diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37170-0.txt | 4677 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37170-h/37170-h.htm | 4783 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37170-8.txt | 5067 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37170-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 110659 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37170-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 113132 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37170-h/37170-h.htm | 5190 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37170.txt | 5067 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37170.zip | bin | 0 -> 110616 bytes |
11 files changed, 24800 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37170-0.txt b/37170-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcd4ed2 --- /dev/null +++ b/37170-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4677 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 37170 *** + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + +A Romance of Real Life. + +IN TWO VOLUMES. + +VOL. I. + +LONDON: + +SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, + +14, LUDGATE HILL. + +1864. + + + + + + The uncommon favour with which the story of "LOST SIR + MASSINGBERD" has been received while appearing in the + columns of a popular periodical, has induced its author to + solicit the suffrages of that more critical Public who "hate + to read novels bit by bit." + + +CONTENTS. + + + PREFATORY + + CHAPTER I. GIANT DESPAIR + CHAPTER II. MY FIRST INTERVIEW + CHAPTER III. THE DREAM BY THE BROOK + CHAPTER IV. THE DUMB WITNESS + CHAPTER V. THE STATE BEDROOM + CHAPTER VI. HEAD OVER HEELS + CHAPTER VII. AT THE DOVECOT + CHAPTER VIII. MEETING HIS MATCH + CHAPTER IX. MR. HARVEY GERARD + CHAPTER X. LOVE THE LIFEGIVER + CHAPTER XI. WOOING BY PROXY + CHAPTER XII. THE COUNCIL OF WAR + CHAPTER XIII. THE GIPSY CAMP + CHAPTER XIV. WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY + CHAPTER XV. THE REASON CONTINUED + CHAPTER XVI. I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR + + + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + + + + +PREFATORY. + + +In these days, when every man and woman becomes an author upon the least +provocation, it is not necessary to make an apology for appearing in +print. Perhaps there was always something affected in those prefatorial +justifications; although they did disclaim any literary merit, it is +probable that the writers would have been indignant enough had the +critics taken them at their word; and perhaps the publication was not +entirely owing to "the warmly-expressed wishes of numerous friends." +But, at all events, we have done with all such excuses now. Not to have +written anything for the press, is no small claim to being an Original. +Neither sex nor age seems to exempt from the universal passion of +authorship. My niece, Jessie (<i>ætat.</i> sixteen), writes heart-rending +narratives for the "Liliputian Magazine;" her brother, whom I have +always looked upon as a violent, healthy hobbledehoy whose highest +virtue was Endurance, and whose darkest experience was Skittles, +produces the most thrilling romances for the "Home Companion." Even my +housekeeper makes no secret of forwarding her most admired recipes to +the "Family Intelligencer;" while my stable-boy, it is well known, is a +prominent poetical contributor to the "Turf Times," having also the gift +of prophecy with reference to the winner of all the racing events of any +importance. And yet, I believe, my household is not more addicted to +publication than those of my neighbours. + +What becomes of authors by profession in such a state of things literary +as this, I shudder to think; I feel it almost a sin to add one more to +the long list of competitors with whom they have to struggle; but still, +if I do not now set down the story which I have in my mind, I am certain +that, sooner or later, my nephew will do so for me, and very likely +spoil it in the telling. He writes in a snappy, jerky, pyrotechnic way, +which they tell me is now popular, but which is not suited to my +old-fashioned taste; and although he dare not make, at present, what he +calls "copy" of the stories with which I am perhaps too much accustomed +to regale his ears, he keeps a note-book, and a new terror is added to +Death from that circumstance. When I am gone, he will publish my best +things, under some such title as "After-dinner Tales," I feel certain; +and they will appear at the railway book-stalls in a yellow cover +bordered with red, or with even a frontispiece displaying a counterfeit +and libellous presentment of his departed relative in the very act of +narration. The gem of that collection would undoubtedly be the story +which I am now about to anticipate the young gentleman by relating +myself. If I am somewhat old-world in my style, perhaps it may be +forgiven me, in consideration of the reality of the circumstances +narrated, and the very strong interest which I do not doubt they will +arouse. + +It is not necessary to state the exact locality where they occurred, nor +the number of years which have elapsed since their occurrence; it is +enough to premise that what I tell is true, and that some of the +principal personages in the--well, the melodrama, if you will--are yet +alive, and will peruse these words before they meet the public eye. If +nothing therein offends <i>them</i>, therefore, it need not, upon the score +of indiscreet revelation at least, offend my readers. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GIANT DESPAIR. + + +In a midland county, not as yet scarred by factories, there stands a +village called Fairburn, which, at the time I knew it first--many, many +years ago--had for its squire, its lord, its despot, one Sir Massingberd +Heath. Its rector, at that date, was the Rev. Matthew Long; and at the +Rectory, when my story commences, there was in pupilage to the said +rector a youth, one Peter Meredith, who has since grown up to be the +present writer. When we are small, all things seem vast to our young +minds; good men are saints, and evil ones are demons. I loved Mr. Long, +therefore, although he was my tutor; and oh, how I feared and hated Sir +Massingberd! It was not, however, my boyhood alone that caused me to +hold this man as a monster of iniquity; it was the opinion which the +whole county entertained of him, more or less. The people of Fairburn +trembled before him, as a ship's company before some cruel captain of +fifteen years back--I mean, of fifteen years before the period of which +I write. Press-gangs had not very long ceased to do their cruel mission; +there were old men in our village who had served their time in His +Majesty's ships, very much against their will; there were gaps in poor +families still, which might or might not be filled up; empty chairs that +had so stood for a score of years perhaps, waiting for still expected +occupiers; fathers of families, or the props of families, in sons and +brothers, had been spirited away from Fairburn (even a little while +ago), and had not come back again yet. They had been poachers, or +radicals, or sectaries (as Dissenters were then called), or something +else distasteful to Sir Massingberd's father; and they had been carried +off to sea at his command. Let not my young readers imagine that I am +exaggerating matters; I write of a state of things of which they have +not the remotest conception, but which I remember perfectly well. They +have reason to thank Heaven that they did not live in those times, if +they happen to belong to those unprosperous classes which were then +termed collectively, "the mob;" there were no such things as "skilled +workmen," or "respectable artisans," in those days. The "people" were +"the Great Unwashed." To build a Crystal Palace for such as they were +held to be, would have seemed to be the height of folly; they would have +taken no other pleasure in it than to smash every pane with +brickbats--for were they not "the dangerous classes"? Such opinions were +beginning to die out, indeed, but they were held still by many great +people, and Sir Massingberd Heath was one of them. Reared in a +clergyman's family, and a clergyman myself, I have been a Conservative +in politics all my life, and in that belief I shall die; but rank and +power are no excuse with me for evil deeds. In the chamber of my nephew +John, who "takes in everything," as the phrase goes, I once discovered a +democratic magazine, edited by a gentleman whose surname I forget, but +who had a great multitude of initials. All the poor people described in +this work were pious and moral, and all the rich people were infidel and +profligate; but for the noblemen--and there were a good many persons of +high rank in the various stories--were reserved all the choicest +invectives and most superlative abuse. Nothing, of course, can be more +unfair than this treatment of a class of persons who, considering their +temptations, are really more than respectable. As a general rule, the +portraits were extravagantly malicious, but they had this attraction for +me--they were all exceedingly like Sir Massingberd Heath. He was the +very type of that bloated aristocracy that is held up in scarecrow +fashion, by republican writers. There were not many living specimens to +be met with even at the date of my tale, and the old baronet, perhaps +himself perceiving that he was one of the last of them, determined that +he should not be the least in infamy. Like the Unjust Judge, he neither +feared God nor regarded man, and, worse than he, he would not perform a +good action on account of the importunity of any person. She must have +been a brave woman who importuned Sir Massingberd Heath, and could +scarcely have been brought up in Fairburn. + +Whether George IV. was king or not, at the period of which I write, it +matters not, for his connection with our squire had terminated years +before; but at one time they had been fast, very fast friends. When a +king and a baronet run a race of extravagance, the king generally wins, +and so it had been in this case; His Majesty, or rather His Royal +Highness the Regent, had <i>distanced</i> Sir Massingberd, and they were not +now upon even speaking terms. Friendships of this sort do not last when +one of the parties has spent all his money. What was the use of a poor +man at White's who could only look on while his old friends played whist +for one hundred pound points, and five hundred pounds upon the rubber? +What business--let alone pleasure--could one have in London, when +Howard and Gribbs would not lend one fifty pounds even at fifty per +cent.? Sir Massingberd had left that gay, wicked world for good, that is +to say, for ever, and was obliged to live at his beautiful country-seat +in spite of himself. He was irretrievably ruined, so far as his court +prospects were concerned, for he had no ready money. He owned all +Fairburn, and many hundreds of rich acres about it, beside the Park and +the river; he had the great tithes of the place, and manorial rights +(which he exercised, too) innumerable. Nobody quite knew--he did not +know himself--what privileges he had or had not, what pathways he could +close at pleasure, what heriots he could demand, or what precise +property he had in Fairburn gravel-pits; but in all cases he gave +himself the benefit of the doubt. It was a very foolish thing to leave +any disputed point to the sense of justice, or the good feeling of our +squire, and yet this was generally done. Where it was not done, where +some honest fellow had ventured to oppose his high prerogative, even +though he gained his end, he was always, as the village people said, +"paid out" for it. I don't mean to say Sir Massingberd murdered +him--although he would have done that, I am confident, without the +slightest scruple, if it could have been effected with safety to +himself--but he took his revenge of him, sooner or later, in a very +simple way. He caught his children trespassing--having caused them to be +enticed upon his land--and committed them to prison; or he broke down +his fences, and spoiled his corn in the night; for he had dependents +devoted to his wicked will, and upon whose false witness he could always +rely. + +And yet, with all this power, the baronet, as I have said, was a poor +man; he had borrowed all the money he could, and was even said to have +overreached the London Jews in these transactions; and it was all +gone--absolutely all. It was seldom that this great lord of acres had a +ten-pound note in his pocket, for his house and land were all entailed +upon his nephew Marmaduke, and he had only a life-interest in anything. +Poverty perhaps made him bitterer and more savage than he would +otherwise have been; but, for my part, I cannot imagine him to have been +agreeable under any circumstances. I have heard, however, that at +Carlton House he was once the first favourite--after Brummell--and that, +of course, made him sought after by many people. He had a wicked wit, +which was doubtless acceptable in some circles, and his tongue, it may +be, was not quite so coarse in those days of prosperity. He took a +delight in his old age in retailing his infamous experiences, before +women, if possible, and if not, before clergymen or boys. I remember to +have heard of Mr. Long once venturing to reprove his squire upon an +occasion of this very kind. The rector had been dining at the Hall--an +exceptional occurrence, and under exceptional circumstances--when, after +dinner, the host began one of his disgraceful reminiscences, whereupon +my tutor rose and said, "Sir Massingberd, you should be ashamed to talk +of such matters to me; but before this boy, it is infamous. I thank you +for your hospitality; but I shall go home." + +"Very well; go, and be hanged!" replied the baronet; "and Marmaduke and +I will make a jolly night of it." + +Marmaduke Heath was Mr. Long's pupil as well as myself, and he resided +with his uncle at the Hall. He would very much rather have retired with +his tutor on that occasion, and indeed have resided at the Rectory, for +he dreaded his relative beyond measure. All the pretended frankness with +which the old man sometimes treated the boy was unable to hide the hate +with which Sir Massingberd really regarded him; but for this +heir-presumptive to the entail, this milk-and-water lad of seventeen, +the baronet might raise money to any extent, nay, sell all Fairburn, if +he chose, and so might once more take his rightful station in the world, +rejoin the Four-in-hand Club, and demand his "revenge" from my Lord +Thanet at écarté. He could still drink, for the cellars of Fairburn Hall +were well-nigh inexhaustible; but if that chit of a lad was but carried +off, he might have the best in the land to drink with him. It is true +that a ruined man in Sir Massingberd's position can still afford a good +table; game is plentiful with him, and fish, and he grows his own +mutton and venison, so that neither himself nor his friends need starve; +but servants must be maintained to wait upon these, and a great +country-house without a carriage is as a lobster without a claw. +Consequently, except in the shooting-season, there were no guests at +Fairburn Hall; the folks that did come were men of a certain stamp; +current indeed, in good society, but only in that of males; a real lady +had not set foot in the Park, far less the house, for the last twelve +years; the manner in which Sir Massingberd lived forbade such a thing. A +few bachelors of the County Hunt, and half-a-dozen roués from town, were +all the company that could be enticed to Fairburn in September and +October; all the rest of the year, the grass grew in the avenue +untouched by wheel or hoof, and even sprang up among the stone steps +that led to the front-door. Somehow or other, I never saw it thus +without thinking of the parable of the Sower and the Seed, with some +distant and uncharitable reference to our squire! I wondered whether it +was possible that in any far-back time any good seed of any sort had +found its way into the crannies of his stony heart, and if so, what had +become of it. I used to try and picture that violent wicked man as a +child in his cot, or saying his prayers at his mother's knee. I believe +she had died soon after her marriage, and that, short as her wedded life +had been, it was a very unhappy one. + +Fairburn Hall had never been a house for tender, honest women; the +Heaths, who are celebrated like another noble race of the same sort, for +their hard hearts and excellent digestions, had never been good +husbands. Fortunately, daughters were rare in the family. How Sir +Massingberd would have brought up a daughter, I shudder to think. One +son had been the sole offspring vouchsafed to the baronets of this line +for many generations, except the last; and in the present case, there +was no such direct heir. Some said Sir Massingberd had married secretly, +but was separated from his wife, and some said he had not; but it seemed +somehow certain that with him the immediate succession from father to +son would cease. His brother Gilbert had married young in Italy, and had +died in that country within the same year. His widow had brought his +posthumous child, when a few months old, to the Hall, at the invitation +of Sir Massingberd, and had remained there for some time. The villagers +still spoke of the dark foreign lady as being the most beautiful +creature they had ever beheld; the Park keepers used to come upon her +in solitary glades, singing sweetly; but ah! so sorrowfully, to her +child in a tongue that they did not understand. The baronet himself was +absent, not yet cast out of the court whirlpool, and the lonely vastness +of the place was not displeasing to the young widow, wishing, perhaps, +to be left undisturbed with her grief; but after Sir Massingberd came +down, she remained but a very few days. It was said that she fled with +her babe in a winter's night, and that her little footprints were traced +in the snow to the cross-roads where the mail went by, by which she had +arrived. She was not rich, and had come down in a manner quite different +from that of her brother-in-law, who, broken and ruined though he was, +had posted with four horses. That was how all gentlefolks of the county +travelled in those days; even the very barristers on circuit indulged, +and were obliged to do so, in a chaise and a pair. The mother of +Marmaduke Heath, however, who was heir-presumptive to the largest landed +property in Midshire, was very poor. Whether the late baronet had +omitted to make a proper provision for his younger son, or whether +Gilbert had made away with it after the usual manner of the Heaths, I do +not know; but his widow and child betook themselves into +Devonshire--selected, perhaps, from its climate approaching nearer than +any other part of England to that of her native land--and, there lived +in a very humble fashion. How Marmaduke ever got into his uncle's hands, +I never could clearly understand; his mother had died suddenly, +whereupon the family lawyer, Mr. Clint of Russell Square, who had the +entire management of the Heath property, had in the first instance +taken possession of the lad; but Sir Massingberd had claimed his right +to be the guardian of his nephew, and it could not be disallowed. + +Such were mainly the circumstances, I believe; but all sorts of stories +were in circulation concerning "Giant Despair," as the savage old +baronet was called, and his nephew; the general opinion agreeing only +upon one point--that no sane person would change places with Master +Marmaduke Heath at Doubting Castle, notwithstanding the greatness of his +expectations. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MY FIRST INTERVIEW. + + +My own history has little or nothing to do with the present narrative, +and therefore I will not allude to it, except where it is absolutely +necessary. Suffice it to say, that my parents were in India, and that +for many years Fairburn Rectory was my home. I had no vacations, in the +sense that the word is generally understood to mean; I had nowhere else +to go to, nor did I wish to go anywhere. No father could have been +kinder, or have done his duty better by me, than did Mr. Long. How poor +Marmaduke used to envy me my wardship to that good man! I well remember +the first day I came to Fairburn. It was early summer; its great woods +were in all their glory; and to me, fresh from shipboard and the vast +waste of sea, the place seemed a bower of bliss. First, the grey old +church tower upon the hill; and then the turrets of the Hall, +half-hidden in oak; and last, the low-roofed, blossom-entangled cottage +where I found so bright a welcome--that was the order in which Fairburn +was introduced to visitors from town. The Church, and the Hall, and the +Rectory all lay together; the churchyard, dark with yews, encroached +upon the Rectory garden; and that bright spot, so trimly kept, that one +was moved to pick up a fallen leaf, if such were on its lawn, sloped +down into the heart of the Park. A light iron railing, with wires to +prevent the hares and rabbits from entering in and nibbling the flowers, +alone divided the great man's land from Mr. Long's trim demesne. The +deer came up and pushed their velvet horns against it. In copse and +fern, twinkled the innumerable ear and tail. I had never seen such +animals before, and they delighted me hugely. After dinner, on the very +day that I arrived, I fed them through the rails, and they ate the bread +from my open hand. + +"They take you for Marmaduke," said Mr. Long, smiling; "for otherwise, +they would be shy of a stranger." + +"And who is Marmaduke, sir?" + +"He is your fellow pupil, and I make no doubt will be your friend. I +wish that he was resident with me, like yourself; but his uncle, who +lives at the Hall yonder, will not part with him. He reads with me +morning and afternoon, however." + +"Does he like reading, sir?" inquired I with hesitation, for I for my +part did not. My education, such as it was, had been fitful incomplete, +and in a word, Indian; and I had come back much older than most European +boys have to come home, a sad dunce. + +"Yes, Marmaduke is very fond of reading," pursued my tutor; "that is, +reading of a certain sort. He always does his work well with me, so I +must not be hard on him; but he is certainly too fond of novels. And +yonder he comes, see, with a book in his hand, even as he walks." My +tutor pointed to the Park; and there, coming slowly down a long, broad +"ride," with his eyes fixed upon a volume he held in his hand, was a +youth of seventeen years old or so, which was about my own age. As he +came nearer, I began to see why the deer had mistaken me for him; not, +indeed, because he was very handsome (which was not at all the case with +me), but inasmuch as his complexion was as olive as my own. + +"Why, he has been to India too!" whispered I to my tutor, rather +disappointed than otherwise, for I had had enough of Indian playmates, +and to spare. + +"No," returned he in the same low voice; "his mother was an Italian." + +Then he introduced us; and I began to hang my head, and play with the +buttons of my waistcoat, as is the graceful manner of hobbledehoys upon +such a ceremony; but Marmaduke, completely self-possessed, asked about +my journey, and particularly what I had seen at sea. He knew so much +about sharks and porpoises, that I thought he must have made some long +voyage himself; but he told me that such was not the case. + +"Though I should like to go to sea of all things," said he; "and I would +cruise about that cape--what's its name?--until I met with the "Flying +Dutchman:" that is the vessel which I wish to see." + +"I have never heard of her," said I, proud of that nautical use of the +feminine. "Is she one of the Company's ships?" + +At this my tutor began to rub his hands, and chuckle inwardly, as was +his wont when vastly amused; but perceiving that the colour came into my +cheeks, he laid his hand upon my shoulder kindly, and said that he was +glad to find <i>my</i> head, at least, was not stuck full of foolish stories, +as some people's heads were; while Marmaduke, without triumphing in the +least over my ignorance, explained to me all about that Phantom Ship, +which glides full sail upon the astonished voyager, and passes through +his vessel without shock or noise. He told the tale exactly as if he had +heard it straight from the lips of an eye-witness, and believed it +himself; he never laughed, and if he smiled, he seemed to be sorry that +he had done so directly afterwards. Some melancholy thought appeared to +occupy his mind at all times; and if a bright fancy crossed it, it was +but for an instant, like lightning through the cloud. I am not +describing an "interesting" youth, after the manner of romance-writers; +no "secret sorrow" obscured the young existence of Marmaduke Heath, but +simply, as I subsequently discovered, vulgar, abject terror. His whole +being was oppressed by reason of one man. The shadow of Sir Massingberd +cast itself over him alike when he went out from his hated presence and +when he was about to return to it. He was never free from its nightmare +influence--never. His passion for reading was not so much a love of +books, as a desire to escape in them from the circumstances of his +actual life. If he ever forgot him in earnest talk--and he was the most +earnest talker, as a boy, I ever knew--the mention of his uncle's name +was a Medusa's Head to turn him into stony silence on the instant. If +Marmaduke Heath could only have got away from Fairburn Hall when I first +knew him, his mind might have regained its natural vigour and +elasticity; but as it was, it grew more sombre and morbid every day. His +hungry intellect was nourished upon what associations happened to be at +hand, and they were very unhealthy food. The wickedness of Sir +Massingberd was, of course, sufficiently present to him, like some +hateful picture hung at a bed's foot, which the eyes of a sleepless man +cannot avoid; while every tongue about the Hall was ready to tell him of +the evil deeds of his forefathers. At first, I thought my young friend's +constant allusion to his family was the result of aristocratic pride, +although, indeed, there was nothing to be proud of in what he told me, +but very much the reverse; but I soon found that this was not the case. +The history of the Heaths was what interested him most of all histories, +and he favoured me with extracts from it solely upon that account. As +for the fact of their noble blood running in his own veins, he would, I +am confident, have far rather been the son of Mrs. Myrtle, the kind old +housekeeper at the Rectory. + +"We are a doomed race, Peter," he once said to me, not long after we had +made friendship with one another. "Generation after generation of us +have sinned and sinned. The Corsicans have their family feuds +transmitted to them, but they are hostile only to their fellow men; the +Heaths have ever fought against Heaven itself. Each successor to the +title seems to have said, like the descendants of Tubal Cain-- + + 'We will not hear, we will not know, + The God that was our father's foe.' + +There is the Church," said he, pointing to that glorious pile, which, at +Fairburn, was almost a cathedral in magnitude and beauty, "and there is +the Hall. They are antagonistic; they are devoted to opposite purposes. +I tell you, yes; our family residence is consecrated to the devil." + +I am afraid I could not help laughing at this singular notion. + +"Nay," cried he, looking round him furtively, "but you shall see that it +is so." We were in the Rectory garden, which communicated with the +churchyard by a wicket. He led the way into it; and in a distant corner, +upon the north side of the chancel, he showed me a sombre +burying-ground, separated from the rest of the God's acre, and +imprisoned in dark purgatorial rails. "Do you know why we are all put +there," asked he, "instead of with the other--Christian--folks?" + +"You are too proud to lie with the poor, perhaps," returned I, who had +still that idea in my mind with regard to Marmaduke himself. + +"No," said he; "it is not that--it is because the Heaths will not be +buried in consecrated ground." + +"But you have a family vault underneath the chancel, have you not?" + +"Yes; but it is not 'snug lying.' None of us have been put there since +old Sir Hugh, in Queen Anne's time. When they opened the vault for him, +they found his father's coffin with its plate to the ground. It had +turned over. The witty parson would have it that it was only natural +that it should have done so, since its tenant, during life, had fought +alternately for Parliament and King, and was addicted to changing +sides. Bat when Sir Hugh's successor demanded lodging in the place in +his turn, they found Sir Hugh's coffin had turned over likewise. The +circumstance so terrified the dead man's heir--who had not been on the +best terms with him during life, and perhaps thought he owed him some +amends--that he swore his father should not lie in such restless +company; and as the late baronet had been at feud with the then rector, +he determined to dispense with any assistance from the church at all, +and buried him in an adjoining field, which was subsequently made the +last resting-place of all our race, as you perceive. The burial service +is dispensed with, of course. It would be mere mockery to address such +words as Hope and Faith to the corpse of a Heath of Fairburn." + +"My dear Marmaduke," said I, "you make my very blood run cold. But +surely you exaggerate these things. Some of your people have been +Catholics, and been buried in their own chapel at the Hall, have they +not?" + +"Only one of them," replied the boy with bitterness. "My +great-grandfather, Sir Nicholas, abjured his infidelity, and became a +papist, in order to secure his bride. He turned the chapel into a +banqueting-hall, however, and used the sacramental plate in his unholy +revels; but after death, the priests got hold of him at last, and 'Nick +the Younger,' as he was called, now lies under the altar which he so +often profaned. The beginning of his funeral ceremonies was not +conducted so decently as the last rites. He had got outlawed, I believe, +or, at all events, was driven abroad in his latter days, and died there. +Nobody at Fairburn had heard of him for many months, when one October +night, as Oliver Bradford, who is now the head-keeper, but was then a +very young man, was watching in the home-preserves, he heard a terrible +noise in the high-road, and making his way out, came upon this +spectacle: two men in black, and upon black horses, rode by him at full +speed, and close behind them came a hearse-and-four, likewise at the +gallop. The plumes upon it waved backwards, he says, like corn, and all +the black trappings of the thing fluttered and flapped as it went by. +Another man on horseback, singing to himself a drunken song, closed this +horrid procession. It moved up towards the village, and Oliver listened +to it until the noise seemed to cease about opposite to the Park gates. +The solitary witness, frightened enough before, was now doubly +terrified, for he made sure that what he had seen was the news of Sir +Nicholas's decease, brought over in this ghastly and characteristic +fashion. He did not for a single moment imagine that it was a palpable +vision; and yet he had seen a veritable funeral pass by. The old baronet +had died in France, leaving directions, and the money to carry them out, +that his corpse should be taken at night, and at full gallop, through +every town that lay between Dover and Fairburn.--Alive or dead," added +Marmaduke grimly, "the Heaths are a charming family." + +"At all events, my dear fellow," said I, laying my hand upon his arm, +"you will have nothing to fear from comparison with your forefathers. +You may make a good reputation at a cheap price.[1] A very little +virtue will go a great way with the next tenant of Fairburn Hall, if +half the tales we hear be true." + +"And what tales are those?" inquired a deep, low voice at my very elbow. + +I believe I jumped a foot or two in the air myself, so great was my +alarm. But as far my companion, if those grass-grown tombs which we were +contemplating had given up their wicked skeletons before his eyes, he +could not have exhibited a greater excess of terror. + +Beside me stood a man of Herculean proportions, who by his dress might +have been taken for an under-gamekeeper, but for a very massive gold +chain which hung from the top button-hole of his waistcoat down to its +deep-flapped pocket. What is now, I believe, called an "Albert guard," +resembles it on a smaller scale; but at the time I speak of, such an +ornament was altogether unique. His face, too, evidently belonged to one +who was used to command. On the forehead was a curious indented curve +like the letter U, while his lip curled contemptuously upwards also, in +somewhat the same shape. The two together gave him a weird and indeed a +demoniacal look, which his white beard, although long and flowing, had +not enough of dignity to do away with. I had never heard Sir +Massingberd's personal appearance described; but even if I had not had +before me his shrinking nephew, I should have recognized at once the +features of Giant Despair. + +"And what tales are those which are told against the present tenant of +Fairburn Hall?" reiterated the baronet, scanning me from head to foot +with his cold glittering eyes. "And who is this young gentleman who +comes to listen to them from the lips of my loving ward?" + +"Sir," said I, "your nephew was saying nothing whatever against you, I +do assure you. I was merely referring to the gossip of the village, +which, indeed, does not make you out to be entirely a saint." I was +angry at having been frightened by this man, who, after all, could not +hurt <i>me</i>. I had been accustomed, too, to Indian life; which, without +making one bolder than other people, indisposes one to submit to +dictation, which is only the duty of the natives. + +Sir Massingberd reached forth one iron finger, and rocked me with it to +and fro, though I stood as firm as I could. "Take care, young gentleman, +take care," said he; "that spirit of yours will not do down at Fairburn. +Mr. Long does not seem to have taught you humility, I think. Marmaduke, +go home." He spoke these last words exactly as a man speaks to his dog +who has injudiciously followed him to church on Sunday, in the hope that +he was bent on partridge shooting. + +The boy instantly obeyed. He shrank away, passing as closely to the +churchyard railing as he could, as though he almost feared a blow from +his uncle. + +"There is humility, there is docility!" sneered the baronet, looking +after him. "And if I had <i>you</i> up at the Hall, my young bantam, for four +and twenty hours or so, I'd make you docile too." He strode away with a +laugh like the creaking of an iron hinge, for he saw that I did not dare +to answer him. He strode away over the humble graves, setting his foot +deep into their daisied mounds as though in scorn; and his laugh echoed +again and again from the sepulchral walls, for it was joy to Sir +Massingberd Heath to know that he was feared. + + +[1] I am told by an able friend, who is good enough to revise for me +this manuscript, that it is not likely that a mere boy, as I then was, +would have made such an observation as the above. I do not doubt that +this remark is altogether just; but I am afraid it will apply to so much +else in this narrative, that it is scarcely worth while to make an +alteration. I am not used to literary composition; I cannot weigh +whether this or that is characteristic of a speaker. I am merely a +garrulous person, who has, however, such a striking story to tell, that +I trust the matter will atone for the manner. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DREAM BY THE BROOK. + + +Although my story must needs be sombre wherever it has to do with that +person whose name it bears, yet I hope there will be found some sunny +spots in it. During the first few months after my arrival at Fairburn, +there was nothing to sadden life there that I knew of. I passed my days +under green leaves, and not only in a metaphorical sense; for every fine +afternoon, immediately after study was over, I betook myself to the +Park. The whole place was watched as zealously, even in summer, as the +gardens of the Hesperides, but Mr. Long had obtained permission for me +to roam at large therein. To me, vexed from childhood by Indian suns, +Fairburn Chase--as that part of the demesne most remote from the Hall +was called--was far more delightful than it could have been to any mere +English boy. Its stately avenues of oaks, tapering into infinite +distance, with their checker work of beam and shade, was the realization +of my dreams of forest beauty. Nor was its delicious coolness marred by +the broad strips of sunlight, at long but equal distances, like the +golden stairs of the Angels' Ladder; for those, I knew, marked the +interlacing of "the Rides", themselves as fair, and leading, not as the +avenue did, to the outer world, but into secret bowers known only to the +deer and me. + +When Marmaduke was not with me, which often enough happened, poor +fellow, and particularly after that unfortunate meeting with his uncle +in the churchyard--the whole Chase seemed abandoned to myself. I dare +say it was not really so, and that if I had not been a privileged person +I should soon have found out my mistake, but for days and days I never +saw any human being there. Now and then the figure of a gamekeeper, +dwarfed by distance, would make its appearance for a moment, to be lost +the next in some leafy glade. But the sense of solitude was thereby +rather increased than otherwise, just as the poet tells us in a case +where the ear and not the eye was concerned, "the busy woodpecker <i>made +stiller</i> by his sound the inviolable quietness." Lying couched in fern, +in that lordly pleasure-place, I have myself entertained some poetic +thoughts, although they never found expression. Even now, as I shut my +eyes, I make an inward picture of some such resting-place; nothing to be +seen but the long green feathery stems which the summer air just stirs +about my brow, and the broad branches of the oak that stretch themselves +motionless between me and the sun; nothing to be heard but the coo of +the ring-dove, and the swift stealthy bite of the dappled deer. Nor did +Fairburn Chase lack water to complete its beauty. In front of the Hall +itself moved a broad slow stream, which presently slid rather than fell +down ledges of mossy stone into a wilderness of trees and shrubs, +through which it wandered on like one who has lost his way, but singing +blithely nevertheless. Another stream, which was my favourite, burst +spring-like from the very heart of the Chase, having been artificially +conveyed beneath the avenue, and ran quite a little river, and at a +great rate, to form the island where the herons lived; after which, as +though it had done its work, it went its way tranquilly enough: If it +had nothing to boast of but the heronry it might have been a proud +little brook, for never did colony of those solemn birds take their sad +pleasure in a more lovely spot; but besides it had a certain bend in +it--essential to the beauty of a brook as straightness is to that of a +tree--which I have never seen rivalled elsewhere. Its right bank rose +there, though not abruptly, and left half its bed of brown sand and +loose tinkling shingle bare to the sunlight, save so much of it as the +shade of a cluster of lime trees could cover. Here the bee and the bird +brought their songs, and the dragon-flies the glory of their turquoise +armour and glittering wings throughout the summer noons. The cool +fragrant smell of the limes, and the drowsy music of the insects that +haunted them, were inexpressibly pleasant to me, who, I am afraid, had +not a little of the Asiatic indolence in my nature. Sometimes a group +of swans sailed by on the unruffled stream, themselves a slumbrous +pageant fit enough to herald sleep; but at all events, swans or no +swans, I often did sleep there. One July afternoon, in particular, when +the heat was almost as intense as at Calcutta, and no punkahs to cool +one, I went to this place with malice prepense to lie there and do +nothing, which, from my youth up, has always been synonymous with a +<i>siesta</i>. I cannot do absolutely nothing, and yet keep awake. I very +much admire the people whom I often meet in railway carriages, who +endure, without books or newspapers, hundreds of miles of weary travel, +and who do it with their eyes open. I wonder they do not break out into +a melody, or at least a whistle. They cannot possibly be thinking all +that time, and indeed they have no appearance of employing themselves in +that way, but "stare right on with calm eternal eyes," with no more +speculation in them than those of the sphinx herself. I envy, but I +cannot imitate those happy persons. There is no such state of coma with +me; I either wake or sleep. + +I lay, then, beneath the limes by the brook in Fairburn Chase, +half-buried in the soft brown sand; and even while I looked upon the +glancing stream, with the grand old willow opposite, that bent its hoary +honours half-way o'er, the scene dissolved and changed; the brook became +a river, and the willow a palm-tree, and the Chase a sandy tract, and +the fir-clump on the distant hill the snow-capped Himalaya. I saw, +too--and, alas! I was never more to see them, except, as then, in +dreams--my father and my mother; but they passed by me with pitiful, +loving looks, and went their way. Then the ayah, the black nurse who +was watching over me--for I was once more a child--stole down to the +river-brink, and drew a fluted dagger from her bosom, and dipped it in +the sacred flood, and I felt that I was to die. I knew her well; we two +had loved one another as nurse and child do love, where the nurse +perforce takes half the mother's part; as the child grows up, his +affection, at the best, congeals to gratitude; but not so with the +breast that suckled him--God forgive us men; and the pain of my dream +was sharpest because it was my own dear ayah who was about to slay me. I +had offended Vishnu, or else she would not have done it; her gods +demanded my life of her; but she was sorry; I felt her cold lips upon my +brow, and then a large round tear fell upon my cheek like icy hail, and +I awoke. There was a tumult of sounds in the air; the birds, and the +bees, and the bubbling wave, silent while I had slept, seemed to have +burst out together in chorus at my waking. I was bewildered, and knew +not where I was. My dream was more distinct at first than the realities +about me. If I had but closed my eyes again, I knew that it would be +continued at the spot where it had left off, that the fluted dagger +would have drunk my life-blood; and therefore I made an effort to rouse +myself. Wondrous are dreams, and wondrous the borderland 'twixt life and +sleep! If my existence had depended upon it, I could not, for some +seconds, have told for certain whether I was in England or in India. +Then reason began to reassume her sway, and the vague mysterious powers, +of whom we shall one day perhaps have a more certain knowledge, withdrew +reluctant from their usurped dominion over me. I remembered, however, +most distinctly every incident that they had brought about, and I +placed my hand mechanically upon my left cheek--I had been lying upon my +right--upon which the tear had seemed to fall. Great Heaven, <i>it was +still wet</i>! I was really startled. The cloudless sky forbade the idea of +a drop of rain having fallen; I had shed no tear myself while dreaming, +for my eyes were dry, and even if I had, it could scarcely have dropped +as it did, making a cool round spot in the centre of the cheek--it would +have slid down and left a little frigid line: there were no stones for +the stream to splash against and thus besprinkle me. + +It was very odd. Still, I did not imagine for a moment that my poor +black nurse had really come across the seas to drop the tributary tear +upon her sleeping boy; moreover, she could scarcely have got away so +suddenly without leaving some trace of her departure, some...--My heart +all of a sudden ceased to beat; a shiver ran through me, as runs from +stem to stern through a doomed ship that comes end on at speed upon a +sunken rock; my eyes had fallen--while I thus reasoned with myself--upon +a sight to terrify an older man than I, after such a dream; <i>the print +of a woman's bare feet in the sand</i>. Had there been any +footprints--those of a keeper or watcher, for instance--I should have +been startled to know that some one had passed by while I slumbered, for +most certainly the sand had been untrodden up to the moment I had lost +consciousness; but that a woman with naked feet had been really present +while I dreamed that horrible dream, was something more than startling. +In Scotland such a circumstance would have been less remarkable, but in +Fairburn I had not yet seen any person without shoes. There were a +considerable number of footprints, but only of one individual: she had +stood beside me for some time, for they were deeper close to the place +where I had lain, and there was also one impression there which looked +as though the mysterious visitor had knelt. They had come and returned +the same way, which was not the one that I had come myself, and they +began and ended at the stream-side a few yards beyond, and out of sight +of the bend which was my favourite haunt. The woman had doubtless +crossed and recrossed by means of some natural stepping-stones that +showed their heads above water; there was no path on the other side, but +only a tangled thicket, through which it would have been impossible to +track her, even had I been so disposed, which I was not. To say truth, I +was terribly discomposed. For a minute or two I clung to the notion that +the footprints were my own, made, perhaps, under the influence of +somnambulism. I took off my shoes, and measured the tracks with my own +feet, but I found, boy as I was, that mine effaced them. They were +certainly the marks of a woman; smaller than those of a grown male, yet +firmer set than those of a child. Never since the days of Robinson +Crusoe was ever man so panic-struck by footprints in the sand as I. +Although it was broad daylight, and the air was alive with sounds, I +fairly trembled. The many evil stories which, during my short stay at +Fairburn, I had already heard of the old Hall, a corner of which I could +discern from where I stood, crowded in upon my brain; the whole demesne +seemed under a malign influence--enchanted ground. I turned from the +spot, whose lonely beauty had once so won my soul, with fear and +loathing; and as I turned, there rang out--it may have been from the +thicket across the stream, but the echoes took it up so suddenly, that +it seemed to ring all around me--a laugh so terrible, so demoniacally +mocking, that I could scarcely believe it came from mortal throat. Again +and again it rose, and circled about, as though it would have headed my +fleeing steps, and driven me back upon some dreadful Thing, while I fled +through the fern towards home at my topmost speed, and the white-tailed +rabbits scampered to left and right, less frightened than I. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE DUMB WITNESS. + + +A sentiment of shame prevented my mentioning the affair of the +footprints to my tutor; and as for Marmaduke, although we were by this +time very intimate, I would not have furnished him with a new occasion +for detesting Fairburn Chase upon any account. Not only, however, was my +favourite haunt by the brook become an object of aversion to me, but I +confess I took much less delight in any part of the Heath demesne. I +kept my eyes about me, even in the great avenue, and upon the whole +preferred the rector's little garden, if at any time I had a mind for +sleeping out of doors. + +"Meredith," observed Mr. Long to me one morning--he called me "Peter" +generally, but when he had anything serious to say it was +"Meredith"--"it appears to me that you don't take nearly so much +exercise as you used to do. Your appetite is failing. I am really +concerned about you." + +"Thank you, sir, I am pretty well." + +"Nonsense, Peter, no boy should be 'pretty well;' he should be in the +rudest, vulgarest health, or else he is in a bad way. Your good father +advised me that if you seemed the least to need it, I should get you a +nag. It is Crittenden Fair next week. What say you to my buying you a +horse?" + +"Thank you, sir, that is just what I should like," cried I. "I am +certainly getting tired of walking about alone." And then I began to +blush a little, for of late rather than go into the Chase I had been +accompanying my tutor in his favourite diversion of fishing, which I +cared nothing about, or else in his parochial expeditions. + +"Don't be afraid to speak out, my boy," said Mr. Long, with a kind +smile, "you will not hurt my feelings. You and I are very good friends, +but you want somebody of your own age to be your companion. Isn't that +it? And very natural too. No young gentleman, except in story-books, +enjoys the society of his tutors. Even Sandford and Merton got a little +tired of good Mr. Barlow, I fancy, he was so desperately full of +information. You want a fellow who can shy stones and climb trees." + +"No, sir, indeed I don't," said I, a little indignantly; for I was +getting too old, I flattered myself, for any boyish escapades of that +sort, "But I do wish that Marmaduke was allowed to come out with me a +little more. Would not Sir Massingberd let him have a horse also?" + +Mr. Long shook his head, and was silent for a little; then, as if in +continuation of his thought, he added, "And yet, I don't know, we'll go +over to the Hall and see about it this very morning." + +"<i>I</i>, Sir?" inquired I in astonishment; for I had never set foot in +Doubting Castle, or seen it from any nearer spot than the Heronry. + +"Did I say 'we'?" said Mr. Long, reflectively. "I didn't mean to do so, +but I really see no reason why you shouldn't come. You would wait a +considerable time if you waited for an invitation from Sir Massingberd, +but--Tush, if poor Marmaduke lives there, and yet remains a good boy, +half an hour's visit will not be the ruin of the lad." The latter part +of this remark was uttered aloud, although intended to be strictly +private, which was not an uncommon occurrence with my worthy tutor, and +I have noticed the same peculiarity in other persons of studious habits. +He led the way into the road at once, pursuing which, under the park +wall, we presently came upon a little door, which my tutor opened with a +private key. This admitted us into the wall-garden, or, as it was +sometimes called, from the quantities of that fruit which it contained, +the peach-garden. An enormous area was here entirely given up to the +cultivation of fruits; in the centre were strawberry-beds, gooseberries, +melon-beds, the glasses of which dazzled you to behold; and raspberries +upon trellis-work, on so extensive a scale that it looked like a maze. +The northern end was occupied by an enormous green-house, which, in +those days was rather a rare adjunct, even to a rich man's garden. But +the most surprising sight was that of the walls covered with +spread-eagled fruit trees, or as schoolboys then called them, +"Lawk-a-daisies," laden with the most exquisite dainties--peaches, +nectarines, apricots, and bloomy plums. A number of men were busily +employed about this teeming scene. + +"Why do they say Sir Massingberd is poor?" inquired I. "Is not all this +his?" + +"Yes; it is all his." + +"Well, but what valuable fruit, and what enormous quantities of it! Why, +he would make a large income, even if he was to sell it." + +"He does sell it," replied my tutor, smiling. "Nineteen out of twenty of +all these peaches will find their way to Covent Garden. Why, how could +he eat them, you foolish boy? Even if he gave them away to all +Fairburn, he would introduce the cholera." + +"A baronet and a market gardener!" exclaimed I. "Well, that seems very +odd." + +Mr. Long did not choose to inform me at that time that almost all the +income Sir Massingberd had was drawn from this source, and from the +selling of game, with which his great preserves were overflowing. The +staff of gardeners and of keepers was retained mainly upon this account. +In the interest of Marmaduke, Mr. Clint, the family lawyer, did, I +believe, contribute a certain annual sum for keeping up the gardens and +the Chase; but this was by private arrangement, and at his own risk and +responsibility. Thus it was that while some parts of the Fairburn +demesne were as admirably maintained as possible, others were suffered +to fall into decay. Just as we emerged from the wall-garden, for +instance, there was a small artificial hollow planted with trees, and +within it, peering above ground, a thatched roof covered moss and +mildew, and with great gaps and holes in it. This was the ice-house--in +these Wenham Lake and Refrigerator days an almost obsolete building, but +in the time I write of considered a necessary appendage to every country +seat. Next we entered an arcade of immense length, which the noonday +rays would have striven in vain to penetrate, but for the spaces where +the trellis-work had given way through age and neglect, and the ivy +trailed down from rusted nails, and obstructed the way. Seats were +placed in niches at unequal intervals upon one side of this arcade; but +they looked very unattractive, damp, wormeaten, cracked, and here and +there with a slug upon them, making slimy paths. Yet from one of these +alcoves there started up, while we were still a long way off, a female +figure, and stood for a moment looking at us in great surprise. Above +her happened to be one of those broken portions of the leafy roof, and +through it the sunlight poured right down in a golden flood, as a glory +sometimes does in ancient pictures. A tall dark woman, who must have +been exquisitely beautiful in her youth, and even now retained +considerable attractions; her eyes were large and lustrous, and her +hair--never even in India had I seen hair more dark, or so luxuriant. It +was not rolled tight at the back in a great pillow, as was then the +fashion, or, indeed, confined in any way, but streamed down over her +shoulders, and far below that place where it was the pleasure of our +ancestresses to consider that their waists occurred. She cast upon us at +first a glance haughty and almost defiant, but upon recognizing my +companion, quenched her fiery looks. + +"Stop here, my lad," whispered Mr. Long, laying his hand firmly upon my +shoulder; "wait till she has gone away." + +The woman saw the gesture, although she could not have heard the words. +"I shall not bite the boy, Mr. Long," cried she with a shrill laugh; +"however, I will make myself scarce." She took a few rapid steps to an +opening on the right of the arcade, which led to the lawn and +flower-garden, and was lost to us in a moment. + +"I did not know there were any ladies at the Hall," said I. + +My tutor did not answer, but walked on muttering to himself as if +annoyed. I did not repeat the remark, for I was wondering within myself +whether it could be this woman who had watched my sleep and knelt by me +dagger in hand, according to my dream. She looked just the sort of +female to drive such an instrument home, if she entertained that +fancy--a Judith, equal to the slaying of any Holofernes, and far more of +a slight built, overgrown Indian lad like me. There was certainly +something uncanny about her, and I thought it very strange that +Marmaduke had never spoken to me of her existence. + +The arcade brought us out into a sunk garden, which was a rosary, on to +which opened the tall windows of a noble-looking room. The walls, I +could see, were lined with books, and on the numerous tables lay +portfolios and volumes that gave promise of great store of plates. This +was the library where Marmaduke had told me he passed his only happy +hours at Fairburn. His uncle rarely so much as entered it, although he +was not without some reputation for learning. In particular it was said +that he was well acquainted with divinity, and could quote chapter and +verse of the Bible against the parson. I have since had reason to +believe that his talents in this way were greatly exaggerated. What he +had ever read he doubtless recollected, if his memory served him as well +in literary matters as when he had a grudge to pay; but I cannot think +that he ever studied divinity. If he had any knowledge of the Bible at +all it doubtless astonished all who knew him, and they made the most of +it. + +A few steps further brought us to the north face of the mansion, in +which was the principal entrance. Notwithstanding the broad sweep in +front of the steps, and the avenue branching right and left, there did +not seem space enough as contrasted with the vast mass of trees. The +scene was like a clearing in a forest, where the openings are +artificial, and the wood comes by nature rather than the converse, and +even in that September day the air struck chill. The griffins that +guarded the great stone steps had lost, the one an ear, and the other a +wing, and the steps themselves were chipped and cracked. The grass which +grew there unchecked at other seasons, had however been scraped out, +because Sir Massingberd's guests were expected immediately for the +shooting. None of them, however, had as yet arrived. The great bell +which answered our summons clanged through the place as though there had +been neither furniture nor people within it. The vast door was opened +long before its echoes ceased, and indeed with marvellous quickness. +When the man saw who we were, he looked vexed at having put himself in a +flurry without necessity. He thought doubtless it was his master who +demanded admittance, and had come post haste from the pantry, it being +very dangerous to keep the baronet waiting. We were ushered into the +great hall, and left there while the man went to seek Sir Massingberd. +This huge apartment was evidently used as a sitting-room. There were +couches and comfortable chairs in profusion, and a fine aroma of tobacco +pervaded everything. The walls were ornamented with antlers and the +heads of foxes; a number of fishing rods stood in one corner; in another +lay some of those clubs that are used for exercising the muscles. On the +table was an open pocket-book, stuck full of gorgeous artificial flies. +Presently the man reappeared. Sir Massingberd would see us in his +private sitting-room. We walked over polished oak, on which I could with +difficulty keep my footing, down a long passage hung with grim portraits +of the Heath family--"all dead and judged," as Marmaduke subsequently +informed me--until we came to a short flight of steps on the left hand; +these we descended, and following the footsteps of our conductor, in +almost perfect darkness, came upon double doors, the inner of which, a +baize one, admitted us into the presence of the proprietor. The baronet +was in his shirt-sleeves, cleaning a double-barrelled gun. + +"This is my pupil, Peter Meredith," said Mr. Long. + +"<i>I</i> know the young gentleman," replied Sir Massingberd, curtly, and the +horse-shoe upon his brow contracted as he spoke. "What makes you bring +him here?" + +"Well, Sir Massingberd," observed my tutor, forcing a laugh, "that is +scarcely a hospitable observation. I bring this friend of your nephew's +because what I have to propose concerns them both. It is good for these +boys to be together, not to live solitary lives; and to keep them mewed +up at home, as they are now, is a positive cruelty. Marmaduke is getting +thinner and paler every day; and Meredith--" + +"Do <i>you really</i> think so, parson?" asked the baronet eagerly, omitting +for a moment to use the dirty-looking piece of oiled flannel which had +previously monopolized his attention. + +"I do, indeed, Sir Massingberd. I believe that if a doctor was to give +his opinion about that boy--" + +"The Heaths never send for doctors, or for clergymen," interrupted the +baronet, with a sneer. + +"And yet they have often needed advice, both spiritual and temporal," +quoth my tutor, stoutly. "I say you should get a horse for your nephew's +riding; it need be no trouble to you whatever. I am going over to +Crittenden Fair next week myself to purchase one for my pupil; now, let +me get one for your nephew also." + +At first Sir Massingberd's countenance expressed nothing but angry +impatience, but presently he began to rub the gun-barrel less and less +violently. "And who is to find the money?" inquired he. + +"I think that can be managed, Sir Massingberd. Mr. Clint will doubtless +listen to such an application on behalf of Marmaduke; he will risk +advancing a few pounds--" + +"For thirty-five guineas one can get a very good pony," observed the +baronet, reflectively. + +"Or even for less," returned Mr. Long, drily; and then, to my excessive +terror, he added in quite as loud a key, "He wants to keep the +difference; that's his plan." + +"And he means to do it, too," observed Sir Massingberd grimly. "No, you +needn't apologize, parson, for your thinking aloud; you don't suppose I +am going to do anything without being paid for it, do you? Then there's +the keep of the animal. Now, what will Mr. Clint allow me for that, do +you suppose? Oats and beans are very expensive, and you wouldn't have me +feed my dear nephew's pony upon hay!" + +Sir Massingberd was a formidable object at all times, but I really think +he inspired more fear when he was pleased--when some wicked notion +tickled him--than even when he was in wrath. + +"I think, Sir Massingberd, the question of expense can be managed to +your satisfaction," said my tutor, not a little overwhelmed by having +thus involuntarily expressed his suspicion of the baronet; "and, as I +have said, I will save you all trouble by selecting the horse myself." + +"Certainly not, sir," exclaimed Sir Massingberd savagely; "I suffer no +man to choose my horses for me." + +"Very good," replied Mr. Long, biting his lip. "I have only to +stipulate, then, that if your nephew gets the horse, he is to ride it. I +shall have to make myself answerable for that much to Mr. Clint." + +"Oh, he shall ride it," quoth the baronet, with a horrid imprecation; +"you may take your oath of that. And by the by, since you are here, +parson, I want to have some talk with you about that same fellow Clint, +who has been behaving devilish ill to me, I think. You may go away, +young gentleman, <i>you</i> may. You'll find your future riding companion--he +has about as much notion of riding as old Grimjaw yonder--sulking in his +own room, I dare say. Grimjaw, show the young gentleman up to +Marmaduke's room." + +At these words a dog of horrible aspect came out from under the very +sofa on which I sat, and trotted off towards the door. He was the oldest +and ugliest dog I ever beheld. He had only one eye, which was green; he +had no teeth, and was therefore not to be feared as a combatant; but his +aspect was loathsome and repulsive to the last degree. The people of +Fairburn imagined this animal to be Sir Massingberd's familiar demon, +and, until of late years, when the creature had become incapacitated by +age from accompanying him much, the two were scarcely ever seen apart. +Old as he was, however, the hideous Grimjaw had some instinct left, +which, after the word "Marmaduke" had been once more shrieked at him, +caused him painfully to precede me up the oak staircase, and along +another gallery to a chamber door, at which he sat and whined. This was +immediately opened by his young master, who, with a "Come in, Grim," +was only giving sufficient space for the entrance of the dog, when I +cried out, laughing: "What, have you no welcome for your friend? Like +uncle, like nephew! What a pair of curmudgeons inhabit Fairburn Hall!" + +The astonishment of Marmaduke at hearing my voice was excessive. +Notwithstanding his pleasure, his first thought, as usual, was: "Did Sir +Massingberd know?" + +"Yes," said I coolly; "of course he knows. He received me down-stairs +with his usual politeness. Mr. Long and he are conversing upon some +private matters, so I came up here to see you. It is arranged that each +of us is to have a horse, and that we are to go out riding together." + +"A horse! Oh, impossible!" exclaimed Marmaduke, clapping his hands. +"How did the good parson ever persuade my uncle? What <i>did</i> he give +him?" + +I could not help laughing at this naïve inquiry, which my friend had +made in perfect seriousness. I told him all that had occurred, including +our tutor's <i>vivâ-voce</i> soliloquy, at which Marmaduke cried "Heavens!" +in terror. + +"It is marvellous, notwithstanding, that my uncle should have +consented," observed my companion, musing. "He told me, indeed, that I +should be a great nuisance in the house this month, while his friends +were down here shooting; but that he should have entered into an +arrangement which gives me pleasure as well as gets rid of me, that +seems so very strange." + +"He has doubtless some base motive," returned I smiling: "let us console +ourselves with that reflection. But what have we here? Water-colour +paintings! Why have you never told me you were an artist?" + +"I merely amuse myself with the paint-brush. I have had no lessons, of +course, so that my perspective is quite Chinese." + +"Nay, but I recognize almost all these scenes!" + +"Well, you know, I have been nowhere else but at Fairburn, so that it is +from thence I must take my subjects. The one you have there is taken +from the bend in the stream beyond the Heronry." + +"It is admirable," said I; and indeed it was so like the scene of my +dream, that it gave me a shudder. + +"Would you like to have it," replied Marmaduke carelessly. "You may take +any that the portfolio contains. I only wish they were more worth your +acceptance." + +"Thank you," said I nervously. "I will certainly take this one, then;" +and I rolled the sketch tightly up, and placed it in my pocket. "But +here is a pretty face! Why, Master Marmaduke, you have your secrets, I +see; you have never mentioned to me this young lady. What beautiful +hair! The eyes, too, how glorious, and yet how tender! It is surely not +the lady whom we just met in the ar--" + +"Silence, sir!" cried Marmaduke, in a voice of thunder. His face was +lurid with rage, and for the first time I remarked upon his forehead a +faint reflection of the horse-shoe that made so terrible the brow of his +uncle. "Do not speak of that wretched woman in the same breath with, +with--" He did not complete the sentence, but added in his usual soft +musical tones: "Pardon me, my friend; I am sorry to have been so hasty; +but that picture is the portrait of my mother." + +"It was stupid in me not to have known that at once," said I. "The +likeness is most remarkable." + +"But not the expression," returned he sadly. "I know that just now I +looked like one of my own race. She was always an angel, even when she +was upon earth." And the boy looked up with his hands clasped, as though +he beheld her, through his tears, in heaven. + +"Did you paint that from a picture, Marmaduke?" + +"No, from memory. Sleeping or waking, I often see her sweet face." + +I had evidently raised by my thoughtlessness a long train of melancholy +thoughts in my companion. The situation was embarrassing, and I did not +know how to escape from it. As often happens with well-intentioned but +blundering persons, I made the most inopportune remark that could be +framed. Forgetting what I had heard of the infamous treatment which +Mrs. Heath had received while under her brother-in-law's roof, I +observed: "Your mother was once at Fairburn, was she not? That should at +least make the Hall more endurable to you." + +Again Marmaduke's handsome face was disfigured with concentrated +passion. "Yes, she was here," returned he, speaking through his teeth. +"For what she suffered alone, the place would be cursed. Coward, +scoundrel! Why does God suffer such men to live?" It was terrible to see +how like this young lad grew to the man he was execrating. He went on +using such language as I could not have conceived him capable of +employing. + +"Marmaduke," said I, soothingly, "for Heaven's sake, be calm. Providence +will one day reward this man; it is not for you to Curse him. Come, now +that I pay you a visit for the first time, you should play the host, +and show me over the mansion. Why, that queer old dog seems to +understand what one says; he rises as though he were the châtelain, and +kept the keys of Doubting Castle. He brought me here as true as a blind +man's cur. I cannot say, however, that he is beautiful; he is hideous, +weird." + +"It would be strange, indeed, if he were like other dogs," returned +Marmaduke gravely. "He is the sole living repository of a most frightful +secret. If he could but speak, he could perhaps send a man to the +gallows." + +"What man?" exclaimed I. "Pray explain to me this mystery." + +"I do not know what man," returned my companion solemnly; "I only +conjecture. I will relate to you what is known of the matter, and you +shall judge for yourself." + +Marmaduke opened the door, to see that no one was in the passage +without, and then seating himself close beside me, commenced as +follows:--"My grandfather and the present baronet lived on bad terms +with one another. For the last ten years of his life, Sir Wentworth and +his eldest son never met--but once--if they met at all. He had been very +profligate and extravagant in his young days; but in his old age he grew +miserly. When my father saw him last, it was in a small house in Bedford +Place, in London, where he lived in a couple of ill-furnished rooms, and +without a servant. Grimjaw and he slept there alone, but a charwoman +came in every morning for a few hours. Sir Wentworth then gave it as his +reason for this kind of life, that he was retrenching, in order to leave +some suitable provision for his second son. 'Look here, Gilbert,' said +he upon one occasion to my father; 'I have begun to lay by for you +already; and he showed him a quantity of bank-notes, amounting to +several thousand pounds. He had never been an affectionate parent, or +exhibited any self-denial for the benefit of his sons; and my father did +not believe him. He thanked him, of course; but he came away without any +idea that he would be really better off at Sir Wentworth's death. This +was fortunate for him, for he never received a farthing; but I am not so +certain as he was that the baronet did not intend to do what he +promised. While the old man was living in this sordid fashion, his son +Massingberd was passing his time very gaily at court. He played high, +and there were few who could beat him with the cards--but there were +some. It is no use being a good player, you see, unless you are the +best; you only win from those whom you can beat, to lose it in your turn +to the man who can beat you. Thus it was with my uncle, who played, as +I say, high with everybody, but highest, as is often the case, with his +superiors in skill. However, he paid his debts of honour with money +raised at an enormous sacrifice. He lived well, but it was upon his +future prospects. At last, being harder pressed than usual, he wrote to +his father--the first letter he had penned to him for years--and +demanded pecuniary help. + +"Sir Wentworth wrote back a cynical, harsh reply, a copy of which I have +seen--for all these details came out in the course of the inquest. He +bade his son come to call upon him, and judge from his style of living +whether he was in a condition to comply with his request. He appointed a +day and an hour--about five o'clock. It was in December, and quite dark +of course by that time. At six o'clock on the appointed day, Sir +Massingberd--for he had got his title by that time, whether he knew it +or not--called at the police-station near Bedford Place, and gave +information that the house which his father occupied was shut up, and +that he could not obtain admittance, although he had arrived there by +appointment. The house was always shut up they told him, although not +untenanted; they could not explain why his summons had not been +answered. A couple of policemen accompanied him to break open the door. +While they were thus engaged, a dog howled at them from inside. My uncle +had made no mention of having heard this before. There was only one lock +to force, the door being neither bolted nor chained, and they soon got +in. The only two furnished rooms in the house opened upon the hall. In +the sleeping room they found my grandfather dressed, but lying on the +bed quite dead--suffocated, as the surgeons subsequently averred. In +the sitting-room, with which it communicated, they found this dog here, +crouching on the top of the mantel-piece, which was very lofty. How he +got there, nobody could tell; if he leaped thither, even from a chair, +it must have been in an agony of terror. He was whining pitifully when +they entered; but upon seeing my uncle, he ceased to whimper, and +absolutely seemed to shrink into himself with fear. Poor Grimjaw could +give no witness at the inquest, however; so the jury returned an open +verdict. It was probable that Sir Wentworth had had a fit of apoplexy, +which carried him off." + +"Well," said I, "and is not that probable enough?" + +"Yes; but it could not have carried off the bank-notes--which were all +gone---likewise. Could it Grimjaw?" + +Thus appealed to, the ancient dog set up a quavering howl, which might +easily have been mistaken for the cry of an accusing spirit. + +"Good Heavens! this is too horrible," cried I. "Be careful, Marmaduke, +that you do not mention this to others. It is a frightful slander." + +"Slander!" returned my companion calmly. "It is you who slander, if you +suspect anybody. I have only told you what everybody knew at the time +the mur...--well, then, when Sir Wentworth had his fit. The thing +strikes you as it does me, that is all." + +"But is it not inconceivable," urged I, "if the crime was committed by +the person we are thinking of, that he should retain this dumb witness +of his atrocity, that he should let it live, far less should keep it in +his private sitting-room--" + +"No!" interrupted Marmaduke firmly. "On the contrary, it strengthens my +suspicions. You do not know the man as I do. It gives him gratification +to subdue even a dog. This creature has no love for my uncle; but its +excessive terror of him, which endured for months, nay, years, has +gradually worn off. He obeys him now; whereas, as I have been told, it +was long before it could do anything but shiver at the sound of his +voice. After dinner, when I have been sitting with Sir Massingberd +alone, he will sometimes give the dog a biscuit, saying with an awful +smile: "Here, Grimjaw; you and I know something that nobody else knows; +don't we?" + +"Great Heavens!" cried I in horror; "and what does he do that for?" + +"Because," replied Marmaduke bitterly, "he loves to see me tremble." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE STATE BEDROOM. + + +Marmaduke had scarcely concluded his narration, when steps were heard in +the passage. I daresay I turned pale at the thought of seeing the man of +whom I had just heard such frightful things, for my companion observed, +as if to reassure me, "It is only Mr. Long." + +"Are you quite sure?" said I. + +Marmaduke smiled sadly. + +"Do you think that I do not know my uncle's step? I should recognize it +amongst a score of others. If he overtook me in a crowded street, I +should feel that he was coming and shudder as he passed beside +me...--Pray, come in, sir." + +"Well," cried my tutor, entering, radiant with, his good news, "no more +moping at home, my lads; you are to be henceforth cavaliers--you are to +scour the country. Boot and saddle! boot and saddle! Your uncle will not +trust me to get you a steed, Marmaduke; there are none good enough for +you, it seems, at Crittenden; he is going to send to London for an +animal worthy of you. But never mind, Peter; you shall have the best +mount that can be got in Midshire, and we will pit the country nag +against the town." + +My tutor's voice revived me like a cordial: after the morbid horrors I +had been listening to, his cheery talk was inexpressibly grateful, as +the dawn and ordinary sounds of waking life are welcome to one who has +suffered from a nightmare. + +"I was just about to show Meredith the Hall," said Marmaduke. + +"Well it is time that we should be at our work, like good boys," +observed Mr. Long, consulting his watch; "but still, for one morning, it +does not matter, if you would like to stay, Peter." + +"I would rather go home, sir," cried I, with involuntary eagerness. I +was sorry the next moment, even before I saw the pained expression of my +young companion. + +"He has had enough of Fairburn Hall already," said he, bitterly. Then +his face softened sadly, as though he would have said: "Am I not, +therefore, to be pitied, who pass every day and night under this +accursed roof?" + +"Come," exclaimed Mr. Long, gaily, "I do not believe, Master Meredith, +in this new-born devotion to your books. Let us go over the house +first. I will accompany you as cicerone, for I once knew every hole and +corner of it--a great deal better, I will venture to affirm, than the +heir himself here." With these words he led the way into the passage. + +"Every chamber on this floor is the facsimile of its neighbour," said +Marmaduke: "since you have seen mine, you have seen all--an immense bed, +a piece of carpet islanded amid a black sea of oak, a cupboard or two +large enough to live in, and shepherdesses, with swains in ruffles, +occupying the walls." There was, indeed, no appreciable difference in +any of the rooms, except with regard to their aspect. + +"When I first came to Fairburn, I slept here," continued Marmaduke, as +we entered an apartment looking to the north, "and had that long +illness, which you doubtless remember, sir. Heavens, what dreams I have +had in this room! I have seen people standing by my bedside at night as +clearly as I see you now. They called me delirious, but I believe I was +stark mad." + +"I remember it well," said Mr. Long, "although I did not recollect that +you occupied this room. How was it that you came to change your +quarters?" + +"Oh, the doctor recommended the removal very strongly. Sir Massingberd +said it was all nonsense about the look-out from my window, and that the +east was as bad as the north for a boy in a fever; but he was obliged to +give way. And I certainly benefited by the change. The Park is a much +more cheerful sight than that forest of firs, and one is glad to see the +sun, even when one cannot get out of doors. At all events, I had no +such evil dreams." + +"Yet this is what always used to be held the state-chamber," replied my +tutor. "Charles I. occupied that bed while he was yet king; and before +your ancestor, Sir Hugh, turned Puritan--a part he was very unfitted to +play--it is said he used to swear through his nose. Peter the Great, +too, is said to have passed a night here. Your dreams, therefore, should +have been historical and noteworthy. I forget which of these smiling +Phyllises is so complaisant as to make way when you would leave the room +without using the door." + +Two full-length female portraits were painted in panel, one on either +side of the huge chimney-piece; a circlet of roses carved in oak +surrounded each by way of frame. Mr. Long advanced towards the one on +the right, and touched the bottom rose; it did not move. He went to the +other, and did likewise; the rose revolved in his fingers, and +presently, with a creak and a groan, the whole picture slid sideways +over the wall, disclosing a narrow flight of wooden stairs. + +"That is charming," cried I. "That is the 'Mysteries of Udolpho' +realized. Where does it lead to, Marmaduke?" There was no answer. Mr. +Long and I looked round simultaneously. The lad was ghastly pale. He +stared into the dusty, gaping aperture, as though it had been a grave's +mouth. + +"I do not know," he gasped with difficulty. + +"Not know?" cried my tutor. "Do you mean to say that you have never been +told of Jacob's Ladder? The foot of it is in the third bookcase on the +left of the library door; the spring is somewhere in the index to +"Josephus." It is evident you never attempted to take down that +interesting work, which in this case is solid wood. The idea of your not +knowing that! And yet Sir Massingberd is so reticent that, with the +exception of Gilmore, the butler, I dare say nobody <i>does</i> know it now. +It is twenty years ago since I made Phyllis move aside, to the +astonishment of Mr. Clint, who came down here on business with poor Sir +Wentworth. I dare say nobody has moved her since." + +"Yes, yes," cried Marmaduke, passionately; "my uncle has moved her. +Those visions were not dreams. I see it all now. He wanted to frighten +me to death, or to make me mad. When I knew the door was fast locked, he +would come and stand by my bedside, and stare at me. Cruel, cruel +coward!" + +"Hush, hush, Marmaduke; this is monstrous--this is impossible!" cried +Mr. Long, endeavouring to pacify the boy, who was rocking himself to and +fro in an agony of distress and rage. "See how you terrify Peter! Be +calm, for Heaven's sake! Your uncle will hear you presently, and you +know how he hates to be disturbed." + +At the mention of his uncle, Marmaduke subdued his cries by a great +effort, but he still sobbed and panted, as if for breath. + +"Oh," moaned he, "consider how I came hither from my dead mother's arms +to this man's house--my only living relative, my father's brother--and +was taken ill here, a mere child; then this wretch, this demon, my host, +my...--Oh, Mr. Long, could you conceive it even of a Heath? He came up +to my lonely room by that secret way, and stood without speaking by my +pillow, while I lay speechless, powerless, imagining myself to be out +of my mind!" + +"I do remember now," said my tutor, gravely, "how you harped upon that +theme of your evil dreams, and how the doctor thought you were in +reality losing your reason. Let us be thankful, however, that you were +preserved from so sad a fate; you are no longer a child now; Sir +Massingberd can frighten you no more, even if he had the wish. It was a +wicked, hateful act, whatever was the motive. But let us forget it. In a +few years you will be of age; then you will leave the Hall; and in the +meantime your uncle will annoy you no more. It will be his interest to +make a friend of you. Even now, you see, he provides you with the means +of enjoyment. You will ride out with your friend whenever you please; +and I will take measures so that you shall be more with us at the +rectory, and less at this melancholy place, which is totally unfit for +you. Mr. Clint shall be spoken with, if necessary. Yes, yes," added Mr. +Long, reversing the rose, and thereby replacing the shepherdess, but +quite unaware that he was still speaking aloud, "there must be a limit +to the power of such a guardian; the Chancellor shall interfere, and Sir +Massingberd be taught--" + +"Nay, sir," cried Marmaduke in turn; "for Heaven's sake, let no +complaint be made against my uncle upon my account; perhaps, as you say, +I may now meet with better treatment. I will be patient. Say nothing of +this, I pray you, Meredith. Mr. Long, you know--" + +"Yes, I know all," interrupted my tutor, with excitement. "You have a +friend in me, Marmaduke, remember, who will stick by you. I have shut my +eyes and my ears long enough, and perhaps too long. If things get worse +with you, my lad, do not forget that you have a home at the rectory. +Once there, you will not return to this house again. I will give +evidence myself; I will--" + +"Thank you, thank you," replied Marmaduke, hurriedly. "All will now be +well, doubtless; but my uncle will wonder at your long delay--he will +suspect something. I think it will be better if you left." + +He led the way down the great staircase, throwing an involuntary glance +over his shoulder, as we crossed the mouth of the dark passage leading +to the baronet's room. "This is a wretched welcome, Meredith; some day, +perhaps, I may take your hand at this Hall door under different +circumstances. Good-by, good-by." + +And so we parted, between the two grim griffins. + +"Peter," said my tutor, gravely, as we went our way, "whatever you may +think of what has passed to-day, say nothing. I am not so ignorant of +the wrongs of that poor boy as I appear to be; but there is nothing for +it but patience." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HEAD OVER HEELS. + + +I obeyed my tutor and my friend in keeping all I knew regarding Sir +Massingberd to myself; but the knowledge weighed heavily upon my spirits +for several days. Soon, however, my mind recovered its youthful +elasticity. I began to think that Marmaduke's morbid disposition had +perhaps exaggerated matters; that the baronet was not so black as was +painted; that my friend would soon be his own master; and, in short, I +laid all that flattering unction to my soul which is so abundant in the +case of the misfortunes of others, and so difficult to be procured when +the calamity is our own. Moreover, in a few days I was in possession of +an excellent horse, and there is nothing more antagonistic to +melancholy--especially when it is vicarious--than a good gallop. Nay, +more, after a little, Marmaduke had a horse also. He came to call for +me, that we should go out for a ride together the first day, and I shall +not easily forget it. How handsome and happy he looked! As if the +high-conditioned animal he bestrode had imparted to him some of his own +fire and freedom, he wore scarcely any trace of his habitual depression. +"This is our 4th of July," said he gaily; "my day of independence, as +the rebels say!" + +It happened to be his birthday also, he was seventeen, so that all +things conspired to make it a gala-day. My tutor, who was a judge of +horseflesh, examined the new steed with great attention. "He is superb," +said he, "and you sit him, Marmaduke, considering your scanty +experience, like a young centaur. No one could imagine that your +equestrianism had been heretofore limited to a keeper's pony; and, +moreover, Oliver's ponies are not apt to be very high-couraged. But what +a tight curb has this Bucephalus! He will not give you much trouble to +hold him. So-ho, so-ho, my nag! Are you a hypocrite, then, that you need +be so alarmed at being inspected?" The sleek bay plunged and curveted, +so that my own sober brown began to dance in rivalry. "By the by," +continued Mr. Long, as though a sudden thought had struck him, "I have +occasion to visit Mr. Jervis of the farm at Staplehurst some day this +week; if it is the same to you, let us go there to-day; it will be an +object for your ride, while I shall have the pleasure of your company." + +In a few minutes, my tutor's old white mare was brought round to the +Rectory door by the gardener, who was groom and butler also, and we set +out together at a foot's pace. Mr. Long never took his eyes off the bay, +and therefore did not observe Sir Massingberd, who, with his huge arms +resting on a gate by the roadside, watched us pass with a grim smile. +"Well, parson," exclaimed he--and at the sound of his voice I perceived +my tutor start in his saddle--"what think you of the little Londoner?" + +"I cannot say at present, Sir Massingberd," returned my tutor with +deliberation. "He is a beauty to look at; and if he has no vice, is a +bargain at five-and-thirty pounds." + +"Vice! Why should he have vice, man? A child might ride him for that +matter. I got him with the best of characters. But you'll never teach +those lads to ride if you are always at their stirrup-leather, like +this. Let them ride alone, and race together. Don't treat them like a +brace of mollycoddles. Why, at their age, I could have backed any horse +in Christendom without a saddle. I wonder you don't give Miss Marmaduke +a leading-rein." + +The colour, which had faded from the lad's cheeks, returned to them +again at this sneer; but Mr. Long only remarked: "If you had had a +leading-rein yourself, Sir Massingberd, at seventeen, it would have been +a great deal better for you," and rode on without the least +consciousness, as I believe, of having made any such observation. + +When we had advanced about a mile, and had left the village quite behind +us, my tutor expressed a wish to change horses with Marmaduke. + +"I want to try his paces," said he; and certainly, if he had been a +horse-breaker by profession, he could not have taken more pains with the +animal. He trotted, he cantered, he galloped; he took him into a field, +and over some fences; he forced him by a wind-mill in full work; and, in +short, he left no means untried to test his temper. In the end, he +expressed himself highly satisfied. "Really," said he, "Sir Massingberd +has got you a first-rate steed, with plenty of courage, yet without +vice; he makes me quite dissatisfied with my poor old mare." + +The next day, and the next, we rode again without my tutor; and on the +fourth day it was agreed that we should take an expedition as far as +Crittenden, some ten miles away, where Mr. Long wished us to do some +commissions for him. By this time, Marmaduke was quite accustomed to his +recent acquisition; enjoyed the exercise greatly; and since Sir +Massingberd was much engaged with his guests, passed altogether more +agreeable days. On the afternoon in question, the Hall party were out +shooting, and had taken with them all the stable domestics except a raw +lad who scarcely knew how to saddle a horse. + +"I cannot think what is the matter this afternoon with 'Panther'" (we so +called his skittish animal), exclaimed Marmaduke, as he rode up to the +Rectory door. "I could scarcely get him to start from the yard, and he +came here mostly upon his hind-legs. Is there anything wrong with his +girths, think you? Ned did not know where to lay his hands on anything, +and my uncle has taken William with him to 'mark.'" + +"Nay," said I, "I see nothing the matter. We will soon take off his +superfluous energy over Crittenden Common." + +Long, however, before we reached that spot, we had had galloping enough +and to spare. Twice had Panther fairly taken the bit between his teeth +(as the romance-writers term it, and Heaven forbid that a mere sportsman +should correct them), and sped along the hard high-road at racing pace; +and twice had Marmaduke, by patience and hard pulling, recovered the +mastery, albeit with split gloves and blistered hands. It was not +enjoyment to ride in this fashion, of course, and had it not been for +the commissions which had been entrusted to us, it is probable that we +should have returned home. It puzzled us beyond measure to account for +the change of conduct in the bay. The difference was as decided as that +between a high-spirited child who requires, as we say, "careful +treatment," and a vicious dwarf: heretofore he had been frisky, now he +was positively fiendish. He shied and started, not only at every object +on the roadside, but before he arrived at them. At the end of the high +table-land which is called Crittenden Common, and descends into the +quiet little market-town of the same name, there really was something to +shy at. A gipsy encampment, with fire and caldron, and tethered donkey, +which had been concealed in a hollow, came suddenly into view as we +cantered by; an old crone, with a yellow handkerchief in lieu of a +bonnet, and shading her beady eyes with her hand, watched with malicious +enjoyment the struggle between man and horse which her own appearance +had gone far to excite. In a very few moments, Marmaduke's already +overtaxed muscles gave way, and the bay, maddened with resistance, and +released from all control, rushed at headlong speed down the steep +chalk-road that led by many a turn and zigzag into Crittenden. It was +frightful to watch from the summit of this tamed precipice--this cliff +compelled into a road--the descent of that doomed pair. No mule could be +surer footed than was Panther, but the laws of gravitation had +nevertheless to be obeyed. At the second turning, the bay, after one +vain effort to follow the winding of the road, pitched, head first, down +the grassy wall which everywhere separated the zigzags from one another; +over and over rolled horse and rider to the hard road below, and there +lay, their horrible and abnormal movements exchanged for a stony quiet. +I jumped off my horse, and ran down the two steep slopes, which at +another time I should have descended hand over hand. Yet on my way I had +time to think with what sorrow this news would be received at Fairburn +Rectory, with what joy at the Hall! Marmaduke's hand still held the +rein, which I disentangled from it with feverish haste, lest that +four-footed fiend, which snorted yet through its fiery nostrils, and +glared defiance from its glazing eyes, should arise and drag the dear +lad's corpse among the cruel stones. After what I had seen of his fall, +I had scarcely a hope that he was alive. There was blood at his mouth, +blood at his ears, blood everywhere upon the white and dazzling road. +"Marmaduke, Marmaduke," cried I, "speak, speak, if it be but a single +word! Great Heaven, he is dead!" + +"Dead! no, not he," answered a hoarse, cracked voice at my ear. "He'll +live to do a power of mischief yet to woman and man. The devil would +never suffer a Heath of Fairburn to die at his age." + +"Woman," cried I, for it was the old gipsy crone, who had somehow +transported herself to the spot with incredible speed, "for God's sake, +go for help! There is a house yonder among those trees." + +"And why should I stir a foot," replied she fiercely, "for the child of +a race that has ever treated me and mine as though we were dogs?" + +"Because," said I, at a venture, "you have children yourself." + +"You are right," exclaimed she, clapping her skinny hands together, and +seating herself calmly on the turf. "It is well that you have mentioned +my kith and kin. One lad is across the seas, and will never see the +green lanes and breezy commons of England more; another lies caged in +yonder jail--and both for taking the wild creatures of the earth and +air, to which such men as Massingberd Heath lay claim; while my little +sister--ah, my Sinnamenta, my fair pearl!--may the lightning strike him +in his wickedest hour! nay, let him perish, inch by inch, within reach +of the aid that shall never come, ere the God of the Poor takes him into +his hand!--Boy, you may talk to that flintstone, and it will rise up and +get you help for that lad there--bonny as he is, and the bonnier the +worse for them he sets his wilful eyes on--before you get this hand to +wag a finger for him." + +"Woman," said I, despairingly, "if you hate Massingberd Heath, and want +to do him the worst service that lies in your power, flee, flee to that +house, and bid them save this boy's life, which alone stands between his +beggared uncle and untold riches." + +"Is it so?" cried the old woman, rising up with an agility for which no +one would have given her credit, and looking at me with furious eyes. +"Is it indeed so, boy?" + +"Yes, woman, upon my soul!" + +Revenge accomplished what pity had failed to work. In an instant, she +was with me down by Marmaduke's side; from her pocket she produced a +spirit-flask in a leathern case, and applied it to his lips: after a +painful attempt to swallow, he succeeded; his eyelids began tremulously +to move, and the colour to return to his pallid lips. + +"Keep his head up," cried she, "and give him another drop of this, if +assistance does not arrive within five minutes." + +Before she had finished speaking, she had lifted the latch of the gate +that opened from the road into the grounds of the house in question, and +in another instant I was alone--alone with what I believed to be a dying +man, and surrounded with the blood that had flowed in a mingled stream +from him and the dead horse, for Panther had ceased to move--alone with +recollections and anticipations scarcely less horrible than the visible +scene; and yet, so strangely constituted is the human mind, that I could +not forbear to glance with some sort of curiosity at the flask the gipsy +had left with me, and to wonder exceedingly that its worn and tarnished +top of silver bore upon it a fac-simile of one of those identical +griffins which guarded each side of the broad stone steps that led to +Fairburn Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +AT THE DOVECOT. + + +After an interval, which doubtless appeared much longer than it really +was, there issued from the gate a groom and butler, bearing between them +a small sofa, and accompanied by a young and lovely girl. The scene that +presented itself was enough to shock persons even of strong nerves, and +I hastily exclaimed, "The young lady had better not see this." But she +came on nevertheless. + +"I am not afraid of blood," said she, "and perhaps I may be of use." +Then she directed her servants how to handle the wounded man; and when +he was gently lifted on to the couch, she applied a handkerchief dipped +in Eau-de-Cologne to his forehead, and walked by his side regulating the +pace of his bearers, like some Miss Nightingale of a generation and a +half ago. "Let him be placed in your master's room, James: and then take +my pony, Thomas, and ride as fast as you can for Dr. Sitwell; and as you +come back--but think of nothing but bringing the doctor first--call at +the nursery-garden for your master; he said he should go there about +those roses." And some other directions she gave, as the men moved on +with their ghastly burden, like one who knew the value of time. +Notwithstanding this presence of mind, her anxious eyes betrayed that +she was not wanting in sensibility, and with every groan which the +motion of the fitter extracted from the sufferer, her own lip quivered. +I dare say that I saw nothing of her exceeding beauty at that dreadful +time; but while I write of Lucy Gerard now, a vision of surpassing +loveliness perforce presents itself before me. A tall, lithe, graceful +form; a face, nay, rather a soft, sad smile overspreading and pervading +every feature--a smile that I never saw surpassed save on her own fair +countenance after Love had taken her sweet soul captive--a smile the +reflex of all good and kindly thoughts that dwelt within. There are some +so great and noble that they smile, where other good folks can only weep +and wail; the true sympathizer with human griefs wears no lugubrious +aspect; the angels smile when they weep over human wretchedness--they +know that it is only for a little while, for that the gates of heaven +are standing open very, very near; and some such knowledge, or happy +faith, seems to influence the best of mortals, or how should they go +smiling through this world? + +So Marmaduke was carried along the gravel-drive, and across a little +flower-studded lawn, to the room in Mr. Gerard's house which was called +the master's room, it being half a sleeping-chamber, and half a library, +which Lucy's father used both night and day. This was so evident from +the appearance of the place, that when I had, with James' help, put +Marmaduke to bed there, where he lay breathing heavily, but quite +unconscious, I went to the young lady of the house, and expressed my +apprehension that my poor friend, being in that apartment, would cause +additional inconvenience in the household. + +"I understand," said I, "that it is Mr. Gerard's room." + +"Ah, sir," said she, with a glance of pride more becoming, if that were +possible, than even her ordinary modest look, "you do not know my +father. When I say that it will give him the greatest pleasure to find +that his favourite room has been of service to your friend, I use a +conventional phrase which literally expresses what he will feel Please +to forget that there is anybody in this house but yourselves; it is only +right that sickness should be considered before health; though, alas! +every room to those who are ill is but an hospital. This little +drawing-room, which your glance tells me you think pretty, with its +conservatory and fountain, and the rest, my poor young sister was very, +very weary of before she died, on yonder sofa, after fourteen months of +the gay prison." + +Her voice trembled as she spoke, and I thought I detected in it that +shade of bitterness with which some affectionate persons speak of the +sufferings of those they love, as though they would almost arraign that +Providence for unnecessary harshness, which might inflict any misery +upon, themselves without evoking one impatient thought. + +"Then you are left all alone here, Miss Gerard. With such a sad +reminiscence, this spot must--" + +"Alone!" interrupted she, with astonishment. "What! when I have my +father? See, he is coming through the shrubbery now, and Dr. Sitwell +with him. Let us meet them. How glad I am that he has lost no time." + +It was easy to distinguish the doctor, with his cane, his ruffles, and +stiff professional appearance, a little impaired, however, by hot haste; +moreover, his companion indicated him with his finger as we rapidly +approached one another, exclaiming, "This is your man, young gentleman; +don't waste one word on me at present." + +So, rapidly detailing what had happened as we went, I took the man of +physic to Marmaduke's bedside. As we entered the room, and first caught +sight of his pale features distorted with pain, my companion stood for +an instant aghast. "Great Heaven!" murmured he, "I thought the horse had +trodden upon the poor lad's forehead; but now, I see it is an old scar." + +"No," returned I; "it is not a scar; it is only a mark which in moments +of pain or anger comes out more distinctly than at other times. All the +Heath family have it. This is Mr. Marmaduke Heath, the nephew of Sir +Massingberd." + +"Indeed--indeed, sir!" exclaimed the doctor with an accession of +sympathy. "Dear me, how sad! What a fine property to risk losing at his +time of life. But the eye, you see, gives us hope; the brain has +suffered but slightly. He has not been sick, you say--not been sick; he +has not been sick, sir." + +It was the worthy doctor's habit to reiterate his last sentence in an +arrogant manner, as though he had been contradicted on a matter of fact, +while in reality his mind was entirely occupied by quite other thoughts. +Thus, at the present speaking, he was engaged in manipulating +Marmaduke's head, and examining his ribs and limbs with the greatest +attention. I waited for his verdict in anxious silence, and presently it +was delivered. "It is my opinion, sir, that the young man will live to +be a baronet." + +Life and Death, the immortalities of Heaven and Hell, were matters that +had but small space in Doctor Sitwell's mind compared to this +all-important futurity; he was accustomed to <i>them</i> in connection with +the merest paupers and persons of no sort of consequence; but it was not +every day in the week that a gentleman of Marmaduke's condition was +pitched on his head within the Crittenden doctor's professional orbit. + +"Mr. Marmaduke Heath must be kept perfectly quiet; he must not be moved +from hence upon any consideration--it may be, for weeks. What science +can do, through my humble agency, shall be done for the young gentleman; +but rest and quiet are essential. Sir Massingberd should be sent for +instantly; the responsibility upon my shoulders would otherwise be too +great. He will doubtless yearn to be by the bedside of his beloved +nephew. You had better arrange with Mr. Gerard for this being done, as I +have my round to make, which to-day is all-important. The Hon. Mrs. +Flinthert--widow of the late admiral, you know--she requires constant +supervision; nature has to be supported; but for brandy, she must have +sunk before this. Then Mr. Broadacres, who lives Fairburn way--by the +by, that is a very curious case. However, my post is here, of course, +until my assistant arrives, who will remain in my absence. You may leave +your friend now without the least anxiety. When he awakes to +consciousness, you shall be sent for--you shall be sent for, sir." + +Upon this, I returned to the drawing-room to give a much more cheerful +report of the patient's case than I had ventured to anticipate. I found +our host issuing orders for his comfort and attendance, as though he had +quite made up his mind to make him his guest for a lengthened period. A +noble-looking gentleman he was, as like his daughter as an old man can +be to a young girl. Harvey Gerard's face was wrinkled neither by years +nor care, though marked here and there with those deep lines which +indicate the Thinker--one whom the gods have placed above the drudgery +of life, with a disposition to philosophize--a man among men rather than +of them, who stands apart from the high-road somewhere half-way up the +hill of Fortune, and watches the toilers above and below with a quiet +but not cynical smile. "The news you bring me of our patient, Mr. +Meredith," said he, "is most welcome; but I think we should still lose +no time in communicating with his friends." + +"That is also the opinion of Dr. Sitwell, sir; he, too, recommends that +my poor friend's nearest relative should be sent for; but in +circumstances of this kind, it would be wrong not to say at once that +that relative and the invalid here are on the worst of terms, and that +his coming would most certainly aggravate any bad symptoms, and retard +his cure." + +"I am sorry to hear," returned Mr. Gerard, gravely, "that the young +gentleman is not on good terms with his own flesh and blood; that is a +bad sign." + +"However that maybe, sir, generally," replied I, with warmth, "it is not +so in this instance. Mr. Long, the rector of Fairburn, and tutor to my +friend, will certify to his being a most well-conducted and excellent +youth. His uncle, however, Sir Massingberd Heath--" + +"I will not have that person under my roof," interrupted Mr. Gerard, +"under any circumstances whatsoever." This he said without the least +trace of irritation, but with a firmness and decision which left me +nothing to apprehend upon Marmaduke's account. Then turning to his +daughter, as if in explanation, he added, "The man I speak of, my love, +is a wicked ruffian--worse than any poor fellow who has ever dangled +yonder outside of Crittenden jail." + +Miss Gerard did not answer except by a look of gentle remonstrance, +which seemed to me to murmur, "But, dear papa, for all we know, this +gentleman may be a friend of his." + +I hastened, therefore, to observe with energy, that Mr. Gerard's view of +the baronet's character was a perfectly just one, as far as I knew, or, +if anything, rather lenient. I recommended that Mr. Long should be +apprised of what had happened, and that he should give Sir Massingberd +to understand that while his nephew was receiving every attention at the +Dovecot--for so I had learned the house was called--its doors were +immutably closed against himself. It was not a pleasant task to impose +upon the good rector, but it was a necessary one; for, independently of +Mr. Gerard's determination, I felt it was absolutely essential to +Marmaduke's life that his uncle should be kept away from his bedside. If +in health his presence terrified him, how much worse would it be for him +in his prostrate and perilous condition! It was arranged, too, that I +should remain to look after my sick friend, and the messenger was +instructed to bring back with him all that we required from the Rectory +and the Hall. Mr. Long arrived at the Dovecot late that same afternoon, +in a state of great anxiety. He had come away almost on the instant +after receiving the news of Marmaduke's mis-chance, and without seeing +Sir Massingberd, who had not yet returned from shooting; but he had left +a letter for him, explaining the circumstances as well as he could. "My +only fear," said he, after visiting his pupil, who still lay in a +lethargic slumber, "is that he will come here immediately, and insist on +seeing his nephew--a desire that would appear to be natural enough to +persons who are unacquainted with the circumstances." + +"Nay," said I; "but surely he cannot do this in the face of Mr. Gerard's +prohibition." + +"Ah, my boy, you do not know Sir Massingberd yet," observed my tutor, +gravely; "he will come where and when he will." + +"Nay," returned I; "but neither do you know Mr. Harvey Gerard. From what +I have seen of that gentleman, he understands how to say 'No,' and to +suit to the word the action. When the strong man armed keepeth his +house, his goods, including his sick guest, are in peace." + +"But where a stronger than he cometh," added the rector, shaking his +head, "what then?" + +"We shall see," said I, "what will happen. It is plain, at all events, +that our host is well aware of the sort of man with whom he has to deal. +Mr. Gerard is a most pleasant person, and his daughter is charming +beyond measure: they are far the most interesting people I have yet seen +about Fairburn. How is it I have never heard any mention of them?" + +"The Gerards have always lived a very retired life," returned my tutor. +"The old gentleman entertains, it is said, some strange opinions. In +fact, I have never met them myself but once, and that on some public +occasion; so you must introduce me, Peter." + +I had been watching for Mr. Long at the entrance-gate, and taken him +straight into Marmaduke's room upon his arrival, so that he had seen +neither our host nor hostess; and I thought it strange that my tutor did +not speak of them with more enthusiasm, after their great kindness to +Marmaduke; something evidently a little chilled his feelings towards +them. When he and Mr. Gerard met, I thought there was more cordiality +upon the part of the latter than of the former; the expression of Mr. +Long's gratitude was earnest, but not genial. His admiration of Miss +Lucy, although not to be concealed, was mitigated, as it seemed, by some +sort of compassion; he regarded her with a shade of sadness. Boy as I +was, it was evident to me that some antagonism existed between my +host--for whom I naturally entertained most kindly feelings--and my +respected tutor; and this troubled me more than I should have liked to +say. + +Miss Lucy presently left the drawing-room, and then I was continually +appealed to by one or the other, on various trifling matters, as though +they found a third party a relief to their conversation. At last Mr. +Long requested me to narrate particularly the circumstances of +Marmaduke's accident, and I did so, down to the period when I found him +bleeding on the road. + +"Well," observed my tutor, "I am totally at a loss to account for poor +Panther's behaviour. I confess, upon the first day I saw him, I did not +like the look of his eye: you remember, Peter, that I made Marmaduke +exchange horses with me, and endeavoured, by every means in my power, to +find out the peculiarities of the animal. I wish Sir Massingberd had +permitted me to choose a horse for his nephew myself, when I bought your +honest brown." + +"Sir Massingberd selected his nephew's horse himself, did he?" inquired +Mr. Gerard, carelessly. + +"Yes," replied my tutor; "he sent for him from town a few weeks ago. He +was a mettlesome frisky creature, it is true; but his curb was a very +powerful one, and seemed quite sufficient to subdue him." + +"Does Sir Massingberd himself ride when he is in the field?" observed +our host. "He must be a great weight for a shooting pony." + +"Well, if you had asked me yesterday, I should have said he almost never +rides; but it so happens that he did take the keeper's nag with him this +morning. His great stables are all empty now, for, as probably you are +aware, things are not kept up as they used to be at the Hall. Old Dobbin +is the only representative of the magnificent stud that was once +maintained there, now that Panther is dead. By the by, what has been +done with him?" + +"The carcass has been taken into the town," said Mr. Gerard. "He must +have been a fine creature." + +"His mouth, however, was of iron," said I. "Poor Marmaduke had no +control over him whatever, at last; he had almost pulled his arms off." + +"Notwithstanding the powerful bit?" observed Mr. Gerard. + +"Yes," replied my tutor; "the bit was not only powerful, I should have +almost called it cruel; but Sir Massingberd is a very good judge of all +things belonging to a horse, and seems to have known that, at all +events, no less was required. It was a town-made article, and came down +from London with the animal." + +"Ah, indeed," remarked Mr. Gerard. "But you have never told us, Mr. +Meredith, how you managed to give the alarm here, without leaving your +poor friend." + +I am ashamed to say I had never given the old gipsy crone a thought from +the moment that help arrived, although it was of her sending. + +"The very woman whose appearance frightened the horse, repaired, as far +as she could accomplish it, that mischief. She left in my hands, too, +this fine old case-bottle, of which I should be sorry to rob her; and +very curious is it that it has the Heath griffin, or some crest very +like that, upon its stopper." + +"It is the very crest," said the rector. "I am quite sure of that, +although it is long since it last saw plate-powder. It is but too likely +that the dark lady came wrongfully by it." + +"Let us not be hasty to impute crime," observed Mr. Gerard, gravely. +"This is a shooting-flask carried about the person; and gipsies are +rarely pickpockets. When the owner is at home, it lies in someplace of +safety; and gipsies are not burglars." + +"Ably reasoned," observed Mr. Long. "It may, however, have been a case +of 'findings, keepings,' as the school-boys say. I should think the +Cingari claimed for themselves all flotsam and jetsam." + +"It is too heavy, and has too much bulk, not to have been missed by him +who carried it as soon as it fell," continued Mr. Gerard, taking up the +flask. "It has but very little spirit left in it--see--and yet how--" + +Here the butler entered somewhat hurriedly, and was about to speak, when +a figure brushed by him, and set him aside. The daylight was beginning +to wane; but it was impossible to mistake that herculean form, and its +irresistible motion, even if I had not heard the harsh decisive voice +of Sir Massingberd saying, "By your leave, sirrah; but in this good +company I will announce <i>myself</i>!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +MEETING HIS MATCH. + + +Sir Massingberd's unlooked-for entrance into the drawing-room at the +Dovecot had a result that must seem almost farcical to those who read +it, but which to me, who dwelt among big trembling vassals, and had +learned, day by day, to fear and hate him more and more, had nothing in +it extraordinary. I, Peter Meredith, bolted straightway into the +conservatory, and there ensconced myself within the shadow of an +orange-tree, while the Rev. Matthew Long left the room with equal +celerity by the door. As for me, I confess that I was actuated by panic +on my own account; my tutor's apprehensions were aroused on behalf of +another. The instant after he disappeared, I heard the lock of the +library door shot into its staple, and knew that Marmaduke was in a +friend's keeping, and safe from any incursion of his uncle. I could see +that Mr. Gerard knew this too, for a gleam of pleasure passed over his +face, and then left it determined, defiant, and almost mocking, as when +he had first set eyes upon the intruder. There was a fire in the +otherwise darkening room, and from my place of concealment, I could +watch the lineaments of both its inmates--and two more resolved and +haughty countenances I had never beheld. + +"Is it the custom of your respectable family, Sir Massingberd Heath," +observed my host, "to force themselves into houses whose owners do not +desire the honour of their presence?" + +"It is their custom to hold their own, sir," answered the baronet +curtly; "and I am come after my nephew." + +It is impossible to convey the effect which this audacious speech had +upon me, its unseen hearer; unblushing, scornfully open as it was, an +awful threat seemed to lie within it, and above all, a consciousness of +the power to carry it into effect. Even Mr. Gerard, who could have had +no knowledge of the things that I knew, and had never heard the history +of Grimjaw, seemed to feel a tremor as he listened. + +"Your nephew, sir, is not in a condition to receive you," returned my +host. "The consequences of seeing you might, I do not hesitate to say, +be fatal to him." + +"The opinion of his medical man is different," observed Sir Massingberd +with a sneer. "Dr. Sitwell--a most estimable person, I should say, and +endowed with excellent sense--has been so very kind as to ride over +himself to Fairburn as soon as he could leave his patient, in order to +apprise me exactly how the matter stands. He recommends my seeing +Marmaduke in his first lucid interval--'There is no knowing,' said he, +'whether that may not be your poor dear nephew's last.'" + +"Your poor dear nephew," repeated Mr. Gerard, with great distinctness. +"Very dear, doubtless, but not what one would call poor, at least in the +matter of expectations." + +"Poor or rich, sir," retorted the other, "he has been placed in my hands +as being those most fitted to take care of him." + +Mr. Gerard shrugged his shoulders, and smiled sardonically. + +"You seem to conceive that confidence misplaced, sir," continued the +baronet. "The want of your good opinion afflicts me beyond measure. I +am aware that I fail to satisfy pious persons in some particulars, but +that Mr. Harvey Gerard's susceptibilities should be offended is indeed a +serious consideration; it is as though the devil himself should cry, +'For shame!'" + +"Sir Massingberd Heath, you are under my roof, although unbidden and +unwelcome," returned my host; "your tongue, therefore, is chartered, so +far as I am concerned. I could not, I confess, help my countenance +expressing some astonishment when you spoke of your fitness for the +education of youth." + +There was a pause here for which I could not account. Sir Massingberd's +eyes were riveted upon something on which the firelight danced and +shone. I should very much misrepresent the baronet's character, and +probably even exaggerate his capabilities, if I said he blushed, but +certainly his countenance changed. Then he broke out fiercely, "I live +as I choose, sir, and am answerable to no man, least of all to you. The +parsons had their say, and have got their reply long ago, but am I also +to be arraigned by--" + +"You cannot justify yourself by any quarrel with me," interrupted Mr. +Gerard. "I have, as you say, although not for the foolish reason you +would mention, no right to be either your judge or accuser. But, Sir +Massingberd, there is a God whom we have both good cause to fear." + +"So you make your own sermons, I perceive," exclaimed the other, +bitterly. "That is the reason, is it, why the good folks never see you +at church? Cant amuses me always; but religion out of your mouth is +humorous, indeed. Pray go on, sir, if my dear nephew can wait a little, +for I should be sorry to miss him altogether. You were affirming, I +think, the existence of a God." + +"I was about to urge," continued Mr. Gerard, with grave severity, "since +howsoever persons differ on religious matters, they generally +acknowledge a common Father, that if there is one crime more hateful to +Him than another, it is the deliberate debauchery of the mind of youth. +I had no intention of making any particular accusation, such as the +sight of this flask seems to have suggested to you. I know nothing--but +what I guess--of its history. It has only been in my hands a very few +minutes. The person by whose means it came into this house was, I +believe, an old gipsy woman, and you are, doubtless, well aware how it +got into her possession." + +Mr. Gerard paused. Sir Massingberd, who, though smiling scornfully, had +been beating the ground with his foot, here observed, with a forced +calmness, "She is a liar; she is a thief, and the mother of thieves." + +"Did she steal this flask?" inquired Mr. Gerard, regarding the other +attentively. "It has your crest upon it. She did not. Good. It was then, +I suppose, only a <i>gage d'amour</i> of yours." + +A lurid light came over Sir Massingberd's evil face; for a moment I +trembled for the man who dared to speak such words to him, but almost +instantly he recovered his usual cruel calm. + +"Your sagacity, Mr. Gerard," returned he, "is truly admirable. Is it the +result of experience or intuition? or has this old ginger-faced harridan +made you her favoured confidant? With your fondness for all such +vagabonds I am well acquainted." + +"The reprobation of a man like you, Sir Massingberd, should be dearer +than the praise of ordinary mortals; but this matter does not concern +myself in any way." + +The baronet muttered something between his set teeth. + +"Pshaw! man," continued Mr. Gerard, with unutterable scorn; "think not +to frighten <i>me</i>. I am stronger than you, because I am richer; you are +as poor as those very vagabonds whom you despise; your very existence +depends upon the alms of a stranger. That you are unscrupulous in your +revenges, I do not doubt; but you would have to deal in Harvey Gerard +with one who only uses honourable weapons with an honourable foe. If you +did me or mine a mischief, I swear to you that I would shoot you like a +dog." + +The frame of the speaker shook with contemptuous passion. Defiant as was +his language, it fell far short of the disdain expressed in his tone +and manner. It was not in Sir Massingberd's nature to be overawed, but +his truculent features no longer maintained their grimness--their cruel +humour. He could not put aside a man like Gerard with a brutal jest. I +do not say that he was conscious of his own inferiority, but he knew +that his opponent not only did not fear, but actually despised him. This +was wormwood. + +"I am ashamed," continued Mr. Gerard, after a pause, "to have lost my +temper with you, Sir Massingberd, upon my own account. I wish to have +nothing in common with you--not even a quarrel. We were speaking of this +gipsy woman, and you called her thief, and what not. Whatever may be her +faults, however, it does not become you to dwell on them; but for her +and her prompt assistance, your nephew would not at this moment be +alive. Out of this very flask she administered to him--" So frightful +an execration here broke from the baronet's lips that I anticipated it +to be the prelude to a personal assault upon my host. Mr. Gerard, +however, stood quietly stirring the fire, with his eyes fixed firmly but +calmly on those of Sir Massingberd, just as a mad doctor might regard a +dangerous patient. + +"That is a very singular exclamation of gratitude," observed Mr. Gerard, +sardonically, "to one who has just performed you--or at least +<i>yours</i>--so great a service. It really seems as though you almost +regretted that it <i>was</i> performed." + +A look of deadly hatred had now taken the place of all other expressions +on the baronet's face. It forgot even to wear its sneer. + +"I have been insulted enough, I think," said he, with a calmness more +terrible than wrath. "Even as it is, I shall scarcely be able to +requite you, though, be sure, I will do my best. But, with respect to my +errand, I am come here to see my nephew, and that I will do." + +"That you shall not do, Sir Massingberd, so surely as this house is +mine." + +"And who shall prevent me?" exclaimed the baronet, contemptuously +measuring his foe from head to foot. + +"Not I, sir, indeed," returned Mr. Gerard; "but I will see that my +servants put you out of doors by force," and as he spoke he laid his +hand upon the bell. + +"Before night, then, I shall send for Marmaduke, and he shall be carried +back to Fairburn, which, after all, is his proper home, and be there +nursed." + +"Nursed!" repeated my host, hoarsely. "Nursed by the grave-digger, you +mean." + +Sir Massingberd turned livid and sat down; then, as one who acts in his +sleep, he passed his handkerchief once or twice across his forehead. +"How dare you speak such things to me?" said he, looking round about +him. "To hear you talk, one would think that I had tried to murder the +boy." + +"I <i>know</i> you did," cried Mr. Gerard, solemnly, laying his finger upon +the baronet's arm. "If your nephew, Marmaduke, dies, his blood is on +your head." + +"On mine! how on mine? How, in the name of all the devils, could I have +hindered the lad's horse from running away with him?" + +"I will tell you how. You might have suffered Mr. Long to purchase a +horse for the boy, as he offered to do, and not have sent to London for +a confirmed run-away." + +"He rode it half a dozen times without any harm," replied Sir +Massingberd, sullenly. + +"Yes, with a curb that would have tamed a wild horse fresh from the +lasso. But when you took that curb for the keeper's pony, riding with +gun in hand for the first time in your life--and sent your nephew forth +upon that devil with a snafflebridle--nay, I have it yonder, sir--don't +lie; you calculated that if what you wished should happen all would be +laid to chance. A change of bridles is an accident like enough to +happen; lads are thrown from horseback every day. See, I track your +thoughts like slime. Base ruffian! rise; begone from beneath this roof, +false coward--" + +Sir Massingberd started up like one stung by an adder. + +"Yes, I say coward! Heavens! that this creature should still feel the +touch of shame! Be off, be off; molest not any one within this house, +at peril of your life--murderer--murderer!" + +Without a word, without a glance of reply, Sir Massingberd seized his +hat, and hurried from the room. I felt some alarm lest he should make +some violent effort to visit Marmaduke; but Mr. Gerard's countenance +gave me comfort. He stood quite still, listening with grim satisfaction +to the baronet's retreating footsteps. + +They were heard for an instant striding along the floor of the hall, and +then were exchanged for the sound of his horse's hoofs urged to speed +along the carriage-drive. Sir Massingberd Heath had met for once with +his match--and more. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MR. HARVEY GERARD. + + +So entirely engrossed had I been with the action and dialogue of the +speakers in the preceding scene, that it scarcely struck me while it was +going on that I had not paid for my place in the pit in the usual +fashion, but was a mere eavesdropper under an orange-tree. + +So soon as Sir Massingberd was really gone, however, I became conscious +of the impropriety of my situation, and not wishing to own what I had +done, I stole noiselessly out into the garden, and then re-entered the +conservatory, and thereby the drawing-room, as though I had been out of +sight and hearing all the time. It was not quite a chivalrous act; but I +do not think that the boys of my time, myself included, were quite so +honourable and frank as Mr. Tom Brown describes those of the present day +to be. There was something, moreover, about Mr. Harvey Gerard which told +me he would have loathed a listener, nor would have been very ready to +have accepted fear as any excuse for my conduct. He was a man of noble +bearing, nearly six feet in height, and extremely well formed. He was +dressed in a blue lapelled coat, light waistcoat and kerseys, and +Hessian boots. These last I had not seen before upon any person, and I +remember them well. I think they were the most graceful covering for the +leg that has yet been devised, although, I own, they may not have been +so convenient as the modern knickerbockers. He wore his own grey +hair--which was not very usual with persons of his rank of life--and +rather long. His features were large, but handsome; and there was a kind +of youthful blandness about them which gave his face a most agreeable +expression in ordinary. When excited by passion, however, as I had +lately seen him, his appearance greatly changed. His thin lips parted +contemptuously, and showed his threatening teeth, while his blue eyes, +gentle almost to dreaminess, became blood-streaked, and almost started +from their sockets. As I now beheld him calmly kindling a lamp on the +drawing-room table, no one could have been a greater contrast than +himself to the man who had just driven Sir Massingberd Heath from the +room with such a hail-storm of invective. + +"Well, young gentleman," exclaimed he, cheerfully, "the enemy is +repulsed, you see, although, I confess, your friend the baronet is +rather a formidable fellow. He's uncommonly like Front de Boeuf. I +daresay you have read the new romance of 'Ivanhoe,' have you not?" + +"Marmaduke has, sir, I believe," replied I; "but I am sorry to say I am +no great reader." + +"That is not well, Mr. Meredith; youth is the time for reading. A +knowledge of books, if they are sufficiently varied, is half-way towards +the knowledge of men. It is true that a student may turn out a fool, +because he may have been a book-worm; but the probability is greater of +that misfortune befalling one who has been 'no great reader.' I would +not say so much, if you were older than you are, and had not plenty of +time before you to redeem the past. There is nothing more contemptible +than ignorance; save, perhaps"--here he sighed--"than knowledge +misapplied. What a dangerous villain would that man be, for instance, +who has just been here, had his natural powers been cultivated by study. +As it is, he rushes headlong, like the bull." Here he turned upon me +gaily. "Did he ever toss you, my young friend?" + +"Well, sir," returned I, remembering that interview in the churchyard, +"he bellowed at me once a little." + +"Did he, my boy, did he?