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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Crock of Gold, by Martin Farquhar Tupper
+
+
+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 Crock of Gold
+       A Rural Novel
+
+
+Author: Martin Farquhar Tupper
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 14, 2005  [eBook #17062]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROCK OF GOLD***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+THE CROCK OF GOLD;
+
+A Rural Novel.
+
+by
+
+MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER, ESQ., M.A.,
+
+Author of "Proverbial Philosophy."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Hartford:
+Silas Andrus and Son.
+
+1851.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE LABOURER; AND HIS DAWNING DISCONTENT.
+
+
+ROGER ACTON woke at five. It was a raw March morning, still
+dark, and bitterly cold, while at gusty intervals the rain beat in
+against the crazy cottage-window. Nevertheless, from his poor pallet he
+must up and rouse himself, for it will be open weather by sunrise, and
+his work lies two miles off; Master Jennings is not the man to show him
+favour if he be late, and Roger cannot afford to lose an hour: so he
+shook off the luxury of sleep, and rose again to toil with weary effort.
+
+"Honest Roger," as the neighbours called him, was a fair specimen of a
+class which has been Britain's boast for ages, and may be still again,
+in measure, but at present that glory appears to be departing: a class
+much neglected, much enduring; thoroughly English--just, industrious,
+and patient; true to the altar, and loyal to the throne; though haply
+shaken somewhat now from both those noble faiths--warped in their
+principles, and blunted in their feelings, by lying doctrines and harsh
+economies; a class--I hate the cold cant term--a race of honourable men,
+full of cares, pains, privations--but of pleasures next to none; whose
+life at its most prosperous estate is labour, and in death we count him
+happy who did not die a pauper. Through them, serfs of the soil, the
+earth yields indeed her increase, but it is for others; from the fields
+of plenty they glean a scanty pittance, and fill the barns to bursting,
+while their children cry for bread. Not that Roger for his part often
+wanted work; he was the best hand in the parish, and had earned of his
+employers long ago the name of Steady Acton; but the fair wages for a
+fair day's labour were quite another thing, and the times went very hard
+for him and his. A man himself may starve, while his industry makes
+others fat: and a liberal landlord all the winter through may keep his
+labourers in work, while a crafty, overbearing bailiff mulcts them in
+their wages.
+
+For the outward man, Acton stood about five feet ten, a gaunt, spare,
+and sinewy figure, slightly bent; his head sprinkled with gray; his face
+marked with those rigid lines, which tell, if not of positive famine, at
+least of too much toil on far too little food; in his eye, patience and
+good temper; in his carriage, a mixture of the sturdy bearing, necessary
+to the habitual exercise of great muscular strength, together with that
+gait of humility--almost humiliation--which is the seal of oppression
+upon poverty. He might be about forty, or from that to fifty, for
+hunger, toil, and weather had used him the roughest; while, for all
+beside, the patched and well-worn smock, the heavily-clouted high-laced
+boots, a dingy worsted neck-tie, and an old felt hat, complete the
+picture of externals.
+
+But, for the matter of character within, Roger is quite another man. If
+his rank in this world is the lowest, many potentates may envy him his
+state elsewhere. His heart is as soft, as his hand is horny; with the
+wandering gipsy or the tramping beggar, thrust aside, perhaps
+deservedly, as impudent impostors from the rich man's gate, has he
+often-times shared his noon-day morsel: upright and sincere himself, he
+thinks as well of others: he scarcely ever heard the Gospels read in
+church, specially about Eastertide, but the tears would trickle down his
+weather-beaten face: he loves children--his neighbour's little ones as
+well as his own: he will serve any one for goodness' sake without reward
+or thanks, and is kind to the poor dumb cattle: he takes quite a pride
+in his little rod or two of garden, and is early and late at it, both
+before and after the daily sum of labour: he picks up a bit of knowledge
+here and there, and somehow has contrived to amass a fund of information
+for which few would give him credit from his common looks; and he joins
+to that stock of facts a natural shrewdness to use his knowledge wisely.
+Though with little of what is called sentiment, or poetry, or fancy in
+his mind (for harsh was the teaching of his childhood, and meagre the
+occasions of self-culture ever since), the beauty of creation is by no
+means lost upon him, and he notices at times its wisdom too. With a
+fixed habit of manly piety ever on his lips and ever in his heart, he
+recognises Providence in all things, just, and wise, and good. More than
+so; simply as a little child who endures the school-hour for the
+prospect of his play-time, Roger Acton bears up with noble meekness
+against present suffering, knowing that his work and trials and
+troubles are only for a little while, but his rest and his reward remain
+a long hereafter. He never questioned this; he knew right well Who had
+earned it for him; and he lived grateful and obedient, filling up the
+duties of his humble station. This was his faith, and his works followed
+it. He believed that God had placed him in his lot, to be a labourer,
+and till God's earth, and, when his work is done, to be sent on better
+service in some happier sphere: the where, or the how, did not puzzle
+him, any more than divers other enigmatical whys and wherefores of his
+present state; he only knew this, that it would all come right at last:
+and, barring sin (which he didn't comprehend), somehow all was right at
+present. What if poverty pinched him? he was a great heir still; what if
+oppression bruised him? it would soon be over. He trusted to his Pilot,
+like the landsman in a storm; to his Father, as an infant in the dark.
+For guilt, he had a Saviour, and he thought of him in penitence; for
+trouble, a Guardian, and he looked to him in peace; and as for toil,
+back-breaking toil, there was another Master whom he served with spade,
+and mattock, and a thankful heart, while he only seemed to be working
+for the landlord or his bailiff.
+
+Such a man then had been Roger Acton from his youth up till now, or, if
+sadness must be told, nearly until now; for, to speak truth, his heart
+at times would fail him, and of late he had been bitter in repinings and
+complaint. For a day or two, in particular, he had murmured loudly. It
+was hard, very hard, that an honest, industrious man, as he was, should
+so scantily pick a living out of this rich earth: after all said, let
+the parson preach as he will, it's a fine thing to have money, and that
+his reverence knows right well, or he wouldn't look so closely for his
+dues. [N.B. Poor Mr. Evans was struggling as well as he could to bring
+up six children, on a hundred and twenty pounds per annum.] Roger, too,
+was getting on in years, with a blacker prospect for the future than
+when he first stood behind a plough-tail. Then there were many wants
+unsatisfied, which a bit of gold might buy; and his wife teased him to
+be doing something better. Thus was it come at length to pass, that,
+although he had endured so many years, he now got discontented at his
+penury;--what human heart can blame him?--and with murmurings came
+doubt; with doubt of Providence, desire of lucre; so the sunshine of
+religion faded from his path;--what mortal mind can wonder?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FAMILY; THE HOME; AND MORE REPININGS.
+
+
+NOW, if Malthus and Martineau be verily the pundits that men
+think them, Roger had twice in his life done a very foolish thing: he
+had sinned against society, statistics, and common sense, by a two-fold
+marriage. The wife of his youth (I am afraid he married early) had once
+been kitchen-maid at the Hall; but the sudden change from living
+luxuriously in a great house, to the griping poverty of a cotter's
+hovel, had changed, in three short years, the buxom country girl into an
+emaciated shadow of her former self, and the sorrowing husband buried
+her in her second child-bed. The powers of the parish clapped their
+hands; political economy was glad; prudence chuckled; and a
+coarse-featured farmer (he meant no ill), who occasionally had given
+Roger work, heartlessly bade him be thankful that his cares were the
+fewer and his incumbrance was removed; "Ay, and Heaven take the babies
+also to itself," the Herodian added. But Acton's heart was broken!
+scarcely could he lift up his head; and his work, though sturdy as
+before, was more mechanical, less high-motived: and many a year of
+dreary widowhood he mourned a loss all the greater, though any thing but
+bitterer, for the infants so left motherless. To these, now grown into a
+strapping youth and a bright-eyed graceful girl, had he been the
+tenderest of nurses, and well supplied the place of her whom they had
+lost. Neighbours would have helped him gladly--sometimes did; and many
+was the hinted offer (disinterested enough, too, for in that match
+penury must have been the settlement, and starvation the dower), of
+giving them a mother's kindly care; but Roger could not quite so soon
+forget the dead: so he would carry his darlings with him to his work,
+and feed them with his own hard hands; the farmers winked at it, and
+never said a word against the tiny trespassers; their wives and
+daughters loved the little dears, bringing them milk and possets; and
+holy angels from on high may have oft-times hovered about this rude
+nurse, tending his soft innocents a-field, and have wept over the poor
+widower and his orphans, tears of happy sorrow and benevolent affection.
+Yea, many a good angel has shed blessings on their heads!
+
+Within the last three years, and sixteen from the date of his first
+great grief, Roger had again got married. His daughter was growing into
+early womanhood, and his son gave him trouble at times, and the cottage
+wanted a ruling hand over it when he was absent, and rheumatism now and
+then bade him look out for a nurse before old age, and Mary Alder was a
+notable middle-aged careful sort of soul, and so she became Mary Acton.
+All went on pretty well, until Mrs. Acton began to have certain little
+ones of her own; and then the step-mother would break out (a contingency
+poor Roger hadn't thought of), separate interests crept in, and her own
+children fared before the others; so it came to pass that, however truly
+there was a ruling hand at home, and however well the rheumatism got
+nursed (for Mary was a good wife in the main), the grown-up son and
+daughter felt themselves a little jostled out. Grace, gentle and
+submissive, found all her comforts shrunk within the space of her father
+and her Bible; Thomas, self-willed and open-hearted, sought his pleasure
+any where but at home, and was like to be taking to wrong courses
+through domestic bickering: Grace had the dangerous portion, beauty,
+added to her lowly lot, and attracted more admiration than her father
+wished, or she could understand; while the frank and bold spirit of
+Thomas Acton exposed him to the perilous friendship of Ben Burke the
+poacher, and divers other questionable characters.
+
+Of these elements, then, are our labourer and his family composed; and
+before Roger Acton goes abroad at earliest streak of dawn, we will take
+a casual peep within his dwelling. It consists of four bare rubble
+walls, enclosing a grouted floor, worn unevenly, and here and there in
+holes, and puddly. There were but two rooms in the tenement, one on the
+ground, and one over-head; which latter is with no small difficulty got
+at by scaling a ladder-like stair-case that fronts the cottage-door.
+This upper chamber, the common dormitory, for all but Thomas, who sleeps
+down stairs, has a thin partition at one end of it, to screen off the
+humble truckle-bed where Grace Acton forgets by night the troubles of
+the day; and the remainder of the little apartment, sordid enough, and
+overhung with the rough thatch, black with cobweb, serves for the father
+and mother with their recent nursery. Each room has its shattery
+casement, to let in through linchened panes, the doubtful light of
+summer, and the much more indubitable wind, and rain, and frost of
+wintry nights. A few articles of crockery and some burnished tins
+decorate the shelves of the lower apartment; which used to be much
+tidier before the children came, and trimmer still when Grace was sole
+manager: in a doorless cupboard are apparent sundry coarse edibles, as
+the half of a huge unshapely home-made loaf, some white country cheese,
+a mass of lumpy pudding, and so forth; beside it, on the window-sill, is
+better bread, a well-thumbed Bible, some tracts, and a few odd volumes
+picked up cheap at fairs; an old musket (occasionally Ben's companion,
+sometimes Tom's) is hooked to the rafters near a double rope of onions;
+divers gaudy little prints, tempting spoil of pedlars, in honour of
+George Barnwell, the Prodigal Son, the Sailor's Return, and the Death of
+Nelson, decorate the walls, and an illuminated Christmas carol is pasted
+over the mantel-piece: which, among other chattels and possessions,
+conspicuously bears its own burden of Albert and Victoria--two plaster
+heads, resplendently coloured, highly varnished, looking with arched
+eye-brows of astonishment on their uninviting palace, and royally
+contrasting with the sombre hue of poverty on all things else. The
+pictures had belonged to Mary, no small portion of her virgin wealth;
+and as for the statuary, those two busts had cost loyal Roger far more
+in comparison than any corporation has given to P.R.A., for majesty and
+consortship in full. There is, moreover, in the room, by way of
+household furniture, a ricketty, triangular, and tri-legged table, a
+bench, two old chairs with rush-bottoms, and a yard or two of matting
+that the sexton gave when the chancel was new laid. I don't know that
+there is any thing else to mention, unless it be a gaunt lurcher
+belonging to Ben Burke, and with all a dog's resemblance to his master,
+who lies stretched before the hearth where the peaty embers never quite
+die out, but smoulder away to a heap of white ashes; over these is
+hanging a black boiler, the cook of the family; and beside them, on a
+substratum of dry heather, and wrapped about with an old blanket, nearly
+companioned by his friend, the dog, snores Thomas Acton, still fast
+asleep, after his usual extemporaneous fashion.
+
+As to the up-stairs apartment, it contained little or nothing but its
+living inmates, their bedsteads and tattered coverlids, and had an air
+of even more penury and discomfort than the room below; so that, what
+with squalling children, a scolding wife, and empty stomach, and that
+cold and wet March morning, it is little wonder maybe (though no small
+blame), that Roger Acton had not enough of religion or philosophy to
+rise and thank his Maker for the blessings of existence.
+
+He had just been dreaming of great good luck. Poor people often do so;
+just as Ugolino dreamt of imperial feasts, and Bruce, in his delirious
+thirst on the Sahara, could not banish from his mind the cool fountains
+of Shiraz, and the luxurious waters of old Nile. Roger had unfortunately
+dreamt of having found a crock of gold--I dare say he will tell us his
+dream anon--and just as he was counting out his treasure, that blessed
+beautiful heap of shining money--cruel habit roused him up before the
+dawn, and his wealth faded from his fancy. So he awoke at five, anything
+but cheerfully.
+
+It was Grace's habit, good girl, to read to her father in the morning a
+few verses from the volume she best loved: she always woke betimes when
+she heard him getting up, and he could hear her easily from her little
+flock-bed behind the lath partition; and many a time had her dear
+religious tongue, uttering the words of peace, soothed her father's
+mind, and strengthened him to meet the day's affliction; many times it
+raised his thoughts from the heavy cares of life to the buoyant hopes of
+immortality. Hitherto, Roger had owed half his meek contentedness to
+those sweet lessons from a daughter's lips, and knew that he was
+reaping, as he heard, the harvest of his own paternal care, and
+heaven-blest instructions. However, upon this dark morning, he was full
+of other thoughts, murmurings, and doubts, and poverty, and riches. So,
+when Grace, after her usual affectionate salutations, gently began to
+read,
+
+"The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
+the glory--"
+
+Her father strangely stopped her on a sudden with--
+
+"Enough, enough, my girl! God wot, the sufferings are grievous, and the
+glory long a-coming."
+
+Then he heavily went down stairs, and left Grace crying.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CONTRAST.
+
+
+THUS, full of carking care, while he pushed aside the proffered
+consolation, Roger Acton walked abroad. There was yet but a glimmer of
+faint light, and the twittering of birds told more assuringly of morning
+than any cheerful symptom on the sky: however, it had pretty well ceased
+raining, that was one comfort, and, as Roger, shouldering his spade, and
+with the day's provision in a handkerchief, trudged out upon his daily
+duty, those good old thoughts of thankfulness came upon his mind, and he
+forgot awhile the dream that had unstrung him. Turning for a moment to
+look upon his hovel, and bless its inmates with a prayer, he half
+resolved to run back, and hear a few more words, if only not to vex his
+darling child: but there was now no time to spare; and then, as he gazed
+upon her desolate abode--so foul a casket for so fair a jewel--his
+bitter thoughts returned to him again, and he strode away, repining.
+
+Acton's cottage was one of those doubtful domiciles, whose only
+recommendation it is, that they are picturesque in summer. At present we
+behold a reeking rotting mass of black thatch in a cheerless swamp; but,
+as the year wears on, those time-stained walls, though still both damp
+and mouldy, will be luxuriantly overspread with creeping
+plants--honeysuckle, woodbine, jessamine, and the everblowing monthly
+rose. Many was the touring artist it had charmed, and Suffolk-street had
+seen it often: spectators looked upon the scene as on an old familiar
+friend, whose face they knew full well, but whose name they had
+forgotten for the minute. Many were the fair hands that had immortalized
+its beauties in their albums, and frequent the notes of admiration
+uttered by attending swains: particularly if there chanced to be taken
+into the view a feathery elm that now creaked overhead, and dripped on
+the thatch like the dropping-well at Knaresborough, and (in the near
+distance) a large pond, or rather lake, upon whose sedgy banks, gay--not
+now, but soon about to be--with flowering reeds and bright green
+willows, the pretty cottage stood. In truth, if man were but an
+hibernating animal, invisible as dormice in the winter, and only to be
+seen with summer swallows, Acton's cottage at Hurstley might have been a
+cantle cut from the Elysian-fields. But there are certain other seasons
+in the year, and human nature cannot long exist on the merely
+"picturesque in summer."
+
+Some fifty yards, or so, from the hither shore, we discern a roughly
+wooded ait, Pike Island to wit, a famous place for fish, and the grand
+rendezvous for woodcocks; which, among other useful and ornamental
+purposes, serves to screen out the labourer's hovel, at this the
+narrowest part of the lake, from a view of that fine old mansion on the
+opposite shore, the seat of Sir John Vincent, a baronet just of age, and
+the great landlord of the neighbourhood. Toward this mansion, scarcely
+yet revealed in the clear gray eye of morning, our humble hero, having
+made the long round of the lake, is now fast trudging; and it may merit
+a word or two of plain description, to fill up time and scene, till he
+gets nearer.
+
+A smooth grassy eminence, richly studded with park-like clumps of trees,
+slopes up from the water's very edge to--Hurstley Hall; yonder goodly,
+if not grand, Elizabethan structure, full of mullioned windows, carved
+oak panels, stone-cut coats of arms, pinnacles, and traceries, and
+lozenges, and drops; and all this glory crowned by a many-gabled,
+high-peaked roof. A grove of evergreens and American shrubs hides the
+lower windows from vulgarian gaze--for, in the neighbourly feeling of
+our ancestors, a public way leads close along the front; while, behind
+the house, and inaccessible to eyes profane, are drawn terraced gardens,
+beautifully kept, and blooming with a perpetual succession of the
+choicest flowers. The woods and shrubberies around, attempted some half
+a century back to be spoilt by the meddlesome bad taste of Capability
+Brown, have been somewhat too resolutely robbed of the formal avenues,
+clipped hedges, and other topiarian adjuncts which comport so well with
+the starch prudery of things Elizabethan; but they are still replete
+with grotto, fountain, labyrinth, and alcove--a very paradise for the
+more court-bred rank of sylphs, and the gentler elves of Queen Titania.
+
+However, we have less to do with the gardens than, probably, the elves
+have; and as Roger now, just at breaking day, is approaching the windows
+somewhat too curiously for a poor man's manners, it may not be amiss if
+we bear him company. He had pretty well recovered of his fit of
+discontent, for morning air and exercise can soon chase gloom away; so
+he cheerily tramped along, thinking as he went, how that, after all, it
+is a middling happy world, and how that the raindrops, now that it had
+cleared up, hung like diamonds on the laurels, when of a sudden, as he
+turned a corner near the house, there broke upon his ear, at that quiet
+hour, such a storm of boisterous sounds--voices so loud with oaths and
+altercation--such a calling, clattering, and quarrelling, as he had
+never heard the like before. So no wonder that he stepped aside to see
+it.
+
+The noise proceeded from a ground-floor window, or rather from three
+windows, lighted up, and hung with draperies of crimson and gold: one of
+the casements, flaring meretriciously in the modest eye of morn, stood
+wide open down to the floor, probably to cool a heated atmosphere; and
+when Roger Acton, with a natural curiosity, went on tiptoe, looked in,
+and just put aside the curtain for a peep, to know what on earth could
+be the matter, he saw a vision of waste and wealth, at which he stood
+like one amazed, for a poor man's mind could never have conceived its
+equal.
+
+Evidently, he had intruded on the latter end of a long and luxurious
+revel. Wax-lights, guttering down in gilded chandeliers, poured their
+mellow radiance round in multiplied profusion--for mirrors made them
+infinite; crimson and gold were the rich prevailing tints in that wide
+and warm banqueting-room; gayly-coloured pictures, set in frames that
+Roger fancied massive gold, hung upon the walls at intervals; a
+wagon-load of silver was piled upon the sideboard; there blazed in the
+burnished grate such a fire as poverty might imagine on a frozen
+winter's night, but never can have thawed its blood beside: fruits, and
+wines, and costly glass were scattered in prodigal disorder on the
+board--just now deserted of its noisy guests, who had crowded round a
+certain green table, where cards and heaps of sovereigns appeared to be
+mingled in a mass. Roger had never so much as conceived it possible that
+there could be wealth like this: it was a fairy-land of Mammon in his
+eyes: he stood gasping like a man enchanted; and in the contemplation of
+these little hills of gold--in their covetous longing contemplation, he
+forgot the noisy quarrel he had turned aside to see, and thirsted for
+that rich store earnestly.
+
+In an instant, as he looked (after the comparative lull that must
+obviously have succeeded to the clamours he had first heard), the roar
+and riot broke out worse than ever. There were the stormy revellers, as
+the rabble rout of Comus and his crew, filling that luxurious room with
+the sounds of noisy execration and half-drunken strife. Young Sir John,
+a free and generous fellow, by far the best among them all, has
+collected about him those whom he thought friends, to celebrate his
+wished majority; they had now kept it up, night after night, hard upon a
+week; and, as well became such friends--the gambler, the duellist, the
+man of pleasure, and the fool of Fashion--they never yet had separated
+for their day-light beds, without a climax to their orgie, something
+like the present scene.
+
+Henry Mynton, high in oath, and dashing down his cards, has charged Sir
+Richard Hunt with cheating (it was _sauter la coupe_ or _couper la
+saut_, or some such mystery of iniquity, I really cannot tell which):
+Sir Richard, a stout dark man, the patriarch of the party, glossily
+wigged upon his head, and imperially tufted on his chin, retorts with a
+pungent sarcasm, calmly and coolly uttered; that hot-headed fool
+Silliphant, clearly quite intoxicated, backs his cousin Mynton's view of
+the case by the cogent argument of a dice-box at Sir Richard's head--and
+at once all is struggle, strife, and uproar. The other guests, young
+fellows of high fashion, now too much warmed with wine to remember their
+accustomed Mohican cold-bloodedness--those happy debtors to the prowess
+of a Stultz, and walking advertisers of Nugee--take eager part with the
+opposed belligerents: more than one decanter is sent hissing through
+the air; more than one bloody coxcomb witnesses to the weight of a
+candle-stick and its hurler's clever aim: uplifted chairs are made the
+weapons of the chivalric combatants; and along with divers other less
+distinguished victims in the melee, poor Sir John Vincent, rushing into
+the midst, as a well-intentioned host, to quell the drunken brawl, gets
+knocked down among them all; the tables are upset, the bright gold runs
+about the room in all directions--ha! no one heeds it--no one owns
+it--one little piece rolled right up to the window-sill where Roger
+still looked on with all his eyes; it is but to put his hand in--the
+window is open to the floor--nay a finger is enough: greedily, one
+undecided moment, did he gaze upon the gold; he saw the hideous contrast
+of his own dim hovel and that radiant chamber--he remembered the pining
+faces of his babes, and gentle Grace with all her hardships--he thought
+upon his poverty and well deserts--he looked upon wastefulness of wealth
+and wantonness of living--these reflections struck him in a moment; no
+one saw him, no one cared about the gold; that little blessed morsel,
+that could do him so much good; all was confusion, all was opportunity,
+and who can wonder that his fingers closed upon the sovereign, and that
+he picked it up?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE LOST THEFT.
+
+
+STEALTHILY and quickly "honest Roger" crept away, for his
+conscience smote him on the instant: he felt he had done wrong; at any
+rate, the sovereign was not his--and once the thought arose in him to
+run back, and put it where he found it: but it was now become too
+precious in his sight, that little bit of gold--and they, the rioters
+there, could not want it, might not even miss it; and then its righteous
+uses--it should be well spent, even if ill-got: and thus, so many
+mitigations crowded in to excuse, if not to applaud the action, that
+within a little while his warped mind had come to call the theft a
+god-send.
+
+O Roger, Roger! alas for this false thought of that wrong deed! the
+poisonous gold has touched thy heart, and left on it a spot of cancer:
+the asp has bitten thee already, simple soul. This little seed will grow
+into a huge black pine, that shall darken for a while thy heaven, and
+dig its evil roots around thy happiness. Put it away, Roger, put it
+away: covet not unhallowed gold.
+
+But Roger felt far otherwise; and this sudden qualm of conscience once
+quelled (I will say there seemed much of palliation in the matter), a
+kind of inebriate feeling of delight filled his mind, and Steady Acton
+plodded on to the meadow yonder, half a mile a-head, in a species of
+delirious complacency. Here was luck indeed, filling up the promise of
+his dreams. His head was full of thoughts, pleasant holiday thoughts, of
+the many little useful things, the many small indulgences, that bit of
+gold should buy him. He would change it on the sly, and gradually bring
+the shillings home as extra pay for extra work; for, however much his
+wife might glory in the chance, and keep his secret, well he knew that
+Grace would have a world of things to say about it, and he feared to
+tell his daughter of the deed. However, she should have a ribbon, so she
+should, good girl, and the pedlar shouldn't pass the door unbidden;
+Mary, too, might have a cotton kerchief, and the babes a doll and a
+rattle, and poor Thomas a shilling to spend as he liked; and so, in
+happy revery, the kind father distributed his ill-got sovereign.
+
+For a while he held it in his hand, as loth to part from the tangible
+possession of his treasure; but manual contact could not last all day,
+and, as he neared his scene of labour--he came late after all, by the
+by, and lost the quarter-day, but it mattered little now--he began to
+cogitate a place of safety; and carefully put it in his fob. Poor
+fellow--he had never had enough to stow so well away before: his pockets
+had been thought quite trust-worthy enough for any treasures hitherto:
+never had he used that fob for watch, or note, or gold--and his
+predecessor in the cast-off garment had probably been quite aware how
+little that false fob was worthy of the name of savings' bank; it was in
+the situation of the Irishman's illimitable rope, with the end cut off.
+So while Roger was brewing up vast schemes of nascent wealth, and
+prosperous days at last, the filched sovereign, attracted by centripetal
+gravity, had found a passage downwards, and had straightway rolled into
+a crevice of mother-earth, long before its "brief lord" had commenced
+his day's labour. Yes, it had been lost a good hour ere he found it out,
+for he had fancied that he had felt it there, and often did he feel, but
+his fancy was a button; and when he made the dread discovery, what a
+sting of momentary anguish, what a sickening fear, what an eager search!
+and, as the grim truth became more evident, that, indeed, beyond all
+remedy, his new-got, ill-got, egg of coming wealth was all clean
+gone--oh! this was worm-wood, this was bitter as gall, and the strong
+man well-nigh fainted. It was something sad to have done the ill--but
+misery to have done it all for nothing: the sin was not altogether
+pleasant to his taste, but it was aloe itself to lose the reward. And
+when, pale and sick, leaning on his spade, he came to his old strength
+again, what was the reaction? Compunction at incipient crime, and
+gratitude to find its punishment so mercifully speedy, so lenient, so
+discriminative? I fear that if ever he had these thoughts at all, he
+chased them wilfully away: his disappointment, far from being softened
+into patience, was sharpened to a feeling of revenge at fate; and all
+his hope now was--such another chance, gold, more gold, never mind how;
+more gold, he burnt for gold, he lusted after gold!
+
+We must leave him for a time to his toil and his reflections, and touch
+another topic of our theme.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE INQUEST.
+
+
+JUST a week before the baronet came of age, and a fortnight
+from the present time, an awful and mysterious event had happened at the
+Hall: the old house-keeper, Mrs. Quarles, had been found dead in her
+bed, under circumstances, to say the very least, of a black and
+suspicious appearance. The county coroner had got a jury of the
+neighbours impanelled together; who, after sitting patiently on the
+inquest, and hearing, as well as seeing, the following evidence, could
+arrive at no verdict more specific than the obvious fact, that the poor
+old creature had been "found dead." The great question lay between
+apoplexy and murder; and the evidence tended to a well-matched conflict
+of opinions.
+
+First, there lay the body, quietly in bed, tucked in tidily and
+undisturbed, with no marks of struggling, none whatever--the clothes lay
+smooth, and the chamber orderly: yet the corpse's face was of a purple
+hue, the tongue swollen, the eyes starting from their sockets: it might,
+indeed, possibly have been an apoplectic seizure, which took her in her
+sleep, and killed her as she lay; _but_ that the gripe of clutching
+fingers had left their livid seals upon the throat, and countenanced
+the dreadful thought of strangulation!
+
+Secondly, a surgeon (one Mr. Eager, the Union doctor, a very young
+personage, wrong withal and radical) maintained that this actual
+strangulation might have been effected by the hands of the deceased
+herself, in the paroxysm of a rush of blood to the brain; and he
+fortified his wise position by the instance of a late statesman, who, he
+averred, cut his throat with a pen-knife, to relieve himself of pressure
+on the temples: while another surgeon--Stephen Cramp, he was farrier as
+well, and had been, until lately, time out of mind, the village
+AEsculapius, who looked with scorn on his pert rival, and opposed him
+tooth and nail on all occasions--insisted that it was not only
+physically impossible for poor Mrs. Quarles so to have strangled
+herself, but more particularly that, if she had done so, she certainly
+could not have laid herself out so decently afterwards; therefore, that
+as some one else had kindly done the latter office for her, why not the
+former too?
+
+Thirdly, Sarah Stack, the still-room maid, deposed, that Mrs. Quarles
+always locked her door before she went to bed, but that when she
+(deponent) went to call her as usual on the fatal morning, the door was
+just ajar; and so she found her dead: while parallel with this, tending
+to implicate some domestic criminal, was to be placed the equally
+uncommon fact, that the other door of Mrs. Quarles's room, leading to
+the lawn, was open too:--be it known that Mrs. Quarles was a stout
+woman, who could'nt abide to sleep up-stairs, for fear of fire;
+moreover, that she was a nervous woman, who took extraordinary
+precautions for her safety, in case of thieves. Thus, unaccountably
+enough, the murderer, if there was any, was as likely to have come from
+the outside, as from the in.
+
+Fourthly, the murderer in this way is commonly a thief, and does the
+deed for mammon-sake; but the new house-keeper, lately installed, made
+her deposition, that, by inventories duly kept and entered--for her
+honoured predecessor, rest her soul! had been a pattern of
+regularity--all Mrs. Quarles's goods and personal chattels were found to
+be safe and right in her room--some silver spoons among them too--ay,
+and a silver tea-pot; while, as to other property in the house, with
+every room full of valuables, nothing whatever was missing from the
+lists, except, indeed, what was scarce worth mention (unless one must be
+very exact), sundry crocks and gallipots of honey, not forthcoming;
+these, however, it appeared probable that Mrs. Quarles had herself
+consumed in a certain mixture she nightly was accustomed too, of rum,
+horehound, and other matters sweetened up with honey, for her
+hoarseness. It seemed therefore clear she was not murdered for her
+property, nor by any one intending to have robbed the house.
+
+Against this it was contended, and really with some show of reason, that
+as Mrs. Quarles was thought to have a hoard, always set her face against
+banks, railway shares, speculations, and investments, and seemed to have
+left nothing behind her but her clothes and so forth, it was still
+possible that the murderer who took the life, might have also been the
+thief to take the money.
+
+Fifthly, Simon Jennings--butler in doors, bailiff out of doors, and
+general factotum every where to the Vincent interest--for he had managed
+to monopolize every place worth having, from the agent's book to the
+cellar-man's key--the said Simon deposed, that on the night in question,
+he heard the house-dog barking furiously, and went out to quiet him; but
+found no thieves, nor knew any reason why the dog should have barked so
+much.
+
+Now, the awkward matter in this deposition (if Mr. Jennings had not been
+entirely above suspicion--the idea was quite absurd--not to mention that
+he was nephew to the deceased, a great favourite with her, and a man
+altogether of the very strictest character), the awkward matters were
+these: the nearest way out to the dog, indeed the only way but casement
+windows on that side of the house, was through Mrs. Quarles's room: she
+had had the dog placed there for her special safety, as she slept on the
+ground floor; and it was not to be thought that Mr. Jennings could do so
+incorrect a thing as to pass through her room after bed-time, locked or
+unlocked--indeed, when the question was delicately hinted to him, he was
+quite shocked at it--quite shocked. But if he did not go that way, which
+way did he go? He deposed, indeed, and his testimony was no ways to be
+doubted, that he went through the front door, and so round; which, under
+the circumstances, was at once a very brave and a very foolish thing to
+do; for it is, first, little wisdom to go round two sides of a square to
+quiet a dog, when one might have easily called to him from the
+men-servants' window; and secondly, albeit Mr. Jennings was a strict
+man, an upright man, shrewd withal, and calculating, no one had ever
+thought him capable of that Roman virtue, courage. Still, he had
+reluctantly confessed to this one heroic act, and it was a bold one, so
+let him take the credit of it--mainly because--
+
+Sixthly, Jonathan Floyd, footman, after having heard the dog bark at
+intervals, surely for more than a couple of hours, thought he might as
+well turn out of his snug berth for a minute, just to see what ailed
+the dog, or how many thieves were really breaking in. Well, as he
+looked, he fancied he saw a boat moving on the lake, but as there was no
+moon, he might have been mistaken.
+
+_By a Juryman._ It might be a punt.
+
+_By another._ He did'nt know how many boats there were on the
+lake-side: they had a boat-house at the Hall, by the water's edge, and
+therefore he concluded something in it; really did'nt know; might be a
+boat, might be a punt, might be both--or neither.
+
+_By the Coroner._ Could not swear which way it was moving; and, really,
+if put upon his Bible oath, wouldn't be positive about a boat at all, it
+was so dark, and he was so sleepy.
+
+Not long afterwards, as the dog got still more violent, he turned his
+eyes from straining after shadows on the lake, to look at home, and then
+all at once noticed Mr. Jennings trying to quiet the noisy animal with
+the usual blandishments of "Good dog, good dog--quiet, Don, quiet--down,
+good dog--down, Don, down!"
+
+_By a Juryman._ He would swear to the words.
+
+But Don would not hear of being quiet. After that, knowing all must be
+right if Mr. Jennings was about, he (deponent) turned in again, went to
+sleep, and thought no more of it till he heard of Mrs. Quarles's death
+in the morning. If he may be so bold as to speak his mind, he thinks the
+house-keeper, being fat, died o' the 'plexy in a nateral way, and that
+the dog barking so, just as she was a-going off, is proof positive of
+it. He'd often heard of dogs doing so; they saw the sperit gliding away,
+and barked at it; his (deponent's) own grandmother--
+
+At this juncture--for the court was getting fidgetty--the coroner cut
+short the opinions of Jonathan Floyd: and when Mr. Crown, summing up,
+presented in one focus all this evidence to the misty minds of the
+assembled jurymen, it puzzled them entirely; they could not see their
+way, fairly addled, did not know at all what to make of it. On the
+threshold, there was no proof it was a murder--the Union doctor was loud
+and staunch on this; and next, there seemed to be no motive for the
+deed, and no one to suspect of it: so they left the matter open, found
+her simply "Dead," and troubled their heads no more about the business.
+
+Good Mr. Evans, the vicar, preached her funeral sermon, only as last
+Sunday, amplifying the idea that she "was cut off in the midst of her
+days:" and thereby encouraging many of the simpler folks, who knew that
+Mrs. Quarles had long passed seventy, in the luminous notion that
+house-keepers in great establishments are privileged, among other
+undoubted perquisites, to live to a hundred and forty, unless cut off by
+apoplexy or murder.
+
+Mr. Simon Jennings, as nephew and next of kin, followed the body to its
+last home in the capacity of chief mourner; to do him justice, he was a
+real mourner, bewailed her loudly, and had never been the same man
+since. Moreover, although aforetime not much given to indiscriminate
+charity, he had now gained no small credit by distributing his aunt's
+wardrobe among the poorer families at Hurstley. It was really very kind
+of him, and the more so, as being altogether unexpected: he got great
+praise for this, did Mr. Jennings; specially, too, because he had gained
+nothing whatever from his aunt's death, though her heir and probable
+legatee, and clearly was a disappointed man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE BAILIFF; AND A BITTER TRIAL.
+
+
+JENNINGS--Mr. Simon Jennings--for he prided himself much both
+on the Mr. and the Simon, was an upright man, a very upright man indeed,
+literally so as well as metaphorically. He was not tall certainly, but
+what there was of him stood bolt upright. Many fancied that his neck was
+possessed of some natural infirmity, or rather firmity, of
+unbendableness, some little-to-be-envied property of being a perpetual
+stiff-neck; and they were the more countenanced in this theory, from the
+fact that, within a few days past, Mr. Jennings had contracted an ugly
+knack of carrying his erect head in the comfortless position of peeping
+over his left shoulder; not always so, indeed, but often enough to be
+remarkable; and then he would occasionally start it straight again, eyes
+right, with a nervous twitch, any thing but pleasant to the marvelling
+spectator. It was as if he was momentarily expecting to look upon some
+vague object that affrighted him, and sometimes really did see it. Mr.
+Jennings had consulted high medical authority (as Hurstley judged), to
+wit, the Union doctor of last scene, an enterprising practitioner, glib
+in theory, and bold in practice--and it had been mutually agreed between
+them that "stomach" was the cause of these unhandsome symptoms; acridity
+of the gastric juice, consequent indigestion and spasm, and generally a
+hypochondriacal habit of body. Mr. Jennings must take certain draughts
+thrice a day, be very careful of his diet, and keep his mind at ease. As
+to Simon himself, he was, poor man, much to be pitied in this ideal
+visitation; for, though his looks confessed that he saw, or fancied he
+saw, a something, he declared himself wholly at a loss to explain what
+that something was: moreover, contrary to former habits of an
+ostentatious boldness, he seemed meekly to shrink from observation: and,
+as he piously acquiesced in the annoyance, would observe that his
+unpleasant jerking was "a little matter after all, and that, no doubt,
+the will of Providence."
+
+Independently of these new grimaces, Simon's appearance was little in
+his favour: not that his small dimensions signified--Caesar, and
+Buonaparte, and Wellington, and Nelson, all were little men--not that
+his dress was other than respectable--black coat and waistcoat, white
+stiff cravat, gray trowsers somewhat shrunk in longitude, good
+serviceable shoe-leather (of the shape, if not also of the size, of
+river barges), and plenty of unbleached cotton stocking about the
+gnarled region of his ankles. All this was well enough; nature was
+beholden to that charity of art which hides a multitude of failings; but
+the face, where native man looks forth in all his unadornment, that it
+was which so seldom pre-possessed the many who had never heard of
+Jenning's strict character and stern integrity. The face was a sallow
+face, peaked towards the nose, with head and chin receding; lit withal
+by small protrusive eyes, so constructed, that the whites all round were
+generally visible, giving them a strange and staring look; elevated
+eye-brows; not an inch of whisker, but all shaved sore right up to the
+large and prominent ear; and lank black, hair, not much of it, scantily
+thatching all smooth. Then his arms, oscillating as he walked (as if the
+pendulum by which that rigid man was made to go his regular routine),
+were much too long for symmetry: and altogether, to casual view, Mr.
