--however long or short the interval which stands +between me and the scaffold. It is not with a childish hope that any +assertion of mine can avail before the tribunal of the law against the +evidence adduced this day, that I, with all the solemnity befitting a man +whose days are numbered, declare to you that I am wholly innocent of the +crime laid to my charge. I have no such expectation; I seek only that +you, in pity of my youth and untimely fate, should convey to her whom I +have madly presumed to worship this message: 'Alfred Bourdon was mad, but +not blood-guilty; and of the crime laid to his charge he is innocent as +an unborn child.'" + +"The pure and holy passion, young man," said I, somewhat startled by his +impressive manner, "however presumptuous, as far as social considerations +are concerned, it might be, by which you affect to be inspired, is +utterly inconsistent with the cruel, dastardly crime of which such +damning evidence has an hour since been given"-- + +"Say no more, sir," interrupted Bourdon, sinking back in his seat, and +burying his face in his hands: "it were a bootless errand; she _could_ +not, in the face of that evidence, believe my unsupported assertion! It +were as well perhaps she did not. And yet, sir, it is hard to be +trampled into a felon's grave, loaded with the maledictions of those +whom you would coin your heart to serve and bless! Ah, sir," he +continued, whilst tears of agony streamed through his firmly-closed +fingers, "you cannot conceive the unutterable bitterness of the pang +which rends the heart of him who feels that he is not only despised, +but loathed, hated, execrated, by her whom his soul idolizes! Mine was +no boyish, transient passion: it has grown with my growth, and +strengthened with my strength. My life has been but one long dream of +her. All that my soul had drunk in of beauty in the visible earth and +heavens--the light of setting suns--the radiance of the silver +stars--the breath of summer flowers, together with all which we imagine +of celestial purity and grace, seemed to me in her incarnated, +concentrated, and combined! And now lost--lost--forever lost!" The +violence of his emotions choked his utterance; and deeply and painfully +affected, I hastened from his presence. + +Time sped as ever onwards, surely, silently; and justice, with her feet +of lead, but hands of iron, closed gradually upon her quarry. Alfred +Bourdon was arraigned before a jury of his countrymen, to answer finally +to the accusation of wilful murder preferred against him. + +The evidence, as given before the committing magistrate, and the +coroner's inquisition, was repeated with some addition of passionate +expressions used by the prisoner indicative of a desire to be avenged on +the deceased. The cross-examination by the counsel for the defense was +able, but failed to shake the case for the prosecution. His own +admission, that no one but himself had access to the recess where the +poison was found, told fatally against him. When called upon to address +the jury, he delivered himself of a speech rather than a defense; of an +oratorical effusion, instead of a vigorous, and, if possible, damaging +commentary upon the evidence arrayed against him. It was a labored, and +in part eloquent, exposition of the necessary fallibility of human +judgment, illustrated by numerous examples of erroneous verdicts. His +peroration I jotted down at the time:--"Thus, my lord and gentlemen of +the jury, is it abundantly manifest, not only by these examples, but by +the testimony which every man bears in his own breast, that God could not +have willed, could not have commanded, his creatures to perform a +pretended duty, which he vouchsafed them no power to perform righteously. +Oh, be sure that if he had intended, if he had commanded you to pronounce +irreversible decrees upon your fellow-man, quenching that life which is +his highest gift, he would have endowed you with gifts to perform that +duty rightly. Has he done so? Ask not alone the pages dripping with +innocent blood which I have quoted, but your own hearts! Are you, +according to the promise of the serpent-tempter, 'gods, knowing good from +evil?' of such clear omniscience, that you can hurl an unprepared soul +before the tribunal of its Maker, in the full assurance that you have +rightly loosed the silver cord which he had measured, have justly broken +the golden bowl which he had fashioned! Oh, my lord," he concluded, his +dark eyes flashing with excitement, "it is possible that the first +announcement of my innocence of this crime, to which you will give +credence, may be proclaimed from the awful tribunal of him who alone +cannot err! How if he, whose eye is even now upon us, should then +proclaim, '_I_ too, sat in judgment on the day when you presumed to doom +your fellow-worm; and _I_ saw that the murderer was not in the dock, but +on the bench!' Oh, my lord, think well of what you do--pause ere you +incur such fearful hazard; for be assured, that for all these things God +will also bring _you_ to judgment!" + +He ceased, and sank back exhausted. His fervid declamation produced a +considerable impression upon the auditory; but it soon disappeared before +the calm, impressive charge of the judge, who re-assured the startled +jury, by reminding them that their duty was to honestly execute the law, +not to dispute about its justice. For himself, he said, sustained by a +pure conscience, he was quite willing to incur the hazard hinted at by +the prisoner. After a careful and luminous summing up, the jury, with +very slight deliberation, returned a verdict of "Guilty." + +As the word passed the lips of the foreman of the jury, a piercing shriek +rang through the court. It proceeded from a tall figure in black, who, +with closely-drawn veil, had sat motionless during the trial, just before +the dock. It was the prisoner's mother. The next instant she rose, and +throwing back her veil wildly exclaimed, "He is innocent--innocent, I +tell ye! I alone"-- + +"Mother! mother! for the love of Heaven be silent!" shouted the prisoner +with frantic vehemence, and stretching himself over the front of the +dock, as if to grasp and restrain her. + +"Innocent, I tell you!" continued the woman. "I--I alone am the guilty +person! It was I alone that perpetrated the deed! He knew it not, +suspected it not, till it was too late. Here," she added, drawing a sheet +of paper from her bosom--"here is my confession, with each circumstance +detailed!" + +As she waved it over her head, it was snatched by her son, and, swift as +lightning, torn to shreds. "She is mad! Heed her not--believe her not!" +He at the same time shouted at the top of his powerful voice, "She is +distracted--mad! Now, my lord, your sentence! Come!" + +The tumult and excitement in the court no language which I can employ +would convey an adequate impression of. As soon as calm was partially +restored, Mrs. Bourdon was taken into custody: the prisoner was removed; +and the court adjourned, of course without passing sentence. + +It was even as his mother said! Subsequent investigation, aided by her +confessions, amply proved that the fearful crime was conceived and +perpetrated by her alone, in the frantic hope of securing for her +idolized son the hand and fortune of Miss Armitage. She had often been +present with him in his laboratory, and had thus become acquainted with +the uses to which certain agents could be put. She had purloined the key +of the recess; and he, unfortunately too late to prevent the perpetration +of the crime, had by mere accident discovered the abstraction of the +poison. His subsequent declarations had been made for the determined +purpose of saving his mother's life by the sacrifice of his own! + +The wretched woman was not reserved to fall before the justice of her +country. The hand of God smote her ere the scaffold was prepared for +her. She was smitten with frenzy, and died raving in the Metropolitan +Lunatic Asylum. Alfred Bourdon, after a lengthened imprisonment, was +liberated. He called on me, by appointment, a few days previous to +leaving this country forever; and I placed in his hands a small +pocket-Bible, on the fly-leaf of which was written one word--"Ellen!" +His dim eye lighted up with something of its old fire as he glanced at +the characters; he then closed the book, placed it in his bosom, and +waving me a mute farewell--I saw he durst not trust himself to +speak--hastily departed. I never saw him more! + + + + +"THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS." + + +In the month of February of the year following that which witnessed the +successful establishment of the claim of Sir Harry Compton's infant son +to his magnificent patrimony, Mr. Samuel Ferret was traveling post with +all the speed he could command towards Lancashire, in compliance with a +summons from Lady Compton, requesting, in urgent terms, his immediate +presence at the castle. It was wild and bitter weather, and the roads +were in many places rendered dangerous, and almost impassable, by the +drifting snow. Mr. Ferret, however, pressed onwards with his habitual +energy and perseverance; and, spite of all elemental and postboy +opposition, succeeded in accomplishing his journey in much less time +than, under the circumstances, could have been reasonably expected. But +swiftly as, for those slow times, he pushed on, it is necessary I should +anticipate, by a brief period, his arrival at his destination, in order +to put the reader in possession of the circumstances which had occasioned +the hurried and pressing message he had received. + +Two days before, as Lady Compton and her sister, who had been paying a +visit to Mrs. Arlington at the Grange, were returning home towards nine +o'clock in the evening, they observed, as the carriage turned a sharp +angle of the road leading through Compton Park, a considerable number of +lighted lanterns borne hurriedly to and fro in various directions, by +persons apparently in eager but bewildered pursuit of some missing +object. The carriage was stopped, and in answer to the servants' +inquiries, it was replied that Major Brandon's crazy niece had escaped +from her uncle's house; and although traced by the snow-tracks as far as +the entrance to the park, had not yet been recovered. Mrs. Brandon had +offered a reward of ten pounds to whoever should secure and reconduct her +home; hence the hot pursuit of the fugitive, who, it was now supposed, +must be concealed in the shrubberies. Rumors regarding this unfortunate +young lady, by no means favorable to the character of her relatives as +persons of humanity, had previously reached Lady Compton's ears; and she +determined to avail herself, if possible, of the present opportunity to +obtain a personal interview with the real or supposed lunatic. The men +who had been questioned were informed that only the castle servants could +be allowed to search for the missing person, either in the park or +shrubberies; and that if there, she would be taken care of, and restored +to her friends in the morning. The coachman was then ordered to drive on; +but the wheels had not made half-a-dozen revolutions, when a loud shout +at some distance, in the direction of the park, followed by a succession +of piercing screams, announced the discovery and capture of the object of +the chase. The horses were urged rapidly forward; and ere more than a +minute had elapsed, the carriage drew up within a few yards of the hunted +girl and her captors. The instant it stopped, Clara Brandon, liberating +herself by a frenzied effort from the rude grasp in which she was held by +an athletic young man, sprang wildly towards it, and with passionate +intreaty implored mercy and protection. The young man, a son of Mrs. +Brandon's by a former husband, immediately re-seized her; and with fierce +violence endeavored to wrench her hand from the handle of the carriage +door, which she clutched with desperate tenacity. The door flew open, +the sudden jerk disengaged her hold, and she struggled vainly in her +captor's powerful grasp. "Save me! save me!" she frantically exclaimed, +as she felt herself borne off. "You who are, they say, as kind and good +as you are beautiful and happy, save me from this cruel man!" + +Lady Compton, inexpressibly shocked by the piteous spectacle presented by +the unhappy girl--her scanty clothing soiled, disarrayed, and torn by the +violence of her struggles; her long flaxen tresses flowing disorderly +over her face and neck in tangled dishevelment; and the pale, haggard, +wild expression of her countenance--was for a few moments incapable of +speech. Her sister was more collected: "Violet," she instantly +remonstrated, "do not permit this brutal violence." + +"What right has she or any one to interfere with us?" demanded the young +man savagely. "This girl is Major Brandon's ward, as well as niece, and +_shall_ return to her lawful home! Stand back," continued he, addressing +the servants, who, at a gesture from Miss Dalston, barred his progress. +"Withstand me at your peril!" + +"Force her from him!" exclaimed Lady Compton, recovering her +voice. "Gently! gently! I will be answerable for her safe custody +till the morning." + +The athletic fellow struggled desperately; but however powerful and +determined, he was only one man against a score, nearly all the +bystanders being tenants or laborers on the Compton estates; and spite of +his furious efforts, and menaces of law and vengeance, Clara was torn +from him in a twinkling, and himself hurled with some violence prostrate +on the road. "Do not let them hurt the man," said Lady Compton, as the +servants placed the insensible girl in the carriage (she had fainted); +"and tell him that if he has really any legal claim to the custody of +this unfortunate person, he must prefer it in the morning." + +Immediately on arrival at the castle, the escaped prisoner was conveyed +to bed, and medical aid instantly summoned. When restored to +consciousness, whether from the effect of an excess of fever producing +temporary delirium, or from confirmed mental disease, her speech was +altogether wild and incoherent--the only at all consistent portions of +her ravings being piteously--iterated appeals to Lady Compton not to +surrender her to her aunt in-law, Mrs. Brandon, of whom she seemed to +entertain an overpowering, indefinable dread. It was evident she had been +subjected to extremely brutal treatment--such as, in these days of +improved legislation in such matters, and greatly advanced knowledge of +the origin and remedy of cerebral infirmity, would not be permitted +towards the meanest human being, much less a tenderly-nurtured, delicate +female. At length, under the influence of a composing draught, she sank +gradually to sleep; and Lady Compton having determined to rescue her, if +possible, from the suspicious custody of her relatives, and naturally +apprehensive of the legal difficulties which she could not doubt would +impede the execution of her generous, if somewhat Quixotic project, +resolved on at once sending off an express for Mr. Ferret, on whose +acumen and zeal she knew she could place the fullest reliance. + +Clara Brandon's simple history may be briefly summed up. She was the only +child of a Mr. Frederick Brandon, who, a widower in the second year of +his marriage, had since principally resided at the "Elms," a handsome +mansion and grounds which he had leased of the uncle of the late Sir +Harry Compton. At his decease, which occurred about two years previous to +poor Clara's escape from confinement, as just narrated, he bequeathed +his entire fortune, between two and three thousand pounds per annum, +chiefly secured on land, to his daughter; appointed his elder brother, +Major Brandon, sole executor of his will, and guardian of his child; and +in the event of her dying before she had attained her majority--of which +she wanted, at her father's death, upwards of three years--or without +lawful issue, the property was to go to the major, to be by him willed at +his pleasure. Major Brandon, whose physical and mental energies had been +prematurely broken down--he was only in his fifty-second year--either by +excess or hard service in the East, perhaps both, had married late in +life the widow of a brother officer, and the mother of a grown-up son. +The lady, a woman of inflexible will, considerable remains of a somewhat +masculine beauty, and about ten years her husband's junior, held him in a +state of thorough pupilage; and, unchecked by him, devoted all her +energies to bring about, by fair or foul means, a union between Clara and +her own son, a cub of some two or three-and-twenty years of age, whose +sole object in seconding his mother's views upon Clara was the +acquisition of her wealth. According to popular surmise and report, the +young lady's mental infirmity had been brought about by the persecutions +she had endured at the hands of Mrs. Brandon, with a view to force her +into a marriage she detested. The most reliable authority for the truth +of these rumors was Susan Hopley, now in the service of Lady Compton, but +who had lived for many years with Mr. Frederick Brandon and his daughter. +She had been discharged about six months after her master's decease by +Mrs. Major Brandon for alleged impertinence; and so thoroughly convinced +was Susan that the soon-afterwards alleged lunacy of Clara was but a +juggling pretence to excuse the restraint under which her aunt-in-law, +for the furtherance of her own vile purposes, had determined to keep +her, that although out of place at the time, she devoted all the savings +of her life, between eighty and ninety pounds, to procure "justice" for +the ill-used orphan. This article, Susan was advised, could be best +obtained of the lord chancellor; and proceedings were accordingly taken +before the keeper of the king's conscience, in order to change the +custody of the pretended lunatic. The affidavits filed in support of the +petition were, however, so loose and vague, and were met with such +positive counter-allegations, that the application was at once dismissed +with costs; and poor Susan--rash suitor for "justice"--reduced to +absolute penury. These circumstances becoming known to Lady Compton, +Susan was taken into her service; and it was principally owing to her +frequently-iterated version of the affair that Clara had been forcibly +rescued from Mrs. Brandon's son. + +On the following morning the patient was much calmer, though her mind +still wandered somewhat. Fortified by the authority of the physician, who +certified that to remove her, or even to expose her to agitation, would +be dangerous, if not fatal, Lady Compton not only refused to deliver her +up to Major and Mrs. Brandon, but to allow them to see her. Mrs. Brandon, +in a towering rage, posted off to the nearest magistrate, to demand the +assistance of peace-officers in obtaining possession of the person of the +fugitive. That functionary would, however, only so far comply with the +indignant lady's solicitations, as to send his clerk to the castle to +ascertain the reason of the young lady's detention; and when his +messenger returned with a note, enclosing a copy of the physician's +certificate, he peremptorily decided that the conduct of Lady Compton was +not only perfectly justifiable, but praiseworthy, and that the matter +must remain over till the patient was in a condition to be moved. Things +were precisely in this state, except that Clara Brandon had become +perfectly rational; and but for an irrepressible nervous dread of again +falling into the power of her unscrupulous relative, quite calm, when Mr. +Samuel Ferret made his wished-for appearance on the scene of action. + +Long and anxious was the conference which Mr. Ferret held with his +munificent client and her interesting protegee, if conference that may be +called in which the astute attorney enacted the part of listener only, +scarcely once opening his thin, cautious lips. In vain did his eager +brain silently ransack the whole armory of the law; no weapon could he +discern which afforded the slightest hope of fighting a successful battle +with a legally-appointed guardian for the custody of his ward. And yet +Mr. Ferret felt, as he looked upon the flashing eye and glowing +countenance of Lady Compton, as she recounted a few of the grievous +outrages inflicted upon the fair and helpless girl reclining beside +her--whose varying cheek and meek suffused eyes bore eloquent testimony +to the truth of the relation--that he would willingly exert a vigor even +_beyond_ the law to meet his client's wishes, could he but see his way to +a safe result. At length a ray of light, judging from his +suddenly-gleaming eyes, seemed to have broken upon the troubled chambers +of his brain, and he rose somewhat hastily from his chair. + +"By the by, I will just step and speak to this Susan Hopley, if your +ladyship can inform me in what part of the lower regions I am likely to +meet with her?" + +"Let me ring for her." + +"No; if you please not. What I have to ask her is of very little +importance; still, to summon her here might give rise to surmises, +reports, and so on, which it may be as well to avoid. I had much rather +see her accidentally, as it were." + +"As you please. You will find her somewhere about the housekeeper's +apartments. You know her by sight, I think?" + +"Perfectly; and with your leave I'll take the opportunity of directing +the horses to be put to. I must be in London by noon to-morrow if +possible;" and away Mr. Ferret bustled. + +"Susan," said Mr. Ferret a few minutes afterwards, "step this way; I want +to have a word with you. Now, tell me are you goose enough to expect you +will ever see the money again you so foolishly threw into the bottomless +pit of chancery?" + +"Of course I shall, Mr. Ferret, as soon as ever Miss Clara comes to her +own. She mentioned it only this morning, and said she was sorry she could +not repay me at once." + +"You are a sensible girl, Susan, though you _did_ go to law with the lord +chancellor! I want you to be off with me to London; and then perhaps we +may get your money sooner than you expect." + +"Oh, bother the money! Is that _all_ you want me to go to Lunnon for?" + +Mr. Ferret replied with a wink of such exceeding intelligence, that +Susan at once declared she should be ready to start in ten minutes at +the latest. + +"That's a good creature; and, Susan, as there's not the slightest +occasion to let all the world know who's going to run off with you, it +may be as well for you to take your bundle and step on a mile or so on +the road, say to the turn, just beyond the first turnpike." Susan nodded +with brisk good-humor, and disappeared in a twinkling. + +An hour afterwards, Mr. Ferret was on his way back to London, having +first impressed upon Lady Compton the necessity of immediately relieving +herself of the grave responsibility she had incurred towards Major +Brandon for the safe custody of his ward, by sending her home +immediately. He promised to return on the third day from his departure; +but on the nature of the measures he intended to adopt, or the hopes he +entertained of success, he was inflexibly silent; and he moreover +especially requested that no one, not even Miss Brandon, should know of +Susan Hopley's journey to the metropolis. + +Mr. Ferret, immediately on his arrival in town, called at my chambers, +and related with his usual minuteness and precision as many of the +foregoing particulars as he knew and thought proper to communicate to me. +For the rest I am indebted to subsequent conversations with the different +parties concerned. + +"Well," said I, as soon as he had concluded, "what course do you propose +to adopt?" + +"I wish you to apply, on this affidavit, for a writ of _habeas ad sub._, +to bring up the body of Clara Brandon. Judge Bailey will be at chambers +at three o'clock: it is now more than half-past two, and I can be off on +my return by four at latest." + +"A writ of habeas!" I exclaimed with astonishment. "Why, what end can +that answer? The lady will be remanded, and you and I shall be laughed at +for our pains." + +This writ of _habeas corpus "ad subjiciendum,_" I had better explain to +the non-professional reader, is the great _prerogative_ writ, the +operation of which is sometimes suspended by the legislature during +political panics. It is grounded on the principle that the sovereign has +at all times a right to inquire, through the judges of the superior +courts, by what authority his or her subject is held in constraint. It +issues, as a matter of right, upon the filing of an affidavit, averring +that to the best of the belief of the deponent the individual sought to +be brought up is illegally confined; and it is of the essence of the +proceeding, that the person alleged to be suffering unlawful constraint +should actually be brought before the "queen herself;" that is, before +one or more of the judges of the court which has issued the writ, who, if +they find _the detention illegal_, the only question at issue upon this +writ may discharge or bail the party. It was quite obvious, therefore, +that in this case such a proceeding would be altogether futile, as the +detention in the house of her guardian, under the sanction, too, of the +lord chancellor, the _ex-officio_ custodier of all lunatics--of a ward of +alleged disordered intellect--was clearly legal, at least _prima facie_ +so, and not to be disturbed under a _habeas ad sub_. at all events. + +"Perhaps so," replied Ferret quite coolly in reply to my exclamation; +"but I am determined to try every means of releasing the unfortunate +young lady from the cruel thraldom in which she is held by that harridan +of an aunt-in-law. She is no more really insane than you are; but at the +same time so excitable upon certain topics, that it might be perhaps +difficult to disabuse the chancellor or a jury of the impression so +industriously propagated to her prejudice. The peremptory rejection by +her guardian of young Burford's addresses, though sanctioned by her +father: you know the Burfords?" + +"Of Grosvenor Street you mean--the East India director?" + +"Yes, his son; and that reminds me that the declaration in that +everlasting exchequer case must be filed to-morrow. Confound it, how this +flying about the country puts one out! I thought some one had kidnapped +her son, or fired Compton Castle at least. By the way, I am much deceived +if there isn't a wedding there before long." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, Miss Dalston with Sir Jasper's eldest hope." + +"You don't mean it?" + +"_They_ do at all events, and that is much more to the purpose. A fine +young fellow enough, and sufficiently rich too"-- + +"All which rambling talk and anecdote," cried I, interrupting him, +"means, if I have any skill in reading Mr. Ferret, that that gentleman, +having some ulterior purpose in view, which I cannot for the moment +divine, is determined to have this writ, and does not wish to be pestered +with any argument on the subject. Be it so: it is your affair, not mine. +And now, as it is just upon three o'clock, let me see your affidavit." + +I ran it over. "Rather loose this, Mr. Ferret, but I suppose it will do." + +"Well, it _is_ rather loose, but I could not with safety sail much closer +to the wind. By the by, I think you had better first apply for a rule to +stay proceedings against the bail in that case of Turner; and after that +is decided, just ask for this writ, off-hand as it were, and as a matter +of course. His lordship may not then scrutinize the affidavit quite so +closely as if he thought counsel had been brought to chambers purposely +to apply for it." + +"Cautious, Mr. Ferret! Well, come along, and I'll see what I can do." + +The writ was obtained without difficulty; few questions were asked; and +at my request the judge made it returnable immediately. By four o'clock, +Mr. Ferret, who could fortunately sleep as well in a postchaise as in a +feather-bed, was, as he had promised himself, on his road to Lancashire +once more, where he had the pleasure of serving Major Brandon personally; +at the same time tendering in due form the one shilling per mile fixed by +the statute as preliminary traveling charges. The vituperative eloquence +showered upon Mr. Ferret by the Major's lady was, I afterwards heard, +extremely copious and varied, and was borne by him, as I could easily +believe, with the most philosophic composure. + +In due time the parties appeared before Mr. Justice Bailey. Miss Brandon +was accompanied by her uncle, his wife, and a solicitor; and spite of +everything I could urge, the judge, as I had forseen, refused to +interfere in the matter. The poor girl was dreadfully agitated, but kept, +nevertheless, her eyes upon Mr. Ferret, as the source from which, spite +of what was passing around her, effectual succor was sure to come. As for +that gentleman himself, he appeared composedly indifferent to the +proceedings; and indeed, I thought, seemed rather relieved than otherwise +when they terminated. I could not comprehend him. Mrs. Brandon, the +instant the case was decided, clutched Clara's arm within hers, and, +followed by her husband and the solicitor, sailed out of the apartment +with an air of triumphant disdain and pride. Miss Brandon looked round +for Ferret, but not perceiving him--he had left hastily an instant or two +before--her face became deadly pale, and the most piteous expression of +hopeless despair I had ever beheld broke from her troubled but +singularly-expressive eyes. I mechanically followed, with a half-formed +purpose of remonstrating with Major Brandon in behalf of the unfortunate +girl, and was by that means soon in possession of the key to Mr. Ferret's +apparently inexplicable conduct. + +The Brandon party walked very fast, and I had scarcely got up with +them as they were turning out of Chancery Lane into Fleet Street, when +two men, whose vocation no accustomed eye could for an instant +mistake, arrested their further progress. "This lady," said one of the +men, slightly touching Miss Brandon on the shoulder, "is, I believe, +Clara Brandon?" + +"Yes she is; and what of that, fellow?" demanded the major's lady with +indignant emphasis. + +"Not much, ma'am," replied the sheriff's officer, "when you are used to +it. It is my unpleasant duty to arrest her for the sum of eighty-seven +pounds, indorsed on this writ, issued at the suit of one Susan Hopley." + +"Arrest her!" exclaimed Mrs. Brandon; "why, she is a minor!" + +"Minor or major, ma'am, makes very little difference to us. She can plead +that hereafter, you know. In the meantime, miss, please to step into this +coach," replied the officer, holding the door open. + +"But she's a person of unsound mind," screamed the lady, as Clara, +nothing loath, sprang into the vehicle. + +"So are most people that do business with our establishment," responded +the imperturbable official, as he shut and fastened the door. "Here is my +card, sir," he added, addressing the attorney, who now came up. "You see +where to find the lady, if her friends wish to give bail to the sheriff, +or, what is always more satisfactory, pay the debt and costs." He then +jumped on the box, his follower got up behind, and away drove the coach, +leaving the discomfited major and his fiery better-half in a state of the +blankest bewilderment! + +"Why, what _is_ the meaning of this?" at length gasped Mrs. Brandon, +fiercely addressing the attorney, as if _he_, were a _particeps criminis_ +in the affair. + +"The meaning, my dear madame, is, that Miss Clara Brandon is arrested for +debt, and carried off to a sponging-house; and that unless you pay the +money, or file bail, she will tomorrow be lodged in jail," replied the +unmoved man of law. + +"Bail! money! How are we to do either in London, away from home?" +demanded the major with, for him, much emotion. + +I did not wait to hear more, but, almost suffocated with laughter at the +success of Ferret's audacious _ruse_, hastened over to the Temple. I was +just leaving chambers for the night--about ten o'clock I think it must +have been--when Ferret, in exuberant spirits, burst into the room. + +"Well, sir, what do you think _now_ of a writ _ad sub._?" + +"Why, I think, Mr. Ferret," replied I, looking as serious as I could, +"that yours is very sharp practice; that the purpose you have put it to +is an abuse of the writ; that the arrest is consequently illegal; and +that a judge would, upon motion, quash it with costs." + +"To be sure he would: who doubts that? Let him, and welcome! In the +meantime, Clara Brandon is safe beyond the reach of all the judges or +chancellors that ever wore horsehair, and that everlasting simpleton of a +major and his harridan wife roaming the metropolis like distracted +creatures; and that I take to be the real essence of the thing, whatever +the big-wigs may decide about the shells!" + +"I suppose the plaintiff soon discharged her debtor out of custody?" + +"Without loss of time, you may be sure. Miss Brandon, I may tell _you_, +is with the Rev. Mr. Derwent at Brompton. You know him: the newly-married +curate of St. Margaret's that was examined in that will case. Well him: +he is an intelligent, high-principled man; and I have no doubt that, +under his and Mrs. Derwent's care, all trace of Miss Brandon's mental +infirmity will disappear long before she attains her majority next June +twelvemonth; whilst the liberal sum per month which Lady Compton will +advance, will be of great service to him" + +"That appears all very good. But are you sure you can effectually +conceal the place of her retreat?" + +"I have no fear: the twigs that will entangle her precious guardians in +the labyrinths of a false clue are already set and limed. Before +to-morrow night they will have discovered, by means of their own +wonderfully-penetrative sagacity, that Clara has been spirited over to +France; and before three months are past, the same surprising +intelligence will rejoice in the discovery that she expired in a _maison +de sante_--fine comfortable repose, in which fool's paradise I hope to +have the honor of awakening them about next June twelvemonth, and not as +at present advised before!" + +Everything fortunately turned out as Mr. Ferret anticipated; and when a +few months had glided by, Clara Brandon was a memory only, save of course +to the few entrusted with the secret. + +The whirligig of time continued as ever to speed on its course, and bring +round in due season its destined revenges. The health, mental and bodily, +of Miss Brandon rapidly improved under the kind and judicious treatment +of Mr. and Mrs. Derwent; and long before the attainment of her majority, +were pronounced by competent authority to be thoroughly re-established. +The day following that which completed her twentyfirst year, Mr. Ferret, +armed with the necessary authority, had the pleasure of announcing to the +relict of Major Brandon (he had been dead some months), and to her brutal +son, that they must forthwith depart from the home in which they, to the +very moment of his announcement, thought themselves secure; and surrender +every shilling of the property they had so long dreamt was their own. +They were prostrated by the intelligence, and proved as mean and servile +in the hour of adversity, as they had been insolent and cruel in the day +of fancied success and prosperity. The pension of three hundred pounds a +year for both their lives, proffered by Miss Brandon, was eagerly +accepted; and they returned to the obscurity from which they had by +accident emerged. + +About six months afterwards, I had the pleasure of drawing up the +marriage settlement between Clara Brandon and Herbert Burford; and a +twelvemonth after, that of standing sponsor to one of the lustiest brats +ever sprinkled at a font: none of which delightful results, if we are to +believe Mr. Ferret, would have ever been arrived at had not he, at a very +critical moment, refused to take counsel's opinion upon the virtues, +capabilities, and powers contained in the great writ of _habeas corpus +ad subjiciendum_. + + + + +ESTHER MASON. + + +About forty years ago, Jabez Woodford, a foreman of shipwrights in the +Plymouth dockyard, whilst carelessly crossing one of the transverse beams +of a seventy-four gun-ship, building in that arsenal, missed his footing, +fell to the bottom of the hold of the huge vessel, and was killed on the +spot. He left a widow and one child--a boy seven years of age, of placid, +endearing disposition, but weak intellect--almost in a state of +destitution. He had been a coarse-tempered, improvident man; and like too +many of his class, in those days at least, dissipated the whole of his +large earnings in present sensuous indulgence, utterly careless or +unmindful of the future. Esther Woodford, who, at the time of her +husband's death, scarcely numbered five-and-twenty years, was still a +remarkably comely, as well as interesting, gentle-mannered person; and +moreover had, for her station in life, received a tolerable education. +Her rash, ill-assorted marriage with Woodford had been hastily contracted +when she was barely seventeen years of age, in consequence of a jealous +pique which she, for some silly reason or other, had conceived regarding +Henry Mason, an intelligent, young seafaring man, of fair prospects in +life, and frank disposition, with whom she had for some time previously, +as the west-country phrase has it, "kept company," and who was, moreover, +tenderly attached to her. Esther's married life was one long repentance +of the rash act; and the severance of the tie which bound her to an +ungenial mate--after the subsidence of the natural horror and compassion +excited by the sudden and frightful nature of the catastrophe--must have +been felt as a most blessed relief. A few weeks afterwards, she accepted +an asylum with her brother-in-law, Davies, a market-gardener in the +vicinity of Plymouth, where, by persevering industry with her needle, and +thrifty helpfulness in her sister's household duties, she endeavored to +compensate her kind-hearted relatives for the support of herself and +helpless, half-witted child. Mason she had never seen since the day +previous to her marriage; but she knew he was prospering in the busy +world, and that, some time before her husband's death, he had been +appointed chief-mate in a first-class merchant-ship trading to the +Pacific. He had sailed about a fortnight previous to that event; and now, +ten lazy months having slowly floated past, the lover of her youth, with +whom, in that last sunny day of her young life--how distant did it seem, +viewed through the long intervening vista of days and nights of grief and +tears!--she had danced so joyously beneath the flowering chestnut-trees, +was once more near her; and it was--oh happiness!--no longer a sin to +think of him--no longer a crime to recall and dwell upon the numberless +proofs of the deep affection, the strong love, he had once felt for her. +_Once_ felt! Perhaps even now!--How swiftly had the intelligence +communicated by her sympathizing sister tinted with bright hues the dark +curtain of the future! + +"And yet," murmured poor Esther, the flush of hope fading as suddenly as +it had arisen, as with meek sad eyes she glanced at the reflection of her +features in the small oval glass suspended above the mantel-piece--"I +almost doubt, Susy, dear, if he would recognize me; even if old feelings +and old times have not long since faded from his memory"-- + +"Stuff and trumpery about fading away!" broke in Mrs. Davies. "Henry +Mason is the same true-hearted man he was eight years ago; and as a +proof that he is, just read this letter, which I promised him to give +you. There, don't go falling into a flustration; don't now, Esther, +and to-morrow market-day and all! Don't cry, Esther," she added +vehemently, but at the same time sobbing furiously herself, and +throwing her arms round her sister's neck: "but perhaps--perhaps it +will do us good, both of us!" + +It may he necessary to state that I owe the foregoing particulars to the +interest felt by my wife--herself a native of beautiful Devon--in the +fortunes of this humble household. Esther was her foster-sister; and it +happened that just at this period, it being vacation-time, we were paying +a visit to a family in the neighborhood. A few hours after the receipt of +the welcome letter, my wife chanced to call on Esther relative to some +fancy needlework; and on her return, I was of course favored with very +full and florid details of this little bit of cottage romance; the which +I, from regard to the reader, have carefully noted down, and as briefly +as possible expressed. + +We met Henry Mason with his recovered treasure on the following evening; +and certainly a more favorable specimen of the vigorous, active, +bold-featured, frank-spoken British seaman I never met with. To his +comparatively excellent education--for which I understood he was indebted +to his mother, a superior woman, who, having fallen from one of the +little heights of society, had kept a school at Plymouth--in addition to +his correct and temperate habits, he was indebted for the rapid +advance--he was but a few months older than Esther--he had obtained in +the merchant service. The happiness which beamed upon Esther's face did +not appear to be of the exuberant, buoyant character that kindled the +ruddy cheek and ran over at the bright, honest eyes of the hardy sailor: +there seemed to mingle with it a half-doubting, trembling +apprehensiveness; albeit it was not difficult to perceive that, +sorrowfully as had passed her noon of prime, an "Indian summer" of the +soul was rising upon her brightened existence, and already with its first +faint flushes lighting up her meek, doubting eyes, and pale, changing +countenance. Willy, her feeble-minded child, frisked and gambolled by +their side; and altogether, a happier group than they would, I fancy, +have been difficult to find in all broad England. + +The next week they were married; and one of the partners in the firm by +which Mason was employed happening to dine with us on the day of the +wedding, the conversation turned for a few minutes on the bridegroom's +character and prospects. + +"He has the ring of true metal in him," I remarked; "and is, I should +suppose, a capital seaman?" + +"A first-rate one," replied Mr. Roberts. "Indeed so high is my father's +opinion of him, that he intends to confer upon him the command of a fine +brig now building for us in the Thames, and intended for the West India +trade. He possesses also singular courage and daring. Twice, under very +hazardous circumstances, he has successfully risked his life to save men +who had fallen overboard. He is altogether a skilful, gallant seaman." + +"Such a man," observed another of the company, "might surely have aspired +higher than to the hand of Esther Woodford, dove-eyed and interesting as +she may be?" + +"Perhaps so," returned Mr. Roberts a little curtly; "though +he, it seems, could not have thought so. Indeed it is chiefly of +simple-hearted, chivalrous-minded men like Mason that it can +be with general truth observed-- + +'On revient toujours a ses premiers amours.'" + +The subject then dropped, and it was a considerable time afterwards, and +under altogether altered circumstances, when the newly-married couple +once more crossed my path in life. + +It was about eight months after his marriage--though he had been +profitably enough employed in the interim--that Henry Mason, in +consequence of the welcome announcement that the new brig was at last +ready for her captain and cargo, arrived in London to enter upon his new +appointment. + +"These lodgings, Esther," said he, as he was preparing to go out, soon +after breakfast, on the morning after his arrival, "are scarcely the +thing; and as I, like you, am a stranger in Cockney-land, I had better +consult some of the firm upon the subject, before we decide upon +permanent ones. In the meantime, you and Willy must mind and keep in +doors when I am not with you, or I shall have one or other of you lost in +this great wilderness of a city. I shall return in two or three hours. I +will order something for dinner as I go along: I have your purse. +Good-by: God bless you both." + +Inquiring his way every two or three minutes, Mason presently found +himself in the vicinity of Tower Stairs. A scuffle in front of a +public-house attracted his attention; and his ready sympathies were in an +instant enlisted in behalf of a young sailor, vainly struggling in the +grasp of several athletic men, and crying lustily on the gaping +bystanders for help. Mason sprang forward, caught one of the assailants +by the collar, and hurled him with some violence against the wall. A +fierce outcry greeted this audacious interference with gentlemen who, in +those good old times, were but executing the law in a remarkably good old +manner. Lieutenant Donnagheu, a somewhat celebrated snapper-up of loose +mariners, emerged upon the scene; and in a few minutes was enabled to +exult in the secure possession of an additional prize in the unfortunate +Henry Mason, who, too late, discovered that he had embroiled himself with +a _pressgang_! Desperate, frenzied were the efforts he made to extricate +himself from the peril in which he had rashly involved himself. In vain! +His protestations that he was a mate, a captain, in the merchant service, +were unheeded or mocked at. + +To all his remonstrances he only got the professional answer--"His +majesty wants you, and that is enough; so come along, and no more +about it." + +Bruised, exhausted, almost mad, he was borne off in triumph to a boat, +into which he was thrust with several others, and swiftly rowed off to a +receiving-ship in the river. Even there his assertions and protestations +were of no avail. Nothing but an Admiralty order, the officer in command +candidly told him, should effect his liberation. His majesty was in need +of seamen; and he was evidently too smart a one to be deprived of the +glory of serving his country. "You must therefore," concluded the +officer, as he turned laughingly upon his heel, "do as thousands of +other fine fellows have been compelled to do--'grin and bear it.'" In +about three weeks from the date of his impressment Mason found himself +serving in the Mediterranean on board the "Active" frigate, Captain +Alexander Gordon, without having been permitted one opportunity of +communicating with the shore. This was certainly very sharp, but it was +not the less very _common_ practice in those great days of triumphant +battles by land and sea. + +Very drearily passed the time with the bereaved wife. Her husband had +promised to send home something for dinner, and various groceries; yet +hour after hour went past, and nothing arrived. Morning flushed into +noon, day faded to twilight, and still the well-known and always eager +step sounded not upon the stairs! What could have detained him from his +wife, shut up, imprisoned, as it were, in that hot, hurrying, stifling +city? She feared to listen to the suggestions of her boding heart; and +with feverish restlessness ran out upon the landing, and peered over the +stairs every time a knock or ring was heard at the street-door. This +strange behavior was, it seems, noticed by the landlady of the +lodging-house, and injuriously interpreted. A knock came to the door, and +that person entered to know at what time _Mrs_. ----, she had forgotten +the young woman's name, expected the dinner, she, the landlady, had +undertaken to cook. + +Esther timidly replied that her husband had promised to return in two or +three hours at latest; and that she did not comprehend his continued +absence--was indeed quite alarmed about it-- + +"Your husband!" said the woman, glancing insolently at Esther's figure. +"Are you sure he _is_ your husband?" + +The hot blood suffused the temples of the indignant wife as she said, +"This apartment, madam, I believe is mine?" + +"Oh, certainly, as long as you can pay for it;" and rudely slamming the +door, the landlady departed. + +The long wretched night at last over, Esther rose with the light; and +after giving her son his breakfast from the remains of that of the day +before, set off with him to the place of business of the Messrs. Roberts. +It was early, and one clerk only had as yet arrived at the office. He +informed her that Mr. Henry Mason had not been seen, and that the +partners were greatly annoyed about it, as his immediate presence was +absolutely necessary. + +Stunned, terrified, bewildered by the frightful calamity which she +believed had befallen her, she felt convinced that her husband had been +entrapped and murdered for the sake of the money he had about him: the +wretched woman tottered back to her lodgings, and threw herself on the +bed in wild despair. What was to be done for food even for her boy? Her +husband had not only his pocket-book with him containing his larger +money, but had taken her purse! She was alone and penniless in a strange +city! The hungry wailings of her witless child towards evening at length +aroused her from the stupor of despair into which she had fallen. The +miserable resource of pawning occurred to her: she could at least, by +pledging a part of her wardrobe, procure sustenance for her child till +she could hear from her sister; and with trembling hands she began +arranging a bundle of such things as she could best spare, when the +landlady abruptly entered the room, with a peremptory demand--as her +husband was not returned, and did not appear likely to do so--for a +month's rent in advance, that being the term the apartments were engaged +for. The tears, entreaties, expostulations of the miserable wife were of +no avail. Not one article, the woman declared, should leave her house +till her claim was settled. She affected to doubt, perhaps really did so, +that Esther was married; and hinted coarsely at an enforcement of the +laws against persons who had no visible means of subsistence. In a +paroxysm of despair, the unhappy woman rushed out of the house; and +accompanied by her hungry child, again sought the counting-house of the +Messrs. Roberts. She was now as much too late as she had been too early +in the morning: the partners and clerks had gone, and she appears to have +been treated with some rudeness by the porter, who was closing the +premises when she arrived. Possibly the wildness of her looks, and the +incoherence of her speech and manner, produced an impression unfavorable +to her. Retracing her steps--penniless, hungry, sick at heart--she +thought, as she afterwards declared, that she recognized my wife in one +of the numerous ladies seated before the counters of a fashionable shop +in one of the busiest thoroughfares. She entered, and not till she +approached close to the lady discovered her mistake. She turned +despairingly away; when a piece of rich lace, lying apparently unheeded +on the counter, met her eye, and a dreadful suggestion crossed her +fevered brain; here at least was the means of procuring food for her +wailing child. She glanced hastily and fearfully round. No eye, she +thought, observed her; and, horror of horrors! a moment afterwards she +had concealed the lace beneath her shawl, and with tottering feet was +hastily leaving the shop. She had not taken half-a-dozen steps when a +heavy hand was laid upon her shoulder, and a voice, as of a serpent +hissing in her ear, commanded her to restore the lace she had stolen. +Transfixed with shame and terror, she stood rooted to the spot, and the +lace fell on the floor. + +"Fetch an officer," said the harsh voice, addressing one of the shopmen. + +"No--no--no!" screamed the wretched woman, falling on her knees in wild +supplication. "For my child's sake--in mercy of the innocent babe as yet +unborn--pity and forgive me!" + +The harsh order was iterated; and Esther Mason, fainting with shame and +agony, was conveyed to the prison in Giltspur Street. The next day she +was fully committed to Newgate on the capital charge of privately +stealing in a shop to the value of five pounds. A few hours after her +incarceration within those terrible walls, she was prematurely delivered +of a female child. + +I have no moral doubt whatever, I never have had, that at the time of the +committal of the felonious act, the intellect of Esther Mason was +disordered. Any other supposition is inconsistent with the whole tenor +of her previous life and character "Lead us not into temptation" is +indeed the holiest, because the humblest prayer. + +Three weeks had elapsed before the first intimation of these events +reached me, in a note from the chaplain of Newgate, an excellent, +kind-hearted man, to whom Mrs. Mason had confided her sad story. I +immediately hastened to the prison; and in a long interview with her, +elicited the foregoing statement. I readily assured her that all which +legal skill could do to extricate her from the awful position in which +she stood, the gravity of which I did not affect to conceal, should be +done. The offence with which she was charged had supplied the scaffold +with numberless victims; and tradesmen were more than ever clamorous for +the stern execution of a law which, spite of experience, they still +regarded as the only safeguard of their property. My wife was overwhelmed +with grief; and in her anxiety to save her unhappy foster-sister, sought, +without my knowledge, an interview with the prosecutor, in the hope of +inducing him not to press the charge. Her efforts were unavailing. He had +suffered much, he said, from such practices, and was "upon principle" +determined to make an example of every offender he could catch. As to the +plea that the husband had been forcibly carried off by a pressgang, it +was absurd; for what would become of the property of tradesmen if the +wife of every sailor so entrapped were to be allowed to plunder shops +with impunity? This magnificent reasoning was of course unanswerable; and +the rebuked petitioner abandoned her bootless errand in despair. Messrs. +Roberts, I should have mentioned, had by some accident discovered the +nature of the misfortune which had befallen their officer, and had +already made urgent application to the Admiralty for his release. + +The Old Bailey sessions did not come on for some time: I, however, took +care to secure at once, as I did not myself practice in that court, the +highest talent which its bar afforded. Willy, who had been placed in a +workhouse by the authorities, we had properly taken care of till he could +be restored to his mother; or, in the event of her conviction, to his +relatives in Devonshire. + +The sessions were at last on: a "true bill" against Esther Mason for +shoplifting, as it was popularly termed, was unhesitatingly found, and +with a heavy heart I wended my way to the court to watch the proceedings. +A few minutes after I entered, Mr. Justice Le Blanc and Mr. Baron Wood, +who had assisted at an important case of stockjobbing conspiracy, just +over, left the bench: the learned recorder being doubtless considered +quite equal to the trial of a mere capital charge of theft. + +The prisoner was placed in the dock; but try as I might, I could not +look at her. It happened to be a calm bright summer day; the air, as if +in mockery of those death-sessions, humming with busy, lusty life; so +that, sitting with my back to the prisoner, I could, as it were, read +her demeanor in the shadow thrown by her figure on the opposite +sun-lighted wall. There she stood, during the brief moments which sealed +her earthly doom, with downcast eyes and utterly dejected posture; her +thin fingers playing mechanically with the flowers and sweet-scented +herbs spread scantily before her. The trial was very brief: the +evidence, emphatically conclusive, was confidently given, and vainly +cross-examined. Nothing remained but an elaborate _ad misericordiam_ +excusative defence, which had been prepared by me, and which the +prisoner begged her counsel might be allowed to read. This was of course +refused; the recorder remarking, they might as well allow counsel for +felons to _address_ juries, as read defences; and _that_, as every +practical man knew, would be utterly subversive of the due +administration of justice. The clerk of the court would read the paper, +if the prisoner felt too agitated to do so. This was done; and very +vilely done. The clerk, I dare say, read as well as he was able; but +old, near-sighted, and possessed of anything but a clear enunciation, +what could be expected? The defence, so read, produced not the slightest +effect either on the court or jury. The recorder briefly commented on +the conclusiveness of the evidence for the prosecution; and the jury, in +the same brief, business-like manner, returned a verdict of Guilty. + +"What have you to say," demanded the clerk, "why sentence of death should +not be pronounced upon you, according to law?" + +The shadow started convulsively as the terrible words fell from the man's +lips; and I saw that the suddenly-upraised eyes of the prisoner were +fastened on the face of the fearful questioner. The lips, too, appeared +to move; but no sound reached my ears. + +"Speak, woman," said the recorder; "if you have anything to urge before +sentence is pronounced." + +I started up, and turning to the prisoner, besought her in hurried +accents to speak. "Remind them of the infant at your breast--your +husband"-- + +"Who is that conferring with the prisoner?" demanded the judge in an +angry voice. + +I turned, and confronted him with a look as cold and haughty as his +own. He did not think proper to pursue the inquiry further; and after +muttering something about the necessity of not interrupting the +proceedings of the court, again asked the prisoner if she had +anything to urge. + +"Not for myself--not for my sake," at last faintly murmured the +trembling woman; "but for that of my poor dear infant--my poor witless +boy! I do not think, sir, I was in my right mind. I was starving. I was +friendless. My husband, too, whom you have heard"--She stopped abruptly; +a choking sob struggled in her throat; and but for the supporting arm of +one of the turnkeys, she would have fallen to the ground. + +"Unhappy, guilty woman," said the recorder, with the coolness of a demon, +"the plea of insanity you would set up is utterly untenable. Your +husband, it seems, is serving his majesty in the royal navy; defending +his country, whilst his wife was breaking its laws, by the commission of +a crime which, but for the stern repression of the law, would sap the +foundations of the security of property, and"-- + +I could endure no more. The atmosphere of the court seemed to stifle me; +and I rushed for relief into the open air. Before, however, I had reached +the street, a long, piercing scream informed me that the learned judge +_had done his duty_. + +No effort was spared during the interval which elapsed previous to the +recorder presenting his report to the privy-counsel--a peculiar +privilege at that time attached to the office--to procure a mitigation +of the sentence. A petition, setting forth the peculiar circumstances +of the case, was carefully prepared; and by the indefatigable exertions +of an excellent Quaker gentleman--whom, as he is still alive, and might +not choose to have his name blazoned to the world, I will call William +Friend--was soon very numerously signed. The prosecutor, however, +obstinately refused to attach his name to the document; and the absence +of his signature--so strangely did men reason on such matters in those +days--would, it was feared, weigh heavily against the success of the +petition. The amiable and enlightened Sir Samuel Romilly not only +attached his name, but aided us zealously by his advice and influence. +In short, nothing was omitted that appeared likely to attain the +desired object. + +Two days before the petition was to be forwarded to the proper quarter, +Henry Mason arrived in England, the exertions of his employers having +procured his discharge. The "Active" was one of Captain Hoste's squadron, +which obtained the celebrated victory off Lissa, over the Franco-Venetian +fleet commanded by Admiral Dobourdieu. Henry Mason, it appeared by the +testimonials of the captain and officers of his ship, had greatly +distinguished himself in the action. We inclosed these papers with the +petition; and then, having done all in our power, awaited with anxious +impatience the result of the recorder's report. It was announced to me, +as I was sitting somewhat later than usual at chambers, by Mr. William +Friend. The judgment to die was confirmed! All our representations had +not sufficed to counterbalance the supposed necessity of exhibiting +terrible examples of the fate awaiting the perpetrators of an offence +said to be greatly on the increase. Excellent William Friend wept like a +child as he made the announcement. + +There are many persons alive who recollect this horrible tragedy--this +national disgrace--this act of gross barbarity on the part of the great +personage, who, first having carried off the poor woman's husband, left +her to die for an act the very consequence of that robbery. Who among the +spectators can ever forget that heart-rending scene--the hangman taking +the baby from the breast of the wretched creature just before he put her +to death! But let us not rake up these terrible reminiscences. Let us +hope that the _truly guilty_ are forgiven. And let us take consolation +from reflecting that this event led the great Romilly to enter on his +celebrated career as a reformer of the criminal law. + +The remains of Esther Mason were obtained from the Newgate officials, +and quietly interred in St. Sepulchre's church-yard. A plain slab, with +her name only plainly chiselled upon it, was some time afterwards placed +above the grave. A few years ago I attended a funeral in the same +grave-yard; and after a slight search, discovered the spot. The +inscription, though of course much worn, was still quite legible. + +I had not seen Henry Mason since his return; but I was glad to hear from +Mr. William Friend that, after the first passionate burst of rage and +grief had subsided, he had, apparently at least, thanks to the tender and +pious expostulations of his wife--with whom, by the kind intervention of +the sheriffs, he was permitted long and frequent interviews--settled down +into calmness and resignation. One thing only he would not bear to hear +even from her, and that was any admission that she had been guilty of, +even the slightest offence. A hint of the kind, however unintentional, +would throw him into a paroxysm of fury; and the subject was consequently +in his presence studiously avoided. + +A few days after the execution, Mr. William Friend called on me just +after breakfast, accompanied by the bereaved husband. I never saw so +changed a man. All the warm kindliness of his nature had vanished, and +was replaced by a gloomy fierce austerity, altogether painful to +contemplate. + +"Well, sir," said he, as he barely touched my proffered hand, "they have +killed her, you see, spite of all you could say or do. It much availed +me, too, that I had helped to win their boasted victories;" and he +laughed with savage bitterness. + +"Henry--Henry!" exclaimed William Friend, in a reproving accent. + +"Well, well, sir," rejoined Mason, impatiently, "you are a good man, and +have of course your own notions on these matters; I also have mine. Or, +perhaps, you think it is only the blood of the rich and great which, shed +unjustly, brings forth the iron harvest? Forgive me," he added, checking +himself. "I respect you both; but my heart is turned to stone. You do not +know--none ever knew but I--how kind, how loving, how gentle was that +poor long-suffering girl." + +He turned from us to hide the terrible agony which convulsed him. + +"Henry," said Mr. Friend, taking him kindly by the hand, "we pity thee +sincerely, as thou knowest; but thy bitter, revengeful expressions are +unchristian, sinful. The authorities whom thou, not for the first time, +railest on so wildly, acted, be sure of it, from a sense of duty; a +mistaken one, in my opinion, doubtless; still"-- + +"Say no more, sir," interrupted Mason. "We differ in opinion upon the +subject. And now, gentlemen, farewell. I wished to see you, sir, before I +left this country forever, to thank you for your kind, though fruitless +exertions. Mr. Friend has promised to be steward for poor Willy of all I +can remit for his use. Farewell! God bless you both!" He was gone! + +War soon afterwards broke out with the United States of America, and Mr. +Friend discovered that one of the most active and daring officers in the +Republican navy was Henry Mason, who had entered the American service in +the maiden name of his wife; and that the large sums he had remitted from +time to time for the use of Willy, were the produce of his successful +depredations on British commerce. The instant Mr. Friend made the +discovery, he refused to pollute his hands with moneys so obtained, and +declined all further agency in the matter. Mason, however, contrived to +remit through some other channel to the Davies's, with whom the boy had +been placed; and a rapid improvement in their circumstances was soon +visible. These remittances ceased about the middle of 1814; and a +twelvemonth after the peace with America, we ascertained that Henry Mason +had been killed in the battle on Lake Champlain, where he had +distinguished himself, as everywhere else, by the reckless daring and +furious hate with which he fought against the country which, in his +unreasoning frenzy, he accused of the murder of his wife. He was +recognized by one of his former messmates in the "Active;" who, conveyed +a prisoner on board the American commander Macdonough's ship, recognized +him as he lay stretched on the deck, in the uniform of an American naval +officer; his countenance, even in death, wearing the same stormful +defiant expression which it assumed on the day that his beloved Esther +perished on the scaffold. + + + + +THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT + + +"It is really time that a properly-qualified governess had charge of +those