--the cowardly brute! Well, I've put a ring +through his nose for a considerable time to come, I flatter myself. I +<i>like</i> a bull-fight. I think I should have made a capital matador," +cried Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands and laughing. + +"How did you--how did you manage to <i>ring</i> him, sir?" inquired I, with +hesitation, for I was curious to see whether Mr. Gerard would make me a +confidant of what had passed. + +"Oh, I watched him carefully--never took my eyes off him for a moment. +When he was calm in his white malice, then I irritated him by waving my +red flag--this silver-headed brandy-flask put him in a horrible rage. +When he made his rushes, I stood aside, and let him go where he would. +When he had exhausted himself, I stepped in, and gave him the steel. I +wonder," soliloquized Mr. Gerard, aloud, as he slowly paced up and down +the room--"I wonder if it would be safe to give him the <i>coup de +grace</i>!" + +"But," said I, "were you not afraid--" + +"My dear young friend," said my host, with seriousness, but placing his +hand kindly upon my shoulder, "an honest man should never be afraid of a +fellow-creature. 'Fear God,' it is written; but even the king is only +to be honoured." + +It is impossible to express the grave and noble air with which Mr. +Gerard spoke those words: I felt such an affectionate awe of him from +that moment, as no other person has ever inspired within me. + +"But," continued I, "supposing he had made a personal assault upon you: +he is perfectly reckless, and a much more powerful man, I should think." + +"Very true, my young friend; and indeed at one time I thought he would +certainly have done it; that was why I placed the poker in the fire. It +would not have been a romantic action; but so sure as he laid finger +upon me, I would have played Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and 'burned a hole in +him one might put a kail-pat through.' It would have give me genuine +pleasure." + +"Burned a hole in Sir Massingberd!" cried I aghast. + +"Ay, that would I. As it was, I threatened him with my servants; and had +he ventured to force his way into yonder room, they should have flogged +him, though he were ten times Sir Massingberd. Better men than he are +often flogged for less offences. Did you hear of Admiral Flinthert's +funeral at Crittenden a month ago or so? You did; and I daresay you were +told that he was a good man and a brave sailor." + +"So it was said, indeed, sir," replied I. "Mr. Long attended the funeral +out of respect, and I believe a great number of gentlemen of the +county." + +"Yet, for all that, he was a bad man, and a coward," returned Mr. +Gerard, his voice rising, and his blue eyes flashing with indignation. +"One part of the naval creed--'to hate the French'--it is true, he did +believe, and acted in that faith; but he omitted the other, and the more +important, 'to hate the devil.' He loved and served the devil of his own +arrogant passions; he made the men miserable over whom he ruled; his +ship was called the Floating Hell. When the carriage of the +lord-lieutenant had driven away from the church, with all its load of +sympathy--for there was nothing else inside it--and the county gentry +were rolling homewards, congratulating themselves that they had paid due +reverence to a gallant officer and a friend of order and good +government, I will tell you what happened. The very evening those +honoured remains were laid in their resting-place, a sailor called at +the house of old Marks, the sexton, and begged to be shown the admiral's +coffin. 'I have sailed with him for years,' said he, 'and I have made +right away from Portsmouth on purpose to do this; and though I cannot +see his face, I should like at least to look upon that which contains +it.' + +"Now, old Marks did not fancy unlocking the church, and descending into +a damp vault; beside which, he had really no right to enter the last +home of the Flintherts without due occasion. So said he, 'I cannot admit +you to where the admiral lies, and certainly not at this hour; it is as +much as my place is worth.' + +"Then the sailor, who was as fine and hearty-looking a man, said Marks, +as need be, held up half a sovereign between his finger and thumb. 'I +have been just paid off,' said he, 'and will gladly give you this for +your trouble; while as for your scruples, why, don't you think the +admiral's family here, and all his great friends who came to do him +honour to-day, would be glad enough that a poor tar should pay a humble +tribute to his memory?' + +"'Well,' said Marks, regarding, I daresay, the half-sovereign, rather +wistfully, 'what you have just said seems certainly to alter the matter. +I will take you to the church, and you shall see the coffin, for the +vault is not yet sealed.' + +"So they started with a lantern, and Marks was for going first to show +the way, but the sailor went ahead, saying that he knew the road +blindfold, for that he had been brought up in that neighbourhood, and +knew it well. + +"'Well,' said old Marks, 'I thought I recognized something about you, +although you are much changed in the last twenty years. You are Will +Moody, who got into trouble with Sir Wentworth Heath about poaching; +only he couldn't quite prove it agin you.' + +"'No,' returned the sailor; 'but he went to work by a surer way than +even the law--he got me pressed when I went to visit my sister down at +Deal.' + +"That, my young friend," observed Mr. Gerard, interrupting himself, "is +a method by which not only we man our fleet, but rid the country of a +number of obnoxious persons."[1] + +"'Yes,' continued the sailor, 'I was pressed; if it had not been for +that I should not have sailed under Admiral Flinthert.' He spoke no more +till they had entered the church, and had moved away the stone, which +had been only dropped, and not yet fastened over the mouth of the vault. +Then they descended the steps, and old Marks turned his lantern on to +the spot where the first--that is, the latest--coffin of the long row +was lying. 'That is the admiral's,' said he; 'you may read his name upon +the silver plate.' + +"William Moody spelled it out aloud, so as to be quite sure. 'Well,' +said he, 'I will tell you a little story about that dead man, and then +we will come away.' + +"'Tell us the story when we get home,' replied the sexton. + +"'No, no, man; I will tell it here, else you would think ill of me, may +be, for what I am going to do. Now listen. For a long time after I was +pressed, I hated and detested what I had to do, and also those who gave +me my orders; but after a bit I got more used to the work, and some of +the officers I learned to like very well, especially our captain. I was +a strong active fellow, without home-ties to think upon and sadden me, +for mother had other sons to maintain her, and in that respect I was +luckier than most. There were pressed men on board of the same ship, +man, whose wives and helpless children were starving because their +bread-winner was taken from them, and who knew not whether he was dead +or alive. However, as I say, I soon got used to my new position, and +became so good a sailor that I was made what is called captain of the +main-top. When our ship was paid off, which was not, however, for a long +time, I liked the salt water so well, that after I had been home for a +little, I volunteered to serve again. + +"'My next captain was this man who lies here. He was as cruel a tyrant +as ever trod a quarter-deck, and a terror to good and bad alike. You +could never please him, do what you would. If an officer is worth his +salt at all, he knows and respects those men who do their duty well +under him. Captain Flinthert knew, but did not respect them; on the +contrary, he behaved towards them as though he resented some imaginary +claims on their part to his consideration. I held in his ship the same +position that I held in the last, for it did not contain a more active +sailor. Yet he found occasion--I should rather say he made it--to get me +punished. I swear to you that I had not committed even that slight fault +which he laid to my charge; if I had done so, it was one for which the +stopping of a day's grog would have been chastisement enough. This +ruffian'--here he smote the coffin with his clenched hand--'ordered me +three dozen lashes. Now, I had never been flogged yet, and when I went +to the captain with almost tears in my eyes, and told him so, and that I +had never even been reported for misconduct, he replied with a sneer +that I was too good by half, and that it was high time I should become +acquainted with the cat-o'-nine tails. "To prevent mistakes, you shall +have it at once," said he: "call up the boatswain's mate." Now, I +thought to myself, in the pride of my manliness and independence, that +such a disgrace should never happen to William Moody, but that I would +die first; so I walked straight from that part of the deck where I had +been speaking with Captain Flinthert, and leaped from the bulwarks into +the sea. I believed I tried at first to drown myself, but I was a strong +swimmer, and nature compelled me presently to strike out. The cry of "A +man overboard!" had caused the boat to be lowered at once, and though we +had been sailing very fast, I was picked up, not much exhausted, and +almost in spite of myself. As soon as I had got on board, and put on dry +things, the captain sent for me on deck, where I found the boatswain's +mate at the grating, and all hands piped for punishment. "William +Moody," said that ruffian in a mocking voice, "I had ordered you three +dozen lashes for a certain offence, but you have now committed a much +graver one in endangering, by your late act, the life of one of his +majesty's sailors; you will therefore now receive <i>six</i> dozen instead. +Boatswain, do your duty." + +"'I was, therefore, tied up and punished. I don't think I suffered much +at the time, although I was laid up in the sick ward for long +afterwards. I was entirely occupied with thoughts of revenge. When I was +able to get about again, Captain Flinthert had got another ship, and was +away out of my reach. I never met him, again, or he would not have lived +to the age that is inscribed on yonder plate; but as soon as I heard +that he was dead, I swore to come and spit upon the tyrant's coffin.' + +"Then the sailor suited the action to the word, and turned from the +dishonoured corpse with a lighter step than that with which he had +approached it; and old Marks followed him from the vault, as he +confessed to me himself, 'half frightened out of his wits.'" + +"I do not wonder," said I to Mr. Gerard, "it was a terrible revenge." + +"Ay, but how much worse was the provocation; from the very man, too, +placed in authority of him, whose duty was to foster, not to oppress +him. Verily, they that are in honour, and understand not, are as the +beasts that perish." + +"True," returned I, "but then the wretch was dead." + +"Just so, young sir," replied Mr. Gerard, impetuously, "was dead, and +never felt the insult. The sailor felt both the insult and the lashes. +How is it that, at your age, you have already learned to be the +apologist of the rich in high places?" + +"Nay, sir, I--?" + +"Yes, <i>you</i>," continued my host with vehemence; "your pity is for the +admiral, and does not descend to the captain of the maintop. Still," +added he, in a milder tone, "I should not judge you harshly, even if you +so judge others. You were brought up in India, were you not? where in +the eyes of the cowering natives, to be white is to be powerful, and +wise, and all in all--save to be good. Great heavens, what a retribution +is waiting for us there!" Again my host paced the room, but this time +rapidly, wildly, and uttering exclamations like a sibyl inspired by her +god. "If the nabobs we see here are specimens of those who rule the +East, Heaven help the ruled! What blindness, what infatuation! Do you +know, young man, the very men that cause revolutions am the last to +believe in them?" This was an observation so entirely beyond me, that I +could only murmur that such was doubtless the case, although I did not +remember having heard it remarked before. "It is so," continued Mr. +Gerard, positively, "and it always has been so. It was so in France. I +suppose you have always been taught to consider the French Republicans +the vilest and wickedest of men, and the Revolution to be the mother +that produced them at one monstrous birth. Yes, when the day of +reckoning comes, and the ruin is undeniable, Democracy, forsooth, is +blamed. The taunt is hurled-- + + '"Behold the harvest that we reap + From popular government and equality!" + Whereas, in truth, 'tis neither these, nor aught + Of wild belief ingrafted on their names + By false philosophy, have caused the woe, + But a terrific reservoir of guilt + And ignorance, filled up from age to age, + That can no longer hold its loathsome charge, + But bursts, and spreads in deluge through the land.' + +High truth embalmed in noble verse, yet no one heeds. The author of +those lines, my friend, is the greatest poet in Great Britain, and has +never possessed an income of a hundred pounds a year. They say that my +Lord Castlereagh has thirty thousand...--Stay, do you not hear wheels? +That must be Sitwell's gig. I have not the patience to see him now. His +sycophantic officiousness in fetching Sir Massingberd was too +contemptible. How can a man who has two legs given him to stand upright +upon, persist in grovelling through life upon all-fours? + + 'Heaven grant the man some noble nook; + For, rest his soul! he'd rather be + Genteelly damned beside a duke + Than saved in vulgar company.' + +Do you receive him, Mr. Meredith; and tell him from me that it is no +thanks to him that his patient is yet alive. Now that the siege is +raised, I will just step in and see how the lad is getting on." + +My host had left the room only a few seconds when Dr. Sitwell entered +it. + +"My dear young friend!" exclaimed he, in an excited manner, "what on +earth has happened to Sir Massingberd Heath? He very nearly rode me down +ten minutes ago on Crittenden Common; and when I inquired after his +nephew, he replied--Well, I cannot repeat the exact words, because they +are so excessively shocking. Why, he must be out of his mind with grief! +I trust he did nothing impetuous, nothing that is to be regretted, +here?" + +"No, sir," replied I; "he did not, thanks to our good host, who +withstood all his attempts to see his nephew. It was, however, most +indiscreet of you to send him hither. Mr. Harvey Gerard was exceedingly +annoyed by your doing so." + +"My dear young friend," observed Dr. Sitwell, sinking his voice to a +confidential whisper, "Mr. Harvey Gerard is annoyed at many things which +would give most sensible persons a great deal of pleasure. He would as +soon admit a rattle-snake within his doors as a man of title, unless, +indeed, it be his friend, Sir Charles Wolseley. By the by, it is to Sir +Charles that my dear patient, Mr. Broadacres, is indirectly indebted for +his wound. If Sir Charles had not convened that revolutionary meeting at +Bangton, Mr. Broadacres would not have had to read the Riot Act, and +eventually got shot by mistake by his own men. It is denied by the +government, I perceive, that ball was fired by the troops at the first +discharge; but between ourselves such was certainly the case; for I +extracted the bullet from poor Mr. B. myself, and he has had to lie upon +his face ever since. Good heavens, sir, what a position for a man whose +family came in with the Conqueror!" + +"Is this Sir Charles Wolseley, then, of whom one reads so much in the +papers, a friend of Mr. Gerard's?" said I. "I have heard Mr. Long remark +that he was a very dangerous man." + +"So he is, sir. He'll be hung some day, as sure as he lives. And the +gentleman in whose house we stand is tarred with the same brush. It's +terrible to think of. Why, do you know, Mr. Meredith, that Mr. Harvey +Gerard goes the length"--here the doctor looked about him to be sure +that we were alone, and placing his lips close to my ear, whispered +solemnly, "of wearing a white hat!" + +"Gracious goodness," returned I, "why shouldn't he? My father always +wears a white hat in India." + +"Yes; but <i>let me tell you this</i>, India is not England," observed the +doctor, sagaciously. "A white hat here is the badge of Radicalism, +Republicanism, Atheism--I don't say that Mr. Gerard is a downright +atheist, but he's a sectary, and that's nearly as bad. And hark ye, I +know this for certain: the only reason why Henry Hunt himself is not +hand and glove with our friend is this, that when Hunt was tried for his +life for sedition, he came into the dock, like a prudent man, with a +black hat, and that is the one act of caution and good sense for which +Mr. Gerard has never forgiven him." + + +[1] This sarcasm was founded on literal truth; I myself remember a time +when Englishmen submitted to a system of oppression almost precisely +similar to that which has of late driven the Poles to insurrection, and +enlisted for them the sympathies of Europe--namely, a forced +conscription, the subjects of which are <i>selected</i>. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LOVE THE LIFEGIVER. + + +It was about four o'clock in the morning, or nearly twelve hours after +his frightful fall, that Marmaduke Heath first woke to consciousness. +Mr. Long and myself were passing the night in his apartment, which was a +very roomy one, my tutor upon a sofa, and I in a comfortable arm-chair. +I had begged that for that once at least it should be so, for I knew the +dear lad would like to set his eyes upon me when he first opened them. +Dr. Sitwell and his assistant, both agreed that if he woke at all from +his heavy stertorous slumber, it would be in his sane mind; and it was +so. Mr. Long was asleep, but I had so much to think about in the +occurrences and disclosures of the preceding evening, that slumber had +refused to visit me. + +I was as unused as happy youth in general is to sleeplessness. I did not +know at that time what it is to lay head upon pillow only to think upon +the morrow with a brain that has done its day's work, and would fain be +at rest; or worse, only to let the past re-enact itself under the +wearied eyelids; to watch the long procession of vanished forms again +fill the emptied scenes, and yet to be conscious of their unreality. How +different in this respect alone is the experience of age and youth, and +again of poverty and competence! A young man in tolerable circumstances, +and who does not chance to be a sportsman, may never have seen the sun +rise, that commonest of splendid spectacles to all men of humble +station. For my own part, I had never done so in England until the +occasion of which I speak, and I remember it very particularly. The +weary time spent in listening to the various noises of the house, now to +those consequent upon the retiring to rest of its inmates, and then to +those more mysterious ones which do not begin till afterwards--the +crickets on the hearth, the mice in the wainscot, the complaining of +chairs and wardrobes, and the clocks, which discourse in quite another +fashion than they do in the day. The slow hours consumed in watching the +rushlight spots, first on the floor and then on the wall, and at last +exchanged for the cool grey dawn, stealing in through cranny and crack, +and showing my companions still in the land of dreams; later yet the +drowsy crowing of cocks, and presently, as the light grows and grows, +notwithstanding shutter and curtain, the indescribably welcome song of +the early robin, the busy chirping of the house-sparrow, followed by the +whole tuneful choir of birds; then the lowing of cattle in the distance, +and the distant barking of the watch-dog, so strangely different from +that sad and solitary howl with which the same animal breaks the awful +stillness of the night. About four, I say, as I looked for the +thousandth time towards Marmaduke's bed, I saw him sitting up supporting +himself on his elbow, and pushing his other hand across his brow, as if +trying to call to mind where he was. In an instant I was at his bedside. +"Marmaduke, I am here," said I; "Peter Meredith." + +"I am not at Fairburn Hall, am I?" asked he, in a hoarse whisper. + +"No, Marmaduke, you are amongst friends." + +"Then <i>he</i> is not here," gasped he--"nowhere near." + +"He is miles away, my friend, and he will never come under this roof." + +"Thank Heaven--thank Heaven!" cried the poor boy, sinking back upon the +pillow; "it was only a dreadful dream, then. I shall die happy." + +"You need not talk of dying, Marmaduke. On the contrary, let us hope you +are about to begin a life unshadowed, natural, without fear." + +"No, Peter, I must die. I feel that; but what is death to what I have +been dreaming? Do you remember that poem which came down in the box of +books, from Mr. Clint, last week, about a wretched man that was bound +upon a wild horse and sent adrift in the Ukraine?" And then he repeated +with some difficulty-- + + "'How fast we fled, away, away, + And I could neither sigh, nor pray, + And my cold sweat-drops fell like rain + Upon the courser's bristling mane, + But snorting still with rage and fear, + He flew upon his far career; + At times I almost thought indeed, + He must have slackened in his speed; + But no; my bound and slender frame + Was nothing to his angry might, + And merely like a spur became.' + +Well, Peter, that was I. But instead of the wolves which followed upon +<i>his</i> track, it was my uncle Massingberd who followed <i>me</i>. He had +chosen to kill me as the Count Palatine would have killed Mazeppa, but +he wanted also to see it done. + + 'All through the night I heard his feet, + Their stealing rustling step repeat.' + +Great Heaven, I hear them now!" + +"Nay, Marmaduke, it is only I, your old tutor," said Mr. Long, tenderly, +who had not been able to leave his sofa entirely without noise. "You +must not give way to these fancies; you had a fall from Panther, that +is all." + +"Ay," returned the poor boy, "it <i>was</i> Panther, only I thought he was a +wild horse, and not my pony at all. + + 'But though my cords were wet with gore, + Which oozing through my limbs ran o'er; + And in my tongue the thirst became + A something fiercer far than flame;' + +that was nothing; nothing to the knowledge that that man was close +behind. Now that I am awake, I feel bruised from head to heel, my bones +ache, my head seems as though it were about to burst, but that is +nothing to--" the poor lad could not finish the sentence, but exclaimed +with piteous vehemence--"do, Mr. Long, do promise me that I shall never +see him more." + +"You shall never see him more, if I can help it," returned my tutor, +with unusual energy. "Yes, I think I can promise that you never shall." +I well knew that so cautious a man as Mr. Long would not have said so +much without full warrant; it was evident to me at once that he had +heard from Mr. Gerard all that had passed between that gentleman and the +baronet in the drawing-room, and was now determined to act with vigour +in Marmaduke's behalf. Perhaps the coincidence of the lad's dream with +what had in fact occurred, may have helped my tutor's decision, but now +that he had once passed his word, I felt sure that he would stand by +Marmaduke to the last. + +The sick boy seemed to feel this too, for he uttered many expressions of +gratitude and contentment, while he kept fast hold of his new +protector's hand. + +"But mind, Marmaduke, you must now make haste and get well, and not give +way to despondency about yourself. I am going for the doctor, who is +sleeping in the house, and whom I promised to call as soon as you +awoke; and, Peter, don't you let him talk too much. For a boy like that +to talk of death," added Mr. Long, aloud, as he drew on his slippers, +"is to go half-way to meet it." + +Marmaduke smiled feebly at this remark of his unconscious tutor's, and +when he had left the room, observed, "There is no need of any doctors; +this is my death-bed, Meredith, I know." + +"Marmaduke," replied I, gravely, "I will not listen to such dreadful +things; it is wrong, it is wicked, it will do you harm." + +"No, Peter, there is nothing dreadful in the thing I mean, and it seems +to soothe me when I speak of it. Since I have been ill, I have had a +sign that tells me I must go. We shall not grow up together to be +friends through life, as we had planned. I shall watch you perhaps--I +hope I shall--and be happy in your happiness, but you will soon forget +<i>me</i>. There will be a thousand things for you to think of; there have +been such even now for you while <i>I</i>--it seems hard, does it not, Peter, +that I should have grown up under the shadow of that man, and never felt +the Sunshine? They say that boyhood is the blithest time of life, but I +have never been a boy. I think I could almost tell him, if he stood here +now, how he has poisoned my young life, and sent me to the grave without +one pleasant memory to moisten my dying eyes. Yes, my friend, dying. I +have seen a vision in the night far too sweet and fear not to have been +sent from heaven itself. If there indeed be angels, such was she. They +say the Heaths have always ghastly warnings when their hour is come, but +this was surely a gentle messenger. I close my eyes and see that smile +once more." + +"Has she hair of golden brown?" inquired I, gravely, "and hazel eyes, +large and pitiful, and does she smile sad and sweet as though one's pain +would soon be over?" + +"That is she, that is she," exclaimed Marmaduke, eagerly, while from his +heavy eyelids the light flashed forth as from a thunder-cloud; "oh, tell +me who and what she is!" + +"Her name is Lucy Gerard," replied I, quietly, "and we are, at this +moment, in her father's house." + +Marmaduke's mention of her smile had revealed to me the secret alike of +dream and vision. He must have been dimly conscious of the catastrophe +that had occurred to him throughout, although he had confused himself, +poor fellow, with Mazeppa, and the daughter of our host with a vision +from the skies. His eyes were now closed, and with features as pale as +the pillow on which he lay, he was repeating to himself her name as +though it were a prayer. + +"Marmaduke," said I, "we will talk no more, since it exhausts you thus; +I hear Mr. Long returning with the doctor, be of good heart, and keep +your thoughts from dwelling--" + +"Yes," interrupted he, as though he would prevent the very mention of +that grisly king of whom he had been but now conversing so familiarly, +"I will, I will. It would indeed be bitter to die <i>now</i>." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +WOOING BY PROXY. + + +The medical report of Marmaduke Heath was more than cheering; it was +confident. "One of the very best features of that young man's case is +this," said Dr. Sitwell, "he does not give way. Foolish youths of his +age will sometimes, as it were, fall in love with Death, until it is +absolutely close beside them, poor fellows, when they shrink from him +like the best of us." + +"You should rather say the worst of us, Dr. Sitwell," observed my tutor. + +"Well, sir, as far as my experience goes," returned the doctor, +cheerfully, "and I have 'assisted,' as Mr. Gerard here will have +it, at the demise of many persons of the very first respectability, few +of us are apt to welcome death; the majority, contrary to what is +vulgarly believed, pay him no sort of attention whatsoever." + +"And yet," remarked Mr. Harvey Gerard, slily, "he came over before the +Conqueror, and possesses a considerable amount of land all over the +country." + +"True, sir, true," replied the doctor, gravely; "and those are +attributes which should always command respect. With regard, however, to +our young patient, he seems determined, notwithstanding his sufferings, +to be cheerful, and bear up. I have told him how essential it is to do +so, and the young gentleman is most reasonable, I am sure. 'I do not +want to die, I wish to live,' were his very words--a most satisfactory +and sensible state of mind. Fairburn Hall--he did not say this, but I +knew what was passing through his brain quite well--Fairburn Hall, and +one of the oldest baronetcies in the kingdom, are something to live +<i>for</i>--that is a great point in cases of this kind." + +I am sure I felt thankful and glad to hear this account of my dear +friend; yet I could not help wishing that Dr. Sitwell had been as +correct in the cause of Marmaduke's clinging to life, as in the fact +itself. For I too was stricken with love for Lucy Gerard, and would have +laid down my life to kiss her finger tip. It is the fashion now to jeer +at that which is called First Love, as though affection were not worth +having until it has first exhausted itself upon a score of objects; nay, +perhaps, the thing itself is as extinct as the Dodo. In my day, however, +the Great Three-Hundred-a-Year Marriage-Question was not yet broached, +and gentlemen did not complainingly publish their rejections at the +hands of the fair sex in the "Times" newspaper. Nearly half a century +has passed over my head since the time of which I write, and has not +spared its snows, and yet, I swear to you, my old heart glows again, and +on my withered cheek there comes a blush as I call, to mind the time +when first I met that pure and fair young girl. + +The worship of a lad is never lasting, it is said, although I know not +upon what authority--society so seldom permitting the experiment to be +made, that the <i>dictum</i> can hardly be established; but while it does +last, at least, how clear and steady is the incense! how honest is the +devotion! how complete the sacrifice! Since I have been an old fogey, it +has been confided to me by more than one ancient flirt that they still +experience a rapture when they chance to catch the affection of a boy. +They are kinder to him than they are to older men; they let him down +easy; they respect the infatuation which they themselves have long lost +the power of entertaining. How delicious, then, must such a conquest be +to a maiden of seventeen! I claim for myself the possession of no +tenderer nor truer feelings than other lads, but I know that a queen +might have accepted the heart-homage which I paid to Lucy Gerard. And +never was fealty more disinterested. I have written down not a little to +my discredit; let me then say this much in my own favour. From the +moment that Marmaduke Heath spoke to me as he did, upon his bed of +sickness, of our host's daughter, I determined within myself not only to +stand aside, and let him win her if he could, but to help him by all +means within my power. If he lived for her alone, should I endeavour to +slay him? If a promise, however distant, of a bright and happy future +seemed at length to be held out for him whose life had been so saddened +and so bitter, should I strive to make it void? I could not <i>afford</i> to +lose her; no. I would have given all that I had in the world to hear her +whisper, "I love you;" I would have beggared myself, I say, for those +mere words; but could <i>he</i>, poor lad, afford the loss of her so well? + +Doubtless, in modern eyes, we both appear mere foolish victims of +calf-love; green hobbardy-hoys, dazzled with the first flutter of a +petticoat. As for me, let it be so received, and welcome, although, my +young male readers, this is to be said, You never saw Lucy Gerard. +Otherwise you would wonder little at my--well, at my poor folly. But +with respect to Marmaduke, it must be admitted that his was not an +ordinary case. Although a boy in years, he had long been sitting on the +shores of old romance, and had probably more of the divine faculty for +Love within him than all the ardent souls of five-and-thirty put +together, who are at this moment turning their eyes about them for a +suitable young person with whose income to unite their own. Since his +mother died, he had scarcely beheld a virtuous woman, with the exception +of dear Mrs. Myrtle, the housekeeper at the Rectory, whose appearance +was calculated to excite respect rather than the sentimental emotions; +and now he had suddenly been brought face to face with one whose equal +for form and feature, for gentleness and graciousness, for modesty and +courage, these eyes have never yet beheld. I have done. There shall be +no more ecstasies, reader; an old man thanks you that you have borne +with his doting garrulity even thus long. + +Since the days of Earl Athelwold, and probably long before them, the +wooing by proxy has been held to be a perilous undertaking; we cannot +take the fingers of a fair lady within our own, and say, "This is not my +hand at all," as though we were Bishop Berkeley; or still more, "This is +somebody else's hand," which it manifestly is not. If credit is to be +given to such protestations at all, there is no knowing where to stop; +and yet we must be doing something tender, or we are not performing our +duty as deputy. But how tenfold are the dangers of this enterprise, when +the delegate of another has at one time contemplated performing the +mission in question upon his own account. Of this peril--although fully +determined to speak a good word for Marmaduke--I was well aware; I even +considered within myself whether it would not be safer, upon the whole, +to return at once to Fairburn Rectory, lest I should do my friend an +involuntary wrong. Yes, I was walking in the garden at the Dovecot after +breakfast, considering this, when I came upon Lucy Gerard herself, and +flight became impossible to me, being mortal. I was pacing a winding +path that ran beside the lawn, but was hidden from it by a glittering +wall of laurel, and lo! there she stood, unconscious of my advent, +beside--what? a statue? a sun-dial? No, a rose-tree, striving upwards by +help of a little cross of white marble. Her face was westward, so that +the morning sun shone like a glory on the wealth of hair that rippled +down her shoulders: beside her indoor garments she wore only a little +braided apron, full of pockets that held scissors, pruning-knife, the +thing which is called "bass" I believe, and other horticultural +weapons, and on her head the tiniest straw-hat, with a brim obviously +intended to shelter more than one--a perfect garden-saint; and at her +prayers! for while I looked, she knelt upon the grass-border (to shake +some insect from a rose, I at first thought, or remove a faded leaf), +and so, with bowed head, remained for several minutes. When she arose, +and saw me hesitating whether to advance or retreat, she blushed a +little, but in her usual quiet tone begged me not to be disturbed. "You +could not know that this is forbidden ground here; it was my fault, who +ought to have told you; our own folks all know it, and so few guests +ever come to the Dovecot, that it never struck me, Mr. Meredith, to give +you a Trespass notice." + +"But since I am here, Miss Gerard, and the intrusion has been made--most +innocently, I assure you--may I not be suffered to satisfy what, +believe me, is not a mere vulgar curiosity?" + +"I do not think," returned the young lady, with some hesitation, "that +my father would object to your knowing our little secret; you are going +to remain with us some time, he hopes, and--yes, I am sure you will +respect what with us is held so secret. This cross and rose-tree are set +above my little sister's grave. See, that is what we used to call +her--LITTLE ELLA. She of whom I spoke to you in the drawing-room +yesterday." + +I daresay my stupid face exhibited more of astonishment than sympathy. +No wonder, thought I, that the doctor called Mr. Gerard a sectary, and +that Mr. Long was so cold and distant in his manner! + +"You seem surprised, Mr. Meredith, that my father should have acted +thus--should have placed the tomb of his dear child where he can always +come to weep and pray at it, and not amid the long dank grasses in +Crittenden churchyard. Is it so very rare a thing to bury those we love +elsewhere than in a churchyard?" + +"I only know one other instance," said I, "and that is in the Heath +family." + +"Indeed," replied Miss Gerard, gravely, moving away as though not +wishing to converse of ordinary things in that sacred neighbourhood, "I +trust we have but little in common with <i>them</i>." + +"Truly, I can scarcely imagine that you and they are of the same +species," replied I, with irrepressible admiration, "you who do not even +know what wickedness is!" + +"What! I? Oh, but I am sometimes very, very wicked, I assure you," +replied Miss Gerard. She looked so serious, nay, so sad, that I could +have taken up her little hand and kissed it, there and then, to comfort +her. But would such a course of conduct assist poor Marmaduke? thought +I, and fortunately in time. + +"There is one of the Heath family," said I, "at all events, whose good +qualities will go far to atone for the shortcomings of his adversaries, +if he only lives to exercise them." + +That "if he only lives" I considered to be very diplomatic; it was +enlisting a tender sympathy for his perilous condition to start with. + +"Dr. Sitwell says that there is little danger," replied Miss Gerard, +quietly. + +"I know better," observed I, confidentially; "his life or death hangs +upon a thread, a chance." + +"Good heavens! Mr. Meredith, what can you mean? The brain, we are +assured, is quite uninjured." + +"My dear Miss Gerard," returned I, "it is not his brain that is +affected; it is his heart. His recovery, I am positively certain, +depends upon you." + +"Upon me! Mr. Meredith?" replied she, while a blush sprung from neck to +forehead on the instant, as though a white rose should become a red +one--"upon <i>me</i>?" + +"Yes, dear young lady; that is, upon you and your good father. This lad +will find here, for the first time in his young life, peace and +tenderness--a new existence, if you only choose, will expand around him, +such as he has never even dreamt of. I do not ask you to be kind to him, +for you cannot be otherwise than kind; but consider his sad +condition--fatherless, motherless, and having for his only relative a +wretch whose atrocity is unspeakable, what reason has he to wish for +life? But you, you may teach him to feel that existence has something +else to offer than sorrow, and shame, and fear." + +"Alas, sir! I am nothing," returned Miss Gerard. "But if your friend +desire a teacher to whom fear and shame are unknown, and whom sorrow has +rendered wise, not sad, he will find one in my dear father. Oh, Mr. +Meredith, if you knew him as I know him, how tender he is as well as +strong, you would go straight to <i>him</i>! What I have of help within me, +if I have anything, is derived from him alone." + +"There are some maladies," said I, "against which not the most skilful +physician can avail without a gentle nurse to smooth the pillow. I am +sure I need say no more, except to assure you that what ever kind +offices you may bestow upon Marmaduke Heath, will not be wasted upon an +unworthy object. He is most honourable, generous, warm-hearted--" + +"And very fortunate," interrupted Miss Gerard, cordially, "in having a +friend to be thus enthusiastic for him in his absence!" + +Her eyes sparkled with pleasure; and she held out her hand frankly as +she spoke. I took it, and pressed it for an instant. A shock of joy +passed through my frame; my whole being trembled with ecstasy. Passion +took me by storm, and for one glorious moment held the very citadel of +my soul; but it was for the last time, believe me, Marmaduke, the last +time in all my life. Fifty years have come and gone, with their full +share of pleasure and pain, but have never brought a moment of bliss +like that, nor such icy despair as the thought of thee, my friend, +caused to succeed it! + +I write not in self-praise. I was not so mad as to suppose that Lucy +Gerard would have ever stooped to love Peter Meredith when once she had +known Marmaduke Heath. If he had so endeared himself to <i>me</i>, a selfish +boy, who knew not half his gifts, or, at least, knew not how to value +them--that I thus rudely broke my own brief love-dream for his sake, +would he not draw <i>her</i> towards him, laden with all her wealth of heart +and brain, as the moon draws the wave! It was so afterwards; but I knew +it then, as though it had already been. Yet, Marmaduke, yet I gave you +something, for it was all I had, when I laid at your feet, to form a +stepping-stone for you, my own heart. You trod upon it, my dear and +faithful friend--But, thank heaven! you never knew that you did so. I +wonder whether Lucy ever knew! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE COUNCIL OF WAR. + + +On the second morning after our arrival at the Dovecot, Mr. Long called +me into the dining-room, where I found Mr. Gerard and a third gentleman, +who had come down by the night-mail, as I understood, from London. +Although, I should think, not less than seventy years of age, he was +dressed in the height of the then prevailing mode. He wore a +snuff-coloured coat, the tails of which trailed from his chair upon the +ground, whenever he was so fortunate as not to be sitting upon them; the +brass buttons at his back were nearly as large as the handles of an +ordinary chest of drawers. A bunch of seals, each about the size of +that peculiar to the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, dangled from +his fob. His pantaloons, which seemed to have shrunk in the washing, set +off a pair of legs that were still not uncomely; but what was most +remarkable was an enormous muslin cravat, which, in combination with the +ruffles of his shirt, gave him the aspect of a pouter pigeon. +Unaccustomed as I then was to the toilet of persons of distinction, Mr. +Clint of Russell Square--for he it was--made a very strong impression +upon me. As the family lawyer of the Heaths, and one who had always +greatly interested himself in Marmaduke, he had been sent for by my +tutor to give his opinion as to what steps should be taken respecting +the future disposal of the poor lad. I guessed by his grave face that he +had been put in possession, not only of all that had happened through +the agency of Sir Massingberd, but of all that had been designed to +happen. + +"If you have any doubt still remaining, Mr. Clint, as to the propriety +of removing Marmaduke Heath from the custody of his uncle," observed my +tutor, after introducing me to this venerable beau, "I think this +gentleman can dissipate it. Now, Peter, tell us, in confidence, what +sort of footing do you consider your young friend and Sir Massingberd to +stand upon; are they good--" + +"Stop, stop, Mr. Long," interrupted the lawyer, taking an enormous pinch +of snuff from a silver-box, and holding up his laden fingers in a +prohibitory manner; "we must not have any leading questions if you +please. Mr. Meredith, it is most important that you state to us the +truth, without mitigation or exaggeration. You heard your tutor's first +inquiry, which was a most correct one. How does Mr. Marmaduke Heath +stand with respect to his uncle?" + +"Well, sir," said I quietly, "he stands, as it were, upon the brink of a +deep river, with his back towards a person who is bent upon pushing him +in." + +A total silence ensued upon this remark. Mr. Long and Mr. Gerard +interchanged very meaning glances. + +"Very good," returned the lawyer coolly, administering half the snuff to +his nose, and dropping the other half among his shirt-ruffles. "That is +a form of speech, I suppose, by which you would imply that Marmaduke is +afraid of his uncle?" + +"Very much," said I; "afraid of his life." + +"And you have had no previous conversation upon this subject with either +of these gentlemen, that is--you must forgive me if I press this +somewhat hardly--they have never asked your opinion on the matter +before?" + +"Certainly not, sir." + +"You are speaking, too, I conclude from your own observation of course, +from your own knowledge of Mr. Marmaduke Heath's sentiments and +position, and not from any hearsay rumour?" + +"I am perfectly convinced, Mr. Clint," returned I gravely, "that Sir +Massingberd Heath wishes to get rid of his nephew, and that Marmaduke +knows it." + +"Then Sir Massingberd shall be gratified," observed Mr. Gerard, with +energy; "he shall get rid of him from this day." + +"Stop, stop, my dear sir," interposed the lawyer. "Even supposing that +all this is true, both the facts that I have received from you and Mr. +Long, and the surmises entertained by this young gentleman, we are +still only at the threshold of the matter. From the manner in which Sir +Massingberd expressed himself when he wrote to me to demand the custody +of the boy, and from his whole conduct since, I am certain that he will +not give up his position as guardian without a severe struggle. We must +steadily look our difficulties in the face. Supposing that, having been +assured of Marmaduke's convalescence, he should send a post-chaise over +here next week, or the week after, with a note, insisting upon his +immediate return to Fairburn Park, what is to be done then?" + +"I should send the post-chaise back again," returned Mr. Gerard, calmly, +"with the verbal reply, that Mr. Marmaduke was not coming." + +"But suppose he wrote to Marmaduke himself?" + +"The reply would come from me all the same, Mr. Clint." + +"But if Sir Massingberd appeals to the law?" + +"He dare not!" exclaimed my host; "his audacity, great as it is, stops +short of that. If he did, as sure as the sun is shining, I would meet +him with the charge of attempted murder." + +Mr. Clint took out of his other coat-tail a second snuff-box, which he +never made use of except in cases of great emergency. "You are prepared +to go that length, are you?" + +"I am, sir," returned Mr. Gerard, firmly. + +"You have not a shadow of foundation for such an assertion," pursued Mr. +Clint, reflectively. "The slander will be pronounced malicious; you will +be cast in swingeing damages." + +"That is possible," remarked my host; "but there, nevertheless, will be +such revelations of Sir Massingberd's mode of life, as may well cause +the chancellor to reflect whether Fairburn Hall is a fitting educational +establishment for a minor." + +"John Lord Eldon is not an ascetic--" + +"I know it, sir;" broke forth Mr. Gerard; "I am well aware that he is a +heartless scoundrel, as dissipated, as dishonest, and--" + +"Sir," interrupted Mr. Clint, with irritation. "I will not listen to +such mad words. You may utter them, of course, in your own house, but +not to me. This is the talk of those who would subvert all authority." + +"They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities," murmured my tutor. + +"I do not speak evil of dignities, my dear sir, but only of the rogues +who fill them," exclaimed Mr. Gerard, laughing. "However, I beg your +pardon, gentlemen; the remark escaped me quite involuntarily. You are +aware, Mr. Clint, that my Lord Eldon is not absolutely an ascetic." + +"I was about to say, sir," observed the old lawyer stiffly, "that his +lordship is not so tenderly alive to the necessity of moral training as +some of his friends would wish, and he has a strong respect for natural +authority. He would lean, therefore, towards Sir Massingberd's view of +the question--with whom; indeed, he is personally not unacquainted--and +be induced to palliate his way of life." + +"Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless, are those in Eldon's charge," +murmured Mr. Gerard. "Still," continued he, in a louder tone, "the +charge of attempted murder, Mr. Clint, would have this effect, that even +if Marmaduke were reconsigned to his uncle's care--which Heaven +forbid--the eyes of the world would be upon Sir Massingberd, and he +would not venture to work him a mischief. In the meantime, it rests with +us to take good care that he has not the chance of doing so." + +"And now," resumed Mr. Clint, after a pause, "supposing that all is +arranged thus far to repel Sir Massingberd's claims, there is another +matter to be considered. It would take long to explain the details of +the case, but you must understand that the Heath property is very +peculiarly situated. Sir Massingberd, who is in the enjoyment of it for +life, cannot raise a shilling upon it; while Marmaduke does not possess +a shilling, although the prospective heir of such vast wealth. They +would be, in short, at present a couple of beggars; but by a special +arrangement with a certain person, whom I need not name, a small annual +sum has been allotted for the benefit of the boy, but, practically, +quite as much so for that of his uncle. A certain annuity, I say, is +paid to Sir Massingberd for the maintenance of his nephew, and another, +solely on the latter's behalf, for that of the estate. It is a most +beautifully intricate affair from first to last," pursued the lawyer +with unction; "here are two relatives, who mutually support one another, +and have yet every reason, looking at the matter in a rather worldly way +of course, to wish each other dead. Sir Massingberd could borrow plenty +of money, if the usurers were only confident that he could, as well as +would, make away with his nephew. There would be even less difficulty +under ordinary circumstances in procuring a loan for Marmaduke; but a +delicate boy, whose uncle and guardian is bent upon putting a violent +end to him--you see that renders the security so very slight. +Altogether, it is certainly one of the nicest cases. It is not only a +question of responsibility; there are always plenty of people ready to +take any amount of <i>that</i> at a sufficient premium; but who will +undertake the pecuniary charge of the lad if he is withdrawn from his +uncle's roof? Sir Massingberd, of course, will never give up one tittle +of the allowance entrusted to him to expend, except upon such compulsion +as we should scarcely venture to employ. There are three years wanting +to the boy's majority; and even when he has arrived at that, and should +be willing to promise ample repayment, he may die before his uncle +still, who has a constitution of adamant, when those who have maintained +him may whistle for the money they have expended. The expression may be +coarse," added Mr. Clint apologetically, "but I think it conveys my +meaning." + +"I thank you, Mr. Clint," observed my tutor, after a little pause, "for +putting this matter before us so bluntly and decidedly. For my part, I +am far from being a rich man; but, on the other hand, there are no +persons who have a better claim upon my resources than my dear young +friend and pupil, Marmaduke Heath. That he will repay me if he survives +his uncle, I am more than assured; and, if he die early, I shall not +regret that the remainder of his young life has been rendered happy +through my means, although it may have cost me a few comforts." + +I stooped down and said a few words in my tutor's ear. "No, Peter, no," +continued he; "you are a good lad, and your father is, doubtless, +generous enough to comply with your wishes; but we must not resort to +such a distant source in this emergency, indeed. Mr. Clint, do you think +that a hundred and forty to a hundred and sixty pounds a year might be +made sufficient to keep Marmaduke with respectability?" + +"Half your annual stipend, eh, Mr. Long, eh?" ejaculated the lawyer. +"Bless my soul, how this snuff gets in one's eyes! Such a sum should be +quite sufficient. I think that would be found more than enough. He +cannot live at your rectory, of course; that would be almost as bad as +at the Hall; but there are plenty of spare rooms in my house in town. He +has stayed there before, so that that can be done, we know. Marmaduke +and I are old friends--No, no, it will not hurt me. Such a course cannot +bring me into greater antagonism with Sir Massingberd than I am in +already. I am always at daggers-drawn with him. He is for ever cutting +down trees that don't belong to him, or selling heirlooms that are no +more his than mine, or embroiling himself with me, the appointed +guardian of the property, in some way or other. Yes, I'll take the lad, +Mr. Long, come what will of it." + +"You will do nothing of the kind," exclaimed my host, energetically; +"you honest lawyer, and very worthy man; and you, you good +priest--contradictions in terms, both of you--you shall not give away +half your annual stipend, or my name is not Harvey Gerard. I have done +each of you a very grievous wrong in thought, if not in word; and I +hereby beg your pardon. It is possible, I perceive, to be a Tory, and +yet preserve, if not a conscience, at least a heart." + +My tutor smiled; Mr. Clint bowed his acknowledgments. + +"With regard to Mr. Marmaduke Heath, however," pursued our host, "that +young gentleman must be my especial charge. From this day until the +period when he comes into his property, or lies in need of decent +interment, as the case may be, he is my guest; or, if my house is +distasteful to him, I will advance him whatever sums he may reasonably +require for his maintenance elsewhere. Please to consider that that is +settled, gentlemen." + +"Whatever we may think of the political opinions of Mr. Harvey Gerard," +observed Mr. Clint, with feeling, "his name has always been associated +with acts of matchless generosity." + +"Always, always," echoed Mr. Long; then added reflectively, "he has paid +the fines of half the rogues in the country, and bailed the other half +who have been committed to prison." + +A simultaneous burst of merriment from his three hearers greeted this +naïve remark of my unconscious tutor. + +"I have done so upon one occasion, I confess," replied Mr. Gerard, +good-naturedly. "I became surety, in 1791, for the good behaviour of a +poor Birmingham rioter, as I thought, who turned out to be a Government +spy. However, I assure you, generosity has nothing to do with my present +intentions with respect to young Heath. My income is sufficiently large +to admit of my accommodating the poor lad with ease, even if the +repayment, sooner or later, were not almost certain, as it really is. +But, besides all this, I must confess that the undertaking affords me +exceeding satisfaction. Mr. Long, you are, I have heard, an enthusiastic +fisherman; that is no common pleasure which you feel when your rod is +bowed by some enormous trout, cunning and strong, who may break the +whole of your tackle, and get away, after all, but who also may be +landed helpless on the bank, a victim to your skill and patience. That +is exactly the sport which I promise myself with Sir Massingberd Heath. +If he were one whit less greedy, less formidable, less pitiless, I +should feel less hostility towards him; he has, fortunately, no +redeeming point. I have hated tyranny all my life, and I hate this man, +who seems to be the very embodiment of it. He makes his boast that no +one has ever stood between himself and his wicked will. Let us see what +he will make of Harvey Gerard." + +The speaker drew himself up proudly, but certainly not with unbecoming +pride. His form dilated as he spoke; his voice grew deep without losing +its distinctness; and into his mild eyes a sternness crept as when the +frost congeals the lake. But for a spice of haughtiness, which to some +might have appeared even arrogance, he could have stood for St. Michael +in his contest with the foul Fiend,--have personified the Spirit of Good +defying the Spirit of Evil. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE GIPSY CAMP. + + +After not a little opposition upon the part of Mr. Long, who would have +willingly borne his share in Marmaduke's expenses, it was settled that +Mr. Gerard should be the young man's host, if he could only contrive to +retain him in defiance of the power of Sir Massingberd; his home, +however, was not to be the Dovecot, which was judged to be too much +exposed, by its proximity to Fairburn, to the machinations of the enemy. +The Gerards were to remove to their town residence in Harley Street, as +soon as their guest was fit to accompany them. At first, his progress +was tedious, but he grew rapidly convalescent as soon as he was able to +exchange his bed for a sofa. Never was sick man more hospitably treated, +or so graciously tended. Mr. Gerard possessed that almost feminine +gentleness of manner which is generally found in persons of his peculiar +organization. His sympathy, at least as easily aroused as his +antagonism, was now deeply enlisted in favour of Marmaduke for his own +sake; he recognized his talents, and the beauty and tenderness of his +mind, and won him, by pleasant studious talk, from the melancholy that +overhung it; and the young man's heart, thrilling response to every +touch of kindness, turned towards him, and expanded like a flower in the +sun. As for Lucy, what rudest health would I not have exchanged for +Marmaduke's languor, as he lay and listened to her clear sweet voice, +now singing some cheerful ballad to enliven him, now reading aloud some +tale so musically that itself seemed song! He could read to himself but +little as yet, and if he did take up a book, his eyes refused to regard +it, but followed the lovely girl, wherever she moved, with worship. + +"This happiness is too great to last, Peter," he would often say; "it +will all fade one day, I know, and leave me desolate. What man living is +worthy to possess yon glorious creature? I feel as though I had no right +even to love her. Yet, great heaven! how I <i>do</i> love her. How +unconscious she is of her perfect sweetness! How she graces the meanest +thing which she may set herself to do! Her presence seems to breathe +very life into me; I then forget everything but her--even Sir +Massingberd. To return to him would be death indeed--death death!" Then +he would sink back, as if prostrated with the thought, and so remain +despairingly despondent until he heard Lucy's voice, or laugh, or +footstep. All this was bitter for me to bear. I was glad when Mr. Long +suggested to me that he thought it was no longer necessary for me to +remain with Marmaduke, and that I should return to Fairburn Rectory and +my studies. Still, my heart was heavy upon that morning which was to be +the last I was to spend under the same roof with Lucy Gerard. Within the +last few weeks--nay, it happened in a few hours--I had Loved and I had +Lost. If there be any to read this in whose eyes these words have +meaning, they will pity me. I do not match such grief, indeed, for a +single instant against the sorrow a man must feel for the loss of the +loved companion of his life, against the lone wretchedness of recent +widowhood; but it is a grievous blow. I wished Marmaduke and Mr. Gerard +"good-bye" without quite knowing that I did so. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Meredith," said Lucy, and though her voice was even lower +and sweeter than usual, it wounded me like a knife. + +"Why don't you call him Peter, Lucy?" exclaimed her father, laughing. "I +think it would be more civil, now that we are going to lose him." + +"Thank you, sir," said I, gratefully; and she did say "God bless you, +Peter," very, very kindly. + +Ever since that morning she called me so; but I was Peter to all of +them, you see, as well as to her. Then I called her Lucy, and though for +the first and last time, I shall never forget it. + + "I couldna say mair, but just 'Fare ye weel, Lucy + Yet that I will mind till the day that I dee." + +Then I mounted my horse, my luggage having already preceded me, and +slowly took my way towards Fairburn. My life-blood seemed to ebb with +every step. The clang of the gate that shut me out from the last foot of +ground belonging to the Dovecot, sent a shudder through me like a knell. +I was on the very spot where Marmaduke had met with the accident that +had been so nearly fatal. Supposing it had killed him! Supposing...--I +thanked God that I was able to thank Him from an honest heart that it +had not done so. + +Then I felt a little better. Having ascended the hill, I put my horse +into a sharp canter upon the common, and the cool air through which I +swiftly passed refreshed me. The hollow in which the encampment had been +was now deserted, and only the round bare spot amid the green, which is +the gipsy autograph, announced that it had ever been there. Some miles +further on, however, a little brown-legged boy, evidently of that +wandering fraternity, suddenly emerged from a fir plantation, and stood +before me in the road as if to beg. I was already feeling in my pocket +for a penny, when, showing his white teeth in gratitude, he shook his +head, and coming close to my stirrup, exclaimed, "You are the gentleman +from Mr. Gerard's, sir, are you not? Would you please to come and see +Granny Rachel?" + +In an instant, I remembered the pocket-flask, which I had entirely +forgotten since the day in which it came into my possession; for all I +knew, it was then lying yet in the drawing-room at the Dovecot. + +"Yes, my boy, that will I," returned I; "but I fear I have not brought +her what she wants." + +He looked up in the bright interrogative manner peculiar to his tribe, +so different to the stolid wonder of the agriculturist. + +"She wants <i>you</i>, sir, as I understood. This is the sixth day that she +has set me to watch for you by this roadside. Will you please to follow +me?" + +The boy started off at a pace which compelled me to move too fast for +further questioning; and skirting the plantation for a hundred yards, +stopped at the entrance of a roadway leading through the wood. The +coming winter had not yet turned the broad green track to sand, and it +ran so straight and far, that the pine trees seemed to stand on either +side--a solid wall--with nothing but the blue heaven for their limit. +This landscape of right lines would have delighted a painter of the +Pre-Raphaelite school, it looked so stiff and unnatural; but pursuing +the track for a little distance, and then plunging over a ditch and +bank into the plantation itself, we suddenly came upon a scene which +would have suited Morland. A low tent, with half-naked but merry +children crawling in and out; a she-ass and her foal; a handsome male +Epicurean, lying on his back, smoking a short, well-coloured pipe, the +hue of which precisely resembled that of his own skin; a young girl in +scarlet mantle, and with earrings of great splendour, gathering +fir-cones to feed the flames which licked around an iron pot suspended +on four sticks, piled musket-fashion; and an old crone, sitting by the +same, and picking the feathers from a bird, which, had the time of year +been beyond the end of September, I should have certainly taken for a +hen-pheasant. But to suppose this, would have been to suppose an +infraction of the game laws! The walnut-stained children stopped their +play as I approached, and stood in various attitudes of wonder, like +beauteous bronzes; the man turned over on his side, and opened his +slumbrous eyes a hairbreadth; the girl flashed one quick, comprehensive +glance upon me, and then resumed her occupation. The old woman nodded +familiarly without rising, and observed quietly, "So you are come at +last, Peter Meredith. I trust you have brought good news of Marmaduke +Heath." + +"He is better," said I, "much better; and he knows who brought him help, +and is very grateful. You have been expected daily at the Dovecot, where +something more substantial than mere thanks is waiting for you." + +"Rachel Liversedge desires neither silver nor gold," returned the old +woman; "she has had her reward already, if what you say be true. It was +not for love of the boy that I acted as I did; he has too much evil +blood in him to earn my liking. But I am glad as though he were my own +son that he will live." + +"Carew," cried she, triumphantly, "no wonder <i>bura</i> Sir Massingberd +looked <i>kalo</i> as ourselves." + +"Oh, the great man looks black, does he?" said I. + +The old woman dropped the bird, the girl her fir-cones, and both stared +wildly at me, as though my voice had come from the clouds; the man +sprung to his feet, and uttered a cry of wonder. + +"What! do you speak our tongue?" cried he. + +"Nay; you speak mine," returned I, calmly. "<i>Bura</i> is great; and <i>kala</i>, +which you call <i>kalo</i>, is black, of course; everybody knows that who +knows Hindustanee." + +Then the three burst out together in a language, one word out of four of +which seemed to be more or less familiar to me; as for understanding +what they said, of course it was simply impossible; but no matter, I had +established my reputation. From that moment, I felt myself to be the +honoured guest of the family. Would I smoke? Would I eat? Would I drink? +I was thirsty, and I said that I would gladly take some water--which, at +a venture, I called <i>paince</i>. + +"<i>Paunce</i>!" cried they, extravagantly delighted. "He talks like a true +Cingari; and only look! is he not dark-skinned!" + +The few words that my old ayah had taught me in India had thus procured +me a hearty welcome in a Midshire fir-plantation. + +"Sit down by me, Peter Meredith, my son," exclaimed the old woman; "and +do you fetch him water, Mina." + +I dismounted, and did as I was bid; while the young girl took a +pitcher, and presently brought it filled from a running Stream near by, +and offered it to me, like another Rebecca. But her grandmother--for +such she was--cried, "Stop! let me put something in it;" and produced +from her pocket the self-same flask which she herself had given me a few +weeks ago, and which I had thought was left behind at the Dovecot. + +"Why, I was blaming myself for not having brought you that thing back +to-day," said I; "I never heard of your coming to claim it." + +"Nor did I, young gentleman," returned the old woman, proudly. "Harvey +Gerard is too kind a man to visit when one is not in need. That was why +I left his house that day, directly I had told what had befallen +Marmaduke Heath: I did not wish him to think I waited for my reward. + +He returned me this with his own hands. He is not one of your proud +ones. When we had the fever here--Mina, darling, you remember who came +to see you, and saved your life?" + +"Ah, yes!" cried the girl, clasping her dark hands, which gleamed with +tawdry rings; "and his daughter, too, how I love her!" + +There was a little pause; I felt my ears tingle, my cheeks burn. I did +not dare look up from the ground. + +"Lucy Gerard is very fair," whispered the old woman; "she will make a +good and loving wife;" then she added roguishly, and in that gipsy tone +which smacks so of the race-course: "Shall I tell your fortune, my +pretty gentleman?" + +"No, I thank you," said I, hastily; "I have no great confidence in your +information as to the future. With respect to the past, on the other +hand, you can doubtless satisfy me, if you will. I have a great +curiosity to know how you became possessed of yonder flask with the +Heath griffin." + +"Peter Meredith," returned the old woman, very gravely, "you have asked +me to tell you a sad story, and one to relate which will cost me much. +It is not our custom, however, to refuse the first request of a new +friend. But before I begin, let me ask you a question in my turn. Has it +never struck you why Sir Massingberd Heath has not long ago taken to +himself a young wife, and begotten an heir for the bonny lands of +Fairburn, in despite of his nephew?" + +Until that moment, the idea had never crossed my brain; but no sooner +was it thus mooted than I wondered greatly at the shortsightedness of +those among whom Marmaduke's affairs had been so lately discussed, and +in particular at that of Mr. Clint, who, as a lawyer, should surely have +at once foreseen such a contingency. "Well," said I, "I confess that, +for my part, I have never thought of it; but there cannot be much danger +of Sir Massingberd's becoming a wooer now; why, what young woman would +be won by such as he?" + +"What young woman would <i>not</i> be won?" replied Rachel Liversedge, +grimly. "Think you that his white head and stony heart would weigh too +heavy in the balance against his title and the reversion of his lands? +Remember, all that is around us, and all that we could see from yonder +hill to the right hand and to the left--pasture and corn-field, farm and +park--would fall to the offspring of her who would venture, for a few +years, to be Lady Heath. Peter, there is one maiden in Midshire, known +to you and me, who would not consent to do this thing, though the offer +were thrice as splendid; but I doubt if there be more than one." + +"If that be so," said I, "why does not Sir Massingberd marry?" + +"The answer to that is the story I am about to tell you," returned +Rachel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY. + + +"I suppose you have heard, Peter Meredith, young as you are," began the +old woman, "a great deal of ill-speaking against us Wanderers. We not +only kill game, but even domestic poultry, if the opportunity is given +to us; we not only steal wood, but horse-flesh; and since we are so +partial to carrion, it is not to be wondered at that we sometimes +suffocate a sheep with a piece of his own wool, in order to get the +carcass cheap from the farmer. Yet whatever false charges are current +about us now, these are nothing, either in gravity or number, to what +they were when I was a young girl--that is, fifty years ago. Every +man's hand, every woman's tongue, was against us: magistrates committed +us without testimony; rogues made a trade of accusing us solely to get +blood-money. Our name was more than a by-word, it was a brand; to call a +man a gipsy, was to say vagabond and thief in one. Under these +circumstances, Massingberd Heath left his father's house yonder, and +came to live with us as congenial company. We were in this very wood the +day he did so. The sun shone as brightly as now, the streamlet ran just +as blithe, the air was filled, as now, with the sweet-smelling pine. The +people only are changed--ah me, how changed!--who made up that scene. +There was my father; he died! ten years younger than I am now; is not +that strange, boy? his brother Morris, dead; poor Stanley Carew, you +shall hear of him presently, a handsomer lad by far than his nephew +there; my beautiful Sinnamenta, compared to little Mina yonder, though +she is pretty enough, like a blush-rose to a mere peony, the flower of +womankind. If there are ladies and women born into the world, then she +was a lady. There are no such beauties now; no, friend, not even at the +Dovecot. Let me see; I have counted four; then I was there also, comely +enough, 'twas said, but not to be spoken of for looks with my younger +sister. + +"We were occupied pretty much as you see us now, for life in the +Greenwood possesses but little variety, when Massingberd Heath strode in +among us, with his gun upon his shoulder. We knew him well, but were not +inclined to dislike him. He was a dissipated, wild, young fellow, but, +as yet, his heart was thought, as the saying is, to be in the right +place; his popularity, however, was principally owing to his antagonism +to his father. Sir Wentworth had long passed through the spendthrift +stage, and was very close with respect to money-matters; a harsh and +griping landlord, and it is probable enough a niggard parent. His son's +extravagances were at that time insignificant compared to what they +afterwards became, yet the old man was for ever complaining. He +persecuted all who were poor and in his power, but the gipsies +especially. He feared for his deer, for his game, for his fences, and, +besides, I verily believe he detested us for our improvidence. I +remember he sent two of my young brothers to prison for tossing for +halfpence upon a Sunday--he who made not even a pretence of religion +himself, and had been used invariably to pass his day of rest in town +at Tattersall's, betting his thousands on some approaching race. It is +said that this wretched old man used to horse-whip young Massingberd +almost daily, until a certain occasion, when the latter found himself +stronger than he imagined, and reversed the process. After that, Sir +Wentworth confined himself to cursing his offspring whenever they +quarrelled. It was after some dreadful outbreak of passion on the part +of the old man that Massingberd Heath left house and home, and elected +to join our wandering fortunes. We were very unwilling that this should +be. It was by no means so unusual a proceeding then as now, for persons +of good birth, but broken fortunes, to become gipsies, but such had +usually their private reasons for remaining so for life. They were very +rarely criminals, but generally social outlaws, for whom there could be +no reconciliation at home, or younger sons of respectable families, +with quite a mountain of debt upon their shoulders. These were regularly +nationalized among us; and if they conducted themselves for sufficient +time in accordance with our regulations, they were permitted to +intermarry with us. + +"Now it was certain that Massingberd Heath sought only a temporary home; +as soon as his father died, or even offered terms to him, he would leave +us, and resume his proper station. Moreover, how was the maintenance of +discipline and obedience to the chief of our tribe, absolutely essential +as it is, to be kept up in the case of this new-comer? Even at that +time, he was a headstrong, wilful man, to whom all authority, however +lawful or natural, was hateful. Was it to be expected that he who defied +his own father, himself a man of iron will, would obey Morris +Liversedge? On the other hand, Uncle Morris rather liked the young +fellow. He had connived at many a raid on his father's own preserves--to +such a pitch had the quarrel grown between them--and kept our pot +boiling with bird and beast. Many and many a time had he led the +Fairburn keepers to one extremity of the preserves, while the slaughter +was going on in the other. Moreover, it would be of great importance, +could we make a friend of the man who would one day own all these +pleasant haunts of ours, and who could say a good word, and a strong +one, for the poor persecuted gipsies, when it was needed. Poor Morris +did not know that the rebel but too often turns out a tyrant, when he +gets his chance. He could not foresee Sir Massingberd Heath sending +folks to prison, or getting them kidnapped, and sent across the seas, +for snaring the hares that he held so cheaply when they did not happen +to belong to himself. If you want to find a gentleman who in his youth, +and landless, has been a poacher whenever the opportunity offered, look +you among the game-preservers on the bench of justices. This, however, +is among the least of the basenesses of him of whom I speak. It is not +for his bitter guardianship of bird and beast, or his hateful oppression +of his fellow-creatures, that my heart cries out for judgment against +this man, that I look with eager longing for that hour when God shall +take him into His own hand." + +The old woman paused a moment with closed eyes, and muttered something +that was inaudible to me, rocking herself at the same time to and fro. + +"Massingberd Heath became one of us, Peter Meredith as far as it is +possible for such a wretch to be so; he ate with us, and drank with us, +which they say is a sacred bond among even savages. It was not so with +him. He cast his evil eyes upon Sinnamenta, to love her after the +fashion of his accursed race. Perhaps you may think, Peter Meredith, +that such an occurrence should have been foreseen by her father or her +uncle Morris, and, for my part, I always thought that it was the +presence of my lovely sister which mainly caused this man to join our +company; but, at all events, neither they nor I dreaded any ill +consequences. A gipsy girl is not a light-of-love maiden, like those of +fairer skins. Heaven, who gives her beauty, gives her virtue also: this +is not denied, even by our enemies. When you call your sweetheart +'Gipsy,' it is in love, not in reproach. Massingberd Heath knew this +well, and therefore it was foe took such pains in the matter. It is true +that we do not marry in church, but when we wed among ourselves, the +marriage is not less sacred; It was a wedding of this sort, indissoluble +by one party, but not by the other, which this man wished to compass. He +did not gain his end." + +The old woman's eyes sparkled with triumph for a moment as she said +these words, but her voice sank low as she continued: + +"Peter Meredith, if you have a sister, think of her while I speak of +mine; she cannot be more pure than little Sinnamenta, nor less +designing. Her weakness was one common to all women, but especially to +those of our unhappy race; she was fond of finery--fine clothing, +jewels, shawls; they became her; she looked like any princess when +attired in them. Stanley Carew, who loved her in all honesty, could +give her no such costly gifts as Massingberd Heath showered upon her, +and, to help his end, even upon me. The gipsy's ragged coat looked mean +and poor beside that of our guest. This man, too, whom you know but as a +scowling tyrant, with a face scarred with passion and excesses, was then +a handsome youth. You smile, Peter, at the wonder of it; it is, however, +not less true than that the wrinkled hag to whom you are now listening +was then a bonny girl. Imagine <i>that</i>, Peter, and you can imagine +anything. Ah, Time, Time, surely at the end of you, there will be +something to recompense us for all that you have taken away!" + +Once more Rachel Liversedge paused as if in pain; then with eyes whose +sight seemed to receive but little of what was present, but were fixed +on the unreturning Past, continued as follows: + +"Yes, Massingberd Heath was handsome enough, unless when enraged; his +wrath always brought the horse-shoe out upon his forehead.[1] Ay, and he +was agreeable enough, too. He could smile as though he had a heart, and +vow as though he owned a God. By his devilish art he managed to +ingratiate himself with Sinnamenta; he caused her to treat poor Stanley +ill, and then, pretending to take his part, got credit for generosity. +There are many who call us gipsies a base people, yet this excess of +meanness was quite new to us; my little sister--that was what I always +called her, because I loved her so--she believed him. She would have +trusted to his word, and married him, according to our rites, and been +his wife and drudge for all her life; but since this could not be +without the consent both of her father and Morris, he had to ask it of +them. He might as well have asked it of Sir Wentworth; they had got to +know him well by close companionship, for men fathom men better than +women do--even gipsy women, who foretell men's fortunes for them--and +they answered, 'No.' They did not believe that he had the least +intention of being with us longer that it suited him, and they +peremptorily refused his request. After one burst of passionate threats, +the young man pretended to yield assent to their decision. Morris was +inclined to think this acquiescence genuine; but my father, more warmly +interested in the matter, and therefore perhaps less credulous, kept on +his guard. Finding out that Massingberd Heath had secretly made +overtures of reconciliation to his father, and missing him one night +from the camp, he caused Morris to strike tent at once; and before +morning we had put twenty miles between us and Fairburn. Nor was this +effected too soon, for, as we heard long afterwards, the constables were +searching this very wood for us at day-break. + +"Our company was bound on a long travel to Kirk-Yetholm, Roxburghshire, +one of the few places in Scotland, although but one mile from the +frontier of Northumberland, where the gipsies reside in any number. +There we should meet with friends, and be safe from all molestation. It +was late in the year to travel so far and into such a climate, but there +was no help for it; and moreover, some of the Carews had a house there, +to which Stanley said we should be welcome; and so it turned out. I +believe Sinnamenta would rather that we had camped out of doors, even in +that northern clime, so disinclined was she to be beholden to him or his +friends, after what had happened, although she did not dare to say so. +Poor Stanley imagined that, now we had removed from the neighbourhood of +his rival, he might renew his suit with success; but the proud girl +would not listen to him. She did not exactly pine after the man whose +wiles she had so narrowly escaped, but her life seemed henceforth +saddened. The domestic duties which had hitherto sat so lightly upon +her, became burdensome, and she set about them languidly. The whole of +the time we remained at Kirk-Yetholm, and it was many, many months, she +never mentioned Massingberd Heath, but never ceased to think of him. It +was fated that she was to be undeceived about that man too late." + + +[1] I am reminded by a friendly critic of the "suspicious coincidence" +of a horse-shoe on the forehead, in the case of "Redgauntlet." I never +think of Sir Massingberd without thinking of that worthy; and it has +been a matter of doubt with me, whether Sir Walter Scott might not +himself have seen the Squire of Fairburn and drawn him from the +life--both as to mind and feature--in his famous novel. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE REASON CONTINUED. + + +"About a year after our departure from Fairburn, Sinnamenta and I had +been to sell some baskets, the making of which was a great trade with us +at that time, at Wooler, in Northumberland; and on our return from the +fair that was being held there, we met a number of gentlemen driving +home from shooting in the Cheviots. They went by very rapidly, yet not +so fast but that I recognized one of their number; I had only to look at +my little sister's cheeks to see that she had recognized him also. The +very next day came Massingberd Heath to our camp, professing himself +injured by our abrupt withdrawal from his society, volunteering his +companionship as before, and reiterating his vows and promises to +Sinnamenta. She expressed herself in such a manner as to lead us almost +to fear she might be induced to elope with him; while he, upon his side, +seemed prepared to sacrifice everything to obtain her: his very +selfishness caused him, as it were, to forget himself; and I do believe, +if it had been insisted upon, he would have had the banns published in +Wooler Church, in the hearing of the fine friends with whom he was +staying, and been married by the parson. However, he again proposed to +go through the Cingari ceremony, and this time, <i>Morris and my father +agreed to it</i>. Having acknowledged himself to be an adopted gipsy, +Massingberd Heath was joined in wedlock to Sinnamenta Liversedge; the +ordinary ceremonies were dispensed with, by command of Morris, the +bride and bridegroom only pledging themselves to one another solemnly in +the presence of the assembled tribe. It was then, since he could not +purchase suitable presents in such an out-of-the-way district, that I +received from that man's hand this shooting-flask, as a remembrance of +that day; my uncle commanded me to accept it (although I vehemently +disapproved of what had been done), and I therefore keep it now, when +every other gift of that accursed man has long been committed to the +flames. For my part, I could not understand this novel pliancy on the +part of Morris and my father; while Sinnamenta, as I think, implicitly +believed in her lover's protestation, that for her sake he would all his +life be a wanderer like ourselves. That very day, however, he took her +away southward, on his road to London. + +"For beauty, as I have said, and for gentleness, there never breathed +the equal of my little sister, and yet in six short months this Heath +grew weary of her; like a spoiled child tired with a fragile toy, he +cared not what became of her, so long as it vexed his eyes no more. It +is not necessary to tell what brutal insult he put upon her; enough to +say that she fled from him in terror, as he had intended her to do, and +returned to us, heart-stricken, woe-begone, about to become a mother, +with nothing but wretchedness in the Future, and even her happy Past a +dream dispelled. It was dreadful to look upon my little sister, and +compare her to what she had been so short a time before. She felt the +cold after her luxurious life in town; but she was far more ill at ease +in mind than body. Above all, she sorrowed because her lover's desertion +had left her disgraced--that she had brought shame upon all who +belonged to her. Incited by the poor girl's misery, Morris and my father +put into effect an audacious design which they had privately had long in +hand. We were back again at Fairburn--all but Stanley Carew, who was +away about a new horse for our covered cart--not camping in the +plantation, as of old, for fear of Sir Wentworth, but upon the common +hard by. On a certain morning, neither my father nor uncle went forth as +usual, but sat at home smoking and watching at the opening of the tent. +Not long after breakfast, there appeared a wayfarer in the distance, +whose form showed gigantic in the summer haze. + +"That must be a big fellow, little sister," said I, drawing her +attention to it. She was sitting huddled up, as usual, in front of the +fire; but no sooner had she caught sight of the object in question, +than she ran with a cry to her father's knee, and besought him to save +her from Massingberd Heath. Ah, even then, at that last moment, if +father or uncle had but consulted me, or let me into their plans, I +should not have my little sister's shuddering face before me as now, the +large eyes wild, the full lips pale with terror. He had beaten her, poor +darling, even before the scene that was coming; but she had even more +reason than she knew for fear. This man came striding on to the entrance +of the tent, and stood there looking at its inmates with a withering +scowl. 'Why don't you speak,' said he, 'you vagabonds! For what is it +that you have dared to send for me?' + +"My father pointed towards Sinnamenta--'Is not that cause enough, +Massingberd Heath?' + +"'No,' retorted the ruffian coolly. 'What is she to me? The drab has +come to her thieving friends again, it seems--the more fool she; for +there was more than one who had a fancy for her in town, and would have +taken her off my hands.' + +"My father's fingers mechanically sought the knife which lay beside his +half-finished basket; but my uncle Morris stood up between him and the +speaker, and thus replied:-- + +"Massingberd Heath, I sent for you to tell you something which concerns +both us and you. Many months ago, you came to us, uninvited and +unwelcome, and elected to be a gipsy like ourselves. This makes you +smile very scornfully; yet if you did not mean the thing you said, you +lied. However, we believed you. You were admitted into what, however +wretched and debased it may seem to you, was our home, and all we had to +offer you was at your service. You fell in love with that poor girl +yonder, and she did not tremble at your voice, as now, but trusted to +your honour. It is true, your position in the world was high, and hers +was what you saw it to be. Still you wooed her, and not she you; that is +so, and you know it. Do not slander her, sir, lest presently you should +be sorry for it. Again and again, then, you demanded her hand in +marriage--such marriage, that is, as prevails among our people--not so +ceremonious, indeed, as with the rest of the world, but not less +binding. This we would not grant, because we disbelieved your +protestations on your honour and before your God; and disbelieved them, +as it has turned out, with reason. Then we fled from you and your false +solicitations to the north, hundreds of miles away; even thither you +followed us, or else accidentally fell in with us; I know not which. You +renewed your offers and your oaths. We found, all worthless as you are, +that the poor girl loved you still, and, yielding to your repeated +importunity, we suffered her to become your wife.' + +"'Wife!' repeated the renegade contemptuously. 'Do you suppose, then, +that I valued your gipsy mummeries at a pin's head? You might as well +attempt to tie these wrists of mine with the gossamer from yonder +furze.' + +"'We knew that, Massingberd Heath, although the girl did not know it; +she trusted you, although your every word was false.' + +"'She is fool enough for anything,' returned the other brutally. 'But I +know all this. Have you dared to bring me here merely to repeat so stale +a story?' + +"'A story with an ending that you have yet to learn,' pursued my uncle +sternly. You were wedded by no gipsy mummeries, as you call them; you +took Sinnamenta Liversedge, in the presence of many persons, solemnly to +wife.' + +"'Ay, and I might take her sister there, and marry her to-day after the +same fashion, and no law could say me "nay."' + +"'Yes, <i>here</i>, Massingberd Heath; but not at Kirk-Yetholm.' + +"'And why not?' inquired the ruffian, with a mocking laugh, that had, +however, something shrill and wavering in it. + +"'Because Kirk-Yetholm is over the Border, and, by the laws of Scotland, +my niece Sinnamenta is your wife, proud man, and nothing but death can +dissever the bond!' + +"An awful silence succeeded my uncle's words. Massingberd Heath turned +livid, and twice in vain essayed to speak; he was well nigh strangled by +passion. + +"'I thank heaven, Rachel,' murmured my little sister, 'that I am not +that shame to thee and to my race which I thought myself to be.' + +"'You shall have but little to thank heaven for, girl, if this be true,' +cried her husband hoarse with concentrated rage; 'somebody shall pay for +this.' + +"'It <i>is</i> true,' quoth my father, 'and you feel it to be so. Nothing +remains, then, but to make the best of it. We do not seek anything at +your hands, nor--' + +"'Only the right of camping undisturbed about Fairburn,' interposed my +uncle Morris, who was of a grasping disposition, and had planned the +whole matter, I fear, not without an eye to the advantage of his tribe. +'You wouldn't treat your wife's family as trespassers.' + +"'Certainly not,' returned Massingberd Heath, with bitterness; 'they +shall be most welcome. I should be extremely sorry if they were to +leave my neighbourhood just yet. In the meantime, however, I want my +wife--my Wife. Come along with me, my pretty one.' + +"He looked like a wild beast, within springing distance of his prey. + +"'Oh, father, uncle, defend me!' cried the miserable girl. 'What have +you done to bring this man's vengeance upon me?' + +"'Ay, you are right there!' answered her husband, in a voice that froze +my veins. 'That is still left for me--vengeance. Come along, I say; I +hunger until it shall begin.' + +"'Massingberd Heath,' cried I, throwing myself at his feet, 'for God's +sake have mercy upon her; it is not her fault. She knew no more than you +of all these things. Look how ill and pale she is--you above all men +should have pity on her wretched condition. Oh leave her with us, leave +my little sister here, and neither she nor we will ever trouble you, +ever come near you. It shall be just the same as though you had never +set eyes upon us; it shall indeed! Oh, you would not, <i>could</i> not surely +be cruel to such a one as she.' + +"I pointed to her as she stood clinging to her father's arm as much for +support as in appeal, so beautiful, so pitiful, so weak; a spectacle to +move a heart of stone. + +"'Could I not be cruel,' returned he, with a grating laugh, 'ay, to even +such a one as she? Ask <i>her</i>--ask <i>her</i>.' + +"There was no occasion to put the question; you saw the answer in her +shrinking form, her trembling limbs: his every word fell upon her like a +blow. + +"'She has not yet known, however, what I can be to my <i>Wife</i>,' continued +he. 'Come, my pretty one, come.' + +"'She shall not,' cried my father, vehemently; 'it shall never be in +his power to hurt her.' + +"'What! and I her husband?' exclaimed the other, mockingly. 'Both one +until death us do part! Not come?' + +"'He will kill her,' murmured my father; 'her blood will be on my head.' + +"'Are you coming, wife?' cried Massingberd Heath, in a terrible voice; +he stepped forward, and grasped her slender wrist with fingers of steel. +Morris and my father rushed forward, but the man had swung her behind +him, placing himself between her and them, and at the same instant he +had taken from his pocket a life-preserver--he carries it to this +day--armed with which he was a match for five such men. 'And now,' cried +he, 'what man shall stop me from doing what I will with my own?"' + +"'I!' exclaimed a sudden voice, and with the word some dark mass +launched itself so violently against the throat of Massingberd Heath +that the giant toppled and fell; upon his huge breast, knife in hand, +knelt Stanley Carew, his eyes gleaming with hate, his lithe body working +like a panther's. He was not hesitating, not he, he was only drinking in +a delicious draught of revenge, before he struck. + +"'Strike!' cried I, 'strike hard and quick, Carew!' But while the blade +was in air, Morris and my father plucked him backwards, and suffered his +intended victim to rise, although despoiled of his weapon. + +"'No, Carew; that will never do,' quoth Morris. 'We should have the +whole country upon us in an hour, and they would hang us altogether.' + +"'Carew is that man's name, is it?' exclaimed Massingberd Heath. 'I +will not forget it, be sure. You shall all pay for this, trust me; but +he, and <i>this one</i>, more than all. Come away, wife, come away.' + +"'Yes, she must go, Carew,' interposed my uncle, checking a furious +movement of the young man's. 'He knows all now, and has a right to what +he demands.' + +"'Ay, but if he lays one finger upon her,' cried the passionate gipsy, +'if he dares to harm her even by a word, and I hear of it, as sure as I +see the sun this day, I will know what is the colour of his life-blood. +You may take her away across the seas, but I will follow you; you may +surround yourself with precautions, but I will come at you; you may go +day and night in mail, but this knife shall find your heart out.' + +"Massingberd Heath nodded contempuously, without speaking; and striding +from the tent, signed to Sinnamenta to follow him, which she did, +moaning and weeping, and casting backward, ever and anon, pitiful +glances upon the home and friends she had exchanged for such an evil +lot. I never saw my little sister more." + +As if the remembrance of this sad scene had utterly overcome her, Rachel +Liversedge hid her face in her hands, and wept until the tears welled +through her tanned and shrivelled fingers. + +"I am indeed distressed," said I, "to have caused you so much pain. I +will not make you sad by telling me more." + +"Nay, my boy, since I have begun it, let me finish with it; I shall +think of it all the same, and it is better to speak than think. That +very night Stanley Carew was arrested upon the charge of stealing the +horse which he had bought in open market, and ridden home just in time +to play the part I have described. In the days I speak of, forty pound +was given as a reward to those who gave such evidence as produced a +capital conviction, and many a gipsy perished innocently in consequence +of that wicked ordinance. It is possible that this accusation was made +by one of those who made a practice of earning blood-money; but I am +positively certain the false witness was set on by Massingberd Heath, +even if that man did not originate the charge. It was pressed against +poor Carew very harshly; and although the farmer of whom he bought the +animal came honestly forward, and swore to its being the same which he +had sold the prisoner, his evidence was rejected on account of some +slight mistake in the description. You must have heard tell of that +awful execution long ago at Crittenden jail, when the wretched victim to +perjury and revenge uttered these terrible words: 'O God, if thou dost +not deliver me, I will not believe there is a God.' That unhappy man was +Stanley Carew. My father and uncle were pitilessly persecuted and +imprisoned, and died before their time. These wrists have worn fetters, +this back has suffered stripes; nor did the vengeance of our enemy cease +even with one generation. One of my boys is beyond seas, and another +within stone walls; yet I know that the hate of Sir Massingberd Heath is +not yet slaked." + +"But what became of your little sister, poor Sinnamenta?" + +"I know not what she suffered immediately after she was taken from us; +Heaven only knows: her husband carried her a great way off out of our +ken. But this I have heard, that when he told her of the death of +Stanley Carew she fell down like one dead, and presently being +delivered of a son, the infant died after a few hours; the mother +lived--a maniac. Yes, Massingberd Heath, you did not kill my little +sister, after all; yonder she lives, but recks not whether you are kind +or cruel; she drinks no more the bitter cup of love's betrayal." + +"She is surely not at Fairburn," asked I, "is she?" + +"What else should keep us here, boy, to be harried by keepers, to be +vexed by constables and justices? What else should keep me here in a +place that tortures me with memories of my youth and of loving faces +that have crumbled into dust? What else but the hope of one day seeing +my little sister yet, and the vengeance of Heaven upon him who has +worked her ruin!" The old woman rose up as she spoke, and looked +menacingly towards Fairburn Hall. "I could almost exclaim with poor +Carew," cried she, "that if Massingberd Heath escape some awful end, +there is no Avenger on high. I am old, but I shall see it, yes, I shall +see it before I die." + +If there had been more to tell, which fortunately there was not, I do +not think Rachel Liversedge could have spoken further; her emotion far +more than her exertions, had reduced her strength so far, that though +she uttered the last words energetically enough, I had had for some time +a difficulty in hearing what she said. + +"I thank you for listening to the tediousness of an ancient dame so +long," murmured she: "if you were not a good boy, and half a gipsy, you +would never have been so patient. I have told you all this to put you on +your guard: it is no secret, but still you may not have heard it. +Distrust, despise, detest Massingberd Heath; and warn his nephew, if +you be his friend, not to venture again within his uncle's reach." + +"I will, I will!" cried I; "and I thank you in his name," I held out my +hand, and she turned it over in her own. + +"An honest palm," quoth she, "without a stain. There is one unlucky +cross about it, Peter, that is all. You must not fret for that." + +I mounted my horse amid cordial "good-byes" from the gipsies, who had +been pursuing their usual avocations during the above recital, as though +nothing was more common than that the head of the family should have a +secret of two hours long to communicate to a strange young gentleman; +and throwing a shilling to the boy who had shown me the way, I took my +leave. + +It was not till I left the plantation far behind me, and had ridden at +speed for some distance on the open road, that I was able to shake off +the sombre feelings that oppressed me, and to meet Mrs. Myrtle's welcome +to the rectory with an answering smile. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR. + + +Upon my return to Fairburn, I became the object of immense curiosity and +attraction. I was stared at in the rector's pew at church, and, in my +solitary rides, whithersoever I went, as the repository of the great +secret of the disruption between Sir Massingberd and his nephew. It was +even whispered that I was the prime mover of the young man's rebellion, +and had planned the very manner of his escape upon Panther, including +the accident. At all events, I knew all that had happened, which nobody +else knew, except my tutor himself. Now Mr. Long was as close as wax. +Many an invitation had Mrs. Myrtle obtained of late to take a dish of +tea upon grounds which her hosts had since stigmatized as false +pretences. As the housekeeper and confidential servant of the rector, +she had been asked by Mrs. Arabel of the Grange Farm to take evening +refreshment with her in a friendly way; also by Mrs. Remnants, who kept +that extensive emporium in the village which supplied snuff to the aged +of both sexes (though not gratuitously), becoming cambrics to the young, +and lollipops to those who had not yet reached that period of life +wherein outward adornment is preferred to inward gratification; also by +the exciseman's wife; nay, there was not anybody's wife in Fairburn, +having the wherewithal to make a tea-table alluring, and being in a +sufficiently high position in life to venture upon the step, who did not +invite Mrs. Myrtle to visit her, and proceed to treat her like a +refractory pump; they poured a little down, in hopes to be more than +remunerated for the outlay. But, alas, although the dear good lady was +willing enough, being indeed a gossip born, she had nothing to tell +them. She was not equal to the task of Invention, and of facts, even to +trade upon in tea and toast, she had absolutely none. + +Conceive, then, how every face was turned interrogatively towards Master +Meredith--no, <i>Mr.</i> Meredith, now that the object of everybody was to +please him. How the dames dropped courtesies, and hoped my honour was +well; and my honour's friend too, Mr. Marmaduke, he was well too, they +trusted--Heaven bless him; and he was staying away from Fairburn a good +bit, was he not? and how did has uncle like that, who had always kept +him at home so strict?--and was it true that he was residing with Mr. +Harvey Gerard? well, dear me, and how odd that was; an atheist and a +democrat, people did say; but there, there were some again as spoke well +of him. + +Sedate Mr. Arabel, set on, without doubt, by his inquisitive lady, even +waylaid me in a narrow lane, and insisted upon my looking in at the +farm, and partaking of casual hospitality. "Ye'll just have three drars +and a spet," said he (meaning by that farm of expression a few whiffs of +a pipe), "and take a glass of ale;" and when I declined the first offer +upon the ground of not being a smoker, and the second on the plea that +it was only eleven o'clock, A.M., and consequently rather early for ale, +he confessed that his missus was a-waiting for me with a bottle of +cowslip wine, and a seed-cake of her own making. It was rather difficult +to escape from hospitable snares of this kind, but I revealed as little +as possible without giving absolute offence. On the other hand, I +received some information, the details of which had not been confided to +me by Mr. Long. + +"Well, sir," remarked Mrs. Arabel, after I had told her all I meant to +tell, which was not much, "and it's no wonder as Mr. Marmaduke <i>should</i> +have run away, I'm sure." + +"My good lady," observed I, "pray, be particular; I never said he ran +away; I said his horse ran away." + +"Yes, of course, sir," responded the mistress of the Grange, winking in +a manner that made me quite uncomfortable; "you are very right to say +that, Mr. Meredith, very right. But Sir Massingberd's opinion is, that +it was all planned from first to last, only he says you nearly overdid +it." + +"Ah, indeed," said I; "how was that?" + +"Well, it seems Sir Massingberd was quite deceived about that horse he +bought for his nephew; instead of being quiet, and fit for the lad, it +was a perfect demon; and it was sheer madness of you young gentlemen to +go racing in order to make it run away; then, to arrange with Mr. Gerard +all beforehand; well, I must say I shouldn't have thought that either of +you would have had the depth." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Arabel," said I, laughing; "I am sorry you entertained +so low an idea of our intelligence." + +"Well, sir," returned the farmer's wife, with an air of excessive +candour, "my husband, you see, he often has said to me, says he, 'That +young squire Marmaduke, I'm darned if he ain't little better than a +fool; he don't know what shot to use for rabbits, that he don't; I +never saw his equal for ignorance. And as for that lad from the +Ingies--that was you, you know, sir--well, of all the young fellows +turned of seventeen as I ever saw, he's the'--" + +Here Mrs. Arabel crimsoned, and stopped short, as if she had been very +nearly betrayed into saying something which was not entirely +complimentary. + +"Pray, go on, my dear madam," said I; "'of all the young fellows turned +of seventeen whom he had ever seen, I was the'--" + +"Well, sir, he'd just the same opinion of you as he had of Master +Marmaduke; but, for my part, I always said, that although you might +neither on you know so much as you ought to, and though you might seem, +as it were--" + +"Ay, you always stood our friend, and said we were not such fools as we +looked; did you?" + +"Just so," replied Mrs. Arabel, simply; "and so you see it has turned +out. If Mr. Marmaduke can only live elsewhere till something happens to +Sir Massingberd--although, indeed, he looks as if nothing ever could +hurt him--his life will doubtless be much pleasanter than at the Hall; +it is no place for a young gentleman like him, sure<i>ly</i>, although, +indeed, things are better there than they were. The dark-eyed +foreigneering-looking young person, although, indeed, she was old enough +to know better; well, <i>she's</i> gone." + +"So I have heard," said I drily. + +"Yes, she went away in a whirlwind, <i>she</i> did," continued Mrs. Arabel, +reflectively. + +"Dear me," replied I, "I never heard that." + +"Ah, indeed, I daresay not; why, you see, Mr. Long was a little mixed up +in it. Perhaps he thought it better not to tell you. Take another glass +of cowslip wine, sir; it has been more than ten years in bottle; and the +cake is as good a cake as you will put teeth into in all Midshire, +though I say it as shouldn't say it. Well; the thing happened in this +way, you see. The foreigneering female, she used to throw things at +folks; dishes, plates, whatever came first to hand, whenever she was in +her tantrums. Mr. Gilmore he had his head opened with a slop-basin, so +that you could lay your finger in it; and Oliver Bradford, I believe she +fired a gun at him, charged with swan-shot. However, at times, she was +quite otherwise, crying and submissive as a child. They said it was +Religion up at the Hall; but they knows nothing about that; how should +they? It was hysterics, I daresay, and serve her right too. Well, who +should come here, the very Sunday after Mr. Marmaduke had run away, and +when Sir Massingberd was like a wild man with rage, and couldn't speak +without blaspheming, but one of them Methodee preachers as sometimes +hold forth upon our common. Now the foreigneering female was a-walking +in the park shrubbery, with one of her hysterical fits upon her, I +suppose, and what does she hear through the palings but words as I +suppose the poor creature never listened to before; and presently out +she comes upon the common, and stands up among all the people, with her +great eyes swollen with weeping, and her painted cheeks--and I always +said they were painted--daubed and smeared with tears. Carter John, who +is very much given to that sort of worship, he was there; and he told me +she looked for all the world like the woman in the great picture over +the communion-table in Crittenden Church, who is wiping the feet of our +Lord with her hair. + +"Then the preacher, he bade her repent while there was yet time, and +fear nothing but only God. But Sir Massingberd, he came out, and dragged +her in from the very preacher's hand, and presently back again he comes +with a horse-whip, and swears there shall be no Methodees in his parish, +and if he caught the hypocritical ranter--as he called him--within +hearing again, he'd split his ears. Now, I don't go with him there," +pursued Mrs. Arabel, gravely. "It isn't for us, Mr. Meredith, to say as +nobody can't pick up good, unless it's in church; and least of all +should such things be said by Sir Massingberd, who lets that beautiful +family pew get damp and mouldy, with the fireplace always empty all the +winter long, and never puts his nose into it from year's end to year's +end. However, what does the foreigneering female do, but declare she +would starve herself to death, before she would eat the bread of +unrighteousness any longer; and not one morsel of food would she take, +though they locked her up, and tried to tempt her with her most +favourite dishes. So Sir Massingberd, being at his wits' end, came over +to the parson, and begged him to come and persuade the woman to be +reasonable, and take some refreshment; and Mr. Long--he at first +declined to interfere in such a matter at all, but presently thinking +the poor creature might be really penitent, although it came about +through a Methodee, and hoping to do her some good, although not in the +way Sir Massingberd intended, he accompanied him to the Hall; and what +do you think? Why, they found the poor woman was in such earnest, that +she had cut off the whole of her beautiful black hair, and there it lay +on the carpet, like so much rubbish. So the Squire he swore that he +didn't care now whether she starved or not, and turned her out of the +house, as I said at first, in a whirlwind. She was very faint and weak; +and Mr. Long, who would never exchange a syllable with her before, made +Mrs. Myrtle give her a good meal, and gave her some good words himself, +and sent her away to her friends--for it seems she had some friends, +poor wretch; and this has made Sir Massingberd wilder than ever against +the rector, whom he had already accused of aiding and abetting young Mr. +Marmaduke in his running away; so that altogether the Squire is ready to +make an end of everybody." + +This last statement, although a little highly coloured, as Mrs. Arabel's +descriptions usually were, was really not far from the truth. It did +almost seem as if the baronet was so transported with passion as to be +capable of any enormity. What the law permitted him to do in the way of +oppression, that, of course, he practised to the uttermost; his +morality, never very diffuse, had concentrated itself upon one +position--the defence of the game and trespass laws. His keepers were +exhorted to increased vigilance; the worst characters in the parish were +constituted his spies. Every night, it was now the custom of their lord +and master to go the rounds in his own preserves, and visit the +outposts, to see that the sentinels did their duty. He employed no +Warnings or Trespass Boards in Fairburn Park; his object was not to +deter, but to catch the contemners of the sacred rights of property in +the very act. The pursuit of his life had become man-hunting. I write +that word without any reference to Marmaduke Heath, for, indeed, at that +time I thought that Sir Massingberd had given up all hope of recovering +possession of his nephew. A considerable period had now elapsed since +the young man's convalescence; and yet the baronet had taken no steps to +compel his return. He had written, indeed, to Marmaduke a letter of +anything but a conciliatory character, and calculated to re-arouse the +lad's most morbid fears; but Mr. Harvey Gerard had intercepted the +dispatch, and returned it with an answer of his own composition. He had +stated briefly the results of the late conference at the Dovecot +respecting his young guest; he had reiterated his intention of bringing, +in a court of justice, the gravest charges against the baronet, in case +of any legal molestation from him; and he had finished with a personal +recommendation to that gentleman to rest satisfied with the enjoyment of +the allowance that was supposed to go to the maintenance of his nephew. +Epistolary communication by hand was rendered impracticable, on the part +of the baronet, by the removal of the Dovecot household to town. + +This was a bitter blow to the lord of Fairburn; he knew so well the +abject fear which he had inspired in my unhappy friend, that, +notwithstanding all that had come and gone yet, he did not doubt that a +few words in his own handwriting would bring the truant back, however +loath. We are living now in such quiet times, and under the protection +of such equal laws, that I am aware my younger readers will have a +difficulty in conceiving how one human being, however powerful, could be +held in such terror by others. I was aware, from the first, that the +present universal security would give my narrative an air of +improbability, and I fear that this must increase as it proceeds. I have +only to say, that at the period of which I write, there was no poor man +in Fairburn parish, however honest, however prudent, who might not have +been lodged in jail at the instance of his squire, and would have found +it difficult to clear himself; or who might not, on a hint from the same +quarter, have been pressed, if he did but give the opportunity, on board +a man-of-war. I am likewise certain that had Sir Massingberd ventured +upon such a step, he might have recovered possession of his nephew, or +at least withdrawn him from his protector, by the strong hand of the +law, upon the ground of Mr. Gerard's professing revolutionary +principles. In these days of Palmerston and Derby, of Tweedledum and +Tweedledee, it is impossible for those who are not old enough to have +witnessed it, to imagine the rancour of political parties half a century +ago, or the despotism and flagrant injustice that were sanctioned under +the convenient name of Order. + +For the haughty baronet to be thus cut off from all intercourse with his +victim, was to be foiled indeed. At first, he stung himself well-nigh to +frenzy, like a scorpion within its circle of flame; but after a time the +white heat of his wrath began apparently to abate. He seemed to have +made up his mind to sit down quietly under his defeat, and to content +himself with tyrannizing over those who were yet in his power. This +comparatively peaceful state of things was looked upon by Mr. Long and +myself at first with suspicion, but at last with real satisfaction. When +Sir Massingberd sent over five pine-apples and some splendid grapes to +the Rectory with his compliments (for the first time within twenty +years), we shook our heads, and my tutor addressed the messenger of his +bounty in these words; "Tell your master I am exceedingly obliged to him +for his kindness. 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.'" + +"Would you be so good as to write that down, sir?" said the man. + +"You may give him the message without the tail," replied the rector, a +little discomfited at his own indiscretion, but congratulating himself +very much that he had expressed his thoughts so classically. + +But when pine-apples and grapes became common presents from the Hall, we +began really to think that the stubborn old baronet had come to the +conclusion that it was as pleasant to be on good terms with his +neighbour as not, and that he was genuinely bent on reconciliation. A +soft answer is said to be efficacious to this end, but it is nothing +compared to hothouse dainties out of season; and notwithstanding all I +knew, and all I suspected, I began to regard Sir Massingberd Heath, not +indeed with less contempt and dislike, but with less positive loathing, +and certainly with less fear. I had not set foot upon his property since +Marmaduke's departure, and the baronet took occasion to stop me as I +rode by his gate one day, and remonstrate upon the incivility of such a +course of conduct. + +"It can do me no damage, young gentleman, that you should take your +pleasure in my park, more especially as you are not a sportsman, who +would covet my hares and pheasants; and I cannot but think that your +omission to do so is a proof of ill-feeling towards me, which I am not +conscious of having deserved at your hands." + +He spoke stiffly, and without condescension, as a man might speak to an +equal, between himself and whom a misunderstanding existed unexplained, +but capable of explanation, and, foolish boy as I was, I felt flattered +by his behaviour. + +If the least notion of making myself out to be a hero had existed in my +brain when I began to write these Recollections, it has been dissipated +long ago. I have been quite as much surprised during this recital as any +of my readers have been, at the contemplation of my own meannesses; if I +had known how many and how serious they were to be, perhaps I should +have hesitated to recall them; but I commenced with as strong a +determination, nothing to extenuate with respect to myself, as to set +nothing down in malice with respect to others; and thus I shall proceed +to the end. + +While, then, matters were on this less antagonistic footing, and when +Marmaduke had been away about a year, business happened to take Mr. Long +from Fairburn, and I was left a day and a night my own master. He had +not been gone an hour when Mrs. Myrtle came into the study, where I was +employed at my books, with a letter in her hand; she looked quite pale +and frightened, as she said, "Lor', Mr. Peter, if this note ain't from +Sir Massingberd hisself for <i>you</i>. I feels all of a tremble, so as you +might knock me down with a peacock's feather." + +"Well," said I, forcing a laugh, "but I am not going to use any such +weapon, Mrs. Myrtle. What on earth is there to be afraid of in the +squire's handwriting? It can't bite." But I felt in a cold perspiration +nevertheless, and my fingers trembled as they undid the missive. It was +a polite invitation to dine with the baronet that evening. + +"You are not going, sir, I <i>do</i> hope!" exclaimed the housekeeper +eagerly, as soon as I had acquainted her with the contents of the note. +"Why, such a thing hasn't happened for this quarter of a century. He'll +poison you, as sure as my name's Martha Myrtle. I never saw you and +master eating his pine-apples without a shudder; the rector <i>was</i> +uncommon ill after one of them, one day." + +"Yes, Mrs. Myrtle," said I quietly, "and I have suffered also from the +same cause myself; but I don't think the squire was to blame." + +"But you ain't a-going, sir; I am sure as master wouldn't like it. Oh, +pray, say you ain't a-going." + +"Well, then, I won't go, Mrs. Myrtle. The fact is, I feel one of my +colds coming on; they generally begin with a lump in my throat; so I +shall write to excuse myself." + +I really had a lump in my throat; my heart had jumped up and stopped +there at the mere notion of a <i>tête-à -tête</i> with Sir Massingberd, +diversified--no, intensified--by the presence of Grimjaw. I wouldn't +have gone through it for a thousand pounds; so I wrote to decline the +honour upon the ground of indisposition. I was compelled to keep the +house, I said, for the entire day. Half an hour afterwards, another +letter arrived from the Hall. Since Sir Massingberd might not enjoy the +pleasure of my company at dinner, would I permit him to come over to the +Rectory that morning, and have a few words of conversation with me upon +a matter deeply interesting to both of us? There was no getting out of +this. If I had gone to bed, on plea of illness, I felt that even that +course would have been no protection to me. Sir Massingberd would have +forced a dying man to play with him at pitch-and-toss, if so inopportune +a game had happened to take his fancy. On the other hand, Mrs. Myrtle's +suggestion that I should mount my horse, and ride away after Mr. Long, +was really too pusillanimous a proceeding; I therefore wrote back to the +baronet a polite falsehood, to the effect that I should be very happy to +see him; and in a very few minutes afterwards, I was face to face with +Marmaduke's foe. + +He came in unushered--Mrs. Myrtle not being equal to such an +occasion--filling the doorway with his gigantic form, and well-nigh +touching the ceiling of the low-roofed room with his head. + +"I am sorry to intrude upon an invalid," said he, "but what I had to say +was of a private nature, and I was not sure of finding you alone at any +other time." + +I bowed, and begged my visitor to be seated. + +"It is something," thought I, "that this man is civil at least." For +there is this great advantage in being habitually insolent and +overbearing, that when one does condescend to behave decently, people +appreciate one's good maimers very much. + +"I have called upon you," continued the baronet, "with respect to my +nephew and your friend, Marmaduke Heath. It is idle to deny that he and +I have not been to one another what our mutual relationship should have +led us to be. I am naturally a hard man; losses and poverty have +doubtless rendered me more morose. Marmaduke, on the other hand, is of +an over-sensitive and morbid nature. We did not get on together at all +well. There were faults on both sides; it was six of one, and--" + +I shook my head. + +"Very well, then," resumed Sir Massingberd, with candour, "let us say +that it was I who was in the wrong. I have not the patience and +gentleness requisite for dealing with a character like him; my temper is +arbitrary; I have behaved with but little courtesy even to yourself. You +are polite enough to contradict me, but nevertheless it is true. For +<i>that</i>, however, reparation can be made. I wish that I could as easily +make atonement in the other quarter. This, however, I feel is utterly +impossible. Things have gone too far. I make no complaint of my nephew's +having been encouraged in his rebellious course by one whose duty it +was, on the contrary, to reconcile us. I wish to say nothing that could +only lead to fruitless discussion, and perhaps a disagreement between +you and me; that would be most impolitic on my part, since I come here +to solicit your good offices." + +"Mine, Sir Massingberd? mine?" + +"Yes, I desire your kindly assistance in bringing about a better +understanding between Marmaduke and myself." + +"Sir," said I, "what you ask is a sheer impossibility. Marmaduke Heath +may be wrong in his estimate of your character, but it will remain +unchanged to his dying day. I am as certain of this, as that yonder +yellowing tree will presently lose its leaves." + +"You speak frankly, Mr. Meredith," returned the baronet, calmly, "and I +do not respect you less upon that account. It is not, however, as a +mediator that I need your assistance; I ask a much less favour than +that; I simply wish you to inclose a letter from me to my nephew." + +"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, with some indignation, "you have done +me the favour of calling upon me in my tutor's absence, in the +expectation of finding me so weak as to be unable to refuse whatever you +chose to ask, or so treacherous as to be willing to deceive those who +are generously protecting my best friend from one whom he has every +cause to fear. I am extremely obliged to you for the compliment;" and +with that I laid my hand upon the bell. + +"One moment," observed the baronet, quietly, nay, with suavity, though +the letter U upon his forehead deepened visibly, and the veins of his +great hand, as it rested on the table, grew big with passion; "one +moment before you ring. I am sorry you should have taken such a view of +my conduct as you have described; you young men are somewhat hasty in +the imputation of motive. I am a straightforward, rough fellow, and may +have displeased you; but I am not aware that I have done anything to +justify you in accusing me of meanness and duplicity. Those persons who +have charge of my nephew are, in my judgment, deeply culpable; but I do +not wish you to act deceitfully towards them on that account. Matters +have come to that pass, however, that I cannot even communicate with my +nephew, even though I have that to say which would give him genuine +pleasure. This Mr. Harvey Gerard"--his deep voice shook with hatred as +he mentioned that name--"has taken upon himself to return my letters to +Marmaduke unopened. I know not how to convey to him even such a one as +this." + +Sir Massingberd threw across to me a folded sheet, directed to his +nephew, and motioned that I should open it. It ran as follows:-- + +"NEPHEW MARMADUKE,--It seems that you are fully determined never again +to seek the shelter of my roof; I am given to understand that the time +for reconciliation has gone by, and that any attempt to effect it would +only cause you annoyance, and make the breach wider between us. If so, +so be it. I am an old man now, and I wish my last years to be passed in +peace. I wish to make no allusion to the character of the person with +whom you have chosen to reside, further than to express a hope that when +I am gone, and it will be your part to exercise the rights of a great +land-owner, that you will not employ your influence to subvert the laws +and the government. It is as mad in those who possess authority to +countenance revolution, as for a man seated on a lofty branch to lop it +off with his own hands. I do not say this as your uncle, but merely as +one of an ancient race with whom we are both connected, and in whose +welfare we should take an equal interest. Mr. Meredith is kind enough to +enclose this parting word of advice--the last communication that will +probably ever pass between us--from + + "MASSINGBERD HEATH. + +"P.S.--Burn this when you have read it, lest your friend should get into +trouble upon my account." + + +I read and re-read this strange epistle with great care, before I made +any comment upon it. There was nothing, to my mind, objectionable in any +of the contents. I had been twice to Harley Street during the summer, +and found Marmaduke as morbidly apprehensive as ever of some course of +conduct to be adopted by his uncle with reference to regaining the +custody of his person; he was haunted still by the shadow of this +terrible man. The words I held before me were certainly calculated to +reassure him. No news could be more gratifying than this positive +resignation of the baronet's claim to be his guardian, this final +"good-bye" under Sir Massingberd's own hand. As for the political +advice, I thought that very healthy. I was then, as now, a staunch +conservative, and although I did not sympathize in the least with the +harsh acts of the government in respect to poor, misguided men, not +without their wrongs, yet I did think Mr. Gerard's views both visionary +and dangerous. + +"I trust," observed Sir Massingberd, gravely, "that the sentiments which +you are now perusing are in accordance with your own. I am speaking, I +believe, to a gentleman, and consequently to a natural friend of +order." + +I bowed in assent. "There certainly seems nothing in this epistle which +Marmaduke might not read," muttered I, musing. + +"<i>Seems?</i>" cried the baronet. "Why not say <i>is</i> at once?" + +A sudden idea, gleaned from some romance which I had been lately +reading, flashed across my brain. Why did the postscript say, "Burn this +when you have read it?" I let my hand, with the letter in it, drop below +my knee, so that the missive was held close to the fire. + +"There is no writing in lemon-juice, I do assure you," observed Sir +Massingberd, quietly; "you will only scorch the paper." + +I coloured at the exposure of my suspicions, and in my confusion it did +not strike me that the speaker must himself have at least entertained +such a project, or he never could have unmasked me so readily. I was a +little ashamed of myself, and rather sorry for my incredulity. Sir +Massingberd saw this, and pressed his point. + +"Since there is nothing concealed, and no harm in what is visible, I do +hope you will grant the favour I requested, and inclose that note to my +nephew." + +"Well, sir," said I, after a little hesitation, "I will inclose it. I +give you warning, however, that I shall send a line by the same post to +let Mr. Gerard know that I have done so." + +"By all means," responded Sir Massingberd. "I am only anxious that my +nephew's own eyes should read what I have written. Have you a taper and +wax?" asked he, folding up the sheet. "I might as well stamp it with my +seal." + +I rose and brought what he required from a writing-table. Sir +Massingberd sealed the letter, and gave it into my hand. + +"Mr. Meredith," said he, rising, "you have done me a great service. I +think I have said, that the oftener you make use of my grounds the +better I shall be pleased. Did I add that the bowling-green is entirely +at your service? I am too stiff in the back to have a game with you +myself, but I will give directions to Gilmore to be your antagonist, +whenever you may feel inclined." + +The baronet took his leave in a stately, but not unfriendly manner. He +certainly <i>was</i> stiff in the back; but that was his nature. As he +smiled, his lip turned upwards, instead of the usual way; but so it +always did. Yet I did not feel quite comfortable, as I stood by myself +over the fire, balancing Sir Massingberd's "good-bye" to his nephew in +my hand, and questioning within myself whether it wouldn't be better to +inclose it to Mr. Harvey Gerard, after all. However, in the end I kept +my promise. + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2, by James Payn + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 37170 *** diff --git a/37170-h/37170-h.htm b/37170-h/37170-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9abb93 --- /dev/null +++ b/37170-h/37170-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4783 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lost Sir Massingberd, by James Payn. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +a:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +.content {margin-left: 35%; font-size: 0.8em;} + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 37170 ***</div> + +<h1>LOST SIR MASSINGBERD.