+Jennings must acknowledge to a supercilious, yet sneaking air--which
+charity has ere now been kind enough to think a conscious rectitude
+towards man, and a soft-going humility with God.
+
+When the bailiff takes his round about the property, as we see him now,
+he is mounted--to say he rides would convey far too equestrian a
+notion--he is mounted on a rough-coated, quiet, old, white
+shooting-pony; the saddle strangely girded on with many bands about the
+belly, the stirrups astonishingly short, and straps never called upon to
+diminish that long whity-brown interval between shoe and trowser: Mr.
+Jennings sits his steed with nose aloft, and a high perch in the
+general, somewhat loosely, and, had the pony been a Bucephalus rather
+than a Rozinante, not a little perilously. Simon is jogging hitherwards
+toward Roger Acton, as he digs the land-drain across this marshy meadow:
+let us see how it fares now with our poor hero.
+
+Occupation--yes, duteous occupation--has exerted its wholsesome
+influences, and, thank God! Roger is himself again. He has been very
+sorry half the day, both for the wicked feelings of the morning, and
+that still more wicked theft--a bad business altogether, he cannot bear
+to think of it; the gold was none of his, whosesoever it might be--he
+ought not to have touched it--vexed he did, but cannot help it now; it
+is well he lost it too, for ill-got money never came to any good:
+though, to be sure, if he could only get it honestly, money would make a
+man of him.
+
+I am not sure of that, Roger, it may be so sometimes; but, in my
+judgment, money has unmade more men than made them.
+
+"How now, Acton, is not this drain dug yet! You have been about it much
+too long, sir; I shall fine you for this."
+
+"Please you, Muster Jennings, I've stuck to it pretty tightly too,
+barring that I make to-day three-quarters, being late: but it's heavy
+clay, you see, Mr. Simon--wet above and iron-hard below: it shall all be
+ready by to-morrow, Mr. Simon."
+
+Whether the "Mr. Simon" had its softening influence, or any other
+considerations lent their soothing aid, we shall see presently; for the
+bailiff added, in a tone unusually indulgent,
+
+"Well, Roger, see it is done, and well done; and now I have just another
+word to say to you: his honour is coming round this way, and if he asks
+you any questions, remember to be sure and tell him this--you have got a
+comfortable cottage, very comfortable, just repaired, you want for
+nothing, and are earning twelve shillings a week."
+
+"God help me, Muster Jennings: why my wages are but eight, and my hovel
+scarcely better than a pig-pound."
+
+"Look you, Acton; tell Sir John what you have told me, and you are a
+ruined man. Make it twelve to his honour, as others shall do: who
+knows," he added, half-coaxing, half-soliloquizing, "perhaps his honour
+may really make it twelve, instead of eight."
+
+"Oh, Muster Jennings! and who gets the odd four?"
+
+"What, man! do you dare to ask me that? Remember, sir, at your peril,
+that you, and all the rest, _have had_ twelve shillings a-week wages
+whenever you have worked on this estate--not a word!--and that, if you
+dare speak or even think to the contrary, you never earn a penny here
+again. But here comes John Vincent, my master, as I, Simon Jennings, am
+yours: be careful what you say to him."
+
+Sir John Devereux Vincent, after a long minority, had at length shaken
+off his guardians, and become master of his own doings, and of Hurstley
+Hall. The property was in pretty decent order, and funds had accumulated
+vastly: all this notwithstanding a thousand peculations, and the
+suspicious incident that one of the guardians was a "highly respectable"
+solicitor. Sir John, like most new brooms, had with the best intentions
+resolved upon sweeping measures of great good; especially also upon
+doing a great deal with his own eyes and ears; but, like as aforesaid,
+he was permitted neither to hear nor see any truths at all. Just now,
+the usual night's work took him a little off the hooks, and we must make
+allowances; really, too, he was by far the soberest of all those choice
+spirits, and drank and played as little as he could; and even, under
+existing disadvantages, he managed by four o'clock post meridiem to
+inspect a certain portion of the estate duly every day, under the
+prudential guidance of his bailiff Jennings. There, that good-looking,
+tall young fellow on the blood mare just cantering up to us is Sir John;
+the other two are a couple of the gallant youths now feasting at the
+Hall: ay, two of the fiercest foes in last night's broil. Those heated
+little matters are easily got over.
+
+"Hollo, Jennings! what the devil made you give that start? you couldn't
+look more horrified if ghosts were at your elbow: why, your face is the
+picture of death; look another way, man, do, or my mare will bolt."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Sir John, but the spasm took me: it is my infirmity;
+forgive it. This meadow, you perceive, Sir John, requires drainage, and
+afterwards I propose to dress it with free chalk to sweeten the grass.
+Next field, you will take notice, the guano--"
+
+"Well, well--Jennings--and that poor fellow there up to his knees in
+mud, is he pretty tolerably off now?"
+
+"Oh, your honour," said the bailiff, with a knowing look, "I only wish
+that half the little farmers hereabouts were as well to do as he is: a
+pretty cottage, Sir John, half an acre of garden, and twelve shillings a
+week, is pretty middling for a single man."
+
+"Aha--is it?--well; but the poor devil looks wretched enough too--I will
+just ask him if he wants any thing now."
+
+"Don't, Sir John, pray don't; pray permit me to advise your honour:
+these men are always wanting. 'Acton's cottage' is a proverb; and Roger
+there can want for nothing honestly; nevertheless, as I know your
+honour's good heart, and wish to make all happy, if you will suffer me
+to see to it myself--"
+
+"Certainly, Jennings, do, do by all means, and thank you: here, just to
+make a beginning, as we're all so jolly at the Hall, and that poor
+fellow's up to his neck in mud, give him this from me to drink my health
+with."
+
+Acton, who had dutifully held aloof, and kept on digging steadily, was
+still quite near enough to hear all this; at the magical word "give," he
+looked up hurriedly, and saw Sir John Vincent toss a piece of gold--yes,
+on his dying oath, a bright new sovereign--to Simon Jennings. O blessed
+vision, and gold was to be his at last!
+
+"Come along, Mynton; Hunt, now mind you try and lame that big beast of a
+raw-boned charger among these gutters, will you? I'm off, Jennings; meet
+me, do you hear, at the Croft to-mor--"
+
+So the three friends galloped away; and John Vincent really felt more
+light-hearted and happy than at any time the week past, for having so
+properly got rid of a welcome bit of gold.
+
+"Roger Acton! come up here, sir, out of that ditch: his honour has been
+liberal enough to give you a shilling to drink his health with."
+
+"A shilling, Muster Jennings?" said the poor astonished man; "why I'll
+make oath it was a pound; I saw it myself. Come, Muster Jennings, don't
+break jokes upon a poor man's back."
+
+"Jokes, Acton? sticks, sir, if you say another word: take John Vincent's
+shilling."
+
+"Oh, sir!" cried Roger, quite unmanned at this most cruel
+disappointment; "be merciful--be generous--give me my gold, my own bit
+of gold! I'll swear his honour gave it for me: blessings on his head!
+You know he did, Mr. Simon; don't play upon me!"
+
+"Play upon you?--generous--your gold--what is it you mean, man? We'll
+have no madmen about us, I can tell you; take the shilling, or else--"
+
+"'Rob not the poor, because he is poor, for the Lord shall plead his
+cause,'" was the solemn answer.
+
+"Roger Acton!"--the bailiff gave a scared start, as usual, and,
+recovering himself, looked both white and stern: "you have dared to
+quote the Bible against me: deeply shall you rue it. Begone, man! your
+work on this estate is at an end."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WRONGS AND RUIN.
+
+
+A VERY miserable man was Roger Acton now, for this last trial
+was the worst of all. The vapours of his discontent had almost passed
+away--that bright pernicious dream was being rapidly forgotten--the
+morning's ill-got coin, "thank the Lord, it was lost as soon as found,"
+and penitence had washed away that blot upon his soul; but here, an
+honest pound, liberally bestowed by his hereditary landlord--his own
+bright bit of gold--the only bit but one he ever had (and how different
+in innocence from that one!)--a seeming sugar-drop of kindness, shed by
+the rich heavens on his cup of poverty--to have this meanly filched away
+by a grasping, grinding task-master--oh, was it not a bitter trial? What
+affliction as to this world's wealth can a man meet worse than this?
+
+Acton's first impulse was to run to the Hall, and ask to see Sir
+John:--"Out; won't be back till seven, and then can see nobody; the
+baronet will be dressing for dinner, and musn't be disturbed." Then he
+made a vain effort to speak with Mr. Jennings, and plead with him: yes,
+even on his knees, if must be. Mr. Simon could not be so bad; perhaps it
+was a long joke after all--the bailiff always had a queer way with him.
+Or, if indeed the man meant robbery, loudly to threaten him, that all
+might hear, to bring the house about his ears, and force justice, if he
+could not fawn it. But both these conflicting expedients were vetoed.
+Jonathan Floyd, who took in Acton's meek message of "humbly craved leave
+to speak with Master Jennings," came back with the inexplicable mandate,
+"Warn Roger Acton from the premises." So, he must needs bide till
+to-morrow morning, when, come what might, he resolved to see his honour,
+and set some truths before him.
+
+Acton was not the only man on the estate who knew that he had a
+landlord, generous, not to say prodigal--a warm-hearted,
+well-intentioned master, whose mere youth a career of sensuality had not
+yet hardened, nor a course of dissipation been prolonged enough to
+distort his feelings from the right. And Acton, moreover, was not the
+only man who wondered how, with such a landlord (ay, and the guardians
+before him were always well-spoken gentle-folks, kindly in their
+manners, and liberal in their looks), wages could be kept so low, and
+rents so high, and indulgences so few, and penalties so many. There
+were fines for every thing, and no allowances of hedgebote, or
+housebote, or any other time-honoured right; the very peat on the common
+must be paid for, and if a child picked a bit of fagot the father was
+mulcted in a shilling. Mr. Jennings did all this, and always pleaded his
+employers' orders; nay, if any grumbled, as men would now and then, he
+would affect to think it strange that the gentlemen guardians, with the
+landlord at their head, could be so hard upon the poor: he would not be
+so, credit him, if he had been born a gentleman; but the bailiff, men,
+must obey orders, like the rest of you; these are hard times for
+Hurstley, he would say, and we must all rub over them as best we can.
+According to Simon, it was as much as his own place was worth to remit
+one single penny of a fine, or make the least indulgence for calamity;
+while, as to lowering a cotter's rent, or raising a ditcher's wages, he
+dared not do it for his life; folks must not blame him, but look to the
+landlord.
+
+Now, all this, in the long absence of any definite resident master at
+the Hall, sounded reasonable, if true; and Mr. Jennings punctually paid,
+however bad the terms; so the poor men bode their time, and looked for
+better days. And the days long-looked-for now were come; but were they
+any better? The baronet, indeed, seemed bent upon inquiry, reform,
+redress; but, as he never went without the right-hand man, his
+endeavours were always unsuccessful. At first it would appear that the
+bailiff had gone upon his old plan, shrugging up his shoulders to the
+men at the master's meanness, while he praised to the landlord the
+condition of his tenants; but this could not long deceive, so he turned
+instanter on another tack; he assumed the despot, issuing authoritative
+edicts, which no one dared to disobey; he made the labourer hide his
+needs, and intercepted at its source the lord's benevolence; he began to
+be found out, so the bolder spirits said, in filching with both hands
+from man and master; and, to the mind of more than one shrewd observer,
+was playing the unjust steward to admiration.
+
+But stop: let us hear the other side; it is possible we may have been
+mistaken. Bailiffs are never popular, particularly if they are too
+honest, and this one is a stern man with a repulsive manner. Who knows
+whether his advice to Acton may not have been wise and kind, and would
+not have conduced to a general rise of wages? Who can prove, nay,
+venture to insinuate, any such systematic roguery against a man hitherto
+so strict, so punctual, so sanctimonious? Even in the case of Sir John's
+golden gift, Jennings may be right after all; it is quite possible that
+Roger was mistaken, and had gilt a piece of silver with his longings;
+and the upright man might well take umbrage at so vile an imputation as
+that hot and silly speech; it was foolish, very foolish, to have quoted
+text against him, and no wonder that the labourer got dismissed for it.
+Then again to return to wages--who knows? it might be, all things
+considered, the only way of managing a rise; the bailiff must know his
+master's mind best, and Acton had been wise to have done as he bade him;
+perhaps it really was well-meant, and might have got him twelve
+shillings a-week, instead of eight as hitherto; perhaps Simon was a
+shrewd man, and arranged it cleverly; perhaps Roger was an honest man,
+and couldn't but think others so.
+
+Any how, though, all was lost now, and he blamed his own rash tongue,
+poor fellow, for what he could not help fearing was the ruin of himself
+and all he loved. With a melancholy heart, he shouldered his spade, and
+slowly plodded homewards. How long should he have a home? How was he to
+get bread, to get work, if the bailiff was his enemy? How could he face
+his wife, and tell her all the foolish past and dreadful future? How
+could he bear to look on Grace, too beautiful Grace, and torture his
+heart by fancying her fate? Thomas, too, his own brave boy, whom utter
+poverty might drive to desperation? And the poor babes, his little
+playful pets, what on earth would become of them? There was the Union
+workhouse to be sure, but Acton shuddered at the thought; to be
+separated from every thing he loved, to give up his little all, and be
+made both a prisoner and a slave, all for the sake of what?--daily
+water-gruel, and a pauper's branded livery. Or they might perchance go
+beyond the seas, if some Prince Edward's Company would help him and his
+to emigrate; ay, thought he, and run new risks, encounter fresh dangers,
+lose every thing, get nothing, and all the trouble taken merely to
+starve three thousand miles from home. No, no; at his time of life, he
+could not be leaving for ever old friends, old habits, old fields, old
+home, old neighbourhood--where he had seen the saplings grow up trees,
+and the quick toppings change into a ten-foot hedge; where the very
+cattle knew his step, and the clods broke kindly to his ploughshare; and
+more than all, the dear old church, where his forefathers had worshipped
+from the Conquest, and the old mounds where they slept,
+and--and--and--that one precious grave of his dear lost Annie--could he
+leave it? Oh God, no! he had done no ill, he had committed no crime--why
+should he prefer the convict's doom, and seek to be transported for
+life?
+
+A miserable walk home was that, and full of wretched thoughts. Poor
+Roger Acton, tossed by much trouble, vexed with sore oppression, I wish
+that you had prayed in your distress; stop, he did pray, and that
+vehemently; but it was not for help, or guidance, or patience, or
+consolation--he only prayed for gold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE COVETOUS DREAM.
+
+
+ONCE at home, the sad truth soon was told. Roger's look alone
+spoke of some calamity, and he had but little heart or hope to keep the
+matter secret. True, he said not a word about the early morning's sin;
+why should he? he had been punished for it, and he had repented; let him
+be humbled before God, but not confess to man. However, all about the
+bailiff, and the landlord, and the thieved gift, and the sudden
+dismissal, the sure ruin, the dismal wayside plans, and fears, and dark
+alternatives, without one hope in any--these did poor Acton fluently
+pour forth with broken-hearted eloquence; to these Grace listened
+sorrowfully, with a face full of gentle trust in God's blessing on the
+morrow's interview; these Mary, the wife, heard to an end, with--no
+storm of execration on ill-fortune, no ebullition of unjust rage against
+a fool of a husband, no vexing sneers, no selfish apprehensions. Far
+from it; there really was one unlooked-for blessing come already to
+console poor Roger; and no little compensation for his trouble was the
+way his wife received the news. He, unlucky man, had expected something
+little short of a virago's talons, and a beldame's curse; he had
+experienced on less occasions something of the sort before; but now that
+real affliction stood upon the hearth, Mary Acton's character rose with
+the emergency, and she greeted her ruined husband with a kindness
+towards him, a solemn indignation against those who grind the poor, and
+a sober courage to confront evil, which he little had imagined.
+
+"Bear up, Roger; here, goodman, take the child, and don't look quite so
+downcast; come what may, I'll share your cares, and you shall halve my
+pleasures; we will fight it out together."
+
+Moreover, cross, and fidgetty, and scolding, as Mary had been ever
+heretofore, to her meek step-daughter Grace, all at once, as if just to
+disappoint any preconcerted theory, now that actual calamity was come,
+she turned to be a kind good mother to her. Roger and his daughter could
+scarcely believe their ears.
+
+"Grace, dear, I know you're a sensible good girl, try and cheer your
+father." And then the step-dame added,
+
+"There now, just run up, fetch your prayer-book down, and read a little
+to us all to do us good."--The fair, affectionate girl, unused to the
+accents of kindness, could not forbear flinging her arms round Mary
+Acton's neck, and loving her, as Ruth loved Naomi.
+
+Then with a heavenly smile upon her face, and a happy heart within her
+to keep the smile alight, her gentle voice read these words--it will do
+us good to read them too:
+
+  "Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice.
+  O let thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint.
+  If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss,
+      O Lord, who may abide it?
+  Because there is mercy with thee; therefore shall thou be feared.
+  I look for the Lord, my soul doth wait for him: in his word is my trust.
+  My soul fleeth unto the Lord, before the morning watch,
+      before the morning watch.
+  O Israel, trust in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy:
+      and with him is plenteous redemption.
+  And he shall redeem Israel from all his sins."
+
+"Isn't the last word 'troubles,' child? look again; I think it's
+'troubles' either there, or leastways in the Bible-psalm."
+
+"No, father, sins, 'from all his sins;' and 'iniquities' in the
+Bible-version--look, father."
+
+"Well, girl, well; I wish it had been 'troubles;' 'from all his
+troubles' is a better thought to my mind: God wot, I have plenty on 'em,
+and a little lot of gold would save us from them all."
+
+"Gold, father? no, my father--God."
+
+"I tell you, child," said Roger, ever vacillating in his strong
+temptation between habitual religion and the new-caught lust of money,
+"if only on a sudden I could get gold by hook or by crook, all my cares
+and all your troubles would be over on the instant."
+
+"Oh, dear father, do not hope so; and do not think of troubles more than
+sins; there is no deliverance in Mammon; riches profit not in the day of
+evil, and ill-got wealth tends to worse than poverty."
+
+"Well, any how, I only wish that dream of mine came true."
+
+"Dream, goodman--what dream?" said his wife.
+
+"Why, Poll, I dreamt I was a-working in my garden, hard by the celery
+trenches in the sedge; and I was moaning at my lot, as well I may: and a
+sort of angel came to me, only he looked dark and sorrowful, and kindly
+said, 'What would you have, Roger?' I, nothing fearful in my dream, for
+all the strangeness of his winged presence, answered boldly, 'Money;' he
+pointed with his finger, laughed aloud, and vanished away: and, as for
+me, I thought a minute wonderingly, turned to look where he had pointed,
+and, O the blessing! found a crock of gold!"
+
+"Hush, father! that dark angel was the devil; he has dropt ill thoughts
+upon your heart: I would I could see you as you used to be, dear father,
+till within these two days."
+
+"Whoever he were, if he brought me gold, he would bring me blessing.
+There's meat and drink, and warmth and shelter, in the yellow gold--ay,
+and rest from labour, child, and a power of rare good gifts."
+
+"If God had made them good, and the gold were honest gains, still,
+father, even so, you forget righteousness, and happiness, and wisdom.
+Money gives us none of these, but it might take them all away: dear
+father, let your loving Grace ask you, have you been better, happier,
+wiser, even from the wishing it so much?"
+
+"Daughter, daughter, I tell you plainly, he that gives me gold, gives me
+all things: I wish I found the crock the de--the angel, I mean, brought
+me."
+
+"O father," murmured Grace, "do not breathe the wicked wish; even if you
+found it without any evil angel's help, would the gold be rightfully
+your own?"
+
+"Tush, girl!" said her mother; "get the gold, feed the children, and
+then to think about the right."
+
+"Ay, Grace, first drive away the toils and troubles of this life," added
+Roger, "and then one may try with a free mind to discover the comforts
+of religion."
+
+Poor Grace only looked up mournfully, and answered nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE POACHER.
+
+
+A SUDDEN knock at the door here startled the whole party, and
+Mary Acton, bustling up, drew the bolt to let in--first, a lurcher, one
+Rover to wit, our gaunt ember-loving friend of Chapter II.; secondly,
+Thomas Acton, full flush, who carried the old musket on his shoulder,
+and seemed to have something else under his smock; and thirdly, Ben
+Burke, a personage of no small consequence to us, and who therefore
+deserves some specific introduction.
+
+Big Ben, otherwise Black Burke, according to the friendship or the
+enmity of those who named him, was a huge, rough, loud, good-humoured,
+dare-devil sort of an individual, who lived upon what he considered
+common rights. His dress was of the mongrel character, a well-imagined
+cross between a ploughman's and a sailor's; the bottle-green frock of
+the former, pattern-stitched about the neck as ingeniously as if a tribe
+of Wisconsin squaws had tailored it--and mighty fishing boots, vast as
+any French postillion's, acting as a triton's tail to symbolize the
+latter: a red cotton handkerchief (dirty-red of course, as all things
+else were dirty, for cleanliness had little part in Ben), occupied just
+now the more native region of a halter; and a rusty fur cap crowned the
+poacher; I repeat it--crowned the poacher; for in his own estimation,
+and that of many others too, Ben was, if not quite an emperor, at least
+an Agamemnon, a king of men, a natural human monarch; in truth, he felt
+as much pride in the title Burke the Poacher (and with as great justice
+too, for aught I know), as Ali-Hamet-Ghee-the-Thug eastwards, or
+William-of-Normandy-the-Conqueror westwards, may be thought respectively
+to have cherished, on the score of their murderous and thievish
+surnames.
+
+There was no small good, after all, in poor Ben; and a mountain of
+allowance must be flung into the scales to counterbalance his
+deficiencies. However coarse, and even profane, in his talk (I hope the
+gentle reader will excuse me alike for eliding a few elegant extracts
+from his common conversation, and also for reminding him
+characteristically, now and then, that Ben's language is not entirely
+Addisonian), however rough of tongue and dissonant in voice, Ben's heart
+will be found much about in the right place; nay, I verily believe it
+has more of natural justice, human kindness, and right sympathies in
+it, than are to be found in many of those hard and hollow cones that
+beat beneath the twenty-guinea waistcoats of a Burghardt or a
+Buckmaster. Ay, give me the fluttering inhabitant of Ben Burke's cowskin
+vest; it is worth a thousand of those stuffed and artificial denizens,
+whose usual nest is figured satin and cut velvet.
+
+Ben stole--true--he did not deny it; but he stole naught but what he
+fancied was wrongfully withheld him: and, if he took from the rich, who
+scarcely knew he robbed them, he shared his savoury booty with the poor,
+and fed them by his daring. Like Robin Hood of old, he avenged himself
+on wanton wealth, and frequently redressed by it the wrongs of penury.
+Not that I intend to break a lance for either of them, nor to go any
+lengths in excusing; slight extenuation is the limit for prudent
+advocacy in these cases. Robin Hood and Benjamin Burke were both of them
+thieves; bold men--bad men, if any will insist upon the bad; they sinned
+against law, and order, and Providence; they dug rudely at the roots of
+social institutions; they spoke and acted in a dangerous fashion about
+rights of men and community of things. But set aside the statutes of
+Foresting and Venery, disfranchise pheasants, let it be a cogent thing
+that poverty and riches approach the golden mean somewhat less
+unequally, and we shall not find much of criminality, either in Ben or
+Robin.
+
+For a general idea, then, of our poaching friend:--he is a gigantic,
+black-whiskered, humorous, ruddy mortal, full of strange oaths, which we
+really must not print, and bearded like the pard, and he tumbles in
+amongst our humble family party, with--
+
+"Bless your honest heart, Roger! what makes you look so sodden? I'm a
+lord, if your eyes a'n't as red as a hedge-hog's; and all the rest o'
+you, too; why, you seem to be pretty well merry as mutes. Ha! I see what
+it is," added Ben, pouring forth a benediction on their frugal supper;
+"it's that precious belly-ache porridge that's a-giving you all the
+'flensy. Tip it down the sink, dame, will you now? and trust to me for
+better. Your Tom here, Roger, 's a lad o' mettle, that he is; ay, and
+that old iron o' yours as true as a compass; and the pheasants would
+come to it, all the same as if they'd been loadstoned. Here, dame, pluck
+the fowl, will you: drop 'em, Tom."--And Thomas Acton flung upon the
+table a couple of fine cock-pheasants.
+
+Roger, Mary, and Grace, who were well accustomed to Ben Burke's eloquent
+tirades, heard the end of this one with anxiety and silence; for Tom
+had never done the like before. Grace was first to expostulate, but was
+at once cut short by an oath from her brother, whose evident state of
+high excitement could not brook the semblance of reproof. Mary Acton's
+marketing glance was abstractedly fixed upon the actual _corpus
+delicti_; each fine plump bird, full-plumaged, young-spurred; yes, they
+were still warm, and would eat tender, so she mechanically began to
+pluck them; while, as for poor downcast Roger, he remembered, with a
+conscience-sting that almost made him start, his stolen bit of money in
+the morning--so, how could he condemn? He only looked pityingly on
+Thomas, and sighed from the bottom of his heart.
+
+"Why, what's the matter now?" roared Ben; "one 'ud think we was bailiffs
+come to raise the rent, 'stead of son Tom and friendly Ben; hang it,
+mun, we aint here to cheat you out o' summut--no, not out o' peace o'
+mind neither; so, if you don't like luck, burn the fowls, or bury 'em,
+and let brave Tom risk limbo for nothing."
+
+"Oh, Ben!" murmured Grace, "why will you lead him astray? Oh, brother!
+brother! what have you done?" she said, sorrowfully.
+
+"Miss Grace,"--her beauty always awed the poacher, and his rugged
+Caliban spirit bowed in reverence before her Ariel soul--"I wish I was
+as good as you, but can't be: don't condemn us, Grace; leastways, first
+hear me, and then say where's the harm or sin on it. Twelve hundred head
+o' game--I heard John Gorse, the keeper, tell it at the Jerry--twelve
+hundred head were shot at t'other day's battew: Sir John--no blame to
+him for it--killed a couple o' hundred to his own gun: and though they
+sent away a coachful, and gave to all who asked, and feasted themselves
+chuckfull, and fed the cats, and all, still a mound, like a haycock, o'
+them fine fat fowl, rotted in a mass, and were flung upon the dungpit.
+Now, Miss Grace, that ere salt pea-porridge a'n't nice, a'n't wholesome;
+and, bless your pretty mouth, it ought to feed more sweetly. Look at
+Acton, isn't he half-starved. Is Tom, brave boy, full o' the fat o' the
+land? Who made fowl, I should like to know, and us to eat 'em? And
+where's the harm or sin in bringing down a bird? No, Miss, them ere
+beaks, dammem (beg humble pardon, Miss, indeed I won't again) them ere
+justices, as they call themselves, makes hard laws to hedge about their
+own pleasures; and if the poor man starves, he starves; but if he stays
+his hunger with the free, wild birds of heaven, they prison him and
+punish him, and call him poacher."
+
+"Ben, those who make the laws, do so under God's permission; and they
+who break man's law, break His law."
+
+"Nonsense, child,"--suddenly said Roger; "hold your silly tongue. Do
+you mean to tell us, God's law and man's law are the same thing! No,
+Grace, I can't stomach that; God makes right, and man makes
+might--riches go one way, and poor men's wrong's another. Money, money's
+the great law-maker, and a full purse frees him that has it, while it
+turns the jailor's key on the wretch that has it not: one of those
+wretches is the hopeless Roger Acton. Well, well," he added, after a
+despondent sigh, "say no more about it all; that's right,
+good-wife--why, they do look plump. And if I can't stomach Grace's
+text-talk there, I'm sure I can the birds; for I know what keeps crying
+cupboard lustily."
+
+It was a faint effort to be gay, and it only showed his gloom the
+denser. Truly, he has quite enough to make him sad; but this is an
+unhealthy sadness: the mists of mammon-worship, rising up, meet in the
+mid aether of his mind, these lowering clouds of discontent: and the
+seeming calamity, that should be but a trial to his faith, looks too
+likely to wreck it.
+
+So, then, the embers were raked up, the trivet stuck a-top, the savoury
+broil made ready; and (all but Grace, who would not taste a morsel, but
+went up straight to bed) never had the Actons yet sate down before so
+rich a supper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BEN BURKE'S STRANGE ADVENTURE.
+
+
+"TAKE a pull, Roger, and pass the flask," was the cordial
+prescription of Ben Burke, intended to cure a dead silence, generated
+equally of eager appetites and self-accusing consciences; so saying, he
+produced a quart wicker-bottle, which enshrined, according to his
+testimony, "summut short, the right stuff, stinging strong, that had
+never seen the face of a wishy-washy 'ciseman." But Roger touched it
+sparingly, for the vaunted nectar positively burnt his swallow: till
+Ben, pulling at it heartily himself, by way of giving moral precept the
+full benefit of a good example, taught Roger not to be afraid of it, and
+so the flask was drained.
+
+Under such communicative influence, Acton's tale of sorrows and
+oppressions, we may readily believe, was soon made known; and as
+readily, that it moved Ben's indignant and gigantic sympathies to an
+extent of imprecation on the eyes, timbers, and psychological existence
+of Mr. Jennings, very little edifying. One thing, however, made amends
+for the license of his tongue; the evident sincerity and warmth with
+which his coarse but kindly nature proffered instant aid, both offensive
+and defensive.
+
+"It's a black and burning shame, Honest Roger, and right shall have his
+own, somehow, while Big Ben has a heart in the old place, and a hand to
+help his friend." And the poacher having dealt his own broad breast a
+blow that would have knocked a tailor down, stretched out to Acton the
+huge hand that had inflicted it.
+
+"More than that, Roger--hark to this, man!" and, as he slapped his
+breeches pocket, there was the chink as of a mine of money shaken to its
+foundations: "hark to this, man! and more than hark, have! Here, good
+wife, hold your apron!" And he flung into her lap a handful of silver.
+
+Roger gave a sudden shout of wonder, joy, and avarice: and then as
+instantaneously turning very pale, he slowly muttered, "Hush, Ben! is it
+bloody money?" and almost shrieked as he added, "and my poor boy Tom,
+too, with you! God-a-mercy, mun! how came ye by it?"
+
+"Honestly, neighbour, leastways, middling honest: don't damp a good
+fellow's heart, when he means to serve you."
+
+"Tell me only that my boy is innocent!--and the money--yes, yes, I'll
+keep the money;" for his wife seemed to be pushing it from her at the
+thought.
+
+"I innocent, father! I never know'd till this minute that Ben had any
+blunt at all--did I, Ben?--and I only brought him and Rover here to sup,
+because I thought it neighbourly and kind-like."
+
+Poor Tom had till now been very silent: some how the pheasants lay heavy
+on his stomach.
+
+"Is it true, Ben, is it true? the lad isn't a thief, the lad isn't a
+murderer? Oh, God! Burke, tell me the truth!
+
+"Blockhead!" was the courteous reply, "what, not believe your own son?
+Why, neighbour Acton, look at the boy: would that frank-faced,
+open-hearted fellow do worse, think you, than Black Burke? And would I,
+bad as I be, turn the bloody villain to take a man's life? No,
+neighbour; Ben kills game, not keepers: he sets his wire for a hare, but
+wouldn't go to pick a dead man's pocket. All that's wrong in me, mun,
+the game-laws put there; but I'm neither burglar, murderer,
+highwayman--no, nor a mean, sneaking thief; however the quality may
+think so, and even wish to drive me to it. Neither, being as I be no
+rogue, could I bear to live a fool; but I should be one, neighbour, and
+dub myself one too, if I didn't stoop to pick up money that a madman
+flings away."
+
+"Madman? pick up money? tell us how it was, Ben," interposed female
+curiosity.
+
+"Well, neighbours, listen: I was a-setting my night-lines round Pike
+Island yonder, more nor a fortnight back; it was a dark night and a
+mizzling, or morning rather, 'twixt three and four; by the same token,
+I'd caught a power of eels. All at once, while I was fixing a trimmer, a
+punt came quietly up: as for me, Roger, you know I always wades it
+through the muddy shallow: well, I listens, and a chap creeps ashore--a
+mad chap, with never a tile to his head, nor a sole to his feet--and
+when I sings out to ax him his business, the lunatic sprung at me like a
+tiger: I didn't wish to hurt a little weak wretch like him, specially
+being past all sense, poor nat'ral! so I shook him off at once, and held
+him straight out in this here wice." [Ben's grasp could have cracked any
+cocoa-nut.] "He trembled like a wicked thing; and when I peered close
+into his face, blow me but I thought I'd hooked a white devil--no one
+ever see such a face: it was horrible too look at. 'What are you arter,
+mun?' says I; 'burying a dead babby?' says I. 'Give us hold here--I'm
+bless'd if I don't see though what you've got buckled up there.' With
+that, the little white fool--it's sartin he was mad--all on a sudden
+flings at my head a precious hard bundle, gives a horrid howl, jumps
+into the punt, and off again, afore I could wink twice. My head a'n't a
+soft un, I suppose; but when a lunatic chap hurls at it with all his
+might a barrow-load of crockery at once, it's little wonder that my
+right eye flinched a minute, and that my right hand rubbed my right eye;
+and so he freed himself, and got clear off. Rum start this, thinks I:
+but any how he's flung away a summut, and means to give it me: what can
+it be? thinks I. Well, neighbours, if I didn't know the chap was mad
+afore, I was sartain of it now; what do you think of a grown man--little
+enough, truly, but out of long coats too--sneaking by night to Pike
+Island, to count out a little lot of silver, and to guzzle twelve
+gallipots o' honey? There it was, all hashed up in an old shawl, a slimy
+mesh like birdlime: no wonder my eye was a leetle blackish, when
+half-a-dozen earthern crocks were broken against it. I was angered
+enough, I tell you, to think any man could be such a fool as to bring
+honey there to eat or to hide--when at once I spied summut red among
+the mess; and what should it be but a pretty little China house,
+red-brick-like, with a split in the roof for droppings, and ticketed
+'Savings-bank:' the chink o' that bank you hears now: and the bank
+itself is in the pond, now I've cleaned the till out."
+
+"Wonderful sure! But what did you do with the honey, Ben?--some of the
+pots wasn't broke," urged notable Mrs. Acton.
+
+"Oh, burn the slimy stuff, I warn't going to put my mouth out o' taste
+o' bacca, for a whole jawful of tooth-aches: I'll tell you, dame, what I
+did with them ere crocks, wholes, and parts. There's never a stone on
+Pike Island, it's too swampy, and I'd forgot to bring my pocketful, as
+usual. The heaviest fish, look you, always lie among the sedge,
+hereabouts and thereabouts, and needs stirring, as your Tom knows well;
+so I chucked the gallipots fur from me, right and left, into the
+shallows, and thereby druv the pike upon my hooks. A good night's work I
+made of it too, say nothing of the Savings-bank; forty pound o' pike and
+twelve of eel warn't bad pickings."
+
+"Dear, it was a pity though to fling away the honey; but what became of
+the shawl, Ben?" Perhaps Mrs. Acton thought of looking for it.
+
+"Oh, as for that, I was minded to have sunk it, with its mess of
+sweet-meats and potsherds; but a thought took me, dame, to be
+'conomical for once: and I was half sorry too that I'd flung away the
+jars, for I began to fancy your little uns might ha' liked the stuff; so
+I dipped the clout like any washerwoman, rinshed, and squeezed, and
+washed the mess away, and have worn it round my waist ever since; here,
+dame, I haven't been this way for a while afore to-night; but I meant to
+ask you if you'd like to have it; may be 'tan't the fashion though."
+
+"Good gracious, Ben! why that's Mrs. Quarles's shawl, I'd swear to it
+among a hundred; Sarah Stack, at the Hall, once took and wore it, when
+Mrs. Quarles was ill a-bed, and she and our Thomas walked to church
+together. Yes--green, edged with red, and--I thought so--a yellow circle
+in the middle; here's B.Q., for Bridget Quarles, in black cotton at the
+corner. Lackapity! if they'd heard of all this at the Inquest! I tell
+you what, Big Ben, it's kindly meant of you, and so thank you heartily,
+but that shawl would bring us into trouble; so please take it yourself
+to the Hall, and tell 'em fairly how you came by it."
+
+"I don't know about that Poll Acton; perhaps they might ask me for the
+Saving-bank, too--eh, Roger!"
+
+"No, no, wife; no, it'll never do to lose the money! let a bygone be a
+bygone, and don't disturb the old woman in her grave. As to the shawl,
+if it's like to be a tell-tale, in my mind, this hearth's the safest
+place for it."
+
+So he flung it on the fire; there was a shrivelling, smouldering, guilty
+sort of blaze, and the shawl was burnt.
+
+Roger Acton, you are falling quickly as a shooting star; already is your
+conscience warped to connive, for lucre's sake, at some one's secret
+crimes. You had better, for the moral of the matter, have burnt your
+right hand, as Scaevola did, than that shawl. Beware! your sin will bring
+its punishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SLEEP.
+
+
+GRACE, in her humble truckle-bed, lay praying for her father;
+not about his trouble, though that was much, but for the spots of sin
+she could discern upon his soul.
+
+Alas! an altered man was Roger Acton; almost since morning light, the
+leprosy had changed his very nature. The simple-minded Christian,
+toiling in contentment for his daily bread, cheerful for the passing
+day, and trustful for the coming morrow, this fair state was well-nigh
+faded away; while a bitterness of feeling against (in one word)
+GOD--against unequal partialities in providence, against things as they
+exist; and this world's inexplicable government--was gnawing at his very
+heart-strings, and cankering their roots by unbelief. It is a speedy
+process--throw away faith with its trust for the past, love for the
+present, hope for the future--and you throw away all that makes sorrow
+bearable, or joy lovely; the best of us, if God withheld his help, would
+apostatize like Peter, ere the cock crew thrice; and, at times, that
+help has wisely been withheld, to check presumptuous thoughts, and teach
+how true it is that the creature depends on the Creator. Just so we
+suffer a wilful little child, who is tottering about in leading-strings,
+to go alone for a minute, and have a gentle fall. And just so Roger
+here, deserted for a time of those angelic ministrations whose
+efficiency is proved by godliness and meekness, by patience and content,
+is harassed in his spirit as by harpies, by selfishness and pride, and
+fretful doublings; by a grudging hate of labour, and a fiery lust of
+gold. Temptation comes to teach a weak man that he was fitted for his
+station, and his station made for him; that fulfilment of his ignorant
+desires will only make his case the worse, and that
+
+  Providence alike is wise
+  In what he gives and what denies.
+
+Meanwhile, gentle Grace, on her humble truckle-bed, is full of prayers
+and tears, uneasily listening to the indistinct and noisy talk, and
+hearing, now and then, some louder oath of Ben's that made her shudder.
+Yes, she heard, too, the smashing sound, when the poacher flung the
+money down, and she feared it was a mug or a plate--no slight domestic
+loss; and she heard her father's strange cry, when he gave that
+wondering shout of joyous avarice, and she did not know what to fear.