girls," observed my wife, as Mary and Kate after a more than +usually boisterous romp with their papa, left the room for bed. I may +here remark, _inter alia_, that I once surprised a dignified and +highly-distinguished judge at a game of blindman's buff with his +children, and very heartily he appeared to enjoy it too. "It is really +time that a properly-qualified governess had charge of those girls. Susan +May did very well as a nursery teacher, but they are now far beyond her +control. _I_ cannot attend to their education, and as for you"--The +sentence was concluded by a shrug of the shoulders and a toss of the +head, eloquently expressive of the degree of estimation in which _my_ +governing powers were held. + +"Time enough, surely, for that," I exclaimed, as soon as I had composed +myself; for I was a little out of breath. "They may, I think, rub along +with Susan for another year or two, Mary is but seven years of age"-- + +"Eight years, if you please. She was eight years old last Thursday +three weeks." + +"Eight years! Then we must have been married nine; Bless me, how the time +has flown: it seems scarcely so many weeks!" + +"Nonsense," rejoined my wife with a sharpness of tone and a rigidity of +facial muscle which, considering the handsome compliment I had just paid +her, argued, I was afraid, a foregone conclusion. "You always have +recourse to some folly of that sort whenever I am desirous of entering +into a serious consultation on family affairs." + +There was some truth in this, I confess. The "consultations" which I +found profitable were not serious ones with my wife upon domestic +matters; leading, as they invariably did, to a diminution instead of an +increase of the little balance at the banker's. If such a proposition +could therefore be evaded or adjourned by even an extravagant compliment, +I considered it well laid out. But the expedient, I found, was one which +did not improve by use. For some time after marriage it answered +remarkably well; but each succeeding year of wedded bliss marked its +rapidly-declining efficacy. + +"Well, well; go on." + +"I say it is absolutely necessary that a first-rate governess should be +at once engaged. Lady Maldon has been here to-day, and she"-- + +"Oh, I thought it might be her new ladyship's suggestion. I wish the +'fountain of honor' was somewhat charier of its knights and ladies, and +then perhaps"-- + +"What, for mercy's sake, are you running on about?" interrupted the lady +with peremptory emphasis. "Fountains of honor, forsooth! One would +suppose, to hear you talk in that wild, nonsensical way, that you were +addressing a bench of judges sitting in _banco_, instead of a sensible +person solicitous for her and your children's welfare." + +"Bless the woman," thought I; "what an exalted idea she appears to have +of forensic eloquence! Proceed, my love," I continued; "there is a +difference certainly; and I am all attention." + +"Lady Maldon knows a young lady--a distant relative, in deed, of +hers--whom she is anxious to serve"-- + +"At our expense." + +"How can you be so ungenerous? Edith Willoughby is the orphan daughter of +the late Reverend Mr. Willoughby, curate of Heavy Tree in Warwickshire, I +believe; and was specially educated for a first-class governess and +teacher. She speaks French with the true Parisian accent, and her +Italian, Lady Maldon assures me, is pure Tuscan"-- + +"He-e-e-m!" + +"She dances with grace and elegance; plays the harp and piano with skill +and taste; is a thorough _artiste_ in drawing and painting; and is, +moreover, very handsome--though beauty, I admit, is an attribute which in +a governess might be very well dispensed with." + +"True; unless, indeed, it were catching." + +I need not prolong this connubial dialogue. It is sufficient to state +that Edith Willoughby was duly installed in office on the following day; +and that, much to my surprise, I found that her qualifications for the +charge she had undertaken were scarcely overcolored. She was a +well-educated, elegant, and beautiful girl, of refined and fascinating +manners, and possessed of one of the sweetest, gentlest dispositions that +ever charmed and graced the family and social circle. She was, I often +thought, for her own chance of happiness, too ductile, too readily +yielding to the wishes and fancies of others. In a very short time I came +to regard her as a daughter, and with my wife and children she was +speedily a prodigious favorite. Mary and Kate improved rapidly under her +judicious tuition, and I felt for once positively grateful to busy Lady +Maldon for her officious interference in my domestic arrangements. + +Edith Willoughby had been domiciled with us about two years, when Mr. +Harlowe, a gentleman of good descent and fine property, had occasion to +call several times at my private residence on business relating to the +purchase of a house in South Audley Street, the title to which exhibited +by the venders was not of the most satisfactory kind. On one occasion he +stayed to dine with us, and I noticed that he seemed much struck by the +appearance of our beautiful and accomplished governess. His evident +emotion startled and pained me in a much higher degree than I could have +easily accounted for even to myself. Mr. Harlowe was a widower, past his +first youth certainly, but scarcely more than two or three-and-thirty +years of age, wealthy, not ill-looking, and, as far as I knew, of average +character in society. Surely an excellent match, if it should come to +that, for an orphan girl rich only in fine talents and gentle affections. +But I could not think so. I disliked the man--_instinctively_ disliked +and distrusted him; for I could assign no very positive motive for my +antipathy. + +"The reason why, I cannot tell, +But I don't like thee, Dr. Fell." + +These lines indicate an unconquerable feeling which most persons have, I +presume, experienced; and which frequently, I think, results from a kind +of cumulative evidence of uncongeniality or unworthiness, made up of a +number of slight indices of character, which, separately, may appear of +little moment, but altogether, produce a strong, if undefinable, feeling +of aversion. Mr. Harlowe's manners were bland, polished, and insinuating; +his conversation was sparkling and instructive; but a cold sneer seemed +to play habitually about his lips, and at times there glanced forth a +concentrated, polished ferocity--so to speak--from his eyes, revealing +hard and stony depths, which I shuddered to think a being so pure and +gentle as Edith might be doomed to sound and fathom. That he was a man of +strong passions and determination of will, was testified by every curve +of his square, massive head, and every line of his full countenance. + +My aversion--reasonable or otherwise, as it might be--was not shared by +Miss Willoughby; and it was soon apparent that, fascinated, intoxicated +by her extreme beauty (the man was, I felt, incapable of love in its +high, generous, and spiritual sense), Mr. Harlowe had determined on +offering his hand and fortune to the unportioned orphan. He did so, and +was accepted. I did not conceal my dislike of her suitor from Edith; and +my wife--who, with feminine exaggeration of the hints I threw out, had +set him down as a kind of polished human tiger--with tears intreated her +to avoid the glittering snare. We of course had neither right nor power +to push our opposition beyond friendly warning and advice; and when we +found, thanks to Lady Maldon, who was vehemently in favor of the +match--to, in Edith's position, the dazzling temptation of a splendid +establishment, and to Mr. Harlowe's eloquent and impassioned +pleadings--that the rich man's offer was irrevocably accepted, we of +course forebore from continuing a useless and irritating resistance. Lady +Maldon had several times very plainly intimated that our aversion to the +marriage arose solely from a selfish desire of retaining the services of +her charming relative; so prone are the mean and selfish to impute +meanness and selfishness to others. + +I might, however, I reflected, be of service to Miss Willoughby, by +securing for her such a marriage settlement as would place her beyond the +reach of one possible consequence of caprice and change. I spoke to Mr. +Harlowe on the subject; and he, under the influence of headstrong, eager +passion, gave me, as I expected, _carte blanche_. I availed myself of the +license so readily afforded: a deed of settlement was drawn up, signed, +sealed, and attested in duplicate the day before the wedding; and Edith +Willoughby, as far as wealth and position in society were concerned, had +undoubtedly made a surprisingly good bargain. + +It happened that just as Lady Maldon, Edith Willoughby, and Mr. Harlowe +were leaving my chambers after the execution of the deed, Mr. Ferret the +attorney appeared on the stairs. His hands were full of papers, and he +was, as usual, in hot haste; but he stopped abruptly as his eye fell upon +the departing visitors, looked with startled earnestness at Miss +Willoughby, whom he knew, and then glanced at Mr. Harlowe with an +expression of angry surprise. That gentleman, who did not appear to +recognize the new-comer, returned his look with a supercilious, +contemptuous stare, and passed on with Edith--who had courteously saluted +the inattentive Mr. Ferret--followed by Lady Maldon. + +"What is the meaning of that ominous conjunction?" demanded Mr. Ferret as +the affianced pair disappeared together. + +"Marriage, Mr. Ferret! Do you know any just cause or impediment why they +should not be joined together in holy wedlock?" + +"The fellow's wife is dead then?" + +"Yes; she died about a twelvemonth ago. Did you know her?" + +"Not personally; by reputation only. A country attorney, Richards of +Braintree, for whom I transact London business sent me the draught of a +deed of separation--to which the unfortunate lady, rather than continue +to live with her husband, had consented--for counsel's opinion. I had an +interview with Mr. Harlowe himself upon the business; but I see he +affects to have forgotten me. I do not know much of the merits of the +case, but according to Richards--no great shakes of a fellow, between +ourselves--the former Mrs. Harlowe was a martyr to her husband's +calculated virulence and legal--at least not _illegal_, a great +distinction, in my opinion, though not so set down in the +books--despotism. He espoused her for her wealth: that secured, he was +desirous of ridding himself of the incumbrance to it. A common case!--and +now, if you please, to business." + +I excused myself, as did my wife, from being present at the wedding; but +everything, I afterwards heard, passed off with great _eclat_. The +bridegroom was all fervor and obsequiousness; the bride all bashfulness +and beauty. The "happy pair," I saw by the afternoon newspapers, were to +pass the honeymoon at Mr. Harlowe's seat, Fairdown Park. The evening of +the marriage-day was anything, I remember, but a pleasant one to me. I +reached home by no means hilariously disposed, where I was greeted, by +way of revival, with the intelligence that my wife, after listening with +great energy to Lady Maldon's description of the wedding festivities for +two tremendous hours, had at last been relieved by copious hysteria, and +that Mary and Kate were in a fair way--if the exploit could be +accomplished by perseverance--of crying themselves to sleep. These were +our bridal compliments; much more flattering, I imagine, if not quite so +honey-accented, as the courtly phrases with which the votaries and the +victims of Hymen are alike usually greeted. + +Time, business, worldly hopes and cares, the triumphs and defeats of an +exciting profession, gradually weakened the impression made upon me by +the gentle virtues of Edith Willoughby; and when, about fifteen months +after the wedding, my wife informed me that she had been accosted by Mrs. +Harlowe at a shop in Bond Street, my first feeling was one of surprise, +not untinged with resentment, for what I deemed her ungrateful neglect. + +"She recognized you then?" I remarked. + +"Recognized me! What do you mean?" + +"I thought perhaps she might have forgotten your features, as she +evidently has our address." + +"If you had seen," replied my wife, "how pale, how cold, how utterly +desolate she looked, you would think less hardly of her. As soon as she +observed me, a slight scream escaped her; and then she glanced eagerly +and tremblingly around like a startled fawn. Her husband had passed out +of the shop to give, I think, some direction to the coachman. She +tottered towards me, and clasping me in her arms, burst into a passion of +tears. "Oh, why--why," I asked as soon as I could speak, "why have you +not written to us?" "I dared not!" she gasped. "But oh tell me, do +you--does your husband remember me with kindness? Can I still reckon on +his protection--his support?" I assured her you would receive her as your +own child: the whispered words had barely passed my lips, when Mr. +Harlowe, who had swiftly approached us unperceived, said, "Madam, the +carriage waits." His stern, pitiless eye glanced from his wife to me, and +stiffly bowing, he said, "Excuse me for interrupting your conversation; +but time presses. Good-day." A minute afterwards, the carriage drove +off." + +I was greatly shocked at this confirmation of my worst fears; and I +meditated with intense bitterness on the fate of a being of such meek +tenderness exposed to the heartless brutalities of a sated sensualist +like Harlowe. But what could be done? She had chosen, deliberately, +and after warning, chosen her lot, and must accept the consequences of +her choice. In all the strong statutes, and sharp biting laws of +England, there can be found no clause wherewith to shield a woman from +the "regulated" meanness and despotism of an unprincipled husband. +Resignation is the sole remedy, and therein the patient must minister +to herself. + +On the morning of the Sunday following Edith's brief interview with my +wife, and just as we were about to leave the house to attend divine +service, a cab drove furiously up to the door, and a violent summons by +both knocker and bell announced the arrival of some strangely-impatient +visitor. I stepped out upon the drawing-room landing, and looked over the +banister rail, curious to ascertain who had honored me with so peremptory +a call. The door was quickly opened, and in ran, or rather staggered, +Mrs. Harlowe, with a child in long clothes in her arms. + +"Shut--shut the door!" she faintly exclaimed, as she sank on one of the +hall seats. "Pray shut the door--I am pursued!" + +I hastened down, and was just in time to save her from falling on the +floor. She had fainted. I had her carried up stairs, and by the aid of +proper restoratives, she gradually recovered consciousness. The child, a +girl about four months old, was seized upon by Mary and Kate, and carried +off in triumph to the nursery. Sadly changed, indeed, as by the sickness +of the soul, was poor Edith. The radiant flush of youth and hope +rendering her sweet face eloquent of joy and pride, was replaced by the +cold, sad hues of wounded affections and proud despair. I could read in +her countenance, as in a book, the sad record of long months of wearing +sorrow, vain regrets, and bitter self-reproach. Her person, too, had lost +its rounded, airy, graceful outline, and had become thin and angular. +Her voice, albeit, was musical and gentle as ever, as she murmured, on +recovering her senses, "You will protect me from my--from that man?" As I +warmly pressed her hand, in emphatic assurance that I would shield her +against all comers, another loud summons was heard at the door. A minute +afterwards, a servant entered, and announced that Mr. Harlowe waited for +me below. I directed he should be shown into the library; and after +iterating my assurance to Edith that she was quite safe from violence +beneath my roof, and that I would presently return to hear her +explanation of the affair, I went down stairs. + +Mr. Harlowe, as I entered, was pacing rapidly up and down the apartment. +He turned to face me; and I thought he looked even more perturbed and +anxious than vengeful and angry. He, however, as I coldly bowed, and +demanded his business with me, instantly assumed a bullying air and tone. + +"Mrs. Harlowe is here: she has surreptitiously left South Audley Street +in a hired cab, and I have traced her to this house." + +"Well?" + +"Well! I trust it is well; and I insist that she instantly return to +her home." + +"Her _home_!" + +I used the word with an expression significative only of my sense of the +sort of "home" he had provided for the gentle girl he had sworn to love +and cherish; but the random shaft found a joint in his armor at which it +was not aimed. He visibly trembled, and turned pale. + +"She has had time to tell you all then! But be assured, sir, that nothing +she has heard or been told, however true it may be--_may_ be, remember, +I say--can be legally substantiated except by myself." + +What could the man mean? I was fairly puzzled: but, professionally +accustomed to conceal emotions of surprise and bewilderment, I coldly +replied--"I have left the lady who has sought the protection of her true +'home,' merely to ascertain the reason of this visit." + +"The reason of my visit!" he exclaimed with renewed fury: "to reconvey +her to South Audley Street. What else? If you refuse to give her up, I +shall apply to the police." + +I smiled, and approached the bell. + +"You will not surrender her then?" + +"To judicial process only: of that be assured. I have little doubt that, +when I am placed in full possession of all the facts of the case, I shall +be quite able to justify my conduct." He did not reply, and I continued: +"If you choose to wait here till I have heard Edith's statement, I will +at once frankly acquaint you with my final determination." + +"Be it so: and please to recollect, sir, that you have to deal with a man +not easily baffled or entrapped by legal subtlety or cunning." + +I reascended to the drawing-room; and finding Edith--thanks to the +ministrations, medicinal and oral, of my bustling and indignant +lady--much calmer, and thoroughly satisfied that nobody could or should +wrest her from us, begged her to relate unreservedly the cause or causes +which had led to her present position. She falteringly complied; and I +listened with throbbing pulse and burning cheeks to the sad story of her +wedded wretchedness, dating from within two or three months of the +marriage; and finally consummated by a disclosure that, if provable, +might consign Harlowe to the hulks. The tears, the agony, the despair of +the unhappy lady, excited in me a savageness of feeling, an eager thirst +for vengeance, which I had believed foreign to my nature. Edith divined +my thoughts, and taking my hand, said, "Never, sir, never will I appear +against him: the father of my little Helen shall never be publicly +accused by me." + +"You err, Edith," I rejoined; "it is a positive duty to bring so +consummate a villain to justice. He has evidently calculated on your +gentleness of disposition, and must be disappointed." + +I soon, however, found it was impossible to shake her resolution on +this point; and I returned with a heart full of grief and bitterness to +Mr. Harlowe. + +"You will oblige me, sir," I exclaimed as I entered the room, "by +leaving this house immediately: I would hold no further converse with so +vile a person." + +"How! Do you know to whom you presume to speak in this manner?" + +"Perfectly. You are one Harlowe, who, after a few months' residence with +a beautiful and amiable girl, had extinguished the passion which induced +him to offer her marriage, showered on her every species of insult and +indignity of which a cowardly and malignant nature is capable; and who, +finding that did not kill her, at length consummated, or revealed, I do +not yet know which term is most applicable, his utter baseness by causing +her to be informed that his first wife was still living." + +"Upon my honor, sir, I believed, when I married Miss Willoughby, that I +was a widower." + +"Your _honor!_ But except to prove that I _do_ thoroughly know and +appreciate the person I am addressing, I will not bandy words with you. +After that terrible disclosure--if, indeed, it be a disclosure, not an +invention--Ah, you start at that" + +"At your insolence, sir; not at your senseless surmises." + +"Time and the law will show. After, I repeat, this terrible disclosure or +invention, you, not content with obtaining from your victim's generosity +a positive promise that she would not send you to the hulks"-- + +"Sir, have a care." + +"Pooh! I say, not content with exacting this promise from your victim, +you, with your wife, or accomplice, threatened not only to take her child +from her, but to lock her up in a madhouse, unless she subscribed a +paper, confessing that she knew, when you espoused her, that you were a +married man. Now, sir, do I, or do I not, thoroughly know who and what +the man is I am addressing?" + +"Sir," returned Harlowe, recovering his audacity somewhat. "Spite of all +your hectoring and abuse, I defy you to obtain proof--legal +proof--whether what Edith has heard is true or false. The affair may +perhaps be arranged; let her return with me." + +"You know she would die first; but it is quite useless to prolong this +conversation; and I again request you to leave this house." + +"If Miss Willoughby would accept an allowance"-- + +The cool audacity of this proposal to make me an instrument in +compromising a felony exasperated me beyond all bounds. I rang the bell +violently, and desired the servant who answered it to show Mr. Harlowe +out of the house. Finding further persistence useless, the baffled +villain snatched up his hat, and with a look and gesture of rage and +contempt, hurried out of the apartment. + +The profession of a barrister necessarily begets habits of coolness and +reflection under the most exciting circumstances; but, I confess, that in +this instance my ordinary equanimity was so much disturbed, that it was +some time before I could command sufficient composure to reason calmly +upon the strange revelations made to me by Edith, and the nature of the +measures necessary to adopt in order to clear up the mystery attaching to +them. She persisted in her refusal to have recourse to legal measures +with a view to the punishment of Harlowe; and I finally determined--after +a conference with Mr. Ferret, who, having acted for the first Mrs. +Harlowe, I naturally conjectured must know something of her history and +connections--to take for the present no ostensible steps in the matter. +Mr. Ferret, like myself, was persuaded that the sham resuscitation of his +first wife was a mere trick, to enable Harlowe to rid himself of the +presence of a woman he no longer cared for. "I will take an opportunity," +said Mr. Ferret, "of quietly questioning Richards: he must have known the +first wife; Eleanor Wickham, I remember, was her maiden name; and if not +bought over by Harlowe--a by-no-means impossible purchase--can set us +right at once. I did not understand that the said Eleanor was at all +celebrated for beauty and accomplishments, such as you say Miss +Willoughby--Mrs. Harlowe, I mean--describes. She was a native of +Dorsetshire too, I remember; and the foreign Italian accent you mention, +is rarely, I fancy, picked up in that charming county. Some flashy +opera-dancer, depend upon it, whom he has contracted a passing fancy for: +a slippery gentleman certainly; but, with a little caution, we shall not +fail to trip his heels up, clever as he may be." + +A stronger wrestler than either of us was upon the track of the unhappy +man. Edith had not been with us above three weeks, when one of Mr. +Harlowe's servants called at my chambers to say that his master, in +consequence of a wound he had inflicted on his foot with an axe, whilst +amusing himself with cutting or pruning some trees in the grounds at +Fairdown, was seriously ill, and had expressed a wish to see me. I +could not leave town; but as it was important Mr. Harlowe should be +seen, I requested Mr. Ferret to proceed to Fairdown House. He did so, +and late in the evening returned with the startling intelligence that +Mr. Harlowe was dead! + +"Dead!" I exclaimed, much shocked. "Are you serious?" "As a judge. He +expired, about an hour after I reached the house, of tetanus, commonly +called locked-jaw. His body, by the contraction of the muscles, was bent +like a bow, and rested on his heels and the back part of his head. He was +incapable of speech long before I saw him; but there was a world of +agonized expression in his eyes!" + +"Dreadful! Your journey was useless then?" + +"Not precisely. I saw the pretended former wife: a splendid woman, and as +much Eleanor Wickham of Dorsetshire as I am. They mean, however, to show +fight, I think; for, as I left the place, I observed that delightful +knave Richards enter the house. I took the liberty of placing seals upon +the desks and cabinets, and directed the butler and other servants to see +that nothing was disturbed or removed till Mrs. Harlowe's--the true Mrs. +Harlowe's--arrival." + +The funeral was to take place on the following Wednesday; and it was +finally arranged that both of us would accompany Edith to Fairdown on the +day after it had taken place, and adopt such measures as circumstances +might render necessary. Mr. Ferret wrote to this effect to all parties +concerned. + +On arriving at the house, I, Ferret, and Mrs. Harlowe, proceeded at once +to the drawing-room, where we found the pretended wife seated in great +state, supported on one side by Mr. Richards, and on the other by Mr. +Quillet the eminent proctor. Edith was dreadfully agitated, and clung +frightened and trembling to my arm. I conducted her to a seat, and placed +myself beside her, leaving Mr. Ferret--whom so tremendous an array of law +and learning, evincing a determination to fight the matter out _a +l'outrance_, filled with exuberant glee--to open the conference. + +"Good-morning, madam," cried he, the moment he entered the room, and +quite unaffected by the lady's scornful and haughty stare: "good-morning; +I am delighted to see you in such excellent company. You do not, I hope, +forget that I once had the honor of transacting business for you?" + +"You had transactions of my business!" said the lady, "When, I pray you?" + +"God bless me!" cried Ferret, addressing Richards, "what a charming +Italian accent; and out of Dorsetshire too!" + +"Dorsetshire, sir?" exclaimed the lady. + +"Ay, Dorsetshire, to be sure. Why, Mr. Richards, our respected client +appears to have forgotten her place of birth! How very extraordinary!" + +Mr. Richards now interfered, to say that Mr. Ferret was apparently +laboring under a strange misapprehension. "This lady," continued he, "is +Madame Giulletta Corelli." + +"Whe--e--e--w!" rejoined Ferret, thrown for an instant off his balance by +the suddenness of the confession, and perhaps a little disappointed at so +placable a termination of the dispute--"Giulletta Corelli! What is the +meaning of this array then?" + +"I am glad, madam," said I, interposing for the first time in the +conversation, "for your own sake, that you have been advised not to +persist in the senseless as well as iniquitous scheme devised by the late +Mr. Harlowe; but this being the case, I am greatly at a loss to know why +either you or these legal gentlemen are here?" + +The brilliant eyes of the Italian flashed with triumphant scorn, and a +smile of contemptuous irony curled her beautiful lip as she +replied--"These legal gentlemen will not have much difficulty in +explaining my right to remain in my own house." + +"_Your_ house?" + +"Precisely, sir," replied Mr. Quillet. "This mansion, together with all +other property, real and personal, of which the deceased Henry Harlowe +died possessed, is bequeathed by will--dated about a month since--to this +lady, Giulletta Corelli." + +"A will!" exclaimed Mr. Ferret with an explosive shout, and turning to +me, whilst his sharp gray eyes danced with irrepressible mirth--"Did I +not tell you so?" + +"Your usual sagacity, Mr. Ferret, has not in this instance failed you. +Perhaps you will permit me to read the will? But before I do so," +continued Mr. Quillet, as he drew his gold-rimmed spectacles from their +morocco sheath--"you will allow me, if you please, to state that the +legatee, delicately appreciating the position of the widow, will allow +her any reasonable annuity--say five hundred pounds per annum for life." + +"Will she really though?" cried Mr. Ferret, boiling over with ecstacy. +"Madam, let me beg of you to confirm this gracious promise." + +"Certainly I do." + +"Capital!--glorious!" rejoined Ferret; and I thought he was about to +perform a salutatory movement, that must have brought his cranium into +damaging contact with the chandelier under which he was standing. "Is +it not delightful? How every one--especially an attorney--loves a +generous giver!" + +Mr. Richards appeared to be rendered somewhat uneasy by these strange +demonstrations. He knew Ferret well, and evidently suspected that +something was wrong somewhere. "Perhaps, Mr. Quillet," said he, "you had +better read the will at once." + +This was done: the instrument devised in legal and minute form all the +property, real and personal, to Giulletta Corelli--a natural-born subject +of his majesty, it appeared, though of foreign parentage, and of +partially foreign education. + +"Allow me to say," broke in Mr. Ferret, interrupting me as I was about to +speak--"allow me to say, Mr. Richards, that that will does you credit: it +is, I should say, a first-rate affair, for a country practitioner +especially. But of course you submitted the draught to counsel?" + +"Certainly I did," said Richards tartly. + +"No doubt--no doubt. Clearness and precision like that could only have +proceeded from a master's hand. I shall take a copy of that will, +Richards, for future guidance, you may depend, the instant it is +registered in Doctors' Commons." + +"Come, come, Mr. Ferret," said I; "this jesting is all very well; but it +is quite time the farce should end." + +"Farce!" exclaimed Mr. Richards. + +"Farce!" growled doubtful Mr. Quillet. + +"Farce!" murmured the beautiful Giulletta. + +"Farce!" cried Mr. Ferret. "My dear sir, it is about one of the most +charming and genteel comedies ever enacted on any stage, and the +principal part, too, by one of the most charming of prima donnas. Allow +me, sir--don't interrupt me! it is too delicious to be shared; it is, +indeed. Mr. Richards, and you, Mr. Quillet, will you permit me to observe +that this admirable will has _one_ slight defect?" + +"A defect!--where--how?" + +"It is really heart-breaking that so much skill and ingenuity should be +thrown away; but the fact is, gentlemen, that the excellent person who +signed it had no property to bequeath!" + +"How?" + +"Not a shilling's worth. Allow me, sir, if you please. This piece of +parchment, gentlemen, is, I have the pleasure to inform you, a marriage +settlement." + +"A marriage settlement!" exclaimed both the men of law in a breath. + +"A marriage settlement, by which, in the event of Mr. Harlowe's decease, +his entire property passes to his wife, in trust for the children, if +any; and if not, absolutely to herself." Ferret threw the deed on the +table, and then giving way to convulsive mirth, threw himself upon the +sofa, and fairly shouted with glee. + +Mr. Quillet seized the document, and, with Richards, eagerly perused it. +The proctor then rose, and bowing gravely to his astonished client, said, +"The will, madam, is waste paper. You have been deceived." He then left +the apartment. + +The consternation of the lady and her attorney may be conceived. Madam +Corelli, giving way to her fiery passions, vented her disappointment in +passionate reproaches of the deceased; the only effect of which was to +lay bare still more clearly than before her own cupidity and folly, and +to increase Edith's painful agitation. I led her down stairs to my wife, +who, I omitted to mention, had accompanied us from town, and remained in +the library with the children during our conference. In a very short +time afterwards Mr. Ferret had cleared the house of its intrusive guests, +and we had leisure to offer our condolences and congratulations to our +grateful and interesting client. It was long before Edith recovered her +former gaiety and health; and I doubt if she would ever have thoroughly +regained her old cheerfulness and elasticity of mind, had it not been for +her labor of love in superintending and directing the education of her +daughter Helen, a charming girl, who fortunately inherited nothing from +her father but his wealth. The last time I remember to have danced was at +Helen's wedding. She married a distinguished Irish gentleman, with whom, +and her mother, I perceive by the newspapers, she appeared at Queen +Victoria's court in Dublin, one, I am sure, of the brightest stars which +glittered in that galaxy of beauty and fashion. + + + + +THE SECOND MARRIAGE. + + +A busy day in the assize court at Chester, chequered, as usual, by +alternate victory and defeat, had just terminated, and I was walking +briskly forth, when an attorney of rather low _caste_ in his +profession--being principally employed as an intermediary between needy +felons and the counsel practising in the Crown Court--accosted me, and +presented a brief; at the same time tendering the fee of two guineas +marked upon it. + +"I am engaged to-morrow, Mr. Barnes," I exclaimed a little testily, "on +the civil side: besides, you know I very seldom take briefs in the Crown +Court, even if proffered in due time; and to-morrow will be the last day +of the assize in Chester! There are plenty of unemployed counsel who will +be glad of your brief." + +"It is a brief in an action of ejectment," replied the attorney--"Woodley +_versus_ Thorndyke; and is brought to recover possession of a freehold +estate now held and farmed by the defendant." + +"An action of ejectment to recover possession of a freehold estate! +defended, too, I know, by a powerful bar; for I was offered a brief, but +declined it. Mr. P ---- leads; and you bring me this for the plaintiff, +and at the last moment too! You must be crazed." + +"I told the plaintiff and her grandfather," rejoined Mr. Barnes, "that it +was too late to bespeak counsel's attention to the case; and that the +fee, all they have, with much difficulty, been able to raise, was +ridiculously small; but they insisted on my applying to you--Oh, here +they are!" + +We had by this time reached the street, and the attorney pointed towards +two figures standing in attitudes of anxious suspense near the gateway. +It was dusk, but there was quite sufficient light to distinguish the pale +and interesting features of a young female, dressed in faded and scanty +mourning, and accompanied by a respectable-looking old man with white +hair, and a countenance deeply furrowed by age and grief. + +"I told you, Miss Woodley," said the attorney, "that this gentleman would +decline the brief, especially with such a fee"-- + +"It is not the fee, man!" I observed, for I was somewhat moved by the +appealing dejection exhibited by the white-haired man and his timid +grand-daughter; "but what chance can I have of establishing this person's +right--if right she have--to the estate she claims, thus suddenly called +upon to act without previous consultation; and utterly ignorant, except +as far as this I perceive hastily-scrawled brief will instruct me, both +of the nature of the plaintiff's claim and of the defence intended to be +set up against it?" + +"If you would undertake it, sir," said the young woman with a tremulous, +hesitating voice and glistening eyes, "for _his_ sake"--and she glanced +at her aged companion--"who will else be helpless, homeless." + +"The blessing of those who are ready to perish will be yours, sir," said +the grandfather with meek solemnity, "if you will lend your aid in this +work of justice and mercy. We have no hope of withstanding the masterful +violence and wrong of wicked and powerful men except by the aid of the +law, which we have been taught will ever prove a strong tower of defence +to those who walk in the paths of peace and right." + +The earnestness of the old man's language and manner, and the pleading +gentleness of the young woman, forcibly impressed me; and, albeit, it was +a somewhat unprofessional mode of business, I determined to hear their +story from their own lips, rather than take it from the scrawled brief, +or through the verbal medium of their attorney. + +"You have been truly taught," I answered; "and if really entitled to the +property you claim, I know of no masterful men that in this land of +England can hinder you from obtaining possession of it. Come to my hotel +in about an hour and a-half from hence: I shall then have leisure to hear +what you have to say. This fee," I added, taking the two guineas from the +hand of the attorney, who still held the money ready for my acceptance, +"you must permit me to return. It is too much for you to pay for losing +your cause; and if I gain it--but mind I do not promise to take it into +court unless I am thoroughly satisfied you have right and equity on your +side--I shall expect a much heavier one. Mr. Barnes, I will see you, if +you please, early in the morning." I then bowed, and hastened on. + +Dinner was not ready when I arrived at the hotel; and during the short +time I had to wait, I more than half repented of having had anything to +do with this unfortunate suit. However, the pleadings of charity, the +suggestions of human kindness, reasserted their influence; and by the +time my new clients arrived, which they did very punctually at the hour I +had indicated, I had quite regained the equanimity I had momentarily +lost, and, thanks to mine host's excellent viands and generous wine, was, +for a lawyer, in a very amiable and benevolent humor indeed. + +Our conference was long, anxious, and unsatisfactory. I was obliged to +send for Barnes before it concluded, in order to thoroughly ascertain the +precise nature of the case intended to be set up for the defendant, and +the evidence likely to be adduced in support of it. No ray of consolation +or of hope came from that quarter. Still, the narrative I had just +listened to, bearing as it did the impress of truth and sincerity in +every sentence, strongly disposed me to believe that foul play has been +practised by the other side; and I determined, at all hazards, to go into +court, though with but faint hope indeed of a _present_ successful issue. + +"It appears more than probable," I remarked on dismissing my clients, +"that this will is a fabrication; but before such a question had been put +in issue before a jury, some producible evidence of its being so should +have been sought for and obtained. As it is, I can only watch the +defendant's proof of the genuineness of the instrument upon which he has +obtained probate: one or more of the attesting witnesses _may_, if fraud +has been practised, break down under a searching cross-examination, or +incidentally perhaps disclose matter for further investigation." + +"One of the attesting witnesses is, as I have already told you, dead," +observed Barnes; "and another, Elizabeth Wareing, has, I hear, to-day +left the country. An affidavit to that effect will no doubt be made +to-morrow, in order to enable them to give secondary evidence of her +attestation, though, swear as they may, I have not the slightest doubt +I could find her if time were allowed, and her presence would at all +avail us." + +"Indeed! This is very important. Would you, Mr. Barnes, have any +objection," I added, after a few moments' reflection, "to make oath, +should the turn of affairs to-morrow render your doing so desirable, of +your belief that you could, reasonable time being allowed, procure the +attendance of this woman--this Elizabeth Wareing?" + +"Not the slightest: though how that would help us to invalidate the will +Thorndyke claims under I do not understand." + +"Perhaps not. At all events do not fail to be early in court. The cause +is the first in to-morrow's list, remember." + +The story confided to me was a very sad, and, unfortunately in many of +its features, a very common one. Ellen, the only child of the old +gentleman, Thomas Ward, had early in life married Mr. James Woodley, a +wealthy yeoman, prosperously settled upon his paternal acres, which he +cultivated with great diligence and success. The issue of this +marriage--a very happy one, I was informed--was Mary Woodley, the +plaintiff in the present action. Mr. Woodley, who had now been dead +something more than two years, bequeathed the whole of his property, real +and personal, to his wife, in full confidence, as he expressed himself +but a few hours before he expired, that she would amply provide for his +and her child. The value of the property inherited by Mrs. Woodley under +this will amounted, according to a valuation made a few weeks after the +testator's decease, to between eight and nine thousand pounds. + +Respected as a widow, comfortable in circumstances, and with a daughter +to engage her affections, Mrs. Woodley might have passed the remainder of +her existence in happiness. But how frequently do women peril and lose +all by a second marriage! Such was the case with Mrs. Woodley: to the +astonishment of everybody, she threw herself away on a man almost unknown +in the district--a person of no fortune, of mean habits, and altogether +unworthy of accepting as a husband. Silas Thorndyke, to whom she thus +committed her happiness, had for a short time acted as bailiff on the +farm; and no sooner did he feel himself master, than his subserviency +was changed to selfish indifference, and that gradually assumed a coarser +character. He discovered that the property, by the will of Mr. Woodley, +was no secured against every chance or casualty to the use and enjoyment +of his wife, that it not only did not pass by marriage to the new +bridegroom, but she was unable to alienate or divest herself of any +portion of it during life. She could, however, dispose of it by will; but +in the event of her dying intestate, the whole descended to her daughter, +Mary Woodley. + +Incredibly savage was Thorndyke when he made that discovery; and bitter +and incessant were the indignities to which he subjected his unfortunate +wife, for the avowed purpose of forcing her to make a will entirely in +his favor, and of course disinheriting her daughter. These persecutions +failed of their object. An unexpected, quiet, passive, but unconquerable +resistance, was opposed by the, in all other things, cowed and submissive +woman, to this demand of her domineering husband. Her failing health--for +gently nurtured and tenderly cherished as she had ever been, the +callous brutality of her husband soon told upon the unhappy +creature--warned her that Mary would soon be an orphan, and that upon her +firmness it depended whether the child of him to whose memory she had +been, so fatally for herself, unfaithful, should be cast homeless and +penniless upon the world, or inherit the wealth to which, by every +principle of right and equity, she was entitled. Come what may, this +trust at least should not, she mentally resolved, be betrayed or paltered +with. Every imaginable expedient to vanquish her resolution was resorted +to. Thorndyke picked a quarrel with Ward her father, who had lived at +Dale Farm since the morrow of her marriage with Woodley, and the old +gentleman was compelled to leave, and take up his abode with a distant +and somewhat needy relative. Next Edward Wilford, the only son of a +neighboring and prosperous farmer, who had been betrothed to Mary Woodley +several months before her father's death, was brutally insulted, and +forbidden the house. All, however, failed to shake the mother's +resolution; and at length, finding all his efforts fruitless, Thorndyke +appeared to yield the point, and upon this subject at least ceased to +harass his unfortunate victim. + +Frequent private conferences were now held between Thorndyke, his two +daughters, and Elizabeth Wareing--a woman approaching middle-age, whom, +under the specious pretence that Mrs. Thorndyke's increasing ailments +rendered the services of an experienced matron indispensable, he had +lately installed at the farm. It was quite evident to both the mother and +daughter that a much greater degree of intimacy subsisted between the +master and housekeeper than their relative positions warranted; and from +some expressions heedlessly dropped by the woman, they suspected them to +have been once on terms of confidential intimacy. Thorndyke, I should +have mentioned, was not a native of these parts: he had answered Mr. +Woodley's advertisement for a bailiff, and his testimonials appearing +satisfactory, he had been somewhat precipitately engaged. A young man, +calling himself Edward Wareing, the son of Elizabeth Wareing, and said to +be engaged in an attorney's office in Liverpool, was also a not +unfrequent visitor at Dale Farm; and once he had the insolent presumption +to address a note to Mary Woodley, formally tendering his hand and +fortune! This, however, did not suit Mr. Thorndyke's views, and Mr. +Edward Wareing was very effectually rebuked and silenced by his proposed +father-in-law. + +Mrs. Thorndyke's health rapidly declined. The woman Wareing, touched +possibly by sympathy or remorse, exhibited considerable tenderness and +compassion towards the invalid; made her nourishing drinks, and +administered the medicine prescribed by the village practitioner--who, +after much delay and _pooh, poohing_ by Thorndyke, had been called +in--with her own hands. About three weeks previous to Mrs. Thorndyke's +death, a sort of reconciliation was patched up through her +instrumentality between the husband and wife; and an unwonted expression +of kindness and compassion, real or simulated, sat upon Thorndyke's +features every time he approached the dying woman. + +The sands of life ebbed swiftly with Mrs. Thorndyke. Infolded in the +gentle but deadly embrace with which consumption seizes its victims, she +wasted rapidly away; and, most perplexing symptoms of all, violent +retchings and nausea, especially after taking her medicine--which, +according to Davis, the village surgeon, was invariable of a sedative +character--aggravated and confirmed the fatal disease which was hurrying +her to the tomb. + +Not once during this last illness could Mary Woodley, by chance or +stratagem, obtain a moment's private interview with her mother, until a +few minutes before her decease. Until then, under one pretence or +another, either Elizabeth Wareing, one of Thorndyke's daughters, or +Thorndyke himself, was always present in the sick-chamber. It was +evening: darkness had for some time fallen: no light had yet been taken +into the dying woman's apartment; and the pale starlight which faintly +illumined the room served, as Mary Woodley softly approached on tiptoe to +the bedside of her, as she supposed, sleeping parent, but to deepen by +defining the shadows thrown by the full, heavy hangings, and the old +massive furniture. Gently, and with a beating heart, Mary Woodley drew +back the bed-curtain nearest the window. The feeble, uncertain light +flickered upon the countenance, distinct in its mortal paleness, of her +parent: the eyes recognized her, and a glance of infinite tenderness +gleamed for an instant in the rapidly-darkening orbs: the right arm +essayed to lift itself, as for one fast, last embrace. Vainly! Love, love +only, was strong, stronger than death, in the expiring mother's heart, +and the arm fell feebly back on the bedclothes. Mary Woodley bent down in +eager grief, for she felt instinctively that the bitter hour at last was +come: their lips met, and the last accents of the mother murmured, +"Beloved Mary, I--I have been true to you--no will--no"--A slight tremor +shook her frame: the spirit that looked in love from the windows of the +eyes departed on its heavenward journey, and the unconscious shell only +of what had once been her mother remained in the sobbing daughter's arms. + +I will not deny that this narrative, which I feel I have but coldly and +feebly rendered from its earnest, tearful tenderness, as related by Mary +Woodley, affected me considerably--case-hardened, as, to use an old +bar-pun, we barristers are supposed to be; nor will the reader be +surprised to hear that suspicions, graver even than those which pointed +to forgery, were evoked by the sad history. Much musing upon the strange +circumstances thus disclosed, and profoundly cogitative on the best mode +of action to be pursued, the "small hours," the first of them at least, +surprised me in my arm-chair. I started up, and hastened to bed, well +knowing from experience that a sleepless vigil is a wretched preparative +for a morrow of active exertion, whether of mind or body. + +I was betimes in court the next morning, and Mr. Barnes, proud as a +peacock of figuring as an attorney in an important civil suit, was soon +at my side. The case had excited more interest than I had supposed, and +the court was very early filled, Mary Woodley and her grandfather soon +arrived; and a murmur of commiseration ran through the auditory as they +took their seats by the side of Barnes. There was a strong bar arrayed +against us; and Mr. Silas Thorndyke, I noticed, was extremely busy and +important with whisperings and suggestions to his solicitor and +counsel--received, of course, as such meaningless familiarities usually +are, with barely civil indifference. + +Twelve common jurors were called and sworn well and truly to try the +issue, and I arose amidst breathless silence to address them. I at once +frankly stated the circumstances under which the brief had come into my +hands, and observed, that if, for lack of advised preparation, the +plaintiff's case failed on that day, another trial, under favor of the +court above, would, I doubt not, at no distant period of time reverse the +possibly at present unfavorable decision. "My learned friends on the +other side," I continued, "smile at this qualified admission of mine: let +them do so. If they apparently establish to-day the validity of a will +which strips an only child of the inheritance bequeathed by her father, +they will, I tell them emphatically, have obtained but a temporary +triumph for a person who--if I, if you, gentlemen of the jury, are to +believe the case intended to be set up as a bar to the plantiff's +claim--has succeeded by the grossest brutality, the most atrocious +devices, in bending the mind of the deceased Mrs. Thorndyke to his +selfish purposes. My learned friend need not interrupt me; I shall pursue +these observations for the present no further--merely adding that I, that +his lordship, that you, gentlemen of the jury, will require of him the +strictest proof--proof clear as light--that the instrument upon which he +relies to defeat the equitable, the righteous claim of the young and +amiable person by my side, is genuine, and not, as I verily believe "--I +looked, as I spoke, full in the face of Thorndyke--"FORGED." + +"My lord," exclaimed the opposing counsel, "this is really insufferable!" + +His lordship, however, did not interpose; and I went on to relate, in the +most telling manner of which I was capable, the history of the deceased +Mrs. Thorndyke's first and second marriages; the harmony and happiness of +the first--the wretchedness and cruelty which characterized the second. I +narrated also the dying words of Mrs. Thorndyke to her daughter, though +repeatedly interrupted by the defendant's counsel, who manifested great +indignation that a statement unsusceptible of legal proof should be +addressed to the court and jury. My address concluded, I put in James +Woodley's will; and, as the opposing counsel did not dispute its +validity, nor require proof of Mary Woodley's identity, I intimated that +the plaintiff's case was closed. + +The speech for the defendant was calm and guarded. It threw, or rather +attempted to throw, discredit on the death-bed "fiction," got up, Mr. +P ---- said, simply with a view to effect; and he concluded by averring +that he should be able to establish the genuineness of the will of Ellen +Thorndyke, now produced, by irresistible evidence. That done, however +much the jury might wish the property had been otherwise disposed of, +they would of course return a verdict in accordance with their oaths and +the law of the land. + +The first witness called was Thomas Headley, a smith, residing near Dale +Farm. He swore positively that the late Mrs. Thorndyke, whom he knew +well, had cheerfully signed the will now produced, after it had been +deliberately read over to her by her husband about a fortnight before her +death. Silas Thorndyke, John Cummins, Elizabeth Wareing, and witness, +were the only persons present. Mrs. Thorndyke expressed confidence that +her husband would provide for Mary Woodley. + +"And so I will," said sleek Silas, rising up and looking round upon the +auditory. "If she will return, I will be a father to her." + +No look, no sound of sympathy or approval, greeted this generous +declaration, and he sat down again not a little disconcerted. + +I asked this burly, half-drunken witness but one question--"When is your +marriage with Rebecca Thorndyke, the defendant's eldest daughter, to be +celebrated?" + +"I don't know, Mr. Lawyer; perhaps never." + +"That will do; you can go down." + +Mr. P ---- now rose to state that his client was unable to produce +Elizabeth Wareing, another of the attesting witnesses to the will, in +court. No suspicion that any opposition to the solemn testament made by +the deceased Mrs. Thorndyke would be attempted, had been entertained; +and the woman, unaware that her testimony would be required, had left +that part of the country. Every effort had been made by the defendant to +discover her abode without effect. It was believed she had gone to +America, where she had relatives. The defendant had filed an affidavit +setting forth these facts, and it was now prayed that secondary evidence +to establish the genuineness of Elizabeth Wareing's attesting signature +should be admitted. + +I of course vehemently opposed this demand, and broadly hinted that the +witness was purposely kept out of the way. + +"Will my learned friend," said Mr. P ---- with one of his sliest sneers, +"inform us what motive the defendant could possibly have to keep back a +witness so necessary to him?" + +"Elizabeth Wareing," I curtly replied, "may not, upon reflection, be +deemed a safe witness to subject to the ordeal of a cross-examination. +But to settle the matter, my lord," I exclaimed, "I have here an +affidavit of the plaintiff's attorney, in which he states that he has no +doubt of being able to find this important witness if time be allowed him +for the purpose; the defendant of course undertaking to call her when +produced." + +A tremendous clamor of counsel hereupon ensued, and fierce and angry grew +the war of words. The hubbub was at last terminated by the judge +recommending that, under the circumstances, "a juror should be +withdrawn." This suggestion, after some demur, was agreed to. One of the +jurors was whispered to come out of the box; then the clerk of the court +exclaimed, "My lord, there are only eleven men on the jury;" and by the +aid of this venerable, if clumsy expedient, the cause of Woodley _versus_ +Thorndyke was _de facto_ adjourned to a future day. + +I had not long returned to the hotel, when I was waited upon by Mr. +Wilford, senior, the father of the young man who had been forbidden to +visit Dale Farm by Thorndyke. His son, he informed me, was ill from +chagrin and anxiety--confined to his bed indeed; and Mary Woodley had +refused, it seemed, to accept pecuniary aid from either the father or the +son. Would I endeavor to terminate the estrangement which had for some +time unhappily existed, and persuade her to accept his, Wilford senior's, +freely-offered purse and services? I instantly accepted both the mission +and the large sum which the excellent man tendered. A part of the money I +gave Barnes to stimulate his exertions, and the rest I placed in the hand +of Mary Woodley's grandpapa, with a friendly admonition to him not to +allow his grandchild to make a fool of herself; an exhortation which +produced its effect in due season. + +Summer passed away, autumn had come and gone, and the winter assizes +were once more upon us. Regular proceedings had been taken, and the +action in ejectment of Woodley versus Thorndyke was once more on the +cause list of the Chester circuit court, marked this time as a special +jury case. Indefatigable as Mr. Barnes had been in his search for +Elizabeth Wareing, not the slightest trace of her could he discover; and +I went into court, therefore, with but slight expectation of invalidating +the, as I fully believed, fictitious will. We had, however, obtained a +good deal of information relative to the former history not only of the +absent Mrs. Wareing, but of Thorndyke himself; and it was quite within +the range of probabilities that something might come out, enabling me to +use that knowledge to good purpose. The plaintiff and old Mr. Ward were +seated in court beside Mr. Barnes, as on the former abortive trial; but +Mary Woodley had, fortunately for herself, lost much of the interest +which attaches to female comeliness and grace when associated in the mind +of the spectator with undeserved calamity and sorrow. The black dress +which she still wore--the orthodox twelve months of mourning for a parent +had not yet quite elapsed--was now fresh, and of fine quality, and the +pale lilies of her face were interspersed with delicate roses; whilst by +her side sat Mr. John Wilford, as happy-looking as if no such things as +perjurers, forgers, or adverse verdicts existed to disturb the peace of +the glad world. Altogether, we were decidedly less interesting than on +the former occasion. Edward Wareing, I must not omit to add, was, greatly +to our surprise, present. He sat, in great apparent amity, by the side of +Thorndyke. + +It was late in the afternoon, and twilight was gradually stealing over +the dingy court, when the case was called. The special jury answered to +their names, were duly sworn, and then nearly the same preliminary +speeches and admissions were made and put in as on the previous occasion. +Thomas Headley, the first witness called in support of the pretended +will, underwent a rigorous cross-examination; but I was unable to extract +anything of importance from him. + +"And now," said the defendant's leading counsel, "let me ask my +learned friend if he has succeeded in obtaining the attendance of +Elizabeth Wareing?" + +I was of course obliged to confess that we had been unable to find her; +and the judge remarked that in that ease he could receive secondary +evidence in proof of her attestation of the will. + +A whispered but manifestly eager conference here took place between the +defendant and his counsel, occasionally joined in by Edward Wareing. +There appeared to be indecision or hesitation in their deliberations; but +at last Mr. P ---- rose, and with some ostentation of manner addressed +the court. + +"In the discharge of my duty to the defendant in this action, my lord, +upon whose fair fame much undeserved obloquy has been cast by the +speeches of the plaintiff's counsel--speeches insupported by a shadow of +evidence--I have to state that, anxious above all things to stand +perfectly justified before his neighbors and society, he has, at great +trouble and expense, obtained the presence here to-day of the witness +Elizabeth Wareing. She had gone to reside in France with a respectable +English family in the situation of housekeeper. We shall now place her in +the witness-box, and having done so, I trust we shall hear no more of the +slanderous imputations so freely lavished upon my client. Call Elizabeth +Wareing into court." + +A movement of surprise and curiosity agitated the entire auditory at this +announcement. Mr. Silas Thorndyke's naturally cadaverous countenance +assumed an ashy hue, spite of his efforts to appear easy and jubilant; +and for the first time since the commencement of the proceedings I +entertained the hope of a successful issue. + +Mrs. Wareing appeared in answer to the call, and was duly sworn "to tell +the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." She was a +good-looking woman, of perhaps forty years of age, and bore a striking +resemblance to her son. She rapidly, smoothly, and unhesitatingly +confirmed the evidence of Headley to a tittle. She trembled, I observed, +excessively; and on the examining counsel intimating that he had no more +questions to ask, turned hastily to leave the box. + +"Stay--stay, my good woman," I exclaimed; "you and I must have some talk +together before we part." + +She started, and looked at me with frightened earnestness; and then her +nervous glances stole towards Mr. Silas Thorndyke. There was no comfort +there: in his countenance she only saw the reflex of the agitation and +anxiety which marked her own. Sleek Silas, I could see, already repented +of the rash move he had made, and would have given a good deal to get his +witness safely and quietly out of court. + +It was now nearly dark, and observing that it was necessary the court +and jury should see as well as hear the witness whilst under +examination, I requested that lights should be brought in. This was +done. Two candles were placed in front of the witness-box, one on each +side of Mrs. Wareing; a few others were disposed about the bench and +jury desks. The effect of this partial lighting of the gloomy old court +was, that the witness stood out in strong and bright relief from the +surrounding shadows, rendering the minutest change or play of her +features distinctly visible. Mr. Silas Thorndyke was, from his position, +thrown entirely into the shade, and any telegraphing between him and +the witness was thus rendered impossible. This preparation, as if for +some extraordinary and solemn purpose, together with the profound +silence which reigned in the court, told fearfully, as I expected, upon +the nerves of Mrs. Elizabeth Wareing. She already seemed as if about to +swoon with agitation and ill-defined alarm. + +"Pray, madam," said I, "is your name Wareing or Tucker?" + +She did not answer, and I repeated the question. "Tucker," she at last +replied in a tremulous whisper. + +"I thought so. And pray, Mrs. Tucker, were you ever 'in trouble' in +London for robbing your lodgings?" + +I thought she attempted to answer, but no sound passed her lips. One of +the ushers of the court handed her a glass of water at my suggestion, and +she seemed to recover somewhat. I pressed my question; and at last she +replied in the same low, agitated voice, "Yes, I have been." + +"I know you have. Mr. Silas Thorndyke, I believe, was your bail on that +occasion, and the matter was, I understand, compromised--arranged--at all +events the prosecution was not pressed. Is not that so?" + +"Yes--no--yes." + +"Very well: either answer will do. You lived also, I believe, with Mr. +Thorndyke, as his housekeeper of course, when he was in business as a +concocter and vender of infallible drugs and pills?" + +"Yes." + +"He was held to be skilful in the preparation of drugs, was he +not--well-versed in their properties?" + +"Yes--I believe so--I do not know. Why am I asked such questions?" + +"You will know presently. And now, woman, answer the question I am about +to put to you, as you will be compelled to answer it to God at the last +great day--What was the nature of the drug which you or he mixed with the +medicine prescribed for the late Mrs. Thorndyke?" + +A spasmodic shriek, checked by a desperate effort, partially escaped her, +and she stood fixedly gazing with starting eyes in my face. + +The profoundest silence reigned in the court as I iterated the question. + +"You must answer, woman," said the judge sternly, "unless you know your +answer will criminate yourself." + +The witness looked wildly round the court, as if in search of counsel or +sympathy; but encountering none but frowning and eager faces--Thorndyke +she could not discern in the darkness--she became giddy and +panic-stricken, and seemed to lose all presence of mind. + +"He--he--he," she at last gasped--"he mixed it. I do not know--But +how," she added, pushing back her hair, and pressing her hands against +her hot temples, "can this be? What can it mean?" + +A movement amongst the bystanders just at this moment attracted +the notice of the judge, and he immediately exclaimed, "The +defendant must not leave the court!" An officer placed himself +beside the wretched murderer as well as forger, and I resumed the +cross-examination of the witness. + +"Now, Mrs. Tucker, please to look at this letter." (It was that which had +been addressed to Mary Woodley by her son.) "That, I believe, is your +son's handwriting?" + +"Yes." + +"The body of this will has been written by the same hand. Now, woman, +answer. Was it your son--this young man who, you perceive, if guilty, +cannot escape from justice--was it he who forged the names of the +deceased Mrs. Thorndyke, and of John Cummins attached to it?" + +"Not he--not he!" shrieked the wretched woman. "It was +Thorndyke--Thorndyke himself." And then with a sudden revulsion of +feeling, as the consequences of what she had uttered flashed upon her, +she exclaimed, "Oh, Silas, what have I said?