</h1> + +<h3>A Romance of Real Life.</h3> + +<h4>IN TWO VOLUMES.</h4> + +<h4>VOL. I.</h4> + +<h5>LONDON:</h5> + +<h5>SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,</h5> + +<h5>14, LUDGATE HILL.</h5> + +<h5>1864.</h5> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + + +<blockquote><p>The uncommon favour with which the story of "LOST SIR +MASSINGBERD" has been received while appearing in the +columns of a popular periodical, has induced its author to +solicit the suffrages of that more critical Public who "hate +to read novels bit by bit."</p></blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4> +CONTENTS. +</h4> + +<p class="content"> +PREFATORY<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a> GIANT DESPAIR<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a> MY FIRST INTERVIEW<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a> THE DREAM BY THE BROOK<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a> THE DUMB WITNESS<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a> THE STATE BEDROOM<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a> HEAD OVER HEELS<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a> AT THE DOVECOT<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a> MEETING HIS MATCH<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a> MR. HARVEY GERARD<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a> LOVE THE LIFEGIVER<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a> WOOING BY PROXY<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a> THE COUNCIL OF WAR<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a> THE GIPSY CAMP<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a> WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a> THE REASON CONTINUED<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a> I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR +</p> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<h3>LOST SIR MASSINGBERD.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PREFATORY" id="PREFATORY"></a>PREFATORY.</h3> + + +<p>In these days, when every man and woman becomes an author upon the least +provocation, it is not necessary to make an apology for appearing in +print. Perhaps there was always something affected in those prefatorial +justifications; although they did disclaim any literary merit, it is +probable that the writers would have been indignant enough had the +critics taken them at their word; and perhaps the publication was not +entirely owing to "the warmly-expressed wishes of numerous friends." +But, at all events, we have done with all such excuses now. Not to have +written anything for the press, is no small claim to being an Original. +Neither sex nor age seems to exempt from the universal passion of +authorship. My niece, Jessie (<i>ætat.</i> sixteen), writes heart-rending +narratives for the "Liliputian Magazine;" her brother, whom I have +always looked upon as a violent, healthy hobbledehoy whose highest +virtue was Endurance, and whose darkest experience was Skittles, +produces the most thrilling romances for the "Home Companion." Even my +housekeeper makes no secret of forwarding her most admired recipes to +the "Family Intelligencer;" while my stable-boy, it is well known, is a +prominent poetical contributor to the "Turf Times," having also the gift +of prophecy with reference to the winner of all the racing events of any +importance. And yet, I believe, my household is not more addicted to +publication than those of my neighbours.</p> + +<p>What becomes of authors by profession in such a state of things literary +as this, I shudder to think; I feel it almost a sin to add one more to +the long list of competitors with whom they have to struggle; but still, +if I do not now set down the story which I have in my mind, I am certain +that, sooner or later, my nephew will do so for me, and very likely +spoil it in the telling. He writes in a snappy, jerky, pyrotechnic way, +which they tell me is now popular, but which is not suited to my +old-fashioned taste; and although he dare not make, at present, what he +calls "copy" of the stories with which I am perhaps too much accustomed +to regale his ears, he keeps a note-book, and a new terror is added to +Death from that circumstance. When I am gone, he will publish my best +things, under some such title as "After-dinner Tales," I feel certain; +and they will appear at the railway book-stalls in a yellow cover +bordered with red, or with even a frontispiece displaying a counterfeit +and libellous presentment of his departed relative in the very act of +narration. The gem of that collection would undoubtedly be the story +which I am now about to anticipate the young gentleman by relating +myself. If I am somewhat old-world in my style, perhaps it may be +forgiven me, in consideration of the reality of the circumstances +narrated, and the very strong interest which I do not doubt they will +arouse.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary to state the exact locality where they occurred, nor +the number of years which have elapsed since their occurrence; it is +enough to premise that what I tell is true, and that some of the +principal personages in the—well, the melodrama, if you will—are yet +alive, and will peruse these words before they meet the public eye. If +nothing therein offends <i>them</i>, therefore, it need not, upon the score +of indiscreet revelation at least, offend my readers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<h3>GIANT DESPAIR.</h3> + + +<p>In a midland county, not as yet scarred by factories, there stands a +village called Fairburn, which, at the time I knew it first—many, many +years ago—had for its squire, its lord, its despot, one Sir Massingberd +Heath. Its rector, at that date, was the Rev. Matthew Long; and at the +Rectory, when my story commences, there was in pupilage to the said +rector a youth, one Peter Meredith, who has since grown up to be the +present writer. When we are small, all things seem vast to our young +minds; good men are saints, and evil ones are demons. I loved Mr. Long, +therefore, although he was my tutor; and oh, how I feared and hated Sir +Massingberd! It was not, however, my boyhood alone that caused me to +hold this man as a monster of iniquity; it was the opinion which the +whole county entertained of him, more or less. The people of Fairburn +trembled before him, as a ship's company before some cruel captain of +fifteen years back—I mean, of fifteen years before the period of which +I write. Press-gangs had not very long ceased to do their cruel mission; +there were old men in our village who had served their time in His +Majesty's ships, very much against their will; there were gaps in poor +families still, which might or might not be filled up; empty chairs that +had so stood for a score of years perhaps, waiting for still expected +occupiers; fathers of families, or the props of families, in sons and +brothers, had been spirited away from Fairburn (even a little while +ago), and had not come back again yet. They had been poachers, or +radicals, or sectaries (as Dissenters were then called), or something +else distasteful to Sir Massingberd's father; and they had been carried +off to sea at his command. Let not my young readers imagine that I am +exaggerating matters; I write of a state of things of which they have +not the remotest conception, but which I remember perfectly well. They +have reason to thank Heaven that they did not live in those times, if +they happen to belong to those unprosperous classes which were then +termed collectively, "the mob;" there were no such things as "skilled +workmen," or "respectable artisans," in those days. The "people" were +"the Great Unwashed." To build a Crystal Palace for such as they were +held to be, would have seemed to be the height of folly; they would have +taken no other pleasure in it than to smash every pane with +brickbats—for were they not "the dangerous classes"? Such opinions were +beginning to die out, indeed, but they were held still by many great +people, and Sir Massingberd Heath was one of them. Reared in a +clergyman's family, and a clergyman myself, I have been a Conservative +in politics all my life, and in that belief I shall die; but rank and +power are no excuse with me for evil deeds. In the chamber of my nephew +John, who "takes in everything," as the phrase goes, I once discovered a +democratic magazine, edited by a gentleman whose surname I forget, but +who had a great multitude of initials. All the poor people described in +this work were pious and moral, and all the rich people were infidel and +profligate; but for the noblemen—and there were a good many persons of +high rank in the various stories—were reserved all the choicest +invectives and most superlative abuse. Nothing, of course, can be more +unfair than this treatment of a class of persons who, considering their +temptations, are really more than respectable. As a general rule, the +portraits were extravagantly malicious, but they had this attraction for +me—they were all exceedingly like Sir Massingberd Heath. He was the +very type of that bloated aristocracy that is held up in scarecrow +fashion, by republican writers. There were not many living specimens to +be met with even at the date of my tale, and the old baronet, perhaps +himself perceiving that he was one of the last of them, determined that +he should not be the least in infamy. Like the Unjust Judge, he neither +feared God nor regarded man, and, worse than he, he would not perform a +good action on account of the importunity of any person. She must have +been a brave woman who importuned Sir Massingberd Heath, and could +scarcely have been brought up in Fairburn.</p> + +<p>Whether George IV. was king or not, at the period of which I write, it +matters not, for his connection with our squire had terminated years +before; but at one time they had been fast, very fast friends. When a +king and a baronet run a race of extravagance, the king generally wins, +and so it had been in this case; His Majesty, or rather His Royal +Highness the Regent, had <i>distanced</i> Sir Massingberd, and they were not +now upon even speaking terms. Friendships of this sort do not last when +one of the parties has spent all his money. What was the use of a poor +man at White's who could only look on while his old friends played whist +for one hundred pound points, and five hundred pounds upon the rubber? +What business—let alone pleasure—could one have in London, when +Howard and Gribbs would not lend one fifty pounds even at fifty per +cent.? Sir Massingberd had left that gay, wicked world for good, that is +to say, for ever, and was obliged to live at his beautiful country-seat +in spite of himself. He was irretrievably ruined, so far as his court +prospects were concerned, for he had no ready money. He owned all +Fairburn, and many hundreds of rich acres about it, beside the Park and +the river; he had the great tithes of the place, and manorial rights +(which he exercised, too) innumerable. Nobody quite knew—he did not +know himself—what privileges he had or had not, what pathways he could +close at pleasure, what heriots he could demand, or what precise +property he had in Fairburn gravel-pits; but in all cases he gave +himself the benefit of the doubt. It was a very foolish thing to leave +any disputed point to the sense of justice, or the good feeling of our +squire, and yet this was generally done. Where it was not done, where +some honest fellow had ventured to oppose his high prerogative, even +though he gained his end, he was always, as the village people said, +"paid out" for it. I don't mean to say Sir Massingberd murdered +him—although he would have done that, I am confident, without the +slightest scruple, if it could have been effected with safety to +himself—but he took his revenge of him, sooner or later, in a very +simple way. He caught his children trespassing—having caused them to be +enticed upon his land—and committed them to prison; or he broke down +his fences, and spoiled his corn in the night; for he had dependents +devoted to his wicked will, and upon whose false witness he could always +rely.</p> + +<p>And yet, with all this power, the baronet, as I have said, was a poor +man; he had borrowed all the money he could, and was even said to have +overreached the London Jews in these transactions; and it was all +gone—absolutely all. It was seldom that this great lord of acres had a +ten-pound note in his pocket, for his house and land were all entailed +upon his nephew Marmaduke, and he had only a life-interest in anything. +Poverty perhaps made him bitterer and more savage than he would +otherwise have been; but, for my part, I cannot imagine him to have been +agreeable under any circumstances. I have heard, however, that at +Carlton House he was once the first favourite—after Brummell—and that, +of course, made him sought after by many people. He had a wicked wit, +which was doubtless acceptable in some circles, and his tongue, it may +be, was not quite so coarse in those days of prosperity. He took a +delight in his old age in retailing his infamous experiences, before +women, if possible, and if not, before clergymen or boys. I remember to +have heard of Mr. Long once venturing to reprove his squire upon an +occasion of this very kind. The rector had been dining at the Hall—an +exceptional occurrence, and under exceptional circumstances—when, after +dinner, the host began one of his disgraceful reminiscences, whereupon +my tutor rose and said, "Sir Massingberd, you should be ashamed to talk +of such matters to me; but before this boy, it is infamous. I thank you +for your hospitality; but I shall go home."</p> + +<p>"Very well; go, and be hanged!" replied the baronet; "and Marmaduke and +I will make a jolly night of it."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke Heath was Mr. Long's pupil as well as myself, and he resided +with his uncle at the Hall. He would very much rather have retired with +his tutor on that occasion, and indeed have resided at the Rectory, for +he dreaded his relative beyond measure. All the pretended frankness with +which the old man sometimes treated the boy was unable to hide the hate +with which Sir Massingberd really regarded him; but for this +heir-presumptive to the entail, this milk-and-water lad of seventeen, +the baronet might raise money to any extent, nay, sell all Fairburn, if +he chose, and so might once more take his rightful station in the world, +rejoin the Four-in-hand Club, and demand his "revenge" from my Lord +Thanet at écarté. He could still drink, for the cellars of Fairburn Hall +were well-nigh inexhaustible; but if that chit of a lad was but carried +off, he might have the best in the land to drink with him. It is true +that a ruined man in Sir Massingberd's position can still afford a good +table; game is plentiful with him, and fish, and he grows his own +mutton and venison, so that neither himself nor his friends need starve; +but servants must be maintained to wait upon these, and a great +country-house without a carriage is as a lobster without a claw. +Consequently, except in the shooting-season, there were no guests at +Fairburn Hall; the folks that did come were men of a certain stamp; +current indeed, in good society, but only in that of males; a real lady +had not set foot in the Park, far less the house, for the last twelve +years; the manner in which Sir Massingberd lived forbade such a thing. A +few bachelors of the County Hunt, and half-a-dozen roués from town, were +all the company that could be enticed to Fairburn in September and +October; all the rest of the year, the grass grew in the avenue +untouched by wheel or hoof, and even sprang up among the stone steps +that led to the front-door. Somehow or other, I never saw it thus +without thinking of the parable of the Sower and the Seed, with some +distant and uncharitable reference to our squire! I wondered whether it +was possible that in any far-back time any good seed of any sort had +found its way into the crannies of his stony heart, and if so, what had +become of it. I used to try and picture that violent wicked man as a +child in his cot, or saying his prayers at his mother's knee. I believe +she had died soon after her marriage, and that, short as her wedded life +had been, it was a very unhappy one.</p> + +<p>Fairburn Hall had never been a house for tender, honest women; the +Heaths, who are celebrated like another noble race of the same sort, for +their hard hearts and excellent digestions, had never been good +husbands. Fortunately, daughters were rare in the family. How Sir +Massingberd would have brought up a daughter, I shudder to think. One +son had been the sole offspring vouchsafed to the baronets of this line +for many generations, except the last; and in the present case, there +was no such direct heir. Some said Sir Massingberd had married secretly, +but was separated from his wife, and some said he had not; but it seemed +somehow certain that with him the immediate succession from father to +son would cease. His brother Gilbert had married young in Italy, and had +died in that country within the same year. His widow had brought his +posthumous child, when a few months old, to the Hall, at the invitation +of Sir Massingberd, and had remained there for some time. The villagers +still spoke of the dark foreign lady as being the most beautiful +creature they had ever beheld; the Park keepers used to come upon her +in solitary glades, singing sweetly; but ah! so sorrowfully, to her +child in a tongue that they did not understand. The baronet himself was +absent, not yet cast out of the court whirlpool, and the lonely vastness +of the place was not displeasing to the young widow, wishing, perhaps, +to be left undisturbed with her grief; but after Sir Massingberd came +down, she remained but a very few days. It was said that she fled with +her babe in a winter's night, and that her little footprints were traced +in the snow to the cross-roads where the mail went by, by which she had +arrived. She was not rich, and had come down in a manner quite different +from that of her brother-in-law, who, broken and ruined though he was, +had posted with four horses. That was how all gentlefolks of the county +travelled in those days; even the very barristers on circuit indulged, +and were obliged to do so, in a chaise and a pair. The mother of +Marmaduke Heath, however, who was heir-presumptive to the largest landed +property in Midshire, was very poor. Whether the late baronet had +omitted to make a proper provision for his younger son, or whether +Gilbert had made away with it after the usual manner of the Heaths, I do +not know; but his widow and child betook themselves into +Devonshire—selected, perhaps, from its climate approaching nearer than +any other part of England to that of her native land—and, there lived +in a very humble fashion. How Marmaduke ever got into his uncle's hands, +I never could clearly understand; his mother had died suddenly, +whereupon the family lawyer, Mr. Clint of Russell Square, who had the +entire management of the Heath property, had in the first instance +taken possession of the lad; but Sir Massingberd had claimed his right +to be the guardian of his nephew, and it could not be disallowed.</p> + +<p>Such were mainly the circumstances, I believe; but all sorts of stories +were in circulation concerning "Giant Despair," as the savage old +baronet was called, and his nephew; the general opinion agreeing only +upon one point—that no sane person would change places with Master +Marmaduke Heath at Doubting Castle, notwithstanding the greatness of his +expectations.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<h3>MY FIRST INTERVIEW.</h3> + + +<p>My own history has little or nothing to do with the present narrative, +and therefore I will not allude to it, except where it is absolutely +necessary. Suffice it to say, that my parents were in India, and that +for many years Fairburn Rectory was my home. I had no vacations, in the +sense that the word is generally understood to mean; I had nowhere else +to go to, nor did I wish to go anywhere. No father could have been +kinder, or have done his duty better by me, than did Mr. Long. How poor +Marmaduke used to envy me my wardship to that good man! I well remember +the first day I came to Fairburn. It was early summer; its great woods +were in all their glory; and to me, fresh from shipboard and the vast +waste of sea, the place seemed a bower of bliss. First, the grey old +church tower upon the hill; and then the turrets of the Hall, +half-hidden in oak; and last, the low-roofed, blossom-entangled cottage +where I found so bright a welcome—that was the order in which Fairburn +was introduced to visitors from town. The Church, and the Hall, and the +Rectory all lay together; the churchyard, dark with yews, encroached +upon the Rectory garden; and that bright spot, so trimly kept, that one +was moved to pick up a fallen leaf, if such were on its lawn, sloped +down into the heart of the Park. A light iron railing, with wires to +prevent the hares and rabbits from entering in and nibbling the flowers, +alone divided the great man's land from Mr. Long's trim demesne. The +deer came up and pushed their velvet horns against it. In copse and +fern, twinkled the innumerable ear and tail. I had never seen such +animals before, and they delighted me hugely. After dinner, on the very +day that I arrived, I fed them through the rails, and they ate the bread +from my open hand.</p> + +<p>"They take you for Marmaduke," said Mr. Long, smiling; "for otherwise, +they would be shy of a stranger."</p> + +<p>"And who is Marmaduke, sir?"</p> + +<p>"He is your fellow pupil, and I make no doubt will be your friend. I +wish that he was resident with me, like yourself; but his uncle, who +lives at the Hall yonder, will not part with him. He reads with me +morning and afternoon, however."</p> + +<p>"Does he like reading, sir?" inquired I with hesitation, for I for my +part did not. My education, such as it was, had been fitful incomplete, +and in a word, Indian; and I had come back much older than most European +boys have to come home, a sad dunce.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Marmaduke is very fond of reading," pursued my tutor; "that is, +reading of a certain sort. He always does his work well with me, so I +must not be hard on him; but he is certainly too fond of novels. And +yonder he comes, see, with a book in his hand, even as he walks." My +tutor pointed to the Park; and there, coming slowly down a long, broad +"ride," with his eyes fixed upon a volume he held in his hand, was a +youth of seventeen years old or so, which was about my own age. As he +came nearer, I began to see why the deer had mistaken me for him; not, +indeed, because he was very handsome (which was not at all the case with +me), but inasmuch as his complexion was as olive as my own.</p> + +<p>"Why, he has been to India too!" whispered I to my tutor, rather +disappointed than otherwise, for I had had enough of Indian playmates, +and to spare.</p> + +<p>"No," returned he in the same low voice; "his mother was an Italian."</p> + +<p>Then he introduced us; and I began to hang my head, and play with the +buttons of my waistcoat, as is the graceful manner of hobbledehoys upon +such a ceremony; but Marmaduke, completely self-possessed, asked about +my journey, and particularly what I had seen at sea. He knew so much +about sharks and porpoises, that I thought he must have made some long +voyage himself; but he told me that such was not the case.</p> + +<p>"Though I should like to go to sea of all things," said he; "and I would +cruise about that cape—what's its name?—until I met with the "Flying +Dutchman:" that is the vessel which I wish to see."</p> + +<p>"I have never heard of her," said I, proud of that nautical use of the +feminine. "Is she one of the Company's ships?"</p> + +<p>At this my tutor began to rub his hands, and chuckle inwardly, as was +his wont when vastly amused; but perceiving that the colour came into my +cheeks, he laid his hand upon my shoulder kindly, and said that he was +glad to find <i>my</i> head, at least, was not stuck full of foolish stories, +as some people's heads were; while Marmaduke, without triumphing in the +least over my ignorance, explained to me all about that Phantom Ship, +which glides full sail upon the astonished voyager, and passes through +his vessel without shock or noise. He told the tale exactly as if he had +heard it straight from the lips of an eye-witness, and believed it +himself; he never laughed, and if he smiled, he seemed to be sorry that +he had done so directly afterwards. Some melancholy thought appeared to +occupy his mind at all times; and if a bright fancy crossed it, it was +but for an instant, like lightning through the cloud. I am not +describing an "interesting" youth, after the manner of romance-writers; +no "secret sorrow" obscured the young existence of Marmaduke Heath, but +simply, as I subsequently discovered, vulgar, abject terror. His whole +being was oppressed by reason of one man. The shadow of Sir Massingberd +cast itself over him alike when he went out from his hated presence and +when he was about to return to it. He was never free from its nightmare +influence—never. His passion for reading was not so much a love of +books, as a desire to escape in them from the circumstances of his +actual life. If he ever forgot him in earnest talk—and he was the most +earnest talker, as a boy, I ever knew—the mention of his uncle's name +was a Medusa's Head to turn him into stony silence on the instant. If +Marmaduke Heath could only have got away from Fairburn Hall when I first +knew him, his mind might have regained its natural vigour and +elasticity; but as it was, it grew more sombre and morbid every day. His +hungry intellect was nourished upon what associations happened to be at +hand, and they were very unhealthy food. The wickedness of Sir +Massingberd was, of course, sufficiently present to him, like some +hateful picture hung at a bed's foot, which the eyes of a sleepless man +cannot avoid; while every tongue about the Hall was ready to tell him of +the evil deeds of his forefathers. At first, I thought my young friend's +constant allusion to his family was the result of aristocratic pride, +although, indeed, there was nothing to be proud of in what he told me, +but very much the reverse; but I soon found that this was not the case. +The history of the Heaths was what interested him most of all histories, +and he favoured me with extracts from it solely upon that account. As +for the fact of their noble blood running in his own veins, he would, I +am confident, have far rather been the son of Mrs. Myrtle, the kind old +housekeeper at the Rectory.</p> + +<p>"We are a doomed race, Peter," he once said to me, not long after we had +made friendship with one another. "Generation after generation of us +have sinned and sinned. The Corsicans have their family feuds +transmitted to them, but they are hostile only to their fellow men; the +Heaths have ever fought against Heaven itself. Each successor to the +title seems to have said, like the descendants of Tubal Cain—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'We will not hear, we will not know,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The God that was our father's foe.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>There is the Church," said he, pointing to that glorious pile, which, at +Fairburn, was almost a cathedral in magnitude and beauty, "and there is +the Hall. They are antagonistic; they are devoted to opposite purposes. +I tell you, yes; our family residence is consecrated to the devil."</p> + +<p>I am afraid I could not help laughing at this singular notion.</p> + +<p>"Nay," cried he, looking round him furtively, "but you shall see that it +is so." We were in the Rectory garden, which communicated with the +churchyard by a wicket. He led the way into it; and in a distant corner, +upon the north side of the chancel, he showed me a sombre +burying-ground, separated from the rest of the God's acre, and +imprisoned in dark purgatorial rails. "Do you know why we are all put +there," asked he, "instead of with the other—Christian—folks?"</p> + +<p>"You are too proud to lie with the poor, perhaps," returned I, who had +still that idea in my mind with regard to Marmaduke himself.</p> + +<p>"No," said he; "it is not that—it is because the Heaths will not be +buried in consecrated ground."</p> + +<p>"But you have a family vault underneath the chancel, have you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but it is not 'snug lying.' None of us have been put there since +old Sir Hugh, in Queen Anne's time. When they opened the vault for him, +they found his father's coffin with its plate to the ground. It had +turned over. The witty parson would have it that it was only natural +that it should have done so, since its tenant, during life, had fought +alternately for Parliament and King, and was addicted to changing +sides. Bat when Sir Hugh's successor demanded lodging in the place in +his turn, they found Sir Hugh's coffin had turned over likewise. The +circumstance so terrified the dead man's heir—who had not been on the +best terms with him during life, and perhaps thought he owed him some +amends—that he swore his father should not lie in such restless +company; and as the late baronet had been at feud with the then rector, +he determined to dispense with any assistance from the church at all, +and buried him in an adjoining field, which was subsequently made the +last resting-place of all our race, as you perceive. The burial service +is dispensed with, of course. It would be mere mockery to address such +words as Hope and Faith to the corpse of a Heath of Fairburn."</p> + +<p>"My dear Marmaduke," said I, "you make my very blood run cold. But +surely you exaggerate these things. Some of your people have been +Catholics, and been buried in their own chapel at the Hall, have they +not?"</p> + +<p>"Only one of them," replied the boy with bitterness. "My +great-grandfather, Sir Nicholas, abjured his infidelity, and became a +papist, in order to secure his bride. He turned the chapel into a +banqueting-hall, however, and used the sacramental plate in his unholy +revels; but after death, the priests got hold of him at last, and 'Nick +the Younger,' as he was called, now lies under the altar which he so +often profaned. The beginning of his funeral ceremonies was not +conducted so decently as the last rites. He had got outlawed, I believe, +or, at all events, was driven abroad in his latter days, and died there. +Nobody at Fairburn had heard of him for many months, when one October +night, as Oliver Bradford, who is now the head-keeper, but was then a +very young man, was watching in the home-preserves, he heard a terrible +noise in the high-road, and making his way out, came upon this +spectacle: two men in black, and upon black horses, rode by him at full +speed, and close behind them came a hearse-and-four, likewise at the +gallop. The plumes upon it waved backwards, he says, like corn, and all +the black trappings of the thing fluttered and flapped as it went by. +Another man on horseback, singing to himself a drunken song, closed this +horrid procession. It moved up towards the village, and Oliver listened +to it until the noise seemed to cease about opposite to the Park gates. +The solitary witness, frightened enough before, was now doubly +terrified, for he made sure that what he had seen was the news of Sir +Nicholas's decease, brought over in this ghastly and characteristic +fashion. He did not for a single moment imagine that it was a palpable +vision; and yet he had seen a veritable funeral pass by. The old baronet +had died in France, leaving directions, and the money to carry them out, +that his corpse should be taken at night, and at full gallop, through +every town that lay between Dover and Fairburn.—Alive or dead," added +Marmaduke grimly, "the Heaths are a charming family."</p> + +<p>"At all events, my dear fellow," said I, laying my hand upon his arm, +"you will have nothing to fear from comparison with your forefathers. +You may make a good reputation at a cheap price.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> A very little +virtue will go a great way with the next tenant of Fairburn Hall, if +half the tales we hear be true."</p> + +<p>"And what tales are those?" inquired a deep, low voice at my very elbow.</p> + +<p>I believe I jumped a foot or two in the air myself, so great was my +alarm. But as far my companion, if those grass-grown tombs which we were +contemplating had given up their wicked skeletons before his eyes, he +could not have exhibited a greater excess of terror.</p> + +<p>Beside me stood a man of Herculean proportions, who by his dress might +have been taken for an under-gamekeeper, but for a very massive gold +chain which hung from the top button-hole of his waistcoat down to its +deep-flapped pocket. What is now, I believe, called an "Albert guard," +resembles it on a smaller scale; but at the time I speak of, such an +ornament was altogether unique. His face, too, evidently belonged to one +who was used to command. On the forehead was a curious indented curve +like the letter U, while his lip curled contemptuously upwards also, in +somewhat the same shape. The two together gave him a weird and indeed a +demoniacal look, which his white beard, although long and flowing, had +not enough of dignity to do away with. I had never heard Sir +Massingberd's personal appearance described; but even if I had not had +before me his shrinking nephew, I should have recognized at once the +features of Giant Despair.</p> + +<p>"And what tales are those which are told against the present tenant of +Fairburn Hall?" reiterated the baronet, scanning me from head to foot +with his cold glittering eyes. "And who is this young gentleman who +comes to listen to them from the lips of my loving ward?"</p> + +<p>"Sir," said I, "your nephew was saying nothing whatever against you, I +do assure you. I was merely referring to the gossip of the village, +which, indeed, does not make you out to be entirely a saint." I was +angry at having been frightened by this man, who, after all, could not +hurt <i>me</i>. I had been accustomed, too, to Indian life; which, without +making one bolder than other people, indisposes one to submit to +dictation, which is only the duty of the natives.</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd reached forth one iron finger, and rocked me with it to +and fro, though I stood as firm as I could. "Take care, young gentleman, +take care," said he; "that spirit of yours will not do down at Fairburn. +Mr. Long does not seem to have taught you humility, I think. Marmaduke, +go home." He spoke these last words exactly as a man speaks to his dog +who has injudiciously followed him to church on Sunday, in the hope that +he was bent on partridge shooting.</p> + +<p>The boy instantly obeyed. He shrank away, passing as closely to the +churchyard railing as he could, as though he almost feared a blow from +his uncle.</p> + +<p>"There is humility, there is docility!" sneered the baronet, looking +after him. "And if I had <i>you</i> up at the Hall, my young bantam, for four +and twenty hours or so, I'd make you docile too." He strode away with a +laugh like the creaking of an iron hinge, for he saw that I did not dare +to answer him. He strode away over the humble graves, setting his foot +deep into their daisied mounds as though in scorn; and his laugh echoed +again and again from the sepulchral walls, for it was joy to Sir +Massingberd Heath to know that he was feared.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> I am told by an able friend, who is good enough to revise +for me this manuscript, that it is not likely that a mere boy, as I then +was, would have made such an observation as the above. I do not doubt +that this remark is altogether just; but I am afraid it will apply to so +much else in this narrative, that it is scarcely worth while to make an +alteration. I am not used to literary composition; I cannot weigh +whether this or that is characteristic of a speaker. I am merely a +garrulous person, who has, however, such a striking story to tell, that +I trust the matter will atone for the manner.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<h3>THE DREAM BY THE BROOK.</h3> + + +<p>Although my story must needs be sombre wherever it has to do with that +person whose name it bears, yet I hope there will be found some sunny +spots in it. During the first few months after my arrival at Fairburn, +there was nothing to sadden life there that I knew of. I passed my days +under green leaves, and not only in a metaphorical sense; for every fine +afternoon, immediately after study was over, I betook myself to the +Park. The whole place was watched as zealously, even in summer, as the +gardens of the Hesperides, but Mr. Long had obtained permission for me +to roam at large therein. To me, vexed from childhood by Indian suns, +Fairburn Chase—as that part of the demesne most remote from the Hall +was called—was far more delightful than it could have been to any mere +English boy. Its stately avenues of oaks, tapering into infinite +distance, with their checker work of beam and shade, was the realization +of my dreams of forest beauty. Nor was its delicious coolness marred by +the broad strips of sunlight, at long but equal distances, like the +golden stairs of the Angels' Ladder; for those, I knew, marked the +interlacing of "the Rides", themselves as fair, and leading, not as the +avenue did, to the outer world, but into secret bowers known only to the +deer and me.</p> + +<p>When Marmaduke was not with me, which often enough happened, poor +fellow, and particularly after that unfortunate meeting with his uncle +in the churchyard—the whole Chase seemed abandoned to myself. I dare +say it was not really so, and that if I had not been a privileged person +I should soon have found out my mistake, but for days and days I never +saw any human being there. Now and then the figure of a gamekeeper, +dwarfed by distance, would make its appearance for a moment, to be lost +the next in some leafy glade. But the sense of solitude was thereby +rather increased than otherwise, just as the poet tells us in a case +where the ear and not the eye was concerned, "the busy woodpecker <i>made +stiller</i> by his sound the inviolable quietness." Lying couched in fern, +in that lordly pleasure-place, I have myself entertained some poetic +thoughts, although they never found expression. Even now, as I shut my +eyes, I make an inward picture of some such resting-place; nothing to be +seen but the long green feathery stems which the summer air just stirs +about my brow, and the broad branches of the oak that stretch themselves +motionless between me and the sun; nothing to be heard but the coo of +the ring-dove, and the swift stealthy bite of the dappled deer. Nor did +Fairburn Chase lack water to complete its beauty. In front of the Hall +itself moved a broad slow stream, which presently slid rather than fell +down ledges of mossy stone into a wilderness of trees and shrubs, +through which it wandered on like one who has lost his way, but singing +blithely nevertheless. Another stream, which was my favourite, burst +spring-like from the very heart of the Chase, having been artificially +conveyed beneath the avenue, and ran quite a little river, and at a +great rate, to form the island where the herons lived; after which, as +though it had done its work, it went its way tranquilly enough: If it +had nothing to boast of but the heronry it might have been a proud +little brook, for never did colony of those solemn birds take their sad +pleasure in a more lovely spot; but besides it had a certain bend in +it—essential to the beauty of a brook as straightness is to that of a +tree—which I have never seen rivalled elsewhere. Its right bank rose +there, though not abruptly, and left half its bed of brown sand and +loose tinkling shingle bare to the sunlight, save so much of it as the +shade of a cluster of lime trees could cover. Here the bee and the bird +brought their songs, and the dragon-flies the glory of their turquoise +armour and glittering wings throughout the summer noons. The cool +fragrant smell of the limes, and the drowsy music of the insects that +haunted them, were inexpressibly pleasant to me, who, I am afraid, had +not a little of the Asiatic indolence in my nature. Sometimes a group +of swans sailed by on the unruffled stream, themselves a slumbrous +pageant fit enough to herald sleep; but at all events, swans or no +swans, I often did sleep there. One July afternoon, in particular, when +the heat was almost as intense as at Calcutta, and no punkahs to cool +one, I went to this place with malice prepense to lie there and do +nothing, which, from my youth up, has always been synonymous with a +<i>siesta</i>. I cannot do absolutely nothing, and yet keep awake. I very +much admire the people whom I often meet in railway carriages, who +endure, without books or newspapers, hundreds of miles of weary travel, +and who do it with their eyes open. I wonder they do not break out into +a melody, or at least a whistle. They cannot possibly be thinking all +that time, and indeed they have no appearance of employing themselves in +that way, but "stare right on with calm eternal eyes," with no more +speculation in them than those of the sphinx herself. I envy, but I +cannot imitate those happy persons. There is no such state of coma with +me; I either wake or sleep.</p> + +<p>I lay, then, beneath the limes by the brook in Fairburn Chase, +half-buried in the soft brown sand; and even while I looked upon the +glancing stream, with the grand old willow opposite, that bent its hoary +honours half-way o'er, the scene dissolved and changed; the brook became +a river, and the willow a palm-tree, and the Chase a sandy tract, and +the fir-clump on the distant hill the snow-capped Himalaya. I saw, +too—and, alas! I was never more to see them, except, as then, in +dreams—my father and my mother; but they passed by me with pitiful, +loving looks, and went their way. Then the ayah, the black nurse who +was watching over me—for I was once more a child—stole down to the +river-brink, and drew a fluted dagger from her bosom, and dipped it in +the sacred flood, and I felt that I was to die. I knew her well; we two +had loved one another as nurse and child do love, where the nurse +perforce takes half the mother's part; as the child grows up, his +affection, at the best, congeals to gratitude; but not so with the +breast that suckled him—God forgive us men; and the pain of my dream +was sharpest because it was my own dear ayah who was about to slay me. I +had offended Vishnu, or else she would not have done it; her gods +demanded my life of her; but she was sorry; I felt her cold lips upon my +brow, and then a large round tear fell upon my cheek like icy hail, and +I awoke. There was a tumult of sounds in the air; the birds, and the +bees, and the bubbling wave, silent while I had slept, seemed to have +burst out together in chorus at my waking. I was bewildered, and knew +not where I was. My dream was more distinct at first than the realities +about me. If I had but closed my eyes again, I knew that it would be +continued at the spot where it had left off, that the fluted dagger +would have drunk my life-blood; and therefore I made an effort to rouse +myself. Wondrous are dreams, and wondrous the borderland 'twixt life and +sleep! If my existence had depended upon it, I could not, for some +seconds, have told for certain whether I was in England or in India. +Then reason began to reassume her sway, and the vague mysterious powers, +of whom we shall one day perhaps have a more certain knowledge, withdrew +reluctant from their usurped dominion over me. I remembered, however, +most distinctly every incident that they had brought about, and I +placed my hand mechanically upon my left cheek—I had been lying upon my +right—upon which the tear had seemed to fall. Great Heaven, <i>it was +still wet</i>! I was really startled. The cloudless sky forbade the idea of +a drop of rain having fallen; I had shed no tear myself while dreaming, +for my eyes were dry, and even if I had, it could scarcely have dropped +as it did, making a cool round spot in the centre of the cheek—it would +have slid down and left a little frigid line: there were no stones for +the stream to splash against and thus besprinkle me.</p> + +<p>It was very odd. Still, I did not imagine for a moment that my poor +black nurse had really come across the seas to drop the tributary tear +upon her sleeping boy; moreover, she could scarcely have got away so +suddenly without leaving some trace of her departure, some...—My heart +all of a sudden ceased to beat; a shiver ran through me, as runs from +stem to stern through a doomed ship that comes end on at speed upon a +sunken rock; my eyes had fallen—while I thus reasoned with myself—upon +a sight to terrify an older man than I, after such a dream; <i>the print +of a woman's bare feet in the sand</i>. Had there been any +footprints—those of a keeper or watcher, for instance—I should have +been startled to know that some one had passed by while I slumbered, for +most certainly the sand had been untrodden up to the moment I had lost +consciousness; but that a woman with naked feet had been really present +while I dreamed that horrible dream, was something more than startling. +In Scotland such a circumstance would have been less remarkable, but in +Fairburn I had not yet seen any person without shoes. There were a +considerable number of footprints, but only of one individual: she had +stood beside me for some time, for they were deeper close to the place +where I had lain, and there was also one impression there which looked +as though the mysterious visitor had knelt. They had come and returned +the same way, which was not the one that I had come myself, and they +began and ended at the stream-side a few yards beyond, and out of sight +of the bend which was my favourite haunt. The woman had doubtless +crossed and recrossed by means of some natural stepping-stones that +showed their heads above water; there was no path on the other side, but +only a tangled thicket, through which it would have been impossible to +track her, even had I been so disposed, which I was not. To say truth, I +was terribly discomposed. For a minute or two I clung to the notion that +the footprints were my own, made, perhaps, under the influence of +somnambulism. I took off my shoes, and measured the tracks with my own +feet, but I found, boy as I was, that mine effaced them. They were +certainly the marks of a woman; smaller than those of a grown male, yet +firmer set than those of a child. Never since the days of Robinson +Crusoe was ever man so panic-struck by footprints in the sand as I. +Although it was broad daylight, and the air was alive with sounds, I +fairly trembled. The many evil stories which, during my short stay at +Fairburn, I had already heard of the old Hall, a corner of which I could +discern from where I stood, crowded in upon my brain; the whole demesne +seemed under a malign influence—enchanted ground. I turned from the +spot, whose lonely beauty had once so won my soul, with fear and +loathing; and as I turned, there rang out—it may have been from the +thicket across the stream, but the echoes took it up so suddenly, that +it seemed to ring all around me—a laugh so terrible, so demoniacally +mocking, that I could scarcely believe it came from mortal throat. Again +and again it rose, and circled about, as though it would have headed my +fleeing steps, and driven me back upon some dreadful Thing, while I fled +through the fern towards home at my topmost speed, and the white-tailed +rabbits scampered to left and right, less frightened than I.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<h3>THE DUMB WITNESS.</h3> + + +<p>A sentiment of shame prevented my mentioning the affair of the +footprints to my tutor; and as for Marmaduke, although we were by this +time very intimate, I would not have furnished him with a new occasion +for detesting Fairburn Chase upon any account. Not only, however, was my +favourite haunt by the brook become an object of aversion to me, but I +confess I took much less delight in any part of the Heath demesne. I +kept my eyes about me, even in the great avenue, and upon the whole +preferred the rector's little garden, if at any time I had a mind for +sleeping out of doors.</p> + +<p>"Meredith," observed Mr. Long to me one morning—he called me "Peter" +generally, but when he had anything serious to say it was +"Meredith"—"it appears to me that you don't take nearly so much +exercise as you used to do. Your appetite is failing. I am really +concerned about you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, I am pretty well."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Peter, no boy should be 'pretty well;' he should be in the +rudest, vulgarest health, or else he is in a bad way. Your good father +advised me that if you seemed the least to need it, I should get you a +nag. It is Crittenden Fair next week. What say you to my buying you a +horse?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, that is just what I should like," cried I. "I am +certainly getting tired of walking about alone." And then I began to +blush a little, for of late rather than go into the Chase I had been +accompanying my tutor in his favourite diversion of fishing, which I +cared nothing about, or else in his parochial expeditions.</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid to speak out, my boy," said Mr. Long, with a kind +smile, "you will not hurt my feelings. You and I are very good friends, +but you want somebody of your own age to be your companion. Isn't that +it? And very natural too. No young gentleman, except in story-books, +enjoys the society of his tutors. Even Sandford and Merton got a little +tired of good Mr. Barlow, I fancy, he was so desperately full of +information. You want a fellow who can shy stones and climb trees."</p> + +<p>"No, sir, indeed I don't," said I, a little indignantly; for I was +getting too old, I flattered myself, for any boyish escapades of that +sort, "But I do wish that Marmaduke was allowed to come out with me a +little more. Would not Sir Massingberd let him have a horse also?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Long shook his head, and was silent for a little; then, as if in +continuation of his thought, he added, "And yet, I don't know, we'll go +over to the Hall and see about it this very morning."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i>, Sir?" inquired I in astonishment; for I had never set foot in +Doubting Castle, or seen it from any nearer spot than the Heronry.</p> + +<p>"Did I say 'we'?" said Mr. Long, reflectively. "I didn't mean to do so, +but I really see no reason why you shouldn't come. You would wait a +considerable time if you waited for an invitation from Sir Massingberd, +but—Tush, if poor Marmaduke lives there, and yet remains a good boy, +half an hour's visit will not be the ruin of the lad." The latter part +of this remark was uttered aloud, although intended to be strictly +private, which was not an uncommon occurrence with my worthy tutor, and +I have noticed the same peculiarity in other persons of studious habits. +He led the way into the road at once, pursuing which, under the park +wall, we presently came upon a little door, which my tutor opened with a +private key. This admitted us into the wall-garden, or, as it was +sometimes called, from the quantities of that fruit which it contained, +the peach-garden. An enormous area was here entirely given up to the +cultivation of fruits; in the centre were strawberry-beds, gooseberries, +melon-beds, the glasses of which dazzled you to behold; and raspberries +upon trellis-work, on so extensive a scale that it looked like a maze. +The northern end was occupied by an enormous green-house, which, in +those days was rather a rare adjunct, even to a rich man's garden. But +the most surprising sight was that of the walls covered with +spread-eagled fruit trees, or as schoolboys then called them, +"Lawk-a-daisies," laden with the most exquisite dainties—peaches, +nectarines, apricots, and bloomy plums. A number of men were busily +employed about this teeming scene.</p> + +<p>"Why do they say Sir Massingberd is poor?" inquired I. "Is not all this +his?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; it is all his."</p> + +<p>"Well, but what valuable fruit, and what enormous quantities of it! Why, +he would make a large income, even if he was to sell it."</p> + +<p>"He does sell it," replied my tutor, smiling. "Nineteen out of twenty of +all these peaches will find their way to Covent Garden. Why, how could +he eat them, you foolish boy? Even if he gave them away to all +Fairburn, he would introduce the cholera."</p> + +<p>"A baronet and a market gardener!" exclaimed I. "Well, that seems very +odd."</p> + +<p>Mr. Long did not choose to inform me at that time that almost all the +income Sir Massingberd had was drawn from this source, and from the +selling of game, with which his great preserves were overflowing. The +staff of gardeners and of keepers was retained mainly upon this account. +In the interest of Marmaduke, Mr. Clint, the family lawyer, did, I +believe, contribute a certain annual sum for keeping up the gardens and +the Chase; but this was by private arrangement, and at his own risk and +responsibility. Thus it was that while some parts of the Fairburn +demesne were as admirably maintained as possible, others were suffered +to fall into decay. Just as we emerged from the wall-garden, for +instance, there was a small artificial hollow planted with trees, and +within it, peering above ground, a thatched roof covered moss and +mildew, and with great gaps and holes in it. This was the ice-house—in +these Wenham Lake and Refrigerator days an almost obsolete building, but +in the time I write of considered a necessary appendage to every country +seat. Next we entered an arcade of immense length, which the noonday +rays would have striven in vain to penetrate, but for the spaces where +the trellis-work had given way through age and neglect, and the ivy +trailed down from rusted nails, and obstructed the way. Seats were +placed in niches at unequal intervals upon one side of this arcade; but +they looked very unattractive, damp, wormeaten, cracked, and here and +there with a slug upon them, making slimy paths. Yet from one of these +alcoves there started up, while we were still a long way off, a female +figure, and stood for a moment looking at us in great surprise. Above +her happened to be one of those broken portions of the leafy roof, and +through it the sunlight poured right down in a golden flood, as a glory +sometimes does in ancient pictures. A tall dark woman, who must have +been exquisitely beautiful in her youth, and even now retained +considerable attractions; her eyes were large and lustrous, and her +hair—never even in India had I seen hair more dark, or so luxuriant. It +was not rolled tight at the back in a great pillow, as was then the +fashion, or, indeed, confined in any way, but streamed down over her +shoulders, and far below that place where it was the pleasure of our +ancestresses to consider that their waists occurred. She cast upon us at +first a glance haughty and almost defiant, but upon recognizing my +companion, quenched her fiery looks.</p> + +<p>"Stop here, my lad," whispered Mr. Long, laying his hand firmly upon my +shoulder; "wait till she has gone away."</p> + +<p>The woman saw the gesture, although she could not have heard the words. +"I shall not bite the boy, Mr. Long," cried she with a shrill laugh; +"however, I will make myself scarce." She took a few rapid steps to an +opening on the right of the arcade, which led to the lawn and +flower-garden, and was lost to us in a moment.</p> + +<p>"I did not know there were any ladies at the Hall," said I.</p> + +<p>My tutor did not answer, but walked on muttering to himself as if +annoyed. I did not repeat the remark, for I was wondering within myself +whether it could be this woman who had watched my sleep and knelt by me +dagger in hand, according to my dream. She looked just the sort of +female to drive such an instrument home, if she entertained that +fancy—a Judith, equal to the slaying of any Holofernes, and far more of +a slight built, overgrown Indian lad like me. There was certainly +something uncanny about her, and I thought it very strange that +Marmaduke had never spoken to me of her existence.</p> + +<p>The arcade brought us out into a sunk garden, which was a rosary, on to +which opened the tall windows of a noble-looking room. The walls, I +could see, were lined with books, and on the numerous tables lay +portfolios and volumes that gave promise of great store of plates. This +was the library where Marmaduke had told me he passed his only happy +hours at Fairburn. His uncle rarely so much as entered it, although he +was not without some reputation for learning. In particular it was said +that he was well acquainted with divinity, and could quote chapter and +verse of the Bible against the parson. I have since had reason to +believe that his talents in this way were greatly exaggerated. What he +had ever read he doubtless recollected, if his memory served him as well +in literary matters as when he had a grudge to pay; but I cannot think +that he ever studied divinity. If he had any knowledge of the Bible at +all it doubtless astonished all who knew him, and they made the most of +it.</p> + +<p>A few steps further brought us to the north face of the mansion, in +which was the principal entrance. Notwithstanding the broad sweep in +front of the steps, and the avenue branching right and left, there did +not seem space enough as contrasted with the vast mass of trees. The +scene was like a clearing in a forest, where the openings are +artificial, and the wood comes by nature rather than the converse, and +even in that September day the air struck chill. The griffins that +guarded the great stone steps had lost, the one an ear, and the other a +wing, and the steps themselves were chipped and cracked. The grass which +grew there unchecked at other seasons, had however been scraped out, +because Sir Massingberd's guests were expected immediately for the +shooting. None of them, however, had as yet arrived. The great bell +which answered our summons clanged through the place as though there had +been neither furniture nor people within it. The vast door was opened +long before its echoes ceased, and indeed with marvellous quickness. +When the man saw who we were, he looked vexed at having put himself in a +flurry without necessity. He thought doubtless it was his master who +demanded admittance, and had come post haste from the pantry, it being +very dangerous to keep the baronet waiting. We were ushered into the +great hall, and left there while the man went to seek Sir Massingberd. +This huge apartment was evidently used as a sitting-room. There were +couches and comfortable chairs in profusion, and a fine aroma of tobacco +pervaded everything. The walls were ornamented with antlers and the +heads of foxes; a number of fishing rods stood in one corner; in another +lay some of those clubs that are used for exercising the muscles. On the +table was an open pocket-book, stuck full of gorgeous artificial flies. +Presently the man reappeared. Sir Massingberd would see us in his +private sitting-room. We walked over polished oak, on which I could with +difficulty keep my footing, down a long passage hung with grim portraits +of the Heath family—"all dead and judged," as Marmaduke subsequently +informed me—until we came to a short flight of steps on the left hand; +these we descended, and following the footsteps of our conductor, in +almost perfect darkness, came upon double doors, the inner of which, a +baize one, admitted us into the presence of the proprietor. The baronet +was in his shirt-sleeves, cleaning a double-barrelled gun.</p> + +<p>"This is my pupil, Peter Meredith," said Mr. Long.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> know the young gentleman," replied Sir Massingberd, curtly, and the +horse-shoe upon his brow contracted as he spoke. "What makes you bring +him here?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Sir Massingberd," observed my tutor, forcing a laugh, "that is +scarcely a hospitable observation. I bring this friend of your nephew's +because what I have to propose concerns them both. It is good for these +boys to be together, not to live solitary lives; and to keep them mewed +up at home, as they are now, is a positive cruelty. Marmaduke is getting +thinner and paler every day; and Meredith—"</p> + +<p>"Do <i>you really</i> think so, parson?" asked the baronet eagerly, omitting +for a moment to use the dirty-looking piece of oiled flannel which had +previously monopolized his attention.</p> + +<p>"I do, indeed, Sir Massingberd. I believe that if a doctor was to give +his opinion about that boy—"</p> + +<p>"The Heaths never send for doctors, or for clergymen," interrupted the +baronet, with a sneer.</p> + +<p>"And yet they have often needed advice, both spiritual and temporal," +quoth my tutor, stoutly. "I say you should get a horse for your nephew's +riding; it need be no trouble to you whatever. I am going over to +Crittenden Fair next week myself to purchase one for my pupil; now, let +me get one for your nephew also."</p> + +<p>At first Sir Massingberd's countenance expressed nothing but angry +impatience, but presently he began to rub the gun-barrel less and less +violently. "And who is to find the money?" inquired he.</p> + +<p>"I think that can be managed, Sir Massingberd. Mr. Clint will doubtless +listen to such an application on behalf of Marmaduke; he will risk +advancing a few pounds—"</p> + +<p>"For thirty-five guineas one can get a very good pony," observed the +baronet, reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Or even for less," returned Mr. Long, drily; and then, to my excessive +terror, he added in quite as loud a key, "He wants to keep the +difference; that's his plan."</p> + +<p>"And he means to do it, too," observed Sir Massingberd grimly. "No, you +needn't apologize, parson, for your thinking aloud; you don't suppose I +am going to do anything without being paid for it, do you? Then there's +the keep of the animal. Now, what will Mr. Clint allow me for that, do +you suppose? Oats and beans are very expensive, and you wouldn't have me +feed my dear nephew's pony upon hay!"</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd was a formidable object at all times, but I really think +he inspired more fear when he was pleased—when some wicked notion +tickled him—than even when he was in wrath.</p> + +<p>"I think, Sir Massingberd, the question of expense can be managed to +your satisfaction," said my tutor, not a little overwhelmed by having +thus involuntarily expressed his suspicion of the baronet; "and, as I +have said, I will save you all trouble by selecting the horse myself."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, sir," exclaimed Sir Massingberd savagely; "I suffer no +man to choose my horses for me."</p> + +<p>"Very good," replied Mr. Long, biting his lip. "I have only to +stipulate, then, that if your nephew gets the horse, he is to ride it. I +shall have to make myself answerable for that much to Mr. Clint."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he shall ride it," quoth the baronet, with a horrid imprecation; +"you may take your oath of that. And by the by, since you are here, +parson, I want to have some talk with you about that same fellow Clint, +who has been behaving devilish ill to me, I think. You may go away, +young gentleman, <i>you</i> may. You'll find your future riding companion—he +has about as much notion of riding as old Grimjaw yonder—sulking in his +own room, I dare say. Grimjaw, show the young gentleman up to +Marmaduke's room."</p> + +<p>At these words a dog of horrible aspect came out from under the very +sofa on which I sat, and trotted off towards the door. He was the oldest +and ugliest dog I ever beheld. He had only one eye, which was green; he +had no teeth, and was therefore not to be feared as a combatant; but his +aspect was loathsome and repulsive to the last degree. The people of +Fairburn imagined this animal to be Sir Massingberd's familiar demon, +and, until of late years, when the creature had become incapacitated by +age from accompanying him much, the two were scarcely ever seen apart. +Old as he was, however, the hideous Grimjaw had some instinct left, +which, after the word "Marmaduke" had been once more shrieked at him, +caused him painfully to precede me up the oak staircase, and along +another gallery to a chamber door, at which he sat and whined. This was +immediately opened by his young master, who, with a "Come in, Grim," +was only giving sufficient space for the entrance of the dog, when I +cried out, laughing: "What, have you no welcome for your friend? Like +uncle, like nephew! What a pair of curmudgeons inhabit Fairburn Hall!"</p> + +<p>The astonishment of Marmaduke at hearing my voice was excessive. +Notwithstanding his pleasure, his first thought, as usual, was: "Did Sir +Massingberd know?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I coolly; "of course he knows. He received me down-stairs +with his usual politeness. Mr. Long and he are conversing upon some +private matters, so I came up here to see you. It is arranged that each +of us is to have a horse, and that we are to go out riding together."</p> + +<p>"A horse! Oh, impossible!" exclaimed Marmaduke, clapping his hands. +"How did the good parson ever persuade my uncle? What <i>did</i> he give +him?"</p> + +<p>I could not help laughing at this naïve inquiry, which my friend had +made in perfect seriousness. I told him all that had occurred, including +our tutor's <i>vivâ-voce</i> soliloquy, at which Marmaduke cried "Heavens!" +in terror.</p> + +<p>"It is marvellous, notwithstanding, that my uncle should have +consented," observed my companion, musing. "He told me, indeed, that I +should be a great nuisance in the house this month, while his friends +were down here shooting; but that he should have entered into an +arrangement which gives me pleasure as well as gets rid of me, that +seems so very strange."</p> + +<p>"He has doubtless some base motive," returned I smiling: "let us console +ourselves with that reflection. But what have we here? Water-colour +paintings! Why have you never told me you were an artist?"</p> + +<p>"I merely amuse myself with the paint-brush. I have had no lessons, of +course, so that my perspective is quite Chinese."</p> + +<p>"Nay, but I recognize almost all these scenes!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you know, I have been nowhere else but at Fairburn, so that it is +from thence I must take my subjects. The one you have there is taken +from the bend in the stream beyond the Heronry."</p> + +<p>"It is admirable," said I; and indeed it was so like the scene of my +dream, that it gave me a shudder.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to have it," replied Marmaduke carelessly. "You may take +any that the portfolio contains. I only wish they were more worth your +acceptance."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said I nervously. "I will certainly take this one, then;" +and I rolled the sketch tightly up, and placed it in my pocket. "But +here is a pretty face! Why, Master Marmaduke, you have your secrets, I +see; you have never mentioned to me this young lady. What beautiful +hair! The eyes, too, how glorious, and yet how tender! It is surely not +the lady whom we just met in the ar—"</p> + +<p>"Silence, sir!" cried Marmaduke, in a voice of thunder. His face was +lurid with rage, and for the first time I remarked upon his forehead a +faint reflection of the horse-shoe that made so terrible the brow of his +uncle. "Do not speak of that wretched woman in the same breath with, +with—" He did not complete the sentence, but added in his usual soft +musical tones: "Pardon me, my friend; I am sorry to have been so hasty; +but that picture is the portrait of my mother."</p> + +<p>"It was stupid in me not to have known that at once," said I. "The +likeness is most remarkable."</p> + +<p>"But not the expression," returned he sadly. "I know that just now I +looked like one of my own race. She was always an angel, even when she +was upon earth." And the boy looked up with his hands clasped, as though +he beheld her, through his tears, in heaven.</p> + +<p>"Did you paint that from a picture, Marmaduke?"</p> + +<p>"No, from memory. Sleeping or waking, I often see her sweet face."</p> + +<p>I had evidently raised by my thoughtlessness a long train of melancholy +thoughts in my companion. The situation was embarrassing, and I did not +know how to escape from it. As often happens with well-intentioned but +blundering persons, I made the most inopportune remark that could be +framed. Forgetting what I had heard of the infamous treatment which +Mrs. Heath had received while under her brother-in-law's roof, I +observed: "Your mother was once at Fairburn, was she not? That should at +least make the Hall more endurable to you."</p> + +<p>Again Marmaduke's handsome face was disfigured with concentrated +passion. "Yes, she was here," returned he, speaking through his teeth. +"For what she suffered alone, the place would be cursed. Coward, +scoundrel! Why does God suffer such men to live?" It was terrible to see +how like this young lad grew to the man he was execrating. He went on +using such language as I could not have conceived him capable of +employing.</p> + +<p>"Marmaduke," said I, soothingly, "for Heaven's sake, be calm. Providence +will one day reward this man; it is not for you to Curse him. Come, now +that I pay you a visit for the first time, you should play the host, +and show me over the mansion. Why, that queer old dog seems to +understand what one says; he rises as though he were the châtelain, and +kept the keys of Doubting Castle. He brought me here as true as a blind +man's cur. I cannot say, however, that he is beautiful; he is hideous, +weird."</p> + +<p>"It would be strange, indeed, if he were like other dogs," returned +Marmaduke gravely. "He is the sole living repository of a most frightful +secret. If he could but speak, he could perhaps send a man to the +gallows."</p> + +<p>"What man?" exclaimed I. "Pray explain to me this mystery."</p> + +<p>"I do not know what man," returned my companion solemnly; "I only +conjecture. I will relate to you what is known of the matter, and you +shall judge for yourself."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke opened the door, to see that no one was in the passage +without, and then seating himself close beside me, commenced as +follows:—"My grandfather and the present baronet lived on bad terms +with one another. For the last ten years of his life, Sir Wentworth and +his eldest son never met—but once—if they met at all. He had been very +profligate and extravagant in his young days; but in his old age he grew +miserly. When my father saw him last, it was in a small house in Bedford +Place, in London, where he lived in a couple of ill-furnished rooms, and +without a servant. Grimjaw and he slept there alone, but a charwoman +came in every morning for a few hours. Sir Wentworth then gave it as his +reason for this kind of life, that he was retrenching, in order to leave +some suitable provision for his second son. 'Look here, Gilbert,' said +he upon one occasion to my father; 'I have begun to lay by for you +already; and he showed him a quantity of bank-notes, amounting to +several thousand pounds. He had never been an affectionate parent, or +exhibited any self-denial for the benefit of his sons; and my father did +not believe him. He thanked him, of course; but he came away without any +idea that he would be really better off at Sir Wentworth's death. This +was fortunate for him, for he never received a farthing; but I am not so +certain as he was that the baronet did not intend to do what he +promised. While the old man was living in this sordid fashion, his son +Massingberd was passing his time very gaily at court. He played high, +and there were few who could beat him with the cards—but there were +some. It is no use being a good player, you see, unless you are the +best; you only win from those whom you can beat, to lose it in your turn +to the man who can beat you. Thus it was with my uncle, who played, as +I say, high with everybody, but highest, as is often the case, with his +superiors in skill. However, he paid his debts of honour with money +raised at an enormous sacrifice. He lived well, but it was upon his +future prospects. At last, being harder pressed than usual, he wrote to +his father—the first letter he had penned to him for years—and +demanded pecuniary help.</p> + +<p>"Sir Wentworth wrote back a cynical, harsh reply, a copy of which I have +seen—for all these details came out in the course of the inquest. He +bade his son come to call upon him, and judge from his style of living +whether he was in a condition to comply with his request. He appointed a +day and an hour—about five o'clock. It was in December, and quite dark +of course by that time. At six o'clock on the appointed day, Sir +Massingberd—for he had got his title by that time, whether he knew it +or not—called at the police-station near Bedford Place, and gave +information that the house which his father occupied was shut up, and +that he could not obtain admittance, although he had arrived there by +appointment. The house was always shut up they told him, although not +untenanted; they could not explain why his summons had not been +answered. A couple of policemen accompanied him to break open the door. +While they were thus engaged, a dog howled at them from inside. My uncle +had made no mention of having heard this before. There was only one lock +to force, the door being neither bolted nor chained, and they soon got +in. The only two furnished rooms in the house opened upon the hall. In +the sleeping room they found my grandfather dressed, but lying on the +bed quite dead—suffocated, as the surgeons subsequently averred. In +the sitting-room, with which it communicated, they found this dog here, +crouching on the top of the mantel-piece, which was very lofty. How he +got there, nobody could tell; if he leaped thither, even from a chair, +it must have been in an agony of terror. He was whining pitifully when +they entered; but upon seeing my uncle, he ceased to whimper, and +absolutely seemed to shrink into himself with fear. Poor Grimjaw could +give no witness at the inquest, however; so the jury returned an open +verdict. It was probable that Sir Wentworth had had a fit of apoplexy, +which carried him off."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "and is not that probable enough?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but it could not have carried off the bank-notes—which were all +gone—-likewise. Could it Grimjaw?"</p> + +<p>Thus appealed to, the ancient dog set up a quavering howl, which might +easily have been mistaken for the cry of an accusing spirit.</p> + +<p>"Good Heavens! this is too horrible," cried I. "Be careful, Marmaduke, +that you do not mention this to others. It is a frightful slander."</p> + +<p>"Slander!" returned my companion calmly. "It is you who slander, if you +suspect anybody. I have only told you what everybody knew at the time +the mur...—well, then, when Sir Wentworth had his fit. The thing +strikes you as it does me, that is all."</p> + +<p>"But is it not inconceivable," urged I, "if the crime was committed by +the person we are thinking of, that he should retain this dumb witness +of his atrocity, that he should let it live, far less should keep it in +his private sitting-room—"</p> + +<p>"No!" interrupted Marmaduke firmly. "On the contrary, it strengthens my +suspicions. You do not know the man as I do. It gives him gratification +to subdue even a dog. This creature has no love for my uncle; but its +excessive terror of him, which endured for months, nay, years, has +gradually worn off. He obeys him now; whereas, as I have been told, it +was long before it could do anything but shiver at the sound of his +voice. After dinner, when I have been sitting with Sir Massingberd +alone, he will sometimes give the dog a biscuit, saying with an awful +smile: "Here, Grimjaw; you and I know something that nobody else knows; +don't we?"</p> + +<p>"Great Heavens!" cried I in horror; "and what does he do that for?"</p> + +<p>"Because," replied Marmaduke bitterly, "he loves to see me tremble."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<h3>THE STATE BEDROOM.</h3> + + +<p>Marmaduke had scarcely concluded his narration, when steps were heard in +the passage. I daresay I turned pale at the thought of seeing the man of +whom I had just heard such frightful things, for my companion observed, +as if to reassure me, "It is only Mr. Long."</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure?" said I.</p> + +<p>Marmaduke smiled sadly.</p> + +<p>"Do you think that I do not know my uncle's step? I should recognize it +amongst a score of others. If he overtook me in a crowded street, I +should feel that he was coming and shudder as he passed beside +me...—Pray, come in, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well," cried my tutor, entering, radiant with, his good news, "no more +moping at home, my lads; you are to be henceforth cavaliers—you are to +scour the country. Boot and saddle! boot and saddle! Your uncle will not +trust me to get you a steed, Marmaduke; there are none good enough for +you, it seems, at Crittenden; he is going to send to London for an +animal worthy of you. But never mind, Peter; you shall have the best +mount that can be got in Midshire, and we will pit the country nag +against the town."</p> + +<p>My tutor's voice revived me like a cordial: after the morbid horrors I +had been listening to, his cheery talk was inexpressibly grateful, as +the dawn and ordinary sounds of waking life are welcome to one who has +suffered from a nightmare.</p> + +<p>"I was just about to show Meredith the Hall," said Marmaduke.</p> + +<p>"Well it is time that we should be at our work, like good boys," +observed Mr. Long, consulting his watch; "but still, for one morning, it +does not matter, if you would like to stay, Peter."</p> + +<p>"I would rather go home, sir," cried I, with involuntary eagerness. I +was sorry the next moment, even before I saw the pained expression of my +young companion.</p> + +<p>"He has had enough of Fairburn Hall already," said he, bitterly. Then +his face softened sadly, as though he would have said: "Am I not, +therefore, to be pitied, who pass every day and night under this +accursed roof?"</p> + +<p>"Come," exclaimed Mr. Long, gaily, "I do not believe, Master Meredith, +in this new-born devotion to your books. Let us go over the house +first. I will accompany you as cicerone, for I once knew every hole and +corner of it—a great deal better, I will venture to affirm, than the +heir himself here." With these words he led the way into the passage.</p> + +<p>"Every chamber on this floor is the facsimile of its neighbour," said +Marmaduke: "since you have seen mine, you have seen all—an immense bed, +a piece of carpet islanded amid a black sea of oak, a cupboard or two +large enough to live in, and shepherdesses, with swains in ruffles, +occupying the walls." There was, indeed, no appreciable difference in +any of the rooms, except with regard to their aspect.</p> + +<p>"When I first came to Fairburn, I slept here," continued Marmaduke, as +we entered an apartment looking to the north, "and had that long +illness, which you doubtless remember, sir. Heavens, what dreams I have +had in this room! I have seen people standing by my bedside at night as +clearly as I see you now. They called me delirious, but I believe I was +stark mad."</p> + +<p>"I remember it well," said Mr. Long, "although I did not recollect that +you occupied this room. How was it that you came to change your +quarters?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the doctor recommended the removal very strongly. Sir Massingberd +said it was all nonsense about the look-out from my window, and that the +east was as bad as the north for a boy in a fever; but he was obliged to +give way. And I certainly benefited by the change. The Park is a much +more cheerful sight than that forest of firs, and one is glad to see the +sun, even when one cannot get out of doors. At all events, I had no +such evil dreams."</p> + +<p>"Yet this is what always used to be held the state-chamber," replied my +tutor. "Charles I. occupied that bed while he was yet king; and before +your ancestor, Sir Hugh, turned Puritan—a part he was very unfitted to +play—it is said he used to swear through his nose. Peter the Great, +too, is said to have passed a night here. Your dreams, therefore, should +have been historical and noteworthy. I forget which of these smiling +Phyllises is so complaisant as to make way when you would leave the room +without using the door."</p> + +<p>Two full-length female portraits were painted in panel, one on either +side of the huge chimney-piece; a circlet of roses carved in oak +surrounded each by way of frame. Mr. Long advanced towards the one on +the right, and touched the bottom rose; it did not move. He went to the +other, and did likewise; the rose revolved in his fingers, and +presently, with a creak and a groan, the whole picture slid sideways +over the wall, disclosing a narrow flight of wooden stairs.</p> + +<p>"That is charming," cried I. "That is the 'Mysteries of Udolpho' +realized. Where does it lead to, Marmaduke?" There was no answer. Mr. +Long and I looked round simultaneously. The lad was ghastly pale. He +stared into the dusty, gaping aperture, as though it had been a grave's +mouth.</p> + +<p>"I do not know," he gasped with difficulty.</p> + +<p>"Not know?" cried my tutor. "Do you mean to say that you have never been +told of Jacob's Ladder? The foot of it is in the third bookcase on the +left of the library door; the spring is somewhere in the index to +"Josephus." It is evident you never attempted to take down that +interesting work, which in this case is solid wood. The idea of your not +knowing that! And yet Sir Massingberd is so reticent that, with the +exception of Gilmore, the butler, I dare say nobody <i>does</i> know it now. +It is twenty years ago since I made Phyllis move aside, to the +astonishment of Mr. Clint, who came down here on business with poor Sir +Wentworth. I dare say nobody has moved her since."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," cried Marmaduke, passionately; "my uncle has moved her. +Those visions were not dreams. I see it all now. He wanted to frighten +me to death, or to make me mad. When I knew the door was fast locked, he +would come and stand by my bedside, and stare at me. Cruel, cruel +coward!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush, Marmaduke; this is monstrous—this is impossible!" cried +Mr. Long, endeavouring to pacify the boy, who was rocking himself to and +fro in an agony of distress and rage. "See how you terrify Peter! Be +calm, for Heaven's sake! Your uncle will hear you presently, and you +know how he hates to be disturbed."</p> + +<p>At the mention of his uncle, Marmaduke subdued his cries by a great +effort, but he still sobbed and panted, as if for breath.</p> + +<p>"Oh," moaned he, "consider how I came hither from my dead mother's arms +to this man's house—my only living relative, my father's brother—and +was taken ill here, a mere child; then this wretch, this demon, my host, +my...—Oh, Mr. Long, could you conceive it even of a Heath? He came up +to my lonely room by that secret way, and stood without speaking by my +pillow, while I lay speechless, powerless, imagining myself to be out +of my mind!"</p> + +<p>"I do remember now," said my tutor, gravely, "how you harped upon that +theme of your evil dreams, and how the doctor thought you were in +reality losing your reason. Let us be thankful, however, that you were +preserved from so sad a fate; you are no longer a child now; Sir +Massingberd can frighten you no more, even if he had the wish. It was a +wicked, hateful act, whatever was the motive. But let us forget it. In a +few years you will be of age; then you will leave the Hall; and in the +meantime your uncle will annoy you no more. It will be his interest to +make a friend of you. Even now, you see, he provides you with the means +of enjoyment. You will ride out with your friend whenever you please; +and I will take measures so that you shall be more with us at the +rectory, and less at this melancholy place, which is totally unfit for +you. Mr. Clint shall be spoken with, if necessary. Yes, yes," added Mr. +Long, reversing the rose, and thereby replacing the shepherdess, but +quite unaware that he was still speaking aloud, "there must be a limit +to the power of such a guardian; the Chancellor shall interfere, and Sir +Massingberd be taught—"</p> + +<p>"Nay, sir," cried Marmaduke in turn; "for Heaven's sake, let no +complaint be made against my uncle upon my account; perhaps, as you say, +I may now meet with better treatment. I will be patient. Say nothing of +this, I pray you, Meredith. Mr. Long, you know—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know all," interrupted my tutor, with excitement. "You have a +friend in me, Marmaduke, remember, who will stick by you. I have shut my +eyes and my ears long enough, and perhaps too long. If things get worse +with you, my lad, do not forget that you have a home at the rectory. +Once there, you will not return to this house again. I will give +evidence myself; I will—"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, thank you," replied Marmaduke, hurriedly. "All will now be +well, doubtless; but my uncle will wonder at your long delay—he will +suspect something. I think it will be better if you left."</p> + +<p>He led the way down the great staircase, throwing an involuntary glance +over his shoulder, as we crossed the mouth of the dark passage leading +to the baronet's room. "This is a wretched welcome, Meredith; some day, +perhaps, I may take your hand at this Hall door under different +circumstances. Good-by, good-by."</p> + +<p>And so we parted, between the two grim griffins.</p> + +<p>"Peter," said my tutor, gravely, as we went our way, "whatever you may +think of what has passed to-day, say nothing. I am not so ignorant of +the wrongs of that poor boy as I appear to be; but there is nothing for +it but patience."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<h3>HEAD OVER HEELS.</h3> + + +<p>I obeyed my tutor and my friend in keeping all I knew regarding Sir +Massingberd to myself; but the knowledge weighed heavily upon my spirits +for several days. Soon, however, my mind recovered its youthful +elasticity. I began to think that Marmaduke's morbid disposition had +perhaps exaggerated matters; that the baronet was not so black as was +painted; that my friend would soon be his own master; and, in short, I +laid all that flattering unction to my soul which is so abundant in the +case of the misfortunes of others, and so difficult to be procured when +the calamity is our own. Moreover, in a few days I was in possession of +an excellent horse, and there is nothing more antagonistic to +melancholy—especially when it is vicarious—than a good gallop. Nay, +more, after a little, Marmaduke had a horse also. He came to call for +me, that we should go out for a ride together the first day, and I shall +not easily forget it. How handsome and happy he looked! As if the +high-conditioned animal he bestrode had imparted to him some of his own +fire and freedom, he wore scarcely any trace of his habitual depression. +"This is our 4th of July," said he gaily; "my day of independence, as +the rebels say!"</p> + +<p>It happened to be his birthday also, he was seventeen, so that all +things conspired to make it a gala-day. My tutor, who was a judge of +horseflesh, examined the new steed with great attention. "He is superb," +said he, "and you sit him, Marmaduke, considering your scanty +experience, like a young centaur. No one could imagine that your +equestrianism had been heretofore limited to a keeper's pony; and, +moreover, Oliver's ponies are not apt to be very high-couraged. But what +a tight curb has this Bucephalus! He will not give you much trouble to +hold him. So-ho, so-ho, my nag! Are you a hypocrite, then, that you need +be so alarmed at being inspected?" The sleek bay plunged and curveted, +so that my own sober brown began to dance in rivalry. "By the by," +continued Mr. Long, as though a sudden thought had struck him, "I have +occasion to visit Mr. Jervis of the farm at Staplehurst some day this +week; if it is the same to you, let us go there to-day; it will be an +object for your ride, while I shall have the pleasure of your company."</p> + +<p>In a few minutes, my tutor's old white mare was brought round to the +Rectory door by the gardener, who was groom and butler also, and we set +out together at a foot's pace. Mr. Long never took his eyes off the bay, +and therefore did not observe Sir Massingberd, who, with his huge arms +resting on a gate by the roadside, watched us pass with a grim smile. +"Well, parson," exclaimed he—and at the sound of his voice I perceived +my tutor start in his saddle—"what think you of the little Londoner?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot say at present, Sir Massingberd," returned my tutor with +deliberation. "He is a beauty to look at; and if he has no vice, is a +bargain at five-and-thirty pounds."</p> + +<p>"Vice! Why should he have vice, man? A child might ride him for that +matter. I got him with the best of characters. But you'll never teach +those lads to ride if you are always at their stirrup-leather, like +this. Let them ride alone, and race together. Don't treat them like a +brace of mollycoddles. Why, at their age, I could have backed any horse +in Christendom without a saddle. I wonder you don't give Miss Marmaduke +a leading-rein."</p> + +<p>The colour, which had faded from the lad's cheeks, returned to them +again at this sneer; but Mr. Long only remarked: "If you had had a +leading-rein yourself, Sir Massingberd, at seventeen, it would have been +a great deal better for you," and rode on without the least +consciousness, as I believe, of having made any such observation.</p> + +<p>When we had advanced about a mile, and had left the village quite behind +us, my tutor expressed a wish to change horses with Marmaduke.</p> + +<p>"I want to try his paces," said he; and certainly, if he had been a +horse-breaker by profession, he could not have taken more pains with the +animal. He trotted, he cantered, he galloped; he took him into a field, +and over some fences; he forced him by a wind-mill in full work; and, in +short, he left no means untried to test his temper. In the end, he +expressed himself highly satisfied. "Really," said he, "Sir Massingberd +has got you a first-rate steed, with plenty of courage, yet without +vice; he makes me quite dissatisfied with my poor old mare."</p> + +<p>The next day, and the next, we rode again without my tutor; and on the +fourth day it was agreed that we should take an expedition as far as +Crittenden, some ten miles away, where Mr. Long wished us to do some +commissions for him. By this time, Marmaduke was quite accustomed to his +recent acquisition; enjoyed the exercise greatly; and since Sir +Massingberd was much engaged with his guests, passed altogether more +agreeable days. On the afternoon in question, the Hall party were out +shooting, and had taken with them all the stable domestics except a raw +lad who scarcely knew how to saddle a horse.</p> + +<p>"I cannot think what is the matter this afternoon with 'Panther'" (we so +called his skittish animal), exclaimed Marmaduke, as he rode up to the +Rectory door. "I could scarcely get him to start from the yard, and he +came here mostly upon his hind-legs. Is there anything wrong with his +girths, think you? Ned did not know where to lay his hands on anything, +and my uncle has taken William with him to 'mark.'"</p> + +<p>"Nay," said I, "I see nothing the matter. We will soon take off his +superfluous energy over Crittenden Common."</p> + +<p>Long, however, before we reached that spot, we had had galloping enough +and to spare. Twice had Panther fairly taken the bit between his teeth +(as the romance-writers term it, and Heaven forbid that a mere sportsman +should correct them), and sped along the hard high-road at racing pace; +and twice had Marmaduke, by patience and hard pulling, recovered the +mastery, albeit with split gloves and blistered hands. It was not +enjoyment to ride in this fashion, of course, and had it not been for +the commissions which had been entrusted to us, it is probable that we +should have returned home. It puzzled us beyond measure to account for +the change of conduct in the bay. The difference was as decided as that +between a high-spirited child who requires, as we say, "careful +treatment," and a vicious dwarf: heretofore he had been frisky, now he +was positively fiendish. He shied and started, not only at every object +on the roadside, but before he arrived at them. At the end of the high +table-land which is called Crittenden Common, and descends into the +quiet little market-town of the same name, there really was something to +shy at. A gipsy encampment, with fire and caldron, and tethered donkey, +which had been concealed in a hollow, came suddenly into view as we +cantered by; an old crone, with a yellow handkerchief in lieu of a +bonnet, and shading her beady eyes with her hand, watched with malicious +enjoyment the struggle between man and horse which her own appearance +had gone far to excite. In a very few moments, Marmaduke's already +overtaxed muscles gave way, and the bay, maddened with resistance, and +released from all control, rushed at headlong speed down the steep +chalk-road that led by many a turn and zigzag into Crittenden. It was +frightful to watch from the summit of this tamed precipice—this cliff +compelled into a road—the descent of that doomed pair. No mule could be +surer footed than was Panther, but the laws of gravitation had +nevertheless to be obeyed. At the second turning, the bay, after one +vain effort to follow the winding of the road, pitched, head first, down +the grassy wall which everywhere separated the zigzags from one another; +over and over rolled horse and rider to the hard road below, and there +lay, their horrible and abnormal movements exchanged for a stony quiet. +I jumped off my horse, and ran down the two steep slopes, which at +another time I should have descended hand over hand. Yet on my way I had +time to think with what sorrow this news would be received at Fairburn +Rectory, with what joy at the Hall! Marmaduke's hand still held the +rein, which I disentangled from it with feverish haste, lest that +four-footed fiend, which snorted yet through its fiery nostrils, and +glared defiance from its glazing eyes, should arise and drag the dear +lad's corpse among the cruel stones. After what I had seen of his fall, +I had scarcely a hope that he was alive. There was blood at his mouth, +blood at his ears, blood everywhere upon the white and dazzling road. +"Marmaduke, Marmaduke," cried I, "speak, speak, if it be but a single +word! Great Heaven, he is dead!"</p> + +<p>"Dead! no, not he," answered a hoarse, cracked voice at my ear. "He'll +live to do a power of mischief yet to woman and man. The devil would +never suffer a Heath of Fairburn to die at his age."</p> + +<p>"Woman," cried I, for it was the old gipsy crone, who had somehow +transported herself to the spot with incredible speed, "for God's sake, +go for help! There is a house yonder among those trees."</p> + +<p>"And why should I stir a foot," replied she fiercely, "for the child of +a race that has ever treated me and mine as though we were dogs?"</p> + +<p>"Because," said I, at a venture, "you have children yourself."</p> + +<p>"You are right," exclaimed she, clapping her skinny hands together, and +seating herself calmly on the turf. "It is well that you have mentioned +my kith and kin. One lad is across the seas, and will never see the +green lanes and breezy commons of England more; another lies caged in +yonder jail—and both for taking the wild creatures of the earth and +air, to which such men as Massingberd Heath lay claim; while my little +sister—ah, my Sinnamenta, my fair pearl!—may the lightning strike him +in his wickedest hour! nay, let him perish, inch by inch, within reach +of the aid that shall never come, ere the God of the Poor takes him into +his hand!—Boy, you may talk to that flintstone, and it will rise up and +get you help for that lad there—bonny as he is, and the bonnier the +worse for them he sets his wilful eyes on—before you get this hand to +wag a finger for him."</p> + +<p>"Woman," said I, despairingly, "if you hate Massingberd Heath, and want +to do him the worst service that lies in your power, flee, flee to that +house, and bid them save this boy's life, which alone stands between his +beggared uncle and untold riches."</p> + +<p>"Is it so?" cried the old woman, rising up with an agility for which no +one would have given her credit, and looking at me with furious eyes. +"Is it indeed so, boy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, woman, upon my soul!"</p> + +<p>Revenge accomplished what pity had failed to work. In an instant, she +was with me down by Marmaduke's side; from her pocket she produced a +spirit-flask in a leathern case, and applied it to his lips: after a +painful attempt to swallow, he succeeded; his eyelids began tremulously +to move, and the colour to return to his pallid lips.</p> + +<p>"Keep his head up," cried she, "and give him another drop of this, if +assistance does not arrive within five minutes."</p> + +<p>Before she had finished speaking, she had lifted the latch of the gate +that opened from the road into the grounds of the house in question, and +in another instant I was alone—alone with what I believed to be a dying +man, and surrounded with the blood that had flowed in a mingled stream +from him and the dead horse, for Panther had ceased to move—alone with +recollections and anticipations scarcely less horrible than the visible +scene; and yet, so strangely constituted is the human mind, that I could +not forbear to glance with some sort of curiosity at the flask the gipsy +had left with me, and to wonder exceedingly that its worn and tarnished +top of silver bore upon it a fac-simile of one of those identical +griffins which guarded each side of the broad stone steps that led to +Fairburn Hall.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<h3>AT THE DOVECOT.</h3> + + +<p>After an interval, which doubtless appeared much longer than it really +was, there issued from the gate a groom and butler, bearing between them +a small sofa, and accompanied by a young and lovely girl. The scene that +presented itself was enough to shock persons even of strong nerves, and +I hastily exclaimed, "The young lady had better not see this." But she +came on nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid of blood," said she, "and perhaps I may be of use." +Then she directed her servants how to handle the wounded man; and when +he was gently lifted on to the couch, she applied a handkerchief dipped +in Eau-de-Cologne to his forehead, and walked by his side regulating the +pace of his bearers, like some Miss Nightingale of a generation and a +half ago. "Let him be placed in your master's room, James: and then take +my pony, Thomas, and ride as fast as you can for Dr. Sitwell; and as you +come back—but think of nothing but bringing the doctor first—call at +the nursery-garden for your master; he said he should go there about +those roses." And some other directions she gave, as the men moved on +with their ghastly burden, like one who knew the value of time. +Notwithstanding this presence of mind, her anxious eyes betrayed that +she was not wanting in sensibility, and with every groan which the +motion of the fitter extracted from the sufferer, her own lip quivered. +I dare say that I saw nothing of her exceeding beauty at that dreadful +time; but while I write of Lucy Gerard now, a vision of surpassing +loveliness perforce presents itself before me. A tall, lithe, graceful +form; a face, nay, rather a soft, sad smile overspreading and pervading +every feature—a smile that I never saw surpassed save on her own fair +countenance after Love had taken her sweet soul captive—a smile the +reflex of all good and kindly thoughts that dwelt within. There are some +so great and noble that they smile, where other good folks can only weep +and wail; the true sympathizer with human griefs wears no lugubrious +aspect; the angels smile when they weep over human wretchedness—they +know that it is only for a little while, for that the gates of heaven +are standing open very, very near; and some such knowledge, or happy +faith, seems to influence the best of mortals, or how should they go +smiling through this world?</p> + +<p>So Marmaduke was carried along the gravel-drive, and across a little +flower-studded lawn, to the room in Mr. Gerard's house which was called +the master's room, it being half a sleeping-chamber, and half a library, +which Lucy's father used both night and day. This was so evident from +the appearance of the place, that when I had, with James' help, put +Marmaduke to bed there, where he lay breathing heavily, but quite +unconscious, I went to the young lady of the house, and expressed my +apprehension that my poor friend, being in that apartment, would cause +additional inconvenience in the household.</p> + +<p>"I understand," said I, "that it is Mr. Gerard's room."</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir," said she, with a glance of pride more becoming, if that were +possible, than even her ordinary modest look, "you do not know my +father. When I say that it will give him the greatest pleasure to find +that his favourite room has been of service to your friend, I use a +conventional phrase which literally expresses what he will feel Please +to forget that there is anybody in this house but yourselves; it is only +right that sickness should be considered before health; though, alas! +every room to those who are ill is but an hospital. This little +drawing-room, which your glance tells me you think pretty, with its +conservatory and fountain, and the rest, my poor young sister was very, +very weary of before she died, on yonder sofa, after fourteen months of +the gay prison."</p> + +<p>Her voice trembled as she spoke, and I thought I detected in it that +shade of bitterness with which some affectionate persons speak of the +sufferings of those they love, as though they would almost arraign that +Providence for unnecessary harshness, which might inflict any misery +upon, themselves without evoking one impatient thought.</p> + +<p>"Then you are left all alone here, Miss Gerard. With such a sad +reminiscence, this spot must—"</p> + +<p>"Alone!" interrupted she, with astonishment. "What! when I have my +father? See, he is coming through the shrubbery now, and Dr. Sitwell +with him. Let us meet them. How glad I am that he has lost no time."</p> + +<p>It was easy to distinguish the doctor, with his cane, his ruffles, and +stiff professional appearance, a little impaired, however, by hot haste; +moreover, his companion indicated him with his finger as we rapidly +approached one another, exclaiming, "This is your man, young gentleman; +don't waste one word on me at present."</p> + +<p>So, rapidly detailing what had happened as we went, I took the man of +physic to Marmaduke's bedside. As we entered the room, and first caught +sight of his pale features distorted with pain, my companion stood for +an instant aghast. "Great Heaven!" murmured he, "I thought the horse had +trodden upon the poor lad's forehead; but now, I see it is an old scar."</p> + +<p>"No," returned I; "it is not a scar; it is only a mark which in moments +of pain or anger comes out more distinctly than at other times. All the +Heath family have it. This is Mr. Marmaduke Heath, the nephew of Sir +Massingberd."</p> + +<p>"Indeed—indeed, sir!" exclaimed the doctor with an accession of +sympathy. "Dear me, how sad! What a fine property to risk losing at his +time of life. But the eye, you see, gives us hope; the brain has +suffered but slightly. He has not been sick, you say—not been sick; he +has not been sick, sir."</p> + +<p>It was the worthy doctor's habit to reiterate his last sentence in an +arrogant manner, as though he had been contradicted on a matter of fact, +while in reality his mind was entirely occupied by quite other thoughts. +Thus, at the present speaking, he was engaged in manipulating +Marmaduke's head, and examining his ribs and limbs with the greatest +attention. I waited for his verdict in anxious silence, and presently it +was delivered. "It is my opinion, sir, that the young man will live to +be a baronet."</p> + +<p>Life and Death, the immortalities of Heaven and Hell, were matters that +had but small space in Doctor Sitwell's mind compared to this +all-important futurity; he was accustomed to <i>them</i> in connection with +the merest paupers and persons of no sort of consequence; but it was not +every day in the week that a gentleman of Marmaduke's condition was +pitched on his head within the Crittenden doctor's professional orbit.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marmaduke Heath must be kept perfectly quiet; he must not be moved +from hence upon any consideration—it may be, for weeks. What science +can do, through my humble agency, shall be done for the young gentleman; +but rest and quiet are essential. Sir Massingberd should be sent for +instantly; the responsibility upon my shoulders would otherwise be too +great. He will doubtless yearn to be by the bedside of his beloved +nephew. You had better arrange with Mr. Gerard for this being done, as I +have my round to make, which to-day is all-important. The Hon. Mrs. +Flinthert—widow of the late admiral, you know—she requires constant +supervision; nature has to be supported; but for brandy, she must have +sunk before this. Then Mr. Broadacres, who lives Fairburn way—by the +by, that is a very curious case. However, my post is here, of course, +until my assistant arrives, who will remain in my absence. You may leave +your friend now without the least anxiety. When he awakes to +consciousness, you shall be sent for—you shall be sent for, sir."</p> + +<p>Upon this, I returned to the drawing-room to give a much more cheerful +report of the patient's case than I had ventured to anticipate. I found +our host issuing orders for his comfort and attendance, as though he had +quite made up his mind to make him his guest for a lengthened period. A +noble-looking gentleman he was, as like his daughter as an old man can +be to a young girl. Harvey Gerard's face was wrinkled neither by years +nor care, though marked here and there with those deep lines which +indicate the Thinker—one whom the gods have placed above the drudgery +of life, with a disposition to philosophize—a man among men rather than +of them, who stands apart from the high-road somewhere half-way up the +hill of Fortune, and watches the toilers above and below with a quiet +but not cynical smile. "The news you bring me of our patient, Mr. +Meredith," said he, "is most welcome; but I think we should still lose +no time in communicating with his friends."</p> + +<p>"That is also the opinion of Dr. Sitwell, sir; he, too, recommends that +my poor friend's nearest relative should be sent for; but in +circumstances of this kind, it would be wrong not to say at once that +that relative and the invalid here are on the worst of terms, and that +his coming would most certainly aggravate any bad symptoms, and retard +his cure."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to hear," returned Mr. Gerard, gravely, "that the young +gentleman is not on good terms with his own flesh and blood; that is a +bad sign."</p> + +<p>"However that maybe, sir, generally," replied I, with warmth, "it is not +so in this instance. Mr. Long, the rector of Fairburn, and tutor to my +friend, will certify to his being a most well-conducted and excellent +youth. His uncle, however, Sir Massingberd Heath—"</p> + +<p>"I will not have that person under my roof," interrupted Mr. Gerard, +"under any circumstances whatsoever." This he said without the least +trace of irritation, but with a firmness and decision which left me +nothing to apprehend upon Marmaduke's account. Then turning to his +daughter, as if in explanation, he added, "The man I speak of, my love, +is a wicked ruffian—worse than any poor fellow who has ever dangled +yonder outside of Crittenden jail."</p> + +<p>Miss Gerard did not answer except by a look of gentle remonstrance, +which seemed to me to murmur, "But, dear papa, for all we know, this +gentleman may be a friend of his."</p> + +<p>I hastened, therefore, to observe with energy, that Mr. Gerard's view of +the baronet's character was a perfectly just one, as far as I knew, or, +if anything, rather lenient. I recommended that Mr. Long should be +apprised of what had happened, and that he should give Sir Massingberd +to understand that while his nephew was receiving every attention at the +Dovecot—for so I had learned the house was called—its doors were +immutably closed against himself. It was not a pleasant task to impose +upon the good rector, but it was a necessary one; for, independently of +Mr. Gerard's determination, I felt it was absolutely essential to +Marmaduke's life that his uncle should be kept away from his bedside. If +in health his presence terrified him, how much worse would it be for him +in his prostrate and perilous condition! It was arranged, too, that I +should remain to look after my sick friend, and the messenger was +instructed to bring back with him all that we required from the Rectory +and the Hall. Mr. Long arrived at the Dovecot late that same afternoon, +in a state of great anxiety. He had come away almost on the instant +after receiving the news of Marmaduke's mis-chance, and without seeing +Sir Massingberd, who had not yet returned from shooting; but he had left +a letter for him, explaining the circumstances as well as he could. "My +only fear," said he, after visiting his pupil, who still lay in a +lethargic slumber, "is that he will come here immediately, and insist on +seeing his nephew—a desire that would appear to be natural enough to +persons who are unacquainted with the circumstances."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said I; "but surely he cannot do this in the face of Mr. Gerard's +prohibition."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my boy, you do not know Sir Massingberd yet," observed my tutor, +gravely; "he will come where and when he will."</p> + +<p>"Nay," returned I; "but neither do you know Mr. Harvey Gerard. From what +I have seen of that gentleman, he understands how to say 'No,' and to +suit to the word the action. When the strong man armed keepeth his +house, his goods, including his sick guest, are in peace."</p> + +<p>"But where a stronger than he cometh," added the rector, shaking his +head, "what then?"</p> + +<p>"We shall see," said I, "what will happen. It is plain, at all events, +that our host is well aware of the sort of man with whom he has to deal. +Mr. Gerard is a most pleasant person, and his daughter is charming +beyond measure: they are far the most interesting people I have yet seen +about Fairburn. How is it I have never heard any mention of them?"</p> + +<p>"The Gerards have always lived a very retired life," returned my tutor. +"The old gentleman entertains, it is said, some strange opinions. In +fact, I have never met them myself but once, and that on some public +occasion; so you must introduce me, Peter."</p> + +<p>I had been watching for Mr. Long at the entrance-gate, and taken him +straight into Marmaduke's room upon his arrival, so that he had seen +neither our host nor hostess; and I thought it strange that my tutor did +not speak of them with more enthusiasm, after their great kindness to +Marmaduke; something evidently a little chilled his feelings towards +them. When he and Mr. Gerard met, I thought there was more cordiality +upon the part of the latter than of the former; the expression of Mr. +Long's gratitude was earnest, but not genial. His admiration of Miss +Lucy, although not to be concealed, was mitigated, as it seemed, by some +sort of compassion; he regarded her with a shade of sadness. Boy as I +was, it was evident to me that some antagonism existed between my +host—for whom I naturally entertained most kindly feelings—and my +respected tutor; and this troubled me more than I should have liked to +say.</p> + +<p>Miss Lucy presently left the drawing-room, and then I was continually +appealed to by one or the other, on various trifling matters, as though +they found a third party a relief to their conversation. At last Mr. +Long requested me to narrate particularly the circumstances of +Marmaduke's accident, and I did so, down to the period when I found him +bleeding on the road.</p> + +<p>"Well," observed my tutor, "I am totally at a loss to account for poor +Panther's behaviour. I confess, upon the first day I saw him, I did not +like the look of his eye: you remember, Peter, that I made Marmaduke +exchange horses with me, and endeavoured, by every means in my power, to +find out the peculiarities of the animal. I wish Sir Massingberd had +permitted me to choose a horse for his nephew myself, when I bought your +honest brown."</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd selected his nephew's horse himself, did he?" inquired +Mr. Gerard, carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied my tutor; "he sent for him from town a few weeks ago. He +was a mettlesome frisky creature, it is true; but his curb was a very +powerful one, and seemed quite sufficient to subdue him."</p> + +<p>"Does Sir Massingberd himself ride when he is in the field?" observed +our host. "He must be a great weight for a shooting pony."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you had asked me yesterday, I should have said he almost never +rides; but it so happens that he did take the keeper's nag with him this +morning. His great stables are all empty now, for, as probably you are +aware, things are not kept up as they used to be at the Hall. Old Dobbin +is the only representative of the magnificent stud that was once +maintained there, now that Panther is dead. By the by, what has been +done with him?"</p> + +<p>"The carcass has been taken into the town," said Mr. Gerard. "He must +have been a fine creature."</p> + +<p>"His mouth, however, was of iron," said I. "Poor Marmaduke had no +control over him whatever, at last; he had almost pulled his arms off."</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding the powerful bit?" observed Mr. Gerard.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied my tutor; "the bit was not only powerful, I should have +almost called it cruel; but Sir Massingberd is a very good judge of all +things belonging to a horse, and seems to have known that, at all +events, no less was required. It was a town-made article, and came down +from London with the animal."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed," remarked Mr. Gerard. "But you have never told us, Mr. +Meredith, how you managed to give the alarm here, without leaving your +poor friend."</p> + +<p>I am ashamed to say I had never given the old gipsy crone a thought from +the moment that help arrived, although it was of her sending.</p> + +<p>"The very woman whose appearance frightened the horse, repaired, as far +as she could accomplish it, that mischief. She left in my hands, too, +this fine old case-bottle, of which I should be sorry to rob her; and +very curious is it that it has the Heath griffin, or some crest very +like that, upon its stopper."</p> + +<p>"It is the very crest," said the rector. "I am quite sure of that, +although it is long since it last saw plate-powder. It is but too likely +that the dark lady came wrongfully by it."</p> + +<p>"Let us not be hasty to impute crime," observed Mr. Gerard, gravely. +"This is a shooting-flask carried about the person; and gipsies are +rarely pickpockets. When the owner is at home, it lies in someplace of +safety; and gipsies are not burglars."</p> + +<p>"Ably reasoned," observed Mr. Long. "It may, however, have been a case +of 'findings, keepings,' as the school-boys say. I should think the +Cingari claimed for themselves all flotsam and jetsam."</p> + +<p>"It is too heavy, and has too much bulk, not to have been missed by him +who carried it as soon as it fell," continued Mr. Gerard, taking up the +flask. "It has but very little spirit left in it—see—and yet how—"</p> + +<p>Here the butler entered somewhat hurriedly, and was about to speak, when +a figure brushed by him, and set him aside. The daylight was beginning +to wane; but it was impossible to mistake that herculean form, and its +irresistible motion, even if I had not heard the harsh decisive voice +of Sir Massingberd saying, "By your leave, sirrah; but in this good +company I will announce <i>myself</i>!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<h3>MEETING HIS MATCH.</h3> + + +<p>Sir Massingberd's unlooked-for entrance into the drawing-room at the +Dovecot had a result that must seem almost farcical to those who read +it, but which to me, who dwelt among big trembling vassals, and had +learned, day by day, to fear and hate him more and more, had nothing in +it extraordinary. I, Peter Meredith, bolted straightway into the +conservatory, and there ensconced myself within the shadow of an +orange-tree, while the Rev. Matthew Long left the room with equal +celerity by the door. As for me, I confess that I was actuated by panic +on my own account; my tutor's apprehensions were aroused on behalf of +another. The instant after he disappeared, I heard the lock of the +library door shot into its staple, and knew that Marmaduke was in a +friend's keeping, and safe from any incursion of his uncle. I could see +that Mr. Gerard knew this too, for a gleam of pleasure passed over his +face, and then left it determined, defiant, and almost mocking, as when +he had first set eyes upon the intruder. There was a fire in the +otherwise darkening room, and from my place of concealment, I could +watch the lineaments of both its inmates—and two more resolved and +haughty countenances I had never beheld.</p> + +<p>"Is it the custom of your respectable family, Sir Massingberd Heath," +observed my host, "to force themselves into houses whose owners do not +desire the honour of their presence?"</p> + +<p>"It is their custom to hold their own, sir," answered the baronet +curtly; "and I am come after my nephew."</p> + +<p>It is impossible to convey the effect which this audacious speech had +upon me, its unseen hearer; unblushing, scornfully open as it was, an +awful threat seemed to lie within it, and above all, a consciousness of +the power to carry it into effect. Even Mr. Gerard, who could have had +no knowledge of the things that I knew, and had never heard the history +of Grimjaw, seemed to feel a tremor as he listened.</p> + +<p>"Your nephew, sir, is not in a condition to receive you," returned my +host. "The consequences of seeing you might, I do not hesitate to say, +be fatal to him."</p> + +<p>"The opinion of his medical man is different," observed Sir Massingberd +with a sneer. "Dr. Sitwell—a most estimable person, I should say, and +endowed with excellent sense—has been so very kind as to ride over +himself to Fairburn as soon as he could leave his patient, in order to +apprise me exactly how the matter stands. He recommends my seeing +Marmaduke in his first lucid interval—'There is no knowing,' said he, +'whether that may not be your poor dear nephew's last.'"</p> + +<p>"Your poor dear nephew," repeated Mr. Gerard, with great distinctness. +"Very dear, doubtless, but not what one would call poor, at least in the +matter of expectations."</p> + +<p>"Poor or rich, sir," retorted the other, "he has been placed in my hands +as being those most fitted to take care of him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerard shrugged his shoulders, and smiled sardonically.</p> + +<p>"You seem to conceive that confidence misplaced, sir," continued the +baronet. "The want of your good opinion afflicts me beyond measure. I +am aware that I fail to satisfy pious persons in some particulars, but +that Mr. Harvey Gerard's susceptibilities should be offended is indeed a +serious consideration; it is as though the devil himself should cry, +'For shame!'"</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd Heath, you are under my roof, although unbidden and +unwelcome," returned my host; "your tongue, therefore, is chartered, so +far as I am concerned. I could not, I confess, help my countenance +expressing some astonishment when you spoke of your fitness for the +education of youth."</p> + +<p>There was a pause here for which I could not account. Sir Massingberd's +eyes were riveted upon something on which the firelight danced and +shone. I should very much misrepresent the baronet's character, and +probably even exaggerate his capabilities, if I said he blushed, but +certainly his countenance changed. Then he broke out fiercely, "I live +as I choose, sir, and am answerable to no man, least of all to you. The +parsons had their say, and have got their reply long ago, but am I also +to be arraigned by—"</p> + +<p>"You cannot justify yourself by any quarrel with me," interrupted Mr. +Gerard. "I have, as you say, although not for the foolish reason you +would mention, no right to be either your judge or accuser. But, Sir +Massingberd, there is a God whom we have both good cause to fear."</p> + +<p>"So you make your own sermons, I perceive," exclaimed the other, +bitterly. "That is the reason, is it, why the good folks never see you +at church? Cant amuses me always; but religion out of your mouth is +humorous, indeed. Pray go on, sir, if my dear nephew can wait a little, +for I should be sorry to miss him altogether. You were affirming, I +think, the existence of a God."</p> + +<p>"I was about to urge," continued Mr. Gerard, with grave severity, "since +howsoever persons differ on religious matters, they generally +acknowledge a common Father, that if there is one crime more hateful to +Him than another, it is the deliberate debauchery of the mind of youth. +I had no intention of making any particular accusation, such as the +sight of this flask seems to have suggested to you. I know nothing—but +what I guess—of its history. It has only been in my hands a very few +minutes. The person by whose means it came into this house was, I +believe, an old gipsy woman, and you are, doubtless, well aware how it +got into her possession."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerard paused. Sir Massingberd, who, though smiling scornfully, had +been beating the ground with his foot, here observed, with a forced +calmness, "She is a liar; she is a thief, and the mother of thieves."</p> + +<p>"Did she steal this flask?" inquired Mr. Gerard, regarding the other +attentively. "It has your crest upon it. She did not. Good. It was then, +I suppose, only a <i>gage d'amour</i> of yours."</p> + +<p>A lurid light came over Sir Massingberd's evil face; for a moment I +trembled for the man who dared to speak such words to him, but almost +instantly he recovered his usual cruel calm.</p> + +<p>"Your sagacity, Mr. Gerard," returned he, "is truly admirable. Is it the +result of experience or intuition? or has this old ginger-faced harridan +made you her favoured confidant? With your fondness for all such +vagabonds I am well acquainted."</p> + +<p>"The reprobation of a man like you, Sir Massingberd, should be dearer +than the praise of ordinary mortals; but this matter does not concern +myself in any way."</p> + +<p>The baronet muttered something between his set teeth.</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! man," continued Mr. Gerard, with unutterable scorn; "think not +to frighten <i>me</i>. I am stronger than you, because I am richer; you are +as poor as those very vagabonds whom you despise; your very existence +depends upon the alms of a stranger. That you are unscrupulous in your +revenges, I do not doubt; but you would have to deal in Harvey Gerard +with one who only uses honourable weapons with an honourable foe. If you +did me or mine a mischief, I swear to you that I would shoot you like a +dog."</p> + +<p>The frame of the speaker shook with contemptuous passion. Defiant as was +his language, it fell far short of the disdain expressed in his tone +and manner. It was not in Sir Massingberd's nature to be overawed, but +his truculent features no longer maintained their grimness—their cruel +humour. He could not put aside a man like Gerard with a brutal jest. I +do not say that he was conscious of his own inferiority, but he knew +that his opponent not only did not fear, but actually despised him. This +was wormwood.</p> + +<p>"I am ashamed," continued Mr. Gerard, after a pause, "to have lost my +temper with you, Sir Massingberd, upon my own account. I wish to have +nothing in common with you—not even a quarrel. We were speaking of this +gipsy woman, and you called her thief, and what not. Whatever may be her +faults, however, it does not become you to dwell on them; but for her +and her prompt assistance, your nephew would not at this moment be +alive. Out of this very flask she administered to him—" So frightful +an execration here broke from the baronet's lips that I anticipated it +to be the prelude to a personal assault upon my host. Mr. Gerard, +however, stood quietly stirring the fire, with his eyes fixed firmly but +calmly on those of Sir Massingberd, just as a mad doctor might regard a +dangerous patient.</p> + +<p>"That is a very singular exclamation of gratitude," observed Mr. Gerard, +sardonically, "to one who has just performed you—or at least +<i>yours</i>—so great a service. It really seems as though you almost +regretted that it <i>was</i> performed."</p> + +<p>A look of deadly hatred had now taken the place of all other expressions +on the baronet's face. It forgot even to wear its sneer.</p> + +<p>"I have been insulted enough, I think," said he, with a calmness more +terrible than wrath. "Even as it is, I shall scarcely be able to +requite you, though, be sure, I will do my best. But, with respect to my +errand, I am come here to see my nephew, and that I will do."</p> + +<p>"That you shall not do, Sir Massingberd, so surely as this house is +mine."</p> + +<p>"And who shall prevent me?" exclaimed the baronet, contemptuously +measuring his foe from head to foot.</p> + +<p>"Not I, sir, indeed," returned Mr. Gerard; "but I will see that my +servants put you out of doors by force," and as he spoke he laid his +hand upon the bell.</p> + +<p>"Before night, then, I shall send for Marmaduke, and he shall be carried +back to Fairburn, which, after all, is his proper home, and be there +nursed."</p> + +<p>"Nursed!" repeated my host, hoarsely. "Nursed by the grave-digger, you +mean."</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd turned livid and sat down; then, as one who acts in his +sleep, he passed his handkerchief once or twice across his forehead. +"How dare you speak such things to me?" said he, looking round about +him. "To hear you talk, one would think that I had tried to murder the +boy."</p> + +<p>"I <i>know</i> you did," cried Mr. Gerard, solemnly, laying his finger upon +the baronet's arm. "If your nephew, Marmaduke, dies, his blood is on +your head."</p> + +<p>"On mine! how on mine? How, in the name of all the devils, could I have +hindered the lad's horse from running away with him?"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you how. You might have suffered Mr. Long to purchase a +horse for the boy, as he offered to do, and not have sent to London for +a confirmed run-away."</p> + +<p>"He rode it half a dozen times without any harm," replied Sir +Massingberd, sullenly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, with a curb that would have tamed a wild horse fresh from the +lasso. But when you took that curb for the keeper's pony, riding with +gun in hand for the first time in your life—and sent your nephew forth +upon that devil with a snafflebridle—nay, I have it yonder, sir—don't +lie; you calculated that if what you wished should happen all would be +laid to chance. A change of bridles is an accident like enough to +happen; lads are thrown from horseback every day. See, I track your +thoughts like slime. Base ruffian! rise; begone from beneath this roof, +false coward—"</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd started up like one stung by an adder.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I say coward! Heavens! that this creature should still feel the +touch of shame! Be off, be off; molest not any one within this house, +at peril of your life—murderer—murderer!"</p> + +<p>Without a word, without a glance of reply, Sir Massingberd seized his +hat, and hurried from the room. I felt some alarm lest he should make +some violent effort to visit Marmaduke; but Mr. Gerard's countenance +gave me comfort. He stood quite still, listening with grim satisfaction +to the baronet's retreating footsteps.