+Was he ill? or crazed! or worse--fallen into bad excesses? How she
+prayed for him!
+
+Poor Ben, too, honest-hearted Ben; she thought of him in charity, and
+pleaded for his good before the Throne of Mercy. Who knows but Heaven
+heard that saintly virgin prayer? There is love in Heaven yet for poor
+Ben Burke.
+
+And if she prayed for Ben, with what an agony of deep-felt intercession
+did she plead for Thomas Acton, that own only brother of hers, just a
+year the younger to endear him all the more, her playmate, care, and
+charge, her friend and boisterous protector. The many sorrowing hours
+she had spent for his sake, and the thousand generous actions he had
+done for hers! Could she forget how the stripling fought for her that
+day, when rude Joseph Green would help her over the style? Could she but
+remember how slily he had put aside, for more than half a year, a little
+heap of copper earnings--weeding-money, and errand-money, and
+harvest-money--and then bounteously spent it all at once in giving her a
+Bible on her birth-day? And when, coming across the fields with him
+after leasing, years ago now, that fierce black bull of Squire Ryle's
+was rushing down upon us both, how bravely did the noble boy attack him
+with a stake, as he came up bellowing, and make the dreadful monster
+turn away! Ah! I looked death in the face then, but for thee, my
+brother! Remember him, my God, for good!
+
+"Poor father! poor father! Well, I am resolved upon one thing: I'll go,
+with Heaven's blessing, to the Hall myself, and see Sir John, to-morrow;
+he shall hear the truth, for"--And so Grace fell asleep.
+
+Roger, when he went to bed, came to similar conclusions. He would speak
+up boldly, that he would, without fear or favour. Ben's most seasonable
+bounty, however to be questioned on the point of right, made him feel
+entirely independent, both of bailiffs and squires, and he had now no
+anxieties, but rather hopes, about to-morrow. He was as good as they,
+with money in his pocket; so he'd down to the Hall, and face the baronet
+himself, and blow his bailiff out o' water: that should be his business
+by noon. Another odd idea, too, possessed him, and he could not sleep at
+night for thinking of it: it was a foolish fancy, but the dream might
+have put it in his head: what if one or other of those honey-jars, so
+flung here and there among the rushes, were in fact another sort of
+"Savings-bank"--a crock of gold? It was a thrilling thought--his very
+dream, too; and the lot of shillings, and the shawl--ay, and the
+inquest, and the rumours how that Mrs. Quarles had come to her end
+unfairly, and no hoards found--and--and the honey-pots missing. Ha! at
+any rate he'd have a search to-morrow. No bugbear now should hinder him;
+money's money; he'd ask no questions how it got there. His own bit of
+garden lay the nearest to Pike Island, and who knows but Ben might have
+slung a crock this way? It wouldn't do to ask him, though--for Burke
+might look himself, and get the crock--was Roger's last and selfish
+thought, before he fell asleep.
+
+As to Mrs. Acton, she, poor woman, had her own thoughts, fearful ones,
+about that shawl, and Ben's mysterious adventure. No cloudy love of
+mammon had overspread her mind, to hide from it the hideousness of
+murder; in her eyes, blood was terrible, and not the less so that it
+covered gold. She remembered at the inquest--be sure she was there among
+the gossips--the facts, so little taken notice of till now, the keys in
+the cupboard, where the honey-pots were not, and how Jonathan Floyd had
+seen something on the lake, and the marks of a man's hand on the throat;
+and, God forgive her for saying so, but Mr. Jennings was a little,
+white-faced man. How wrong was it of Roger to have burnt that shawl! how
+dull of Ben not to have suspected something! but then the good fellow
+suspects nobody, and, I dare say, now doesn't know my thoughts. But
+Roger does, more shame for him; or why burn the shawl? Ah! thought she,
+with all the gossip rampart in her breast, if I could only have taken it
+to the Hall myself, what a stir I should have caused! Yes, she would
+have reaped a mighty field of glory by originating such a whirlwind of
+inquiries and surmises. Even now, so attractive was the mare's nest, she
+would go to the Hall by morning, and tell Sir John himself all about
+the burnt shawl, and Pike Island, and the galli--And so she fell fast
+asleep.
+
+With respect to Ben, Tom, and Rover, a well-matched triad, as any Isis,
+Horus, and Nepthys, they all flung themselves promiscuously on the hard
+floor beside the hearth, "basked at the fire their hairy strength," and
+soon were snoring away beautifully in concert, base, tenor, and treble,
+like a leash of glee-singers. No thoughts troubled them, either of
+mammon or murder: so long before the meditative trio up-stairs, they had
+set a good example, and fallen asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+LOVE.
+
+
+WITH the earliest peep of day arose sweet Grace, full of
+cheerful hope, and prayer, and happy resignation. She had a great deal
+to do that morning; for, innocent girl, she had no notion that it was
+quite possible to be too early at the Hall; her only fear was being too
+late. Then there were all the household cares to see to, and the dear
+babes to dress, and the place to tidy up, and breakfast to get ready,
+and, any how, she could not be abroad till half-past eight: so, to her
+dismay, it must be past nine before ever she can see Sir John. Let us
+follow her a little: for on this important day we shall have to take the
+adventures of our labourer's family one at a time.
+
+By twenty minutes to nine, Grace had contrived to bustle on her things,
+give the rest the slip, and be tripping to the Hall. It is nearly two
+miles off, as we already know; and Grace is such a pretty creature that
+we can clearly do no better than employ our time thitherward by taking a
+peep at her.
+
+Sweet Grace Acton, we will not vex thy blushing maiden modesty by
+elaborate details of form, and face, and feature. Perfect womanhood at
+fair eighteen: let that fill all the picture up with soft and swelling
+charms; no wadding, or padding, or jigot, or jupe--but all those
+graceful undulations are herself: no pearl-powder, no carmine, no
+borrowed locks, no musk, or ambergris--but all those feeble helps of
+meretricious art excelled and superseded by their just originals in
+nature. It will not do to talk, as a romancer may, of velvet cheeks and
+silken tresses; or invoke, to the aid of our inadequate description,
+roses, and swans, and peaches, and lilies. Take the simple village
+beauty as she is. Did you ever look on prettier lips or sweeter
+eyes--more glossy natural curls upon a whiter neck? And how that little
+red-riding-hood cloak, and the simple cottage hat tied down upon her
+cheeks, and the homely russet gown, all too short for modern fashions,
+and the white, well-turned ankle, and the tidy little leather shoe, and
+the bunch of snow drops in her tucker, and the neat mittens contrasting
+darkly with her fair, bare arms--pretty Grace, how well all these become
+thee! There, trip along, with health upon thy cheek, and hope within thy
+heart; who can resist so eloquent a pleader? Haste on, haste on: save
+thy father in his trouble, as thou hast blest him in his sin--this
+rustic lane is to thee the path of duty--Heaven speed thee on it!
+
+More slowly now, and with more anxious thoughts, more heart-weakness,
+more misgiving--Grace approacheth the stately mansion: and when she
+timidly touched the "Servants'" bell, for she felt too lowly for the
+"Visiters',"--and when she heard how terribly loud it was, how
+long it rung, and what might be the issue of her--wasn't it
+ill-considered?--errand--the poor girl almost fainted at the sound.
+
+As she leaned unconsciously for strength against the door, it opened on
+a sudden, and Jonathan Floyd, in mute amazement, caught her in his arms.
+
+"Why, Grace Acton! what's the matter with you?" Jonathan knew Grace
+well; they had been at dame's-school together, and in after years
+attended the same Sunday class at church. There had been some talk among
+the gossips about Jonathan and Grace, and ere now folks had been kind
+enough to say they would make a pretty couple. And folks were right,
+too, as well as kind: for a fine young fellow was Jonathan Floyd, as any
+duchess's footman; tall, well built, and twenty-five; Antinous in a
+livery. Well to do, withal, though his wages don't come straight to him;
+for, independently of his place--and the baronet likes him for his good
+looks and proper manners--he is Farmer Floyd's only son, on the hill
+yonder, as thriving a small tenant as any round abouts; and he is proud
+of his master, of his blue and silver uniform, of old Hurstley, and of
+all things in general, except himself.
+
+"But what on earth's the matter, Grace?" he was obliged to repeat, for
+the dear girl's agitation was extreme.
+
+"Jonathan, can I see the baronet?"
+
+"What, at nine in the morning, Grace Acton! Call again at two, and you
+may find him getting up. He hasn't been three hours a-bed yet, and
+there's nobody about but Sarah Stack and me. I wish those Lunnun sparks
+would but leave the place: they do his honour no good, I'm thinking."
+
+"Not till two!" was the slow and mournful ejaculation. What a damper to
+her buoyant hopes: and Providence had seen fit to give her ill-success.
+Is it so? Prosperity may come in other shapes.
+
+"Why, Grace," suddenly said Floyd, in a very nervous way, "what makes
+you call upon my master in this tidy trim?"
+
+"To save my father," answered Innocence.
+
+"How? why? Oh don't, Grace, don't! I'll save him--I will indeed--what is
+it? Oh, don't, don't!"
+
+For the poor affectionate fellow conjured on the spot the black vision
+of a father saved by a daughter's degradation.
+
+"Don't, Jonathan?--it's my duty, and God will bless me in it. That cruel
+Mr. Jennings has resolved upon our ruin, and I wished to tell Sir John
+the truth of it."
+
+At this hearing, Jonathan brightened up, and glibly said, "Ah, indeed,
+Jennings is a trouble to us all: a sad life I've led of it this year
+past; and I've paid him pretty handsomely too, to let me keep the place:
+while, as for John Page and the grooms, and Mr. Coachman and the
+helpers, they don't touch much o' their wages on quarter-day, I know."
+
+"Oh, but we--we are ruined! ruined! Father is forbidden now to labour
+for our bread." And then with many tears she told her tale.
+
+"Stop, Miss Grace," suddenly said Jonathan, for her beauty and eloquence
+transformed the cottager into a lady in his eyes, and no wonder; "pray,
+stop a minute, Miss--please to take a seat; I sha'n't be gone an
+instant."
+
+And the good-hearted fellow, whose eyes had long been very red, broke
+away at a gallop; but he was back again almost as soon as gone, panting
+like a post-horse. "Oh, Grace! don't be angry! do forgive me what I am
+going to do."
+
+"Do, Jonathan?" and the beauty involuntarily started--"I hope it's
+nothing wrong," she added, solemnly.
+
+"Whether right or wrong, Grace, take it kindly; you have often bade me
+read my Bible, and I do so many times both for the sake of it and you;
+ay, and meet with many pretty sayings in it: forgive me if I act on
+one--'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" With that, he
+thrust into her hand a brass-topped, red-leather purse, stuffed with
+money. Generous fellow! all the little savings, that had heretofore
+escaped the prying eye and filching grasp of Simon Jennings. There was
+some little gold in it, more silver, and a lot of bulky copper.
+
+"Dear Jonathan!" exclaimed Grace, quite thrown off her guard of maidenly
+reserve, "this is too kind, too good, too much; indeed, indeed it is: I
+cannot take the purse." And her bright eyes overflowed again.
+
+"Well, girl," said Jonathan, gulping down an apple in his throat, "I--I
+won't have the money, that's all. Oh, Grace, Grace!" he burst out
+earnestly, "let me be the blessed means of helping you in trouble--I
+would die to do it, Grace; indeed I would!"
+
+The dear girl fell upon his neck, and they wept together like two loving
+little sisters.
+
+"Jonathan"--her duteous spirit was the first to speak--"forgive this
+weakness of a foolish woman's heart: I will not put away the help which
+God provides us at your friendly hands: only this, kind brother--let me
+call you brother--keep the purse; if my father pines for want of work,
+and the babes at home lack food, pardon my boldness if I take the help
+you offer. Meanwhile, God in heaven bless you, Jonathan, as He will!"
+
+And she turned to go away.
+
+"Won't you take a keepsake, Grace--one little token? I wish I had any
+thing here but money to give you for my sake."
+
+"It would even be ungenerous in me to refuse you, brother; one little
+piece will do."
+
+Jonathan fumbled up something in a crumpled piece of paper, and said
+sobbingly--"Let it be this new half-crown, Grace: I won't say, keep it
+always; only when you want to use that and more, I humbly ask you'll
+please come to me."
+
+Now a more delicate, a more unselfish act, was never done by man: along
+with the half-crown he had packed up two sovereigns! and thereby not
+only escaped thanks, concealed his own beneficence, and robbed his purse
+of half its little store; but actually he was, by doing so, depriving
+himself for a month, or maybe more, of a visit from Grace Acton. Had it
+been only half-a-crown, and want had pinched the family (neither Grace
+nor Jonathan could guess of Ben Burke's bounty, and for all they knew
+Roger had not enough for the morrow's meals)--had poverty come in like
+an armed man, and stood upon their threshold a grim sentinel--doubtless
+she must have run to him within a day or two. How sweet would it have
+been to have kept her coming day by day, and to a commoner affection how
+excusable! but still how selfish, how unlike the liberal and honourable
+feeling that filled the manly heart of Jonathan Floyd! It was a noble
+act, and worthy of a long parenthesis.
+
+If Grace Acton had looked back as she hurried down the avenue, she would
+have seen poor Jonathan still watching her with all his eyes till she
+was out of sight. Perhaps, though, she might have guessed it--there is a
+sympathy in these things, the true animal magnetism--and I dare say that
+was the very reason why she did not once turn her head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE DISCOVERY.
+
+
+ROGER ACTON had not slept well; had not slept at all till
+nearly break of day, except in the feverish fashion of half dream half
+revery. There were thick-coming fancies all night long about what Ben
+had said and done: and more than once Roger had thought of the
+expediency of getting up, to seek without delay the realization of that
+one idea which now possessed him--a crock of gold. When he put together
+one thing and another, he considered it almost certain that Ben had
+flung away among the lot no mere honey-pot, but perhaps indeed a
+money-pot: Burke hadn't half the cunning of a child; more fool he, and
+maybe so much the better for me, thought money-bitten, selfish Roger.
+Thus, in the night's hot imaginations, he resolved to find the spoil; to
+will, was then to do: to do, was then to conquer. However, Nature's
+sweet restorer came at last, and, when he woke, the idea had sobered
+down--last night's fancies were preposterous. So, it was with a heavy
+heart he got up later than his wont--no work before him, nothing to do
+till the afternoon, when he might see Sir John, except it be to dig a
+bit in his little marshy garden. When Grace ran to the Hall, Roger was
+going forth to dig.
+
+Now, I know quite well that the reader is as fully aware as I am, what
+is about to happen; but it is impossible to help the matter. If the
+heading of this chapter tells the truth, a "discovery" of some sort is
+inevitable. Let us preliminarize a thought or two, if thereby we can
+hang some shadowy veil of excuse over a too naked mystery. First and
+foremost, truth is strange, stranger, _et-cetera_; and this
+_et-cetera_, pregnant as one of Lyttleton's, intends to add the
+superlative strangest, to the comparative stranger of that seldom-quoted
+sentiment. To every one of us, in the course of our lives, something
+quite as extraordinary has befallen more than once. What shall we say of
+omens, warnings, forebodings? What of the most curious runs of luck; the
+most whimsical freaks of fortune; the unaccountable things that happen
+round us daily, and no one marvels at them, till he reads of them in
+print? Even as Macpherson, ingenious, if not ingenuous, gathered Ossian
+from the lips of Highland hussifs, and made the world with modern Attila
+to back it, wonder at the stores that are hived on old wives' tongues;
+even so might any other literary, black-smith hammer from the ore of
+common gossip a regular Vulcan's net of superstitious "facts." Never yet
+was uttered ghost story, that did not breed four others; every one at
+table is eager to record his, or his aunt's, experience in that line;
+and the mass of queer coincidences, inexplicable incidents, indubitable
+seeings, hearings, doings, and sufferings; which you and I have heard of
+in this popular vein of talk, would amply excuse the wildest fictionist
+for the most extravagant adventure--the more improbable, the nearer
+truth. Talk of the devil, said our ancestors--let "&c." save us from the
+consequence. Think of any thing vehemently, and it is an even chance it
+happens: be confident, you conquer; be obstinate in willing, and events
+shall bend humbly to their lord: nay, dream a dream, and if you
+recollect it in the morning, and it bother you next day, and you cannot
+get it out of your head for a week, and the matter positively haunt you,
+ten to one but it finds itself or makes itself fulfilled, some odd day
+or other. Just so, doubtless, will it prove to be with Roger's dream: I
+really cannot help the matter.
+
+Again, it is more than likely that the reader is clever, very clever,
+and that any attempts at concealment would be merely futile. From the
+first page he has discovered who is the villain, and who the victim: the
+title alone tells him of the golden hinge on which the story turns: he
+can look through stone walls, if need be, or mesmerically see, without
+making use of eyes: no peep-holes for him, as for Pyramus and Thisbe: no
+initiation requisite for any hidden mysteries; all arcana are revealed
+to him, every sanctum is a highway. No art of mortal pen can defeat this
+mischief of acuteness: character is character; oaks grow of acorns, and
+the plan of a life may be detected in a microscopic speech. The career
+of Mr. Jennings is as much predestined by us to iniquity, from the first
+intimation that he never makes excuse, as honest Roger is to trouble
+and temptation from the weary effort wherewithal he woke. And, even now,
+pretty Grace and young Sir John, the reader thinks that he can guess at
+nature's consequence; while, with respect to Roger's going forth to dig
+this morning, he sees it straight before him, need not ask for the
+result. Well, if the shrewd reader has the eye of Lieuenhoeeck, and can
+discern, cradled in the small triangular beech-mast, a noble
+forest-tree, with silvery trunk, branching arms, and dark-green foliage,
+he deserves to be complimented indeed, for his own keen skill; but, at
+the same time, Nature will not hurry herself for him, but will quietly
+educe results which he foreknew--or thought he did--a century ago. And
+is there not the highest Art in this unveiled simplicity: to lead the
+reader onwards by a straight road, with the setting sun a-blaze at the
+end of it, knowing his path, knowing its object, yet still borne on with
+spirits unexhausted and unflagging foot? Trust me, there is better
+praise in this, than in dazzling the distracted glance with a perpetual
+succession of luminous fire-flies, and dragging your fair novel-reader,
+harried and excited, through the mazes of a thousand incidents.
+
+Thirdly, and lastly, in this prefatorial say, there is to be considered
+that inevitable defeator of all printed secrets--impatience. Nothing is
+easier, nothing commoner (most wise people do it, whose fate is, that
+they must keep up with the race of current publication, and therefore
+must keep down the still-increasing crowd of authorial creations),
+nothing is more venial, more laudable, than to read the last chapter
+first; and so, finding out all mysteries at once, to save one's self a
+vast deal of unnecessary trouble. And, for mere tale-telling, this may
+be sufficient. What need to burden memory with imaginary statements, or
+to weary out one's sympathies on trite fictitious woes?--come to the
+catastrophe at once: the uncle hanged; the heir righted; the heroine, an
+orange-flowered bride; and the white-headed grandmother, after all her
+wrongs, winding up the story with a prudent moral. Now, this may all be
+very well with histories that merely carry a sting in the tail, whose
+moral is the warning of the rattlesnake, and whose hot-exciting interest
+is posted with the scorpion's venom. They are the Dragon of Wantley,
+with one caudal point--a barbed termination: we, like Moore of Moore
+Hall, all point, covered with spikes: every where we boast ourselves an
+ethical hedge-hog, all-over-armed with keen morals--a Rumour painted
+full of tongues, echoing all around with revealing of secrets. The
+feelings of our humble hero, altered Roger Acton, are worthy to be
+studied by the great, to be sifted by the rich; and Grace's simple
+tongue may teach the sage, for its wisdom cometh from above; and
+Jonathan, for all his shoulder-knot and smart cockade, is worthy to give
+lessons to his master: that master, also, is far better than you think
+him; and poor Burke too, for true humanity's sake: so we get a mint of
+morals, set aside the story. It is not raw material, but the
+workmanship, that gives its value to the flowered damask; our
+grand-dames' sumptuous taffeties and stand-alone brocades are but spun
+silk-worms' interiors; the fairest statue is intrinsically but a mass of
+clumsy stone, until, indeed, the sculptor has rough-hewn it, and shaped
+it, and chiselled it, and finished all the touches with sand-paper. This
+story of '_The Crock of Gold_' purports to be a Dutch picture, as
+becometh boors, their huts, their short and simple annals; so that,
+after its moralities, the mass of minute detail is the only thing that
+gives it any value.
+
+Now, whilst all of you have been yawning through these egotistic
+phrases, Roger has been digging in his garden; there he is, pecking away
+at what once was the celery-bed, but now are fallow trenches; celery, as
+we all know, is a water-loving plant, doing best in marshy-land, so no
+wonder the trenches open on the sedge, and the muddy shallow opposite
+Pike Island puddles up to them. There needs be no suspense, no mystery
+at all; Roger's dream had clearly sent him thither, for he should not
+have levelled those trenches yet awhile, it was a little too soon--bad
+husbandry; and, barring the appearance of a devil, Roger's dream came
+true. Yes, under the roots of a clump of bullrush, he lifted out with
+his spade--a pot of Narbonne honey!
+
+When first he spied the pot, his heart was in his mouth--it must be
+gold, and with tottering knees he raised the precious burden. But, woful
+disappointment! the word "Honey," with plenty of French and Fortnum on
+another pasted label, stared him in the face; it was sweet and slimy too
+about the neck; there was no sort of jingle when he shook the crock;
+what though it be heavy?--honey's heavy; and it was tied over quite in a
+common way with pig's bladder, and his clumsy trembling fingers could
+not undo that knot; and thus, with a miserable sense of cheated poverty,
+he threw it down beside the path, and would, perhaps, have flung it
+right away in sheer disgust, but for the reflection that the little ones
+might like it. Once, indeed, the glorious doubt of maybe gold came back
+upon his mind, and he lifted up the spade to smash the baffling pot, and
+so make sure of what it might contain;--make sure, eh? why, you would
+only lose the honey, whispered domestic economy. So he left the jar to
+be opened by his wife when he should go in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+JONATHAN'S STORE.
+
+
+AND where has Mrs. Acton been all this morning? Off to the
+Hall, very soon after Grace had got away; and she rung at the side
+entrance, hard by the kitchen, most fortunately caught Sarah Stack
+about, and had a good long gossip with her; telling her, open-mouthed,
+all about Ben Burke having found a shawl of Mrs. Quarles's on the
+island; and how, it being very rotten, yes, and smelling foul, Ben had
+been fool enough to burn it; what a pity! how could the shawl have got
+there? if it only could ha' spoken what it knew! And the bereaved
+gossips mourned together over secrets undivulged, and their evidence
+destroyed. As to the crockery, for a miraculous once in life, Mrs. Acton
+held her tongue about a thing she knew, and said not a syllable
+concerning it. Roger would be mad to lose the money. Just at parting
+with her friend Mary Acton was going out by the wrong door, through the
+hall, but luckily did no more than turn the handle; or she never could
+have escaped bouncing in upon the lovers' interview, and thereby
+occasioning a chaos of confusion. For, be it whispered, the step-dame
+was not a little jealous of her ready-made daughter's beauty, persisted
+in calling her a child, and treated her any thing but kindly and
+sisterly, as her full-formed woman's loveliness might properly have
+looked for. Only imagine, if the Hecate had but seen Jonathan's lit-up
+looks, or Grace's down-cast blushes; for it really slipped my
+observation to record that there were blushes, and probably some cause
+for them when the keep-sake was given and accepted; only conceive if
+the step-mother had heard Jonathan's afterward soliloquy, when he was
+watching pretty Grace as she tripped away--and how much he seemed to
+think of her eyes and eye-lashes! I am reasonably fearful, had she heard
+and seen all this--Poll Acton's nails might have possibly drawn blood
+from the cheeks of Jonathan Floyd. As it was, the little god of love
+kindly warded from his votaries the coming of so crabbed an antagonist.
+
+Grace has now reached home again, blessing her overruling stars to have
+escaped notice so entirely both in going and returning; for the mother
+was hard at washing near the well, having got in half an hour before,
+and father has not yet left off digging in his garden. So she crept up
+stairs quietly, put away her Sunday best, and is just dropping on her
+knees beside her truckle-bed, to speak of all her sorrows to her
+Heavenly friend, and to thank him for the kindness He had raised her in
+an earthly one. She then, with no small trepidation, took out of her
+tucker, just below those withered snow-drops, the crumpled bit of paper
+that held Jonathan's parting gift. It was surprising how her tucker
+heaved; she could hardly get at the parcel. She wanted to look at that
+half-crown; not that she feared it was a bad one, or was curious about
+coins, or felt any pleasure in possessing such a sum: but there was such
+a don't-know-what connected with that new half-crown, which made her
+long to look at it; so she opened the paper--and found its golden
+fellows! O noble heart! O kind, generous, unselfish--yes, beloved
+Jonathan! But what is she to do with the sovereigns? Keep them? No, she
+cannot keep them, however precious in her sight as proofs of deep
+affection; but she will call as soon as possible, and give them back,
+and insist upon his taking them, and keeping them too--for her, if no
+otherwise. And the dear innocent girl was little aware herself how glad
+she felt of the excuse to call so soon again at Hurstley.
+
+Meantime, for safety, she put the money in her Bible.
+
+What hallowed gold was that? Gained by honest industry, saved by
+youthful prudence, given liberally and unasked, to those who needed, and
+could not pay again; with a delicate consideration, an heroic essay at
+concealment, a voluntary sacrifice of self, of present pleasure,
+passion, and affection. And there it lies, the little store, hidden up
+in Grace's Bible. She has prayed over it, thanked over it, interceded
+over it, for herself, for it, for others. How different, indeed, from
+ordinary gold, from common sin-bought mammon; how different from that
+unblest store, which Roger Acton covets; how purified from meannesses,
+and separate from harms! This is of that money, the scarcest coins of
+all the world, endued with all good properties in heaven and in earth,
+whereof it had been written, "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,
+saith the Lord of hosts."
+
+Such alone are truly riches--well-earned, well-saved, well-sanctified,
+well-spent. The wealthiest of European capitalists--the Croesus of
+modern civilization--may be but a pauper in that better currency,
+whereof a sample has been shown in the store of Jonathan Floyd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+ANOTHER DISCOVERY, AND THE EARNEST OF GOOD THINGS.
+
+
+"DAME, here's one o' Ben's gallipots he flung away: it's naught
+but honey, dame--marked so--no crock of gold; don't expect it; no such
+thing; luck like that isn't for such as me: though, being as it is, the
+babes may like it, with their dry bread: open it, good-wife: I hope the
+water mayn't ha' spoilt it."
+
+The notable Mary Acton produced certain scissors, hanging from her
+pocket by a tape, and cut a knot, which to Roger had been Gordian's.
+
+"Why, it's bran, Acton, not honey; look here, will you." She tilted it
+up, and, along with a cloud of saw-dust, dropped out a heavy hail-storm
+of--little bits of leather!
+
+"Hallo? what's that?" said Roger, eagerly: "it's gold, gold, I'll be
+sworn!" It was so.
+
+Every separate bit of money, whatever kind of coins they were, had been
+tidily sewn up in a shred of leather; remnants of old gloves of all
+colours; and the Narbonne jar contained six hundred and eighty-seven of
+them. These, of course, were hastily picked up from the path whereon
+they had first fallen, were counted out at home, and the glittering
+contents of most of those little leather bags ripped up were immediately
+discovered. Oh dear! oh dear! such a sight! Guineas and half-guineas,
+sovereigns and half-sovereigns, quite a little hill of bright, clean,
+prettily-figured gold.
+
+"Hip, hip, hooray!" shouted Roger, in an ecstacy; "Hurrah, hurrah,
+hurrah!" and in the madness of his joy, he executed an extravagant pas
+seul; up went his hat, round went his heels, and he capered awkwardly
+like a lunatic giraffe.
+
+"Here's an end to all our troubles, Poll: we're as good as gentle-folks
+now; catch me a-calling at the Hall, to bother about Jennings and Sir
+John: a fig for bailiffs, and baronets, parsons, and prisons, and all,"
+and again he roared Hooray! "I tell you what though, old 'ooman, we must
+just try the taste of our glorious golden luck, before we do any thing
+else. Bide a bit, wench, and hide the hoard till I return. I'm off to
+the Bacchus's Arms, and I'll bring you some stingo in a minute, old
+gal." So off he ran hot-foot, to get an earnest of the blessing of his
+crock of gold.
+
+The minute that was promised to produce the stingo, proved to be rather
+of a lengthened character; it might, indeed, have been a minute, or the
+fraction of one, in the planet Herschel, whose year is as long as
+eighty-five of our Terra's, but according to Greenwich calculation, it
+was nearer like two hours.
+
+The little Tom and Jerry shop, that rejoiced in the classical heraldry
+of Bacchus's Arms, had been startled from all conventionalities by the
+unwonted event of the demand, "change for a sovereign?" and when it was
+made known to the assembled conclave that Roger Acton was the fortunate
+possessor, that even assumed an appearance positively miraculous.
+
+"Why, honest Roger, how in the world could you ha' come by that?" was
+the troublesome inquiry of Dick the Tanner.
+
+"Well, Acton, you're sharper than I took you for, if you can squeeze
+gold out of bailiff Jennings," added Solomon Snip; and Roger knew no
+better way of silencing their tongues, than by profusely drenching them
+in liquor. So he stood treat all round, and was forced to hobanob with
+each; and when that was gone, he called for more to keep their curiosity
+employed. Now, all this caused delay; and if Mary had been waiting for
+the "stingo," she would doubtless have had reasonable cause for anger
+and impatience: however, she, for her part, was so pleasantly occupied,
+like Prince Arthur's Queen, in counting out the money, that, to say the
+truth, both lord and liquor were entirely forgotten.
+
+But another cause that lengthened out the minute, was the embarrassing
+business of where to find the change. Bacchus's didn't chalk up trust,
+where hard money was flung upon the counter; but all the accumulated
+wealth of Bacchus's high-priest, Tom Swipey, and of the seven
+worshippers now drinking in his honour, could not suffice to make up
+enough of change: therefore, after two gallons left behind him in
+libations as aforesaid, and two more bottled up for a drink-offering at
+home, Roger was contented to be owed seven and fourpence; a debt never
+likely to be liquidated. Much speculation this afforded to the gossips;
+and when the treater's back was turned, they touched their foreheads,
+for the man was clearly crazed, and they winked to each other with a
+gesture of significance.
+
+Grace, while musing on her new half-crown--it was strange how long she
+looked at it--had heard with real amazement that uproarious huzzaing!
+and, just as her father had levanted for the beer, glided down from her
+closet, and received the wondrous tidings from her step-mother. She
+heard in silence, if not in sadness: intuitive good sense proclaimed to
+her that this sudden gush of wealth was a temptation, even if she felt
+no secret fears on the score of--shall we call it superstition?--that
+dream, this crock, that dark angel--and this so changed spirit of her
+once religious father: what could she think? she meekly looked to Heaven
+to avert all ill.
+
+Mary Acton also was less elated and more alarmed than she cared to
+confess: not that she, any more than Grace, knew or thought about lords
+of manors, or physical troubles on the score of finding the crock: but
+Mrs. Quarles's shawl, and sundry fearful fancies tinged with blood,
+these worried her exceedingly, and made her look upon the gold with an
+uneasy feeling, as if it were an unclean thing, a sort of Achan's wedge.
+
+At last, here comes Roger back, somewhat unsteadily I fear, with a stone
+two-gallon jar of what he was pleased to avouch to be "the down-right
+stingo." "Hooray, Poll!" (he had not ceased shouting all the way from
+Bacchus's,) "Hooray--here I be again, a gentle-folk, a lord, a king,
+Poll: why daughter Grace, what's come to you? I won't have no dull looks
+about to-day, girl. Isn't this enough to make a poor man merry? No more
+troubles, no more toil, no more 'humble sarvent,' no more a ragged,
+plodding ploughman: but a lord, daughter Grace--a great, rich, luxurious
+lord--isn't this enough to make a man sing out hooray?--Thank the crock
+of gold for this--Oh, blessed crock!"
+
+"Hush, father, hush! that gold will be no blessing to you; Heaven send
+it do not bring a curse. It will be a sore temptation, even if the
+rights of it are not in some one else: we know not whom it may belong
+to, but at any rate it cannot well be ours."
+
+"Not ours, child? whose in life is it then?"
+
+Mary Acton, made quite meek by a superstitious dread of having money of
+the murdered, stepped in to Grace's help, whom her father's fierce
+manner had appalled, with "Roger, it belonged to Mrs. Quarles, I'm
+morally sure on it--and must now be Simon Jennings's, her heir."
+
+"What?" he almost frantically shrieked, "shall that white hell-hound rob
+me yet again? No, dame--I'll hang first! the crock I found, the crock
+I'll keep: the money's mine, whoever did the murder." Then, changing his
+mad tone into one of reckless inebriate gayety--for he was more than
+half-seas over even then from the pot-house toastings and excitement--he
+added, "But come, wenches, down with your mugs, and help me to get
+through the jar: I never felt so dry in all my life. Here's blessings on
+the crock, on him as sent it, him as has it, and on all the joy and
+comfort it's to bring us! Come, drink, drink--we must all drink
+that--but where's Tom?"
+
+If Roger had been quite himself, he never would have asked so
+superfluous a question: for Tom was always in one and the same company,
+albeit never in one and the same place: he and his Pan-like Mentor were
+continually together, studying wood-craft, water-craft, and all manner
+of other craft connected with the antique trade of picking and stealing.
+
+"Where's Tom?"
+
+Grace, glad to have to answer any reasonable question, mildly answered,
+"Gone away with Ben, father."
+
+Alas! that little word, Ben, gave occasion to reveal a depth in Roger's
+fall, which few could have expected to behold so soon. To think that the
+liberal friend, who only last night had frankly shared his all with him,
+whose honest glowing heart would freely shed its blood for him, that he
+in recollection should be greeted with a loathing! Ben would come, and
+claim some portion of his treasure--he would cry halves--or, who knows?
+might want all--all: and take it by strong arm, or by threat to 'peach
+against him:--curse that Burke! he hated him.
+
+Oh, Steady Acton! what has made thee drink and swear? Oh, Honest Roger!
+what has planted guile, and suspicion, and malice in thy heart? Are
+these the mere first-fruits of coveting and having? Is this the earliest
+blessing of that luck which many long for--the finding of a crock of
+gold?
+
+We would not enlarge upon the scene; a painful one at all times, when
+man forgets his high prerogative, and drowns his reason in the tankard:
+but, in a Roger Acton's case, lately so wise, temperate, and patient,
+peculiarly distressing. Its chief features were these. Grace tasted
+nothing, but mournfully looked on: once only she attempted to
+expostulate, but was met--not with fierce oaths, nor coarse chidings,
+nor even with idiotic drivelling--oh no! worse than that she felt: he
+replied to her with the maudlin drunken promise, "If she'd only be a
+good girl, and let him bide, he'd give her a big Church-bible, bound in
+solid gold--that 'ud make the book o' some real value, Grace." Poor
+broken-hearted daughter--she rushed to her closet in a torrent of tears.
+
+As for Mary Acton, she was miraculously meek and dumb; all the scold was
+quelled within her; the word "blood" was the Petruchio that tamed that
+shrew; she could see a plenty of those crimson spots, which might
+
+  "The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
+  Making the green, one red,"
+
+dancing in the sun-beams, dotted on the cottage walls, sprinkled as
+unholy water, over that foul crock. Would not the money be a curse to
+them any how, say nothing of the danger? If things went on as they
+began, Mary might indeed have cause for fear: actually, she could not
+a-bear to look upon the crock; she quite dreaded it, as if it had
+contained a "bottled devil." So there she sat ever so long--silent,
+thoughtful, and any thing but comfortable.
+
+What became of Roger until next day at noon, neither he nor I can tell:
+true, his carcase lay upon the floor, and the two-gallon jar was empty.
+But, for the real man, who could answer to the name of Roger Acton, the
+sensitive and conscious soul--that was some where galloping away for
+fifteen hours in the Paradise of fools: the Paradise? no--the Maelstrom;
+tossed about giddily and painfully in one whirl of tumultuous
+drunkenness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+HOW THE HOME WAS BLEST THEREBY.
+
+
+IT will surprise no one to be told that, however truly such an
+excess may have been the first, it was by no means the last exploit of
+our altered labourer in the same vein of heroism. Bacchus's was quite
+close, and he needs must call for his change; he had to call often;
+drank all quits; changed another sovereign, and was owed again; but,
+trust him, he wasn't going to be cheated out of that: take care of the
+pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves. But still it was
+ditto repeated; changing, being owed, grudging, grumbling: at last he
+found out the famous new plan of owing himself; and as Bacchus's did not
+see fit to reject such wealthy customers, Roger soon chalked up a
+yard-long score, and grew so niggardly that they could not get a penny
+from him.
+
+It is astonishing how immediately wealth brings in, as its companion,
+meanness: they walk together, and stand together, and kneel together, as
+the hectoring, prodigal Faulconbridge, the Bastard Plantagenet in _King
+John_, does with his white-livered, puny brother, Robert. Wherefore, no
+sooner was Roger blest with gold, than he resolved not to be such a fool
+as to lose liberally, or to give away one farthing. To give, I say, for
+extravagant indulgence is another thing; and it was a fine, proud
+pleasure to feast a lot of fellows at his sole expense. If meanness is
+brother to wealth, it is at any rate first cousin to extravagance.
+
+When the dowager collects "her dear five hundred friends" to parade
+before the fresh young heirs her wax-light lovely daughters--when all is
+glory, gallopade, and Gunter--when Rubini warbles smallest, and
+Lablanche is heard as thunder on the stairs--speak, tradesmen, ye who
+best can tell, the closeness that has catered for that feast; tell it
+out, ye famished milliners, ground down to sixpence on a ball-dress
+bill; whisper it, ye footmen, with your wages ever due; let Gath, let
+Askelon re-echo with the truth, that extortion is the parent of
+extravagance!
+
+Now, that episode should have been in a foot note; but no one takes the
+trouble to read notes; and with justice too; for if a man has any thing
+to say, let him put it in his text, as orderly as may be. And, if order
+be sometimes out of the question, as seems but clearly suitable at
+present to our hero's manner of life, it is wise to go boldly on,
+without so prim an usher; to introduce our thoughts as they reveal
+themselves, ignorant of "their own degrees," not "standing on the order
+of their coming," but, as a pit crowd on a benefit-night, bustling over
+one another, helter-skelter, "in most admired disorder." This will well
+comport with Roger's daily life: for, notwithstanding the frequent
+interference of an Amazon wife--regardless of poor, dear Grace's gentle
+voice and melancholy eyes--in spite of a conscience pricking in his
+breast, with the spines of a horse-chestnut, that evil crock
+appeared from the beginning to have been found for but one sole
+purpose--_videlicet_, that of keeping alight in Roger's brain the fire
+of mad intoxication. Yes, there were sundry other purposes, too, which
+may as well be told directly.