--what have I done?" + +"Hanged me, that's all, you accursed devil!" replied Thorndyke with +gloomy ferocity. "But I deserve it for trusting in such an idiot: dolt +and fool that I was for doing so." + +The woman sank down in strong convulsions, and was, by direction of the +judge, carried out of the hall. + +The anxious silence which pervaded the court during this scene, in which +the reader will have observed I played a bold, tentative, and +happily-successful game, was broken as the witness was borne off by a +loud murmur of indignation, followed by congratulatory exclamations on +the fortunate termination of the suit. The defendant's counsel threw up +their briefs, and a verdict was at once returned for the plaintiff. + +All the inculpated parties were speedily in custody; and the body of Mrs. +Thorndyke having been disinterred, it was discovered that she had been +destroyed by bichloride of mercury, of which a considerable quantity was +detected in the body. I was not present at the trial of Thorndyke and his +accomplices--he for murder, and Headley for perjury--but I saw by the +public prints that he was found guilty, and executed: Headley was +transported: the woman was, if I remember rightly, admitted evidence for +the crown. + +Mary Woodley was of course put into immediate possession of her paternal +inheritance; and is now--at least she was about four months ago, when I +dined with her and her husband at Dale Farm--a comely, prosperous matron; +and as happy as a woman with a numerous progeny and an easy-tempered +partner can in this, according to romance writers, vale of grief and +tears expect to be. The service I was fortunately enabled to render her +forms one of the most pleasing recollections of my life. + + + + +CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. + + +In the second year of my connection with the Northern Circuit, when even +_junior_ briefs were much less numerous than acceptable, I was agreeably +surprised, as I sat musing on the evening of my arrival in the ancient +city of York upon the capricious mode in which those powerful personages +the attorneys distributed their valuable favors, by the entrance of one +of the most eminent of the race practising in that part of the country, +and the forthwith tender of a bulky brief in the Crown Court, on which, +as my glance instinctively fell on the interesting figures, I perceived +that the large fee, in criminal cases, of fifty guineas was marked. The +local newspapers, from which I had occasionally seen extracts, had been +for some time busy with the case; and I knew it therefore to be, +relatively to the condition in life of the principal person implicated, +an important one. Rumor had assigned the conduct of the defence to an +eminent leader on the circuit--since, one of our ablest judges; and on +looking more closely at the brief, I perceived that that gentleman's name +had been crossed out, and mine substituted. The fee also--a much less +agreeable alteration--had been, I saw, considerably reduced; in +accordance, doubtless, with the attorney's appreciation of the difference +of value between a silk and a stuff gown. + +"You are not, sir, I believe, retained for the prosecution in the crown +against Everett?" said Mr. Sharpe in his brief, business manner. + +"I am not, Mr. Sharpe." + +"In that case, I beg to tender you the leading-brief for the defence. It +was intended, as you perceive, to place it in the hands of our great +_nisi prius_ leader, but he will be so completely occupied in that court, +that he has been compelled to decline it. He mentioned you; and from what +I have myself seen of you in several cases, I have no doubt my +unfortunate client will have ample justice done him. Mr. Kingston will be +with you." + +I thanked Mr. Sharpe for his compliment, and accepted his brief. As the +commission would be opened on the following morning, I at once applied +myself to a perusal of the bulky paper, aided as I read by the verbal +explanations and commentaries of Mr. Sharpe. Our conference lasted +several hours; and it was arranged that another should be held early the +next morning at Mr. Sharpe's office, at which Mr. Kingston would assist. + +Dark, intricate, compassed with fearful mystery, was the case so suddenly +submitted to my guidance; and the few faint gleams of light derived from +the attorney's research, prescience, and sagacity, served but to render +dimly visible a still profounder and blacker abyss of crime than that +disclosed by the evidence for the crown. Young as I then was in the +profession, no marvel that I felt oppressed by the weight of the +responsibility cast upon me; or that, when wearied with thinking, and +dizzy with profitless conjecture, I threw myself into bed, perplexing +images and shapes of guilt and terror pursued me through my troubled +sleep! Happily the next day was not that of trial; for I awoke with a +throbbing pulse and burning brain, and should have been but poorly +prepared for a struggle involving the issues of life and death. Extremely +sensitive, as, under the circumstances, I must necessarily have been, to +the arduous nature of the grave duties so unexpectedly devolved upon me; +the following _resume_ of the chief incidents of the case, as confided to +me by Mr. Sharpe, will, I think, fully account to the reader for the +nervous irritability under which I for the moment, labored:-- + +Mr. Frederick Everett, the prisoner about to be arraigned before a jury +of his countrymen for the frightful crime of murder, had, with his +father, Captain Anthony Everett, resided for several years past at +Woodlands Manor-House, the seat of Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh, a rich, elderly +maiden lady, aunt to the first, and sister by marriage to the last-named +gentleman. A generous, pious, high-minded person Mrs. Fitzhugh was +represented to have been, but extremely sensitive withal on the score of +"family." The Fitzhughs of Yorkshire, she was wont to boast, "came in +with the Conqueror;" and any branch of the glorious tree then firmly +planted in the soil of England that degraded itself by an alliance with +wealth, beauty, or worth, dwelling without the pale of her narrow +prejudices, was inexorably cut off from her affections, and, as far as +she was able, from her memory. One--the principal of these offenders--had +been Mary Fitzhugh, her young, fair, gentle, and only sister. In utter +disdain and slight of the dignity of ancestry, she had chosen to unite +herself to a gentleman of the name of Mordaunt, who, though possessed of +great talents, an unspotted name, and, for his age, high rank in the +civil service of the East India Company, had--inexpiable misfortune--a +trader for his grandfather! This crime against her "house" Mrs. Eleanor +Fitzhugh resolved never to forgive; and she steadily returned, unopened, +the frequent letters addressed to her by her sister, who pined in her +distant Indian home for a renewal of the old sisterly love which had +watched over and gladdened her life from infancy to womanhood. A long +silence--a silence of many years--succeeded; broken at last by the sad +announcement that the unforgiven one had long since found an early grave +in a foreign land. The letter which brought the intelligence bore the +London post-mark, and was written by Captain Everett; to whom, it was +stated, Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh's sister, early widowed, had been united in +second nuptials, and by whom she had borne a son, Frederick Everett, now +nearly twenty years of age. The long-pent-up affection of Mrs. Fitzhugh +for her once idolized sister burst forth at this announcement of her +death with uncontrollable violence; and, as some atonement for her past +sinful obduracy, she immediately invited the husband and son of her +long-lost Mary to Woodlands Manor-House, to be henceforth, she said, she +hoped their home. Soon after their arrival, Mrs. Fitzhugh made a +will--the family property was entirely at her disposal--revoking a former +one, which bequeathed the whole of the real and personal property to a +distant relative whom she had never seen, and by which all was devised to +her nephew, who was immediately proclaimed sole heir to the Fitzhugh +estates, yielding a yearly rental of at least L12,000. Nay, so thoroughly +was she softened towards the memory of her deceased sister, that the +will--of which, as I have stated, no secret was made--provided, in the +event of Frederick dying childless, that the property should pass to his +father, Mary Fitzhugh's second husband. + +No two persons could be more unlike than were the father and +son--mentally, morally, physically. Frederick Everett was a fair-haired, +blue-eyed young man, of amiable, caressing manners, gentle disposition, +and ardent, poetic temperament. His father, on the contrary, was a +dark-featured, cold, haughty, repulsive man, ever apparently wrapped up +in selfish and moody reveries. Between him and his son there appeared to +exist but little of cordial intercourse, although the highly-sensitive +and religious tone of mind of Frederick Everett caused him to treat his +parent with unvarying deference and respect. + +The poetic temperament of Frederick Everett brought him at last, as +poetic temperaments are apt to do, into trouble. Youth, beauty, +innocence, and grace, united in the person of Lucy Carrington--the only +child of Mr. Stephen Carrington, a respectable retired merchant of +moderate means, residing within a few miles of Woodlands +Manor-House--crossed his path; and spite of his shield of many +quarterings, he was vanquished in an instant, and almost without +resistance. The at least tacit consent and approval of Mr. Carrington and +his fair daughter secured, Mr. Everett, junior--hasty, headstrong lover +that he was--immediately disclosed his matrimonial projects to his father +and aunt. Captain Everett received the announcement with a sarcastic +smile, coldly remarking, that if Mrs. Fitzhugh was satisfied, he had no +objection to offer. But, alas! no sooner did her nephew, with much +periphrastic eloquence, in part his passion for the daughter of a _mere_ +merchant to his aunt, than a vehement torrent of indignant rebuke broke +from her lips. She would die rather than consent to so degrading a +_mesalliance_; and should he persist in yielding to such gross +infatuation, she would not only disinherit, but banish him her house, and +cast him forth a beggar on the world. Language like this, one can easily +understand, provoked language from the indignant young man which in less +heated moments he would have disdained to utter; and the aunt and nephew +parted in fierce anger, and after mutual denunciation of each other--he +as a disobedient ingrate, she as an imperious, ungenerous tyrant. The +quarrel was with some difficulty patched up by Captain Everett; and with +the exception of the change which took place in the disappointed lover's +demeanor--from light-hearted gaiety to gloom and sullenness--things, +after a few days, went on pretty nearly as before. + +The sudden rupture of the hopes Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh had reposed in her +nephew as the restorer of the glories of her ancient "house," tarnished +by Mary Fitzhugh's marriage, affected dangerously, it soon appeared, that +lady's already failing health. A fortnight after the quarrel with her +nephew, she became alarmingly ill. Unusual and baffling symptoms showed +themselves; and after suffering during eight days from alternate acute +pain, and heavy, unconquerable drowsiness, she expired in her nephew's +arms. This sudden and fatal illness of his relative appeared to reawaken +all Frederick Everett's tenderness and affection for her. He was +incessant in his close attendance in the sick-chamber, permitting no one +else to administer to his aunt either aliment or medicine. On this latter +point, indeed, he insisted, with strange fierceness, taking the medicine +with his own hand from the man who brought it; and after administering +the prescribed quantity, carefully locking up the remainder in a cabinet +in his bed-room. + +On the morning of the day that Mrs. Fitzhugh died, her ordinary medical +attendant, Mr. Smith, terrified and perplexed by the urgency of the +symptoms exhibited by his patient, called in the aid of a +locally-eminent physician, Dr. Archer, or Archford--the name is not very +distinctly written in my memoranda of these occurrences; but we will +call him Archer--who at once changed the treatment till then pursued, +and ordered powerful emetics to be administered, without, however, as +we have seen, producing any saving or sensible effect. The grief of +Frederick Everett, when all hope was over, was unbounded. He threw +himself, in a paroxysm of remorse or frenzy, upon the bed, accusing +himself of having murdered her, with other strange and incoherent +expressions, upon which an intimation soon afterwards made by Dr. Archer +threw startling light. That gentleman, conjointly with Mr. Smith, +requested an immediate interview with Captain Everett, and Mr. Hardyman, +the deceased lady's land-steward and solicitor, who happened to be in +the house at the time. The request was of course complied with, and Dr. +Archer at once bluntly stated that, in his opinion, _poison_ had been +administered to the deceased lady, though of what precise kind he was +somewhat at a loss to conjecture--opium essentially, he thought, though +certainly not in any of its ordinary preparations--one of the alkaloids +probably which chemical science had recently discovered. Be this as it +may, a _post-mortem_ examination of the body would clear up all doubts, +and should take place as speedily as possible. Captain Everett at once +acceded to Dr. Archer's proposal, at the same time observing that he was +quite sure the result would entirely disprove that gentleman's +assumption. Mr. Hardyman also fully concurred in the necessity of a +rigid investigation; and the _post-mortem_ examination should, it was +arranged, take place early on the following morning. + +"I have another and very painful duty to perform," continued Dr. Archer, +addressing Captain Everett. "I find that your son, Mr. Frederick Everett, +alone administered medicine and aliment to Mrs. Fitzhugh during her +illness. Strange, possibly wholly frenzied expressions, but which sounded +vastly like cries of remorse, irrepressible by a person unused to crime, +escaped him in my hearing just after the close of the final scene; +and--But perhaps, Captain Everett, you had better retire: this is +scarcely a subject"-- + +"Go on, sir," said the captain, over whose countenance a strange +expression--to use Dr. Archer's own words--had _flashed_; "go on: I am +better now." + +"We all know," resumed Dr. Archer, "how greatly Mr. Frederick Everett +gains in wealth by his aunt's death; and that her decease, moreover, will +enable him to conclude the marriage to which she was so determinedly +opposed. I think, therefore, that, under all the circumstances, we shall +be fully justified in placing the young gentleman under such--I will not +say custody, but _surveillance_ as will prevent him either from leaving +the house, should he imagine himself suspected, or of destroying any +evidence which may possibly exist of his guilt, if indeed he be guilty." + +"I entirely agree with you, Dr. Archer," exclaimed Mr. Hardyman, who had +listened with much excitement to the doctor's narrative; "and will, upon +my own responsibility, take the necessary steps for effecting the object +you have in view." + +"Gentlemen," said Captain Everett, rising from his chair, "you will of +course do your duty; but I can take no part, nor offer any counsel, in +such a case; I must leave you to your own devices." He then left the +apartment. + +He had been gone but a few minutes, when Frederick Everett, still in a +state of terrible excitement, entered the room, strode fiercely up to Dr. +Archer, and demanded how he dared propose, as the butler had just +informed him he had done, a dissection of his aunt's body. + +"I will not permit it," continued the agitated young man: "I am master +here, and I say it shall not be done. What new horror would you +evoke? Is it not enough that one of the kindest, best of God's +creatures, has perished, but _another_ sacrifice must--What do I say? +Enough that I will not permit it. I have seen similar cases-very +similar cases in--in India!" + +The gentleman so strangely addressed had exchanged significant glances +during the delivery of this incoherent speech; and, quite confirmed in +their previous impression, Mr. Hardyman, as their spokesman, interrupted +the speaker, to inform him that _he_ was the suspected assassin of his +aunt! The accusing sentences had hardly passed the solicitor's lips, when +the furious young man sprang towards him with the bound of a tiger, and +at one blow prostrated him on the floor. He was immediately seized by the +two medical gentlemen, and help having been summoned, he was with much +difficulty secured, and placed in strict confinement, to await the result +of the next day's inquiry. + +The examination of the body disclosed the terrible fact, that the +deceased lady had perished by _acetate of morphine_; thus verifying the +sagacious guess of Dr. Archer. A minute search was immediately made +throughout Mr. Frederick Everett's apartments, and behind one of the +drawers of a cabinet in his bedroom--at the back of the shelf or +partition upon which the drawer rested, and of course completely hidden +by the drawer itself when in its place--was found a flat tin flask, +fluted on the outside, and closed with a screw stopper: it was loosely +enveloped in a sheet of brown paper, directed "--Everett, Esq., Woodlands +Manor-House, Yorkshire;" and upon close examination, a small quantity of +white powder, which proved to be _acetate of morphine_, was found in the +flask. Suspicion of young Everett's guilt now became conviction; and, as +if to confirm beyond all doubt the soundness of the chain of +circumstantial evidence in which he was immeshed, the butler, John +Darby, an aged and trusty servant of the late Mrs. Fitzhugh, made on the +next day the following deposition before the magistrates:-- + +"He had taken in, two days before his late mistress was seized with her +fatal illness, a small brown paper parcel which had been brought by coach +from London, and for which 2s. 10d carriage was charged and paid. The +paper found in Mr. Frederick Everett's cabinet was, he could positively +swear, from the date and figures marked on it, and the handwriting, the +paper wrapper of that parcel. He had given it to young Mr. Everett, who +happened to be in the library at the time. About five minutes afterwards, +he had occasion to return to the library, to inform him that some +fishing-tackle he had ordered was sent home. The door was ajar; and Mr. +Frederick did not at first perceive his entrance, as he was standing with +his back to the door. The paper parcel he, the butler, had just before +delivered was lying open on the table, and Mr. Everett held in one hand a +flat tin flask--the witness had no doubt the same found in the +cabinet--and in the other a note, which he was reading. He, the witness, +coughed, to attract Mr. Everett's attention, who hurriedly turned round, +clapped down the flask and the note, shuffling them under the paper +wrapper, as if to conceal them, and then, in a very confused manner, and +his face as red as flame, asked witness what he wanted there? Witness +thought this behavior very strange at the time; but the incident soon +passed from his mind, and he had thought no more of it till the finding +of the paper and flask as described by the other witnesses." + +Mr. Frederick Everett, who had manifested the strangest impassability, a +calmness as of despair, throughout the inquiry, which perplexed and +disheartened Mr. Sharpe, whose services had been retained by Captain +Everett, allowed even this mischievous evidence to pass without a word of +comment or explanation; and he was, as a matter of course, fully +committed for the wilful murder of his relative. The chain of +circumstantial evidence, motive included, was, it was felt, complete--not +a link was wanting. + +These were the chief incidents disclosed to me by Mr. Sharpe during our +long and painful consultation. Of the precise nature of the terrible +suspicions which haunted and disturbed me, I shall only in this place say +that neither Mr. Sharpe, nor, consequently, myself, would in all +probability have guessed or glanced at them, but for the persistent +assertions of Miss Carrington, that her lover was madly sacrificing +himself from some chimerical motive of honor or duty. + +"You do not know, Mr. Sharpe, as I do," she would frequently exclaim with +tearful vehemence, "the generous, child-like simplicity, the chivalric +enthusiasm, of his character, his utter abnegation of self, and readiness +on all occasions to sacrifice his own ease, his own wishes, to forward +the happiness of others; and, above all, his fantastic notions of +honor--duty, if you will--which would, I feel assured, prompt him to +incur any peril, death itself, to shield from danger any one who had +claims upon him either of blood or of affection. You know to whom my +suspicions point; and how dreadful to think that one so young, so brave, +so pious, and so true, should be sacrificed for such a monster as I +believe that man to be!" + +To all these passionate expostulations the attorney could only reply +that vague suspicions were not judicial proofs; and that if Mr. +Frederick Everett would persist in his obstinate reserve, a fatal result +was inevitable. But Mr. Sharpe readily consented to gratify the wishes +of Mr. Carrington and his daughter on one point: he returned the money, +not a very large sum, which Captain Everett had sent him, and agreed +that Mr. Carrington should supply the funds necessary for the defence of +the prisoner. + +Our consultation the next day at Mr. Sharpe's was a sad and hopeless one. +Nowhere did a gleam of cheerful light break in. The case was +overwhelmingly complete against the prisoner. The vague suspicions we +entertained pointed to a crime so monstrous, so incredible, that we felt +it could not be so much as hinted at upon such, legally considered, +slight grounds. The prisoner was said to be an eloquent speaker, and I +undertook to draw up the outline of a defence, impugning, with all the +dialectic skill I was master of, the conclusiveness of the evidence for +the crown. To this, and a host of testimony to character which we +proposed to call, rested our faint hopes of "a good deliverance!" + +Business was over, and we were taking a glass of wine with Mr. Sharpe, +when his chief clerk entered to say that Sergeant Edwards, an old +soldier--who had spoken to them some time before relative to a large +claim which he asserted he had against Captain Everett, arising out of a +legacy bequeathed to him in India, and the best mode of assuring its +payment by an annuity, as proposed by the captain--had now called to say +that the terms were at last finally arranged, and that he wished to know +when Mr. Sharpe would be at leisure to draw up the bond. "He need not +fear for his money!" exclaimed Sharpe tartly, "the captain will, I fear, +be rich enough before another week has passed over our heads. Tell him to +call to-morrow evening; I will see him after I return from court." A few +minutes afterwards, I and Mr. Kingston took our leave. + +The Crown Court was thronged to suffocation on the following morning, +and the excitement of the auditory appeared to be of the intensest kind. +Miss Carrington, closely veiled, sat beside her father on one of the +side-benches. A true bill against the prisoner had been found on the +previous afternoon; and the trial, it had been arranged, to suit the +convenience of counsel, should be first proceeded with. The court was +presided over by Mr. Justice Grose; and Mr. Gurney--afterwards Mr. Baron +Gurney--with another gentleman appeared for the prosecution. As soon as +the judge had taken his seat, the prisoner was ordered to be brought in, +and a hush of expectation pervaded the assembly. In a few minutes he made +his appearance in the dock. His aspect--calm, mournful, and full of +patient resignation--spoke strongly to the feelings of the audience, and +a low murmur of sympathy ran through the court. He bowed respectfully to +the bench, and then his sad, proud eye wandered round the auditory, till +it rested on the form of Lucy Carrington, who, overcome by sudden +emotion, had hidden her weeping face in her father's bosom. Strong +feeling, which he with difficulty mastered, shook his frame, and blanched +to a still deeper pallor his fine intellectual countenance. He slowly +withdrew his gaze from the agitating spectacle, and his troubled glance +meeting that of Mr. Sharpe, seemed to ask why proceedings, which _could_ +only have one termination, were delayed. He had not long to wait. The +jury were sworn, and Mr. Gurney rose to address them for the crown. +Clear, terse, logical, powerful without the slightest pretence to what is +called eloquence, his speech produced a tremendous impression upon all +who heard it; and few persons mentally withheld their assent to his +assertion, as he concluded what was evidently a painful task, "that +should he produce evidence substantiating the statement he had made, the +man who could then refuse to believe in the prisoner's guilt, would +equally refuse credence to actions witnessed by his own bodily eyes." + +The different witnesses were then called, and testified to the various +facts I have before related. Vainly did Mr. Kingston and I exert +ourselves to invalidate the irresistible proofs of guilt so +dispassionately detailed. "It is useless," whispered Mr. Sharpe, as I sat +down after the cross-examination of the aged butler. "You have done all +that could be done; but he is a doomed man, spite of his innocence, of +which I feel, every moment that I look at him, the more and more +convinced. God help us; we are poor, fallible creatures, with all our +scientific machinery for getting at truth!" + +The case for the crown was over, and the prisoner was told that now was +the time for him to address the jury in answer to the charge preferred +against him. He bowed courteously to the intimation, and drawing a paper +from his pocket, spoke, after a few preliminary words of course, nearly +as follows:-- + +"I hold in my hand a very acute and eloquent address prepared for me by +one of the able and zealous gentlemen who appears to-day as my counsel, +and which, but for the iniquitous law which prohibits the advocate of a +presumed felon, but possibly quite innocent person, from addressing the +jury, upon whose verdict his client's fate depends, would no doubt have +formed the subject-matter of an appeal to you not to yield credence to +the apparently irrefragable testimony arrayed against me. The substance +of this defence you must have gathered from the tenor of the +cross-examinations; but so little effect did it produce, I saw, in that +form, however ably done, and so satisfied am I that though it were +rendered with an angel's eloquence, it would prove utterly impotent to +shake the strong conclusions of my guilt, which you, short-sighted, +fallible mortals--short-sighted and fallible _because_ mortal!--I mean no +disrespect--must have drawn from the body of evidence you have heard, +that I will not weary you or myself by reading it. I will only observe +that it points especially to the _over_-roof, so to speak, arrayed +against me--to the folly of supposing that an intentional murderer would +ostentatiously persist in administering the fatal potion to the victim +with his own hands, carefully excluding all others from a chance of +incurring suspicion. There are other points, but this is by far the most +powerful one; and as I cannot believe _that_ will induce you to return a +verdict rescuing me from what the foolish world, judging from +appearances, will call a shameful death, but which I, knowing my own +heart, feel to be sanctified by the highest motives which can influence +man--it would be merely waste of time to repeat them. From the first +moment, gentlemen, that this accusation was preferred against me, I felt +that I had done with this world; and, young as I am, but for one beloved +being whose presence lighted up and irradiated this else cold and barren +earth, I should, with little reluctance, have accepted this gift of an +apparently severe, but perhaps merciful fate. This life, gentlemen," he +continued after a short pause, "it has been well said, is but a battle +and a march. I have been struck down early in the combat; but of what +moment is that, if it be found by Him who witnesses the world-unnoticed +deeds of _all_ his soldiers, that I have earned the victor's crown? Let +it be your consolation, gentlemen, if hereafter you should discover that +you have sent me to an undeserved death, that you at least will not have +hurried a soul spotted with the awful crime of murder before its Maker. +And oh," he exclaimed in conclusion, with solemn earnestness, "may _all_ +who have the guilt of blood upon them hasten, whilst life is still +granted them, to cleanse themselves by repentance of that foul sin, so +that not only the sacrifice of one poor life, but that most holy and +tremendous one offered in the world's consummate hour, may not for them +have been made in vain! My lord and gentlemen, I have no more to say. You +will doubtless do your duty: I _have_ done mine." + +I was about, a few minutes after the conclusion of this strange and +unexpected address, to call our witnesses to character, when, to the +surprise of the whole court, and the consternation of the prisoner, Miss +Carrington started up, threw aside her veil, and addressing the judge, +demanded to be heard. + +Queenly, graceful, and of touching loveliness did she look in her +vehemence of sorrow--radiant as sunlight in her days of joy she must have +been--as she stood up, affection-prompted, regardless of self, of the +world, to make one last effort to save her affianced husband. + +"What would you say, young lady?" said Mr. Justice Grose, kindly. "If you +have anything to testify in favor of the prisoner, you had better +communicate with his counsel." + +"Not that--not that," she hurriedly replied, as if fearful that her +strength would fail before she had enunciated her purpose. "Put, my lord, +put Frederick--the prisoner, I mean--on his oath. Bid him declare, as he +shall answer at the bar of Almighty God, who is the murderer for whom he +is about to madly sacrifice himself, and you will then find"-- + +"Your request is an absurd one," interrupted the judge with some +asperity. "I have no power to question a prisoner." + +"Then," shrieked the unfortunate lady, sinking back fainting and helpless +in her father's arms, "he is lost--lost!" + +She was immediately carried out of court; and as soon as the sensation +caused by so extraordinary and painful an incident had subsided, the +trial proceeded. A cloud of witnesses to character were called; the judge +summed up; the jury deliberated for a few minutes; and a verdict of +"guilty" was returned. Sentence to die on the day after the next +followed, and all was over! + +Yes; all was, we deemed, over; but happily a decree, reversing that of +Mr. Justice Grose, had gone forth in Heaven. I was sitting at home about +an hour after the court had closed, painfully musing on the events of +the day, when the door of the apartment suddenly flew open, and in +rushed Mr. Sharpe in a state of great excitement, accompanied by +Sergeant Edwards, whom the reader will remember had called the previous +day at that gentleman's house. In a few minutes I was in possession of +the following important information, elicited by Mr. Sharpe from the +half-willing, half-reluctant sergeant, whom he had found waiting for him +at his office:-- + +In the first place, Captain Everett was _not_ the father of the prisoner! +The young man was the son of Mary Fitzhugh by her _first_ marriage; and +his name, consequently, was Mordaunt, not Everett. His mother had +survived her second marriage barely six months. Everett, calculating +doubtless upon the great pecuniary advantages which would be likely to +result to himself as the reputed father of the heir to a splendid English +estate, should the quarrel with Mrs. Eleanor Fitzhugh--as he nothing +doubted--be ultimately made up, had brought his deceased wife's infant +son up as his own. This was the secret of Edwards and his wife; and to +purchase their silence, Captain Everett had agreed to give the bond for +an annuity which Mr. Sharpe was to draw up. The story of the legacy was a +mere pretence. When Edwards was in Yorkshire before, Everett pacified +him for the time with a sum of money, and a promise to do more for him as +soon as his reputed son came into the property. He then hurried the +_cidevant_ sergeant back to London; and at the last interview he had +with him, gave him a note addressed to a person living in one of the +streets--I forget which--leading out of the Haymarket, together with a +five-pound note, which he was to pay the person to whom the letter was +addressed for some very rare and valuable powder, which the captain +wanted for scientific purposes, and which Edwards was to forward by coach +to Woodlands Manor-House. Edwards obeyed his instructions, and delivered +the message to the queer bushy-bearded foreigner to whom it was +addressed, who told him that, if he brought him the sum of money +mentioned in the note on the following day, he should have the article +required. He also bade him bring a well-stoppered bottle to put it in. As +the bottle was to be sent by coach, Edwards purchased a tin flask, as +affording a better security against breakage; and having obtained the +powder, packed it nicely up, and told his niece, who was staying with him +at the time, to direct it, as he was in a hurry to go out, to Squire +Everett, Woodlands Manor-House, Yorkshire, and then take it to the +booking-office. He thought, of course, though he said _Squire_ in a +jocular way, that she would have directed it _Captain_ Everett, as she +knew him well; but it seemed she had not. Edwards had returned to +Yorkshire only two days since, to get his annuity settled, and +fortunately was present in court at the trial of Frederick Mordaunt, +_alias_ Everett, and at once recognized the tin flask as the one he had +purchased and forwarded to Woodlands, where it must in due course have +arrived on the day stated by the butler. Terrified and bewildered at the +consequences of what he had done, or helped to do, Edwards hastened to +Mr. Sharpe, who, by dint of exhortations, threats, and promises, +judiciously blended, induced him to make a clean breast of it. + +As much astounded as elated by this unlooked-for information, it was some +minutes before I could sufficiently concentrate my thoughts upon the +proper course to be pursued. I was not, however, long in deciding. +Leaving Mr. Sharpe to draw up an affidavit of the facts disclosed, I +hastened off to the jail, in order to obtain a thorough elucidation of +all the mysteries. + +The revulsion of feeling in the prisoner's mind when he learned that the +man for whom he had so recklessly sacrificed himself was not only _not_ +his father, but a cold-blooded villain, who, according to the testimony +of Sergeant Edwards, had embittered, perhaps shortened, his mother's last +hours, was immediate and excessive. "I should have taken Lucy's advice!" +he bitterly exclaimed, as he strode to and fro in his cell; "have told +the truth at all hazards, and have left the rest to God." His explanation +of the incidents that had so puzzled us all, was as simple as +satisfactory. He had always, from his earliest days, stood much in awe of +his father, who in the, to young Mordaunt, sacred character of parent, +exercised an irresistible control over him; and when the butler entered +the library, he believed for an instant it was his father who had +surprised him in the act of reading his correspondence; an act which, +however unintentional, would, he knew, excite Captain Everett's fiercest +wrath. Hence arose the dismay and confusion which the butler had +described. He re-sealed the parcel, and placed it in his reputed father's +dressing-room; and thought little more of the matter, till, on entering +his aunt's bedroom on the first evening of her illness, he beheld Everett +pour a small portion of white powder from the tin flask into the bottle +containing his aunt's medicine. The terrible truth at once flashed upon +him. A fierce altercation immediately ensued in the father's +dressing-room, whither Frederick followed him. Everett persisted that the +powder was a celebrated Eastern medicament, which would save, if anything +could, his aunt's life. The young man was not of course deceived by this +shallow falsehood, and from that moment administered the medicine to the +patient with his own hands, and kept the bottles which contained it +locked up in his cabinet. "On the very morning of my aunt's death, I +surprised him shutting and locking one of my cabinet drawers. So +dumbfounded was I with horror and dismay at the sight, that he left the +room by a side-door without observing me. You have now the key to my +conduct. I loathed to look upon the murderer; but I would have died a +thousand deaths rather than attempt to save my own life by the sacrifice +of a father's--how guilty soever he might be." + +Furnished with this explanation, and the affidavit of Edwards, I waited +upon the judge, and obtained not only a respite for the prisoner, but a +warrant for the arrest of Captain Everett. + +It was a busy evening. Edwards was despatched to London in the friendly +custody of an intelligent officer, to secure the person of the +foreign-looking vender of subtle poisons; and Mr. Sharpe, with two +constables, set off in a postchaise for Woodlands Manor-House. It was +late when they arrived there, and the servants informed them that Captain +Everett had already retired. They of course insisted upon seeing him; and +he presently appeared, wrapped in a dressing-gown, and haughtily demanded +their business with him at such an hour. The answer smote him as with a +thunderbolt, and he staggered backwards, till arrested by the wall of the +apartment, and then sank feebly, nervelessly, into a chair. Eagerly, +after a pause, he questioned the intruders upon the nature of the +evidence against him. Mr. Sharpe briefly replied that Edwards was in +custody, and had revealed everything. + +"Is it indeed so?" rejoined Everett, seeming to derive resolution and +fortitude from the very extremity of despair. "Then the game is +unquestionably lost. It was, however, boldly and skilfully played, and I +am not a man to whimper over a fatal turn of the dice. In a few minutes, +gentlemen," he added, "I shall have changed my dress, and be ready to +accompany you." + +"We cannot lose sight of you for an instant," replied Mr. Sharpe. "One of +the officers must accompany you." + +"Be it so: I shall not detain either him or you long." + +Captain Everett, followed by the officer, passed into his dressing-room. +He pulled off his gown; and pointing to a coat suspended on a peg at the +further extremity of the apartment, requested the constable to reach it +for him. The man hastened to comply with his wish. Swiftly, Everett +opened a dressing-case which stood on a table near him: the officer +heard the sharp clicking of a pistol-lock, and turned swiftly round. Too +late! A loud report rang through the house; the room was filled with +smoke; and the wretched assassin and suicide lay extended on the floor a +mangled corpse! + +It would be useless minutely to recapitulate, the final winding-up of +this eventful drama. Suffice it to record, that Mr. Frederick Mordaunt +was, after a slight delay, restored to freedom and a splendid position in +society. After the lapse of a decent interval, he espoused Lucy +Carrington. Their eldest son represents in this present parliament one of +the English boroughs, and is by no means an undistinguished member of the +Commons House. + + + + +"THE ACCOMMODATION BILL." + + +Such of the incidents of the following narrative as did not fall within +my own personal observation, were communicated to me by the late Mr. +Ralph Symonds, and the dying confessions of James Hornby, one of the +persons killed by the falling in of the iron roof of the Brunswick +Theatre. A conversation the other day with a son of Mr. Symonds, who has +been long settled in London, recalled the entire chain of circumstances +to my memory with all the vivid distinctness of a first impression. + +One evening towards the close of the year 1806, the Leeds coach brought +Mr. James Hornby to the village of Pool, on the Wharf, in the West-Riding +of Yorkshire. A small but respectable house on the confines of the place +had been prepared for his reception, and a few minutes after his descent +from the top of the coach, the pale, withered-looking man disappeared +within it. Except for occasional trips to Otley, a small market-town +distant about three miles from Pool, he rarely afterwards emerged from +its seclusion. It was not _Time_, we shall presently see--he was indeed +but four-and-forty years of age--that had bowed his figure, thinned his +whitening hair, and banished from his countenance all signs of healthy, +cheerful life. This, too, appeared to be the opinion of the gossips of +the village, who, congregated, as usual, to witness the arrival and +departure of the coach, indulged, thought Mr. Symonds, who was an inside +passenger proceeding on to Otley, in remarkably free-and-easy +commentaries upon the past, present, and future of the new-comer. + +"I mind him well," quavered an old white-haired man. "It's just +three-and-twenty years ago last Michaelmas. I remember it because of the +hard frost two years before, that young Jim Hornby left Otley to go to +Lunnon: just the place, I'm told, to give the finishing polish to such a +miscreant as he seemed likely to be. He was just out of his time to old +Hornby, his uncle, the grocer." + +"He that's left him such heaps of money?" + +"Ay, boy, the very same, though he wouldn't have given him or any one +else a cheese-paring whilst he lived. This one is a true chip of the +old block, I'll warrant. You noticed that he rode outside, bitter cold +as it is?". + +"Surely, Gaffer Hicks. But do ye mind what it was he went off in such a +skurry for? Tom Harris was saying last night at the Horse-Shoe, it was +something concerning a horse-race or a young woman; he warn't quite +sensible which." + +"I can't say," rejoined the more ancient oracle, "that I quite mind all +the ups and downs of it. Henry Burton horse-whipped him on the Doncaster +race-course, _that_ I know; but whether it was about Cinderella that had, +they said, been tampered with the night before the race, or Miss +Elizabeth Grainsford, whom Burton married a few weeks afterwards, I +can't, as Tom Harris says, quite clearly remember." + +"Old Hornby had a heavy grip of Burton's farm for a long time before he +died, they were saying yesterday at Otley. The sheepskins will now no +doubt be in the nephew's strong box." + +"True, lad; and let's hope Master Burton will be regular with his +payments; for if not, there's Jail and Ruin for him written in capital +letters on yon fellow's cast-iron phiz, I can see." + +The random hits of these Pool gossips, which were here interrupted by +the departure of the coach, were not very wide of the mark. James Hornby, +it was quite true, had been publicly horsewhipped twenty-three years +before by Henry Burton on the Doncaster race-course, ostensibly on +account of the sudden withdrawal of a horse that should have started, a +transaction with which young Hornby was in some measure mixed up; but +especially and really for having dared, upon the strength of presumptive +heirship to his uncle's wealth, to advance pretensions to the fair hand +of Elizabeth Gainsford, the eldest daughter of Mr. Robert Gainsford, +surgeon, of Otley--pretensions indirectly favored, it was said, by the +father, but contemptuously repudiated by the lady. Be this as it may, +three weeks after the races, Elizabeth Gainsford became Mrs. Burton, and +James Hornby hurried off to London, grudgingly furnished for the journey +by his uncle. He obtained a situation as shopman in one of the large +grocer establishments of the metropolis; and twenty-three years +afterwards, the attorney's letter, informing him that he had succeeded to +all his deceased uncle's property, found him in the same place, and in +the same capacity. + +A perfect yell of delight broke from the lips of the taciturn man as his +glance devoured the welcome intelligence. "At last!" he shouted with +maniacal glee; and fiercely crumpling the letter in his hand, as if he +held a living foe in his grasp, whilst a flash of fiendish passion broke +from the deep caverns of his sunken eyes--"at last I have thee on the +hip! Ah, mine enemy!--it is the dead--the dead alone that never return +to hurl back on the head of the wrong-doer the shame, the misery, the +ruin he inflicted in his hour of triumph!" The violence of passions +suddenly unreined after years of jealous curb and watchfulness for a +moment overcame him, and he reeled as if fainting, into a chair. The +fierce, stern nature of the man soon mastered the unwonted excitement, +and in a few minutes he was cold, silent, impassable as ever. The letter +which he despatched the same evening gave calm, business orders as to +his uncle's funeral, and other pressing matters upon which the attorney +had demanded instructions, and concluded by intimating that he should be +in Yorkshire before many days elapsed. He arrived, as we have seen, and +took up his abode at one of the houses bequeathed to him in Pool, which +happened to be unlet. + +Yes, for more than twenty bitter years James Hornby had savagely brooded +over the shame and wrong inflicted on him before the mocking eyes of a +brutal crowd by Henry Burton. Ever as the day's routine business closed, +and he retired to the dull solitude of his chamber, the last mind-picture +which faded on his waking sense was the scene on the crowded race-course, +with all its exasperating accessories--the merciless exultation of the +triumphant adversary--the jibes and laughter of his companions--the +hootings of the mob--to be again repeated with fantastic exaggeration in +the dreams which troubled and perplexed his broken sleep. No wonder that +the demons of Revenge and Hate, by whom he was thus goaded, should have +withered by their poisonous breath the healthful life which God had +given--have blasted with premature old age a body rocker with curses to +unblessed repose! It seemed, by his after-confessions, that he had really +loved Elizabeth Gainsford with all the energy of his violent, moody +nature, and that her image, fresh, lustrous, radiant, as in the dawn of +life, unceasingly haunted his imagination with visions of tenderness and +beauty, lost to him, as he believed, through the wiles, the calumnies, +and violence of his detested, successful rival. + +The matronly person who, a few days after the Christmas following +Hornby's arrival at Pool, was conversing with her husband in the parlor +of Grange farmhouse, scarcely realized the air-drawn image which dwelt in +the memory of the unforgiving, unforgetting man. Mrs. Burton was at this +time a comely dame, whose _embonpoint_ contour, however indicative of +florid health and serenity of temper, exhibited little of the airy +elegance and grace said to have distinguished the girlhood of Elizabeth +Gainsford. Her soft brown eyes were gentle and kind as ever, but the +brilliant lights of youth no longer sparkled in their quiet depths, and +time had not only "thinned her flowing hair"--necessitating caps--but had +brushed the roses from her cheeks, and swept away, with his searing hand, +the pale lilies from the furtive coverts whence they had glanced in +tremulous beauty, in life's sweet prime; yet for all that, and a great +deal more, Mrs. Burton, I have no manner of doubt, looked charmingly in +the bright fire-blaze which gleamed in chequered light and shade upon the +walls, pictures, curtains of the room, and the green leaves and scarlet +berries of the Christmas holly with which it was profusely decorated. +Three of her children--the eldest, Elizabeth, a resuscitation of her own +youth--were by her side, and opposite sat her husband, whose frank, +hearty countenance seemed to sparkle with careless mirth. + +"Hornby will be here presently, Elizabeth," said he. "What a +disappointment awaits the rascally curmudgeon! His uncle was a prince +compared to him." + +"Disappointment, Henry! to receive four hundred pounds he did not +expect?" + +"Ay, truly, dame. Lawyer Symonds' son Frank, a fine, good-hearted young +fellow as ever stepped in shoe-leather--Lizzy, girl, if that candle +were nearer your face it would light without a match"-- + +"Nonsense, father!" + +"Very likely. Frank Symonds, I was saying, believes, and so does his +father, that Hornby would rejoice at an opportunity of returning with +interest the smart score I marked upon his back three-and-twenty +years ago" + +"It was a thoughtless, cruel act, Henry," rejoined his wife, "and the +less said of it the better. I hope the fright we have had will induce you +to practice a better economy than heretofore; so that, instead of +allowing two years' interest to accumulate upon us, we may gradually +reduce the mortgage." + +"That we will, dear, depend upon it. We shall be pushed a little at +first: Kirkshaw, who lent me the two hundred and fifty, can only spare it +for a month; but no doubt the bank will do a bill for part of it by that +time. But sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Here is the money +for Hornby at all events: and here at last comes the shrivelled atomy; I +hear his horse. Fanny, light the candles." + +If Mrs. Burton had consciously or unconsciously entertained the +self-flattering notion that the still unwedded bachelor who had +unsuccessfully wooed her nearly a quarter of a century before, still +retained a feeling of regretful tenderness for her, she must have been +grievously surprised by the cold, unrecognizing glance which Hornby +threw on her as he entered, and curtly replied to her civil greeting. +_That_ was not the image stamped upon his heart and brain! But when her +eldest daughter approached the lights to place paper and pens upon the +table, the flashing glance and white quivering lip of the grave visitor +revealed the tempest of emotion which for an instant shook him. He +quickly suppressed all outward manifestation of feeling, and in a dry, +business tone, demanded if Mr. Burton was ready to pay the interest of +the mortgage. + +"Yes, thank God," replied Burton, "I am: here is the money in notes of +the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. Count them!" + +Hornby bent down over the notes, shading his face with his hand, as if +more accurately to examine them, and the glance of baffled rage which +swept across his features was not observed. + +"They are quite right," he said, rising from his chair; "and here is +your receipt." + +"Very Good! And now, Hornby, let us have a glass of wine together for the +sake of old times. Well, well; you need not look so fierce about it. Let +bygones be bygones, I say. Oh, if you _will_ go--go in God's name! +Good-night!" + +"Good-night!" + +"Baffled--foiled!" muttered Hornby as he rode homeward. "Where could he +get the money? Borrowed it, doubtless, but of whom? Well, +patience--patience! I shall grip thee yet, Henry Burton!" And the +possessed man turned round in his saddle, and shook his clenched hand in +the direction of the house he had quitted. He then steadily pursued his +way, and soon regained his hermitage. + +The month for which Burton had borrowed the two hundred and fifty pounds +passed rapidly--as months always do to borrowers--and expedient after +expedient for raising the money was tried in vain. This money must be +repaid, Kirkshaw had emphatically told him, on the day stipulated. Burton +applied to the bank at Leeds, with which he usually did business, to +discount an acceptance, guaranteed by one or two persons whose names he +mentioned. The answer was the usual civil refusal to accept the proffered +security for repayment--"the bank was just then full of discounts." +Burton ventured, as a last resource, to call on Hornby with a request +that, as the rapid advance in the market-value of land consequent on the +high war-prices obtained for its produce, had greatly increased the worth +of Grange Farm, he would add the required sum to the already-existing +mortgage. He was met by a prompt refusal. Mr. Hornby intended to +foreclose as speedily as possible the mortgages he already held, and +invest his capital in more profitable securities. "Well, then--would he +lend the amount at any interest he chose?" + +"The usury laws," replied Hornby, with his usual saturnine sneer, "would +prevent my acceptance of your obliging offer, even if I had the present +means, which I have not. My spare cash happens just now to be temporarily +locked up." + +Burton, half-crazed with anxiety, went the following day to the Leeds +bank with the proffer of a fresh name agreed to be lent him by its +owner. Useless! "They did not know the party." The applicant mused a +few moments, and then said, "Would you discount the note of Mr. James +Hornby of Pool?" + +"Certainly; with a great deal of pleasure." Burton hurried away; had his +horse instantly saddled, and gallopped off to Pool. Hornby was at home. + +"You hinted the other day," said Burton, "that if you had not been short +of present means you might have obliged me with the loan I required" + +"Did I?" + +"At least I so understood you. I am of course not ignorant, Mr. Hornby, +that there is no good blood between us two; but I also know that you are +fond of money, and that you are fully aware that I am quite safe for a +few hundred pounds. I am come, therefore, to offer you ten pounds _bonus_ +for your acceptance at one month for two hundred and fifty pounds." + +"What?" exclaimed Hornby with strange vehemence. "What" + +Burton repeated his offer, and Hornby turned away towards the window +without speaking. + +When he again faced Burton, his countenance wore its usual color; but +the expression of his eyes, the applicant afterwards remembered, was +wild and exulting. + +"Have you a bill stamp?" + +"Yes." + +"Then draw the bill at once, and I will accept it." + +Burton did not require to be twice told. The bill was quickly drawn; +Hornby took it to another table at the further end of the apartment, +slowly wrote his name across it, folded, and returned it to Burton, who +tendered the ten pounds he had offered, and a written acknowledgment that +the bill had been drawn and accepted for his (Burton's) accommodation. + +"I don't want your money, Henry Burton," said Hornby, putting back the +note and the memorandum. "I am not afraid of losing by this transaction. +You do not know me yet." + +"A queer stick," thought Burton, as he gained the street; "but Old Nick +is seldom so black as he's painted! He was a plaguy while, I thought, +signing his name; but I wish I could sign mine to such good purpose." + +Burton laid the accepted bill, face downwards, on the bank counter, took +a pen, indorsed, and passed it to the managing clerk. The gray-headed man +glanced sharply at the signature, and then at Burton, "Why, surely this +is not Mr. Hornby's signature? It does not at all resemble it!" + +"Not his signature!" exclaimed Burton; "what do you mean by that?" + +"Reynolds, look here," continued the clerk, addressing another of the +bank _employes_. Reynolds looked, and his immediate glance of surprise +and horror at Burton revealed the impression he had formed. + +"Please to step this way, Mr. Burton, to a private apartment," said +the manager. + +"No--no, I won't," stammered the unfortunate man, over whose mind a +dreadful suspicion had glanced with the suddenness of lightning. "I will +go back to Hornby;" and he made a desperate but vain effort to snatch the +fatal instrument. Then, pale and staggering with a confused terror and +bewilderment, he attempted to rush into the street. He was stopped, with +the help of the bystanders, by one of the clerks, who had jumped over the +counter for the purpose. + +The messenger despatched by the bankers to Hornby returned with an answer +that the alleged acceptance was a forgery. It was stated on the part of +Mr. Hornby that Mr. Burton had indeed requested him to lend two hundred +and fifty pounds, but he had refused. The frantic asseverations of poor +Burton were of course disregarded, and he was conveyed to jail. An +examination took place the next day before the magistrates, and the +result was, that the prisoner was fully committed on the then capital +charge for trial at the ensuing assize. + +It were useless, as painful, to dwell upon the consternation and agony +which fell upon the dwellers at Grange Farm when the terrible news +reached them. A confident belief in the perfect innocence of the +prisoner, participated by most persons who knew his character and that of +Hornby, and that it would be triumphantly vindicated on the day of trial, +which rapidly approached, alone enabled them to bear up against the blow, +and to await with trembling hope the verdict of a jury. + +It was at this crisis of the drama that I became an actor in it. I was +retained for the defence by my long-known and esteemed friend Symonds, +whose zeal for his client, stimulated by strong personal friendship, knew +no bounds. The acceptance, he informed me, so little resembled Hornby's +handwriting, that if Burton had unfolded the bill when given back to him +by the villain, he could hardly have failed to suspect the nature of the +diabolical snare set for his life. + +In those days, and until Mr., now Sir, Robert Peel's amendment of the +criminal law and practice of this country, the acceptor of a bill of +exchange, on the principle that he was _interested_ in denying the +genuineness of the signature, could not, according to the English law of +evidence, be called, on the part of the prosecution, to prove the +forgery; and of course, after what had taken place, we did not propose to +call Hornby for the defence. The evidence for the crown consisted, +therefore, on the day of trial, of the testimony of persons acquainted +with Hornby's signature, that the acceptance across the inculpated bill +was not in his handwriting. Burton's behavior at the bank, in endeavoring +to repossess himself of the bill by violence, was of course detailed, and +told heavily against him. + +All the time this testimony was being given, Hornby sat on one of the +front seats of the crowded court, exulting in the visible accomplishment +of his Satanic device. We could see but little of his face, which, +supported on his elbow, was partially concealed by a handkerchief he held +in his hand; but I, who narrowly observed him, could occasionally discern +flashes from under his pent brows--revealments of the fierce struggle +which raged within. + +The moment at last arrived for the prisoner, whose eyes had been for some +time fixed on Hornby, to speak or read his defence, and a breathless +silence pervaded the court. + +Burton started at the summons, like a man unexpectedly recalled to a +sense of an imperious, but for the moment forgotten, duty. + +"James Hornby!" he suddenly cried with a voice which rang through the +assembly like a trumpet, "stand up, and if you can face an innocent +man"-- + +Hornby, surprised out of his self-possession, mechanically obeyed the +strange order, sprang involuntarily to his feet, let fall the +handkerchief that had partially concealed his features, and nervously +confronted the prisoner. + +"Look at me, I say," continued Burton with increasing excitement; "and as +you hope to escape the terrors of the last judgment, answer truly: did +you not, with your own hand, and in my presence, sign that bill?"