</p> + +<p>They were heard for an instant striding along the floor of the hall, and +then were exchanged for the sound of his horse's hoofs urged to speed +along the carriage-drive. Sir Massingberd Heath had met for once with +his match—and more.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<h3>MR. HARVEY GERARD.</h3> + + +<p>So entirely engrossed had I been with the action and dialogue of the +speakers in the preceding scene, that it scarcely struck me while it was +going on that I had not paid for my place in the pit in the usual +fashion, but was a mere eavesdropper under an orange-tree.</p> + +<p>So soon as Sir Massingberd was really gone, however, I became conscious +of the impropriety of my situation, and not wishing to own what I had +done, I stole noiselessly out into the garden, and then re-entered the +conservatory, and thereby the drawing-room, as though I had been out of +sight and hearing all the time. It was not quite a chivalrous act; but I +do not think that the boys of my time, myself included, were quite so +honourable and frank as Mr. Tom Brown describes those of the present day +to be. There was something, moreover, about Mr. Harvey Gerard which told +me he would have loathed a listener, nor would have been very ready to +have accepted fear as any excuse for my conduct. He was a man of noble +bearing, nearly six feet in height, and extremely well formed. He was +dressed in a blue lapelled coat, light waistcoat and kerseys, and +Hessian boots. These last I had not seen before upon any person, and I +remember them well. I think they were the most graceful covering for the +leg that has yet been devised, although, I own, they may not have been +so convenient as the modern knickerbockers. He wore his own grey +hair—which was not very usual with persons of his rank of life—and +rather long. His features were large, but handsome; and there was a kind +of youthful blandness about them which gave his face a most agreeable +expression in ordinary. When excited by passion, however, as I had +lately seen him, his appearance greatly changed. His thin lips parted +contemptuously, and showed his threatening teeth, while his blue eyes, +gentle almost to dreaminess, became blood-streaked, and almost started +from their sockets. As I now beheld him calmly kindling a lamp on the +drawing-room table, no one could have been a greater contrast than +himself to the man who had just driven Sir Massingberd Heath from the +room with such a hail-storm of invective.</p> + +<p>"Well, young gentleman," exclaimed he, cheerfully, "the enemy is +repulsed, you see, although, I confess, your friend the baronet is +rather a formidable fellow. He's uncommonly like Front de Boeuf. I +daresay you have read the new romance of 'Ivanhoe,' have you not?"</p> + +<p>"Marmaduke has, sir, I believe," replied I; "but I am sorry to say I am +no great reader."</p> + +<p>"That is not well, Mr. Meredith; youth is the time for reading. A +knowledge of books, if they are sufficiently varied, is half-way towards +the knowledge of men. It is true that a student may turn out a fool, +because he may have been a book-worm; but the probability is greater of +that misfortune befalling one who has been 'no great reader.' I would +not say so much, if you were older than you are, and had not plenty of +time before you to redeem the past. There is nothing more contemptible +than ignorance; save, perhaps"—here he sighed—"than knowledge +misapplied. What a dangerous villain would that man be, for instance, +who has just been here, had his natural powers been cultivated by study. +As it is, he rushes headlong, like the bull." Here he turned upon me +gaily. "Did he ever toss you, my young friend?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," returned I, remembering that interview in the churchyard, +"he bellowed at me once a little."</p> + +<p>"Did he, my boy, did he?—the cowardly brute! Well, I've put a ring +through his nose for a considerable time to come, I flatter myself. I +<i>like</i> a bull-fight. I think I should have made a capital matador," +cried Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands and laughing.</p> + +<p>"How did you—how did you manage to <i>ring</i> him, sir?" inquired I, with +hesitation, for I was curious to see whether Mr. Gerard would make me a +confidant of what had passed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I watched him carefully—never took my eyes off him for a moment. +When he was calm in his white malice, then I irritated him by waving my +red flag—this silver-headed brandy-flask put him in a horrible rage. +When he made his rushes, I stood aside, and let him go where he would. +When he had exhausted himself, I stepped in, and gave him the steel. I +wonder," soliloquized Mr. Gerard, aloud, as he slowly paced up and down +the room—"I wonder if it would be safe to give him the <i>coup de +grace</i>!"</p> + +<p>"But," said I, "were you not afraid—"</p> + +<p>"My dear young friend," said my host, with seriousness, but placing his +hand kindly upon my shoulder, "an honest man should never be afraid of a +fellow-creature. 'Fear God,' it is written; but even the king is only +to be honoured."</p> + +<p>It is impossible to express the grave and noble air with which Mr. +Gerard spoke those words: I felt such an affectionate awe of him from +that moment, as no other person has ever inspired within me.</p> + +<p>"But," continued I, "supposing he had made a personal assault upon you: +he is perfectly reckless, and a much more powerful man, I should think."</p> + +<p>"Very true, my young friend; and indeed at one time I thought he would +certainly have done it; that was why I placed the poker in the fire. It +would not have been a romantic action; but so sure as he laid finger +upon me, I would have played Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and 'burned a hole in +him one might put a kail-pat through.' It would have give me genuine +pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Burned a hole in Sir Massingberd!" cried I aghast.</p> + +<p>"Ay, that would I. As it was, I threatened him with my servants; and had +he ventured to force his way into yonder room, they should have flogged +him, though he were ten times Sir Massingberd. Better men than he are +often flogged for less offences. Did you hear of Admiral Flinthert's +funeral at Crittenden a month ago or so? You did; and I daresay you were +told that he was a good man and a brave sailor."</p> + +<p>"So it was said, indeed, sir," replied I. "Mr. Long attended the funeral +out of respect, and I believe a great number of gentlemen of the +county."</p> + +<p>"Yet, for all that, he was a bad man, and a coward," returned Mr. +Gerard, his voice rising, and his blue eyes flashing with indignation. +"One part of the naval creed—'to hate the French'—it is true, he did +believe, and acted in that faith; but he omitted the other, and the more +important, 'to hate the devil.' He loved and served the devil of his own +arrogant passions; he made the men miserable over whom he ruled; his +ship was called the Floating Hell. When the carriage of the +lord-lieutenant had driven away from the church, with all its load of +sympathy—for there was nothing else inside it—and the county gentry +were rolling homewards, congratulating themselves that they had paid due +reverence to a gallant officer and a friend of order and good +government, I will tell you what happened. The very evening those +honoured remains were laid in their resting-place, a sailor called at +the house of old Marks, the sexton, and begged to be shown the admiral's +coffin. 'I have sailed with him for years,' said he, 'and I have made +right away from Portsmouth on purpose to do this; and though I cannot +see his face, I should like at least to look upon that which contains +it.'</p> + +<p>"Now, old Marks did not fancy unlocking the church, and descending into +a damp vault; beside which, he had really no right to enter the last +home of the Flintherts without due occasion. So said he, 'I cannot admit +you to where the admiral lies, and certainly not at this hour; it is as +much as my place is worth.'</p> + +<p>"Then the sailor, who was as fine and hearty-looking a man, said Marks, +as need be, held up half a sovereign between his finger and thumb. 'I +have been just paid off,' said he, 'and will gladly give you this for +your trouble; while as for your scruples, why, don't you think the +admiral's family here, and all his great friends who came to do him +honour to-day, would be glad enough that a poor tar should pay a humble +tribute to his memory?'</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said Marks, regarding, I daresay, the half-sovereign, rather +wistfully, 'what you have just said seems certainly to alter the matter. +I will take you to the church, and you shall see the coffin, for the +vault is not yet sealed.'</p> + +<p>"So they started with a lantern, and Marks was for going first to show +the way, but the sailor went ahead, saying that he knew the road +blindfold, for that he had been brought up in that neighbourhood, and +knew it well.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said old Marks, 'I thought I recognized something about you, +although you are much changed in the last twenty years. You are Will +Moody, who got into trouble with Sir Wentworth Heath about poaching; +only he couldn't quite prove it agin you.'</p> + +<p>"'No,' returned the sailor; 'but he went to work by a surer way than +even the law—he got me pressed when I went to visit my sister down at +Deal.'</p> + +<p>"That, my young friend," observed Mr. Gerard, interrupting himself, "is +a method by which not only we man our fleet, but rid the country of a +number of obnoxious persons."<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>"'Yes,' continued the sailor, 'I was pressed; if it had not been for +that I should not have sailed under Admiral Flinthert.' He spoke no more +till they had entered the church, and had moved away the stone, which +had been only dropped, and not yet fastened over the mouth of the vault. +Then they descended the steps, and old Marks turned his lantern on to +the spot where the first—that is, the latest—coffin of the long row +was lying. 'That is the admiral's,' said he; 'you may read his name upon +the silver plate.'</p> + +<p>"William Moody spelled it out aloud, so as to be quite sure. 'Well,' +said he, 'I will tell you a little story about that dead man, and then +we will come away.'</p> + +<p>"'Tell us the story when we get home,' replied the sexton.</p> + +<p>"'No, no, man; I will tell it here, else you would think ill of me, may +be, for what I am going to do. Now listen. For a long time after I was +pressed, I hated and detested what I had to do, and also those who gave +me my orders; but after a bit I got more used to the work, and some of +the officers I learned to like very well, especially our captain. I was +a strong active fellow, without home-ties to think upon and sadden me, +for mother had other sons to maintain her, and in that respect I was +luckier than most. There were pressed men on board of the same ship, +man, whose wives and helpless children were starving because their +bread-winner was taken from them, and who knew not whether he was dead +or alive. However, as I say, I soon got used to my new position, and +became so good a sailor that I was made what is called captain of the +main-top. When our ship was paid off, which was not, however, for a long +time, I liked the salt water so well, that after I had been home for a +little, I volunteered to serve again.</p> + +<p>"'My next captain was this man who lies here. He was as cruel a tyrant +as ever trod a quarter-deck, and a terror to good and bad alike. You +could never please him, do what you would. If an officer is worth his +salt at all, he knows and respects those men who do their duty well +under him. Captain Flinthert knew, but did not respect them; on the +contrary, he behaved towards them as though he resented some imaginary +claims on their part to his consideration. I held in his ship the same +position that I held in the last, for it did not contain a more active +sailor. Yet he found occasion—I should rather say he made it—to get me +punished. I swear to you that I had not committed even that slight fault +which he laid to my charge; if I had done so, it was one for which the +stopping of a day's grog would have been chastisement enough. This +ruffian'—here he smote the coffin with his clenched hand—'ordered me +three dozen lashes. Now, I had never been flogged yet, and when I went +to the captain with almost tears in my eyes, and told him so, and that I +had never even been reported for misconduct, he replied with a sneer +that I was too good by half, and that it was high time I should become +acquainted with the cat-o'-nine tails. "To prevent mistakes, you shall +have it at once," said he: "call up the boatswain's mate." Now, I +thought to myself, in the pride of my manliness and independence, that +such a disgrace should never happen to William Moody, but that I would +die first; so I walked straight from that part of the deck where I had +been speaking with Captain Flinthert, and leaped from the bulwarks into +the sea. I believed I tried at first to drown myself, but I was a strong +swimmer, and nature compelled me presently to strike out. The cry of "A +man overboard!" had caused the boat to be lowered at once, and though we +had been sailing very fast, I was picked up, not much exhausted, and +almost in spite of myself. As soon as I had got on board, and put on dry +things, the captain sent for me on deck, where I found the boatswain's +mate at the grating, and all hands piped for punishment. "William +Moody," said that ruffian in a mocking voice, "I had ordered you three +dozen lashes for a certain offence, but you have now committed a much +graver one in endangering, by your late act, the life of one of his +majesty's sailors; you will therefore now receive <i>six</i> dozen instead. +Boatswain, do your duty."</p> + +<p>"'I was, therefore, tied up and punished. I don't think I suffered much +at the time, although I was laid up in the sick ward for long +afterwards. I was entirely occupied with thoughts of revenge. When I was +able to get about again, Captain Flinthert had got another ship, and was +away out of my reach. I never met him, again, or he would not have lived +to the age that is inscribed on yonder plate; but as soon as I heard +that he was dead, I swore to come and spit upon the tyrant's coffin.'</p> + +<p>"Then the sailor suited the action to the word, and turned from the +dishonoured corpse with a lighter step than that with which he had +approached it; and old Marks followed him from the vault, as he +confessed to me himself, 'half frightened out of his wits.'"</p> + +<p>"I do not wonder," said I to Mr. Gerard, "it was a terrible revenge."</p> + +<p>"Ay, but how much worse was the provocation; from the very man, too, +placed in authority of him, whose duty was to foster, not to oppress +him. Verily, they that are in honour, and understand not, are as the +beasts that perish."</p> + +<p>"True," returned I, "but then the wretch was dead."</p> + +<p>"Just so, young sir," replied Mr. Gerard, impetuously, "was dead, and +never felt the insult. The sailor felt both the insult and the lashes. +How is it that, at your age, you have already learned to be the +apologist of the rich in high places?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, sir, I—?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, <i>you</i>," continued my host with vehemence; "your pity is for the +admiral, and does not descend to the captain of the maintop. Still," +added he, in a milder tone, "I should not judge you harshly, even if you +so judge others. You were brought up in India, were you not? where in +the eyes of the cowering natives, to be white is to be powerful, and +wise, and all in all—save to be good. Great heavens, what a retribution +is waiting for us there!" Again my host paced the room, but this time +rapidly, wildly, and uttering exclamations like a sibyl inspired by her +god. "If the nabobs we see here are specimens of those who rule the +East, Heaven help the ruled! What blindness, what infatuation! Do you +know, young man, the very men that cause revolutions am the last to +believe in them?" This was an observation so entirely beyond me, that I +could only murmur that such was doubtless the case, although I did not +remember having heard it remarked before. "It is so," continued Mr. +Gerard, positively, "and it always has been so. It was so in France. I +suppose you have always been taught to consider the French Republicans +the vilest and wickedest of men, and the Revolution to be the mother +that produced them at one monstrous birth. Yes, when the day of +reckoning comes, and the ruin is undeniable, Democracy, forsooth, is +blamed. The taunt is hurled—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'"Behold the harvest that we reap</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">From popular government and equality!"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whereas, in truth, 'tis neither these, nor aught</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of wild belief ingrafted on their names</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">By false philosophy, have caused the woe,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But a terrific reservoir of guilt</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And ignorance, filled up from age to age,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That can no longer hold its loathsome charge,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But bursts, and spreads in deluge through the land.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>High truth embalmed in noble verse, yet no one heeds. The author of +those lines, my friend, is the greatest poet in Great Britain, and has +never possessed an income of a hundred pounds a year. They say that my +Lord Castlereagh has thirty thousand...—Stay, do you not hear wheels? +That must be Sitwell's gig. I have not the patience to see him now. His +sycophantic officiousness in fetching Sir Massingberd was too +contemptible. How can a man who has two legs given him to stand upright +upon, persist in grovelling through life upon all-fours?</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Heaven grant the man some noble nook;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">For, rest his soul! he'd rather be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Genteelly damned beside a duke</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Than saved in vulgar company.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Do you receive him, Mr. Meredith; and tell him from me that it is no +thanks to him that his patient is yet alive. Now that the siege is +raised, I will just step in and see how the lad is getting on."</p> + +<p>My host had left the room only a few seconds when Dr. Sitwell entered +it.</p> + +<p>"My dear young friend!" exclaimed he, in an excited manner, "what on +earth has happened to Sir Massingberd Heath? He very nearly rode me down +ten minutes ago on Crittenden Common; and when I inquired after his +nephew, he replied—Well, I cannot repeat the exact words, because they +are so excessively shocking. Why, he must be out of his mind with grief! +I trust he did nothing impetuous, nothing that is to be regretted, +here?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied I; "he did not, thanks to our good host, who +withstood all his attempts to see his nephew. It was, however, most +indiscreet of you to send him hither. Mr. Harvey Gerard was exceedingly +annoyed by your doing so."</p> + +<p>"My dear young friend," observed Dr. Sitwell, sinking his voice to a +confidential whisper, "Mr. Harvey Gerard is annoyed at many things which +would give most sensible persons a great deal of pleasure. He would as +soon admit a rattle-snake within his doors as a man of title, unless, +indeed, it be his friend, Sir Charles Wolseley. By the by, it is to Sir +Charles that my dear patient, Mr. Broadacres, is indirectly indebted for +his wound. If Sir Charles had not convened that revolutionary meeting at +Bangton, Mr. Broadacres would not have had to read the Riot Act, and +eventually got shot by mistake by his own men. It is denied by the +government, I perceive, that ball was fired by the troops at the first +discharge; but between ourselves such was certainly the case; for I +extracted the bullet from poor Mr. B. myself, and he has had to lie upon +his face ever since. Good heavens, sir, what a position for a man whose +family came in with the Conqueror!"</p> + +<p>"Is this Sir Charles Wolseley, then, of whom one reads so much in the +papers, a friend of Mr. Gerard's?" said I. "I have heard Mr. Long remark +that he was a very dangerous man."</p> + +<p>"So he is, sir. He'll be hung some day, as sure as he lives. And the +gentleman in whose house we stand is tarred with the same brush. It's +terrible to think of. Why, do you know, Mr. Meredith, that Mr. Harvey +Gerard goes the length"—here the doctor looked about him to be sure +that we were alone, and placing his lips close to my ear, whispered +solemnly, "of wearing a white hat!"</p> + +<p>"Gracious goodness," returned I, "why shouldn't he? My father always +wears a white hat in India."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but <i>let me tell you this</i>, India is not England," observed the +doctor, sagaciously. "A white hat here is the badge of Radicalism, +Republicanism, Atheism—I don't say that Mr. Gerard is a downright +atheist, but he's a sectary, and that's nearly as bad. And hark ye, I +know this for certain: the only reason why Henry Hunt himself is not +hand and glove with our friend is this, that when Hunt was tried for his +life for sedition, he came into the dock, like a prudent man, with a +black hat, and that is the one act of caution and good sense for which +Mr. Gerard has never forgiven him."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This sarcasm was founded on literal truth; I myself +remember a time when Englishmen submitted to a system of oppression +almost precisely similar to that which has of late driven the Poles to +insurrection, and enlisted for them the sympathies of Europe—namely, a +forced conscription, the subjects of which are <i>selected</i>.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<h3>LOVE THE LIFEGIVER.</h3> + + +<p>It was about four o'clock in the morning, or nearly twelve hours after +his frightful fall, that Marmaduke Heath first woke to consciousness. +Mr. Long and myself were passing the night in his apartment, which was a +very roomy one, my tutor upon a sofa, and I in a comfortable arm-chair. +I had begged that for that once at least it should be so, for I knew the +dear lad would like to set his eyes upon me when he first opened them. +Dr. Sitwell and his assistant, both agreed that if he woke at all from +his heavy stertorous slumber, it would be in his sane mind; and it was +so. Mr. Long was asleep, but I had so much to think about in the +occurrences and disclosures of the preceding evening, that slumber had +refused to visit me.</p> + +<p>I was as unused as happy youth in general is to sleeplessness. I did not +know at that time what it is to lay head upon pillow only to think upon +the morrow with a brain that has done its day's work, and would fain be +at rest; or worse, only to let the past re-enact itself under the +wearied eyelids; to watch the long procession of vanished forms again +fill the emptied scenes, and yet to be conscious of their unreality. How +different in this respect alone is the experience of age and youth, and +again of poverty and competence! A young man in tolerable circumstances, +and who does not chance to be a sportsman, may never have seen the sun +rise, that commonest of splendid spectacles to all men of humble +station. For my own part, I had never done so in England until the +occasion of which I speak, and I remember it very particularly. The +weary time spent in listening to the various noises of the house, now to +those consequent upon the retiring to rest of its inmates, and then to +those more mysterious ones which do not begin till afterwards—the +crickets on the hearth, the mice in the wainscot, the complaining of +chairs and wardrobes, and the clocks, which discourse in quite another +fashion than they do in the day. The slow hours consumed in watching the +rushlight spots, first on the floor and then on the wall, and at last +exchanged for the cool grey dawn, stealing in through cranny and crack, +and showing my companions still in the land of dreams; later yet the +drowsy crowing of cocks, and presently, as the light grows and grows, +notwithstanding shutter and curtain, the indescribably welcome song of +the early robin, the busy chirping of the house-sparrow, followed by the +whole tuneful choir of birds; then the lowing of cattle in the distance, +and the distant barking of the watch-dog, so strangely different from +that sad and solitary howl with which the same animal breaks the awful +stillness of the night. About four, I say, as I looked for the +thousandth time towards Marmaduke's bed, I saw him sitting up supporting +himself on his elbow, and pushing his other hand across his brow, as if +trying to call to mind where he was. In an instant I was at his bedside. +"Marmaduke, I am here," said I; "Peter Meredith."</p> + +<p>"I am not at Fairburn Hall, am I?" asked he, in a hoarse whisper.</p> + +<p>"No, Marmaduke, you are amongst friends."</p> + +<p>"Then <i>he</i> is not here," gasped he—"nowhere near."</p> + +<p>"He is miles away, my friend, and he will never come under this roof."</p> + +<p>"Thank Heaven—thank Heaven!" cried the poor boy, sinking back upon the +pillow; "it was only a dreadful dream, then. I shall die happy."</p> + +<p>"You need not talk of dying, Marmaduke. On the contrary, let us hope you +are about to begin a life unshadowed, natural, without fear."</p> + +<p>"No, Peter, I must die. I feel that; but what is death to what I have +been dreaming? Do you remember that poem which came down in the box of +books, from Mr. Clint, last week, about a wretched man that was bound +upon a wild horse and sent adrift in the Ukraine?" And then he repeated +with some difficulty—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"'How fast we fled, away, away,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And I could neither sigh, nor pray,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And my cold sweat-drops fell like rain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Upon the courser's bristling mane,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But snorting still with rage and fear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He flew upon his far career;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">At times I almost thought indeed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He must have slackened in his speed;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But no; my bound and slender frame</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Was nothing to his angry might,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And merely like a spur became.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Well, Peter, that was I. But instead of the wolves which followed upon +<i>his</i> track, it was my uncle Massingberd who followed <i>me</i>. He had +chosen to kill me as the Count Palatine would have killed Mazeppa, but +he wanted also to see it done.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'All through the night I heard his feet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Their stealing rustling step repeat.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Great Heaven, I hear them now!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, Marmaduke, it is only I, your old tutor," said Mr. Long, tenderly, +who had not been able to leave his sofa entirely without noise. "You +must not give way to these fancies; you had a fall from Panther, that +is all."</p> + +<p>"Ay," returned the poor boy, "it <i>was</i> Panther, only I thought he was a +wild horse, and not my pony at all.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'But though my cords were wet with gore,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Which oozing through my limbs ran o'er;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And in my tongue the thirst became</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A something fiercer far than flame;'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>that was nothing; nothing to the knowledge that that man was close +behind. Now that I am awake, I feel bruised from head to heel, my bones +ache, my head seems as though it were about to burst, but that is +nothing to—" the poor lad could not finish the sentence, but exclaimed +with piteous vehemence—"do, Mr. Long, do promise me that I shall never +see him more."</p> + +<p>"You shall never see him more, if I can help it," returned my tutor, +with unusual energy. "Yes, I think I can promise that you never shall." +I well knew that so cautious a man as Mr. Long would not have said so +much without full warrant; it was evident to me at once that he had +heard from Mr. Gerard all that had passed between that gentleman and the +baronet in the drawing-room, and was now determined to act with vigour +in Marmaduke's behalf. Perhaps the coincidence of the lad's dream with +what had in fact occurred, may have helped my tutor's decision, but now +that he had once passed his word, I felt sure that he would stand by +Marmaduke to the last.</p> + +<p>The sick boy seemed to feel this too, for he uttered many expressions of +gratitude and contentment, while he kept fast hold of his new +protector's hand.</p> + +<p>"But mind, Marmaduke, you must now make haste and get well, and not give +way to despondency about yourself. I am going for the doctor, who is +sleeping in the house, and whom I promised to call as soon as you +awoke; and, Peter, don't you let him talk too much. For a boy like that +to talk of death," added Mr. Long, aloud, as he drew on his slippers, +"is to go half-way to meet it."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke smiled feebly at this remark of his unconscious tutor's, and +when he had left the room, observed, "There is no need of any doctors; +this is my death-bed, Meredith, I know."</p> + +<p>"Marmaduke," replied I, gravely, "I will not listen to such dreadful +things; it is wrong, it is wicked, it will do you harm."</p> + +<p>"No, Peter, there is nothing dreadful in the thing I mean, and it seems +to soothe me when I speak of it. Since I have been ill, I have had a +sign that tells me I must go. We shall not grow up together to be +friends through life, as we had planned. I shall watch you perhaps—I +hope I shall—and be happy in your happiness, but you will soon forget +<i>me</i>. There will be a thousand things for you to think of; there have +been such even now for you while <i>I</i>—it seems hard, does it not, Peter, +that I should have grown up under the shadow of that man, and never felt +the Sunshine? They say that boyhood is the blithest time of life, but I +have never been a boy. I think I could almost tell him, if he stood here +now, how he has poisoned my young life, and sent me to the grave without +one pleasant memory to moisten my dying eyes. Yes, my friend, dying. I +have seen a vision in the night far too sweet and fear not to have been +sent from heaven itself. If there indeed be angels, such was she. They +say the Heaths have always ghastly warnings when their hour is come, but +this was surely a gentle messenger. I close my eyes and see that smile +once more."</p> + +<p>"Has she hair of golden brown?" inquired I, gravely, "and hazel eyes, +large and pitiful, and does she smile sad and sweet as though one's pain +would soon be over?"</p> + +<p>"That is she, that is she," exclaimed Marmaduke, eagerly, while from his +heavy eyelids the light flashed forth as from a thunder-cloud; "oh, tell +me who and what she is!"</p> + +<p>"Her name is Lucy Gerard," replied I, quietly, "and we are, at this +moment, in her father's house."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke's mention of her smile had revealed to me the secret alike of +dream and vision. He must have been dimly conscious of the catastrophe +that had occurred to him throughout, although he had confused himself, +poor fellow, with Mazeppa, and the daughter of our host with a vision +from the skies. His eyes were now closed, and with features as pale as +the pillow on which he lay, he was repeating to himself her name as +though it were a prayer.</p> + +<p>"Marmaduke," said I, "we will talk no more, since it exhausts you thus; +I hear Mr. Long returning with the doctor, be of good heart, and keep +your thoughts from dwelling—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," interrupted he, as though he would prevent the very mention of +that grisly king of whom he had been but now conversing so familiarly, +"I will, I will. It would indeed be bitter to die <i>now</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<h3>WOOING BY PROXY.</h3> + + +<p>The medical report of Marmaduke Heath was more than cheering; it was +confident. "One of the very best features of that young man's case is +this," said Dr. Sitwell, "he does not give way. Foolish youths of his +age will sometimes, as it were, fall in love with Death, until it is +absolutely close beside them, poor fellows, when they shrink from him +like the best of us."</p> + +<p>"You should rather say the worst of us, Dr. Sitwell," observed my tutor.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, as far as my experience goes," returned the doctor, +cheerfully, "and I have 'assisted,' as Mr. Gerard here will have +it, at the demise of many persons of the very first respectability, few +of us are apt to welcome death; the majority, contrary to what is +vulgarly believed, pay him no sort of attention whatsoever."</p> + +<p>"And yet," remarked Mr. Harvey Gerard, slily, "he came over before the +Conqueror, and possesses a considerable amount of land all over the +country."</p> + +<p>"True, sir, true," replied the doctor, gravely; "and those are +attributes which should always command respect. With regard, however, to +our young patient, he seems determined, notwithstanding his sufferings, +to be cheerful, and bear up. I have told him how essential it is to do +so, and the young gentleman is most reasonable, I am sure. 'I do not +want to die, I wish to live,' were his very words—a most satisfactory +and sensible state of mind. Fairburn Hall—he did not say this, but I +knew what was passing through his brain quite well—Fairburn Hall, and +one of the oldest baronetcies in the kingdom, are something to live +<i>for</i>—that is a great point in cases of this kind."</p> + +<p>I am sure I felt thankful and glad to hear this account of my dear +friend; yet I could not help wishing that Dr. Sitwell had been as +correct in the cause of Marmaduke's clinging to life, as in the fact +itself. For I too was stricken with love for Lucy Gerard, and would have +laid down my life to kiss her finger tip. It is the fashion now to jeer +at that which is called First Love, as though affection were not worth +having until it has first exhausted itself upon a score of objects; nay, +perhaps, the thing itself is as extinct as the Dodo. In my day, however, +the Great Three-Hundred-a-Year Marriage-Question was not yet broached, +and gentlemen did not complainingly publish their rejections at the +hands of the fair sex in the "Times" newspaper. Nearly half a century +has passed over my head since the time of which I write, and has not +spared its snows, and yet, I swear to you, my old heart glows again, and +on my withered cheek there comes a blush as I call, to mind the time +when first I met that pure and fair young girl.</p> + +<p>The worship of a lad is never lasting, it is said, although I know not +upon what authority—society so seldom permitting the experiment to be +made, that the <i>dictum</i> can hardly be established; but while it does +last, at least, how clear and steady is the incense! how honest is the +devotion! how complete the sacrifice! Since I have been an old fogey, it +has been confided to me by more than one ancient flirt that they still +experience a rapture when they chance to catch the affection of a boy. +They are kinder to him than they are to older men; they let him down +easy; they respect the infatuation which they themselves have long lost +the power of entertaining. How delicious, then, must such a conquest be +to a maiden of seventeen! I claim for myself the possession of no +tenderer nor truer feelings than other lads, but I know that a queen +might have accepted the heart-homage which I paid to Lucy Gerard. And +never was fealty more disinterested. I have written down not a little to +my discredit; let me then say this much in my own favour. From the +moment that Marmaduke Heath spoke to me as he did, upon his bed of +sickness, of our host's daughter, I determined within myself not only to +stand aside, and let him win her if he could, but to help him by all +means within my power. If he lived for her alone, should I endeavour to +slay him? If a promise, however distant, of a bright and happy future +seemed at length to be held out for him whose life had been so saddened +and so bitter, should I strive to make it void? I could not <i>afford</i> to +lose her; no. I would have given all that I had in the world to hear her +whisper, "I love you;" I would have beggared myself, I say, for those +mere words; but could <i>he</i>, poor lad, afford the loss of her so well?</p> + +<p>Doubtless, in modern eyes, we both appear mere foolish victims of +calf-love; green hobbardy-hoys, dazzled with the first flutter of a +petticoat. As for me, let it be so received, and welcome, although, my +young male readers, this is to be said, You never saw Lucy Gerard. +Otherwise you would wonder little at my—well, at my poor folly. But +with respect to Marmaduke, it must be admitted that his was not an +ordinary case. Although a boy in years, he had long been sitting on the +shores of old romance, and had probably more of the divine faculty for +Love within him than all the ardent souls of five-and-thirty put +together, who are at this moment turning their eyes about them for a +suitable young person with whose income to unite their own. Since his +mother died, he had scarcely beheld a virtuous woman, with the exception +of dear Mrs. Myrtle, the housekeeper at the Rectory, whose appearance +was calculated to excite respect rather than the sentimental emotions; +and now he had suddenly been brought face to face with one whose equal +for form and feature, for gentleness and graciousness, for modesty and +courage, these eyes have never yet beheld. I have done. There shall be +no more ecstasies, reader; an old man thanks you that you have borne +with his doting garrulity even thus long.</p> + +<p>Since the days of Earl Athelwold, and probably long before them, the +wooing by proxy has been held to be a perilous undertaking; we cannot +take the fingers of a fair lady within our own, and say, "This is not my +hand at all," as though we were Bishop Berkeley; or still more, "This is +somebody else's hand," which it manifestly is not. If credit is to be +given to such protestations at all, there is no knowing where to stop; +and yet we must be doing something tender, or we are not performing our +duty as deputy. But how tenfold are the dangers of this enterprise, when +the delegate of another has at one time contemplated performing the +mission in question upon his own account. Of this peril—although fully +determined to speak a good word for Marmaduke—I was well aware; I even +considered within myself whether it would not be safer, upon the whole, +to return at once to Fairburn Rectory, lest I should do my friend an +involuntary wrong. Yes, I was walking in the garden at the Dovecot after +breakfast, considering this, when I came upon Lucy Gerard herself, and +flight became impossible to me, being mortal. I was pacing a winding +path that ran beside the lawn, but was hidden from it by a glittering +wall of laurel, and lo! there she stood, unconscious of my advent, +beside—what? a statue? a sun-dial? No, a rose-tree, striving upwards by +help of a little cross of white marble. Her face was westward, so that +the morning sun shone like a glory on the wealth of hair that rippled +down her shoulders: beside her indoor garments she wore only a little +braided apron, full of pockets that held scissors, pruning-knife, the +thing which is called "bass" I believe, and other horticultural +weapons, and on her head the tiniest straw-hat, with a brim obviously +intended to shelter more than one—a perfect garden-saint; and at her +prayers! for while I looked, she knelt upon the grass-border (to shake +some insect from a rose, I at first thought, or remove a faded leaf), +and so, with bowed head, remained for several minutes. When she arose, +and saw me hesitating whether to advance or retreat, she blushed a +little, but in her usual quiet tone begged me not to be disturbed. "You +could not know that this is forbidden ground here; it was my fault, who +ought to have told you; our own folks all know it, and so few guests +ever come to the Dovecot, that it never struck me, Mr. Meredith, to give +you a Trespass notice."</p> + +<p>"But since I am here, Miss Gerard, and the intrusion has been made—most +innocently, I assure you—may I not be suffered to satisfy what, +believe me, is not a mere vulgar curiosity?"</p> + +<p>"I do not think," returned the young lady, with some hesitation, "that +my father would object to your knowing our little secret; you are going +to remain with us some time, he hopes, and—yes, I am sure you will +respect what with us is held so secret. This cross and rose-tree are set +above my little sister's grave. See, that is what we used to call +her—LITTLE ELLA. She of whom I spoke to you in the drawing-room +yesterday."</p> + +<p>I daresay my stupid face exhibited more of astonishment than sympathy. +No wonder, thought I, that the doctor called Mr. Gerard a sectary, and +that Mr. Long was so cold and distant in his manner!</p> + +<p>"You seem surprised, Mr. Meredith, that my father should have acted +thus—should have placed the tomb of his dear child where he can always +come to weep and pray at it, and not amid the long dank grasses in +Crittenden churchyard. Is it so very rare a thing to bury those we love +elsewhere than in a churchyard?"</p> + +<p>"I only know one other instance," said I, "and that is in the Heath +family."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," replied Miss Gerard, gravely, moving away as though not +wishing to converse of ordinary things in that sacred neighbourhood, "I +trust we have but little in common with <i>them</i>."</p> + +<p>"Truly, I can scarcely imagine that you and they are of the same +species," replied I, with irrepressible admiration, "you who do not even +know what wickedness is!"</p> + +<p>"What! I? Oh, but I am sometimes very, very wicked, I assure you," +replied Miss Gerard. She looked so serious, nay, so sad, that I could +have taken up her little hand and kissed it, there and then, to comfort +her. But would such a course of conduct assist poor Marmaduke? thought +I, and fortunately in time.</p> + +<p>"There is one of the Heath family," said I, "at all events, whose good +qualities will go far to atone for the shortcomings of his adversaries, +if he only lives to exercise them."</p> + +<p>That "if he only lives" I considered to be very diplomatic; it was +enlisting a tender sympathy for his perilous condition to start with.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Sitwell says that there is little danger," replied Miss Gerard, +quietly.</p> + +<p>"I know better," observed I, confidentially; "his life or death hangs +upon a thread, a chance."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! Mr. Meredith, what can you mean? The brain, we are +assured, is quite uninjured."</p> + +<p>"My dear Miss Gerard," returned I, "it is not his brain that is +affected; it is his heart. His recovery, I am positively certain, +depends upon you."</p> + +<p>"Upon me! Mr. Meredith?" replied she, while a blush sprung from neck to +forehead on the instant, as though a white rose should become a red +one—"upon <i>me</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear young lady; that is, upon you and your good father. This lad +will find here, for the first time in his young life, peace and +tenderness—a new existence, if you only choose, will expand around him, +such as he has never even dreamt of. I do not ask you to be kind to him, +for you cannot be otherwise than kind; but consider his sad +condition—fatherless, motherless, and having for his only relative a +wretch whose atrocity is unspeakable, what reason has he to wish for +life? But you, you may teach him to feel that existence has something +else to offer than sorrow, and shame, and fear."</p> + +<p>"Alas, sir! I am nothing," returned Miss Gerard. "But if your friend +desire a teacher to whom fear and shame are unknown, and whom sorrow has +rendered wise, not sad, he will find one in my dear father. Oh, Mr. +Meredith, if you knew him as I know him, how tender he is as well as +strong, you would go straight to <i>him</i>! What I have of help within me, +if I have anything, is derived from him alone."</p> + +<p>"There are some maladies," said I, "against which not the most skilful +physician can avail without a gentle nurse to smooth the pillow. I am +sure I need say no more, except to assure you that what ever kind +offices you may bestow upon Marmaduke Heath, will not be wasted upon an +unworthy object. He is most honourable, generous, warm-hearted—"</p> + +<p>"And very fortunate," interrupted Miss Gerard, cordially, "in having a +friend to be thus enthusiastic for him in his absence!"</p> + +<p>Her eyes sparkled with pleasure; and she held out her hand frankly as +she spoke. I took it, and pressed it for an instant. A shock of joy +passed through my frame; my whole being trembled with ecstasy. Passion +took me by storm, and for one glorious moment held the very citadel of +my soul; but it was for the last time, believe me, Marmaduke, the last +time in all my life. Fifty years have come and gone, with their full +share of pleasure and pain, but have never brought a moment of bliss +like that, nor such icy despair as the thought of thee, my friend, +caused to succeed it!</p> + +<p>I write not in self-praise. I was not so mad as to suppose that Lucy +Gerard would have ever stooped to love Peter Meredith when once she had +known Marmaduke Heath. If he had so endeared himself to <i>me</i>, a selfish +boy, who knew not half his gifts, or, at least, knew not how to value +them—that I thus rudely broke my own brief love-dream for his sake, +would he not draw <i>her</i> towards him, laden with all her wealth of heart +and brain, as the moon draws the wave! It was so afterwards; but I knew +it then, as though it had already been. Yet, Marmaduke, yet I gave you +something, for it was all I had, when I laid at your feet, to form a +stepping-stone for you, my own heart. You trod upon it, my dear and +faithful friend—But, thank heaven! you never knew that you did so. I +wonder whether Lucy ever knew!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<h3>THE COUNCIL OF WAR.</h3> + + +<p>On the second morning after our arrival at the Dovecot, Mr. Long called +me into the dining-room, where I found Mr. Gerard and a third gentleman, +who had come down by the night-mail, as I understood, from London. +Although, I should think, not less than seventy years of age, he was +dressed in the height of the then prevailing mode. He wore a +snuff-coloured coat, the tails of which trailed from his chair upon the +ground, whenever he was so fortunate as not to be sitting upon them; the +brass buttons at his back were nearly as large as the handles of an +ordinary chest of drawers. A bunch of seals, each about the size of +that peculiar to the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, dangled from +his fob. His pantaloons, which seemed to have shrunk in the washing, set +off a pair of legs that were still not uncomely; but what was most +remarkable was an enormous muslin cravat, which, in combination with the +ruffles of his shirt, gave him the aspect of a pouter pigeon. +Unaccustomed as I then was to the toilet of persons of distinction, Mr. +Clint of Russell Square—for he it was—made a very strong impression +upon me. As the family lawyer of the Heaths, and one who had always +greatly interested himself in Marmaduke, he had been sent for by my +tutor to give his opinion as to what steps should be taken respecting +the future disposal of the poor lad. I guessed by his grave face that he +had been put in possession, not only of all that had happened through +the agency of Sir Massingberd, but of all that had been designed to +happen.</p> + +<p>"If you have any doubt still remaining, Mr. Clint, as to the propriety +of removing Marmaduke Heath from the custody of his uncle," observed my +tutor, after introducing me to this venerable beau, "I think this +gentleman can dissipate it. Now, Peter, tell us, in confidence, what +sort of footing do you consider your young friend and Sir Massingberd to +stand upon; are they good—"</p> + +<p>"Stop, stop, Mr. Long," interrupted the lawyer, taking an enormous pinch +of snuff from a silver-box, and holding up his laden fingers in a +prohibitory manner; "we must not have any leading questions if you +please. Mr. Meredith, it is most important that you state to us the +truth, without mitigation or exaggeration. You heard your tutor's first +inquiry, which was a most correct one. How does Mr. Marmaduke Heath +stand with respect to his uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," said I quietly, "he stands, as it were, upon the brink of a +deep river, with his back towards a person who is bent upon pushing him +in."</p> + +<p>A total silence ensued upon this remark. Mr. Long and Mr. Gerard +interchanged very meaning glances.</p> + +<p>"Very good," returned the lawyer coolly, administering half the snuff to +his nose, and dropping the other half among his shirt-ruffles. "That is +a form of speech, I suppose, by which you would imply that Marmaduke is +afraid of his uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Very much," said I; "afraid of his life."</p> + +<p>"And you have had no previous conversation upon this subject with either +of these gentlemen, that is—you must forgive me if I press this +somewhat hardly—they have never asked your opinion on the matter +before?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, sir."</p> + +<p>"You are speaking, too, I conclude from your own observation of course, +from your own knowledge of Mr. Marmaduke Heath's sentiments and +position, and not from any hearsay rumour?"</p> + +<p>"I am perfectly convinced, Mr. Clint," returned I gravely, "that Sir +Massingberd Heath wishes to get rid of his nephew, and that Marmaduke +knows it."</p> + +<p>"Then Sir Massingberd shall be gratified," observed Mr. Gerard, with +energy; "he shall get rid of him from this day."</p> + +<p>"Stop, stop, my dear sir," interposed the lawyer. "Even supposing that +all this is true, both the facts that I have received from you and Mr. +Long, and the surmises entertained by this young gentleman, we are +still only at the threshold of the matter. From the manner in which Sir +Massingberd expressed himself when he wrote to me to demand the custody +of the boy, and from his whole conduct since, I am certain that he will +not give up his position as guardian without a severe struggle. We must +steadily look our difficulties in the face. Supposing that, having been +assured of Marmaduke's convalescence, he should send a post-chaise over +here next week, or the week after, with a note, insisting upon his +immediate return to Fairburn Park, what is to be done then?"</p> + +<p>"I should send the post-chaise back again," returned Mr. Gerard, calmly, +"with the verbal reply, that Mr. Marmaduke was not coming."</p> + +<p>"But suppose he wrote to Marmaduke himself?"</p> + +<p>"The reply would come from me all the same, Mr. Clint."</p> + +<p>"But if Sir Massingberd appeals to the law?"</p> + +<p>"He dare not!" exclaimed my host; "his audacity, great as it is, stops +short of that. If he did, as sure as the sun is shining, I would meet +him with the charge of attempted murder."</p> + +<p>Mr. Clint took out of his other coat-tail a second snuff-box, which he +never made use of except in cases of great emergency. "You are prepared +to go that length, are you?"</p> + +<p>"I am, sir," returned Mr. Gerard, firmly.</p> + +<p>"You have not a shadow of foundation for such an assertion," pursued Mr. +Clint, reflectively. "The slander will be pronounced malicious; you will +be cast in swingeing damages."</p> + +<p>"That is possible," remarked my host; "but there, nevertheless, will be +such revelations of Sir Massingberd's mode of life, as may well cause +the chancellor to reflect whether Fairburn Hall is a fitting educational +establishment for a minor."</p> + +<p>"John Lord Eldon is not an ascetic—"</p> + +<p>"I know it, sir;" broke forth Mr. Gerard; "I am well aware that he is a +heartless scoundrel, as dissipated, as dishonest, and—"</p> + +<p>"Sir," interrupted Mr. Clint, with irritation. "I will not listen to +such mad words. You may utter them, of course, in your own house, but +not to me. This is the talk of those who would subvert all authority."</p> + +<p>"They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities," murmured my tutor.</p> + +<p>"I do not speak evil of dignities, my dear sir, but only of the rogues +who fill them," exclaimed Mr. Gerard, laughing. "However, I beg your +pardon, gentlemen; the remark escaped me quite involuntarily. You are +aware, Mr. Clint, that my Lord Eldon is not absolutely an ascetic."</p> + +<p>"I was about to say, sir," observed the old lawyer stiffly, "that his +lordship is not so tenderly alive to the necessity of moral training as +some of his friends would wish, and he has a strong respect for natural +authority. He would lean, therefore, towards Sir Massingberd's view of +the question—with whom; indeed, he is personally not unacquainted—and +be induced to palliate his way of life."</p> + +<p>"Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless, are those in Eldon's charge," +murmured Mr. Gerard. "Still," continued he, in a louder tone, "the +charge of attempted murder, Mr. Clint, would have this effect, that even +if Marmaduke were reconsigned to his uncle's care—which Heaven +forbid—the eyes of the world would be upon Sir Massingberd, and he +would not venture to work him a mischief. In the meantime, it rests with +us to take good care that he has not the chance of doing so."</p> + +<p>"And now," resumed Mr. Clint, after a pause, "supposing that all is +arranged thus far to repel Sir Massingberd's claims, there is another +matter to be considered. It would take long to explain the details of +the case, but you must understand that the Heath property is very +peculiarly situated. Sir Massingberd, who is in the enjoyment of it for +life, cannot raise a shilling upon it; while Marmaduke does not possess +a shilling, although the prospective heir of such vast wealth. They +would be, in short, at present a couple of beggars; but by a special +arrangement with a certain person, whom I need not name, a small annual +sum has been allotted for the benefit of the boy, but, practically, +quite as much so for that of his uncle. A certain annuity, I say, is +paid to Sir Massingberd for the maintenance of his nephew, and another, +solely on the latter's behalf, for that of the estate. It is a most +beautifully intricate affair from first to last," pursued the lawyer +with unction; "here are two relatives, who mutually support one another, +and have yet every reason, looking at the matter in a rather worldly way +of course, to wish each other dead. Sir Massingberd could borrow plenty +of money, if the usurers were only confident that he could, as well as +would, make away with his nephew. There would be even less difficulty +under ordinary circumstances in procuring a loan for Marmaduke; but a +delicate boy, whose uncle and guardian is bent upon putting a violent +end to him—you see that renders the security so very slight. +Altogether, it is certainly one of the nicest cases. It is not only a +question of responsibility; there are always plenty of people ready to +take any amount of <i>that</i> at a sufficient premium; but who will +undertake the pecuniary charge of the lad if he is withdrawn from his +uncle's roof? Sir Massingberd, of course, will never give up one tittle +of the allowance entrusted to him to expend, except upon such compulsion +as we should scarcely venture to employ. There are three years wanting +to the boy's majority; and even when he has arrived at that, and should +be willing to promise ample repayment, he may die before his uncle +still, who has a constitution of adamant, when those who have maintained +him may whistle for the money they have expended. The expression may be +coarse," added Mr. Clint apologetically, "but I think it conveys my +meaning."</p> + +<p>"I thank you, Mr. Clint," observed my tutor, after a little pause, "for +putting this matter before us so bluntly and decidedly. For my part, I +am far from being a rich man; but, on the other hand, there are no +persons who have a better claim upon my resources than my dear young +friend and pupil, Marmaduke Heath. That he will repay me if he survives +his uncle, I am more than assured; and, if he die early, I shall not +regret that the remainder of his young life has been rendered happy +through my means, although it may have cost me a few comforts."</p> + +<p>I stooped down and said a few words in my tutor's ear. "No, Peter, no," +continued he; "you are a good lad, and your father is, doubtless, +generous enough to comply with your wishes; but we must not resort to +such a distant source in this emergency, indeed. Mr. Clint, do you think +that a hundred and forty to a hundred and sixty pounds a year might be +made sufficient to keep Marmaduke with respectability?"</p> + +<p>"Half your annual stipend, eh, Mr. Long, eh?" ejaculated the lawyer. +"Bless my soul, how this snuff gets in one's eyes! Such a sum should be +quite sufficient. I think that would be found more than enough. He +cannot live at your rectory, of course; that would be almost as bad as +at the Hall; but there are plenty of spare rooms in my house in town. He +has stayed there before, so that that can be done, we know. Marmaduke +and I are old friends—No, no, it will not hurt me. Such a course cannot +bring me into greater antagonism with Sir Massingberd than I am in +already. I am always at daggers-drawn with him. He is for ever cutting +down trees that don't belong to him, or selling heirlooms that are no +more his than mine, or embroiling himself with me, the appointed +guardian of the property, in some way or other. Yes, I'll take the lad, +Mr. Long, come what will of it."</p> + +<p>"You will do nothing of the kind," exclaimed my host, energetically; +"you honest lawyer, and very worthy man; and you, you good +priest—contradictions in terms, both of you—you shall not give away +half your annual stipend, or my name is not Harvey Gerard. I have done +each of you a very grievous wrong in thought, if not in word; and I +hereby beg your pardon. It is possible, I perceive, to be a Tory, and +yet preserve, if not a conscience, at least a heart."</p> + +<p>My tutor smiled; Mr. Clint bowed his acknowledgments.</p> + +<p>"With regard to Mr. Marmaduke Heath, however," pursued our host, "that +young gentleman must be my especial charge. From this day until the +period when he comes into his property, or lies in need of decent +interment, as the case may be, he is my guest; or, if my house is +distasteful to him, I will advance him whatever sums he may reasonably +require for his maintenance elsewhere. Please to consider that that is +settled, gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"Whatever we may think of the political opinions of Mr. Harvey Gerard," +observed Mr. Clint, with feeling, "his name has always been associated +with acts of matchless generosity."</p> + +<p>"Always, always," echoed Mr. Long; then added reflectively, "he has paid +the fines of half the rogues in the country, and bailed the other half +who have been committed to prison."</p> + +<p>A simultaneous burst of merriment from his three hearers greeted this +naïve remark of my unconscious tutor.</p> + +<p>"I have done so upon one occasion, I confess," replied Mr. Gerard, +good-naturedly. "I became surety, in 1791, for the good behaviour of a +poor Birmingham rioter, as I thought, who turned out to be a Government +spy. However, I assure you, generosity has nothing to do with my present +intentions with respect to young Heath. My income is sufficiently large +to admit of my accommodating the poor lad with ease, even if the +repayment, sooner or later, were not almost certain, as it really is. +But, besides all this, I must confess that the undertaking affords me +exceeding satisfaction. Mr. Long, you are, I have heard, an enthusiastic +fisherman; that is no common pleasure which you feel when your rod is +bowed by some enormous trout, cunning and strong, who may break the +whole of your tackle, and get away, after all, but who also may be +landed helpless on the bank, a victim to your skill and patience. That +is exactly the sport which I promise myself with Sir Massingberd Heath. +If he were one whit less greedy, less formidable, less pitiless, I +should feel less hostility towards him; he has, fortunately, no +redeeming point. I have hated tyranny all my life, and I hate this man, +who seems to be the very embodiment of it. He makes his boast that no +one has ever stood between himself and his wicked will. Let us see what +he will make of Harvey Gerard."</p> + +<p>The speaker drew himself up proudly, but certainly not with unbecoming +pride. His form dilated as he spoke; his voice grew deep without losing +its distinctness; and into his mild eyes a sternness crept as when the +frost congeals the lake. But for a spice of haughtiness, which to some +might have appeared even arrogance, he could have stood for St. Michael +in his contest with the foul Fiend,—have personified the Spirit of Good +defying the Spirit of Evil.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<h3>THE GIPSY CAMP.</h3> + + +<p>After not a little opposition upon the part of Mr. Long, who would have +willingly borne his share in Marmaduke's expenses, it was settled that +Mr. Gerard should be the young man's host, if he could only contrive to +retain him in defiance of the power of Sir Massingberd; his home, +however, was not to be the Dovecot, which was judged to be too much +exposed, by its proximity to Fairburn, to the machinations of the enemy. +The Gerards were to remove to their town residence in Harley Street, as +soon as their guest was fit to accompany them. At first, his progress +was tedious, but he grew rapidly convalescent as soon as he was able to +exchange his bed for a sofa. Never was sick man more hospitably treated, +or so graciously tended. Mr. Gerard possessed that almost feminine +gentleness of manner which is generally found in persons of his peculiar +organization. His sympathy, at least as easily aroused as his +antagonism, was now deeply enlisted in favour of Marmaduke for his own +sake; he recognized his talents, and the beauty and tenderness of his +mind, and won him, by pleasant studious talk, from the melancholy that +overhung it; and the young man's heart, thrilling response to every +touch of kindness, turned towards him, and expanded like a flower in the +sun. As for Lucy, what rudest health would I not have exchanged for +Marmaduke's languor, as he lay and listened to her clear sweet voice, +now singing some cheerful ballad to enliven him, now reading aloud some +tale so musically that itself seemed song! He could read to himself but +little as yet, and if he did take up a book, his eyes refused to regard +it, but followed the lovely girl, wherever she moved, with worship.</p> + +<p>"This happiness is too great to last, Peter," he would often say; "it +will all fade one day, I know, and leave me desolate. What man living is +worthy to possess yon glorious creature? I feel as though I had no right +even to love her. Yet, great heaven! how I <i>do</i> love her. How +unconscious she is of her perfect sweetness! How she graces the meanest +thing which she may set herself to do! Her presence seems to breathe +very life into me; I then forget everything but her—even Sir +Massingberd. To return to him would be death indeed—death death!" Then +he would sink back, as if prostrated with the thought, and so remain +despairingly despondent until he heard Lucy's voice, or laugh, or +footstep. All this was bitter for me to bear. I was glad when Mr. Long +suggested to me that he thought it was no longer necessary for me to +remain with Marmaduke, and that I should return to Fairburn Rectory and +my studies. Still, my heart was heavy upon that morning which was to be +the last I was to spend under the same roof with Lucy Gerard. Within the +last few weeks—nay, it happened in a few hours—I had Loved and I had +Lost. If there be any to read this in whose eyes these words have +meaning, they will pity me. I do not match such grief, indeed, for a +single instant against the sorrow a man must feel for the loss of the +loved companion of his life, against the lone wretchedness of recent +widowhood; but it is a grievous blow. I wished Marmaduke and Mr. Gerard +"good-bye" without quite knowing that I did so.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, Mr. Meredith," said Lucy, and though her voice was even lower +and sweeter than usual, it wounded me like a knife.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you call him Peter, Lucy?" exclaimed her father, laughing. "I +think it would be more civil, now that we are going to lose him."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," said I, gratefully; and she did say "God bless you, +Peter," very, very kindly.</p> + +<p>Ever since that morning she called me so; but I was Peter to all of +them, you see, as well as to her. Then I called her Lucy, and though for +the first and last time, I shall never forget it.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"I couldna say mair, but just 'Fare ye weel, Lucy</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Yet that I will mind till the day that I dee."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Then I mounted my horse, my luggage having already preceded me, and +slowly took my way towards Fairburn. My life-blood seemed to ebb with +every step. The clang of the gate that shut me out from the last foot of +ground belonging to the Dovecot, sent a shudder through me like a knell. +I was on the very spot where Marmaduke had met with the accident that +had been so nearly fatal. Supposing it had killed him! Supposing...—I +thanked God that I was able to thank Him from an honest heart that it +had not done so.</p> + +<p>Then I felt a little better. Having ascended the hill, I put my horse +into a sharp canter upon the common, and the cool air through which I +swiftly passed refreshed me. The hollow in which the encampment had been +was now deserted, and only the round bare spot amid the green, which is +the gipsy autograph, announced that it had ever been there. Some miles +further on, however, a little brown-legged boy, evidently of that +wandering fraternity, suddenly emerged from a fir plantation, and stood +before me in the road as if to beg. I was already feeling in my pocket +for a penny, when, showing his white teeth in gratitude, he shook his +head, and coming close to my stirrup, exclaimed, "You are the gentleman +from Mr. Gerard's, sir, are you not? Would you please to come and see +Granny Rachel?"</p> + +<p>In an instant, I remembered the pocket-flask, which I had entirely +forgotten since the day in which it came into my possession; for all I +knew, it was then lying yet in the drawing-room at the Dovecot.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my boy, that will I," returned I; "but I fear I have not brought +her what she wants."</p> + +<p>He looked up in the bright interrogative manner peculiar to his tribe, +so different to the stolid wonder of the agriculturist.</p> + +<p>"She wants <i>you</i>, sir, as I understood. This is the sixth day that she +has set me to watch for you by this roadside. Will you please to follow +me?"</p> + +<p>The boy started off at a pace which compelled me to move too fast for +further questioning; and skirting the plantation for a hundred yards, +stopped at the entrance of a roadway leading through the wood. The +coming winter had not yet turned the broad green track to sand, and it +ran so straight and far, that the pine trees seemed to stand on either +side—a solid wall—with nothing but the blue heaven for their limit. +This landscape of right lines would have delighted a painter of the +Pre-Raphaelite school, it looked so stiff and unnatural; but pursuing +the track for a little distance, and then plunging over a ditch and +bank into the plantation itself, we suddenly came upon a scene which +would have suited Morland. A low tent, with half-naked but merry +children crawling in and out; a she-ass and her foal; a handsome male +Epicurean, lying on his back, smoking a short, well-coloured pipe, the +hue of which precisely resembled that of his own skin; a young girl in +scarlet mantle, and with earrings of great splendour, gathering +fir-cones to feed the flames which licked around an iron pot suspended +on four sticks, piled musket-fashion; and an old crone, sitting by the +same, and picking the feathers from a bird, which, had the time of year +been beyond the end of September, I should have certainly taken for a +hen-pheasant. But to suppose this, would have been to suppose an +infraction of the game laws! The walnut-stained children stopped their +play as I approached, and stood in various attitudes of wonder, like +beauteous bronzes; the man turned over on his side, and opened his +slumbrous eyes a hairbreadth; the girl flashed one quick, comprehensive +glance upon me, and then resumed her occupation. The old woman nodded +familiarly without rising, and observed quietly, "So you are come at +last, Peter Meredith. I trust you have brought good news of Marmaduke +Heath."</p> + +<p>"He is better," said I, "much better; and he knows who brought him help, +and is very grateful. You have been expected daily at the Dovecot, where +something more substantial than mere thanks is waiting for you."</p> + +<p>"Rachel Liversedge desires neither silver nor gold," returned the old +woman; "she has had her reward already, if what you say be true. It was +not for love of the boy that I acted as I did; he has too much evil +blood in him to earn my liking. But I am glad as though he were my own +son that he will live."</p> + +<p>"Carew," cried she, triumphantly, "no wonder <i>bura</i> Sir Massingberd +looked <i>kalo</i> as ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the great man looks black, does he?" said I.</p> + +<p>The old woman dropped the bird, the girl her fir-cones, and both stared +wildly at me, as though my voice had come from the clouds; the man +sprung to his feet, and uttered a cry of wonder.</p> + +<p>"What! do you speak our tongue?" cried he.</p> + +<p>"Nay; you speak mine," returned I, calmly. "<i>Bura</i> is great; and <i>kala</i>, +which you call <i>kalo</i>, is black, of course; everybody knows that who +knows Hindustanee."</p> + +<p>Then the three burst out together in a language, one word out of four of +which seemed to be more or less familiar to me; as for understanding +what they said, of course it was simply impossible; but no matter, I had +established my reputation. From that moment, I felt myself to be the +honoured guest of the family. Would I smoke? Would I eat? Would I drink? +I was thirsty, and I said that I would gladly take some water—which, at +a venture, I called <i>paince</i>.</p> + +<p>"<i>Paunce</i>!" cried they, extravagantly delighted. "He talks like a true +Cingari; and only look! is he not dark-skinned!"</p> + +<p>The few words that my old ayah had taught me in India had thus procured +me a hearty welcome in a Midshire fir-plantation.</p> + +<p>"Sit down by me, Peter Meredith, my son," exclaimed the old woman; "and +do you fetch him water, Mina."</p> + +<p>I dismounted, and did as I was bid; while the young girl took a +pitcher, and presently brought it filled from a running Stream near by, +and offered it to me, like another Rebecca. But her grandmother—for +such she was—cried, "Stop! let me put something in it;" and produced +from her pocket the self-same flask which she herself had given me a few +weeks ago, and which I had thought was left behind at the Dovecot.</p> + +<p>"Why, I was blaming myself for not having brought you that thing back +to-day," said I; "I never heard of your coming to claim it."</p> + +<p>"Nor did I, young gentleman," returned the old woman, proudly. "Harvey +Gerard is too kind a man to visit when one is not in need. That was why +I left his house that day, directly I had told what had befallen +Marmaduke Heath: I did not wish him to think I waited for my reward.</p> + +<p>He returned me this with his own hands. He is not one of your proud +ones. When we had the fever here—Mina, darling, you remember who came +to see you, and saved your life?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes!" cried the girl, clasping her dark hands, which gleamed with +tawdry rings; "and his daughter, too, how I love her!"</p> + +<p>There was a little pause; I felt my ears tingle, my cheeks burn. I did +not dare look up from the ground.</p> + +<p>"Lucy Gerard is very fair," whispered the old woman; "she will make a +good and loving wife;" then she added roguishly, and in that gipsy tone +which smacks so of the race-course: "Shall I tell your fortune, my +pretty gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you," said I, hastily; "I have no great confidence in your +information as to the future. With respect to the past, on the other +hand, you can doubtless satisfy me, if you will. I have a great +curiosity to know how you became possessed of yonder flask with the +Heath griffin."</p> + +<p>"Peter Meredith," returned the old woman, very gravely, "you have asked +me to tell you a sad story, and one to relate which will cost me much. +It is not our custom, however, to refuse the first request of a new +friend. But before I begin, let me ask you a question in my turn. Has it +never struck you why Sir Massingberd Heath has not long ago taken to +himself a young wife, and begotten an heir for the bonny lands of +Fairburn, in despite of his nephew?"</p> + +<p>Until that moment, the idea had never crossed my brain; but no sooner +was it thus mooted than I wondered greatly at the shortsightedness of +those among whom Marmaduke's affairs had been so lately discussed, and +in particular at that of Mr. Clint, who, as a lawyer, should surely have +at once foreseen such a contingency. "Well," said I, "I confess that, +for my part, I have never thought of it; but there cannot be much danger +of Sir Massingberd's becoming a wooer now; why, what young woman would +be won by such as he?"</p> + +<p>"What young woman would <i>not</i> be won?" replied Rachel Liversedge, +grimly. "Think you that his white head and stony heart would weigh too +heavy in the balance against his title and the reversion of his lands? +Remember, all that is around us, and all that we could see from yonder +hill to the right hand and to the left—pasture and corn-field, farm and +park—would fall to the offspring of her who would venture, for a few +years, to be Lady Heath. Peter, there is one maiden in Midshire, known +to you and me, who would not consent to do this thing, though the offer +were thrice as splendid; but I doubt if there be more than one."</p> + +<p>"If that be so," said I, "why does not Sir Massingberd marry?"</p> + +<p>"The answer to that is the story I am about to tell you," returned +Rachel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<h3>WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY.</h3> + + +<p>"I suppose you have heard, Peter Meredith, young as you are," began the +old woman, "a great deal of ill-speaking against us Wanderers. We not +only kill game, but even domestic poultry, if the opportunity is given +to us; we not only steal wood, but horse-flesh; and since we are so +partial to carrion, it is not to be wondered at that we sometimes +suffocate a sheep with a piece of his own wool, in order to get the +carcass cheap from the farmer. Yet whatever false charges are current +about us now, these are nothing, either in gravity or number, to what +they were when I was a young girl—that is, fifty years ago. Every +man's hand, every woman's tongue, was against us: magistrates committed +us without testimony; rogues made a trade of accusing us solely to get +blood-money. Our name was more than a by-word, it was a brand; to call a +man a gipsy, was to say vagabond and thief in one. Under these +circumstances, Massingberd Heath left his father's house yonder, and +came to live with us as congenial company. We were in this very wood the +day he did so. The sun shone as brightly as now, the streamlet ran just +as blithe, the air was filled, as now, with the sweet-smelling pine. The +people only are changed—ah me, how changed!—who made up that scene. +There was my father; he died! ten years younger than I am now; is not +that strange, boy? his brother Morris, dead; poor Stanley Carew, you +shall hear of him presently, a handsomer lad by far than his nephew +there; my beautiful Sinnamenta, compared to little Mina yonder, though +she is pretty enough, like a blush-rose to a mere peony, the flower of +womankind. If there are ladies and women born into the world, then she +was a lady. There are no such beauties now; no, friend, not even at the +Dovecot. Let me see; I have counted four; then I was there also, comely +enough, 'twas said, but not to be spoken of for looks with my younger +sister.</p> + +<p>"We were occupied pretty much as you see us now, for life in the +Greenwood possesses but little variety, when Massingberd Heath strode in +among us, with his gun upon his shoulder. We knew him well, but were not +inclined to dislike him. He was a dissipated, wild, young fellow, but, +as yet, his heart was thought, as the saying is, to be in the right +place; his popularity, however, was principally owing to his antagonism +to his father. Sir Wentworth had long passed through the spendthrift +stage, and was very close with respect to money-matters; a harsh and +griping landlord, and it is probable enough a niggard parent. His son's +extravagances were at that time insignificant compared to what they +afterwards became, yet the old man was for ever complaining. He +persecuted all who were poor and in his power, but the gipsies +especially. He feared for his deer, for his game, for his fences, and, +besides, I verily believe he detested us for our improvidence. I +remember he sent two of my young brothers to prison for tossing for +halfpence upon a Sunday—he who made not even a pretence of religion +himself, and had been used invariably to pass his day of rest in town +at Tattersall's, betting his thousands on some approaching race. It is +said that this wretched old man used to horse-whip young Massingberd +almost daily, until a certain occasion, when the latter found himself +stronger than he imagined, and reversed the process. After that, Sir +Wentworth confined himself to cursing his offspring whenever they +quarrelled. It was after some dreadful outbreak of passion on the part +of the old man that Massingberd Heath left house and home, and elected +to join our wandering fortunes. We were very unwilling that this should +be. It was by no means so unusual a proceeding then as now, for persons +of good birth, but broken fortunes, to become gipsies, but such had +usually their private reasons for remaining so for life. They were very +rarely criminals, but generally social outlaws, for whom there could be +no reconciliation at home, or younger sons of respectable families, +with quite a mountain of debt upon their shoulders. These were regularly +nationalized among us; and if they conducted themselves for sufficient +time in accordance with our regulations, they were permitted to +intermarry with us.</p> + +<p>"Now it was certain that Massingberd Heath sought only a temporary home; +as soon as his father died, or even offered terms to him, he would leave +us, and resume his proper station. Moreover, how was the maintenance of +discipline and obedience to the chief of our tribe, absolutely essential +as it is, to be kept up in the case of this new-comer? Even at that +time, he was a headstrong, wilful man, to whom all authority, however +lawful or natural, was hateful. Was it to be expected that he who defied +his own father, himself a man of iron will, would obey Morris +Liversedge? On the other hand, Uncle Morris rather liked the young +fellow. He had connived at many a raid on his father's own preserves—to +such a pitch had the quarrel grown between them—and kept our pot +boiling with bird and beast. Many and many a time had he led the +Fairburn keepers to one extremity of the preserves, while the slaughter +was going on in the other. Moreover, it would be of great importance, +could we make a friend of the man who would one day own all these +pleasant haunts of ours, and who could say a good word, and a strong +one, for the poor persecuted gipsies, when it was needed. Poor Morris +did not know that the rebel but too often turns out a tyrant, when he +gets his chance. He could not foresee Sir Massingberd Heath sending +folks to prison, or getting them kidnapped, and sent across the seas, +for snaring the hares that he held so cheaply when they did not happen +to belong to himself. If you want to find a gentleman who in his youth, +and landless, has been a poacher whenever the opportunity offered, look +you among the game-preservers on the bench of justices. This, however, +is among the least of the basenesses of him of whom I speak. It is not +for his bitter guardianship of bird and beast, or his hateful oppression +of his fellow-creatures, that my heart cries out for judgment against +this man, that I look with eager longing for that hour when God shall +take him into His own hand."</p> + +<p>The old woman paused a moment with closed eyes, and muttered something +that was inaudible to me, rocking herself at the same time to and fro.</p> + +<p>"Massingberd Heath became one of us, Peter Meredith as far as it is +possible for such a wretch to be so; he ate with us, and drank with us, +which they say is a sacred bond among even savages. It was not so with +him. He cast his evil eyes upon Sinnamenta, to love her after the +fashion of his accursed race. Perhaps you may think, Peter Meredith, +that such an occurrence should have been foreseen by her father or her +uncle Morris, and, for my part, I always thought that it was the +presence of my lovely sister which mainly caused this man to join our +company; but, at all events, neither they nor I dreaded any ill +consequences. A gipsy girl is not a light-of-love maiden, like those of +fairer skins. Heaven, who gives her beauty, gives her virtue also: this +is not denied, even by our enemies. When you call your sweetheart +'Gipsy,' it is in love, not in reproach. Massingberd Heath knew this +well, and therefore it was foe took such pains in the matter. It is true +that we do not marry in church, but when we wed among ourselves, the +marriage is not less sacred; It was a wedding of this sort, indissoluble +by one party, but not by the other, which this man wished to compass. He +did not gain his end."</p> + +<p>The old woman's eyes sparkled with triumph for a moment as she said +these words, but her voice sank low as she continued:</p> + +<p>"Peter Meredith, if you have a sister, think of her while I speak of +mine; she cannot be more pure than little Sinnamenta, nor less +designing. Her weakness was one common to all women, but especially to +those of our unhappy race; she was fond of finery—fine clothing, +jewels, shawls; they became her; she looked like any princess when +attired in them. Stanley Carew, who loved her in all honesty, could +give her no such costly gifts as Massingberd Heath showered upon her, +and, to help his end, even upon me. The gipsy's ragged coat looked mean +and poor beside that of our guest. This man, too, whom you know but as a +scowling tyrant, with a face scarred with passion and excesses, was then +a handsome youth. You smile, Peter, at the wonder of it; it is, however, +not less true than that the wrinkled hag to whom you are now listening +was then a bonny girl. Imagine <i>that</i>, Peter, and you can imagine +anything. Ah, Time, Time, surely at the end of you, there will be +something to recompense us for all that you have taken away!"</p> + +<p>Once more Rachel Liversedge paused as if in pain; then with eyes whose +sight seemed to receive but little of what was present, but were fixed +on the unreturning Past, continued as follows:</p> + +<p>"Yes, Massingberd Heath was handsome enough, unless when enraged; his +wrath always brought the horse-shoe out upon his forehead.<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Ay, and he +was agreeable enough, too. He could smile as though he had a heart, and +vow as though he owned a God. By his devilish art he managed to +ingratiate himself with Sinnamenta; he caused her to treat poor Stanley +ill, and then, pretending to take his part, got credit for generosity. +There are many who call us gipsies a base people, yet this excess of +meanness was quite new to us; my little sister—that was what I always +called her, because I loved her so—she believed him. She would have +trusted to his word, and married him, according to our rites, and been +his wife and drudge for all her life; but since this could not be +without the consent both of her father and Morris, he had to ask it of +them. He might as well have asked it of Sir Wentworth; they had got to +know him well by close companionship, for men fathom men better than +women do—even gipsy women, who foretell men's fortunes for them—and +they answered, 'No.' They did not believe that he had the least +intention of being with us longer that it suited him, and they +peremptorily refused his request. After one burst of passionate threats, +the young man pretended to yield assent to their decision. Morris was +inclined to think this acquiescence genuine; but my father, more warmly +interested in the matter, and therefore perhaps less credulous, kept on +his guard. Finding out that Massingberd Heath had secretly made +overtures of reconciliation to his father, and missing him one night +from the camp, he caused Morris to strike tent at once; and before +morning we had put twenty miles between us and Fairburn. Nor was this +effected too soon, for, as we heard long afterwards, the constables were +searching this very wood for us at day-break.</p> + +<p>"Our company was bound on a long travel to Kirk-Yetholm, Roxburghshire, +one of the few places in Scotland, although but one mile from the +frontier of Northumberland, where the gipsies reside in any number. +There we should meet with friends, and be safe from all molestation. It +was late in the year to travel so far and into such a climate, but there +was no help for it; and moreover, some of the Carews had a house there, +to which Stanley said we should be welcome; and so it turned out. I +believe Sinnamenta would rather that we had camped out of doors, even in +that northern clime, so disinclined was she to be beholden to him or his +friends, after what had happened, although she did not dare to say so. +Poor Stanley imagined that, now we had removed from the neighbourhood of +his rival, he might renew his suit with success; but the proud girl +would not listen to him. She did not exactly pine after the man whose +wiles she had so narrowly escaped, but her life seemed henceforth +saddened. The domestic duties which had hitherto sat so lightly upon +her, became burdensome, and she set about them languidly. The whole of +the time we remained at Kirk-Yetholm, and it was many, many months, she +never mentioned Massingberd Heath, but never ceased to think of him. It +was fated that she was to be undeceived about that man too late."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> I am reminded by a friendly critic of the "suspicious +coincidence" of a horse-shoe on the forehead, in the case of +"Redgauntlet." I never think of Sir Massingberd without thinking of that +worthy; and it has been a matter of doubt with me, whether Sir Walter +Scott might not himself have seen the Squire of Fairburn and drawn him +from the life—both as to mind and feature—in his famous novel.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<h3>THE REASON CONTINUED.</h3> + + +<p>"About a year after our departure from Fairburn, Sinnamenta and I had +been to sell some baskets, the making of which was a great trade with us +at that time, at Wooler, in Northumberland; and on our return from the +fair that was being held there, we met a number of gentlemen driving +home from shooting in the Cheviots. They went by very rapidly, yet not +so fast but that I recognized one of their number; I had only to look at +my little sister's cheeks to see that she had recognized him also. The +very next day came Massingberd Heath to our camp, professing himself +injured by our abrupt withdrawal from his society, volunteering his +companionship as before, and reiterating his vows and promises to +Sinnamenta. She expressed herself in such a manner as to lead us almost +to fear she might be induced to elope with him; while he, upon his side, +seemed prepared to sacrifice everything to obtain her: his very +selfishness caused him, as it were, to forget himself; and I do believe, +if it had been insisted upon, he would have had the banns published in +Wooler Church, in the hearing of the fine friends with whom he was +staying, and been married by the parson. However, he again proposed to +go through the Cingari ceremony, and this time, <i>Morris and my father +agreed to it</i>. Having acknowledged himself to be an adopted gipsy, +Massingberd Heath was joined in wedlock to Sinnamenta Liversedge; the +ordinary ceremonies were dispensed with, by command of Morris, the +bride and bridegroom only pledging themselves to one another solemnly in +the presence of the assembled tribe. It was then, since he could not +purchase suitable presents in such an out-of-the-way district, that I +received from that man's hand this shooting-flask, as a remembrance of +that day; my uncle commanded me to accept it (although I vehemently +disapproved of what had been done), and I therefore keep it now, when +every other gift of that accursed man has long been committed to the +flames. For my part, I could not understand this novel pliancy on the +part of Morris and my father; while Sinnamenta, as I think, implicitly +believed in her lover's protestation, that for her sake he would all his +life be a wanderer like ourselves. That very day, however, he took her +away southward, on his road to London.</p> + +<p>"For beauty, as I have said, and for gentleness, there never breathed +the equal of my little sister, and yet in six short months this Heath +grew weary of her; like a spoiled child tired with a fragile toy, he +cared not what became of her, so long as it vexed his eyes no more. It +is not necessary to tell what brutal insult he put upon her; enough to +say that she fled from him in terror, as he had intended her to do, and +returned to us, heart-stricken, woe-begone, about to become a mother, +with nothing but wretchedness in the Future, and even her happy Past a +dream dispelled. It was dreadful to look upon my little sister, and +compare her to what she had been so short a time before. She felt the +cold after her luxurious life in town; but she was far more ill at ease +in mind than body. Above all, she sorrowed because her lover's desertion +had left her disgraced—that she had brought shame upon all who +belonged to her. Incited by the poor girl's misery, Morris and my father +put into effect an audacious design which they had privately had long in +hand. We were back again at Fairburn—all but Stanley Carew, who was +away about a new horse for our covered cart—not camping in the +plantation, as of old, for fear of Sir Wentworth, but upon the common +hard by. On a certain morning, neither my father nor uncle went forth as +usual, but sat at home smoking and watching at the opening of the tent. +Not long after breakfast, there appeared a wayfarer in the distance, +whose form showed gigantic in the summer haze.</p> + +<p>"That must be a big fellow, little sister," said I, drawing her +attention to it. She was sitting huddled up, as usual, in front of the +fire; but no sooner had she caught sight of the object in question, +than she ran with a cry to her father's knee, and besought him to save +her from Massingberd Heath. Ah, even then, at that last moment, if +father or uncle had but consulted me, or let me into their plans, I +should not have my little sister's shuddering face before me as now, the +large eyes wild, the full lips pale with terror. He had beaten her, poor +darling, even before the scene that was coming; but she had even more +reason than she knew for fear. This man came striding on to the entrance +of the tent, and stood there looking at its inmates with a withering +scowl. 'Why don't you speak,' said he, 'you vagabonds! For what is it +that you have dared to send for me?'</p> + +<p>"My father pointed towards Sinnamenta—'Is not that cause enough, +Massingberd Heath?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' retorted the ruffian coolly. 'What is she to me? The drab has +come to her thieving friends again, it seems—the more fool she; for +there was more than one who had a fancy for her in town, and would have +taken her off my hands.'</p> + +<p>"My father's fingers mechanically sought the knife which lay beside his +half-finished basket; but my uncle Morris stood up between him and the +speaker, and thus replied:—</p> + +<p>"Massingberd Heath, I sent for you to tell you something which concerns +both us and you. Many months ago, you came to us, uninvited and +unwelcome, and elected to be a gipsy like ourselves. This makes you +smile very scornfully; yet if you did not mean the thing you said, you +lied. However, we believed you. You were admitted into what, however +wretched and debased it may seem to you, was our home, and all we had to +offer you was at your service. You fell in love with that poor girl +yonder, and she did not tremble at your voice, as now, but trusted to +your honour. It is true, your position in the world was high, and hers +was what you saw it to be. Still you wooed her, and not she you; that is +so, and you know it. Do not slander her, sir, lest presently you should +be sorry for it. Again and again, then, you demanded her hand in +marriage—such marriage, that is, as prevails among our people—not so +ceremonious, indeed, as with the rest of the world, but not less +binding. This we would not grant, because we disbelieved your +protestations on your honour and before your God; and disbelieved them, +as it has turned out, with reason. Then we fled from you and your false +solicitations to the north, hundreds of miles away; even thither you +followed us, or else accidentally fell in with us; I know not which. You +renewed your offers and your oaths. We found, all worthless as you are, +that the poor girl loved you still, and, yielding to your repeated +importunity, we suffered her to become your wife.'</p> + +<p>"'Wife!' repeated the renegade contemptuously. 'Do you suppose, then, +that I valued your gipsy mummeries at a pin's head? You might as well +attempt to tie these wrists of mine with the gossamer from yonder +furze.'</p> + +<p>"'We knew that, Massingberd Heath, although the girl did not know it; +she trusted you, although your every word was false.'</p> + +<p>"'She is fool enough for anything,' returned the other brutally. 'But I +know all this. Have you dared to bring me here merely to repeat so stale +a story?'</p> + +<p>"'A story with an ending that you have yet to learn,' pursued my uncle +sternly. You were wedded by no gipsy mummeries, as you call them; you +took Sinnamenta Liversedge, in the presence of many persons, solemnly to +wife.'</p> + +<p>"'Ay, and I might take her sister there, and marry her to-day after the +same fashion, and no law could say me "nay."'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, <i>here</i>, Massingberd Heath; but not at Kirk-Yetholm.'</p> + +<p>"'And why not?' inquired the ruffian, with a mocking laugh, that had, +however, something shrill and wavering in it.</p> + +<p>"'Because Kirk-Yetholm is over the Border, and, by the laws of Scotland, +my niece Sinnamenta is your wife, proud man, and nothing but death can +dissever the bond!'</p> + +<p>"An awful silence succeeded my uncle's words. Massingberd Heath turned +livid, and twice in vain essayed to speak; he was well nigh strangled by +passion.</p> + +<p>"'I thank heaven, Rachel,' murmured my little sister, 'that I am not +that shame to thee and to my race which I thought myself to be.'</p> + +<p>"'You shall have but little to thank heaven for, girl, if this be true,' +cried her husband hoarse with concentrated rage; 'somebody shall pay for +this.'</p> + +<p>"'It <i>is</i> true,' quoth my father, 'and you feel it to be so. Nothing +remains, then, but to make the best of it. We do not seek anything at +your hands, nor—'</p> + +<p>"'Only the right of camping undisturbed about Fairburn,' interposed my +uncle Morris, who was of a grasping disposition, and had planned the +whole matter, I fear, not without an eye to the advantage of his tribe. +'You wouldn't treat your wife's family as trespassers.'</p> + +<p>"'Certainly not,' returned Massingberd Heath, with bitterness; 'they +shall be most welcome. I should be extremely sorry if they were to +leave my neighbourhood just yet. In the meantime, however, I want my +wife—my Wife. Come along with me, my pretty one.'</p> + +<p>"He looked like a wild beast, within springing distance of his prey.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, father, uncle, defend me!' cried the miserable girl. 'What have +you done to bring this man's vengeance upon me?'</p> + +<p>"'Ay, you are right there!' answered her husband, in a voice that froze +my veins. 'That is still left for me—vengeance. Come along, I say; I +hunger until it shall begin.'</p> + +<p>"'Massingberd Heath,' cried I, throwing myself at his feet, 'for God's +sake have mercy upon her; it is not her fault. She knew no more than you +of all these things. Look how ill and pale she is—you above all men +should have pity on her wretched condition. Oh leave her with us, leave +my little sister here, and neither she nor we will ever trouble you, +ever come near you. It shall be just the same as though you had never +set eyes upon us; it shall indeed! Oh, you would not, <i>could</i> not surely +be cruel to such a one as she.'</p> + +<p>"I pointed to her as she stood clinging to her father's arm as much for +support as in appeal, so beautiful, so pitiful, so weak; a spectacle to +move a heart of stone.</p> + +<p>"'Could I not be cruel,' returned he, with a grating laugh, 'ay, to even +such a one as she? Ask <i>her</i>—ask <i>her</i>.'</p> + +<p>"There was no occasion to put the question; you saw the answer in her +shrinking form, her trembling limbs: his every word fell upon her like a +blow.</p> + +<p>"'She has not yet known, however, what I can be to my <i>Wife</i>,' continued +he. 'Come, my pretty one, come.'</p> + +<p>"'She shall not,' cried my father, vehemently; 'it shall never be in +his power to hurt her.'</p> + +<p>"'What! and I her husband?' exclaimed the other, mockingly. 'Both one +until death us do part! Not come?'</p> + +<p>"'He will kill her,' murmured my father; 'her blood will be on my head.'</p> + +<p>"'Are you coming, wife?' cried Massingberd Heath, in a terrible voice; +he stepped forward, and grasped her slender wrist with fingers of steel. +Morris and my father rushed forward, but the man had swung her behind +him, placing himself between her and them, and at the same instant he +had taken from his pocket a life-preserver—he carries it to this +day—armed with which he was a match for five such men. 'And now,' cried +he, 'what man shall stop me from doing what I will with my own?"'</p> + +<p>"'I!' exclaimed a sudden voice, and with the word some dark mass +launched itself so violently against the throat of Massingberd Heath +that the giant toppled and fell; upon his huge breast, knife in hand, +knelt Stanley Carew, his eyes gleaming with hate, his lithe body working +like a panther's. He was not hesitating, not he, he was only drinking in +a delicious draught of revenge, before he struck.</p> + +<p>"'Strike!' cried I, 'strike hard and quick, Carew!' But while the blade +was in air, Morris and my father plucked him backwards, and suffered his +intended victim to rise, although despoiled of his weapon.</p> + +<p>"'No, Carew; that will never do,' quoth Morris. 'We should have the +whole country upon us in an hour, and they would hang us altogether.'</p> + +<p>"'Carew is that man's name, is it?' exclaimed Massingberd Heath. 'I +will not forget it, be sure. You shall all pay for this, trust me; but +he, and <i>this one</i>, more than all. Come away, wife, come away.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, she must go, Carew,' interposed my uncle, checking a furious +movement of the young man's. 'He knows all now, and has a right to what +he demands.'</p> + +<p>"'Ay, but if he lays one finger upon her,' cried the passionate gipsy, +'if he dares to harm her even by a word, and I hear of it, as sure as I +see the sun this day, I will know what is the colour of his life-blood. +You may take her away across the seas, but I will follow you; you may +surround yourself with precautions, but I will come at you; you may go +day and night in mail, but this knife shall find your heart out.'</p> + +<p>"Massingberd Heath nodded contempuously, without speaking; and striding +from the tent, signed to Sinnamenta to follow him, which she did, +moaning and weeping, and casting backward, ever and anon, pitiful +glances upon the home and friends she had exchanged for such an evil +lot. I never saw my little sister more."</p> + +<p>As if the remembrance of this sad scene had utterly overcome her, Rachel +Liversedge hid her face in her hands, and wept until the tears welled +through her tanned and shrivelled fingers.</p> + +<p>"I am indeed distressed," said I, "to have caused you so much pain. I +will not make you sad by telling me more."</p> + +<p>"Nay, my boy, since I have begun it, let me finish with it; I shall +think of it all the same, and it is better to speak than think. That +very night Stanley Carew was arrested upon the charge of stealing the +horse which he had bought in open market, and ridden home just in time +to play the part I have described. In the days I speak of, forty pound +was given as a reward to those who gave such evidence as produced a +capital conviction, and many a gipsy perished innocently in consequence +of that wicked ordinance. It is possible that this accusation was made +by one of those who made a practice of earning blood-money; but I am +positively certain the false witness was set on by Massingberd Heath, +even if that man did not originate the charge. It was pressed against +poor Carew very harshly; and although the farmer of whom he bought the +animal came honestly forward, and swore to its being the same which he +had sold the prisoner, his evidence was rejected on account of some +slight mistake in the description. You must have heard tell of that +awful execution long ago at Crittenden jail, when the wretched victim to +perjury and revenge uttered these terrible words: 'O God, if thou dost +not deliver me, I will not believe there is a God.' That unhappy man was +Stanley Carew. My father and uncle were pitilessly persecuted and +imprisoned, and died before their time. These wrists have worn fetters, +this back has suffered stripes; nor did the vengeance of our enemy cease +even with one generation. One of my boys is beyond seas, and another +within stone walls; yet I know that the hate of Sir Massingberd Heath is +not yet slaked."</p> + +<p>"But what became of your little sister, poor Sinnamenta?"</p> + +<p>"I know not what she suffered immediately after she was taken from us; +Heaven only knows: her husband carried her a great way off out of our +ken. But this I have heard, that when he told her of the death of +Stanley Carew she fell down like one dead, and presently being +delivered of a son, the infant died after a few hours; the mother +lived—a maniac. Yes, Massingberd Heath, you did not kill my little +sister, after all; yonder she lives, but recks not whether you are kind +or cruel; she drinks no more the bitter cup of love's betrayal."</p> + +<p>"She is surely not at Fairburn," asked I, "is she?"</p> + +<p>"What else should keep us here, boy, to be harried by keepers, to be +vexed by constables and justices? What else should keep me here in a +place that tortures me with memories of my youth and of loving faces +that have crumbled into dust? What else but the hope of one day seeing +my little sister yet, and the vengeance of Heaven upon him who has +worked her ruin!" The old woman rose up as she spoke, and looked +menacingly towards Fairburn Hall. "I could almost exclaim with poor +Carew," cried she, "that if Massingberd Heath escape some awful end, +there is no Avenger on high. I am old, but I shall see it, yes, I shall +see it before I die."</p> + +<p>If there had been more to tell, which fortunately there was not, I do +not think Rachel Liversedge could have spoken further; her emotion far +more than her exertions, had reduced her strength so far, that though +she uttered the last words energetically enough, I had had for some time +a difficulty in hearing what she said.</p> + +<p>"I thank you for listening to the tediousness of an ancient dame so +long," murmured she: "if you were not a good boy, and half a gipsy, you +would never have been so patient. I have told you all this to put you on +your guard: it is no secret, but still you may not have heard it. +Distrust, despise, detest Massingberd Heath; and warn his nephew, if +you be his friend, not to venture again within his uncle's reach."</p> + +<p>"I will, I will!" cried I; "and I thank you in his name," I held out my +hand, and she turned it over in her own.</p> + +<p>"An honest palm," quoth she, "without a stain. There is one unlucky +cross about it, Peter, that is all. You must not fret for that."</p> + +<p>I mounted my horse amid cordial "good-byes" from the gipsies, who had +been pursuing their usual avocations during the above recital, as though +nothing was more common than that the head of the family should have a +secret of two hours long to communicate to a strange young gentleman; +and throwing a shilling to the boy who had shown me the way, I took my +leave.</p> + +<p>It was not till I left the plantation far behind me, and had ridden at +speed for some distance on the open road, that I was able to shake off +the sombre feelings that oppressed me, and to meet Mrs. Myrtle's welcome +to the rectory with an answering smile.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<h3>I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR.</h3> + + +<p>Upon my return to Fairburn, I became the object of immense curiosity and +attraction. I was stared at in the rector's pew at church, and, in my +solitary rides, whithersoever I went, as the repository of the great +secret of the disruption between Sir Massingberd and his nephew. It was +even whispered that I was the prime mover of the young man's rebellion, +and had planned the very manner of his escape upon Panther, including +the accident. At all events, I knew all that had happened, which nobody +else knew, except my tutor himself. Now Mr. Long was as close as wax. +Many an invitation had Mrs. Myrtle obtained of late to take a dish of +tea upon grounds which her hosts had since stigmatized as false +pretences. As the housekeeper and confidential servant of the rector, +she had been asked by Mrs. Arabel of the Grange Farm to take evening +refreshment with her in a friendly way; also by Mrs. Remnants, who kept +that extensive emporium in the village which supplied snuff to the aged +of both sexes (though not gratuitously), becoming cambrics to the young, +and lollipops to those who had not yet reached that period of life +wherein outward adornment is preferred to inward gratification; also by +the exciseman's wife; nay, there was not anybody's wife in Fairburn, +having the wherewithal to make a tea-table alluring, and being in a +sufficiently high position in life to venture upon the step, who did not +invite Mrs. Myrtle to visit her, and proceed to treat her like a +refractory pump; they poured a little down, in hopes to be more than +remunerated for the outlay. But, alas, although the dear good lady was +willing enough, being indeed a gossip born, she had nothing to tell +them. She was not equal to the task of Invention, and of facts, even to +trade upon in tea and toast, she had absolutely none.</p> + +<p>Conceive, then, how every face was turned interrogatively towards Master +Meredith—no, <i>Mr.</i> Meredith, now that the object of everybody was to +please him. How the dames dropped courtesies, and hoped my honour was +well; and my honour's friend too, Mr. Marmaduke, he was well too, they +trusted—Heaven bless him; and he was staying away from Fairburn a good +bit, was he not? and how did has uncle like that, who had always kept +him at home so strict?—and was it true that he was residing with Mr. +Harvey Gerard? well, dear me, and how odd that was; an atheist and a +democrat, people did say; but there, there were some again as spoke well +of him.</p> + +<p>Sedate Mr. Arabel, set on, without doubt, by his inquisitive lady, even +waylaid me in a narrow lane, and insisted upon my looking in at the +farm, and partaking of casual hospitality. "Ye'll just have three drars +and a spet," said he (meaning by that farm of expression a few whiffs of +a pipe), "and take a glass of ale;" and when I declined the first offer +upon the ground of not being a smoker, and the second on the plea that +it was only eleven o'clock, A.M., and consequently rather early for ale, +he confessed that his missus was a-waiting for me with a bottle of +cowslip wine, and a seed-cake of her own making. It was rather difficult +to escape from hospitable snares of this kind, but I revealed as little +as possible without giving absolute offence. On the other hand, I +received some information, the details of which had not been confided to +me by Mr. Long.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," remarked Mrs. Arabel, after I had told her all I meant to +tell, which was not much, "and it's no wonder as Mr. Marmaduke <i>should</i> +have run away, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"My good lady," observed I, "pray, be particular; I never said he ran +away; I said his horse ran away."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course, sir," responded the mistress of the Grange, winking in +a manner that made me quite uncomfortable; "you are very right to say +that, Mr. Meredith, very right. But Sir Massingberd's opinion is, that +it was all planned from first to last, only he says you nearly overdid +it."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed," said I; "how was that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it seems Sir Massingberd was quite deceived about that horse he +bought for his nephew; instead of being quiet, and fit for the lad, it +was a perfect demon; and it was sheer madness of you young gentlemen to +go racing in order to make it run away; then, to arrange with Mr. Gerard +all beforehand; well, I must say I shouldn't have thought that either of +you would have had the depth."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mrs. Arabel," said I, laughing; "I am sorry you entertained +so low an idea of our intelligence."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," returned the farmer's wife, with an air of excessive +candour, "my husband, you see, he often has said to me, says he, 'That +young squire Marmaduke, I'm darned if he ain't little better than a +fool; he don't know what shot to use for rabbits, that he don't; I +never saw his equal for ignorance. And as for that lad from the +Ingies—that was you, you know, sir—well, of all the young fellows +turned of seventeen as I ever saw, he's the'—"</p> + +<p>Here Mrs. Arabel crimsoned, and stopped short, as if she had been very +nearly betrayed into saying something which was not entirely +complimentary.</p> + +<p>"Pray, go on, my dear madam," said I; "'of all the young fellows turned +of seventeen whom he had ever seen, I was the'—"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, he'd just the same opinion of you as he had of Master +Marmaduke; but, for my part, I always said, that although you might +neither on you know so much as you ought to, and though you might seem, +as it were—"</p> + +<p>"Ay, you always stood our friend, and said we were not such fools as we +looked; did you?"</p> + +<p>"Just so," replied Mrs. Arabel, simply; "and so you see it has turned +out. If Mr. Marmaduke can only live elsewhere till something happens to +Sir Massingberd—although, indeed, he looks as if nothing ever could +hurt him—his life will doubtless be much pleasanter than at the Hall; +it is no place for a young gentleman like him, sure<i>ly</i>, although, +indeed, things are better there than they were. The dark-eyed +foreigneering-looking young person, although, indeed, she was old enough +to know better; well, <i>she's</i> gone."</p> + +<p>"So I have heard," said I drily.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she went away in a whirlwind, <i>she</i> did," continued Mrs. Arabel, +reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," replied I, "I never heard that."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed, I daresay not; why, you see, Mr. Long was a little mixed up +in it. Perhaps he thought it better not to tell you. Take another glass +of cowslip wine, sir; it has been more than ten years in bottle; and the +cake is as good a cake as you will put teeth into in all Midshire, +though I say it as shouldn't say it. Well; the thing happened in this +way, you see. The foreigneering female, she used to throw things at +folks; dishes, plates, whatever came first to hand, whenever she was in +her tantrums. Mr. Gilmore he had his head opened with a slop-basin, so +that you could lay your finger in it; and Oliver Bradford, I believe she +fired a gun at him, charged with swan-shot. However, at times, she was +quite otherwise, crying and submissive as a child. They said it was +Religion up at the Hall; but they knows nothing about that; how should +they? It was hysterics, I daresay, and serve her right too. Well, who +should come here, the very Sunday after Mr. Marmaduke had run away, and +when Sir Massingberd was like a wild man with rage, and couldn't speak +without blaspheming, but one of them Methodee preachers as sometimes +hold forth upon our common. Now the foreigneering female was a-walking +in the park shrubbery, with one of her hysterical fits upon her, I +suppose, and what does she hear through the palings but words as I +suppose the poor creature never listened to before; and presently out +she comes upon the common, and stands up among all the people, with her +great eyes swollen with weeping, and her painted cheeks—and I always +said they were painted—daubed and smeared with tears. Carter John, who +is very much given to that sort of worship, he was there; and he told me +she looked for all the world like the woman in the great picture over +the communion-table in Crittenden Church, who is wiping the feet of our +Lord with her hair.</p> + +<p>"Then the preacher, he bade her repent while there was yet time, and +fear nothing but only God. But Sir Massingberd, he came out, and dragged +her in from the very preacher's hand, and presently back again he comes +with a horse-whip, and swears there shall be no Methodees in his parish, +and if he caught the hypocritical ranter—as he called him—within +hearing again, he'd split his ears. Now, I don't go with him there," +pursued Mrs. Arabel, gravely. "It isn't for us, Mr. Meredith, to say as +nobody can't pick up good, unless it's in church; and least of all +should such things be said by Sir Massingberd, who lets that beautiful +family pew get damp and mouldy, with the fireplace always empty all the +winter long, and never puts his nose into it from year's end to year's +end. However, what does the foreigneering female do, but declare she +would starve herself to death, before she would eat the bread of +unrighteousness any longer; and not one morsel of food would she take, +though they locked her up, and tried to tempt her with her most +favourite dishes. So Sir Massingberd, being at his wits' end, came over +to the parson, and begged him to come and persuade the woman to be +reasonable, and take some refreshment; and Mr. Long—he at first +declined to interfere in such a matter at all, but presently thinking +the poor creature might be really penitent, although it came about +through a Methodee, and hoping to do her some good, although not in the +way Sir Massingberd intended, he accompanied him to the Hall; and what +do you think? Why, they found the poor woman was in such earnest, that +she had cut off the whole of her beautiful black hair, and there it lay +on the carpet, like so much rubbish. So the Squire he swore that he +didn't care now whether she starved or not, and turned her out of the +house, as I said at first, in a whirlwind. She was very faint and weak; +and Mr. Long, who would never exchange a syllable with her before, made +Mrs. Myrtle give her a good meal, and gave her some good words himself, +and sent her away to her friends—for it seems she had some friends, +poor wretch; and this has made Sir Massingberd wilder than ever against +the rector, whom he had already accused of aiding and abetting young Mr. +Marmaduke in his running away; so that altogether the Squire is ready to +make an end of everybody."</p> + +<p>This last statement, although a little highly coloured, as Mrs. Arabel's +descriptions usually were, was really not far from the truth. It did +almost seem as if the baronet was so transported with passion as to be +capable of any enormity. What the law permitted him to do in the way of +oppression, that, of course, he practised to the uttermost; his +morality, never very diffuse, had concentrated itself upon one +position—the defence of the game and trespass laws. His keepers were +exhorted to increased vigilance; the worst characters in the parish were +constituted his spies. Every night, it was now the custom of their lord +and master to go the rounds in his own preserves, and visit the +outposts, to see that the sentinels did their duty. He employed no +Warnings or Trespass Boards in Fairburn Park; his object was not to +deter, but to catch the contemners of the sacred rights of property in +the very act. The pursuit of his life had become man-hunting. I write +that word without any reference to Marmaduke Heath, for, indeed, at that +time I thought that Sir Massingberd had given up all hope of recovering +possession of his nephew. A considerable period had now elapsed since +the young man's convalescence; and yet the baronet had taken no steps to +compel his return. He had written, indeed, to Marmaduke a letter of +anything but a conciliatory character, and calculated to re-arouse the +lad's most morbid fears; but Mr. Harvey Gerard had intercepted the +dispatch, and returned it with an answer of his own composition. He had +stated briefly the results of the late conference at the Dovecot +respecting his young guest; he had reiterated his intention of bringing, +in a court of justice, the gravest charges against the baronet, in case +of any legal molestation from him; and he had finished with a personal +recommendation to that gentleman to rest satisfied with the enjoyment of +the allowance that was supposed to go to the maintenance of his nephew. +Epistolary communication by hand was rendered impracticable, on the part +of the baronet, by the removal of the Dovecot household to town.</p> + +<p>This was a bitter blow to the lord of Fairburn; he knew so well the +abject fear which he had inspired in my unhappy friend, that, +notwithstanding all that had come and gone yet, he did not doubt that a +few words in his own handwriting would bring the truant back, however +loath. We are living now in such quiet times, and under the protection +of such equal laws, that I am aware my younger readers will have a +difficulty in conceiving how one human being, however powerful, could be +held in such terror by others. I was aware, from the first, that the +present universal security would give my narrative an air of +improbability, and I fear that this must increase as it proceeds. I have +only to say, that at the period of which I write, there was no poor man +in Fairburn parish, however honest, however prudent, who might not have +been lodged in jail at the instance of his squire, and would have found +it difficult to clear himself; or who might not, on a hint from the same +quarter, have been pressed, if he did but give the opportunity, on board +a man-of-war. I am likewise certain that had Sir Massingberd ventured +upon such a step, he might have recovered possession of his nephew, or +at least withdrawn him from his protector, by the strong hand of the +law, upon the ground of Mr. Gerard's professing revolutionary +principles. In these days of Palmerston and Derby, of Tweedledum and +Tweedledee, it is impossible for those who are not old enough to have +witnessed it, to imagine the rancour of political parties half a century +ago, or the despotism and flagrant injustice that were sanctioned under +the convenient name of Order.</p> + +<p>For the haughty baronet to be thus cut off from all intercourse with his +victim, was to be foiled indeed. At first, he stung himself well-nigh to +frenzy, like a scorpion within its circle of flame; but after a time the +white heat of his wrath began apparently to abate. He seemed to have +made up his mind to sit down quietly under his defeat, and to content +himself with tyrannizing over those who were yet in his power. This +comparatively peaceful state of things was looked upon by Mr. Long and +myself at first with suspicion, but at last with real satisfaction. When +Sir Massingberd sent over five pine-apples and some splendid grapes to +the Rectory with his compliments (for the first time within twenty +years), we shook our heads, and my tutor addressed the messenger of his +bounty in these words; "Tell your master I am exceedingly obliged to him +for his kindness. 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.'"</p> + +<p>"Would you be so good as to write that down, sir?" said the man.</p> + +<p>"You may give him the message without the tail," replied the rector, a +little discomfited at his own indiscretion, but congratulating himself +very much that he had expressed his thoughts so classically.</p> + +<p>But when pine-apples and grapes became common presents from the Hall, we +began really to think that the stubborn old baronet had come to the +conclusion that it was as pleasant to be on good terms with his +neighbour as not, and that he was genuinely bent on reconciliation. A +soft answer is said to be efficacious to this end, but it is nothing +compared to hothouse dainties out of season; and notwithstanding all I +knew, and all I suspected, I began to regard Sir Massingberd Heath, not +indeed with less contempt and dislike, but with less positive loathing, +and certainly with less fear. I had not set foot upon his property since +Marmaduke's departure, and the baronet took occasion to stop me as I +rode by his gate one day, and remonstrate upon the incivility of such a +course of conduct.</p> + +<p>"It can do me no damage, young gentleman, that you should take your +pleasure in my park, more especially as you are not a sportsman, who +would covet my hares and pheasants; and I cannot but think that your +omission to do so is a proof of ill-feeling towards me, which I am not +conscious of having deserved at your hands."</p> + +<p>He spoke stiffly, and without condescension, as a man might speak to an +equal, between himself and whom a misunderstanding existed unexplained, +but capable of explanation, and, foolish boy as I was, I felt flattered +by his behaviour.</p> + +<p>If the least notion of making myself out to be a hero had existed in my +brain when I began to write these Recollections, it has been dissipated +long ago. I have been quite as much surprised during this recital as any +of my readers have been, at the contemplation of my own meannesses; if I +had known how many and how serious they were to be, perhaps I should +have hesitated to recall them; but I commenced with as strong a +determination, nothing to extenuate with respect to myself, as to set +nothing down in malice with respect to others; and thus I shall proceed +to the end.</p> + +<p>While, then, matters were on this less antagonistic footing, and when +Marmaduke had been away about a year, business happened to take Mr. Long +from Fairburn, and I was left a day and a night my own master. He had +not been gone an hour when Mrs. Myrtle came into the study, where I was +employed at my books, with a letter in her hand; she looked quite pale +and frightened, as she said, "Lor', Mr. Peter, if this note ain't from +Sir Massingberd hisself for <i>you</i>. I feels all of a tremble, so as you +might knock me down with a peacock's feather."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, forcing a laugh, "but I am not going to use any such +weapon, Mrs. Myrtle. What on earth is there to be afraid of in the +squire's handwriting? It can't bite." But I felt in a cold perspiration +nevertheless, and my fingers trembled as they undid the missive. It was +a polite invitation to dine with the baronet that evening.</p> + +<p>"You are not going, sir, I <i>do</i> hope!" exclaimed the housekeeper +eagerly, as soon as I had acquainted her with the contents of the note. +"Why, such a thing hasn't happened for this quarter of a century. He'll +poison you, as sure as my name's Martha Myrtle. I never saw you and +master eating his pine-apples without a shudder; the rector <i>was</i> +uncommon ill after one of them, one day."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Myrtle," said I quietly, "and I have suffered also from the +same cause myself; but I don't think the squire was to blame."</p> + +<p>"But you ain't a-going, sir; I am sure as master wouldn't like it. Oh, +pray, say you ain't a-going."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I won't go, Mrs. Myrtle. The fact is, I feel one of my +colds coming on; they generally begin with a lump in my throat; so I +shall write to excuse myself."</p> + +<p>I really had a lump in my throat; my heart had jumped up and stopped +there at the mere notion of a <i>tête-à -tête</i> with Sir Massingberd, +diversified—no, intensified—by the presence of Grimjaw. I wouldn't +have gone through it for a thousand pounds; so I wrote to decline the +honour upon the ground of indisposition. I was compelled to keep the +house, I said, for the entire day. Half an hour afterwards, another +letter arrived from the Hall. Since Sir Massingberd might not enjoy the +pleasure of my company at dinner, would I permit him to come over to the +Rectory that morning, and have a few words of conversation with me upon +a matter deeply interesting to both of us? There was no getting out of +this. If I had gone to bed, on plea of illness, I felt that even that +course would have been no protection to me. Sir Massingberd would have +forced a dying man to play with him at pitch-and-toss, if so inopportune +a game had happened to take his fancy. On the other hand, Mrs. Myrtle's +suggestion that I should mount my horse, and ride away after Mr. Long, +was really too pusillanimous a proceeding; I therefore wrote back to the +baronet a polite falsehood, to the effect that I should be very happy to +see him; and in a very few minutes afterwards, I was face to face with +Marmaduke's foe.</p> + +<p>He came in unushered—Mrs. Myrtle not being equal to such an +occasion—filling the doorway with his gigantic form, and well-nigh +touching the ceiling of the low-roofed room with his head.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to intrude upon an invalid," said he, "but what I had to say +was of a private nature, and I was not sure of finding you alone at any +other time."</p> + +<p>I bowed, and begged my visitor to be seated.</p> + +<p>"It is something," thought I, "that this man is civil at least." For +there is this great advantage in being habitually insolent and +overbearing, that when one does condescend to behave decently, people +appreciate one's good maimers very much.