+
+The utter dislocation of all home comforts occupied the foremost rank.
+True--in comparison with the homes of affluence and halls of
+luxury--those comforts may have formerly seemed few and far between; yet
+still the angel of domestic peace not seldom found a rest within the
+cottage. Not seldom? always: if sweet-eyed Grace be such an angel, that
+ever-abiding guest, full of love, duty, piety, and cheerfulness. But
+now, after long-enduring anguish, vexed in her righteous soul by the
+shocking sights and sounds of the drunkard and his parasites (for all
+the idle vagabonds about soon flocked around rich Acton, and were freely
+welcome to his reckless prodigality), Grace had been forced to steal
+away, and seek refuge with a neighbour. Here was one blessing the less.
+
+Another wretched change was in the wife. Granted, Mary Acton had not
+ever been the pink of politeness, the violet of meekness, nor the rose
+of entire amiability: but if she were a scold, that scolding was well
+meant; and her irate energies were incessantly directed towards
+cleanliness, economy, quiet, and other _notabilia_ of a busy house-wife.
+She did her best to keep the hovel tidy, to make the bravest show with
+their scanty chattels, to administer discreetly the stores of their
+frugal larder, and to recompense the good-man returning from his hard
+day's work, with much of rude joy and bustling kindness. But now, after
+the first stupor of amazement into which the crock and its consequences
+threw her, Poll Acton grew to be a fury: she raged and stormed, and well
+she might, at filth and discomfort in her home, at nauseous dregs and
+noisome fumes, at the orgie still kept up, day by day, and night by
+night, through the length of that first foul week, which succeeded the
+fortunate discovery. And not in vain she raged and stormed--and fought
+too; for she did fight--ay, and conquered: and miserable Roger, now in
+full possession of those joys which he had longed for at the casement of
+Hurstley Hall, was glad to betake himself to the bench at Bacchus's,
+whither he withdrew his ragged regiment. Thus, that crock had spoilt all
+there was to spoil in the temper and conduct of the wife.
+
+Look also at the pretty prattling babes, twin boys of two years old,
+whom Roger used to hasten home to see; who had to say their simple
+prayers; to be kissed, and comforted, and put to bed; to be made happier
+by a wild flower picked up on his path, than if the gift had been a
+coral with gold bells: where were they now? neglected, dirty, fretting
+in a corner, their red eyes full of wonder at father's altered ways, and
+their quick minds watching, with astonished looks, the progress of
+domestic discord. How the crock of gold has nipped those early blossoms
+as a killing frost!
+
+Again, there used to be, till this sad week of wealth and riotous
+hilarity, that constantly recurring blessing of the morn and evening
+prayer which Roger read aloud, and Grace's psalm or chapter; and
+afterwards the frugal meal--too scanty, perhaps, and coarse--but still
+refreshing, thank the Lord, and seasoned well with health and appetite;
+and the heart-felt sense of satisfaction that all around was earned by
+honest labour; and there was content, and hope of better times, and
+God's good blessing over every thing.
+
+Now, all these pleasures had departed; gold, unhallowed gold, gotten
+hastily in the beginning, broadcast on the rank strong soil of a heart
+that coveted it earnestly, had sprung up as a crop of poisonous tares,
+and choked the patch of wheat; gold, unhallowed gold, light come, light
+gone, had scared or killed the flock of unfledged loves that used to
+nestle in the cotter's thatch, as surely as if the cash were stones,
+flung wantonly by truants at a dove-cot; and forth from the crock, that
+egg of wo, had been hatched a red-eyed vulture, to tyrannize in this sad
+home, where but lately the pelican had dwelt, had spread her fostering
+wing, and poured out the wealth of her affections.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+CARE.
+
+
+BUT other happy consequences soon became apparent. If Acton in
+his tipsy state was mad, in his intervals of soberness he was thoroughly
+miserable. And this, not merely on the score of sickness, exhaustion,
+prostrated spirits, blue-devils, or other the long catalogue of a
+drunkard's joys; not merely from a raging wife, and a wretched home; not
+merely from the stings, however sharp, however barbed, of a conscience
+ill at ease, that would rise up fiercely like a hissing snake, and
+strike the black apostate to the earth: these all, doubtless, had their
+pleasant influences, adding to the lucky finder's bliss: but there was
+another root of misery most unlooked for, and to the poor who dream of
+gold, entirely paradoxical.
+
+The possession of that crock was the heaviest of cares. Where on earth
+was he to hide it? how to keep it safely, secretly? What if he were
+robbed of it in some sly way! O, thought of utter wo! it made the
+fortunate possessor quiver like an aspen. Or what, if some one or more
+of those blustering boon companions were to come by night with a
+bludgeon and a knife, and--and cut his throat, and find the treasure?
+or, worse still, were to torture him, set him on the fire like a
+saucepan (he had heard of Turpin having done so with a rich old woman),
+and make him tell them "where" in his extremity of pains, and give up
+all, and then--and then murder him at last, outright, and afterwards
+burn the hovel over his head, babes and all, that none might live to
+tell the tale? These fears set him on the rack, and furnished one
+inciting cause to that uninterrupted orgie; he must be either mad or
+miserable, this lucky finder.
+
+Also, even in his tipsy state, he could not cast off care: he might in
+his cups reveal the dangerous secret of having found a crock of gold. A
+secret still it was: Grace, his wife, and himself, were the only souls
+who knew it. Dear Grace feared to say a word about the business: not in
+apprehension of the law, for she never thought of that too probable
+intrusion on the finder: but simply because her unsophisticated piety
+believed that God, for some wise end, had allowed the Evil One to tempt
+her father; she, indeed, did not know the epigram,
+
+  The devil now is wiser than of yore:
+  He tempts by making rich--not making poor:
+
+but she did not conceive that notion in her mind; she contrasted the
+wealthy patriarch Job, tried by poverty and pain, but just and patient
+in adversity--with the poor labourer Acton, tried by luxury and wealth,
+and proved to be apostate in prosperity: so she held her tongue, and
+hitherto had been silent on a matter of so much local wonder as her
+father's sudden wealth, in the midst of urgent curiosity and
+extraordinary rumours.
+
+Mary was kept quiet as we know, by superstition of a lower grade, the
+dread of having money of the murdered, a thought she never breathed to
+any but her husband; and to poor uninitiated Grace (who had not heard a
+word of Ben's adventure), her answer about Mrs. Quarles and Mr. Jennings
+in the dawn of the crock's first blessing, had been entirely
+unintelligible: Mary, then, said never a word, but looked on dreadingly
+to see the end.
+
+As for Roger himself, he was too much in apprehension of a landlord's
+claims, and of a task-master's extortions, to breath a syllable about
+the business. So he hid his crock as best he could--we shall soon hear
+how and where--took out sovereign after sovereign day by day, and made
+his flush of instant wealth a mystery, a miracle, a legacy, good luck,
+any thing, every thing but the truth: and he would turn fiercely round
+to the frequent questioner with a "What's that to you?--Nobody's
+business but mine:" and then would coaxingly add the implied bribe to
+secresy, in his accustomed invitation--"And now, what'll you take?"--a
+magical phrase, which could suffice to quell murmurs for the time, and
+postponed curiosity to appetite. Thus the fact was still unknown, and
+weighed on Roger's mind as a guilty concealment, an oppressive secret.
+What if any found it out?
+
+For immediate safety--the evening after his memorable first fifteen
+hours of joy--he buried the crock deeply in a hole in his garden,
+filling all up hard with stones and brick-bats; and when he had
+smoothed it straight and workmanlike, remembered that he surely hadn't
+kept out enough to last him; so up it had to come again--five more taken
+out, and the crock was restored to its unquiet grave.
+
+Scarcely had he done this, than it became dark, and he began to fancy
+some one might have seen him hide it; those low mean tramps (never
+before had he refused the wretched wayfarers his sympathy) were always
+sneaking about, and would come and dig it up in the night: so he went
+out in the dark and the rain, got at it with infinite trouble and a
+broken pickaxe, and exultingly brought the crock in-doors; where he
+buried it a third time, more securely, underneath the grouted floor,
+close beside the fire in the chimney-corner: it was now nearly midnight,
+and he went to bed.
+
+Hardly had he tumbled in, after pulling on a nightcap of the flagon,
+than the dread idea overtook him that his treasure might be melted! Was
+there ever such a fool as he? Well, well, to think he could fling his
+purse on the fire! What a horrid thought! Metallurgy was a science quite
+unknown to Roger; he only considered gold as heavy as lead, and
+therefore probably as fusible: so down he bustled, made another hole, a
+deeper one too this time, in the floor under the dresser, where,
+exhausted with his toil and care, he deposited the crock by four in the
+morning--and so retired once more.
+
+All in vain--nobody ever knew when Black Burke might be returning from
+his sporting expeditions--and that beast of a lurcher would be sure to
+be creeping in this morning, and would scratch it up, and his brute of a
+master would get it all! This fancy was the worst possible: and Roger
+rose again, quite sick at heart, pale, worn, and trembling with a
+miser's haggard joys. Where should he hide that crock--the epithet
+"cursed" crock escaped him this time in his vexed impatience. In the
+house and in the garden, it was equally unsafe.
+
+Ha! a bright thought indeed: the hollow in the elm-tree, creaking
+overhead, just above the second arm: so the poor, shivering wretch,
+almost unclad, swarmed up that slimy elm, and dropped his treasure in
+the hollow. Confusion! how deep it was: he never thought of that; here
+was indeed something too much of safety: and then those boys of
+neighbour Goode's were birds'-nesting continually, specially round the
+lake this spring. What an idiot he was not to have remembered this! And
+up he climbed again, thrust in his arm to the shoulder, and managed to
+repossess himself a fifth time of that blessed crock.
+
+Would that the elm had been hollow to its root, and beneath the root a
+chasm bottomless, and that Plutus in that Narbonne jar had served as a
+supper to Pluto in the shades! Better had it been for thee, my Roger.
+
+But he had not hid it yet; so, that night--or rather that cold morning
+about six, the drenched, half-frozen Fortunatus carried it to bed with
+him: and a precious warming-pan it made: for nothing would satisfy the
+finder of its presence but perpetual bodily contact:--accordingly, he
+placed it in his bosom, and it chilled him to the back-bone.
+
+Yes; that was undoubtedly the safest way; to carry the spoil about with
+him; so, next noon--how could he get up till noon after such a woful
+night?--next noon he emptied the jar, and tying up its contents in a
+handkerchief, proceeded to wear it as a girdle; for an hour he clattered
+about the premises, making as much jingle as a wagoner's team of bells;
+laden heavily with gold, like the [Greek: ibebusto] genius in Herodotus:
+but he soon found out this would not do at all; for, independently of
+all concealment at an end, so long as his secret store was rattling as
+he walked, louder than military spurs or sabre-tackle, he soberly
+reflected that he might--possibly, possibly, though not probably--get a
+glass too much again, by some mere accident or other; and then to be
+robbed of his golden girdle, this cincture of all joy! O, terrible
+thought! as well [this is my fancy, not Rogers's] deprive Venus of her
+zone, and see how the beggared Queen of Beauty could exist without her
+treasury, the Cestus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+INVESTMENT.
+
+
+NEXT day, the wealthy Roger had higher aspirations. Why should
+not he get interest for his money, like lords and gentlefolk? His gold
+had been lying idle too long; more fool he: it ought to breed money
+somehow, he knew that; for, like most poor men whose sole experience of
+investment is connected with the Lombard's golden balls, he took exalted
+views of usury. Was he to be "hiding up his talent in a napkin--?"
+
+Ah!--he remembered and applied the holy parable, but it smote across his
+heart like a flash of frost, a chilling recollection of good things past
+and gone. What had he been doing with his talents--for he once
+possessed the ten? had he not squandered piety, purity, and patience?
+where were now his gratitude to God, his benevolence to man? the
+father's duteous care, the husband's industry and kindness, the
+labourer's faith, the Christian's hope--who had spent all these?--Till
+money's love came in, and money-store to feed it, the poor man had been
+rich: but now, rotten to the core, by lust of gold, the rich is poor
+indeed.
+
+However, such considerations did not long afflict him--for we know that
+lookers-on see more than players--and if Roger had encouraged half our
+wise and sober thoughts, he might have been a better man: but Roger
+quelled the thoughts, and silenced them; and thoughts are tender
+intonations, shy little buzzing sounds, soon scared by coarser noise:
+Roger had no mind to cherish those small fowls; so they flew back again
+to Heaven's gate, homeless and uncomforted as weeping peri's.
+
+The bank--the county bank--Shark, Breakem, and Company--this was the
+specious Eldorado, the genuine gold-increaser, the hive where he would
+store his wealth (as honey left for the bees in winter), and was to have
+it soon returned fourfold. It was indeed a thought to make the rich man
+glad, that all his shining heap was just like a sample of seed-corn, and
+the pocket-full should next year fill a sack. How grudgingly he now
+began to mourn over past extravagance, five pieces gone within the week!
+how close and careful he resolved to be in future! how he would scrape
+and economize to get and save but one more of those sweet little seeds,
+that yield more gold--more gold! And if Roger had been privileged in
+youth to have fed upon the wisdom of the Eton Latin grammar, he could
+have now quoted with some experimental unction the "_Crescit Amor_"
+line, which every body well knows how to finish. Truly, it was growing
+with his growth, and rioting in strength above his weakness.
+
+Swollen with this expanding love, he packed up his money in what were,
+though he knew it not, _rouleaux_, but to his plebeian eyes looked more
+like golden sausages: and he would take it to the bank, and they should
+bow to him, and Sir him, and give him forthwith more than he had
+brought; and if those summary gains were middling great--say twice as
+much, to be moderate--he thought he might afford himself a chaise coming
+back, and return to Hurstley Common like a nabob. Thus, full of wealthy
+fancies, after one glass more, off set Roger to the county town, with
+his treasure in a bundle.
+
+Half-way to it, as hospitality has ordained to be the case wherever
+there be half-ways, occurred a public-house: and really,
+notwithstanding all our monied neophyte's economical resolutions, his
+throat was so "uncommon dry," that he needs must stop there to refresh
+the muscles of his larynx: so, putting down his bundle on the settle, he
+called for a foaming tankard, and thanking the crock, as his evil wont
+now was, sat down to drink and think. Here was prosperity indeed, a
+flood of astonishing good fortune: that he, but a little week agone, a
+dirty ditcher--so was he pleased to designate his former self--a ragged
+wretch, little better than a tramp, should be now progressing like a
+monarch, with a mighty bag of gold to enrich his county town. To enrich,
+and be thereby the richer; for Roger's actions of finance were so
+simple, as to run the risk of being called sublimely indistinct: he took
+it as an axiom that "money bred money," but in what way to draw forth
+its generative properties, whether or not by some new-fangled manure, he
+was entirely ignorant; and it clearly was his wisdom to leave all that
+mystery of money-making solely to the banker. All he cared about was
+this: to come back richer than he came--and, lo! how rich he was
+already. Lolling at high noon, on a Wednesday too, in the extremest mode
+of rustic beauism, with a bag of gold by his side, and a pot of porter
+in his hand--here was an accumulation of magnificence--all the
+prepositions pressed into his service. His wildest hopes exceeded, and
+almost nothing left to wish. Blown up with the pride and importance of
+the moment, and some little oblivious from the potent porter--he had
+paid and sallied forth, and marched a mile upon his way, full of golden
+fancies, a rich luxurious lord as he was--when all on a sudden the
+hallucination crossed his dull pellucid mind, that he had left the store
+behind him! O, pungent terror!--O, most exquisite torture! was it clean
+gone, stolen, lost, lost, lost for ever? Rushing back in an agony of
+fear, that made the ruddy hostess think him crazed, with his hair on
+end, and a face as if it had been white-washed, he flew to the tap-room,
+and--almost fainted for ecstasy of joy when he found it, where he had
+laid it, on the settle!
+
+Better had you lost it, Roger; better had your ecstasy been sorrow:
+there is more trouble yet for you, from that bad crock of gold. But if
+your lesson is not learnt, and you still think otherwise, go on a little
+while exultingly as now I see you, and hug the treasure to your
+heart--the treasure that will bring you yet more misery.
+
+And now the town is gained, the bank approached. What! that big barred,
+guarded place, looking like a mighty mouse-trap? he didn't half like to
+venture in. At last he pushed the door ajar, and took a peep; there
+were muskets over the mantel-piece, ostentatiously ticketed as "Loaded!
+Beware!" there were leather buckets ranged around the walls: he did not
+in any degree like it: was he to expose his treasure in this idiot
+fashion to all the avowed danger of fire and thieves? However, since he
+had come so far, he would get some interest for his money, that he
+would--so he'd just make bold to step to the counter and ask a very
+obsequious bald-headed gentleman, who sired him quite affably,
+
+"How much, Master, will you be pleased to give me for my gold?"
+
+The gentleman looked queerish, as if he did not comprehend the question,
+and answered, "Oh! certainly, sir--certainly--we do not object to give
+you our notes for it," at the same time producing an extremely dirty
+bundle of worn-out bits of paper.
+
+Roger stroked his chin.
+
+"But, Master, my meaning is, not how many o' them brown bits o' paper
+you'll sell me for my gold here," and he exhibited a greater store than
+Mr. Breakem had seen at once upon his counter for a year, "but how much
+more gold you'll send me back with than what I've brought? by way of
+interest, you know, or some such law: for I don't know much about the
+Funds, Master."
+
+"Indeed, sir," replied the civil banker, who wished by any means to
+catch the clodpole's spoil--"you are very obliging; we shall be glad to
+allow you two-and-a-half per centum per annum for the deposit you are
+good enough to leave in our keeping."
+
+"Leave in your keeping, Master! no, I didn't say that! by your leave,
+I'll keep it myself!"
+
+"In that case, sir, I really do not see how I can do business with you."
+
+True enough; and Roger would never have been such a monetary blockhead,
+had he not been now so generally tipsy; the fumes of beer had mingled
+with his plan, and all his usual shrewdness had been blunted into folly
+by greediness of lucre on the one side, and potent liquors on the other.
+The moment that the banker's parting speech had reached his ear, the
+absurdity of Roger's scheme was evident even to himself, and with a bare
+"Good day, Master," he hurriedly took his bundle from the counter, and
+scuttled out as quick as he could.
+
+His feelings, walking homeward, were any thing but pleasant; the bubble
+of his ardent hope was burst: he never could have more than the paltry
+little sum he carried in that bundle: what a miser he would be of it:
+how mean it now seemed in his eyes--a mere sample-bag of seed, instead
+of the wide-waving harvest! Ah, well; he would save and scrape--ay, and
+go back to toil again--do any thing rather than spend.
+
+Got home, the difficulty now recurred, where was he to hide it? The
+store was a greater care than ever, now those rascally bankers knew of
+it. He racked his brain to find a hiding-place, and, at length, really
+hit upon a good one. He concealed the crock, now replenished with its
+contents, in the thatch just over his bed's head: it was a rescued
+darling: so he tore a deep hole, and nested it quite snugly.
+
+Perhaps it did not matter much, but the rain leaked in by that hole all
+night, and fortunate Roger woke in the morning drenched with wet, and
+racked by rheumatism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+CALUMNY.
+
+
+MORE blessings issue from the crock; Pandora's box is set wide
+open, and all the sweet inhabitants come forth. If apprehensions for its
+safety made the finder full of care, the increased whisperings of the
+neighbourhood gave him even deeper reason for anxiety. In vain he told
+lie upon lie about a legacy of some old uncle in the clouds; in vain he
+stuck to the foolish and transparent falsehood, with a dogged
+pertinacity that appealed, not to reason, but to blows; in vain he made
+affirmation weaker by his oath, and oaths quite unconvincing by his
+cudgel: no one believed him: and the mystery was rendered more
+inexplicable from his evidently nervous state and uneasy terror of
+discovery.
+
+He had resolved at the outset, cunningly as he fancied, to change no
+more than one piece of gold in the same place; though Bacchus's
+undoubtedly proved the rule by furnishing an exception: and the
+consequence came to be, that there was not a single shop in the whole
+county town, nor a farm-house in all the neighbourhood round, where
+Roger Acton had not called to change a sovereign. True, the silver had
+seldom been forthcoming; still, he had asked for it; and where in life
+could he have got the gold? Many was the rude questioner, whose
+curiosity had been quenched in drink; many the insufferable pryer, whom
+club-law had been called upon to silence. Meanwhile, Roger steadily kept
+on, accumulating silver where he could: for his covetous mind delighted
+in the mere semblance of an increase to his store, and took some
+untutored numismatic interest in those pretty variations of his
+idol--money.
+
+But if Roger's heap increased, so did the whispers and suspicions of the
+country round; they daily grew louder, and more clamorous; and soon the
+charitable nature of chagrined wonder assumed a shape more heart-rending
+to the wretched finder of that golden hoard, than any other care, or
+fear, or sin, that had hitherto torn him. It only was a miracle that the
+neighbours had not thought of it before; seldom is the world so
+unsuspicious; but then honest Roger's forty years of character were
+something--they could scarcely think the man so base; and, above all,
+gentle Grace was such a favourite with all, was such a pattern of
+purity, and kindliness, and female conduct, that the tongue would have
+blistered to its roots, that had uttered scorn of her till now. As
+things were, though, could any thing be clearer? Was charity herself to
+blame in putting one and one together? Sir John was rich, was young,
+gay, and handsome; but Grace was poor--but indisputably beautiful, and
+probably had once been innocent: some had seen her going to the Hall at
+strange times and seasons--for in truth, she often did go there;
+Jonathan and Sarah Stack, of course, were her dearest friends on earth:
+and so it came to pass, that, through the blessing of the crock, honest
+Roger was believed to live on the golden wages of his daughter's shame!
+Oh, coarse and heartless imputation! Oh, bitter price to pay for secresy
+and wonderful good fortune! In vain the wretched father stormed, and
+swore, and knocked down more than one foul-spoken fellow that had
+breathed against dear Grace. None but credited the lie, and many envious
+wretches actually gloried in the scandal; I grieve to say that
+women--divers venerable virgins--rejoiced that this pert hussey was at
+last found out; she was too pretty to be good, too pious to be pure; now
+at length they were revenged upon her beauty; now they had their triumph
+over one that was righteous over-much. For other people, they would urge
+the reasonable question, how else came Roger by the cash? and getting no
+answer, or worse than none--a prevaricating, mystifying mere
+put-off--they had hardly an alternative in common exercise of judgment:
+therefore, "Shame on her," said the neighbours, "and the bitterest shame
+on him:" and the gaffers and grand-dames shook their heads virtuously.
+
+Yet worse: there was another suggestion, by no means contradictory,
+though simultaneous: what had become of Tom? ay--that bold young
+fellow--Thomas Acton, Ben Burke's friend: why was he away so long,
+hiding out of the country? they wondered.
+
+The suspected Damon and Pythias had gone a county off to certain fens,
+and were, during this important week, engaged in a long process of
+ensnaring ducks.
+
+Old Gaffer White had muttered something to Gossip Heartley, which Dick
+the Tanner overheard, wherein Tom Acton and a gun, and Burke, and
+burglary, and throats cut, and bags of gold, were conspicuous
+ingredients: so that Roger Acton's own dear Tom, that eagle-eyed and
+handsome better image of himself, stood accused, before his quailing
+father's face, of robbery and murder.
+
+Both--both darlings, dead Annie's little orphaned pets, thus stricken by
+one stone to infamy! Grace, scouted as a hussey, an outcast, a bad girl,
+a wanton--blessed angel! Thomas--generous boy--keenly looked for, in his
+near return, to be seized by rude hands, manacled, and dragged away, and
+tried on suspicion as a felon--for what? that crock of gold. Yet Roger
+heard it all, knew it all, writhed at it all, as if scorpions were
+lashing him; but still he held on grimly, keeping that bad secret.
+Should he blab it out, and so be poor again, and lose the crock?
+
+That our labourer's changed estate influenced his bodily health, under
+this accumulated misery and desperate excitement, began to be made
+manifest to all. The sturdy husbandman was transformed into a tremulous
+drunkard; the contented cottager, into a querulous hypochondriac; the
+calm, religious, patient Christian, into a tumultuous blasphemer. Could
+all this be, and even Roger's iron frame stand up against the battle!
+No, the strength of Samson has been shorn. The crock has poured a
+blessing on its finder's very skin, as when the devil covered Job with
+boils.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE BAILIFF'S VISIT.
+
+
+ONE day at noon, ere the first week well was over since the
+fortunate discovery of gold, as Roger lay upon his bed, recovering from
+an overnight's excess, tossed with fever, vexation, and anxiety, he was
+at once surprised and frightened by a visit from no less a personage
+than Mr. Simon Jennings. And this was the occasion of his presence:
+
+Directly the gathering storm of rumours had collected to that focus of
+all calumny, the destruction of female character and murder charged upon
+the innocent, Grace Acton had resolved upon her course; secresy could be
+kept no longer; her duty now appeared to be, to publish the story of her
+father's lucky find.
+
+Grace, we may observe, had never been bound to silence, but only imposed
+it on herself from motives of tenderness to one, whom she believed to be
+taken in the toils of a temptation. She, simple soul, knew nothing of
+manorial rights, nor wotted she that any could despoil her father of his
+money; but even if such thoughts had ever crossed her mind, she loathed
+the gold that had brought so much trouble on them all, and cared not how
+soon it was got rid of. Her father's health, honour, happiness, were
+obviously at stake; perhaps, also, her brother's very life: and, as for
+herself, the martyr of calumny looked piously to heaven, offered up her
+outraged heart, and resolved to stem this torrent of misfortune.
+Accordingly, with a noble indignation worthy of her, she had gone
+straightway to the Hall, to see the baronet, to tell the truth, fling
+aside a charge which she could scarcely comprehend, and openly vindicate
+her offended honour. She failed--many imagine happily for her own peace,
+if Sir John had not been better than his friends--in gaining access to
+the Lord of Hurstley; but she did see Mr. Jennings, who serenely
+interposed, and listened to all she came to say--"her father had been
+unfortunate enough to find a crock of money on the lake side near his
+garden."
+
+When Jennings heard the tale, he started as if stung by a wasp: and
+urging Grace to tell it no one else (though the poor girl "must," she
+said, "for honour's sake"), he took up his hat, and ran off breathlessly
+to Acton's cottage. Roger was at home, in bed, and sick; there was no
+escape; and Simon chuckled at the lucky chance. So he crept in,
+carefully shut the door, put his finger on his lips to hush Roger's note
+of admiration at so little wished a vision; and then, with one of his
+accustomed scared and fearful looks behind him, muttered under his
+breath,
+
+"Man, that gold is mine: I have paid its price to the uttermost; give me
+the honey-pot."
+
+Roger's first answer was a vulgar oath; but his tipsy courage faded soon
+away before old habits of subserviency, and he faltered out,
+"I--I--Muster Jennings! I've got no pot of gold!"
+
+"Man, you lie! you have got the money! give it me at once--and--" he
+added in a low, hoarse voice, "we will not say a word about the murder."
+
+"Murder!" echoed the astonished man.
+
+"Ay, murder, Acton:--off! off, I say!" he muttered parenthetically, then
+wrestled for a minute violently, as with something in the air; and
+recovering as from a spasm, calmly added,
+
+"Ay, murder for the money."
+
+"I--I!" gasped Roger; "I did no murder, Muster Jennings!"
+
+A new light seemed to break upon the bailiff, and he answered with a
+tone of fixed determination,
+
+"Acton, you are the murderer of Bridget Quarles."
+
+Roger's jaw dropped, dismay was painted on his features, and certainly
+he did look guilty enough. But Simon proceeded in a tenderer tone;
+
+"Notwithstanding, give me the gold, Acton, and none shall know a word
+about the murder. We will keep all quiet, Roger Acton, all nice and
+quiet, you know;" and he added, coaxingly, "come, Roger, give me up this
+crock of gold."
+
+"Never!" with a fierce anathema, answered our hero, now himself again:
+the horrid accusation had entranced him for a while, but this coaxing
+strain roused up all the man in him: "Never!" and another oath confirmed
+it.
+
+"Acton, give it up, I say!" was shouted in rejoinder, and Jennings
+glared over him with his round and staring eyes as he lay faint upon his
+bed--"Give up the crock, or else--"
+
+"Else what? you whitened villain."
+
+The bailiff flung himself at Roger's neck, and almost shrieked, "I'll
+serve you as I--"
+
+There was a tremendous struggle; attacked at unawares, for the moment he
+was nearly mastered; but Acton's tall and wiry frame soon overpowered
+the excited Jennings, and long before you have read what I have
+written--he has leaped out of bed--seized--doubled up--and flung the
+battered bailiff headlong down the narrow stair-case to the bottom. This
+done, Roger, looking like Don Quixote de la Mancha in his penitential
+shirt, mounted into bed again, and quietly lay down; wondering,
+half-sober, at the strange and sudden squall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE CAPTURE.
+
+
+HE had not long to wonder. Jennings got up instantly, despite
+of bruises, posted to the Hall, took a search-warrant from Sir John's
+study, (they were always ready signed, and Jennings filled one up,) and
+returned with a brace of constables to search the cottage.
+
+Then Roger, as he lay musing, fancied he heard men's voices below, and
+his wife, who had just come in, talking to them; what could they want?
+tramps, perhaps: or Ben? he shuddered at the possibility; with Tom too;
+and he felt ashamed to meet his son. So he turned his face to the wall,
+and lay musing on--he hadn't been drinking too much over-night--Oh, no!
+it was sickness, and rheumatics, and care about the crock; Tom should be
+told that he was very ill, poor father! Just as he had planned this, and
+resolved to keep his secret from that poaching ruffian Burke, some one
+came creeping up the stairs, slided in at the door, and said to him in a
+deep whisper from the further end of the room,
+
+"Acton, give me the gold, and the men shall go away; it is not yet too
+late; tell me where to find the crock of gold."
+
+An oath was the reply; and, at a sign from Jennings, up came the other
+two.
+
+"We have searched every where, Mr. Simon Jennings, both cot and garden;
+ground disturbed in two or three places, but nothing under it; in-doors
+too, the floor is broken by the hearth and by the dresser, but no signs
+of any thing there: now, Master Acton, tell us where it is, man, and
+save us all the trouble."
+
+Roger's newly-learnt vocabulary of oaths was drawn upon again.
+
+"Did you look in the ash-pit?" asked Jennings.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, while you two search this chamber, I will examine it myself."
+
+Mr. Jennings apparently entertained a wholesome fear of Acton's powers
+of wrestling.
+
+Up came Simon in a hurry back again, with a lot of little empty leather
+bags he had raked out, and--the fragment of a shawl! the edges burnt, it
+was a corner bit, and marked B.Q.
+
+"What do you call this, sir?" asked the exulting bailiff.
+
+"Curse that Burke!"--thought Roger; but he said nothing.
+
+And the two men up stairs had searched, and pried, and hunted every
+where in vain; the knotty mattress had been ripped up, the chimney
+scrutinized, the floor examined, the bed-clothes overhauled, and as for
+the thatch, if it hadn't been for Roger Acton's constant glance upwards
+at his treasure in the roof, I am sure they never would have found it.
+But they did at last: there it was, the crock of gold, full proof of
+robbery and murder!
+
+"Aha!" said Simon, in a complacent triumph, "Mrs. Quarles's identical
+honey-pot, full of her clean bright gold, and many pieces still encased
+in those tidy leather bags;" and his round eyes glistened again; but all
+at once, with a hurried look over his left shoulder, he exclaimed,
+involuntarily, in a very different tone, "Ha! away, I say!--" Then he
+snatched the crock up eagerly, and nursed it like a child.
+
+"Come along with us, Master Acton, you're wanted somewhere else; up,
+man, look alive, will you?"
+
+And Roger dressed himself mechanically. It was no manner of use, not in
+the least worth while resisting, innocent though he was; his treasure
+had been found, and taken from him; he had nothing more to live for; his
+gold was gone--his god; where was the wisdom of fighting for any thing
+else; let them take him to prison if they would, to the jail, to the
+gallows, to any-whither, now his gold was gone. So he put on his
+clothes without a murmur, and went with them as quiet as a lamb.
+
+Never was there a clearer case; the housekeeper's hoard had been found
+in his possession, with a fragment of her shawl; and Sir John Vincent
+was very well aware of the mystery attending the old woman's death;
+besides, he was in a great hurry to be off; for Pointer, and Silliphant,
+and Lord George Pypp, were to have a hurdle race with him that day, for
+a heavy bet; so he really had not time to go deep into the matter; and
+the result of five minutes' talk before the magisterial chairs (Squire
+Ryle having been summoned to assist) was, that, on the accusation of
+Simon Jennings, Roger Acton was fully committed to the county jail, to
+be tried at next assizes, for Bridget Quarles's murder.
+
+Thank God! poor Roger, it has come to this. What other way than this was
+there to save thee from thy sin--to raise thee from thy fall? Where
+else, but in a prison, could you get the silent, solitary hours leading
+you again to wholesome thought and deep repentance? Where else could you
+escape the companionship of all those loose and low associates, sottish
+brawlers, ignorant and sensual unbelievers, vagabond radicals, and
+other lewd fellows of the baser sort, that had drank themselves drunk at
+your expense, and sworn to you as captain! The place, the time, the
+means for penitence are here. The crisis of thy destiny is come.
+
+Honest Roger, Steady Acton, did I not see thy guardian angel--after all
+his many tears, aggrieved and broken spirit!--did I not see him lift his
+swollen eyes in gratitude to Heaven, and benevolence to thee, and smile
+a smile of hopeful joy when that damned crock was found?
+
+Gladly could he thank his Lord, to behold the temptation at an end.
+
+Did I not see the devil slink away from thee abashed, issuing like an
+adder from thy heart, and then, with a sudden Protean change, driven
+from thy hovel as a thunder-cloud dispersing, when Simon Jennings seized
+the jar, hugged it as his household-god--and took it home with him--and
+counted out the gold--and locked the bloody treasure in his iron-chest?
+
+Fitly did the murderer lock up curses with his spoil.
+
+And when God smote thine idol, dashing Dagon to the ground, and thy
+heart was sore with disappointment, and tender as a peeled fig--when
+hope was dead for earth, and conscience dared not look beyond it--ah!
+Roger, did I judge amiss when I saw, or thought I saw, those eyes full
+of humble shame, those lips quivering with remorseful sorrow?
+
+We will leave thee in the cold stone cell--with thy well-named angel
+Grace to comfort thee, and pray with thee, and help thee back to God
+again, and so repay the debt that a daughter owes her father.
+
+Happy prison! where the air is sweetened by the frankincense of piety,
+and the pavement gemmed with the flowers of hope, and the ceiling arched
+with Heaven's bow of mercy, and the walls hung around with the dewy
+drapery of penitence!
+
+Happy prison! where the talents that were lost are being found again,
+gathered in humility from this stone floor; where poor-making riches are
+banished from the postern, and rich-making poverty streameth in as light
+from the grated window; where care vexeth not now the labourer emptied
+of his gold, and calumny's black tooth no longer gnaws the heart-strings
+of the innocent.
+
+Hark! it is the turnkey, coming round to leave the pittance for the day:
+he is bringing in something in an earthern jar. Speak, Roger Acton,
+which will you choose, man--a prisoner's mess of pottage--or a crock of
+gold?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE AUNT AND HER NEPHEW.
+
+
+WHILE we leave Roger Acton in the jail, waiting for the very
+near assizes, and wearing every hour away in penitence and prayer, it
+will be needful to our story that we take a retrospective glance at
+certain events, of no slight importance.
+
+I must now speak of things, of which there is no human witness;
+recording words, and deeds, whereof Heaven alone is cognizant, Heaven
+alone--and Hell! For there are secret matters, which the murdered cannot
+tell us, and the murderer dare not--let him confess as fully as he will.
+Therefore, with some omnipresent sense, some invisible ubiquity, I must
+note down scenes as they occurred, whether mortal eye has witnessed them
+or not; I must lay bare secret thoughts, unlatch the hidden chambers of
+the heart, and duly set out, as they successively arose, the idea which
+tongue had not embodied, the feeling which no action had expressed.
+
+Hitherto, we have pretty well preserved inviolate the three grand
+unities--time, place, circumstance; and even now we do not sin against
+the first and chiefest, however we may seem so to sin; for, had it
+suited my purpose to have begun with the beginning, and to have placed
+the present revelations foremost, the strictest stickler for the unities
+would have only had to praise my orthodox adherence to them. As it is, I
+have chosen, for interest sake, to shuffle my cards a little; and two
+knaves happen to have turned up together just at this time and place.
+The time is just three weeks ago--a week before the baronet came of age,
+and a fortnight antecedent to the finding of the crock; which, as we
+know, after blessing Roger for a se'nnight, has at last left him in
+jail. The place is the cozy house-keepers room at Hurstley: and the
+brace of thorough knaves, to enact then and there as _dramatis personae_,
+includes Mistress Bridget Quarles, a fat, sturdy, bluffy, old woman, of
+a jolly laugh withal, and a noisy tongue--and our esteemed acquaintance
+Mister Simon Jennings. The aunt, house-keeper, had invited the nephew,
+butler, to take a dish of tea with her, and rum-punch had now succeeded
+the souchong.
+
+"Well, Aunt Quarles, is it your meaning to undertake a new master?"
+
+"Don't know, nephy--can't say yet what he'll be like: if he'll leave us
+as we are, won't say wont."
+
+"Ay, as we are, indeed; comfortable quarters, and some little to put by,
+too: a pretty penny you will have laid up all this while, I'll be bound:
+I wager you now it is a good five hundred, aunt--come, done for a
+shilling."
+
+"Get along, foolish boy; a'n't you o' the tribe o' wisdom too--ha, ha,
+ha!"
+
+"I will not say," smirked Simon, "that my nest has not a feather."
+
+"It's easy work for us, Nep; we hunt in couples: you the men, and I the
+maids--ha, ha!"
+
+"Tush, Aunt Bridget! that speech is not quite gallant, I fear." And the
+worshipful extortioners giggled jovially.
+
+"But it's true enough for all that, Simon: how d'ye manage it, eh, boy?
+much like me, I s'pose; wages every quarter from the maids, dues from
+tradesmen Christmas-tide and Easter, regular as Parson Evans's; pretty
+little bits tacked on weekly to the bills, beside presents from every
+body; and so, boy, my poor forty pounds a-year soon mounts up to a
+hundred."
+
+"Ay, ay, Aunt Bridget--but I get the start of you, though you probably
+were born a week before-hand: talk of parsons, look at me, a regular
+grand pluralist monopolist, as any bishop can be; butler in doors,
+bailiff out of doors, land-steward, house-steward, cellar-man, and
+pay-master. I am not all this for naught, Aunt Quarles: if so much goes
+through my fingers, it is but fair that something stick."
+
+"True, Simon--O certainly; but if you come to boasting, my boy, I don't
+carry this big bunch o' keys for nothing neither. Lord love you! why
+merely for cribbings in the linen-line for one month, John Draper
+swapped me that there shawl: none o' my clothes ever cost me a penny,
+and I a'n't quite as bare as a new-born baby neither. Look at them
+trunks, bless you!"