-- + +"This cannot be permitted," interrupted the judge. + +"If you do not speak," proceeded the prisoner, heedless of the +intimation from the bench; "or if you deny the truth, my life, as sure +as there is a God in heaven, will be required at your hands. If, in +consequence of your devilish plotting, these men consign me to a felon's +grave, I shall not be cold in it when you will be calling upon the +mountains to fall and cover you from the vengeance of the Judge of +heaven and earth! Speak, man--save me: save your own soul from mortal +peril whilst there is yet time for mercy and repentance!" + +Hornby's expression of surprise and confusion had gradually changed +during this appeal to its usual character of dogged impassibility. He +turned calmly and appealingly towards the bench. + +"You need not answer these wild adjurations, Mr. Hornby," said the judge, +as soon as he could make himself heard. + +A smile curled the fellow's lip as he bowed deferentially to his +lordship, and he sat down without uttering a syllable. + +"May the Lord, then, have mercy on my soul!" exclaimed the prisoner +solemnly. Then glancing at the bench and jury-box, he added, "And you, my +lord and gentlemen, work your will with my body as quickly as you may: I +am a lost man!" + +The calling of witnesses to character, the opening of the judge's charge, +pointing from its first sentence to a conviction, elicited no further +manifestation of feeling from the prisoner: he was as calm as despair. + +The judge had been speaking for perhaps ten minutes, when a bustle was +heard at the hall, as if persons were striving to force their way into +the body of the court in spite of the resistance of the officers. + +"Who is that disturbing the court?" demanded the judge angrily. + +"For the love of Heaven let me pass!" we heard uttered in passionate +tones by a female voice. "I must and will see the judge!" + +"Who can this be?" T inquired, addressing Mr. Symonds. + +"I cannot conceive," he replied; "surely not Mrs. Burton?" + +I had kept my eye, as I spoke, upon Hornby, and noticed that he exhibited +extraordinary emotion at the sound of the voice, to whomsoever it +belonged, and was now endeavoring to force his way through the crowded +and anxious auditory. + +"My lord," said I, "I have to request on the part of the prisoner that +the person desirous of admittance may be heard." + +"What has she to say? Or if a material witness, why have you not called +her at the proper time?" replied his lordship with some irritation. + +"My lord, I do not even now know her name; but in a case involving the +life of the prisoner, it is imperative that no chance be neglected"-- + +"Let the woman pass into the witness-box," interrupted the judge. + +The order brought before our eyes a pale, stunted woman, of about fifty +years of age, whose excited and by no means unintellectual features, and +hurried, earnest manner, seemed to betoken great and unusual feeling. + +"As I'm alive, Hornby's deformed housekeeper!" whispered Symonds. "This +poor devil's knot will be unraveled yet." + +The woman, whose countenance and demeanor, as she gave her evidence, +exhibited a serious, almost solemn intelligence, deposed to the +following effect:-- + +"Her name was Mary McGrath, and she was the daughter of Irish parents, +but born and brought up in England. She had been Mr. Hornby's +housekeeper, and remembered well the 4th of February last, when Mr. +Burton, the prisoner, called at the house. Witness was dusting in an +apartment close to her master's business-room, from which it was only +separated by a thin wooden partition. The door was partly open, and she +could see as well as hear what was going on without being seen herself. +She heard the conversation between the prisoner and her master; heard +Mr. Hornby agree to sign the paper--bill she ought to say--for two +hundred and fifty pounds; saw him do it, and then deliver it folded up +to Mr. Burton." + +A shout of execration burst from the auditory as these words were +uttered, and every eye was turned to the spot where Hornby had been +seated. He had disappeared during the previous confusion. + +"Silence!" exclaimed the judge sternly. "Why, woman," he added, "have you +never spoken of this before?" + +"Because, my lord," replied the witness with downcast looks, and in a +low, broken voice--"because I am a sinful, wicked creature. When my +master, the day after Mr. Burton had been taken up, discovered that I +knew his secret, he bribed me with money and great promises of more to +silence. I had been nearly all my life, gentlemen, poor and miserable, +almost an outcast, and the temptation was too strong for me. He +mistrusted me, however--for my mind, he saw, was sore troubled--and he +sent me off to London yesterday, to be out of the way till all was over. +The coach stopped at Leeds, and, as it was heavy upon me, I thought, +especially as it was the blessed Easter-time, that I would step to the +chapel. His holy name be praised that I did! The scales seemed to fall +from my eyes, and I saw clearer than I had before the terrible wickedness +I was committing. I told all to the priest, and he has brought me here to +make what amends I can for the sin and cruelty of which I have been +guilty. There--there is all that is left of the wages of crime," she +added, throwing a purse of money on the floor of the court; and then +bursting into a flood of tears, she exclaimed with passionate +earnestness, "for which may the Almighty of his infinite mercy pardon and +absolve me!" + +"Amen!" responded the deep husky voice of the prisoner, snatched back, as +it were, from the very verge of the grave to liberty and life. "Amen, +with all my soul!" + +The counsel for the crown, cross-examined the witness, but his efforts +only brought out her evidence in, if possible, a still clearer and more +trustworthy light. Not a thought of doubt was entertained by any person +in the court, and the jury, with the alacrity of men relieved of a +grievous burthen, and without troubling the judge to resume his +interrupted charge, returned a verdict of acquittal. + +The return of Burton to his home figured as an ovation in the Pool and +Otley annals. The greetings which met him on all sides were boisterous +and hearty, as English greetings usually are; and it was with some +difficulty the rustic constabulary could muster a sufficient force to +save Hornby's domicile from sack and destruction. All the windows were, +however, smashed, and that the mob felt was something at all events. + +Burton profited by the painful ordeal to which he had, primarily through +his own thoughtlessness, been exposed, and came in a few years to be +regarded as one of the most prosperous yeomen-farmers of Yorkshire. Mr. +Frank Symonds' union with Elizabeth Burton was in due time solemnized; +Mr. Wilberforce, the then popular member for the West Riding, I remember +hearing, stood sponsor to their eldest born; and Mary McGrath passed the +remainder of her life in the service of the family her testimony had +saved from disgrace and ruin. + +Mr. James Hornby disappeared from Yorkshire immediately after the trial, +and, except through his business agents, was not again heard of till the +catastrophe at the Brunswick Theatre, where he perished. He died +penitent, after expressing to Mr. Frank Symonds, for whom he had sent, +his deep sorrow for the evil deed he had planned, and, but for a +merciful interposition, would have accomplished. As a proof of the +sincerity of his repentance, he bequeathed the bulk of his property to +Mrs. Symonds, the daughter of the man he had pursued with such savage +and relentless hate! + + + + +THE REFUGEE. + + +The events which I am about to relate occurred towards the close of the +last century, some time before I was called to the bar, and do not +therefore in strictness fall within my own experiences as a barrister. +Still, as they came to my knowledge with much greater completeness than +if I had been only professionally engaged to assist in the catastrophe of +the drama through which they are evolved, and, as I conceive, throw a +strong light upon the practical working of our criminal jurisprudence, a +brief page of these slight leaves may not inappropriately record them. + +About the time I have indicated, a Mrs. Rushton, the widow of a gentleman +of commercial opulence, resided in Upper Harley Street, Cavendish Square. +She was a woman of "family," and by her marriage had greatly lowered +herself, in her relatives' opinion, by a union with a person who, however +wealthy and otherwise honorable, was so entirely the architect of his own +fortunes--owed all that he possessed so immediately to his own skill, +sagacity, and perseverance--that there was an unpleasant rumor abroad +about his widowed mother being indebted to her son's success in business +for having passed the last ten years of her life in ease and competence. +Mr. Rushton had left his widow a handsome annuity, and to his and her +only son a well-invested income of upwards of seven thousand a year. +Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Rushton, who inherited quite her +full share of family pride, if nothing else, had sought by every method +she could devise to re-enter the charmed circle from which her union with +a city merchant had excluded her. The most effectual mode of +accomplishing her purpose was, she knew, to bring about a marriage +between her son and a lady who would not be indisposed to accept of +wealth and a well-appointed establishment in Mayfair as a set-off against +birth and high connection. + +Arthur Rushton, at this time between two and three-and-twenty years of +age, was a mild, retiring, rather shy person, and endowed with a +tenderness of disposition, of which the tranquil depths had not as yet +been ruffled by the faintest breath of passion. His mother possessed +almost unbounded influence over him; and he ever listened with a smile, a +languid, half-disdainful one, to her eager speculations upon the numerous +eligible matches that would present themselves the instant the "season" +and their new establishment in Mayfair--of which the decoration and +furnishing engaged all her available time and attention--enabled them to +open the campaign with effect. Arthur Rushton and myself had been college +companions, and our friendly intimacy continued for several years +afterwards. At this period especially we were very cordial and unreserved +in our intercourse with each other. + +London at this time was crowded with French exiles, escaped from the +devouring sword of Robespierre and his helpers in the work of government +by the guillotine, almost all of whom claimed to be members of, or +closely connected with, the ancient nobility of France. Among these was +an elderly gentleman of the name of De Tourville, who, with his daughter +Eugenie, had for a considerable time occupied a first floor in King +Street, Holborn. Him I never saw in life, but Mademoiselle de Tourville +was one of the most accomplished, graceful, enchantingly-interesting +persons I have ever seen or known. There was a dangerous fascination in +the pensive tenderness through which her natural gaiety and archness of +manner would at intervals flash, like April sunlight glancing through +clouds and showers, which, the first time I saw her, painfully impressed +as much as it charmed me--perceiving, as I quickly did, that with her the +future peace, I could almost have said life, of Arthur Rushton was +irrevocably bound up. The fountains of his heart were for the first time +stirred to their inmost depths, and, situated as he and she were, what +but disappointment, bitterness, and anguish could well-up from those +troubled waters? Mademoiselle de Tourville, I could perceive, was fully +aware of the impression she had made upon the sensitive and amiable +Englishman; and I sometimes discovered an expression of pity--of +sorrowful tenderness, as it were--pass over her features as some +distincter revelation than usual of the nature of Arthur Rushton's +emotions flashed upon her. I also heard her express herself several +times, as overtly as she could, upon the _impossibility_ there existed +that she should, however much she might desire it, settle in England, or +even remain in it for any considerable length of time. All this I +understood, or thought I did, perfectly; but Rushton, bewildered, +entranced by feelings altogether new to him, saw nothing, heard nothing +but her presence, and felt, without reasoning upon it, that in that +delirious dream it was his fate either to live or else to bear no life. +Mrs. Rushton--and this greatly surprised me--absorbed in her matrimonial +and furnishing schemes and projects, saw nothing of what was going on. +Probably the notion that her son should for an instant think of allying +himself with an obscure, portionless foreigner, was, to a mind like hers, +too absurd to be for a moment entertained; or--But stay; borne along by +a crowd of rushing thoughts, I have, I find, somewhat anticipated the +regular march of my narrative. + +M. and Mademoiselle de Tourville, according to the after-testimony of +their landlord, Mr. Osborn, had, from the time of their arrival in +England, a very constant visitor at their lodgings in King Street. He was +a tall French gentleman, of perhaps thirty years of age, and +distinguished appearance. His name was La Houssaye. He was very +frequently with them indeed, and generally he and M. de Tourville would +go out together in the evening, the latter gentleman not returning home +till very late. This was more especially the case after Mademoiselle de +Tourville ceased to reside with her father. + +Among the fashionable articles with which Mrs. Rushton was anxious to +surround herself, was a companion of accomplishments and high-breeding, +who might help her to rub off the rust she feared to have contracted by +her connection with the city. A Parisian lady of high lineage and perfect +breeding might, she thought, be easily obtained; and an advertisement +brought Mademoiselle de Tourville to her house. Mrs. Rushton was +delighted with the air and manners of the charming applicant; and after a +slight inquiry by letter to an address of reference given by the young +lady, immediately engaged her, on exceedingly liberal terms, for six +months--that being the longest period for which Mademoiselle de Tourville +could undertake to remain. She also stipulated for permission to pass the +greater part of one day in the week--that which might happen to be most +convenient to Mrs. Rushton--with her father. One other condition +testified alike to M. de Tourville's present poverty and her own filial +piety: it was, that her salary should be paid weekly--she would not +accept it in advance--avowedly for her parent's necessities, who, poor +exile! and tears stood in Eugenie's dark lustrous eyes as she spoke, was +ever trembling on the brink of the grave from an affection of the heart +with which he had been long afflicted. Mademoiselle de Tourville, I +should state, spoke English exceedingly well as far as the rules of +syntax and the meanings of words went, and with an accent charming in its +very defectiveness. + +She had resided with Mrs. Rushton, who on all occasions treated her with +the greatest kindness and consideration, for rather more than two months, +when an incident occurred which caused the scales to fall suddenly from +the astonished mother's eyes, and in a moment revealed to her the extent +of the risk and mischief she had so heedlessly incurred. The carriage was +at the door, and it struck Mrs. Rushton as she was descending the stairs +that Mademoiselle de Tourville, who had complained of headache in the +morning, would like to take an airing with her. The sound of the harp +issuing from the drawing-room, and the faintly-distinguished tones of her +voice in some plaintive silver melody perhaps suggested the invitation; +and thither the mistress of the mansion at once proceeded. The +folding-doors of the back drawing-room were partially open when Mrs. +Rushton, on kind thoughts intent, entered the front apartment. +Mademoiselle de Tourville was seated with her back towards her at the +harp, pouring forth with her thrilling and delicious voice a French +romaunt; and there, with his head supported on his elbow, which rested on +the marble chimney-piece, stood her son, Arthur Rushton, gazing at the +apparently-unconscious songstress with a look so full of devoted +tenderness--so completely revealing the intensity of passion by which he +was possessed--that Mrs. Rushton started with convulsive affright, and +could not for several minutes give articulation to the dismay and rage +which choked her utterance Presently, however, her emotions found +expression, and a storm of vituperative abuse was showered upon the head +of the astonished Eugenie, designated as an artful _intrigante_, a +designing pauper, who had insinuated herself into the establishment for +the sole purpose of entrapping Mr. Arthur Rushton--with a great deal more +to the same effect. Mademoiselle de Tourville, who had first been too +much surprised by the unexpected suddenness of the attack to quite +comprehend the intent and direction of the blows, soon recovered her +self-possession and hauteur. A smile of contempt curled her beautiful +lip, as, taking advantage of a momentary pause in Mrs. Rushton's +breathless tirade, she said, "Permit me, madam, to observe that if, as +you seem to apprehend, your son has contemplated honoring me by the offer +of an alliance with his ancient House"--Her look at this moment glanced +upon the dreadfully agitated young man; the expression of disdainful +bitterness vanished in an instant from her voice and features; and after +a few moments, she added, with sad eyes bent upon the floor, "That he +could not have made a more unhappy choice--more unfortunate for him, more +impossible for me!" She then hastily left the apartment, and before a +quarter of an hour had elapsed, had left the house in a hackney-coach. + +The scene which followed between the mother and son was a violent and +distressing one. Mr. Rushton, goaded to fury by his mother's attack upon +Mademoiselle de Tourville, cast off the habit of deference and submission +which he had always worn in her presence, and asserted with vehemence his +right to wed with whom he pleased, and declared that no power on earth +should prevent him marrying the lady just driven ignominiously from the +house if she could be brought to accept the offer of his hand and +fortune! Mrs. Rushton fell into passionate hysterics; and her son, having +first summoned her maid, withdrew to ruminate on Mademoiselle de +Tourville's concluding sentence, which troubled him far more that what he +deemed the injustice of his mother. + +When Mrs. Rushton, by the aid of water, pungent essences, and the relief +which even an hour of time seldom fails to yield in such cases, had +partially recovered her equanimity, she determined, after careful +consideration of the best course of action, to consult a solicitor of +eminence, well acquainted with her late husband, upon the matter. She had +a dim notion that the Alien Act, if it could be put in motion, might rid +her of Mademoiselle de Tourville and her friends. Thus resolving, and +ever scrupulous as to appearances, she carefully smoothed her ruffled +plumage, changed her disordered dress, and directed the carriage, which +had been dismissed, to be again brought round to the door. "Mary," she +added a few moments afterwards, "bring me my jewel-case--the small one: +you will find it in Made--in that French person's dressing-room." + +Mary Austin reappeared in answer to the violent ringing of her impatient +lady's bell, and stated that the jewel-case could nowhere be found in +Mademoiselle's dressing-room. "Her clothes, everything belonging to her, +had been taken out of the wardrobe, and carried away, and perhaps that +also in mistake no doubt." + +"Nonsense, woman!" replied Mrs. Rushton. "I left it not long ago on her +toilet-glass. I intended to show her a purchase I had made, and not +finding her, left it as I tell you." + +Another search was made with the same ill-success. Mary Austin afterwards +said that when she returned to her mistress the second time, to say that +the jewel-case was certainly gone, an expression of satisfaction instead +of anger, it seemed to her, glanced across Mrs. Rushton's face, who +immediately left the room, and in a few minutes afterwards was driven +off in the carriage. + +About an hour after her departure I called in Harley Street for Arthur +Rushton, with whom I had engaged to go this evening to the theatre to +witness Mrs. Siddons's Lady Macbeth, which neither of us had yet seen. I +found him in a state of calmed excitement, if I may so express myself; +and after listening with much interest to the minute account he gave me +of what had passed, I, young and inexperienced as I was in such affairs, +took upon myself to suggest that, as the lady he nothing doubted was as +irreproachable in character as she was confessedly charming and +attractive in person and manners, and as he was unquestionably his own +master, Mrs. Rushton's opposition was not likely to be of long +continuance; and that as to Mademoiselle de Tourville's somewhat +discouraging expression, such sentences from the lips of ladies-- + + "That would be wooed, and not unsought be won"-- + +were seldom, if ever, I had understood, to be taken in a literal and +positive sense. Under this mild and soothing treatment, Mr. Rushton +gradually threw off a portion of the load that oppressed him, and we set +off in tolerably cheerful mood for the theatre. + +Mrs. Siddons' magnificent and appalling impersonation over, we left the +house; he, melancholy and sombre as I had found him in Harley Street, and +I in by no means a gay or laughing mood. We parted at my door, and +whether it was the effect of the tragedy, so wonderfully realized in its +chief creation, or whether coming events _do_ sometimes cast their +shadows before, I cannot say, but I know that an hour after Rushton's +departure I was still sitting alone, my brain throbbing with excitement, +and so nervous and impressionable, that a sudden, vehement knocking at +the street entrance caused me to spring up from my chair with a terrified +start, and before I could master the impulsive emotion, the room-door was +thrown furiously open, and in reeled Arthur Rushton--pale, haggard, +wild--his eyes ablaze with horror and affright! Had the ghost of Duncan +suddenly gleamed out of the viewless air I could not have been more +startled--awed! + +"She is dead!--poisoned!" he shrieked with maniacal fury; +"killed!--murdered!--and by _her_!" + +I gasped for breath, and could hardly articulate--"What! whom?" + +"My mother!" he shouted with the same furious vehemence--"Killed! by +_her_! Oh, horror!--horror!--horror!" and exhausted by the violence of +his emotions, the unfortunate gentleman staggered, shuddered violently, +as if shaken by an ague fit, and fell heavily--for I was too confounded +to yield him timely aid--on the floor. + +As soon as I could rally my scattered senses, I caused medical aid to be +summoned, and got him to bed. Blood was freely taken from both arms, and +he gradually recovered consciousness. Leaving him in kind and careful +hands, I hurried off to ascertain what possible foundation there could be +for the terrible tidings so strangely announced. + +I found the establishment in Harley Street in a state of the wildest +confusion and dismay. Mrs. Rushton _was_ dead; that, at all events, was +no figment of sudden insanity, and incredible, impossible rumors were +flying from mouth to mouth with bewildering rapidity and incoherence. +The name of Mademoiselle de Tourville was repeated in every variety of +abhorrent emphasis; but it was not till I obtained an interview with +Mrs. Rushton's solicitor that I could understand what really had +occurred, or, to speak more properly, what was suspected. Mrs. Rushton +had made a deposition, of which Mr. Twyte related to me the essential +points. The deceased lady had gone out in her carriage with the express +intention of calling on him, the solicitor, to ascertain if it would be +possible to apply the Alien Act to Mademoiselle de Tourville and her +father, in order to get them sent out of the country. Mr. Twyte did not +happen to be at home, and Mrs. Rushton immediately drove to the De +Tourvilles' lodgings in King Street, Holborn, with the design, she +admitted, of availing herself of what she was in her own mind satisfied +was the purely accidental taking away of a jewel-case, to terrify +Mademoiselle de Tourville, by the threat of a criminal charge, into +leaving the country, or at least to bind herself not to admit, under any +circumstances, of Mr. Arthur Rushton's addresses. She found Eugenie in a +state of extraordinary, and it seemed painful excitement; and the young +lady entreated that whatever Mrs. Rushton had to say should be reserved +for another opportunity, when she would calmly consider whatever Mrs. +Rushton had to urge. The unfortunate lady became somewhat irritated at +Mademoiselle de Tourville's obstinacy, and the unruffled contempt with +which she treated the charge of robbery, even after finding the missing +jewel-case in a band-box, into which it had been thrust with some +brushes and other articles in the hurry of leaving. Mrs. Rushton was +iterating her threats in a loud tone of voice, and moved towards the +bell to direct, she said, the landlord to send for a constable, but with +no intention whatever of doing so, when Mademoiselle de Tourville caught +her suddenly by the arm, and bade her step into the next room. Mrs. +Rushton mechanically obeyed, and was led in silence to the side of a +bed, of which Eugenie suddenly drew the curtain, and displayed to her, +with a significant and reproachful gesture, the pale, rigid countenance +of her father's corpse, who had, it appears, suddenly expired. The shock +was terrible. Mrs. Rushton staggered back into the sitting-room, sick +and faint, sank into a chair, and presently asked for a glass of wine. +"We have no wine," replied Mademoiselle de Tourville; "but there is a +cordial in the next room which may be better for you." She was absent +about a minute, and on returning, presented Mrs. Rushton with a large +wine-glassful of liquid, which the deceased lady eagerly swallowed. The +taste was strange, but not unpleasant; and instantly afterwards Mrs. +Rushton left the house. When the carriage reached Harley Street, she was +found to be in a state of great prostration: powerful stimulants were +administered, but her life was beyond the reach of medicine. She +survived just long enough to depose to the foregoing particulars; upon +which statement Mademoiselle de Tourville had been arrested, and was now +in custody. + +"You seem to have been very precipitate," I exclaimed as soon as the +solicitor had ceased speaking: "there appears to be as yet no proof that +the deceased lady died of other than natural causes." + +"You are mistaken," rejoined Mr. Twyte. "There is no doubt on the subject +in the minds of the medical gentlemen, although the _post-mortem_ +examination has not yet taken place. And, as if to put aside all doubt, +the bottle from which this Eugenie de Tourville admits she took the +cordial proves to contain distilled laurel-water, a deadly poison, +curiously colored and flavored." + +Greatly perturbed, shocked, astonished as I was, my mind refused to +admit, even for a moment, the probability, hardly the possibility, of +Eugenie de Tourville's guilt. The reckless malignancy of spirit evinced +by so atrocious an act dwelt not, I was sure, within that beauteous +temple. The motives alleged to have actuated her--fear of a criminal +charge, admitted to be absurd, and desire to rid herself of an obstacle +to her marriage with Arthur Rushton--seemed to me altogether strained and +inapplicable. The desperation of unreasoning hate could alone have +prompted such a deed; for detection was inevitable, had, in truth, been +courted rather than attempted to be avoided. + +My reasoning made no change in the conclusions of Mr. Twyte the attorney +for the prosecution, and I hastened home to administer such consolation +to Arthur Rushton as might consist in the assurance of my firm conviction +that his beloved mother's life had not been wilfully taken away by +Eugenie de Tourville. I found him still painfully agitated; and the +medical attendant told me it was feared by Dr. ---- that brain fever +would supervene if the utmost care was not taken to keep him as quiet and +composed as, under the circumstances, was possible. I was, however, +permitted a few minutes' conversation with him; and my reasoning, or, +more correctly, my confidently-expressed belief--for his mind seemed +incapable of following my argument, which it indeed grasped faintly at, +but slipped from, as it were, in an instant--appeared to relieve him +wonderfully. I also promised him that no legal or pecuniary assistance +should be wanting in the endeavor to clear Mademoiselle de Tourville of +the dreadful imputation preferred against her. I then left him. The +anticipation of the physician was unfortunately realized: the next +morning he was in a raging fever, and his life, I was informed, was in +very imminent danger. + +It was a distracting time; but I determinedly, and with much self-effort, +kept down the nervous agitation which might have otherwise rendered me +incapable of fulfilling the duties I had undertaken to perform. By +eleven o'clock in the forenoon I had secured the active and zealous +services of Mr. White, one of the most celebrated of the criminal +attorneys of that day. By application in the proper quarter, we obtained +immediate access to the prisoner, who was temporarily confined in a +separate room in the Red-Lion Square Lock-up House. Mademoiselle de +Tourville, although exceedingly pale, agitated, and nervous, still looked +as lustrously pure, as radiantly innocent of evil thought or deed, as on +the day that I first beheld her. The practiced eye of the attorney +scanned her closely. "As innocent of this charge," he whispered, "as you +or I." I tendered my services to the unfortunate young lady with an +earnestness of manner which testified more than any words could have done +how entirely my thoughts acquitted her of offence. Her looks thanked me; +and when I hinted at the promise exacted of me by Arthur Rushton, a +bright blush for an instant mantled the pale marble of her cheeks and +forehead, indicating with the tears, which suddenly filled and trembled +in her beautiful eyes, a higher sentiment, I thought, than mere +gratitude. She gave us her unreserved confidence; by which, after careful +sifting, we obtained only the following by no means entirely satisfactory +results:-- + +Mademoiselle de Tourville and her father had escaped from the Terrorists +of France by the aid of, and in company with, the Chevalier la Houssaye, +with whom M. de Tourville had previously had but very slight +acquaintance. The chevalier soon professed a violent admiration for +Eugenie; and having contrived to lay M. de Tourville under heavy +pecuniary obligations at play--many of them Mademoiselle de Tourville had +only very lately discovered--prevailed upon his debtor to exert his +influence with his daughter to accept La Houssaye's hand in marriage. +After much resistance, Mademoiselle de Tourville, overcome by the +commands, entreaties, prayers of her father, consented, but only on +condition that the marriage should not take place till their return to +France, which it was thought need not be very long delayed, and that no +more money obligations should in the meantime be incurred by her father. +La Houssaye vehemently objected to delay; but finding Eugenie inexorable, +sullenly acquiesced. It was precisely at this time that the engagement +with Mrs. Rushton was accepted. On the previous afternoon Mademoiselle de +Tourville, on leaving Harley Street after the scene with the deceased +lady, went directly home, and there found both her father and the +chevalier in hot contention and excitement. As soon as La Houssaye saw +her, he seized his hat, and rushed out of the apartment and house. Her +father, who was greatly excited, had barely time to say that he had +fortunately discovered the chevalier to be a married man, whose wife, a +woman of property, was still living in Languedoc, when what had always +been predicted would follow any unusual agitation happened: M. de +Tourville suddenly placed his hand on his side, uttered a broken +exclamation, fell into a chair, and expired. It was about two hours after +this melancholy event that Mrs. Rushton arrived. The account before given +of the interview which followed was substantially confirmed by +Mademoiselle de Tourville; who added, that the cordial she had given Mrs. +Rushton was one her father was in the constant habit of taking when in +the slightest degree excited, and that she was about to give him some +when he suddenly fell dead. + +We had no doubt, none whatever, that this was the whole, literal truth, +as far as the knowledge of Mademoiselle de Tourville extended; but how +could we impart that impression to an Old Bailey jury of those days, +deprived as we should be of the aid of counsel to address the jury, when +in reality a speech, pointing to the improbabilities arising from +character, and the altogether _un_guilty-like mode of administering the +fatal liquid, was the only possible defence? Cross-examination promised +nothing; for the evidence would consist of the dying deposition of Mrs. +Rushton, the finding of the laurel-water, and the medical testimony as to +the cause of death. The only person upon whom suspicion glanced was La +Houssaye, and that in a vague and indistinct manner. Still, it was +necessary to find him without delay, and Mr. White at once sought him at +his lodgings, of which Mademoiselle de Tourville furnished the address. +He had left the house suddenly with all his luggage early in the morning, +and our efforts to trace him proved fruitless. In the meantime the +_post-mortem_ examination of the body had taken place, and a verdict of +willful murder against Eugenie de Tourville been unhesitatingly returned. +She was soon afterwards committed to Newgate for trial. + +The Old Bailey session was close at hand, and Arthur Rushton, though +immediate danger was over, was still in too delicate and precarious a +state to be informed of the true position of affairs when the final day +of trial arrived. The case had excited little public attention. It was +not the fashion in those days to exaggerate the details of crime, and, +_especially before trial_, give the wings of the morning to every fact +or fiction that rumor with her busy tongue obscurely whispered. Twenty +lines of the "Times" would contain the published record of the +commitment of Eugenie de Tourville for poisoning her mistress, Caroline +Rushton; and, alas! spite of the crippled but earnest efforts of the +eminent counsel we had retained, and the eloquent innocence of her +appearance and demeanor, her conviction and condemnation to death +without hope of mercy! My brain swam as the measured tones of the +recorder, commanding the almost immediate and violent destruction of +that beauteous masterpiece of God, fell upon my ear; and had not Mr. +White, who saw how greatly I was affected, fairly dragged me out of +court into the open air, I should have fainted. I scarcely remember how +I got home--in a coach, I believe; but face Rushton after that dreadful +scene with a kindly-meant deception--_lie_--in my mouth, I could not, +had a king's crown been the reward. I retired to my chamber, and on the +plea of indisposition directed that I should on no account be disturbed. +Night had fallen, and it was growing somewhat late, when I was startled +out of the painful reverie in which I was still absorbed by the sudden +pulling up of a furiously-driven coach, followed by a thundering summons +at the door, similar to that which aroused me on the evening of Mrs. +Rushton's death. I seized my hat, rushed down stairs, and opened the +door. It was Mr. White! + +"Well!--well!" I ejaculated. + +"Quick--quick!" he exclaimed in reply. "La Houssaye--he is found--has +sent for us--quick! for life--life is on our speed!" + +I was in the vehicle in an instant. In less than ten minutes we had +reached our destination--a house in Duke Street, Manchester Square. + +"He is still alive," replied a young man in answer to Mr. White's hurried +inquiry. We rapidly ascended the stairs, and in the front apartment of +the first floor beheld one of the saddest, mournfulest spectacles which +the world can offer--a fine, athletic man, still in the bloom of natural +health and vigor, and whose pale features, but for the tracings there of +fierce, ungoverned passions, were strikingly handsome and intellectual, +stretched by his own act upon the bed of death! It was La Houssaye! Two +gentlemen were with him--one a surgeon, and the other evidently a +clergyman, and, as I subsequently found, a magistrate, who had been sent +for by the surgeon. A faint smile gleamed over the face of the dying man +as we entered, and he motioned feebly to a sheet of paper, which, closely +written upon, was lying upon a table placed near the sofa upon which the +unhappy suicide was reclining. Mr. White snatched, and eagerly perused +it. I could see by the vivid lighting up of his keen gray eye that it +was, in his opinion, satisfactory and sufficient. + +"This," said Mr. White, "is your solemn deposition, knowing yourself to +be dying?" + +"Yes, yes," murmured La Houssaye; "the truth--the truth!" + +"The declaration of a man," said the clergyman with some asperity of +tone, "who defyingly, unrepentingly, rushes into the presence of his +Creator, can be of little value!" + +"Ha!" said the dying man, rousing himself by a strong effort; +"I repent--yes--yes--I repent! I believe--do you hear?--and +repent--believe. Put that down," he added, in tones momently feebler +and more husky, as he pointed to the paper; "put that down, or--or +perhaps--Eu--genie--perhaps"-- + +As he spoke, the faint light that had momently kindled his glazing eye +was suddenly quenched; he remained for perhaps half a minute raised on +his elbow, and with his outstretched finger pointing towards the paper, +gazing blindly upon vacancy. Then the arm dropped, and he fell back dead! + +We escaped as quickly as we could from this fearful death-room, and I +found that the deposition which Mr. White brought away with him gave a +full, detailed account, written in the French language, of the +circumstances which led to the death of Mrs. Rushton. + +La Houssaye, finding that M. de Tourville had by some means discovered +the secret of his previous marriage, and that consequently all hope of +obtaining the hand of Eugenie, whom he loved with all the passion of his +fiery nature, would be gone unless De Tourville could be prevented from +communicating with his daughter, resolved to compass the old man's +instant destruction. The chevalier persuaded himself that, as he should +manage it, death would be attributed to the affection of the heart, from +which M. de Tourville had so long suffered. He procured the distilled +laurel-water--how and from whom was minutely explained--colored, flavored +it to resemble as nearly as possible the cordial which he knew M. de +Tourville--and he only--was in the habit of frequently taking. A +precisely-similar bottle he also procured--the shop at which it was +purchased was described--and when he called in King Street, he found no +difficulty, in an unobserved moment, of substituting one bottle for the +other. That containing the real cordial he was still in possession of, +and it would be found in his valise The unexpected arrival of +Mademoiselle de Tourville frustrated his design, and he rushed in fury +and dismay from the house. A few hours afterwards, he heard of the sudden +death of M. de Tourville, and attributing it to his having taken a +portion of the simulated cordial, he, La Houssaye, fearful of +consequences, hastily and secretly changed his abode. He had subsequently +kept silence till the conviction of Eugenie left him no other +alternative, if he would not see her perish on the scaffold, than a full +and unreserved confession. This done--Eugenie saved, but lost to him--he +had nothing more to live for in the world, and should leave it. + +This was the essence of the document; and all the parts of it which were +capable of corroborative proof having been substantiated, a free pardon +issued from the crown--the technical mode of quashing an unjust criminal +verdict--and Mademoiselle de Tourville was restored to liberty. + +She did not return to France. Something more perhaps than a year after +the demonstration of her innocence, she was married to Arthur Rushton in +the Sardinian Catholic Chapel, London, the bridegroom having by her +influence been induced to embrace the faith of Rome. The establishments +in Harley Street and Mayfair were broken up; and the newly-espoused pair +settled in the county of Galway, Ireland, where Mr. Rushton made +extensive landed purchases. They have lived very happily a long life, +have been blessed with a large and amiable family, and are now--for they +are both yet alive--surrounded with grandchildren innumerable. + + + + +EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER. + + + + +THE LIFE POLICY. + + +Besides being the confidential advisers, attorneys are the "confessors" +of modern England; and the revelations--delicate, serious, not +unfrequently involving life as well as fortune and character--confided to +the purchased fidelity and professional honor of men whom romancers of +all ages have stereotyped as the ghouls and vampires of civilized +society, are, it is impossible to deny, as rarely divulged as those which +the penitents of the Greek and Latin churches impart to their spiritual +guides and helpers; and this possibly for the somewhat vulgar, but very +sufficient reason, that "a breach of confidence" would as certainly +involve the professional ruin of an attorney as the commission of a +felony. An able but eccentric jurisconsult, Mr. Jeremy Bentham, was +desirous that attorneys should be compelled to disclose on oath whatever +guilty secrets might be confided to them by their clients; the only +objection to which ingenious device for the conviction of rogues being, +that if such a power existed, there would be no secrets to disclose; and, +as a necessary consequence, that the imperfectly-informed attorney would +be unable to render his client the justice to which every person, however +criminal, is clearly entitled--that of having his or her case presented +before the court appointed to decide upon it in the best and most +advantageous manner possible. Let it not be forgotten either that the +attorney is the only real, practical defender of the humble and needy +against the illegal oppressions of the rich and powerful--the shrewd, +indomitable agent who gives prosaic reality to the figurative eloquence +of old Chancellor Fortescue, when he says, "that the lightning may flash +through, the thunder shake, the tempest beat, upon the English peasant's +hut, but the king of England, with all his army, cannot lift the latch to +enter in." The chancellor of course meant, that in this country +overbearing violence cannot defy, or put itself in the place of the law. +This is quite true; and why? Chiefly because the attorney is ready, in +all cases of provable illegality, with his potent strip of parchment +summoning the great man before "her Sovereign Lady the Queen," there to +answer for his acts; and the richer the offender, the more keen and eager +Mr. Attorney to prosecute the suit, however needy his own client; for he +is then sure of his costs, if he succeed! Again, I cheerfully admit the +extreme vulgarity of the motive; but its effect in protecting the legal +rights of the humble is not, I contend, lessened because the reward of +exertion and success is counted out in good, honest sovereigns, or notes +of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. + +Thus much by way of conciliatory prologue to the narrative of a few +incidents revealed in the attorney's privileged confessional; throughout +which I have of course, in order to avoid any possible recognition of +those events or incidents, changed the name of every person concerned. + +Our old city firm, then, which, I am happy to say, still flourishes +under the able direction of our active successors, I will +call--adopting the nomenclature appropriated to us by imaginative +ladies and gentlemen who favor the world with fancy pen-and-ink +portraits of the lawyer tribe--that of Flint and Sharp; Sharp being +myself, and Flint the silver-haired old bachelor we buried a few weeks +since in Kensal Green Cemetery. + +"Mr. Andrews," said a clerk as he threw open the door of the inner office +one afternoon; "Mr. Jesse Andrews." + +"Good-day, Mr. Andrews," was my prompt and civil greeting: "I have good +news for you. Take a chair." + +The good-humored, rather intelligent, and somewhat clouded countenance of +the new-comer brightened up at these words. "News from my Cousin +Archibald?" he asked, as he seated himself. + +"Yes: He laments your late failure, and commiserates the changed position +and prospects of your wife and boy, little Archibald, his godson. You he +has not much compassion for, inasmuch as he attributes your misfortunes +entirely to mismanagement, and the want of common prudence." + +"Candid, certainly," grumbled out Mr. Jesse Andrews; "but an odd sort of +good news!" + +"His deeds are kinder than his words. He will allow, till Archibald +attains his majority--Let me see--how old is that boy of yours now?" + +"Ten. He was two years old when his godfather went to India." + +"Well, then, you will receive two hundred pounds per annum, payable +half-yearly, in advance, for the next ten years--that is, of course, if +your son lives--in order to enable you to bring him up, and educate him +properly. After that period has elapsed, your cousin intimates that he +will place the young man advantageously, and I do not doubt will do +something for you, should you not by that time have conquered a fair +position for yourself." + +"Is that all?" said Mr. Andrews. + +"All! Why, what did you expect?" + +"Two or three thousand pounds to set me afloat again. I know of a safe +speculation, that with, say three thousand pounds capital, would realize +a handsome fortune in no time." + +Mr. Jesse Andrews, I may observe, was one of that numerous class of +persons who are always on the threshold of realizing millions--the only +and constant obstacle being the want of a sufficient "capital." + +I condoled with him upon his disappointment; but as words, however civil, +avail little in the way of "capital," Mr. Jesse Andrews, having pocketed +the first half-yearly installment of the annuity, made his exit in by no +means a gracious or grateful frame of mind. + +Two other half-yearly payments were duly paid him. When he handed me the +receipt on the last occasion, he said, in a sort of off-hand, careless +way, "I suppose, if Archy were to die, these payments would cease?" + +"Perhaps not," I replied unthinkingly. "At all events, not, I should say, +till you and your wife were in some way provided for. But your son is not +ill?" I added. + +"No, no; not at present," replied Andrews, coloring, and with a confusion +of manner which surprised me not a little. It flashed across my mind that +the boy was dead, and that Andrews, in order not to risk the withdrawal +or suspension of the annuity, had concealed the fact from us. + +"Let me see," I resumed, "we have your present address--Norton +Folgate, I think?" + +"Yes, certainly you have." + +"I shall very likely call in a day or two to see Mrs. Andrew! and +your son." + +The man smiled in a reassured, half-sardonic manner. "Do," he answered. +"Archy is alive, and very well, thank God!" + +This confidence dispelled the suspicion I had momentarily entertained, +and five or six weeks passed away, during which Andrews and his +affairs were almost as entirely absent from my thoughts as if no such +man existed. + +About the expiration of that time, Mr. Jesse Andrews unexpectedly +revisited the office, and as soon as I was disengaged, was ushered into +my private room. He was habited in the deepest mourning, and it naturally +struck me that either his wife or son was dead--an impression, however, +which a closer examination of his countenance did not confirm, knowing as +I did, how affectionate a husband and father he was, with all his faults +and follies, reputed to be. He looked flurried, nervous, certainly; but +there was no grief, no sorrow in the restless, disturbed glances which he +directed to the floor, the ceiling, the window, the fire-place, the +chairs, the table--everywhere, in fact, except towards my face. + +"What is the matter, Mr. Andrews?" I gravely inquired, seeing that he did +not appear disposed to open the conversation. + +"A great calamity, sir--a great calamity," he hurriedly and confusedly +answered, his face still persistently averted from me--"has happened! +Archy is dead!" + +"Dead!" I exclaimed, considerably shocked. "God bless me! when did +this happen?" + +"Three weeks ago," was the reply. "He died of cholera." + +"Of cholera!" This occurred, I should state, in 1830. + +"Yes: he was very assiduously attended throughout his sufferings, +which were protracted and severe, by the eminent Dr. Parkinson, a +highly-respectable and skilled practitioner, as you doubtless, sir, +are aware." + +I could not comprehend the man. This dry, unconcerned, business-sort of +gabble was not the language of a suddenly-bereaved parent, and one, too, +who had lost a considerable annuity by his son's death. What could it +mean? I was in truth fairly puzzled. + +After a considerable interval of silence, which Mr. Andrews, whose eyes +continued to wander in every direction except that of mine, showed no +inclination to break, I said--"It will be necessary for me to write +immediately to your cousin, Mr. Archibald Andrews. I trust, for your +sake, the annuity will be continued; but of course, till I hear from him, +the half-yearly payments must be suspended." + +"Certainly, certainly: I naturally expected that would be the case," said +Andrews, still in the same quick, hurried tone. "Quite so." + +"You have nothing further to say, I suppose?" I remarked, after another +dead pause, during which it was very apparent that he was laboring with +something to which he nervously hesitated to give utterance. + +"No--yes--that is, I wished to consult you upon a matter of +business--connected with--with a life-assurance office." + +"A life-assurance office?" + +"Yes." The man's pale face flushed crimson, and his speech became +more and more hurried as he went on. "Yes; fearing, Mr. Sharp, that +should Archy die, we might be left without resource, I resolved, +after mature deliberation, to effect an insurance on his life for +four thousand pounds." + +"Four thousand pounds!" + +"Yes. All necessary preliminaries were gone through. The medical +gentleman--since dead of the cholera, by the way--examined the boy of +course, and the insurance was legally effected for four thousand pounds, +payable at his death." + +I did not speak; a suspicion too horrible to be hinted at held me dumb. + +"Unfortunately," Andrews continued, "this insurance was only effected +about a fortnight before poor Archy's death, and the office refuses +payment, although, as I have told you, the lad was attended to the very +hour of his death by Dr. Parkinson, a highly-respectable, most +unexceptionable gentleman. Very much so indeed." + +"I quite agree in that," I answered after a while. "Dr. Parkinson is a +highly-respectable and eminent man. What reason," I added, "do the +company assign for non-payment?" + +"The very recent completion of the policy." + +"Nonsense! How can that fact, standing alone, affect your claim?" + +"I do not know," Andrews replied; and all this time I had not been able +to look fairly in his face; "but they do refuse; and I am anxious that +your firm should take the matter in hand, and sue them for the amount." + +"I must first see Dr. Parkinson," I answered, "and convince myself that +there is no legitimate reason for repudiating the policy." + +"Certainly, certainly," he replied. + +"I will write to you to-morrow," I said, rising to terminate the +conference, "after I have seen Dr. Parkinson, and state whether we will +or not take proceedings against the insurance company on your behalf." + +He thanked me, and hurried off. + +Dr. Parkinson confirmed Mr. Jesse Andrews in every particular. He had +attended the boy, a fine, light-haired lad of eleven or twelve years of +age, from not long after his seizure till his death. He suffered +dreadfully, and died unmistakably of Asiatic cholera, and of nothing +else; of which same disease a servant and a female lodger in the same +house had died just previously. "It is of course," Dr. Parkinson remarked +in conclusion, "as unfortunate for the company as it is strangely lucky +for Andrews; but there is no valid reason for refusing payment." + +Upon this representation we wrote the next day to the assurance people, +threatening proceedings on behalf of Mr. Jesse Andrews. + +Early on the morrow one of the managing-directors called on us, to state +the reasons which induced the company to hesitate at recognizing the +plaintiff's claim. In addition to the doubts suggested by the brief time +which had elapsed from the date of the policy to the death of the child, +there were several other slight circumstances of corroborative suspicion. +The chief of these was, that a neighbor had declared he heard the father +indulging in obstreperous mirth in a room adjoining that in which the +corpse lay only about two hours after his son had expired. This unseemly, +scandalous hilarity of her husband, the wife appeared to faintly +remonstrate against. The directors had consequently resolved _non +obstante_ Dr. Parkinson's declaration, who might, they argued, have been +deceived, to have the body exhumed in order to a post-mortem examination +as to the true cause of death. If the parents voluntarily agreed to this +course, a judicial application to enforce it would be unnecessary, and +all doubts on the matter could be quietly set at rest. I thought the +proposal, under the circumstances, reasonable, and called on Mr. and Mrs. +Andrews to obtain their concurrence. Mrs. Andrews was, I found, absent +in the country, but her husband was at home; and he, on hearing the +proposal, was, I thought, a good deal startled--shocked rather--a natural +emotion perhaps. + +"Who--who," he said, after a few moments' silent reflection--"who is to +conduct this painful, revolting inquiry?" + +"Dr. Parkinson will be present, with Mr. Humphrey the surgeon, and Dr. +Curtis the newly-appointed physician to the assurance office, in place of +Dr. Morgan who died, as you are aware, a short time since of cholera." + +"True. Ah, well, then," he answered almost with alacrity, "be it as they +wish. Dr. Parkinson will see fair-play." + +The examination was effected, and the result was a confirmation, beyond +doubt or quibble, that death, as Dr. Parkinson had declared, had been +solely occasioned by cholera. The assurance company still hesitated; but +as this conduct could now only be looked upon as perverse obstinacy, we +served them with a writ at once. They gave in; and the money was handed +over to Mr. Jesse Andrews, whose joy at his sudden riches did not, I was +forced to admit, appear to be in the slightest degree damped by any +feeling of sadness for the loss of an only child. + +We wrote to inform Mr. Archibald Andrews of these occurrences, and to +request further instructions with regard to the annuity hitherto paid to +his cousin. A considerable time would necessarily elapse before an +answer could be received, and in the meantime Mr. Jesse Andrews plunged +headlong into the speculation he had been long hankering to engage in, +and was as he informed me a few weeks afterwards, on the royal road to a +magnificent fortune. + +Clouds soon gathered over this brilliant prospect. The partner, whose +persuasive tongue and brilliant imagination had induced Mr. Andrews to +join him with his four thousand pounds, proved to be an arrant cheat and +swindler; and Mr. Andrews's application to us for legal help and redress +was just too late to prevent the accomplished dealer in moonshine and +delusion from embarking at Liverpool for America, with every penny of the +partnership funds in his pockets! + +A favorable reply from Mr. Archibald Andrews had now become a question of +vital importance to his cousin, who very impatiently awaited its arrival. +It came at last. Mr. Andrews had died rather suddenly at Bombay a short +time before my letter arrived there, after executing in triplicate a +will, of which one of the copies was forwarded to me. By this instrument +his property--about thirty-five thousand pounds, the greatest portion of +which had been remitted from time to time for investment in the British +funds--was disposed of as follows:--Five thousand pounds to his cousin +Jesse Andrews, for the purpose of educating and maintaining Archibald +Andrews, the testator's godson, till he should have attained the age of +twentyone, and the whole of the remaining thirty thousand pounds to be +then paid over to Archibald with accumulated interest. In the event, +however, of the death of his godson, the entire property was devised to +another more distant and wealthier cousin, Mr. Newton, and his son +Charles, on precisely similar conditions, with the exception that an +annuity of seventy pounds, payable to Jesse Andrews and his wife during +their lives, was charged upon it. + +Two letters were dispatched the same evening--one to the fortunate +cousin, Mr. Newton, who lived within what was then known as the twopenny +post delivery, and another to Mr. Jesse Andrews, who had taken up his +temporary abode in a cottage near St. Alban's, Hertfordshire. These +missives informed both gentlemen of the arrival of the Indian mail, and +the, to them, important dispatches it contained. + +Mr. Newton was early at the office on the following morning, and perused +the will with huge content. He was really quite sorry, though, for poor +Cousin Jesse: the loss of his son was a sad stroke, much worse than this +of a fortune which he might have expected to follow as a matter of +course. And the annuity, Mr. Newton thoughtfully observed, was, after +all, no contemptible provision for two persons, without family, and of +modest requirements. + +A very different scene was enacted when, late in the evening, and just as +I was about to leave the office, Mr. Jesse Andrews rushed in, white as a +sheet, haggard, and wild with passion. "What devil's fables are these you +write me?" he, burst forth the instant he had gained the threshold of the +room. "How dare you," he went on, almost shrieking with fury--"how dare +you attempt to palm off these accursed lies on me? Archy rich--rich--and +I--. But it is a lie!--an infernal device got up to torture me--to +drive me wild, distracted--mad!" The excited man literally foamed with +rage, and so astonished was I, that it was a minute or two before I could +speak or move. + +At last I rose, closed the door, (for the clerks in the outer office were +hearers and witnesses of this outbreak,) and led the way to an inner and +more private apartment. "Come with me, Mr. Andrews," I said, "and let us +talk this matter calmly over." + +He mechanically followed, threw himself into a chair, and listened with +frenzied impatience to the reading of the will. + +"A curse is upon me," he shouted, jumping up as I concluded, "the curse +of God--a judgment upon the crime I but the other day committed--a crime +as I thought--dolt, idiot that I was--so cunningly contrived, so cleverly +executed! Fool, villain, madman that I have been; for now, when fortune +is tendered for my acceptance, I dare not put forth my hand to grasp it; +fortune, too, not only for me, but--. O God, it will kill us both, Martha +as well as me, though I alone am to blame for this infernal chance!" + +This outburst appeared to relieve him, and he sank back into his chair +somewhat calmer. I could understand nothing of all that rhapsody, +knowing, as I did, that his son Archibald had died from natural causes. +"It _is_ a severe blow," I said, in as soothing a tone as I could +assume--"a very great disappointment; still, you are secured from extreme +poverty--from anything like absolute want"-- + +"It is not that--it is not that!" he broke in, though not quite so wildly +as before. "Look you, Mr. Sharp, I will tell you all! There may be some +mode of extrication from this terrible predicament, and I must have your +advice professionally upon it." + +"Go on; I will advise you to the best of my ability." + +"Here it is, then: Archy, my son Archy, is alive!--alive! and well in +health as either you or I!" + +I was thunderstruck. Here was indeed a revelation. + +"Alive and well," continued Andrews. "Listen! when the cholera began to +spread so rapidly, I bethought me of insuring the boy's life in case of +the worst befalling, but not, as I hope for mercy, with the slightest +thought of harming a hair of his head. This was done. Very soon the +terrific disease approached our neighborhood, and my wife took Archy to a +country lodging, returning herself the same evening. The next day our +only servant was attacked and died. A few hours after that our +first-floor lodger, a widow of the name of Mason, who had been with us +but a very short time, was attacked. She suffered dreadfully; and her +son, a boy about the age of Archy, and with just his hair and +complexion, took ill also. The woman was delirious with pain; and before +effective medical aid could be obtained--she was seized in the middle of +the night--she expired. Her son who had been removed into another room, +became rapidly worse, and we sent for Dr. Parkinson; the poor fellow was +partially delirious with pain, and clung piteously round my wife's neck, +calling her mother, and imploring her to relieve him. Dr. Parkinson +arrived, and at first sight of the boy, said, 'Your son is very ill, +Mrs. Andrews--I fear, past recovery; but we will see what can be done.' I +swear to you, Mr. Sharp, that it was not till this moment the device +which has ruined us, flashed across my brain. I cautioned my wife in a +whisper not to undeceive the doctor, who prescribed the most active +remedies, and was in the room, when the lad died. You know the rest. And +now, sir, tell me, can anything be done--any device suggested to retrieve +this miserable blunder, this terrible mistake?" + +"This infamous crime, you should say, Mr. Andrews," I replied; "for the +commission of which you are liable to be transported for life." + +"Yes, crime; no doubt that is the true word! But must the innocent child +suffer for his father's offence?" + +"That is the only consideration that could induce me to wag a finger in +the business. Like many other clever rogues, you are caught in the trap +you limed for others. Come to me tomorrow; I will think over the matter +between this and then; but at present I can say nothing. Stay," I added, +as his hand was on the door; "the identity of your son can be proved, I +suppose, by better evidence than your own?" + +"Certainly, certainly." + +"That, will do, then; I will see you in the morning." + +If it should cross the mind of any reader that I ought to have given +this self-confessed felon into custody, I beg to remind him that, for the +reasons previously stated, such a course on my part was out of the +question--impossible; and that, had it not been impossible I should do +so, Mr. Jesse Andrews would not have intrusted me with his criminal +secret. The only question now therefore was, how, without compromising +this guilty client, the godfather's legacy could be secured for the +innocent son. + +A conference the next morning with Mr. Flint resulted in our sending for +Mr. Jesse Andrews, and advising him, for fear of accidents or +miscarriage in our plans, to betake himself to the kingdom of France for +a short time. We had then no treaty of extradition with that country. As +soon as I knew he was safely out of the realm, I waited upon the +insurance people. + +"The money ought not to have been received by Jesse Andrews, you say, Mr. +Sharp?" observed the managing-gentleman, looking keenly in my face. + +"Precisely. It ought not to have been received by him." + +"And _why_ not, Mr. Sharp?" + +"That is quite an unnecessary question, and one that, you know, I should +not answer, if I could. That which chiefly concerns you is, that I am +ready to return the four thousand pounds at once, here on the spot, and +that delays are dangerous. If you refuse, why, of course--and I rose from +my chair--I must take back the money." + +"Stay--stay! I will just consult with one or two gentlemen, and be with +you again almost immediately." + +In about five minutes he returned. "Well, Mr. Sharp," he said, "we had, +I suppose; better take the money--obtained, as you say, by mistake." + +"Not at all; I said nothing about mistake. I told you it ought not to +have been received by Andrews!" + +"Well--well. I understand. I must, I suppose, give you a receipt?" + +"Undoubtedly; and, if you please, precisely in this form." + +I handed him a copy on a slip of paper. He ran it over, smiled, +transcribed it on a stamp, signed it, and, as I handed him a check for +the amount, placed it in my hands. We mutually bowed, and I went my way. + +Notwithstanding Mr. Newton's opposition, who was naturally furious at the +unexpected turn the affair had taken, the identity of the boy--whom that +gentleman persisted in asserting to be dead and buried--was clearly +established; and Mr. Archibald Andrews, on the day he became of age, +received possession of his fortune. The four thousand pounds had of +course been repaid out of Jesse Andrews's legacy. That person has, so to +speak, since skulked through life, a mark for the covert scorn of every +person acquainted with the very black transaction here recorded. This was +doubtless a much better fate than he deserved; and in strict, or poetical +justice, his punishment ought unquestionably to have been much +greater--more apparent also, than it was, for example's sake. But I am a +man not of fiction, but of fact, and consequently relate events, not as +they precisely ought, but as they do, occasionally occur in lawyers' +offices, and other unpoetical nooks and corners of this prosaic, +matter-of-fact, working-day world. + + + + +BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY? + + +The firm of Flint and Sharp enjoyed, whether deservedly or not, when I +was connected with it, as it still does, a high reputation for keen +practice and shrewd business-management. This kind of professional fame +is usually far more profitable than the drum-and-trumpet variety of the +same article; or at least we found it so; and often, from blush of morn +to far later than dewy eve--which natural phenomena, by the way, were +only emblematically observed by me during thirty busy years in the +extinguishment of the street lamps at dawn, and their re-illumination at +dusk--did I and my partner incessantly pursue our golden avocations; +deferring what are usually esteemed the pleasures of life--its banquets, +music, flowers, and lettered ease--till the toil, and heat, and hurry of +the day were past, and a calm, luminous evening, unclouded by care or +anxiety, had arrived. This conduct may or may not have been wise; but at +all events it daily increased the connection and transactions of the +firm, and ultimately anchored us both very comfortably in the three per +cents; and this too, I am bold to say, not without our having effected +some good in our generation. This boast of mine the following passage in +the life of a distinguished client--known, I am quite sure, by reputation +to most of the readers of these papers, whom our character for practical +sagacity and professional shrewdness brought us--will, I think, be +admitted in some degree to substantiate. + +Our connection was a mercantile rather than an aristocratic one, and my +surprise was therefore considerable, when, on looking through the +office-blinds to ascertain what vehicle it was that had driven so rapidly +up to the door, I observed a handsomely-appointed carriage with a coronet +emblazoned on the panels, out of which a tall footman was handing a lady +attired in deep but elegant mourning, and closely veiled. I instantly +withdrew to my private room, and desired that the lady should be +immediately admitted. Greatly was my surprise increased when the graceful +and still youthful visitor withdrew her veil, and disclosed the features +of the Countess of Seyton, upon whose mild, luminous beauty, as rendered +by the engraving from Sir Thomas Lawrence's picture, I had so frequently +gazed with admiration. That rare and touching beauty was clouded now; and +an intense expression of anxiety, fear--almost terror--gleamed from out +the troubled depths of her fine dark eyes. + +"The Countess of Seyton!" I half-involuntarily exclaimed, as with my very +best bow I handed her ladyship a chair. + +"Yes; and you are a partner of this celebrated firm, are you not?" + +I bowed again still more profoundly to this compliment, and modestly +admitted that I was the Sharp of the firm her ladyship was pleased to +entitle "celebrated." + +"Then, Mr. Sharp, I have to consult you professionally upon a matter of +the utmost--the most vital importance to me and mine." Her ladyship then, +with some confusion of manner, as if she did not know whether what she +was doing was in accordance with strict etiquette or not, placed a Bank +of England note, by way of retainer, before me. I put it back, explaining +what the usage really was, and the countess replaced it in her purse. + +"We shall he proud to render your ladyship any assistance in our power," +I said; "but I understood the Messrs. Jackson enjoyed the confidence of +the house of Seyton?" + +"Precisely. They are, so to speak, the hereditary solicitors of the +family more than of any individual member of it; and therefore, though +highly respectable persons, unfit to advise me in this particular matter. +Besides," she added with increasing tremor and hesitation, "to deal with, +and if possible foil, the individual by whom I am persecuted, requires an +agent of keener sagacity than either of those gentlemen can boast of; +sharper, more resolute men; more--you understand what I mean?" + +"Perfectly, madam; and allow me to suggest that it is probable our +interview may be a somewhat prolonged one--your ladyship's carriage, +which may attract attention, should be at once dismissed. The office of +the family solicitors is, you are aware, not far off; and as we could not +explain to them the reason which induces your ladyship to honor us with +your confidence, it will be as well to avoid any chance of inquiry." + +Lady Seyton acquiesced in my suggestion: the carriage was ordered home, +and Mr. Flint entering just at the time, we both listened with +earnestness and anxiety to her communication. It is needless to repeat +verbatim the somewhat prolix, exclamative narration of the countess; the +essential facts were as follows:-- + +The Countess of Seyton, previous to her first marriage, was Miss Clara +Hayley, second daughter of the Reverend John Hayley, the rector of a +parish in Devonshire. She married, when only nineteen years of age, a +Captain Gosford. Her husband was ten years older than herself, and, as +she discovered after marriage, was cursed with a morose and churlish +temper and disposition. Previous to her acquaintance with Gosford, she +had been intimate with, almost betrothed to, Mr. Arthur Kingston, a young +gentleman connected with the peerage, and at that time heir-apparent to +the great expectancies and actual poverty of his father, Sir Arthur +Kingston. The haughty baronet, the instant he was made aware of the +nature of his son's intimacy with the rector's daughter, packed the young +man off to the continent on his travels. The Reverend John Hayley and his +beautiful Clara were as proud as the baronet, and extremely indignant +that it should be thought either of them wished to entrap or delude +Arthur Kingston into an unequal or ineligible marriage. This feeling of +pride and resentment aided the success of Mr. Gosford's suit, and Clara +Hayley, like many other rash, high-notioned young ladies, doomed herself +to misery, in order to show the world, and Mr. Arthur Kingston and his +proud father especially, that she had a spirit. The