</p> + +<p>"I have called upon you," continued the baronet, "with respect to my +nephew and your friend, Marmaduke Heath. It is idle to deny that he and +I have not been to one another what our mutual relationship should have +led us to be. I am naturally a hard man; losses and poverty have +doubtless rendered me more morose. Marmaduke, on the other hand, is of +an over-sensitive and morbid nature. We did not get on together at all +well. There were faults on both sides; it was six of one, and—"</p> + +<p>I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then," resumed Sir Massingberd, with candour, "let us say +that it was I who was in the wrong. I have not the patience and +gentleness requisite for dealing with a character like him; my temper is +arbitrary; I have behaved with but little courtesy even to yourself. You +are polite enough to contradict me, but nevertheless it is true. For +<i>that</i>, however, reparation can be made. I wish that I could as easily +make atonement in the other quarter. This, however, I feel is utterly +impossible. Things have gone too far. I make no complaint of my nephew's +having been encouraged in his rebellious course by one whose duty it +was, on the contrary, to reconcile us. I wish to say nothing that could +only lead to fruitless discussion, and perhaps a disagreement between +you and me; that would be most impolitic on my part, since I come here +to solicit your good offices."</p> + +<p>"Mine, Sir Massingberd? mine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I desire your kindly assistance in bringing about a better +understanding between Marmaduke and myself."</p> + +<p>"Sir," said I, "what you ask is a sheer impossibility. Marmaduke Heath +may be wrong in his estimate of your character, but it will remain +unchanged to his dying day. I am as certain of this, as that yonder +yellowing tree will presently lose its leaves."</p> + +<p>"You speak frankly, Mr. Meredith," returned the baronet, calmly, "and I +do not respect you less upon that account. It is not, however, as a +mediator that I need your assistance; I ask a much less favour than +that; I simply wish you to inclose a letter from me to my nephew."</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, with some indignation, "you have done +me the favour of calling upon me in my tutor's absence, in the +expectation of finding me so weak as to be unable to refuse whatever you +chose to ask, or so treacherous as to be willing to deceive those who +are generously protecting my best friend from one whom he has every +cause to fear. I am extremely obliged to you for the compliment;" and +with that I laid my hand upon the bell.</p> + +<p>"One moment," observed the baronet, quietly, nay, with suavity, though +the letter U upon his forehead deepened visibly, and the veins of his +great hand, as it rested on the table, grew big with passion; "one +moment before you ring. I am sorry you should have taken such a view of +my conduct as you have described; you young men are somewhat hasty in +the imputation of motive. I am a straightforward, rough fellow, and may +have displeased you; but I am not aware that I have done anything to +justify you in accusing me of meanness and duplicity. Those persons who +have charge of my nephew are, in my judgment, deeply culpable; but I do +not wish you to act deceitfully towards them on that account. Matters +have come to that pass, however, that I cannot even communicate with my +nephew, even though I have that to say which would give him genuine +pleasure. This Mr. Harvey Gerard"—his deep voice shook with hatred as +he mentioned that name—"has taken upon himself to return my letters to +Marmaduke unopened. I know not how to convey to him even such a one as +this."</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd threw across to me a folded sheet, directed to his +nephew, and motioned that I should open it. It ran as follows:—</p> + +<p>"NEPHEW MARMADUKE,—It seems that you are fully determined never again +to seek the shelter of my roof; I am given to understand that the time +for reconciliation has gone by, and that any attempt to effect it would +only cause you annoyance, and make the breach wider between us. If so, +so be it. I am an old man now, and I wish my last years to be passed in +peace. I wish to make no allusion to the character of the person with +whom you have chosen to reside, further than to express a hope that when +I am gone, and it will be your part to exercise the rights of a great +land-owner, that you will not employ your influence to subvert the laws +and the government. It is as mad in those who possess authority to +countenance revolution, as for a man seated on a lofty branch to lop it +off with his own hands. I do not say this as your uncle, but merely as +one of an ancient race with whom we are both connected, and in whose +welfare we should take an equal interest. Mr. Meredith is kind enough to +enclose this parting word of advice—the last communication that will +probably ever pass between us—from</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"MASSINGBERD HEATH.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"P.S.—Burn this when you have read it, lest your friend should get into +trouble upon my account."</p> + + +<p>I read and re-read this strange epistle with great care, before I made +any comment upon it. There was nothing, to my mind, objectionable in any +of the contents. I had been twice to Harley Street during the summer, +and found Marmaduke as morbidly apprehensive as ever of some course of +conduct to be adopted by his uncle with reference to regaining the +custody of his person; he was haunted still by the shadow of this +terrible man. The words I held before me were certainly calculated to +reassure him. No news could be more gratifying than this positive +resignation of the baronet's claim to be his guardian, this final +"good-bye" under Sir Massingberd's own hand. As for the political +advice, I thought that very healthy. I was then, as now, a staunch +conservative, and although I did not sympathize in the least with the +harsh acts of the government in respect to poor, misguided men, not +without their wrongs, yet I did think Mr. Gerard's views both visionary +and dangerous.</p> + +<p>"I trust," observed Sir Massingberd, gravely, "that the sentiments which +you are now perusing are in accordance with your own. I am speaking, I +believe, to a gentleman, and consequently to a natural friend of +order."</p> + +<p>I bowed in assent. "There certainly seems nothing in this epistle which +Marmaduke might not read," muttered I, musing.</p> + +<p>"<i>Seems?</i>" cried the baronet. "Why not say <i>is</i> at once?"</p> + +<p>A sudden idea, gleaned from some romance which I had been lately +reading, flashed across my brain. Why did the postscript say, "Burn this +when you have read it?" I let my hand, with the letter in it, drop below +my knee, so that the missive was held close to the fire.</p> + +<p>"There is no writing in lemon-juice, I do assure you," observed Sir +Massingberd, quietly; "you will only scorch the paper."</p> + +<p>I coloured at the exposure of my suspicions, and in my confusion it did +not strike me that the speaker must himself have at least entertained +such a project, or he never could have unmasked me so readily. I was a +little ashamed of myself, and rather sorry for my incredulity. Sir +Massingberd saw this, and pressed his point.</p> + +<p>"Since there is nothing concealed, and no harm in what is visible, I do +hope you will grant the favour I requested, and inclose that note to my +nephew."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," said I, after a little hesitation, "I will inclose it. I +give you warning, however, that I shall send a line by the same post to +let Mr. Gerard know that I have done so."</p> + +<p>"By all means," responded Sir Massingberd. "I am only anxious that my +nephew's own eyes should read what I have written. Have you a taper and +wax?" asked he, folding up the sheet. "I might as well stamp it with my +seal."</p> + +<p>I rose and brought what he required from a writing-table. Sir +Massingberd sealed the letter, and gave it into my hand.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Meredith," said he, rising, "you have done me a great service. I +think I have said, that the oftener you make use of my grounds the +better I shall be pleased. Did I add that the bowling-green is entirely +at your service? I am too stiff in the back to have a game with you +myself, but I will give directions to Gilmore to be your antagonist, +whenever you may feel inclined."</p> + +<p>The baronet took his leave in a stately, but not unfriendly manner. He +certainly <i>was</i> stiff in the back; but that was his nature. As he +smiled, his lip turned upwards, instead of the usual way; but so it +always did. Yet I did not feel quite comfortable, as I stood by myself +over the fire, balancing Sir Massingberd's "good-bye" to his nephew in +my hand, and questioning within myself whether it wouldn't be better to +inclose it to Mr. Harvey Gerard, after all. However, in the end I kept +my promise.</p> + + +<p>END OF VOL. I.</p> + + + + + + + + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 37170 ***</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5588c44 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #37170 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37170) diff --git a/old/37170-8.txt b/old/37170-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa1baf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37170-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5067 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2, by James Payn + +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: Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2 + A Romance of Real Life + +Author: James Payn + +Release Date: August 23, 2011 [EBook #37170] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 1/2 *** + + + + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + +A Romance of Real Life. + +IN TWO VOLUMES. + +VOL. I. + +LONDON: + +SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, + +14, LUDGATE HILL. + +1864. + + + + + + The uncommon favour with which the story of "LOST SIR + MASSINGBERD" has been received while appearing in the + columns of a popular periodical, has induced its author to + solicit the suffrages of that more critical Public who "hate + to read novels bit by bit." + + +CONTENTS. + + + PREFATORY + + CHAPTER I. GIANT DESPAIR + CHAPTER II. MY FIRST INTERVIEW + CHAPTER III. THE DREAM BY THE BROOK + CHAPTER IV. THE DUMB WITNESS + CHAPTER V. THE STATE BEDROOM + CHAPTER VI. HEAD OVER HEELS + CHAPTER VII. AT THE DOVECOT + CHAPTER VIII. MEETING HIS MATCH + CHAPTER IX. MR. HARVEY GERARD + CHAPTER X. LOVE THE LIFEGIVER + CHAPTER XI. WOOING BY PROXY + CHAPTER XII. THE COUNCIL OF WAR + CHAPTER XIII. THE GIPSY CAMP + CHAPTER XIV. WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY + CHAPTER XV. THE REASON CONTINUED + CHAPTER XVI. I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR + + + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + + + + +PREFATORY. + + +In these days, when every man and woman becomes an author upon the least +provocation, it is not necessary to make an apology for appearing in +print. Perhaps there was always something affected in those prefatorial +justifications; although they did disclaim any literary merit, it is +probable that the writers would have been indignant enough had the +critics taken them at their word; and perhaps the publication was not +entirely owing to "the warmly-expressed wishes of numerous friends." +But, at all events, we have done with all such excuses now. Not to have +written anything for the press, is no small claim to being an Original. +Neither sex nor age seems to exempt from the universal passion of +authorship. My niece, Jessie (<i>ætat.</i> sixteen), writes heart-rending +narratives for the "Liliputian Magazine;" her brother, whom I have +always looked upon as a violent, healthy hobbledehoy whose highest +virtue was Endurance, and whose darkest experience was Skittles, +produces the most thrilling romances for the "Home Companion." Even my +housekeeper makes no secret of forwarding her most admired recipes to +the "Family Intelligencer;" while my stable-boy, it is well known, is a +prominent poetical contributor to the "Turf Times," having also the gift +of prophecy with reference to the winner of all the racing events of any +importance. And yet, I believe, my household is not more addicted to +publication than those of my neighbours. + +What becomes of authors by profession in such a state of things literary +as this, I shudder to think; I feel it almost a sin to add one more to +the long list of competitors with whom they have to struggle; but still, +if I do not now set down the story which I have in my mind, I am certain +that, sooner or later, my nephew will do so for me, and very likely +spoil it in the telling. He writes in a snappy, jerky, pyrotechnic way, +which they tell me is now popular, but which is not suited to my +old-fashioned taste; and although he dare not make, at present, what he +calls "copy" of the stories with which I am perhaps too much accustomed +to regale his ears, he keeps a note-book, and a new terror is added to +Death from that circumstance. When I am gone, he will publish my best +things, under some such title as "After-dinner Tales," I feel certain; +and they will appear at the railway book-stalls in a yellow cover +bordered with red, or with even a frontispiece displaying a counterfeit +and libellous presentment of his departed relative in the very act of +narration. The gem of that collection would undoubtedly be the story +which I am now about to anticipate the young gentleman by relating +myself. If I am somewhat old-world in my style, perhaps it may be +forgiven me, in consideration of the reality of the circumstances +narrated, and the very strong interest which I do not doubt they will +arouse. + +It is not necessary to state the exact locality where they occurred, nor +the number of years which have elapsed since their occurrence; it is +enough to premise that what I tell is true, and that some of the +principal personages in the--well, the melodrama, if you will--are yet +alive, and will peruse these words before they meet the public eye. If +nothing therein offends <i>them</i>, therefore, it need not, upon the score +of indiscreet revelation at least, offend my readers. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GIANT DESPAIR. + + +In a midland county, not as yet scarred by factories, there stands a +village called Fairburn, which, at the time I knew it first--many, many +years ago--had for its squire, its lord, its despot, one Sir Massingberd +Heath. Its rector, at that date, was the Rev. Matthew Long; and at the +Rectory, when my story commences, there was in pupilage to the said +rector a youth, one Peter Meredith, who has since grown up to be the +present writer. When we are small, all things seem vast to our young +minds; good men are saints, and evil ones are demons. I loved Mr. Long, +therefore, although he was my tutor; and oh, how I feared and hated Sir +Massingberd! It was not, however, my boyhood alone that caused me to +hold this man as a monster of iniquity; it was the opinion which the +whole county entertained of him, more or less. The people of Fairburn +trembled before him, as a ship's company before some cruel captain of +fifteen years back--I mean, of fifteen years before the period of which +I write. Press-gangs had not very long ceased to do their cruel mission; +there were old men in our village who had served their time in His +Majesty's ships, very much against their will; there were gaps in poor +families still, which might or might not be filled up; empty chairs that +had so stood for a score of years perhaps, waiting for still expected +occupiers; fathers of families, or the props of families, in sons and +brothers, had been spirited away from Fairburn (even a little while +ago), and had not come back again yet. They had been poachers, or +radicals, or sectaries (as Dissenters were then called), or something +else distasteful to Sir Massingberd's father; and they had been carried +off to sea at his command. Let not my young readers imagine that I am +exaggerating matters; I write of a state of things of which they have +not the remotest conception, but which I remember perfectly well. They +have reason to thank Heaven that they did not live in those times, if +they happen to belong to those unprosperous classes which were then +termed collectively, "the mob;" there were no such things as "skilled +workmen," or "respectable artisans," in those days. The "people" were +"the Great Unwashed." To build a Crystal Palace for such as they were +held to be, would have seemed to be the height of folly; they would have +taken no other pleasure in it than to smash every pane with +brickbats--for were they not "the dangerous classes"? Such opinions were +beginning to die out, indeed, but they were held still by many great +people, and Sir Massingberd Heath was one of them. Reared in a +clergyman's family, and a clergyman myself, I have been a Conservative +in politics all my life, and in that belief I shall die; but rank and +power are no excuse with me for evil deeds. In the chamber of my nephew +John, who "takes in everything," as the phrase goes, I once discovered a +democratic magazine, edited by a gentleman whose surname I forget, but +who had a great multitude of initials. All the poor people described in +this work were pious and moral, and all the rich people were infidel and +profligate; but for the noblemen--and there were a good many persons of +high rank in the various stories--were reserved all the choicest +invectives and most superlative abuse. Nothing, of course, can be more +unfair than this treatment of a class of persons who, considering their +temptations, are really more than respectable. As a general rule, the +portraits were extravagantly malicious, but they had this attraction for +me--they were all exceedingly like Sir Massingberd Heath. He was the +very type of that bloated aristocracy that is held up in scarecrow +fashion, by republican writers. There were not many living specimens to +be met with even at the date of my tale, and the old baronet, perhaps +himself perceiving that he was one of the last of them, determined that +he should not be the least in infamy. Like the Unjust Judge, he neither +feared God nor regarded man, and, worse than he, he would not perform a +good action on account of the importunity of any person. She must have +been a brave woman who importuned Sir Massingberd Heath, and could +scarcely have been brought up in Fairburn. + +Whether George IV. was king or not, at the period of which I write, it +matters not, for his connection with our squire had terminated years +before; but at one time they had been fast, very fast friends. When a +king and a baronet run a race of extravagance, the king generally wins, +and so it had been in this case; His Majesty, or rather His Royal +Highness the Regent, had <i>distanced</i> Sir Massingberd, and they were not +now upon even speaking terms. Friendships of this sort do not last when +one of the parties has spent all his money. What was the use of a poor +man at White's who could only look on while his old friends played whist +for one hundred pound points, and five hundred pounds upon the rubber? +What business--let alone pleasure--could one have in London, when +Howard and Gribbs would not lend one fifty pounds even at fifty per +cent.? Sir Massingberd had left that gay, wicked world for good, that is +to say, for ever, and was obliged to live at his beautiful country-seat +in spite of himself. He was irretrievably ruined, so far as his court +prospects were concerned, for he had no ready money. He owned all +Fairburn, and many hundreds of rich acres about it, beside the Park and +the river; he had the great tithes of the place, and manorial rights +(which he exercised, too) innumerable. Nobody quite knew--he did not +know himself--what privileges he had or had not, what pathways he could +close at pleasure, what heriots he could demand, or what precise +property he had in Fairburn gravel-pits; but in all cases he gave +himself the benefit of the doubt. It was a very foolish thing to leave +any disputed point to the sense of justice, or the good feeling of our +squire, and yet this was generally done. Where it was not done, where +some honest fellow had ventured to oppose his high prerogative, even +though he gained his end, he was always, as the village people said, +"paid out" for it. I don't mean to say Sir Massingberd murdered +him--although he would have done that, I am confident, without the +slightest scruple, if it could have been effected with safety to +himself--but he took his revenge of him, sooner or later, in a very +simple way. He caught his children trespassing--having caused them to be +enticed upon his land--and committed them to prison; or he broke down +his fences, and spoiled his corn in the night; for he had dependents +devoted to his wicked will, and upon whose false witness he could always +rely. + +And yet, with all this power, the baronet, as I have said, was a poor +man; he had borrowed all the money he could, and was even said to have +overreached the London Jews in these transactions; and it was all +gone--absolutely all. It was seldom that this great lord of acres had a +ten-pound note in his pocket, for his house and land were all entailed +upon his nephew Marmaduke, and he had only a life-interest in anything. +Poverty perhaps made him bitterer and more savage than he would +otherwise have been; but, for my part, I cannot imagine him to have been +agreeable under any circumstances. I have heard, however, that at +Carlton House he was once the first favourite--after Brummell--and that, +of course, made him sought after by many people. He had a wicked wit, +which was doubtless acceptable in some circles, and his tongue, it may +be, was not quite so coarse in those days of prosperity. He took a +delight in his old age in retailing his infamous experiences, before +women, if possible, and if not, before clergymen or boys. I remember to +have heard of Mr. Long once venturing to reprove his squire upon an +occasion of this very kind. The rector had been dining at the Hall--an +exceptional occurrence, and under exceptional circumstances--when, after +dinner, the host began one of his disgraceful reminiscences, whereupon +my tutor rose and said, "Sir Massingberd, you should be ashamed to talk +of such matters to me; but before this boy, it is infamous. I thank you +for your hospitality; but I shall go home." + +"Very well; go, and be hanged!" replied the baronet; "and Marmaduke and +I will make a jolly night of it." + +Marmaduke Heath was Mr. Long's pupil as well as myself, and he resided +with his uncle at the Hall. He would very much rather have retired with +his tutor on that occasion, and indeed have resided at the Rectory, for +he dreaded his relative beyond measure. All the pretended frankness with +which the old man sometimes treated the boy was unable to hide the hate +with which Sir Massingberd really regarded him; but for this +heir-presumptive to the entail, this milk-and-water lad of seventeen, +the baronet might raise money to any extent, nay, sell all Fairburn, if +he chose, and so might once more take his rightful station in the world, +rejoin the Four-in-hand Club, and demand his "revenge" from my Lord +Thanet at écarté. He could still drink, for the cellars of Fairburn Hall +were well-nigh inexhaustible; but if that chit of a lad was but carried +off, he might have the best in the land to drink with him. It is true +that a ruined man in Sir Massingberd's position can still afford a good +table; game is plentiful with him, and fish, and he grows his own +mutton and venison, so that neither himself nor his friends need starve; +but servants must be maintained to wait upon these, and a great +country-house without a carriage is as a lobster without a claw. +Consequently, except in the shooting-season, there were no guests at +Fairburn Hall; the folks that did come were men of a certain stamp; +current indeed, in good society, but only in that of males; a real lady +had not set foot in the Park, far less the house, for the last twelve +years; the manner in which Sir Massingberd lived forbade such a thing. A +few bachelors of the County Hunt, and half-a-dozen roués from town, were +all the company that could be enticed to Fairburn in September and +October; all the rest of the year, the grass grew in the avenue +untouched by wheel or hoof, and even sprang up among the stone steps +that led to the front-door. Somehow or other, I never saw it thus +without thinking of the parable of the Sower and the Seed, with some +distant and uncharitable reference to our squire! I wondered whether it +was possible that in any far-back time any good seed of any sort had +found its way into the crannies of his stony heart, and if so, what had +become of it. I used to try and picture that violent wicked man as a +child in his cot, or saying his prayers at his mother's knee. I believe +she had died soon after her marriage, and that, short as her wedded life +had been, it was a very unhappy one. + +Fairburn Hall had never been a house for tender, honest women; the +Heaths, who are celebrated like another noble race of the same sort, for +their hard hearts and excellent digestions, had never been good +husbands. Fortunately, daughters were rare in the family. How Sir +Massingberd would have brought up a daughter, I shudder to think. One +son had been the sole offspring vouchsafed to the baronets of this line +for many generations, except the last; and in the present case, there +was no such direct heir. Some said Sir Massingberd had married secretly, +but was separated from his wife, and some said he had not; but it seemed +somehow certain that with him the immediate succession from father to +son would cease. His brother Gilbert had married young in Italy, and had +died in that country within the same year. His widow had brought his +posthumous child, when a few months old, to the Hall, at the invitation +of Sir Massingberd, and had remained there for some time. The villagers +still spoke of the dark foreign lady as being the most beautiful +creature they had ever beheld; the Park keepers used to come upon her +in solitary glades, singing sweetly; but ah! so sorrowfully, to her +child in a tongue that they did not understand. The baronet himself was +absent, not yet cast out of the court whirlpool, and the lonely vastness +of the place was not displeasing to the young widow, wishing, perhaps, +to be left undisturbed with her grief; but after Sir Massingberd came +down, she remained but a very few days. It was said that she fled with +her babe in a winter's night, and that her little footprints were traced +in the snow to the cross-roads where the mail went by, by which she had +arrived. She was not rich, and had come down in a manner quite different +from that of her brother-in-law, who, broken and ruined though he was, +had posted with four horses. That was how all gentlefolks of the county +travelled in those days; even the very barristers on circuit indulged, +and were obliged to do so, in a chaise and a pair. The mother of +Marmaduke Heath, however, who was heir-presumptive to the largest landed +property in Midshire, was very poor. Whether the late baronet had +omitted to make a proper provision for his younger son, or whether +Gilbert had made away with it after the usual manner of the Heaths, I do +not know; but his widow and child betook themselves into +Devonshire--selected, perhaps, from its climate approaching nearer than +any other part of England to that of her native land--and, there lived +in a very humble fashion. How Marmaduke ever got into his uncle's hands, +I never could clearly understand; his mother had died suddenly, +whereupon the family lawyer, Mr. Clint of Russell Square, who had the +entire management of the Heath property, had in the first instance +taken possession of the lad; but Sir Massingberd had claimed his right +to be the guardian of his nephew, and it could not be disallowed. + +Such were mainly the circumstances, I believe; but all sorts of stories +were in circulation concerning "Giant Despair," as the savage old +baronet was called, and his nephew; the general opinion agreeing only +upon one point--that no sane person would change places with Master +Marmaduke Heath at Doubting Castle, notwithstanding the greatness of his +expectations. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MY FIRST INTERVIEW. + + +My own history has little or nothing to do with the present narrative, +and therefore I will not allude to it, except where it is absolutely +necessary. Suffice it to say, that my parents were in India, and that +for many years Fairburn Rectory was my home. I had no vacations, in the +sense that the word is generally understood to mean; I had nowhere else +to go to, nor did I wish to go anywhere. No father could have been +kinder, or have done his duty better by me, than did Mr. Long. How poor +Marmaduke used to envy me my wardship to that good man! I well remember +the first day I came to Fairburn. It was early summer; its great woods +were in all their glory; and to me, fresh from shipboard and the vast +waste of sea, the place seemed a bower of bliss. First, the grey old +church tower upon the hill; and then the turrets of the Hall, +half-hidden in oak; and last, the low-roofed, blossom-entangled cottage +where I found so bright a welcome--that was the order in which Fairburn +was introduced to visitors from town. The Church, and the Hall, and the +Rectory all lay together; the churchyard, dark with yews, encroached +upon the Rectory garden; and that bright spot, so trimly kept, that one +was moved to pick up a fallen leaf, if such were on its lawn, sloped +down into the heart of the Park. A light iron railing, with wires to +prevent the hares and rabbits from entering in and nibbling the flowers, +alone divided the great man's land from Mr. Long's trim demesne. The +deer came up and pushed their velvet horns against it. In copse and +fern, twinkled the innumerable ear and tail. I had never seen such +animals before, and they delighted me hugely. After dinner, on the very +day that I arrived, I fed them through the rails, and they ate the bread +from my open hand. + +"They take you for Marmaduke," said Mr. Long, smiling; "for otherwise, +they would be shy of a stranger." + +"And who is Marmaduke, sir?" + +"He is your fellow pupil, and I make no doubt will be your friend. I +wish that he was resident with me, like yourself; but his uncle, who +lives at the Hall yonder, will not part with him. He reads with me +morning and afternoon, however." + +"Does he like reading, sir?" inquired I with hesitation, for I for my +part did not. My education, such as it was, had been fitful incomplete, +and in a word, Indian; and I had come back much older than most European +boys have to come home, a sad dunce. + +"Yes, Marmaduke is very fond of reading," pursued my tutor; "that is, +reading of a certain sort. He always does his work well with me, so I +must not be hard on him; but he is certainly too fond of novels. And +yonder he comes, see, with a book in his hand, even as he walks." My +tutor pointed to the Park; and there, coming slowly down a long, broad +"ride," with his eyes fixed upon a volume he held in his hand, was a +youth of seventeen years old or so, which was about my own age. As he +came nearer, I began to see why the deer had mistaken me for him; not, +indeed, because he was very handsome (which was not at all the case with +me), but inasmuch as his complexion was as olive as my own. + +"Why, he has been to India too!" whispered I to my tutor, rather +disappointed than otherwise, for I had had enough of Indian playmates, +and to spare. + +"No," returned he in the same low voice; "his mother was an Italian." + +Then he introduced us; and I began to hang my head, and play with the +buttons of my waistcoat, as is the graceful manner of hobbledehoys upon +such a ceremony; but Marmaduke, completely self-possessed, asked about +my journey, and particularly what I had seen at sea. He knew so much +about sharks and porpoises, that I thought he must have made some long +voyage himself; but he told me that such was not the case. + +"Though I should like to go to sea of all things," said he; "and I would +cruise about that cape--what's its name?--until I met with the "Flying +Dutchman:" that is the vessel which I wish to see." + +"I have never heard of her," said I, proud of that nautical use of the +feminine. "Is she one of the Company's ships?" + +At this my tutor began to rub his hands, and chuckle inwardly, as was +his wont when vastly amused; but perceiving that the colour came into my +cheeks, he laid his hand upon my shoulder kindly, and said that he was +glad to find <i>my</i> head, at least, was not stuck full of foolish stories, +as some people's heads were; while Marmaduke, without triumphing in the +least over my ignorance, explained to me all about that Phantom Ship, +which glides full sail upon the astonished voyager, and passes through +his vessel without shock or noise. He told the tale exactly as if he had +heard it straight from the lips of an eye-witness, and believed it +himself; he never laughed, and if he smiled, he seemed to be sorry that +he had done so directly afterwards. Some melancholy thought appeared to +occupy his mind at all times; and if a bright fancy crossed it, it was +but for an instant, like lightning through the cloud. I am not +describing an "interesting" youth, after the manner of romance-writers; +no "secret sorrow" obscured the young existence of Marmaduke Heath, but +simply, as I subsequently discovered, vulgar, abject terror. His whole +being was oppressed by reason of one man. The shadow of Sir Massingberd +cast itself over him alike when he went out from his hated presence and +when he was about to return to it. He was never free from its nightmare +influence--never. His passion for reading was not so much a love of +books, as a desire to escape in them from the circumstances of his +actual life. If he ever forgot him in earnest talk--and he was the most +earnest talker, as a boy, I ever knew--the mention of his uncle's name +was a Medusa's Head to turn him into stony silence on the instant. If +Marmaduke Heath could only have got away from Fairburn Hall when I first +knew him, his mind might have regained its natural vigour and +elasticity; but as it was, it grew more sombre and morbid every day. His +hungry intellect was nourished upon what associations happened to be at +hand, and they were very unhealthy food. The wickedness of Sir +Massingberd was, of course, sufficiently present to him, like some +hateful picture hung at a bed's foot, which the eyes of a sleepless man +cannot avoid; while every tongue about the Hall was ready to tell him of +the evil deeds of his forefathers. At first, I thought my young friend's +constant allusion to his family was the result of aristocratic pride, +although, indeed, there was nothing to be proud of in what he told me, +but very much the reverse; but I soon found that this was not the case. +The history of the Heaths was what interested him most of all histories, +and he favoured me with extracts from it solely upon that account. As +for the fact of their noble blood running in his own veins, he would, I +am confident, have far rather been the son of Mrs. Myrtle, the kind old +housekeeper at the Rectory. + +"We are a doomed race, Peter," he once said to me, not long after we had +made friendship with one another. "Generation after generation of us +have sinned and sinned. The Corsicans have their family feuds +transmitted to them, but they are hostile only to their fellow men; the +Heaths have ever fought against Heaven itself. Each successor to the +title seems to have said, like the descendants of Tubal Cain-- + + 'We will not hear, we will not know, + The God that was our father's foe.' + +There is the Church," said he, pointing to that glorious pile, which, at +Fairburn, was almost a cathedral in magnitude and beauty, "and there is +the Hall. They are antagonistic; they are devoted to opposite purposes. +I tell you, yes; our family residence is consecrated to the devil." + +I am afraid I could not help laughing at this singular notion. + +"Nay," cried he, looking round him furtively, "but you shall see that it +is so." We were in the Rectory garden, which communicated with the +churchyard by a wicket. He led the way into it; and in a distant corner, +upon the north side of the chancel, he showed me a sombre +burying-ground, separated from the rest of the God's acre, and +imprisoned in dark purgatorial rails. "Do you know why we are all put +there," asked he, "instead of with the other--Christian--folks?" + +"You are too proud to lie with the poor, perhaps," returned I, who had +still that idea in my mind with regard to Marmaduke himself. + +"No," said he; "it is not that--it is because the Heaths will not be +buried in consecrated ground." + +"But you have a family vault underneath the chancel, have you not?" + +"Yes; but it is not 'snug lying.' None of us have been put there since +old Sir Hugh, in Queen Anne's time. When they opened the vault for him, +they found his father's coffin with its plate to the ground. It had +turned over. The witty parson would have it that it was only natural +that it should have done so, since its tenant, during life, had fought +alternately for Parliament and King, and was addicted to changing +sides. Bat when Sir Hugh's successor demanded lodging in the place in +his turn, they found Sir Hugh's coffin had turned over likewise. The +circumstance so terrified the dead man's heir--who had not been on the +best terms with him during life, and perhaps thought he owed him some +amends--that he swore his father should not lie in such restless +company; and as the late baronet had been at feud with the then rector, +he determined to dispense with any assistance from the church at all, +and buried him in an adjoining field, which was subsequently made the +last resting-place of all our race, as you perceive. The burial service +is dispensed with, of course. It would be mere mockery to address such +words as Hope and Faith to the corpse of a Heath of Fairburn." + +"My dear Marmaduke," said I, "you make my very blood run cold. But +surely you exaggerate these things. Some of your people have been +Catholics, and been buried in their own chapel at the Hall, have they +not?" + +"Only one of them," replied the boy with bitterness. "My +great-grandfather, Sir Nicholas, abjured his infidelity, and became a +papist, in order to secure his bride. He turned the chapel into a +banqueting-hall, however, and used the sacramental plate in his unholy +revels; but after death, the priests got hold of him at last, and 'Nick +the Younger,' as he was called, now lies under the altar which he so +often profaned. The beginning of his funeral ceremonies was not +conducted so decently as the last rites. He had got outlawed, I believe, +or, at all events, was driven abroad in his latter days, and died there. +Nobody at Fairburn had heard of him for many months, when one October +night, as Oliver Bradford, who is now the head-keeper, but was then a +very young man, was watching in the home-preserves, he heard a terrible +noise in the high-road, and making his way out, came upon this +spectacle: two men in black, and upon black horses, rode by him at full +speed, and close behind them came a hearse-and-four, likewise at the +gallop. The plumes upon it waved backwards, he says, like corn, and all +the black trappings of the thing fluttered and flapped as it went by. +Another man on horseback, singing to himself a drunken song, closed this +horrid procession. It moved up towards the village, and Oliver listened +to it until the noise seemed to cease about opposite to the Park gates. +The solitary witness, frightened enough before, was now doubly +terrified, for he made sure that what he had seen was the news of Sir +Nicholas's decease, brought over in this ghastly and characteristic +fashion. He did not for a single moment imagine that it was a palpable +vision; and yet he had seen a veritable funeral pass by. The old baronet +had died in France, leaving directions, and the money to carry them out, +that his corpse should be taken at night, and at full gallop, through +every town that lay between Dover and Fairburn.--Alive or dead," added +Marmaduke grimly, "the Heaths are a charming family." + +"At all events, my dear fellow," said I, laying my hand upon his arm, +"you will have nothing to fear from comparison with your forefathers. +You may make a good reputation at a cheap price.[1] A very little +virtue will go a great way with the next tenant of Fairburn Hall, if +half the tales we hear be true." + +"And what tales are those?" inquired a deep, low voice at my very elbow. + +I believe I jumped a foot or two in the air myself, so great was my +alarm. But as far my companion, if those grass-grown tombs which we were +contemplating had given up their wicked skeletons before his eyes, he +could not have exhibited a greater excess of terror. + +Beside me stood a man of Herculean proportions, who by his dress might +have been taken for an under-gamekeeper, but for a very massive gold +chain which hung from the top button-hole of his waistcoat down to its +deep-flapped pocket. What is now, I believe, called an "Albert guard," +resembles it on a smaller scale; but at the time I speak of, such an +ornament was altogether unique. His face, too, evidently belonged to one +who was used to command. On the forehead was a curious indented curve +like the letter U, while his lip curled contemptuously upwards also, in +somewhat the same shape. The two together gave him a weird and indeed a +demoniacal look, which his white beard, although long and flowing, had +not enough of dignity to do away with. I had never heard Sir +Massingberd's personal appearance described; but even if I had not had +before me his shrinking nephew, I should have recognized at once the +features of Giant Despair. + +"And what tales are those which are told against the present tenant of +Fairburn Hall?" reiterated the baronet, scanning me from head to foot +with his cold glittering eyes. "And who is this young gentleman who +comes to listen to them from the lips of my loving ward?" + +"Sir," said I, "your nephew was saying nothing whatever against you, I +do assure you. I was merely referring to the gossip of the village, +which, indeed, does not make you out to be entirely a saint." I was +angry at having been frightened by this man, who, after all, could not +hurt <i>me</i>. I had been accustomed, too, to Indian life; which, without +making one bolder than other people, indisposes one to submit to +dictation, which is only the duty of the natives. + +Sir Massingberd reached forth one iron finger, and rocked me with it to +and fro, though I stood as firm as I could. "Take care, young gentleman, +take care," said he; "that spirit of yours will not do down at Fairburn. +Mr. Long does not seem to have taught you humility, I think. Marmaduke, +go home." He spoke these last words exactly as a man speaks to his dog +who has injudiciously followed him to church on Sunday, in the hope that +he was bent on partridge shooting. + +The boy instantly obeyed. He shrank away, passing as closely to the +churchyard railing as he could, as though he almost feared a blow from +his uncle. + +"There is humility, there is docility!" sneered the baronet, looking +after him. "And if I had <i>you</i> up at the Hall, my young bantam, for four +and twenty hours or so, I'd make you docile too." He strode away with a +laugh like the creaking of an iron hinge, for he saw that I did not dare +to answer him. He strode away over the humble graves, setting his foot +deep into their daisied mounds as though in scorn; and his laugh echoed +again and again from the sepulchral walls, for it was joy to Sir +Massingberd Heath to know that he was feared. + + +[1] I am told by an able friend, who is good enough to revise for me +this manuscript, that it is not likely that a mere boy, as I then was, +would have made such an observation as the above. I do not doubt that +this remark is altogether just; but I am afraid it will apply to so much +else in this narrative, that it is scarcely worth while to make an +alteration. I am not used to literary composition; I cannot weigh +whether this or that is characteristic of a speaker. I am merely a +garrulous person, who has, however, such a striking story to tell, that +I trust the matter will atone for the manner. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DREAM BY THE BROOK. + + +Although my story must needs be sombre wherever it has to do with that +person whose name it bears, yet I hope there will be found some sunny +spots in it. During the first few months after my arrival at Fairburn, +there was nothing to sadden life there that I knew of. I passed my days +under green leaves, and not only in a metaphorical sense; for every fine +afternoon, immediately after study was over, I betook myself to the +Park. The whole place was watched as zealously, even in summer, as the +gardens of the Hesperides, but Mr. Long had obtained permission for me +to roam at large therein. To me, vexed from childhood by Indian suns, +Fairburn Chase--as that part of the demesne most remote from the Hall +was called--was far more delightful than it could have been to any mere +English boy. Its stately avenues of oaks, tapering into infinite +distance, with their checker work of beam and shade, was the realization +of my dreams of forest beauty. Nor was its delicious coolness marred by +the broad strips of sunlight, at long but equal distances, like the +golden stairs of the Angels' Ladder; for those, I knew, marked the +interlacing of "the Rides", themselves as fair, and leading, not as the +avenue did, to the outer world, but into secret bowers known only to the +deer and me. + +When Marmaduke was not with me, which often enough happened, poor +fellow, and particularly after that unfortunate meeting with his uncle +in the churchyard--the whole Chase seemed abandoned to myself. I dare +say it was not really so, and that if I had not been a privileged person +I should soon have found out my mistake, but for days and days I never +saw any human being there. Now and then the figure of a gamekeeper, +dwarfed by distance, would make its appearance for a moment, to be lost +the next in some leafy glade. But the sense of solitude was thereby +rather increased than otherwise, just as the poet tells us in a case +where the ear and not the eye was concerned, "the busy woodpecker <i>made +stiller</i> by his sound the inviolable quietness." Lying couched in fern, +in that lordly pleasure-place, I have myself entertained some poetic +thoughts, although they never found expression. Even now, as I shut my +eyes, I make an inward picture of some such resting-place; nothing to be +seen but the long green feathery stems which the summer air just stirs +about my brow, and the broad branches of the oak that stretch themselves +motionless between me and the sun; nothing to be heard but the coo of +the ring-dove, and the swift stealthy bite of the dappled deer. Nor did +Fairburn Chase lack water to complete its beauty. In front of the Hall +itself moved a broad slow stream, which presently slid rather than fell +down ledges of mossy stone into a wilderness of trees and shrubs, +through which it wandered on like one who has lost his way, but singing +blithely nevertheless. Another stream, which was my favourite, burst +spring-like from the very heart of the Chase, having been artificially +conveyed beneath the avenue, and ran quite a little river, and at a +great rate, to form the island where the herons lived; after which, as +though it had done its work, it went its way tranquilly enough: If it +had nothing to boast of but the heronry it might have been a proud +little brook, for never did colony of those solemn birds take their sad +pleasure in a more lovely spot; but besides it had a certain bend in +it--essential to the beauty of a brook as straightness is to that of a +tree--which I have never seen rivalled elsewhere. Its right bank rose +there, though not abruptly, and left half its bed of brown sand and +loose tinkling shingle bare to the sunlight, save so much of it as the +shade of a cluster of lime trees could cover. Here the bee and the bird +brought their songs, and the dragon-flies the glory of their turquoise +armour and glittering wings throughout the summer noons. The cool +fragrant smell of the limes, and the drowsy music of the insects that +haunted them, were inexpressibly pleasant to me, who, I am afraid, had +not a little of the Asiatic indolence in my nature. Sometimes a group +of swans sailed by on the unruffled stream, themselves a slumbrous +pageant fit enough to herald sleep; but at all events, swans or no +swans, I often did sleep there. One July afternoon, in particular, when +the heat was almost as intense as at Calcutta, and no punkahs to cool +one, I went to this place with malice prepense to lie there and do +nothing, which, from my youth up, has always been synonymous with a +<i>siesta</i>. I cannot do absolutely nothing, and yet keep awake. I very +much admire the people whom I often meet in railway carriages, who +endure, without books or newspapers, hundreds of miles of weary travel, +and who do it with their eyes open. I wonder they do not break out into +a melody, or at least a whistle. They cannot possibly be thinking all +that time, and indeed they have no appearance of employing themselves in +that way, but "stare right on with calm eternal eyes," with no more +speculation in them than those of the sphinx herself. I envy, but I +cannot imitate those happy persons. There is no such state of coma with +me; I either wake or sleep. + +I lay, then, beneath the limes by the brook in Fairburn Chase, +half-buried in the soft brown sand; and even while I looked upon the +glancing stream, with the grand old willow opposite, that bent its hoary +honours half-way o'er, the scene dissolved and changed; the brook became +a river, and the willow a palm-tree, and the Chase a sandy tract, and +the fir-clump on the distant hill the snow-capped Himalaya. I saw, +too--and, alas! I was never more to see them, except, as then, in +dreams--my father and my mother; but they passed by me with pitiful, +loving looks, and went their way. Then the ayah, the black nurse who +was watching over me--for I was once more a child--stole down to the +river-brink, and drew a fluted dagger from her bosom, and dipped it in +the sacred flood, and I felt that I was to die. I knew her well; we two +had loved one another as nurse and child do love, where the nurse +perforce takes half the mother's part; as the child grows up, his +affection, at the best, congeals to gratitude; but not so with the +breast that suckled him--God forgive us men; and the pain of my dream +was sharpest because it was my own dear ayah who was about to slay me. I +had offended Vishnu, or else she would not have done it; her gods +demanded my life of her; but she was sorry; I felt her cold lips upon my +brow, and then a large round tear fell upon my cheek like icy hail, and +I awoke. There was a tumult of sounds in the air; the birds, and the +bees, and the bubbling wave, silent while I had slept, seemed to have +burst out together in chorus at my waking. I was bewildered, and knew +not where I was. My dream was more distinct at first than the realities +about me. If I had but closed my eyes again, I knew that it would be +continued at the spot where it had left off, that the fluted dagger +would have drunk my life-blood; and therefore I made an effort to rouse +myself. Wondrous are dreams, and wondrous the borderland 'twixt life and +sleep! If my existence had depended upon it, I could not, for some +seconds, have told for certain whether I was in England or in India. +Then reason began to reassume her sway, and the vague mysterious powers, +of whom we shall one day perhaps have a more certain knowledge, withdrew +reluctant from their usurped dominion over me. I remembered, however, +most distinctly every incident that they had brought about, and I +placed my hand mechanically upon my left cheek--I had been lying upon my +right--upon which the tear had seemed to fall. Great Heaven, <i>it was +still wet</i>! I was really startled. The cloudless sky forbade the idea of +a drop of rain having fallen; I had shed no tear myself while dreaming, +for my eyes were dry, and even if I had, it could scarcely have dropped +as it did, making a cool round spot in the centre of the cheek--it would +have slid down and left a little frigid line: there were no stones for +the stream to splash against and thus besprinkle me. + +It was very odd. Still, I did not imagine for a moment that my poor +black nurse had really come across the seas to drop the tributary tear +upon her sleeping boy; moreover, she could scarcely have got away so +suddenly without leaving some trace of her departure, some...--My heart +all of a sudden ceased to beat; a shiver ran through me, as runs from +stem to stern through a doomed ship that comes end on at speed upon a +sunken rock; my eyes had fallen--while I thus reasoned with myself--upon +a sight to terrify an older man than I, after such a dream; <i>the print +of a woman's bare feet in the sand</i>. Had there been any +footprints--those of a keeper or watcher, for instance--I should have +been startled to know that some one had passed by while I slumbered, for +most certainly the sand had been untrodden up to the moment I had lost +consciousness; but that a woman with naked feet had been really present +while I dreamed that horrible dream, was something more than startling. +In Scotland such a circumstance would have been less remarkable, but in +Fairburn I had not yet seen any person without shoes. There were a +considerable number of footprints, but only of one individual: she had +stood beside me for some time, for they were deeper close to the place +where I had lain, and there was also one impression there which looked +as though the mysterious visitor had knelt. They had come and returned +the same way, which was not the one that I had come myself, and they +began and ended at the stream-side a few yards beyond, and out of sight +of the bend which was my favourite haunt. The woman had doubtless +crossed and recrossed by means of some natural stepping-stones that +showed their heads above water; there was no path on the other side, but +only a tangled thicket, through which it would have been impossible to +track her, even had I been so disposed, which I was not. To say truth, I +was terribly discomposed. For a minute or two I clung to the notion that +the footprints were my own, made, perhaps, under the influence of +somnambulism. I took off my shoes, and measured the tracks with my own +feet, but I found, boy as I was, that mine effaced them. They were +certainly the marks of a woman; smaller than those of a grown male, yet +firmer set than those of a child. Never since the days of Robinson +Crusoe was ever man so panic-struck by footprints in the sand as I. +Although it was broad daylight, and the air was alive with sounds, I +fairly trembled. The many evil stories which, during my short stay at +Fairburn, I had already heard of the old Hall, a corner of which I could +discern from where I stood, crowded in upon my brain; the whole demesne +seemed under a malign influence--enchanted ground. I turned from the +spot, whose lonely beauty had once so won my soul, with fear and +loathing; and as I turned, there rang out--it may have been from the +thicket across the stream, but the echoes took it up so suddenly, that +it seemed to ring all around me--a laugh so terrible, so demoniacally +mocking, that I could scarcely believe it came from mortal throat. Again +and again it rose, and circled about, as though it would have headed my +fleeing steps, and driven me back upon some dreadful Thing, while I fled +through the fern towards home at my topmost speed, and the white-tailed +rabbits scampered to left and right, less frightened than I. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE DUMB WITNESS. + + +A sentiment of shame prevented my mentioning the affair of the +footprints to my tutor; and as for Marmaduke, although we were by this +time very intimate, I would not have furnished him with a new occasion +for detesting Fairburn Chase upon any account. Not only, however, was my +favourite haunt by the brook become an object of aversion to me, but I +confess I took much less delight in any part of the Heath demesne. I +kept my eyes about me, even in the great avenue, and upon the whole +preferred the rector's little garden, if at any time I had a mind for +sleeping out of doors. + +"Meredith," observed Mr. Long to me one morning--he called me "Peter" +generally, but when he had anything serious to say it was +"Meredith"--"it appears to me that you don't take nearly so much +exercise as you used to do. Your appetite is failing. I am really +concerned about you." + +"Thank you, sir, I am pretty well." + +"Nonsense, Peter, no boy should be 'pretty well;' he should be in the +rudest, vulgarest health, or else he is in a bad way. Your good father +advised me that if you seemed the least to need it, I should get you a +nag. It is Crittenden Fair next week. What say you to my buying you a +horse?" + +"Thank you, sir, that is just what I should like," cried I. "I am +certainly getting tired of walking about alone." And then I began to +blush a little, for of late rather than go into the Chase I had been +accompanying my tutor in his favourite diversion of fishing, which I +cared nothing about, or else in his parochial expeditions. + +"Don't be afraid to speak out, my boy," said Mr. Long, with a kind +smile, "you will not hurt my feelings. You and I are very good friends, +but you want somebody of your own age to be your companion. Isn't that +it? And very natural too. No young gentleman, except in story-books, +enjoys the society of his tutors. Even Sandford and Merton got a little +tired of good Mr. Barlow, I fancy, he was so desperately full of +information. You want a fellow who can shy stones and climb trees." + +"No, sir, indeed I don't," said I, a little indignantly; for I was +getting too old, I flattered myself, for any boyish escapades of that +sort, "But I do wish that Marmaduke was allowed to come out with me a +little more. Would not Sir Massingberd let him have a horse also?" + +Mr. Long shook his head, and was silent for a little; then, as if in +continuation of his thought, he added, "And yet, I don't know, we'll go +over to the Hall and see about it this very morning." + +"<i>I</i>, Sir?" inquired I in astonishment; for I had never set foot in +Doubting Castle, or seen it from any nearer spot than the Heronry. + +"Did I say 'we'?" said Mr. Long, reflectively. "I didn't mean to do so, +but I really see no reason why you shouldn't come. You would wait a +considerable time if you waited for an invitation from Sir Massingberd, +but--Tush, if poor Marmaduke lives there, and yet remains a good boy, +half an hour's visit will not be the ruin of the lad." The latter part +of this remark was uttered aloud, although intended to be strictly +private, which was not an uncommon occurrence with my worthy tutor, and +I have noticed the same peculiarity in other persons of studious habits. +He led the way into the road at once, pursuing which, under the park +wall, we presently came upon a little door, which my tutor opened with a +private key. This admitted us into the wall-garden, or, as it was +sometimes called, from the quantities of that fruit which it contained, +the peach-garden. An enormous area was here entirely given up to the +cultivation of fruits; in the centre were strawberry-beds, gooseberries, +melon-beds, the glasses of which dazzled you to behold; and raspberries +upon trellis-work, on so extensive a scale that it looked like a maze. +The northern end was occupied by an enormous green-house, which, in +those days was rather a rare adjunct, even to a rich man's garden. But +the most surprising sight was that of the walls covered with +spread-eagled fruit trees, or as schoolboys then called them, +"Lawk-a-daisies," laden with the most exquisite dainties--peaches, +nectarines, apricots, and bloomy plums. A number of men were busily +employed about this teeming scene. + +"Why do they say Sir Massingberd is poor?" inquired I. "Is not all this +his?" + +"Yes; it is all his." + +"Well, but what valuable fruit, and what enormous quantities of it! Why, +he would make a large income, even if he was to sell it." + +"He does sell it," replied my tutor, smiling. "Nineteen out of twenty of +all these peaches will find their way to Covent Garden. Why, how could +he eat them, you foolish boy? Even if he gave them away to all +Fairburn, he would introduce the cholera." + +"A baronet and a market gardener!" exclaimed I. "Well, that seems very +odd." + +Mr. Long did not choose to inform me at that time that almost all the +income Sir Massingberd had was drawn from this source, and from the +selling of game, with which his great preserves were overflowing. The +staff of gardeners and of keepers was retained mainly upon this account. +In the interest of Marmaduke, Mr. Clint, the family lawyer, did, I +believe, contribute a certain annual sum for keeping up the gardens and +the Chase; but this was by private arrangement, and at his own risk and +responsibility. Thus it was that while some parts of the Fairburn +demesne were as admirably maintained as possible, others were suffered +to fall into decay. Just as we emerged from the wall-garden, for +instance, there was a small artificial hollow planted with trees, and +within it, peering above ground, a thatched roof covered moss and +mildew, and with great gaps and holes in it. This was the ice-house--in +these Wenham Lake and Refrigerator days an almost obsolete building, but +in the time I write of considered a necessary appendage to every country +seat. Next we entered an arcade of immense length, which the noonday +rays would have striven in vain to penetrate, but for the spaces where +the trellis-work had given way through age and neglect, and the ivy +trailed down from rusted nails, and obstructed the way. Seats were +placed in niches at unequal intervals upon one side of this arcade; but +they looked very unattractive, damp, wormeaten, cracked, and here and +there with a slug upon them, making slimy paths. Yet from one of these +alcoves there started up, while we were still a long way off, a female +figure, and stood for a moment looking at us in great surprise. Above +her happened to be one of those broken portions of the leafy roof, and +through it the sunlight poured right down in a golden flood, as a glory +sometimes does in ancient pictures. A tall dark woman, who must have +been exquisitely beautiful in her youth, and even now retained +considerable attractions; her eyes were large and lustrous, and her +hair--never even in India had I seen hair more dark, or so luxuriant. It +was not rolled tight at the back in a great pillow, as was then the +fashion, or, indeed, confined in any way, but streamed down over her +shoulders, and far below that place where it was the pleasure of our +ancestresses to consider that their waists occurred. She cast upon us at +first a glance haughty and almost defiant, but upon recognizing my +companion, quenched her fiery looks. + +"Stop here, my lad," whispered Mr. Long, laying his hand firmly upon my +shoulder; "wait till she has gone away." + +The woman saw the gesture, although she could not have heard the words. +"I shall not bite the boy, Mr. Long," cried she with a shrill laugh; +"however, I will make myself scarce." She took a few rapid steps to an +opening on the right of the arcade, which led to the lawn and +flower-garden, and was lost to us in a moment. + +"I did not know there were any ladies at the Hall," said I. + +My tutor did not answer, but walked on muttering to himself as if +annoyed. I did not repeat the remark, for I was wondering within myself +whether it could be this woman who had watched my sleep and knelt by me +dagger in hand, according to my dream. She looked just the sort of +female to drive such an instrument home, if she entertained that +fancy--a Judith, equal to the slaying of any Holofernes, and far more of +a slight built, overgrown Indian lad like me. There was certainly +something uncanny about her, and I thought it very strange that +Marmaduke had never spoken to me of her existence. + +The arcade brought us out into a sunk garden, which was a rosary, on to +which opened the tall windows of a noble-looking room. The walls, I +could see, were lined with books, and on the numerous tables lay +portfolios and volumes that gave promise of great store of plates. This +was the library where Marmaduke had told me he passed his only happy +hours at Fairburn. His uncle rarely so much as entered it, although he +was not without some reputation for learning. In particular it was said +that he was well acquainted with divinity, and could quote chapter and +verse of the Bible against the parson. I have since had reason to +believe that his talents in this way were greatly exaggerated. What he +had ever read he doubtless recollected, if his memory served him as well +in literary matters as when he had a grudge to pay; but I cannot think +that he ever studied divinity. If he had any knowledge of the Bible at +all it doubtless astonished all who knew him, and they made the most of +it. + +A few steps further brought us to the north face of the mansion, in +which was the principal entrance. Notwithstanding the broad sweep in +front of the steps, and the avenue branching right and left, there did +not seem space enough as contrasted with the vast mass of trees. The +scene was like a clearing in a forest, where the openings are +artificial, and the wood comes by nature rather than the converse, and +even in that September day the air struck chill. The griffins that +guarded the great stone steps had lost, the one an ear, and the other a +wing, and the steps themselves were chipped and cracked. The grass which +grew there unchecked at other seasons, had however been scraped out, +because Sir Massingberd's guests were expected immediately for the +shooting. None of them, however, had as yet arrived. The great bell +which answered our summons clanged through the place as though there had +been neither furniture nor people within it. The vast door was opened +long before its echoes ceased, and indeed with marvellous quickness. +When the man saw who we were, he looked vexed at having put himself in a +flurry without necessity. He thought doubtless it was his master who +demanded admittance, and had come post haste from the pantry, it being +very dangerous to keep the baronet waiting. We were ushered into the +great hall, and left there while the man went to seek Sir Massingberd. +This huge apartment was evidently used as a sitting-room. There were +couches and comfortable chairs in profusion, and a fine aroma of tobacco +pervaded everything. The walls were ornamented with antlers and the +heads of foxes; a number of fishing rods stood in one corner; in another +lay some of those clubs that are used for exercising the muscles. On the +table was an open pocket-book, stuck full of gorgeous artificial flies. +Presently the man reappeared. Sir Massingberd would see us in his +private sitting-room. We walked over polished oak, on which I could with +difficulty keep my footing, down a long passage hung with grim portraits +of the Heath family--"all dead and judged," as Marmaduke subsequently +informed me--until we came to a short flight of steps on the left hand; +these we descended, and following the footsteps of our conductor, in +almost perfect darkness, came upon double doors, the inner of which, a +baize one, admitted us into the presence of the proprietor. The baronet +was in his shirt-sleeves, cleaning a double-barrelled gun. + +"This is my pupil, Peter Meredith," said Mr. Long. + +"<i>I</i> know the young gentleman," replied Sir Massingberd, curtly, and the +horse-shoe upon his brow contracted as he spoke. "What makes you bring +him here?" + +"Well, Sir Massingberd," observed my tutor, forcing a laugh, "that is +scarcely a hospitable observation. I bring this friend of your nephew's +because what I have to propose concerns them both. It is good for these +boys to be together, not to live solitary lives; and to keep them mewed +up at home, as they are now, is a positive cruelty. Marmaduke is getting +thinner and paler every day; and Meredith--" + +"Do <i>you really</i> think so, parson?" asked the baronet eagerly, omitting +for a moment to use the dirty-looking piece of oiled flannel which had +previously monopolized his attention. + +"I do, indeed, Sir Massingberd. I believe that if a doctor was to give +his opinion about that boy--" + +"The Heaths never send for doctors, or for clergymen," interrupted the +baronet, with a sneer. + +"And yet they have often needed advice, both spiritual and temporal," +quoth my tutor, stoutly. "I say you should get a horse for your nephew's +riding; it need be no trouble to you whatever. I am going over to +Crittenden Fair next week myself to purchase one for my pupil; now, let +me get one for your nephew also." + +At first Sir Massingberd's countenance expressed nothing but angry +impatience, but presently he began to rub the gun-barrel less and less +violently. "And who is to find the money?" inquired he. + +"I think that can be managed, Sir Massingberd. Mr. Clint will doubtless +listen to such an application on behalf of Marmaduke; he will risk +advancing a few pounds--" + +"For thirty-five guineas one can get a very good pony," observed the +baronet, reflectively. + +"Or even for less," returned Mr. Long, drily; and then, to my excessive +terror, he added in quite as loud a key, "He wants to keep the +difference; that's his plan." + +"And he means to do it, too," observed Sir Massingberd grimly. "No, you +needn't apologize, parson, for your thinking aloud; you don't suppose I +am going to do anything without being paid for it, do you? Then there's +the keep of the animal. Now, what will Mr. Clint allow me for that, do +you suppose? Oats and beans are very expensive, and you wouldn't have me +feed my dear nephew's pony upon hay!" + +Sir Massingberd was a formidable object at all times, but I really think +he inspired more fear when he was pleased--when some wicked notion +tickled him--than even when he was in wrath. + +"I think, Sir Massingberd, the question of expense can be managed to +your satisfaction," said my tutor, not a little overwhelmed by having +thus involuntarily expressed his suspicion of the baronet; "and, as I +have said, I will save you all trouble by selecting the horse myself." + +"Certainly not, sir," exclaimed Sir Massingberd savagely; "I suffer no +man to choose my horses for me." + +"Very good," replied Mr. Long, biting his lip. "I have only to +stipulate, then, that if your nephew gets the horse, he is to ride it. I +shall have to make myself answerable for that much to Mr. Clint." + +"Oh, he shall ride it," quoth the baronet, with a horrid imprecation; +"you may take your oath of that. And by the by, since you are here, +parson, I want to have some talk with you about that same fellow Clint, +who has been behaving devilish ill to me, I think. You may go away, +young gentleman, <i>you</i> may. You'll find your future riding companion--he +has about as much notion of riding as old Grimjaw yonder--sulking in his +own room, I dare say. Grimjaw, show the young gentleman up to +Marmaduke's room." + +At these words a dog of horrible aspect came out from under the very +sofa on which I sat, and trotted off towards the door. He was the oldest +and ugliest dog I ever beheld. He had only one eye, which was green; he +had no teeth, and was therefore not to be feared as a combatant; but his +aspect was loathsome and repulsive to the last degree. The people of +Fairburn imagined this animal to be Sir Massingberd's familiar demon, +and, until of late years, when the creature had become incapacitated by +age from accompanying him much, the two were scarcely ever seen apart. +Old as he was, however, the hideous Grimjaw had some instinct left, +which, after the word "Marmaduke" had been once more shrieked at him, +caused him painfully to precede me up the oak staircase, and along +another gallery to a chamber door, at which he sat and whined. This was +immediately opened by his young master, who, with a "Come in, Grim," +was only giving sufficient space for the entrance of the dog, when I +cried out, laughing: "What, have you no welcome for your friend? Like +uncle, like nephew! What a pair of curmudgeons inhabit Fairburn Hall!" + +The astonishment of Marmaduke at hearing my voice was excessive. +Notwithstanding his pleasure, his first thought, as usual, was: "Did Sir +Massingberd know?" + +"Yes," said I coolly; "of course he knows. He received me down-stairs +with his usual politeness. Mr. Long and he are conversing upon some +private matters, so I came up here to see you. It is arranged that each +of us is to have a horse, and that we are to go out riding together." + +"A horse! Oh, impossible!" exclaimed Marmaduke, clapping his hands. +"How did the good parson ever persuade my uncle? What <i>did</i> he give +him?" + +I could not help laughing at this naïve inquiry, which my friend had +made in perfect seriousness. I told him all that had occurred, including +our tutor's <i>vivâ-voce</i> soliloquy, at which Marmaduke cried "Heavens!" +in terror. + +"It is marvellous, notwithstanding, that my uncle should have +consented," observed my companion, musing. "He told me, indeed, that I +should be a great nuisance in the house this month, while his friends +were down here shooting; but that he should have entered into an +arrangement which gives me pleasure as well as gets rid of me, that +seems so very strange." + +"He has doubtless some base motive," returned I smiling: "let us console +ourselves with that reflection. But what have we here? Water-colour +paintings! Why have you never told me you were an artist?" + +"I merely amuse myself with the paint-brush. I have had no lessons, of +course, so that my perspective is quite Chinese." + +"Nay, but I recognize almost all these scenes!" + +"Well, you know, I have been nowhere else but at Fairburn, so that it is +from thence I must take my subjects. The one you have there is taken +from the bend in the stream beyond the Heronry." + +"It is admirable," said I; and indeed it was so like the scene of my +dream, that it gave me a shudder. + +"Would you like to have it," replied Marmaduke carelessly. "You may take +any that the portfolio contains. I only wish they were more worth your +acceptance." + +"Thank you," said I nervously. "I will certainly take this one, then;" +and I rolled the sketch tightly up, and placed it in my pocket. "But +here is a pretty face! Why, Master Marmaduke, you have your secrets, I +see; you have never mentioned to me this young lady. What beautiful +hair! The eyes, too, how glorious, and yet how tender! It is surely not +the lady whom we just met in the ar--" + +"Silence, sir!" cried Marmaduke, in a voice of thunder. His face was +lurid with rage, and for the first time I remarked upon his forehead a +faint reflection of the horse-shoe that made so terrible the brow of his +uncle. "Do not speak of that wretched woman in the same breath with, +with--" He did not complete the sentence, but added in his usual soft +musical tones: "Pardon me, my friend; I am sorry to have been so hasty; +but that picture is the portrait of my mother." + +"It was stupid in me not to have known that at once," said I. "The +likeness is most remarkable." + +"But not the expression," returned he sadly. "I know that just now I +looked like one of my own race. She was always an angel, even when she +was upon earth." And the boy looked up with his hands clasped, as though +he beheld her, through his tears, in heaven. + +"Did you paint that from a picture, Marmaduke?" + +"No, from memory. Sleeping or waking, I often see her sweet face." + +I had evidently raised by my thoughtlessness a long train of melancholy +thoughts in my companion. The situation was embarrassing, and I did not +know how to escape from it. As often happens with well-intentioned but +blundering persons, I made the most inopportune remark that could be +framed. Forgetting what I had heard of the infamous treatment which +Mrs. Heath had received while under her brother-in-law's roof, I +observed: "Your mother was once at Fairburn, was she not? That should at +least make the Hall more endurable to you." + +Again Marmaduke's handsome face was disfigured with concentrated +passion. "Yes, she was here," returned he, speaking through his teeth. +"For what she suffered alone, the place would be cursed. Coward, +scoundrel! Why does God suffer such men to live?" It was terrible to see +how like this young lad grew to the man he was execrating. He went on +using such language as I could not have conceived him capable of +employing. + +"Marmaduke," said I, soothingly, "for Heaven's sake, be calm. Providence +will one day reward this man; it is not for you to Curse him. Come, now +that I pay you a visit for the first time, you should play the host, +and show me over the mansion. Why, that queer old dog seems to +understand what one says; he rises as though he were the châtelain, and +kept the keys of Doubting Castle. He brought me here as true as a blind +man's cur. I cannot say, however, that he is beautiful; he is hideous, +weird." + +"It would be strange, indeed, if he were like other dogs," returned +Marmaduke gravely. "He is the sole living repository of a most frightful +secret. If he could but speak, he could perhaps send a man to the +gallows." + +"What man?" exclaimed I. "Pray explain to me this mystery." + +"I do not know what man," returned my companion solemnly; "I only +conjecture. I will relate to you what is known of the matter, and you +shall judge for yourself." + +Marmaduke opened the door, to see that no one was in the passage +without, and then seating himself close beside me, commenced as +follows:--"My grandfather and the present baronet lived on bad terms +with one another. For the last ten years of his life, Sir Wentworth and +his eldest son never met--but once--if they met at all. He had been very +profligate and extravagant in his young days; but in his old age he grew +miserly. When my father saw him last, it was in a small house in Bedford +Place, in London, where he lived in a couple of ill-furnished rooms, and +without a servant. Grimjaw and he slept there alone, but a charwoman +came in every morning for a few hours. Sir Wentworth then gave it as his +reason for this kind of life, that he was retrenching, in order to leave +some suitable provision for his second son. 'Look here, Gilbert,' said +he upon one occasion to my father; 'I have begun to lay by for you +already; and he showed him a quantity of bank-notes, amounting to +several thousand pounds. He had never been an affectionate parent, or +exhibited any self-denial for the benefit of his sons; and my father did +not believe him. He thanked him, of course; but he came away without any +idea that he would be really better off at Sir Wentworth's death. This +was fortunate for him, for he never received a farthing; but I am not so +certain as he was that the baronet did not intend to do what he +promised. While the old man was living in this sordid fashion, his son +Massingberd was passing his time very gaily at court. He played high, +and there were few who could beat him with the cards--but there were +some. It is no use being a good player, you see, unless you are the +best; you only win from those whom you can beat, to lose it in your turn +to the man who can beat you. Thus it was with my uncle, who played, as +I say, high with everybody, but highest, as is often the case, with his +superiors in skill. However, he paid his debts of honour with money +raised at an enormous sacrifice. He lived well, but it was upon his +future prospects. At last, being harder pressed than usual, he wrote to +his father--the first letter he had penned to him for years--and +demanded pecuniary help. + +"Sir Wentworth wrote back a cynical, harsh reply, a copy of which I have +seen--for all these details came out in the course of the inquest. He +bade his son come to call upon him, and judge from his style of living +whether he was in a condition to comply with his request. He appointed a +day and an hour--about five o'clock. It was in December, and quite dark +of course by that time. At six o'clock on the appointed day, Sir +Massingberd--for he had got his title by that time, whether he knew it +or not--called at the police-station near Bedford Place, and gave +information that the house which his father occupied was shut up, and +that he could not obtain admittance, although he had arrived there by +appointment. The house was always shut up they told him, although not +untenanted; they could not explain why his summons had not been +answered. A couple of policemen accompanied him to break open the door. +While they were thus engaged, a dog howled at them from inside. My uncle +had made no mention of having heard this before. There was only one lock +to force, the door being neither bolted nor chained, and they soon got +in. The only two furnished rooms in the house opened upon the hall. In +the sleeping room they found my grandfather dressed, but lying on the +bed quite dead--suffocated, as the surgeons subsequently averred. In +the sitting-room, with which it communicated, they found this dog here, +crouching on the top of the mantel-piece, which was very lofty. How he +got there, nobody could tell; if he leaped thither, even from a chair, +it must have been in an agony of terror. He was whining pitifully when +they entered; but upon seeing my uncle, he ceased to whimper, and +absolutely seemed to shrink into himself with fear. Poor Grimjaw could +give no witness at the inquest, however; so the jury returned an open +verdict. It was probable that Sir Wentworth had had a fit of apoplexy, +which carried him off." + +"Well," said I, "and is not that probable enough?" + +"Yes; but it could not have carried off the bank-notes--which were all +gone---likewise. Could it Grimjaw?" + +Thus appealed to, the ancient dog set up a quavering howl, which might +easily have been mistaken for the cry of an accusing spirit. + +"Good Heavens! this is too horrible," cried I. "Be careful, Marmaduke, +that you do not mention this to others. It is a frightful slander." + +"Slander!" returned my companion calmly. "It is you who slander, if you +suspect anybody. I have only told you what everybody knew at the time +the mur...--well, then, when Sir Wentworth had his fit. The thing +strikes you as it does me, that is all." + +"But is it not inconceivable," urged I, "if the crime was committed by +the person we are thinking of, that he should retain this dumb witness +of his atrocity, that he should let it live, far less should keep it in +his private sitting-room--" + +"No!" interrupted Marmaduke firmly. "On the contrary, it strengthens my +suspicions. You do not know the man as I do. It gives him gratification +to subdue even a dog. This creature has no love for my uncle; but its +excessive terror of him, which endured for months, nay, years, has +gradually worn off. He obeys him now; whereas, as I have been told, it +was long before it could do anything but shiver at the sound of his +voice. After dinner, when I have been sitting with Sir Massingberd +alone, he will sometimes give the dog a biscuit, saying with an awful +smile: "Here, Grimjaw; you and I know something that nobody else knows; +don't we?" + +"Great Heavens!" cried I in horror; "and what does he do that for?" + +"Because," replied Marmaduke bitterly, "he loves to see me tremble." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE STATE BEDROOM. + + +Marmaduke had scarcely concluded his narration, when steps were heard in +the passage. I daresay I turned pale at the thought of seeing the man of +whom I had just heard such frightful things, for my companion observed, +as if to reassure me, "It is only Mr. Long." + +"Are you quite sure?" said I. + +Marmaduke smiled sadly. + +"Do you think that I do not know my uncle's step? I should recognize it +amongst a score of others. If he overtook me in a crowded street, I +should feel that he was coming and shudder as he passed beside +me...--Pray, come in, sir." + +"Well," cried my tutor, entering, radiant with, his good news, "no more +moping at home, my lads; you are to be henceforth cavaliers--you are to +scour the country. Boot and saddle! boot and saddle! Your uncle will not +trust me to get you a steed, Marmaduke; there are none good enough for +you, it seems, at Crittenden; he is going to send to London for an +animal worthy of you. But never mind, Peter; you shall have the best +mount that can be got in Midshire, and we will pit the country nag +against the town." + +My tutor's voice revived me like a cordial: after the morbid horrors I +had been listening to, his cheery talk was inexpressibly grateful, as +the dawn and ordinary sounds of waking life are welcome to one who has +suffered from a nightmare. + +"I was just about to show Meredith the Hall," said Marmaduke. + +"Well it is time that we should be at our work, like good boys," +observed Mr. Long, consulting his watch; "but still, for one morning, it +does not matter, if you would like to stay, Peter." + +"I would rather go home, sir," cried I, with involuntary eagerness. I +was sorry the next moment, even before I saw the pained expression of my +young companion. + +"He has had enough of Fairburn Hall already," said he, bitterly. Then +his face softened sadly, as though he would have said: "Am I not, +therefore, to be pitied, who pass every day and night under this +accursed roof?" + +"Come," exclaimed Mr. Long, gaily, "I do not believe, Master Meredith, +in this new-born devotion to your books. Let us go over the house +first. I will accompany you as cicerone, for I once knew every hole and +corner of it--a great deal better, I will venture to affirm, than the +heir himself here." With these words he led the way into the passage. + +"Every chamber on this floor is the facsimile of its neighbour," said +Marmaduke: "since you have seen mine, you have seen all--an immense bed, +a piece of carpet islanded amid a black sea of oak, a cupboard or two +large enough to live in, and shepherdesses, with swains in ruffles, +occupying the walls." There was, indeed, no appreciable difference in +any of the rooms, except with regard to their aspect. + +"When I first came to Fairburn, I slept here," continued Marmaduke, as +we entered an apartment looking to the north, "and had that long +illness, which you doubtless remember, sir. Heavens, what dreams I have +had in this room! I have seen people standing by my bedside at night as +clearly as I see you now. They called me delirious, but I believe I was +stark mad." + +"I remember it well," said Mr. Long, "although I did not recollect that +you occupied this room. How was it that you came to change your +quarters?" + +"Oh, the doctor recommended the removal very strongly. Sir Massingberd +said it was all nonsense about the look-out from my window, and that the +east was as bad as the north for a boy in a fever; but he was obliged to +give way. And I certainly benefited by the change. The Park is a much +more cheerful sight than that forest of firs, and one is glad to see the +sun, even when one cannot get out of doors. At all events, I had no +such evil dreams." + +"Yet this is what always used to be held the state-chamber," replied my +tutor. "Charles I. occupied that bed while he was yet king; and before +your ancestor, Sir Hugh, turned Puritan--a part he was very unfitted to +play--it is said he used to swear through his nose. Peter the Great, +too, is said to have passed a night here. Your dreams, therefore, should +have been historical and noteworthy. I forget which of these smiling +Phyllises is so complaisant as to make way when you would leave the room +without using the door." + +Two full-length female portraits were painted in panel, one on either +side of the huge chimney-piece; a circlet of roses carved in oak +surrounded each by way of frame. Mr. Long advanced towards the one on +the right, and touched the bottom rose; it did not move. He went to the +other, and did likewise; the rose revolved in his fingers, and +presently, with a creak and a groan, the whole picture slid sideways +over the wall, disclosing a narrow flight of wooden stairs. + +"That is charming," cried I. "That is the 'Mysteries of Udolpho' +realized. Where does it lead to, Marmaduke?" There was no answer. Mr. +Long and I looked round simultaneously. The lad was ghastly pale. He +stared into the dusty, gaping aperture, as though it had been a grave's +mouth. + +"I do not know," he gasped with difficulty. + +"Not know?" cried my tutor. "Do you mean to say that you have never been +told of Jacob's Ladder? The foot of it is in the third bookcase on the +left of the library door; the spring is somewhere in the index to +"Josephus." It is evident you never attempted to take down that +interesting work, which in this case is solid wood. The idea of your not +knowing that! And yet Sir Massingberd is so reticent that, with the +exception of Gilmore, the butler, I dare say nobody <i>does</i> know it now. +It is twenty years ago since I made Phyllis move aside, to the +astonishment of Mr. Clint, who came down here on business with poor Sir +Wentworth. I dare say nobody has moved her since." + +"Yes, yes," cried Marmaduke, passionately; "my uncle has moved her. +Those visions were not dreams. I see it all now. He wanted to frighten +me to death, or to make me mad. When I knew the door was fast locked, he +would come and stand by my bedside, and stare at me. Cruel, cruel +coward!" + +"Hush, hush, Marmaduke; this is monstrous--this is impossible!" cried +Mr. Long, endeavouring to pacify the boy, who was rocking himself to and +fro in an agony of distress and rage. "See how you terrify Peter! Be +calm, for Heaven's sake! Your uncle will hear you presently, and you +know how he hates to be disturbed." + +At the mention of his uncle, Marmaduke subdued his cries by a great +effort, but he still sobbed and panted, as if for breath. + +"Oh," moaned he, "consider how I came hither from my dead mother's arms +to this man's house--my only living relative, my father's brother--and +was taken ill here, a mere child; then this wretch, this demon, my host, +my...--Oh, Mr. Long, could you conceive it even of a Heath? He came up +to my lonely room by that secret way, and stood without speaking by my +pillow, while I lay speechless, powerless, imagining myself to be out +of my mind!" + +"I do remember now," said my tutor, gravely, "how you harped upon that +theme of your evil dreams, and how the doctor thought you were in +reality losing your reason. Let us be thankful, however, that you were +preserved from so sad a fate; you are no longer a child now; Sir +Massingberd can frighten you no more, even if he had the wish. It was a +wicked, hateful act, whatever was the motive. But let us forget it. In a +few years you will be of age; then you will leave the Hall; and in the +meantime your uncle will annoy you no more. It will be his interest to +make a friend of you. Even now, you see, he provides you with the means +of enjoyment. You will ride out with your friend whenever you please; +and I will take measures so that you shall be more with us at the +rectory, and less at this melancholy place, which is totally unfit for +you. Mr. Clint shall be spoken with, if necessary. Yes, yes," added Mr. +Long, reversing the rose, and thereby replacing the shepherdess, but +quite unaware that he was still speaking aloud, "there must be a limit +to the power of such a guardian; the Chancellor shall interfere, and Sir +Massingberd be taught--" + +"Nay, sir," cried Marmaduke in turn; "for Heaven's sake, let no +complaint be made against my uncle upon my account; perhaps, as you say, +I may now meet with better treatment. I will be patient. Say nothing of +this, I pray you, Meredith. Mr. Long, you know--" + +"Yes, I know all," interrupted my tutor, with excitement. "You have a +friend in me, Marmaduke, remember, who will stick by you. I have shut my +eyes and my ears long enough, and perhaps too long. If things get worse +with you, my lad, do not forget that you have a home at the rectory. +Once there, you will not return to this house again. I will give +evidence myself; I will--" + +"Thank you, thank you," replied Marmaduke, hurriedly. "All will now be +well, doubtless; but my uncle will wonder at your long delay--he will +suspect something. I think it will be better if you left." + +He led the way down the great staircase, throwing an involuntary glance +over his shoulder, as we crossed the mouth of the dark passage leading +to the baronet's room. "This is a wretched welcome, Meredith; some day, +perhaps, I may take your hand at this Hall door under different +circumstances. Good-by, good-by." + +And so we parted, between the two grim griffins. + +"Peter," said my tutor, gravely, as we went our way, "whatever you may +think of what has passed to-day, say nothing. I am not so ignorant of +the wrongs of that poor boy as I appear to be; but there is nothing for +it but patience." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HEAD OVER HEELS. + + +I obeyed my tutor and my friend in keeping all I knew regarding Sir +Massingberd to myself; but the knowledge weighed heavily upon my spirits +for several days. Soon, however, my mind recovered its youthful +elasticity. I began to think that Marmaduke's morbid disposition had +perhaps exaggerated matters; that the baronet was not so black as was +painted; that my friend would soon be his own master; and, in short, I +laid all that flattering unction to my soul which is so abundant in the +case of the misfortunes of others, and so difficult to be procured when +the calamity is our own. Moreover, in a few days I was in possession of +an excellent horse, and there is nothing more antagonistic to +melancholy--especially when it is vicarious--than a good gallop. Nay, +more, after a little, Marmaduke had a horse also. He came to call for +me, that we should go out for a ride together the first day, and I shall +not easily forget it. How handsome and happy he looked! As if the +high-conditioned animal he bestrode had imparted to him some of his own +fire and freedom, he wore scarcely any trace of his habitual depression. +"This is our 4th of July," said he gaily; "my day of independence, as +the rebels say!" + +It happened to be his birthday also, he was seventeen, so that all +things conspired to make it a gala-day. My tutor, who was a judge of +horseflesh, examined the new steed with great attention. "He is superb," +said he, "and you sit him, Marmaduke, considering your scanty +experience, like a young centaur. No one could imagine that your +equestrianism had been heretofore limited to a keeper's pony; and, +moreover, Oliver's ponies are not apt to be very high-couraged. But what +a tight curb has this Bucephalus! He will not give you much trouble to +hold him. So-ho, so-ho, my nag! Are you a hypocrite, then, that you need +be so alarmed at being inspected?" The sleek bay plunged and curveted, +so that my own sober brown began to dance in rivalry. "By the by," +continued Mr. Long, as though a sudden thought had struck him, "I have +occasion to visit Mr. Jervis of the farm at Staplehurst some day this +week; if it is the same to you, let us go there to-day; it will be an +object for your ride, while I shall have the pleasure of your company." + +In a few minutes, my tutor's old white mare was brought round to the +Rectory door by the gardener, who was groom and butler also, and we set +out together at a foot's pace. Mr. Long never took his eyes off the bay, +and therefore did not observe Sir Massingberd, who, with his huge arms +resting on a gate by the roadside, watched us pass with a grim smile. +"Well, parson," exclaimed he--and at the sound of his voice I perceived +my tutor start in his saddle--"what think you of the little Londoner?" + +"I cannot say at present, Sir Massingberd," returned my tutor with +deliberation. "He is a beauty to look at; and if he has no vice, is a +bargain at five-and-thirty pounds." + +"Vice! Why should he have vice, man? A child might ride him for that +matter. I got him with the best of characters. But you'll never teach +those lads to ride if you are always at their stirrup-leather, like +this. Let them ride alone, and race together. Don't treat them like a +brace of mollycoddles. Why, at their age, I could have backed any horse +in Christendom without a saddle. I wonder you don't give Miss Marmaduke +a leading-rein." + +The colour, which had faded from the lad's cheeks, returned to them +again at this sneer; but Mr. Long only remarked: "If you had had a +leading-rein yourself, Sir Massingberd, at seventeen, it would have been +a great deal better for you," and rode on without the least +consciousness, as I believe, of having made any such observation. + +When we had advanced about a mile, and had left the village quite behind +us, my tutor expressed a wish to change horses with Marmaduke. + +"I want to try his paces," said he; and certainly, if he had been a +horse-breaker by profession, he could not have taken more pains with the +animal. He trotted, he cantered, he galloped; he took him into a field, +and over some fences; he forced him by a wind-mill in full work; and, in +short, he left no means untried to test his temper. In the end, he +expressed himself highly satisfied. "Really," said he, "Sir Massingberd +has got you a first-rate steed, with plenty of courage, yet without +vice; he makes me quite dissatisfied with my poor old mare." + +The next day, and the next, we rode again without my tutor; and on the +fourth day it was agreed that we should take an expedition as far as +Crittenden, some ten miles away, where Mr. Long wished us to do some +commissions for him. By this time, Marmaduke was quite accustomed to his +recent acquisition; enjoyed the exercise greatly; and since Sir +Massingberd was much engaged with his guests, passed altogether more +agreeable days. On the afternoon in question, the Hall party were out +shooting, and had taken with them all the stable domestics except a raw +lad who scarcely knew how to saddle a horse. + +"I cannot think what is the matter this afternoon with 'Panther'" (we so +called his skittish animal), exclaimed Marmaduke, as he rode up to the +Rectory door. "I could scarcely get him to start from the yard, and he +came here mostly upon his hind-legs. Is there anything wrong with his +girths, think you? Ned did not know where to lay his hands on anything, +and my uncle has taken William with him to 'mark.'" + +"Nay," said I, "I see nothing the matter. We will soon take off his +superfluous energy over Crittenden Common." + +Long, however, before we reached that spot, we had had galloping enough +and to spare. Twice had Panther fairly taken the bit between his teeth +(as the romance-writers term it, and Heaven forbid that a mere sportsman +should correct them), and sped along the hard high-road at racing pace; +and twice had Marmaduke, by patience and hard pulling, recovered the +mastery, albeit with split gloves and blistered hands. It was not +enjoyment to ride in this fashion, of course, and had it not been for +the commissions which had been entrusted to us, it is probable that we +should have returned home. It puzzled us beyond measure to account for +the change of conduct in the bay. The difference was as decided as that +between a high-spirited child who requires, as we say, "careful +treatment," and a vicious dwarf: heretofore he had been frisky, now he +was positively fiendish. He shied and started, not only at every object +on the roadside, but before he arrived at them. At the end of the high +table-land which is called Crittenden Common, and descends into the +quiet little market-town of the same name, there really was something to +shy at. A gipsy encampment, with fire and caldron, and tethered donkey, +which had been concealed in a hollow, came suddenly into view as we +cantered by; an old crone, with a yellow handkerchief in lieu of a +bonnet, and shading her beady eyes with her hand, watched with malicious +enjoyment the struggle between man and horse which her own appearance +had gone far to excite. In a very few moments, Marmaduke's already +overtaxed muscles gave way, and the bay, maddened with resistance, and +released from all control, rushed at headlong speed down the steep +chalk-road that led by many a turn and zigzag into Crittenden. It was +frightful to watch from the summit of this tamed precipice--this cliff +compelled into a road--the descent of that doomed pair. No mule could be +surer footed than was Panther, but the laws of gravitation had +nevertheless to be obeyed. At the second turning, the bay, after one +vain effort to follow the winding of the road, pitched, head first, down +the grassy wall which everywhere separated the zigzags from one another; +over and over rolled horse and rider to the hard road below, and there +lay, their horrible and abnormal movements exchanged for a stony quiet. +I jumped off my horse, and ran down the two steep slopes, which at +another time I should have descended hand over hand. Yet on my way I had +time to think with what sorrow this news would be received at Fairburn +Rectory, with what joy at the Hall! Marmaduke's hand still held the +rein, which I disentangled from it with feverish haste, lest that +four-footed fiend, which snorted yet through its fiery nostrils, and +glared defiance from its glazing eyes, should arise and drag the dear +lad's corpse among the cruel stones. After what I had seen of his fall, +I had scarcely a hope that he was alive. There was blood at his mouth, +blood at his ears, blood everywhere upon the white and dazzling road. +"Marmaduke, Marmaduke," cried I, "speak, speak, if it be but a single +word! Great Heaven, he is dead!" + +"Dead! no, not he," answered a hoarse, cracked voice at my ear. "He'll +live to do a power of mischief yet to woman and man. The devil would +never suffer a Heath of Fairburn to die at his age." + +"Woman," cried I, for it was the old gipsy crone, who had somehow +transported herself to the spot with incredible speed, "for God's sake, +go for help! There is a house yonder among those trees." + +"And why should I stir a foot," replied she fiercely, "for the child of +a race that has ever treated me and mine as though we were dogs?" + +"Because," said I, at a venture, "you have children yourself." + +"You are right," exclaimed she, clapping her skinny hands together, and +seating herself calmly on the turf. "It is well that you have mentioned +my kith and kin. One lad is across the seas, and will never see the +green lanes and breezy commons of England more; another lies caged in +yonder jail--and both for taking the wild creatures of the earth and +air, to which such men as Massingberd Heath lay claim; while my little +sister--ah, my Sinnamenta, my fair pearl!--may the lightning strike him +in his wickedest hour! nay, let him perish, inch by inch, within reach +of the aid that shall never come, ere the God of the Poor takes him into +his hand!--Boy, you may talk to that flintstone, and it will rise up and +get you help for that lad there--bonny as he is, and the bonnier the +worse for them he sets his wilful eyes on--before you get this hand to +wag a finger for him." + +"Woman," said I, despairingly, "if you hate Massingberd Heath, and want +to do him the worst service that lies in your power, flee, flee to that +house, and bid them save this boy's life, which alone stands between his +beggared uncle and untold riches." + +"Is it so?" cried the old woman, rising up with an agility for which no +one would have given her credit, and looking at me with furious eyes. +"Is it indeed so, boy?" + +"Yes, woman, upon my soul!" + +Revenge accomplished what pity had failed to work. In an instant, she +was with me down by Marmaduke's side; from her pocket she produced a +spirit-flask in a leathern case, and applied it to his lips: after a +painful attempt to swallow, he succeeded; his eyelids began tremulously +to move, and the colour to return to his pallid lips. + +"Keep his head up," cried she, "and give him another drop of this, if +assistance does not arrive within five minutes." + +Before she had finished speaking, she had lifted the latch of the gate +that opened from the road into the grounds of the house in question, and +in another instant I was alone--alone with what I believed to be a dying +man, and surrounded with the blood that had flowed in a mingled stream +from him and the dead horse, for Panther had ceased to move--alone with +recollections and anticipations scarcely less horrible than the visible +scene; and yet, so strangely constituted is the human mind, that I could +not forbear to glance with some sort of curiosity at the flask the gipsy +had left with me, and to wonder exceedingly that its worn and tarnished +top of silver bore upon it a fac-simile of one of those identical +griffins which guarded each side of the broad stone steps that led to +Fairburn Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +AT THE DOVECOT. + + +After an interval, which doubtless appeared much longer than it really +was, there issued from the gate a groom and butler, bearing between them +a small sofa, and accompanied by a young and lovely girl. The scene that +presented itself was enough to shock persons even of strong nerves, and +I hastily exclaimed, "The young lady had better not see this." But she +came on nevertheless. + +"I am not afraid of blood," said she, "and perhaps I may be of use." +Then she directed her servants how to handle the wounded man; and when +he was gently lifted on to the couch, she applied a handkerchief dipped +in Eau-de-Cologne to his forehead, and walked by his side regulating the +pace of his bearers, like some Miss Nightingale of a generation and a +half ago. "Let him be placed in your master's room, James: and then take +my pony, Thomas, and ride as fast as you can for Dr. Sitwell; and as you +come back--but think of nothing but bringing the doctor first--call at +the nursery-garden for your master; he said he should go there about +those roses." And some other directions she gave, as the men moved on +with their ghastly burden, like one who knew the value of time. +Notwithstanding this presence of mind, her anxious eyes betrayed that +she was not wanting in sensibility, and with every groan which the +motion of the fitter extracted from the sufferer, her own lip quivered. +I dare say that I saw nothing of her exceeding beauty at that dreadful +time; but while I write of Lucy Gerard now, a vision of surpassing +loveliness perforce presents itself before me. A tall, lithe, graceful +form; a face, nay, rather a soft, sad smile overspreading and pervading +every feature--a smile that I never saw surpassed save on her own fair +countenance after Love had taken her sweet soul captive--a smile the +reflex of all good and kindly thoughts that dwelt within. There are some +so great and noble that they smile, where other good folks can only weep +and wail; the true sympathizer with human griefs wears no lugubrious +aspect; the angels smile when they weep over human wretchedness--they +know that it is only for a little while, for that the gates of heaven +are standing open very, very near; and some such knowledge, or happy +faith, seems to influence the best of mortals, or how should they go +smiling through this world? + +So Marmaduke was carried along the gravel-drive, and across a little +flower-studded lawn, to the room in Mr. Gerard's house which was called +the master's room, it being half a sleeping-chamber, and half a library, +which Lucy's father used both night and day. This was so evident from +the appearance of the place, that when I had, with James' help, put +Marmaduke to bed there, where he lay breathing heavily, but quite +unconscious, I went to the young lady of the house, and expressed my +apprehension that my poor friend, being in that apartment, would cause +additional inconvenience in the household. + +"I understand," said I, "that it is Mr. Gerard's room." + +"Ah, sir," said she, with a glance of pride more becoming, if that were +possible, than even her ordinary modest look, "you do not know my +father. When I say that it will give him the greatest pleasure to find +that his favourite room has been of service to your friend, I use a +conventional phrase which literally expresses what he will feel Please +to forget that there is anybody in this house but yourselves; it is only +right that sickness should be considered before health; though, alas! +every room to those who are ill is but an hospital. This little +drawing-room, which your glance tells me you think pretty, with its +conservatory and fountain, and the rest, my poor young sister was very, +very weary of before she died, on yonder sofa, after fourteen months of +the gay prison." + +Her voice trembled as she spoke, and I thought I detected in it that +shade of bitterness with which some affectionate persons speak of the +sufferings of those they love, as though they would almost arraign that +Providence for unnecessary harshness, which might inflict any misery +upon, themselves without evoking one impatient thought. + +"Then you are left all alone here, Miss Gerard. With such a sad +reminiscence, this spot must--" + +"Alone!" interrupted she, with astonishment. "What! when I have my +father? See, he is coming through the shrubbery now, and Dr. Sitwell +with him. Let us meet them. How glad I am that he has lost no time." + +It was easy to distinguish the doctor, with his cane, his ruffles, and +stiff professional appearance, a little impaired, however, by hot haste; +moreover, his companion indicated him with his finger as we rapidly +approached one another, exclaiming, "This is your man, young gentleman; +don't waste one word on me at present." + +So, rapidly detailing what had happened as we went, I took the man of +physic to Marmaduke's bedside. As we entered the room, and first caught +sight of his pale features distorted with pain, my companion stood for +an instant aghast. "Great Heaven!" murmured he, "I thought the horse had +trodden upon the poor lad's forehead; but now, I see it is an old scar." + +"No," returned I; "it is not a scar; it is only a mark which in moments +of pain or anger comes out more distinctly than at other times. All the +Heath family have it. This is Mr. Marmaduke Heath, the nephew of Sir +Massingberd." + +"Indeed--indeed, sir!" exclaimed the doctor with an accession of +sympathy. "Dear me, how sad! What a fine property to risk losing at his +time of life. But the eye, you see, gives us hope; the brain has +suffered but slightly. He has not been sick, you say--not been sick; he +has not been sick, sir." + +It was the worthy doctor's habit to reiterate his last sentence in an +arrogant manner, as though he had been contradicted on a matter of fact, +while in reality his mind was entirely occupied by quite other thoughts. +Thus, at the present speaking, he was engaged in manipulating +Marmaduke's head, and examining his ribs and limbs with the greatest +attention. I waited for his verdict in anxious silence, and presently it +was delivered. "It is my opinion, sir, that the young man will live to +be a baronet." + +Life and Death, the immortalities of Heaven and Hell, were matters that +had but small space in Doctor Sitwell's mind compared to this +all-important futurity; he was accustomed to <i>them</i> in connection with +the merest paupers and persons of no sort of consequence; but it was not +every day in the week that a gentleman of Marmaduke's condition was +pitched on his head within the Crittenden doctor's professional orbit. + +"Mr. Marmaduke Heath must be kept perfectly quiet; he must not be moved +from hence upon any consideration--it may be, for weeks. What science +can do, through my humble agency, shall be done for the young gentleman; +but rest and quiet are essential. Sir Massingberd should be sent for +instantly; the responsibility upon my shoulders would otherwise be too +great. He will doubtless yearn to be by the bedside of his beloved +nephew. You had better arrange with Mr. Gerard for this being done, as I +have my round to make, which to-day is all-important. The Hon. Mrs. +Flinthert--widow of the late admiral, you know--she requires constant +supervision; nature has to be supported; but for brandy, she must have +sunk before this. Then Mr. Broadacres, who lives Fairburn way--by the +by, that is a very curious case. However, my post is here, of course, +until my assistant arrives, who will remain in my absence. You may leave +your friend now without the least anxiety. When he awakes to +consciousness, you shall be sent for--you shall be sent for, sir." + +Upon this, I returned to the drawing-room to give a much more cheerful +report of the patient's case than I had ventured to anticipate. I found +our host issuing orders for his comfort and attendance, as though he had +quite made up his mind to make him his guest for a lengthened period. A +noble-looking gentleman he was, as like his daughter as an old man can +be to a young girl. Harvey Gerard's face was wrinkled neither by years +nor care, though marked here and there with those deep lines which +indicate the Thinker--one whom the gods have placed above the drudgery +of life, with a disposition to philosophize--a man among men rather than +of them, who stands apart from the high-road somewhere half-way up the +hill of Fortune, and watches the toilers above and below with a quiet +but not cynical smile. "The news you bring me of our patient, Mr. +Meredith," said he, "is most welcome; but I think we should still lose +no time in communicating with his friends." + +"That is also the opinion of Dr. Sitwell, sir; he, too, recommends that +my poor friend's nearest relative should be sent for; but in +circumstances of this kind, it would be wrong not to say at once that +that relative and the invalid here are on the worst of terms, and that +his coming would most certainly aggravate any bad symptoms, and retard +his cure." + +"I am sorry to hear," returned Mr. Gerard, gravely, "that the young +gentleman is not on good terms with his own flesh and blood; that is a +bad sign." + +"However that maybe, sir, generally," replied I, with warmth, "it is not +so in this instance. Mr. Long, the rector of Fairburn, and tutor to my +friend, will certify to his being a most well-conducted and excellent +youth. His uncle, however, Sir Massingberd Heath--" + +"I will not have that person under my roof," interrupted Mr. Gerard, +"under any circumstances whatsoever." This he said without the least +trace of irritation, but with a firmness and decision which left me +nothing to apprehend upon Marmaduke's account. Then turning to his +daughter, as if in explanation, he added, "The man I speak of, my love, +is a wicked ruffian--worse than any poor fellow who has ever dangled +yonder outside of Crittenden jail." + +Miss Gerard did not answer except by a look of gentle remonstrance, +which seemed to me to murmur, "But, dear papa, for all we know, this +gentleman may be a friend of his." + +I hastened, therefore, to observe with energy, that Mr. Gerard's view of +the baronet's character was a perfectly just one, as far as I knew, or, +if anything, rather lenient. I recommended that Mr. Long should be +apprised of what had happened, and that he should give Sir Massingberd +to understand that while his nephew was receiving every attention at the +Dovecot--for so I had learned the house was called--its doors were +immutably closed against himself. It was not a pleasant task to impose +upon the good rector, but it was a necessary one; for, independently of +Mr. Gerard's determination, I felt it was absolutely essential to +Marmaduke's life that his uncle should be kept away from his bedside. If +in health his presence terrified him, how much worse would it be for him +in his prostrate and perilous condition! It was arranged, too, that I +should remain to look after my sick friend, and the messenger was +instructed to bring back with him all that we required from the Rectory +and the Hall. Mr. Long arrived at the Dovecot late that same afternoon, +in a state of great anxiety. He had come away almost on the instant +after receiving the news of Marmaduke's mis-chance, and without seeing +Sir Massingberd, who had not yet returned from shooting; but he had left +a letter for him, explaining the circumstances as well as he could. "My +only fear," said he, after visiting his pupil, who still lay in a +lethargic slumber, "is that he will come here immediately, and insist on +seeing his nephew--a desire that would appear to be natural enough to +persons who are unacquainted with the circumstances." + +"Nay," said I; "but surely he cannot do this in the face of Mr. Gerard's +prohibition." + +"Ah, my boy, you do not know Sir Massingberd yet," observed my tutor, +gravely; "he will come where and when he will." + +"Nay," returned I; "but neither do you know Mr. Harvey Gerard. From what +I have seen of that gentleman, he understands how to say 'No,' and to +suit to the word the action. When the strong man armed keepeth his +house, his goods, including his sick guest, are in peace." + +"But where a stronger than he cometh," added the rector, shaking his +head, "what then?" + +"We shall see," said I, "what will happen. It is plain, at all events, +that our host is well aware of the sort of man with whom he has to deal. +Mr. Gerard is a most pleasant person, and his daughter is charming +beyond measure: they are far the most interesting people I have yet seen +about Fairburn. How is it I have never heard any mention of them?" + +"The Gerards have always lived a very retired life," returned my tutor. +"The old gentleman entertains, it is said, some strange opinions. In +fact, I have never met them myself but once, and that on some public +occasion; so you must introduce me, Peter." + +I had been watching for Mr. Long at the entrance-gate, and taken him +straight into Marmaduke's room upon his arrival, so that he had seen +neither our host nor hostess; and I thought it strange that my tutor did +not speak of them with more enthusiasm, after their great kindness to +Marmaduke; something evidently a little chilled his feelings towards +them. When he and Mr. Gerard met, I thought there was more cordiality +upon the part of the latter than of the former; the expression of Mr. +Long's gratitude was earnest, but not genial. His admiration of Miss +Lucy, although not to be concealed, was mitigated, as it seemed, by some +sort of compassion; he regarded her with a shade of sadness. Boy as I +was, it was evident to me that some antagonism existed between my +host--for whom I naturally entertained most kindly feelings--and my +respected tutor; and this troubled me more than I should have liked to +say. + +Miss Lucy presently left the drawing-room, and then I was continually +appealed to by one or the other, on various trifling matters, as though +they found a third party a relief to their conversation. At last Mr. +Long requested me to narrate particularly the circumstances of +Marmaduke's accident, and I did so, down to the period when I found him +bleeding on the road. + +"Well," observed my tutor, "I am totally at a loss to account for poor +Panther's behaviour. I confess, upon the first day I saw him, I did not +like the look of his eye: you remember, Peter, that I made Marmaduke +exchange horses with me, and endeavoured, by every means in my power, to +find out the peculiarities of the animal. I wish Sir Massingberd had +permitted me to choose a horse for his nephew myself, when I bought your +honest brown." + +"Sir Massingberd selected his nephew's horse himself, did he?" inquired +Mr. Gerard, carelessly. + +"Yes," replied my tutor; "he sent for him from town a few weeks ago. He +was a mettlesome frisky creature, it is true; but his curb was a very +powerful one, and seemed quite sufficient to subdue him." + +"Does Sir Massingberd himself ride when he is in the field?" observed +our host. "He must be a great weight for a shooting pony." + +"Well, if you had asked me yesterday, I should have said he almost never +rides; but it so happens that he did take the keeper's nag with him this +morning. His great stables are all empty now, for, as probably you are +aware, things are not kept up as they used to be at the Hall. Old Dobbin +is the only representative of the magnificent stud that was once +maintained there, now that Panther is dead. By the by, what has been +done with him?" + +"The carcass has been taken into the town," said Mr. Gerard. "He must +have been a fine creature." + +"His mouth, however, was of iron," said I. "Poor Marmaduke had no +control over him whatever, at last; he had almost pulled his arms off." + +"Notwithstanding the powerful bit?" observed Mr. Gerard. + +"Yes," replied my tutor; "the bit was not only powerful, I should have +almost called it cruel; but Sir Massingberd is a very good judge of all +things belonging to a horse, and seems to have known that, at all +events, no less was required. It was a town-made article, and came down +from London with the animal." + +"Ah, indeed," remarked Mr. Gerard. "But you have never told us, Mr. +Meredith, how you managed to give the alarm here, without leaving your +poor friend." + +I am ashamed to say I had never given the old gipsy crone a thought from +the moment that help arrived, although it was of her sending. + +"The very woman whose appearance frightened the horse, repaired, as far +as she could accomplish it, that mischief. She left in my hands, too, +this fine old case-bottle, of which I should be sorry to rob her; and +very curious is it that it has the Heath griffin, or some crest very +like that, upon its stopper." + +"It is the very crest," said the rector. "I am quite sure of that, +although it is long since it last saw plate-powder. It is but too likely +that the dark lady came wrongfully by it." + +"Let us not be hasty to impute crime," observed Mr. Gerard, gravely. +"This is a shooting-flask carried about the person; and gipsies are +rarely pickpockets. When the owner is at home, it lies in someplace of +safety; and gipsies are not burglars." + +"Ably reasoned," observed Mr. Long. "It may, however, have been a case +of 'findings, keepings,' as the school-boys say. I should think the +Cingari claimed for themselves all flotsam and jetsam." + +"It is too heavy, and has too much bulk, not to have been missed by him +who carried it as soon as it fell," continued Mr. Gerard, taking up the +flask. "It has but very little spirit left in it--see--and yet how--" + +Here the butler entered somewhat hurriedly, and was about to speak, when +a figure brushed by him, and set him aside. The daylight was beginning +to wane; but it was impossible to mistake that herculean form, and its +irresistible motion, even if I had not heard the harsh decisive voice +of Sir Massingberd saying, "By your leave, sirrah; but in this good +company I will announce <i>myself</i>!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +MEETING HIS MATCH. + + +Sir Massingberd's unlooked-for entrance into the drawing-room at the +Dovecot had a result that must seem almost farcical to those who read +it, but which to me, who dwelt among big trembling vassals, and had +learned, day by day, to fear and hate him more and more, had nothing in +it extraordinary. I, Peter Meredith, bolted straightway into the +conservatory, and there ensconced myself within the shadow of an +orange-tree, while the Rev. Matthew Long left the room with equal +celerity by the door. As for me, I confess that I was actuated by panic +on my own account; my tutor's apprehensions were aroused on behalf of +another. The instant after he disappeared, I heard the lock of the +library door shot into its staple, and knew that Marmaduke was in a +friend's keeping, and safe from any incursion of his uncle. I could see +that Mr. Gerard knew this too, for a gleam of pleasure passed over his +face, and then left it determined, defiant, and almost mocking, as when +he had first set eyes upon the intruder. There was a fire in the +otherwise darkening room, and from my place of concealment, I could +watch the lineaments of both its inmates--and two more resolved and +haughty countenances I had never beheld. + +"Is it the custom of your respectable family, Sir Massingberd Heath," +observed my host, "to force themselves into houses whose owners do not +desire the honour of their presence?" + +"It is their custom to hold their own, sir," answered the baronet +curtly; "and I am come after my nephew." + +It is impossible to convey the effect which this audacious speech had +upon me, its unseen hearer; unblushing, scornfully open as it was, an +awful threat seemed to lie within it, and above all, a consciousness of +the power to carry it into effect. Even Mr. Gerard, who could have had +no knowledge of the things that I knew, and had never heard the history +of Grimjaw, seemed to feel a tremor as he listened. + +"Your nephew, sir, is not in a condition to receive you," returned my +host. "The consequences of seeing you might, I do not hesitate to say, +be fatal to him." + +"The opinion of his medical man is different," observed Sir Massingberd +with a sneer. "Dr. Sitwell--a most estimable person, I should say, and +endowed with excellent sense--has been so very kind as to ride over +himself to Fairburn as soon as he could leave his patient, in order to +apprise me exactly how the matter stands. He recommends my seeing +Marmaduke in his first lucid interval--'There is no knowing,' said he, +'whether that may not be your poor dear nephew's last.'" + +"Your poor dear nephew," repeated Mr. Gerard, with great distinctness. +"Very dear, doubtless, but not what one would call poor, at least in the +matter of expectations." + +"Poor or rich, sir," retorted the other, "he has been placed in my hands +as being those most fitted to take care of him." + +Mr. Gerard shrugged his shoulders, and smiled sardonically. + +"You seem to conceive that confidence misplaced, sir," continued the +baronet. "The want of your good opinion afflicts me beyond measure. I +am aware that I fail to satisfy pious persons in some particulars, but +that Mr. Harvey Gerard's susceptibilities should be offended is indeed a +serious consideration; it is as though the devil himself should cry, +'For shame!'" + +"Sir Massingberd Heath, you are under my roof, although unbidden and +unwelcome," returned my host; "your tongue, therefore, is chartered, so +far as I am concerned. I could not, I confess, help my countenance +expressing some astonishment when you spoke of your fitness for the +education of youth." + +There was a pause here for which I could not account. Sir Massingberd's +eyes were riveted upon something on which the firelight danced and +shone. I should very much misrepresent the baronet's character, and +probably even exaggerate his capabilities, if I said he blushed, but +certainly his countenance changed. Then he broke out fiercely, "I live +as I choose, sir, and am answerable to no man, least of all to you. The +parsons had their say, and have got their reply long ago, but am I also +to be arraigned by--" + +"You cannot justify yourself by any quarrel with me," interrupted Mr. +Gerard. "I have, as you say, although not for the foolish reason you +would mention, no right to be either your judge or accuser. But, Sir +Massingberd, there is a God whom we have both good cause to fear." + +"So you make your own sermons, I perceive," exclaimed the other, +bitterly. "That is the reason, is it, why the good folks never see you +at church? Cant amuses me always; but religion out of your mouth is +humorous, indeed. Pray go on, sir, if my dear nephew can wait a little, +for I should be sorry to miss him altogether. You were affirming, I +think, the existence of a God." + +"I was about to urge," continued Mr. Gerard, with grave severity, "since +howsoever persons differ on religious matters, they generally +acknowledge a common Father, that if there is one crime more hateful to +Him than another, it is the deliberate debauchery of the mind of youth. +I had no intention of making any particular accusation, such as the +sight of this flask seems to have suggested to you. I know nothing--but +what I guess--of its history. It has only been in my hands a very few +minutes. The person by whose means it came into this house was, I +believe, an old gipsy woman, and you are, doubtless, well aware how it +got into her possession." + +Mr. Gerard paused. Sir Massingberd, who, though smiling scornfully, had +been beating the ground with his foot, here observed, with a forced +calmness, "She is a liar; she is a thief, and the mother of thieves." + +"Did she steal this flask?" inquired Mr. Gerard, regarding the other +attentively. "It has your crest upon it. She did not. Good. It was then, +I suppose, only a <i>gage d'amour</i> of yours." + +A lurid light came over Sir Massingberd's evil face; for a moment I +trembled for the man who dared to speak such words to him, but almost +instantly he recovered his usual cruel calm. + +"Your sagacity, Mr. Gerard," returned he, "is truly admirable. Is it the +result of experience or intuition? or has this old ginger-faced harridan +made you her favoured confidant? With your fondness for all such +vagabonds I am well acquainted." + +"The reprobation of a man like you, Sir Massingberd, should be dearer +than the praise of ordinary mortals; but this matter does not concern +myself in any way." + +The baronet muttered something between his set teeth. + +"Pshaw! man," continued Mr. Gerard, with unutterable scorn; "think not +to frighten <i>me</i>. I am stronger than you, because I am richer; you are +as poor as those very vagabonds whom you despise; your very existence +depends upon the alms of a stranger. That you are unscrupulous in your +revenges, I do not doubt; but you would have to deal in Harvey Gerard +with one who only uses honourable weapons with an honourable foe. If you +did me or mine a mischief, I swear to you that I would shoot you like a +dog." + +The frame of the speaker shook with contemptuous passion. Defiant as was +his language, it fell far short of the disdain expressed in his tone +and manner. It was not in Sir Massingberd's nature to be overawed, but +his truculent features no longer maintained their grimness--their cruel +humour. He could not put aside a man like Gerard with a brutal jest. I +do not say that he was conscious of his own inferiority, but he knew +that his opponent not only did not fear, but actually despised him. This +was wormwood. + +"I am ashamed," continued Mr. Gerard, after a pause, "to have lost my +temper with you, Sir Massingberd, upon my own account. I wish to have +nothing in common with you--not even a quarrel. We were speaking of this +gipsy woman, and you called her thief, and what not. Whatever may be her +faults, however, it does not become you to dwell on them; but for her +and her prompt assistance, your nephew would not at this moment be +alive. Out of this very flask she administered to him--" So frightful +an execration here broke from the baronet's lips that I anticipated it +to be the prelude to a personal assault upon my host. Mr. Gerard, +however, stood quietly stirring the fire, with his eyes fixed firmly but +calmly on those of Sir Massingberd, just as a mad doctor might regard a +dangerous patient. + +"That is a very singular exclamation of gratitude," observed Mr. Gerard, +sardonically, "to one who has just performed you--or at least +<i>yours</i>--so great a service. It really seems as though you almost +regretted that it <i>was</i> performed." + +A look of deadly hatred had now taken the place of all other expressions +on the baronet's face. It forgot even to wear its sneer. + +"I have been insulted enough, I think," said he, with a calmness more +terrible than wrath. "Even as it is, I shall scarcely be able to +requite you, though, be sure, I will do my best. But, with respect to my +errand, I am come here to see my nephew, and that I will do." + +"That you shall not do, Sir Massingberd, so surely as this house is +mine." + +"And who shall prevent me?" exclaimed the baronet, contemptuously +measuring his foe from head to foot. + +"Not I, sir, indeed," returned Mr. Gerard; "but I will see that my +servants put you out of doors by force," and as he spoke he laid his +hand upon the bell. + +"Before night, then, I shall send for Marmaduke, and he shall be carried +back to Fairburn, which, after all, is his proper home, and be there +nursed." + +"Nursed!" repeated my host, hoarsely. "Nursed by the grave-digger, you +mean." + +Sir Massingberd turned livid and sat down; then, as one who acts in his +sleep, he passed his handkerchief once or twice across his forehead. +"How dare you speak such things to me?" said he, looking round about +him. "To hear you talk, one would think that I had tried to murder the +boy." + +"I <i>know</i> you did," cried Mr. Gerard, solemnly, laying his finger upon +the baronet's arm. "If your nephew, Marmaduke, dies, his blood is on +your head." + +"On mine! how on mine? How, in the name of all the devils, could I have +hindered the lad's horse from running away with him?" + +"I will tell you how. You might have suffered Mr. Long to purchase a +horse for the boy, as he offered to do, and not have sent to London for +a confirmed run-away." + +"He rode it half a dozen times without any harm," replied Sir +Massingberd, sullenly. + +"Yes, with a curb that would have tamed a wild horse fresh from the +lasso. But when you took that curb for the keeper's pony, riding with +gun in hand for the first time in your life--and sent your nephew forth +upon that devil with a snafflebridle--nay, I have it yonder, sir--don't +lie; you calculated that if what you wished should happen all would be +laid to chance. A change of bridles is an accident like enough to +happen; lads are thrown from horseback every day. See, I track your +thoughts like slime. Base ruffian! rise; begone from beneath this roof, +false coward--" + +Sir Massingberd started up like one stung by an adder. + +"Yes, I say coward! Heavens! that this creature should still feel the +touch of shame! Be off, be off; molest not any one within this house, +at peril of your life--murderer--murderer!" + +Without a word, without a glance of reply, Sir Massingberd seized his +hat, and hurried from the room. I felt some alarm lest he should make +some violent effort to visit Marmaduke; but Mr. Gerard's countenance +gave me comfort. He stood quite still, listening with grim satisfaction +to the baronet's retreating footsteps. + +They were heard for an instant striding along the floor of the hall, and +then were exchanged for the sound of his horse's hoofs urged to speed +along the carriage-drive. Sir Massingberd Heath had met for once with +his match--and more. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MR. HARVEY GERARD. + + +So entirely engrossed had I been with the action and dialogue of the +speakers in the preceding scene, that it scarcely struck me while it was +going on that I had not paid for my place in the pit in the usual +fashion, but was a mere eavesdropper under an orange-tree. + +So soon as Sir Massingberd was really gone, however, I became conscious +of the impropriety of my situation, and not wishing to own what I had +done, I stole noiselessly out into the garden, and then re-entered the +conservatory, and thereby the drawing-room, as though I had been out of +sight and hearing all the time. It was not quite a chivalrous act; but I +do not think that the boys of my time, myself included, were quite so +honourable and frank as Mr. Tom Brown describes those of the present day +to be. There was something, moreover, about Mr. Harvey Gerard which told +me he would have loathed a listener, nor would have been very ready to +have accepted fear as any excuse for my conduct. He was a man of noble +bearing, nearly six feet in height, and extremely well formed. He was +dressed in a blue lapelled coat, light waistcoat and kerseys, and +Hessian boots. These last I had not seen before upon any person, and I +remember them well. I think they were the most graceful covering for the +leg that has yet been devised, although, I own, they may not have been +so convenient as the modern knickerbockers. He wore his own grey +hair--which was not very usual with persons of his rank of life--and +rather long. His features were large, but handsome; and there was a kind +of youthful blandness about them which gave his face a most agreeable +expression in ordinary. When excited by passion, however, as I had +lately seen him, his appearance greatly changed. His thin lips parted +contemptuously, and showed his threatening teeth, while his blue eyes, +gentle almost to dreaminess, became blood-streaked, and almost started +from their sockets. As I now beheld him calmly kindling a lamp on the +drawing-room table, no one could have been a greater contrast than +himself to the man who had just driven Sir Massingberd Heath from the +room with such a hail-storm of invective. + +"Well, young gentleman," exclaimed he, cheerfully, "the enemy is +repulsed, you see, although, I confess, your friend the baronet is +rather a formidable fellow. He's uncommonly like Front de Boeuf. I +daresay you have read the new romance of 'Ivanhoe,' have you not?" + +"Marmaduke has, sir, I believe," replied I; "but I am sorry to say I am +no great reader." + +"That is not well, Mr. Meredith; youth is the time for reading. A +knowledge of books, if they are sufficiently varied, is half-way towards +the knowledge of men. It is true that a student may turn out a fool, +because he may have been a book-worm; but the probability is greater of +that misfortune befalling one who has been 'no great reader.' I would +not say so much, if you were older than you are, and had not plenty of +time before you to redeem the past. There is nothing more contemptible +than ignorance; save, perhaps"--here he sighed--"than knowledge +misapplied. What a dangerous villain would that man be, for instance, +who has just been here, had his natural powers been cultivated by study. +As it is, he rushes headlong, like the bull." Here he turned upon me +gaily. "Did he ever toss you, my young friend?" + +"Well, sir," returned I, remembering that interview in the churchyard, +"he bellowed at me once a little." + +"Did he, my boy, did he?--the cowardly brute! Well, I've put a ring +through his nose for a considerable time to come, I flatter myself. I +<i>like</i> a bull-fight. I think I should have made a capital matador," +cried Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands and laughing. + +"How did you--how did you manage to <i>ring</i> him, sir?" inquired I, with +hesitation, for I was curious to see whether Mr. Gerard would make me a +confidant of what had passed. + +"Oh, I watched him carefully--never took my eyes off him for a moment. +When he was calm in his white malice, then I irritated him by waving my +red flag--this silver-headed brandy-flask put him in a horrible rage. +When he made his rushes, I stood aside, and let him go where he would. +When he had exhausted himself, I stepped in, and gave him the steel. I +wonder," soliloquized Mr. Gerard, aloud, as he slowly paced up and down +the room--"I wonder if it would be safe to give him the <i>coup de +grace</i>!" + +"But," said I, "were you not afraid--" + +"My dear young friend," said my host, with seriousness, but placing his +hand kindly upon my shoulder, "an honest man should never be afraid of a +fellow-creature. 'Fear God,' it is written; but even the king is only +to be honoured." + +It is impossible to express the grave and noble air with which Mr. +Gerard spoke those words: I felt such an affectionate awe of him from +that moment, as no other person has ever inspired within me. + +"But," continued I, "supposing he had made a personal assault upon you: +he is perfectly reckless, and a much more powerful man, I should think." + +"Very true, my young friend; and indeed at one time I thought he would +certainly have done it; that was why I placed the poker in the fire. It +would not have been a romantic action; but so sure as he laid finger +upon me, I would have played Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and 'burned a hole in +him one might put a kail-pat through.' It would have give me genuine +pleasure." + +"Burned a hole in Sir Massingberd!" cried I aghast. + +"Ay, that would I. As it was, I threatened him with my servants; and had +he ventured to force his way into yonder room, they should have flogged +him, though he were ten times Sir Massingberd. Better men than he are +often flogged for less offences. Did you hear of Admiral Flinthert's +funeral at Crittenden a month ago or so? You did; and I daresay you were +told that he was a good man and a brave sailor." + +"So it was said, indeed, sir," replied I. "Mr. Long attended the funeral +out of respect, and I believe a great number of gentlemen of the +county." + +"Yet, for all that, he was a bad man, and a coward," returned Mr. +Gerard, his voice rising, and his blue eyes flashing with indignation. +"One part of the naval creed--'to hate the French'--it is true, he did +believe, and acted in that faith; but he omitted the other, and the more +important, 'to hate the devil.' He loved and served the devil of his own +arrogant passions; he made the men miserable over whom he ruled; his +ship was called the Floating Hell. When the carriage of the +lord-lieutenant had driven away from the church, with all its load of +sympathy--for there was nothing else inside it--and the county gentry +were rolling homewards, congratulating themselves that they had paid due +reverence to a gallant officer and a friend of order and good +government, I will tell you what happened. The very evening those +honoured remains were laid in their resting-place, a sailor called at +the house of old Marks, the sexton, and begged to be shown the admiral's +coffin. 'I have sailed with him for years,' said he, 'and I have made +right away from Portsmouth on purpose to do this; and though I cannot +see his face, I should like at least to look upon that which contains +it.' + +"Now, old Marks did not fancy unlocking the church, and descending into +a damp vault; beside which, he had really no right to enter the last +home of the Flintherts without due occasion. So said he, 'I cannot admit +you to where the admiral lies, and certainly not at this hour; it is as +much as my place is worth.' + +"Then the sailor, who was as fine and hearty-looking a man, said Marks, +as need be, held up half a sovereign between his finger and thumb. 'I +have been just paid off,' said he, 'and will gladly give you this for +your trouble; while as for your scruples, why, don't you think the +admiral's family here, and all his great friends who came to do him +honour to-day, would be glad enough that a poor tar should pay a humble +tribute to his memory?' + +"'Well,' said Marks, regarding, I daresay, the half-sovereign, rather +wistfully, 'what you have just said seems certainly to alter the matter. +I will take you to the church, and you shall see the coffin, for the +vault is not yet sealed.' + +"So they started with a lantern, and Marks was for going first to show +the way, but the sailor went ahead, saying that he knew the road +blindfold, for that he had been brought up in that neighbourhood, and +knew it well. + +"'Well,' said old Marks, 'I thought I recognized something about you, +although you are much changed in the last twenty years. You are Will +Moody, who got into trouble with Sir Wentworth Heath about poaching; +only he couldn't quite prove it agin you.' + +"'No,' returned the sailor; 'but he went to work by a surer way than +even the law--he got me pressed when I went to visit my sister down at +Deal.' + +"That, my young friend," observed Mr. Gerard, interrupting himself, "is +a method by which not only we man our fleet, but rid the country of a +number of obnoxious persons."[1] + +"'Yes,' continued the sailor, 'I was pressed; if it had not been for +that I should not have sailed under Admiral Flinthert.' He spoke no more +till they had entered the church, and had moved away the stone, which +had been only dropped, and not yet fastened over the mouth of the vault. +Then they descended the steps, and old Marks turned his lantern on to +the spot where the first--that is, the latest--coffin of the long row +was lying. 'That is the admiral's,' said he; 'you may read his name upon +the silver plate.' + +"William Moody spelled it out aloud, so as to be quite sure. 'Well,' +said he, 'I will tell you a little story about that dead man, and then +we will come away.' + +"'Tell us the story when we get home,' replied the sexton. + +"'No, no, man; I will tell it here, else you would think ill of me, may +be, for what I am going to do. Now listen. For a long time after I was +pressed, I hated and detested what I had to do, and also those who gave +me my orders; but after a bit I got more used to the work, and some of +the officers I learned to like very well, especially our captain. I was +a strong active fellow, without home-ties to think upon and sadden me, +for mother had other sons to maintain her, and in that respect I was +luckier than most. There were pressed men on board of the same ship, +man, whose wives and helpless children were starving because their +bread-winner was taken from them, and who knew not whether he was dead +or alive. However, as I say, I soon got used to my new position, and +became so good a sailor that I was made what is called captain of the +main-top. When our ship was paid off, which was not, however, for a long +time, I liked the salt water so well, that after I had been home for a +little, I volunteered to serve again. + +"'My next captain was this man who lies here. He was as cruel a tyrant +as ever trod a quarter-deck, and a terror to good and bad alike. You +could never please him, do what you would. If an officer is worth his +salt at all, he knows and respects those men who do their duty well +under him. Captain Flinthert knew, but did not respect them; on the +contrary, he behaved towards them as though he resented some imaginary +claims on their part to his consideration. I held in his ship the same +position that I held in the last, for it did not contain a more active +sailor. Yet he found occasion--I should rather say he made it--to get me +punished. I swear to you that I had not committed even that slight fault +which he laid to my charge; if I had done so, it was one for which the +stopping of a day's grog would have been chastisement enough. This +ruffian'--here he smote the coffin with his clenched hand--'ordered me +three dozen lashes. Now, I had never been flogged yet, and when I went +to the captain with almost tears in my eyes, and told him so, and that I +had never even been reported for misconduct, he replied with a sneer +that I was too good by half, and that it was high time I should become +acquainted with the cat-o'-nine tails. "To prevent mistakes, you shall +have it at once," said he: "call up the boatswain's mate." Now, I +thought to myself, in the pride of my manliness and independence, that +such a disgrace should never happen to William Moody, but that I would +die first; so I walked straight from that part of the deck where I had +been speaking with Captain Flinthert, and leaped from the bulwarks into +the sea. I believed I tried at first to drown myself, but I was a strong +swimmer, and nature compelled me presently to strike out. The cry of "A +man overboard!" had caused the boat to be lowered at once, and though we +had been sailing very fast, I was picked up, not much exhausted, and +almost in spite of myself. As soon as I had got on board, and put on dry +things, the captain sent for me on deck, where I found the boatswain's +mate at the grating, and all hands piped for punishment. "William +Moody," said that ruffian in a mocking voice, "I had ordered you three +dozen lashes for a certain offence, but you have now committed a much +graver one in endangering, by your late act, the life of one of his +majesty's sailors; you will therefore now receive <i>six</i> dozen instead. +Boatswain, do your duty." + +"'I was, therefore, tied up and punished. I don't think I suffered much +at the time, although I was laid up in the sick ward for long +afterwards. I was entirely occupied with thoughts of revenge. When I was +able to get about again, Captain Flinthert had got another ship, and was +away out of my reach. I never met him, again, or he would not have lived +to the age that is inscribed on yonder plate; but as soon as I heard +that he was dead, I swore to come and spit upon the tyrant's coffin.' + +"Then the sailor suited the action to the word, and turned from the +dishonoured corpse with a lighter step than that with which he had +approached it; and old Marks followed him from the vault, as he +confessed to me himself, 'half frightened out of his wits.'" + +"I do not wonder," said I to Mr. Gerard, "it was a terrible revenge." + +"Ay, but how much worse was the provocation; from the very man, too, +placed in authority of him, whose duty was to foster, not to oppress +him. Verily, they that are in honour, and understand not, are as the +beasts that perish." + +"True," returned I, "but then the wretch was dead." + +"Just so, young sir," replied Mr. Gerard, impetuously, "was dead, and +never felt the insult. The sailor felt both the insult and the lashes. +How is it that, at your age, you have already learned to be the +apologist of the rich in high places?" + +"Nay, sir, I--?" + +"Yes, <i>you</i>," continued my host with vehemence; "your pity is for the +admiral, and does not descend to the captain of the maintop. Still," +added he, in a milder tone, "I should not judge you harshly, even if you +so judge others. You were brought up in India, were you not? where in +the eyes of the cowering natives, to be white is to be powerful, and +wise, and all in all--save to be good. Great heavens, what a retribution +is waiting for us there!" Again my host paced the room, but this time +rapidly, wildly, and uttering exclamations like a sibyl inspired by her +god. "If the nabobs we see here are specimens of those who rule the +East, Heaven help the ruled! What blindness, what infatuation! Do you +know, young man, the very men that cause revolutions am the last to +believe in them?" This was an observation so entirely beyond me, that I +could only murmur that such was doubtless the case, although I did not +remember having heard it remarked before. "It is so," continued Mr. +Gerard, positively, "and it always has been so. It was so in France. I +suppose you have always been taught to consider the French Republicans +the vilest and wickedest of men, and the Revolution to be the mother +that produced them at one monstrous birth. Yes, when the day of +reckoning comes, and the ruin is undeniable, Democracy, forsooth, is +blamed. The taunt is hurled-- + + '"Behold the harvest that we reap + From popular government and equality!" + Whereas, in truth, 'tis neither these, nor aught + Of wild belief ingrafted on their names + By false philosophy, have caused the woe, + But a terrific reservoir of guilt + And ignorance, filled up from age to age, + That can no longer hold its loathsome charge, + But bursts, and spreads in deluge through the land.' + +High truth embalmed in noble verse, yet no one heeds. The author of +those lines, my friend, is the greatest poet in Great Britain, and has +never possessed an income of a hundred pounds a year. They say that my +Lord Castlereagh has thirty thousand...--Stay, do you not hear wheels? +That must be Sitwell's gig. I have not the patience to see him now. His +sycophantic officiousness in fetching Sir Massingberd was too +contemptible. How can a man who has two legs given him to stand upright +upon, persist in grovelling through life upon all-fours? + + 'Heaven grant the man some noble nook; + For, rest his soul! he'd rather be + Genteelly damned beside a duke + Than saved in vulgar company.' + +Do you receive him, Mr. Meredith; and tell him from me that it is no +thanks to him that his patient is yet alive. Now that the siege is +raised, I will just step in and see how the lad is getting on." + +My host had left the room only a few seconds when Dr. Sitwell entered +it. + +"My dear young friend!" exclaimed he, in an excited manner, "what on +earth has happened to Sir Massingberd Heath? He very nearly rode me down +ten minutes ago on Crittenden Common; and when I inquired after his +nephew, he replied--Well, I cannot repeat the exact words, because they +are so excessively shocking. Why, he must be out of his mind with grief! +I trust he did nothing impetuous, nothing that is to be regretted, +here?" + +"No, sir," replied I; "he did not, thanks to our good host, who +withstood all his attempts to see his nephew. It was, however, most +indiscreet of you to send him hither. Mr. Harvey Gerard was exceedingly +annoyed by your doing so." + +"My dear young friend," observed Dr. Sitwell, sinking his voice to a +confidential whisper, "Mr. Harvey Gerard is annoyed at many things which +would give most sensible persons a great deal of pleasure. He would as +soon admit a rattle-snake within his doors as a man of title, unless, +indeed, it be his friend, Sir Charles Wolseley. By the by, it is to Sir +Charles that my dear patient, Mr. Broadacres, is indirectly indebted for +his wound. If Sir Charles had not convened that revolutionary meeting at +Bangton, Mr. Broadacres would not have had to read the Riot Act, and +eventually got shot by mistake by his own men. It is denied by the +government, I perceive, that ball was fired by the troops at the first +discharge; but between ourselves such was certainly the case; for I +extracted the bullet from poor Mr. B. myself, and he has had to lie upon +his face ever since. Good heavens, sir, what a position for a man whose +family came in with the Conqueror!" + +"Is this Sir Charles Wolseley, then, of whom one reads so much in the +papers, a friend of Mr. Gerard's?" said I. "I have heard Mr. Long remark +that he was a very dangerous man." + +"So he is, sir. He'll be hung some day, as sure as he lives. And the +gentleman in whose house we stand is tarred with the same brush. It's +terrible to think of. Why, do you know, Mr. Meredith, that Mr. Harvey +Gerard goes the length"--here the doctor looked about him to be sure +that we were alone, and placing his lips close to my ear, whispered +solemnly, "of wearing a white hat!" + +"Gracious goodness," returned I, "why shouldn't he? My father always +wears a white hat in India." + +"Yes; but <i>let me tell you this</i>, India is not England," observed the +doctor, sagaciously. "A white hat here is the badge of Radicalism, +Republicanism, Atheism--I don't say that Mr. Gerard is a downright +atheist, but he's a sectary, and that's nearly as bad. And hark ye, I +know this for certain: the only reason why Henry Hunt himself is not +hand and glove with our friend is this, that when Hunt was tried for his +life for sedition, he came into the dock, like a prudent man, with a +black hat, and that is the one act of caution and good sense for which +Mr. Gerard has never forgiven him." + + +[1] This sarcasm was founded on literal truth; I myself remember a time +when Englishmen submitted to a system of oppression almost precisely +similar to that which has of late driven the Poles to insurrection, and +enlisted for them the sympathies of Europe--namely, a forced +conscription, the subjects of which are <i>selected</i>. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LOVE THE LIFEGIVER. + + +It was about four o'clock in the morning, or nearly twelve hours after +his frightful fall, that Marmaduke Heath first woke to consciousness. +Mr. Long and myself were passing the night in his apartment, which was a +very roomy one, my tutor upon a sofa, and I in a comfortable arm-chair. +I had begged that for that once at least it should be so, for I knew the +dear lad would like to set his eyes upon me when he first opened them. +Dr. Sitwell and his assistant, both agreed that if he woke at all from +his heavy stertorous slumber, it would be in his sane mind; and it was +so. Mr. Long was asleep, but I had so much to think about in the +occurrences and disclosures of the preceding evening, that slumber had +refused to visit me. + +I was as unused as happy youth in general is to sleeplessness. I did not +know at that time what it is to lay head upon pillow only to think upon +the morrow with a brain that has done its day's work, and would fain be +at rest; or worse, only to let the past re-enact itself under the +wearied eyelids; to watch the long procession of vanished forms again +fill the emptied scenes, and yet to be conscious of their unreality. How +different in this respect alone is the experience of age and youth, and +again of poverty and competence! A young man in tolerable circumstances, +and who does not chance to be a sportsman, may never have seen the sun +rise, that commonest of splendid spectacles to all men of humble +station. For my own part, I had never done so in England until the +occasion of which I speak, and I remember it very particularly. The +weary time spent in listening to the various noises of the house, now to +those consequent upon the retiring to rest of its inmates, and then to +those more mysterious ones which do not begin till afterwards--the +crickets on the hearth, the mice in the wainscot, the complaining of +chairs and wardrobes, and the clocks, which discourse in quite another +fashion than they do in the day. The slow hours consumed in watching the +rushlight spots, first on the floor and then on the wall, and at last +exchanged for the cool grey dawn, stealing in through cranny and crack, +and showing my companions still in the land of dreams; later yet the +drowsy crowing of cocks, and presently, as the light grows and grows, +notwithstanding shutter and curtain, the indescribably welcome song of +the early robin, the busy chirping of the house-sparrow, followed by the +whole tuneful choir of birds; then the lowing of cattle in the distance, +and the distant barking of the watch-dog, so strangely different from +that sad and solitary howl with which the same animal breaks the awful +stillness of the night. About four, I say, as I looked for the +thousandth time towards Marmaduke's bed, I saw him sitting up supporting +himself on his elbow, and pushing his other hand across his brow, as if +trying to call to mind where he was. In an instant I was at his bedside. +"Marmaduke, I am here," said I; "Peter Meredith." + +"I am not at Fairburn Hall, am I?" asked he, in a hoarse whisper. + +"No, Marmaduke, you are amongst friends." + +"Then <i>he</i> is not here," gasped he--"nowhere near." + +"He is miles away, my friend, and he will never come under this roof." + +"Thank Heaven--thank Heaven!" cried the poor boy, sinking back upon the +pillow; "it was only a dreadful dream, then. I shall die happy." + +"You need not talk of dying, Marmaduke. On the contrary, let us hope you +are about to begin a life unshadowed, natural, without fear." + +"No, Peter, I must die. I feel that; but what is death to what I have +been dreaming? Do you remember that poem which came down in the box of +books, from Mr. Clint, last week, about a wretched man that was bound +upon a wild horse and sent adrift in the Ukraine?" And then he repeated +with some difficulty-- + + "'How fast we fled, away, away, + And I could neither sigh, nor pray, + And my cold sweat-drops fell like rain + Upon the courser's bristling mane, + But snorting still with rage and fear, + He flew upon his far career; + At times I almost thought indeed, + He must have slackened in his speed; + But no; my bound and slender frame + Was nothing to his angry might, + And merely like a spur became.' + +Well, Peter, that was I. But instead of the wolves which followed upon +<i>his</i> track, it was my uncle Massingberd who followed <i>me</i>. He had +chosen to kill me as the Count Palatine would have killed Mazeppa, but +he wanted also to see it done. + + 'All through the night I heard his feet, + Their stealing rustling step repeat.' + +Great Heaven, I hear them now!" + +"Nay, Marmaduke, it is only I, your old tutor," said Mr. Long, tenderly, +who had not been able to leave his sofa entirely without noise. "You +must not give way to these fancies; you had a fall from Panther, that +is all." + +"Ay," returned the poor boy, "it <i>was</i> Panther, only I thought he was a +wild horse, and not my pony at all. + + 'But though my cords were wet with gore, + Which oozing through my limbs ran o'er; + And in my tongue the thirst became + A something fiercer far than flame;' + +that was nothing; nothing to the knowledge that that man was close +behind. Now that I am awake, I feel bruised from head to heel, my bones +ache, my head seems as though it were about to burst, but that is +nothing to--" the poor lad could not finish the sentence, but exclaimed +with piteous vehemence--"do, Mr. Long, do promise me that I shall never +see him more." + +"You shall never see him more, if I can help it," returned my tutor, +with unusual energy. "Yes, I think I can promise that you never shall." +I well knew that so cautious a man as Mr. Long would not have said so +much without full warrant; it was evident to me at once that he had +heard from Mr. Gerard all that had passed between that gentleman and the +baronet in the drawing-room, and was now determined to act with vigour +in Marmaduke's behalf. Perhaps the coincidence of the lad's dream with +what had in fact occurred, may have helped my tutor's decision, but now +that he had once passed his word, I felt sure that he would stand by +Marmaduke to the last. + +The sick boy seemed to feel this too, for he uttered many expressions of +gratitude and contentment, while he kept fast hold of his new +protector's hand. + +"But mind, Marmaduke, you must now make haste and get well, and not give +way to despondency about yourself. I am going for the doctor, who is +sleeping in the house, and whom I promised to call as soon as you +awoke; and, Peter, don't you let him talk too much. For a boy like that +to talk of death," added Mr. Long, aloud, as he drew on his slippers, +"is to go half-way to meet it." + +Marmaduke smiled feebly at this remark of his unconscious tutor's, and +when he had left the room, observed, "There is no need of any doctors; +this is my death-bed, Meredith, I know." + +"Marmaduke," replied I, gravely, "I will not listen to such dreadful +things; it is wrong, it is wicked, it will do you harm." + +"No, Peter, there is nothing dreadful in the thing I mean, and it seems +to soothe me when I speak of it. Since I have been ill, I have had a +sign that tells me I must go. We shall not grow up together to be +friends through life, as we had planned. I shall watch you perhaps--I +hope I shall--and be happy in your happiness, but you will soon forget +<i>me</i>. There will be a thousand things for you to think of; there have +been such even now for you while <i>I</i>--it seems hard, does it not, Peter, +that I should have grown up under the shadow of that man, and never felt +the Sunshine? They say that boyhood is the blithest time of life, but I +have never been a boy. I think I could almost tell him, if he stood here +now, how he has poisoned my young life, and sent me to the grave without +one pleasant memory to moisten my dying eyes. Yes, my friend, dying. I +have seen a vision in the night far too sweet and fear not to have been +sent from heaven itself. If there indeed be angels, such was she. They +say the Heaths have always ghastly warnings when their hour is come, but +this was surely a gentle messenger. I close my eyes and see that smile +once more." + +"Has she hair of golden brown?" inquired I, gravely, "and hazel eyes, +large and pitiful, and does she smile sad and sweet as though one's pain +would soon be over?" + +"That is she, that is she," exclaimed Marmaduke, eagerly, while from his +heavy eyelids the light flashed forth as from a thunder-cloud; "oh, tell +me who and what she is!" + +"Her name is Lucy Gerard," replied I, quietly, "and we are, at this +moment, in her father's house." + +Marmaduke's mention of her smile had revealed to me the secret alike of +dream and vision. He must have been dimly conscious of the catastrophe +that had occurred to him throughout, although he had confused himself, +poor fellow, with Mazeppa, and the daughter of our host with a vision +from the skies. His eyes were now closed, and with features as pale as +the pillow on which he lay, he was repeating to himself her name as +though it were a prayer. + +"Marmaduke," said I, "we will talk no more, since it exhausts you thus; +I hear Mr. Long returning with the doctor, be of good heart, and keep +your thoughts from dwelling--" + +"Yes," interrupted he, as though he would prevent the very mention of +that grisly king of whom he had been but now conversing so familiarly, +"I will, I will. It would indeed be bitter to die <i>now</i>." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +WOOING BY PROXY. + + +The medical report of Marmaduke Heath was more than cheering; it was +confident. "One of the very best features of that young man's case is +this," said Dr. Sitwell, "he does not give way. Foolish youths of his +age will sometimes, as it were, fall in love with Death, until it is +absolutely close beside them, poor fellows, when they shrink from him +like the best of us." + +"You should rather say the worst of us, Dr. Sitwell," observed my tutor. + +"Well, sir, as far as my experience goes," returned the doctor, +cheerfully, "and I have 'assisted,' as Mr. Gerard here will have +it, at the demise of many persons of the very first respectability, few +of us are apt to welcome death; the majority, contrary to what is +vulgarly believed, pay him no sort of attention whatsoever." + +"And yet," remarked Mr. Harvey Gerard, slily, "he came over before the +Conqueror, and possesses a considerable amount of land all over the +country." + +"True, sir, true," replied the doctor, gravely; "and those are +attributes which should always command respect. With regard, however, to +our young patient, he seems determined, notwithstanding his sufferings, +to be cheerful, and bear up. I have told him how essential it is to do +so, and the young gentleman is most reasonable, I am sure. 'I do not +want to die, I wish to live,' were his very words--a most satisfactory +and sensible state of mind. Fairburn Hall--he did not say this, but I +knew what was passing through his brain quite well--Fairburn Hall, and +one of the oldest baronetcies in the kingdom, are something to live +<i>for</i>--that is a great point in cases of this kind." + +I am sure I felt thankful and glad to hear this account of my dear +friend; yet I could not help wishing that Dr. Sitwell had been as +correct in the cause of Marmaduke's clinging to life, as in the fact +itself. For I too was stricken with love for Lucy Gerard, and would have +laid down my life to kiss her finger tip. It is the fashion now to jeer +at that which is called First Love, as though affection were not worth +having until it has first exhausted itself upon a score of objects; nay, +perhaps, the thing itself is as extinct as the Dodo. In my day, however, +the Great Three-Hundred-a-Year Marriage-Question was not yet broached, +and gentlemen did not complainingly publish their rejections at the +hands of the fair sex in the "Times" newspaper. Nearly half a century +has passed over my head since the time of which I write, and has not +spared its snows, and yet, I swear to you, my old heart glows again, and +on my withered cheek there comes a blush as I call, to mind the time +when first I met that pure and fair young girl. + +The worship of a lad is never lasting, it is said, although I know not +upon what authority--society so seldom permitting the experiment to be +made, that the <i>dictum</i> can hardly be established; but while it does +last, at least, how clear and steady is the incense! how honest is the +devotion! how complete the sacrifice! Since I have been an old fogey, it +has been confided to me by more than one ancient flirt that they still +experience a rapture when they chance to catch the affection of a boy. +They are kinder to him than they are to older men; they let him down +easy; they respect the infatuation which they themselves have long lost +the power of entertaining. How delicious, then, must such a conquest be +to a maiden of seventeen! I claim for myself the possession of no +tenderer nor truer feelings than other lads, but I know that a queen +might have accepted the heart-homage which I paid to Lucy Gerard. And +never was fealty more disinterested. I have written down not a little to +my discredit; let me then say this much in my own favour. From the +moment that Marmaduke Heath spoke to me as he did, upon his bed of +sickness, of our host's daughter, I determined within myself not only to +stand aside, and let him win her if he could, but to help him by all +means within my power. If he lived for her alone, should I endeavour to +slay him? If a promise, however distant, of a bright and happy future +seemed at length to be held out for him whose life had been so saddened +and so bitter, should I strive to make it void? I could not <i>afford</i> to +lose her; no. I would have given all that I had in the world to hear her +whisper, "I love you;" I would have beggared myself, I say, for those +mere words; but could <i>he</i>, poor lad, afford the loss of her so well? + +Doubtless, in modern eyes, we both appear mere foolish victims of +calf-love; green hobbardy-hoys, dazzled with the first flutter of a +petticoat. As for me, let it be so received, and welcome, although, my +young male readers, this is to be said, You never saw Lucy Gerard. +Otherwise you would wonder little at my--well, at my poor folly. But +with respect to Marmaduke, it must be admitted that his was not an +ordinary case. Although a boy in years, he had long been sitting on the +shores of old romance, and had probably more of the divine faculty for +Love within him than all the ardent souls of five-and-thirty put +together, who are at this moment turning their eyes about them for a +suitable young person with whose income to unite their own. Since his +mother died, he had scarcely beheld a virtuous woman, with the exception +of dear Mrs. Myrtle, the housekeeper at the Rectory, whose appearance +was calculated to excite respect rather than the sentimental emotions; +and now he had suddenly been brought face to face with one whose equal +for form and feature, for gentleness and graciousness, for modesty and +courage, these eyes have never yet beheld. I have done. There shall be +no more ecstasies, reader; an old man thanks you that you have borne +with his doting garrulity even thus long. + +Since the days of Earl Athelwold, and probably long before them, the +wooing by proxy has been held to be a perilous undertaking; we cannot +take the fingers of a fair lady within our own, and say, "This is not my +hand at all," as though we were Bishop Berkeley; or still more, "This is +somebody else's hand," which it manifestly is not. If credit is to be +given to such protestations at all, there is no knowing where to stop; +and yet we must be doing something tender, or we are not performing our +duty as deputy. But how tenfold are the dangers of this enterprise, when +the delegate of another has at one time contemplated performing the +mission in question upon his own account. Of this peril--although fully +determined to speak a good word for Marmaduke--I was well aware; I even +considered within myself whether it would not be safer, upon the whole, +to return at once to Fairburn Rectory, lest I should do my friend an +involuntary wrong. Yes, I was walking in the garden at the Dovecot after +breakfast, considering this, when I came upon Lucy Gerard herself, and +flight became impossible to me, being mortal. I was pacing a winding +path that ran beside the lawn, but was hidden from it by a glittering +wall of laurel, and lo! there she stood, unconscious of my advent, +beside--what? a statue? a sun-dial? No, a rose-tree, striving upwards by +help of a little cross of white marble. Her face was westward, so that +the morning sun shone like a glory on the wealth of hair that rippled +down her shoulders: beside her indoor garments she wore only a little +braided apron, full of pockets that held scissors, pruning-knife, the +thing which is called "bass" I believe, and other horticultural +weapons, and on her head the tiniest straw-hat, with a brim obviously +intended to shelter more than one--a perfect garden-saint; and at her +prayers! for while I looked, she knelt upon the grass-border (to shake +some insect from a rose, I at first thought, or remove a faded leaf), +and so, with bowed head, remained for several minutes. When she arose, +and saw me hesitating whether to advance or retreat, she blushed a +little, but in her usual quiet tone begged me not to be disturbed. "You +could not know that this is forbidden ground here; it was my fault, who +ought to have told you; our own folks all know it, and so few guests +ever come to the Dovecot, that it never struck me, Mr. Meredith, to give +you a Trespass notice." + +"But since I am here, Miss Gerard, and the intrusion has been made--most +innocently, I assure you--may I not be suffered to satisfy what, +believe me, is not a mere vulgar curiosity?" + +"I do not think," returned the young lady, with some hesitation, "that +my father would object to your knowing our little secret; you are going +to remain with us some time, he hopes, and--yes, I am sure you will +respect what with us is held so secret. This cross and rose-tree are set +above my little sister's grave. See, that is what we used to call +her--LITTLE ELLA. She of whom I spoke to you in the drawing-room +yesterday." + +I daresay my stupid face exhibited more of astonishment than sympathy. +No wonder, thought I, that the doctor called Mr. Gerard a sectary, and +that Mr. Long was so cold and distant in his manner! + +"You seem surprised, Mr. Meredith, that my father should have acted +thus--should have placed the tomb of his dear child where he can always +come to weep and pray at it, and not amid the long dank grasses in +Crittenden churchyard. Is it so very rare a thing to bury those we love +elsewhere than in a churchyard?" + +"I only know one other instance," said I, "and that is in the Heath +family." + +"Indeed," replied Miss Gerard, gravely, moving away as though not +wishing to converse of ordinary things in that sacred neighbourhood, "I +trust we have but little in common with <i>them</i>." + +"Truly, I can scarcely imagine that you and they are of the same +species," replied I, with irrepressible admiration, "you who do not even +know what wickedness is!" + +"What! I? Oh, but I am sometimes very, very wicked, I assure you," +replied Miss Gerard. She looked so serious, nay, so sad, that I could +have taken up her little hand and kissed it, there and then, to comfort +her. But would such a course of conduct assist poor Marmaduke? thought +I, and fortunately in time. + +"There is one of the Heath family," said I, "at all events, whose good +qualities will go far to atone for the shortcomings of his adversaries, +if he only lives to exercise them." + +That "if he only lives" I considered to be very diplomatic; it was +enlisting a tender sympathy for his perilous condition to start with. + +"Dr. Sitwell says that there is little danger," replied Miss Gerard, +quietly. + +"I know better," observed I, confidentially; "his life or death hangs +upon a thread, a chance." + +"Good heavens! Mr. Meredith, what can you mean? The brain, we are +assured, is quite uninjured." + +"My dear Miss Gerard," returned I, "it is not his brain that is +affected; it is his heart. His recovery, I am positively certain, +depends upon you." + +"Upon me! Mr. Meredith?" replied she, while a blush sprung from neck to +forehead on the instant, as though a white rose should become a red +one--"upon <i>me</i>?" + +"Yes, dear young lady; that is, upon you and your good father. This lad +will find here, for the first time in his young life, peace and +tenderness--a new existence, if you only choose, will expand around him, +such as he has never even dreamt of. I do not ask you to be kind to him, +for you cannot be otherwise than kind; but consider his sad +condition--fatherless, motherless, and having for his only relative a +wretch whose atrocity is unspeakable, what reason has he to wish for +life? But you, you may teach him to feel that existence has something +else to offer than sorrow, and shame, and fear." + +"Alas, sir! I am nothing," returned Miss Gerard. "But if your friend +desire a teacher to whom fear and shame are unknown, and whom sorrow has +rendered wise, not sad, he will find one in my dear father. Oh, Mr. +Meredith, if you knew him as I know him, how tender he is as well as +strong, you would go straight to <i>him</i>! What I have of help within me, +if I have anything, is derived from him alone." + +"There are some maladies," said I, "against which not the most skilful +physician can avail without a gentle nurse to smooth the pillow. I am +sure I need say no more, except to assure you that what ever kind +offices you may bestow upon Marmaduke Heath, will not be wasted upon an +unworthy object. He is most honourable, generous, warm-hearted--" + +"And very fortunate," interrupted Miss Gerard, cordially, "in having a +friend to be thus enthusiastic for him in his absence!" + +Her eyes sparkled with pleasure; and she held out her hand frankly as +she spoke. I took it, and pressed it for an instant. A shock of joy +passed through my frame; my whole being trembled with ecstasy. Passion +took me by storm, and for one glorious moment held the very citadel of +my soul; but it was for the last time, believe me, Marmaduke, the last +time in all my life. Fifty years have come and gone, with their full +share of pleasure and pain, but have never brought a moment of bliss +like that, nor such icy despair as the thought of thee, my friend, +caused to succeed it! + +I write not in self-praise. I was not so mad as to suppose that Lucy +Gerard would have ever stooped to love Peter Meredith when once she had +known Marmaduke Heath. If he had so endeared himself to <i>me</i>, a selfish +boy, who knew not half his gifts, or, at least, knew not how to value +them--that I thus rudely broke my own brief love-dream for his sake, +would he not draw <i>her</i> towards him, laden with all her wealth of heart +and brain, as the moon draws the wave! It was so afterwards; but I knew +it then, as though it had already been. Yet, Marmaduke, yet I gave you +something, for it was all I had, when I laid at your feet, to form a +stepping-stone for you, my own heart. You trod upon it, my dear and +faithful friend--But, thank heaven! you never knew that you did so. I +wonder whether Lucy ever knew! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE COUNCIL OF WAR. + + +On the second morning after our arrival at the Dovecot, Mr. Long called +me into the dining-room, where I found Mr. Gerard and a third gentleman, +who had come down by the night-mail, as I understood, from London. +Although, I should think, not less than seventy years of age, he was +dressed in the height of the then prevailing mode. He wore a +snuff-coloured coat, the tails of which trailed from his chair upon the +ground, whenever he was so fortunate as not to be sitting upon them; the +brass buttons at his back were nearly as large as the handles of an +ordinary chest of drawers. A bunch of seals, each about the size of +that peculiar to the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, dangled from +his fob. His pantaloons, which seemed to have shrunk in the washing, set +off a pair of legs that were still not uncomely; but what was most +remarkable was an enormous muslin cravat, which, in combination with the +ruffles of his shirt, gave him the aspect of a pouter pigeon. +Unaccustomed as I then was to the toilet of persons of distinction, Mr. +Clint of Russell Square--for he it was--made a very strong impression +upon me. As the family lawyer of the Heaths, and one who had always +greatly interested himself in Marmaduke, he had been sent for by my +tutor to give his opinion as to what steps should be taken respecting +the future disposal of the poor lad. I guessed by his grave face that he +had been put in possession, not only of all that had happened through +the agency of Sir Massingberd, but of all that had been designed to +happen. + +"If you have any doubt still remaining, Mr. Clint, as to the propriety +of removing Marmaduke Heath from the custody of his uncle," observed my +tutor, after introducing me to this venerable beau, "I think this +gentleman can dissipate it. Now, Peter, tell us, in confidence, what +sort of footing do you consider your young friend and Sir Massingberd to +stand upon; are they good--" + +"Stop, stop, Mr. Long," interrupted the lawyer, taking an enormous pinch +of snuff from a silver-box, and holding up his laden fingers in a +prohibitory manner; "we must not have any leading questions if you +please. Mr. Meredith, it is most important that you state to us the +truth, without mitigation or exaggeration. You heard your tutor's first +inquiry, which was a most correct one. How does Mr. Marmaduke Heath +stand with respect to his uncle?" + +"Well, sir," said I quietly, "he stands, as it were, upon the brink of a +deep river, with his back towards a person who is bent upon pushing him +in." + +A total silence ensued upon this remark. Mr. Long and Mr. Gerard +interchanged very meaning glances. + +"Very good," returned the lawyer coolly, administering half the snuff to +his nose, and dropping the other half among his shirt-ruffles. "That is +a form of speech, I suppose, by which you would imply that Marmaduke is +afraid of his uncle?" + +"Very much," said I; "afraid of his life." + +"And you have had no previous conversation upon this subject with either +of these gentlemen, that is--you must forgive me if I press this +somewhat hardly--they have never asked your opinion on the matter +before?" + +"Certainly not, sir." + +"You are speaking, too, I conclude from your own observation of course, +from your own knowledge of Mr. Marmaduke Heath's sentiments and +position, and not from any hearsay rumour?" + +"I am perfectly convinced, Mr. Clint," returned I gravely, "that Sir +Massingberd Heath wishes to get rid of his nephew, and that Marmaduke +knows it." + +"Then Sir Massingberd shall be gratified," observed Mr. Gerard, with +energy; "he shall get rid of him from this day." + +"Stop, stop, my dear sir," interposed the lawyer. "Even supposing that +all this is true, both the facts that I have received from you and Mr. +Long, and the surmises entertained by this young gentleman, we are +still only at the threshold of the matter. From the manner in which Sir +Massingberd expressed himself when he wrote to me to demand the custody +of the boy, and from his whole conduct since, I am certain that he will +not give up his position as guardian without a severe struggle. We must +steadily look our difficulties in the face. Supposing that, having been +assured of Marmaduke's convalescence, he should send a post-chaise over +here next week, or the week after, with a note, insisting upon his +immediate return to Fairburn Park, what is to be done then?" + +"I should send the post-chaise back again," returned Mr. Gerard, calmly, +"with the verbal reply, that Mr. Marmaduke was not coming." + +"But suppose he wrote to Marmaduke himself?" + +"The reply would come from me all the same, Mr. Clint." + +"But if Sir Massingberd appeals to the law?" + +"He dare not!" exclaimed my host; "his audacity, great as it is, stops +short of that. If he did, as sure as the sun is shining, I would meet +him with the charge of attempted murder." + +Mr. Clint took out of his other coat-tail a second snuff-box, which he +never made use of except in cases of great emergency. "You are prepared +to go that length, are you?" + +"I am, sir," returned Mr. Gerard, firmly. + +"You have not a shadow of foundation for such an assertion," pursued Mr. +Clint, reflectively. "The slander will be pronounced malicious; you will +be cast in swingeing damages." + +"That is possible," remarked my host; "but there, nevertheless, will be +such revelations of Sir Massingberd's mode of life, as may well cause +the chancellor to reflect whether Fairburn Hall is a fitting educational +establishment for a minor." + +"John Lord Eldon is not an ascetic--" + +"I know it, sir;" broke forth Mr. Gerard; "I am well aware that he is a +heartless scoundrel, as dissipated, as dishonest, and--" + +"Sir," interrupted Mr. Clint, with irritation. "I will not listen to +such mad words. You may utter them, of course, in your own house, but +not to me. This is the talk of those who would subvert all authority." + +"They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities," murmured my tutor. + +"I do not speak evil of dignities, my dear sir, but only of the rogues +who fill them," exclaimed Mr. Gerard, laughing. "However, I beg your +pardon, gentlemen; the remark escaped me quite involuntarily. You are +aware, Mr. Clint, that my Lord Eldon is not absolutely an ascetic." + +"I was about to say, sir," observed the old lawyer stiffly, "that his +lordship is not so tenderly alive to the necessity of moral training as +some of his friends would wish, and he has a strong respect for natural +authority. He would lean, therefore, towards Sir Massingberd's view of +the question--with whom; indeed, he is personally not unacquainted--and +be induced to palliate his way of life." + +"Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless, are those in Eldon's charge," +murmured Mr. Gerard. "Still," continued he, in a louder tone, "the +charge of attempted murder, Mr. Clint, would have this effect, that even +if Marmaduke were reconsigned to his uncle's care--which Heaven +forbid--the eyes of the world would be upon Sir Massingberd, and he +would not venture to work him a mischief. In the meantime, it rests with +us to take good care that he has not the chance of doing so." + +"And now," resumed Mr. Clint, after a pause, "supposing that all is +arranged thus far to repel Sir Massingberd's claims, there is another +matter to be considered. It would take long to explain the details of +the case, but you must understand that the Heath property is very +peculiarly situated. Sir Massingberd, who is in the enjoyment of it for +life, cannot raise a shilling upon it; while Marmaduke does not possess +a shilling, although the prospective heir of such vast wealth. They +would be, in short, at present a couple of beggars; but by a special +arrangement with a certain person, whom I need not name, a small annual +sum has been allotted for the benefit of the boy, but, practically, +quite as much so for that of his uncle. A certain annuity, I say, is +paid to Sir Massingberd for the maintenance of his nephew, and another, +solely on the latter's behalf, for that of the estate. It is a most +beautifully intricate affair from first to last," pursued the lawyer +with unction; "here are two relatives, who mutually support one another, +and have yet every reason, looking at the matter in a rather worldly way +of course, to wish each other dead. Sir Massingberd could borrow plenty +of money, if the usurers were only confident that he could, as well as +would, make away with his nephew. There would be even less difficulty +under ordinary circumstances in procuring a loan for Marmaduke; but a +delicate boy, whose uncle and guardian is bent upon putting a violent +end to him--you see that renders the security so very slight. +Altogether, it is certainly one of the nicest cases. It is not only a +question of responsibility; there are always plenty of people ready to +take any amount of <i>that</i> at a sufficient premium; but who will +undertake the pecuniary charge of the lad if he is withdrawn from his +uncle's roof? Sir Massingberd, of course, will never give up one tittle +of the allowance entrusted to him to expend, except upon such compulsion +as we should scarcely venture to employ. There are three years wanting +to the boy's majority; and even when he has arrived at that, and should +be willing to promise ample repayment, he may die before his uncle +still, who has a constitution of adamant, when those who have maintained +him may whistle for the money they have expended. The expression may be +coarse," added Mr. Clint apologetically, "but I think it conveys my +meaning." + +"I thank you, Mr. Clint," observed my tutor, after a little pause, "for +putting this matter before us so bluntly and decidedly. For my part, I +am far from being a rich man; but, on the other hand, there are no +persons who have a better claim upon my resources than my dear young +friend and pupil, Marmaduke Heath. That he will repay me if he survives +his uncle, I am more than assured; and, if he die early, I shall not +regret that the remainder of his young life has been rendered happy +through my means, although it may have cost me a few comforts." + +I stooped down and said a few words in my tutor's ear. "No, Peter, no," +continued he; "you are a good lad, and your father is, doubtless, +generous enough to comply with your wishes; but we must not resort to +such a distant source in this emergency, indeed. Mr. Clint, do you think +that a hundred and forty to a hundred and sixty pounds a year might be +made sufficient to keep Marmaduke with respectability?" + +"Half your annual stipend, eh, Mr. Long, eh?" ejaculated the lawyer. +"Bless my soul, how this snuff gets in one's eyes! Such a sum should be +quite sufficient. I think that would be found more than enough. He +cannot live at your rectory, of course; that would be almost as bad as +at the Hall; but there are plenty of spare rooms in my house in town. He +has stayed there before, so that that can be done, we know. Marmaduke +and I are old friends--No, no, it will not hurt me. Such a course cannot +bring me into greater antagonism with Sir Massingberd than I am in +already. I am always at daggers-drawn with him. He is for ever cutting +down trees that don't belong to him, or selling heirlooms that are no +more his than mine, or embroiling himself with me, the appointed +guardian of the property, in some way or other. Yes, I'll take the lad, +Mr. Long, come what will of it." + +"You will do nothing of the kind," exclaimed my host, energetically; +"you honest lawyer, and very worthy man; and you, you good +priest--contradictions in terms, both of you--you shall not give away +half your annual stipend, or my name is not Harvey Gerard. I have done +each of you a very grievous wrong in thought, if not in word; and I +hereby beg your pardon. It is possible, I perceive, to be a Tory, and +yet preserve, if not a conscience, at least a heart." + +My tutor smiled; Mr. Clint bowed his acknowledgments. + +"With regard to Mr. Marmaduke Heath, however," pursued our host, "that +young gentleman must be my especial charge. From this day until the +period when he comes into his property, or lies in need of decent +interment, as the case may be, he is my guest; or, if my house is +distasteful to him, I will advance him whatever sums he may reasonably +require for his maintenance elsewhere. Please to consider that that is +settled, gentlemen." + +"Whatever we may think of the political opinions of Mr. Harvey Gerard," +observed Mr. Clint, with feeling, "his name has always been associated +with acts of matchless generosity." + +"Always, always," echoed Mr. Long; then added reflectively, "he has paid +the fines of half the rogues in the country, and bailed the other half +who have been committed to prison." + +A simultaneous burst of merriment from his three hearers greeted this +naïve remark of my unconscious tutor. + +"I have done so upon one occasion, I confess," replied Mr. Gerard, +good-naturedly. "I became surety, in 1791, for the good behaviour of a +poor Birmingham rioter, as I thought, who turned out to be a Government +spy. However, I assure you, generosity has nothing to do with my present +intentions with respect to young Heath. My income is sufficiently large +to admit of my accommodating the poor lad with ease, even if the +repayment, sooner or later, were not almost certain, as it really is. +But, besides all this, I must confess that the undertaking affords me +exceeding satisfaction. Mr. Long, you are, I have heard, an enthusiastic +fisherman; that is no common pleasure which you feel when your rod is +bowed by some enormous trout, cunning and strong, who may break the +whole of your tackle, and get away, after all, but who also may be +landed helpless on the bank, a victim to your skill and patience. That +is exactly the sport which I promise myself with Sir Massingberd Heath. +If he were one whit less greedy, less formidable, less pitiless, I +should feel less hostility towards him; he has, fortunately, no +redeeming point. I have hated tyranny all my life, and I hate this man, +who seems to be the very embodiment of it. He makes his boast that no +one has ever stood between himself and his wicked will. Let us see what +he will make of Harvey Gerard." + +The speaker drew himself up proudly, but certainly not with unbecoming +pride. His form dilated as he spoke; his voice grew deep without losing +its distinctness; and into his mild eyes a sternness crept as when the +frost congeals the lake. But for a spice of haughtiness, which to some +might have appeared even arrogance, he could have stood for St. Michael +in his contest with the foul Fiend,--have personified the Spirit of Good +defying the Spirit of Evil. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE GIPSY CAMP. + + +After not a little opposition upon the part of Mr. Long, who would have +willingly borne his share in Marmaduke's expenses, it was settled that +Mr. Gerard should be the young man's host, if he could only contrive to +retain him in defiance of the power of Sir Massingberd; his home, +however, was not to be the Dovecot, which was judged to be too much +exposed, by its proximity to Fairburn, to the machinations of the enemy. +The Gerards were to remove to their town residence in Harley Street, as +soon as their guest was fit to accompany them. At first, his progress +was tedious, but he grew rapidly convalescent as soon as he was able to +exchange his bed for a sofa. Never was sick man more hospitably treated, +or so graciously tended. Mr. Gerard possessed that almost feminine +gentleness of manner which is generally found in persons of his peculiar +organization. His sympathy, at least as easily aroused as his +antagonism, was now deeply enlisted in favour of Marmaduke for his own +sake; he recognized his talents, and the beauty and tenderness of his +mind, and won him, by pleasant studious talk, from the melancholy that +overhung it; and the young man's heart, thrilling response to every +touch of kindness, turned towards him, and expanded like a flower in the +sun. As for Lucy, what rudest health would I not have exchanged for +Marmaduke's languor, as he lay and listened to her clear sweet voice, +now singing some cheerful ballad to enliven him, now reading aloud some +tale so musically that itself seemed song! He could read to himself but +little as yet, and if he did take up a book, his eyes refused to regard +it, but followed the lovely girl, wherever she moved, with worship. + +"This happiness is too great to last, Peter," he would often say; "it +will all fade one day, I know, and leave me desolate. What man living is +worthy to possess yon glorious creature? I feel as though I had no right +even to love her. Yet, great heaven! how I <i>do</i> love her. How +unconscious she is of her perfect sweetness! How she graces the meanest +thing which she may set herself to do! Her presence seems to breathe +very life into me; I then forget everything but her--even Sir +Massingberd. To return to him would be death indeed--death death!" Then +he would sink back, as if prostrated with the thought, and so remain +despairingly despondent until he heard Lucy's voice, or laugh, or +footstep. All this was bitter for me to bear. I was glad when Mr. Long +suggested to me that he thought it was no longer necessary for me to +remain with Marmaduke, and that I should return to Fairburn Rectory and +my studies. Still, my heart was heavy upon that morning which was to be +the last I was to spend under the same roof with Lucy Gerard. Within the +last few weeks--nay, it happened in a few hours--I had Loved and I had +Lost. If there be any to read this in whose eyes these words have +meaning, they will pity me. I do not match such grief, indeed, for a +single instant against the sorrow a man must feel for the loss of the +loved companion of his life, against the lone wretchedness of recent +widowhood; but it is a grievous blow. I wished Marmaduke and Mr. Gerard +"good-bye" without quite knowing that I did so. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Meredith," said Lucy, and though her voice was even lower +and sweeter than usual, it wounded me like a knife. + +"Why don't you call him Peter, Lucy?" exclaimed her father, laughing. "I +think it would be more civil, now that we are going to lose him." + +"Thank you, sir," said I, gratefully; and she did say "God bless you, +Peter," very, very kindly. + +Ever since that morning she called me so; but I was Peter to all of +them, you see, as well as to her. Then I called her Lucy, and though for +the first and last time, I shall never forget it. + + "I couldna say mair, but just 'Fare ye weel, Lucy + Yet that I will mind till the day that I dee." + +Then I mounted my horse, my luggage having already preceded me, and +slowly took my way towards Fairburn. My life-blood seemed to ebb with +every step. The clang of the gate that shut me out from the last foot of +ground belonging to the Dovecot, sent a shudder through me like a knell. +I was on the very spot where Marmaduke had met with the accident that +had been so nearly fatal. Supposing it had killed him! Supposing...--I +thanked God that I was able to thank Him from an honest heart that it +had not done so. + +Then I felt a little better. Having ascended the hill, I put my horse +into a sharp canter upon the common, and the cool air through which I +swiftly passed refreshed me. The hollow in which the encampment had been +was now deserted, and only the round bare spot amid the green, which is +the gipsy autograph, announced that it had ever been there. Some miles +further on, however, a little brown-legged boy, evidently of that +wandering fraternity, suddenly emerged from a fir plantation, and stood +before me in the road as if to beg. I was already feeling in my pocket +for a penny, when, showing his white teeth in gratitude, he shook his +head, and coming close to my stirrup, exclaimed, "You are the gentleman +from Mr. Gerard's, sir, are you not? Would you please to come and see +Granny Rachel?" + +In an instant, I remembered the pocket-flask, which I had entirely +forgotten since the day in which it came into my possession; for all I +knew, it was then lying yet in the drawing-room at the Dovecot. + +"Yes, my boy, that will I," returned I; "but I fear I have not brought +her what she wants." + +He looked up in the bright interrogative manner peculiar to his tribe, +so different to the stolid wonder of the agriculturist. + +"She wants <i>you</i>, sir, as I understood. This is the sixth day that she +has set me to watch for you by this roadside. Will you please to follow +me?" + +The boy started off at a pace which compelled me to move too fast for +further questioning; and skirting the plantation for a hundred yards, +stopped at the entrance of a roadway leading through the wood. The +coming winter had not yet turned the broad green track to sand, and it +ran so straight and far, that the pine trees seemed to stand on either +side--a solid wall--with nothing but the blue heaven for their limit. +This landscape of right lines would have delighted a painter of the +Pre-Raphaelite school, it looked so stiff and unnatural; but pursuing +the track for a little distance, and then plunging over a ditch and +bank into the plantation itself, we suddenly came upon a scene which +would have suited Morland. A low tent, with half-naked but merry +children crawling in and out; a she-ass and her foal; a handsome male +Epicurean, lying on his back, smoking a short, well-coloured pipe, the +hue of which precisely resembled that of his own skin; a young girl in +scarlet mantle, and with earrings of great splendour, gathering +fir-cones to feed the flames which licked around an iron pot suspended +on four sticks, piled musket-fashion; and an old crone, sitting by the +same, and picking the feathers from a bird, which, had the time of year +been beyond the end of September, I should have certainly taken for a +hen-pheasant. But to suppose this, would have been to suppose an +infraction of the game laws! The walnut-stained children stopped their +play as I approached, and stood in various attitudes of wonder, like +beauteous bronzes; the man turned over on his side, and opened his +slumbrous eyes a hairbreadth; the girl flashed one quick, comprehensive +glance upon me, and then resumed her occupation. The old woman nodded +familiarly without rising, and observed quietly, "So you are come at +last, Peter Meredith. I trust you have brought good news of Marmaduke +Heath." + +"He is better," said I, "much better; and he knows who brought him help, +and is very grateful. You have been expected daily at the Dovecot, where +something more substantial than mere thanks is waiting for you." + +"Rachel Liversedge desires neither silver nor gold," returned the old +woman; "she has had her reward already, if what you say be true. It was +not for love of the boy that I acted as I did; he has too much evil +blood in him to earn my liking. But I am glad as though he were my own +son that he will live." + +"Carew," cried she, triumphantly, "no wonder <i>bura</i> Sir Massingberd +looked <i>kalo</i> as ourselves." + +"Oh, the great man looks black, does he?" said I. + +The old woman dropped the bird, the girl her fir-cones, and both stared +wildly at me, as though my voice had come from the clouds; the man +sprung to his feet, and uttered a cry of wonder. + +"What! do you speak our tongue?" cried he. + +"Nay; you speak mine," returned I, calmly. "<i>Bura</i> is great; and <i>kala</i>, +which you call <i>kalo</i>, is black, of course; everybody knows that who +knows Hindustanee." + +Then the three burst out together in a language, one word out of four of +which seemed to be more or less familiar to me; as for understanding +what they said, of course it was simply impossible; but no matter, I had +established my reputation. From that moment, I felt myself to be the +honoured guest of the family. Would I smoke? Would I eat? Would I drink? +I was thirsty, and I said that I would gladly take some water--which, at +a venture, I called <i>paince</i>. + +"<i>Paunce</i>!" cried they, extravagantly delighted. "He talks like a true +Cingari; and only look! is he not dark-skinned!" + +The few words that my old ayah had taught me in India had thus procured +me a hearty welcome in a Midshire fir-plantation. + +"Sit down by me, Peter Meredith, my son," exclaimed the old woman; "and +do you fetch him water, Mina." + +I dismounted, and did as I was bid; while the young girl took a +pitcher, and presently brought it filled from a running Stream near by, +and offered it to me, like another Rebecca. But her grandmother--for +such she was--cried, "Stop! let me put something in it;" and produced +from her pocket the self-same flask which she herself had given me a few +weeks ago, and which I had thought was left behind at the Dovecot. + +"Why, I was blaming myself for not having brought you that thing back +to-day," said I; "I never heard of your coming to claim it." + +"Nor did I, young gentleman," returned the old woman, proudly. "Harvey +Gerard is too kind a man to visit when one is not in need. That was why +I left his house that day, directly I had told what had befallen +Marmaduke Heath: I did not wish him to think I waited for my reward. + +He returned me this with his own hands. He is not one of your proud +ones. When we had the fever here--Mina, darling, you remember who came +to see you, and saved your life?" + +"Ah, yes!" cried the girl, clasping her dark hands, which gleamed with +tawdry rings; "and his daughter, too, how I love her!" + +There was a little pause; I felt my ears tingle, my cheeks burn. I did +not dare look up from the ground. + +"Lucy Gerard is very fair," whispered the old woman; "she will make a +good and loving wife;" then she added roguishly, and in that gipsy tone +which smacks so of the race-course: "Shall I tell your fortune, my +pretty gentleman?" + +"No, I thank you," said I, hastily; "I have no great confidence in your +information as to the future. With respect to the past, on the other +hand, you can doubtless satisfy me, if you will. I have a great +curiosity to know how you became possessed of yonder flask with the +Heath griffin." + +"Peter Meredith," returned the old woman, very gravely, "you have asked +me to tell you a sad story, and one to relate which will cost me much. +It is not our custom, however, to refuse the first request of a new +friend. But before I begin, let me ask you a question in my turn. Has it +never struck you why Sir Massingberd Heath has not long ago taken to +himself a young wife, and begotten an heir for the bonny lands of +Fairburn, in despite of his nephew?" + +Until that moment, the idea had never crossed my brain; but no sooner +was it thus mooted than I wondered greatly at the shortsightedness of +those among whom Marmaduke's affairs had been so lately discussed, and +in particular at that of Mr. Clint, who, as a lawyer, should surely have +at once foreseen such a contingency. "Well," said I, "I confess that, +for my part, I have never thought of it; but there cannot be much danger +of Sir Massingberd's becoming a wooer now; why, what young woman would +be won by such as he?" + +"What young woman would <i>not</i> be won?" replied Rachel Liversedge, +grimly. "Think you that his white head and stony heart would weigh too +heavy in the balance against his title and the reversion of his lands? +Remember, all that is around us, and all that we could see from yonder +hill to the right hand and to the left--pasture and corn-field, farm and +park--would fall to the offspring of her who would venture, for a few +years, to be Lady Heath. Peter, there is one maiden in Midshire, known +to you and me, who would not consent to do this thing, though the offer +were thrice as splendid; but I doubt if there be more than one." + +"If that be so," said I, "why does not Sir Massingberd marry?" + +"The answer to that is the story I am about to tell you," returned +Rachel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY. + + +"I suppose you have heard, Peter Meredith, young as you are," began the +old woman, "a great deal of ill-speaking against us Wanderers. We not +only kill game, but even domestic poultry, if the opportunity is given +to us; we not only steal wood, but horse-flesh; and since we are so +partial to carrion, it is not to be wondered at that we sometimes +suffocate a sheep with a piece of his own wool, in order to get the +carcass cheap from the farmer. Yet whatever false charges are current +about us now, these are nothing, either in gravity or number, to what +they were when I was a young girl--that is, fifty years ago. Every +man's hand, every woman's tongue, was against us: magistrates committed +us without testimony; rogues made a trade of accusing us solely to get +blood-money. Our name was more than a by-word, it was a brand; to call a +man a gipsy, was to say vagabond and thief in one. Under these +circumstances, Massingberd Heath left his father's house yonder, and +came to live with us as congenial company. We were in this very wood the +day he did so. The sun shone as brightly as now, the streamlet ran just +as blithe, the air was filled, as now, with the sweet-smelling pine. The +people only are changed--ah me, how changed!--who made up that scene. +There was my father; he died! ten years younger than I am now; is not +that strange, boy? his brother Morris, dead; poor Stanley Carew, you +shall hear of him presently, a handsomer lad by far than his nephew +there; my beautiful Sinnamenta, compared to little Mina yonder, though +she is pretty enough, like a blush-rose to a mere peony, the flower of +womankind. If there are ladies and women born into the world, then she +was a lady. There are no such beauties now; no, friend, not even at the +Dovecot. Let me see; I have counted four; then I was there also, comely +enough, 'twas said, but not to be spoken of for looks with my younger +sister. + +"We were occupied pretty much as you see us now, for life in the +Greenwood possesses but little variety, when Massingberd Heath strode in +among us, with his gun upon his shoulder. We knew him well, but were not +inclined to dislike him. He was a dissipated, wild, young fellow, but, +as yet, his heart was thought, as the saying is, to be in the right +place; his popularity, however, was principally owing to his antagonism +to his father. Sir Wentworth had long passed through the spendthrift +stage, and was very close with respect to money-matters; a harsh and +griping landlord, and it is probable enough a niggard parent. His son's +extravagances were at that time insignificant compared to what they +afterwards became, yet the old man was for ever complaining. He +persecuted all who were poor and in his power, but the gipsies +especially. He feared for his deer, for his game, for his fences, and, +besides, I verily believe he detested us for our improvidence. I +remember he sent two of my young brothers to prison for tossing for +halfpence upon a Sunday--he who made not even a pretence of religion +himself, and had been used invariably to pass his day of rest in town +at Tattersall's, betting his thousands on some approaching race. It is +said that this wretched old man used to horse-whip young Massingberd +almost daily, until a certain occasion, when the latter found himself +stronger than he imagined, and reversed the process. After that, Sir +Wentworth confined himself to cursing his offspring whenever they +quarrelled. It was after some dreadful outbreak of passion on the part +of the old man that Massingberd Heath left house and home, and elected +to join our wandering fortunes. We were very unwilling that this should +be. It was by no means so unusual a proceeding then as now, for persons +of good birth, but broken fortunes, to become gipsies, but such had +usually their private reasons for remaining so for life. They were very +rarely criminals, but generally social outlaws, for whom there could be +no reconciliation at home, or younger sons of respectable families, +with quite a mountain of debt upon their shoulders. These were regularly +nationalized among us; and if they conducted themselves for sufficient +time in accordance with our regulations, they were permitted to +intermarry with us. + +"Now it was certain that Massingberd Heath sought only a temporary home; +as soon as his father died, or even offered terms to him, he would leave +us, and resume his proper station. Moreover, how was the maintenance of +discipline and obedience to the chief of our tribe, absolutely essential +as it is, to be kept up in the case of this new-comer? Even at that +time, he was a headstrong, wilful man, to whom all authority, however +lawful or natural, was hateful. Was it to be expected that he who defied +his own father, himself a man of iron will, would obey Morris +Liversedge? On the other hand, Uncle Morris rather liked the young +fellow. He had connived at many a raid on his father's own preserves--to +such a pitch had the quarrel grown between them--and kept our pot +boiling with bird and beast. Many and many a time had he led the +Fairburn keepers to one extremity of the preserves, while the slaughter +was going on in the other. Moreover, it would be of great importance, +could we make a friend of the man who would one day own all these +pleasant haunts of ours, and who could say a good word, and a strong +one, for the poor persecuted gipsies, when it was needed. Poor Morris +did not know that the rebel but too often turns out a tyrant, when he +gets his chance. He could not foresee Sir Massingberd Heath sending +folks to prison, or getting them kidnapped, and sent across the seas, +for snaring the hares that he held so cheaply when they did not happen +to belong to himself. If you want to find a gentleman who in his youth, +and landless, has been a poacher whenever the opportunity offered, look +you among the game-preservers on the bench of justices. This, however, +is among the least of the basenesses of him of whom I speak. It is not +for his bitter guardianship of bird and beast, or his hateful oppression +of his fellow-creatures, that my heart cries out for judgment against +this man, that I look with eager longing for that hour when God shall +take him into His own hand." + +The old woman paused a moment with closed eyes, and muttered something +that was inaudible to me, rocking herself at the same time to and fro. + +"Massingberd Heath became one of us, Peter Meredith as far as it is +possible for such a wretch to be so; he ate with us, and drank with us, +which they say is a sacred bond among even savages. It was not so with +him. He cast his evil eyes upon Sinnamenta, to love her after the +fashion of his accursed race. Perhaps you may think, Peter Meredith, +that such an occurrence should have been foreseen by her father or her +uncle Morris, and, for my part, I always thought that it was the +presence of my lovely sister which mainly caused this man to join our +company; but, at all events, neither they nor I dreaded any ill +consequences. A gipsy girl is not a light-of-love maiden, like those of +fairer skins. Heaven, who gives her beauty, gives her virtue also: this +is not denied, even by our enemies. When you call your sweetheart +'Gipsy,' it is in love, not in reproach. Massingberd Heath knew this +well, and therefore it was foe took such pains in the matter. It is true +that we do not marry in church, but when we wed among ourselves, the +marriage is not less sacred; It was a wedding of this sort, indissoluble +by one party, but not by the other, which this man wished to compass. He +did not gain his end." + +The old woman's eyes sparkled with triumph for a moment as she said +these words, but her voice sank low as she continued: + +"Peter Meredith, if you have a sister, think of her while I speak of +mine; she cannot be more pure than little Sinnamenta, nor less +designing. Her weakness was one common to all women, but especially to +those of our unhappy race; she was fond of finery--fine clothing, +jewels, shawls; they became her; she looked like any princess when +attired in them. Stanley Carew, who loved her in all honesty, could +give her no such costly gifts as Massingberd Heath showered upon her, +and, to help his end, even upon me. The gipsy's ragged coat looked mean +and poor beside that of our guest. This man, too, whom you know but as a +scowling tyrant, with a face scarred with passion and excesses, was then +a handsome youth. You smile, Peter, at the wonder of it; it is, however, +not less true than that the wrinkled hag to whom you are now listening +was then a bonny girl. Imagine <i>that</i>, Peter, and you can imagine +anything. Ah, Time, Time, surely at the end of you, there will be +something to recompense us for all that you have taken away!" + +Once more Rachel Liversedge paused as if in pain; then with eyes whose +sight seemed to receive but little of what was present, but were fixed +on the unreturning Past, continued as follows: + +"Yes, Massingberd Heath was handsome enough, unless when enraged; his +wrath always brought the horse-shoe out upon his forehead.[1] Ay, and he +was agreeable enough, too. He could smile as though he had a heart, and +vow as though he owned a God. By his devilish art he managed to +ingratiate himself with Sinnamenta; he caused her to treat poor Stanley +ill, and then, pretending to take his part, got credit for generosity. +There are many who call us gipsies a base people, yet this excess of +meanness was quite new to us; my little sister--that was what I always +called her, because I loved her so--she believed him. She would have +trusted to his word, and married him, according to our rites, and been +his wife and drudge for all her life; but since this could not be +without the consent both of her father and Morris, he had to ask it of +them. He might as well have asked it of Sir Wentworth; they had got to +know him well by close companionship, for men fathom men better than +women do--even gipsy women, who foretell men's fortunes for them--and +they answered, 'No.' They did not believe that he had the least +intention of being with us longer that it suited him, and they +peremptorily refused his request. After one burst of passionate threats, +the young man pretended to yield assent to their decision. Morris was +inclined to think this acquiescence genuine; but my father, more warmly +interested in the matter, and therefore perhaps less credulous, kept on +his guard. Finding out that Massingberd Heath had secretly made +overtures of reconciliation to his father, and missing him one night +from the camp, he caused Morris to strike tent at once; and before +morning we had put twenty miles between us and Fairburn. Nor was this +effected too soon, for, as we heard long afterwards, the constables were +searching this very wood for us at day-break. + +"Our company was bound on a long travel to Kirk-Yetholm, Roxburghshire, +one of the few places in Scotland, although but one mile from the +frontier of Northumberland, where the gipsies reside in any number. +There we should meet with friends, and be safe from all molestation. It +was late in the year to travel so far and into such a climate, but there +was no help for it; and moreover, some of the Carews had a house there, +to which Stanley said we should be welcome; and so it turned out. I +believe Sinnamenta would rather that we had camped out of doors, even in +that northern clime, so disinclined was she to be beholden to him or his +friends, after what had happened, although she did not dare to say so. +Poor Stanley imagined that, now we had removed from the neighbourhood of +his rival, he might renew his suit with success; but the proud girl +would not listen to him. She did not exactly pine after the man whose +wiles she had so narrowly escaped, but her life seemed henceforth +saddened. The domestic duties which had hitherto sat so lightly upon +her, became burdensome, and she set about them languidly. The whole of +the time we remained at Kirk-Yetholm, and it was many, many months, she +never mentioned Massingberd Heath, but never ceased to think of him. It +was fated that she was to be undeceived about that man too late." + + +[1] I am reminded by a friendly critic of the "suspicious coincidence" +of a horse-shoe on the forehead, in the case of "Redgauntlet." I never +think of Sir Massingberd without thinking of that worthy; and it has +been a matter of doubt with me, whether Sir Walter Scott might not +himself have seen the Squire of Fairburn and drawn him from the +life--both as to mind and feature--in his famous novel. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE REASON CONTINUED. + + +"About a year after our departure from Fairburn, Sinnamenta and I had +been to sell some baskets, the making of which was a great trade with us +at that time, at Wooler, in Northumberland; and on our return from the +fair that was being held there, we met a number of gentlemen driving +home from shooting in the Cheviots. They went by very rapidly, yet not +so fast but that I recognized one of their number; I had only to look at +my little sister's cheeks to see that she had recognized him also. The +very next day came Massingberd Heath to our camp, professing himself +injured by our abrupt withdrawal from his society, volunteering his +companionship as before, and reiterating his vows and promises to +Sinnamenta. She expressed herself in such a manner as to lead us almost +to fear she might be induced to elope with him; while he, upon his side, +seemed prepared to sacrifice everything to obtain her: his very +selfishness caused him, as it were, to forget himself; and I do believe, +if it had been insisted upon, he would have had the banns published in +Wooler Church, in the hearing of the fine friends with whom he was +staying, and been married by the parson. However, he again proposed to +go through the Cingari ceremony, and this time, <i>Morris and my father +agreed to it</i>. Having acknowledged himself to be an adopted gipsy, +Massingberd Heath was joined in wedlock to Sinnamenta Liversedge; the +ordinary ceremonies were dispensed with, by command of Morris, the +bride and bridegroom only pledging themselves to one another solemnly in +the presence of the assembled tribe. It was then, since he could not +purchase suitable presents in such an out-of-the-way district, that I +received from that man's hand this shooting-flask, as a remembrance of +that day; my uncle commanded me to accept it (although I vehemently +disapproved of what had been done), and I therefore keep it now, when +every other gift of that accursed man has long been committed to the +flames. For my part, I could not understand this novel pliancy on the +part of Morris and my father; while Sinnamenta, as I think, implicitly +believed in her lover's protestation, that for her sake he would all his +life be a wanderer like ourselves. That very day, however, he took her +away southward, on his road to London. + +"For beauty, as I have said, and for gentleness, there never breathed +the equal of my little sister, and yet in six short months this Heath +grew weary of her; like a spoiled child tired with a fragile toy, he +cared not what became of her, so long as it vexed his eyes no more. It +is not necessary to tell what brutal insult he put upon her; enough to +say that she fled from him in terror, as he had intended her to do, and +returned to us, heart-stricken, woe-begone, about to become a mother, +with nothing but wretchedness in the Future, and even her happy Past a +dream dispelled. It was dreadful to look upon my little sister, and +compare her to what she had been so short a time before. She felt the +cold after her luxurious life in town; but she was far more ill at ease +in mind than body. Above all, she sorrowed because her lover's desertion +had left her disgraced--that she had brought shame upon all who +belonged to her. Incited by the poor girl's misery, Morris and my father +put into effect an audacious design which they had privately had long in +hand. We were back again at Fairburn--all but Stanley Carew, who was +away about a new horse for our covered cart--not camping in the +plantation, as of old, for fear of Sir Wentworth, but upon the common +hard by. On a certain morning, neither my father nor uncle went forth as +usual, but sat at home smoking and watching at the opening of the tent. +Not long after breakfast, there appeared a wayfarer in the distance, +whose form showed gigantic in the summer haze. + +"That must be a big fellow, little sister," said I, drawing her +attention to it. She was sitting huddled up, as usual, in front of the +fire; but no sooner had she caught sight of the object in question, +than she ran with a cry to her father's knee, and besought him to save +her from Massingberd Heath. Ah, even then, at that last moment, if +father or uncle had but consulted me, or let me into their plans, I +should not have my little sister's shuddering face before me as now, the +large eyes wild, the full lips pale with terror. He had beaten her, poor +darling, even before the scene that was coming; but she had even more +reason than she knew for fear. This man came striding on to the entrance +of the tent, and stood there looking at its inmates with a withering +scowl. 'Why don't you speak,' said he, 'you vagabonds! For what is it +that you have dared to send for me?' + +"My father pointed towards Sinnamenta--'Is not that cause enough, +Massingberd Heath?' + +"'No,' retorted the ruffian coolly. 'What is she to me? The drab has +come to her thieving friends again, it seems--the more fool she; for +there was more than one who had a fancy for her in town, and would have +taken her off my hands.' + +"My father's fingers mechanically sought the knife which lay beside his +half-finished basket; but my uncle Morris stood up between him and the +speaker, and thus replied:-- + +"Massingberd Heath, I sent for you to tell you something which concerns +both us and you. Many months ago, you came to us, uninvited and +unwelcome, and elected to be a gipsy like ourselves. This makes you +smile very scornfully; yet if you did not mean the thing you said, you +lied. However, we believed you. You were admitted into what, however +wretched and debased it may seem to you, was our home, and all we had to +offer you was at your service. You fell in love with that poor girl +yonder, and she did not tremble at your voice, as now, but trusted to +your honour. It is true, your position in the world was high, and hers +was what you saw it to be. Still you wooed her, and not she you; that is +so, and you know it. Do not slander her, sir, lest presently you should +be sorry for it. Again and again, then, you demanded her hand in +marriage--such marriage, that is, as prevails among our people--not so +ceremonious, indeed, as with the rest of the world, but not less +binding. This we would not grant, because we disbelieved your +protestations on your honour and before your God; and disbelieved them, +as it has turned out, with reason. Then we fled from you and your false +solicitations to the north, hundreds of miles away; even thither you +followed us, or else accidentally fell in with us; I know not which. You +renewed your offers and your oaths. We found, all worthless as you are, +that the poor girl loved you still, and, yielding to your repeated +importunity, we suffered her to become your wife.' + +"'Wife!' repeated the renegade contemptuously. 'Do you suppose, then, +that I valued your gipsy mummeries at a pin's head? You might as well +attempt to tie these wrists of mine with the gossamer from yonder +furze.' + +"'We knew that, Massingberd Heath, although the girl did not know it; +she trusted you, although your every word was false.' + +"'She is fool enough for anything,' returned the other brutally. 'But I +know all this. Have you dared to bring me here merely to repeat so stale +a story?' + +"'A story with an ending that you have yet to learn,' pursued my uncle +sternly. You were wedded by no gipsy mummeries, as you call them; you +took Sinnamenta Liversedge, in the presence of many persons, solemnly to +wife.' + +"'Ay, and I might take her sister there, and marry her to-day after the +same fashion, and no law could say me "nay."' + +"'Yes, <i>here</i>, Massingberd Heath; but not at Kirk-Yetholm.' + +"'And why not?' inquired the ruffian, with a mocking laugh, that had, +however, something shrill and wavering in it. + +"'Because Kirk-Yetholm is over the Border, and, by the laws of Scotland, +my niece Sinnamenta is your wife, proud man, and nothing but death can +dissever the bond!' + +"An awful silence succeeded my uncle's words. Massingberd Heath turned +livid, and twice in vain essayed to speak; he was well nigh strangled by +passion. + +"'I thank heaven, Rachel,' murmured my little sister, 'that I am not +that shame to thee and to my race which I thought myself to be.' + +"'You shall have but little to thank heaven for, girl, if this be true,' +cried her husband hoarse with concentrated rage; 'somebody shall pay for +this.' + +"'It <i>is</i> true,' quoth my father, 'and you feel it to be so. Nothing +remains, then, but to make the best of it. We do not seek anything at +your hands, nor--' + +"'Only the right of camping undisturbed about Fairburn,' interposed my +uncle Morris, who was of a grasping disposition, and had planned the +whole matter, I fear, not without an eye to the advantage of his tribe. +'You wouldn't treat your wife's family as trespassers.' + +"'Certainly not,' returned Massingberd Heath, with bitterness; 'they +shall be most welcome. I should be extremely sorry if they were to +leave my neighbourhood just yet. In the meantime, however, I want my +wife--my Wife. Come along with me, my pretty one.' + +"He looked like a wild beast, within springing distance of his prey. + +"'Oh, father, uncle, defend me!' cried the miserable girl. 'What have +you done to bring this man's vengeance upon me?' + +"'Ay, you are right there!' answered her husband, in a voice that froze +my veins. 'That is still left for me--vengeance. Come along, I say; I +hunger until it shall begin.' + +"'Massingberd Heath,' cried I, throwing myself at his feet, 'for God's +sake have mercy upon her; it is not her fault. She knew no more than you +of all these things. Look how ill and pale she is--you above all men +should have pity on her wretched condition. Oh leave her with us, leave +my little sister here, and neither she nor we will ever trouble you, +ever come near you. It shall be just the same as though you had never +set eyes upon us; it shall indeed! Oh, you would not, <i>could</i> not surely +be cruel to such a one as she.' + +"I pointed to her as she stood clinging to her father's arm as much for +support as in appeal, so beautiful, so pitiful, so weak; a spectacle to +move a heart of stone. + +"'Could I not be cruel,' returned he, with a grating laugh, 'ay, to even +such a one as she? Ask <i>her</i>--ask <i>her</i>.' + +"There was no occasion to put the question; you saw the answer in her +shrinking form, her trembling limbs: his every word fell upon her like a +blow. + +"'She has not yet known, however, what I can be to my <i>Wife</i>,' continued +he. 'Come, my pretty one, come.' + +"'She shall not,' cried my father, vehemently; 'it shall never be in +his power to hurt her.' + +"'What! and I her husband?' exclaimed the other, mockingly. 'Both one +until death us do part! Not come?' + +"'He will kill her,' murmured my father; 'her blood will be on my head.' + +"'Are you coming, wife?' cried Massingberd Heath, in a terrible voice; +he stepped forward, and grasped her slender wrist with fingers of steel. +Morris and my father rushed forward, but the man had swung her behind +him, placing himself between her and them, and at the same instant he +had taken from his pocket a life-preserver--he carries it to this +day--armed with which he was a match for five such men. 'And now,' cried +he, 'what man shall stop me from doing what I will with my own?"' + +"'I!' exclaimed a sudden voice, and with the word some dark mass +launched itself so violently against the throat of Massingberd Heath +that the giant toppled and fell; upon his huge breast, knife in hand, +knelt Stanley Carew, his eyes gleaming with hate, his lithe body working +like a panther's. He was not hesitating, not he, he was only drinking in +a delicious draught of revenge, before he struck. + +"'Strike!' cried I, 'strike hard and quick, Carew!' But while the blade +was in air, Morris and my father plucked him backwards, and suffered his +intended victim to rise, although despoiled of his weapon. + +"'No, Carew; that will never do,' quoth Morris. 'We should have the +whole country upon us in an hour, and they would hang us altogether.' + +"'Carew is that man's name, is it?' exclaimed Massingberd Heath. 'I +will not forget it, be sure. You shall all pay for this, trust me; but +he, and <i>this one</i>, more than all. Come away, wife, come away.' + +"'Yes, she must go, Carew,' interposed my uncle, checking a furious +movement of the young man's. 'He knows all now, and has a right to what +he demands.' + +"'Ay, but if he lays one finger upon her,' cried the passionate gipsy, +'if he dares to harm her even by a word, and I hear of it, as sure as I +see the sun this day, I will know what is the colour of his life-blood. +You may take her away across the seas, but I will follow you; you may +surround yourself with precautions, but I will come at you; you may go +day and night in mail, but this knife shall find your heart out.' + +"Massingberd Heath nodded contempuously, without speaking; and striding +from the tent, signed to Sinnamenta to follow him, which she did, +moaning and weeping, and casting backward, ever and anon, pitiful +glances upon the home and friends she had exchanged for such an evil +lot. I never saw my little sister more." + +As if the remembrance of this sad scene had utterly overcome her, Rachel +Liversedge hid her face in her hands, and wept until the tears welled +through her tanned and shrivelled fingers. + +"I am indeed distressed," said I, "to have caused you so much pain. I +will not make you sad by telling me more." + +"Nay, my boy, since I have begun it, let me finish with it; I shall +think of it all the same, and it is better to speak than think. That +very night Stanley Carew was arrested upon the charge of stealing the +horse which he had bought in open market, and ridden home just in time +to play the part I have described. In the days I speak of, forty pound +was given as a reward to those who gave such evidence as produced a +capital conviction, and many a gipsy perished innocently in consequence +of that wicked ordinance. It is possible that this accusation was made +by one of those who made a practice of earning blood-money; but I am +positively certain the false witness was set on by Massingberd Heath, +even if that man did not originate the charge. It was pressed against +poor Carew very harshly; and although the farmer of whom he bought the +animal came honestly forward, and swore to its being the same which he +had sold the prisoner, his evidence was rejected on account of some +slight mistake in the description. You must have heard tell of that +awful execution long ago at Crittenden jail, when the wretched victim to +perjury and revenge uttered these terrible words: 'O God, if thou dost +not deliver me, I will not believe there is a God.' That unhappy man was +Stanley Carew. My father and uncle were pitilessly persecuted and +imprisoned, and died before their time. These wrists have worn fetters, +this back has suffered stripes; nor did the vengeance of our enemy cease +even with one generation. One of my boys is beyond seas, and another +within stone walls; yet I know that the hate of Sir Massingberd Heath is +not yet slaked." + +"But what became of your little sister, poor Sinnamenta?" + +"I know not what she suffered immediately after she was taken from us; +Heaven only knows: her husband carried her a great way off out of our +ken. But this I have heard, that when he told her of the death of +Stanley Carew she fell down like one dead, and presently being +delivered of a son, the infant died after a few hours; the mother +lived--a maniac. Yes, Massingberd Heath, you did not kill my little +sister, after all; yonder she lives, but recks not whether you are kind +or cruel; she drinks no more the bitter cup of love's betrayal." + +"She is surely not at Fairburn," asked I, "is she?" + +"What else should keep us here, boy, to be harried by keepers, to be +vexed by constables and justices? What else should keep me here in a +place that tortures me with memories of my youth and of loving faces +that have crumbled into dust? What else but the hope of one day seeing +my little sister yet, and the vengeance of Heaven upon him who has +worked her ruin!" The old woman rose up as she spoke, and looked +menacingly towards Fairburn Hall. "I could almost exclaim with poor +Carew," cried she, "that if Massingberd Heath escape some awful end, +there is no Avenger on high. I am old, but I shall see it, yes, I shall +see it before I die." + +If there had been more to tell, which fortunately there was not, I do +not think Rachel Liversedge could have spoken further; her emotion far +more than her exertions, had reduced her strength so far, that though +she uttered the last words energetically enough, I had had for some time +a difficulty in hearing what she said. + +"I thank you for listening to the tediousness of an ancient dame so +long," murmured she: "if you were not a good boy, and half a gipsy, you +would never have been so patient. I have told you all this to put you on +your guard: it is no secret, but still you may not have heard it. +Distrust, despise, detest Massingberd Heath; and warn his nephew, if +you be his friend, not to venture again within his uncle's reach." + +"I will, I will!" cried I; "and I thank you in his name," I held out my +hand, and she turned it over in her own. + +"An honest palm," quoth she, "without a stain. There is one unlucky +cross about it, Peter, that is all. You must not fret for that." + +I mounted my horse amid cordial "good-byes" from the gipsies, who had +been pursuing their usual avocations during the above recital, as though +nothing was more common than that the head of the family should have a +secret of two hours long to communicate to a strange young gentleman; +and throwing a shilling to the boy who had shown me the way, I took my +leave. + +It was not till I left the plantation far behind me, and had ridden at +speed for some distance on the open road, that I was able to shake off +the sombre feelings that oppressed me, and to meet Mrs. Myrtle's welcome +to the rectory with an answering smile. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR. + + +Upon my return to Fairburn, I became the object of immense curiosity and +attraction. I was stared at in the rector's pew at church, and, in my +solitary rides, whithersoever I went, as the repository of the great +secret of the disruption between Sir Massingberd and his nephew. It was +even whispered that I was the prime mover of the young man's rebellion, +and had planned the very manner of his escape upon Panther, including +the accident. At all events, I knew all that had happened, which nobody +else knew, except my tutor himself. Now Mr. Long was as close as wax. +Many an invitation had Mrs. Myrtle obtained of late to take a dish of +tea upon grounds which her hosts had since stigmatized as false +pretences. As the housekeeper and confidential servant of the rector, +she had been asked by Mrs. Arabel of the Grange Farm to take evening +refreshment with her in a friendly way; also by Mrs. Remnants, who kept +that extensive emporium in the village which supplied snuff to the aged +of both sexes (though not gratuitously), becoming cambrics to the young, +and lollipops to those who had not yet reached that period of life +wherein outward adornment is preferred to inward gratification; also by +the exciseman's wife; nay, there was not anybody's wife in Fairburn, +having the wherewithal to make a tea-table alluring, and being in a +sufficiently high position in life to venture upon the step, who did not +invite Mrs. Myrtle to visit her, and proceed to treat her like a +refractory pump; they poured a little down, in hopes to be more than +remunerated for the outlay. But, alas, although the dear good lady was +willing enough, being indeed a gossip born, she had nothing to tell +them. She was not equal to the task of Invention, and of facts, even to +trade upon in tea and toast, she had absolutely none. + +Conceive, then, how every face was turned interrogatively towards Master +Meredith--no, <i>Mr.</i> Meredith, now that the object of everybody was to +please him. How the dames dropped courtesies, and hoped my honour was +well; and my honour's friend too, Mr. Marmaduke, he was well too, they +trusted--Heaven bless him; and he was staying away from Fairburn a good +bit, was he not? and how did has uncle like that, who had always kept +him at home so strict?--and was it true that he was residing with Mr. +Harvey Gerard? well, dear me, and how odd that was; an atheist and a +democrat, people did say; but there, there were some again as spoke well +of him. + +Sedate Mr. Arabel, set on, without doubt, by his inquisitive lady, even +waylaid me in a narrow lane, and insisted upon my looking in at the +farm, and partaking of casual hospitality. "Ye'll just have three drars +and a spet," said he (meaning by that farm of expression a few whiffs of +a pipe), "and take a glass of ale;" and when I declined the first offer +upon the ground of not being a smoker, and the second on the plea that +it was only eleven o'clock, A.M., and consequently rather early for ale, +he confessed that his missus was a-waiting for me with a bottle of +cowslip wine, and a seed-cake of her own making. It was rather difficult +to escape from hospitable snares of this kind, but I revealed as little +as possible without giving absolute offence. On the other hand, I +received some information, the details of which had not been confided to +me by Mr. Long. + +"Well, sir," remarked Mrs. Arabel, after I had told her all I meant to +tell, which was not much, "and it's no wonder as Mr. Marmaduke <i>should</i> +have run away, I'm sure." + +"My good lady," observed I, "pray, be particular; I never said he ran +away; I said his horse ran away." + +"Yes, of course, sir," responded the mistress of the Grange, winking in +a manner that made me quite uncomfortable; "you are very right to say +that, Mr. Meredith, very right. But Sir Massingberd's opinion is, that +it was all planned from first to last, only he says you nearly overdid +it." + +"Ah, indeed," said I; "how was that?" + +"Well, it seems Sir Massingberd was quite deceived about that horse he +bought for his nephew; instead of being quiet, and fit for the lad, it +was a perfect demon; and it was sheer madness of you young gentlemen to +go racing in order to make it run away; then, to arrange with Mr. Gerard +all beforehand; well, I must say I shouldn't have thought that either of +you would have had the depth." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Arabel," said I, laughing; "I am sorry you entertained +so low an idea of our intelligence." + +"Well, sir," returned the farmer's wife, with an air of excessive +candour, "my husband, you see, he often has said to me, says he, 'That +young squire Marmaduke, I'm darned if he ain't little better than a +fool; he don't know what shot to use for rabbits, that he don't; I +never saw his equal for ignorance. And as for that lad from the +Ingies--that was you, you know, sir--well, of all the young fellows +turned of seventeen as I ever saw, he's the'--" + +Here Mrs. Arabel crimsoned, and stopped short, as if she had been very +nearly betrayed into saying something which was not entirely +complimentary. + +"Pray, go on, my dear madam," said I; "'of all the young fellows turned +of seventeen whom he had ever seen, I was the'--" + +"Well, sir, he'd just the same opinion of you as he had of Master +Marmaduke; but, for my part, I always said, that although you might +neither on you know so much as you ought to, and though you might seem, +as it were--" + +"Ay, you always stood our friend, and said we were not such fools as we +looked; did you?" + +"Just so," replied Mrs. Arabel, simply; "and so you see it has turned +out. If Mr. Marmaduke can only live elsewhere till something happens to +Sir Massingberd--although, indeed, he looks as if nothing ever could +hurt him--his life will doubtless be much pleasanter than at the Hall; +it is no place for a young gentleman like him, sure<i>ly</i>, although, +indeed, things are better there than they were. The dark-eyed +foreigneering-looking young person, although, indeed, she was old enough +to know better; well, <i>she's</i> gone." + +"So I have heard," said I drily. + +"Yes, she went away in a whirlwind, <i>she</i> did," continued Mrs. Arabel, +reflectively. + +"Dear me," replied I, "I never heard that." + +"Ah, indeed, I daresay not; why, you see, Mr. Long was a little mixed up +in it. Perhaps he thought it better not to tell you. Take another glass +of cowslip wine, sir; it has been more than ten years in bottle; and the +cake is as good a cake as you will put teeth into in all Midshire, +though I say it as shouldn't say it. Well; the thing happened in this +way, you see. The foreigneering female, she used to throw things at +folks; dishes, plates, whatever came first to hand, whenever she was in +her tantrums. Mr. Gilmore he had his head opened with a slop-basin, so +that you could lay your finger in it; and Oliver Bradford, I believe she +fired a gun at him, charged with swan-shot. However, at times, she was +quite otherwise, crying and submissive as a child. They said it was +Religion up at the Hall; but they knows nothing about that; how should +they? It was hysterics, I daresay, and serve her right too. Well, who +should come here, the very Sunday after Mr. Marmaduke had run away, and +when Sir Massingberd was like a wild man with rage, and couldn't speak +without blaspheming, but one of them Methodee preachers as sometimes +hold forth upon our common. Now the foreigneering female was a-walking +in the park shrubbery, with one of her hysterical fits upon her, I +suppose, and what does she hear through the palings but words as I +suppose the poor creature never listened to before; and presently out +she comes upon the common, and stands up among all the people, with her +great eyes swollen with weeping, and her painted cheeks--and I always +said they were painted--daubed and smeared with tears. Carter John, who +is very much given to that sort of worship, he was there; and he told me +she looked for all the world like the woman in the great picture over +the communion-table in Crittenden Church, who is wiping the feet of our +Lord with her hair. + +"Then the preacher, he bade her repent while there was yet time, and +fear nothing but only God. But Sir Massingberd, he came out, and dragged +her in from the very preacher's hand, and presently back again he comes +with a horse-whip, and swears there shall be no Methodees in his parish, +and if he caught the hypocritical ranter--as he called him--within +hearing again, he'd split his ears. Now, I don't go with him there," +pursued Mrs. Arabel, gravely. "It isn't for us, Mr. Meredith, to say as +nobody can't pick up good, unless it's in church; and least of all +should such things be said by Sir Massingberd, who lets that beautiful +family pew get damp and mouldy, with the fireplace always empty all the +winter long, and never puts his nose into it from year's end to year's +end. However, what does the foreigneering female do, but declare she +would starve herself to death, before she would eat the bread of +unrighteousness any longer; and not one morsel of food would she take, +though they locked her up, and tried to tempt her with her most +favourite dishes. So Sir Massingberd, being at his wits' end, came over +to the parson, and begged him to come and persuade the woman to be +reasonable, and take some refreshment; and Mr. Long--he at first +declined to interfere in such a matter at all, but presently thinking +the poor creature might be really penitent, although it came about +through a Methodee, and hoping to do her some good, although not in the +way Sir Massingberd intended, he accompanied him to the Hall; and what +do you think? Why, they found the poor woman was in such earnest, that +she had cut off the whole of her beautiful black hair, and there it lay +on the carpet, like so much rubbish. So the Squire he swore that he +didn't care now whether she starved or not, and turned her out of the +house, as I said at first, in a whirlwind. She was very faint and weak; +and Mr. Long, who would never exchange a syllable with her before, made +Mrs. Myrtle give her a good meal, and gave her some good words himself, +and sent her away to her friends--for it seems she had some friends, +poor wretch; and this has made Sir Massingberd wilder than ever against +the rector, whom he had already accused of aiding and abetting young Mr. +Marmaduke in his running away; so that altogether the Squire is ready to +make an end of everybody." + +This last statement, although a little highly coloured, as Mrs. Arabel's +descriptions usually were, was really not far from the truth. It did +almost seem as if the baronet was so transported with passion as to be +capable of any enormity. What the law permitted him to do in the way of +oppression, that, of course, he practised to the uttermost; his +morality, never very diffuse, had concentrated itself upon one +position--the defence of the game and trespass laws. His keepers were +exhorted to increased vigilance; the worst characters in the parish were +constituted his spies. Every night, it was now the custom of their lord +and master to go the rounds in his own preserves, and visit the +outposts, to see that the sentinels did their duty. He employed no +Warnings or Trespass Boards in Fairburn Park; his object was not to +deter, but to catch the contemners of the sacred rights of property in +the very act. The pursuit of his life had become man-hunting. I write +that word without any reference to Marmaduke Heath, for, indeed, at that +time I thought that Sir Massingberd had given up all hope of recovering +possession of his nephew. A considerable period had now elapsed since +the young man's convalescence; and yet the baronet had taken no steps to +compel his return. He had written, indeed, to Marmaduke a letter of +anything but a conciliatory character, and calculated to re-arouse the +lad's most morbid fears; but Mr. Harvey Gerard had intercepted the +dispatch, and returned it with an answer of his own composition. He had +stated briefly the results of the late conference at the Dovecot +respecting his young guest; he had reiterated his intention of bringing, +in a court of justice, the gravest charges against the baronet, in case +of any legal molestation from him; and he had finished with a personal +recommendation to that gentleman to rest satisfied with the enjoyment of +the allowance that was supposed to go to the maintenance of his nephew. +Epistolary communication by hand was rendered impracticable, on the part +of the baronet, by the removal of the Dovecot household to town. + +This was a bitter blow to the lord of Fairburn; he knew so well the +abject fear which he had inspired in my unhappy friend, that, +notwithstanding all that had come and gone yet, he did not doubt that a +few words in his own handwriting would bring the truant back, however +loath. We are living now in such quiet times, and under the protection +of such equal laws, that I am aware my younger readers will have a +difficulty in conceiving how one human being, however powerful, could be +held in such terror by others. I was aware, from the first, that the +present universal security would give my narrative an air of +improbability, and I fear that this must increase as it proceeds. I have +only to say, that at the period of which I write, there was no poor man +in Fairburn parish, however honest, however prudent, who might not have +been lodged in jail at the instance of his squire, and would have found +it difficult to clear himself; or who might not, on a hint from the same +quarter, have been pressed, if he did but give the opportunity, on board +a man-of-war. I am likewise certain that had Sir Massingberd ventured +upon such a step, he might have recovered possession of his nephew, or +at least withdrawn him from his protector, by the strong hand of the +law, upon the ground of Mr. Gerard's professing revolutionary +principles. In these days of Palmerston and Derby, of Tweedledum and +Tweedledee, it is impossible for those who are not old enough to have +witnessed it, to imagine the rancour of political parties half a century +ago, or the despotism and flagrant injustice that were sanctioned under +the convenient name of Order. + +For the haughty baronet to be thus cut off from all intercourse with his +victim, was to be foiled indeed. At first, he stung himself well-nigh to +frenzy, like a scorpion within its circle of flame; but after a time the +white heat of his wrath began apparently to abate. He seemed to have +made up his mind to sit down quietly under his defeat, and to content +himself with tyrannizing over those who were yet in his power. This +comparatively peaceful state of things was looked upon by Mr. Long and +myself at first with suspicion, but at last with real satisfaction. When +Sir Massingberd sent over five pine-apples and some splendid grapes to +the Rectory with his compliments (for the first time within twenty +years), we shook our heads, and my tutor addressed the messenger of his +bounty in these words; "Tell your master I am exceedingly obliged to him +for his kindness. 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.'" + +"Would you be so good as to write that down, sir?" said the man. + +"You may give him the message without the tail," replied the rector, a +little discomfited at his own indiscretion, but congratulating himself +very much that he had expressed his thoughts so classically. + +But when pine-apples and grapes became common presents from the Hall, we +began really to think that the stubborn old baronet had come to the +conclusion that it was as pleasant to be on good terms with his +neighbour as not, and that he was genuinely bent on reconciliation. A +soft answer is said to be efficacious to this end, but it is nothing +compared to hothouse dainties out of season; and notwithstanding all I +knew, and all I suspected, I began to regard Sir Massingberd Heath, not +indeed with less contempt and dislike, but with less positive loathing, +and certainly with less fear. I had not set foot upon his property since +Marmaduke's departure, and the baronet took occasion to stop me as I +rode by his gate one day, and remonstrate upon the incivility of such a +course of conduct. + +"It can do me no damage, young gentleman, that you should take your +pleasure in my park, more especially as you are not a sportsman, who +would covet my hares and pheasants; and I cannot but think that your +omission to do so is a proof of ill-feeling towards me, which I am not +conscious of having deserved at your hands." + +He spoke stiffly, and without condescension, as a man might speak to an +equal, between himself and whom a misunderstanding existed unexplained, +but capable of explanation, and, foolish boy as I was, I felt flattered +by his behaviour. + +If the least notion of making myself out to be a hero had existed in my +brain when I began to write these Recollections, it has been dissipated +long ago. I have been quite as much surprised during this recital as any +of my readers have been, at the contemplation of my own meannesses; if I +had known how many and how serious they were to be, perhaps I should +have hesitated to recall them; but I commenced with as strong a +determination, nothing to extenuate with respect to myself, as to set +nothing down in malice with respect to others; and thus I shall proceed +to the end. + +While, then, matters were on this less antagonistic footing, and when +Marmaduke had been away about a year, business happened to take Mr. Long +from Fairburn, and I was left a day and a night my own master. He had +not been gone an hour when Mrs. Myrtle came into the study, where I was +employed at my books, with a letter in her hand; she looked quite pale +and frightened, as she said, "Lor', Mr. Peter, if this note ain't from +Sir Massingberd hisself for <i>you</i>. I feels all of a tremble, so as you +might knock me down with a peacock's feather." + +"Well," said I, forcing a laugh, "but I am not going to use any such +weapon, Mrs. Myrtle. What on earth is there to be afraid of in the +squire's handwriting? It can't bite." But I felt in a cold perspiration +nevertheless, and my fingers trembled as they undid the missive. It was +a polite invitation to dine with the baronet that evening. + +"You are not going, sir, I <i>do</i> hope!" exclaimed the housekeeper +eagerly, as soon as I had acquainted her with the contents of the note. +"Why, such a thing hasn't happened for this quarter of a century. He'll +poison you, as sure as my name's Martha Myrtle. I never saw you and +master eating his pine-apples without a shudder; the rector <i>was</i> +uncommon ill after one of them, one day." + +"Yes, Mrs. Myrtle," said I quietly, "and I have suffered also from the +same cause myself; but I don't think the squire was to blame." + +"But you ain't a-going, sir; I am sure as master wouldn't like it. Oh, +pray, say you ain't a-going." + +"Well, then, I won't go, Mrs. Myrtle. The fact is, I feel one of my +colds coming on; they generally begin with a lump in my throat; so I +shall write to excuse myself." + +I really had a lump in my throat; my heart had jumped up and stopped +there at the mere notion of a <i>tête-à-tête</i> with Sir Massingberd, +diversified--no, intensified--by the presence of Grimjaw. I wouldn't +have gone through it for a thousand pounds; so I wrote to decline the +honour upon the ground of indisposition. I was compelled to keep the +house, I said, for the entire day. Half an hour afterwards, another +letter arrived from the Hall. Since Sir Massingberd might not enjoy the +pleasure of my company at dinner, would I permit him to come over to the +Rectory that morning, and have a few words of conversation with me upon +a matter deeply interesting to both of us? There was no getting out of +this. If I had gone to bed, on plea of illness, I felt that even that +course would have been no protection to me. Sir Massingberd would have +forced a dying man to play with him at pitch-and-toss, if so inopportune +a game had happened to take his fancy. On the other hand, Mrs. Myrtle's +suggestion that I should mount my horse, and ride away after Mr. Long, +was really too pusillanimous a proceeding; I therefore wrote back to the +baronet a polite falsehood, to the effect that I should be very happy to +see him; and in a very few minutes afterwards, I was face to face with +Marmaduke's foe. + +He came in unushered--Mrs. Myrtle not being equal to such an +occasion--filling the doorway with his gigantic form, and well-nigh +touching the ceiling of the low-roofed room with his head. + +"I am sorry to intrude upon an invalid," said he, "but what I had to say +was of a private nature, and I was not sure of finding you alone at any +other time." + +I bowed, and begged my visitor to be seated. + +"It is something," thought I, "that this man is civil at least." For +there is this great advantage in being habitually insolent and +overbearing, that when one does condescend to behave decently, people +appreciate one's good maimers very much. + +"I have called upon you," continued the baronet, "with respect to my +nephew and your friend, Marmaduke Heath. It is idle to deny that he and +I have not been to one another what our mutual relationship should have +led us to be. I am naturally a hard man; losses and poverty have +doubtless rendered me more morose. Marmaduke, on the other hand, is of +an over-sensitive and morbid nature. We did not get on together at all +well. There were faults on both sides; it was six of one, and--" + +I shook my head. + +"Very well, then," resumed Sir Massingberd, with candour, "let us say +that it was I who was in the wrong. I have not the patience and +gentleness requisite for dealing with a character like him; my temper is +arbitrary; I have behaved with but little courtesy even to yourself. You +are polite enough to contradict me, but nevertheless it is true. For +<i>that</i>, however, reparation can be made. I wish that I could as easily +make atonement in the other quarter. This, however, I feel is utterly +impossible. Things have gone too far. I make no complaint of my nephew's +having been encouraged in his rebellious course by one whose duty it +was, on the contrary, to reconcile us. I wish to say nothing that could +only lead to fruitless discussion, and perhaps a disagreement between +you and me; that would be most impolitic on my part, since I come here +to solicit your good offices." + +"Mine, Sir Massingberd? mine?" + +"Yes, I desire your kindly assistance in bringing about a better +understanding between Marmaduke and myself." + +"Sir," said I, "what you ask is a sheer impossibility. Marmaduke Heath +may be wrong in his estimate of your character, but it will remain +unchanged to his dying day. I am as certain of this, as that yonder +yellowing tree will presently lose its leaves." + +"You speak frankly, Mr. Meredith," returned the baronet, calmly, "and I +do not respect you less upon that account. It is not, however, as a +mediator that I need your assistance; I ask a much less favour than +that; I simply wish you to inclose a letter from me to my nephew." + +"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, with some indignation, "you have done +me the favour of calling upon me in my tutor's absence, in the +expectation of finding me so weak as to be unable to refuse whatever you +chose to ask, or so treacherous as to be willing to deceive those who +are generously protecting my best friend from one whom he has every +cause to fear. I am extremely obliged to you for the compliment;" and +with that I laid my hand upon the bell. + +"One moment," observed the baronet, quietly, nay, with suavity, though +the letter U upon his forehead deepened visibly, and the veins of his +great hand, as it rested on the table, grew big with passion; "one +moment before you ring. I am sorry you should have taken such a view of +my conduct as you have described; you young men are somewhat hasty in +the imputation of motive. I am a straightforward, rough fellow, and may +have displeased you; but I am not aware that I have done anything to +justify you in accusing me of meanness and duplicity. Those persons who +have charge of my nephew are, in my judgment, deeply culpable; but I do +not wish you to act deceitfully towards them on that account. Matters +have come to that pass, however, that I cannot even communicate with my +nephew, even though I have that to say which would give him genuine +pleasure. This Mr. Harvey Gerard"--his deep voice shook with hatred as +he mentioned that name--"has taken upon himself to return my letters to +Marmaduke unopened. I know not how to convey to him even such a one as +this." + +Sir Massingberd threw across to me a folded sheet, directed to his +nephew, and motioned that I should open it. It ran as follows:-- + +"NEPHEW MARMADUKE,--It seems that you are fully determined never again +to seek the shelter of my roof; I am given to understand that the time +for reconciliation has gone by, and that any attempt to effect it would +only cause you annoyance, and make the breach wider between us. If so, +so be it. I am an old man now, and I wish my last years to be passed in +peace. I wish to make no allusion to the character of the person with +whom you have chosen to reside, further than to express a hope that when +I am gone, and it will be your part to exercise the rights of a great +land-owner, that you will not employ your influence to subvert the laws +and the government. It is as mad in those who possess authority to +countenance revolution, as for a man seated on a lofty branch to lop it +off with his own hands. I do not say this as your uncle, but merely as +one of an ancient race with whom we are both connected, and in whose +welfare we should take an equal interest. Mr. Meredith is kind enough to +enclose this parting word of advice--the last communication that will +probably ever pass between us--from + + "MASSINGBERD HEATH. + +"P.S.