+
+"Ay, ay, aunt, I'll be bound the printer of your prayer-book has left
+out a 'not,' before the 'steal,' eh?--ha! ha!"
+
+"Fie, naughty Simon, fie! them's not stealings, them's parquisites.
+Where's the good o' living in a great house else? But come, Si, haven't
+you struck out the 'not,' for yourself, though the printer did his duty,
+eh, Nep?"
+
+"Not a bit, aunt--not a bit: all sheer honesty and industry. Look at my
+pretty little truck-shop down the village. Wo betide the labourer that
+leaves off dealing there! not one that works at Hurstley, but eats my
+bread and bacon; besides the 'tea, coffee, tobacco, and snuff.'"
+
+"Pretty fairish articles, eh? I never dealt with you, Si: no, Nep,
+no--you never saw the colour o' my money."
+
+Jennings gave a start, as if a thought had pricked him; but gayly
+recovering himself, said,
+
+"Oh, as to pretty fairish, I know there is one thing about the bacon
+good enough; ay, and the bread too--the very best of prices; ha! ha! is
+not that good? And for the other genuine articles, I don't know that
+much of the tea comes from China--and the coffee is sold ground, because
+it is burnt maize--and there's a plenty of wholesome cabbage leaf cut up
+in the tobacco--while as for snuff, I give them a dry, peppery, choky,
+sneezy dust, and I dare say that it does its duty."
+
+It was astonishing how innocently the worthy couple laughed together.
+
+"My only trouble, Aunt Quarles, is where to keep my gains--what to do
+with them. I am quite driven to the strong-box system, interest is so
+bad; and as to speculations, they are nervous things, and sicken one. I
+invest in the Great Western one day--a tunnel falls in, so I sell my
+shares the next, and send the proceeds to Australia; then, looking at
+the map, I see the island isn't clean chalked out all round, and
+beginning to fear that the sea will get in where it a'n't made
+water-tight by the Admiralty, I call the money home again. You see I
+don't know what to do with gold when I get it. Where do you keep yours
+now, aunt, I wonder?"
+
+"O, Nep, never mind me; you rattle on so I can't get in never a word.
+I'll only tell you where I don't keep it. Not at Breakem's bank, for
+they're brewers, and hosiers, and chandlers, and horse-dealers--ay, and
+swindlers too, the whole 'company' on 'em; not in mortgages, for I hate
+the very smell of a lawyer, with all his pounce and parchment; not in
+Gover'me't 'nuities, for I'm an old 'ooman, boy; and not in the Three
+per Cents, nor any other per cents, for I've sense enough to know that
+my highest interest lies in counting out, as my first principle is
+dropping in." And the fat female laughed herself purple at the venerable
+joke.
+
+Simon was a courtier, and laughed too, as immoderately as possible.
+
+"Ah! I dare say now you have got a Chubb's patent somewhere full of
+gold?" he asked somewhat anxiously; "take your punch, aunt, wont you? I
+do not see you drink."
+
+"Simon, mark me; fools who want to be robbed put their money into an
+iron chest, that thieves may know exactly where to find it; they might
+as well ticket it 'cash,' and advertise to Newgate--come and steal. I
+know a little better than to be such a fool."
+
+"Yes, certainly--I dare say now you keep it in your work-box, or sew it
+up in your stays, or hide it in the mattress, or in an old tea-pot,
+maybe." And Jennings eyed her narrowly.
+
+"Nephew, what rhymes to money?"
+
+"Money?--Well I can't say I am a poet--stony, perhaps. At least," added
+the benevolent individual, "when I have raised a wretch's rent to gain a
+little more by him, stony is not a bad shield to lift against prayers,
+and tears, and orphans, and widows, and starvation, and all such
+nonsense."
+
+"Not bad, neither, Nep: but there's a better rhyme than that."
+
+"You cannot mean honey, aunt? when I guessed stony, I thought you might
+have some snug little cash cellar under the flags. But honey? are you
+such a thorough Mrs. Rundle as to pickle and preserve your very guineas,
+the same as you do strawberries or apricots in syrup?"
+
+"Oh, you clever little fool! how prettily you do talk on: your tongue's
+as tidy as your cash-book: when you've any money to put by, come to Aunt
+Bridget for a crock to hide it in: mayn't one use a honey-pot, as Teddy
+Rourke would say, barring the honey?"
+
+"Ha! and so you hide the hoard up there, aunt, eh? along with the
+preserves in a honey-pot, do you?"
+
+"We'll see--we'll see, some o' these long days; not that the money's to
+be yours, Nep--you're rich enough, and don't want it; there's your poor
+sister Scott with her fourteen children, and Aunt Bridget must give her
+a lift in life: she was a good niece to me, Simon, and never left my
+side before she married: maybe she'll have cause to bless the dead."
+
+Jennings hardly spoke a word more; but drained his glass in silence, got
+up a sudden stomach-ache, and wished his aunt good-night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+SCHEMES.
+
+
+WE must follow Simon Jennings to his room. He felt keenly
+disappointed. Money was the idol of his heart, as it is of many million
+others. He had robbed, lied, extorted, tyrannized; he had earned scorn,
+ill-report, and hatred; nay, he had even diligently gone to work, and
+lost his own self-love and self-respect in the service of his darling
+idol. He was at once, for lucre's sake, the mean, cringing fawner, and
+the pitiless, iron despot; to the rich he could play supple parasite,
+while the poor man only knew him as an unrelenting persecutor; with the
+good, and they were chiefly of the fairer, softer sex, he walked in
+meekness, the spiritual hypocrite; the while, it was his boast to
+over-reach the worst in low duplicity and crooked dealing. All this he
+was for gold. When the eye of the world was on him, and intuition warned
+him of the times, he was ever the serene, the correct, with a smooth
+tongue and an oily smile; but in the privacy of some poor hovel, where
+his debtor sued for indulgence, or some victim of his passions (he had
+more depravities than one) threw her wretched self upon his pity, then
+could Simon Jennings lash sternness into rage, and heat his brazen heart
+with the embers of inveterate malice. It was as if the serpent, that
+voluble, insinuating reptile, which had power to fascinate poor Eve,
+turned to rend her when she had fallen, erect, with flashing eyes, and
+bristling crest, with venomed fangs, and hissing. Behold,
+snake-worshippers of Mexico, the prototype of your grim idol, in
+Mammon's model slave and specimen disciple!
+
+Such a man was Simon Jennings, a soul given up to gold--exclusively to
+gold; for although, as we have hinted, and as hereafter may appear, he
+could sell himself at times to other sins, still these were but as stars
+in his evil firmament, while covetousness ruled it like the sun; or, if
+the beauteous stars and blessed sun be an image too hallowed for his
+wickedness, we may find a fitter in some stagnant pool, where the
+pestilential vapour over all is Mammonism, and the dull, fat weeds that
+rot beneath, are pride, craftiness, and lechery. In fact, to speak of
+passions in a heart such as his, were a palpable misnomer; all was
+reduced to calculation; his rage was fostered to intimidate, and where
+the wretch seemed kinder, his kindnesses were aimed at power, as an
+object, rather than at pleasure--the power to obtain more gold.
+
+For it is a dreadful truth (which I would not dare to utter if such
+crimes had never been), that a reprobate of the bailiff Jennings's stamp
+may, by debts, or fines, or kind usurious loans, entrap a beggared
+creature in his toils; and then lyingly propose remission at the secret
+sacrifice of honour, in some one, over whom that dastard beggar has
+control; and having this point gained, the seducer is quite capable of
+using, for still more extortion, the power which a threatening of
+exposure gives, when the criminally weak has stooped to sin, on promises
+of silence and delivery from ruin. I wish there may be no poor yeoman
+in this broad land, of honourable name withal, he and his progenitors
+for ages, who can tell the tale of his own base fears, a creditor's
+exactions, and some dependant victim's degradation: some orphaned niece,
+some friendless ward, immolated in her earliest youth at the shrine of
+black-hearted Mammon; I wish there may be no sleek middle-man guilty of
+the crimes here charged upon Simon Jennings.
+
+This worthy, then, had been introduced at Hurstley by his aunt, Mrs.
+Quarles, on the occurrence of a death vacancy in the lad-of-all-work
+department, during the long ungoverned space of young Sir John's
+minority. As the precious "lad" grew older, and divers in-door
+potentates died off, the house-keeper had power to push her nephew on to
+pageship, footmanship, and divers other similar crafts, even to the
+final post of butler; while his own endeavours, backed by his aunt's
+interest, managed to secure for him the rule out of doors no less than
+in, and the closest possible access to guardians and landlords, to the
+tenants--and their rent.
+
+Now, the amiable Mrs. Quarles had contrived the elevation of her nephew,
+and connived at his monopolies, mainly to fit in cleverly with her own
+worldly weal; for it would never have done to have risked the loss of
+innumerable perquisites, and other peculations, by the possible advent
+of an honest butler. But, while the worshipful Simon, to do him only
+justice, fully answered Mrs. Bridget's purpose, and even added much to
+her emoluments; still he was no mere derivative scion, but an
+independent plant, and entertained views of his own. He had his own
+designs, and laid himself out to entrap his aunt's affections; or
+rather, for I cannot say he greatly valued these, to secure her good
+graces, and worm himself within the gilded clauses of her will; she was
+an old woman, rolling in gold, no doubt had a will; and as for himself,
+he was younger by five-and-thirty years, so he could afford to wait a
+little, before trying on her shoes. The petty schemes of thievery and
+cheating, which he in his Quotem capacities had practised, were to his
+eyes but as driblets of wealth in comparison with the mighty stream of
+his old aunt's savings. Not that he had done amiss, trust him! but then
+he knew the amount of his own hoard to a farthing, while of hers he was
+entirely ignorant; so, on the principle of '_omne ignotum pro
+mirifico_,' he pondered on its vastness with indefinite amazement,
+although probably it might not reach the quarter of his own. For it
+should in common charity be stated, that, with all her hiding and hiving
+propensities, Mrs. Quarles, however usually a screw, was by fits and
+starts an extravagant woman, and besides spending on herself, had
+occasionally helped her own kith and kin; poor niece Scott, in
+particular, had unconsciously come in for many pleasant pilferings, and
+had to thank her good aunt for innumerable filched groceries, and
+hosieries, and other largesses, which (the latter in especial) really
+had contributed, with sundry other more self indulgent expenses, to make
+no small havoc of the store.
+
+Still, this store was Simon's one main chance, the chief prize in his
+hope's lottery; and it was with a pang, indeed, that he found all his
+endeavours to compass its possession had been vain. Was that endless
+cribbage nothing, and the weary Bible-lessons on a Sunday, and the
+constant fetchings and carryings, and the forced smiles, sham
+congratulations, and other hypocritical affections--fearing for his dear
+aunt's dropsy, and inquiring so much about her bunions--was all this
+dull servitude to meet with no reward? With none? worse than none! Fool
+that he was! had he schemed, and plotted, and flattered, and
+cozened--ay, and given away many pretty little presents, lost decoys,
+that had cost hard money, all for nothing--less than nothing--to be
+laughed at and postponed to his Methodist sister Scott? The impudence of
+deliberately telling him he "didn't want it, and was rich enough!" as if
+"enough" could ever be good grammar after such a monosyllable as "rich;"
+and "want it" indeed! of course he wanted it; if not, why had he slaved
+so many years? want it, indeed! if to hope by day, and to dream by
+night--if to leave no means untried of delicately showing how he longed
+for it--if to grow sick with care, and thin with coveting--if this were
+to want the gold, good sooth, he wanted it. Don't tell him of starving
+brats, his own very bowels pined for it; don't thrust in his face the
+necessities of others--the necessity is his; he must have it--he will
+have it--talk of necessity!
+
+Wait a bit: is there no way of managing some better end to all this? no
+mode of giving the right turn to that wheel of fortune, round which his
+cares and calculations have been hovering so long? Is there no
+conceivable method of possessing that vast hoard?
+
+Bless me! how huge it must be! and Simon turned whiter at the thought:
+only add up Mother Quarles's income for fifty-five years: she is
+seventy-five at least, and came here a girl of twenty. Simon's hair
+stood on end, and his heart went like a mill-clapper, as he mentally
+figured out the sum.
+
+Is there no possibility of contriving matters so that I may be the
+architect of my own good luck, and no thanks at all to the old witch
+there? Dear--what a glorious fancy--let me think a little. Cannot I get
+at the huge hoard some how?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE DEVIL'S COUNSEL.
+
+
+"STEAL it," said the Devil.
+
+Simon was all of a twitter; for though he fancied his own heart said it,
+still his ear-drum rattled, as if somebody had spoken.
+
+Simon--that ear-drum was to put you off your guard: the deaf can hear
+the devil: he needs no tympanum to commune with the spirit: listen
+again, Simon; your own thoughts echo every word.
+
+"Steal it: hide in her room; you know she has a shower-bath there, which
+nobody has used for years, standing in a corner; two or three cloaks in
+it, nothing else: it locks inside, how lucky! ensconce yourself there,
+watch the old woman to sleep--what a fat heavy sleeper she is!--quietly
+take her keys, and steal the store: remember, it is a honey-pot.
+Nothing's easier--or safer. Who'd suspect you?"
+
+"Splendid! and as good as done," triumphantly exclaimed the nephew,
+snapping his fingers, and prancing with glee;--"a glorious fancy! bless
+my lucky star!"
+
+If there be a planet Lucifer, that was Simon's lucky star.
+
+And so, Mrs Quarles the biter is going to be bit, eh? It generally is so
+in this world's government. You, who brought in your estimable nephew to
+aid and abet in your own dishonest ways, are, it seems, going to be
+robbed of all your knavish gains by him. This is taking the wise in
+their own craftiness, I reckon: and richly you deserve to lose all your
+ill-got hoard. At the same time, Mrs. Quarles--I will be just--there are
+worse people in the world than you are: in comparison with your nephew,
+I consider you a grosser kind of angel; and I really hope no harm may
+befall your old bones beyond the loss of your money. However, if you are
+to lose this, it is my wish that poor Mrs. Scott, or some other honest
+body, may get it, and not Simon; or rather, I should not object that he
+may get it first, and get hung for getting it, too, before the sister
+has the hoard.
+
+Our friend, Simon Jennings, could not sleep that night; his reveries and
+scheming lasted from the rum-punch's final drop, at ten P.M., to
+circiter two A.M., and then, or thenabouts, the devil hinted "steal it;"
+and so, not till nearly four, he began to shut his eyes, and dream
+again, as his usual fashion was, of adding up receipts in five figures,
+and of counting out old Bridget's hoarded gold.
+
+Next day, notwithstanding nocturnal semi-sleeplessness, he awoke as
+brisk as a bee, got up in as exhilarated a state as any gas-balloon, and
+was thought to be either surprisingly in spirits, or spirits
+surprisingly in him; none knew which, "where each seemed either." That
+whole day long, he did the awkwardest things, and acted in the most
+absent manner possible; Jonathan thought Mr. Simon was beside himself;
+Sarah Stack, foolish thing! said he was in love, and was observed to
+look in the glass several times herself; other people did not know what
+to think--it was quite a mystery. To recount only a few of his
+unprecedented exploits on that day of anticipative bliss:
+
+First, he asked the porter how his gout was, and gave him a thimble-full
+of whiskey from his private store.
+
+Secondly, he paid Widow Soper one whole week's washing in full, without
+the smallest deduction or per centage.
+
+Thirdly, he ordered of Richard Buckle, commonly called Dick the Tanner,
+a lot of cart harness, without haggling for price, or even asking it.
+
+And, fourthly, he presented old George White, who was coming round with
+a subscription paper for a dead pig--actually, he presented old Gaffer
+White with the sum of two-pence out of his own pocket! never was such
+careless prodigality.
+
+But the little world of Hurstley did not know what we know. They
+possessed no clue to the secret happiness wherewithal Simon Jennings
+hugged himself; they had no inkling of the crock of gold; they thought
+not he was going to be suddenly so rich; they saw no cause, as we do,
+why he should feel to be like a great heir on the eve of his majority;
+they wotted not that Sir John Devereux Vincent, Baronet, had scarcely
+more agreeable or triumphant feelings when his clock struck twenty-one,
+than Simon Jennings, butler, as the hour of his hope drew nigh.
+
+If a destiny like this man's can ever have a crisis, the hour of his
+hope is that; but downward still, into a lower gulf, has been
+continually his bad career; there is (unless a miracle intervene) no
+stopping in the slope on which he glides, albeit there may be
+precipices. He that rushes in his sledge down the artificial ice-hills
+of St. Petersburgh, skims along not more swiftly than Jennings, from the
+altitude of infant innocence, had sheered into the depths of full-grown
+depravity; but even he can fall, and reach, with startling suddenness, a
+lower deep.
+
+As if that Russian mountain, hewn asunder midway, were fitted flush to
+a Norwegian cliff, beetling precipitately over the whirlpool; then tilt
+the sledge with its furred inmate over the slope, let it skim with
+quicker impetus the smoking ice, let it touch that beetling edge, and,
+leaping from the tangent, let it dart through the air, let it strike the
+eddying waters, be sucked hurriedly down that hoarse black throat, wind
+among the roots of the everlasting hills, and split upon the loadstone
+of the centre.
+
+Even such a fate, "down, down to hell," will come to Simon Jennings;
+wrapped in the furs of complacency, seated in the sledge of
+covetousness, a-down the slippery launch of well-worn evil habit--over
+the precipice of crime--into the billows of impenitent remorse--to be
+swallowed by the vortex of Gehenna!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE AMBUSCADE.
+
+
+NIGHT came, and with it all black thoughts. Not that they were
+black at once, any more than darkness leaps upon the back of noon,
+without the intervening cloak of twilight. Oh dear, no! Simon's thoughts
+accommodated themselves fitly to the time of day. They had been, for
+him, at early morning, pretty middling white, that is whity-brown;
+thence they passed, with the passing hour kindly, through the shades of
+burnt sienna, raw umber, and bistre; until, just as we may notice in the
+case of marking-ink; that which, five minutes ago, was as water only
+delicately dirtied, has become a fixed and indelible black.
+
+Simon was resolved upon the spoil, come what might; although his waking
+sensations of buoyancy, his noon-day cogitations of a calmer kind, and
+his even-tide determined scheming, had now given way to a nervous and
+unpleasant trepidation. So he poured spirits down to keep his spirits
+up. Very early after dark, he had watched his opportunity while Mrs.
+Quarles was scolding in the kitchen, had slipped shoeless and
+unperceived, from his pantry into the housekeeper's room, and locked
+himself securely in the shower bath. Hapless wight! it was very little
+after six yet, and there he must stand till twelve or so: his foresight
+had not calculated this, and the devil had already begun to cheat him.
+But he would go through with it now; no flinching, though his rabbit
+back is breaking with fatigue, and his knocked knees totter with
+exhaustion, and his haggard eyes swim dizzily, and his bad heart is
+failing him for fear.
+
+Yes, fear, and with good reason too for fear; "nothing easier, nothing
+safer," said his black adviser; how easily for bodily pains, how safely
+for chances of detection, was he getting at the promised crock of gold!
+
+"Mr. Jennings! Mr. Simon! where in the world was Mr. Jennings?" nobody
+knew; he must have gone out somewhere. Strange, too--and left his hat
+and great-coat.
+
+Here's a general for an ambuscade; Oh, Simon, Simon! you have had the
+whole day to think of it--how is it that both you and your dark friend
+overlooked in your calculations the certainty of search, and the chance
+of a discovery? The veriest school-boy, when he hid himself, would hide
+his hat. I am half afraid that you are in that demented state, which
+befits the wretch ordained to perish.
+
+But where is Mr. Jennings? that was the continued cry for four agonizing
+hours of dread and difficulty. Sarah, the still-room maid, was sitting
+at her work, unluckily in Mrs. Quarles's room; she had come in shortly
+after Simon's secret entry; there she sat, and he dared not stir. And
+they looked every where--except in the right place; to do the devil
+justice, it was a capital hiding-corner that; rooms, closets, passages,
+cellars, out-houses, gardens, lofts, tenements, and all the "general
+words," in a voluminous conveyance, were searched and searched in vain;
+more than one groom expected (hoped is a truer word) to find Mr.
+Jennings hanging by a halter from the stable-lamp; more than one
+exhilarated labourer, hastily summoned for the search, was sounding the
+waters with a rake and rope, in no slight excitement at the thought of
+fishing up a deceased bailiff.
+
+It was a terrible time for the ensconced one: sometimes he thought of
+coming out, and treating the affair as a bit of pleasantry: but then the
+devil had taken off his shoes--as a Glascow captain deals with his cargo
+of refractory Irishers; how could he explain that? his abominable old
+aunt was shrewd, and he knew how clearly she would guess at the truth;
+if he desired to make sure of losing every chance, he could come out
+now, and reveal himself; but if he nourished still the hope of counting
+out that crock of gold, he'll bide where he is, and trust to--to--to
+fate. The wretch had "Providence" on his blistered tongue.
+
+If, under the circumstances, any thing could be added to Simon's
+gratification, such pleasing addition was afforded in overhearing, as
+Lord Brougham did, the effect which his rumoured death produced on the
+minds of those who best had known him. It so happened, Sarah was sick,
+and did not join the universal hunt; accordingly, being the only
+audience, divers ambassadors came to tell her constantly the same most
+welcome news, that Jennings had not yet been found.
+
+"Lawk, Sally," said a helper, "what a blessing it'll be, if that mean
+old thief's dead; I'll go to town, if 'tis so, get a dozen Guy's-day
+rockets, tie 'em round with crape, and spin 'em over the larches:
+that'll be funeral fun won't it? and it'll sarve to tell the neighbours
+of our luck in getting rid on him."
+
+"I doan't like your thought, Tom," said another staider youth: "it's
+ill-mirth playing leap-frog over tomb-stones, and poor bravery insulting
+the dead. Besides, I'm thinking the bad man that's taken from us an't a
+going up'ards, so it's no use lending him a light. I wish we may all lie
+in a cooler grave than he does, and not have to go quite so deep
+down'ard."
+
+"Gee up for Lady-day!" exclaimed the emancipated coachman; "why, Sall, I
+shall touch my whole lump of wages free for the fust time: and I only
+wish the gals had our luck."
+
+"Here, Sarah," interposed a kind and ruddy stable youth, "as we're all
+making free with Mr. Simon's own special ale, I've thought to bring you
+a nogging on't: come, you're not so sick as you can't drink with all the
+rest on us--The bailiff, and may none on us never see his face no more!"
+
+These, and similar testimonials to the estimation in which Simon's
+character was held, must have gratified not a little the hearer of his
+own laudations: now and then, he winced so that Sarah might have heard
+him move: but her ear was alive to nothing but the news-bringers, and
+her eyes appeared to be fixed upon the linen she was darning. That
+Jennings vowed vengeance, and wreaked it afterwards too, on the youths
+that so had shown their love, was his solitary pleasure in the
+shower-bath. But his critics were too numerous for him to punish all:
+they numbered every soul in the house, besides the summoned aiders--only
+excepting three: Sarah, who really had a head-ache, and made but little
+answers to the numerous glad envoys; Jonathan Floyd, whose charity did
+not altogether hate the man, and who really felt alarmed at his absence;
+and chiefest, Mrs. Quarles, who evinced more affection for her nephew
+than any thought him worthy of exciting--she wrung her hands, wept,
+offered rewards, bustled about every where, and kept calling
+blubberingly for "Simon--poor dear Simon."
+
+At length, that fearful hue and cry began to subside--the hubbub came
+to be quieter: neighbour-folks went home, and inmates went to bed. Sarah
+Stack put aside her work, and left the room.
+
+What a relief to that hidden caitiff! his feet, standing on the cold,
+damp iron so many hours, bare of brogues, were mere ice--only that they
+ached intolerably: he had not dared to move, to breathe, and was all
+over in one cramp: he did not bring the brandy-bottle with him, as he
+once had planned; for calculation whispered--"Don't, your head will be
+the clearer; you must not muddle your brains;" and so his caution
+over-reached itself, as usual; his head was in a fog, and his brains in
+a whirlwind, for lack of other stimulants than fear and pain.
+
+O Simon, how your prudence cheats you! five mortal hours of anguish and
+anxiety in one unalterable posture, without a single drop of
+creature-comfort; and all this preconcerted too!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+PRELIMINARIES.
+
+
+AT last, just as the nephew was positively fainting from
+exhaustion, in came his kind old aunt to bed. She talked a good deal to
+herself, did Mrs. Quarles, and Simon heard her say,
+
+"Poor fellow--poor, dear Simon, he was taken bad last night, and has
+seemed queerish in the head all day: pray God nothing's amiss with the
+boy!"
+
+The boy's heart (he was forty) smote him as he heard: yes, even he was
+vexed that Aunt Bridget could be so foolishly fond of him. But he would
+go on now, and not have all his toil for nothing. "I'm in for it," said
+he, "and there's an end."
+
+Ay, Simon, you are, indeed, in for it; the devil has locked you in--but
+as to the end, we shall see, we shall see.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder now," the good old soul went on to say, "if
+Simon's wentured out without his hat to cool a head-ache: his
+grand-father--peace be with him! died, poor man, in a Lunacy 'Sylum:
+alack, Si, I wish you mayn't be going the same road. No, no, I hope
+not--he's always so prudent-like, and wise, and good; so kind, too, to a
+poor old fool like me:" and the poor old fool began to cry again.
+
+"Silly boy--but he'll take cold at any rate: Sarah!" (here Mrs. Quarles
+rung her bell, and the still-maid answered it.) "Sarah Stack, sit up
+awhile for Mr. Jennings, and when he comes in, send him here to me. Poor
+boy," she went on soliloquizing, "he shall have a drop or two to comfort
+his stomach, and keep the chill out."
+
+The poor boy, lying _perdu_, shuddered at the word chill, and really
+wished his aunt would hold her tongue. But she didn't.
+
+"Maybe now," the affectionate old creature proceeded, "maybe Simon was
+vexed at what I let drop last night about the money. I know he loves his
+sister Scott, as I do: but it'll seem hard, too, to leave him nothing. I
+must make my will some day, I 'spose; but don't half like the job: it's
+always so nigh death. Yes--yes, dear Si shall have a snug little
+corner."
+
+The real Simon Pure, in his own snug little corner, writhed again. Mrs.
+Quarles started at the noise, looked up the chimney, under the bed,
+tried the doors and windows, and actually went so near the mark as to
+turn the handle of the shower-bath; "Drat it," said she, "Sarah must ha'
+took away the key: well, there can't be nothing there but cloaks, that's
+one comfort."
+
+Last of all, a thought struck her--it must have been a mouse at the
+preserves. And Mrs. Quarles forthwith opened the important cupboard,
+where Jennings now well knew the idol of his heart was shrined. Then
+another thought struck Mrs. Quarles, though probably no unusual one, and
+she seemed to have mounted on a chair, and to be bringing down some
+elevated piece of crockery. Simon could see nothing with his eyes, but
+his ears made up for them: if ever Dr. Elliotson produced clairvoyance
+in the sisters Okey, the same sharpened apprehensions ministered to the
+inner man of Simon Jennings through the instrumental magnet of his
+inordinately covetous desires. Therefore, though his retina bore no
+picture of the scene, the feelers of his mind went forth, informing him
+of every thing that happened.
+
+Down came a Narbonne honey-pot--Simon saw that first, and it was as the
+lamp of Aladdin in his eyes: then the bladder was whipped off, and the
+crock set open on the table. Jennings, mad as Darius's horse at the
+sight of the object he so longed for, once thought of rushing from his
+hiding-place, taking the hoard by a _coup de main_, and running off
+straightway to America: but--deary me--that'll never do; I mustn't leave
+my own strong-box behind me, say nothing of hat and shoes: and if I stop
+for any thing, she'd raise the house.
+
+While this was passing through the immaculate mind of Simon Jennings,
+Bridget had been cutting up an old glove, and had made one of its
+fingers into a very tidy little leather sacklet; into this she deposited
+a bright half sovereign, spoil of the day, being the douceur of a needy
+brush-maker, who wished to keep custom, and, of course, charged all
+these vails on the current bill for mops and stable-sponges.
+
+"Ha!" muttered she, "it's your last bill here, Mr. Scrubb, I can tell
+you; so, you were going to put me off with a crown-piece, were you? and
+actually that bit of gold might as well have been a drop of blood wrung
+from you: yes--yes, Mr. Scrubb, I could see that plainly; and so you've
+done for yourself."
+
+Then, having sewed up the clever little bag, she dropped it into the
+crock: there was no jingle, all dumby: prudent that, in his aunt--for
+the dear morsels of gold were worth such tender keeping, and leather
+would hinder them from wear and tear, set aside the clink being
+silenced. So, the nephew secretly thanked Bridget for the wrinkle, and
+thought how pleasant it would be to stuff old gloves with his own yellow
+store. Ah, yes, he would do that--to-morrow morning.
+
+Meanwhile, the pig-skin is put on again, and the honey-pot stored away:
+and Simon instinctively stood a tip-toe to peep ideally into that
+wealthy corner cupboard. His mind's eye seemed to see more honey-pots!
+Mammon help us! can they all be full of gold? why, any one of them would
+hold a thousand pounds. And Simon scratched the palms of his hands, and
+licked his lips at the thought of so much honey.
+
+But see, Mrs. Quarles has, in her peculiar fashion, undressed herself:
+that is to say, she has taken off her outer gown, her cap and wig--and
+then has _added_ to the volume of her under garments, divers night
+habiliments, flannelled and frilled: while wrappers, manifold as a
+turbaned Turk's, protect ear-ache, tooth-ache, head-ache, and face-ache,
+from the elves of the night.
+
+And now, that the bedstead creaks beneath her weight, (as well it may,
+for Bridget is a burden like Behemoth,) Simon's heart goes thump so
+loud, that it was a wonder the poor woman never heard it. That heart in
+its hard pulsations sounded to me like the carpenter hammering on her
+coffin-lid: I marvel that she did not take it for a death-watch tapping
+to warn her of her end. But no: Simon held his hand against his heart to
+keep it quiet: he was so very fearful the pitapating would betray him.
+Never mind, Simon; don't be afraid; she is fast asleep already; and her
+snore is to thee as it were the challenge of a trumpeter calling to the
+conflict.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+ROBBERY.
+
+
+HUSH--hush--hush!
+
+Stealthily on tiptoe, with finger on his lips, that fore-doomed man
+crept out.
+
+"The key is in the cupboard still--ha! how lucky: saves time that, and
+trouble, and--and--risk! Oh, no--there can be no risk now," and the
+wretch added, "thank God!"
+
+The devil loves such piety as this.
+
+So Simon quietly turned the key, and set the cupboard open: it was to
+him a Bluebeard's chamber, a cave of the Forty Thieves, a garden of the
+Genius in Aladdin, a mysterious secret treasure-house of wealth
+uncounted and unseen.
+
+What a galaxy of pickle-pots! tier behind tier of undoubted
+currant-jelly, ranged like the houses in Algiers! vasty jars of
+gooseberry! delicate little cupping-glasses full of syruped fruits! Yet
+all these candied joys, which probably enhance a Mrs. Rundle's heaven,
+were as nothing in the eyes of Simon--sweet trash, for all he cared
+they might be vulgar treacle. His ken saw nothing but the
+honey-pots--embarrassing array--a round dozen of them! All alike, all
+posted in a brown line, like stout Dutch sentinels with their hands in
+their breeches pockets, and set aloft on that same high-reached shelf.
+Must he really take them all? impracticable: a positive sack full.
+What's to be done?--which is he to leave behind? that old witch
+contrived this identity and multitude for safety's sake. But what if he
+left the wrong one, and got clear off with the valuable booty of two
+dozen pounds of honey? Confusion! that'll never do: he must take them
+all, or none; all, all's the word; and forthwith, as tenderly as
+possible, the puzzled thief took down eleven pots of honey to his one of
+gold--all pig-bladdered, all Fortnumed--all slimy at the string;
+"Confound that cunning old aunt of mine," said Simon, aloud; and took no
+notice that the snores surceased.
+
+Then did he spread upon the table a certain shawl, and set the crocks in
+order on it: and it was quite impossible to leave behind that pretty
+ostentatious "Savings' Bank," which the shrewd hoarder kept as a feint
+to lure thieves from her hidden gold, by an open exhibition of her
+silver: unluckily, though, the shillings, not being leathered up nor
+branned, rattled like a Mandarin toy, as the trembling hand of Jennings
+deposited the bank beside the crockeries--and, at the well-known sound,
+I observed (though Simon did not, as he was in a trance of addled
+triumph) or fancied I observed Mrs. Quarles's head move: but as she said
+nothing, perhaps I was mistaken. Thus stood Simon at the table,
+surveying his extraordinary spoils.
+
+And while he looked, the Mercy of God, which never yet hath seen the
+soul too guilty for salvation, spake to him kindly, and whispered in his
+ear, "Poor, deluded man--there is yet a moment for escape--flee from
+this temptation--put all back again--hasten to thy room, to thy prayers,
+repent, repent: even thou shalt be forgiven, and none but God, who will
+forgive thee, shall know of this bad crime. Turn now from all thy sins;
+the gate of bliss is open, if thou wilt but lift the latch."
+
+It was one moment of irresolute delay; on that hinge hung Eternity. The
+gate swung upon its pivot, that should shut out hell, or heaven!
+
+Simon knit his brow--bit his nails--and answered quite out loud, "What!
+and after all to lose the crock of gold?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+MURDER.
+
+
+HE had waked her!
+
+In an instant the angel form of Mercy melted away--and there stood the
+devil with his arms folded.
+
+"Murder!--fire!--rape!--thieves!--what, Nephew Jennings, is that you,
+with all my honey pots? Help! help! help!"
+
+"Phew-w-w!" whistled the devil: "I tell you what, Master Simon, you must
+quiet the old woman, she bellows like a bull, the house'll be about your
+ears in a twinkling--she'll hang you for this!"
+
+Yes--he must quiet her--the game was up; he threatened, he implored, but
+she would shriek on; she slept alone on the ground-floor, and knew she
+must roar loudly to be heard above the drawing-rooms; she would not be
+quieted--she would shriek--and she did. What must he do? she'll raise
+the house!--Stop her mouth, stop her mouth, I say, can't you?--No, she's
+a powerful, stout, heavy woman, and he cannot hold her: ha! she has
+bitten his finger to the bone, like a very tigress! look at the blood!
+
+"Why can't you touch her throat; no teeth there, bless you! that's the
+way the wind comes: bravo! grasp it--tighter! tighter! tighter!"
+
+She struggled, and writhed, and wrestled, and fought--but all was
+strangling silence; they rolled about the floor together, tumbled on the
+bed, scuffled round the room, but all in horrid silence; neither uttered
+a sound, neither had a shoe on--but all was earnest, wicked,
+death-dealing silence.
+
+Ha! the desperate victim has the best of it; gripe harder, Jennings; she
+has twisted her fingers in your neckcloth, and you yourself are choking:
+fool! squeeze the swallow, can't you? try to make your fingers meet in
+the middle--lower down, lower down, grasp the gullet, not the ears,
+man--that's right; I told you so: tighter, tighter, tighter! again; ha,
+ha, ha, bravo! bravo!--tighter, tighter, tighter!
+
+At length the hideous fight was coming to an end--though a hungry
+constrictor, battling with the huge rhinoceros, and crushing his mailed
+ribs beneath its folds, could not have been so fierce or fearful; fewer
+now, and fainter are her struggles; that face is livid blue--the eyes
+have started out, and goggle horribly; the tongue protrudes, swollen and
+black. Aha! there is another convulsive effort--how strong she is still!
+can you hold her, Simon?--can he?--All the fiend possessed him now with
+savage exultation: can he?--only look! gripe, gripe still, you are
+conquering, strong man! she is getting weaker, weaker; here is your
+reward, gold! gold! a mighty store uncounted; one more grasp, and it is
+all your own--relent now, she hangs you. Come, make short work of it,
+break her neck--gripe harder--back with her, back with here against the
+bedstead: keep her down, down I say--she must not rise again. Crack!
+went a little something in her neck--did you hear it? There's the
+death-rattle, the last smothery complicated gasp--what, didn't you hear
+that?
+
+And the devil congratulated Simon on his victory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+THE REWARD.
+
+
+TILL the wretch had done the deed, he scarcely knew that it was
+doing. It was a horrid, mad excitement, where the soul had spread its
+wings upon the whirlwind, and heeded not whither it was hurried. A
+terrible necessity had seemed to spur him onwards all the while, and
+one thing so succeeded to another, that he scarce could stop at any but
+the first. From the moment he had hidden in the shower-bath (but for
+God's interposing mercy), his doom appeared to have been
+sealed--robbery, murder, false witness, and--damnation!
+
+Crime is the rushing rapid, which, but for some kind miracle, inevitably
+carries on through circling eddies, and a foamy swinging tide, to the
+cataract of death and wo: haste, poor fisherman of Erie, paddle hard
+back, stem the torrent, cling to the shore, hold on tight by this
+friendly bough; know you not whither the headlong current drives? hear
+you not the roar of many waters, the maddening rush as of an ocean
+disenthralled? feel you not the earth trembling at the thunder--see you
+not the heaven clouded o'er with spray? Helpless wretch--thy frail canoe
+has leapt that dizzy water-cliff, Niagara!
+
+But if, in doing that fell deed, madness raged upon the minutes, now
+that it was done--all still, all calm, all quiet, Terror held the
+hour-glass of Time. There lay the corpse, motionless, though coiled and
+cramped in the attitude of struggling agony; and the murderer gazed upon
+his victim with a horror most intense. Fly! fly!--he dared not stop to
+think: fly! fly! any whither--as you are--wait for nothing; fly! thou
+caitiff, for thy life! So he caught up the blood-bought spoils, and was
+fumbling with shaky fingers at the handle of the garden-door, when the
+unseen tempter whispered in his ear,
+
+"I say, Simon, did not your aunt die of apoplexy?"
+
+O, kind and wise suggestion! O, lightsome, tranquillizing thought!
+Thanks! thanks! thanks!--And if the arch fiend had revealed himself in
+person at the moment, Simon would have worshipped at his feet.
+
+"But," and as he communed with his own black heart, there needed now no
+devil for his prompter--"if this matter is to be believed, I must
+contrive a little that it may look likelier. Let me see:--yes, we must
+lay all tidy, and the old witch shall have died in her sleep; apoplexy!
+capital indeed; no tell-tales either. Well, I must set to work."
+
+Can mortal mind conceive that sickening office?--To face the strangled
+corpse, yet warm; to lift the fearful burden in his arms, and order out
+the heavily-yielding limbs in the ease of an innocent sleep? To arrange
+the bed, smooth down the tumbled coverlid, set every thing straight
+about the room, and erase all tokens of that dread encounter? It needed
+nerves of iron, a heart all stone, a cool, clear head, a strong arm, a
+mindful, self-protecting spirit; but all these requisites came to
+Simon's aid upon the instant; frozen up with fear, his heart-strings
+worked that puppet-man rigidly as wires; guilt supplied a reckless
+energy, a wild physical power, which actuates no human frame but one
+saturate with crime, or madness; and in the midst of those terrific
+details, the murderer's judgment was so calm and so collected, that
+nothing was forgotten, nothing unconsidered--unless, indeed, it were
+that he out-generalled himself by making all too tidy to be natural.