union was a most +unhappy one. One child only, which died in its infancy, was born to them; +and after being united somewhat more than two years, a separation, +vehemently insisted on by the wife's father, took place, and the +unhappily-wedded daughter returned to her parent's roof. Mr. Gosford--he +had some time before sold out of the army--traveled about the country in +search of amusement, and latterly of health, (for his unhappy cankerous +temper at last affected and broke down his never very robust physical +constitution), accompanied for the twelvemonth preceding his death by a +young man belonging to the medical profession, of the name of Chilton. +Mr. and Mrs. Gosford had been separated a few days less than three years +when the husband died, at the village of Swords in Ireland, and not far +distant from Dublin. The intelligence was first conveyed to the widow by +a paragraph in the "Freeman's Journal," a Dublin newspaper; and by the +following post a letter arrived from Mr. Chilton, inclosing a ring which +the deceased had requested should be sent to his wife, and a note, +dictated just previous to his death-hour, in which he expressed regret +for the past, and admitted that he alone had been to blame for the +unhappy separation. A copy of his will, made nearly a twelvemonth +previously, was also forwarded, by which he bequeathed his property, +amounting to about three hundred pounds per annum, to a distant relative +then residing in New Holland. By a memorandum of a subsequent date, Mr. +Chilton was to have all the money and other personals he might die in +actual possession of, after defraying the necessary funeral expenses. +This will, Mr. Chilton stated, the deceased gentleman had expressed a +wish in his last moments to alter, but death had been too sudden for him +to be able to give effect to that good, but too long-delayed intention. + +It cannot be supposed that the long-before practically widowed wife +grieved much at the final breaking of the chain which bound her to so +ungenial a mate; but as Lady Seyton was entirely silent upon the subject, +our supposition can only rest upon the fact, that Arthur Kingston--who +had some time previously, in consequence of the death of the Earl of +Seyton and his only son, an always-weakly child, preceded a few months by +that of his own father, the baronet, succeeded to the earldom and +estates--hastened home, on seeing the announcement of Gosford's death in +the Dublin paper, from the continent, where he had continued to reside +since his compelled-departure six years before; and soon afterwards found +his way into Devonshire, and so successfully pressed the renewed offer of +his hand, that the wedding took place slightly within six months after +the decease of Mr. Gosford. Life passed brilliantly and happily with the +earl and countess--to whom three children (a boy and two girls) were +born--till about five months previous to the present time, when the earl, +from being caught, when out riding, in a drenching shower of rain, was +attacked by fever, and after an acute illness of only two or three days' +duration, expired. The present earl was at the time just turned of five +years of age. + +This blow, we comprehended from the sudden tears which filled the +beautiful eyes of the countess as she spoke of the earl's decease, was a +severe one. Still, the grief of widowhood must have been greatly assuaged +by love for her children, and not inconsiderably, after a while, we may +be sure, by the brilliant position in which she was left--as, in addition +to being splendidly jointured, she was appointed by her husband's will +sole guardian of the young lord, her son. + +A terrible reverse awaited her. She was sitting with her father the +rector, and her still unmarried sister, Jane Hayley, in the drawing-room +of Seyton House, when a note was brought to her, signed Edward Chilton, +the writer of which demanded an immediate and private interview, on, he +alleged, the most important business. Lady Seyton remembered the name, +and immediately acceded to the man's request. He announced in a brusque, +insolent tone and manner, that Mr. Gosford had not died at the time his +death was announced to her, having then only fallen into a state of +syncope, from which he had unexpectedly recovered, and had lived six +months longer. "The truth is," added Chilton, "that, chancing the other +day to be looking over a 'peerage,' I noticed for the first time the date +of your marriage with the late Earl of Seyton, and I have now to inform +you that it took place precisely eight days previous to Mr. Gosford's +death; that it was consequently no marriage at all; and that your son is +no more Earl of Seyton than I am." + +This dreadful announcement, as one might expect, completely overcame the +countess. She fainted, but not till she had heard and comprehended +Chilton's hurried injunctions to secrecy and silence. He rang the bell +for assistance, and then left the house. The mental agony of Lady Seyton +on recovering consciousness was terrible, and she with great difficulty +succeeded in concealing its cause from her anxious and wondering +relatives. Another interview with Chilton appeared to confirm the truth +of his story beyond doubt or question. He produced a formally-drawn-up +document, signed by one Pierce Cunningham, grave-digger of Swords, which +set forth that Charles Gosford was buried on the 26th of June, 1832, and +that the inscription on his tombstone set forth that he had died June 23d +of that year. Also a written averment of Patrick Mullins of Dublin, that +he had lettered the stone at the head of the grave of Charles Gosford in +Swords burying-ground in 1832, and that its date was, as stated by Pierce +Cunningham, June 23, 1832. + +"Have you copies of those documents?" asked Mr. Flint. + +"Yes: I have brought them with me," the countess replied, and handed them +to Mr. Flint. "In my terror and extremity," continued her ladyship, "and +unguided by counsel--for, till now I have not dared to speak upon the +subject to any person--I have given this Chilton, at various times, large +sums of money--but he is insatiable; and only yesterday--I cannot +repeat his audacious proposal--you will find it in this note." + +"Marriage!" exclaimed Mr. Flint with a burst. He had read the note over +my shoulder. "The scoundrel!" + +My worthy partner was rather excited. The truth was he had a Clara of +his own at home--a dead sister's child--very pretty, just about +marriageable, and a good deal resembling, as he told me afterwards, our +new and interesting client. + +"I would die a thousand deaths rather," resumed Lady Seyton, in a low, +tremulous voice, as she let fall her veil. "Can there," she added in a +still fainter voice, "be anything done--anything"-- + +"That depends entirely," interrupted Mr. Flint, "upon whether this fine +story is or is not a fabrication, got up for the purpose of extorting +money. It seems to me, I must say, amazingly like one." + +"Do you really think so?" exclaimed the lady with joyful vehemence. The +notion that Chilton was perhaps imposing on her credulity and fears +seemed not to have struck her before. + +"What do you think, Sharp?" said my partner. + +I hesitated to give an opinion, as I did not share in the hope +entertained by Flint. Detection was so certain, that I doubted if so +cunning a person as Chilton appeared to be would have ventured on a fraud +so severely punishable. "Suppose," I said, avoiding an answer, "as this +note appoints an interview at three o'clock to-day at Seyton House, we +meet him there instead of your ladyship? A little talk with the fellow +might be serviceable." + +Lady Seyton eagerly agreed to this proposal; and it was arranged that we +should be at Seyton House half an hour before the appointed time, in +readiness for the gentleman. Lady Seyton left in a hackney-coach, +somewhat relieved, I thought, by having confided the oppressive secret to +us, and with a nascent hope slightly flushing her pale, dejected +countenance. + +The firm of Flint and Sharp had then a long conference together, during +which the lady's statement and Mr. Chilton's documents were, the reader +may be sure, very minutely conned over, analyzed, and commented upon. +Finally, it was resolved that, if the approaching interview, the manner +of which we agreed upon, did not prove satisfactory, Mr. Flint should +immediately proceed to Ireland, and personally ascertain the truth or +falsehood of the facts alleged by Chilton. + +"Mr. Chilton is announced," said Lady Seyton, hurriedly entering the +library in Grosvenor Square, where Mr. Flint and myself were seated. "I +need not be present, I think you said?" she added, in great tremor. + +"Certainly not, madam," I replied. "We shall do better alone." + +She retired instantly. Flint rose and stationed himself close by the +door. Presently a sounding, confident step was heard along the passage, +the library door swung back on its noiseless hinges, and in stalked a man +of apparently about thirty-five years of age, tall, genteel, and +soldier-looking. He started back on seeing me, recognizing, I perceived, +my vocation, at a glance. + +"How is this?" he exclaimed. "I expected"-- + +"The Countess of Seyton. True; but her ladyship has deputed me to confer +with you on the business mentioned in your note." + +"I shall have nothing to say to you," he replied abruptly, and turned +to leave the room. Mr. Flint had shut, and was standing with his back +to the door. + +"You can't go," he said, in his coolest manner. "The police are +within call." + +"The police! What the devil do you mean?" cried Chilton, angrily; but, +spite of his assurance, visibly trembling beneath Flint's searching, +half-sneering look. + +"Nothing very remarkable," replied that gentleman, "or unusual in our +profession. Come, sit down; we are lawyers; you are a man of business, we +know. I dare say we shall soon understand each other." + +Mr. Chilton sat down, and moodily awaited what was next to come. + +"You are aware," said Mr. Flint, "that you have rendered yourself liable +to transportation?" + +"What"' exclaimed Chilton, flashing crimson, and starting to his +feet. "What!" + +"To transportation," continued my imperturbable partner, "for seven, ten, +fourteen years, or for life, at the discretion of the judge; but, +considering the frequency of the crime of late, I should say there is a +strong probability that _you_ will be a _lifer_!" + +"What devil's gibberish is this?" exclaimed Chilton, frightened, but +still fierce. "I can prove everything I have said. Mr. Gosford, I +tell you"-- + +"Well, well," interrupted Mr. Flint; "put it in that light, how you +please; turn it which way you will; it's like the key in Blue Beard, +which, I dare say, you have read of; rub it out on one side, and up it +comes on the other. Say, by way of argument, that you have _not_ obtained +money by unfounded threats--a crime which the law holds tantamount to +highway robbery. You have in that case obtained money for compromising a +felony--that of polygamy. An awful position, my good sir, choose which +you will." + +Utterly chop-fallen was the lately triumphant man; but he speedily +rallied. + +"I care not," he at length said. "Punish me you may; but the pride of +this sham countess and the sham earl will be brought low. And I tell you +once for all," he added, rising at the same time, and speaking in +ringing, wrathful tones, "that I defy you, and will either be handsomely +remunerated for silence, or I will at once inform the Honorable James +Kingston that he is the true Earl of Seyton." + +"And I tell _you_," retorted Flint, "that if you attempt to leave this +room, I will give you into custody at once, and transport you, whatever +may be the consequence to others. Come, come, let us have no more +nonsense or bluster. We have strong reasons for believing that the story +by which you have been extorting money, is a fabrication. If it be so, +rely upon it we shall detect and punish you. Your only safe course is to +make a clean breast of it whilst there is yet time. Out with it, man, at +once, and you shall go Scot-free; nay, have a few score pounds more--say +a hundred. Be wise in time, I counsel you." + +Chilton hesitated; his white lips quivered. There _was_ something +to reveal. + +"I cannot," he muttered, after a considerable pause. "There is nothing to +disclose." + +"You will not! Then your fate be on your own head. I have done with you." + +It was now my turn. "Come, come," I said, "it is useless urging this +man further. How much do you expect? The insolent proposal contained +in your note is, you well know, out of the question. How much _money_ +do you expect for keeping this wretched affair secret? State your +terms at once." + +"A thousand per annum," was the reply, "and the first year down." + +"Modest, upon my word! But I suppose we must comply." I wrote out an +agreement. "Will you sign this?" + +He ran it over. "Yes; Lady Seyton, as she calls herself, will take care +it never sees the light." + +I withdrew, and in two or three minutes returned with a check. "Her +ladyship has no present cash at the bankers," I said, "and is obliged to +post-date this check twelve days." + +The rascal grumbled a good deal; but as there was no help for it, he took +the security, signed the agreement, and walked off. + +"A sweet nut that for the devil to crack," observed Mr. Flint, looking +savagely after him. "I am in hopes we shall trounce him yet, bravely as +he carries it. The check of course is not payable to order or bearer" + +"Certainly not; and before twelve days are past, you will have returned +from Ireland. The agreement may be, I thought, of use with Cunningham or +Mullins. If they have been conspiring together, they will scarcely admire +the light in which you can place the arrangement, as affording proof that +he means to keep the lion's share of the reward to himself." + +"Exactly. At all events we shall get at the truth, whatever it be." + +The same evening Mr. Flint started for Dublin _via_ Holyhead. + +I received in due course a letter from him dated the day after his +arrival there. It was anything but a satisfactory one. The date on the +grave-stone had been truly represented, and Mullins who erected it was a +highly respectable man. Flint had also seen the grave-digger, but could +make nothing out of him. There was no regular register of deaths kept in +Swords except that belonging to Cunningham; and the minister who buried +Gosford, and who lived at that time in Dublin, had been dead some time. +This was disheartening and melancholy enough; and, as if to give our +unfortunate client the _coup-de-grace_, Mr. Jackson, junior, marched into +the office just after I had read it, to say that, having been referred by +Lady Seyton to us for explanations, with respect to a statement made by a +Mr. Edward Chilton to the Honorable James Kingston, for whom they, the +Messrs. Jackson, were now acting, by which it appeared that the said +Honorable James Kingston was, in fact, the true Earl of Seyton, he, Mr. +Jackson, junior, would be happy to hear what I had to say upon the +subject! It needed but this. Chilton had, as I feared he would, after +finding we had been consulted, sold his secret, doubtless advantageously, +to the heir-at-law. There was still, however, a chance that something +favorable might turn up, and, as I had no notion of throwing that chance +away, I carelessly replied that we had reason to believe Chilton's story +was a malicious fabrication, and that we should of course throw on them +the onus of judicial proof that Gosford was still alive when the late +earl's marriage was solemnized. Finally, however, to please Mr. Jackson, +who professed to be very anxious, for the lady's sake, to avoid +unnecessary eclat, and to arrange the affair as quietly as possible, I +agreed to meet him at Lady Seyton's in four days from that time, and hear +the evidence upon which he relied. This could not at all events render +our position worse; and it was, meanwhile, agreed that the matter should +be kept as far as possible profoundly secret. + +Three days passed without any further tidings from Mr. Flint, and I +vehemently feared that his journey had proved a fruitless one, when, on +the evening previous to the day appointed for the conference at Seyton +House, a hackney-coach drove rapidly up to the office door, and out +popped Mr. Flint, followed by two strangers, whom he very watchfully +escorted into the house. + +"Mr. Patrick Mullins and Mr. Pierce Cunningham," said Flint as he shook +hands with me in a way which, in conjunction with the merry sparkle of +his eyes, and the boisterous tone of his voice, assured me all was right. +"Mr. Pierce Cunningham will sleep here to-night," he added; "so Collins +had better engage a bed out." + +Cunningham, an ill-looking lout of a fellow, muttered, that he chose "to +sleep at a tavern." + +"Not if I know it, my fine fellow," rejoined Mr. Flint. "You mean well, I +dare say; but I cannot lose sight of you for all that. You either sleep +here or at a station-house." + +The man stared with surprise and alarm; but knowing refusal or resistance +to be hopeless, sullenly assented to the arrangement, and withdrew to the +room appointed for him, vigilantly guarded. For Mr. Mullins we engaged a +bed at a neighboring tavern. + +Mr. Flint's mission had been skillfully and successfully accomplished. He +was convinced, by the sullen confusion of manner manifested by +Cunningham, that some villainous agency had been at work, and he again +waited on Mullins, the stone-cutter. "Who gave you the order for the +grave-stone?" he asked. Mr. Mullins referred to his book, and answered +that he received it by letter. "Had he got that letter?" "Very likely," +he replied, "as he seldom destroyed business papers of any kind." "A +search was instituted, and finally this letter," said Mr. Flint, "worth +an earl's coronet, torn and dirty as it is, turned up." This invaluable +document, which bore the London postdate of June 23, 1832, ran as +follows:-- + +"Anglesea Hotel, Haymarket, London, _June_ 23, 1832. + +"Sir--Please to erect a plain tomb-stone at the head of Charles +Gosford, Esquire's grave, who died a few month's since at Swords, aged +thirty-two years. This is all that need be inscribed upon it. You are +referred to Mr. Guinness of Sackville Street, Dublin, for payment. Your +obedient servant, + +"Edward Chilton." + +"You see," continued Flint, "the fellow had inadvertently left out the +date of Gosford's death, merely stating it occurred a few months +previously; and Mullins concluded that, in entering the order in his +day-book, he must have somehow or other confounded the date of the letter +with that of Gosford's decease. Armed with this precious discovery, I +again sought Cunningham, and by dint of promises and threats, at last got +the truth out of the rascal. It was this:--Chilton, who returned to this +country from the Cape, where he had resided for three years previously, +about two months ago, having some business to settle in Dublin, went over +there, and one day visited Swords, read the inscription on Charles +Gosford's grave-stone, and immediately sought out the grave-digger, and +asked him if he had any record of that gentleman's burial. Cunningham +said he had, and produced his book, by which it appeared that it took +place December 24, 1831. "That cannot be," remarked Chilton, and he +referred to the head-stone. Cunningham said he had noticed the mistake a +few days after it was erected; but thinking it of no consequence, and +never having, that he knew of, seen Mr. Mullins since, he had said, and +indeed thought, nothing about it. To conclude the story--Chilton +ultimately, by payment of ten pounds down, and liberal promises for the +future, prevailed upon the grave-digger to lend himself to the infamous +device the sight of the grave-stone had suggested to his fertile, +unscrupulous brain." + +This was indeed a glorious success and the firm of Flint and Sharp drank +the Countess of Seyton's health that evening with great enthusiasm, and +gleefully "thought of the morrow." + +We found the drawing-room of Seyton House occupied by the Honorable James +Kingston, his solicitors, the Messrs. Jackson, Lady Seyton, and her +father and sister, to whom she had at length disclosed the source of her +disquietude. The children were leaving the apartment as we entered it, +and the grief-dimmed eyes of the countess rested sadly upon her +bright-eyed boy as he slowly withdrew with his sisters. That look changed +to one of wild surprise as it encountered Mr. Flint's shining, +good-humored countenance. I was more composed and reserved than my +partner, though feeling as vividly as he did the satisfaction of being +able not only to dispel Lady Seyton's anguish, but to extinguish the +exultation, and trample on the hopes, of the Honorable James Kingston, a +stiff, grave, middle-aged piece of hypocritical propriety, who was +surveying from out the corners of his affectedly-unobservant eyes the +furniture and decorations of the splendid apartment, and hugging himself +with the thought that all that was his! Business was immediately +proceeded with. Chilton was called in. He repeated his former story +verbatim, and with much fluency and confidence. He then placed in the +hands of Jackson, senior, the vouchers signed by Cunningham and Mullins. +The transient light faded from Lady Seyton's countenance as she turned +despairingly, almost accusingly, towards us. + +"What answer have you to make to this gentleman's statement, thus +corroborated?" demanded Jackson, senior. + +"Quite a remarkable one," replied Mr. Flint, as he rang the bell. "Desire +the gentlemen in the library to step up," he added to the footman who +answered the summons. In about three minutes in marched Cunningham and +Mullins, followed by two police-officers. An irrepressible exclamation of +terror escaped Chilton, which was immediately echoed by Mr. Flint's +direction to the police, as he pointed towards the trembling caitiff: +"That is your man--secure him." + +A storm of exclamations, questions, remonstrances, instantly broke forth, +and it was several minutes before attention could be obtained for the +statements of our two Irish witnesses and the reading of the +happily-found letter. The effect of the evidence adduced was decisive, +electrical. Lady Seyton, as its full significance flashed upon her, +screamed with convulsive joy, and I thought must have fainted from excess +of emotion. The Rev. John Hayley returned audible thanks to God in a +voice quivering with rapture, and Miss Hayley ran out of the apartment, +and presently returned with the children, who were immediately +half-smothered with their mother's ecstatic kisses. All was for a few +minutes bewilderment, joy, rapture! Flint persisted to his dying day, +that Lady Seyton threw her arms round his neck, and kissed his bald old +forehead. This, however, I cannot personally vouch for, as my attention +was engaged at the moment by the adverse claimant, the Honorable James +Kingston, who exhibited one of the most irresistibly comic, wo-begone, +lackadaisical aspects it is possible to conceive. He made a hurried and +most undignified exit, and was immediately followed by the discomfited +"family" solicitors. Chilton was conveyed to a station-house, and the +next day was fully committed for trial. He was convicted at the next +sessions, and sentenced to seven years' transportation; and the +"celebrated" firm of Flint and Sharp, derived considerable lustre, and +more profit, from this successful stroke of professional dexterity. + + + + +JANE ECCLES + + +The criminal business of the office was, during the first three or four +years of our partnership, entirely superintended by Mr. Flint; he being +more _an fait_, from early practice, than myself in the art and mystery +of prosecuting and defending felons, and I was thus happily relieved of +duties which, in the days when George III. was king, were frequently very +oppressive and revolting. The criminal practitioner dwelt in an +atmosphere tainted alike with cruelty and crime, and pulsating +alternately with merciless decrees of death, and the shrieks and wailings +of sentenced guilt. And not always guilt! There exist many records of +proofs, incontestable, but obtained too late, of innocence having been +legally strangled on the gallows in other cases than that of Eliza +Fenning. How could it be otherwise with a criminal code crowded in every +line with penalties of death, nothing but--death? Juster, wiser times +have dawned upon us, in which truer notions prevail of what man owes to +man, even when sitting in judgment on transgressors; and this we owe, let +us not forget, to the exertions of a band of men who, undeterred by the +sneers of the reputedly wise and _practical_ men of the world, and the +taunts of "influential" newspapers, persisted in teaching that the rights +of property could be more firmly cemented than by the shedding of +blood--law, justice, personal security more effectually vindicated than +by the gallows. Let me confess that I also was, for many years, amongst +the mockers, and sincerely held such "theorists" and "dreamers" as Sir +Samuel Romilly and his fellow-workers in utter contempt. Not so my +partner, Mr. Flint. Constantly in the presence of criminal judges and +juries, he had less confidence in the unerring verity of their decisions +than persons less familiar with them, or who see them only through the +medium of newspapers. Nothing could exceed his distress of mind if, in +cases in which he was prosecuting attorney, a convict died persisting in +his innocence, or without a full confession of guilt. And to such a pitch +did this morbidly-sensitive feeling at length arrive, that he all at once +refused to undertake, or in any way meddle with, criminal prosecutions, +and they were consequently turned over to our head clerk, with occasional +assistance from me if there happened to be a press of business of the +sort. Mr. Flint still, however, retained a monopoly of the _defences_, +except when, from some temporary cause or other, he happened to be +otherwise engaged, when they fell to me. One of these I am about to +relate, the result of which, whatever other impression it produced, +thoroughly cured me--as it may the reader--of any propensity to sneer or +laugh at criminal-law reformers and denouncers of the gallows. + +One forenoon, during the absence of Mr. Flint in Wiltshire, a Mrs. +Margaret Davies called at the office, in apparently great distress of +mind. This lady, I must premise, was an old, or at all events an elderly +maiden, of some four-and-forty years of age--I have heard a very intimate +female friend of hers say she would never see fifty again, but this was +spite--and possessed of considerable house property in rather poor +localities. She found abundant employment for energies which might +otherwise have turned to cards and scandal, in collecting her weekly, +monthly, and quarterly rents, and in promoting, or fancying she did, the +religious and moral welfare of her tenants. Very bare-faced, I well knew, +were the impositions practiced upon her credulous good-nature in money +matters, and I strongly suspected the spiritual and moral promises and +performances of her motley tenantry exhibited as much discrepancy as +those pertaining to rent. Still, deceived or cheated as she might be, +good Mrs. Davies never wearied in what she conceived to be well-doing, +and was ever ready to pour balm and oil into the wounds of the sufferer, +however self-inflicted or deserved. + +"What is the matter now?" I asked as soon as the good lady was seated, +and had untied and loosened her bonnet, and thrown back her shawl, fast +walking having heated her prodigiously. "Nothing worse than +transportation is, I hope, likely to befall any of those interesting +clients of yours?" + +"You are a hard-hearted man, Mr. Sharp," replied Mrs. Davies between a +smile and a cry; "but being a lawyer, that is of course natural, and, as +I am not here to consult you as a Christian, of no consequence." + +"Complimentary, Mrs. Davies; but pray, go on." + +"You know Jane Eccles, one of my tenants in Bank Buildings--the +embroidress who adopted her sister's orphan child?" + +"I remember her name. She obtained, if I recollect rightly, a balance of +wages for her due to the child's father, a mate, who died at sea. Well, +what has befallen her?" + +"A terrible accusation has been preferred against her," rejoined Mrs. +Davies; "but as for a moment believing it, that is quite out of the +question. Jane Eccles," continued the warm-hearted lady, at the same time +extracting a crumpled newspaper from the miscellaneous contents of her +reticule--"Jane Eccles works hard from morning till night, keeps herself +to herself; her little nephew and her rooms are always as clean and nice +as a new pin; she attends church regularly; and pays her rent punctually +to the day. This disgraceful story, therefore," he added, placing the +journal in my hands, "_cannot_ be true." + +I glanced over the police news:--'Uttering forged Bank-of-England notes, +knowing them to be forged;' I exclaimed, "The devil!" + +"There's no occasion to be spurting that name out so loudly, Mr. Sharp," +said Mrs. Davies with some asperity, "especially in a lawyer's office. +People have been wrongfully accused before to-day, I suppose?" + +I was intent on the report, and not answering, she continued, "I heard +nothing of it till I read the shameful account in the paper half an hour +agone. The poor slandered girl was, I dare say, afraid or ashamed to +send for me." + +"This appears to be a very bad case, Mrs. Davies," I said at length. +"Three forged ten-pound notes changed in one day at different shops each +time, under the pretence of purchasing articles of small amount, and +another ten-pound note found in her pocket! All that has, I must say, a +very ugly look." + +"I don't care," exclaimed Mrs. Davies quite fiercely, "if it looks as +ugly as sin, or if the whole Bank of England was found in her pocket! I +know Jane Eccles well; she nursed me last spring through the fever; and I +would be upon my oath that the whole story, from beginning to end, is an +invention of the devil, or something worse." + +"Jane Eccles," I persisted, "appears to have been unable or unwilling to +give the slightest explanation as to how she became possessed of the +spurious notes. Who is this brother of hers, 'of such highly respectable +appearance,' according to the report, who was permitted a private +interview with her previous to the examination?" + +"She has no brother that I have ever heard of," said Mrs. Davies. "It +must be a mistake of the papers." + +"That is not likely. You observed of course that she was fully +committed--and no wonder!" + +Mrs. Davies's faith in the young woman's integrity was not to be shaken +by any evidence save that of her own bodily eyes, and I agreed to see +Jane Eccles on the morrow, and make the best arrangements for the +defence--at Mrs. Davies' charge--which the circumstances and the short +time I should have for preparation--the Old Bailey session would be on in +a few days--permitted. The matter so far settled, Mrs. Margaret hurried +off to see what had become of little Henry, the prisoner's nephew. + +I visited Jane Eccles the next day in Newgate. She was a well-grown young +woman of about two or three-and-twenty--not exactly pretty perhaps, but +very well-looking. Her brown hair was plainly worn, without a cap, and +the expression of her face was, I thought, one of sweetness and humility, +contradicted in some degree by rather harsh lines about the mouth, +denoting strong will and purpose. As a proof of the existence of this +last characteristic, I may here mention that, when her first overweening +confidence had yielded to doubt, she, although dotingly fond of her +nephew, at this time about eight years of age, firmly refused to see him, +"in order," she once said to me--and the thought brought a deadly pallor +to her face--in order that, should the worst befall, her memory might +not be involuntarily connected in his mind with images of dungeons, and +disgrace, and shame. Jane Eccles had received what is called in the +country, "a good schooling," and the books Mrs. Davies had lent her she +had eagerly perused. She was therefore to a certain extent a cultivated +person; and her speech and manners were mild, gentle, and, so to speak, +religious. I generally found, when I visited her, a Bible or prayer-book +in her hand. This, however, from my experience, comparatively slight +though it was, did not much impress me in her favor--devotional sentiment +so easily, for a brief time, assumed, being in nine such cases out of ten +a hypocritical deceit. Still she, upon the whole, made a decidedly +favorable impression on me, and I no longer so much wondered at the +bigotry of unbelief manifested by Mrs. Davies in behalf of her apparently +amiable and grateful protegee. + +But beyond the moral doubt thus suggested of the prisoner's guilt, my +interviews with her utterly failed to extract anything from her in +rebutment of the charge upon which she was about to be arraigned. At +first she persisted in asserting that the prosecution was based upon +manifest error; that the impounded notes, instead of being forged, were +genuine Bank-of-England paper. It was some time before I succeeded in +convincing her that this hope, to which she so eagerly, desperately +clung, was a fallacious one. I did so at last; and either, thought I, as +I marked her varying color and faltering voice, "either you are a +consummate actress, or else the victim of some frightful delusion or +conspiracy." + +"I will see you, if you please, to-morrow," she said, looking up from the +chair upon which, with her head bowed and her face covered with her +hands, she had been seated for several minutes in silence. "My thoughts +are confused now, but to-morrow I shall be more composed; better able to +decide if--to talk, I mean, of this unhappy business." + +I thought it better to comply without remonstrance, and at once +took my leave. + +When I returned the next afternoon, the governor of the prison informed +me that the brother of my client, James Eccles, quite a dashing +gentleman, had had a long interview with her. He had left about two hours +before, with the intention, he said, of calling upon me. + +I was conducted to the room where my conferences with the prisoner +usually took place. In a few minutes she appeared, much flushed and +excited, it seemed to be alternately with trembling joy and hope, and +doubt, and nervous fear. + +"Well," I said, "I trust you are now ready to give me your unreserved +confidence, without which, be assured, that any reasonable hope of a +successful issue from the peril in which you are involved is out of the +question." + +The varying emotions I have noticed were clearly traceable as they swept +over her tell-tale countenance during the minute or so that elapsed +before she spoke. + +"Tell me candidly, sir," she said at last, "whether, if I owned to you +that the notes were given to me by a--a person, whom I cannot, if I +would, produce, to purchase various articles at different shops, and +return him--the person I mean--the change; and that I made oath this was +done by me in all innocence of heart, as the God of heaven and earth +truly knows it was, it would avail me?" + +"Not in the least," I replied, angry at such trifling. "How can you ask +such a question? We must _find_ the person who, you intimate, has +deceived you, and placed your life in peril; and if that can be proved, +hang him instead of you. I speak plainly, Miss Eccles," I added in a +milder tone; "perhaps you may think unfeelingly, but there is no further +time for playing with this dangerous matter. To-morrow a true bill will +be found against you, and your trial may then come on immediately. If you +are careless for yourself, you ought to have some thought for the +sufferings of your excellent friend, Mrs. Davies; for your nephew, soon +perhaps to be left friendless and destitute." + +"Oh spare me--spare me!" sobbed the unhappy young woman, sinking +nervelessly into a seat. "Have pity upon me, wretched, bewildered as I +am!" Tears relieved her, and after awhile, she said, "It is useless, sir, +to prolong this interview. I could not, I solemnly assure you, if I +would, tell you where to search for or find the person of whom I spoke. +And," she added, whilst the lines about her mouth of which I have spoken, +grew distinct and rigid, "I would not if I could. What indeed would it, +as I have been told and believe, avail, but to cause the death of two +deceived innocent persons instead of one? Besides," she continued, trying +to speak with firmness, and repress the shudder which crept over and +shook her as with ague--"besides, whatever the verdict, the penalty will +not, cannot, I am sure, I know, be--be"-- + +I understood her plainly enough, although her resolution failed to +sustain her through the sentence. + +"Who is this brother--James Eccles, he calls himself--whom you saw at the +police-office, and who has twice been here, I understand--once to-day?" + +A quick start revealed the emotion with which she heard the question, +and her dilated eyes rested upon me for a moment with eager scrutiny. +She speedily recovered her presence of mind, and with her eyes again +fixed on the floor, said in a quivering voice, "My brother! Yes--as you +say--my brother." + +"Mrs. Davies says you have no brother!" I sharply rejoined. + +"Good Mrs. Davies," she replied in a tone scarcely above a whisper, and +without raising her head, "does not know all our family." + +A subterfuge was, I was confident, concealed in these words; but after +again and again urging her to confide in me, and finding warning and +persuasion alike useless, I withdrew, discomfited and angry, and withal +as much concerned and grieved as baffled and indignant. On going out, I +arranged with the governor that the "brother," if he again made his +appearance, should be detained, _bongre malgre_, till my arrival. Our +precaution was too late--he did not reappear; and so little notice had +any one taken of his person, that to advertise a description of him with +a reward for his apprehension was hopeless. + +A true bill was found, and two hours afterwards Jane Eccles was placed in +the dock. The trial did not last more than twenty minutes, at the end of +which, an unhesitating verdict of guilty was returned, and she was duly +sentenced to be hanged by the neck till she was dead. We had retained the +ablest counsel practicing in the court, but, with no tangible defence, +their efforts were merely thrown away. Upon being asked what she had to +say why the sentence of the law should not be carried into effect? she +repeated her previous statement--that the notes had been given her to +change by a person in whom she reposed the utmost confidence; and that +she had not the slightest thought of evil or fraud in what she did. That +person, however, she repeated once more, could not be produced. Her +assertions only excited a derisive smile; and all necessary forms having +been gone through, she was removed from the bar. + +The unhappy woman bore the ordeal through which she had just passed with +much firmness. Once only, whilst sentence was being passed, her +high-strung resolution appeared to falter and give way. I was watching +her intently, and I observed that she suddenly directed a piercing look +towards a distant part of the crowded court. In a moment her eye +lightened, the expression of extreme horror which had momently darkened +her countenance passed away, and her partial composure returned. I had +instinctively, as it were, followed her glance, and thought I detected a +tall man enveloped in a cloak engaged in dumb momentary communication +with her. I jumped up from my seat, and hastened as quickly as I could +through the thronged passages to the spot, and looked eagerly around, but +the man, whosoever he might be, was gone. + +The next act in this sad drama was the decision of the Privy Council upon +the recorder's report. It came. Several were reprieved, but amongst them +was _not_ Jane Eccles. She and nine others were to perish at eight +o'clock on the following morning. + +The anxiety and worry inseparable from this most unhappy affair, which, +from Mr. Flint's protracted absence, I had exclusively to bear, fairly +knocked me up, and on the evening of the day on which the decision of the +Council was received, I went to bed much earlier than usual, and really +ill. Sleep I could not, and I was tossing restlessly about, vainly +endeavoring to banish from my mind the gloomy and terrible images +connected with the wretched girl and her swiftly-coming fate, when a +quick tap sounded on the door, and a servant's voice announced that one +of the clerks had brought a letter which the superscription directed to +be read without a moment's delay. I sprang out of bed, snatched the +letter, and eagerly ran it over. It was from the Newgate chaplain, a very +worthy, humane gentleman, and stated that, on hearing the result of the +deliberations of the Privy Council, all the previous stoicism and +fortitude exhibited by Jane Eccles had completely given way, and she had +abandoned herself to the wildest terror and despair. As soon as she could +speak coherently, she implored the governor with frantic earnestness to +send for me. As this was not only quite useless in the opinion of that +official, but against the rules, the prisoner's request was not complied +with. The chaplain, however, thinking it might be as well that I should +know of her desire to see me, had of his own accord sent me this note. He +thought that possibly the sheriffs would permit me to have a brief +interview with the condemned prisoner in the morning, if I arrived +sufficiently early; and although it could avail nothing as regarded her +fate in this world, still it might perhaps calm the frightful tumult of +emotion by which she was at present tossed and shaken, and enable her to +meet the inevitable hour with fortitude and resignation. + +It was useless to return to bed after receiving such a communication, +and I forthwith dressed myself, determined to sit up and read, if I +could, till the hour at which I might hope to be admitted to the jail, +should strike. Slowly and heavily the dark night limped away, and as the +first rays of the cold wintry dawn reached the earth, I sallied forth. A +dense, brutal crowd were already assembled in front of the prison, and +hundreds of well-dressed sight-seers occupied the opposite windows, +morbidly eager for the rising of the curtain upon the mournful tragedy +about to be enacted. I obtained admission without much difficulty, but, +till the arrival of the sheriffs, no conference with the condemned +prisoners could be possibly permitted. Those important functionaries +happened on this morning to arrive unusually late, and I paced up and +down the paved corridor in a fever of impatience and anxiety. They were +at last announced, but before I could, in the hurry and confusion, +obtain speech of either of them, the dismal bell tolled out, and I felt +with a shudder that it was no longer possible to effect my object. +"Perhaps it is better so," observed the reverend chaplain, in a whisper. +"She has been more composed for the last two or three hours, and is now, +I trust, in a better frame of mind for death." I turned, sick at heart, +to leave the place, and in my agitation missing the right way, came +directly in view of the terrible procession. Jane Eccles saw me, and a +terrific scream, followed by frantic heart-rending appeals to me to save +her, burst with convulsive effort from her white quivering lips. Never +will the horror of that moment pass from my remembrance. I staggered +back, as if every spasmodic word struck me like a blow; and then, +directed by one of the turnkeys, sped in an opposite direction as fast +as my trembling limbs could carry me--the shrieks of the wretched +victim, the tolling of the dreadful bell, and the obscene jeers and +mocks of the foul crowd through which I had to force my way, evoking a +confused tumult of disgust and horror in my brain, which, if long +continued, would have driven me mad. On reaching home, I was bled +freely, and got to bed. This treatment, I have no doubt, prevented a +violent access of fever; for, as it was, several days passed before I +could be safely permitted to re-engage in business. + +On revisiting the office, a fragment of a letter written by Jane Eccles +a few hours previous to her death, and evidently addressed to Mrs. +Davies, was placed by Mr. Flint, who had by this time returned, before +me. The following is an exact copy of it, with the exception that the +intervals which I have marked with dots,.... were filled with erasures +and blots, and that every word seemed to have been traced by a hand +smitten with palsy:-- + +"From my Death-place, _Midnight._ + +"Dear Madam--No, beloved friend--mother, let me call you.... Oh kind, +gentle mother, I am to die ... to be killed in a few hours by cruel +men!--I, so young, so unprepared for death, and yet guiltless! Oh never +doubt that I am guiltless of the offence for which they will have the +heart to hang me.... Nobody, they say, can save me now; yet if I could +see the lawyer.... I have been deceived, cruelly deceived, madam--buoyed +up by lying hopes, till just now the thunder burst, and I--oh God!.... As +they spoke, the fearful chapter in the Testament came bodily before +me--the rending of the vail in twain, the terrible darkness, and the +opened graves!.... I did not write for this, but my brain aches and +dazzles.... It is too late--too late, they all tell me! ... Ah, if these +dreadful laws were not so swift, I might yet--but no; _he_ clearly proved +to me how useless.... I must not think of that.... It is of my nephew, of +your Henry, child of my affections, that I would speak. Oh, would that +I.... But hark!--they are coming.... The day has dawned ... to me the day +of judgment!...." + +This incoherent scrawl only confirmed my previous suspicions, but it was +useless to dwell further on the melancholy subject. The great axe had +fallen, and whether justly or unjustly, would, I feared, as in many, very +many other cases, never be clearly ascertained in this world. I was +mistaken. Another case of "uttering forged Bank-of-England notes, knowing +them to be forged," which came under our cognizance a few months +afterwards, revived the fading memory of Jane Eccles's early doom, and +cleared up every obscurity connected with it. + +The offender in this new case, was a tall, dark-complexioned, handsome +man, of about thirty years of age, of the name of Justin Arnold. His lady +mother, whose real name I shall conceal under that of Barton, retained us +for her son's defence, and from her, and other sources, we learned the +following particulars:-- + +Justin Arnold was the lady's son by a former marriage. Mrs. Barton, a +still splendid woman, had, in second nuptials, espoused a very wealthy +person, and from time to time had covertly supplied Justin Arnold's +extravagance. This, however, from the wild course the young man pursued, +could not be forever continued, and after many warnings the supplies were +stopped. Incapable of reformation, Justin Arnold, in order to obtain the +means of dissipation, connected himself with a cleverly-organized band of +swindlers and forgers, who so adroitly managed their nefarious business, +that, till his capture, they had contrived to keep themselves clear of +the law--the inferior tools and dupes having been alone caught in its +fatal meshes. The defence, under these circumstances necessarily a +difficult, almost impossible one, was undertaken by Mr. Flint, and +conducted by him with his accustomed skill and energy. + +I took a very slight interest in the matter, and heard very little +concerning it till its judicial conclusion by the conviction of the +offender, and his condemnation to death. The decision on the +recorder's report was this time communicated to the authorities of +Newgate on a Saturday, so that the batch ordered for execution, +amongst whom was Justin Arnold, would not be hanged till the Monday +morning. Rather late in the evening a note once more reached me from +the chaplain of the prison. Justin Arnold wished to see me--_me_, not +Mr. Flint. He had something of importance to communicate, he said, +relative to a person in whom I had once felt great interest. It +flashed across me that this Justin might be the "brother" of Jane +Eccles, and I determined to see him. I immediately sought out one of +the sheriffs, and obtained an order empowering me to see the prisoner +on the afternoon of the morrow, (Sunday). + +I found that the convict had expressed great anxiety lest I should +decline to see him. My hoped-for visit was the only matter which +appeared to occupy the mind or excite the care of the mocking, +desperate young man; even the early and shameful termination of his own +life on the morrow, he seemed to be utterly reckless of. Thus prepared, +I was the less surprised at the scene which awaited me in the +prisoner's cell, where I found him in angry altercation with the pale +and affrighted chaplain. + +I had never seen Justin Arnold before, this I was convinced of the +instant I saw him; but he knew and greeted me instantly by name. His +swarthy, excited features were flushed and angry; and after briefly +thanking me for complying with his wishes, he added in a violent rapid +tone, "This good man has been teasing me. He says, and truly, that I have +defied God by my life; and now he wishes me to mock that inscrutable +Being, on the eve of death, by words without sense, meaning, or truth!" + +"No, no, no!" ejaculated the reverend gentleman. "I exhorted you to true +repentance, to peace, charity, to"-- + +"True repentance, peace, charity!" broke in the prisoner, with a scornful +burst; "when my heart is full of rage, and bitterness, and despair! Give +me _time_ for this repentance which you say is so needful--time to lure +back long since banished hope, and peace, and faith! Poh!--you but flout +me with words without meaning. I am unfit, you say, for the presence of +men, but quite fit for that of God, before whom you are about to +arrogantly cast me! Be it so--my deeds are upon my head! It is at least +not my fault that I am hurled to judgment before the Eternal Judge +himself commanded my presence there!" + +"He may be unworthy to live," murmured the scared chaplain, "but oh, how +utterly unfit to die!" + +"That is true," rejoined Justin Arnold, with undiminished vehemence. +"Those, if you will, are words of truth and sense--go you and preach them +to the makers and executioners of English law. In the meantime I would +speak privately with this gentleman." + +The reverend pastor, with a mute gesture of compassion, sorrow, and +regret, was about to leave the cell, when he was stayed by the prisoner, +who exclaimed, "Now, I think of it, you had better, sir, remain. The +statement I am about to make cannot, for the sake of the victim's +reputation, and for her friends' sake, have too many witnesses. You both +remember Jane Eccles?" A broken exclamation from both of us answered him, +and he quickly added--"Ah, you already guess the truth, I see. Well, I do +not wonder you should start and turn pale. It _was_ a cruel, shameless +deed--a dastardly murder if there was ever one. In as few words as +possible, so you interrupt me not, I will relate _my_ share in the +atrocious business." He spoke rapidly, and once or twice during the brief +recital, the moistened eye and husky voice betrayed emotions which his +pride would have concealed. + +"Jane and I were born in Hertfordshire, within a short distance of each +other. I knew her from a child. She was better off then, I worse than we +subsequently became--she by her father's bankruptcy, I by my mo--, by +Mrs. Barton's wealthy marriage. She was about nineteen, I twenty-four, +when I left the country for London. That she loved me with all the +fervor of a trusting woman I well knew; and I had, too, for some time +known that she must be either honorably wooed or not at all. That with +me, was out of the question, and, as I told you, I came about that time +to London. You can, I dare say, imagine the rest. We were--I and my +friends, I mean--at a loss for agents to dispose of our wares, and at the +same time pressed for money. I met Jane Eccles by accident. Genteel, of +graceful address and winning manners, she was just fitted for our +purpose. I feigned re-awakened love, proffered marriage, and a home +across the Atlantic, as soon as certain trifling but troublesome affairs +which momently harassed me were arranged. She believed me. I got her to +change a considerable number of notes under various pretexts, but that +they were forged she had not and could not have the remotest suspicion. +You know the catastrophe. After her apprehension I visited this prison as +her brother, and buoyed her up to the last with illusions of certain +pardon and release, whatever the verdict, through the influence of my +wealthy father-in-law, of our immediate union afterwards, and tranquil +American home. It is needless to say more. She trusted me, and I +sacrificed her; less flagrant instances of a like nature occur every day. +And now, gentlemen, I would fain be alone." + +"Remorseless villain!" I could not help exclaiming under my breath as he +moved away. + +He turned quickly back, and looking me in the face, without the slightest +anger, said, "An execrable villain if you like--not a remorseless one! +Her death alone sits near, and troubles my, to all else, hardened +conscience. And let me tell you, reverend sir," he continued, resuming +his former bitterness as he addressed the chaplain--"let me tell you that +it was not the solemn words of the judge the other day, but her pale, +reproachful image, standing suddenly beside me in the dock, just as she +looked when I passed my last deception on her, that caused the tremor and +affright, complacently attributed by that grave functionary to his own +sepulchral eloquence. After all, her death cannot be exclusively laid to +my charge. Those who tried her would not believe her story, and yet it +was true as death. Had they not been so confident in their own unerring +wisdom, they might have doomed her to some punishment short of the +scaffold, and could now have retrieved their error. But I am weary, and +would, I repeat, be alone. Farewell!" He threw himself on the rude +pallet, and we silently withdrew. + +A paper embodying Justin Arnold's declaration was forwarded to the +secretary of state, and duly acknowledged, accompanied by an official +expression of mild regret that it had not been made in time to save the +life of Jane Eccles. No further notice was taken of the matter, and the +record of the young woman's judicial sacrifice still doubtless encumbers +the archives of the Home Office, forming, with numerous others of like +character, the dark, sanguine background upon which the achievements of +the great and good men who have so successfully purged the old Draco code +that now a faint vestige only of the old barbarism remains, stands out in +bright relief and changeless lustre. + + + + +"EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER." + + +A smarter trader, a keener appreciator of the tendencies to a rise or +fall in colonial produce--sugars more especially--than John Linden, of +Mincing Lane, it would have been difficult to point out in the wide city +of London. He was not so immensely rich as many others engaged in the +same merchant-traffic as himself; nothing at all like it, indeed, for I +doubt that he could at any time have been esteemed worth more than from +eighty to ninety thousand pounds; but his transactions, although limited +in extent when compared with those of the mammoth colonial houses, almost +always returned more or less of profit; the result of his remarkable +keenness and sagacity in scenting hurricanes, black insurrections, and +emancipation bills, whilst yet inappreciable, or deemed afar off, by less +sensitive organizations. At least to this wonderful prescience of future +sugar-value did Mr. Linden himself attribute his rise in the world, and +gradual increase in rotundity, riches, and respectability. This constant +success engendered, as it is too apt to do, inordinate egotism, conceit, +self-esteem, vanity. There was scarcely a social, governmental, or +economical problem which he did not believe himself capable of solving as +easily as he could eat his dinner when hungry. "Common-sense +business-habits"--his favorite phrase--he believed to be quite sufficient +for the elucidation of the most difficult question in law, physic, or +divinity. The science of law, especially, he held to be an alphabet which +any man--of common sense and business habits--could as easily master as +he could count five on his fingers; and there was no end to his ridicule +of the men with horse-hair head-dresses, and their quirks, quiddits, +cases, tenures, and such-like devil's lingo. Lawyers, according to him, +were a set of thorough humbugs and impostors, who gained their living by +false pretence--that of affording advice and counsel, which every sane +man could better render himself. He was unmistakably mad upon this +subject, and he carried his insane theory into practice. He drew his own +leases, examined the titles of some house-property he purchased, and set +his hand and seal to the final deeds, guided only by his own common-sense +spectacles. Once he bid, at the Auction Mart, as high as fifty-three +thousand pounds for the Holmford estate, Herefordshire; and had he not +been outbidden by young Palliser, son of the then recently-deceased +eminent distiller, who was eager to obtain the property, with a view to a +seat in parliament which its possession was said to almost insure--he +would, I had not at the time the slightest doubt, have completed the +purchase, without for a moment dreaming of submitting the vender's title +to the scrutiny of a professional adviser. Mr. Linden, I should mention, +had been for some time desirous of resigning his business in Mincing Lane +to his son, Thomas Linden, the only child born to him by his long-since +deceased wife, and of retiring, an estated squire-arch, to the _otium +cum._, or _sine dignitate_, as the case might be, of a country life; and +this disposition had of late been much quickened by daily-increasing +apprehensions of negro emancipation and revolutionary interference with +differential duties--changes which, in conjunction with others of similar +character, would infallibly bring about that utter commercial ruin which +Mr. Linden, like every other rich and about-to-retire merchant or +tradesman whom I have ever known, constantly prophesied to be near at +hand and inevitable. + +With such a gentleman the firm of Flint & Sharp had only professional +interviews, when procrastinating or doubtful debtors required that he +should put on the screw--a process which, I have no doubt, he would +himself have confidently performed, but for the waste of valuable time +which doing so would necessarily involve. Both Flint and myself were, +however, privately intimate with him--Flint more especially, who had +known him from boyhood--and we frequently dined with him on a Sunday at +his little box at Fulham. Latterly, we had on these occasions met there a +Mrs. Arnold and her daughter Catherine--an apparently amiable, and +certainly very pretty and interesting young person--to whom, Mr. Linden +confidentially informed us, his son Tom had been for some time engaged. + +"I don't know much about her family," observed Mr. Linden one day, in the +course of a gossip at the office, "but she moves in very respectable +society. Tom met her at the Slades'; but I _do_ know she has something +like thirty-five thousand pounds in the funds. The instant I was informed +how matters stood with the young folk, I, as a matter of common sense and +business, asked the mother, Mrs. Arnold, for a reference to her banker or +solicitor--there being no doubt that a woman and a minor would be in +lawyers' leading-strings--and she referred me to Messrs. Dobson of +Chancery Lane. You know the Dobsons?" + +"Perfectly,--what was the reply?" + +"That Catherine Arnold, when she came of age--it wants but a very short +time of that now--would be entitled to the capital of thirty-four +thousand seven hundred pounds, bequeathed by an uncle, and now lodged in +the funds in the names of the trustees, Crowther & Jenkins, of Leadenhall +Street, by whom the interest on that sum was regularly paid, +half-yearly, through the Messrs. Dobson, for the maintenance and +education of the heiress. A common-sense, business-like letter in every +respect, and extremely satisfactory; and as soon as he pleases, after +Catherine Arnold comes of age, and into actual possession of her fortune, +Tom may have her, with my blessing over the bargain." + +I dined at Laurel Villa, Fulham, about two months after this +conversation, and Linden and I found ourselves alone over the +dessert--the young people having gone out for a stroll, attracted +doubtless by the gay aspect of the Thames, which flows past the miniature +grounds attached to the villa. Never had I seen Mr. Linden in so gay, so +mirthful a mood. + +"Pass the decanter," he exclaimed, the instant the door had closed upon +Tom and his _fiancee_. "Pass the decanter, Sharp; I have news for you, my +boy, now they are gone." + +"Indeed! and what may the news be?" + +"Fill a bumper for yourself, and I'll give you a toast. Here's to the +health and prosperity of the proprietor of the Holmford estate; and may +he live a thousand years, and one over!--Hip--hip--hurra!" + +He swallowed his glass of wine, and then, in his intensity of glee, +laughed himself purple. + +"You needn't stare so," he said, as soon as he had partially recovered +breath; "I am the proprietor of the Holmford property--bought it for +fifty-six thousand pounds of that young scant-grace and spendthrift, +Palliser--fifteen thousand pounds less than what it cost him, with the +outlay he has made upon it. Signed, sealed, delivered, paid for +yesterday. Ha! ha! ho! Leave John Linden alone for a bargain! It's worth +seventy thousand pounds if it's worth a shilling. I say," continued he, +after a renewed spasm of exuberant mirth, "not a word about it to +anybody--mind! I promised Palliser, who is quietly packing up to be off +to Italy, or Australia, or Constantinople, or the devil--all of them, +perhaps, in succession--not to mention a word about it till he was well +off--you understand? Ha! ha!--ho! ho!" again burst out Mr. Linden. "I +pity the poor creditors though! Bless you! I shouldn't have had it at +anything like the price, only for his knowing that I was not likely to be +running about exposing the affair, by asking lawyers whether an estate in +a family's possession, as this was in Dursley's for three hundred years, +had a good title or not. So be careful not to drop a word, even to +Tom--for my honor's sake. A delicious bargain, and no mistake! Worth, if +a penny, seventy thousand pounds. Ha! ha!--ho! ho!" + +"Then you have really parted with that enormous sum of money without +having had the title to the estate professionally examined?" + +"Title! Fiddlestick! I looked over the deeds myself. Besides, haven't I +told you the ancestors of Dursley, from whose executors Palliser +purchased the estate, were in possession of it for centuries. What better +title than prescription can there be?" + +"That may be true enough; but still"-- + +"I ought, you think, to have risked losing the bargain by delay, and have +squandered time and money upon fellows in horse-hair wigs, in order to +ascertain what I sufficiently well knew already? Pooh! I am not in my +second childhood yet!" + +It was useless to argue with him; besides the mischief, if mischief there +was, had been done, and the not long-delayed entrance of the young couple +necessitating a change of topic, I innocently inquired what he thought of +the Negro Emancipation Bill which Mr. Stanley, as the organ of the +ministry, had introduced a few evenings previously? and was rewarded by a +perfect deluge of loquacious indignation and invective--during a pause in +which hurly-burly of angry words I contrived to effect my escape. + +"Crowther & Jenkins!" exclaimed one morning, Mr. Flint, looking up from +the "Times" newspaper he held in his hand. "Crowther & Jenkins!--what is +it we know about Crowther & Jenkins?" + +The question was addressed to me, and I, like my partner, could not at +the moment precisely recall why those names sounded upon our ears with a +certain degree of interest as well as familiarity. "Crowther & Jenkins!" +I echoed. "True; what _do_ we know about Crowther & Jenkins? Oh, I have +it!--they are the executors of a will under which young Linden's pretty +bride, that is to be, inherits her fortune." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Flint, as he put down the paper, and looked me +gravely in the face--"I remember now; their names are in the list of +bankrupts. A failure in the gambling corn-trade too. I hope they have not +been speculating with the young woman's money." + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Mr. Linden was announced, +and presently in walked that gentleman in a state of considerable +excitement. + +"I told you," he began, "some time ago about Crowther & Jenkins being the +persons in whose names Catherine Arnold's money stood in the funds?" + +"Yes," replied Flint; "and I see by the 'Gazette' they are bankrupts, +and, by your face, that they have speculated with your intended +daughter-in-law's money, and lost it!" + +"Positively so!" rejoined Mr. Linden, with great heat. "Drew it out many +months ago! But they have exceedingly wealthy connections--at least +Crowther has--who will, I suppose, arrange Miss Arnold's claim rather +than their relative should be arraigned for felony." + +"Felony!