--Burn this when you have read it, lest your friend should get into +trouble upon my account." + + +I read and re-read this strange epistle with great care, before I made +any comment upon it. There was nothing, to my mind, objectionable in any +of the contents. I had been twice to Harley Street during the summer, +and found Marmaduke as morbidly apprehensive as ever of some course of +conduct to be adopted by his uncle with reference to regaining the +custody of his person; he was haunted still by the shadow of this +terrible man. The words I held before me were certainly calculated to +reassure him. No news could be more gratifying than this positive +resignation of the baronet's claim to be his guardian, this final +"good-bye" under Sir Massingberd's own hand. As for the political +advice, I thought that very healthy. I was then, as now, a staunch +conservative, and although I did not sympathize in the least with the +harsh acts of the government in respect to poor, misguided men, not +without their wrongs, yet I did think Mr. Gerard's views both visionary +and dangerous. + +"I trust," observed Sir Massingberd, gravely, "that the sentiments which +you are now perusing are in accordance with your own. I am speaking, I +believe, to a gentleman, and consequently to a natural friend of +order." + +I bowed in assent. "There certainly seems nothing in this epistle which +Marmaduke might not read," muttered I, musing. + +"<i>Seems?</i>" cried the baronet. "Why not say <i>is</i> at once?" + +A sudden idea, gleaned from some romance which I had been lately +reading, flashed across my brain. Why did the postscript say, "Burn this +when you have read it?" I let my hand, with the letter in it, drop below +my knee, so that the missive was held close to the fire. + +"There is no writing in lemon-juice, I do assure you," observed Sir +Massingberd, quietly; "you will only scorch the paper." + +I coloured at the exposure of my suspicions, and in my confusion it did +not strike me that the speaker must himself have at least entertained +such a project, or he never could have unmasked me so readily. I was a +little ashamed of myself, and rather sorry for my incredulity. Sir +Massingberd saw this, and pressed his point. + +"Since there is nothing concealed, and no harm in what is visible, I do +hope you will grant the favour I requested, and inclose that note to my +nephew." + +"Well, sir," said I, after a little hesitation, "I will inclose it. I +give you warning, however, that I shall send a line by the same post to +let Mr. Gerard know that I have done so." + +"By all means," responded Sir Massingberd. "I am only anxious that my +nephew's own eyes should read what I have written. Have you a taper and +wax?" asked he, folding up the sheet. "I might as well stamp it with my +seal." + +I rose and brought what he required from a writing-table. Sir +Massingberd sealed the letter, and gave it into my hand. + +"Mr. Meredith," said he, rising, "you have done me a great service. I +think I have said, that the oftener you make use of my grounds the +better I shall be pleased. Did I add that the bowling-green is entirely +at your service? I am too stiff in the back to have a game with you +myself, but I will give directions to Gilmore to be your antagonist, +whenever you may feel inclined." + +The baronet took his leave in a stately, but not unfriendly manner. He +certainly <i>was</i> stiff in the back; but that was his nature. As he +smiled, his lip turned upwards, instead of the usual way; but so it +always did. Yet I did not feel quite comfortable, as I stood by myself +over the fire, balancing Sir Massingberd's "good-bye" to his nephew in +my hand, and questioning within myself whether it wouldn't be better to +inclose it to Mr. Harvey Gerard, after all. However, in the end I kept +my promise. + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2, by James Payn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 1/2 *** + +***** This file should be named 37170-8.txt or 37170-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/1/7/37170/ + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/37170-8.zip b/old/37170-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf95cd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37170-8.zip diff --git a/old/37170-h.zip b/old/37170-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b878dff --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37170-h.zip diff --git a/old/37170-h/37170-h.htm b/old/37170-h/37170-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9dabf40 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37170-h/37170-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5190 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lost Sir Massingberd, by James Payn. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +a:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +.content {margin-left: 35%; font-size: 0.8em;} + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2, by James Payn + +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: Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2 + A Romance of Real Life + +Author: James Payn + +Release Date: August 23, 2011 [EBook #37170] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 1/2 *** + + + + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>LOST SIR MASSINGBERD.</h1> + +<h3>A Romance of Real Life.</h3> + +<h4>IN TWO VOLUMES.</h4> + +<h4>VOL. I.</h4> + +<h5>LONDON:</h5> + +<h5>SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,</h5> + +<h5>14, LUDGATE HILL.</h5> + +<h5>1864.</h5> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + + +<blockquote><p>The uncommon favour with which the story of "LOST SIR +MASSINGBERD" has been received while appearing in the +columns of a popular periodical, has induced its author to +solicit the suffrages of that more critical Public who "hate +to read novels bit by bit."</p></blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4> +CONTENTS. +</h4> + +<p class="content"> +PREFATORY<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a> GIANT DESPAIR<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a> MY FIRST INTERVIEW<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a> THE DREAM BY THE BROOK<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a> THE DUMB WITNESS<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a> THE STATE BEDROOM<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a> HEAD OVER HEELS<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a> AT THE DOVECOT<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a> MEETING HIS MATCH<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a> MR. HARVEY GERARD<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a> LOVE THE LIFEGIVER<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a> WOOING BY PROXY<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a> THE COUNCIL OF WAR<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a> THE GIPSY CAMP<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a> WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a> THE REASON CONTINUED<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a> I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR +</p> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<h3>LOST SIR MASSINGBERD.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PREFATORY" id="PREFATORY"></a>PREFATORY.</h3> + + +<p>In these days, when every man and woman becomes an author upon the least +provocation, it is not necessary to make an apology for appearing in +print. Perhaps there was always something affected in those prefatorial +justifications; although they did disclaim any literary merit, it is +probable that the writers would have been indignant enough had the +critics taken them at their word; and perhaps the publication was not +entirely owing to "the warmly-expressed wishes of numerous friends." +But, at all events, we have done with all such excuses now. Not to have +written anything for the press, is no small claim to being an Original. +Neither sex nor age seems to exempt from the universal passion of +authorship. My niece, Jessie (<i>ætat.</i> sixteen), writes heart-rending +narratives for the "Liliputian Magazine;" her brother, whom I have +always looked upon as a violent, healthy hobbledehoy whose highest +virtue was Endurance, and whose darkest experience was Skittles, +produces the most thrilling romances for the "Home Companion." Even my +housekeeper makes no secret of forwarding her most admired recipes to +the "Family Intelligencer;" while my stable-boy, it is well known, is a +prominent poetical contributor to the "Turf Times," having also the gift +of prophecy with reference to the winner of all the racing events of any +importance. And yet, I believe, my household is not more addicted to +publication than those of my neighbours.</p> + +<p>What becomes of authors by profession in such a state of things literary +as this, I shudder to think; I feel it almost a sin to add one more to +the long list of competitors with whom they have to struggle; but still, +if I do not now set down the story which I have in my mind, I am certain +that, sooner or later, my nephew will do so for me, and very likely +spoil it in the telling. He writes in a snappy, jerky, pyrotechnic way, +which they tell me is now popular, but which is not suited to my +old-fashioned taste; and although he dare not make, at present, what he +calls "copy" of the stories with which I am perhaps too much accustomed +to regale his ears, he keeps a note-book, and a new terror is added to +Death from that circumstance. When I am gone, he will publish my best +things, under some such title as "After-dinner Tales," I feel certain; +and they will appear at the railway book-stalls in a yellow cover +bordered with red, or with even a frontispiece displaying a counterfeit +and libellous presentment of his departed relative in the very act of +narration. The gem of that collection would undoubtedly be the story +which I am now about to anticipate the young gentleman by relating +myself. If I am somewhat old-world in my style, perhaps it may be +forgiven me, in consideration of the reality of the circumstances +narrated, and the very strong interest which I do not doubt they will +arouse.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary to state the exact locality where they occurred, nor +the number of years which have elapsed since their occurrence; it is +enough to premise that what I tell is true, and that some of the +principal personages in the—well, the melodrama, if you will—are yet +alive, and will peruse these words before they meet the public eye. If +nothing therein offends <i>them</i>, therefore, it need not, upon the score +of indiscreet revelation at least, offend my readers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<h3>GIANT DESPAIR.</h3> + + +<p>In a midland county, not as yet scarred by factories, there stands a +village called Fairburn, which, at the time I knew it first—many, many +years ago—had for its squire, its lord, its despot, one Sir Massingberd +Heath. Its rector, at that date, was the Rev. Matthew Long; and at the +Rectory, when my story commences, there was in pupilage to the said +rector a youth, one Peter Meredith, who has since grown up to be the +present writer. When we are small, all things seem vast to our young +minds; good men are saints, and evil ones are demons. I loved Mr. Long, +therefore, although he was my tutor; and oh, how I feared and hated Sir +Massingberd! It was not, however, my boyhood alone that caused me to +hold this man as a monster of iniquity; it was the opinion which the +whole county entertained of him, more or less. The people of Fairburn +trembled before him, as a ship's company before some cruel captain of +fifteen years back—I mean, of fifteen years before the period of which +I write. Press-gangs had not very long ceased to do their cruel mission; +there were old men in our village who had served their time in His +Majesty's ships, very much against their will; there were gaps in poor +families still, which might or might not be filled up; empty chairs that +had so stood for a score of years perhaps, waiting for still expected +occupiers; fathers of families, or the props of families, in sons and +brothers, had been spirited away from Fairburn (even a little while +ago), and had not come back again yet. They had been poachers, or +radicals, or sectaries (as Dissenters were then called), or something +else distasteful to Sir Massingberd's father; and they had been carried +off to sea at his command. Let not my young readers imagine that I am +exaggerating matters; I write of a state of things of which they have +not the remotest conception, but which I remember perfectly well. They +have reason to thank Heaven that they did not live in those times, if +they happen to belong to those unprosperous classes which were then +termed collectively, "the mob;" there were no such things as "skilled +workmen," or "respectable artisans," in those days. The "people" were +"the Great Unwashed." To build a Crystal Palace for such as they were +held to be, would have seemed to be the height of folly; they would have +taken no other pleasure in it than to smash every pane with +brickbats—for were they not "the dangerous classes"? Such opinions were +beginning to die out, indeed, but they were held still by many great +people, and Sir Massingberd Heath was one of them. Reared in a +clergyman's family, and a clergyman myself, I have been a Conservative +in politics all my life, and in that belief I shall die; but rank and +power are no excuse with me for evil deeds. In the chamber of my nephew +John, who "takes in everything," as the phrase goes, I once discovered a +democratic magazine, edited by a gentleman whose surname I forget, but +who had a great multitude of initials. All the poor people described in +this work were pious and moral, and all the rich people were infidel and +profligate; but for the noblemen—and there were a good many persons of +high rank in the various stories—were reserved all the choicest +invectives and most superlative abuse. Nothing, of course, can be more +unfair than this treatment of a class of persons who, considering their +temptations, are really more than respectable. As a general rule, the +portraits were extravagantly malicious, but they had this attraction for +me—they were all exceedingly like Sir Massingberd Heath. He was the +very type of that bloated aristocracy that is held up in scarecrow +fashion, by republican writers. There were not many living specimens to +be met with even at the date of my tale, and the old baronet, perhaps +himself perceiving that he was one of the last of them, determined that +he should not be the least in infamy. Like the Unjust Judge, he neither +feared God nor regarded man, and, worse than he, he would not perform a +good action on account of the importunity of any person. She must have +been a brave woman who importuned Sir Massingberd Heath, and could +scarcely have been brought up in Fairburn.</p> + +<p>Whether George IV. was king or not, at the period of which I write, it +matters not, for his connection with our squire had terminated years +before; but at one time they had been fast, very fast friends. When a +king and a baronet run a race of extravagance, the king generally wins, +and so it had been in this case; His Majesty, or rather His Royal +Highness the Regent, had <i>distanced</i> Sir Massingberd, and they were not +now upon even speaking terms. Friendships of this sort do not last when +one of the parties has spent all his money. What was the use of a poor +man at White's who could only look on while his old friends played whist +for one hundred pound points, and five hundred pounds upon the rubber? +What business—let alone pleasure—could one have in London, when +Howard and Gribbs would not lend one fifty pounds even at fifty per +cent.? Sir Massingberd had left that gay, wicked world for good, that is +to say, for ever, and was obliged to live at his beautiful country-seat +in spite of himself. He was irretrievably ruined, so far as his court +prospects were concerned, for he had no ready money. He owned all +Fairburn, and many hundreds of rich acres about it, beside the Park and +the river; he had the great tithes of the place, and manorial rights +(which he exercised, too) innumerable. Nobody quite knew—he did not +know himself—what privileges he had or had not, what pathways he could +close at pleasure, what heriots he could demand, or what precise +property he had in Fairburn gravel-pits; but in all cases he gave +himself the benefit of the doubt. It was a very foolish thing to leave +any disputed point to the sense of justice, or the good feeling of our +squire, and yet this was generally done. Where it was not done, where +some honest fellow had ventured to oppose his high prerogative, even +though he gained his end, he was always, as the village people said, +"paid out" for it. I don't mean to say Sir Massingberd murdered +him—although he would have done that, I am confident, without the +slightest scruple, if it could have been effected with safety to +himself—but he took his revenge of him, sooner or later, in a very +simple way. He caught his children trespassing—having caused them to be +enticed upon his land—and committed them to prison; or he broke down +his fences, and spoiled his corn in the night; for he had dependents +devoted to his wicked will, and upon whose false witness he could always +rely.</p> + +<p>And yet, with all this power, the baronet, as I have said, was a poor +man; he had borrowed all the money he could, and was even said to have +overreached the London Jews in these transactions; and it was all +gone—absolutely all. It was seldom that this great lord of acres had a +ten-pound note in his pocket, for his house and land were all entailed +upon his nephew Marmaduke, and he had only a life-interest in anything. +Poverty perhaps made him bitterer and more savage than he would +otherwise have been; but, for my part, I cannot imagine him to have been +agreeable under any circumstances. I have heard, however, that at +Carlton House he was once the first favourite—after Brummell—and that, +of course, made him sought after by many people. He had a wicked wit, +which was doubtless acceptable in some circles, and his tongue, it may +be, was not quite so coarse in those days of prosperity. He took a +delight in his old age in retailing his infamous experiences, before +women, if possible, and if not, before clergymen or boys. I remember to +have heard of Mr. Long once venturing to reprove his squire upon an +occasion of this very kind. The rector had been dining at the Hall—an +exceptional occurrence, and under exceptional circumstances—when, after +dinner, the host began one of his disgraceful reminiscences, whereupon +my tutor rose and said, "Sir Massingberd, you should be ashamed to talk +of such matters to me; but before this boy, it is infamous. I thank you +for your hospitality; but I shall go home."</p> + +<p>"Very well; go, and be hanged!" replied the baronet; "and Marmaduke and +I will make a jolly night of it."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke Heath was Mr. Long's pupil as well as myself, and he resided +with his uncle at the Hall. He would very much rather have retired with +his tutor on that occasion, and indeed have resided at the Rectory, for +he dreaded his relative beyond measure. All the pretended frankness with +which the old man sometimes treated the boy was unable to hide the hate +with which Sir Massingberd really regarded him; but for this +heir-presumptive to the entail, this milk-and-water lad of seventeen, +the baronet might raise money to any extent, nay, sell all Fairburn, if +he chose, and so might once more take his rightful station in the world, +rejoin the Four-in-hand Club, and demand his "revenge" from my Lord +Thanet at écarté. He could still drink, for the cellars of Fairburn Hall +were well-nigh inexhaustible; but if that chit of a lad was but carried +off, he might have the best in the land to drink with him. It is true +that a ruined man in Sir Massingberd's position can still afford a good +table; game is plentiful with him, and fish, and he grows his own +mutton and venison, so that neither himself nor his friends need starve; +but servants must be maintained to wait upon these, and a great +country-house without a carriage is as a lobster without a claw. +Consequently, except in the shooting-season, there were no guests at +Fairburn Hall; the folks that did come were men of a certain stamp; +current indeed, in good society, but only in that of males; a real lady +had not set foot in the Park, far less the house, for the last twelve +years; the manner in which Sir Massingberd lived forbade such a thing. A +few bachelors of the County Hunt, and half-a-dozen roués from town, were +all the company that could be enticed to Fairburn in September and +October; all the rest of the year, the grass grew in the avenue +untouched by wheel or hoof, and even sprang up among the stone steps +that led to the front-door. Somehow or other, I never saw it thus +without thinking of the parable of the Sower and the Seed, with some +distant and uncharitable reference to our squire! I wondered whether it +was possible that in any far-back time any good seed of any sort had +found its way into the crannies of his stony heart, and if so, what had +become of it. I used to try and picture that violent wicked man as a +child in his cot, or saying his prayers at his mother's knee. I believe +she had died soon after her marriage, and that, short as her wedded life +had been, it was a very unhappy one.</p> + +<p>Fairburn Hall had never been a house for tender, honest women; the +Heaths, who are celebrated like another noble race of the same sort, for +their hard hearts and excellent digestions, had never been good +husbands. Fortunately, daughters were rare in the family. How Sir +Massingberd would have brought up a daughter, I shudder to think. One +son had been the sole offspring vouchsafed to the baronets of this line +for many generations, except the last; and in the present case, there +was no such direct heir. Some said Sir Massingberd had married secretly, +but was separated from his wife, and some said he had not; but it seemed +somehow certain that with him the immediate succession from father to +son would cease. His brother Gilbert had married young in Italy, and had +died in that country within the same year. His widow had brought his +posthumous child, when a few months old, to the Hall, at the invitation +of Sir Massingberd, and had remained there for some time. The villagers +still spoke of the dark foreign lady as being the most beautiful +creature they had ever beheld; the Park keepers used to come upon her +in solitary glades, singing sweetly; but ah! so sorrowfully, to her +child in a tongue that they did not understand. The baronet himself was +absent, not yet cast out of the court whirlpool, and the lonely vastness +of the place was not displeasing to the young widow, wishing, perhaps, +to be left undisturbed with her grief; but after Sir Massingberd came +down, she remained but a very few days. It was said that she fled with +her babe in a winter's night, and that her little footprints were traced +in the snow to the cross-roads where the mail went by, by which she had +arrived. She was not rich, and had come down in a manner quite different +from that of her brother-in-law, who, broken and ruined though he was, +had posted with four horses. That was how all gentlefolks of the county +travelled in those days; even the very barristers on circuit indulged, +and were obliged to do so, in a chaise and a pair. The mother of +Marmaduke Heath, however, who was heir-presumptive to the largest landed +property in Midshire, was very poor. Whether the late baronet had +omitted to make a proper provision for his younger son, or whether +Gilbert had made away with it after the usual manner of the Heaths, I do +not know; but his widow and child betook themselves into +Devonshire—selected, perhaps, from its climate approaching nearer than +any other part of England to that of her native land—and, there lived +in a very humble fashion. How Marmaduke ever got into his uncle's hands, +I never could clearly understand; his mother had died suddenly, +whereupon the family lawyer, Mr. Clint of Russell Square, who had the +entire management of the Heath property, had in the first instance +taken possession of the lad; but Sir Massingberd had claimed his right +to be the guardian of his nephew, and it could not be disallowed.</p> + +<p>Such were mainly the circumstances, I believe; but all sorts of stories +were in circulation concerning "Giant Despair," as the savage old +baronet was called, and his nephew; the general opinion agreeing only +upon one point—that no sane person would change places with Master +Marmaduke Heath at Doubting Castle, notwithstanding the greatness of his +expectations.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<h3>MY FIRST INTERVIEW.</h3> + + +<p>My own history has little or nothing to do with the present narrative, +and therefore I will not allude to it, except where it is absolutely +necessary. Suffice it to say, that my parents were in India, and that +for many years Fairburn Rectory was my home. I had no vacations, in the +sense that the word is generally understood to mean; I had nowhere else +to go to, nor did I wish to go anywhere. No father could have been +kinder, or have done his duty better by me, than did Mr. Long. How poor +Marmaduke used to envy me my wardship to that good man! I well remember +the first day I came to Fairburn. It was early summer; its great woods +were in all their glory; and to me, fresh from shipboard and the vast +waste of sea, the place seemed a bower of bliss. First, the grey old +church tower upon the hill; and then the turrets of the Hall, +half-hidden in oak; and last, the low-roofed, blossom-entangled cottage +where I found so bright a welcome—that was the order in which Fairburn +was introduced to visitors from town. The Church, and the Hall, and the +Rectory all lay together; the churchyard, dark with yews, encroached +upon the Rectory garden; and that bright spot, so trimly kept, that one +was moved to pick up a fallen leaf, if such were on its lawn, sloped +down into the heart of the Park. A light iron railing, with wires to +prevent the hares and rabbits from entering in and nibbling the flowers, +alone divided the great man's land from Mr. Long's trim demesne. The +deer came up and pushed their velvet horns against it. In copse and +fern, twinkled the innumerable ear and tail. I had never seen such +animals before, and they delighted me hugely. After dinner, on the very +day that I arrived, I fed them through the rails, and they ate the bread +from my open hand.</p> + +<p>"They take you for Marmaduke," said Mr. Long, smiling; "for otherwise, +they would be shy of a stranger."</p> + +<p>"And who is Marmaduke, sir?"</p> + +<p>"He is your fellow pupil, and I make no doubt will be your friend. I +wish that he was resident with me, like yourself; but his uncle, who +lives at the Hall yonder, will not part with him. He reads with me +morning and afternoon, however."</p> + +<p>"Does he like reading, sir?" inquired I with hesitation, for I for my +part did not. My education, such as it was, had been fitful incomplete, +and in a word, Indian; and I had come back much older than most European +boys have to come home, a sad dunce.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Marmaduke is very fond of reading," pursued my tutor; "that is, +reading of a certain sort. He always does his work well with me, so I +must not be hard on him; but he is certainly too fond of novels. And +yonder he comes, see, with a book in his hand, even as he walks." My +tutor pointed to the Park; and there, coming slowly down a long, broad +"ride," with his eyes fixed upon a volume he held in his hand, was a +youth of seventeen years old or so, which was about my own age. As he +came nearer, I began to see why the deer had mistaken me for him; not, +indeed, because he was very handsome (which was not at all the case with +me), but inasmuch as his complexion was as olive as my own.</p> + +<p>"Why, he has been to India too!" whispered I to my tutor, rather +disappointed than otherwise, for I had had enough of Indian playmates, +and to spare.</p> + +<p>"No," returned he in the same low voice; "his mother was an Italian."</p> + +<p>Then he introduced us; and I began to hang my head, and play with the +buttons of my waistcoat, as is the graceful manner of hobbledehoys upon +such a ceremony; but Marmaduke, completely self-possessed, asked about +my journey, and particularly what I had seen at sea. He knew so much +about sharks and porpoises, that I thought he must have made some long +voyage himself; but he told me that such was not the case.</p> + +<p>"Though I should like to go to sea of all things," said he; "and I would +cruise about that cape—what's its name?—until I met with the "Flying +Dutchman:" that is the vessel which I wish to see."</p> + +<p>"I have never heard of her," said I, proud of that nautical use of the +feminine. "Is she one of the Company's ships?"</p> + +<p>At this my tutor began to rub his hands, and chuckle inwardly, as was +his wont when vastly amused; but perceiving that the colour came into my +cheeks, he laid his hand upon my shoulder kindly, and said that he was +glad to find <i>my</i> head, at least, was not stuck full of foolish stories, +as some people's heads were; while Marmaduke, without triumphing in the +least over my ignorance, explained to me all about that Phantom Ship, +which glides full sail upon the astonished voyager, and passes through +his vessel without shock or noise. He told the tale exactly as if he had +heard it straight from the lips of an eye-witness, and believed it +himself; he never laughed, and if he smiled, he seemed to be sorry that +he had done so directly afterwards. Some melancholy thought appeared to +occupy his mind at all times; and if a bright fancy crossed it, it was +but for an instant, like lightning through the cloud. I am not +describing an "interesting" youth, after the manner of romance-writers; +no "secret sorrow" obscured the young existence of Marmaduke Heath, but +simply, as I subsequently discovered, vulgar, abject terror. His whole +being was oppressed by reason of one man. The shadow of Sir Massingberd +cast itself over him alike when he went out from his hated presence and +when he was about to return to it. He was never free from its nightmare +influence—never. His passion for reading was not so much a love of +books, as a desire to escape in them from the circumstances of his +actual life. If he ever forgot him in earnest talk—and he was the most +earnest talker, as a boy, I ever knew—the mention of his uncle's name +was a Medusa's Head to turn him into stony silence on the instant. If +Marmaduke Heath could only have got away from Fairburn Hall when I first +knew him, his mind might have regained its natural vigour and +elasticity; but as it was, it grew more sombre and morbid every day. His +hungry intellect was nourished upon what associations happened to be at +hand, and they were very unhealthy food. The wickedness of Sir +Massingberd was, of course, sufficiently present to him, like some +hateful picture hung at a bed's foot, which the eyes of a sleepless man +cannot avoid; while every tongue about the Hall was ready to tell him of +the evil deeds of his forefathers. At first, I thought my young friend's +constant allusion to his family was the result of aristocratic pride, +although, indeed, there was nothing to be proud of in what he told me, +but very much the reverse; but I soon found that this was not the case. +The history of the Heaths was what interested him most of all histories, +and he favoured me with extracts from it solely upon that account. As +for the fact of their noble blood running in his own veins, he would, I +am confident, have far rather been the son of Mrs. Myrtle, the kind old +housekeeper at the Rectory.</p> + +<p>"We are a doomed race, Peter," he once said to me, not long after we had +made friendship with one another. "Generation after generation of us +have sinned and sinned. The Corsicans have their family feuds +transmitted to them, but they are hostile only to their fellow men; the +Heaths have ever fought against Heaven itself. Each successor to the +title seems to have said, like the descendants of Tubal Cain—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'We will not hear, we will not know,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The God that was our father's foe.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>There is the Church," said he, pointing to that glorious pile, which, at +Fairburn, was almost a cathedral in magnitude and beauty, "and there is +the Hall. They are antagonistic; they are devoted to opposite purposes. +I tell you, yes; our family residence is consecrated to the devil."</p> + +<p>I am afraid I could not help laughing at this singular notion.</p> + +<p>"Nay," cried he, looking round him furtively, "but you shall see that it +is so." We were in the Rectory garden, which communicated with the +churchyard by a wicket. He led the way into it; and in a distant corner, +upon the north side of the chancel, he showed me a sombre +burying-ground, separated from the rest of the God's acre, and +imprisoned in dark purgatorial rails. "Do you know why we are all put +there," asked he, "instead of with the other—Christian—folks?"</p> + +<p>"You are too proud to lie with the poor, perhaps," returned I, who had +still that idea in my mind with regard to Marmaduke himself.</p> + +<p>"No," said he; "it is not that—it is because the Heaths will not be +buried in consecrated ground."</p> + +<p>"But you have a family vault underneath the chancel, have you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but it is not 'snug lying.' None of us have been put there since +old Sir Hugh, in Queen Anne's time. When they opened the vault for him, +they found his father's coffin with its plate to the ground. It had +turned over. The witty parson would have it that it was only natural +that it should have done so, since its tenant, during life, had fought +alternately for Parliament and King, and was addicted to changing +sides. Bat when Sir Hugh's successor demanded lodging in the place in +his turn, they found Sir Hugh's coffin had turned over likewise. The +circumstance so terrified the dead man's heir—who had not been on the +best terms with him during life, and perhaps thought he owed him some +amends—that he swore his father should not lie in such restless +company; and as the late baronet had been at feud with the then rector, +he determined to dispense with any assistance from the church at all, +and buried him in an adjoining field, which was subsequently made the +last resting-place of all our race, as you perceive. The burial service +is dispensed with, of course. It would be mere mockery to address such +words as Hope and Faith to the corpse of a Heath of Fairburn."</p> + +<p>"My dear Marmaduke," said I, "you make my very blood run cold. But +surely you exaggerate these things. Some of your people have been +Catholics, and been buried in their own chapel at the Hall, have they +not?"</p> + +<p>"Only one of them," replied the boy with bitterness. "My +great-grandfather, Sir Nicholas, abjured his infidelity, and became a +papist, in order to secure his bride. He turned the chapel into a +banqueting-hall, however, and used the sacramental plate in his unholy +revels; but after death, the priests got hold of him at last, and 'Nick +the Younger,' as he was called, now lies under the altar which he so +often profaned. The beginning of his funeral ceremonies was not +conducted so decently as the last rites. He had got outlawed, I believe, +or, at all events, was driven abroad in his latter days, and died there. +Nobody at Fairburn had heard of him for many months, when one October +night, as Oliver Bradford, who is now the head-keeper, but was then a +very young man, was watching in the home-preserves, he heard a terrible +noise in the high-road, and making his way out, came upon this +spectacle: two men in black, and upon black horses, rode by him at full +speed, and close behind them came a hearse-and-four, likewise at the +gallop. The plumes upon it waved backwards, he says, like corn, and all +the black trappings of the thing fluttered and flapped as it went by. +Another man on horseback, singing to himself a drunken song, closed this +horrid procession. It moved up towards the village, and Oliver listened +to it until the noise seemed to cease about opposite to the Park gates. +The solitary witness, frightened enough before, was now doubly +terrified, for he made sure that what he had seen was the news of Sir +Nicholas's decease, brought over in this ghastly and characteristic +fashion. He did not for a single moment imagine that it was a palpable +vision; and yet he had seen a veritable funeral pass by. The old baronet +had died in France, leaving directions, and the money to carry them out, +that his corpse should be taken at night, and at full gallop, through +every town that lay between Dover and Fairburn.—Alive or dead," added +Marmaduke grimly, "the Heaths are a charming family."</p> + +<p>"At all events, my dear fellow," said I, laying my hand upon his arm, +"you will have nothing to fear from comparison with your forefathers. +You may make a good reputation at a cheap price.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> A very little +virtue will go a great way with the next tenant of Fairburn Hall, if +half the tales we hear be true."</p> + +<p>"And what tales are those?" inquired a deep, low voice at my very elbow.</p> + +<p>I believe I jumped a foot or two in the air myself, so great was my +alarm. But as far my companion, if those grass-grown tombs which we were +contemplating had given up their wicked skeletons before his eyes, he +could not have exhibited a greater excess of terror.</p> + +<p>Beside me stood a man of Herculean proportions, who by his dress might +have been taken for an under-gamekeeper, but for a very massive gold +chain which hung from the top button-hole of his waistcoat down to its +deep-flapped pocket. What is now, I believe, called an "Albert guard," +resembles it on a smaller scale; but at the time I speak of, such an +ornament was altogether unique. His face, too, evidently belonged to one +who was used to command. On the forehead was a curious indented curve +like the letter U, while his lip curled contemptuously upwards also, in +somewhat the same shape. The two together gave him a weird and indeed a +demoniacal look, which his white beard, although long and flowing, had +not enough of dignity to do away with. I had never heard Sir +Massingberd's personal appearance described; but even if I had not had +before me his shrinking nephew, I should have recognized at once the +features of Giant Despair.</p> + +<p>"And what tales are those which are told against the present tenant of +Fairburn Hall?" reiterated the baronet, scanning me from head to foot +with his cold glittering eyes. "And who is this young gentleman who +comes to listen to them from the lips of my loving ward?"</p> + +<p>"Sir," said I, "your nephew was saying nothing whatever against you, I +do assure you. I was merely referring to the gossip of the village, +which, indeed, does not make you out to be entirely a saint." I was +angry at having been frightened by this man, who, after all, could not +hurt <i>me</i>. I had been accustomed, too, to Indian life; which, without +making one bolder than other people, indisposes one to submit to +dictation, which is only the duty of the natives.</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd reached forth one iron finger, and rocked me with it to +and fro, though I stood as firm as I could. "Take care, young gentleman, +take care," said he; "that spirit of yours will not do down at Fairburn. +Mr. Long does not seem to have taught you humility, I think. Marmaduke, +go home." He spoke these last words exactly as a man speaks to his dog +who has injudiciously followed him to church on Sunday, in the hope that +he was bent on partridge shooting.</p> + +<p>The boy instantly obeyed. He shrank away, passing as closely to the +churchyard railing as he could, as though he almost feared a blow from +his uncle.</p> + +<p>"There is humility, there is docility!" sneered the baronet, looking +after him. "And if I had <i>you</i> up at the Hall, my young bantam, for four +and twenty hours or so, I'd make you docile too." He strode away with a +laugh like the creaking of an iron hinge, for he saw that I did not dare +to answer him. He strode away over the humble graves, setting his foot +deep into their daisied mounds as though in scorn; and his laugh echoed +again and again from the sepulchral walls, for it was joy to Sir +Massingberd Heath to know that he was feared.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> I am told by an able friend, who is good enough to revise +for me this manuscript, that it is not likely that a mere boy, as I then +was, would have made such an observation as the above. I do not doubt +that this remark is altogether just; but I am afraid it will apply to so +much else in this narrative, that it is scarcely worth while to make an +alteration. I am not used to literary composition; I cannot weigh +whether this or that is characteristic of a speaker. I am merely a +garrulous person, who has, however, such a striking story to tell, that +I trust the matter will atone for the manner.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<h3>THE DREAM BY THE BROOK.</h3> + + +<p>Although my story must needs be sombre wherever it has to do with that +person whose name it bears, yet I hope there will be found some sunny +spots in it. During the first few months after my arrival at Fairburn, +there was nothing to sadden life there that I knew of. I passed my days +under green leaves, and not only in a metaphorical sense; for every fine +afternoon, immediately after study was over, I betook myself to the +Park. The whole place was watched as zealously, even in summer, as the +gardens of the Hesperides, but Mr. Long had obtained permission for me +to roam at large therein. To me, vexed from childhood by Indian suns, +Fairburn Chase—as that part of the demesne most remote from the Hall +was called—was far more delightful than it could have been to any mere +English boy. Its stately avenues of oaks, tapering into infinite +distance, with their checker work of beam and shade, was the realization +of my dreams of forest beauty. Nor was its delicious coolness marred by +the broad strips of sunlight, at long but equal distances, like the +golden stairs of the Angels' Ladder; for those, I knew, marked the +interlacing of "the Rides", themselves as fair, and leading, not as the +avenue did, to the outer world, but into secret bowers known only to the +deer and me.</p> + +<p>When Marmaduke was not with me, which often enough happened, poor +fellow, and particularly after that unfortunate meeting with his uncle +in the churchyard—the whole Chase seemed abandoned to myself. I dare +say it was not really so, and that if I had not been a privileged person +I should soon have found out my mistake, but for days and days I never +saw any human being there. Now and then the figure of a gamekeeper, +dwarfed by distance, would make its appearance for a moment, to be lost +the next in some leafy glade. But the sense of solitude was thereby +rather increased than otherwise, just as the poet tells us in a case +where the ear and not the eye was concerned, "the busy woodpecker <i>made +stiller</i> by his sound the inviolable quietness." Lying couched in fern, +in that lordly pleasure-place, I have myself entertained some poetic +thoughts, although they never found expression. Even now, as I shut my +eyes, I make an inward picture of some such resting-place; nothing to be +seen but the long green feathery stems which the summer air just stirs +about my brow, and the broad branches of the oak that stretch themselves +motionless between me and the sun; nothing to be heard but the coo of +the ring-dove, and the swift stealthy bite of the dappled deer. Nor did +Fairburn Chase lack water to complete its beauty. In front of the Hall +itself moved a broad slow stream, which presently slid rather than fell +down ledges of mossy stone into a wilderness of trees and shrubs, +through which it wandered on like one who has lost his way, but singing +blithely nevertheless. Another stream, which was my favourite, burst +spring-like from the very heart of the Chase, having been artificially +conveyed beneath the avenue, and ran quite a little river, and at a +great rate, to form the island where the herons lived; after which, as +though it had done its work, it went its way tranquilly enough: If it +had nothing to boast of but the heronry it might have been a proud +little brook, for never did colony of those solemn birds take their sad +pleasure in a more lovely spot; but besides it had a certain bend in +it—essential to the beauty of a brook as straightness is to that of a +tree—which I have never seen rivalled elsewhere. Its right bank rose +there, though not abruptly, and left half its bed of brown sand and +loose tinkling shingle bare to the sunlight, save so much of it as the +shade of a cluster of lime trees could cover. Here the bee and the bird +brought their songs, and the dragon-flies the glory of their turquoise +armour and glittering wings throughout the summer noons. The cool +fragrant smell of the limes, and the drowsy music of the insects that +haunted them, were inexpressibly pleasant to me, who, I am afraid, had +not a little of the Asiatic indolence in my nature. Sometimes a group +of swans sailed by on the unruffled stream, themselves a slumbrous +pageant fit enough to herald sleep; but at all events, swans or no +swans, I often did sleep there. One July afternoon, in particular, when +the heat was almost as intense as at Calcutta, and no punkahs to cool +one, I went to this place with malice prepense to lie there and do +nothing, which, from my youth up, has always been synonymous with a +<i>siesta</i>. I cannot do absolutely nothing, and yet keep awake. I very +much admire the people whom I often meet in railway carriages, who +endure, without books or newspapers, hundreds of miles of weary travel, +and who do it with their eyes open. I wonder they do not break out into +a melody, or at least a whistle. They cannot possibly be thinking all +that time, and indeed they have no appearance of employing themselves in +that way, but "stare right on with calm eternal eyes," with no more +speculation in them than those of the sphinx herself. I envy, but I +cannot imitate those happy persons. There is no such state of coma with +me; I either wake or sleep.</p> + +<p>I lay, then, beneath the limes by the brook in Fairburn Chase, +half-buried in the soft brown sand; and even while I looked upon the +glancing stream, with the grand old willow opposite, that bent its hoary +honours half-way o'er, the scene dissolved and changed; the brook became +a river, and the willow a palm-tree, and the Chase a sandy tract, and +the fir-clump on the distant hill the snow-capped Himalaya. I saw, +too—and, alas! I was never more to see them, except, as then, in +dreams—my father and my mother; but they passed by me with pitiful, +loving looks, and went their way. Then the ayah, the black nurse who +was watching over me—for I was once more a child—stole down to the +river-brink, and drew a fluted dagger from her bosom, and dipped it in +the sacred flood, and I felt that I was to die. I knew her well; we two +had loved one another as nurse and child do love, where the nurse +perforce takes half the mother's part; as the child grows up, his +affection, at the best, congeals to gratitude; but not so with the +breast that suckled him—God forgive us men; and the pain of my dream +was sharpest because it was my own dear ayah who was about to slay me. I +had offended Vishnu, or else she would not have done it; her gods +demanded my life of her; but she was sorry; I felt her cold lips upon my +brow, and then a large round tear fell upon my cheek like icy hail, and +I awoke. There was a tumult of sounds in the air; the birds, and the +bees, and the bubbling wave, silent while I had slept, seemed to have +burst out together in chorus at my waking. I was bewildered, and knew +not where I was. My dream was more distinct at first than the realities +about me. If I had but closed my eyes again, I knew that it would be +continued at the spot where it had left off, that the fluted dagger +would have drunk my life-blood; and therefore I made an effort to rouse +myself. Wondrous are dreams, and wondrous the borderland 'twixt life and +sleep! If my existence had depended upon it, I could not, for some +seconds, have told for certain whether I was in England or in India. +Then reason began to reassume her sway, and the vague mysterious powers, +of whom we shall one day perhaps have a more certain knowledge, withdrew +reluctant from their usurped dominion over me. I remembered, however, +most distinctly every incident that they had brought about, and I +placed my hand mechanically upon my left cheek—I had been lying upon my +right—upon which the tear had seemed to fall. Great Heaven, <i>it was +still wet</i>! I was really startled. The cloudless sky forbade the idea of +a drop of rain having fallen; I had shed no tear myself while dreaming, +for my eyes were dry, and even if I had, it could scarcely have dropped +as it did, making a cool round spot in the centre of the cheek—it would +have slid down and left a little frigid line: there were no stones for +the stream to splash against and thus besprinkle me.</p> + +<p>It was very odd. Still, I did not imagine for a moment that my poor +black nurse had really come across the seas to drop the tributary tear +upon her sleeping boy; moreover, she could scarcely have got away so +suddenly without leaving some trace of her departure, some...—My heart +all of a sudden ceased to beat; a shiver ran through me, as runs from +stem to stern through a doomed ship that comes end on at speed upon a +sunken rock; my eyes had fallen—while I thus reasoned with myself—upon +a sight to terrify an older man than I, after such a dream; <i>the print +of a woman's bare feet in the sand</i>. Had there been any +footprints—those of a keeper or watcher, for instance—I should have +been startled to know that some one had passed by while I slumbered, for +most certainly the sand had been untrodden up to the moment I had lost +consciousness; but that a woman with naked feet had been really present +while I dreamed that horrible dream, was something more than startling. +In Scotland such a circumstance would have been less remarkable, but in +Fairburn I had not yet seen any person without shoes. There were a +considerable number of footprints, but only of one individual: she had +stood beside me for some time, for they were deeper close to the place +where I had lain, and there was also one impression there which looked +as though the mysterious visitor had knelt. They had come and returned +the same way, which was not the one that I had come myself, and they +began and ended at the stream-side a few yards beyond, and out of sight +of the bend which was my favourite haunt. The woman had doubtless +crossed and recrossed by means of some natural stepping-stones that +showed their heads above water; there was no path on the other side, but +only a tangled thicket, through which it would have been impossible to +track her, even had I been so disposed, which I was not. To say truth, I +was terribly discomposed. For a minute or two I clung to the notion that +the footprints were my own, made, perhaps, under the influence of +somnambulism. I took off my shoes, and measured the tracks with my own +feet, but I found, boy as I was, that mine effaced them. They were +certainly the marks of a woman; smaller than those of a grown male, yet +firmer set than those of a child. Never since the days of Robinson +Crusoe was ever man so panic-struck by footprints in the sand as I. +Although it was broad daylight, and the air was alive with sounds, I +fairly trembled. The many evil stories which, during my short stay at +Fairburn, I had already heard of the old Hall, a corner of which I could +discern from where I stood, crowded in upon my brain; the whole demesne +seemed under a malign influence—enchanted ground. I turned from the +spot, whose lonely beauty had once so won my soul, with fear and +loathing; and as I turned, there rang out—it may have been from the +thicket across the stream, but the echoes took it up so suddenly, that +it seemed to ring all around me—a laugh so terrible, so demoniacally +mocking, that I could scarcely believe it came from mortal throat. Again +and again it rose, and circled about, as though it would have headed my +fleeing steps, and driven me back upon some dreadful Thing, while I fled +through the fern towards home at my topmost speed, and the white-tailed +rabbits scampered to left and right, less frightened than I.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<h3>THE DUMB WITNESS.</h3> + + +<p>A sentiment of shame prevented my mentioning the affair of the +footprints to my tutor; and as for Marmaduke, although we were by this +time very intimate, I would not have furnished him with a new occasion +for detesting Fairburn Chase upon any account. Not only, however, was my +favourite haunt by the brook become an object of aversion to me, but I +confess I took much less delight in any part of the Heath demesne. I +kept my eyes about me, even in the great avenue, and upon the whole +preferred the rector's little garden, if at any time I had a mind for +sleeping out of doors.</p> + +<p>"Meredith," observed Mr. Long to me one morning—he called me "Peter" +generally, but when he had anything serious to say it was +"Meredith"—"it appears to me that you don't take nearly so much +exercise as you used to do. Your appetite is failing. I am really +concerned about you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, I am pretty well."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Peter, no boy should be 'pretty well;' he should be in the +rudest, vulgarest health, or else he is in a bad way. Your good father +advised me that if you seemed the least to need it, I should get you a +nag. It is Crittenden Fair next week. What say you to my buying you a +horse?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, that is just what I should like," cried I. "I am +certainly getting tired of walking about alone." And then I began to +blush a little, for of late rather than go into the Chase I had been +accompanying my tutor in his favourite diversion of fishing, which I +cared nothing about, or else in his parochial expeditions.</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid to speak out, my boy," said Mr. Long, with a kind +smile, "you will not hurt my feelings. You and I are very good friends, +but you want somebody of your own age to be your companion. Isn't that +it? And very natural too. No young gentleman, except in story-books, +enjoys the society of his tutors. Even Sandford and Merton got a little +tired of good Mr. Barlow, I fancy, he was so desperately full of +information. You want a fellow who can shy stones and climb trees."</p> + +<p>"No, sir, indeed I don't," said I, a little indignantly; for I was +getting too old, I flattered myself, for any boyish escapades of that +sort, "But I do wish that Marmaduke was allowed to come out with me a +little more. Would not Sir Massingberd let him have a horse also?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Long shook his head, and was silent for a little; then, as if in +continuation of his thought, he added, "And yet, I don't know, we'll go +over to the Hall and see about it this very morning."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i>, Sir?" inquired I in astonishment; for I had never set foot in +Doubting Castle, or seen it from any nearer spot than the Heronry.</p> + +<p>"Did I say 'we'?" said Mr. Long, reflectively. "I didn't mean to do so, +but I really see no reason why you shouldn't come. You would wait a +considerable time if you waited for an invitation from Sir Massingberd, +but—Tush, if poor Marmaduke lives there, and yet remains a good boy, +half an hour's visit will not be the ruin of the lad." The latter part +of this remark was uttered aloud, although intended to be strictly +private, which was not an uncommon occurrence with my worthy tutor, and +I have noticed the same peculiarity in other persons of studious habits. +He led the way into the road at once, pursuing which, under the park +wall, we presently came upon a little door, which my tutor opened with a +private key. This admitted us into the wall-garden, or, as it was +sometimes called, from the quantities of that fruit which it contained, +the peach-garden. An enormous area was here entirely given up to the +cultivation of fruits; in the centre were strawberry-beds, gooseberries, +melon-beds, the glasses of which dazzled you to behold; and raspberries +upon trellis-work, on so extensive a scale that it looked like a maze. +The northern end was occupied by an enormous green-house, which, in +those days was rather a rare adjunct, even to a rich man's garden. But +the most surprising sight was that of the walls covered with +spread-eagled fruit trees, or as schoolboys then called them, +"Lawk-a-daisies," laden with the most exquisite dainties—peaches, +nectarines, apricots, and bloomy plums. A number of men were busily +employed about this teeming scene.</p> + +<p>"Why do they say Sir Massingberd is poor?" inquired I. "Is not all this +his?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; it is all his."</p> + +<p>"Well, but what valuable fruit, and what enormous quantities of it! Why, +he would make a large income, even if he was to sell it."</p> + +<p>"He does sell it," replied my tutor, smiling. "Nineteen out of twenty of +all these peaches will find their way to Covent Garden. Why, how could +he eat them, you foolish boy? Even if he gave them away to all +Fairburn, he would introduce the cholera."</p> + +<p>"A baronet and a market gardener!" exclaimed I. "Well, that seems very +odd."</p> + +<p>Mr. Long did not choose to inform me at that time that almost all the +income Sir Massingberd had was drawn from this source, and from the +selling of game, with which his great preserves were overflowing. The +staff of gardeners and of keepers was retained mainly upon this account. +In the interest of Marmaduke, Mr. Clint, the family lawyer, did, I +believe, contribute a certain annual sum for keeping up the gardens and +the Chase; but this was by private arrangement, and at his own risk and +responsibility. Thus it was that while some parts of the Fairburn +demesne were as admirably maintained as possible, others were suffered +to fall into decay. Just as we emerged from the wall-garden, for +instance, there was a small artificial hollow planted with trees, and +within it, peering above ground, a thatched roof covered moss and +mildew, and with great gaps and holes in it. This was the ice-house—in +these Wenham Lake and Refrigerator days an almost obsolete building, but +in the time I write of considered a necessary appendage to every country +seat. Next we entered an arcade of immense length, which the noonday +rays would have striven in vain to penetrate, but for the spaces where +the trellis-work had given way through age and neglect, and the ivy +trailed down from rusted nails, and obstructed the way. Seats were +placed in niches at unequal intervals upon one side of this arcade; but +they looked very unattractive, damp, wormeaten, cracked, and here and +there with a slug upon them, making slimy paths. Yet from one of these +alcoves there started up, while we were still a long way off, a female +figure, and stood for a moment looking at us in great surprise. Above +her happened to be one of those broken portions of the leafy roof, and +through it the sunlight poured right down in a golden flood, as a glory +sometimes does in ancient pictures. A tall dark woman, who must have +been exquisitely beautiful in her youth, and even now retained +considerable attractions; her eyes were large and lustrous, and her +hair—never even in India had I seen hair more dark, or so luxuriant. It +was not rolled tight at the back in a great pillow, as was then the +fashion, or, indeed, confined in any way, but streamed down over her +shoulders, and far below that place where it was the pleasure of our +ancestresses to consider that their waists occurred. She cast upon us at +first a glance haughty and almost defiant, but upon recognizing my +companion, quenched her fiery looks.</p> + +<p>"Stop here, my lad," whispered Mr. Long, laying his hand firmly upon my +shoulder; "wait till she has gone away."</p> + +<p>The woman saw the gesture, although she could not have heard the words. +"I shall not bite the boy, Mr. Long," cried she with a shrill laugh; +"however, I will make myself scarce." She took a few rapid steps to an +opening on the right of the arcade, which led to the lawn and +flower-garden, and was lost to us in a moment.</p> + +<p>"I did not know there were any ladies at the Hall," said I.</p> + +<p>My tutor did not answer, but walked on muttering to himself as if +annoyed. I did not repeat the remark, for I was wondering within myself +whether it could be this woman who had watched my sleep and knelt by me +dagger in hand, according to my dream. She looked just the sort of +female to drive such an instrument home, if she entertained that +fancy—a Judith, equal to the slaying of any Holofernes, and far more of +a slight built, overgrown Indian lad like me. There was certainly +something uncanny about her, and I thought it very strange that +Marmaduke had never spoken to me of her existence.</p> + +<p>The arcade brought us out into a sunk garden, which was a rosary, on to +which opened the tall windows of a noble-looking room. The walls, I +could see, were lined with books, and on the numerous tables lay +portfolios and volumes that gave promise of great store of plates. This +was the library where Marmaduke had told me he passed his only happy +hours at Fairburn. His uncle rarely so much as entered it, although he +was not without some reputation for learning. In particular it was said +that he was well acquainted with divinity, and could quote chapter and +verse of the Bible against the parson. I have since had reason to +believe that his talents in this way were greatly exaggerated. What he +had ever read he doubtless recollected, if his memory served him as well +in literary matters as when he had a grudge to pay; but I cannot think +that he ever studied divinity. If he had any knowledge of the Bible at +all it doubtless astonished all who knew him, and they made the most of +it.</p> + +<p>A few steps further brought us to the north face of the mansion, in +which was the principal entrance. Notwithstanding the broad sweep in +front of the steps, and the avenue branching right and left, there did +not seem space enough as contrasted with the vast mass of trees. The +scene was like a clearing in a forest, where the openings are +artificial, and the wood comes by nature rather than the converse, and +even in that September day the air struck chill. The griffins that +guarded the great stone steps had lost, the one an ear, and the other a +wing, and the steps themselves were chipped and cracked. The grass which +grew there unchecked at other seasons, had however been scraped out, +because Sir Massingberd's guests were expected immediately for the +shooting. None of them, however, had as yet arrived. The great bell +which answered our summons clanged through the place as though there had +been neither furniture nor people within it. The vast door was opened +long before its echoes ceased, and indeed with marvellous quickness. +When the man saw who we were, he looked vexed at having put himself in a +flurry without necessity. He thought doubtless it was his master who +demanded admittance, and had come post haste from the pantry, it being +very dangerous to keep the baronet waiting. We were ushered into the +great hall, and left there while the man went to seek Sir Massingberd. +This huge apartment was evidently used as a sitting-room. There were +couches and comfortable chairs in profusion, and a fine aroma of tobacco +pervaded everything. The walls were ornamented with antlers and the +heads of foxes; a number of fishing rods stood in one corner; in another +lay some of those clubs that are used for exercising the muscles. On the +table was an open pocket-book, stuck full of gorgeous artificial flies. +Presently the man reappeared. Sir Massingberd would see us in his +private sitting-room. We walked over polished oak, on which I could with +difficulty keep my footing, down a long passage hung with grim portraits +of the Heath family—"all dead and judged," as Marmaduke subsequently +informed me—until we came to a short flight of steps on the left hand; +these we descended, and following the footsteps of our conductor, in +almost perfect darkness, came upon double doors, the inner of which, a +baize one, admitted us into the presence of the proprietor. The baronet +was in his shirt-sleeves, cleaning a double-barrelled gun.</p> + +<p>"This is my pupil, Peter Meredith," said Mr. Long.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> know the young gentleman," replied Sir Massingberd, curtly, and the +horse-shoe upon his brow contracted as he spoke. "What makes you bring +him here?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Sir Massingberd," observed my tutor, forcing a laugh, "that is +scarcely a hospitable observation. I bring this friend of your nephew's +because what I have to propose concerns them both. It is good for these +boys to be together, not to live solitary lives; and to keep them mewed +up at home, as they are now, is a positive cruelty. Marmaduke is getting +thinner and paler every day; and Meredith—"</p> + +<p>"Do <i>you really</i> think so, parson?" asked the baronet eagerly, omitting +for a moment to use the dirty-looking piece of oiled flannel which had +previously monopolized his attention.</p> + +<p>"I do, indeed, Sir Massingberd. I believe that if a doctor was to give +his opinion about that boy—"</p> + +<p>"The Heaths never send for doctors, or for clergymen," interrupted the +baronet, with a sneer.</p> + +<p>"And yet they have often needed advice, both spiritual and temporal," +quoth my tutor, stoutly. "I say you should get a horse for your nephew's +riding; it need be no trouble to you whatever. I am going over to +Crittenden Fair next week myself to purchase one for my pupil; now, let +me get one for your nephew also."</p> + +<p>At first Sir Massingberd's countenance expressed nothing but angry +impatience, but presently he began to rub the gun-barrel less and less +violently. "And who is to find the money?" inquired he.</p> + +<p>"I think that can be managed, Sir Massingberd. Mr. Clint will doubtless +listen to such an application on behalf of Marmaduke; he will risk +advancing a few pounds—"</p> + +<p>"For thirty-five guineas one can get a very good pony," observed the +baronet, reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Or even for less," returned Mr. Long, drily; and then, to my excessive +terror, he added in quite as loud a key, "He wants to keep the +difference; that's his plan."</p> + +<p>"And he means to do it, too," observed Sir Massingberd grimly. "No, you +needn't apologize, parson, for your thinking aloud; you don't suppose I +am going to do anything without being paid for it, do you? Then there's +the keep of the animal. Now, what will Mr. Clint allow me for that, do +you suppose? Oats and beans are very expensive, and you wouldn't have me +feed my dear nephew's pony upon hay!"</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd was a formidable object at all times, but I really think +he inspired more fear when he was pleased—when some wicked notion +tickled him—than even when he was in wrath.</p> + +<p>"I think, Sir Massingberd, the question of expense can be managed to +your satisfaction," said my tutor, not a little overwhelmed by having +thus involuntarily expressed his suspicion of the baronet; "and, as I +have said, I will save you all trouble by selecting the horse myself."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, sir," exclaimed Sir Massingberd savagely; "I suffer no +man to choose my horses for me."</p> + +<p>"Very good," replied Mr. Long, biting his lip. "I have only to +stipulate, then, that if your nephew gets the horse, he is to ride it. I +shall have to make myself answerable for that much to Mr. Clint."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he shall ride it," quoth the baronet, with a horrid imprecation; +"you may take your oath of that. And by the by, since you are here, +parson, I want to have some talk with you about that same fellow Clint, +who has been behaving devilish ill to me, I think. You may go away, +young gentleman, <i>you</i> may. You'll find your future riding companion—he +has about as much notion of riding as old Grimjaw yonder—sulking in his +own room, I dare say. Grimjaw, show the young gentleman up to +Marmaduke's room."</p> + +<p>At these words a dog of horrible aspect came out from under the very +sofa on which I sat, and trotted off towards the door. He was the oldest +and ugliest dog I ever beheld. He had only one eye, which was green; he +had no teeth, and was therefore not to be feared as a combatant; but his +aspect was loathsome and repulsive to the last degree. The people of +Fairburn imagined this animal to be Sir Massingberd's familiar demon, +and, until of late years, when the creature had become incapacitated by +age from accompanying him much, the two were scarcely ever seen apart. +Old as he was, however, the hideous Grimjaw had some instinct left, +which, after the word "Marmaduke" had been once more shrieked at him, +caused him painfully to precede me up the oak staircase, and along +another gallery to a chamber door, at which he sat and whined. This was +immediately opened by his young master, who, with a "Come in, Grim," +was only giving sufficient space for the entrance of the dog, when I +cried out, laughing: "What, have you no welcome for your friend? Like +uncle, like nephew! What a pair of curmudgeons inhabit Fairburn Hall!"</p> + +<p>The astonishment of Marmaduke at hearing my voice was excessive. +Notwithstanding his pleasure, his first thought, as usual, was: "Did Sir +Massingberd know?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I coolly; "of course he knows. He received me down-stairs +with his usual politeness. Mr. Long and he are conversing upon some +private matters, so I came up here to see you. It is arranged that each +of us is to have a horse, and that we are to go out riding together."</p> + +<p>"A horse! Oh, impossible!" exclaimed Marmaduke, clapping his hands. +"How did the good parson ever persuade my uncle? What <i>did</i> he give +him?"</p> + +<p>I could not help laughing at this naïve inquiry, which my friend had +made in perfect seriousness. I told him all that had occurred, including +our tutor's <i>vivâ-voce</i> soliloquy, at which Marmaduke cried "Heavens!" +in terror.</p> + +<p>"It is marvellous, notwithstanding, that my uncle should have +consented," observed my companion, musing. "He told me, indeed, that I +should be a great nuisance in the house this month, while his friends +were down here shooting; but that he should have entered into an +arrangement which gives me pleasure as well as gets rid of me, that +seems so very strange."</p> + +<p>"He has doubtless some base motive," returned I smiling: "let us console +ourselves with that reflection. But what have we here? Water-colour +paintings! Why have you never told me you were an artist?"</p> + +<p>"I merely amuse myself with the paint-brush. I have had no lessons, of +course, so that my perspective is quite Chinese."</p> + +<p>"Nay, but I recognize almost all these scenes!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you know, I have been nowhere else but at Fairburn, so that it is +from thence I must take my subjects. The one you have there is taken +from the bend in the stream beyond the Heronry."</p> + +<p>"It is admirable," said I; and indeed it was so like the scene of my +dream, that it gave me a shudder.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to have it," replied Marmaduke carelessly. "You may take +any that the portfolio contains. I only wish they were more worth your +acceptance."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said I nervously. "I will certainly take this one, then;" +and I rolled the sketch tightly up, and placed it in my pocket. "But +here is a pretty face! Why, Master Marmaduke, you have your secrets, I +see; you have never mentioned to me this young lady. What beautiful +hair! The eyes, too, how glorious, and yet how tender! It is surely not +the lady whom we just met in the ar—"</p> + +<p>"Silence, sir!" cried Marmaduke, in a voice of thunder. His face was +lurid with rage, and for the first time I remarked upon his forehead a +faint reflection of the horse-shoe that made so terrible the brow of his +uncle. "Do not speak of that wretched woman in the same breath with, +with—" He did not complete the sentence, but added in his usual soft +musical tones: "Pardon me, my friend; I am sorry to have been so hasty; +but that picture is the portrait of my mother."</p> + +<p>"It was stupid in me not to have known that at once," said I. "The +likeness is most remarkable."</p> + +<p>"But not the expression," returned he sadly. "I know that just now I +looked like one of my own race. She was always an angel, even when she +was upon earth." And the boy looked up with his hands clasped, as though +he beheld her, through his tears, in heaven.</p> + +<p>"Did you paint that from a picture, Marmaduke?"</p> + +<p>"No, from memory. Sleeping or waking, I often see her sweet face."</p> + +<p>I had evidently raised by my thoughtlessness a long train of melancholy +thoughts in my companion. The situation was embarrassing, and I did not +know how to escape from it. As often happens with well-intentioned but +blundering persons, I made the most inopportune remark that could be +framed. Forgetting what I had heard of the infamous treatment which +Mrs. Heath had received while under her brother-in-law's roof, I +observed: "Your mother was once at Fairburn, was she not? That should at +least make the Hall more endurable to you."</p> + +<p>Again Marmaduke's handsome face was disfigured with concentrated +passion. "Yes, she was here," returned he, speaking through his teeth. +"For what she suffered alone, the place would be cursed. Coward, +scoundrel! Why does God suffer such men to live?" It was terrible to see +how like this young lad grew to the man he was execrating. He went on +using such language as I could not have conceived him capable of +employing.</p> + +<p>"Marmaduke," said I, soothingly, "for Heaven's sake, be calm. Providence +will one day reward this man; it is not for you to Curse him. Come, now +that I pay you a visit for the first time, you should play the host, +and show me over the mansion. Why, that queer old dog seems to +understand what one says; he rises as though he were the châtelain, and +kept the keys of Doubting Castle. He brought me here as true as a blind +man's cur. I cannot say, however, that he is beautiful; he is hideous, +weird."</p> + +<p>"It would be strange, indeed, if he were like other dogs," returned +Marmaduke gravely. "He is the sole living repository of a most frightful +secret. If he could but speak, he could perhaps send a man to the +gallows."</p> + +<p>"What man?" exclaimed I. "Pray explain to me this mystery."</p> + +<p>"I do not know what man," returned my companion solemnly; "I only +conjecture. I will relate to you what is known of the matter, and you +shall judge for yourself."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke opened the door, to see that no one was in the passage +without, and then seating himself close beside me, commenced as +follows:—"My grandfather and the present baronet lived on bad terms +with one another. For the last ten years of his life, Sir Wentworth and +his eldest son never met—but once—if they met at all. He had been very +profligate and extravagant in his young days; but in his old age he grew +miserly. When my father saw him last, it was in a small house in Bedford +Place, in London, where he lived in a couple of ill-furnished rooms, and +without a servant. Grimjaw and he slept there alone, but a charwoman +came in every morning for a few hours. Sir Wentworth then gave it as his +reason for this kind of life, that he was retrenching, in order to leave +some suitable provision for his second son. 'Look here, Gilbert,' said +he upon one occasion to my father; 'I have begun to lay by for you +already; and he showed him a quantity of bank-notes, amounting to +several thousand pounds. He had never been an affectionate parent, or +exhibited any self-denial for the benefit of his sons; and my father did +not believe him. He thanked him, of course; but he came away without any +idea that he would be really better off at Sir Wentworth's death. This +was fortunate for him, for he never received a farthing; but I am not so +certain as he was that the baronet did not intend to do what he +promised. While the old man was living in this sordid fashion, his son +Massingberd was passing his time very gaily at court. He played high, +and there were few who could beat him with the cards—but there were +some. It is no use being a good player, you see, unless you are the +best; you only win from those whom you can beat, to lose it in your turn +to the man who can beat you. Thus it was with my uncle, who played, as +I say, high with everybody, but highest, as is often the case, with his +superiors in skill. However, he paid his debts of honour with money +raised at an enormous sacrifice. He lived well, but it was upon his +future prospects. At last, being harder pressed than usual, he wrote to +his father—the first letter he had penned to him for years—and +demanded pecuniary help.</p> + +<p>"Sir Wentworth wrote back a cynical, harsh reply, a copy of which I have +seen—for all these details came out in the course of the inquest. He +bade his son come to call upon him, and judge from his style of living +whether he was in a condition to comply with his request. He appointed a +day and an hour—about five o'clock. It was in December, and quite dark +of course by that time. At six o'clock on the appointed day, Sir +Massingberd—for he had got his title by that time, whether he knew it +or not—called at the police-station near Bedford Place, and gave +information that the house which his father occupied was shut up, and +that he could not obtain admittance, although he had arrived there by +appointment. The house was always shut up they told him, although not +untenanted; they could not explain why his summons had not been +answered. A couple of policemen accompanied him to break open the door. +While they were thus engaged, a dog howled at them from inside. My uncle +had made no mention of having heard this before. There was only one lock +to force, the door being neither bolted nor chained, and they soon got +in. The only two furnished rooms in the house opened upon the hall. In +the sleeping room they found my grandfather dressed, but lying on the +bed quite dead—suffocated, as the surgeons subsequently averred. In +the sitting-room, with which it communicated, they found this dog here, +crouching on the top of the mantel-piece, which was very lofty. How he +got there, nobody could tell; if he leaped thither, even from a chair, +it must have been in an agony of terror. He was whining pitifully when +they entered; but upon seeing my uncle, he ceased to whimper, and +absolutely seemed to shrink into himself with fear. Poor Grimjaw could +give no witness at the inquest, however; so the jury returned an open +verdict. It was probable that Sir Wentworth had had a fit of apoplexy, +which carried him off."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "and is not that probable enough?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but it could not have carried off the bank-notes—which were all +gone—-likewise. Could it Grimjaw?"</p> + +<p>Thus appealed to, the ancient dog set up a quavering howl, which might +easily have been mistaken for the cry of an accusing spirit.</p> + +<p>"Good Heavens! this is too horrible," cried I. "Be careful, Marmaduke, +that you do not mention this to others. It is a frightful slander."</p> + +<p>"Slander!" returned my companion calmly. "It is you who slander, if you +suspect anybody. I have only told you what everybody knew at the time +the mur...—well, then, when Sir Wentworth had his fit. The thing +strikes you as it does me, that is all."</p> + +<p>"But is it not inconceivable," urged I, "if the crime was committed by +the person we are thinking of, that he should retain this dumb witness +of his atrocity, that he should let it live, far less should keep it in +his private sitting-room—"</p> + +<p>"No!" interrupted Marmaduke firmly. "On the contrary, it strengthens my +suspicions. You do not know the man as I do. It gives him gratification +to subdue even a dog. This creature has no love for my uncle; but its +excessive terror of him, which endured for months, nay, years, has +gradually worn off. He obeys him now; whereas, as I have been told, it +was long before it could do anything but shiver at the sound of his +voice. After dinner, when I have been sitting with Sir Massingberd +alone, he will sometimes give the dog a biscuit, saying with an awful +smile: "Here, Grimjaw; you and I know something that nobody else knows; +don't we?"</p> + +<p>"Great Heavens!" cried I in horror; "and what does he do that for?"</p> + +<p>"Because," replied Marmaduke bitterly, "he loves to see me tremble."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<h3>THE STATE BEDROOM.</h3> + + +<p>Marmaduke had scarcely concluded his narration, when steps were heard in +the passage. I daresay I turned pale at the thought of seeing the man of +whom I had just heard such frightful things, for my companion observed, +as if to reassure me, "It is only Mr. Long."</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure?" said I.</p> + +<p>Marmaduke smiled sadly.</p> + +<p>"Do you think that I do not know my uncle's step? I should recognize it +amongst a score of others. If he overtook me in a crowded street, I +should feel that he was coming and shudder as he passed beside +me...—Pray, come in, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well," cried my tutor, entering, radiant with, his good news, "no more +moping at home, my lads; you are to be henceforth cavaliers—you are to +scour the country. Boot and saddle! boot and saddle! Your uncle will not +trust me to get you a steed, Marmaduke; there are none good enough for +you, it seems, at Crittenden; he is going to send to London for an +animal worthy of you. But never mind, Peter; you shall have the best +mount that can be got in Midshire, and we will pit the country nag +against the town."</p> + +<p>My tutor's voice revived me like a cordial: after the morbid horrors I +had been listening to, his cheery talk was inexpressibly grateful, as +the dawn and ordinary sounds of waking life are welcome to one who has +suffered from a nightmare.</p> + +<p>"I was just about to show Meredith the Hall," said Marmaduke.</p> + +<p>"Well it is time that we should be at our work, like good boys," +observed Mr. Long, consulting his watch; "but still, for one morning, it +does not matter, if you would like to stay, Peter."</p> + +<p>"I would rather go home, sir," cried I, with involuntary eagerness. I +was sorry the next moment, even before I saw the pained expression of my +young companion.</p> + +<p>"He has had enough of Fairburn Hall already," said he, bitterly. Then +his face softened sadly, as though he would have said: "Am I not, +therefore, to be pitied, who pass every day and night under this +accursed roof?"</p> + +<p>"Come," exclaimed Mr. Long, gaily, "I do not believe, Master Meredith, +in this new-born devotion to your books. Let us go over the house +first. I will accompany you as cicerone, for I once knew every hole and +corner of it—a great deal better, I will venture to affirm, than the +heir himself here." With these words he led the way into the passage.</p> + +<p>"Every chamber on this floor is the facsimile of its neighbour," said +Marmaduke: "since you have seen mine, you have seen all—an immense bed, +a piece of carpet islanded amid a black sea of oak, a cupboard or two +large enough to live in, and shepherdesses, with swains in ruffles, +occupying the walls." There was, indeed, no appreciable difference in +any of the rooms, except with regard to their aspect.</p> + +<p>"When I first came to Fairburn, I slept here," continued Marmaduke, as +we entered an apartment looking to the north, "and had that long +illness, which you doubtless remember, sir. Heavens, what dreams I have +had in this room! I have seen people standing by my bedside at night as +clearly as I see you now. They called me delirious, but I believe I was +stark mad."</p> + +<p>"I remember it well," said Mr. Long, "although I did not recollect that +you occupied this room. How was it that you came to change your +quarters?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the doctor recommended the removal very strongly. Sir Massingberd +said it was all nonsense about the look-out from my window, and that the +east was as bad as the north for a boy in a fever; but he was obliged to +give way. And I certainly benefited by the change. The Park is a much +more cheerful sight than that forest of firs, and one is glad to see the +sun, even when one cannot get out of doors. At all events, I had no +such evil dreams."</p> + +<p>"Yet this is what always used to be held the state-chamber," replied my +tutor. "Charles I. occupied that bed while he was yet king; and before +your ancestor, Sir Hugh, turned Puritan—a part he was very unfitted to +play—it is said he used to swear through his nose. Peter the Great, +too, is said to have passed a night here. Your dreams, therefore, should +have been historical and noteworthy. I forget which of these smiling +Phyllises is so complaisant as to make way when you would leave the room +without using the door."</p> + +<p>Two full-length female portraits were painted in panel, one on either +side of the huge chimney-piece; a circlet of roses carved in oak +surrounded each by way of frame. Mr. Long advanced towards the one on +the right, and touched the bottom rose; it did not move. He went to the +other, and did likewise; the rose revolved in his fingers, and +presently, with a creak and a groan, the whole picture slid sideways +over the wall, disclosing a narrow flight of wooden stairs.</p> + +<p>"That is charming," cried I. "That is the 'Mysteries of Udolpho' +realized. Where does it lead to, Marmaduke?" There was no answer. Mr. +Long and I looked round simultaneously. The lad was ghastly pale. He +stared into the dusty, gaping aperture, as though it had been a grave's +mouth.</p> + +<p>"I do not know," he gasped with difficulty.</p> + +<p>"Not know?" cried my tutor. "Do you mean to say that you have never been +told of Jacob's Ladder? The foot of it is in the third bookcase on the +left of the library door; the spring is somewhere in the index to +"Josephus." It is evident you never attempted to take down that +interesting work, which in this case is solid wood. The idea of your not +knowing that! And yet Sir Massingberd is so reticent that, with the +exception of Gilmore, the butler, I dare say nobody <i>does</i> know it now. +It is twenty years ago since I made Phyllis move aside, to the +astonishment of Mr. Clint, who came down here on business with poor Sir +Wentworth. I dare say nobody has moved her since."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," cried Marmaduke, passionately; "my uncle has moved her. +Those visions were not dreams. I see it all now. He wanted to frighten +me to death, or to make me mad. When I knew the door was fast locked, he +would come and stand by my bedside, and stare at me. Cruel, cruel +coward!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush, Marmaduke; this is monstrous—this is impossible!" cried +Mr. Long, endeavouring to pacify the boy, who was rocking himself to and +fro in an agony of distress and rage. "See how you terrify Peter! Be +calm, for Heaven's sake! Your uncle will hear you presently, and you +know how he hates to be disturbed."</p> + +<p>At the mention of his uncle, Marmaduke subdued his cries by a great +effort, but he still sobbed and panted, as if for breath.</p> + +<p>"Oh," moaned he, "consider how I came hither from my dead mother's arms +to this man's house—my only living relative, my father's brother—and +was taken ill here, a mere child; then this wretch, this demon, my host, +my...—Oh, Mr. Long, could you conceive it even of a Heath? He came up +to my lonely room by that secret way, and stood without speaking by my +pillow, while I lay speechless, powerless, imagining myself to be out +of my mind!"</p> + +<p>"I do remember now," said my tutor, gravely, "how you harped upon that +theme of your evil dreams, and how the doctor thought you were in +reality losing your reason. Let us be thankful, however, that you were +preserved from so sad a fate; you are no longer a child now; Sir +Massingberd can frighten you no more, even if he had the wish. It was a +wicked, hateful act, whatever was the motive. But let us forget it. In a +few years you will be of age; then you will leave the Hall; and in the +meantime your uncle will annoy you no more. It will be his interest to +make a friend of you. Even now, you see, he provides you with the means +of enjoyment. You will ride out with your friend whenever you please; +and I will take measures so that you shall be more with us at the +rectory, and less at this melancholy place, which is totally unfit for +you. Mr. Clint shall be spoken with, if necessary. Yes, yes," added Mr. +Long, reversing the rose, and thereby replacing the shepherdess, but +quite unaware that he was still speaking aloud, "there must be a limit +to the power of such a guardian; the Chancellor shall interfere, and Sir +Massingberd be taught—"</p> + +<p>"Nay, sir," cried Marmaduke in turn; "for Heaven's sake, let no +complaint be made against my uncle upon my account; perhaps, as you say, +I may now meet with better treatment. I will be patient. Say nothing of +this, I pray you, Meredith. Mr. Long, you know—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know all," interrupted my tutor, with excitement. "You have a +friend in me, Marmaduke, remember, who will stick by you. I have shut my +eyes and my ears long enough, and perhaps too long. If things get worse +with you, my lad, do not forget that you have a home at the rectory. +Once there, you will not return to this house again. I will give +evidence myself; I will—"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, thank you," replied Marmaduke, hurriedly. "All will now be +well, doubtless; but my uncle will wonder at your long delay—he will +suspect something. I think it will be better if you left."</p> + +<p>He led the way down the great staircase, throwing an involuntary glance +over his shoulder, as we crossed the mouth of the dark passage leading +to the baronet's room. "This is a wretched welcome, Meredith; some day, +perhaps, I may take your hand at this Hall door under different +circumstances. Good-by, good-by."</p> + +<p>And so we parted, between the two grim griffins.</p> + +<p>"Peter," said my tutor, gravely, as we went our way, "whatever you may +think of what has passed to-day, say nothing. I am not so ignorant of +the wrongs of that poor boy as I appear to be; but there is nothing for +it but patience."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<h3>HEAD OVER HEELS.</h3> + + +<p>I obeyed my tutor and my friend in keeping all I knew regarding Sir +Massingberd to myself; but the knowledge weighed heavily upon my spirits +for several days. Soon, however, my mind recovered its youthful +elasticity. I began to think that Marmaduke's morbid disposition had +perhaps exaggerated matters; that the baronet was not so black as was +painted; that my friend would soon be his own master; and, in short, I +laid all that flattering unction to my soul which is so abundant in the +case of the misfortunes of others, and so difficult to be procured when +the calamity is our own. Moreover, in a few days I was in possession of +an excellent horse, and there is nothing more antagonistic to +melancholy—especially when it is vicarious—than a good gallop. Nay, +more, after a little, Marmaduke had a horse also. He came to call for +me, that we should go out for a ride together the first day, and I shall +not easily forget it. How handsome and happy he looked! As if the +high-conditioned animal he bestrode had imparted to him some of his own +fire and freedom, he wore scarcely any trace of his habitual depression. +"This is our 4th of July," said he gaily; "my day of independence, as +the rebels say!"</p> + +<p>It happened to be his birthday also, he was seventeen, so that all +things conspired to make it a gala-day. My tutor, who was a judge of +horseflesh, examined the new steed with great attention. "He is superb," +said he, "and you sit him, Marmaduke, considering your scanty +experience, like a young centaur. No one could imagine that your +equestrianism had been heretofore limited to a keeper's pony; and, +moreover, Oliver's ponies are not apt to be very high-couraged. But what +a tight curb has this Bucephalus! He will not give you much trouble to +hold him. So-ho, so-ho, my nag! Are you a hypocrite, then, that you need +be so alarmed at being inspected?" The sleek bay plunged and curveted, +so that my own sober brown began to dance in rivalry. "By the by," +continued Mr. Long, as though a sudden thought had struck him, "I have +occasion to visit Mr. Jervis of the farm at Staplehurst some day this +week; if it is the same to you, let us go there to-day; it will be an +object for your ride, while I shall have the pleasure of your company."</p> + +<p>In a few minutes, my tutor's old white mare was brought round to the +Rectory door by the gardener, who was groom and butler also, and we set +out together at a foot's pace. Mr. Long never took his eyes off the bay, +and therefore did not observe Sir Massingberd, who, with his huge arms +resting on a gate by the roadside, watched us pass with a grim smile. +"Well, parson," exclaimed he—and at the sound of his voice I perceived +my tutor start in his saddle—"what think you of the little Londoner?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot say at present, Sir Massingberd," returned my tutor with +deliberation. "He is a beauty to look at; and if he has no vice, is a +bargain at five-and-thirty pounds."</p> + +<p>"Vice! Why should he have vice, man? A child might ride him for that +matter. I got him with the best of characters. But you'll never teach +those lads to ride if you are always at their stirrup-leather, like +this. Let them ride alone, and race together. Don't treat them like a +brace of mollycoddles. Why, at their age, I could have backed any horse +in Christendom without a saddle. I wonder you don't give Miss Marmaduke +a leading-rein."</p> + +<p>The colour, which had faded from the lad's cheeks, returned to them +again at this sneer; but Mr. Long only remarked: "If you had had a +leading-rein yourself, Sir Massingberd, at seventeen, it would have been +a great deal better for you," and rode on without the least +consciousness, as I believe, of having made any such observation.</p> + +<p>When we had advanced about a mile, and had left the village quite behind +us, my tutor expressed a wish to change horses with Marmaduke.</p> + +<p>"I want to try his paces," said he; and certainly, if he had been a +horse-breaker by profession, he could not have taken more pains with the +animal. He trotted, he cantered, he galloped; he took him into a field, +and over some fences; he forced him by a wind-mill in full work; and, in +short, he left no means untried to test his temper. In the end, he +expressed himself highly satisfied. "Really," said he, "Sir Massingberd +has got you a first-rate steed, with plenty of courage, yet without +vice; he makes me quite dissatisfied with my poor old mare."</p> + +<p>The next day, and the next, we rode again without my tutor; and on the +fourth day it was agreed that we should take an expedition as far as +Crittenden, some ten miles away, where Mr. Long wished us to do some +commissions for him. By this time, Marmaduke was quite accustomed to his +recent acquisition; enjoyed the exercise greatly; and since Sir +Massingberd was much engaged with his guests, passed altogether more +agreeable days. On the afternoon in question, the Hall party were out +shooting, and had taken with them all the stable domestics except a raw +lad who scarcely knew how to saddle a horse.</p> + +<p>"I cannot think what is the matter this afternoon with 'Panther'" (we so +called his skittish animal), exclaimed Marmaduke, as he rode up to the +Rectory door. "I could scarcely get him to start from the yard, and he +came here mostly upon his hind-legs. Is there anything wrong with his +girths, think you? Ned did not know where to lay his hands on anything, +and my uncle has taken William with him to 'mark.'"</p> + +<p>"Nay," said I, "I see nothing the matter. We will soon take off his +superfluous energy over Crittenden Common."</p> + +<p>Long, however, before we reached that spot, we had had galloping enough +and to spare. Twice had Panther fairly taken the bit between his teeth +(as the romance-writers term it, and Heaven forbid that a mere sportsman +should correct them), and sped along the hard high-road at racing pace; +and twice had Marmaduke, by patience and hard pulling, recovered the +mastery, albeit with split gloves and blistered hands. It was not +enjoyment to ride in this fashion, of course, and had it not been for +the commissions which had been entrusted to us, it is probable that we +should have returned home. It puzzled us beyond measure to account for +the change of conduct in the bay. The difference was as decided as that +between a high-spirited child who requires, as we say, "careful +treatment," and a vicious dwarf: heretofore he had been frisky, now he +was positively fiendish. He shied and started, not only at every object +on the roadside, but before he arrived at them. At the end of the high +table-land which is called Crittenden Common, and descends into the +quiet little market-town of the same name, there really was something to +shy at. A gipsy encampment, with fire and caldron, and tethered donkey, +which had been concealed in a hollow, came suddenly into view as we +cantered by; an old crone, with a yellow handkerchief in lieu of a +bonnet, and shading her beady eyes with her hand, watched with malicious +enjoyment the struggle between man and horse which her own appearance +had gone far to excite. In a very few moments, Marmaduke's already +overtaxed muscles gave way, and the bay, maddened with resistance, and +released from all control, rushed at headlong speed down the steep +chalk-road that led by many a turn and zigzag into Crittenden. It was +frightful to watch from the summit of this tamed precipice—this cliff +compelled into a road—the descent of that doomed pair. No mule could be +surer footed than was Panther, but the laws of gravitation had +nevertheless to be obeyed. At the second turning, the bay, after one +vain effort to follow the winding of the road, pitched, head first, down +the grassy wall which everywhere separated the zigzags from one another; +over and over rolled horse and rider to the hard road below, and there +lay, their horrible and abnormal movements exchanged for a stony quiet. +I jumped off my horse, and ran down the two steep slopes, which at +another time I should have descended hand over hand. Yet on my way I had +time to think with what sorrow this news would be received at Fairburn +Rectory, with what joy at the Hall! Marmaduke's hand still held the +rein, which I disentangled from it with feverish haste, lest that +four-footed fiend, which snorted yet through its fiery nostrils, and +glared defiance from its glazing eyes, should arise and drag the dear +lad's corpse among the cruel stones. After what I had seen of his fall, +I had scarcely a hope that he was alive. There was blood at his mouth, +blood at his ears, blood everywhere upon the white and dazzling road. +"Marmaduke, Marmaduke," cried I, "speak, speak, if it be but a single +word! Great Heaven, he is dead!"</p> + +<p>"Dead! no, not he," answered a hoarse, cracked voice at my ear. "He'll +live to do a power of mischief yet to woman and man. The devil would +never suffer a Heath of Fairburn to die at his age."</p> + +<p>"Woman," cried I, for it was the old gipsy crone, who had somehow +transported herself to the spot with incredible speed, "for God's sake, +go for help! There is a house yonder among those trees."</p> + +<p>"And why should I stir a foot," replied she fiercely, "for the child of +a race that has ever treated me and mine as though we were dogs?"</p> + +<p>"Because," said I, at a venture, "you have children yourself."</p> + +<p>"You are right," exclaimed she, clapping her skinny hands together, and +seating herself calmly on the turf. "It is well that you have mentioned +my kith and kin. One lad is across the seas, and will never see the +green lanes and breezy commons of England more; another lies caged in +yonder jail—and both for taking the wild creatures of the earth and +air, to which such men as Massingberd Heath lay claim; while my little +sister—ah, my Sinnamenta, my fair pearl!—may the lightning strike him +in his wickedest hour! nay, let him perish, inch by inch, within reach +of the aid that shall never come, ere the God of the Poor takes him into +his hand!—Boy, you may talk to that flintstone, and it will rise up and +get you help for that lad there—bonny as he is, and the bonnier the +worse for them he sets his wilful eyes on—before you get this hand to +wag a finger for him."</p> + +<p>"Woman," said I, despairingly, "if you hate Massingberd Heath, and want +to do him the worst service that lies in your power, flee, flee to that +house, and bid them save this boy's life, which alone stands between his +beggared uncle and untold riches."</p> + +<p>"Is it so?" cried the old woman, rising up with an agility for which no +one would have given her credit, and looking at me with furious eyes. +"Is it indeed so, boy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, woman, upon my soul!"</p> + +<p>Revenge accomplished what pity had failed to work. In an instant, she +was with me down by Marmaduke's side; from her pocket she produced a +spirit-flask in a leathern case, and applied it to his lips: after a +painful attempt to swallow, he succeeded; his eyelids began tremulously +to move, and the colour to return to his pallid lips.</p> + +<p>"Keep his head up," cried she, "and give him another drop of this, if +assistance does not arrive within five minutes."</p> + +<p>Before she had finished speaking, she had lifted the latch of the gate +that opened from the road into the grounds of the house in question, and +in another instant I was alone—alone with what I believed to be a dying +man, and surrounded with the blood that had flowed in a mingled stream +from him and the dead horse, for Panther had ceased to move—alone with +recollections and anticipations scarcely less horrible than the visible +scene; and yet, so strangely constituted is the human mind, that I could +not forbear to glance with some sort of curiosity at the flask the gipsy +had left with me, and to wonder exceedingly that its worn and tarnished +top of silver bore upon it a fac-simile of one of those identical +griffins which guarded each side of the broad stone steps that led to +Fairburn Hall.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<h3>AT THE DOVECOT.</h3> + + +<p>After an interval, which doubtless appeared much longer than it really +was, there issued from the gate a groom and butler, bearing between them +a small sofa, and accompanied by a young and lovely girl. The scene that +presented itself was enough to shock persons even of strong nerves, and +I hastily exclaimed, "The young lady had better not see this." But she +came on nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid of blood," said she, "and perhaps I may be of use." +Then she directed her servants how to handle the wounded man; and when +he was gently lifted on to the couch, she applied a handkerchief dipped +in Eau-de-Cologne to his forehead, and walked by his side regulating the +pace of his bearers, like some Miss Nightingale of a generation and a +half ago. "Let him be placed in your master's room, James: and then take +my pony, Thomas, and ride as fast as you can for Dr. Sitwell; and as you +come back—but think of nothing but bringing the doctor first—call at +the nursery-garden for your master; he said he should go there about +those roses." And some other directions she gave, as the men moved on +with their ghastly burden, like one who knew the value of time. +Notwithstanding this presence of mind, her anxious eyes betrayed that +she was not wanting in sensibility, and with every groan which the +motion of the fitter extracted from the sufferer, her own lip quivered. +I dare say that I saw nothing of her exceeding beauty at that dreadful +time; but while I write of Lucy Gerard now, a vision of surpassing +loveliness perforce presents itself before me. A tall, lithe, graceful +form; a face, nay, rather a soft, sad smile overspreading and pervading +every feature—a smile that I never saw surpassed save on her own fair +countenance after Love had taken her sweet soul captive—a smile the +reflex of all good and kindly thoughts that dwelt within. There are some +so great and noble that they smile, where other good folks can only weep +and wail; the true sympathizer with human griefs wears no lugubrious +aspect; the angels smile when they weep over human wretchedness—they +know that it is only for a little while, for that the gates of heaven +are standing open very, very near; and some such knowledge, or happy +faith, seems to influence the best of mortals, or how should they go +smiling through this world?</p> + +<p>So Marmaduke was carried along the gravel-drive, and across a little +flower-studded lawn, to the room in Mr. Gerard's house which was called +the master's room, it being half a sleeping-chamber, and half a library, +which Lucy's father used both night and day. This was so evident from +the appearance of the place, that when I had, with James' help, put +Marmaduke to bed there, where he lay breathing heavily, but quite +unconscious, I went to the young lady of the house, and expressed my +apprehension that my poor friend, being in that apartment, would cause +additional inconvenience in the household.</p> + +<p>"I understand," said I, "that it is Mr. Gerard's room."</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir," said she, with a glance of pride more becoming, if that were +possible, than even her ordinary modest look, "you do not know my +father. When I say that it will give him the greatest pleasure to find +that his favourite room has been of service to your friend, I use a +conventional phrase which literally expresses what he will feel Please +to forget that there is anybody in this house but yourselves; it is only +right that sickness should be considered before health; though, alas! +every room to those who are ill is but an hospital. This little +drawing-room, which your glance tells me you think pretty, with its +conservatory and fountain, and the rest, my poor young sister was very, +very weary of before she died, on yonder sofa, after fourteen months of +the gay prison."</p> + +<p>Her voice trembled as she spoke, and I thought I detected in it that +shade of bitterness with which some affectionate persons speak of the +sufferings of those they love, as though they would almost arraign that +Providence for unnecessary harshness, which might inflict any misery +upon, themselves without evoking one impatient thought.</p> + +<p>"Then you are left all alone here, Miss Gerard. With such a sad +reminiscence, this spot must—"</p> + +<p>"Alone!" interrupted she, with astonishment. "What! when I have my +father? See, he is coming through the shrubbery now, and Dr. Sitwell +with him. Let us meet them. How glad I am that he has lost no time."</p> + +<p>It was easy to distinguish the doctor, with his cane, his ruffles, and +stiff professional appearance, a little impaired, however, by hot haste; +moreover, his companion indicated him with his finger as we rapidly +approached one another, exclaiming, "This is your man, young gentleman; +don't waste one word on me at present."</p> + +<p>So, rapidly detailing what had happened as we went, I took the man of +physic to Marmaduke's bedside. As we entered the room, and first caught +sight of his pale features distorted with pain, my companion stood for +an instant aghast. "Great Heaven!" murmured he, "I thought the horse had +trodden upon the poor lad's forehead; but now, I see it is an old scar."</p> + +<p>"No," returned I; "it is not a scar; it is only a mark which in moments +of pain or anger comes out more distinctly than at other times. All the +Heath family have it. This is Mr. Marmaduke Heath, the nephew of Sir +Massingberd."</p> + +<p>"Indeed—indeed, sir!" exclaimed the doctor with an accession of +sympathy. "Dear me, how sad! What a fine property to risk losing at his +time of life. But the eye, you see, gives us hope; the brain has +suffered but slightly. He has not been sick, you say—not been sick; he +has not been sick, sir."</p> + +<p>It was the worthy doctor's habit to reiterate his last sentence in an +arrogant manner, as though he had been contradicted on a matter of fact, +while in reality his mind was entirely occupied by quite other thoughts. +Thus, at the present speaking, he was engaged in manipulating +Marmaduke's head, and examining his ribs and limbs with the greatest +attention. I waited for his verdict in anxious silence, and presently it +was delivered. "It is my opinion, sir, that the young man will live to +be a baronet."</p> + +<p>Life and Death, the immortalities of Heaven and Hell, were matters that +had but small space in Doctor Sitwell's mind compared to this +all-important futurity; he was accustomed to <i>them</i> in connection with +the merest paupers and persons of no sort of consequence; but it was not +every day in the week that a gentleman of Marmaduke's condition was +pitched on his head within the Crittenden doctor's professional orbit.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marmaduke Heath must be kept perfectly quiet; he must not be moved +from hence upon any consideration—it may be, for weeks. What science +can do, through my humble agency, shall be done for the young gentleman; +but rest and quiet are essential. Sir Massingberd should be sent for +instantly; the responsibility upon my shoulders would otherwise be too +great. He will doubtless yearn to be by the bedside of his beloved +nephew. You had better arrange with Mr. Gerard for this being done, as I +have my round to make, which to-day is all-important. The Hon. Mrs. +Flinthert—widow of the late admiral, you know—she requires constant +supervision; nature has to be supported; but for brandy, she must have +sunk before this. Then Mr. Broadacres, who lives Fairburn way—by the +by, that is a very curious case. However, my post is here, of course, +until my assistant arrives, who will remain in my absence. You may leave +your friend now without the least anxiety. When he awakes to +consciousness, you shall be sent for—you shall be sent for, sir."</p> + +<p>Upon this, I returned to the drawing-room to give a much more cheerful +report of the patient's case than I had ventured to anticipate. I found +our host issuing orders for his comfort and attendance, as though he had +quite made up his mind to make him his guest for a lengthened period. A +noble-looking gentleman he was, as like his daughter as an old man can +be to a young girl. Harvey Gerard's face was wrinkled neither by years +nor care, though marked here and there with those deep lines which +indicate the Thinker—one whom the gods have placed above the drudgery +of life, with a disposition to philosophize—a man among men rather than +of them, who stands apart from the high-road somewhere half-way up the +hill of Fortune, and watches the toilers above and below with a quiet +but not cynical smile. "The news you bring me of our patient, Mr. +Meredith," said he, "is most welcome; but I think we should still lose +no time in communicating with his friends."</p> + +<p>"That is also the opinion of Dr. Sitwell, sir; he, too, recommends that +my poor friend's nearest relative should be sent for; but in +circumstances of this kind, it would be wrong not to say at once that +that relative and the invalid here are on the worst of terms, and that +his coming would most certainly aggravate any bad symptoms, and retard +his cure."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to hear," returned Mr. Gerard, gravely, "that the young +gentleman is not on good terms with his own flesh and blood; that is a +bad sign."</p> + +<p>"However that maybe, sir, generally," replied I, with warmth, "it is not +so in this instance. Mr. Long, the rector of Fairburn, and tutor to my +friend, will certify to his being a most well-conducted and excellent +youth. His uncle, however, Sir Massingberd Heath—"</p> + +<p>"I will not have that person under my roof," interrupted Mr. Gerard, +"under any circumstances whatsoever." This he said without the least +trace of irritation, but with a firmness and decision which left me +nothing to apprehend upon Marmaduke's account. Then turning to his +daughter, as if in explanation, he added, "The man I speak of, my love, +is a wicked ruffian—worse than any poor fellow who has ever dangled +yonder outside of Crittenden jail."</p> + +<p>Miss Gerard did not answer except by a look of gentle remonstrance, +which seemed to me to murmur, "But, dear papa, for all we know, this +gentleman may be a friend of his."</p> + +<p>I hastened, therefore, to observe with energy, that Mr. Gerard's view of +the baronet's character was a perfectly just one, as far as I knew, or, +if anything, rather lenient. I recommended that Mr. Long should be +apprised of what had happened, and that he should give Sir Massingberd +to understand that while his nephew was receiving every attention at the +Dovecot—for so I had learned the house was called—its doors were +immutably closed against himself. It was not a pleasant task to impose +upon the good rector, but it was a necessary one; for, independently of +Mr. Gerard's determination, I felt it was absolutely essential to +Marmaduke's life that his uncle should be kept away from his bedside. If +in health his presence terrified him, how much worse would it be for him +in his prostrate and perilous condition! It was arranged, too, that I +should remain to look after my sick friend, and the messenger was +instructed to bring back with him all that we required from the Rectory +and the Hall. Mr. Long arrived at the Dovecot late that same afternoon, +in a state of great anxiety. He had come away almost on the instant +after receiving the news of Marmaduke's mis-chance, and without seeing +Sir Massingberd, who had not yet returned from shooting; but he had left +a letter for him, explaining the circumstances as well as he could. "My +only fear," said he, after visiting his pupil, who still lay in a +lethargic slumber, "is that he will come here immediately, and insist on +seeing his nephew—a desire that would appear to be natural enough to +persons who are unacquainted with the circumstances."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said I; "but surely he cannot do this in the face of Mr. Gerard's +prohibition."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my boy, you do not know Sir Massingberd yet," observed my tutor, +gravely; "he will come where and when he will."</p> + +<p>"Nay," returned I; "but neither do you know Mr. Harvey Gerard. From what +I have seen of that gentleman, he understands how to say 'No,' and to +suit to the word the action. When the strong man armed keepeth his +house, his goods, including his sick guest, are in peace."</p> + +<p>"But where a stronger than he cometh," added the rector, shaking his +head, "what then?"</p> + +<p>"We shall see," said I, "what will happen. It is plain, at all events, +that our host is well aware of the sort of man with whom he has to deal. +Mr. Gerard is a most pleasant person, and his daughter is charming +beyond measure: they are far the most interesting people I have yet seen +about Fairburn. How is it I have never heard any mention of them?"</p> + +<p>"The Gerards have always lived a very retired life," returned my tutor. +"The old gentleman entertains, it is said, some strange opinions. In +fact, I have never met them myself but once, and that on some public +occasion; so you must introduce me, Peter."</p> + +<p>I had been watching for Mr. Long at the entrance-gate, and taken him +straight into Marmaduke's room upon his arrival, so that he had seen +neither our host nor hostess; and I thought it strange that my tutor did +not speak of them with more enthusiasm, after their great kindness to +Marmaduke; something evidently a little chilled his feelings towards +them. When he and Mr. Gerard met, I thought there was more cordiality +upon the part of the latter than of the former; the expression of Mr. +Long's gratitude was earnest, but not genial. His admiration of Miss +Lucy, although not to be concealed, was mitigated, as it seemed, by some +sort of compassion; he regarded her with a shade of sadness. Boy as I +was, it was evident to me that some antagonism existed between my +host—for whom I naturally entertained most kindly feelings—and my +respected tutor; and this troubled me more than I should have liked to +say.</p> + +<p>Miss Lucy presently left the drawing-room, and then I was continually +appealed to by one or the other, on various trifling matters, as though +they found a third party a relief to their conversation. At last Mr. +Long requested me to narrate particularly the circumstances of +Marmaduke's accident, and I did so, down to the period when I found him +bleeding on the road.</p> + +<p>"Well," observed my tutor, "I am totally at a loss to account for poor +Panther's behaviour. I confess, upon the first day I saw him, I did not +like the look of his eye: you remember, Peter, that I made Marmaduke +exchange horses with me, and endeavoured, by every means in my power, to +find out the peculiarities of the animal. I wish Sir Massingberd had +permitted me to choose a horse for his nephew myself, when I bought your +honest brown."</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd selected his nephew's horse himself, did he?" inquired +Mr. Gerard, carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied my tutor; "he sent for him from town a few weeks ago. He +was a mettlesome frisky creature, it is true; but his curb was a very +powerful one, and seemed quite sufficient to subdue him."</p> + +<p>"Does Sir Massingberd himself ride when he is in the field?" observed +our host. "He must be a great weight for a shooting pony."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you had asked me yesterday, I should have said he almost never +rides; but it so happens that he did take the keeper's nag with him this +morning. His great stables are all empty now, for, as probably you are +aware, things are not kept up as they used to be at the Hall. Old Dobbin +is the only representative of the magnificent stud that was once +maintained there, now that Panther is dead. By the by, what has been +done with him?"</p> + +<p>"The carcass has been taken into the town," said Mr. Gerard. "He must +have been a fine creature."</p> + +<p>"His mouth, however, was of iron," said I. "Poor Marmaduke had no +control over him whatever, at last; he had almost pulled his arms off."</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding the powerful bit?" observed Mr. Gerard.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied my tutor; "the bit was not only powerful, I should have +almost called it cruel; but Sir Massingberd is a very good judge of all +things belonging to a horse, and seems to have known that, at all +events, no less was required. It was a town-made article, and came down +from London with the animal."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed," remarked Mr. Gerard. "But you have never told us, Mr. +Meredith, how you managed to give the alarm here, without leaving your +poor friend."</p> + +<p>I am ashamed to say I had never given the old gipsy crone a thought from +the moment that help arrived, although it was of her sending.</p> + +<p>"The very woman whose appearance frightened the horse, repaired, as far +as she could accomplish it, that mischief. She left in my hands, too, +this fine old case-bottle, of which I should be sorry to rob her; and +very curious is it that it has the Heath griffin, or some crest very +like that, upon its stopper."</p> + +<p>"It is the very crest," said the rector. "I am quite sure of that, +although it is long since it last saw plate-powder. It is but too likely +that the dark lady came wrongfully by it."</p> + +<p>"Let us not be hasty to impute crime," observed Mr. Gerard, gravely. +"This is a shooting-flask carried about the person; and gipsies are +rarely pickpockets. When the owner is at home, it lies in someplace of +safety; and gipsies are not burglars."</p> + +<p>"Ably reasoned," observed Mr. Long. "It may, however, have been a case +of 'findings, keepings,' as the school-boys say. I should think the +Cingari claimed for themselves all flotsam and jetsam."</p> + +<p>"It is too heavy, and has too much bulk, not to have been missed by him +who carried it as soon as it fell," continued Mr. Gerard, taking up the +flask. "It has but very little spirit left in it—see—and yet how—"</p> + +<p>Here the butler entered somewhat hurriedly, and was about to speak, when +a figure brushed by him, and set him aside. The daylight was beginning +to wane; but it was impossible to mistake that herculean form, and its +irresistible motion, even if I had not heard the harsh decisive voice +of Sir Massingberd saying, "By your leave, sirrah; but in this good +company I will announce <i>myself</i>!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<h3>MEETING HIS MATCH.</h3> + + +<p>Sir Massingberd's unlooked-for entrance into the drawing-room at the +Dovecot had a result that must seem almost farcical to those who read +it, but which to me, who dwelt among big trembling vassals, and had +learned, day by day, to fear and hate him more and more, had nothing in +it extraordinary. I, Peter Meredith, bolted straightway into the +conservatory, and there ensconced myself within the shadow of an +orange-tree, while the Rev. Matthew Long left the room with equal +celerity by the door. As for me, I confess that I was actuated by panic +on my own account; my tutor's apprehensions were aroused on behalf of +another. The instant after he disappeared, I heard the lock of the +library door shot into its staple, and knew that Marmaduke was in a +friend's keeping, and safe from any incursion of his uncle. I could see +that Mr. Gerard knew this too, for a gleam of pleasure passed over his +face, and then left it determined, defiant, and almost mocking, as when +he had first set eyes upon the intruder. There was a fire in the +otherwise darkening room, and from my place of concealment, I could +watch the lineaments of both its inmates—and two more resolved and +haughty countenances I had never beheld.</p> + +<p>"Is it the custom of your respectable family, Sir Massingberd Heath," +observed my host, "to force themselves into houses whose owners do not +desire the honour of their presence?"</p> + +<p>"It is their custom to hold their own, sir," answered the baronet +curtly; "and I am come after my nephew."</p> + +<p>It is impossible to convey the effect which this audacious speech had +upon me, its unseen hearer; unblushing, scornfully open as it was, an +awful threat seemed to lie within it, and above all, a consciousness of +the power to carry it into effect. Even Mr. Gerard, who could have had +no knowledge of the things that I knew, and had never heard the history +of Grimjaw, seemed to feel a tremor as he listened.</p> + +<p>"Your nephew, sir, is not in a condition to receive you," returned my +host. "The consequences of seeing you might, I do not hesitate to say, +be fatal to him."</p> + +<p>"The opinion of his medical man is different," observed Sir Massingberd +with a sneer. "Dr. Sitwell—a most estimable person, I should say, and +endowed with excellent sense—has been so very kind as to ride over +himself to Fairburn as soon as he could leave his patient, in order to +apprise me exactly how the matter stands. He recommends my seeing +Marmaduke in his first lucid interval—'There is no knowing,' said he, +'whether that may not be your poor dear nephew's last.'"