+Hence, suspicion at the inquest; for the "apoplexy" thought was really
+such a good one, that, but for so exact a laying out, the fat old corpse
+might have easily been buried without one surmise of the way she met her
+end. Again and again, in the history of crimes, it is seen that a "Judas
+hangs himself;" and albeit, as we know, the murderer has hitherto
+escaped detection, still his own dark hour shall arrive in its due
+place.
+
+The dreadful office done, he asked himself again, or maybe took counsel
+of the devil (for that evil master always cheats his servants), "What
+shall I do with my reward, this crock--these crocks of gold? It might be
+easy to hide one of them, but not all; and as to leaving any behind,
+that I won't do. About opening them to see which is which--"
+
+"I tell you what," said the tempter, as the clock struck three,
+"whatever you do, make haste; by morning's dawn the house and garden
+will be searched, no doubt, and the crocks found in your possession.
+Listen to me--I'm your friend, bless you! remember the apoplexy. Pike
+Island yonder is an unfrequented place; take the punt, hide all there
+now, and go at your best leisure to examine afterwards; but whatever you
+do, make haste, my man."
+
+Then Jennings crept out by the lawn-door, thereby rousing the house-dog;
+but he skirted the laurels in their shadow, and it was dark and
+mizzling, so he reached the punt both quickly and easily.
+
+The quiet, and the gloom, and the dropping rain, strangely affected him
+now, as he plied his punt-pole; once he could have wept in his remorse,
+and another time he almost shrieked in fear. How lonesome it seemed! how
+dreadful! and that death-dyed face behind him--ha! woman, away I say!
+But he neared the island, and, all shoeless as he was, crept up its
+muddy bank.
+
+"Hallo! nybor, who be you a-poaching on my manor, eh? that bean't good
+manners, any how."
+
+Ben Burke has told us all the rest.
+
+But, when Burke had got his spoils--when the biter had been bitten--the
+robber robbed--the murderer stripped of his murdered victim's
+money--when the bereaved miscreant, sullenly returning in the dark,
+damp night, tracked again the way he came upon that lonely lake--no one
+yet has told us, none can rightly tell, the feelings which oppressed
+that God-forsaken man. He seemed to feel himself even a sponge which,
+the evil one had bloated with his breath, had soaked it then in blood,
+had squeezed it dry again, and flung away! He was Satan's broken tool--a
+weed pulled up by the roots, and tossed upon the fire; alone--alone in
+all the universe, without countenance or sympathy from God, or man, or
+devil; he yearned to find, were it but a fiend to back him, but in vain;
+they held aloof, he could see them vaguely through the gloom--he could
+hear them mocking him aloud among the patter of the rain-drops--ha! ha!
+ha--the pilfered fool!
+
+Bitterly did he rue his crime--fearfully he thought upon its near
+discovery--madly did he beat his miserable breast, to find that he had
+been baulked of his reward, yet spent his soul to earn it.
+
+Oh--when the house-dog bayed at him returning, how he wished he was that
+dog! he went to him, speaking kindly to him, for he envied that
+dog--"Good dog--good dog!"
+
+But more than envy kept him lingering there: the wretched man did it for
+delay--yes, though morn was breaking on the hills--one more--one more
+moment of most precious time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+SECOND THOUGHTS.
+
+
+FOR--again he must go through that room!
+
+No other entrance is open--not a window, not a door: all close as a
+prison: and only by the way he went, by the same must he return.
+
+He trembled all over, as a palsied man, when he touched the lock: with
+stiffening hair, and staring eyes, he peeped in at that well-remembered
+chamber: he entered--and crept close up to the corpse, stealthily and
+dreadingly--horror! what if she be alive still?
+
+SHE WAS.
+
+Not quite dead--not quite dead yet! a gurgling in the bruised throat--a
+shadowy gleam of light and life in those protruded eyes--an irregular
+convulsive heaving at the chest: she might recover! what a fearful
+hope: and, if she did, would hang him--ha! he went nearer; she was
+muttering something in a moanful way--it was, "Simon did it--Simon did
+it--Simon did it--Si--Si--Simon did--" he should be found out!
+
+Yet once again, for the last time, the long-suffering Mercy of the Lord
+stood like Balaam's angel in the way, pleading with that miserable man
+at the bed-side of her whom he had strangled. And even then, that
+Guardian Spirit came not with chiding on his tongue, but He uttered
+words of hope, while his eyes were streaming with sorrow and with pity.
+
+"Most wretched of the sinful sons of men, even now there may be mercy
+for thee, even now plenteous forgiveness. True, thou must die, and pay
+the earthly penalty of crimes like thine: but do my righteous bidding,
+and thy soul shall live. Go to that poor, suffocating creature--cherish
+the spark of life--bind up the wounds which thou hast rent, pouring in
+oil and wine: rouse the house--seek assistance--save her life--confess
+thy sin--repent--and though thou diest for this before the tribunal of
+thy fellows, God will yet be gracious--he will raise again her whom thou
+hadst slain--and will cleanse thy blood-stained soul."
+
+Thus in Simon's ear spake that better conscience.
+
+But the reprobate had cast off Faith; he could not pledge the Present
+for the Future; he shuddered at the sword of Justice, and would not
+touch the ivory sceptre of Forgiveness. No: he meditated horrid
+iteration--and again the fiend possessed him! What! not only lose the
+crock of gold, but all his own bright store? and give up every thing of
+this world's good for some imaginary other, and meekly confess, and
+meanly repent--and--and all this to resuscitate that hated old aunt of
+his, who would hang him, and divorce him from his gold?
+
+No! he must do the deed again--see, she is moving--she will recover! her
+chest heaves visibly--she breathes--she speaks--she knows me--ha!
+down--down, I say!
+
+Then, with deliberate and damning resolution--to screen off temporal
+danger, and count his golden hoards a little longer--that awful criminal
+touched the throat again: and he turned his head away not to see that
+horrid face, clutched the swollen gullet with his icy hands, and
+strangled her once more!
+
+"This time all is safe," said Simon. And having set all smooth as
+before, he stole up to his own chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+MAMMON, AND CONTENTMENT.
+
+
+AY, safe enough: and the murderer went to bed. To bed? No.
+
+He tumbled about the clothes, to make it seem that he had lain there:
+but he dared neither lie down, nor shut his eyes. Then, the darkness
+terrified him: the out-door darkness he could have borne, and Mrs.
+Quarles's chamber always had a night-lamp burning: but the darkness of
+his own room, of his own thoughts, pressed him all around, as with a
+thick, murky, suffocating vapour. So, he stood close by the window,
+watching the day-break.
+
+As for sleep, never more did wholesome sleep revisit that atrocious
+mind: laudanum, an ever-increasing dose of merciless laudanum, that was
+the only power which ever seemed to soothe him. For a horrid vision
+always accompanied him now: go where he might, do what he would, from
+that black morning to eternity, he went a haunted man--a scared,
+sleepless, horror-stricken wretch. That livid face with goggling eyes,
+stuck to him like a shadow; he always felt its presence, and sometimes,
+also, could perceive it as if bodily peeping over his shoulder, next his
+cheek; it dogged him by day, and was his incubus by night; and often he
+would start and wrestle, for the desperate grasp of the dying appeared
+to be clutching at his throat: so, in his ghostly fears, and bloody
+conscience, he had girded round his neck a piece of thin sheet-iron in
+his cravat, which he wore continually as armour against those clammy
+fingers: no wonder that he held his head so stiff.
+
+O Gold--accursed Mammon! is this the state of those who love thee
+deepest? is this their joy, who desire thee with all their heart and
+soul--who serve thee with all their might--who toil for thee--plot for
+thee--live for thee--dare for thee--die for thee? Hast thou no better
+bliss to give thy martyrs--no choicer comfort for thy most consistent
+worshippers, no fairer fate for those, whose waking thoughts, and
+dreaming hopes, and intricate schemes, and desperate deeds, were only
+aimed at gold, more gold? God of this world, if such be thy rewards, let
+me ever escape them! idol of the knave, false deity of the fool, if this
+be thy blessing on thy votaries--come, curse me, Mammon, curse thou me!
+
+For, "The love of money is the root of all evil." It groweth up a
+little plant of coveting; presently the leaves get rank, the branches
+spread, and feed on petty thefts; then in their early season come the
+blossoms, black designs, plots, involved and undeveloped yet, of foul
+conspiracies, extortions on the weak, rich robbings of the wealthy, the
+threatened slander, the rewarded lie, malice, perjury, sacrilege; then
+speedily cometh on the climax, the consummate flower, dark-red murder:
+and the fruit bearing in itself the seeds that never die, is righteous,
+wrathful condemnation.
+
+Dyed with all manner of iniquity, tinged with many colours like the
+Mohawk in his woods, goeth forth in a morning the covetous soul. His
+cheek is white with envy, his brow black with jealous rage, his livid
+lips are full of lust, his thievish hands spotted over with the crimson
+drops of murder. "The poison of asps is under his lips; and his feet are
+swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in his ways; and there
+is no fear of God before his eyes."
+
+O, ye thousands--the covetous of this world's good--behold at what a
+fire ye do warm yourselves! dread it: even now, ye have imagined many
+deaths, whereby your gains may be the greater; ye have caught, in
+wishful fancy, many a parting sigh; ye have closed, in a heartless
+revery, many a glazing eye--yea, of those your very nearest, whom your
+hopes have done to death: and are ye guiltless? God and conscience be
+your judges!
+
+Even now ye have compassed many frauds, connived at many meannesses,
+trodden down the good, and set the bad on high--all for gold--hard gold;
+and are ye the honest--the upright? Speak out manfully your excuse, if
+you can find one, ye respectables of merchandise, ye traders, bartering
+all for cash, ye Scribes, ye Pharisees, hypocrites, all honourable men.
+
+Even now, your dreams are full of money-bags; your cares are how to add
+superfluity to wealth; ye fawn upon the rich, ye scorn the poor, ye pine
+and toil both night and day for gold, more gold; and are ye happy?
+Answer me, ye covetous ones.
+
+Yet are there righteous gains, God's blessing upon labour: yet is there
+rightful hope to get those righteous gains. Who can condemn the poor
+man's care, though Faith should make his load the lighter? And who will
+extenuate the rich man's coveting, whose appetite grows with what it
+feeds on? "Having food and raiment, be therewith content;" that is the
+golden mean; to that is limited the philosophy of worldliness: the man
+must live, by labour and its earnings; but having wherewithal for him
+and his temperately, let him tie the mill-stone of anxiety to the wing
+of Faith, and speed that burden to his God.
+
+If Wealth come, beware of him, the smooth false friend: there is
+treachery in his proffered hand, his tongue is eloquent to tempt, lust
+of many harms is lurking in his eye, he hath a hollow heart; use him
+cautiously.
+
+If Penury assail, fight against him stoutly, the gaunt grim foe: the
+curse of Cain is on his brow, toiling vainly; he creepeth with the worm
+by day, to raven with the wolf by night: diseases battle by his side,
+and crime followeth his footsteps. Therefore fight against him boldly,
+and be of a good courage, for there are many with thee; not alone the
+doled alms, the casual aids dropped from compassion, or wrung out by
+importunity; these be only temporary helps, and indulgence in them
+pampers the improvident; but look thou to a better host of strong
+allies, of resolute defenders; turn again to meet thy duties, needy one:
+no man ever starved, who even faintly tried to do them. Look to thy God,
+O sinner! use reason wisely; cherish honour; shrink not from toil,
+though somewhile unrewarded; preserve frank bearing with thy fellows;
+and in spite of all thy sins--forgiven; all thy follies--flung away; all
+the trickeries of this world--scorned; all competitions--disregarded;
+all suspicions--trodden under foot; thou neediest and raggedest of
+labourers' labourers--Enough shall be thy portion, ere a week hath
+passed away.
+
+Well did Agur-the-Wise counsel Ithiel and Ucal his disciples, when he
+uttered in their ears before his God, this prayerful admonition, "Two
+things have I required of Thee; deny me them not before I die: remove
+far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches: feed me
+with food convenient for me. Lest I be full, and deny Thee, saying, Who
+is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and dishonour the name of the
+Lord my God."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+NEXT MORNING.
+
+
+DAY dawned apace; and a glorious cavalcade of flaming clouds
+heralded the Sun their captain. From far away, round half the wide
+horizon, their glittering spears advanced. Heaven's highway rang with
+the trampling of their horse-hoofs, and the dust went up from its
+jewelled pavement as spray from the bottom of a cataract. Anon, he
+came, the chieftain of that on-spurring host! his banner blazed upon the
+sky; his golden crest was seen beneath, nodding with its ruddy plumes;
+over the south-eastern hills he arose in radiant armour. Fair Nature,
+waking at her bridegroom's voice, arrived so early from a distant clime,
+smiled upon him sleepily, gladdening him in beauty with her sweet
+half-opened eyelids, and kissing him in faithfulness with
+dew-besprinkled lips.
+
+And he looked forth upon the world from his high chariot, holding back
+the coursers that must mount the steep of noon: and he heard the morning
+hymn of thankfulness to Heaven from the mountains, and the valleys, and
+the islands of the sea; the prayer of man and woman, the praise of
+lisping tongues, the hum of insect joy upon the air, the sheep-bell
+tinkling in the distance, the wild bird's carol, and the lowing kine,
+the mute minstrelsy of rising dews, and that stilly scarce-heard
+universal melody of wakeful plants and trees, hastening to turn their
+spring-buds to the light--this was the anthem he, the Lord of Day, now
+listened to--this was the song his influences had raised to bless the
+God who made him.
+
+And he saw, from his bright throne of wide derivative glory, Hope flying
+forth upon her morning missions, visiting the lonesome, comforting the
+sorrowful, speaking cheerfully to Care, and singing in the ear of
+Labour: and he watched that ever-welcome friend, flitting with the
+gleams of light to every home, to every heart; none but gladly let her
+in; her tapping finger opened the very prison doors; the heavy head of
+Sloth rejoiced to hear her call; and every common Folly, every common
+Sin--ay, every common Crime--warmed his unconscious soul before her
+winning beauty.
+
+Yet, yet was there one, who cursed that angel's coming; and the holy Eye
+of day wept pityingly to see an awful child of man who dared not look on
+Hope.
+
+The murderer stood beside his casement, watching that tranquil scene:
+with bloodshot eyes and haggard stare, he gazed upon the waking world;
+for one strange minute he forgot, entranced by innocence and beauty; but
+when the stunning tide of memory, that had ebbed that one strange
+minute, rolled back its mighty flood upon his mind, the murderer swooned
+away.
+
+And he came to himself again all too soon; for when he arose, building
+up his weak, weak limbs, as if he were a column of sand, the cruel
+giant, Guilt, lifted up his club, and felled the wretch once more.
+
+How long he lay fainting, he knew not then; if any one had vowed it was
+a century, Simon, as he gradually woke, could not have gainsaid the man;
+but he only lay four seconds in that white oblivious trance--for Fear,
+Fear knocked at his heart:--Up, man, up!--you need have all your wits
+about you now;--see, it is broad day--the house will be roused before
+you know where you are, and then will be shouted out that awful
+name--Simon Jennings! Simon Jennings!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE ALARM.
+
+
+HE arose, held up on either hand that day as if fighting
+against Amalek;--despair buttressed him on one side, and secresy shored
+him on the other: behind that wall of stone his heart had strength to
+beat.
+
+He arose; and listened at the key-hole anxiously: all silent, quiet,
+quiet still; the whole house asleep: nothing found out yet. And he bit
+his nails to the quick, that they bled again: but he never felt the
+pain.
+
+Hush!--yes, somebody's about: it is Jonathan's step; and hark, he is
+humming merrily, "Hail, smiling morn, that opes the gates of day?" Wo,
+wo--what a dismal gulph between Jonathan and me! And he beat his breast
+miserably. But, Jonathan cannot find it out--he never goes to Mrs.
+Quarles's room. Oh! this suspense is horrible: haste, haste, some kind
+soul, to make the dread discovery! And he tore his hair away by
+handfulls.
+
+"Hark!--somebody else--unlatching shutters; it will be Sarah--ha! she is
+tapping at the housekeeper's room--yes, yes, and she will make it known,
+O terrible joy!--A scream! it is Sarah's voice--she has seen her dead,
+dead, dead;--but is she indeed dead?"
+
+The miscreant quivered with new fears; she might still mutter "Simon did
+it!"
+
+And now the house is thoroughly astir; running about in all directions;
+and shouting for help; and many knocking loudly at the murderer's own
+door--"Mr. Jennings! Mr. Jennings!--quick--get up--come down--quick,
+quick--your aunt's found dead in her bed!"
+
+What a relief to the trembling wretch!--she _was_ dead. He could have
+blessed the voice that told him his dread secret was so safe. But his
+parched tongue may never bless again: curses, curses are all its
+blessings now.
+
+And Jennings came out calmly from his chamber, a white, stern,
+sanctimonious man, lulling the storm with his wise presence:--"God's
+will be done," said he; "what can poor weak mortals answer Him?" And he
+played cleverly the pious elder, the dignified official, the
+affectionate nephew: "Ah, well, my humble friends, behold what life is:
+the best of us must come to this; my poor, dear aunt, the late
+house-keeper, rest her soul--I feared it might be this way some night or
+other: she was a stout woman, was our dear, deceased Bridget--and,
+though a good kind soul, lived much on meat and beer: ah well, ah well!"
+And he concealed his sentimental hypocrisy in a cotton pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Alas, and well-a-day! that it should have come to this. Apoplexy--you
+see, apoplexy caught her as she slept: we may as well get her buried at
+once: it is unfortunately too clear a case for any necessity to open the
+body; and our young master is coming down on Tuesday, and I could not
+allow my aunt's corpse to be so disrespectful as to stop till it became
+offensive. I will go to the vicar myself immediately."
+
+"Begging pardon, Mr. Jennings," urged Jonathan Floyd, "there's a strange
+mark here about the throat, poor old 'ooman."
+
+"Ay," added Sarah, "and now I come to think of it, Mrs. Quarles's
+room-door was ajar; and bless me, the lawn-door's not locked neither!
+Who could have murdered her?"
+
+"Murdered? there's no murder here, silly wench," said Jennings, with a
+nervous sneer.
+
+"I don't know that, Mr. Simon," gruffly interposed the coachman; "it's a
+case for a coroner, I'll be bail; so here I goes to bring him: let all
+bide as it is, fellow-sarvents; murder will out, they say."
+
+And off he set directly--not without a shrewd remark from Mr. Jennings,
+about letting him escape that way; which seemed all very sage and
+likely, till the honest man came back within the hour, and a _posse
+comitatus_ at his heels.
+
+We all know the issue of that inquest.
+
+Now, if any one requests to be informed how Jennings came to be looked
+for as usual in his room, after that unavailing search last night, I
+reply, this newer, stronger excitement for the minute made the house
+oblivious of that mystery; and if people further will persist to know,
+how that mystery of his absence was afterwards explained (though I for
+my part would gladly have said nothing of the bailiff's own excuse), let
+it be enough to hint, that Jennings winked with a knowing and gallant
+expression of face; alluded to his private key, and a secret return at
+two in the morning from some disreputable society in the neighbourhood;
+made the men laugh, and the women blush; and, altogether, as he might
+well have other hats and coats, the delicate affair was not unlikely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+DOUBTS.
+
+
+AND so, this crock of gold--gained through extortion, by the
+frauds of every day, the meannesses of every hour--this concrete
+oppression to the hireling in his wages--this mass of petty pilferings
+from poverty--this continuous obstruction to the charities of
+wealth--this cockatrice's egg--this offspring of iniquity--had already
+been baptized in blood before poor Acton found it, and slain its earthly
+victim ere it wrecked his faith; already had it been perfected by crime,
+and destroyed the murderer's soul, before it had endangered the life of
+slandered innocence.
+
+Is there yet more blessing in the crock? more fearful interest still, to
+carry on its story to an end? Must another sacrifice bleed before the
+shrine of Mammon, and another head lie crushed beneath the heel of that
+monster--his disciple?
+
+Come on with me, and see the end; push further still, there is a
+labyrinth ahead to attract and to excite; from mind to mind crackles the
+electric spark: and when the heart thrillingly conceives, its
+children-thoughts are as arrows from the hand of the giant, flying
+through that mental world--the hearts of other men. Fervent still from
+its hot internal source, this fountain gushes up; no sluggish
+Lethe-stream is here, dull, forgetful, and forgotten; but liker to the
+burning waves of Phlegethon, mingling at times (though its fire is still
+unquenched), with the pastoral rills of Tempe, and the River from the
+Mount of God.
+
+Lower the sail--let it flap idly on the wind--helm a-port--and so to
+smoother waters: return to common life and humbler thoughts.
+
+It may yet go hard with Roger Acton. Jennings is a man of character,
+especially the farther from his home; the county round take him for a
+model of propriety, a sample of the strictest conduct. We know the bad
+man better; but who dare breathe against the bailiff in his
+power--against the caitiff in his sleek hypocrisy--that, while he makes
+a show of both humilities, he fears not God nor man? What shall hinder,
+that the perjured wretch offer up to the manes of the murdered the
+life-blood of the false-accused? May he not live yet many years, heaping
+up gold and crime? And may not sweet Grace Acton--her now repentant
+father--the kindly Jonathan--his generous master, and if there be any
+other of the Hurstley folk we love, may they not all meet destruction at
+his hands, as a handful of corn before the reaper's sickle? I say not
+that they shall, but that they might. Acton's criminal state of mind,
+and his hunger after gold--gold any how--have earned some righteous
+retribution, unless Providence in mercy interpose; and young Sir John,
+in nowise unblameable himself, with wealth to tempt the spoiler, lives
+in the spoiler's very den; and as to Jonathan and Grace, this world has
+many martyrs. If Heaven in its wisdom use the wicked as a sword, Heaven
+is but just; but if in its vengeance that sword of the wicked is turned
+against himself, Heaven showeth mercy all unmerited. To a criminal like
+Jennings, let loose upon the world, without the clog of conscience to
+retard him, and with the spur of covetousness ever urging on, any thing
+in crime is possible--is probable: none can sound those depths: and when
+we raise our eyes on high to the Mighty Moral Governor, and note the
+clouds of mystery that thunder round his Throne--He may permit, or he
+may control; who shall reach those heights?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+FEARS.
+
+
+MOREOVER, innocent of blood, as we know Roger Acton to be,
+appearances are strongly against him: and in such a deed as secret,
+midnight murder, which none but God can witness, multiplied appearances
+justify the world in condemning one who seems so guilty.
+
+The first impression against Roger is a bad one, for all the neighbours
+know how strangely his character had been changing for the worse of
+late: he is not like the same man; sullen and insubordinate, he was
+turned away from work for his bold and free demeanor; as to church,
+though he had worn that little path these forty years, all at once he
+seems to have entirely forgotten the way hither.
+
+He lives, nobody knows how--on bright, clean gold, nobody knows whence:
+his daughter says, indeed, that her father found a crock of gold in his
+garden--but she needs not have held her tongue so long, and borne so
+many insults, if that were all the truth; and, mark this! even though
+she says it, and declares it on her Bible-oath, Acton himself most
+strenuously denied all such findings--but went about with impudent tales
+of legacy, luck, nobody knows what; the man prevaricated continually,
+and got angry when asked about it--cudgelling folks, and swearing
+like--like any one but old-time "honest Roger."
+
+Only look, too, where he lives: in a lone cottage opposite Pike Island,
+on the other side of which is Hurstley Hall, the scene of robbery and
+murder: was not a boat seen that night upon the lake? and was not the
+lawn-door open? How strangely stupid in the coroner and jury not to have
+imagined this before! how dull it was of every body round not to have
+suspected murder rather more strongly, with those finger-marks about the
+throat, and not to have opened their eyes a little wider, when the
+murderer's cottage was within five hundred yards of that open lawn-door!
+
+Then again--when Mr. Jennings, in his strict and searching way, accused
+the culprit, he never saw a man so confused in all his life! and on
+repeating the charge before those two constables, they all witnessed his
+guilty consternation: experienced men, too, they were, and never saw a
+felon if Acton wasn't one; the dogged manner in which he went with them
+so quietly was quite sufficient; innocent men don't go to jail in that
+sort of way, as if they well deserved it.
+
+But, strongest of all, if any shadow of a doubt remained, the most
+fearful proof of Roger's guilt lay in the scrap of shawl--the little
+leather bags--and the very identical crock of gold! There it was,
+nestled in the thatch within a yard of his head, as he lay in bed at
+noon-day guarding it.
+
+One proof, weaker than the weakest of all these banded together, has ere
+now sufficed to hang the guilty; and many, many fears have I that this
+multitude of seeming facts, conspiring in a focus against Roger Acton,
+will be quite enough to overwhelm the innocent. "Nothing lies like a
+fact," said Dr. Johnson: and statistics prove it, at least as well as
+circumstantial evidence.
+
+The matter was as clear as day-light, and long before the trial came
+about, our poor labourer had been hanged outright in the just judgment
+of Hurstley-cum-Piggesworth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+PRISON COMFORTS.
+
+
+MANY blessings, more than he had skill to count, had visited
+poor Acton in his cell. His gentle daughter Grace, sweet minister of
+good thoughts--she, like a loving angel, had been God's instrument of
+penitence and peace to him. He had come to himself again, in solitude,
+by nights, as a man awakened from a feverish dream; and the hallowing
+ministrations of her company by day had blest reflective solitude with
+sympathy and counsel.
+
+Good-wife Mary, too, had been his comforting and cheering friend.
+Immediately the crock of gold had been taken from its ambush in the
+thatch, it seemed as if the chill which had frozen up her heart had been
+melted by a sudden thaw. Roger Acton was no longer the selfish prodigal,
+but the guiltless, persecuted penitent; her care was now to soothe his
+griefs, not to scold him for excesses; and indignation at the false and
+bloody charge made him appear a martyr in her eyes. As to his accuser,
+Jennings, Mary had indeed her own vague fancies and suspicions, but
+there being no evidence, nor even likelihood to support them, she did
+not dare to breathe a word; she might herself accuse him falsely. Ben,
+who alone could have thrown a light upon the matter, had always been
+comparatively a stranger at Hurstley; he was no native of the place, and
+had no ties there beyond wire and whip-cord: he would appear in that
+locality now and then in his eccentric orbit, like a comet, and, soon
+departing thence, would take away Tom as his tail; but even when there,
+he was mainly a night-prowler, seldom seen by day, and so little versed
+in village lore, so rarely mingling with its natives, that neither
+Jennings nor Burke knew one another by sight. His fame indeed was known,
+but not his person. At present, he and Tom were still fowling in some
+distant fens, nobody could tell where; so that Roger's only witness, who
+might have accounted for the crock and its finding, was as good as dead
+to him; to make Ben's absence more unusually prolonged, and his
+reappearance quite incalculable, he had talked of going with his cargo
+of wild ducks "either to London or to Liverpool, he didn't rightly know
+which."
+
+Nevertheless, Mary comforted her husband, and more especially herself,
+by the hope of his return as a saving witness; though it was always
+doubtful how far Burke's numerous peccadilloes against property would
+either find him at large, or authorize the poacher in walking straight
+before the judges. Still Ben's possible interposition was one source of
+hope and cheerful expectation. Then the good wife would leave her babes
+at home, safely in a neighbour's charge, and stay and sit many long
+hours with poor Roger, taking turns with Grace in talking to him
+tenderly, making little of home-troubles past, encouraging him to wear a
+stout heart, and filling him with gratitude for all her kindly care.
+Thus did she bless, and thus was made a blessing, through the loss and
+absence of that crock of gold.
+
+For Roger himself, he had repented; bitterly and deeply, as became his
+headlong fall: no sweet luxuries of grief, no soothing sorrow, no
+chastened meditative melancholy--such mild penitence as this, he
+thought, could be but a soberer sort of joy for virgins, saints, and
+martyrs: no--he, bad man, was unworthy of those melting pleasures, and
+in sturdy self-revenge he flung them from him, choosing rather to feel
+overwhelmed with shame, contrition, and reproaches. A humbled man with a
+broken heart within him--such was our labourer, penitent in prison; and
+when he contrasted his peaceful, pure, and Christian course those forty
+years of poverty, with his blasphemous and infidel career for the one
+bad week of wealth, he had no patience with himself--only felt his fall
+the greater; and his judgment of his own guilt, with a natural
+exaggeration, went the length of saying--I am scarcely less guilty
+before God and man, than if, indeed, my hands were red with murder, and
+my casual finding had been robbery. He would make no strong appeals to
+the bar of justice, as an innocent condemned; not he--not he: innocent,
+indeed? his wicked, wicked courses--(an old man, too--gray-headed, with
+no young blood in him to excuse, no inexperience to extenuate), these
+deserved--did he say hanging? it was a harsher syllable--hell: and the
+contrite sinner gladly would have welcomed all the terrors of the
+gibbet, in hope to take full vengeance on himself for his wicked thirst
+for gold and all its bitter consequences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+GOOD COUNSEL.
+
+
+BUT Grace advised him better. "Be humbled as you may before
+God, my father, but stand up boldly before man: for in his sight, and by
+his law, you are little short of blameless. I would not, dearest father,
+speak to you of sins, except for consolation under them; for it ill
+becomes a child to see the failings of a parent. But when I know at once
+how innocent you are in one sense, and how not quite guiltless in
+another, I wish my words may comfort you, if you will hear them, father.
+Covetousness, not robbery--excess, not murder--these were your only
+sins; and concealment was not wise, neither was a false report
+befitting. Money, the idol of millions, was your temptation: its earnest
+love, your fault; its possession, your misfortune. Forgive me, father,
+if I speak too freely. Good Mr. Evans, who has been so kind to us for
+years, (never kinder than since you were in prison,) can speak better
+than I may, of sins forgiven, and a Friend to raise the fallen: it is
+not for poor Grace to school her dear and honoured father. If you feel
+yourself guilty of much evil in the sight of Him before whom the angels
+bow in meekness--I need not tell you that your sorrow is most wise, and
+well-becoming. But this must not harm your cause with men: though tired
+of life, though hopeless in one's self, though bad, and weak, and like
+to fall again, we are still God's servants upon earth, bound to guard
+the life he gives us. Neither must you lightly allow the guilt of
+unrighteous condemnation to fall upon the judge who tries you; nor let
+your innocent blood cry to God for vengeance on your native land.
+Manfully confront the false accuser, tell openly the truth, plead your
+own cause firmly, warmly, wisely:--so, God defend the right!"
+
+And as Grace Acton said these words, in all the fervour of a daughter's
+love, with a flushed cheek, parted lips, and her right hand raised to
+Him whom she invoked, she looked like an inspired prophetess, or the
+fair maid of Orleans leading on to battle.
+
+In an instant afterwards, she humbly added,
+
+"Forgive me any thing I may have said, that seems to chide my father."
+
+"Bless you, bless you, dearest one!" was Roger's sobbing prayer, who
+had listened to her wisdom breathlessly. "Ah, daughter," then exclaimed
+the humbled, happy man, "I'll try to do all you ask me, Grace; but it is
+a hard thing to feel myself so wicked, and to have to speak up boldly
+like a Christian man."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+EXPERIENCE.
+
+
+THEN, with disjointed sentences, suited to the turmoil of his
+thoughts, half in a soliloquy, half as talking to his daughter, Roger
+Acton gave his hostile testimony to the worth of wealth.
+
+"Oh, fool, fool that I have been, to set so high a price on gold! To
+have hungered and thirsted for it--to have coveted earnestly so bad a
+gift--to have longed for Mammon's friendship, which is enmity with God!
+What has not money cost me? Happiness:--ay, wasn't it to have given me
+happiness? and the little that I had (it was much, Grace, not little,
+very much--too much--God be praised for it!) all, all the happiness I
+had, gold took away. Look at our dear old home--shattered and scattered,
+as now I wish that crock had been. Health, too; were it not for gold,
+and all gold gave, I had been sturdy still, and capable; but my nights
+maddened with anxieties, my days worried with care, my head feverish
+with drink, my heart rent by conscience--ah, my girl, my girl, when I
+thought much of poverty and its hardships, of toil, and hunger, and
+rheumatics, I little imagined that wealth had heavier cares and pains: I
+envied them their wanton life of pleasure at the Hall, and little knew
+how hard it was: well are they called hard-livers who drink, and game,
+and have nothing to do, except to do wickedness continually.
+Religion--can it bide with money, child? I never knew my wicked heart,
+till fortune made me rich; not until then did I guess how base, lying,
+false, and bad was 'honest Roger;' how sensual, coarse, and brutal, was
+that hypocrite 'steady Acton'. Money is a devil, child, or pretty near
+akin. Then I complained of toil, too, didn't I?--Ah, what are all the
+aches I ever felt--labouring with spade and spud in cold and rain,
+hungry belike, and faint withal--what are they all at their worst (and
+the worst was very seldom after all), to the gnawing cares, the hideous
+fears, the sins--the sins, my girl, that tore your poor old father?
+Wasn't it to be an end of troubles, too, this precious crock of gold?
+Wo's me, I never knew real trouble till I had it! Look at me, and judge;
+what has made me live like a beast, sin like a heathen, and lie down
+here like a felon? what has made me curse Ben Burke--kind, hearty,
+friendly Ben?--and given my poor good boy an ill-report as having stolen
+and slain? all this crock of gold. But O, my Grace, to think that the
+crock's curses touched thee, too! didn't it madden me to hear them?
+Dear, pure, patient child, my darling, injured daughter, here upon my
+knees I pray, forgive that wrong!" And he fell at her feet beseechingly.
+
+"My father," said the noble girl, lifting up his head, and passionately
+kissing it; "when they whispered so against me, and Jonathan heard the
+wicked things men said, I would have borne it all, all in silence, and
+let them all believe me bad, father, if I could have guessed that by
+uttering the truth, I should have seen thee here, in a dungeon, treated
+as a--murderer! How was I to tell that men could be so base, as to
+charge such crimes upon the innocent, when his only fault, or his
+misfortune, was to find a crock of gold? Oh! forgive me, too, this
+wrong, my father!"
+
+And they wept in each other's arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+JONATHAN'S TROTH.
+
+
+GRACE had been all but an inmate of the prison, ever since her
+father had been placed there on suspicion. Early and late, and often in
+the day, was the duteous daughter at his cell, for the governor and the
+turn-keys favoured her. Who could resist such beauty and affection,
+entreating to stay with a father about to stand on trial for his life,
+and making every effort to be allowed only to pray with him? Thus did
+Grace spend all the week before those dread assizes.
+
+As to her daily maintenance, ever since that bitter morning when the
+crock was found, her spiritual fears had obliged her to abstain from
+touching so much as one penny of that unblest store; and, seeing that
+honest pride would not let her be supported by grudged and common
+charity, she had thankfully suffered the wages of her now betrothed
+Jonathan to serve as means whereon she lived, and (what cost more than
+all her humble wants) whereby she could administer many little comforts
+to her father in his prison. When she was not in the cell, Grace was
+generally at the Hall, to the scandal of more than one Hurstleyan
+gossip; but perhaps they did not know how usually kind Sarah Stack was
+of the company, to welcome her with Jonathan, and play propriety. Sarah
+was a true friend, one for adversity, and though young herself, and not
+ill-looking, did not envy Grace her handsome lover; on the contrary, she
+did all to make them happy, and had gone the friendly length of
+insisting to find Grace and her family in tea and sugar, while all this
+lasted. I like that much in Sarah Stack.
+
+However, the remainder of the virtuous world were not so considerate,
+nor so charitable. Many neighbours shunned the poor girl, as if
+contaminated by the crimes which Roger had undoubtedly committed: the
+more elderly unmarried sisterhood, as we have chronicled already, were
+overjoyed at the precious opportunity:--"Here was the pert vixen, whom
+all the young fellows so shamelessly followed, turned out, after all, a
+murderer's daughter;--they wished her joy of her eyes, and lips, and
+curls, and pretty speeches: no good ever came of such naughty ways, that
+the men liked so."
+
+Nay, even the tipsy crew at Bacchus's affected to treat her name with
+scorn:--"The girl had made much noise about being called a trull, as if
+many a better than she wasn't one; and, after all, what was the prudish
+wench? a sort of she-butcher; they had no patience with her proud
+looks."
+
+As to farmer Floyd, he made a great stir about his boy being about to
+marry a felon's daughter; and the affectionate mother, with many
+elaborate protestations, had "vowed to Master Jonathan, that she would
+rather lay him out with her own hands, and a penny on each eye, than see
+a Floyd disgrace himself in that 'ere manner."
+
+And uncles, aunts, and cousins, most disinterestedly exhorted that the
+obstinate youth be disinherited--"Ay, Mr. Floyd, I wish your son was a
+high-minded man like his father; but there's a difference, Mr. Floyd; I
+wish he had your true blue yeoman's honour, and the spirit that becomes
+his father's son: if the lad was mine, I'd cut him off with a shilling,
+to buy a halter for his drab of a wife. Dang it, Mrs. Floyd, it'll never
+do to see so queer a Mrs. Jonathan Junior, a standing in your tidy shoes
+beside this kitchen dresser."
+
+These estimable counsels were, I grieve to say, of too flattering a
+nature to displease, and of too lucrative a quality not to be
+continually repeated; until, really, Jonathan was threatened with
+beggary and the paternal malediction, if he would persist in his
+disreputable attachment.
+
+Nevertheless, Jonathan clung to the right like a hero.
+
+"Granting poor Acton is the wretch you think--but I do not believe one
+word of it--does his crime make his daughter wicked too? No; she is an
+angel, a pure and blessed creature, far too good for such a one as I.
+And happy is the man that has gained her love; he should not give her up
+were she thrice a felon's daughter. My father and mother," Jonathan went
+on to say, "never found a fault in her till now. Who was more welcome on
+the hill than pretty Grace? who would oftenest come to nurse some sickly
+lamb, but gentle Grace? who was wont, from her childhood up, to run home
+with me so constantly, when school was over, and pleased my kinsfolk so
+entirely with her nice manners and kind ways? Hadn't he fought for her
+more than once, and though he came home with bruises on his face, his
+mother praised him for it?" Then, with a natural divergence from the
+strict subject-matter of objection, vicarious felony, Jonathan went on
+to argue about other temporal disadvantages. "Hadn't he heard his father
+say, that, if she had but money, she was fit to be a countess? and was
+money, then, the only thing, whereof the having, or the not having,
+could make her good or bad?--money, the only wealth for soul, and mind,
+and body? Are affections nothing, are truth and honour nothing, religion
+nothing, good sense nothing, health nothing, beauty nothing--unless
+money gild them all? Nonsense!" said Jonathan, indignantly, warmed by
+his amatory eloquence; "come weal, come wo, Grace and I go down to the
+grave together; for better, if she can be better--for worse, if she
+could sin--Grace Acton is my wealth, my treasure, and possession; and
+let man do his worst, God himself will bless us!"