--you are mistaken, my good sir. There is no felony--no _legal_ +felony, I mean--in the matter. Miss Arnold can only prove against the +estate like any other creditor." + +"The devil she can't! Tom, then, must look out for another wife, for I am +credibly informed there won't be a shilling in the pound." + +And so it turned out. The great corn-firm had been insolvent for years; +and after speculating desperately, and to a frightful extent, with a view +to recover themselves, had failed to an enormous amount--their assets, +comparatively speaking, proving to be _nil_. + +The ruin spread around, chiefly on account of the vast quantity of +accommodation-paper they had afloat, was terrible; but upon no one did +the blow fall with greater severity than on young Linden and his promised +wife. His father ordered him to instantly break off all acquaintance with +Miss Arnold; and on the son, who was deeply attached to her, peremptorily +refusing to do so, Linden, senior, threatened to turn him out of doors, +and ultimately disinherit him. Angry, indignant, and in love, Thomas +Linden did a very rash and foolish thing; he persuaded Catherine Arnold +to consent to a private marriage, arguing that if the indissoluble knot +were once fairly tied, his father would, as a matter of course--he being +an only child--become reconciled to what he could no longer hope to +prevent or remedy. + +The imprudent young man deceived both himself and her who trusted in his +pleasing plausibilities. Ten minutes after he had disclosed the marriage +to his father, he was turned, almost penniless, out of doors; and the +exasperated and inexorable old man refused to listen to any +representation in his favor, by whomsoever proffered, and finally, even +to permit the mention of his name in his hearing. + +"It's of no use," said Mr. Flint, on returning for the last time, from a +mission undertaken to extort, if possible, some provision against +absolute starvation for the newly-wedded couple. "He is as cold and hard +as adamant, and I think, if possible, even more of a tiger than before. +He will be here presently to give instructions for his will." + +"His will! Surely he will draw that up himself after his own +common-sense, business fashion?" + +"He would unquestionably have done so a short time since; but some events +that have lately occurred have considerably shaken his estimate of his +own infallibility, and he is, moreover, determined, he says, that there +shall be no mistake as to effectually disinheriting his son. He has made +two or three heavy losses, and his mind is altogether in a very cankered, +distempered state." + +Mr. Linden called, as he had promised to do, and gave us the written +heads of a will which he desired to have at once formally drawn up. By +this instrument he devised the Holmford estate, and all other property, +real and personal, of which he might die possessed, to certain charitable +institutions, in varying proportions, payable as soon after his death as +the property could be turned into money. "The statute of mortmain does +not give me much uneasiness," remarked the vindictive old man with a +bitter smile. "I shall last some time yet. I would have left it all to +you, Flint," he added, "only that I knew you would defeat my purpose by +giving it back to that disobedient, ungrateful, worthless boy." + +"Do leave it to me," rejoined Mr. Flint, with grave emphasis, "and I +promise you faithfully this--that the wish respecting it, whatever it may +be, which trembles on your lip as you are about to leave this world for +another, and when it may be too late to formally revoke the testament you +now propose, shall be strictly carried out. That time cannot be a very +distant one, John Linden, for a man whose hair is white as yours." + +It was preaching to the winds. He was deaf, blind, mute, to every attempt +at changing his resolve. The will was drawn in accordance with his +peremptorily-iterated instructions, and duly signed, sealed, and +attested. Not very long afterwards, Mr. Linden disposed of his business +in Mincing Lane, and retired to Holmford, but with nothing like the +money-fortune he had once calculated upon, the losses alluded to by Mr. +Flint, and followed by others, having considerably diminished his wealth. + +We ultimately obtained a respectable and remunerative situation for +Thomas Linden in a mercantile house at Belfast, with which we were +professionally acquainted, and after securing berths in the _Erin_ +steamer, he, with his wife and mother-in-law, came, with a kind of +hopeful sadness in their looks and voices, to bid us farewell--for a very +long time, they and we also feared-- + +For an eternity, it seemed, on reading the account of the loss of the +_Erin_, a few days afterwards, with every soul on board! Their names were +published with those of the other passengers who had embarked, and we had +of course concluded that they had perished, when a letter reached us from +Belfast, stating that, through some delay on the part of Mrs. Arnold, +they had happily lost their passage in the _Erin_, and embarked in the +next steamer for Belfast, where they arrived in perfect safety. We +forwarded this intelligence to Holmford, but it elicited no reply. + +We heard nothing of Mr. Linden for about two months, except by +occasional notices in the "Hereford Times", which he regularly forwarded +to the office, relative to the improvements on the Holmford estate, +either actually begun or contemplated by its new proprietor. He very +suddenly reappeared. I was cooling my heels in the waiting-room of the +chambers of the Barons of the Exchequer, Chancery Lane, awaiting my turn +of admission, when one of our clerks came in, half-breathless with haste. +"You are wanted, sir, immediately; Mr. Flint is out, and Mr. Linden is at +the office raving like a mad-man." I instantly transferred the business I +was in attendance at chambers upon, to the clerk, and with the help of a +cab soon reached home. + +Mr. Linden was not _raving_ when I arrived. The violence of the paroxysm +of rage and terror by which he was possessed had passed away, and he +looked, as I entered, the image of pale, rigid, iron, dumb despair. He +held a letter and a strip of parchment in his hand; these he presented, +and with white, stammering lips, bade me read. The letter was from an +attorney of the name of Sawbridge, giving notice of an action of +ejectment, to oust him from the possession of the Holmford estate, the +property, according to Mr. Sawbridge, of one Edwin Majoribanks; and the +strip of parchment was the writ by which the letter had been quickly +followed. I was astounded; and my scared looks questioned Mr. Linden for +further information. + +"I do not quite understand it," he said in a hoarse, palpitating voice. +"No possession or title in the venders; a niece not of age--executors no +power to sell--Palliser discovered it, robbed me, absconded, and I, oh +God! am a miserable beggar!" + +The last words were uttered with a convulsive scream, and after a few +frightful struggles he fell down in a fit. I had him conveyed to bed, +and as soon as he was somewhat recovered, I hastened off to ascertain +from Sawbridge, whom I knew very intimately, the nature of the claim +intended to be set up for the plaintiff, Edwin Majoribanks. + +I met Sawbridge just as he was leaving his office, and as he was in too +great a hurry to turn back, I walked along with him, and he rapidly +detailed the chief facts about to be embodied in the plaintiff's +declaration. Archibald Dursley, once a London merchant, and who died a +bachelor, had bequeathed his estate, real and personal, to his brother +Charles, and a niece, his sister's child--two-thirds to the niece, and +one-third to the brother. The Holmford property, the will directed, +should be sold by public auction when the niece came of age, unless she, +by marriage or otherwise, was enabled, within six months after attaining +her majority, to pay over to Charles Dursley his third in money, +according to a valuation made for the purpose by competent assessors. The +brother, Charles Dursley, had urged upon the executors to anticipate the +time directed by the will for the sale of the property; and having +persuaded the niece to give a written authorization for the immediate +sale, the executors, chiefly, Sawbridge supposed, prompted by their own +necessities, sold the estate accordingly. But the niece not being of age +when she signed the authority to sell, her consent was of no legal value; +and she having since died intestate, Edwin Majoribanks, her cousin and +undoubted heir-at-law--for the property could not have passed from her, +even by marriage--now claimed the estate. Charles Dursley, the brother, +was dead; "and," continued Mr. Sawbridge, "the worst of it is, Linden +will never get a farthing of his purchase-money from the venders, for +they are bankrupt, nor from Palliser, who has made permanent arrangements +for continuing abroad, out of harm's reach. It is just as I tell you," +he added, as we shook hands at parting; "but you will of course see the +will, and satisfy yourself. Good-by." + +Here was a precious result of amateur common-sense lawyership! Linden +could only have examined the abstract of title furnished him by +Palliser's attorney, and not the right of Dursley's executors to sell; or +had not been aware that the niece could not during her minority, +subscribe an effective legal consent. + +I found Mr. Flint at the office, and quickly imparted the astounding +news. He was as much taken aback as myself. + +"The obstinate, pig-headed old ass!" he exclaimed; "it almost serves him +right, if only for his Tom-fool nonsense of 'Every man his own lawyer.' +What did you say was the niece's name?" + +"Well, I don't remember that Sawbridge told me--he was in such a hurry; +but suppose you go at once and look over the will?" + +"True: I will do so;" and away he went. + +"This is a very singular affair, Sharp," said Mr. Flint on his return +from Doctors' Commons, at the same time composedly seating himself, +hooking his thumbs into the arm-holes of his waistcoat, crossing his +legs, and tilting his chair back on its hind legs. "A very singular +affair. Whom, in the name of the god of thieves--Mercury, wasn't he +called?--do you suppose the bankrupt executors to be? No other," +continued Mr. Flint with a sudden burst, "than Crowther & Jenkins!" + +"The devil!--and the niece then is"-- + +"Catherine Arnold--Tom Linden's wife--supposed to have been drowned in +the _Erin_! That's check-mate, I rather fancy--not only to Mr. Edwin +Majoribanks, but some one else we know of. The old fellow up stairs +won't refuse to acknowledge his daughter-in-law now, I fancy!" + +This was indeed a happy change in the fortunes of the House of Linden; +and we discussed, with much alacrity, the best mode of turning +disclosures so momentous and surprising to the best account. As a first +step, a letter with an inclosure, was dispatched to Belfast, requiring +the return of Thomas Linden and family immediately; and the next was to +plead in form to the action. This done, we awaited Catherine Linden's +arrival in London, and Mr. Linden senior's convalescence--for his mental +agitation had resulted in a sharp fit of illness--to effect a +satisfactory and just arrangement. + +Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Linden and Mrs. Arnold arrived by the earliest +steamer that left Belfast after the receipt of our letter; and much +astonished were they by the intelligence that awaited them. Catherine +Linden was for confirming the validity of the sale of the Holmford estate +by her now authoritative consent at once, as a mere act of common justice +and good faith; but this, looking at the total loss of fortune she had +sustained by the knavery of the executors, and the obstinate, mulish +temper of the father-in-law, from whom she had already received such +harsh treatment, could not for a moment be permitted; and it was finally +resolved to take advantage of the legal position in which she stood, to +enforce a due present provision for herself and husband, and their +ultimate succession to the estate. + +John Linden gradually recovered; and as soon as it was deemed prudent to +do so, we informed him that the niece was not dead, as the plaintiff in +the action of ejectment had supposed, and that of course, if she could +now be persuaded to ratify the imperative consent she had formerly +subscribed, he might retain Holmford. At first he received the +intelligence as a gleam of light and hope, but he soon relapsed into +doubt and gloom. "What chance was there," he hopelessly argued, "that, +holding the legal power, she would not exercise it?" It was not, he said, +in human nature to do otherwise; and he commissioned us to make liberal +offers for a compromise. Half--he would be content to lose half his +purchase-money; even a greater sacrifice than that he would agree +to--anything, indeed, that would not be utter ruin--that did not involve +utter beggary and destitution in old age. + +Three days after this conversation, I announced to him that the lady and +her husband were below and desirous of seeing him. + +"What do they say?" he eagerly demanded. "Will they accept of +half--two-thirds? What do they say?" + +"I cannot precisely tell you. They wish to see you alone, and you can +urge your own views and offers." He trembled violently, and shrank +nervously back as I placed my hand on the door-handle of the private +office. He presently recovered in some degree his self-possession, passed +in, and I withdrew from the humiliating, but salutary spectacle, of +obdurate tyrant-power compelled to humble itself before those whom it had +previously scorned and trampled upon. + +The legal arrangements which Flint and I had suggested were effected, and +Linden, senior, accompanied by his son, daughter-in-law, and Mrs. Arnold, +set off in restored amity for Holmford House. Edwin Majoribanks abandoned +his action, and Palliser, finding that matters were satisfactorily +arranged, retired to England. We afterwards knew that he had discovered +the defect of title, on applying to a well-known conveyancer, to raise a +considerable sum by way of mortgage, and that his first step was to +threaten legal proceedings against Crowther & Jenkins for the recovery of +his money; but a hint he obtained of the futility of proceedings against +them, determined him to offer the estate at a low figure to Linden, +relying upon that gentleman's ostentatious contempt of lawyers that the +blot in the title, subjected only to his own common-sense spectacles, +would not be perceived. + + + + +THE CHEST OF DRAWERS. + + +I am about to relate a rather curious piece of domestic history, some +of the incidents of which, revealed at the time of their occurrence in +contemporary law reports, may be in the remembrance of many readers. It +took place in one of the midland counties, and at a place which I shall +call Watley; the names of the chief actors who figured in it must also, +to spare their modesty of their blushes, as the case may be, be +changed; and should one of those persons, spite of these precautions, +apprehend unpleasant recognition, he will be able to console himself +with the reflection, that all I state beyond that which may be gathered +from the records of the law courts will be generally ascribed to the +fancy or invention of the writer. And it is as well, perhaps, that it +should be so. + +Caleb Jennings, a shoemaker, cobler, snob--using the last word in its +genuine classical sense, and by no means according to the modern +interpretation by which it is held to signify a genteel sneak or +pretender--he was anything but that--occupied, some twelve or thirteen +years ago, a stall at Watley, which, according to the traditions of the +place, had been hereditary in his family for several generations. He may +also be said to have flourished there, after the manner of cobblers; for +this, it must be remembered, was in the good old times, before the +gutta-percha revolution had carried ruin and dismay into the +stalls--those of cobblers--which in considerable numbers existed +throughout the kingdom. Like all his fraternity whom I have ever fallen +in with or heard of, Caleb was a sturdy radical of the Major Cartwright +and Henry Hunt school; and being withal industrious, tolerably skillful, +not inordinately prone to the observance of Saint Mondays, possessed, +moreover, of a neatly-furnished sleeping and eating apartment in the +house of which the projecting first floor, supported on stone pillars, +over-shadowed his humble work-place, he vaunted himself to be as really +rich as an estated squire, and far more independent. + +There was some truth in this boast, as the case which procured us the +honor of Mr. Jennings's acquaintance sufficiently proved. We were +employed to bring an action against a wealthy gentleman of the vicinity +of Watley for a brutal and unprovoked assault he had committed, when in a +state of partial inebriety, upon a respectable London tradesman who had +visited the place on business. On the day of trial our witnesses appeared +to have become suddenly afflicted with an almost total loss of memory; +and we were only saved from an adverse verdict by the plain, +straight-forward evidence of Caleb, upon whose sturdy nature the various +arts which soften or neutralize hostile evidence had been tried in vain. +Mr. Flint, who personally superintended the case, took quite a liking to +the man; and it thus happened that we were called upon sometime +afterwards to aid the said Caleb in extricating himself from the +extraordinary and perplexing difficulty in which he suddenly and +unwittingly found himself involved. + +The projecting first floor of the house beneath which the humble +work-shop of Caleb Jennings modestly disclosed itself, had been occupied +for many years by an ailing and somewhat aged gentleman of the name of +Lisle. This Mr. Ambrose Lisle was a native of Watley, and had been a +prosperous merchant of the city of London. Since his return, after about +twenty years' absence, he had shut himself up in almost total seclusion, +nourishing a cynical bitterness and acrimony of temper which gradually +withered up the sources of health and life, till at length it became as +visible to himself as it had for sometime been to others, that the oil of +existence was expended, burnt up, and that but a few weak flickers more, +and the ailing man's plaints and griefs would be hushed in the dark +silence of the grave. + +Mr. Lisle had no relatives at Watley, and the only individual with whom +he was on terms of personal intimacy, was Mr. Peter Sowerby, an attorney +of the place, who had for many years transacted all his business. This +man visited Mr. Lisle most evenings, played at chess with him, and +gradually acquired an influence over his client which that weak gentleman +had once or twice feebly, but vainly endeavored to shake off. To this +clever attorney, it was rumored, Mr. Lisle had bequeathed all his wealth. + +This piece of information had been put in circulation by Caleb Jennings, +who was a sort of humble favorite of Mr. Lisle's, or, at all events, was +regarded by the misanthrope with less dislike than he manifested towards +others. Caleb cultivated a few flowers in a little plot of ground at the +back of the house, and Mr. Lisle would sometimes accept a rose or a bunch +of violets from him. Other slight services--especially since the recent +death of his old and garrulous woman-servant, Esther May, who had +accompanied him from London, and with whom Mr. Jennings had always been +upon terms of gossiping intimacy--had led to certain familiarities of +intercourse; and it thus happened that the inquisitive shoemaker became +partially acquainted with the history of the wrongs and griefs which +preyed upon, and shortened the life of the prematurely-aged man. + +The substance of this every-day, common-place story, as related to us by +Jennings, and subsequently enlarged and colored from other sources, may +be very briefly told. + +Ambrose Lisle, in consequence of an accident which occurred in his +infancy, was slightly deformed. His right shoulder--as I understood, for +I never saw him--grew out, giving an ungraceful and somewhat comical +twist to his figure, which, in female eyes--youthful ones at least--sadly +marred the effect of his intelligent and handsome countenance. This +personal defect rendered him shy and awkward in the presence of women of +his own class of society; and he had attained the ripe age of +thirty-seven years, and was a rich and prosperous man, before he gave the +slightest token of an inclination towards matrimony. About a twelvemonth +previous to that period of his life, the deaths--quickly following each +other--of a Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, threw their eldest daughter, Lucy, upon +Mr. Lisle's hands. Mr. Lisle had been left an orphan at a very early age, +and Mrs. Stevens--his aunt, and then a maiden lady--had, in accordance +with his father's will, taken charge of himself and brother till they +severally attained their majority. Long, however, before that, she +married Mr. Stevens, by whom she had two children--Lucy and Emily. Her +husband, whom she survived but two months, died insolvent; and in +obedience to the dying wishes of his aunt, for whom he appears to have +felt the tenderest esteem, he took the eldest of her orphan children to +his home, intending to regard and provide for her as his own adopted +child and heiress. Emily, the other sister, found refuge in the house of +a still more distant relative than himself. + +The Stevenses had gone to live in a remote part of England--Yorkshire, I +believe--and it thus fell out, that, till his cousin Lucy arrived at her +new home, he had not seen her for more than ten years. The pale, and +somewhat plain child, as he had esteemed her, he was startled to find had +become a charming woman; and her naturally gay and joyous temperament, +quick talents, and fresh young beauty, rapidly acquired an overwhelming +influence over him. Strenuously, but vainly, he struggled against the +growing infatuation--argued, reasoned with himself--passed in review the +insurmountable objections to such a union, the difference of age--he, +leading towards thirty-seven, she, barely twenty-one: he, crooked, +deformed, of reserved, taciturn temper--she, full of young life, and +grace, and beauty. It was useless; and nearly a year had passed in the +bootless struggle, when Lucy Stevens, who had vainly striven to blind +herself to the nature of the emotions by which her cousin and guardian +was animated towards her, intimated a wish to accept her sister Emily's +invitation to pass two or three months with her. This brought the affair +to a crisis. Buoying himself up with the illusions which people in such +an unreasonable frame of mind create for themselves, he suddenly entered +the sitting-room set apart for her private use, with the desperate purpose +of making his beautiful cousin a formal offer of his hand. She was not in +the apartment, but her opened writing-desk, and a partly-finished letter +lying on it, showed that she had been recently there, and would probably +soon return. Mr. Lisle took two or three agitated turns about the room, +one of which brought him close to the writing-desk, and his glance +involuntarily fell upon the unfinished letter. Had a deadly serpent +leaped suddenly at his throat, the shock could not have been greater. At +the head of the sheet of paper was a clever pen-and-ink sketch of Lucy +Stevens and himself--he, kneeling to her in a lovelorn, ludicrous +attitude, and she, laughing immoderately at his lachrymose and pitiful +aspect and speech. The letter was addressed to her sister Emily; and the +enraged lover saw not only that his supposed secret was fully known, but +that he himself was mocked, laughed at, for his doting folly. At least +this was his interpretation of the words which swam before his eyes. At +the instant Lucy returned, and a torrent of imprecation burst from the +furious man, in which wounded self-love, rageful pride, and long pent-up +passion, found utterance in wild and bitter words. Half an hour +afterwards Lucy Stevens had left the merchant's house--for ever, as it +proved. She, indeed, on arriving at her sister's, sent a letter, +supplicating forgiveness for the thoughtless, and, as he deemed it, +insulting sketch, intended only for Emily's eye; but he replied merely by +a note written by one of his clerks, informing Miss Stevens that Mr. +Lisle declined any further correspondence with her. + +The ire of the angered and vindictive man had, however, begun sensibly to +abate, and old thoughts, memories, duties, suggested partly by the blank +which Lucy's absence made in his house, partly by remembrance of the +solemn promise he had made her mother, were strongly reviving in his +mind, when he read the announcement of marriage in a provincial journal, +directed to him, as he believed, in the bride's hand-writing; but this +was an error, her sister having sent the newspaper. Mr. Lisle also +construed this into a deliberate mockery and insult, and from that hour +strove to banish all images and thoughts connected with his cousin, from +his heart and memory. + +He unfortunately adopted the very worst course possible for effecting +this object. Had he remained amid the buzz and tumult of active life, a +mere sentimental disappointment, such as thousands of us have sustained +and afterwards forgotten, would, there can be little doubt, have soon +ceased to afflict him. He chose to retire from business, visited Watley, +and habits of miserliness growing rapidly upon his cankered mind, never +afterwards removed from the lodgings he had hired on first arriving +there. Thus madly hugging to himself sharp-pointed memories, which a +sensible man would have speedily cast off and forgotten, the sour +misanthrope passed a useless, cheerless, weary existence, to which death +must have been a welcome relief. + +Matters were in this state with the morose and aged man--aged mentally +and corporeally, although his years were but fifty-eight--when Mr. Flint +made Mr. Jennings's acquaintance. Another month or so had passed away +when Caleb's attention was one day about noon claimed by a young man +dressed in mourning, accompanied by a female similarly attired, and from +their resemblance to each other he conjectured were brother and sister. +The stranger wished to know if that was the house in which Mr. Ambrose +Lisle resided. Jennings said it was; and with civil alacrity left his +stall and rang the front-door bell. The summons was answered by the +landlady's servant, who, since Esther May's death, had waited on the +first-floor lodger; and the visitors were invited to go up stairs. Caleb, +much wondering who they might be, returned to his stall, and from thence +passed into his eating and sleeping-room just below Mr. Lisle's +apartments. He was in the act of taking a pipe from the mantel-shelf, in +order to the more deliberate and satisfactory cogitation on such an +unusual event, when he was startled by a loud shout, or scream rather, +from above. The quivering and excited voice was that of Mr. Lisle, and +the outcry was immediately followed by an explosion of unintelligible +exclamations from several persons. Caleb was up stairs in an instant, +and found himself in the midst of a strangely-perplexing and distracted +scene. Mr. Lisle, pale as his shirt, shaking in every limb, and his eyes +on fire with passion, was hurling forth a torrent of vituperation and +reproach at the young woman, whom he evidently mistook for some one else; +whilst she, extremely terrified, and unable to stand but for the +assistance of her companion, was tendering a letter in her outstretched +hand, and uttering broken sentences, which her own agitation and the fury +of Mr. Lisle's invectives rendered totally incomprehensible. At last the +fierce old man struck the letter from her hand, and with frantic rage +ordered both the strangers to leave the room. Caleb urged them to comply, +and accompanied them down stairs. When they reached the street, he +observed a woman on the other side of the way, dressed in mourning, and +much older apparently, though he could not well see her face through the +thick veil she wore, than she who had thrown Mr. Lisle into such an agony +of rage, apparently waiting for them. To her the young people immediately +hastened, and after a brief conference the three turned away up the +street, and Mr. Jennings saw no more of them. + +A quarter of an hour afterwards the house-servant informed Caleb that Mr. +Lisle had retired to bed, and although still in great agitation, and, as +she feared, seriously indisposed, would not permit Dr. Clarke to be sent +for. So sudden and violent a hurricane in the usually dull and drowsy +atmosphere in which Jennings lived, excited and disturbed him greatly; +the hours, however, flew past without bringing any relief to his +curiosity, and evening was falling, when a peculiar knocking on the floor +over-head announced that Mr. Lisle desired his presence. That gentleman +was sitting up in bed, and in the growing darkness his face could not be +very distinctly seen; but Caleb instantly observed a vivid and unusual +light in the old man's eyes. The letter so strangely delivered was lying +open before him; and unless the shoe-mender was greatly mistaken, there +were stains of recent tears upon Mr. Lisie's furrowed and hollow cheeks. +The voice, too, it struck Caleb, though eager, was gentle and wavering. +"It was a mistake, Jennings," he said; "I was mad for the moment. Are +they gone?" he added in a yet more subdued and gentle tone. Caleb +informed him of what he had seen; and as he did so, the strange light in +the old man's eyes seemed to quiver and sparkle with a yet intenser +emotion than before. Presently he shaded them with his hand, and remained +several minutes silent. He then said with a firmer voice, "I shall be +glad if you will step to Mr. Sowerby, and tell him I am too unwell to see +him this evening. But be sure to say nothing else," he eagerly added, as +Caleb turned away in compliance with his request; "and when you come +back, let me see you again." + +When Jennings returned, he found to his great surprise Mr. Lisle up and +nearly dressed; and his astonishment increased a hundred-fold upon +hearing that gentleman say, in a quick but perfectly collected and +decided manner, that he should set off for London by the mail-train. + +"For London--and by night!" exclaimed Caleb, scarcely sure that he +heard aright. + +"Yes--yes! I shall not be observed in the dark," sharply rejoined Mr. +Lisle; "and you, Caleb, must keep my secret from every body, especially +from Sowerby. I shall be here in time to see him to-morrow night, and he +will be none the wiser." This was said with a slight chuckle; and as soon +as his simple preparations were complete, Mr. Lisle, well wrapped up, +and his face almost hidden by shawls, locked his door, and assisted by +Jennings, stole furtively down stairs, and reached unrecognized the +railway station just in time for the train. + +It was quite dark the next evening when Mr. Lisle returned; and so well +had he managed, that Mr. Sowerby, who paid his usual visit about half an +hour afterwards, had evidently heard nothing of the suspicious absence of +his esteemed client from Watley. The old man exulted over the success of +his deception to Caleb, the next morning, but dropped no hint as to the +object of his sudden journey. + +Three days passed without the occurrence of any incident tending to the +enlightenment of Mr. Jennings upon these mysterious events, which, +however, he plainly saw had lamentably shaken the long-since failing man. +On the afternoon of the fourth day, Mr. Lisle walked, or rather tottered, +into Caleb's stall, and seated himself on the only vacant stool it +contained. His manner was confused, and frequently purposeless, and there +was an anxious, flurried expression in his face, which Jennings did not +at all like. He remained silent for some time, with the exception of +partially inaudible snatches of comment or questionings, apparently +addressed to himself. At last he said, "I shall take a longer journey +to-morrow, Caleb--much longer; let me see--where did I say? Ah, yes! to +Glasgow; to be sure to Glasgow!" + +"To Glasgow, and to-morrow!" exclaimed the astounded cobbler. + +"No, no--not Glasgow; they have removed," feebly rejoined Mr. Lisle. +"But Lucy has written it down for me. True--true; and to-morrow I +shall set out." + +The strange expression of Mr. Lisle's face became momentarily more +strongly marked, and Jennings, greatly alarmed, said, "You are ill, Mr. +Lisle; let me run for Dr. Clarke." + +"No--no," he murmured, at the same time striving to rise from his seat, +which he could only accomplish by Caleb's assistance, and so supported, +he staggered indoors. "I shall be better to-morrow," he said faintly, and +then slowly added, "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow! Ah, me! Yes, +as I said, to-morrow, I"--He paused abruptly, and they gained his +apartment. He seated himself, and then Jennings, at his mute +solicitation, assisted him to bed. + +He lay some time with his eyes closed; and Caleb could feel--for Mr. +Lisle held him firmly by the hand, as if to prevent his going away--a +convulsive shudder pass over his frame. At last he slowly opened his +eyes, and Caleb saw that he was indeed about to depart upon the long +journey from which there is no return. The lips of the dying man worked +inarticulately for some moments; and then with a mighty effort, as it +seemed, he said, whilst his trembling hand pointed feebly to a bureau +chest of drawers that stood in the room, "There--there, for Lucy; there, +the secret place is"--Some inaudible words followed, and then after a +still mightier struggle than before, he gasped out, "No word--no +word--to--to Sowerby--for her--Lucy." + +More was said, but undistinguishable by mortal ear; and after gazing with +an expression of indescribable anxiety in the scared face of his +awe-struck listener, the wearied eyes slowly reclosed--the deep silence +flowed past; then the convulsive shudder came again, and he was dead! + +Caleb Jennings tremblingly summoned the house-servant and the landlady, +and was still confusedly pondering the broken sentences uttered by the +dying man, when Mr. Sowerby hurriedly arrived. The attorney's first care +was to assume the direction of affairs, and to place seals upon every +article containing or likely to contain anything of value belonging to +the deceased. This done, he went away to give directions for the funeral, +which took place a few days afterwards; and it was then formally +announced that Mr. Sowerby succeeded by will to the large property of +Ambrose Lisle; under trust, however, for the family, if any, of Robert +Lisle, the deceased's brother, who had gone when very young to India, and +had not been heard of for many years--a condition which did not at all +mar the joy of the crafty lawyer, he having long since instituted private +inquiries, which perfectly satisfied him, that the said Robert Lisle had +died, unmarried, at Calcutta. + +Mr. Jennings was in a state of great dubiety and consternation. Sowerby +had emptied the chest of drawers of every valuable it contained; and +unless he had missed the secret receptacle Mr. Lisle had spoken of, the +deceased's intentions, whatever they might have been, were clearly +defeated. And if he had _not_ discovered it, how could he, Jennings, get +at the drawers to examine them? A fortunate chance brought some relief to +his perplexities. Ambrose Lisle's furniture was advertised to be sold by +auction, and Caleb resolved to purchase the bureau chest of drawers at +almost any price, although to do so would oblige him to break into his +rent-money, then nearly due. The day of sale came, and, the important lot +in its turn was put up. In one of the drawers there were a number of +loose newspapers, and other valueless scraps; and Caleb, with a sly grin, +asked the auctioneer, if he sold the article with all its contents. "Oh, +yes," said Sowerby, who was watching the sale; "the buyer may have all it +contains over his bargain, and much good may it do him." A laugh followed +the attorney's sneering remark, and the biddings went on. "I want it," +observed Caleb "because it just fits a recess like this one in my room +underneath." This he said to quiet a suspicion he thought he saw +gathering upon the attorney's brow. It was finally knocked down to Caleb +at L5 10s., a sum considerably beyond its real value; and he had to +borrow a sovereign in order to clear his speculative purchase. This done, +he carried off his prize, and as soon as the closing of the house for the +night secured him from interruption, he set eagerly to work in search of +the secret drawer. A long and patient examination was richly rewarded. +Behind one of the small drawers of the _secretaire_ portion of the piece +of furniture was another small one, curiously concealed, which contained +Bank-of-England notes to the amount of L200, tied up with a letter, upon +the back of which was written, in the deceased's hand-writing, "To take +with me." The letter which Caleb, although he read print with facility, +had much difficulty in making out, was that which Mr. Lisle had struck +from the young woman's hand a few weeks before, and proved to be a very +affecting appeal from Lucy Stevens, now Lucy Warner, and a widow, with +two grown-up children. Her husband had died in insolvent circumstances, +and she and her sister Emily, who was still single, were endeavoring to +carry on a school at Bristol, which promised to be sufficiently +prosperous if the sum of about L150 could be raised, to save the +furniture from her deceased husband's creditors. The claim was pressing, +for Mr. Warner had been dead nearly a year, and Mr. Lisle being the only +relative Mrs. Warner had in the world, she had ventured to entreat his +assistance for her mother's sake. There could be no moral doubt, +therefore, that this money was intended for Mrs. Warner's relief; and +early in the morning Mr. Caleb Jennings dressed himself in his Sunday's +suit, and with a brief announcement to his landlady that he was about to +leave Watley for a day or two, on a visit to a friend, set off for the +railway station. He had not proceeded far when a difficulty struck +him--the bank-notes were all twenties; and were he to change a +twenty-pound note at the station, where he was well known, great would be +the tattle and wonderment, if nothing worse, that would ensue. So Caleb +tried his credit again, borrowed sufficient for his journey to London, +and there changed one of the notes. + +He soon reached Bristol, and blessed was the relief which the sum of +money he brought afforded Mrs. Warner. She expressed much sorrow for the +death of Mr. Lisle, and great gratitude to Caleb. The worthy man +accepted with some reluctance one of the notes, or at least as much as +remained of that which he had changed; and after exchanging promises +with the widow and her relatives to keep the matter secret, departed +homewards. The young woman, Mrs. Warner's daughter, who had brought the +letter to Watley, was, Caleb noticed, the very image of her mother, or, +rather, of what her mother must have been when young. This remarkable +resemblance it was, no doubt, which had for the moment so confounded and +agitated Mr. Lisle. + +Nothing occurred for about a fortnight after Caleb's return to disquiet +him, and he had begun to feel tolerably sure that his discovery of the +notes would remain unsuspected, when, one afternoon, the sudden and +impetuous entrance of Mr. Sowerby into his stall caused him to jump up +from his seat with surprise and alarm. The attorney's face was deathly +white, his eyes glared like a wild beast's, and his whole appearance +exhibited uncontrollable agitation. "A word with you, Mr. Jennings," he +gasped--"a word in private, and at once!" Caleb, in scarcely less +consternation than his visitor, led the way into his inner room, and +closed the door. + +"Restore--give back," screamed the attorney, vainly struggling to +dissemble the agitation which convulsed him--"that--that which you have +purloined from the chest of drawers!" + +The hot blood rushed to Caleb's face and temples; the wild vehemence and +suddenness of the demand confounded him; and certain previous dim +suspicions that the law might not only pronounce what he had done +illegal, but possibly felonious, returned upon him with terrible force, +and he quite lost his presence of mind. + +"I can't--I can't," he stammered. "It's gone--given away"-- + +"Gone!" shouted, or, more correctly, howled--Sowerby, at the +same time flying at Caleb's throat as if he would throttle him. +"Gone--given away! You lie--you want to drive a bargain with +me--dog!--liar!--rascal!--thief!" + +This was a species of attack which Jennings was at no loss how to meet. +He shook the attorney roughly off, and hurled him, in the midst of his +vituperation, to the further end of the room. + +They then stood glaring at each other in silence, till the attorney, +mastering himself as well as he could, essayed another and more rational +mode of attaining his purpose:-- + +"Come, come, Jennings," he said, "don't be a fool. Let us understand each +other. I have just discovered a paper, a memorandum of what you have +found in the drawers, and to obtain which you bought them. I don't care +for the money--keep it; only give me the papers--documents." + +"Papers--documents!" ejaculated Caleb, in unfeigned surprise. + +"Yes--yes; of use to me only. You, I remember, cannot read writing; but +they are of great consequence to me--to me only, I tell you." + +"You can't mean Mrs. Warner's letter?" + +"No--no; curse the letter! You are playing with a tiger! Keep the money, +I tell you; but give up the papers--documents--or I'll transport you!" +shouted Sowerby with reviving fury. + +Caleb, thoroughly bewildered, could only mechanically ejaculate that he +had no papers or documents. + +The rage of the attorney when he found he could extract nothing from +Jennings was frightful. He literally foamed with passion, uttered the +wildest threats; and then suddenly changing his key, offered the +astounded cobbler one--two--three thousand pounds--any sum he chose to +name, for the papers--documents! This scene of alternate violence and +cajolery lasted nearly an hour; and then Sowerby rushed from the house as +if pursued by the furies, and leaving his auditor in a state of thorough +bewilderment and dismay. It occurred to Caleb, as soon as his mind had +settled into something like order, that there might be another secret +drawer; and the recollection of Mr. Lisle's journey to London recurred +suggestively to him. Another long and eager search, however, proved +fruitless; and the suspicion was given up, or, more correctly, weakened. + +As soon as it was light the next morning, Mr. Sowerby was again with +him. He was more guarded now, and was at length convinced that Jennings +had no paper or document to give up. "It was only some important +memoranda," observed the attorney carelessly, "that would save me a +world of trouble in a lawsuit I shall have to bring against some heavy +debtors to Mr. Lisle's estate; but I must do as well as I can without +them. Good morning." Just as he reached the door a sudden thought +appeared to strike him. He stopped and said, "By the way, Jennings, in +the hurry of business I forgot that Mr. Lisle had told me the chest of +drawers you bought, and a few other articles, were family relics which +he wished to be given to certain parties he named. The other things I +have got; and you, I suppose, will let me have the drawers for--say a +pound profit on your bargain?" + +Caleb was not the acutest man in the world; but this sudden proposition, +carelessly as it was made, suggested curious thoughts. "No," he answered; +"I shall not part with it. I shall keep it as a memorial of Mr. Lisle." + +Sowerby's face assumed as Caleb spoke, a ferocious expression. "Shall +you?" said he. "Then, be sure, my fine fellow, that you shall also have +something to remember me by as long as you live." + +He then went away, and a few days afterwards Caleb was served with a writ +for the recovery of the two hundred pounds. + +The affair made a great noise in the place; and Caleb's conduct being +very generally approved, a subscription was set on foot to defray the +cost of defending the action--one Hayling, a rival attorney to Sowerby, +having asserted that the words used by the proprietor of the chest of +drawers at the sale barred his claim to the money found in them. This +wise gentleman was intrusted with the defence; and strange to say, the +jury--a common one--spite of the direction of the judge returned a +verdict for the defendant, upon the ground that Sowerby's jocular or +sneering remark amounted to a serious, valid leave and license to sell +two hundred pounds for five pounds ten shillings! + +Sowerby obtained, as a matter of course, a rule for a new trial; and a +fresh action was brought. All at once Hayling refused to go on, alleging +deficiency of funds. He told Jennings that in his opinion it would be +better that he should give in to Sowerby's whim, who only wanted the +drawers in order to comply with the testator's wishes. "Besides," +remarked Hayling in conclusion, "he is sure to get the article, you know, +when it comes to be sold under a writ of _fi fa_." A few days after this +conversation it was ascertained that Hayling was to succeed to Sowerby's +business, the latter gentleman being about to retire upon the fortune +bequeathed him by Mr. Lisle. + +At last Caleb, driven nearly out of his senses, though still doggedly +obstinate, by the harassing perplexities in which he found himself, +thought of applying to us. + +"A very curious affair, upon my word," remarked Mr. Flint, as soon as +Caleb had unburdened himself of the story of his woes and cares; "and in +my opinion by no means explainable by Sowerby's anxiety to fulfill the +testator's wishes. He cannot expect to get two hundred pence out of you; +and Mrs. Warner, you say, is equally unable to pay. Very odd indeed. +Perhaps if we could get time, something might turn up." + +With this view Flint looked over the papers Caleb had brought, and found +the declaration was in _trover_--a manifest error--the notes never +admittedly having been in Sowerby's actual possession. We accordingly +demurred to the form of action, and the proceedings were set aside. This, +however, proved of no ultimate benefit. Sowerby persevered, and a fresh +action was instituted against the unhappy shoe-mender. So utterly +overcrowed and disconsolate was poor Caleb, that he determined to give up +the drawers which was all Sowerby even now required, and so wash his +hands of the unfortunate business. Previous, however, to this being done, +it was determined that another thorough and scientific examination of +the mysterious piece of furniture should be made; and for this purpose +Mr. Flint obtained a workman skilled in the mysteries of secret +contrivances, from the desk and dressing-case establishment in King +Street, Holborn, and proceeded with him to Watley. + +The man performed his task with great care and skill; every depth and +width was guaged and measured, in order to ascertain if there were any +false bottoms or backs; and the workman finally pronounced that there was +no concealed receptacle in the article. + +"I am sure there is," persisted Flint, whom disappointment as usual +rendered but the more obstinate; "and so is Sowerby: and he knows too, +that it is so cunningly contrived as to be undiscoverable, except by a +person in the secret, which he no doubt at first imagined Caleb to be. +I'll tell you what we'll do--You have the necessary tools with you. Split +the confounded chest of drawers into shreds--I'll be answerable for the +consequences." + +This was done carefully and methodically, but for some time without +result. At length the large drawer next the floor had to be knocked to +pieces; and as it fell apart, one section of the bottom, which, like all +the others, was divided into two compartments, dropped asunder, and +discovered a parchment laid flat between the two thin leaves, which, when +pressed together in the grooves of the drawer, presented precisely the +same appearance as the rest. Flint snatched up the parchment, and his +eager eye had scarcely rested an instant on the writing, when a shout of +triumph burst from him. It was the last will and testament of Ambrose +Lisle, dated August 21, 1838--the day of his last hurried visit to +London. It revoked the former will, and bequeathed the whole of his +property, in equal portions, to his cousins Lucy Warner and Emily +Stevens, with succession to their children; but with reservation of +one-half to his brother Robert or children, should he be alive, or have +left offspring. + +Great, it may be supposed was the jubilation of Caleb Jennings at this +discovery; and all Watley, by his agency, was in a marvelously short +space of time in a very similar state of excitement. It was very late +that night when he reached his bed; and how he got there at all, and what +precisely had happened, except, indeed, that he had somewhere picked up a +splitting headache, was, for some time after he awoke the next morning, +very confusedly remembered. + +Mr. Flint, by reflection, was by no means so exultant as the worthy +shoe-mender. The odd mode of packing away a deed of such importance, with +_no assignable motive for doing so_, except the needless awe with which +Sowerby was said to have inspired his feeble-spirited client, together +with what Caleb had said of the shattered state of the deceased's mind +after the interview with Mrs. Warner's daughter, suggested fears that +Sowerby might dispute, and perhaps successfully, the validity of this +last will. My excellent partner, however, determined, as was his wont, to +put a bold face on the matter; and first clearly settling in his own mind +what he should and what he should _not_ say, waited upon Mr. Sowerby. The +news had preceded him, and he was at once surprised and delighted to find +that the nervous crest-fallen attorney was quite unaware of the +advantages of his position. On condition of not being called to account +for the moneys he had received and expended, about L1200, he destroyed +the former will in Mr. Flint's presence, and gave up, at once, all the +deceased's papers. From these we learned that Mr. Lisle had written a +letter to Mrs. Warner, stating what he had done, and where the will would +be found, and that only herself and Jennings would know the secret. Prom +infirmity of purpose, or from having subsequently determined on a +personal interview, the letter was not posted; and Sowerby subsequently +discovered it, together with a memorandum of the numbers of the +bank-notes found by Caleb in the secret drawer--the eccentric gentleman +appears to have had quite a mania for such hiding-places--of a +writing-desk. + +The affair was thus happily terminated; Mrs. Warner, her children, and +sister, were enriched, and Caleb Jennings was set up in a good way of +business in his native place, where he still flourishes. Over the +centre of his shop there is a large nondescript sign, surmounted by a +golden boot, which upon a close inspection is found to bear a +resemblance to a huge bureau chest of drawers, all the circumstances +connected with which may be heard, for the asking, and in much fuller +detail than I have given, from the lips of the owner of the +establishment, by any lady or gentleman who will take the trouble of a +journey to Watley for that purpose. + + + + +THE PUZZLE. + + +Tempus fugit! The space of but a few brief yesterdays seems to have +passed since the occurrence of the following out-of-the-way +incidents--out-of-the-way, even in our profession, fertile as it is in +startling experiences; and yet the faithful and unerring tell-tale and +monitor, Anno Domini 1851, instructs me that a quarter of a century has +nearly slipped by since the first scene in the complicated play of +circumstances opened upon me. The date I remember well, for the +Tower-guns had been proclaiming with their thunder-throats the victory of +Navarino but a short time before a clerk announced, "William Martin, with +a message from Major Stewart." + +This William Martin was a rather sorry curiosity in his way. He was now +in the service of our old client, Major Stewart; and a tall, good-looking +fellow enough, spite of a very decided cast in his eyes, which the +rascal, when in his cups--no unusual occurrence--declared he had caught +from his former masters--Edward Thorneycroft, Esq., an enormously rich +and exceedingly yellow East India director, and his son, Mr. Henry +Thorneycroft, with whom, until lately transferred to Major Stewart's +service, he had lived from infancy--his mother and father having formed +part of the elder Thorneycroft's establishment when he was born. He had a +notion in his head that he had better blood in his veins than the world +supposed, and was excessively fond of aping the gentleman; and this he +did, I must say, with the ease and assurance of a stage-player. His name +was scarcely out of the clerk's lips when he entered the inner office +with a great effort at steadiness and deliberation, closed the door very +carefully and importantly, hung his hat with much precision on a brass +peg, and then steadying himself by the door-handle, surveyed the +situation and myself with staring lack-lustre eyes and infinite gravity. +I saw what was the matter. + +"You have been in the 'Sun,' Mr. Martin?" + +A wink, inexpressible by words, replied to me, and I could see by the +motion of the fellow's lips that speech was attempted; but it came so +thick that it was several minutes before I made out that he meant to +say the British had been knocking the Turks about like bricks, and +that he had been patriotically drinking the healths of the said +British or bricks. + +"Have the goodness, sir, to deliver your message, and then instantly +leave the office." + +"Old Tho-o-o-rney," was the hiccoughed reply, "has smoked the--the +plot. Young Thorney's done for. Ma-a-aried in a false name; +tra-ansportation--of course." + +"What gibberish is this about old Thorney and young Thorney? Do you not +come from Major Stewart?" + +"Ye-e-es, that's right; the route's arrived for the old trump; wishes +to--to see you" + +"Major Stewart dying! Why, you are a more disgraceful scamp than I +believed you to be. Send this fellow away," I added to a clerk who +answered my summons. I then hastened off, and was speedily rattling over +the stones towards Baker Street, Portman Square, where Major Stewart +resided. As I left the office I heard Martin beg the clerk to lead him to +the pump previous to sending him off--no doubt for the purpose of +sobering himself somewhat previous to reappearing before the major, +whose motives for hiring or retaining such a fellow in his modest +establishment I could not understand. + +"You were expected more than an hour ago," said Dr. Hampton, who was just +leaving the house. "The major is now, I fear, incapable of business." + +There was no time for explanation, and I hastily entered the +sick-chamber. Major Stewart, though rapidly sinking, recognized me; and +in obedience to a gesture from her master the aged, weeping house-keeper +left the room. The major's daughter, Rosamond Stewart, had been absent +with her aunt, her father's maiden sister, on a visit, I understood, to +some friends in Scotland, and had not, I concluded, been made acquainted +with the major's illness, which had only assumed a dangerous character a +few days previously. The old soldier was dying calmly and +painlessly--rather from exhaustion of strength, a general failure of the +powers of life, than from any especial disease. A slight flush tinged the +mortal pallor of his face as I entered, and the eyes emitted a +slightly-reproachful expression. + +"It is not more, my dear sir," I replied softly but eagerly to his look, +"than a quarter of an hour ago that I received your message." + +I do not know whether he comprehended or even distinctly heard what I +said, for his feeble but extremely anxious glance was directed whilst +I spoke to a large oil-portrait of Rosamond Stewart, suspended over +the mantel-piece. The young lady was a splendid, dark-eyed beauty, +and of course the pride and darling of her father. Presently +wrenching, as it were, his eyes from the picture, he looked in my +face with great earnestness, and bending my ear close to his lips, I +heard him feebly and brokenly say, "A question to ask you, that's +all; read--read!" His hand motioned towards a letter which lay open +on the bed; I ran it over, and the major's anxiety was at once +explained. Rosamond Stewart had, I found, been a short time +previously married in Scotland to Henry Thorneycroft, the son of the +wealthy East India director. Finding his illness becoming serious, +the major had anticipated the time and mode in which the young people +had determined to break the intelligence to the irascible father of +the bridegroom, and the result was the furious and angry letter in +reply which I was perusing. Mr. Thorneycroft would never, he +declared, recognize the marriage of his undutiful nephew--nephew, +_not_ son; for he was, the letter announced, the child of an only +sister, whose marriage had also mortally offended Mr. Thorneycroft, +and had been brought up from infancy as his (Mr. Thorneycroft's) son, +in order that the hated name of Allerton, to which the boy was alone +legally entitled, might never offend his ear. There was something +added insinuative of a doubt of the legality of the marriage, in +consequence of the misnomer of the bridegroom at the ceremony. + +"One question," muttered the major, as I finished the perusal of the +letter--"Is Rosamond's marriage legal?" + +"No question about it. How could any one suppose that an involuntary +misdescription can affect such a contract?" + +"Enough--enough!" he gasped. "A great load is gone!--the rest is with +God. Beloved Rosamond"--The slight whisper was no longer audible; sighs, +momently becoming fainter and weaker, followed--ceased, and in little +more than ten minutes after the last word was spoken, life was extinct. I +rang the bell, and turned to leave the room, and as I did so surprised +Martin on the other side of the bed. He had been listening, screened by +the thick damask curtains, and appeared to be a good deal sobered. I +made no remark, and proceeded on down stairs. The man followed, and as +soon as we had gained the hall said quickly, yet hesitatingly, +"Sir--sir!" + +"Well, what have you to say?" + +"Nothing very particular, sir. But did I understand you to say just now, +that it was of no consequence if a man married in a false name?" + +"That depends upon circumstances. Why do you ask?" + +"Oh, nothing--nothing; only I have heard it's transportation, especially +if there's money." + +"Perhaps you are right. Anything else?" + +"No," said he, opening the door; "that's all--mere curiosity." + +I heard nothing more of the family for some time, except with reference +to Major Stewart's personal property, about L4000 bequeathed to his +daughter, with a charge thereon of an annuity of L20 a year for Mrs. +Leslie, the aged house-keeper; the necessary business connected with +which we transacted. But about a twelvemonth after the major's death, the +marriage of the elder Thorneycroft with a widow of the same name as +himself, and a cousin, the paper stated, was announced; and pretty nearly +a year and a half subsequent to the appearance of this ominous paragraph, +the decease of Mr. Henry Thorneycroft at Lausanne, in Switzerland, who +had left, it was added in the newspaper stock-phrase of journalism, a +young widow and two sons to mourn their irreparable loss. Silence again, +as far as we were concerned, settled upon the destinies of the +descendants of our old military client, till one fine morning a letter +from Dr. Hampton informed us of the sudden death by apoplexy, a few days +previously, of the East India director. Dr. Hampton further hinted that +he should have occasion to write us again in a day or two, relative to +the deceased's affairs, which, owing to Mr. Thorneycroft's unconquerable +aversion to making a will, had, it was feared, been left in an extremely +unsatisfactory state. Dr. Hampton had written to us, at the widow's +request, in consequence of his having informed her that we had been the +professional advisers of Major Stewart, and were in all probability those +of his daughter, Mrs. Henry Allerton. + +We did not quite comprehend the drift of this curious epistle; but +although not specially instructed, we determined at once to write to Mrs. +Rosamond Thorneycroft or Allerton, who with her family was still abroad, +and in the meantime take such formal steps in her behalf as might appear +necessary. + +We were not long in doubt as to the motives of the extremely civil +application to ourselves on the part of the widow of the East India +director. The deceased's wealth had been almost all invested in land, +which went, he having died intestate, to his nephew's son, Henry +Allerton; and the personals in which the widow would share were +consequently of very small amount. Mrs. Thorneycroft was, therefore, +anxious to propose, through us, a more satisfactory and equitable +arrangement. We could of course say nothing till the arrival of Mrs. +Rosamond Allerton, for which, however, we had only a brief time to wait. +There were, we found, no indisposition on that lady's part to act with +generosity towards Mr. Thorneycroft's widow--a showy, vulgarish person, +by the way, of about forty years of age--but there was a legal difficulty +in the way, in consequence of the heir-at-law being a minor. Mrs. +Thorneycroft became at length terribly incensed, and talked a good deal +of angry nonsense about disputing the claim of Henry Allerton's son to +the estates, on the ground that his marriage, having been contracted in +a wrong name, was null and void. Several annoying paragraphs got in +consequence into the Sunday newspapers, and these brought about a +terrible disclosure. + +About twelve o'clock one day, the Widow Thorneycroft bounced +unceremoniously into the office, dragging in with her a comely and rather +interesting-looking young woman, but of a decidedly rustic complexion and +accent, and followed by a grave, middle-aged clergyman. The widow's large +eyes sparkled with strong excitement, and her somewhat swarthy features +were flushed with hot blood. + +"I have brought you," she burst out abruptly, "the real Mrs. +Allerton, and"-- + +"No, no!" interrupted the young woman, who appeared much +agitated--"Thorneycroft, not Allerton!"-- + +"I know, child--I know; but that is nothing to the purpose. This young +person, Mr. Sharp, is, I repeat, the true and lawful Mrs. Henry +Allerton." + +"Pooh!" I answered; "do you take us for idiots? This," I added with some +sternness, "is either a ridiculous misapprehension or an attempt at +imposture, and I am very careless which it may be." + +"You are mistaken, sir," rejoined the clergyman mildly. "This young woman +was certainly married by me at Swindon church, Wilts, to a gentleman of +the name of Henry Thorneycroft, who, it appears from the newspapers, +confirmed by this lady, was no other than Mr. Henry Allerton. This +marriage, we find, took place six months previously to that contracted +with Rosamond Stewart. I have further to say that this young woman, Maria +Emsbury, is a very respectable person, and that her marriage-portion, of +a little more than eight hundred pounds, was given to her husband, whom +she has only seen thrice since her marriage, to support himself till the +death of his reputed father, constantly asserted by him to be imminent." + +"A story very smoothly told, and I have no doubt in your opinion quite +satisfactory; but there is one slight matter which I fancy you will find +somewhat difficult of proof--I mean the identity of Maria Emsbury's +husband with the son or nephew of the late Mr. Thorneycroft." + +"He always said he was the son of the rich East Indian, Mr. +Thorneycroft," said the young woman with a hysterical sob; "and here," +she added, "is his picture in his wedding-dress--that of an officer of +the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. He gave it me the day before the wedding." + +I almost snatched the portrait. Sure enough it was a miniature of Henry +Allerton--there could be no doubt about that. + +Mr. Flint, who had been busy with some papers, here approached and +glanced at the miniature. + +I was utterly confounded, and my partner, I saw, was equally dismayed; +and no wonder, entertaining as we both did the highest respect and +admiration for the high-minded and beautiful daughter of Major Stewart. + +The Widow Thorneycroft's exultation was exuberant. + +"As this only legal marriage," said she, "has been blessed with no issue, +I am of course, as you must be aware, the legitimate heiress-at-law, as +my deceased husband's nearest blood-relative. I shall, however," she +added, "take care to amply provide for my widowed niece-in-law." + +The young woman made a profound rustic courtesy, and tears of unaffected +gratitude, I observed, filled her eyes. + +The game was not, however, to be quite so easily surrendered as they +appeared to imagine. "Tut! tut!" exclaimed Mr. Flint bluntly--"this may +be mere practice. Who knows how the portrait has been obtained?" + +The girl's eyes flashed with honest anger. There was no practice about +her I felt assured. "Here are other proofs: My husband's signet-ring, +left accidentally, I think, with me, and two letters which I from +curiosity took out of his coat-pocket--the day, I am pretty sure it was, +after we were married." + +"If this cumulative circumstantial evidence does not convince you, +gentlemen," added the Rev. Mr. Wishart, "I have direct personal testimony +to offer. You know Mr. Angerstein of Bath?" + +"I do." + +"Well, Mr. Henry Thorneycroft or Allerton, was at the time this marriage +took place, on a visit to that gentleman; and I myself saw the +bridegroom, whom I had united a fortnight previously in Swindon church, +walking arm-and-arm with Mr. Angerstein in Sydney Gardens, Bath. I was at +some little distance, but I recognized both distinctly, and bowed. Mr. +Angerstein returned my salutation, and he recollects the circumstance +distinctly. The gentleman walking with him in the uniform of the +Gloucestershire Yeomanry was, Mr. Angerstein is prepared to depose, Mr. +Henry Thorneycroft or Allerton." + +"You waste time, reverend sir," said Mr. Flint with an affectation of +firmness and unconcern he was, I knew, far from feeling. "We are the +attorneys of Mrs. Rosamond Allerton, and shall, I dare say, if you push +us to it, be able to tear this ingeniously-colored cobweb of yours to +shreds. If you determine on going to law, your solicitor can serve us; we +will enter an appearance, and our client will be spared unnecessary +annoyance." + +They were about to leave, when, as ill-luck would have it, one of the +clerks who, deceived by the momentary silence, and from not having been +at home when the unwelcome visitors arrived, believed we were disengaged, +opened the door, and admitted Mrs. Rosamond Allerton and her aunt, Miss +Stewart. Before we could interpose with a word, the Widow Thorneycroft +burst out with the whole story in a torrent of exultant Volubility that +it was impossible to check or restrain. + +For awhile contemptuous incredulity, indignant scorn, upheld the assailed +lady; but as proof after proof was hurled at her, reinforced by the grave +soberness of the clergyman and the weeping sympathy of the young woman, +her firmness gave way, and she swooned in her aunt's arms. We should have +more peremptorily interfered but for our unfortunate client's deprecatory +gestures. She seemed determined to hear the worst at once. Now, however, +we had the office cleared of the intruders without much ceremony and, as +soon as the horror-stricken lady was sufficiently recovered, she was +conducted to her carriage, and after arranging for an early interview on +the morrow, was driven off. + +I found our interesting, and, I feared, deeply-injured client much +recovered from the shock which on the previous day had overwhelmed her; +and although exceedingly pale--lustrously so, as polished Parian +marble--and still painfully agitated, there was hope, almost confidence, +in her eye and tone. + +"There is some terrible misapprehension in this frightful affair, Mr. +Sharp," she began. "Henry, my husband, was utterly incapable of a mean or +dishonest act, much less of such utter baseness as this of which he is +accused. They also say, do they not," she continued, with a smile of +haughty contempt, "that he robbed the young woman of her poor dowry--some +eight hundred pounds? A proper story!" + +"That, I confess, from what little I know of Mr. Henry Thorneycroft, +stamps the whole affair as a fabrication; and yet the Reverend Mr. +Wishart--a gentleman of high character, I understand--is very positive. +The young woman, too, appeared truthful and sincere." + +"Yes--it cannot be denied. Let me say also--for it is best to look at +the subject on its darkest side--I find, on looking over my letters, +that my husband was staying with Mr. Angerstein at the time stated. He +was also at that period in the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. I gave William +Martin, but the other day, a suit of his regimentals very little the +worse for wear." + +"You forget to state, Rosamond," said Miss Stewart, who was sitting +beside her niece, "that Martin, who was with his young master at Bath, is +willing to make oath that no such marriage took place as asserted, at +Swindon church." + +"That alone would, I fear, my good madam, very little avail. Can I see +William Martin?" + +"Certainly." The bell was rung, and the necessary order given. + +"This Martin is much changed for the better, I hear?" + +"O yes, entirely so," said Miss Stewart. "He is also exceedingly attached +to us all, the children especially; and his grief and anger, when +informed of what had occurred, thoroughly attest his faithfulness and +sincerity." + +Martin entered, and was, I thought, somewhat confused by my apparently +unexpected presence. A look at his face and head dissipated a +half-suspicion that had arisen in both Flint's mind and my own. + +I asked him a few questions relative to the sojourn of his master +at Bath, and then said, "I wish you to go with me and Bee this +Maria Emsbury." + +As I spoke, something seemed to attract Martin's attention in the +street, and suddenly turning round, his arm swept a silver pastil-stand +off the table. He stooped down to gather up the dispersed pastils, and as +he did so, said, in answer to my request, "that he had not the slightest +objection to do so." + +"That being the case, we will set off at once, as she and her friends are +probably at the office by this time. They are desirous of settling the +matter off-hand," I added with a smile, addressing Mrs. Allerton, "and +avoiding, if possible, the delays and uncertainties of the law." + +As I anticipated, the formidable trio were with Mr. Flint. I introduced +Martin, and as I did so, watched, with an anxiety I could hardly have +given a reason for, the effect of his appearance upon the young woman. I +observed nothing. He was evidently an utter stranger to her, although, +from the involuntary flush which crossed his features, it occurred to me +that he was in some way an accomplice with his deceased master in the +cruel and infamous crime which had, I strongly feared, been perpetrated. + +"Was this person present at your marriage?" I asked. + +"Certainly not. But I think--now I look at him--that I have seen him +somewhere--about Swindon, it must have been." + +William Martin mumbled out that he had never been in Swindon; neither, he +was sure, had his master. + +"What is that?" said the girl, looking sharply up, and suddenly +coloring--"What is that?" + +Martin, a good deal abashed, again mumbled out his belief that young Mr. +Thorneycroft, as he was then called, had never been at Swindon. + +The indignant scarlet deepened on the young woman's face and temples, and +she looked at Martin with fixed attention and surprise. Presently +recovering, as if from some vague confusedness of mind, she said, "What +you _believe_, can be no consequence--truth is truth, for all that." + +The Rev. Mr. Wishart here interposed, remarking that as it was quite +apparent we were determined to defend the usurpation by Miss Rosamond +Stewart--a lady to be greatly pitied, no doubt--of another's right, it +was useless to prolong or renew the interview; and all three took +immediate leave. A few minutes afterward Martin also departed, still +vehemently asserting that no such marriage ever took place at Swindon or +anywhere else. + +No stone, as people say, was left unturned by us, in the hope of +discovering some clue that might enable us to unravel the tangled web of +coherent, yet, looking at the character of young Mr. Allerton, +_improbable_ circumstance. We were unsuccessful, and unfortunately many +other particulars which came to light but deepened the adverse complexion +of the case. Two respectable persons living at Swindon were ready to +depose on oath that they had on more than one occasion seen Maria +Emsbury's sweetheart with Mr. Angerstein at Bath--once especially at the +theatre, upon the benefit-night of the great Edmund Kean, who had been +playing there for a few nights. + +The entire case, fully stated, was ultimately laid by us before eminent +counsel--one of whom is now, by the by, a chief-justice--and we were +advised that the evidence as set forth by us could not be contended +against with any chance of success. This sad result was communicated by +me to Mrs. Allerton, as she still unswervingly believed herself to be, +and was borne with more constancy and firmness than I had expected. Her +faith in her husband's truth and honor was not in the slightest degree +shaken by the accumulated proofs. She would not, however, attempt to +resist them before a court of law. Something would, she was confident, +thereafter come to light that would vindicate the truth, and confiding in +our zeal and watchfulness, she, her aunt, and children, would in the +meantime shelter themselves from the gaze of the world in their former +retreat at Lausanne. + +This being the unhappy lady's final determination, I gave the other side +notice that we should be ready on a given day to surrender possession of +the house and effects in South Audley Street, which the Widow +Thorneycroft had given up to her supposed niece-in-law and family on +their arrival in England, and to re-obtain which, and thereby decide the +whole question in dispute, legal proceedings had already been commenced. + +On the morning appointed for the purpose--having taken leave of the +ladies the day previously--I proceeded to South Audley Street, to +formally give up possession, under protest, however. The niece and aunt +were not yet gone. This, I found, was owing to Martin, who, according to +the ladies, was so beside himself with grief and rage that he had been +unable to expedite as he ought to have done, the packing intrusted to his +care. I was vexed at this, as the Widow Thorneycroft, her protegee, and +the Rev. Mr. Wishart, accompanied by a solicitor, were shortly expected; +and it was desirable that a meeting of the antagonistic parties should be +avoided. I descended to the lower regions to remonstrate with and hurry +Martin, and found, as I feared, that his former evil habits had returned +upon him. It was not yet twelve o'clock, and he was already partially +intoxicated, and pale, trembling, and nervous from the effects, it was +clear to me, of the previous night's debauch. + +"Your mistress is grossly deceived in you!" I angrily exclaimed; "and if +my advice were taken, you would be turned out of the house at once +without a character. There, don't attempt to bamboozle me with that +nonsense; I've seen fellows crying drunk before now." + +He stammered out some broken excuses, to which I very impatiently +listened; and so thoroughly muddled did his brain appear, that he either +could not or would not comprehend the possibility of Mrs. Allerton and +her children being turned out of house and home, as he expressed it, and +over and over again asked me if nothing could yet be done to prevent it. +I was completely disgusted with the fellow, and sharply bidding him +hasten his preparations for departure, rejoined the ladies, who were by +this time assembled in the back drawing-room, ready shawled and bonneted +for their journey. It was a sad sight. Rosamond Stewart's splendid face +was shadowed by deep and bitter grief, borne, it is true, with pride and +fortitude; but it was easy to see its throbbing pulsations through all +the forced calmness of the surface. Her aunt, of a weaker nature, sobbed +loudly in the fullness of her grief; and the children, shrinking +instinctively in the chilling atmosphere of a great calamity, clung, +trembling and half-terrified, the eldest especially, to their mother. I +did not insult them with phrases of condolence, but turned the +conversation, if such it could be called, upon their future home and +prospects in Switzerland. Some time had thus elapsed when my combative +propensities were suddenly aroused by the loud dash of a carriage to the +door, and the peremptory rat-tat-tat which followed. I felt my cheek +flame as I said, "They demand admittance as if in possession of an +assured, decided right. It is not yet too late to refuse possession, and +take the chances of the law's uncertainty." + +Mrs. Allerton shook her head with decisive meaning. "I could not bear +it," she said in a tone of sorrowful gentleness. "But I trust we shall +not be intruded upon." + +I hurried out of the apartment, and met the triumphant claimants. I +explained the cause of the delay, and suggested that Mrs. Thorneycroft +and her friends could amuse themselves in the garden whilst the +solicitor and I ran over the inventory of the chief valuables to be +surrendered together. + +This was agreed to. A minute or two before the conclusion of this +necessary formality, I received a message from the ladies, expressive of +a wish to be gone at once, if I would escort them to the hotel; and +Martin, who was nowhere to be found, could follow. I hastened to comply +with their wishes; and we were just about to issue from the front +drawing-room, into which we had passed through the folding-doors, when we +were confronted by the widow and her party, who had just reached the +landing of the great staircase. We drew back in silence. The mutual +confusion into which we were thrown caused a momentary hesitation only, +and we were passing on when the butler suddenly appeared. + +"A gentleman," he said, "an officer, is at the door, who wishes to see a +Miss Maria Emsbury, formerly of Swindon." + +I stared at the man, discerned a strange expression in his face, +and it glanced across me at the same moment that I had heard no +knock at the door. + +"See Miss Emsbury!" exclaimed the Widow Thorneycroft, recovering her +speech--"there is no such person here!" + +"Pardon me, madam," I cried, catching eagerly at the interruption, as a +drowning man is said to do at a straw--"this young person _was_ at least +Miss Emsbury. Desire the officer to walk up." The butler vanished +instantly, and we all huddled back disorderly into the drawing-room, some +one closing the door after us. I felt the grasp of Mrs. Allerton's arm +tighten convulsively round mine, and her breath I heard, came quick and +short. I was hardly less agitated myself. + +Steps--slow and deliberate steps--were presently heard ascending the +stairs, the door opened, and in walked a gentleman in the uniform of a +yeomanry officer, whom at the first glance I could have sworn to be the +deceased Mr. Henry Allerton. A slight exclamation of terror escaped Mrs. +Allerton, followed by a loud hysterical scream from the Swindon young +woman, as she staggered forward towards the stranger, exclaiming, "Oh, +merciful God!--my husband!" and then fell, overcome with emotion, in his +outstretched arms. + +"Yes," said the Rev. Mr. Wishart promptly, "that is certainly the +gentleman I united to Maria Emsbury. What can be the meaning of +this scene?" + +"Is that sufficient, Mr. Sharp?" exclaimed the officer, in a voice that +removed all doubt. + +"Quite, quite," I shouted--"more than enough!" + +"Very well, then," said William Martin, dashing off his black curling +wig, removing his whiskers of the same color, and giving his own light, +but now cropped head of hair and clean-shaved cheeks to view. "Now, then, +send for the police, and let them transport me--I richly merit it. I +married this young woman in a false name; I robbed her of her money, and +I deserve the hulks, if anybody ever did." + +You might have heard a pin drop in the apartment whilst the repentant +rascal thus spoke; and when he ceased, Mrs. Allerton, unable to bear up +against the tumultuous emotion which his words excited, sank without +breath or sensation upon a sofa. Assistance was summoned; and whilst the +as yet imperfectly-informed servants were running from one to another +with restoratives, I had leisure to look around. The Widow Thorneycroft, +who had dropped into a chair, sat gazing in bewildered dismay upon the +stranger, who still held her lately-discovered niece-in-law in his arms; +and I could see the hot perspiration which had gathered on her brow run +in large drops down the white channels which they traced through the +thick rouge of her cheeks. But the reader's fancy will supply the best +image of this unexpected and extraordinary scene. I cleared the house of +intruders and visitors as speedily as possible, well assured that matters +would now adjust themselves without difficulty. + +And so it proved. Martin was not sent to the hulks, though no question +that he amply deserved a punishment as great as that. The self-sacrifice, +as he deemed it, which he at last made, pleaded for him, and so did his +pretty-looking wife; and the upshot was, that the mistaken bride's dowry +was restored, with something over, and that a tavern was taken for them +in Piccadilly--the White Bear, I think it was--where they lived +comfortably and happily, I have heard, for a considerable time, and +having considerably added to their capital, removed to a hotel of a +higher grade in the city, where they now reside. It was not at all +surprising that the clergyman and others had been deceived. The disguise, +and Martin's imitative talent, might have misled persons on their guard, +much more men unsuspicious of deception. The cast in the eyes, as well as +a general resemblance of features, also of course greatly aided the +imposture. + +Of Mrs. Rosamond Allerton, I have only to say, for it is all I know, that +she is rich, unwedded, and still splendidly beautiful, though of course +somewhat _passe_ compared with herself twenty years since. Happy, too, I +have no doubt she is, judging from the placid brightness of her aspect +the last time I saw her beneath the transept of the Crystal Palace, on +the occasion of its opening by the Queen. I remember wondering at the +time, if she often recalled to mind the passage in her life which I have +here recorded. + + + + +THE ONE BLACK SPOT. + + +On the evening of a bleak, cold March day, in an early year of this +century, a woman, scantily clad, led a boy about eight years old, along +the high-road towards the old city of Exeter. They crept close to the +hedge-side to shelter themselves from the clouds of dust, which the +sudden gusts of east wind blew in their faces. + +They had walked many miles, and the boy limped painfully. He often looked +up anxiously into his mother's face, and asked if they had much farther +to go? She scarcely appeared to notice his inquiries; her fixed eyes and +sunken cheek gave evidence that sorrow absorbed all her thoughts. When he +spoke, she drew him closer to her side, but made no reply; until, at +length, the child, wondering at her silence, began to sob. She stopped +and looked at her child for a moment, her eyes filled with tears. They +had gained the top of a hill, from which was visible in the distance, the +dark massive towers of the cathedral and the church-spires of the city; +she pointed them out, and said, "We shall soon be there, Ned." Then, +sitting down on a tree that was felled by the road-side, she took "Ned" +on her lap, and, bending over him, wept aloud. + +"Are you very tired, mother?" said the boy, trying to comfort her. "'Tis +a long way--but don't cry--we shall see father when we come there." + +"Yes--you will see your father once more." + +She checked herself; and, striving to dry her tears, sat looking +wistfully towards the place of her destination. + +The tramp of horses, coming up the hill they had just ascended, drew the +boy's attention to that direction. In a moment he had sprung from his +mother, and was shouting, with child-like delight, at the appearance of a +gay cavalcade which approached. About thirty men on horseback, in crimson +liveries, surrounded two carriages, one of which contained two of His +Majesty's Judges, accompanied by the High Sheriff of the county, who, +with his javelin-men, was conducting them to the city, in which the Lent +Assizes were about to be held. + +The woman knelt until the carriages and the gaudy javelin-men had turned +the corner at the foot of a hill, and were no longer visible; with her +hands clasped together, she had prayed to God to temper with mercy the +heart of the Judge, before whom her unfortunate husband, now in jail, +would have to stand his trial. Then, taking the boy again by the +hand--unable to explain to him what he had seen--she pursued her way with +him, silently, along the dusty road. + +As they drew nearer to the city, they overtook various groups of +stragglers, who had deemed it their duty, in spite of the inclement +weather to wander some miles out of the city to catch an early glimpse of +"My Lord Judge," and the gay Sheriff's officers. Troops, also, of +itinerant ballad-singers, rope-dancers, mountebanks, and caravans of wild +beasts, still followed the Judges, as they had done throughout the +circuit. "Walk more slowly, Ned," said the mother, checking the boy's +desire to follow the shows. "I am very tired; let us rest a little here." +They lingered until the crowd was far ahead of them--and were left alone +on the road. + +Late in the evening, as the last stragglers were returning home, the +wayfarers found themselves in the suburbs of the city, and the forlorn +woman looked around anxiously for a lodging. She feared the noisy people +in the streets; and, turning timidly towards an old citizen who stood by +his garden-gate, chatting to his housekeeper, and watching the +passers-by--there was a kindness in his look which gave her +confidence--so, with a homely courtesy, she ventured to inquire of him +where she might find a decent resting-place. + +"Have you never been here before?" he asked. + +"Never but once, sir, when I was a child, many years ago." + +"What part of the country do you come from?" + +"Uffeulme." + +"Uffeulme? How did you get here?" + +"We have walked." + +"You don't say that you have trudged all the way with that youngster?" + +The housekeeper drowned the reply by loudly announcing to the old +gentleman that his supper was waiting--"We have no lodgings, my good +woman," she said, turning away from the gate. + +"Stop, Martha, stop," said the citizen. "Can't we direct them +somewhere?--you see they are strangers. I wonder where they could get +a lodging?" + +"I am sure I don't know," replied Martha, peevishly; "your supper will be +cold--come in!" + +"We've had no supper," said the boy. + +"Poor little fellow!" said the old gentleman; "then I am sure you shall +not go without. Martha, the bread and cheese!" And, opening the +garden-gate, he made the travelers enter and sit down in the +summer-house, whilst he went to fetch them a draught of cider. + +In spite of Martha's grumbling, he managed to get a substantial repast; +but it grieved him that the woman, though she thanked him very gratefully +and humbly, appeared unable to eat. + +"Your boy eats heartily," said he, "but I am afraid you don't enjoy it." + +With a choking utterance she thanked him, but could not eat. + +The good old man was striving, as well as he could, to explain to +them their way to a part of the city, where they might find a +lodging, when the garden-gate opened, and a young man gave to the +host a hearty greeting. + +At the sound of his voice, the cup the woman held in her hand, fell to +the ground. This drew the youth's attention to her; he looked earnestly +at her for a moment, and with an exclamation of surprise, said, "Why, +this is Susan Harvey?" + +The woman hid her face in her hands, and moaned. + +"Do you know her, then, Alfred?" said the uncle. + +"She nursed me when I was a little sickly boy," replied the youth; "she +lived many years in my father's house." + +"Then I am sure you will take her to some lodging to-night, for she is +quite a stranger here. There is Martha calling to me again; she is not +in the best temper to-night, so I had better go in, and I leave them to +your care." + +"Oh! tell me, Mr. Gray, have you seen him?" cried the woman eagerly. + +"I have been with him to-day, Susan," said Gray, kindly taking her +hand--"do not be cast down; all that can be done for Martin, shall be +done. Let me take you where you can rest to-night, and to-morrow you can +be with him." + +The weary little boy had fallen asleep on the seat; the mother strove to +arouse him, but Alfred Gray prevented her, by taking the little fellow +in his arms. He carried him by her side through the streets; she could +utter no words of gratitude, but her tears flowed fast, and told how the +young man's sympathy had fallen like balm upon her wounded heart. "God +has taken pity on me," she said, when they parted. + +With a quick step Alfred regained his uncle's cottage; he had a +difficult task to accomplish. Martin Harvey, now awaiting his trial for +poaching, and for being concerned in an affray with Sir George Roberts' +game-keepers, had once been his father's apprentice. Young Gray had +been endeavoring to procure for him all the legal help which the laws +then allowed; but his own means were limited, and, when he met Susan +and her boy in the garden, he had come to visit his uncle to ask his +assistance. He had now returned on the same errand. He pleaded +earnestly, and with caution, but was repulsed. It was in vain he urged +the poverty of agricultural laborers at that season, and the temptation +which an abundance of game afforded to half-starved men and their +wretched families. + +"Nonsense, Alfred!" said old Mr. Gray. "I would not grudge you the money +if you did not want it for a bad purpose. You must not excuse men who go +out with guns and fire at their fellow-creatures in the dark." + +"Martin did not fire, uncle--that is what I want to prove, and save him, +if I can, from transportation. He has a wife and child." + +"Wife and child!" repeated the old man thoughtfully. "You did not tell me +he had a wife and child; that poor woman came from Uffeulme." + +"Providence must have guided her," said the younger Gray. "It was indeed +Harvey's wife and son whom you so lately relieved." + +"You shall have the money. I have all through life prayed that my heart +may not be hardened; and I find, old as I am, that, every day I have +fresh lessons to learn." + +The next morning, while Alfred held anxious consultation with the +lawyers, the wife and husband met within the prison walls. They sat +together in silence, for neither could speak a single word of hope. The +boy never forgot that long and dreary day, during which he watched, with +wondering thoughts, the sad faces of his ruined parents. + +The Crown Court of the Castle was next morning crowded to overflowing. +Among the struggling crowd that vainly sought to gain admission, was +Martin Harvey's wife. She was rudely repulsed by the door-keepers, who +"wondered what women wanted in such places." She still strove to keep her +ground, and watched with piteous looks the doors of the court. She braved +the heat and pressure for some time; but a sickly faintness at length +came over her. She was endeavoring to retreat into the open air, when she +felt some one touch her shoulder, and turning, saw Alfred Gray making his +way toward her. After a moment's pause in the cool air, he led her round +to a side-door, through which there was a private entrance into the +court. He whispered a word to an officer, who admitted them, and pointed +to a seat behind the dock, where they were screened from observation, and +where the woman could see her husband standing between his two +fellow-prisoners. + +The prisoners were listening anxiously to the evidence which the +principal game-keeper was offering against them. The first, a man about +sixty, excited greater interest than the others. He earnestly attended to +what was going on, but gave no sign of fear, as to the result. Brushing +back his gray locks, he gazed round the court, with something like a +smile. This man's life had been a strange one. Early in his career he +had been ejected from a farm which he had held under the father of the +present prosecutor, Sir George Roberts; he soon after lost what little +property had been left him, and, in despair enlisted--was sent abroad +with his regiment--and for many years shared in the toils and +achievements of our East Indian warfare. Returning home on a small +pension, he fixed his abode in his native village, and sought to indulge +his old enmity against the family that had injured him by every kind of +annoyance in his power. The present baronet, a narrow-minded tyrannical +man, afforded by his unpopularity good opportunity to old Ralph Somers to +induce others to join him in his schemes of mischief and revenge. "The +game," which was plentiful on the estate, and the preservation of which +was Sir George's chief delight, formed the principal object of attack; +the poverty of the laborers tempted them to follow the old soldier, who +managed affairs so warily, that for nine years he had been an object of +the utmost terror and hatred to Sir George and his keepers, whilst all +their efforts to detect and capture him had, until now, been fruitless. + +Martin Harvey, who stood by his side with his shattered arm in a sling, +bore marks of acute mental suffering and remorse; but his countenance was +stamped with its original, open, manly expression--a face often to be +seen among a group of English farm laborers, expressive of a warm heart, +full of both courage and kindness. + +The evidence was soon given. The game-keepers, on the night of the 24th +of February, were apprised that poachers were in the plantations. Taking +with them a stronger force than usual, all well-armed, they discovered +the objects of their search, in a lane leading out into the fields, and +shouted to them to surrender. They distinctly saw their figures flying +before them, and when they approached them, one of the fugitives turned +round and fired, wounding one of the keepers' legs with a quantity of +small shot. The keeper immediately fired in return, and brought down a +poacher; old Ralph's voice was heard shouting to them to desist, and upon +coming up they found him standing by the side of Martin Harvey, who had +fallen severely wounded. Three guns lay by them, one of which had been +discharged, but no one could swear who had fired it; search was made all +night for the other man, but without success. + +When the prisoners were called on for their defence, they looked at one +another for a moment as if neither wished to speak first; Ralph, however, +began. He had little to say. Casting a look of defiance at Sir George and +his lady, who sat in a side-gallery above the court, he freely confessed +that hatred to the man who had injured him in his youth, and who had +treated him with harshness on his return from abroad, had been the motive +of his encouraging and aiding in these midnight depredations; he +expressed sorrow for having occasioned trouble to his neighbor Harvey. +"What I can say will be of little use to me here," said Martin Harvey, in +a hollow voice; "I am ruined, beyond redress; but I was a very poor man +when I first joined, with others, in snaring game; I often wanted bread, +and saw my wife and child pinched for food also. The rich people say game +belongs to them; but--well--all I can say more is, that I take God to +witness I never lifted a murderous gun against my fellow-man; he who did +it has escaped; and I have suffered this broken limb--but that I don't +mind--I have worse than that to bear--I have broken my wife's heart, and +my child will be left an orphan." + +His voice failed. There was an uneasy movement among the audience: and +a lady, who had been leaning over the rails of the side-gallery +listening with deep attention, fainted, and was carried out of court. +The prisoner's pale wife, who had bowed her head behind him in silent +endurance, heard a whisper among the bystanders that it was Lady +Roberts, and a hope entered her mind that the lady's tender heart might +feel for them. + +"Have you any witnesses to call?" asked the Judge. + +Martin looked round with a vacant gaze; the attorney whispered to him, +and beckoned to Alfred Gray. + +Alfred went into the witness-box, and told of the honesty, sobriety, and +good conduct of Martin Harvey, during all the years he was in his +father's house--"He was there before I was born," said the young man, +"and only left when I was obliged to leave also, sixteen years after. A +better man never broke bread--he was beloved by every body who knew him. +Till now his character was never tainted. It's the one black spot." + +The Judge commenced summing up; it was evident to all who had paid +attention to the evidence, that the conviction of two of the prisoners +was certain. Alfred Gray knew this, and strove to induce the wife to +leave with him before the fatal close of proceedings; but she shook her +head and would not go. "I shall have strength to bear it," she said. + +He sat down by her side, and heard the fearful verdict of "guilty" +pronounced against her husband and Ralph Somers; and then the dreaded +doom of transportation for life awarded to them. As they turned to leave +the dock, Martin looked down upon the crushed and broken-hearted being +whom he had sworn to protect and cherish through life, and in spite of +every effort to repress it, a cry of agony burst from his lips; it was +answered by a fainter sound, and Alfred Gray lifted the helpless, +lifeless woman from the ground, and carried her into the open air. + +Months passed; and on the day when the convict ship, with its freight of +heavy hearts, began its silent course over the greatwaters, the widowed +wife took her fatherless child by the hand, and again traversed the weary +road which led them to their desolated home. + +The kindness of the Grays had supplied a few immediate necessaries. Some +one had told her of women having, by the aid of friends, managed to meet +their husbands once more in those distant parts of the earth; and this +knowledge once in her agitated mind, raised a hope which inspired her to +pursue her daily task without fainting, and to watch an opportunity of +making an attempt which she had meditated, even during that dreadful day +of Martin's trial. She resolved to seek admission into Sir George +Roberts' mansion, and appeal to the pity of his wife. It was told in the +village that Lady Roberts had implored her husband to interpose in behalf +of the men; that his angry and passionate refusal had caused a breach +between them; that they had lived unhappily ever since; that he had +strictly forbidden any one to mention the subject, or to convey to Lady +Roberts any remarks that were made in the neighborhood. + +Susan Harvey trembled when she entered the mansion, and timidly asked +leave to speak to Lady Roberts. + +The servant she addressed had known her husband, and pitied her distress; +and, fearing lest Sir George might pass, he led her into his pantry, +watching an opportunity to let the lady know of her being there. + +After a time Lady Roberts' maid came, and beckoned her to follow +up-stairs. In a few moments the soft voice of the lady of the mansion was +cheering her with kind words, and encouraging her to disclose her wishes. + +Before she had concluded, a step was heard without, at which the lady +started and turned pale. Before there was time for retreat Sir George +hastily entered the apartment. + +"Who have you here, Lady Roberts?" + +"One who has a request to make, I believe," said the lady, mildly. "I +wish a few moments with her." + +"Have the goodness to walk out of this house," said the baronet to Susan. +"Lady Roberts, I know this woman and I will not allow you to harbor such +people here." + +Although the convict's wife never again ventured into that house, her +wants, and those of her child, were, during three years, ministered to by +the secret agency of the Good Heart that lived so sadly there; and when, +at the expiration of that period, Lady Roberts died, a trusty messenger +brought to the cottage a little legacy--sufficient, if ever news came of +Martin, to enable the wife and child, from whom he was separated, to make +their way across the earth, and to meet him again. + +But during those weary years no tidings of his fate had reached either +his wife or Alfred Gray--to whom he had promised to write when he reached +his destination. Another year dragged its slow course over the home of +affliction, and poor Susan's hopes grew fainter day by day. Her sinking +frame gave evidence of the sickness that cometh from the heart. + +One summer evening, in the next year, Alfred Gray, entered his uncle's +garden with a letter, and was soon seated in the summer-house reading it +aloud to his uncle and Martha. Tears stood in the old man's eyes, as some +touching detail of suffering or privation was related. And, indeed, the +letter told of little beside. It was from Martin. Soon after his arrival +in the settlement, Martin had written to Alfred, but the letter had never +reached England--not an unusual occurrence in those times. After waiting +long, and getting no reply, he was driven by harsh treatment, and the +degradation attending the life he led, to attempt, with old Ralph, an +escape from the settlement. In simple language, he recorded the dreary +life they led in the woods; how, after a time, old Ralph sickened and +died; and how, in a desolate place, where the footsteps of man had, +perhaps, never trod before, Martin Harvey had dug a grave, and buried his +old companion. After that, unable to endure the terrible solitude, he had +sought his way back to his former master, and had been treated more +harshly than before. Fever and disease had wasted his frame, until he had +prayed that he might die and be at rest; but God had been merciful to +him, and had inclined the heart of one for whom he labored, who listened +with compassion to his story, took him under his roof, and restored him +to health. And now, Martin had obtained a ticket of leave, and served his +kind master for wages, which he was carefully hoarding to send to Alfred +Gray, as soon as he should hear from him that those he loved were still +preserved, and would come and embrace him once more in that distant land. + +"They shall go at once, Alfred," said old Mr. Gray, the moment the last +sentence was read; "they shall not wait; we will provide the +means--hey, Martha?" + +He did not now fear to appeal to his companion. Martha had grown kinder +of late, and she confessed she had learned of her cousin what gives most +comfort to those who are drawing near their journey's end. "I can help +them a little," she said. + +"We will all help a little," Alfred replied. "I shall be off at break of +day to-morrow, on neighbor Collins's pony, and shall give him no rest +until he sets me down at Uffeulme." + +Accordingly, early next morning, Alfred Gray was riding briskly along +through the pleasant green lanes which led toward his native village. It +was the middle of June, bright, warm, sunny weather; and the young man's +spirits was unusually gay, everything around him tending to heighten the +delight which the good news he carried had inspired him with. The pony +stepped out bravely, and was only checked when Alfred came in sight of +the dear old home of his childhood, and heard the well-known chimes +calling the villagers to their morning service, for it was Sunday. Then +for a few moments the young man proceeded more slowly, and his +countenance wore a more saddened look, as the blessed recollections of +early loves and affections with which the scene was associated in his +mind, claimed their power over all other thoughts. The voice of an old +friend, from an apple-orchard hard by, recalled him from his reveries. + +He shook hands through the hedge. "I will come and see you in the +evening, Fred. I must hasten on now. She will go to church this morning, +and I must go with her." + +"Who?" asked the other. + +Alfred pointed to the cottage where Susan Harvey dwelt. "I bring her good +news--I have a letter. Martin is living and well." + +The friend shook his head. + +Alfred dismounted, and walked towards Susan Harvey's cottage. The door +was closed, and when he looked through the window he could see no one +inside. He lifted the latch softly and entered. There was no one there; +but his entrance had been heard, and a moment after, a fine stout lad +came out of the inner chamber, took Alfred's proffered hand, and in +answer to his inquiries, burst into tears. + +"She says she cannot live long, sir; but she told me last night, that +before she died, you would come and tell us news of father. She has been +saying all the past week that we should hear from him soon." + +Whilst the boy spoke, Alfred heard a weak voice, calling his name from +the inner room. + +"Go in," he said, "and tell her I am here." + +The boy did so, and then beckoned him to enter. + +Susan's submissive features were but little changed, from the time when +her husband was taken from her; but the weak and wasted form that strove +to raise itself in vain, as Alfred approached the bed-side, too plainly +revealed that the struggle was drawing to a close--that the time of rest +was at hand. + +"Thank God, you are come," she said; "you have heard from him? Tell me +quickly, for my time is short." + +"I come to tell you good news, Susan. You may yet be restored to him." + +"I shall not see Martin in this world again, Mr. Gray; but I shall close +my eyes in peace. If you know where he is, and can tell me that my boy +shall go and be with him, and tell him how, through these long weary +years, we loved him, and thought of him, and prayed for him--" Here she +broke off, and beckoned the boy to her. She held his hands within her +own, whilst Alfred Gray read from the letter all that would comfort her. + +When he had done, she said, "God will bless you--you have been very good +to us in our misery. Now, will you promise me one thing more? Will you +send my boy to his father, when I am gone?" + +The promise was made; and the boy knelt long by her bedside, listening +to the words of love and consolation which, with her latest breath, she +uttered for the sake of him who, she hoped, would hear them again from +his child's lips. + + * * * * * + +Nearly forty years have passed since they laid her among the graves of +the humble villagers of Uffeulme. Few remain now who remember her story +or her name--but, on the other side of the world, amid scenery all +unlike to that in which she dwelt, there stands a cheerful settler's +home, and under the shadow of tall acacia trees which surround the +little garden in which some few English flowers are blooming, there are +sitting, in the cool of the summer evening, a group whose faces are all +of the Anglo-Saxon mould. A happy looking couple, in the prime of life, +are there, with children playing around them; and one little gentle +girl, they call Susan, is sitting on the knee of an aged, white-haired +man, looking lovingly into his face, and wondering why his eye so +watches the setting sun every night, as it sinks behind the blue waters +in the distance. Two tall, handsome lads, with guns on their shoulders, +enter the garden, and hasten to show the old man the fruits of their +day's exploits. + +"We have been lucky to-day, grandfather," says the younger; "but Alfred +says these birds are not like the birds in old England." + +"You should hear the sailors talk about the game in England, Martin," +replies the brother. + +"Grandfather has told us all about England, except the 'birds.' He thinks +we should run away, if he were to describe them." + +The old man looks steadily at the boys for a moment, and his eyes fill +with tears. "It is a glorious land," he says, with a faltering voice; "it +is our country; but, Alfred, Martin, you will never leave this happy home +to go there. Birds there are the rich man's property, and you would not +dare carry those guns of yours over English ground. If ever you go there, +your father will tell you where there is a church-yard--and among the +graves of the poor, there is one--" + +He stopped, for Edward Harvey came to the place where his father sat, and +took his trembling hand within his own; the boys obeyed their mother's +signal, and followed her into the house; the two men remained sitting +together, until the silent stars came out. + +Then the aged man, leaning on his son's arm, rejoined the family at the +supper-table--and the peace of God rested on the solitary home. Edward +Harvey had faithfully kept within his heart, the memory of his mother's +dying commands. + +Martin, his father, had nobly effaced the one Black Spot. + + + + +THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR. + + +One morning, about five years ago, I called by appointment on Mr. John +Balance, the fashionable pawnbroker, to accompany him to Liverpool, in +pursuit of a Levanting customer--for Balance, in addition to pawning, +does a little business in the sixty per cent. line. It rained in torrents +when the cab stopped at the passage which leads past the pawning-boxes to +his private door. The cabman rang twice, and at length Balance appeared, +looming through the mist and rain in the entry, illuminated by his +perpetual cigar. As I eyed him rather impatiently, remembering that +trains wait for no man, something like a hairy dog, or a bundle of rags, +rose up at his feet, and barred his passage for a moment. Then Balance +cried out with an exclamation, in answer apparently to a something I +could not hear, "What, man alive!--slept in the passage!--there, take +that, and get some breakfast, for Heaven's sake!" So saying, he jumped +into the "Hansom," and we bowled away at ten miles an hour, just catching +the Express as the doors of the station were closing. My curiosity was +full set--for although Balance can be free with his money, it is not +exactly to beggars that his generosity is usually displayed; so when +comfortably ensconced in a _coupe_ I finished with-- + +"You are liberal with your money this morning; pray, how often do you +give silver to street-cadgers?--because I shall know now what walk to +take when flats and sharps leave off buying law." + +Balance, who would have made an excellent parson if he had not been bred +to a case-hardening trade, and has still a soft bit left in his heart +that is always fighting with his hard head, did not smile at all, but +looked as grim as if squeezing a lemon into his Saturday night's punch. +He answered slowly, "A cadger--yes; a beggar--a miserable wretch, he is +now; but, let me tell you, Master David, that that miserable bundle of +rags was born and bred a gentleman--the son of a nobleman, the husband of +an heiress, and has sat and dined at tables where you and I, Master +David, are only allowed to view the plate by favor of the butler. I have +lent him thousands, and been well paid. The last thing I had from him was +his court-suit; and I hold now his bill for one hundred pounds that will +be paid, I expect, when he dies." + +"Why, what nonsense you are talking! you must be dreaming this morning. +However, we are alone; I'll light a weed, in defiance of Railway-law, +while you spin that yarn; for, true or untrue, it will fill up the time +to Liverpool." + +"As for yarn," replied Balance, "the whole story is short enough; and as +for truth, that you may easily find out if you like to take the trouble. +I thought the poor wretch was dead, and I own it put me out meeting him +this morning, for I had a curious dream last night." + +"Oh, hang your dreams! Tell us about this gentleman beggar that bleeds +you of half-crowns--that melts the heart even of a pawnbroker!" + +"Well, then, that beggar is the illegitimate son of the late Marquis of +Hoopborough by a Spanish lady of rank. He received a first rate +education, and was brought up in his father's house. At a very early age +he obtained an appointment in a public office, was presented by the +marquis at court, and received into the first society, where his handsome +person and agreeable manners made him a great favorite. Soon after coming +of age, he married the daughter of Sir E. Bumper, who brought him a very +handsome fortune, which was strictly settled on herself. They lived in +splendid style, kept several carriages, a house in town, and a place in +the country. For some reason or other, idleness, or to please his lady's +pride he said, he resigned his appointment. His father died, and left him +nothing; indeed, he seemed at that time very handsomely provided for. + +"Very soon Mr. and Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy began to disagree. She was cold, +correct--he was hot and random. He was quite dependent on her, and she +made him feel it. When he began to get into debt, he came to me. At +length some shocking quarrel occurred--some case of jealousy on the +wife's side, not without reason, I believe; and the end of it was, Mr. +Fitz-Roy was turned out of doors. The house was his wife's, the furniture +was his wife's, and the fortune was his wife's--he was, in fact, her +pensioner. He left with a few hundred pounds ready money, and some +personal jewelry, and went to a hotel. On these and credit he lived. +Being illegitimate, he had no relations--being a fool, when he spent his +money, he lost his friends. The world took his wife's part, when they +found she had the fortune, and the only parties who interfered were her +relatives, who did their best to make the quarrel incurable. To crown +all, one night he was run over by a cab, was carried to a hospital, and +lay there for months, and was, during several weeks of the time, +unconscious. A message to the wife, by the hands of one of his debauched +companions, sent by a humane surgeon, obtained an intimation that 'if he +died, Mr. Croak, the undertaker to the family, had orders to see to the +funeral,' and that Mrs. Molinos was on the point of starting for the +Continent, not to return for some years. When Fitz-Roy was discharged, he +came to me, limping on two sticks, to pawn his court-suit, and told me +his story. I was really sorry for the fellow--such a handsome, +thoroughbred-looking man. He was going then into the west somewhere, to +try to hunt out a friend. 'What to do, Balance,' he said, 'I don't know. +I can't dig, and unless somebody will make me their gamekeeper, I must +starve, or beg, as my Jezebel bade me, when we parted!' + +"I lost sight of Molinos for a long time, and when I next came upon him +it was in the Rookery of Westminster, in a low lodging-house, where I was +searching with an officer for stolen goods. He was pointed out to me as +the 'gentleman-cadger,' because he was so free with his money when 'in +luck.' He recognized me, but turned away then. I have since seen him, and +relieved him more than once, although he never asks for anything. How he +lives, Heaven knows. Without money, without friends, without useful +education of any kind, he tramps the country, as you saw him, perhaps +doing a little hop-picking or hay-making, in season, only happy when he +obtains the means to get drunk. I have heard through the kitchen whispers +that you know come to me, that he is entitled to some property; and I +expect if he were to die his wife would pay the hundred pound bill I +hold; at any rate, what I have told you I know to be true, and the bundle +of rags I relieved just now is known in every thieves' lodging in England +as the 'gentleman cadger.'" + +This story produced an impression on me: I am fond of speculation, and +like the excitement of a legal hunt as much as some do a fox-chase. A +gentleman, a beggar--a wife rolling in wealth--rumors of unknown property +due to the husband;--it seemed as if there were pickings for me amidst +this carrion of pauperism. + +Before returning from Liverpool, I had purchased the gentleman beggar's +acceptance from Balance. I then inserted in the "Times" the following +advertisement: "_Horatio Molinos Fitz-Roy_.--If this gentleman will apply +to David Discount, Esq., Solicitor, St. James's, he will hear of +something to his advantage. Any person furnishing Mr. R's correct +address, shall receive L1 1s. reward. He was last seen," &c. Within +twenty-four hours I had ample proof of the wide circulation of the +"Times." My office was besieged with beggars of every degree, men and +women, lame and blind, Irish, Scotch, and English--some on crutches, some +in bowls, some in go-carts. They all knew him as "the gentleman," and I +must do the regular fraternity of tramps the justice to say, that not one +would answer a question until he made certain that I meant the +"gentleman" no harm. + +One evening, about three weeks after the appearance of the advertisement, +my clerk announced "another beggar." There came in an old man leaning +upon a staff, clad in a soldier's greatcoat, all patched and torn, with a +battered hat, from under which a mass of tangled hair fell over his +shoulders and half concealed his face. The beggar, in a weak, wheezy, +hesitating tone, said, "You have advertized for Molinos Fitz-Roy. I hope +you don't mean him any harm; he is sunk, I think, too low for enmity now; +and surely no one would sport with such misery as his." These last words +were uttered in a sort of piteous whisper. + +I answered quickly, "Heaven forbid I should sport with misery--I mean and +hope to do him good, as well as myself." + +"Then, sir, I am Molinos Fitz-Roy!" + +While we were conversing candles had been brought in. I have not very +tender nerves--my head would not agree with them--but I own I started and +shuddered when I saw and knew that the wretched creature before me was +under thirty years of age, and once a gentleman. Sharp, aquiline +features, reduced to literal skin and bone, were begrimed and covered +with dry fair hair; the white teeth of the half-open mouth chattered with +eagerness, and made more hideous the foul pallor of the rest of the +countenance. As he stood leaning on a staff half bent, his long, yellow +bony fingers clasped over the crutch-head of his stick, he was indeed a +picture of misery, famine, squalor, and premature age, too horrible to +dwell upon. I made him sit down, sent for some refreshment which he +devoured like a ghoul, and set to work to unravel his story. It was +difficult to keep him to the point; but with pains I learned what +convinced me that he was entitled to some property, whether great or +small there was no evidence. On parting, I said, "Now, Mr. F, you must +stay in town while I make proper inquiries. What allowance will be enough +to keep you comfortably?" + +He answered humbly after much pressing, "Would you think ten shillings +too much?" + +I don't like, if I do those things at all, to do them shabbily--so I +said, "Come every Saturday and you shall have a pound." He was profuse in +thanks, of course, as all such men are as long as distress lasts. + +I had previously learned that my ragged client's wife was in England, +living in a splendid house in Hyde Park Gardens, under her maiden name. +On the following day the Earl of Owing called upon me, wanting five +thousand pounds by five o'clock the same evening. It was a case of life +or death with him, so I made my terms and took advantage of his pressure +to execute a _coup de main._ I proposed that he should drive me home to +receive the money, calling at Mrs. Molinos in Hyde Park Gardens, on our +way. I knew that the coronet and liveries of his father, the Marquis, +would ensure me an audience with Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy. + +My scheme answered. I was introduced into the lady's presence. She was, +and probably is, a very stately, handsome woman, with a pale complexion, +high solid forehead, regular features, thin, pinched, self-satisfied +mouth. My interview was very short. I plunged into the middle of the +affair, but had scarcely mentioned the word _husband_, when she +interrupted me with, "I presume you have lent this profligate person +money, and want me to pay you." She paused, and then said, "He shall not +have a farthing." As she spoke, her white face became scarlet. + +"But, Madam, the man is starving. I have strong reasons for believing he +is entitled to property, and if you refuse any assistance, I must take +other measures." She rang the bell, wrote something rapidly on a card, +and, as the footman appeared, pushed it towards me across the table, with +the air of touching a toad, saying, "There, sir, is the address of my +solicitors; apply to them if you think you have any claim. Robert, show +the person out, and take care he is not admitted again." + +So far I had effected nothing; and, to tell the truth, felt rather +crest-fallen under the influence of that grand manner peculiar to certain +great ladies and to all great actresses. + +My next visit was to the attorneys, Messrs. Leasem and Fashun, of +Lincoln's Inn Square; and there I was at home. I had had dealings with +the firm before. They are agents for half the aristocracy, who always +run in crowds like sheep after the same wine-merchants, the same +architects, the same horse-dealers, and the same law-agents. It may be +doubted whether the quality of law and land management they get on this +principle is quite equal to their wine and horses. At any rate, my +friends of Lincoln's Inn, like others of the same class, are +distinguished by their courteous manners, deliberate proceedings, +innocence of legal technicalities, long credit and heavy charges. Leasem, +the elder partner, wears powder and a huge bunch of seals, lives in Queen +Square, drives a brougham, gives the dinners and does the cordial +department. He is so strict in performing the latter duty, that he once +addressed a poacher who had shot a Duke's keeper, as "my dear creature," +although he afterwards hung him. + +Fashun has chambers in St. James Street, drives a cab, wears a tip, and +does the grand haha style. + +My business lay with Leasem. The interviews and letters passing were +numerous. However, it came at last to the following dialogue:-- + +"Well, my dear Mr. Discount," began Mr. Leasem, who hates me like poison, +"I'm really very sorry for that poor dear Molinos--knew his father well; +a great man, a perfect gentleman; but you know what women are, eh, Mr. +Discount? My client won't advance a shilling; she knows it would only be +wasted in low dissipation. Now, don't you think (this was said very +insinuatingly)--don't you think he had better be sent to the work-house? +Very comfortable accommodation there, I can assure you--meat twice a +week, and excellent soup; and then, Mr. D., we might consider about +allowing you something for that bill." + +"Mr. Leasem, can you reconcile it to your conscience to make such an +arrangement? Here's a wife rolling in luxury, and a husband starving!" + +"No, Mr. Discount, not starving; there is the work-house, as I observed +before; besides, allow me to suggest that these appeals to feeling are +quite unprofessional--quite unprofessional." + +"But, Mr. Leasem, touching this property which the poor man is +entitled to?" + +"Why, there again, Mr. D., you must excuse me; you really must. I don't +say he is, I don't say he is not. If you know he is entitled to +property, I am sure you know how to proceed; the law is open to you, +Mr. Discount--the law is open; and a man of your talent will know how +to use it." + +"Then, Mr. Leasem, you mean that I must, in order to right this starving +man, file a Bill of Discovery, to extract from you the particulars of his +rights. You have the Marriage Settlement, and all the information, and +you decline to allow a pension, or afford any information; the man is to +starve, or go to the work-house?" + +"Why, Mr. D., you are so quick and violent, it really is not +professional; but you see, (here a subdued smile of triumph,) it has been +decided that a solicitor is not bound to afford such information as you +ask, to the injury of his client." + +"Then you mean that this poor Molinos may rot and starve, while you keep +secret from him, at his wife's request, his title to an income, and that +the Court of Chancery will back you in this iniquity?" + +I kept repeating the word "starve," because I saw it made my respectable +opponent wince. "Well, then, just listen to me: I know that in the happy +state of our equity law, Chancery can't help my client; but I have +another plan--I shall go hence to my office, issue a writ, and take your +client's husband in execution--as soon as he is lodged in jail, I shall +file his schedule in the Insolvent Court, and when he comes up for his +discharge, I shall put you in the witness-box, and examine you on oath, +'touching any property of which you know the insolvent to be possessed,' +and where will be your privileged communications then?" + +The respectable Leasem's face lengthened in a twinkling, his comfortable +confident air vanished, he ceased twiddling his gold chain, and at length +he muttered, "Suppose we pay the debt?" + +"Why, then, I'll arrest him the day after for another." + +"But, my dear Mr. Discount, surely such conduct would not be quite +respectable?" + +"That's my business; my client has been wronged, I am determined to +right him, and when the aristocratic firm of Leasem and Fashun takes +refuge according to the custom of respectable repudiators, in the cool +arbors of the Court of Chancery, why, a mere bill-discounting attorney +like David Discount, need not hesitate about cutting a bludgeon out of +the Insolvent Court." + +"Well, well, Mr. D., you are so warm--so fiery; we must deliberate, we +must consult. You will give me until the day after to-morrow, and then +we'll write you our final determination; in the meantime, send us a copy +of your authority to act for Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy." + +Of course I lost no time in getting the gentleman beggar to sign a +proper letter. + +On the appointed day came a communication with the L. and F. seal, which +I opened, not without unprofessional eagerness. It was as follows:-- + +_"In re Molinos Fitz-Roy and Another._ + +"Sir,--In answer to your application on behalf of Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy, +we beg to inform you that, under the administration of a paternal aunt +who died intestate, your client is entitled to two thousand five hundred +pounds eight shillings and sixpence, Three per Cents.; one thousand five +hundred pounds nineteen shillings and fourpence, Three per Cents., +Reduced; one thousand pounds, Long Annuities; five hundred pounds, Bank +Stock; three thousand five hundred pounds, India Stock, besides other +securities, making up about ten thousand pounds, which we are prepared to +transfer over to Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy's direction forthwith." + +Here was a windfall! It quite took away my breath. + +At dusk came my gentleman beggar, and what puzzled me was how to break +the news to him. Being very much overwhelmed with business that day, I +had not much time for consideration. He came in rather better dressed +than when I first saw him, with only a week's beard on his chin; but, +as usual, not quite sober. Six weeks had elapsed since our first +interview. He was still the humble, trembling, low-voiced creature, I +first knew him. + +After a prelude, I said, "I find, Mr. F., you are entitled to something; +pray, what do you mean to give me in addition to my bill, for obtaining +it?" He answered rapidly, "Oh, take half; if there is one hundred pounds, +take half--if there is five hundred pounds, take half." + +"No, no; Mr. F., I don't do business in that way, I shall be satisfied +with ten per cent." + +It was so settled. I then led him out into the street, impelled to tell +him the news, yet dreading the effect; not daring to make the revelation +in my office, for fear of a scene. + +I began hesitatingly, "Mr. Fitz-Roy, I am happy to say that I find you +are entitled to ... ten thousand pounds!" + +"Ten thousand pounds!" he echoed. "Ten thousand pounds!" he shrieked. +"Ten thousand pounds!" he yelled; seizing my arm violently. "You are a +brick--Here, cab! cab!" Several drove up--the shout might have been heard +a mile off. He jumped in the first. + +"Where to?" said the driver. + +"To a tailor's, you rascal!" + +"Ten thousand pounds! ha, ha, ha!" he repeated hysterically, when in the +cab; and every moment grasping my arm. Presently he subsided, looked me +straight in the face, and muttered with agonizing fervor, "What a jolly +brick you are!" + +The tailor, the hosier, the boot-maker, the hair-dresser, were in turn +visited by this poor pagan of externals. As by degrees under their hands +he emerged from the beggar to the gentleman, his spirits rose; his eyes +brightened; he walked erect, but always nervously grasping my +arm--fearing, apparently, to lose sight of me for a moment, lest his +fortune, should vanish with me. The impatient pride with which he gave +his orders to the astonished tradesman for the finest and best of +everything, and the amazed air of the fashionable hairdresser when he +presented his matted locks and stubble chin, to be "cut and shaved," may +be _acted_--it cannot be described. + +By the time the external transformation was complete, and I +sat down in a Cafe in the Haymarket opposite a haggard but handsome +thoroughbred-looking man, whose air, with the exception of the wild eyes +and deeply browned face, did not differ from the stereotyped men about +town sitting around us, Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy had already almost +forgotten the past. He bullied the waiter, and criticised the wine, as if +he had done nothing else but dine and drink and scold there all the days +of his life. + +Once he wished to drink my health, and would have proclaimed his whole +story to the coffee-room assembly, in a raving style. When I left he +almost wept in terror at the idea of losing sight of me. But, allowing +for these ebullitions--the natural result of such a whirl of events--he +was wonderfully calm and self-possessed. + +The next day, his first care was to distribute fifty pounds among his +friends, the cadgers, at a "house of call" in Westminster, and formally +to dissolve his connection with them; those present undertaking for the +"fraternity," that for the future he should never be noticed by them in +public or private. + +I cannot follow his career much further. Adversity had taught him +nothing. He was soon again surrounded by the well-bred vampires who had +forgotten him when penniless; but they amused him, and that was enough. +The ten thousand pounds were rapidly melting when he invited me to a +grand dinner at Richmond, which included a dozen of the most agreeable, +good-looking, well-dressed dandies of London, interspersed with a display +of pretty butterfly bonnets. We dined deliciously, and drank as men do of +iced wines in the dog-days--looking down from Richmond Hill. + +One of the pink-bonnets crowned Fitz-Roy with a wreath of flowers; he +looked--less the intellect--as handsome as Alcibiades. Intensely +excited and flushed, he rose with a champagne glass in his hand to +propose my health. + +The oratorical powers of his father had not descended on him. Jerking +out sentences by spasms, at length he said, "I was a beggar--I am a +gentleman--thanks to this--" + +Here he leaned on my shoulder heavily a moment, and then fell back. We +raised him, loosened his neckcloth-- + +"Fainted!" said the ladies-- + +"Drunk!" said the gentlemen-- + +He was _dead_! + + + + +A FASHIONABLE FORGER. + + +I am an attorney and a bill-discounter. As it is my vocation to lend +money at high interest to extravagant people, my connection principally +lies among "fools," sometimes among rogues "of quality." Mine is a +pursuit which a prejudiced world either holds in sovereign contempt, or +visits with envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness; but to my mind, there +are many callings, with finer names, that are no better. It gives me two +things which I love--money and power; but I cannot deny that it brings +with it a bad name. The case lies between character and money, and +involves a matter of taste. Some people like character; I prefer money. +If I am hated and despised, I chuckle over the "per contra." I find it +pleasant for members of a proud aristocracy to condescend from their high +estate to fawn, feign, flatter; to affect even mirthful familiarity in +order to gain my good-will. I am no Shylock. No client can accuse me of +desiring either his flesh or his blood. Sentimental vengeance is no item +in my stock in trade. Gold and bank-notes satisfy my "rage;" or, if need +be, a good mortgage. Far from seeking revenge, the worst defaulter I ever +had dealings with cannot deny that I am always willing to accept a good +post-obit. + +I say again, I am daily brought in contact with all ranks of society, +from the poverty-stricken patentee to the peer; and I am no more +surprised at receiving an application from a duchess than from a pet +opera-dancer. In my ante room wait, at this moment, a crowd of +borrowers. Among the men, (beardless folly and mustachioed craft are most +prominent,) there is a handsome young fellow, with an elaborate cane and +wonderfully vacant countenance, who is anticipating in feeble follies, an +estate that has been in the possession of his ancestors since the reign +of Henry the Eighth--there is a hairy, high-nosed, broken-down +nondescript, in appearance something between a horse-dealer and a +pugilist. He is an old Etonian. Five years ago he drove his four-in-hand; +he is now waiting to beg a sovereign, having been just discharged from +the Insolvent Court, for the second time. Among the women, a pretty +actress, who, a few years since, looked forward to a supper of steak and +onions, with bottled stout, on a Saturday night, as a great treat, now +finds one hundred pounds a month insufficient to pay her wine merchant +and her confectioner. I am obliged to deal with each case according to +its peculiarities. Genuine undeserved Ruin seldom knocks at my doer. Mine +is a perpetual battle with people who imbibe trickery at the same rate as +they dissolve their fortunes. I am a hard man, of course. I should not be +fit for my pursuit if I were not; but when, by a remote chance, honest +misfortune pays me a visit, as Rothschilds amused himself at times by +giving a beggar a guinea, so I occasionally treat myself to the luxury of +doing a kind action. My favorite subjects for this unnatural generosity, +are the very young or the poor, innocent, helpless people, who are unfit +for the war of life. Many among my clients (especially those tempered in +the "ice book" of fashion and high-life--polished and passionless) would +be too much for me, if I had not made the face, the eye, the accent, as +much my study as the mere legal and financial points of discount To show +what I mean, I will relate what happened to me not long since:-- + +One day, a middle-aged man in the usual costume of a West-End shopman, +who had sent in his name as Mr. Axminster, was shown into my private +room. After a little hesitation, he said, "Although you do not know me, +living at this end of the town, I know you very well by reputation, and +that you discount bills. I have a bill here which I want to get +discounted. I am in the employ of Messrs. Russle and Smooth. The bill is +drawn by one of our best customers, the Hon. Miss Snape, niece of Lord +Blimley, and accepted by Major Munge, whom, no doubt, you know by name. +She has dealt with us for some years--is very, very extravagant; but +always pays." He put the acceptance--which was for two hundred +pounds--into my hands. + +I looked at it as scrutinizingly as I usually do at such paper The +Major's signature was familiar to me; but having succeeded to a great +estate, he had long ceased to be a customer. I instantly detected a +forgery; by whom?