+
+So, all this knit their loves: she knew, and he felt, that he was going
+in the road of nobleness and honour; and the fiery ordeal which he had
+to struggle through, raised that hearty earthly lover more nearly to a
+level with his heavenly-minded mistress. Through misfortune and
+mistrust, and evil rumours all around, in spite of opposition from false
+friends, and the scorn of slanderous foes, he stood by her more
+constantly, perchance more faithfully, than if the course of true-love
+had been smoother: he was her escort morning and evening to and from the
+prison; his strong arm was the dread of babbling fools that spoke a word
+of disrespect against the Actons; and his brave tongue was now making
+itself heard, in open vindication of the innocent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+SUSPICIONS.
+
+
+YES--Jonathan Floyd was beginning to speak out boldly certain
+strange suspicions he had entertained of Jennings. It was a courageous,
+a rash, a dangerous thing to do: he did not know but what it might have
+jeoparded his life, say nothing of his livelihood: but Floyd did it.
+
+Ever since that inquest, contrived to be so quickly and so quietly got
+over, he had noticed Simon's hurried starts, his horrid looks, his
+altered mien in all he did and said, his new nervous ways at
+nightfall--John Page to sleep in Mr. Jennings's chamber, and a
+rush-light perpetually--his shudder whenever he had occasion to call at
+the housekeeper's room, and his evident shrinking from the frequent
+phrase "Mrs. Quarles's murder."
+
+Then again, Jonathan would often lie awake at nights, thinking over
+divers matters connected with his own evidence before the coroner, which
+he began to see might be of great importance. Jennings said, he had gone
+out to still the dog by the front door--didn't he?--"How then, Mr.
+Jennings, did you contrive to push back the top bolt? The Hall chairs
+had not come then, and you are a little fellow, and you know that nobody
+in the house could reach, without a lift, that bolt but me. Besides,
+before Sir John came down, the hinges of that door creaked, like a
+litter o' kittens screaming, and the lock went so hard for want of use
+and oil, that I'll be sworn your gouty chalkstone fingers could never
+have turned it: now, I lay half awake for two hours, and heard no creak,
+no key turned; but I tell you what I did hear though, and I wish now I
+had said it at that scanty, hurried inquest; I heard what I now believe
+were distant screams (but I was so sleepy), and a kind of muffled
+scuffling ever so long: but I fancied it might be a horse in the stable
+kicking among the straw in a hunter's loose box. I can guess what it was
+now--cannot you, Mr. Simon?--I say, butler, you must have gone out to
+quiet Don--who by the way can't abear the sight of you--through Mrs.
+Quarles's room: and, for all your threats, I'm not afeard to tell you
+what I think. First answer me this, Mr. Simon Jennings:--where were you
+all that night, when we were looking for you?--Oh! you choose to forget,
+do you? I can help your memory, Mr. Butler; what do you think of the
+shower-bath in Mother Quarles's room?"
+
+As Jonathan, one day at dinner in the servants' hall, took occasion to
+direct these queries to the presiding Simon, the man gave such a horrid
+start, and exclaimed, "Away, I say!" so strangely, that Jonathan could
+doubt no longer--nor, in fact, any other of the household: Jennings gave
+them all round a vindictive scowl, left the table, hastened to his own
+room, and was seen no more that day.
+
+Speculation now seemed at an end, it had ripened into probability;--but
+what evidence was there to support so grave a charge against this rigid
+man? Suspicions are not half enough to go upon--especially since Roger
+Acton seemed to have had the money. Therefore, though the folks at
+Hurstley, Sir John, his guests, and all the house, could not but think
+that Mr. Jennings acted very oddly--still, he had always been a strange
+creature, an unpopular bailiff; nobody understood him. So, Floyd, to his
+own no small danger, stood alone in accusing the man openly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+GRACE'S ALTERNATIVE.
+
+
+VERY shortly after that remarkable speech in the servants'
+hall, Jonathan found another reason for believing that Mr. Simon
+Jennings was equal to any imaginable amount of human wickedness. That
+reason will shortly now appear; but we must first of all dig at its
+roots somewhat deeper than Jonathan's mental husbandry could manage.
+
+If any trait of character were wanting to complete the desperate infamy
+of Jennings--(really I sometimes hope that his grandfather's madness had
+a kind of reawakening in this accursed man)--it was furnished by a new
+and shrewd scheme for feeding to the full his lust of gold. The bailiff
+had more than once, as we have hinted, found means to increase his evil
+hoard, by having secretly gained power over female innocence and honest
+reputation: similarly he now devised a deep-laid plot, nothing short of
+diabolical. His plot was this: and I choose to hurry over such foul
+treason. Let a touch or two hint its outlines: those who will, may paint
+up the picture for themselves. Simon looked at Sir John--young, gay,
+wealthy; he coveted his purse, and fancied that the surest bait to catch
+that fish was fair Grace Acton: if he could entrap her for his master
+(to whom he gave full credit for delighting in the plan), he counted
+surely on magnificent rewards. How then to entrap her? Thus:--he,
+representing himself as prosecutor of Roger, the accused, held for him,
+he averred, the keys of life and death: he would set this idea (whether
+true or not little mattered, if it served his purpose) before an
+affectionate daughter, who should have it in her power to save her
+parent, if, and only if, she would yield herself to Jennings: and he
+well knew that, granting she gave herself secretly to him first, on such
+a bribe as her father's liberation, he would have no difficulty whatever
+in selling her second-hand beauty on his own terms to his master. It was
+a foul scheme, and shall not be enlarged upon: but (as will appear) thus
+slightly to allude to it was needful to our tale, as well as to the
+development of character in Mammon's pattern-slave, and to the fullness
+of his due retribution in this world. I may add, that if any thing could
+make the plan more heinous--if any shade than blackest can be
+blacker--this extra turpitude is seen in the true consideration, that
+the promise to Grace of her father's safety would be entirely futile--as
+Jennings knew full well; the crown was prosecutor, not he: and
+circumstantial evidence alone would be sufficient to condemn. Again, it
+really is nothing but bare justice to remark, with reference to Sir
+John, that the deep-dyed villain reckoned quite without his host; for
+however truly the baronet had oft-times been much less a self-denying
+Scipio than a wanton Alcibiades, still the fine young fellow would have
+flung Simon piecemeal to his hounds, if ever he had breathed so
+atrocious a temptation: the maid was pledged, and Vincent knew it.
+
+Now, it so happened that one evening at dusk, when Grace as usual was
+obliged to leave the prison, there was no Jonathan in waiting to
+accompany her all the dreary long way home: this was strange, as his
+good-hearted master, privately informed of his noble attachment, never
+refused the man permission, but winked, for the time, at his frequent
+evening absence. Nevertheless, on this occasion, as would happen now and
+then, Floyd could not escape from the dining-room; probably because--Mr.
+Jennings had secretly gone forth to escort the girl himself.
+Accordingly, instead of loved Jonathan, sidled up to her the loathsome
+Simon.
+
+Let me not soil these pages by recording, in however guarded phrase, the
+grossness of this wretch's propositions; it was a long way to Hurstley,
+and the reptile never ceased tormenting her every step of it, till the
+village was in sight: twice she ran, and he ran too, keeping up with
+her, and pouring into her ear a father's cruel fate and his own
+detestable alternative. She never once spoke to him, but kept on praying
+in her own pure mind for a just acquittal; not for one moment would she
+entertain the wicked thought of "doing evil that good might come;" and
+so, with flushed cheek, tingling ears, the mien of an insulted empress,
+and the dauntless resolution of a heroine, she hastened on to Hurstley.
+
+Look here! by great good fortune comes Jonathan Floyd to meet her.
+
+"Save me, Jonathan, save me!" and she fainted in his arms.
+
+Now, truth to say, though Sir John knew it, Simon did not, that Grace
+was Jonathan's beloved and betrothed; and the cause lay simply in this,
+that Jonathan had frankly told his master of it, when he found the
+dreadful turn things had taken with poor Roger; but as to Simon, no
+mortal in the neighbourhood ever communicated with him, further than as
+urged by fell necessity. Of course, the lovers' meetings were as private
+as all such matters generally are; and Sarah's aid managed them
+admirably. Therefore it now came to pass that Simon and Jonathan looked
+on each other in mutual astonishment, and needs must wait until Grace
+Acton could explain the "save me." Not but that Jennings seemed much as
+if he wished to run away; but he did not know how to manage it.
+
+"Dear Jonathan," she whispered feebly, "save me from Simon Jennings."
+
+In an instant, Jonathan's grasp was tightly involved in the bailiff's
+stiff white neckcloth. And Grace, with much maidenly reserve, told her
+lover all she dared to utter of that base bartering for her father's
+life.
+
+"Come straight along with me, you villain, straight to the master!" And
+the sturdy Jonathan, administering all the remainder of the way (a
+quarter of a mile of avenue made part of it) innumerable kickings and
+cuffings, hauled the half-mummied bailiff into the servants' hall.
+
+"Now then, straight before the master! John Page, be so good as to knock
+at the dining-room door, and ask master very respectfully if his honour
+will be good enough to suffer me to speak to him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+THE DISMISSAL.
+
+
+IT was after dinner. Sir John and his friends had somehow been
+less jovial than usual; they were absolutely dull enough to be talking
+politics. So, when the boy of many buttons tapped at the door, and
+meekly brought in Jonathan's message, recounting also how he had got Mr.
+Jennings in tow for some inexplicable crime, the strangeness of the
+affair was a very welcome incident: both host and guests hailed it an
+adventure.
+
+"By all means, let Jonathan come in."
+
+The trio were just outside; and when the blue and silver footman,
+hauling in by his unrelinquished throat that scared bailiff, and
+followed by the blushing village beauty, stood within the room, Sir John
+and his half-dozen friends greeted the _tableau_ with united
+acclamations.
+
+"I say, Pypp, that's a devilish fine creature," metaphorically remarked
+the Honorable Lionel Poynter.
+
+"Yaas." Lord George was a long, sallow, slim young man, with a goatish
+beard, like the Duc d'Aumale's; he affected extreme fashion and infinite
+_sangfroid_.
+
+"Well, Jonathan, what is it?" asked the baronet.
+
+"Why, in one word, my honoured master, this scoundrel here has been
+wickedly insulting my own poor dear Grace, by promising to save her
+father from the gallows if--if--"
+
+"If what, man? speak out," said Mr. Poynter.
+
+"You don't mean to say, Jennings, that you are brute enough to be
+seducing that poor man Roger's daughter, just as he's going to be tried
+for his life?" asked Sir John.
+
+Simon uttered nothing in reply; but Grace burst into tears.
+
+"A fair idea that, 'pon my honour," drawled the chivalrous Pypp,
+proceeding to direct his delicate attentions towards the weeping damsel.
+
+"Simon Jennings," said Sir John, after pausing in vain for his reply, "I
+have long wished to get rid of you, sir. Silence! I know you, and have
+been finding out your rascally proceedings these ten days past. I have
+learnt much, more than you may fancy: and now this crowning villany
+[what if he had known of the ulterior designs?] gives me fair occasion
+to say once and for ever, begone!"
+
+Jennings drew himself up with an air of insufferable impudence, and
+quietly answered,
+
+"John Vincent, I am proud to leave your service. I trust I can afford to
+live without your help."
+
+There was a general outcry at this speech, and Jonathan collared him
+again; but the baronet calmly set all straight by saying,
+
+"Perhaps, sir, you may not be aware that your systematic thievings and
+extortions have amply justified me in detaining your iron chest and
+other valuables, until I find out how you may have come by them."
+
+This was the _coup de grace_ to Jennings, who looked scared and
+terrified:--what! all gone--all, his own beloved hoard, and that
+dear-bought crock of gold? Then Sir John added, after one minute of
+dignified and indignant silence,
+
+"Begone!--Jonathan put him out; and if you will kick him out of the
+hall-door on your private account, I'll forgive you for it."
+
+With that, the liveried Antinous raised the little monster by the small
+of the back, drew him struggling from the presence, and lifting him up
+like a football, inflicted one enormous kick that sent him spinning down
+the whole flight of fifteen marble stairs. This exploit accomplished to
+the satisfaction of all parties, Jonathan naturally enough returned to
+look for Grace; and his master, with a couple of friends who had run to
+the door to witness the catastrophe, returned immediately before him.
+
+"Lord George Pypp, you will oblige me by leaving the young woman alone;"
+was Sir John's first angry reproof when he perceived the rustic beauty
+radiant with indignation at some mean offence.
+
+"The worthy baronet wa-ants her for himself," drawled Pypp.
+
+"Say that again, my lord, and you shall follow Jennings."
+
+Whilst the noble youth was slowly elaborating a proper answer,
+Jonathan's voice was heard once more: he had long looked very white,
+kept both hands clenched, and seemed as if, saving his master's
+presence, he could, and would have vanquished the whole room of them.
+
+"Master, have I your honour's permission to speak?"
+
+"No, Jonathan, I'll speak for you; if, that is to say, Lord George
+will--"
+
+"Paardon me, Sir John Devereux Vincent, your feyllow--and his master,
+are not fit company for Lord George Pypp;"--and he leisurely proceeded
+to withdraw.
+
+"Stop a minute, Pypp, I've just one remark to make," hurriedly exclaimed
+Mr. Lionel Poynter, "if Sir John will suffer me; Vincent, my good
+friend, we are wrong--Pypp's wrong, and so am I. First then, let me beg
+pardon of a very pretty girl, for making her look prettier by blushes;
+next, as the maid really is engaged to you, my fine fellow, it is not
+beneath a gentleman to say, I hope that you'll forgive me for too warmly
+admiring your taste; as for George's imputation, Vincent--"
+
+"I beyg to observe," enunciated the noble scion, "I'm awf, Poynter."
+
+He gradually drew himself away, and the baronet never saw him more.
+
+"For shame, Pypp!" shouted after him the warm-hearted Siliphant; "I tell
+you what it is, Vincent, you must let me give a toast:--'Grace and her
+lover!' here, my man, your master allows you to take a glass of wine
+with us; help your beauty too."
+
+The toast was drank with high applause: and before Jonathan humbly led
+away his pleased and blushing Grace, he took an opportunity of saying,
+
+"If I may be bold enough to speak, kind gentlemen, I wish to thank you:
+I oughtn't to be long, for I am nothing but your servant; let it be
+enough to say my heart is full. And I'm in hopes it wouldn't be very
+wrong in me, kind gentlemen, to propose;--'My noble master--honour and
+happiness to him!'"
+
+"Bravo! Jonathan, bravo-o-o-o!" there was a clatter of glasses;--and the
+humble pair of lovers retreated under cover of the toast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+SIMON ALONE.
+
+
+JENNINGS gathered himself up, from that Jew-of-Malta tumble
+down the steps, less damaged by the fall than could have been imagined
+possible; the fact being that his cat-like nature had stood him in good
+stead--he had lighted on his feet; and nothing but a mighty dorsal
+bruise bore witness to the prowess of a Jonathan.
+
+But, if his body was comparatively sound, the inner man was bruised all
+over: he crept back, and retreated to his room, in as broken and
+despondent a frame of mind, as any could have wished to bless him
+wherewithal. However, he still had one thing left to live for: his
+hoard--that precious hoard within his iron box, and then--the crock of
+gold. He took Sir John's threat about detaining, and so forth, as
+merely future, and calculated on rendering it nugatory, by decamping
+forthwith, chattels and all; but he little expected to find that the
+idea had already been acted upon!
+
+On that identical afternoon, when Simon had gone forth to insult Grace
+Acton with his villanous proposals, Sir John, on returning from a ride,
+had commanded his own seal to be placed on all Mr. Jennings's effects,
+and the boxes to be forthwith removed to a place of safety: induced
+thereto by innumerable proofs from every quarter that the bailiff had
+been cheating him on a most liberal scale, and plundering his tenants
+systematically. Therefore, when Jennings hastened to his chamber to
+console himself for all things by looking at his gold, and counting out
+a bag or two--it was gone, gone, irrevocably gone! safely stored away
+for rigid scrutiny in the grated muniment-room of Hurstley. Oh, what a
+howl the caitiff gave, when he saw that his treasure had been taken! he
+was a wild bull in a net; a crocodile caught upon the hooks; a hyena at
+bay. What could he do? which way should he turn? how help himself, or
+get his gold again? Unluckily--Oh, confusion, confusion!--his
+account-books were along with all his hoard, those tell-tale legers,
+wherein he had duly noted down, for his own private and triumphant
+glance, the curious difference between his lawful and unlawful gains;
+there, was every overcharge recorded, every matter of extortion
+systematically ranged, that he might take all the tenants in their turn;
+there, were filed the receipts of many honest men, whom the guardians
+and Sir John had long believed to be greatly in arrear; there, was
+recorded at length the catalogue of dues from tradesmen; there, the list
+of bribes for the custom of the Hall. It would amply authorize Sir John
+in appropriating the whole store; and Jennings thought of this with
+terror. Every thing was now obviously lost, lost! Oh, sickening little
+word, all lost! all he had ever lived for--all which had made him live
+the life he did--all which made him fear to die. "Fear to die--ha! who
+said that? I will not fear to die; yes, there is one escape left, I will
+hazard the blind leap; this misery shall have an end--this sleepless,
+haunted, cheated, hated wretch shall live no longer--ha! ha! ha! ha!
+I'll do it! I'll do it!"
+
+Then did that wretched man strive in vain to kill himself, for his hour
+was not yet come. His first idea was laudanum--that only mean of any
+thing like rest to him for many weeks; and pouring out all he had, a
+little phial, nearly half a wine-glass full, he quickly drank it off: no
+use--no use; the agitation of his mind was too intense, and the habit
+of a continually increasing dose had made him proof against the poison;
+it would not even lull him, but seemed to stretch and rack his nerves,
+exciting him to deeds of bloody daring. Should he rush out, like a Malay
+running a muck, with a carving-knife in each hand, and kill right and
+left:--vengeance! vengeance! on Jonathan Floyd, and John Vincent? No,
+no; for some of them at last would overcome him, think him mad, and, O
+terror!--his doom for life, without the means of death, would be
+solitary confinement. "Stay! with this knife in my hand--means of
+death--yes, it shall be so." And he hurriedly drew the knife across his
+throat; no use, nothing done; his cowardly skin shrank away from
+cutting--he dared not cut again; a little bloody scratch was all.
+
+But the heart, the heart--that should be easier! And the miscreant, not
+quite a Cato, gave a feeble stab, that made a little puncture. Not yet,
+Simon Jennings; no, not yet; you shall not cheat the gallows. "Ha!
+hanging, hanging! why had I not thought of that before?"
+
+He mounted on a chair with a gimlet in his hand, and screwed it tightly
+into the wainscotting as high as he could reach; then he took a cord
+from the sacking of his bed, secured it to the gimlet, made a noose, put
+his head in, kicked the chair away--and swung by his wounded neck; in
+vain, all in vain; as he struggled in the agonies of self-protecting
+nature, the handle of the gimlet came away, and he fell heavily to the
+ground.
+
+"Bless us!" said Sarah to one of the house-maids, as they were arranging
+their curl-papers to go to bed: "what can that noise be in Mr.
+Jennings's room? his tall chest of drawers has fallen, I shouldn't
+wonder: it was always unsafe to my mind. Listen, Jenny, will you?"
+
+Jenny crept out, and, as laudable females sometimes do, listened at
+Simon's key-hole.
+
+"Lack-a-daisy, Sall, such a groaning and moaning; p'raps he's a-dying:
+put on your cap again, and tell Jonathan to go and see."
+
+Sarah did as she was bid, and Jonathan did as he was bid; and there was
+Mr. Jennings on the floor, blue in the face, with a halter round his
+neck.
+
+The house was soon informed of the interesting event, and the bailiff
+was nursed as tenderly as if he had been a sucking babe; fomentations,
+applications, hot potations: but he soon came to again, without any hope
+or wish to repeat the dread attempt: he was kept in bed, closely
+watched, and Stephen Cramp, together with his rival, Eager, remained
+continually in alternate attendance: until a day or two recovered him as
+strong as ever. I told you, Simon Jennings, that your time was not yet
+come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+THE TRIAL.
+
+
+THE trial now came on, and Roger Acton stood arraigned of
+robbery and murder. I must hasten over lengthy legal technicalities,
+which would only serve to swell this volume, without adding one iota to
+its interest or usefulness. Nothing could be easier, nothing more worth
+while, as a matter of mere book-making, than to tear a few pages out of
+some musty record of Criminal Court Practice or other Newgate
+Calendar-piece of authorship, and wade wearily through the length and
+breadth of indictments, speeches, examinations, and all the other
+learned clatter of six hours in the judgment-halls of law. If the reader
+wishes for all this, let him pore over those unhealthy-looking books,
+whose exterior is dove-coloured as the kirtle of innocence, but their
+inwards black as the conscience of guilt; whitened sepulchres, all
+spotless without; but within them are enshrined the quibbling knavery,
+the distorted ingenuity, the mystifying learnedness, the warped and
+warping views of truth, the lying, slandering, bad-excusing,
+good-condemning principles and practices of those who cater for their
+custom at the guiltiest felon's cell, and would glory in defending
+Lucifer himself.
+
+In the case of sheer innocence, indeed, as Roger's was--or in one of
+much doubt and secresy, where the client denies all guilt, and the
+counsel sees reason to believe him--let the advocate manfully battle out
+his cause: but where crime has poured out his confessions in a
+counsellor's ear--is not this man bought by gold to be a partaker and
+abettor in his sins, when he strives with all his might to clear the
+guilty, and not seldom throws the hideous charge on innocence? If the
+advocate has no wish to entrap his own conscience, nor to damage the
+tissue of his honour, let him reject the client criminal who confesses,
+and only plead for those from whom he has had no assurance of their
+guilt; or, better far, whose innocence he heartily believes in.
+
+Such an advocate was Mr. Grantly, a barrister of talents and experience,
+who, from motives of the purest benevolence, did all that in him lay for
+Roger Acton. In one thing, however, and that of no small import, the
+kindly cautious man of law had contrived to do more harm than good: for,
+after having secretly made every effort, but in vain, to find Ben Burke
+as a witness--and after having heard that the aforesaid Ben was a
+notorious poacher, and only intimate at Hurstley with Acton and his
+family--he strongly recommended Roger to say nothing about the man or
+his adventure, as the acknowledgment of such an intimacy would only
+damage his cause: all that need appear was, that he found the crock in
+his garden, never mind how he "thought" it got there: poachers are not
+much in the habit of flinging away pots of gold, and no jury would
+believe but that the ill-reputed personage in question was an accomplice
+in the murder, and had shared the spoil with his friend Roger Acton. All
+this was very shrewd; and well meant; but was not so wise, for all that,
+as simple truth would have been: nevertheless, Roger acquiesced in it,
+for a better reason than Mr. Grantly's--namely, this: his feelings
+toward poor Ben had undergone an amiable revulsion, and, well aware how
+the whole neigbourhood were prejudiced against him for his freebooting
+propensities, he feared to get his good rough friend into trouble if he
+mentioned his nocturnal fishing at Pike island; especially when he
+considered that little red Savings' Bank, which, though innocent as to
+the getting, was questionable as to the rights of spending, and that,
+really, if he involved the professed poacher in this mysterious affair,
+he might put his liberty or life into very serious jeopardy. On this
+account, then, which Grace could not entirely find fault with (though
+she liked nothing that savoured of concealment), Roger Acton agreed to
+abide by Mr. Grantly's advice; and thus he never alluded to his
+connexion with the poacher.
+
+Enlightened as we are, and intimate with all the hidden secrets of the
+story, we may be astonished to hear that, notwithstanding all Mr.
+Grantly's ingenuity, and all the siftings of cross-questioners, the case
+was clear as light against poor Acton. No _alibi_, he lived upon the
+spot. No witnesses to character; for Roger's late excesses had wiped
+away all former good report: kind Mr. Evans himself, with tears in his
+eyes, acknowledged sadly that Acton had once been a regular church-goer,
+a frequent communicant: but had fallen off of late, poor fellow! And
+then, in spite of protestations to the contrary, behold! the _corpus
+delicti_--that unlucky crock of gold, actually in the man's possession,
+and the fragment of shawl--was not that sufficient?
+
+Jonathan Floyd in open court had been base enough to accuse Mr. Jennings
+of the murder. Mr. Jennings indeed! a strict man of high character,
+lately dismissed, after twenty years' service, in the most arbitrary
+manner by young Sir John, who had taken a great liking to the Actons.
+People could guess why, when they looked on Grace: and Grace, too, was
+sufficient reason to account for Jonathan's wicked suspicions; of
+course, it was the lover's interest to throw the charge on other people.
+As to Mr. Jennings himself, just recovered from a fit of illness, it was
+astonishing how liberally and indulgently he prayed the court to show
+the prisoner mercy: his white and placid face looked quite benevolently
+at him--and this respectable person was a murderer, eh, Mr. Jonathan?
+
+So, when the judge summed up, and clearly could neither find nor make a
+loop-hole for the prisoner, the matter seemed accomplished; all knew
+what the verdict must be--poor Roger Acton had not the shadow of a
+chance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+ROGER'S DEFENCE.
+
+
+THEN, while the jury were consulting--they would not leave the
+box, it seemed so clear--Roger broke the death-like silence; and he
+said:
+
+"Judge, I crave your worship's leave to speak: and hearken to me,
+countrymen. Many evil things have I done in my time, both against God
+and my neighbour: I am ashamed, as well I may be, when I think on 'em: I
+have sworn, and drunk, and lied; I have murmured loudly--coveted
+wickedly--ay, and once I stole. It was a little theft, I lost it on the
+spot, and never stole again: pray God, I never may. Nevertheless,
+countrymen, and sinful though I be in the sight of Him who made us,
+according to man's judgment and man's innocency, I had lived among you
+all blameless, until I found that crock of gold. I did find it,
+countrymen, as God is my witness, and, therefore, though a sinner, I
+appeal to Him: He knoweth that I found it in the sedge that skirts my
+garden, at the end of my own celery trench. I did wickedly and foolishly
+to hide my find, worse to deny it, and worst of all to spend it in the
+low lewd way I did. But of robbery I am guiltless as you are. And as to
+this black charge of murder, till Simon Jennings spoke the word, I never
+knew it had been done. Folk of Hurstley, friends and neighbours, you all
+know Roger Acton--the old-time honest Roger of these forty years,
+before the devil made him mad by giving him much gold--did he ever
+maliciously do harm to man or woman, to child or poor dumb brute?--No,
+countrymen, I am no murderer. That the seemings are against me, I wot
+well; they may excuse your judgment in condemning me to death--and I and
+the good gentleman there who took my part (Heaven bless you, sir!)
+cannot go against the facts: but they speak falsely, and I truly; Roger
+Acton is an innocent man: may God defend the right!"
+
+"Amen!" earnestly whispered a tremulous female voice, "and God will save
+you, father."
+
+The court was still as death, except for sobbing; the jury were doubting
+and confounded; in vain Mr. Jennings, looking at the foreman, shook his
+head and stroked his chin in an incredulous and knowing manner; clearly
+they must retire, not at all agreed; and the judge himself, that masqued
+man in flowing wig and ermine, but still warmed by human sympathies,
+struck a tear from his wrinkled cheek; and all seemed to be
+involuntarily waiting (for the jury, though unable to decide, had not
+yet left their box), to see whether any sudden miracle would happen to
+save a man whom evidence made so guilty, and yet he bore upon his open
+brow the genuine signature of Innocence.
+
+"Silence, there, silence! you can't get in; there's no room for'ards!"
+But a couple of javelin-men at the door were knocked down right and
+left, and through the dense and suffocating crowd, a black-whiskered
+fellow, elbowing his way against their faces, spite of all obstruction,
+struggled to the front behind the bar. Then, breathless with gigantic
+exertion (it was like a mammoth treading down the cedars), he roared
+out,
+
+"Judge, swear me, I'm a witness; huzza! it's not too late."
+
+And the irreverent gentleman tossed a fur cap right up to the skylight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+THE WITNESS.
+
+
+MR. GRANTLY brightened up at once, Grace looked happily to
+Heaven, and Roger Acton shouted out,
+
+"Thank God! thank God!--there's Ben Burke!"
+
+Yes, he had heard miles away of his friend's danger about an old shawl
+and a honey-pot full of gold, and he had made all speed, with Tom in his
+train, to come and bear witness to the innocence of Roger. The sensation
+in court, as may be well conceived, was thrilling; but a vociferous
+crier, and the deep anxiety to hear this sturdy witness, soon reduced
+all again to silence.
+
+Then did they swear Benjamin Burke, who, to the scandal of his cause,
+would insist upon stating his profession to be "poacher;" and at first,
+poor simple fellow, seemed to have a notion that a sworn witness meant
+one who swore continually; but he was soon convinced otherwise, and his
+whole demeanour gradually became as polite and deferent as his coarse
+nature would allow. And Ben told his adventure on Pike island, as we
+have heard him tell it, pretty much in the same words, for the judge and
+Mr. Grantly let him take his own courses; and then he added (with a
+characteristic expletive, which we may as well omit, seeing it
+occasioned a cry of "order" in the court), "There, if that there
+white-livered little villain warn't the chap that brought the crocks, my
+name an't Ben Burke."
+
+"Good Heavens! Mr. Jennings, what's the matter?" said a briefless one,
+starting up: this was Mr. Sharp, a personage on former occasions
+distinguished highly as a thieves' advocate, but now, unfortunately, out
+of work. "Loosen his cravat, some one there; the gentleman is in fits."
+
+"Oh, Aunt--Aunt Quarles, don't throttle me; I'll tell all--all; let go,
+let go!" and the wretched man slowly recovered, as Ben Burke said,
+
+"Ay, my lord, ask him yourself, the little wretch can tell you all about
+it."
+
+"I submit, my lurd," interposed the briefless one, "that this
+respectable gentleman is taken ill, and that his presence may now be
+dispensed with, as a witness in the cause."
+
+"No, sir, no;" deliberately answered Jennings; "I must stay: the time I
+find is come; I have not slept for weeks; I am exhausted utterly; I have
+lost my gold; I am haunted by her ghost; I can go no where but that face
+follows me--I can do nothing but her fingers clutch my throat. It is
+time to end this misery. In hope to lay her spirit, I would have offered
+up a victim: but--but she will not have him. Mine was the hand that--"
+
+"Pardon me," upstarted Mr. Sharp, "this poor gentleman is a mono-maniac;
+pray, my lurd, let him be removed while the trial is proceeding."
+
+"You horse-hair hypocrite, you!" roared Ben, "would you hang the
+innocent, and save the guilty?"
+
+Would he? would Mr. Philip Sharp? Ay, that he would; and glad of such a
+famous opportunity. What! would not Newgate rejoice, and Horsemonger be
+glad? Would not his bag be filled with briefs from the community of
+burglars, and his purse be rich in gold subscribed by the brotherhood of
+thieves? Great at once would be his name among the purlieus of iniquity:
+and every rogue in London would retain but Philip Sharp. Would he? ask
+him again.
+
+But Jennings quietly proceeded like a speaking statue.
+
+"I am not mad, most noble--" [the Bible-read villain was from habit
+quoting Paul]--"my lord, I mean. My hand did the deed: I throttled her"
+(here he gave a scared look over his shoulder): "yes--I did it once and
+again: I took the crock of gold. You may hang me now, Aunt Quarles."
+
+"My lurd, my lurd, this is a most irregular proceeding," urged Mr.
+Sharp; "on the part of the prisoner--I, I crave pardon--on behalf of
+this most respectable and deluded gentleman, Mr. Simon Jennings, I
+contend that no one may criminate himself in this way, without the
+shadow of evidence to support such suicidal testimony. Really, my
+lurd--"
+
+"Oh, sir, but my father may go free?" earnestly asked Grace. But Ben
+Burke's voice--I had almost written woice--overwhelmed them all:
+
+"Let me speak, judge, an't it please your honour, and take you notice,
+Master Horsehair. You wan't ewidence, do you, beyond the man's
+confession: here, I'll give it you. Look at this here wice:" and he
+stretched forth his well-known huge and horny hand:
+
+"When I caught that dridful little reptil by the arm, he wriggled like a
+sniggled eel, so I was forced you see, to grasp him something tighter,
+and could feel his little arm-bones crack like any chicken's: now then,
+if his left elbow an't black and blue, though it's a month a-gone and
+more, I'll eat it. Strip him and see."
+
+No need to struggle with the man, or tear his coat off. Jennings
+appeared only too glad to find that there was other evidence than his
+own foul tongue, and that he might be hung at last without sacking-rope
+or gimlet; so, he quietly bared his arm, and the elbow looked all manner
+of colours--a mass of old bruises.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+MR. SHARP'S ADVOCACY.
+
+
+THE whole court trembled with excitement: it was deep, still
+silence; and the judge said,
+
+"Prisoner at the bar, there is now no evidence against you: gentlemen of
+the jury, of course you will acquit him."
+
+The foreman: "All agreed, my lord, not guilty."
+
+"Roger Acton," said the judge, "to God alone you owe this marvellous,
+almost miraculous, interposition: you have had many wrongs innocently to
+endure, and I trust that the right feelings of society will requite you
+for them in this world, as, if you serve Him, God will in the next. You
+are honourably acquitted, and may leave this bar."
+
+In vain the crier shouted, in vain the javelin-men helped the crier, the
+court was in a tumult of joy; Grace sprang to her father's neck, and Sir
+John Vincent, who had been in attendance sitting near the judge all the
+trial through, came down to him, and shook his hand warmly.
+
+Roger's eyes ran over, and he could only utter,
+
+"Thank God! thank God! He does better for me than I deserved." But the
+court was hushed at last: the jury resworn; certain legal forms and
+technicalities speedily attended to, as counts of indictment, and so
+forth: and the judge then quietly said,
+
+"Simon Jennings, stand at that bar."
+
+He stood there like an image.
+
+"My lurd, I claim to be prisoner's counsel."
+
+"Mr. Sharp--the prisoner shall have proper assistance by all means; but
+I do not see how it will help your case, if you cannot get your client
+to plead not guilty."
+
+While Mr. Philip Sharp converses earnestly with the criminal in
+confidential whispers, I will entertain the sagacious reader with a few
+admirable lines I have just cut out of a newspaper: they are headed
+
+  "SUPPRESSION OF TRUTH AND EXCLUSION OF EVIDENCE.
+
+"Lawyers abhor any short cut to the truth. The pursuit is the thing for
+their pleasure and profit, and all their rules are framed for making the
+most of it.
+
+"Crime is to them precisely what the fox is to the sportsman: and the
+object is not to pounce on it, and capture it at once, but to have a
+good run for it, and to exhibit skill and address in the chase. Whether
+the culprit or the fox escape or not, is a matter of indifference, the
+run being the main thing.
+
+"The punishment of crime is as foreign to the object of lawyers, as the
+extirpation of the fox is to that of sportsmen. The sportsman, because
+he hunts the fox, sees in the summary destruction of the fox by the hand
+of a clown, an offence foul, strange, and unnatural, little short of
+murder. The lawyer treats crime in the same way: his business is the
+chase of it; but, that it may exist for the chase, he lays down rules
+protecting it against surprises and capture by any methods but those of
+the forensic field.
+
+"One good turn deserves another, and as the lawyer owes his business to
+crime, he naturally makes it his business to favour and spare it as much
+as possible. To seize and destroy it wherever it can be got at, seems to
+him as barbarous as shooting a bird sitting, or a hare in her form, does
+to the sportsman. The phrase, to give _law_, for the allowance of a
+start, or any chance of escape, expresses the methods of lawyers in the
+pursuit of crime, and has doubtless been derived from their practice.
+
+"Confession is the thing most hateful to law, for this stops its sport
+at the outset. It is the surrender of the fox to the hounds. 'We don't
+want your stinking body,' says the lawyer; 'we want the run after the
+scent. Away with you, be off; retract your admission, take the benefit
+of telling a lie, give us employment, and let us take our chance of
+hunting out, in our roundabout ways, the truth, which we will not take
+when it lies before us.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As I perceive that Mr. Sharp has not yet made much impression upon the
+desponding prisoner, suffer me to recommend to your notice another
+sensible leader: the abuse which it would combat calls loudly for
+amendment. There is plenty of time to spare, for some preliminaries of
+trial have yet to be arranged, and the judge has just stepped out to get
+a sandwich, and every body stands at ease; moreover, gentle reader, the
+paragraphs following are well worthy of your attention. Let us name
+them,
+
+  "MORBID SYMPATHIES.
+
+"We have often thought that the tenderness shown by our law to presumed
+criminals is as injurious as it is inconsistent and excessive. A
+miserable beggar, a petty rioter, the wretch who steals a loaf to
+satisfy the gnawings of his hunger, is roughly seized, closely examined,
+and severely punished; meanwhile, the plain common sense of our mobs, if
+not of our magistracy, has pitied the offender, and perhaps acquitted
+him. But let some apparent murderer be caught, almost in the flagrant
+deed of his atrocity; let him, to the best of all human belief, have
+killed, disembowelled, and dismembered; let him have united the coolness
+of consummate craft to the boldest daring of iniquity, and straightway
+(though the generous crowd may hoot and hunt the wretch with yelling
+execration) he finds in law and lawyers, refuge, defenders, and
+apologists. Tenderly and considerately is he cautioned on no account to
+criminate himself: he is exhorted, even by judges, to withdraw the
+honest and truthful plea of 'guilty,' now the only amends which such a
+one can make to the outraged laws of God and man: he is defended, even
+to the desperate length of malignant accusation of the innocent, by
+learned men, whose aim it is to pervert justice and screen the guilty!
+he is lodged and tended with more circumstances of outward comfort and
+consideration than he probably has ever experienced in all his life
+before; and if, notwithstanding the ingenuity of his advocates, and the
+merciful glosses of his judge, a simple-minded British jury capitally
+convict him, and he is handed over to the executioner, he still finds
+pious gentlemen ready to weep over him in his cell, and titled dames to
+send him white camellias, to wear upon his heart when he is hanging.[A]
+
+"Now what is the necessary consequence of this, but a mighty, a
+fearfully influential premium on crime? And what is its radical cause,
+but the absurd indulgence wherewith our law greets the favoured,
+_because_ the atrocious criminal? Upon what principle of propriety, or
+of natural justice, should a seeming murderer not be--we will not say
+sternly, but even kindly--catechised, and for his very soul's sake
+counselled to confess his guilt? Why should the _morale_ of evidence be
+so thoroughly lost sight of, and a malefactor, who is ready to
+acknowledge crime, or unable, when questioned, to conceal it, on no
+account be listened to, lest he may do his precious life irreparable
+harm? It is not agonized repentance, or incidental disclosure, that
+makes the culprit his own executioner, but his crime that has preceded;
+it is not the weak, avowing tongue, but the bold and bloody hand.
+
+"We are unwilling to allude specifically to the name of any recent
+malefactor in connexion with these plain remarks; for, in the absence
+alike of hindered voluntary confession and of incomplete legal evidence,
+we would not prejudge, that is, prejudice a case. But we do desire to
+exclaim against any further exhibition of that morbid tenderness
+wherewith all persons are sure to be treated, if only they are accused
+of enormities more than usually disgusting; and we specially protest
+against that foolish, however ancient, rule in our criminal law, which
+discourages and rejects the slenderest approach to a confession, while
+it has sacrificed many an innocent victim to the uncertainty of
+evidence, supported by nothing more safe than outward circumstantials."
+
+At length, and after much gesticulation and protestation, Mr. Sharp has
+succeeded; he had apparently innoculated the miserable man with hopes;
+for the miscreant now said firmly, "I plead not guilty."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The briefless one looked happy--nay, triumphant: Jennings was a wealthy
+man, all knew; and, any how, he should bag a bouncing fee. How far such
+money was likely to do him any good, he never stopped to ask. "Money is
+money," said Philip Sharp and the Emperor Vespasian.
+
+We need not trouble ourselves to print Mr. Sharp's very flashy, flippant
+speech. Suffice it to say, that, not content with asserting vehemently
+on his conscience as a Christian, on his honour as a man, that Simon
+Jennings was an innocent, maligned, persecuted individual; labouring,
+perhaps, under mono-mania, but pure and gentle as the babe new-born--not
+satisfied with traducing honest Ben Burke as a most suspicious witness,
+probably a murderer--ay, _the_ murderer himself, a mere riotous ruffian
+[Ben here chucked his cap at him, and thereby countenanced the charge],
+a mere scoundrel, not to say scamp, whom no one should believe upon his
+oath; he again, with all the semblance of sincerity, accused, however
+vainly, Roger Acton: and lastly, to the disgust and astonishment of the
+whole court, added, with all acted appearances of fervent zeal for
+justice, "And I charge his pious daughter, too, that far too pretty
+piece of goods, Grace Acton, with being accessory to this atrocious
+crime after the fact!"
+
+There was a storm of shames and hisses; but the judge allayed it,
+quietly saying,
+
+"Mr. Sharp, be so good as to confine your attention to your client; he
+appears to be quite worthy of you."
+
+Then Mr. Sharp, like the firm just man immortalized by Flaccus, stood
+stout against the visage of the judge, sneered at the wrath of citizens
+commanding things unjust, turned to Ben Burke minaciously, calling him
+"_Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae_" [as Burke had heard this quotation, he
+thought it was about the "ducks" he had been decoying], and altogether
+seemed not about to be put down, though the huge globe crack about his
+ears. After this, he calmly worded on, seeming to regard the judge's
+stinging observation with the same sort of indifference as the lion
+would a dew-drop on his mane; and having poured out all manner of
+voluminous bombast, he gradually ran down, and came to a conclusion;
+then, jumping up refreshed, like the bounding of a tennis-ball, he
+proceeded to call witnesses; and, judging from what happened at the
+inquest, as well as because he wished to overwhelm a suspected and
+suspecting witness, he pounced, somewhat infelicitously, on Jonathan
+Floyd.
+
+"So, my fine young fellow, you are a footman, eh, at Hurstley?"
+
+"Yes, sir, an' it please you--or rather, an' it please my master."
+
+"You remember what happened on the night of the late Mrs. Quarles's
+decease?"
+
+"Oh, many things happened; Mr. Jennings was lost, he wasn't to be found,
+he was hid somewhere, nobody saw him till next morning."
+
+"Stop, sirrah! not quite so quick, if you please; you are on your oath,
+be careful what you say. I have it in evidence, sirrah, before the
+coroner;" and he looked triumphantly about him at this clencher to all
+Jonathan's testimony; "that you saw him yourself that night speaking to
+the dog; what do you mean by swearing that nobody saw him till next
+morning?"
+
+"Well, mister, I mean this; whether or no poor old Mrs. Quarles saw her
+affectionate nephew that night before the clock struck twelve, there's
+none alive to tell; but no one else did--for Sarah and I sat up for him
+till past midnight. He was hidden away somewhere, snug enough; and as I
+verily believe, in the poor old 'ooman's own--"
+
+"Silence, silence! sir, I say; we want none of your impertinent guesses
+here, if you please: to the point, sirrah, to the point; you swore
+before the coroner, that you had seen Mr. Jennings, in his courage and
+his kindness, quieting the dog that very night, and now--"
+
+"Oh," interrupted Jonathan in his turn, "for the matter of that, when I
+saw him with the dog, it was hard upon five in the morning. And here,
+gentlemen," added Floyd, with a promiscuous and comprehensive bow all
+round, "if I may speak my mind about the business--"
+
+"Go down, sir!" said Mr. Sharp, who began to be afraid of truths.
+
+"Pardon me, this may be of importance," remarked Roger Acton's friend;
+"say what you have to say, young man."
+
+"Well, then, gentlemen and my lord, I mean to say thus much. Jennings
+there, the prisoner (and I'm glad to see him standing at the bar), swore
+at the inquest that he went to quiet Don, going round through the front
+door; now, none could get through that door without my hearing of him;
+and certainly a little puny Simon like him could never do so without I
+came to help him; for the lock was stiff with rust, and the bolt out of
+his reach."
+
+"Stop, young man; my respected client, Mr. Jennings, got upon a chair."
+
+"Indeed, sir? then he must ha' created the chair for that special
+purpose: there wasn't one in the hall then; no, nor for two days after,
+when they came down bran-new from Dowbiggins in London, with the rest o'
+the added furnitur' just before my honoured master."
+
+This was conclusive, certainly; and Floyd proceeded.
+
+"Now, gentlemen and my lord, if Jennings did not go that way, nor the
+kitchen-way neither--for he always was too proud for scullery-door and
+kitchen--and if he did not give himself the trouble to unfasten the
+dining-room or study windows, or to unscrew the iron bars of his own
+pantry, none of which is likely, gentlemen--there was but one other way
+out, and that way was through Bridget Quarles's own room. Now--"
+
+"Ah--that room, that bed, that corpse, that crock!--It is no use, no
+use," the wretched miscreant added slowly, after his first hurried
+exclamations; "I did the deed, I did it! guilty, guilty." And,
+notwithstanding all Mr. Sharp's benevolent interferences, and appeals to
+judge and jury on the score of mono-mania, and shruggings-up of
+shoulders at his client's folly, and virtuous indignation at the evident
+leaning of the court--the murderer detailed what he had done. He spoke
+quietly and firmly, in his usually stern and tyrannical style, as if
+severe upon himself, for being what?--a man of blood, a thief, a
+perjured false accuser? No, no; lower in the scale of Mammon's judgment,
+worse in the estimate of him whose god is gold; he was now a pauper, a
+mere moneyless forked animal; a beggared, emptied, worthless, penniless
+creature: therefore was he stern against his ill-starred soul, and took
+vengeance on himself for being poor.
+
+It was a consistent feeling, and common with the mercantile of this
+world; to whom the accidents of fortune are every thing, and the
+qualities of mind nothing; whose affections ebb and flow towards
+friends, relations--yea, their own flesh and blood, with the varying
+tide of wealth: whom a luckless speculation in cotton makes an enemy,
+and gambling gains in corn restore a friend; men who fall down mentally
+before the golden calf, and offer up their souls to Nebuchadnezzar's
+idol: men who never saw harm nor shame in the craftiest usurer or
+meanest pimp, provided he has thousands in the three per cents.; and
+whose indulgent notions of iniquity reach their climax in the
+phrase--the man is poor.
+
+So then, with unhallowed self-revenge, Simon rigidly detailed his
+crimes: he led the whole court step by step, as I have led the reader,
+through the length and breadth of that terrible night: of the facts he
+concealed nothing, and the crowded hall of judgment shuddered as one
+man, when he came to his awful disclosure, hitherto unsuspected,
+unimagined, of that second strangulation: as to feelings, he might as
+well have been a galvanized mummy, an automaton lay-figure enunciating
+all with bellows and clapper, for any sense he seemed to have of shame,
+or fear, or pity; he admitted his lie about the door, complimented Burke
+on the accuracy of his evidence, and declared Roger Acton not merely
+innocent, but ignorant of the murder.
+
+This done, without any start or trepidation in his manner as formerly,
+he turned his head over his left shoulder, and said, in a deep whisper,
+heard all over the court, "And now, Aunt Quarles, I am coming; look out,
+woman, I will have my revenge for all your hauntings: again shall we
+wrestle, again shall we battle, again shall I throttle you, again,
+again!"
+
+O, most fearful thought! who knoweth but it may be true? that spirits of
+wickedness and enmity may execute each other's punishment, as those of
+righteousness and love minister each other's happiness! that--damned
+among the damned--the spirit of a Nero may still delight in torturing,
+and that those who in this world were mutual workers of iniquity, may
+find themselves in the next, sworn retributors of wrath? No idle threat
+was that of the demoniac Simon, and possibly with no vain fears did the
+ghost of the murdered speed away.
+
+When the sensation of horror, which for a minute delayed the
+court-business, and has given us occasion to think that fearful thought,
+when this had gradually subsided, the foreman of the jury, turning to
+the judge, said,
+
+"My lord, we will not trouble your lordship to sum up; we are all
+agreed--Guilty."
+
+One word about Mr. Sharp: he was entirely chagrined; his fortunes were
+at stake; he questioned whether any one in Newgate would think of him
+again. To make matters worse, when he whispered for a fee to Mr.
+Jennings (for he did whisper, however contrary to professional
+etiquette), that worthy gentleman replied by a significant sneer, to the
+effect that he had not a penny to give him, and would not if he had:
+whereupon Mr. Sharp began to coincide with the rest of the world in
+regarding so impoverished a murderer as an atrocious criminal; then,
+turning from his client with contempt, he went to the length of
+congratulating Roger on his escape, and actually offered his hand to Ben
+Burke. The poacher's reply was characteristic: "As you means it kindly,
+Master Horsehair, I won't take it for an insult: howsomdever, either
+your hand or mine, I won't say which, is too dirty for shaking. Let me
+do you a good turn, Master: there's a blue-bottle on your wig; I think
+as it's Beelzebub a-whispering in your ear: allow me to drive him away."
+And the poacher dealt him such a cuff that this barrister reeled again;
+and instantly afterwards took advantage of the cloud of hair-powder to
+leave the court unseen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+SENTENCE AND DEATH.
+
+
+SILENCE, silence! shouted the indignant crier, and the
+episodical cause of Burke, _v._ Sharp, was speedily hushed.
+
+The eyes of all now concentred on the miserable criminal; for the time,
+every thing else seemed forgotten. Roger, Grace, and Ben, grouped
+together in the midst of many friends, who had crowded round them to
+congratulate, leaned forward like the rest of that dense hall, as simply
+thralled spectators. Mr. Grantly lifted up a pair of very moistened eyes
+behind his spectacles, and looked earnestly on, with his wig, from
+agitation, wriggled tails in front. The judge (it was good old Baron
+Parker) put on the black cap to pronounce sentence. There was a pause.
+
+But we have forgotten Simon Jennings--what was he about? did that
+"cynosure of neighbouring eyes" appear alarmed at his position, anxious
+at his fate, or even attentive to what was going on? No: he not only
+appeared, but was, the most unconcerned individual in the whole court:
+he even tried to elude utter vacancy of thought by amusing himself with
+external things about him: and, on Wordsworth's principle of inducing
+sleep by counting
+
+  "A flock of sheep, that leisurely pass by,
+  One after one,"
+
+he was trying to reckon, for pleasant peace of mind's sake, how many
+folks were looking at him. Only see--he is turning his white stareful
+face in every direction, and his lips are going a thousand and
+forty-one, a thousand and forty-two, a thousand and forty-three; he will
+not hurry it over, by leaving out the "thousand:" alas! this holiday of
+idiotic occupation is all the respite now his soul can know.
+
+And the judge broke that awful silence, saying,
+
+"Prisoner at the bar, you are convicted on your own confession, as well
+as upon other evidence, of crimes too horrible to speak of. The
+deliberate repetition of that fearful murder, classes you among the
+worst of wretches whom it has been my duty to condemn: and when to this
+is added your perjured accusation of an innocent man, whom nothing but a
+miracle has rescued, your guilt becomes appalling--too hideous for human
+contemplation. Miserable man, prepare for death, and after that the
+judgment; yet, even for you, if you repent, there may be pardon; it is
+my privilege to tell even you, that life and hope are never to be
+separated, so long as God is merciful, or man may be contrite. The
+Sacrifice of Him who died for us all, for you, poor fellow-creature
+[here the good judge wept for a minute like a child]--for you, no less
+than for me, is available even to the chief of sinners. It is my duty
+and my comfort to direct your blood-stained, but immortal soul, eagerly
+to fly to that only refuge from eternal misery. As to this world, your
+career of wickedness is at an end: covetousness has conceived and
+generated murder; and murder has even over-stept its common bounds, to
+repeat the terrible crime, and then to throw its guilt upon the
+innocent. Entertain no hope whatever of a respite; mercy in your case
+would be sin.
+
+"The sentence of the court is, that you, Simon Jennings, be taken from
+that bar to the county jail, and thence on this day fortnight to be
+conveyed to the place of execution within the prison, and there by the
+hands of the common hangman be hanged by the neck--"
+
+At the word "neck," in the slow and solemn enunciation of the judge,
+issued a terrific scream from the mouth of Simon Jennings: was he mad
+after all--mad indeed? or was he being strangled by some unseen
+executioner? Look at him, convulsively doing battle with an invisible
+foe! his eyes start; his face gets bluer and bluer; his hands, fixed
+like griffin's talons, clutch at vacancy--he wrestles--struggles--falls.
+
+All was now confusion: even the grave judge, who had necessarily stopped
+at that frightful interruption, leaned eagerly over his desk, while
+barristers and serjeants learned in the law crowded round the prisoner:
+"He is dying! air, there--air! a glass of water, some one!"
+
+About a thimbleful of water, after fifty spillings, arrived safely in a
+tumbler; but as for air, no one in that court had breathed any thing but
+nitrogen for four hours.
+
+He was dying: and three several doctors, hoisted over the heads of an
+admiring multitude, rushed to his relief with thirsty lancets:
+apoplexy--oh, of course, apoplexy: and they nodded to each other
+confidentially.
+
+Yes, he was dying: they might not move him now: he must die in his sins,
+at that dread season, upon that dread spot. Perjury, robbery, and
+murder--all had fastened on his soul, and were feeding there like
+harpies at a Strophadian feast, or vultures ravening on the liver of
+Prometheus. Guilt, vengeance, death had got hold of him, and rent him,
+as wild horses tearing him asunder different ways; he lay there
+gurgling, strangling, gasping, panting: none could help him, none could
+give him ease; he was going on the dark, dull path in the bottom of that
+awful valley, where Death's cold shadow overclouds it like a canopy; he
+was sinking in that deep black water, that must some day drown us
+all--pray Heaven, with hope to cheer us then, and comfort in the fierce
+extremity! His eye filmed, his lower jaw relaxed, his head dropped
+back--he was dying--dying--dying--
+
+On a sudden, he rallied! his blood had rushed back again from head to
+heart, and all the doctors were deceived--again he battled, and fought,
+and wrestled, and flung them from him; again he howled, and his eyes
+glared lightning--mad? Yes, mad--stark mad! quick--quick--we cannot hold
+him: save yourselves there!
+
+But he only broke away from them to stand up free--then he gave one
+scream, leaped high into the air, and fell down dead in the dock, with a
+crimson stream of blood issuing from his mouth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+RIGHTEOUS MAMMON.
+
+
+THUS the crock of gold had gained another victim. Is the curse of its
+accumulation still unsatisfied? Must more misery be born of that
+unhallowed store? Shall the poor man's wrongs, and his little ones' cry
+for bread, and the widows' vain appeal for indulgence in necessity, and
+the debtor's useless hope for time--more time--and the master's misused
+bounty, and the murmuring dependants' ever-extorted dues--must the
+frauds, falsehoods, meannesses, and hardnesses of half a century long,
+concentrate in that small crock--must these plead still for bloody
+judgments from on high against all who touch that gold?
+
+No! the miasma is dispelled: the curse is gone: the crimes are expiated.
+The devil in that jar is dispossessed, and with Simon's last gasp has
+returned unto his own place. The murderer is dead, and has thereby laid
+the ghost of his mate in sin, the murdered victim; while that victim has
+long ago paid by blood for her many years of mean domestic pilfering.
+
+And now I see a better angel hovering round the crock: it is purified,
+sanctified, accepted. It is become a talent from the Lord, instead of a
+temptation from the devil; and the same coin, which once has been but
+dull, unrighteous mammon, through justice, thankfulness, and piety,
+shineth as the shekel of the temple. Gratefully, as from God, the
+rightful owner now may take the gift.
+
+For, gold is a creature of God, representing many excellencies: the
+sweat of honest Industry distils to gold; the hot-spring of Genius
+congeals to gold; the blessing upon Faithfulness is often showered in
+gold; and Charities not seldom are guerdoned back with gold. Let no man
+affect to despise what Providence hath set so high in power. None do so
+but the man who has it not, and who knows that he covets it in vain.
+Sour grapes--sour grapes--for he may not touch the vintage. This is not
+the verdict of the wise; the temptation he may fear, the cares he may
+confess, the misuse he may condemn: yet will he acknowledge that,
+received at God's hand, and spent in his service, there is scarce a
+creature in this nether world of higher name than Money.
+
+Beauty fadeth; Health dieth; Talents--yea, and Graces--go to bloom in
+other spheres--but when Benevolence would bless, and bless for ages,
+his blessing is vain, but for money--when Wisdom would teach, and teach
+for ages, the teacher must be fed, and the school built, and the scholar
+helped upon his way by money--righteous money. There is a righteous
+money as there is unrighteous mammon; but both have their ministrations
+here limited to earth and time; the one, a fruit of heaven--the other, a
+fungus from below: yet the fruit will bring no blessing, if the Grower
+be forgotten; neither shall the fungus yield a poison, if warmed awhile
+beneath the better sun. Like all other gifts, given to us sweet, but
+spoilt in the using, gold may turn to good or ill: Health may kick, like
+fat Jeshurun in his wantonness; Power may change from beneficence to
+tyranny; Learning may grow critical in motes until it overlooks the
+sunbeam; Love may be degraded to an instinct; Zaccheus may turn
+Pharisee; Religion may cant into the hypocrite, or dogmatize to
+theologic hate. Even so it is with money: its power of doing good has no
+other equivalent in this world than its power of doing evil: it is like
+fire--used for hospitable warmth, or wide-wasting ravages; like air--the
+gentle zephyr, or the destroying hurricane. Nevertheless, all is for
+this world--this world only; a matter extraneous to the spirit, always
+foreign, often-times adversary: let a man beware of lading himself with
+that thick clay.
+
+I see a cygnet on the broad Pactolus, stemming the waters with its downy
+breast; and anon, it would rise upon the wing, and soar to other skies;
+so, taking down that snow-white sail, it seeks for a moment to rest its
+foot on shore, and thence take flight: alas, poor bird! thou art sinking
+in those golden sands, the heavy morsels clog thy flapping wing--in
+vain--in vain thou triest to rise--Pactolus chains thee down.
+
+Even such is wealth unto the wisest; wealth at its purest source,
+exponent of labour and of mind. But, to the frequent fool, heaped with
+foulest dross--for the cygnet of Pactolus and those golden sands,
+read--the hippopotamus wallowing in the Niger, and smothered in a bay of
+mud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+THE CROCK A BLESSING.
+
+
+THERE was no will found: it is likely Mrs. Quarles had never made one;
+she feared death too much, and all that put her in mind of it. So the
+next of kin, the only one to have the crock of gold, was Susan Scott, a
+good, honest, hard-working woman, whom Jennings, by many arts, had kept
+away from Hurstley: her husband, a poor thatcher, sadly out of work
+except in ricking time, and crippled in both legs by having fallen from
+a hay-stack: and as to the family, it was already as long a flight of
+steps as would reach to an ordinary first floor, with a prospect (so the
+gossips said) of more in the distance. Susan was a Wesleyan
+Methodist--many may think, more the pity: but she neither disliked
+church, nor called it steeple-house: only, forasmuch as Hagglesfield was
+blessed with a sporting parson, the chief reminders of whose presence in
+the parish were strifes perpetual about dues and tithes, it is little
+blame or wonder, if the starving sheep went anywhither else for
+pasturage and water. So, then, Susan was a good mother, a kind
+neighbour, a religious, humble-minded Christian: is it not a comfort now
+to know that the gold was poured into her lap, and that she hallowed her
+good luck by prayers and praises?
+
+I judge it worth while stepping over to Hagglesfield for a couple of
+minutes, to find out how she used that gold, and made the crock a
+blessing. Susan first thought of her debts: so, to every village shop
+around, I fear they were not a few, which had kindly given her credit,
+some for weeks, some for months, and more than one for a year, the happy
+house-wife went to pay in full; and not this only, but with many
+thanks, to press a little present upon each, for well-timed help in her
+adversity.
+
+The next thought was near akin to it: to take out of pawn divers valued
+articles, two or three of which had been her mother's; for Reuben's
+lameness, poor man, kept him much out of work, and the childer came so
+quick, and ate so fast, and wore out such a sight of shoes, that, but
+for an occasional appeal to Mrs. Quarles--it was her one fair feature
+this--they must long ago have been upon the parish: now, however, all
+the ancestral articles were redeemed, and honour no doubt with them.
+
+Thirdly, Susan went to her minister in best bib and tucker, and humbly
+begged leave to give a guinea to the school; and she hoped his reverence
+wouldn't be above accepting a turkey and chine, as a small token of her
+gratitude to him for many consolations: it pleased me much to hear that
+the good man had insisted upon Susan and her husband coming to eat it
+with him the next day at noon.
+
+Fourthly, Susan prudently set to work, and rigged out the whole family
+in tidy clothes, with a touch of mourning upon each for poor Aunt
+Bridget, and unhappy brother Simon; while the fifthly, sixthly, and to
+conclude, were concerned in a world of notable and useful schemes, with
+a strong resolution to save as much as possible for schooling and
+getting out the children.
+
+It was wonderful to see how much good was in that gold, how large a fund
+of blessing was hidden in that crock: Reuben Scott gained health, the
+family were fed, clad, taught; Susan grew in happiness at least as truly
+as in girth; and Hagglesfield beheld the goodness of that store, whose
+curse had startled all Hurstley-cum-Piggesworth.
+
+But also at Hurstley now are found its consequential blessings.
+
+We must take another peep at Roger and sweet Grace; they, and Ben too,
+and Jonathan, and Jonathan's master, may all have cause to thank an
+overruling Providence, for blessing on the score of Bridget's crock.
+Only before I come to that, I wish to be dull a little hereabouts, and
+moralize: the reader may skip it, if he will--but I do not recommend him
+so to do.
+
+For, evermore in the government of God, good groweth out of evil: and,
+whether man note the fact or not, Providence, with secret care, doth
+vindicate itself. There is justice done continually, even on this stage
+of trial, though many pine and murmur: substantial retribution, even in
+this poor dislocated world of wrong, not seldom overtakes the sinner,
+not seldom encourages the saint. Encourages? yea, and punishes: blessing
+him with kind severity; teaching him to know himself a mere bad root, if
+he be not grafted on his God; proving that the laws which govern life
+are just, and wise, and kind; showing him that a man's own heart's
+desire, if fulfilled, would probably tend to nothing short of sin,
+sorrow, and calamity; that many seeming goods are withheld, because they
+are evils in disguise; and many seeming ills allowed, because they are
+masqueraded blessings; and demonstrating, as in this strange tale, that
+the unrighteous Mammon is a cruel master, a foul tempter, a pestilent
+destroyer of all peace, and a teeming source of both world's misery.
+
+Listen to the sayings of the Wisest King of men:
+
+"As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous
+is an everlasting foundation."
+
+"The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his
+stead."
+
+"He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall
+flourish as a branch."
+
+"Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without
+right."
+
+"The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor
+for the upright."
+
+"A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the
+wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+POPULARITY.
+
+
+THE storm is lulled: the billows of temptation have ebbed away
+from shore, and the clouds of adversity have flown to other skies.
+
+"The winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear upon
+the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of
+the turtle is heard in our land: the fig-tree putteth forth his green
+figs, and the blossoms of the vine smell sweetly. Arise, and come away."
+
+Yesterday's trial, and its unlooked-for issue, have raised Roger Acton
+to the rank of hero. The town's excitement is intense: and the little
+inn, where he and Grace had spent the night in gratitude and prayerful
+praise, is besieged by carriages full of lords and gentlemen, eager to
+see and speak with Roger.
+
+Humbly and reverently, yet preserving an air of quiet self-possession,
+the labourer received their courteous kindnesses; and acquitted himself
+of what may well be called the honours of that levee, with a dignity
+native to the true-born Briton, from the time of Caractacus at Rome to
+our own.
+
+But if Roger was a demi-god, Grace was at the least a goddess; she
+charmed all hearts with her modest beauty. Back with the shades of
+night, and the prison-funeral of Jennings, fled envy, hatred, malice,
+and all uncharitableness; the elderly sisterhood of Hurstley, not to be
+out of a fashion set by titled dames, hastened to acknowledge her
+perfections; Calumny was shamed, and hid his face; the uncles, aunts,
+and cousins of the hill-top yonder, were glad to hold their tongues, and
+bite their nails in peace: Farmer Floyd and his Mrs. positively came
+with peace-offerings--some sausage-meat, elder-wine, jam, and other
+dainties, which were to them the choicest sweets of life: and as for
+Jonathan, he never felt so proud of Grace in all his life before; the
+handsome fellow stood at least a couple of inches taller.
+
+Honest Ben Burke, too, that most important witness--whose coming was as
+Blucher's at Waterloo, and secured the well-earned conquest of the
+day--though it must be confessed that his appearance was something of
+the satyr, still had he been Phoebus Apollo in person, he would
+scarcely have excited sincerer admiration. More than one fair creature
+sketched his unkempt head, and loudly wished that its owner was a
+bandit; more than one bright eye discovered beauty in his open
+countenance--though a little soap and water might have made it more
+distinguishable. Well--well--honest Ben--they looked, and wisely looked,
+at the frank and friendly mind hidden under that rough carcase, and
+little wonder that they loved it.
+
+Now, to all this stream of hearty English sympathy, the kind and proper
+feeling of young Sir John resolved to give a right direction. His
+fashionable friends were gone, except Silliphant and Poynter, both good
+fellows in the main, and all the better for the absence (among others)
+of that padded old debauchee, Sir Richard Hunt, knight of the order of
+St. Sapphira--that frivolous inanity, Lord George Pypp--and that
+professed gentleman of gallantry, Mr. Harry Mynton. The follies and the
+vices had decamped--had scummed off, so to speak--leaving the more
+rectified spirits behind them, to recover at leisure, as best they
+might, from all that ferment of dissipation. So, then, there was now
+neither ridicule, nor interest, to stand in the way of a young and
+wealthy heir's well-timed schemes of generosity.
+
+Well-timed they were, and Sir John knew it, though calculation seldom
+had a footing in his warm and heedless heart; but he could not shut his
+eyes to the fact, that the state of feeling among his hereditary
+labourers was any thing but pleasant. In truth, owing to the desperate
+malpractices of Quarles and Jennings, perhaps no property in the kingdom
+had got so ill a name as Hurstley: discontent reigned paramount;
+incendiary fires had more than once occurred; threatening notices, very
+ill-spelt, and signed by one _soi-disant_ Captain Blood, had been
+dropped, in dead of winter, at the door-sills of the principal farmers;
+and all the other fruits of long-continued penury, extortion, and
+mis-government, were hanging ripe upon the bough--a foul and fatal
+harvest.
+
+Therefore, did the kind young landlord, who had come to live among his
+own peasantry, resolve, not more nobly than wisely, to seize an
+opportunity so good as this, for restoring, by a stroke of generous
+policy, peace and content on his domain. No doubt, the baronet rejoiced,
+as well he might, at the honourable acquittal of innocence, and the
+mysteries of murder now cleared up; he made small secret of his
+satisfaction at the doom of Jennings; and, as for Bridget Quarles, by
+all he could learn of her from tenants' wives, and other female
+dependants, he had no mind to wish her back again, or to think her fate
+ill-timed: nevertheless, he was even more glad of an occasion to
+vindicate his own good feelings; and prove to the world that bailiff
+Simon Jennings was a very opposite character to landlord Sir John
+Devereux Vincent.
+
+To carry out his plan, he determined to redress all wrongs within one
+day, and to commence by bringing "honest Roger" in triumph home again to
+Hurstley; following the suggestion of Baron Parker, to make some social
+compensation for his wrongs. With this view, Sir John took counsel of
+the county-town authorities, and it was agreed unanimously, excepting
+only one dissenting vote--a rich and radical Quaker, one Isaac Sneak,
+grocer, and of the body corporate, who refused to lose one day's service
+of his shopmen, and thereby (I rejoice to add) succeeded in getting rid
+of fifteen good annual customers--it was agreed, then, and arranged that
+the morrow should be a public holiday. All Sir John's own tenantry, as
+well as Squire Ryle's, and some of other neighbouring magnates, were to
+have a day's wages without work, on the easy conditions of attending the
+procession in their smartest trim, and of banqueting at Hurstley
+afterwards. So, then, the town-band was ordered to be in attendance next
+morning by eleven at the Swan, a lot of old election colours were shaken
+from their dust and cobwebs, the bell-ringers engaged, vasty
+preparations of ale and beef made at Hurstley Hall--an ox to be roasted
+whole upon the terrace, and a plum-pudding already in the cauldron of
+two good yards in circumference--and all that every body hoped for that
+night, was a fine May-day to-morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+ROGER AT THE SWAN.
+
+
+MEANWHILE, eventide came on: the crowd of kindly gentle-folks
+had gone their several ways; and Roger Acton found himself (through Sir
+John's largess) at free quarters in the parlour of the Swan, with Grace
+by his side, and many of his mates in toil and station round him.
+
+"Grace," said her father on a sudden, "Grace--my dear child--come
+hither." She stood in all her loveliness before him. Then he took her
+hand, looked up at her affectionately, and leaned back in the old oak
+chair.
+
+"Hear me, mates and neighbours; to my own girl, Grace, under God, I owe
+my poor soul's welfare. I have nothing, would I had, to give her in
+return:" and the old man (he looked ten years older for his six weeks,
+luck, and care, and trouble)--the old man could not get on at all with
+what he had to say--something stuck in his throat--but he recovered, and
+added cheerily, with an abrupt and rustic archness, "I don't know,
+mates, whether after all I can't give the good girl something: I can
+give her--away! Come hither, Jonathan Floyd; you are a noble fellow,
+that stood by us in adversity, and are almost worthy of my angel Grace."
+And he joined their hands.
+
+"Give us thy blessing too, dear father!"
+
+They kneeled at his feet on the sanded floor, in the midst of their
+kinsfolk and acquaintance, and he, stretching forth his hands like a
+patriarch, looked piously up to heaven, and blessed them there.
+
+"Grace," he added, "and Jonathan my son, I need not part with you--I
+could not. I have heard great tidings. To-morrow you shall know how kind
+and good Sir John is: God bless him! and send poor England's children of
+the soil many masters like him.
+
+"And now, mates, one last word from Roger Acton; a short word, and a
+simple, that you may not forget it. My sin was love of money: my
+punishment, its possession. Mates, remember Him who sent you to be
+labourers, and love the lot He gives you. Be thankful if His blessing on
+your industry keeps you in regular work and fair wages: ask no more from
+God of this world's good. Believe things kindly of the gentle-folks, for
+many sins are heaped upon their heads, whereof their hearts are
+innocent. Never listen to the counsels of a servant, who takes away his
+master's character: for of such are the poor man's worst oppressors. Be
+satisfied with all your lowliness on earth, and keep your just ambitions
+for another world. Flee strong liquors and ill company. Nurse no heated
+hopes, no will-o'-the-wisp bright wishes: rather let your warmest hopes
+be temperately these--health, work, wages: and as for wishing, mates,
+wish any thing you will--sooner than to find a crock of gold."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+ROGER'S TRIUMPH.
+
+
+THE steeples rang out merrily, full chime; High street was gay with
+streamers; the town-band busily assembling; a host of happy urchins from
+emancipated schools, were shouting in all manner of keys all manner of
+gleeful noises: every body seemed a-stir.
+
+A proud man that day was Roger Acton; not of his deserts--they were
+worse than none, he knew it; not of the procession--no silly child was
+he, to be caught with toy and tinsel; God wot, he was meek enough in
+self--and as for other pride, he knew from old electioneerings, what a
+humbling thing is triumph.
+
+But when he saw from the windows of the Swan, those crowds of new-made
+friends trooping up in holiday suits with flags, and wands, and
+corporation badges--when the band for a commencement struck up the
+heart-stirring hymn 'God save the Queen,'--when the horsemen, and
+carriages, and gigs, and carts assembled--when the baronet's own
+barouche and four, dashing up to the door, had come from Hurstley Hall
+for _him_--when Sir John, the happiest of the happy, alighting with his
+two friends, had displaced them for Roger and Grace, while the kind
+gentlemen took horse, and headed the procession--when Ben Burke (as
+clean as soap could get him, and bedecked in new attire) was ordered to
+sit beside Jonathan in the rumble-tumble--when the cheering, and the
+merry-going bells, and the quick-march 'British Grenadiers,' rapidly
+succeeding the national anthem--when all these tokens of a generous
+sympathy smote upon his ears, his eyes, his heart, Roger Acton wept
+aloud--he wept for very pride and joy: proud and glad was he that day of
+his country, of his countrymen, of his generous landlord, of his gentle
+Grace, of his vindicated innocence, and of God, "who had done so great
+things for him."
+
+So, the happy cavalcade moved on, horse and foot, and carts and
+carriages, through the noisy town, along the thronged high road, down
+the quiet lanes that lead to Hurstley; welcomed at every cottage-door
+with boisterous huzzas, and adding to its ranks at every corner. And so
+they reached the village, where the band struck up,
+
+  "See the conquering hero comes,
+  Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!"
+
+Is not this returning like a nabob, Roger? Hath not God blest thee
+through the crock of gold at last, in spite of sin?
+
+There, at the entrance by the mile-stone, stood Mary and the babes, with
+a knot of friends around her, bright with happiness; on the top of it
+was perched son Tom, waving the blue and silver flag of Hurstley, and
+acting as fugleman to a crowd of uproarious cheerers; and beside it, on
+the bank, sat Sarah Stack, overcome with joy, and sobbing like a
+gladsome Niobe.
+
+And the village bells went merrily; every cottage was gay with spring
+garlands, and each familiar face lit up with looks of kindness; Hark!
+hark!--"Welcome, honest Roger, welcome home again!" they shout: and the
+patereroes on the lawn thunder a salute; "welcome, honest
+neighbour;"--and up went, at bright noon, Tom Stableboy's dozen of
+rockets wrapped around with streamers of glazed calico--"welcome,
+welcome!"
+
+Good Mr. Evans stood at the door of fine old Hurstley, in wig, and band,
+and cassock, to receive back his wandering sheep that had been lost: and
+the school-children, ranged upon the steps, thrillingly sang out the
+beautiful chant, "I will arise, and go to my Father, and will say unto
+Him, 'Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee, and am no
+more worthy to be called thy son!'"
+
+Every head was uncovered, and every cheek ran down with tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+SIR JOHN'S PARTING SPEECH.
+
+
+THEN Sir John, standing up in the barouche at his own
+hall-door, addressed the assembled multitude:
+
+"Friends, we are gathered here to-day, in the cause of common justice
+and brotherly kindness. There are many of you whom I see around me, my
+tenants, neighbours, or dependants, who have met with wrongs and
+extortions heretofore, but you all shall be righted in your turn; trust
+me, men, the old hard times are gone, your landlord lives among you, and
+his first care shall be to redress your many grievances, paying back the
+gains of your oppressor."
+
+"God bless you, sir, God bless you!" was the echo from many a gladdened
+heart.
+
+"But before I hear your several claims in turn, which shall be done
+to-morrow, our chief duty this day is to recompense an honest man for
+all that he has innocently suffered. It is five-and-thirty years, as I
+find by my books, on this very first of May, since Roger Acton first
+began to work at Hurstley; till within this now past evil month, he has
+always been the honest steady fellow that you knew him from his youth:
+what say you, men, to having as a bailiff one of yourselves; a kind and
+humble man, a good man, the best hand in the parish in all the works of
+your vocation--a steady mind, an honest heart--what say ye all to Roger
+Acton?"
+
+There was a whirlwind of tumultuous applause.
+
+"Moreover, men, though you all, each according to his measure and my
+means, shall meet with liberal justice for your lesser ills, yet we must
+all remember that Bailiff Acton here had nearly died a felon's death,
+through that bad man Jennings and the unlucky crock of gold; in
+addition, extortion has gone greater lengths with him, than with any
+other on the property; I find that for the last twenty years, Roger
+Acton has regularly paid to that monster of oppression who is now dead,
+a double rent--four guineas instead of forty shillings. I desire, as a
+good master, to make amends for the crimes of my wicked servant;
+therefore in this bag, Bailiff Acton, is returned to you all the rent
+you ever paid;" [Roger could not speak for tears;]--"and your cottage
+repaired and fitted, with an acre round it, is yours and your
+children's, rent-free for ever."
+
+"Huzzah, huzzah!" roared Ben from the dickey, in a gush of disinterested
+joy; and then, like an experienced toast-master, he marshalled in due
+hip, hip, hip order, the shouts of acclamation that rent the air. In an
+interval of silence, Sir John added,
+
+"As for you, good-hearted fellow, if you will only mend your speech,
+I'll make you one of my keepers; you shall call yourself licensed
+poacher, if you choose."
+
+"Blessings on your honour! you've made an honest man o' me."
+
+"And now, Jonathan Floyd, I have one word to say to you, sir. I hear you
+are to marry our Roger's pretty Grace." Jonathan appeared like a sheep
+in livery.
+
+"You must quit my service." Jonathan was quite alarmed. "Do you suppose,
+Master Jonathan, that I can house at Hurstley, before a Lady Vincent
+comes amongst us to keep the gossips quiet, such a charming little wife
+as that, and all her ruddy children?"
+
+It was Grace's turn to feel confused, so she "looked like a rose in
+June," and blushed all over, as Charles Lamb's Astraea did, down to the
+ankle.
+
+"Yes, Jonathan, you and I must part, but we part good friends: you have
+been a noble lover: may you make the girl a good and happy husband!
+Jennings has been robbing me and those about me for years: it is
+impossible to separate specially my rights from his extortions: but all,
+as I have said, shall be satisfied: meanwhile, his hoards are mine. I
+appropriate one half of them for other claimants; the remaining half I
+give to Grace Floyd as dower. Don't be a fool, Jonathan, and blubber;
+look to your Grace there, she's fainting--you can set up landlord for
+yourself, do you hear?--for I make yours honestly, as much as Roger
+found in his now lucky Crock of Gold."
+
+Poor Roger, quite unmanned, could only wave his hat, and--the curtain
+falls amid thunders of applause.
+
+[Footnote A: It has been stated as a fact, that a certain Lady L----
+S----, in her last interview with a young man, condemned to death for
+the brutal murder of his sweetheart, presented him with a white
+camellia, as a token of eternal peace, which the gallant gentleman
+actually wore at the gallows in his button-hole.]
+
+
+
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