--was the question. Could it be the man before me? +Experience told me it was not. Perhaps there was something in the +expression of my countenance which Mr. Axminster did not like, for he +said, "It is good for the amount, I presume?" + +I replied, "Pray, sir, from whom did you get this bill?" + +"From Miss Snape herself." + +"Have you circulated any other bills made by the same drawer?" + +"O yes!" said the draper, without hesitation; "I have paid away a bill +for one hundred pounds to Mr. Sparkle, the jeweller, to whom Miss Snape +owed twenty pounds. They gave me the difference." + +"And how long has that bill to run now?" + +"About a fortnight." + +"Did you indorse it?" + +"I did. Mr. Sparkle required me to do so, to show that the bill came +properly into his possession." + +"This second bill, you say is urgently required to enable Miss Snape to +leave town?" + +"Yes; she is going to Brighton for the winter." + +I gave Mr. Axminster a steady, piercing look of inquiry. "Pray, sir," I +said, "could you meet that one hundred pounds bill, supposing it could +not be paid by the accepter?" + +"Meet it!" The poor fellow wiped from his forehead the perspiration which +suddenly broke out at the bare hint of a probability that the bill would +be dishonored--"Meet it? O no! I am a married man, with a family, and +have nothing but my salary to depend on." + +"Then the sooner you get it taken up, and the less you have to do with +Miss Snape's bill affairs, the better." + +"She has always been punctual hitherto." + +"That may be." I pointed to the cross-writing on the document, and said +deliberately, "_This_ bill is a forgery!" + +At these words the poor man turned pale. He snatched up the document, and +with many incoherent protestations, was rushing toward the door, when I +called to him in an authoritative tone, to stop. He paused--his manner +indicating not only doubt, but fear. I said to him, "Don't flurry +yourself; I only want to serve you. You tell me that you are a married +man, with children, dependent on daily labor for daily bread, and that +you have done a little discounting for Miss Snape, out of your earnings. +Now, although I am a bill-discounter, I don't like to see such men +victimized. Look at the body of this bill--look at the signature of your +lady-customer, the drawer. Don't you detect the same fine, thin, +sharp-pointed handwriting in the words 'Accepted, Dymmock Munge." The +man, convinced against his will, was at first overcome. When he +recovered, he raved; he would expose the Honorable Miss Snape, if it cost +him his bread--he would go at once to the police office. I stopped him, +by saying roughly, "Don't be a fool! Any such steps would seal your ruin. +Take my advice; return the bill to the lady, saying, simply, that you +cannot get it discounted. Leave the rest to me, and I think the bill you +have indorsed to Sparkle will be paid." Comforted by this assurance, +Axminster, fearfully changed from the nervous, but smug, hopeful man of +the morning, departed. It now remained for me to exert what skill I +possessed, to bring about the desired result. I lost no time in writing a +letter to the Honorable Miss Snape, of which the following is a copy:-- + +"Madam,--A bill, purporting to be drawn by you, has been offered to me +for discount. There is something wrong about it; and, though a stranger +to you, I advise you to lose no time in getting it back into your own +hands.--D.D." + +I intended to deal with the affair quietly, and without any view to +profit. The fact is, that I was sorry--you may laugh--but I really was +sorry to think that a young girl might have given way to temptation under +pressure of pecuniary difficulties. If it had been a man's case, I doubt +whether I should have interfered. By the return of post, a lady's maid +entered my room, profusely decorated with ringlets, lace, and perfumed +with patchouli. She brought a letter from her mistress. It ran thus:-- + +"Sir,--I cannot sufficiently express my thanks for your kindness in +writing to me on the subject of the bills, of which I had also heard a +few hours previously. As a perfect stranger to you, I cannot estimate +your kind consideration at too high a value. I trust the matter will be +explained; but I should much like to see you. If you would be kind +enough to write a note as soon as you receive this, I will order it to +be sent to me at once to Tyburn Square. I will wait on you at any hour +on Friday you may appoint. I believe that I am not mistaken in supposing +that you transact business for my friend, Sir John Markham, and you will +therefore know the inclosed to be his handwriting. Again thanking you +most gratefully, allow me to remain your much and deeply obliged, +JULIANA SNAPE." + +This note was written upon delicate French paper embossed with a coat of +arms. It was in a fancy envelope--the whole richly perfumed, and +redolent of rank and fashion. Its contents were an implied confession of +forgery. Silence, or three lines of indignation, would have been the +only innocent answer to my letter. But Miss Snape thanked me. She let me +know, by implication that she was on intimate terms with a name good on +a West-End bill. My answer was, that I should be alone on the following +afternoon at five. + +At the hour fixed, punctual to a moment, a brougham drew up at the corner +of the street next to my chambers. The Honorable Miss Snape's card was +handed in. Presently, she entered, swimming into my room, richly, yet +simply dressed in the extreme of Parisian good taste. She was pale--or +rather colorless. She had fair hair, fine teeth, and a fashionable voice. +She threw herself gracefully into the chair I handed to her, and began by +uncoiling a string of phrases, to the effect that her visit was merely to +consult me on "unavoidable pecuniary difficulties." + +According to my mode, I allowed her to talk; putting in only an +occasional word of question that seemed rather a random observation than +a significant query. At length after walking round and round the subject, +like a timid horse in a field around a groom with a sieve of oats, she +came nearer and nearer the subject. When she had fairly approached the +point, she stopped, as if her courage had failed her. But she soon +recovered, and observed, "I cannot think why you should take the trouble +to write so to me, a perfect stranger." Another pause--"I wonder no one +ever suspected me before." + +Here was a confession and a key to character. The cold gray eye, the thin +compressed lips, which I had had time to observe, were true indexes to +the "lady's inner heart;" selfish calculating, utterly devoid of +conscience; unable to conceive the existence of spontaneous kindness; +utterly indifferent to anything except discovery, and almost indifferent +to that, because convinced that no serious consequences could affect a +lady of her rank and influence. + +"Madam," I replied, "as long as you dealt with tradesmen accustomed to +depend on aristocratic customers, your rank and position, and their +large profits, protected you from suspicion; but you have made a mistake +in descending from your vantage ground to make a poor shopman your +innocent accomplice--a man who will be keenly alive to anything +that may injure his wife or children. His terrors--but for my +interposition--would have ruined you utterly. Tell me, how many of these +things have you put afloat?" + +She seemed a little taken a-back by this speech, but was wonderfully +firm. She passed her white, jewelled hand over her eyes, seemed +calculating, and then whispered, with a confiding look of innocent +helplessness, admirably assumed, "About as many as amount to twelve +hundred pounds." + +"And what means have you for meeting them?" + +At this question so plainly put, her face flushed. She half rose from her +chair, and exclaimed in the true tone of aristocratic _hauteur_, "Really, +sir, I do not know what right you have to ask me that question." + +I laughed a little, though not very loud. It was rude, I own; but who +could have helped it? I replied, speaking low, but slowly and +distinctly--"You forget. I did not send for you; you came to me. You have +forged bills to the amount of twelve hundred pounds. Yours is not the +case of a ruined merchant or an ignorant over-tempted clerk. In your case +a jury"--(she shuddered at that word)--"would find no extenuating +circumstances; and if you should fall into the hands of justice you will +be convicted, degraded, clothed in a prison-dress, and transported for +life. I do not want to speak harshly; but I insist that you find means to +take up the bill which Mr. Axminster has so unwittingly endorsed!" + +The Honorable Miss Snape's grand manner melted away. She wept. She seized +and pressed my hand. She cast up her eyes, full of tears, and went +through the part of a repentant victim with great fervor. She would do +anything--anything in the world to save the poor man. Indeed, she had +intended to appropriate part of the two hundred pound bill to that +purpose. She forgot her first statement, that she wanted the money to go +out of town. Without interrupting, I let her go on and degrade herself by +a simulated passion of repentance, regret, and thankfulness to me, under +which she hid her fear and her mortification at being detected. I at +length put an end to a scene of admirable acting, by recommending her to +go abroad immediately, to place herself out of reach of any sudden +discovery; and then lay her case fully before her friends, who would no +doubt feel bound to come forward with the full amount of the forged +bills. "But," she exclaimed, with an entreating air, "I have no money; I +cannot go without money!" To that observation I did not respond although +I am sure she expected that I should, check-book in hand, offer her a +loan. I do not say so without reason; for, the very next week, this +honorable young lady came again, and, with sublime assurance and a number +of very charming, winning speeches, (which might have had their effect +upon a younger man), asked me to lend her one hundred pounds, in order +that she might take the advice I had so obligingly given her, and retire +into private life for a certain time in the country. I do meet with a +great many impudent people in the course of my calling--I am not very +deficient in assurance myself--but this actually took away my breath. + +"Really, madam," I answered, "you pay a very ill-compliment to my gray +hairs, and would fain make me a very ill return for the service I have +done you, when you ask me to lend a hundred pounds to a young lady who +owns to having forged to the extent of one thousand two hundred pounds, +and to owing eight hundred pounds besides. I wished to save a personage +of your years and position from a disgraceful career; but I am too good a +trustee for my children to lend money to anybody in such a dangerous +position as yourself." + +"Oh!" she answered, quite unabashed, without a trace of the fearful, +tender pleading of the previous week's interview--quite as if I had been +an accomplice, "I can give you excellent security." + +"That alters the case; I can lend any amount on good security." + +"Well, sir, I can get the acceptance of three friends of ample means" + +"Do you mean to tell me, Miss Snape, that you will write down the names +of three parties who will accept a bill for one hundred pounds for you?" + +Yes, she could, and did actually write down the names of three +distinguished men. Now I knew for certain, that not one of those noblemen +would have put his name to a bill on any account whatever for his dearest +friend; but, in her unabashed self-confidence, she thought of passing +another forgery _on me_. I closed the conference by saying, "I cannot +assist you;" and she retired with the air of an injured person. In the +course of a few days, I heard from Mr. Axminster, that his liability of +one hundred pounds had been duly honored. + +In my active and exciting life, one day extinguishes the recollection +of the events of the preceding day; and, for a time, I thought no more +about the fashionable forger. I had taken it for granted that, +heartily frightened, although not repenting, she had paused in her +felonious pursuits. + +My business one day led me to the establishment of one of the most +wealthy and respectable legal firms in the city, where I am well known, +and, I believe, valued; for at all times I am most politely, I may say, +most cordially received. Mutual profits create a wonderful freemasonry +between those who have not any other sympathy or sentiment. Politics, +religion, morality, difference of rank, are all equalized and +republicanized by the division of an account. No sooner had I entered the +_sanctum_, than the senior partner, Mr. Precepts, began to quiz his +junior, Mr. Jones, with, "Well, Jones must never joke friend Discount +anymore about usury. Just imagine," he continued, addressing me, "Jones +has himself been discounting a bill for a lady; and a deuced pretty one +too. He sat next her at dinner in Grosvenor Square, last week. Next day +she gave him a call here, and he could not refuse her extraordinary +request. Gad, it is hardly fair for Jones to be poaching on your domains +of West-End paper!" + +Mr. Jones smiled quietly, as he observed, "Why, you see, she is the niece +of one of our best clients; and really I was so taken by surprise, that I +did not know how to refuse." + +"Pray," said I, interrupting his excuses, "does your young lady's name +begin with S.? Has she not a very pale face, and cold gray eye?" + +The partners stared. + +"Ah! I see it is so; and can at once tell you that the bill is not +worth a rush." + +"Why, you don't mean--?" + +"I mean simply that the acceptance is, I'll lay you a wager, a forgery." + +"A forgery!" + +"A forgery," I repeated as distinctly as possible. + +Mr. Jones hastily, and with broken ejaculations, called for the cash-box. +With trembling hands he took out the bill, and followed my finger with +eager, watchful eyes, as I pointed out the proofs of my assertion. A long +pause was broken by my mocking laugh; for, at the moment, my sense of +politeness could not restrain my satisfaction at the signal defeat which +had attended the first experiment of these highly respectable gentlemen +in the science of usury. + +The partners did not have recourse to the police. They did not propose a +consultation with either Mr. Forrester or Mr. Field; but they took +certain steps, under my recommendation; the result of which was that at +an early day, an aunt of the Honorable Miss Snape was driven, to save so +near a connection from transportation, to sell out some fourteen hundred +pounds of stock, and all the forgeries were taken up. + +One would have thought that the lady who had thus so narrowly escaped, +had had enough--but forgery, like opium-eating, is one of those charming +vices which is never abandoned, when once adopted. The forger enjoys not +only the pleasure of obtaining money so easily, but the triumph of +befooling sharp men of the world. Dexterous penmanship is a source of the +same sort of pride as that which animates the skillful rifleman, the +practiced duellist, or well-trained billiard-player. With a clean Gillott +he fetches down a capitalist, at three or six months, for a cool hundred +or a round thousand; just as a Scrope drops over a stag at ten, or a +Gordon Cumming a monstrous male elephant at a hundred paces. + +As I before observed, my connection especially lies among the +improvident--among those who will be ruined--who are being ruined--and +who have been ruined. To the last class belongs Francis Fisherton, once +a gentleman, now without a shilling or a principle; but rich in +mother-wit--in fact, a _farceur_, after Paul de Kock's own heart. Having +in by-gone days been one of my willing victims, he occasionally finds +pleasure and profit in guiding others through the gate he frequented, as +long as able to pay the tolls. In truth, he is what is called a +"discount agent." + +One day I received a note from him, to say that he would call on me at +three o'clock the next day to introduce a lady of family, who wanted a +bill "done" for one hundred pounds. So ordinary a transaction merely +needed a memorandum in my diary, "Tuesday, 3 p.m.; F.F., L100 Bill." The +hour came and passed; but no Frank, which was strange--because every one +must have observed, that, however dilatory people are in paying, they are +wonderfully punctual when they expect to receive money. + +At five o'clock, in rushed my Jackall. His story, disentangled from +oaths and ejaculations, amounted to this:--In answer to one of the +advertisements he occasionally addresses "To the Embarrassed," in the +columns of the "Times," he received a note from a lady, who said she was +anxious to get a "bill done"--the acceptance of a well-known man of rank +and fashion. A correspondence was opened, and an appointment made. At the +hour fixed, neatly shaved, brushed, gloved, booted--the revival, in +short, of that high-bred Frank Fisherton who was so famous + +"In his hot youth, when Crockford's was the thing." + +glowing with only one glass of brandy, "just to steady his nerves," he +met the lady at a West-End pastry-cook's. + +After a few words (for all the material questions had been settled by +correspondence) she stepped into a brougham, and invited Frank to take a +seat beside her. Elated with a compliment of late years so rare, he +commenced planning the orgies which were to reward him for weeks of +enforced fasting, when the coachman, reverentially touching his hat, +looked down from his seat for orders. + +"To ninety-nine, George Street, St. James," cried Fisherton, in his +loudest tones. + +In an instant the young lady's pale face changed to scarlet, and then to +ghastly green. In a whisper, rising to a scream, she exclaimed, "Good +heavens! you do not mean to go to _that_ man's house," (meaning me.) +"Indeed, I cannot go to him, on any account; he is a most horrid man, I +am told, and charges most extravagantly." + +"Madam," answered Frank, in great perturbation, "I beg your pardon, but +you have been grossly misinformed. I have known that excellent man these +twenty years, and have paid him hundreds on hundreds; but never so much +by ten per cent. as you offered me for discounting your bill." + +"Sir, I cannot have anything to do with your friend." Then, violently, +pulling the check-string, "Stop," she gasped, "and _will you_ have the +goodness to get out?" + +"And so I got out," continued Fisherton, "and lost my time; and the heavy +investment I made in getting myself up for the assignation--new primrose +gloves, and a shilling to the hair-dresser--hang her! But, did you ever +know anything like the prejudices that must prevail against you? I am +disgusted with human nature. Could you lend me half a sovereign till +Saturday?" + +I smiled. I sacrificed the half sovereign, and let him go, for he is not +exactly the person to whom it was advisable to intrust all the secrets +relating to the Honorable Miss Snape. Since that day I look each morning +in the police reports with considerable interest; but, up to the present +hour, the Honorable Miss Snape has lived and thrived in the best society. + + + + +THE YOUNG ADVOCATE. + + +Antoine de Chaulieu was the son of a poor gentleman of Normandy, with a +long genealogy, a short rent-roll, and a large family. Jacques Rollet +was the son of a brewer, who did not know who his grandfather was; but +he had a long purse and only two children. As these youths flourished in +the early days of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and were near +neighbors, they naturally hated each other. Their enmity commenced at +school, where the delicate and refined De Chaulieu, being the only +gentilhomme among the scholars, was the favorite of the master, (who was +a bit of an aristocrat in his heart,) although he was about the worst +dressed boy in the establishment, and never had a sou to spend; while +Jacques Rollet, sturdy and rough, with smart clothes and plenty of +money, got flogged six days in the week, ostensibly for being stupid and +not learning his lessons,--which, indeed, he did not,--but, in reality, +for constantly quarrelling with and insulting De Chaulieu, who had not +strength to cope with him. When they left the academy, the feud +continued in all its vigor, and was fostered by a thousand little +circumstances arising out of the state of the times, till a separation +ensued in consequence of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu's undertaking +the expense of sending him to Paris to study the law, and of maintaining +him there during the necessary period. + +With the progress of events came some degree of reaction in favor of +birth and nobility, and then Antoine, who had passed for the bar, began +to hold up his head and endeavored to push his fortunes; but fate seemed +against him. He felt certain that if he possessed any gift in the world +it was that of eloquence, but he could get no cause to plead; and his +aunt dying inopportunely, first his resources failed, and then his +health. He had no sooner returned to his home, than, to complicate his +difficulties completely, he fell in love with Mademoiselle Natalie de +Bellefonds, who had just returned from Paris, where she had been +completing her education. To expatiate on the perfections of Mademoiselle +Natalie would be a waste of ink and paper; it is sufficient to say that +she really was a very charming girl, with a fortune which, though not +large, would have been a most desirable acquisition to De Chaulieu, who +had nothing. Neither was the fair Natalie indisposed to listen to his +addresses; but her father could not be expected to countenance the suit +of a gentleman, however well born, who had not a ten-sous piece in the +world, and whose prospects were a blank. + +While the ambitious and lovesick young barrister was thus pining in +unwelcome obscurity, his old acquaintance, Jacques Rollet, had been +acquiring an undesirable notoriety. There was nothing really bad in +Jacques' disposition, but having been bred up a democrat, with a hatred +of the nobility, he could not easily accommodate his rough humor to treat +them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult them. The +liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought him into +contact with the higher classes of society, had led him into many +scrapes, out of which his father's money had one way or another released +him; but that source of safety had now failed. Old Rollet, having been +too busy with the affairs of the nation to attend to his business, had +died insolvent, leaving his son with nothing but his own wits to help him +out of future difficulties, and it was not long before their exercise was +called for. Claudine Rollet, his sister, who was a very pretty girl, had +attracted the attention of Mademoiselle de Bellefonds' brother, Alphonse; +and as he paid her more attention than from such a quarter was agreeable +to Jacques, the young men had more than one quarrel on the subject, on +which occasions they had each, characteristically, given vent to their +enmity, the one in contemptuous monosyllables, and the other in a volley +of insulting words. But Claudine had another lover more nearly of her own +condition of life; this was Claperon, the deputy-governor of the Rouen +jail, with whom she made acquaintance during one or two compulsory visits +paid by her brother to that functionary; but Claudine, who was a bit of a +coquette, though she did not altogether reject his suit, gave him little +encouragement, so that betwixt hopes and fears, and doubts and +jealousies, poor Claperon led a very uneasy kind of life. + +Affairs had been for some time in this position, when, one fine morning, +Alphonse de Bellefonds was not to be found in his chamber when his +servant went to call him; neither had his bed been slept in. He had been +observed to go out rather late on the preceding evening, but whether or +not he had returned, nobody could tell. He had not appeared at supper, +but that was too ordinary an event to awaken suspicion; and little alarm +was excited till several hours had elapsed, when inquiries were +instituted and a search commenced, which terminated in the discovery of +his body, a good deal mangled, lying at the bottom of a pond which had +belonged to the old brewery. Before any investigations had been made, +every person had jumped to the conclusion that the young man had been +murdered, and that Jacques Rollet was the assassin. There was a strong +presumption in favor of that opinion, which further perquisitions tended +to confirm. Only the day before, Jacques had been heard to threaten M. de +Bellefonds with speedy vengeance. On the fatal evening, Alphonse and +Claudine had been seen together in the neighborhood of the now dismantled +brewery; and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and democracy, was in bad odor +with the prudent and respectable part of society, it was not easy for him +to bring witnesses to character, or prove an unexceptionable alibi. As +for the Bellefonds and De Chaulieus, and the aristocracy in general, they +entertained no doubt of his guilt; and finally, the magistrates coming to +the same opinion, Jacques Rollet was committed for trial, and as a +testimony of good will Antoine de Chaulieu was selected by the injured +family to conduct the prosecution. + +Here, at last, was the opportunity he had sighed for! So interesting a +case, too, furnishing such ample occasion for passion, pathos, +indignation! And how eminently fortunate that the speech which he set +himself with ardor to prepare, would be delivered in the presence of the +father and brother of his mistress, and perhaps of the lady herself! The +evidence against Jacques, it is true, was altogether presumptive; there +was no proof whatever that he had committed the crime; and for his own +part he stoutly denied it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained no doubt +of his guilt, and his speech was certainly well calculated to carry +conviction into the bosom of others. It was of the highest importance to +his own reputation that he should procure a verdict, and he confidently +assured the afflicted and enraged family of the victim that their +vengeance should be satisfied. Under these circumstances could any thing +be more unwelcome than a piece of intelligence that was privately +conveyed to him late on the evening before the trial was to come on, +which tended strongly to exculpate the prisoner, without indicating any +other person as the criminal? Here was an opportunity lost. The first +step of the ladder on which he was to rise to fame, fortune, and a wife, +was slipping from under his feet! + +Of course, so interesting a trial was anticipated with great eagerness by +the public, and the court was crowded with all the beauty and fashion of +Rouen. Though Jacques Rollet persisted in asserting his innocence, +founding his defence chiefly on circumstances which were strongly +corroborated by the information that had reached De Chaulieu the +preceding evening, he was convicted. + +In spite of the very strong doubts he privately entertained respecting +the justice of the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the first flush +of success, amid a crowd of congratulating friends, and the approving +smiles of his mistress, felt gratified and happy; his speech had, for the +time being, not only convinced others, but himself; warmed with his own +eloquence, he believed what he said. But when the glow was over, and he +found himself alone, he did not feel so comfortable. A latent doubt of +Rollet's guilt now burnt strongly in his mind, and he felt that the blood +of the innocent would be on his head. It is true there was yet time to +save the life of the prisoner; but to admit Jacques innocent was to take +the glory out of his own speech, and turn the sting of his argument +against himself. Besides, if he produced the witness who had secretly +given him the information, he should be self-condemned, for he could not +conceal that he had been aware of the circumstance before the trial. + +Matters having gone so far, therefore, it was necessary that Jacques +Rollet should die; so the affair took its course; and early one morning +the guillotine was erected in the courtyard of the jail, three criminals +ascended the scaffold, and three heads fell into the basket which were +presently afterwards, with the trunks that had been attached to them, +buried in a corner of the cemetery. + +Antoine de Chaulieu was now fairly started in his career, and his success +was as rapid as the first step towards it had been tardy. He took a +pretty apartment in the Hotel de Marboeuf Rue Grange-Bateliere, and in a +short time was looked upon as one of the most rising young advocates in +Paris. His success in one line brought him success in another; he was +soon a favorite in society, and an object of interest to speculating +mothers; but his affections still adhered to his old love, Natalie de +Bellefonds, whose family now gave their assent to the match,--at least, +prospectively,--a circumstance which furnished such an additional +incentive to his exertions, that in about two years from the date of his +first brilliant speech, he was in a sufficiently flourishing condition to +offer the young lady a suitable home. In anticipation of the happy event, +he engaged and furnished a suit of apartments in the Rue du Helder; and +as it was necessary that the bride should come to Paris to provide her +trousseau, it was agreed that the wedding should take place there, +instead of at Bellefonds, as had been first projected--an arrangement the +more desirable, that a press of business rendered M. de Chaulieu's +absence from Paris inconvenient. + +Brides and bridegrooms in France, except of the very high classes, are +not much in the habit of making those honeymoon excursions so universal +in this country. A day spent in visiting Versailles, or St. Cloud, or +even the public places of the city, is generally all that precedes the +settling down into the habits of daily life. In the present instance, St. +Denis was selected, from the circumstance of Natalie having a younger +sister at school there, and also because she had a particular desire to +see the abbey. + +The wedding was to take place on a Thursday; and on the Wednesday +evening, having spent some hours most agreeably with Natalie, Antoine de +Chaulieu returned to spend his last night in his bachelor apartments. His +wardrobe and other small possessions had already been packed up and sent +to his future home; and there was nothing left in his room now but his +new wedding suit, which he inspected with considerable satisfaction +before he undressed and lay down to sleep. Sleep, however, was somewhat +slow to visit him; and the clock had struck one before he closed his +eyes. When he opened them again, it was broad daylight; and his first +thought was, had he overslept himself? He sat up in bed to look at the +clock, which was exactly opposite; and as he did so, in the large mirror +over the fireplace he perceived a figure standing behind him. As the +dilated eyes met his own, he saw it was the face of Jacques Rollet. +Overcome with horror, he sank back on his pillow, and it was some minutes +before he ventured to look again in that direction; when he did so, the +figure had disappeared. + +The sudden revulsion of feeling such a vision was calculated to occasion +in a man elate with joy, may be conceived. For some time after the death +of his former foe, he had been visited by not unfrequent twinges of +conscience; but of late, borne along by success, and the hurry of +Parisian life, these unpleasant remembrances had grown rarer, till at +length they had faded away altogether. Nothing had been further from his +thoughts than Jacques Rollet, when he closed his eyes on the preceding +night, nor when he opened them to that sun which was to shine on what he +expected to be the happiest day of his life. Where were the high-strung +nerves now? the elastic frame? the bounding heart? + +Heavily and slowly he arose from his bed, for it was time to do so; and +with a trembling hand and quivering knees, he went through the processes +of the toilet, gashing his cheek with the razor, and spilling the water +over his well-polished boots. When he was dressed, scarcely venturing to +cast a glance in the mirror as he passed it, he quitted the room, and +descended the stairs, taking the key of the door with him for the purpose +of leaving it with the porter: the man, however, being absent, he laid it +on the table in his lodge, and with a relaxed and languid step proceeded +on his way to the church, where presently arrived the fair Natalie and +her friends. How difficult it was now to look happy with that pallid face +and extinguished eye! + +"How pale you are! Has any thing happened? You are surely ill," were the +exclamations that met him on all sides. He tried to carry it off as well +as he could, but felt that the movements he would have wished to appear +alert were only convulsive, and that the smiles with which he attempted +to relax his features were but distorted grimaces. However, the church +was not the place for further inquiries; and while Natalie gently pressed +his hand in token of sympathy, they advanced to the altar, and the +ceremony was performed; after which they stepped into the carriages +waiting at the door, and drove to the apartments of Madame de Bellefonds, +where an elegant _dejeuner_ was prepared. + +"What ails you, my dear husband?" inquired Natalie, as soon as they +were alone. + +"Nothing, love," he replied; "nothing, I assure you, but a restless night +and a little overwork, in order that I might have to-day free to enjoy my +happiness." + +"Are you quite sure? Is there nothing else?" + +"Nothing, indeed; and pray don't take notice of it; it only makes +me worse." + +Natalie was not deceived, but she saw that what he said was true; notice +made him worse; so she contented herself with observing him quietly, and +saying nothing; but, as he _felt_ she was observing him, she might almost +better have spoken; words are often less embarrassing things than too +curious eyes. + +When they reached Madame de Bellefond's he had the same sort of +questioning and scrutiny to undergo, till he grew quite impatient under +it, and betrayed a degree of temper altogether unusual with him. Then +every body looked astonished; some whispered their remarks, and others +expressed them by their wondering eyes, till his brow knit, and his +pallid cheeks became flushed with anger. Neither could he divert +attention by eating; his parched mouth would not allow him to swallow any +thing but liquids, of which, however, he indulged in copious libations; +and it was an exceeding relief to him when the carriage, which was to +convey them to St. Denis, being announced, furnished an excuse for +hastily leaving the table. Looking at his watch, he declared it was late; +and Natalie, who saw how eager he was to be gone, threw her shawl over +her shoulders, and bidding her friends _good morning_, they hurried away. + +It was a fine sunny day in June; and as they drove along the crowded +boulevards, and through the Porte St. Denis, the young bride and +bridegroom, to avoid each other's eyes, affected to be gazing out of the +windows; but when they reached the part of the road where there was +nothing but trees on each side, they felt it necessary to draw in their +heads, and make an attempt at conversation, De Chaulieu put his arm round +his wife's waist, and tried to rouse himself from his depression; but it +had by this time so reacted upon her, that she could not respond to his +efforts, and thus the conversation languished, till both felt glad when +they reached their destination, which would, at all events, furnish them +something to talk about. + +Having quitted the carriage, and ordered a dinner at the Hotel de +l'Abbaye, the young couple proceeded to visit Mademoiselle Hortense de +Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see her sister and new brother-in-law, +and doubly so when she found that they had obtained permission to take +her out to spend the afternoon with them. As there is little to be seen +at St. Denis but the Abbey, on quitting that part of it devoted to +education, they proceeded to visit the church, with its various objects +of interest; and as De Chaulieu's thoughts were now forced into another +direction, his cheerfulness began insensibly to return. Natalie looked so +beautiful, too, and the affection betwixt the two young sisters was so +pleasant to behold! And they spent a couple of hours wandering about with +Hortense, who was almost as well informed as the Suisse, till the brazen +doors were opened which admitted them to the Royal vault. Satisfied, at +length, with what they had seen, they began to think of returning to the +inn, the more especially as De Chaulieu, who had not eaten a morsel of +food since the previous evening, owned to being hungry; so they directed +their steps to the door, lingering here and there as they went, to +inspect a monument or a painting, when, happening to turn his head aside +to see if his wife, who had stopped to take a last look at the tomb of +King Dagobert, was following, he beheld with horror the face of Jacques +Rollet appearing from behind a column! At the same instant his wife +joined him, and took his arm, inquiring if he was not very much delighted +with what he had seen. He attempted to say yes, but the word would not be +forced out; and staggering out of the door, he alleged that a sudden +faintness had overcome him. + +They conducted him to the Hotel, but Natalie now became seriously +alarmed; and well she might. His complexion looked ghastly, his limbs +shook, and his features bore an expression of indescribable horror and +anguish. What could be the meaning of so extraordinary a change in the +gay, witty, prosperous De Chaulieu, who, till that morning, seemed not to +have a care in the world? For, plead illness as he might, she felt +certain, from the expression of his features, that his sufferings were +not of the body but of the mind; and, unable to imagine any reason for +such extraordinary manifestations, of which she had never before seen a +symptom, but a sudden aversion to herself, and regret for the step he had +taken, her pride took the alarm, and, concealing the distress she really +felt, she began to assume a haughty and reserved manner towards him, +which he naturally interpreted into an evidence of anger and contempt. +The dinner was placed upon the table; but De Chaulieu's appetite, of +which he had lately boasted, was quite gone, nor was his wife better able +to eat. The young sister alone did justice to the repast; but although +the bridegroom could not eat, he could swallow champagne in such copious +draughts, that ere long the terror and remorse that the apparition of +Jacques Rollet had awakened in his breast were drowned in intoxication. +Amazed and indignant, poor Natalie sat silently observing this elect of +her heart, till overcome with disappointment and grief, she quitted the +room with her sister, and retired to another apartment, where she gave +free vent to her feelings in tears. + +After passing a couple of hours in confidences and lamentations, they +recollected that the hours of liberty granted, as an especial favor, to +Mademoiselle Hortense, had expired; but ashamed to exhibit her husband in +his present condition to the eyes of strangers, Natalie prepared to +re-conduct her to the _Maison Royale_ herself. Looking into the +dining-room as they passed, they saw De Chaulieu lying on a sofa fast +asleep, in which state he continued when his wife returned. At length, +however, the driver of their carriage begged to know if Monsieur and +Madame were ready to return to Paris, and it became necessary to arouse +him. The transitory effects of the champagne had now subsided; but when +De Chaulieu recollected what had happened, nothing could exceed his shame +and mortification. So engrossing indeed were these sensations that they +quite overpowered his previous one, and, in his present vexation, he, for +the moment, forgot his fears. He knelt at his wife's feet, begged her +pardon a thousand times, swore that he adored her, and declared that the +illness and the effect of the wine had been purely the consequences of +fasting and over-work. It was not the easiest thing in the world to +re-assure a woman whose pride, affection, and taste, had been so severely +wounded; but Natalie tried to believe, or to appear to do so, and a sort +of reconciliation ensued, not quite sincere on the part of the wife, and +very humbling on the part of the husband. Under these circumstances it +was impossible that he should recover his spirits or facility of manner; +his gaiety was forced, his tenderness constrained; his heart was heavy +within him; and ever and anon the source whence all this disappointment +and woe had sprung would recur to his perplexed and tortured mind. + +Thus mutually pained and distrustful, they returned to Paris, which they +reached about nine o'clock. In spite of her depression, Natalie, who had +not seen her new apartments, felt some curiosity about them, whilst De +Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting the elegant home he had +prepared for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they stepped out of the +carriage, the gates of the Hotel were thrown open, the _concierge_ rang +the bell which announced to the servants that their master and mistress +had arrived, and whilst these domestics appeared above, holding lights +over the balustrades, Natalie, followed by her husband, ascended the +stairs. But when they reached the landing-place of the first flight, they +saw the figure of a man standing in a corner as if to make way for them; +the flash from above fell upon his face, and again Antoine de Chaulieu +recognized the features of Jacques Rollet! + +From the circumstance of his wife's preceding him, the figure was not +observed by De Chaulieu till he was lifting his foot to place it on the +top stair: the sudden shock caused him to miss the step, and, without +uttering a sound, he fell back, and never stopped till he reached the +stones at the bottom. The screams of Natalie brought the concierge from +below and the maids from above, and an attempt was made to raise the +unfortunate man from the ground; but with cries of anguish he besought +them to desist. + +"Let me," he said, "die here! What a fearful vengeance is thine! O, +Natalie, Natalie!" he exclaimed to his wife, who was kneeling beside him, +"to win fame, and fortune, and yourself, I committed a dreadful crime! +With lying words I argued away the life of a fellow-creature, whom, +whilst I uttered them, I half believed to be innocent; and now, when I +have attained all I desired, and reached the summit of my hopes, the +Almighty has sent him back upon the earth to blast me with the sight. +Three times this day--three times this day! Again! again!"--and as he +spoke, his wild and dilated eyes fixed themselves on one of the +individuals that surrounded him. + +"He is delirious," said they. + +"No," said the stranger! "What he says is true enough,--at least in +part;" and bending over the expiring man, he added, "May Heaven forgive +you, Antoine de Chaulieu! I was not executed; one who well knew my +innocence saved my life. I may name him, for he is beyond the reach of +the law now,--it was Claperon, the jailor, who loved Claudine, and had +himself killed Alphonse de Bellefonds from jealousy. An unfortunate +wretch had been several years in the jail for a murder committed during +the frenzy of a fit of insanity. Long confinement had reduced him to +idiocy. To save my life Claperon substituted the senseless being for me, +on the scaffold; he was executed in my stead. He has quitted the country, +and I have been a vagabond on the face of the earth ever since that time. +At length I obtained, through the assistance of my sister, the situation +of concierge in the Hotel Marboeuf, in the Rue Grange-Bateliere. I +entered on my new place yesterday evening, and was desired to awaken the +gentleman on the third floor at seven o'clock. When I entered the room to +do so, you were asleep, but before I had time to speak you awoke, and I +recognized your features in the glass. Knowing that I could not vindicate +my innocence if you chose to seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus +starting for St. Denis, I got on it with a vague idea of getting on to +Calais, and crossing the Channel to England. But having only a franc or +two in my pocket, or indeed in the world, I did not know how to procure +the means of going forward; and whilst I was lounging about the place, +forming first one plan and then another, I saw you in the church, and +concluding you were in pursuit of me, I thought the best way of eluding +your vigilance was to make my way back to Paris as fast as I could; so I +set off instantly, and walked all the way; but having no money to pay my +night's lodging, I came here to borrow a couple of livres of my sister +Claudine, who lives in the fifth story." + +"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed the dying man; "that sin is off my soul! +Natalie, dear wife, farewell! Forgive, forgive all!" + +These were the last words he uttered; the priest, who had been +summoned in haste, held up the cross before his failing sight; a few +strong convulsions shook the poor bruised and mangled frame; and then +all was still. + +And thus ended the Young Advocate's Wedding Day. + + + + +A MURDER IN THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES. + + +There is, perhaps, no country or climate more beautiful than England, as +seen in one of its rural landscapes, when the sun has just risen upon a +cloudless summer's dawn. The very feeling that the delightful freshness +of the moment will not be entirely destroyed during the whole day, +renders the prospect more agreeable than the anticipated fiery advance of +the sun in southern or tropical lands. Exhilaration and gladness are the +marked characteristics of an English summer morning. So it ever is, and +so it was hundreds of years ago, when occurred the events we are about to +narrate. How lovely then, on such a morning as we allude to, looked that +rich vale in the centre of Gloucestershire, through which the lordly +Severn flows! The singing of the birds, the reflective splendor of the +silvery waters, the glittering of the dew as it dazzled and +disappeared--all combined to charm sound, sight, and sense, and to +produce a strong feeling of joy. But the horseman, who was passing +through this graceful scene, scarcely needed the aid of any external +object to enhance the pleasurable sensation that already filled his +breast. The stately horse on which he sat, seemed, by its light steps, +and by ever and anon proudly prancing, to share in the animation of its +rider. So, the noble stag-hound that followed, and continually looked up +contentedly at its master, appeared, likewise, a participator in the +general content. The stranger had indeed cause to rejoice, for he was +upon the fairest errand. He bad wooed and won the gentle heiress of a +proud, but good-hearted Gloucestershire baron--he had wooed and won her, +too, with the full consent of father, kinsmen, and friends, and he was +now on his way to the baron's castle to arrange with his betrothed the +ceremonial of the nuptials. Ride on, thou gallant knight, ride on, and +swifter too; for though the day will be yet early when thou arrivest, +thou wilt find thyself expected within the Gothic enciente of the Baron +de Botetourt's dwelling. A banner waves from the topmost tower to do thee +honor and welcome; there walks, too, by the battlements, one whose night +has been sleepless because of thee, whose thoughts and whose whole +existence centre in thee, whose look firmly attaches to the road that +brings thee to her. Ride on then speedily, Sir Knight, to the happiness +thy virtue and thy deeds have so well deserved. + +This lover is no ordinary suitor: he is of mingled Saxon and Norman noble +blood, the recent companion-in-arms of Richard Coeur de Lion. His name is +Ralph de Sudley, and though he has passed his thirtieth year, the effect +of long toil and war scarcely appears upon his handsome and still very +youthful countenance. Yet the knight has seen and endured much: he has +been with Richard at the siege and capture of Acre, and at the battle of +Azotus. When Conrad of Montferrat fell by the dagger of the assassins, +Sir Ralph took a prominent part in the stormy debates which ensued among +the Crusaders. He even proposed with his men-at-arms, and those who would +follow him, to invade the territory of the Lord of the Mountain, and to +avenge in his blood the death which that king of murderers had caused to +be done to Conrad. This event made so deep an impression on his mind, +that he still took every opportunity of urging upon his own and other +Christian governments the necessity of extirpating these eastern +assassins. On his return from the crusades, Sir Ralph found the daughter +of his friend, the Baron de Botetourt, just verging into beauteous +womanhood. The glory of his reputation, and the graces of his person, +gained her heart at once; the Lady Alianore, though much his junior in +years, loved the knight fondly and devotedly. + +Sir Ralph has reached the portcullis of the castle; the wardour and +men-at-arms are there to receive him with full honors, though he comes +privately, without his armor or his followers: he wears the civil but +costly dress of the period, with no other weapon than a slight sword at +his side. But the baron will have each advent of his future son-in-law +welcomed as an approach of state. + +"Grammercy, Sir Baron," observed the knight, as after passing through a +crowd of domestics, he grasped his host's hand upon the threshold, "one +would imagine me Richard of England himself, or rather Saladin, that +greatest and most gaudy of Oriental Soldans, to see this pompous prelude +to my disjune with your lovely daughter and yourself." + +"Nay, Ralph de Sudley," replied the baron, "my castle must needs put on +its best looks, when it beholds the entry of one who is to be its lord +and protector when I shall be no more. But I see you are all impatience +to go within; and, in truth, the sooner your first interview be over the +better, for the table is prepared, and the pasty awaits us, and the +chaplain too, whose inward man, after the morning's Mass, craves some +solid refreshment." + +"A moment, my worthiest of friends, and I am with you," said the knight, +as he hurried by: in another instant the Lady Alianore was in his +embrace. Need we repeat the oft-told tale of love? Need we describe the +day of delight Sir Ralph passed in the castle, lingering from hour to +hour until the dusk? O, there is some one we must depict, the lady +herself, who so subdued and softened this knightly soul. There, one hand +upon the shoulder of her lover, her other hand locked in his, she sits +listening to his words, and luxuriating in his discourse. The Lady +Alianore, somewhat tall in stature, but perfect in form, has a face of +dazzling beauty, yet the bewitching sweetness of her smile is tempered by +a certain dignity of countenance, to which her dark, raven hair, and +darker eyes, do not a little contribute; her hands, and the foot that +peeps from beneath, her graceful robe, are of exquisite smallness, and +bespeak the purest Norman blood. Her extreme fairness, shaded by her +sable locks, form a strong contrast to the auburn hair and ruddy visage +of the stalwart warrior beside her. + +"This will indeed be too much, Ralph," observed the lady; "a monarch, his +queen, and his court, to come to this out-of-the-way castle, to honor the +wedding of a lone damsel like myself; I can hardly support the idea of so +much splendor." + +"Fear not, my beloved," replied the knight, "Richard is homely enough, +and all good nature. Moreover, it is but a return of civility; for I it +was who accompanied him to the altar, where he obtained the hand of +Berengaria of Navarre; the office was a dangerous one then, since I +incurred by it the wrath of Philip of France. And why, dearest, should +not every magnificence attend our nuptials? It is the outward emblem of +our great content--a mark, like those gorgeous ceremonies that accompany +the festive prayers of the Church, which tell the people of the earth of +a joy having something of the gladness and glory of Heaven in it." + +"Be it as you wish, my own true knight; yet I almost feel that I am too +happy. May God bless and protect us!" + +Thus passed this bright day, until the approach of dusk imperatively +compelled the enraptured lovers to separate. The knight had urgent +business to settle, early on the morrow, at his own castle, before +setting out for London, to announce to the king the day fixed for the +espousal, and to beg from the monarch the fulfilment of the promise he +had made, to be present in person with his court, at the wedding of his +gallant and faithful vassal. The knight was therefore forced to depart +ere the gloom advanced; for though his journey lay in a friendly and +peaceful country, it was not the habit in those days to be abroad much +after dusk, without an efficient escort. + +Sir Ralph reluctantly quitted his betrothed: he made his escape moreover +from the baron and the chaplain, who prayed his further tarrying, to +share in another flagon of Rhenish about to be produced. The horse and +dog were at the porch, and, in a few minutes, the knight had passed the +drawbridge, and was in the same fair road again. + +"I have known Sir Ralph from his birth," observed the baron to the +chaplain, "and I love him as my own son. The king may well come here to +see him wedded; for he has not a nobler, braver, or more generous knight +within his realm." + +"Truly, Sir Baron, he is endowed with much excellence," replied the +priest; "I do greatly admire his strong denunciation against the Templars +and other warlike orders, who tolerate the protracted existence of that +band of murderers in the past who have their daggers ever pointed +against the sons of the Church. Sir Ralph speaks on this subject like a +true soldier of the Cross." + +"Very true," retorted the baron, "yet I wish our chevaliers would cease +to think of foreign broils and questions, and attend to affairs at home. +This Rhenish is perfect: after all, wine is the only thing really good +that originates beyond our seas." + +Their discourse had scarcely proceeded farther, when it was suddenly +interrupted by the loud howling and barking of a dog. The baron and the +chaplain started up. "It is Leo, Sir Ralph's dog," exclaimed the former, +"what in God's name can be the matter?" and the two rushed out. + +The Lady Alianore, at her orisons above, heard the same terrible howl and +bark. She instantly descended to the courtyard; as she came there, the +outer gate was opened, and Leo, the knight's dog, flew past the wardour, +and ran to the feet of the lady. The animal's mouth was blood-stained, +and his glaring eye-balls and ruffled crest showed the extent of his fury +and despair. + +"Something dreadful has happened to Sir Ralph," she cried, and urged +by the dog, who had seized her robe, she hurried through the gate, +and crossed the drawbridge, with a rapidity those who followed could +not arrest. + +When the baron, his chaplain, and his domestics had proceeded a little +beyond a quarter of a mile upon the road, a fearful sight met their view. + +The knight lay dead upon the green sward by the side of the highway; a +poignard which had effected the mortal wound, still rested fixed into his +back. His body was locked fast in the embrace of the Lady Alianore, who +lay senseless upon it: the dog stood by, howling piteously. No trace +could be discovered of who had done the deed. No proof was there beyond +the dagger itself, which was of Oriental fashion, and bore the +inscription in Latin _Hoc propter verba tua_; naught beyond that and +another circumstance, which went to show that the knight had been slain +by an eastern enemy. The dog, as he re-entered the castle, called +attention to some pieces of blood-stained rag, which, from their +appearance, had dropped from his mouth; one of these, the innermost, was +in texture and pattern evidently part of a Syrian garment. + +The Lady Alianore did not die under this dreadful calamity: she lived to +mourn. The knight was interred within the precinct of the Abbey Church of +Gloucester; his tomb and effigy were in a niche at an angle of the +cloisters. Here would Alianore continually come, accompanied by Leo, who, +since his master's death, never left her side; here would she stop, +fixedly gazing upon the monument, the tear in her eye, and the chill of +hopeless sorrow in her heart. There are, indeed, few of us, who, +wandering through the interior of some noble ecclesiastical edifice, can +suppress a feeling of melancholy, when we view the sepulchre of a knight +of repute, who has died in his prime, in the midst of his achievements +and his fame, and who, clad in the harness of his pride, lies +outstretched in the marble before us. Courage and courtesy, chivalry and +Christianity, are buried there--there the breast, replete with honor, the +heart to feel, and the right arm to defend. The monument tells of the +sudden extinguishment of some bright light that shone in a semi-barbarous +age, which had its main civilization and refinement from knights and +churchmen solely. If this sight would sadden a stranger soul, what must +have been the deep grief of the lady as she contemplated the cold +memorial of Sir Ralph, and felt that the consummation of her whole +earthly comfort was there entombed! A secret sentiment that satisfied, or +rather softened her mental agony, brought her again and again to the +place--ay, again and again to gaze upon the grave, and then to retire +into the church to long and ardent prayer. + +About two years after the knight had been dead, the Lady Alianore was one +morning departing through the cloisters from a visit to the tomb, when +her attention was suddenly arrested by a low growl from the dog who +accompanied her. She turned back, and saw two persons in the garb of +foreign merchants or traders, the one pointing out to the other the +knight's monumental effigy. Scarcely had she made the observation, when +Leo rushed from her side, and flew at the throat of him who was +exhibiting the grave; in an instant he brought him to the ground; the +other endeavored to escape, but some sacristans who heard the noise, +hastened to the spot, and the men were arrested. + +On examination, the two pretended merchants were found to wear eastern +habilaments beneath their long gowns, and the cloth of the turban was +concealed under the broad brimmed hat of each. They both had daggers, and +upon the arm of the one the dog had seized, there was the deep scar of +what seemed to be a desperate bite. Further proof became needless, for +when every chance of escape was gone, they made a full confession, and +appeared to glory in it. They were emissaries from the Old Man of the +Mountain. The one on a previous occasion had journeyed from the far east +to do his fearful master's bidding, and had stabbed the knight in the +back, on the evening he rode in his gladness from the abode of his +affianced bride. The fanatic himself narrowly escaped destruction at the +time; for the dog had fixed his teeth into his arm, and it was only by +allowing the flesh to be torn out, (his dagger was in his victim,) that +he contrived to reach a swift Arabian horse, which bore him from the +scene. He had since returned to Phoenicia, and had once more come to +England, bringing with him a comrade to remove a doubt expressed by his +master, and to testify to the monarch of the Mountain how effectively his +object had been accomplished. + +The Baron de Botetourt, with the assent of the crown, caused the two +miscreants to be hanged upon a gibbet on the summit of his castle, their +turbans tied to their heels. Leo, as if he had nothing more to live for, +soon after pined and died. The Lady Alianore, retired into a convent, and +eventually became its abbess. During the course of her monastic life, she +preserved in silence her undying regret for the knight, and the +recollection of her happiness, so miserably thwarted. She was always kind +and gentle, yet always also dignified and reserved. On her death-bed, she +requested that her remains might be interred in the Abbey of Gloucester, +nigh unto the tomb of Sir Ralph de Sudley, and that her monumental tablet +should contain no more than her name and state, and an inscription +pointing out the extreme vanity of all human felicity. Such a memorial, +it is said, was, until entirely effaced by time, to be seen, read, and +thought upon, within the cloisters of Gloucester's time-honored and +sanctified cathedral. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Experiences of a Barrister, and +Confessions of an Attorney, by Samuel Warren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER *** + +***** This file should be named 12371.txt or 12371.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/3/7/12371/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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