</p> + +<p>"Your poor dear nephew," repeated Mr. Gerard, with great distinctness. +"Very dear, doubtless, but not what one would call poor, at least in the +matter of expectations."</p> + +<p>"Poor or rich, sir," retorted the other, "he has been placed in my hands +as being those most fitted to take care of him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerard shrugged his shoulders, and smiled sardonically.</p> + +<p>"You seem to conceive that confidence misplaced, sir," continued the +baronet. "The want of your good opinion afflicts me beyond measure. I +am aware that I fail to satisfy pious persons in some particulars, but +that Mr. Harvey Gerard's susceptibilities should be offended is indeed a +serious consideration; it is as though the devil himself should cry, +'For shame!'"</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd Heath, you are under my roof, although unbidden and +unwelcome," returned my host; "your tongue, therefore, is chartered, so +far as I am concerned. I could not, I confess, help my countenance +expressing some astonishment when you spoke of your fitness for the +education of youth."</p> + +<p>There was a pause here for which I could not account. Sir Massingberd's +eyes were riveted upon something on which the firelight danced and +shone. I should very much misrepresent the baronet's character, and +probably even exaggerate his capabilities, if I said he blushed, but +certainly his countenance changed. Then he broke out fiercely, "I live +as I choose, sir, and am answerable to no man, least of all to you. The +parsons had their say, and have got their reply long ago, but am I also +to be arraigned by—"</p> + +<p>"You cannot justify yourself by any quarrel with me," interrupted Mr. +Gerard. "I have, as you say, although not for the foolish reason you +would mention, no right to be either your judge or accuser. But, Sir +Massingberd, there is a God whom we have both good cause to fear."</p> + +<p>"So you make your own sermons, I perceive," exclaimed the other, +bitterly. "That is the reason, is it, why the good folks never see you +at church? Cant amuses me always; but religion out of your mouth is +humorous, indeed. Pray go on, sir, if my dear nephew can wait a little, +for I should be sorry to miss him altogether. You were affirming, I +think, the existence of a God."</p> + +<p>"I was about to urge," continued Mr. Gerard, with grave severity, "since +howsoever persons differ on religious matters, they generally +acknowledge a common Father, that if there is one crime more hateful to +Him than another, it is the deliberate debauchery of the mind of youth. +I had no intention of making any particular accusation, such as the +sight of this flask seems to have suggested to you. I know nothing—but +what I guess—of its history. It has only been in my hands a very few +minutes. The person by whose means it came into this house was, I +believe, an old gipsy woman, and you are, doubtless, well aware how it +got into her possession."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerard paused. Sir Massingberd, who, though smiling scornfully, had +been beating the ground with his foot, here observed, with a forced +calmness, "She is a liar; she is a thief, and the mother of thieves."</p> + +<p>"Did she steal this flask?" inquired Mr. Gerard, regarding the other +attentively. "It has your crest upon it. She did not. Good. It was then, +I suppose, only a <i>gage d'amour</i> of yours."</p> + +<p>A lurid light came over Sir Massingberd's evil face; for a moment I +trembled for the man who dared to speak such words to him, but almost +instantly he recovered his usual cruel calm.</p> + +<p>"Your sagacity, Mr. Gerard," returned he, "is truly admirable. Is it the +result of experience or intuition? or has this old ginger-faced harridan +made you her favoured confidant? With your fondness for all such +vagabonds I am well acquainted."</p> + +<p>"The reprobation of a man like you, Sir Massingberd, should be dearer +than the praise of ordinary mortals; but this matter does not concern +myself in any way."</p> + +<p>The baronet muttered something between his set teeth.</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! man," continued Mr. Gerard, with unutterable scorn; "think not +to frighten <i>me</i>. I am stronger than you, because I am richer; you are +as poor as those very vagabonds whom you despise; your very existence +depends upon the alms of a stranger. That you are unscrupulous in your +revenges, I do not doubt; but you would have to deal in Harvey Gerard +with one who only uses honourable weapons with an honourable foe. If you +did me or mine a mischief, I swear to you that I would shoot you like a +dog."</p> + +<p>The frame of the speaker shook with contemptuous passion. Defiant as was +his language, it fell far short of the disdain expressed in his tone +and manner. It was not in Sir Massingberd's nature to be overawed, but +his truculent features no longer maintained their grimness—their cruel +humour. He could not put aside a man like Gerard with a brutal jest. I +do not say that he was conscious of his own inferiority, but he knew +that his opponent not only did not fear, but actually despised him. This +was wormwood.</p> + +<p>"I am ashamed," continued Mr. Gerard, after a pause, "to have lost my +temper with you, Sir Massingberd, upon my own account. I wish to have +nothing in common with you—not even a quarrel. We were speaking of this +gipsy woman, and you called her thief, and what not. Whatever may be her +faults, however, it does not become you to dwell on them; but for her +and her prompt assistance, your nephew would not at this moment be +alive. Out of this very flask she administered to him—" So frightful +an execration here broke from the baronet's lips that I anticipated it +to be the prelude to a personal assault upon my host. Mr. Gerard, +however, stood quietly stirring the fire, with his eyes fixed firmly but +calmly on those of Sir Massingberd, just as a mad doctor might regard a +dangerous patient.</p> + +<p>"That is a very singular exclamation of gratitude," observed Mr. Gerard, +sardonically, "to one who has just performed you—or at least +<i>yours</i>—so great a service. It really seems as though you almost +regretted that it <i>was</i> performed."</p> + +<p>A look of deadly hatred had now taken the place of all other expressions +on the baronet's face. It forgot even to wear its sneer.</p> + +<p>"I have been insulted enough, I think," said he, with a calmness more +terrible than wrath. "Even as it is, I shall scarcely be able to +requite you, though, be sure, I will do my best. But, with respect to my +errand, I am come here to see my nephew, and that I will do."</p> + +<p>"That you shall not do, Sir Massingberd, so surely as this house is +mine."</p> + +<p>"And who shall prevent me?" exclaimed the baronet, contemptuously +measuring his foe from head to foot.</p> + +<p>"Not I, sir, indeed," returned Mr. Gerard; "but I will see that my +servants put you out of doors by force," and as he spoke he laid his +hand upon the bell.</p> + +<p>"Before night, then, I shall send for Marmaduke, and he shall be carried +back to Fairburn, which, after all, is his proper home, and be there +nursed."</p> + +<p>"Nursed!" repeated my host, hoarsely. "Nursed by the grave-digger, you +mean."</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd turned livid and sat down; then, as one who acts in his +sleep, he passed his handkerchief once or twice across his forehead. +"How dare you speak such things to me?" said he, looking round about +him. "To hear you talk, one would think that I had tried to murder the +boy."</p> + +<p>"I <i>know</i> you did," cried Mr. Gerard, solemnly, laying his finger upon +the baronet's arm. "If your nephew, Marmaduke, dies, his blood is on +your head."</p> + +<p>"On mine! how on mine? How, in the name of all the devils, could I have +hindered the lad's horse from running away with him?"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you how. You might have suffered Mr. Long to purchase a +horse for the boy, as he offered to do, and not have sent to London for +a confirmed run-away."</p> + +<p>"He rode it half a dozen times without any harm," replied Sir +Massingberd, sullenly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, with a curb that would have tamed a wild horse fresh from the +lasso. But when you took that curb for the keeper's pony, riding with +gun in hand for the first time in your life—and sent your nephew forth +upon that devil with a snafflebridle—nay, I have it yonder, sir—don't +lie; you calculated that if what you wished should happen all would be +laid to chance. A change of bridles is an accident like enough to +happen; lads are thrown from horseback every day. See, I track your +thoughts like slime. Base ruffian! rise; begone from beneath this roof, +false coward—"</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd started up like one stung by an adder.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I say coward! Heavens! that this creature should still feel the +touch of shame! Be off, be off; molest not any one within this house, +at peril of your life—murderer—murderer!"</p> + +<p>Without a word, without a glance of reply, Sir Massingberd seized his +hat, and hurried from the room. I felt some alarm lest he should make +some violent effort to visit Marmaduke; but Mr. Gerard's countenance +gave me comfort. He stood quite still, listening with grim satisfaction +to the baronet's retreating footsteps.</p> + +<p>They were heard for an instant striding along the floor of the hall, and +then were exchanged for the sound of his horse's hoofs urged to speed +along the carriage-drive. Sir Massingberd Heath had met for once with +his match—and more.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<h3>MR. HARVEY GERARD.</h3> + + +<p>So entirely engrossed had I been with the action and dialogue of the +speakers in the preceding scene, that it scarcely struck me while it was +going on that I had not paid for my place in the pit in the usual +fashion, but was a mere eavesdropper under an orange-tree.</p> + +<p>So soon as Sir Massingberd was really gone, however, I became conscious +of the impropriety of my situation, and not wishing to own what I had +done, I stole noiselessly out into the garden, and then re-entered the +conservatory, and thereby the drawing-room, as though I had been out of +sight and hearing all the time. It was not quite a chivalrous act; but I +do not think that the boys of my time, myself included, were quite so +honourable and frank as Mr. Tom Brown describes those of the present day +to be. There was something, moreover, about Mr. Harvey Gerard which told +me he would have loathed a listener, nor would have been very ready to +have accepted fear as any excuse for my conduct. He was a man of noble +bearing, nearly six feet in height, and extremely well formed. He was +dressed in a blue lapelled coat, light waistcoat and kerseys, and +Hessian boots. These last I had not seen before upon any person, and I +remember them well. I think they were the most graceful covering for the +leg that has yet been devised, although, I own, they may not have been +so convenient as the modern knickerbockers. He wore his own grey +hair—which was not very usual with persons of his rank of life—and +rather long. His features were large, but handsome; and there was a kind +of youthful blandness about them which gave his face a most agreeable +expression in ordinary. When excited by passion, however, as I had +lately seen him, his appearance greatly changed. His thin lips parted +contemptuously, and showed his threatening teeth, while his blue eyes, +gentle almost to dreaminess, became blood-streaked, and almost started +from their sockets. As I now beheld him calmly kindling a lamp on the +drawing-room table, no one could have been a greater contrast than +himself to the man who had just driven Sir Massingberd Heath from the +room with such a hail-storm of invective.</p> + +<p>"Well, young gentleman," exclaimed he, cheerfully, "the enemy is +repulsed, you see, although, I confess, your friend the baronet is +rather a formidable fellow. He's uncommonly like Front de Boeuf. I +daresay you have read the new romance of 'Ivanhoe,' have you not?"</p> + +<p>"Marmaduke has, sir, I believe," replied I; "but I am sorry to say I am +no great reader."</p> + +<p>"That is not well, Mr. Meredith; youth is the time for reading. A +knowledge of books, if they are sufficiently varied, is half-way towards +the knowledge of men. It is true that a student may turn out a fool, +because he may have been a book-worm; but the probability is greater of +that misfortune befalling one who has been 'no great reader.' I would +not say so much, if you were older than you are, and had not plenty of +time before you to redeem the past. There is nothing more contemptible +than ignorance; save, perhaps"—here he sighed—"than knowledge +misapplied. What a dangerous villain would that man be, for instance, +who has just been here, had his natural powers been cultivated by study. +As it is, he rushes headlong, like the bull." Here he turned upon me +gaily. "Did he ever toss you, my young friend?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," returned I, remembering that interview in the churchyard, +"he bellowed at me once a little."</p> + +<p>"Did he, my boy, did he?—the cowardly brute! Well, I've put a ring +through his nose for a considerable time to come, I flatter myself. I +<i>like</i> a bull-fight. I think I should have made a capital matador," +cried Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands and laughing.</p> + +<p>"How did you—how did you manage to <i>ring</i> him, sir?" inquired I, with +hesitation, for I was curious to see whether Mr. Gerard would make me a +confidant of what had passed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I watched him carefully—never took my eyes off him for a moment. +When he was calm in his white malice, then I irritated him by waving my +red flag—this silver-headed brandy-flask put him in a horrible rage. +When he made his rushes, I stood aside, and let him go where he would. +When he had exhausted himself, I stepped in, and gave him the steel. I +wonder," soliloquized Mr. Gerard, aloud, as he slowly paced up and down +the room—"I wonder if it would be safe to give him the <i>coup de +grace</i>!"</p> + +<p>"But," said I, "were you not afraid—"</p> + +<p>"My dear young friend," said my host, with seriousness, but placing his +hand kindly upon my shoulder, "an honest man should never be afraid of a +fellow-creature. 'Fear God,' it is written; but even the king is only +to be honoured."</p> + +<p>It is impossible to express the grave and noble air with which Mr. +Gerard spoke those words: I felt such an affectionate awe of him from +that moment, as no other person has ever inspired within me.</p> + +<p>"But," continued I, "supposing he had made a personal assault upon you: +he is perfectly reckless, and a much more powerful man, I should think."</p> + +<p>"Very true, my young friend; and indeed at one time I thought he would +certainly have done it; that was why I placed the poker in the fire. It +would not have been a romantic action; but so sure as he laid finger +upon me, I would have played Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and 'burned a hole in +him one might put a kail-pat through.' It would have give me genuine +pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Burned a hole in Sir Massingberd!" cried I aghast.</p> + +<p>"Ay, that would I. As it was, I threatened him with my servants; and had +he ventured to force his way into yonder room, they should have flogged +him, though he were ten times Sir Massingberd. Better men than he are +often flogged for less offences. Did you hear of Admiral Flinthert's +funeral at Crittenden a month ago or so? You did; and I daresay you were +told that he was a good man and a brave sailor."</p> + +<p>"So it was said, indeed, sir," replied I. "Mr. Long attended the funeral +out of respect, and I believe a great number of gentlemen of the +county."</p> + +<p>"Yet, for all that, he was a bad man, and a coward," returned Mr. +Gerard, his voice rising, and his blue eyes flashing with indignation. +"One part of the naval creed—'to hate the French'—it is true, he did +believe, and acted in that faith; but he omitted the other, and the more +important, 'to hate the devil.' He loved and served the devil of his own +arrogant passions; he made the men miserable over whom he ruled; his +ship was called the Floating Hell. When the carriage of the +lord-lieutenant had driven away from the church, with all its load of +sympathy—for there was nothing else inside it—and the county gentry +were rolling homewards, congratulating themselves that they had paid due +reverence to a gallant officer and a friend of order and good +government, I will tell you what happened. The very evening those +honoured remains were laid in their resting-place, a sailor called at +the house of old Marks, the sexton, and begged to be shown the admiral's +coffin. 'I have sailed with him for years,' said he, 'and I have made +right away from Portsmouth on purpose to do this; and though I cannot +see his face, I should like at least to look upon that which contains +it.'</p> + +<p>"Now, old Marks did not fancy unlocking the church, and descending into +a damp vault; beside which, he had really no right to enter the last +home of the Flintherts without due occasion. So said he, 'I cannot admit +you to where the admiral lies, and certainly not at this hour; it is as +much as my place is worth.'</p> + +<p>"Then the sailor, who was as fine and hearty-looking a man, said Marks, +as need be, held up half a sovereign between his finger and thumb. 'I +have been just paid off,' said he, 'and will gladly give you this for +your trouble; while as for your scruples, why, don't you think the +admiral's family here, and all his great friends who came to do him +honour to-day, would be glad enough that a poor tar should pay a humble +tribute to his memory?'</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said Marks, regarding, I daresay, the half-sovereign, rather +wistfully, 'what you have just said seems certainly to alter the matter. +I will take you to the church, and you shall see the coffin, for the +vault is not yet sealed.'</p> + +<p>"So they started with a lantern, and Marks was for going first to show +the way, but the sailor went ahead, saying that he knew the road +blindfold, for that he had been brought up in that neighbourhood, and +knew it well.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said old Marks, 'I thought I recognized something about you, +although you are much changed in the last twenty years. You are Will +Moody, who got into trouble with Sir Wentworth Heath about poaching; +only he couldn't quite prove it agin you.'</p> + +<p>"'No,' returned the sailor; 'but he went to work by a surer way than +even the law—he got me pressed when I went to visit my sister down at +Deal.'</p> + +<p>"That, my young friend," observed Mr. Gerard, interrupting himself, "is +a method by which not only we man our fleet, but rid the country of a +number of obnoxious persons."<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>"'Yes,' continued the sailor, 'I was pressed; if it had not been for +that I should not have sailed under Admiral Flinthert.' He spoke no more +till they had entered the church, and had moved away the stone, which +had been only dropped, and not yet fastened over the mouth of the vault. +Then they descended the steps, and old Marks turned his lantern on to +the spot where the first—that is, the latest—coffin of the long row +was lying. 'That is the admiral's,' said he; 'you may read his name upon +the silver plate.'</p> + +<p>"William Moody spelled it out aloud, so as to be quite sure. 'Well,' +said he, 'I will tell you a little story about that dead man, and then +we will come away.'</p> + +<p>"'Tell us the story when we get home,' replied the sexton.</p> + +<p>"'No, no, man; I will tell it here, else you would think ill of me, may +be, for what I am going to do. Now listen. For a long time after I was +pressed, I hated and detested what I had to do, and also those who gave +me my orders; but after a bit I got more used to the work, and some of +the officers I learned to like very well, especially our captain. I was +a strong active fellow, without home-ties to think upon and sadden me, +for mother had other sons to maintain her, and in that respect I was +luckier than most. There were pressed men on board of the same ship, +man, whose wives and helpless children were starving because their +bread-winner was taken from them, and who knew not whether he was dead +or alive. However, as I say, I soon got used to my new position, and +became so good a sailor that I was made what is called captain of the +main-top. When our ship was paid off, which was not, however, for a long +time, I liked the salt water so well, that after I had been home for a +little, I volunteered to serve again.</p> + +<p>"'My next captain was this man who lies here. He was as cruel a tyrant +as ever trod a quarter-deck, and a terror to good and bad alike. You +could never please him, do what you would. If an officer is worth his +salt at all, he knows and respects those men who do their duty well +under him. Captain Flinthert knew, but did not respect them; on the +contrary, he behaved towards them as though he resented some imaginary +claims on their part to his consideration. I held in his ship the same +position that I held in the last, for it did not contain a more active +sailor. Yet he found occasion—I should rather say he made it—to get me +punished. I swear to you that I had not committed even that slight fault +which he laid to my charge; if I had done so, it was one for which the +stopping of a day's grog would have been chastisement enough. This +ruffian'—here he smote the coffin with his clenched hand—'ordered me +three dozen lashes. Now, I had never been flogged yet, and when I went +to the captain with almost tears in my eyes, and told him so, and that I +had never even been reported for misconduct, he replied with a sneer +that I was too good by half, and that it was high time I should become +acquainted with the cat-o'-nine tails. "To prevent mistakes, you shall +have it at once," said he: "call up the boatswain's mate." Now, I +thought to myself, in the pride of my manliness and independence, that +such a disgrace should never happen to William Moody, but that I would +die first; so I walked straight from that part of the deck where I had +been speaking with Captain Flinthert, and leaped from the bulwarks into +the sea. I believed I tried at first to drown myself, but I was a strong +swimmer, and nature compelled me presently to strike out. The cry of "A +man overboard!" had caused the boat to be lowered at once, and though we +had been sailing very fast, I was picked up, not much exhausted, and +almost in spite of myself. As soon as I had got on board, and put on dry +things, the captain sent for me on deck, where I found the boatswain's +mate at the grating, and all hands piped for punishment. "William +Moody," said that ruffian in a mocking voice, "I had ordered you three +dozen lashes for a certain offence, but you have now committed a much +graver one in endangering, by your late act, the life of one of his +majesty's sailors; you will therefore now receive <i>six</i> dozen instead. +Boatswain, do your duty."</p> + +<p>"'I was, therefore, tied up and punished. I don't think I suffered much +at the time, although I was laid up in the sick ward for long +afterwards. I was entirely occupied with thoughts of revenge. When I was +able to get about again, Captain Flinthert had got another ship, and was +away out of my reach. I never met him, again, or he would not have lived +to the age that is inscribed on yonder plate; but as soon as I heard +that he was dead, I swore to come and spit upon the tyrant's coffin.'</p> + +<p>"Then the sailor suited the action to the word, and turned from the +dishonoured corpse with a lighter step than that with which he had +approached it; and old Marks followed him from the vault, as he +confessed to me himself, 'half frightened out of his wits.'"</p> + +<p>"I do not wonder," said I to Mr. Gerard, "it was a terrible revenge."</p> + +<p>"Ay, but how much worse was the provocation; from the very man, too, +placed in authority of him, whose duty was to foster, not to oppress +him. Verily, they that are in honour, and understand not, are as the +beasts that perish."</p> + +<p>"True," returned I, "but then the wretch was dead."</p> + +<p>"Just so, young sir," replied Mr. Gerard, impetuously, "was dead, and +never felt the insult. The sailor felt both the insult and the lashes. +How is it that, at your age, you have already learned to be the +apologist of the rich in high places?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, sir, I—?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, <i>you</i>," continued my host with vehemence; "your pity is for the +admiral, and does not descend to the captain of the maintop. Still," +added he, in a milder tone, "I should not judge you harshly, even if you +so judge others. You were brought up in India, were you not? where in +the eyes of the cowering natives, to be white is to be powerful, and +wise, and all in all—save to be good. Great heavens, what a retribution +is waiting for us there!" Again my host paced the room, but this time +rapidly, wildly, and uttering exclamations like a sibyl inspired by her +god. "If the nabobs we see here are specimens of those who rule the +East, Heaven help the ruled! What blindness, what infatuation! Do you +know, young man, the very men that cause revolutions am the last to +believe in them?" This was an observation so entirely beyond me, that I +could only murmur that such was doubtless the case, although I did not +remember having heard it remarked before. "It is so," continued Mr. +Gerard, positively, "and it always has been so. It was so in France. I +suppose you have always been taught to consider the French Republicans +the vilest and wickedest of men, and the Revolution to be the mother +that produced them at one monstrous birth. Yes, when the day of +reckoning comes, and the ruin is undeniable, Democracy, forsooth, is +blamed. The taunt is hurled—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'"Behold the harvest that we reap</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">From popular government and equality!"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whereas, in truth, 'tis neither these, nor aught</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of wild belief ingrafted on their names</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">By false philosophy, have caused the woe,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But a terrific reservoir of guilt</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And ignorance, filled up from age to age,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That can no longer hold its loathsome charge,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But bursts, and spreads in deluge through the land.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>High truth embalmed in noble verse, yet no one heeds. The author of +those lines, my friend, is the greatest poet in Great Britain, and has +never possessed an income of a hundred pounds a year. They say that my +Lord Castlereagh has thirty thousand...—Stay, do you not hear wheels? +That must be Sitwell's gig. I have not the patience to see him now. His +sycophantic officiousness in fetching Sir Massingberd was too +contemptible. How can a man who has two legs given him to stand upright +upon, persist in grovelling through life upon all-fours?</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Heaven grant the man some noble nook;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">For, rest his soul! he'd rather be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Genteelly damned beside a duke</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Than saved in vulgar company.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Do you receive him, Mr. Meredith; and tell him from me that it is no +thanks to him that his patient is yet alive. Now that the siege is +raised, I will just step in and see how the lad is getting on."</p> + +<p>My host had left the room only a few seconds when Dr. Sitwell entered +it.</p> + +<p>"My dear young friend!" exclaimed he, in an excited manner, "what on +earth has happened to Sir Massingberd Heath? He very nearly rode me down +ten minutes ago on Crittenden Common; and when I inquired after his +nephew, he replied—Well, I cannot repeat the exact words, because they +are so excessively shocking. Why, he must be out of his mind with grief! +I trust he did nothing impetuous, nothing that is to be regretted, +here?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied I; "he did not, thanks to our good host, who +withstood all his attempts to see his nephew. It was, however, most +indiscreet of you to send him hither. Mr. Harvey Gerard was exceedingly +annoyed by your doing so."</p> + +<p>"My dear young friend," observed Dr. Sitwell, sinking his voice to a +confidential whisper, "Mr. Harvey Gerard is annoyed at many things which +would give most sensible persons a great deal of pleasure. He would as +soon admit a rattle-snake within his doors as a man of title, unless, +indeed, it be his friend, Sir Charles Wolseley. By the by, it is to Sir +Charles that my dear patient, Mr. Broadacres, is indirectly indebted for +his wound. If Sir Charles had not convened that revolutionary meeting at +Bangton, Mr. Broadacres would not have had to read the Riot Act, and +eventually got shot by mistake by his own men. It is denied by the +government, I perceive, that ball was fired by the troops at the first +discharge; but between ourselves such was certainly the case; for I +extracted the bullet from poor Mr. B. myself, and he has had to lie upon +his face ever since. Good heavens, sir, what a position for a man whose +family came in with the Conqueror!"</p> + +<p>"Is this Sir Charles Wolseley, then, of whom one reads so much in the +papers, a friend of Mr. Gerard's?" said I. "I have heard Mr. Long remark +that he was a very dangerous man."</p> + +<p>"So he is, sir. He'll be hung some day, as sure as he lives. And the +gentleman in whose house we stand is tarred with the same brush. It's +terrible to think of. Why, do you know, Mr. Meredith, that Mr. Harvey +Gerard goes the length"—here the doctor looked about him to be sure +that we were alone, and placing his lips close to my ear, whispered +solemnly, "of wearing a white hat!"</p> + +<p>"Gracious goodness," returned I, "why shouldn't he? My father always +wears a white hat in India."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but <i>let me tell you this</i>, India is not England," observed the +doctor, sagaciously. "A white hat here is the badge of Radicalism, +Republicanism, Atheism—I don't say that Mr. Gerard is a downright +atheist, but he's a sectary, and that's nearly as bad. And hark ye, I +know this for certain: the only reason why Henry Hunt himself is not +hand and glove with our friend is this, that when Hunt was tried for his +life for sedition, he came into the dock, like a prudent man, with a +black hat, and that is the one act of caution and good sense for which +Mr. Gerard has never forgiven him."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This sarcasm was founded on literal truth; I myself +remember a time when Englishmen submitted to a system of oppression +almost precisely similar to that which has of late driven the Poles to +insurrection, and enlisted for them the sympathies of Europe—namely, a +forced conscription, the subjects of which are <i>selected</i>.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<h3>LOVE THE LIFEGIVER.</h3> + + +<p>It was about four o'clock in the morning, or nearly twelve hours after +his frightful fall, that Marmaduke Heath first woke to consciousness. +Mr. Long and myself were passing the night in his apartment, which was a +very roomy one, my tutor upon a sofa, and I in a comfortable arm-chair. +I had begged that for that once at least it should be so, for I knew the +dear lad would like to set his eyes upon me when he first opened them. +Dr. Sitwell and his assistant, both agreed that if he woke at all from +his heavy stertorous slumber, it would be in his sane mind; and it was +so. Mr. Long was asleep, but I had so much to think about in the +occurrences and disclosures of the preceding evening, that slumber had +refused to visit me.</p> + +<p>I was as unused as happy youth in general is to sleeplessness. I did not +know at that time what it is to lay head upon pillow only to think upon +the morrow with a brain that has done its day's work, and would fain be +at rest; or worse, only to let the past re-enact itself under the +wearied eyelids; to watch the long procession of vanished forms again +fill the emptied scenes, and yet to be conscious of their unreality. How +different in this respect alone is the experience of age and youth, and +again of poverty and competence! A young man in tolerable circumstances, +and who does not chance to be a sportsman, may never have seen the sun +rise, that commonest of splendid spectacles to all men of humble +station. For my own part, I had never done so in England until the +occasion of which I speak, and I remember it very particularly. The +weary time spent in listening to the various noises of the house, now to +those consequent upon the retiring to rest of its inmates, and then to +those more mysterious ones which do not begin till afterwards—the +crickets on the hearth, the mice in the wainscot, the complaining of +chairs and wardrobes, and the clocks, which discourse in quite another +fashion than they do in the day. The slow hours consumed in watching the +rushlight spots, first on the floor and then on the wall, and at last +exchanged for the cool grey dawn, stealing in through cranny and crack, +and showing my companions still in the land of dreams; later yet the +drowsy crowing of cocks, and presently, as the light grows and grows, +notwithstanding shutter and curtain, the indescribably welcome song of +the early robin, the busy chirping of the house-sparrow, followed by the +whole tuneful choir of birds; then the lowing of cattle in the distance, +and the distant barking of the watch-dog, so strangely different from +that sad and solitary howl with which the same animal breaks the awful +stillness of the night. About four, I say, as I looked for the +thousandth time towards Marmaduke's bed, I saw him sitting up supporting +himself on his elbow, and pushing his other hand across his brow, as if +trying to call to mind where he was. In an instant I was at his bedside. +"Marmaduke, I am here," said I; "Peter Meredith."</p> + +<p>"I am not at Fairburn Hall, am I?" asked he, in a hoarse whisper.</p> + +<p>"No, Marmaduke, you are amongst friends."</p> + +<p>"Then <i>he</i> is not here," gasped he—"nowhere near."</p> + +<p>"He is miles away, my friend, and he will never come under this roof."</p> + +<p>"Thank Heaven—thank Heaven!" cried the poor boy, sinking back upon the +pillow; "it was only a dreadful dream, then. I shall die happy."</p> + +<p>"You need not talk of dying, Marmaduke. On the contrary, let us hope you +are about to begin a life unshadowed, natural, without fear."</p> + +<p>"No, Peter, I must die. I feel that; but what is death to what I have +been dreaming? Do you remember that poem which came down in the box of +books, from Mr. Clint, last week, about a wretched man that was bound +upon a wild horse and sent adrift in the Ukraine?" And then he repeated +with some difficulty—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"'How fast we fled, away, away,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And I could neither sigh, nor pray,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And my cold sweat-drops fell like rain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Upon the courser's bristling mane,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But snorting still with rage and fear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He flew upon his far career;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">At times I almost thought indeed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He must have slackened in his speed;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But no; my bound and slender frame</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Was nothing to his angry might,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And merely like a spur became.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Well, Peter, that was I. But instead of the wolves which followed upon +<i>his</i> track, it was my uncle Massingberd who followed <i>me</i>. He had +chosen to kill me as the Count Palatine would have killed Mazeppa, but +he wanted also to see it done.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'All through the night I heard his feet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Their stealing rustling step repeat.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Great Heaven, I hear them now!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, Marmaduke, it is only I, your old tutor," said Mr. Long, tenderly, +who had not been able to leave his sofa entirely without noise. "You +must not give way to these fancies; you had a fall from Panther, that +is all."</p> + +<p>"Ay," returned the poor boy, "it <i>was</i> Panther, only I thought he was a +wild horse, and not my pony at all.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'But though my cords were wet with gore,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Which oozing through my limbs ran o'er;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And in my tongue the thirst became</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A something fiercer far than flame;'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>that was nothing; nothing to the knowledge that that man was close +behind. Now that I am awake, I feel bruised from head to heel, my bones +ache, my head seems as though it were about to burst, but that is +nothing to—" the poor lad could not finish the sentence, but exclaimed +with piteous vehemence—"do, Mr. Long, do promise me that I shall never +see him more."</p> + +<p>"You shall never see him more, if I can help it," returned my tutor, +with unusual energy. "Yes, I think I can promise that you never shall." +I well knew that so cautious a man as Mr. Long would not have said so +much without full warrant; it was evident to me at once that he had +heard from Mr. Gerard all that had passed between that gentleman and the +baronet in the drawing-room, and was now determined to act with vigour +in Marmaduke's behalf. Perhaps the coincidence of the lad's dream with +what had in fact occurred, may have helped my tutor's decision, but now +that he had once passed his word, I felt sure that he would stand by +Marmaduke to the last.</p> + +<p>The sick boy seemed to feel this too, for he uttered many expressions of +gratitude and contentment, while he kept fast hold of his new +protector's hand.</p> + +<p>"But mind, Marmaduke, you must now make haste and get well, and not give +way to despondency about yourself. I am going for the doctor, who is +sleeping in the house, and whom I promised to call as soon as you +awoke; and, Peter, don't you let him talk too much. For a boy like that +to talk of death," added Mr. Long, aloud, as he drew on his slippers, +"is to go half-way to meet it."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke smiled feebly at this remark of his unconscious tutor's, and +when he had left the room, observed, "There is no need of any doctors; +this is my death-bed, Meredith, I know."</p> + +<p>"Marmaduke," replied I, gravely, "I will not listen to such dreadful +things; it is wrong, it is wicked, it will do you harm."</p> + +<p>"No, Peter, there is nothing dreadful in the thing I mean, and it seems +to soothe me when I speak of it. Since I have been ill, I have had a +sign that tells me I must go. We shall not grow up together to be +friends through life, as we had planned. I shall watch you perhaps—I +hope I shall—and be happy in your happiness, but you will soon forget +<i>me</i>. There will be a thousand things for you to think of; there have +been such even now for you while <i>I</i>—it seems hard, does it not, Peter, +that I should have grown up under the shadow of that man, and never felt +the Sunshine? They say that boyhood is the blithest time of life, but I +have never been a boy. I think I could almost tell him, if he stood here +now, how he has poisoned my young life, and sent me to the grave without +one pleasant memory to moisten my dying eyes. Yes, my friend, dying. I +have seen a vision in the night far too sweet and fear not to have been +sent from heaven itself. If there indeed be angels, such was she. They +say the Heaths have always ghastly warnings when their hour is come, but +this was surely a gentle messenger. I close my eyes and see that smile +once more."</p> + +<p>"Has she hair of golden brown?" inquired I, gravely, "and hazel eyes, +large and pitiful, and does she smile sad and sweet as though one's pain +would soon be over?"</p> + +<p>"That is she, that is she," exclaimed Marmaduke, eagerly, while from his +heavy eyelids the light flashed forth as from a thunder-cloud; "oh, tell +me who and what she is!"</p> + +<p>"Her name is Lucy Gerard," replied I, quietly, "and we are, at this +moment, in her father's house."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke's mention of her smile had revealed to me the secret alike of +dream and vision. He must have been dimly conscious of the catastrophe +that had occurred to him throughout, although he had confused himself, +poor fellow, with Mazeppa, and the daughter of our host with a vision +from the skies. His eyes were now closed, and with features as pale as +the pillow on which he lay, he was repeating to himself her name as +though it were a prayer.</p> + +<p>"Marmaduke," said I, "we will talk no more, since it exhausts you thus; +I hear Mr. Long returning with the doctor, be of good heart, and keep +your thoughts from dwelling—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," interrupted he, as though he would prevent the very mention of +that grisly king of whom he had been but now conversing so familiarly, +"I will, I will. It would indeed be bitter to die <i>now</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<h3>WOOING BY PROXY.</h3> + + +<p>The medical report of Marmaduke Heath was more than cheering; it was +confident. "One of the very best features of that young man's case is +this," said Dr. Sitwell, "he does not give way. Foolish youths of his +age will sometimes, as it were, fall in love with Death, until it is +absolutely close beside them, poor fellows, when they shrink from him +like the best of us."</p> + +<p>"You should rather say the worst of us, Dr. Sitwell," observed my tutor.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, as far as my experience goes," returned the doctor, +cheerfully, "and I have 'assisted,' as Mr. Gerard here will have +it, at the demise of many persons of the very first respectability, few +of us are apt to welcome death; the majority, contrary to what is +vulgarly believed, pay him no sort of attention whatsoever."</p> + +<p>"And yet," remarked Mr. Harvey Gerard, slily, "he came over before the +Conqueror, and possesses a considerable amount of land all over the +country."</p> + +<p>"True, sir, true," replied the doctor, gravely; "and those are +attributes which should always command respect. With regard, however, to +our young patient, he seems determined, notwithstanding his sufferings, +to be cheerful, and bear up. I have told him how essential it is to do +so, and the young gentleman is most reasonable, I am sure. 'I do not +want to die, I wish to live,' were his very words—a most satisfactory +and sensible state of mind. Fairburn Hall—he did not say this, but I +knew what was passing through his brain quite well—Fairburn Hall, and +one of the oldest baronetcies in the kingdom, are something to live +<i>for</i>—that is a great point in cases of this kind."</p> + +<p>I am sure I felt thankful and glad to hear this account of my dear +friend; yet I could not help wishing that Dr. Sitwell had been as +correct in the cause of Marmaduke's clinging to life, as in the fact +itself. For I too was stricken with love for Lucy Gerard, and would have +laid down my life to kiss her finger tip. It is the fashion now to jeer +at that which is called First Love, as though affection were not worth +having until it has first exhausted itself upon a score of objects; nay, +perhaps, the thing itself is as extinct as the Dodo. In my day, however, +the Great Three-Hundred-a-Year Marriage-Question was not yet broached, +and gentlemen did not complainingly publish their rejections at the +hands of the fair sex in the "Times" newspaper. Nearly half a century +has passed over my head since the time of which I write, and has not +spared its snows, and yet, I swear to you, my old heart glows again, and +on my withered cheek there comes a blush as I call, to mind the time +when first I met that pure and fair young girl.</p> + +<p>The worship of a lad is never lasting, it is said, although I know not +upon what authority—society so seldom permitting the experiment to be +made, that the <i>dictum</i> can hardly be established; but while it does +last, at least, how clear and steady is the incense! how honest is the +devotion! how complete the sacrifice! Since I have been an old fogey, it +has been confided to me by more than one ancient flirt that they still +experience a rapture when they chance to catch the affection of a boy. +They are kinder to him than they are to older men; they let him down +easy; they respect the infatuation which they themselves have long lost +the power of entertaining. How delicious, then, must such a conquest be +to a maiden of seventeen! I claim for myself the possession of no +tenderer nor truer feelings than other lads, but I know that a queen +might have accepted the heart-homage which I paid to Lucy Gerard. And +never was fealty more disinterested. I have written down not a little to +my discredit; let me then say this much in my own favour. From the +moment that Marmaduke Heath spoke to me as he did, upon his bed of +sickness, of our host's daughter, I determined within myself not only to +stand aside, and let him win her if he could, but to help him by all +means within my power. If he lived for her alone, should I endeavour to +slay him? If a promise, however distant, of a bright and happy future +seemed at length to be held out for him whose life had been so saddened +and so bitter, should I strive to make it void? I could not <i>afford</i> to +lose her; no. I would have given all that I had in the world to hear her +whisper, "I love you;" I would have beggared myself, I say, for those +mere words; but could <i>he</i>, poor lad, afford the loss of her so well?</p> + +<p>Doubtless, in modern eyes, we both appear mere foolish victims of +calf-love; green hobbardy-hoys, dazzled with the first flutter of a +petticoat. As for me, let it be so received, and welcome, although, my +young male readers, this is to be said, You never saw Lucy Gerard. +Otherwise you would wonder little at my—well, at my poor folly. But +with respect to Marmaduke, it must be admitted that his was not an +ordinary case. Although a boy in years, he had long been sitting on the +shores of old romance, and had probably more of the divine faculty for +Love within him than all the ardent souls of five-and-thirty put +together, who are at this moment turning their eyes about them for a +suitable young person with whose income to unite their own. Since his +mother died, he had scarcely beheld a virtuous woman, with the exception +of dear Mrs. Myrtle, the housekeeper at the Rectory, whose appearance +was calculated to excite respect rather than the sentimental emotions; +and now he had suddenly been brought face to face with one whose equal +for form and feature, for gentleness and graciousness, for modesty and +courage, these eyes have never yet beheld. I have done. There shall be +no more ecstasies, reader; an old man thanks you that you have borne +with his doting garrulity even thus long.</p> + +<p>Since the days of Earl Athelwold, and probably long before them, the +wooing by proxy has been held to be a perilous undertaking; we cannot +take the fingers of a fair lady within our own, and say, "This is not my +hand at all," as though we were Bishop Berkeley; or still more, "This is +somebody else's hand," which it manifestly is not. If credit is to be +given to such protestations at all, there is no knowing where to stop; +and yet we must be doing something tender, or we are not performing our +duty as deputy. But how tenfold are the dangers of this enterprise, when +the delegate of another has at one time contemplated performing the +mission in question upon his own account. Of this peril—although fully +determined to speak a good word for Marmaduke—I was well aware; I even +considered within myself whether it would not be safer, upon the whole, +to return at once to Fairburn Rectory, lest I should do my friend an +involuntary wrong. Yes, I was walking in the garden at the Dovecot after +breakfast, considering this, when I came upon Lucy Gerard herself, and +flight became impossible to me, being mortal. I was pacing a winding +path that ran beside the lawn, but was hidden from it by a glittering +wall of laurel, and lo! there she stood, unconscious of my advent, +beside—what? a statue? a sun-dial? No, a rose-tree, striving upwards by +help of a little cross of white marble. Her face was westward, so that +the morning sun shone like a glory on the wealth of hair that rippled +down her shoulders: beside her indoor garments she wore only a little +braided apron, full of pockets that held scissors, pruning-knife, the +thing which is called "bass" I believe, and other horticultural +weapons, and on her head the tiniest straw-hat, with a brim obviously +intended to shelter more than one—a perfect garden-saint; and at her +prayers! for while I looked, she knelt upon the grass-border (to shake +some insect from a rose, I at first thought, or remove a faded leaf), +and so, with bowed head, remained for several minutes. When she arose, +and saw me hesitating whether to advance or retreat, she blushed a +little, but in her usual quiet tone begged me not to be disturbed. "You +could not know that this is forbidden ground here; it was my fault, who +ought to have told you; our own folks all know it, and so few guests +ever come to the Dovecot, that it never struck me, Mr. Meredith, to give +you a Trespass notice."</p> + +<p>"But since I am here, Miss Gerard, and the intrusion has been made—most +innocently, I assure you—may I not be suffered to satisfy what, +believe me, is not a mere vulgar curiosity?"</p> + +<p>"I do not think," returned the young lady, with some hesitation, "that +my father would object to your knowing our little secret; you are going +to remain with us some time, he hopes, and—yes, I am sure you will +respect what with us is held so secret. This cross and rose-tree are set +above my little sister's grave. See, that is what we used to call +her—LITTLE ELLA. She of whom I spoke to you in the drawing-room +yesterday."</p> + +<p>I daresay my stupid face exhibited more of astonishment than sympathy. +No wonder, thought I, that the doctor called Mr. Gerard a sectary, and +that Mr. Long was so cold and distant in his manner!</p> + +<p>"You seem surprised, Mr. Meredith, that my father should have acted +thus—should have placed the tomb of his dear child where he can always +come to weep and pray at it, and not amid the long dank grasses in +Crittenden churchyard. Is it so very rare a thing to bury those we love +elsewhere than in a churchyard?"</p> + +<p>"I only know one other instance," said I, "and that is in the Heath +family."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," replied Miss Gerard, gravely, moving away as though not +wishing to converse of ordinary things in that sacred neighbourhood, "I +trust we have but little in common with <i>them</i>."</p> + +<p>"Truly, I can scarcely imagine that you and they are of the same +species," replied I, with irrepressible admiration, "you who do not even +know what wickedness is!"</p> + +<p>"What! I? Oh, but I am sometimes very, very wicked, I assure you," +replied Miss Gerard. She looked so serious, nay, so sad, that I could +have taken up her little hand and kissed it, there and then, to comfort +her. But would such a course of conduct assist poor Marmaduke? thought +I, and fortunately in time.</p> + +<p>"There is one of the Heath family," said I, "at all events, whose good +qualities will go far to atone for the shortcomings of his adversaries, +if he only lives to exercise them."</p> + +<p>That "if he only lives" I considered to be very diplomatic; it was +enlisting a tender sympathy for his perilous condition to start with.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Sitwell says that there is little danger," replied Miss Gerard, +quietly.</p> + +<p>"I know better," observed I, confidentially; "his life or death hangs +upon a thread, a chance."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! Mr. Meredith, what can you mean? The brain, we are +assured, is quite uninjured."</p> + +<p>"My dear Miss Gerard," returned I, "it is not his brain that is +affected; it is his heart. His recovery, I am positively certain, +depends upon you."</p> + +<p>"Upon me! Mr. Meredith?" replied she, while a blush sprung from neck to +forehead on the instant, as though a white rose should become a red +one—"upon <i>me</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear young lady; that is, upon you and your good father. This lad +will find here, for the first time in his young life, peace and +tenderness—a new existence, if you only choose, will expand around him, +such as he has never even dreamt of. I do not ask you to be kind to him, +for you cannot be otherwise than kind; but consider his sad +condition—fatherless, motherless, and having for his only relative a +wretch whose atrocity is unspeakable, what reason has he to wish for +life? But you, you may teach him to feel that existence has something +else to offer than sorrow, and shame, and fear."</p> + +<p>"Alas, sir! I am nothing," returned Miss Gerard. "But if your friend +desire a teacher to whom fear and shame are unknown, and whom sorrow has +rendered wise, not sad, he will find one in my dear father. Oh, Mr. +Meredith, if you knew him as I know him, how tender he is as well as +strong, you would go straight to <i>him</i>! What I have of help within me, +if I have anything, is derived from him alone."</p> + +<p>"There are some maladies," said I, "against which not the most skilful +physician can avail without a gentle nurse to smooth the pillow. I am +sure I need say no more, except to assure you that what ever kind +offices you may bestow upon Marmaduke Heath, will not be wasted upon an +unworthy object. He is most honourable, generous, warm-hearted—"</p> + +<p>"And very fortunate," interrupted Miss Gerard, cordially, "in having a +friend to be thus enthusiastic for him in his absence!"</p> + +<p>Her eyes sparkled with pleasure; and she held out her hand frankly as +she spoke. I took it, and pressed it for an instant. A shock of joy +passed through my frame; my whole being trembled with ecstasy. Passion +took me by storm, and for one glorious moment held the very citadel of +my soul; but it was for the last time, believe me, Marmaduke, the last +time in all my life. Fifty years have come and gone, with their full +share of pleasure and pain, but have never brought a moment of bliss +like that, nor such icy despair as the thought of thee, my friend, +caused to succeed it!</p> + +<p>I write not in self-praise. I was not so mad as to suppose that Lucy +Gerard would have ever stooped to love Peter Meredith when once she had +known Marmaduke Heath. If he had so endeared himself to <i>me</i>, a selfish +boy, who knew not half his gifts, or, at least, knew not how to value +them—that I thus rudely broke my own brief love-dream for his sake, +would he not draw <i>her</i> towards him, laden with all her wealth of heart +and brain, as the moon draws the wave! It was so afterwards; but I knew +it then, as though it had already been. Yet, Marmaduke, yet I gave you +something, for it was all I had, when I laid at your feet, to form a +stepping-stone for you, my own heart. You trod upon it, my dear and +faithful friend—But, thank heaven! you never knew that you did so. I +wonder whether Lucy ever knew!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<h3>THE COUNCIL OF WAR.</h3> + + +<p>On the second morning after our arrival at the Dovecot, Mr. Long called +me into the dining-room, where I found Mr. Gerard and a third gentleman, +who had come down by the night-mail, as I understood, from London. +Although, I should think, not less than seventy years of age, he was +dressed in the height of the then prevailing mode. He wore a +snuff-coloured coat, the tails of which trailed from his chair upon the +ground, whenever he was so fortunate as not to be sitting upon them; the +brass buttons at his back were nearly as large as the handles of an +ordinary chest of drawers. A bunch of seals, each about the size of +that peculiar to the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, dangled from +his fob. His pantaloons, which seemed to have shrunk in the washing, set +off a pair of legs that were still not uncomely; but what was most +remarkable was an enormous muslin cravat, which, in combination with the +ruffles of his shirt, gave him the aspect of a pouter pigeon. +Unaccustomed as I then was to the toilet of persons of distinction, Mr. +Clint of Russell Square—for he it was—made a very strong impression +upon me. As the family lawyer of the Heaths, and one who had always +greatly interested himself in Marmaduke, he had been sent for by my +tutor to give his opinion as to what steps should be taken respecting +the future disposal of the poor lad. I guessed by his grave face that he +had been put in possession, not only of all that had happened through +the agency of Sir Massingberd, but of all that had been designed to +happen.</p> + +<p>"If you have any doubt still remaining, Mr. Clint, as to the propriety +of removing Marmaduke Heath from the custody of his uncle," observed my +tutor, after introducing me to this venerable beau, "I think this +gentleman can dissipate it. Now, Peter, tell us, in confidence, what +sort of footing do you consider your young friend and Sir Massingberd to +stand upon; are they good—"</p> + +<p>"Stop, stop, Mr. Long," interrupted the lawyer, taking an enormous pinch +of snuff from a silver-box, and holding up his laden fingers in a +prohibitory manner; "we must not have any leading questions if you +please. Mr. Meredith, it is most important that you state to us the +truth, without mitigation or exaggeration. You heard your tutor's first +inquiry, which was a most correct one. How does Mr. Marmaduke Heath +stand with respect to his uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," said I quietly, "he stands, as it were, upon the brink of a +deep river, with his back towards a person who is bent upon pushing him +in."</p> + +<p>A total silence ensued upon this remark. Mr. Long and Mr. Gerard +interchanged very meaning glances.</p> + +<p>"Very good," returned the lawyer coolly, administering half the snuff to +his nose, and dropping the other half among his shirt-ruffles. "That is +a form of speech, I suppose, by which you would imply that Marmaduke is +afraid of his uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Very much," said I; "afraid of his life."</p> + +<p>"And you have had no previous conversation upon this subject with either +of these gentlemen, that is—you must forgive me if I press this +somewhat hardly—they have never asked your opinion on the matter +before?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, sir."</p> + +<p>"You are speaking, too, I conclude from your own observation of course, +from your own knowledge of Mr. Marmaduke Heath's sentiments and +position, and not from any hearsay rumour?"</p> + +<p>"I am perfectly convinced, Mr. Clint," returned I gravely, "that Sir +Massingberd Heath wishes to get rid of his nephew, and that Marmaduke +knows it."</p> + +<p>"Then Sir Massingberd shall be gratified," observed Mr. Gerard, with +energy; "he shall get rid of him from this day."</p> + +<p>"Stop, stop, my dear sir," interposed the lawyer. "Even supposing that +all this is true, both the facts that I have received from you and Mr. +Long, and the surmises entertained by this young gentleman, we are +still only at the threshold of the matter. From the manner in which Sir +Massingberd expressed himself when he wrote to me to demand the custody +of the boy, and from his whole conduct since, I am certain that he will +not give up his position as guardian without a severe struggle. We must +steadily look our difficulties in the face. Supposing that, having been +assured of Marmaduke's convalescence, he should send a post-chaise over +here next week, or the week after, with a note, insisting upon his +immediate return to Fairburn Park, what is to be done then?"</p> + +<p>"I should send the post-chaise back again," returned Mr. Gerard, calmly, +"with the verbal reply, that Mr. Marmaduke was not coming."</p> + +<p>"But suppose he wrote to Marmaduke himself?"</p> + +<p>"The reply would come from me all the same, Mr. Clint."</p> + +<p>"But if Sir Massingberd appeals to the law?"</p> + +<p>"He dare not!" exclaimed my host; "his audacity, great as it is, stops +short of that. If he did, as sure as the sun is shining, I would meet +him with the charge of attempted murder."</p> + +<p>Mr. Clint took out of his other coat-tail a second snuff-box, which he +never made use of except in cases of great emergency. "You are prepared +to go that length, are you?"</p> + +<p>"I am, sir," returned Mr. Gerard, firmly.</p> + +<p>"You have not a shadow of foundation for such an assertion," pursued Mr. +Clint, reflectively. "The slander will be pronounced malicious; you will +be cast in swingeing damages."</p> + +<p>"That is possible," remarked my host; "but there, nevertheless, will be +such revelations of Sir Massingberd's mode of life, as may well cause +the chancellor to reflect whether Fairburn Hall is a fitting educational +establishment for a minor."</p> + +<p>"John Lord Eldon is not an ascetic—"</p> + +<p>"I know it, sir;" broke forth Mr. Gerard; "I am well aware that he is a +heartless scoundrel, as dissipated, as dishonest, and—"</p> + +<p>"Sir," interrupted Mr. Clint, with irritation. "I will not listen to +such mad words. You may utter them, of course, in your own house, but +not to me. This is the talk of those who would subvert all authority."</p> + +<p>"They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities," murmured my tutor.</p> + +<p>"I do not speak evil of dignities, my dear sir, but only of the rogues +who fill them," exclaimed Mr. Gerard, laughing. "However, I beg your +pardon, gentlemen; the remark escaped me quite involuntarily. You are +aware, Mr. Clint, that my Lord Eldon is not absolutely an ascetic."</p> + +<p>"I was about to say, sir," observed the old lawyer stiffly, "that his +lordship is not so tenderly alive to the necessity of moral training as +some of his friends would wish, and he has a strong respect for natural +authority. He would lean, therefore, towards Sir Massingberd's view of +the question—with whom; indeed, he is personally not unacquainted—and +be induced to palliate his way of life."</p> + +<p>"Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless, are those in Eldon's charge," +murmured Mr. Gerard. "Still," continued he, in a louder tone, "the +charge of attempted murder, Mr. Clint, would have this effect, that even +if Marmaduke were reconsigned to his uncle's care—which Heaven +forbid—the eyes of the world would be upon Sir Massingberd, and he +would not venture to work him a mischief. In the meantime, it rests with +us to take good care that he has not the chance of doing so."</p> + +<p>"And now," resumed Mr. Clint, after a pause, "supposing that all is +arranged thus far to repel Sir Massingberd's claims, there is another +matter to be considered. It would take long to explain the details of +the case, but you must understand that the Heath property is very +peculiarly situated. Sir Massingberd, who is in the enjoyment of it for +life, cannot raise a shilling upon it; while Marmaduke does not possess +a shilling, although the prospective heir of such vast wealth. They +would be, in short, at present a couple of beggars; but by a special +arrangement with a certain person, whom I need not name, a small annual +sum has been allotted for the benefit of the boy, but, practically, +quite as much so for that of his uncle. A certain annuity, I say, is +paid to Sir Massingberd for the maintenance of his nephew, and another, +solely on the latter's behalf, for that of the estate. It is a most +beautifully intricate affair from first to last," pursued the lawyer +with unction; "here are two relatives, who mutually support one another, +and have yet every reason, looking at the matter in a rather worldly way +of course, to wish each other dead. Sir Massingberd could borrow plenty +of money, if the usurers were only confident that he could, as well as +would, make away with his nephew. There would be even less difficulty +under ordinary circumstances in procuring a loan for Marmaduke; but a +delicate boy, whose uncle and guardian is bent upon putting a violent +end to him—you see that renders the security so very slight. +Altogether, it is certainly one of the nicest cases. It is not only a +question of responsibility; there are always plenty of people ready to +take any amount of <i>that</i> at a sufficient premium; but who will +undertake the pecuniary charge of the lad if he is withdrawn from his +uncle's roof? Sir Massingberd, of course, will never give up one tittle +of the allowance entrusted to him to expend, except upon such compulsion +as we should scarcely venture to employ. There are three years wanting +to the boy's majority; and even when he has arrived at that, and should +be willing to promise ample repayment, he may die before his uncle +still, who has a constitution of adamant, when those who have maintained +him may whistle for the money they have expended. The expression may be +coarse," added Mr. Clint apologetically, "but I think it conveys my +meaning."</p> + +<p>"I thank you, Mr. Clint," observed my tutor, after a little pause, "for +putting this matter before us so bluntly and decidedly. For my part, I +am far from being a rich man; but, on the other hand, there are no +persons who have a better claim upon my resources than my dear young +friend and pupil, Marmaduke Heath. That he will repay me if he survives +his uncle, I am more than assured; and, if he die early, I shall not +regret that the remainder of his young life has been rendered happy +through my means, although it may have cost me a few comforts."</p> + +<p>I stooped down and said a few words in my tutor's ear. "No, Peter, no," +continued he; "you are a good lad, and your father is, doubtless, +generous enough to comply with your wishes; but we must not resort to +such a distant source in this emergency, indeed. Mr. Clint, do you think +that a hundred and forty to a hundred and sixty pounds a year might be +made sufficient to keep Marmaduke with respectability?"</p> + +<p>"Half your annual stipend, eh, Mr. Long, eh?" ejaculated the lawyer. +"Bless my soul, how this snuff gets in one's eyes! Such a sum should be +quite sufficient. I think that would be found more than enough. He +cannot live at your rectory, of course; that would be almost as bad as +at the Hall; but there are plenty of spare rooms in my house in town. He +has stayed there before, so that that can be done, we know. Marmaduke +and I are old friends—No, no, it will not hurt me. Such a course cannot +bring me into greater antagonism with Sir Massingberd than I am in +already. I am always at daggers-drawn with him. He is for ever cutting +down trees that don't belong to him, or selling heirlooms that are no +more his than mine, or embroiling himself with me, the appointed +guardian of the property, in some way or other. Yes, I'll take the lad, +Mr. Long, come what will of it."</p> + +<p>"You will do nothing of the kind," exclaimed my host, energetically; +"you honest lawyer, and very worthy man; and you, you good +priest—contradictions in terms, both of you—you shall not give away +half your annual stipend, or my name is not Harvey Gerard. I have done +each of you a very grievous wrong in thought, if not in word; and I +hereby beg your pardon. It is possible, I perceive, to be a Tory, and +yet preserve, if not a conscience, at least a heart."</p> + +<p>My tutor smiled; Mr. Clint bowed his acknowledgments.</p> + +<p>"With regard to Mr. Marmaduke Heath, however," pursued our host, "that +young gentleman must be my especial charge. From this day until the +period when he comes into his property, or lies in need of decent +interment, as the case may be, he is my guest; or, if my house is +distasteful to him, I will advance him whatever sums he may reasonably +require for his maintenance elsewhere. Please to consider that that is +settled, gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"Whatever we may think of the political opinions of Mr. Harvey Gerard," +observed Mr. Clint, with feeling, "his name has always been associated +with acts of matchless generosity."</p> + +<p>"Always, always," echoed Mr. Long; then added reflectively, "he has paid +the fines of half the rogues in the country, and bailed the other half +who have been committed to prison."</p> + +<p>A simultaneous burst of merriment from his three hearers greeted this +naïve remark of my unconscious tutor.</p> + +<p>"I have done so upon one occasion, I confess," replied Mr. Gerard, +good-naturedly. "I became surety, in 1791, for the good behaviour of a +poor Birmingham rioter, as I thought, who turned out to be a Government +spy. However, I assure you, generosity has nothing to do with my present +intentions with respect to young Heath. My income is sufficiently large +to admit of my accommodating the poor lad with ease, even if the +repayment, sooner or later, were not almost certain, as it really is. +But, besides all this, I must confess that the undertaking affords me +exceeding satisfaction. Mr. Long, you are, I have heard, an enthusiastic +fisherman; that is no common pleasure which you feel when your rod is +bowed by some enormous trout, cunning and strong, who may break the +whole of your tackle, and get away, after all, but who also may be +landed helpless on the bank, a victim to your skill and patience. That +is exactly the sport which I promise myself with Sir Massingberd Heath. +If he were one whit less greedy, less formidable, less pitiless, I +should feel less hostility towards him; he has, fortunately, no +redeeming point. I have hated tyranny all my life, and I hate this man, +who seems to be the very embodiment of it. He makes his boast that no +one has ever stood between himself and his wicked will. Let us see what +he will make of Harvey Gerard."</p> + +<p>The speaker drew himself up proudly, but certainly not with unbecoming +pride. His form dilated as he spoke; his voice grew deep without losing +its distinctness; and into his mild eyes a sternness crept as when the +frost congeals the lake. But for a spice of haughtiness, which to some +might have appeared even arrogance, he could have stood for St. Michael +in his contest with the foul Fiend,—have personified the Spirit of Good +defying the Spirit of Evil.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<h3>THE GIPSY CAMP.</h3> + + +<p>After not a little opposition upon the part of Mr. Long, who would have +willingly borne his share in Marmaduke's expenses, it was settled that +Mr. Gerard should be the young man's host, if he could only contrive to +retain him in defiance of the power of Sir Massingberd; his home, +however, was not to be the Dovecot, which was judged to be too much +exposed, by its proximity to Fairburn, to the machinations of the enemy. +The Gerards were to remove to their town residence in Harley Street, as +soon as their guest was fit to accompany them. At first, his progress +was tedious, but he grew rapidly convalescent as soon as he was able to +exchange his bed for a sofa. Never was sick man more hospitably treated, +or so graciously tended. Mr. Gerard possessed that almost feminine +gentleness of manner which is generally found in persons of his peculiar +organization. His sympathy, at least as easily aroused as his +antagonism, was now deeply enlisted in favour of Marmaduke for his own +sake; he recognized his talents, and the beauty and tenderness of his +mind, and won him, by pleasant studious talk, from the melancholy that +overhung it; and the young man's heart, thrilling response to every +touch of kindness, turned towards him, and expanded like a flower in the +sun. As for Lucy, what rudest health would I not have exchanged for +Marmaduke's languor, as he lay and listened to her clear sweet voice, +now singing some cheerful ballad to enliven him, now reading aloud some +tale so musically that itself seemed song! He could read to himself but +little as yet, and if he did take up a book, his eyes refused to regard +it, but followed the lovely girl, wherever she moved, with worship.</p> + +<p>"This happiness is too great to last, Peter," he would often say; "it +will all fade one day, I know, and leave me desolate. What man living is +worthy to possess yon glorious creature? I feel as though I had no right +even to love her. Yet, great heaven! how I <i>do</i> love her. How +unconscious she is of her perfect sweetness! How she graces the meanest +thing which she may set herself to do! Her presence seems to breathe +very life into me; I then forget everything but her—even Sir +Massingberd. To return to him would be death indeed—death death!" Then +he would sink back, as if prostrated with the thought, and so remain +despairingly despondent until he heard Lucy's voice, or laugh, or +footstep. All this was bitter for me to bear. I was glad when Mr. Long +suggested to me that he thought it was no longer necessary for me to +remain with Marmaduke, and that I should return to Fairburn Rectory and +my studies. Still, my heart was heavy upon that morning which was to be +the last I was to spend under the same roof with Lucy Gerard. Within the +last few weeks—nay, it happened in a few hours—I had Loved and I had +Lost. If there be any to read this in whose eyes these words have +meaning, they will pity me. I do not match such grief, indeed, for a +single instant against the sorrow a man must feel for the loss of the +loved companion of his life, against the lone wretchedness of recent +widowhood; but it is a grievous blow. I wished Marmaduke and Mr. Gerard +"good-bye" without quite knowing that I did so.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, Mr. Meredith," said Lucy, and though her voice was even lower +and sweeter than usual, it wounded me like a knife.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you call him Peter, Lucy?" exclaimed her father, laughing. "I +think it would be more civil, now that we are going to lose him."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," said I, gratefully; and she did say "God bless you, +Peter," very, very kindly.</p> + +<p>Ever since that morning she called me so; but I was Peter to all of +them, you see, as well as to her. Then I called her Lucy, and though for +the first and last time, I shall never forget it.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"I couldna say mair, but just 'Fare ye weel, Lucy</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Yet that I will mind till the day that I dee."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Then I mounted my horse, my luggage having already preceded me, and +slowly took my way towards Fairburn. My life-blood seemed to ebb with +every step. The clang of the gate that shut me out from the last foot of +ground belonging to the Dovecot, sent a shudder through me like a knell. +I was on the very spot where Marmaduke had met with the accident that +had been so nearly fatal. Supposing it had killed him! Supposing...—I +thanked God that I was able to thank Him from an honest heart that it +had not done so.</p> + +<p>Then I felt a little better. Having ascended the hill, I put my horse +into a sharp canter upon the common, and the cool air through which I +swiftly passed refreshed me. The hollow in which the encampment had been +was now deserted, and only the round bare spot amid the green, which is +the gipsy autograph, announced that it had ever been there. Some miles +further on, however, a little brown-legged boy, evidently of that +wandering fraternity, suddenly emerged from a fir plantation, and stood +before me in the road as if to beg. I was already feeling in my pocket +for a penny, when, showing his white teeth in gratitude, he shook his +head, and coming close to my stirrup, exclaimed, "You are the gentleman +from Mr. Gerard's, sir, are you not? Would you please to come and see +Granny Rachel?"</p> + +<p>In an instant, I remembered the pocket-flask, which I had entirely +forgotten since the day in which it came into my possession; for all I +knew, it was then lying yet in the drawing-room at the Dovecot.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my boy, that will I," returned I; "but I fear I have not brought +her what she wants."</p> + +<p>He looked up in the bright interrogative manner peculiar to his tribe, +so different to the stolid wonder of the agriculturist.</p> + +<p>"She wants <i>you</i>, sir, as I understood. This is the sixth day that she +has set me to watch for you by this roadside. Will you please to follow +me?"</p> + +<p>The boy started off at a pace which compelled me to move too fast for +further questioning; and skirting the plantation for a hundred yards, +stopped at the entrance of a roadway leading through the wood. The +coming winter had not yet turned the broad green track to sand, and it +ran so straight and far, that the pine trees seemed to stand on either +side—a solid wall—with nothing but the blue heaven for their limit. +This landscape of right lines would have delighted a painter of the +Pre-Raphaelite school, it looked so stiff and unnatural; but pursuing +the track for a little distance, and then plunging over a ditch and +bank into the plantation itself, we suddenly came upon a scene which +would have suited Morland. A low tent, with half-naked but merry +children crawling in and out; a she-ass and her foal; a handsome male +Epicurean, lying on his back, smoking a short, well-coloured pipe, the +hue of which precisely resembled that of his own skin; a young girl in +scarlet mantle, and with earrings of great splendour, gathering +fir-cones to feed the flames which licked around an iron pot suspended +on four sticks, piled musket-fashion; and an old crone, sitting by the +same, and picking the feathers from a bird, which, had the time of year +been beyond the end of September, I should have certainly taken for a +hen-pheasant. But to suppose this, would have been to suppose an +infraction of the game laws! The walnut-stained children stopped their +play as I approached, and stood in various attitudes of wonder, like +beauteous bronzes; the man turned over on his side, and opened his +slumbrous eyes a hairbreadth; the girl flashed one quick, comprehensive +glance upon me, and then resumed her occupation. The old woman nodded +familiarly without rising, and observed quietly, "So you are come at +last, Peter Meredith. I trust you have brought good news of Marmaduke +Heath."</p> + +<p>"He is better," said I, "much better; and he knows who brought him help, +and is very grateful. You have been expected daily at the Dovecot, where +something more substantial than mere thanks is waiting for you."</p> + +<p>"Rachel Liversedge desires neither silver nor gold," returned the old +woman; "she has had her reward already, if what you say be true. It was +not for love of the boy that I acted as I did; he has too much evil +blood in him to earn my liking. But I am glad as though he were my own +son that he will live."</p> + +<p>"Carew," cried she, triumphantly, "no wonder <i>bura</i> Sir Massingberd +looked <i>kalo</i> as ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the great man looks black, does he?" said I.</p> + +<p>The old woman dropped the bird, the girl her fir-cones, and both stared +wildly at me, as though my voice had come from the clouds; the man +sprung to his feet, and uttered a cry of wonder.</p> + +<p>"What! do you speak our tongue?" cried he.</p> + +<p>"Nay; you speak mine," returned I, calmly. "<i>Bura</i> is great; and <i>kala</i>, +which you call <i>kalo</i>, is black, of course; everybody knows that who +knows Hindustanee."</p> + +<p>Then the three burst out together in a language, one word out of four of +which seemed to be more or less familiar to me; as for understanding +what they said, of course it was simply impossible; but no matter, I had +established my reputation. From that moment, I felt myself to be the +honoured guest of the family. Would I smoke? Would I eat? Would I drink? +I was thirsty, and I said that I would gladly take some water—which, at +a venture, I called <i>paince</i>.</p> + +<p>"<i>Paunce</i>!" cried they, extravagantly delighted. "He talks like a true +Cingari; and only look! is he not dark-skinned!"</p> + +<p>The few words that my old ayah had taught me in India had thus procured +me a hearty welcome in a Midshire fir-plantation.</p> + +<p>"Sit down by me, Peter Meredith, my son," exclaimed the old woman; "and +do you fetch him water, Mina."</p> + +<p>I dismounted, and did as I was bid; while the young girl took a +pitcher, and presently brought it filled from a running Stream near by, +and offered it to me, like another Rebecca. But her grandmother—for +such she was—cried, "Stop! let me put something in it;" and produced +from her pocket the self-same flask which she herself had given me a few +weeks ago, and which I had thought was left behind at the Dovecot.</p> + +<p>"Why, I was blaming myself for not having brought you that thing back +to-day," said I; "I never heard of your coming to claim it."</p> + +<p>"Nor did I, young gentleman," returned the old woman, proudly. "Harvey +Gerard is too kind a man to visit when one is not in need. That was why +I left his house that day, directly I had told what had befallen +Marmaduke Heath: I did not wish him to think I waited for my reward.</p> + +<p>He returned me this with his own hands. He is not one of your proud +ones. When we had the fever here—Mina, darling, you remember who came +to see you, and saved your life?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes!" cried the girl, clasping her dark hands, which gleamed with +tawdry rings; "and his daughter, too, how I love her!"</p> + +<p>There was a little pause; I felt my ears tingle, my cheeks burn. I did +not dare look up from the ground.</p> + +<p>"Lucy Gerard is very fair," whispered the old woman; "she will make a +good and loving wife;" then she added roguishly, and in that gipsy tone +which smacks so of the race-course: "Shall I tell your fortune, my +pretty gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you," said I, hastily; "I have no great confidence in your +information as to the future. With respect to the past, on the other +hand, you can doubtless satisfy me, if you will. I have a great +curiosity to know how you became possessed of yonder flask with the +Heath griffin."</p> + +<p>"Peter Meredith," returned the old woman, very gravely, "you have asked +me to tell you a sad story, and one to relate which will cost me much. +It is not our custom, however, to refuse the first request of a new +friend. But before I begin, let me ask you a question in my turn. Has it +never struck you why Sir Massingberd Heath has not long ago taken to +himself a young wife, and begotten an heir for the bonny lands of +Fairburn, in despite of his nephew?"</p> + +<p>Until that moment, the idea had never crossed my brain; but no sooner +was it thus mooted than I wondered greatly at the shortsightedness of +those among whom Marmaduke's affairs had been so lately discussed, and +in particular at that of Mr. Clint, who, as a lawyer, should surely have +at once foreseen such a contingency. "Well," said I, "I confess that, +for my part, I have never thought of it; but there cannot be much danger +of Sir Massingberd's becoming a wooer now; why, what young woman would +be won by such as he?"</p> + +<p>"What young woman would <i>not</i> be won?" replied Rachel Liversedge, +grimly. "Think you that his white head and stony heart would weigh too +heavy in the balance against his title and the reversion of his lands? +Remember, all that is around us, and all that we could see from yonder +hill to the right hand and to the left—pasture and corn-field, farm and +park—would fall to the offspring of her who would venture, for a few +years, to be Lady Heath. Peter, there is one maiden in Midshire, known +to you and me, who would not consent to do this thing, though the offer +were thrice as splendid; but I doubt if there be more than one."</p> + +<p>"If that be so," said I, "why does not Sir Massingberd marry?"</p> + +<p>"The answer to that is the story I am about to tell you," returned +Rachel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<h3>WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY.</h3> + + +<p>"I suppose you have heard, Peter Meredith, young as you are," began the +old woman, "a great deal of ill-speaking against us Wanderers. We not +only kill game, but even domestic poultry, if the opportunity is given +to us; we not only steal wood, but horse-flesh; and since we are so +partial to carrion, it is not to be wondered at that we sometimes +suffocate a sheep with a piece of his own wool, in order to get the +carcass cheap from the farmer. Yet whatever false charges are current +about us now, these are nothing, either in gravity or number, to what +they were when I was a young girl—that is, fifty years ago. Every +man's hand, every woman's tongue, was against us: magistrates committed +us without testimony; rogues made a trade of accusing us solely to get +blood-money. Our name was more than a by-word, it was a brand; to call a +man a gipsy, was to say vagabond and thief in one. Under these +circumstances, Massingberd Heath left his father's house yonder, and +came to live with us as congenial company. We were in this very wood the +day he did so. The sun shone as brightly as now, the streamlet ran just +as blithe, the air was filled, as now, with the sweet-smelling pine. The +people only are changed—ah me, how changed!—who made up that scene. +There was my father; he died! ten years younger than I am now; is not +that strange, boy? his brother Morris, dead; poor Stanley Carew, you +shall hear of him presently, a handsomer lad by far than his nephew +there; my beautiful Sinnamenta, compared to little Mina yonder, though +she is pretty enough, like a blush-rose to a mere peony, the flower of +womankind. If there are ladies and women born into the world, then she +was a lady. There are no such beauties now; no, friend, not even at the +Dovecot. Let me see; I have counted four; then I was there also, comely +enough, 'twas said, but not to be spoken of for looks with my younger +sister.</p> + +<p>"We were occupied pretty much as you see us now, for life in the +Greenwood possesses but little variety, when Massingberd Heath strode in +among us, with his gun upon his shoulder. We knew him well, but were not +inclined to dislike him. He was a dissipated, wild, young fellow, but, +as yet, his heart was thought, as the saying is, to be in the right +place; his popularity, however, was principally owing to his antagonism +to his father. Sir Wentworth had long passed through the spendthrift +stage, and was very close with respect to money-matters; a harsh and +griping landlord, and it is probable enough a niggard parent. His son's +extravagances were at that time insignificant compared to what they +afterwards became, yet the old man was for ever complaining. He +persecuted all who were poor and in his power, but the gipsies +especially. He feared for his deer, for his game, for his fences, and, +besides, I verily believe he detested us for our improvidence. I +remember he sent two of my young brothers to prison for tossing for +halfpence upon a Sunday—he who made not even a pretence of religion +himself, and had been used invariably to pass his day of rest in town +at Tattersall's, betting his thousands on some approaching race. It is +said that this wretched old man used to horse-whip young Massingberd +almost daily, until a certain occasion, when the latter found himself +stronger than he imagined, and reversed the process. After that, Sir +Wentworth confined himself to cursing his offspring whenever they +quarrelled. It was after some dreadful outbreak of passion on the part +of the old man that Massingberd Heath left house and home, and elected +to join our wandering fortunes. We were very unwilling that this should +be. It was by no means so unusual a proceeding then as now, for persons +of good birth, but broken fortunes, to become gipsies, but such had +usually their private reasons for remaining so for life. They were very +rarely criminals, but generally social outlaws, for whom there could be +no reconciliation at home, or younger sons of respectable families, +with quite a mountain of debt upon their shoulders. These were regularly +nationalized among us; and if they conducted themselves for sufficient +time in accordance with our regulations, they were permitted to +intermarry with us.</p> + +<p>"Now it was certain that Massingberd Heath sought only a temporary home; +as soon as his father died, or even offered terms to him, he would leave +us, and resume his proper station. Moreover, how was the maintenance of +discipline and obedience to the chief of our tribe, absolutely essential +as it is, to be kept up in the case of this new-comer? Even at that +time, he was a headstrong, wilful man, to whom all authority, however +lawful or natural, was hateful. Was it to be expected that he who defied +his own father, himself a man of iron will, would obey Morris +Liversedge? On the other hand, Uncle Morris rather liked the young +fellow. He had connived at many a raid on his father's own preserves—to +such a pitch had the quarrel grown between them—and kept our pot +boiling with bird and beast. Many and many a time had he led the +Fairburn keepers to one extremity of the preserves, while the slaughter +was going on in the other. Moreover, it would be of great importance, +could we make a friend of the man who would one day own all these +pleasant haunts of ours, and who could say a good word, and a strong +one, for the poor persecuted gipsies, when it was needed. Poor Morris +did not know that the rebel but too often turns out a tyrant, when he +gets his chance. He could not foresee Sir Massingberd Heath sending +folks to prison, or getting them kidnapped, and sent across the seas, +for snaring the hares that he held so cheaply when they did not happen +to belong to himself. If you want to find a gentleman who in his youth, +and landless, has been a poacher whenever the opportunity offered, look +you among the game-preservers on the bench of justices. This, however, +is among the least of the basenesses of him of whom I speak. It is not +for his bitter guardianship of bird and beast, or his hateful oppression +of his fellow-creatures, that my heart cries out for judgment against +this man, that I look with eager longing for that hour when God shall +take him into His own hand."</p> + +<p>The old woman paused a moment with closed eyes, and muttered something +that was inaudible to me, rocking herself at the same time to and fro.</p> + +<p>"Massingberd Heath became one of us, Peter Meredith as far as it is +possible for such a wretch to be so; he ate with us, and drank with us, +which they say is a sacred bond among even savages. It was not so with +him. He cast his evil eyes upon Sinnamenta, to love her after the +fashion of his accursed race. Perhaps you may think, Peter Meredith, +that such an occurrence should have been foreseen by her father or her +uncle Morris, and, for my part, I always thought that it was the +presence of my lovely sister which mainly caused this man to join our +company; but, at all events, neither they nor I dreaded any ill +consequences. A gipsy girl is not a light-of-love maiden, like those of +fairer skins. Heaven, who gives her beauty, gives her virtue also: this +is not denied, even by our enemies. When you call your sweetheart +'Gipsy,' it is in love, not in reproach. Massingberd Heath knew this +well, and therefore it was foe took such pains in the matter. It is true +that we do not marry in church, but when we wed among ourselves, the +marriage is not less sacred; It was a wedding of this sort, indissoluble +by one party, but not by the other, which this man wished to compass. He +did not gain his end."</p> + +<p>The old woman's eyes sparkled with triumph for a moment as she said +these words, but her voice sank low as she continued:</p> + +<p>"Peter Meredith, if you have a sister, think of her while I speak of +mine; she cannot be more pure than little Sinnamenta, nor less +designing. Her weakness was one common to all women, but especially to +those of our unhappy race; she was fond of finery—fine clothing, +jewels, shawls; they became her; she looked like any princess when +attired in them. Stanley Carew, who loved her in all honesty, could +give her no such costly gifts as Massingberd Heath showered upon her, +and, to help his end, even upon me. The gipsy's ragged coat looked mean +and poor beside that of our guest. This man, too, whom you know but as a +scowling tyrant, with a face scarred with passion and excesses, was then +a handsome youth. You smile, Peter, at the wonder of it; it is, however, +not less true than that the wrinkled hag to whom you are now listening +was then a bonny girl. Imagine <i>that</i>, Peter, and you can imagine +anything. Ah, Time, Time, surely at the end of you, there will be +something to recompense us for all that you have taken away!"</p> + +<p>Once more Rachel Liversedge paused as if in pain; then with eyes whose +sight seemed to receive but little of what was present, but were fixed +on the unreturning Past, continued as follows:</p> + +<p>"Yes, Massingberd Heath was handsome enough, unless when enraged; his +wrath always brought the horse-shoe out upon his forehead.<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Ay, and he +was agreeable enough, too. He could smile as though he had a heart, and +vow as though he owned a God. By his devilish art he managed to +ingratiate himself with Sinnamenta; he caused her to treat poor Stanley +ill, and then, pretending to take his part, got credit for generosity. +There are many who call us gipsies a base people, yet this excess of +meanness was quite new to us; my little sister—that was what I always +called her, because I loved her so—she believed him. She would have +trusted to his word, and married him, according to our rites, and been +his wife and drudge for all her life; but since this could not be +without the consent both of her father and Morris, he had to ask it of +them. He might as well have asked it of Sir Wentworth; they had got to +know him well by close companionship, for men fathom men better than +women do—even gipsy women, who foretell men's fortunes for them—and +they answered, 'No.' They did not believe that he had the least +intention of being with us longer that it suited him, and they +peremptorily refused his request. After one burst of passionate threats, +the young man pretended to yield assent to their decision. Morris was +inclined to think this acquiescence genuine; but my father, more warmly +interested in the matter, and therefore perhaps less credulous, kept on +his guard. Finding out that Massingberd Heath had secretly made +overtures of reconciliation to his father, and missing him one night +from the camp, he caused Morris to strike tent at once; and before +morning we had put twenty miles between us and Fairburn. Nor was this +effected too soon, for, as we heard long afterwards, the constables were +searching this very wood for us at day-break.</p> + +<p>"Our company was bound on a long travel to Kirk-Yetholm, Roxburghshire, +one of the few places in Scotland, although but one mile from the +frontier of Northumberland, where the gipsies reside in any number. +There we should meet with friends, and be safe from all molestation. It +was late in the year to travel so far and into such a climate, but there +was no help for it; and moreover, some of the Carews had a house there, +to which Stanley said we should be welcome; and so it turned out. I +believe Sinnamenta would rather that we had camped out of doors, even in +that northern clime, so disinclined was she to be beholden to him or his +friends, after what had happened, although she did not dare to say so. +Poor Stanley imagined that, now we had removed from the neighbourhood of +his rival, he might renew his suit with success; but the proud girl +would not listen to him. She did not exactly pine after the man whose +wiles she had so narrowly escaped, but her life seemed henceforth +saddened. The domestic duties which had hitherto sat so lightly upon +her, became burdensome, and she set about them languidly. The whole of +the time we remained at Kirk-Yetholm, and it was many, many months, she +never mentioned Massingberd Heath, but never ceased to think of him. It +was fated that she was to be undeceived about that man too late."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> I am reminded by a friendly critic of the "suspicious +coincidence" of a horse-shoe on the forehead, in the case of +"Redgauntlet." I never think of Sir Massingberd without thinking of that +worthy; and it has been a matter of doubt with me, whether Sir Walter +Scott might not himself have seen the Squire of Fairburn and drawn him +from the life—both as to mind and feature—in his famous novel.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<h3>THE REASON CONTINUED.</h3> + + +<p>"About a year after our departure from Fairburn, Sinnamenta and I had +been to sell some baskets, the making of which was a great trade with us +at that time, at Wooler, in Northumberland; and on our return from the +fair that was being held there, we met a number of gentlemen driving +home from shooting in the Cheviots. They went by very rapidly, yet not +so fast but that I recognized one of their number; I had only to look at +my little sister's cheeks to see that she had recognized him also. The +very next day came Massingberd Heath to our camp, professing himself +injured by our abrupt withdrawal from his society, volunteering his +companionship as before, and reiterating his vows and promises to +Sinnamenta. She expressed herself in such a manner as to lead us almost +to fear she might be induced to elope with him; while he, upon his side, +seemed prepared to sacrifice everything to obtain her: his very +selfishness caused him, as it were, to forget himself; and I do believe, +if it had been insisted upon, he would have had the banns published in +Wooler Church, in the hearing of the fine friends with whom he was +staying, and been married by the parson. However, he again proposed to +go through the Cingari ceremony, and this time, <i>Morris and my father +agreed to it</i>. Having acknowledged himself to be an adopted gipsy, +Massingberd Heath was joined in wedlock to Sinnamenta Liversedge; the +ordinary ceremonies were dispensed with, by command of Morris, the +bride and bridegroom only pledging themselves to one another solemnly in +the presence of the assembled tribe. It was then, since he could not +purchase suitable presents in such an out-of-the-way district, that I +received from that man's hand this shooting-flask, as a remembrance of +that day; my uncle commanded me to accept it (although I vehemently +disapproved of what had been done), and I therefore keep it now, when +every other gift of that accursed man has long been committed to the +flames. For my part, I could not understand this novel pliancy on the +part of Morris and my father; while Sinnamenta, as I think, implicitly +believed in her lover's protestation, that for her sake he would all his +life be a wanderer like ourselves. That very day, however, he took her +away southward, on his road to London.</p> + +<p>"For beauty, as I have said, and for gentleness, there never breathed +the equal of my little sister, and yet in six short months this Heath +grew weary of her; like a spoiled child tired with a fragile toy, he +cared not what became of her, so long as it vexed his eyes no more. It +is not necessary to tell what brutal insult he put upon her; enough to +say that she fled from him in terror, as he had intended her to do, and +returned to us, heart-stricken, woe-begone, about to become a mother, +with nothing but wretchedness in the Future, and even her happy Past a +dream dispelled. It was dreadful to look upon my little sister, and +compare her to what she had been so short a time before. She felt the +cold after her luxurious life in town; but she was far more ill at ease +in mind than body. Above all, she sorrowed because her lover's desertion +had left her disgraced—that she had brought shame upon all who +belonged to her. Incited by the poor girl's misery, Morris and my father +put into effect an audacious design which they had privately had long in +hand. We were back again at Fairburn—all but Stanley Carew, who was +away about a new horse for our covered cart—not camping in the +plantation, as of old, for fear of Sir Wentworth, but upon the common +hard by. On a certain morning, neither my father nor uncle went forth as +usual, but sat at home smoking and watching at the opening of the tent. +Not long after breakfast, there appeared a wayfarer in the distance, +whose form showed gigantic in the summer haze.</p> + +<p>"That must be a big fellow, little sister," said I, drawing her +attention to it. She was sitting huddled up, as usual, in front of the +fire; but no sooner had she caught sight of the object in question, +than she ran with a cry to her father's knee, and besought him to save +her from Massingberd Heath. Ah, even then, at that last moment, if +father or uncle had but consulted me, or let me into their plans, I +should not have my little sister's shuddering face before me as now, the +large eyes wild, the full lips pale with terror. He had beaten her, poor +darling, even before the scene that was coming; but she had even more +reason than she knew for fear. This man came striding on to the entrance +of the tent, and stood there looking at its inmates with a withering +scowl. 'Why don't you speak,' said he, 'you vagabonds! For what is it +that you have dared to send for me?'</p> + +<p>"My father pointed towards Sinnamenta—'Is not that cause enough, +Massingberd Heath?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' retorted the ruffian coolly. 'What is she to me? The drab has +come to her thieving friends again, it seems—the more fool she; for +there was more than one who had a fancy for her in town, and would have +taken her off my hands.'</p> + +<p>"My father's fingers mechanically sought the knife which lay beside his +half-finished basket; but my uncle Morris stood up between him and the +speaker, and thus replied:—</p> + +<p>"Massingberd Heath, I sent for you to tell you something which concerns +both us and you. Many months ago, you came to us, uninvited and +unwelcome, and elected to be a gipsy like ourselves. This makes you +smile very scornfully; yet if you did not mean the thing you said, you +lied. However, we believed you. You were admitted into what, however +wretched and debased it may seem to you, was our home, and all we had to +offer you was at your service. You fell in love with that poor girl +yonder, and she did not tremble at your voice, as now, but trusted to +your honour. It is true, your position in the world was high, and hers +was what you saw it to be. Still you wooed her, and not she you; that is +so, and you know it. Do not slander her, sir, lest presently you should +be sorry for it. Again and again, then, you demanded her hand in +marriage—such marriage, that is, as prevails among our people—not so +ceremonious, indeed, as with the rest of the world, but not less +binding. This we would not grant, because we disbelieved your +protestations on your honour and before your God; and disbelieved them, +as it has turned out, with reason. Then we fled from you and your false +solicitations to the north, hundreds of miles away; even thither you +followed us, or else accidentally fell in with us; I know not which. You +renewed your offers and your oaths. We found, all worthless as you are, +that the poor girl loved you still, and, yielding to your repeated +importunity, we suffered her to become your wife.'</p> + +<p>"'Wife!' repeated the renegade contemptuously. 'Do you suppose, then, +that I valued your gipsy mummeries at a pin's head? You might as well +attempt to tie these wrists of mine with the gossamer from yonder +furze.'</p> + +<p>"'We knew that, Massingberd Heath, although the girl did not know it; +she trusted you, although your every word was false.'</p> + +<p>"'She is fool enough for anything,' returned the other brutally. 'But I +know all this. Have you dared to bring me here merely to repeat so stale +a story?'</p> + +<p>"'A story with an ending that you have yet to learn,' pursued my uncle +sternly. You were wedded by no gipsy mummeries, as you call them; you +took Sinnamenta Liversedge, in the presence of many persons, solemnly to +wife.'</p> + +<p>"'Ay, and I might take her sister there, and marry her to-day after the +same fashion, and no law could say me "nay."'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, <i>here</i>, Massingberd Heath; but not at Kirk-Yetholm.'</p> + +<p>"'And why not?' inquired the ruffian, with a mocking laugh, that had, +however, something shrill and wavering in it.</p> + +<p>"'Because Kirk-Yetholm is over the Border, and, by the laws of Scotland, +my niece Sinnamenta is your wife, proud man, and nothing but death can +dissever the bond!'</p> + +<p>"An awful silence succeeded my uncle's words. Massingberd Heath turned +livid, and twice in vain essayed to speak; he was well nigh strangled by +passion.</p> + +<p>"'I thank heaven, Rachel,' murmured my little sister, 'that I am not +that shame to thee and to my race which I thought myself to be.'</p> + +<p>"'You shall have but little to thank heaven for, girl, if this be true,' +cried her husband hoarse with concentrated rage; 'somebody shall pay for +this.'</p> + +<p>"'It <i>is</i> true,' quoth my father, 'and you feel it to be so. Nothing +remains, then, but to make the best of it. We do not seek anything at +your hands, nor—'</p> + +<p>"'Only the right of camping undisturbed about Fairburn,' interposed my +uncle Morris, who was of a grasping disposition, and had planned the +whole matter, I fear, not without an eye to the advantage of his tribe. +'You wouldn't treat your wife's family as trespassers.'</p> + +<p>"'Certainly not,' returned Massingberd Heath, with bitterness; 'they +shall be most welcome. I should be extremely sorry if they were to +leave my neighbourhood just yet. In the meantime, however, I want my +wife—my Wife. Come along with me, my pretty one.'</p> + +<p>"He looked like a wild beast, within springing distance of his prey.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, father, uncle, defend me!' cried the miserable girl. 'What have +you done to bring this man's vengeance upon me?'</p> + +<p>"'Ay, you are right there!' answered her husband, in a voice that froze +my veins. 'That is still left for me—vengeance. Come along, I say; I +hunger until it shall begin.'</p> + +<p>"'Massingberd Heath,' cried I, throwing myself at his feet, 'for God's +sake have mercy upon her; it is not her fault. She knew no more than you +of all these things. Look how ill and pale she is—you above all men +should have pity on her wretched condition. Oh leave her with us, leave +my little sister here, and neither she nor we will ever trouble you, +ever come near you. It shall be just the same as though you had never +set eyes upon us; it shall indeed! Oh, you would not, <i>could</i> not surely +be cruel to such a one as she.'</p> + +<p>"I pointed to her as she stood clinging to her father's arm as much for +support as in appeal, so beautiful, so pitiful, so weak; a spectacle to +move a heart of stone.</p> + +<p>"'Could I not be cruel,' returned he, with a grating laugh, 'ay, to even +such a one as she? Ask <i>her</i>—ask <i>her</i>.'</p> + +<p>"There was no occasion to put the question; you saw the answer in her +shrinking form, her trembling limbs: his every word fell upon her like a +blow.</p> + +<p>"'She has not yet known, however, what I can be to my <i>Wife</i>,' continued +he. 'Come, my pretty one, come.'</p> + +<p>"'She shall not,' cried my father, vehemently; 'it shall never be in +his power to hurt her.'</p> + +<p>"'What! and I her husband?' exclaimed the other, mockingly. 'Both one +until death us do part! Not come?'</p> + +<p>"'He will kill her,' murmured my father; 'her blood will be on my head.'</p> + +<p>"'Are you coming, wife?' cried Massingberd Heath, in a terrible voice; +he stepped forward, and grasped her slender wrist with fingers of steel. +Morris and my father rushed forward, but the man had swung her behind +him, placing himself between her and them, and at the same instant he +had taken from his pocket a life-preserver—he carries it to this +day—armed with which he was a match for five such men. 'And now,' cried +he, 'what man shall stop me from doing what I will with my own?"'</p> + +<p>"'I!' exclaimed a sudden voice, and with the word some dark mass +launched itself so violently against the throat of Massingberd Heath +that the giant toppled and fell; upon his huge breast, knife in hand, +knelt Stanley Carew, his eyes gleaming with hate, his lithe body working +like a panther's. He was not hesitating, not he, he was only drinking in +a delicious draught of revenge, before he struck.</p> + +<p>"'Strike!' cried I, 'strike hard and quick, Carew!' But while the blade +was in air, Morris and my father plucked him backwards, and suffered his +intended victim to rise, although despoiled of his weapon.</p> + +<p>"'No, Carew; that will never do,' quoth Morris. 'We should have the +whole country upon us in an hour, and they would hang us altogether.'</p> + +<p>"'Carew is that man's name, is it?' exclaimed Massingberd Heath. 'I +will not forget it, be sure. You shall all pay for this, trust me; but +he, and <i>this one</i>, more than all. Come away, wife, come away.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, she must go, Carew,' interposed my uncle, checking a furious +movement of the young man's. 'He knows all now, and has a right to what +he demands.'</p> + +<p>"'Ay, but if he lays one finger upon her,' cried the passionate gipsy, +'if he dares to harm her even by a word, and I hear of it, as sure as I +see the sun this day, I will know what is the colour of his life-blood. +You may take her away across the seas, but I will follow you; you may +surround yourself with precautions, but I will come at you; you may go +day and night in mail, but this knife shall find your heart out.'</p> + +<p>"Massingberd Heath nodded contempuously, without speaking; and striding +from the tent, signed to Sinnamenta to follow him, which she did, +moaning and weeping, and casting backward, ever and anon, pitiful +glances upon the home and friends she had exchanged for such an evil +lot. I never saw my little sister more."</p> + +<p>As if the remembrance of this sad scene had utterly overcome her, Rachel +Liversedge hid her face in her hands, and wept until the tears welled +through her tanned and shrivelled fingers.</p> + +<p>"I am indeed distressed," said I, "to have caused you so much pain. I +will not make you sad by telling me more."</p> + +<p>"Nay, my boy, since I have begun it, let me finish with it; I shall +think of it all the same, and it is better to speak than think. That +very night Stanley Carew was arrested upon the charge of stealing the +horse which he had bought in open market, and ridden home just in time +to play the part I have described. In the days I speak of, forty pound +was given as a reward to those who gave such evidence as produced a +capital conviction, and many a gipsy perished innocently in consequence +of that wicked ordinance. It is possible that this accusation was made +by one of those who made a practice of earning blood-money; but I am +positively certain the false witness was set on by Massingberd Heath, +even if that man did not originate the charge. It was pressed against +poor Carew very harshly; and although the farmer of whom he bought the +animal came honestly forward, and swore to its being the same which he +had sold the prisoner, his evidence was rejected on account of some +slight mistake in the description. You must have heard tell of that +awful execution long ago at Crittenden jail, when the wretched victim to +perjury and revenge uttered these terrible words: 'O God, if thou dost +not deliver me, I will not believe there is a God.' That unhappy man was +Stanley Carew. My father and uncle were pitilessly persecuted and +imprisoned, and died before their time. These wrists have worn fetters, +this back has suffered stripes; nor did the vengeance of our enemy cease +even with one generation. One of my boys is beyond seas, and another +within stone walls; yet I know that the hate of Sir Massingberd Heath is +not yet slaked."</p> + +<p>"But what became of your little sister, poor Sinnamenta?"</p> + +<p>"I know not what she suffered immediately after she was taken from us; +Heaven only knows: her husband carried her a great way off out of our +ken. But this I have heard, that when he told her of the death of +Stanley Carew she fell down like one dead, and presently being +delivered of a son, the infant died after a few hours; the mother +lived—a maniac. Yes, Massingberd Heath, you did not kill my little +sister, after all; yonder she lives, but recks not whether you are kind +or cruel; she drinks no more the bitter cup of love's betrayal."</p> + +<p>"She is surely not at Fairburn," asked I, "is she?"</p> + +<p>"What else should keep us here, boy, to be harried by keepers, to be +vexed by constables and justices? What else should keep me here in a +place that tortures me with memories of my youth and of loving faces +that have crumbled into dust? What else but the hope of one day seeing +my little sister yet, and the vengeance of Heaven upon him who has +worked her ruin!" The old woman rose up as she spoke, and looked +menacingly towards Fairburn Hall. "I could almost exclaim with poor +Carew," cried she, "that if Massingberd Heath escape some awful end, +there is no Avenger on high. I am old, but I shall see it, yes, I shall +see it before I die."</p> + +<p>If there had been more to tell, which fortunately there was not, I do +not think Rachel Liversedge could have spoken further; her emotion far +more than her exertions, had reduced her strength so far, that though +she uttered the last words energetically enough, I had had for some time +a difficulty in hearing what she said.</p> + +<p>"I thank you for listening to the tediousness of an ancient dame so +long," murmured she: "if you were not a good boy, and half a gipsy, you +would never have been so patient. I have told you all this to put you on +your guard: it is no secret, but still you may not have heard it. +Distrust, despise, detest Massingberd Heath; and warn his nephew, if +you be his friend, not to venture again within his uncle's reach."</p> + +<p>"I will, I will!" cried I; "and I thank you in his name," I held out my +hand, and she turned it over in her own.</p> + +<p>"An honest palm," quoth she, "without a stain. There is one unlucky +cross about it, Peter, that is all. You must not fret for that."</p> + +<p>I mounted my horse amid cordial "good-byes" from the gipsies, who had +been pursuing their usual avocations during the above recital, as though +nothing was more common than that the head of the family should have a +secret of two hours long to communicate to a strange young gentleman; +and throwing a shilling to the boy who had shown me the way, I took my +leave.</p> + +<p>It was not till I left the plantation far behind me, and had ridden at +speed for some distance on the open road, that I was able to shake off +the sombre feelings that oppressed me, and to meet Mrs. Myrtle's welcome +to the rectory with an answering smile.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<h3>I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR.</h3> + + +<p>Upon my return to Fairburn, I became the object of immense curiosity and +attraction. I was stared at in the rector's pew at church, and, in my +solitary rides, whithersoever I went, as the repository of the great +secret of the disruption between Sir Massingberd and his nephew. It was +even whispered that I was the prime mover of the young man's rebellion, +and had planned the very manner of his escape upon Panther, including +the accident. At all events, I knew all that had happened, which nobody +else knew, except my tutor himself. Now Mr. Long was as close as wax. +Many an invitation had Mrs. Myrtle obtained of late to take a dish of +tea upon grounds which her hosts had since stigmatized as false +pretences. As the housekeeper and confidential servant of the rector, +she had been asked by Mrs. Arabel of the Grange Farm to take evening +refreshment with her in a friendly way; also by Mrs. Remnants, who kept +that extensive emporium in the village which supplied snuff to the aged +of both sexes (though not gratuitously), becoming cambrics to the young, +and lollipops to those who had not yet reached that period of life +wherein outward adornment is preferred to inward gratification; also by +the exciseman's wife; nay, there was not anybody's wife in Fairburn, +having the wherewithal to make a tea-table alluring, and being in a +sufficiently high position in life to venture upon the step, who did not +invite Mrs. Myrtle to visit her, and proceed to treat her like a +refractory pump; they poured a little down, in hopes to be more than +remunerated for the outlay. But, alas, although the dear good lady was +willing enough, being indeed a gossip born, she had nothing to tell +them. She was not equal to the task of Invention, and of facts, even to +trade upon in tea and toast, she had absolutely none.</p> + +<p>Conceive, then, how every face was turned interrogatively towards Master +Meredith—no, <i>Mr.</i> Meredith, now that the object of everybody was to +please him. How the dames dropped courtesies, and hoped my honour was +well; and my honour's friend too, Mr. Marmaduke, he was well too, they +trusted—Heaven bless him; and he was staying away from Fairburn a good +bit, was he not? and how did has uncle like that, who had always kept +him at home so strict?—and was it true that he was residing with Mr. +Harvey Gerard? well, dear me, and how odd that was; an atheist and a +democrat, people did say; but there, there were some again as spoke well +of him.</p> + +<p>Sedate Mr. Arabel, set on, without doubt, by his inquisitive lady, even +waylaid me in a narrow lane, and insisted upon my looking in at the +farm, and partaking of casual hospitality. "Ye'll just have three drars +and a spet," said he (meaning by that farm of expression a few whiffs of +a pipe), "and take a glass of ale;" and when I declined the first offer +upon the ground of not being a smoker, and the second on the plea that +it was only eleven o'clock, A.M., and consequently rather early for ale, +he confessed that his missus was a-waiting for me with a bottle of +cowslip wine, and a seed-cake of her own making. It was rather difficult +to escape from hospitable snares of this kind, but I revealed as little +as possible without giving absolute offence. On the other hand, I +received some information, the details of which had not been confided to +me by Mr. Long.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," remarked Mrs. Arabel, after I had told her all I meant to +tell, which was not much, "and it's no wonder as Mr. Marmaduke <i>should</i> +have run away, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"My good lady," observed I, "pray, be particular; I never said he ran +away; I said his horse ran away."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course, sir," responded the mistress of the Grange, winking in +a manner that made me quite uncomfortable; "you are very right to say +that, Mr. Meredith, very right. But Sir Massingberd's opinion is, that +it was all planned from first to last, only he says you nearly overdid +it."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed," said I; "how was that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it seems Sir Massingberd was quite deceived about that horse he +bought for his nephew; instead of being quiet, and fit for the lad, it +was a perfect demon; and it was sheer madness of you young gentlemen to +go racing in order to make it run away; then, to arrange with Mr. Gerard +all beforehand; well, I must say I shouldn't have thought that either of +you would have had the depth."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mrs. Arabel," said I, laughing; "I am sorry you entertained +so low an idea of our intelligence."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," returned the farmer's wife, with an air of excessive +candour, "my husband, you see, he often has said to me, says he, 'That +young squire Marmaduke, I'm darned if he ain't little better than a +fool; he don't know what shot to use for rabbits, that he don't; I +never saw his equal for ignorance. And as for that lad from the +Ingies—that was you, you know, sir—well, of all the young fellows +turned of seventeen as I ever saw, he's the'—"</p> + +<p>Here Mrs. Arabel crimsoned, and stopped short, as if she had been very +nearly betrayed into saying something which was not entirely +complimentary.</p> + +<p>"Pray, go on, my dear madam," said I; "'of all the young fellows turned +of seventeen whom he had ever seen, I was the'—"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, he'd just the same opinion of you as he had of Master +Marmaduke; but, for my part, I always said, that although you might +neither on you know so much as you ought to, and though you might seem, +as it were—"</p> + +<p>"Ay, you always stood our friend, and said we were not such fools as we +looked; did you?"</p> + +<p>"Just so," replied Mrs. Arabel, simply; "and so you see it has turned +out. If Mr. Marmaduke can only live elsewhere till something happens to +Sir Massingberd—although, indeed, he looks as if nothing ever could +hurt him—his life will doubtless be much pleasanter than at the Hall; +it is no place for a young gentleman like him, sure<i>ly</i>, although, +indeed, things are better there than they were. The dark-eyed +foreigneering-looking young person, although, indeed, she was old enough +to know better; well, <i>she's</i> gone."</p> + +<p>"So I have heard," said I drily.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she went away in a whirlwind, <i>she</i> did," continued Mrs. Arabel, +reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," replied I, "I never heard that."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed, I daresay not; why, you see, Mr. Long was a little mixed up +in it. Perhaps he thought it better not to tell you. Take another glass +of cowslip wine, sir; it has been more than ten years in bottle; and the +cake is as good a cake as you will put teeth into in all Midshire, +though I say it as shouldn't say it. Well; the thing happened in this +way, you see. The foreigneering female, she used to throw things at +folks; dishes, plates, whatever came first to hand, whenever she was in +her tantrums. Mr. Gilmore he had his head opened with a slop-basin, so +that you could lay your finger in it; and Oliver Bradford, I believe she +fired a gun at him, charged with swan-shot. However, at times, she was +quite otherwise, crying and submissive as a child. They said it was +Religion up at the Hall; but they knows nothing about that; how should +they? It was hysterics, I daresay, and serve her right too. Well, who +should come here, the very Sunday after Mr. Marmaduke had run away, and +when Sir Massingberd was like a wild man with rage, and couldn't speak +without blaspheming, but one of them Methodee preachers as sometimes +hold forth upon our common. Now the foreigneering female was a-walking +in the park shrubbery, with one of her hysterical fits upon her, I +suppose, and what does she hear through the palings but words as I +suppose the poor creature never listened to before; and presently out +she comes upon the common, and stands up among all the people, with her +great eyes swollen with weeping, and her painted cheeks—and I always +said they were painted—daubed and smeared with tears. Carter John, who +is very much given to that sort of worship, he was there; and he told me +she looked for all the world like the woman in the great picture over +the communion-table in Crittenden Church, who is wiping the feet of our +Lord with her hair.</p> + +<p>"Then the preacher, he bade her repent while there was yet time, and +fear nothing but only God. But Sir Massingberd, he came out, and dragged +her in from the very preacher's hand, and presently back again he comes +with a horse-whip, and swears there shall be no Methodees in his parish, +and if he caught the hypocritical ranter—as he called him—within +hearing again, he'd split his ears. Now, I don't go with him there," +pursued Mrs. Arabel, gravely. "It isn't for us, Mr. Meredith, to say as +nobody can't pick up good, unless it's in church; and least of all +should such things be said by Sir Massingberd, who lets that beautiful +family pew get damp and mouldy, with the fireplace always empty all the +winter long, and never puts his nose into it from year's end to year's +end. However, what does the foreigneering female do, but declare she +would starve herself to death, before she would eat the bread of +unrighteousness any longer; and not one morsel of food would she take, +though they locked her up, and tried to tempt her with her most +favourite dishes. So Sir Massingberd, being at his wits' end, came over +to the parson, and begged him to come and persuade the woman to be +reasonable, and take some refreshment; and Mr. Long—he at first +declined to interfere in such a matter at all, but presently thinking +the poor creature might be really penitent, although it came about +through a Methodee, and hoping to do her some good, although not in the +way Sir Massingberd intended, he accompanied him to the Hall; and what +do you think? Why, they found the poor woman was in such earnest, that +she had cut off the whole of her beautiful black hair, and there it lay +on the carpet, like so much rubbish. So the Squire he swore that he +didn't care now whether she starved or not, and turned her out of the +house, as I said at first, in a whirlwind. She was very faint and weak; +and Mr. Long, who would never exchange a syllable with her before, made +Mrs. Myrtle give her a good meal, and gave her some good words himself, +and sent her away to her friends—for it seems she had some friends, +poor wretch; and this has made Sir Massingberd wilder than ever against +the rector, whom he had already accused of aiding and abetting young Mr. +Marmaduke in his running away; so that altogether the Squire is ready to +make an end of everybody."</p> + +<p>This last statement, although a little highly coloured, as Mrs. Arabel's +descriptions usually were, was really not far from the truth. It did +almost seem as if the baronet was so transported with passion as to be +capable of any enormity. What the law permitted him to do in the way of +oppression, that, of course, he practised to the uttermost; his +morality, never very diffuse, had concentrated itself upon one +position—the defence of the game and trespass laws. His keepers were +exhorted to increased vigilance; the worst characters in the parish were +constituted his spies. Every night, it was now the custom of their lord +and master to go the rounds in his own preserves, and visit the +outposts, to see that the sentinels did their duty. He employed no +Warnings or Trespass Boards in Fairburn Park; his object was not to +deter, but to catch the contemners of the sacred rights of property in +the very act. The pursuit of his life had become man-hunting. I write +that word without any reference to Marmaduke Heath, for, indeed, at that +time I thought that Sir Massingberd had given up all hope of recovering +possession of his nephew. A considerable period had now elapsed since +the young man's convalescence; and yet the baronet had taken no steps to +compel his return. He had written, indeed, to Marmaduke a letter of +anything but a conciliatory character, and calculated to re-arouse the +lad's most morbid fears; but Mr. Harvey Gerard had intercepted the +dispatch, and returned it with an answer of his own composition. He had +stated briefly the results of the late conference at the Dovecot +respecting his young guest; he had reiterated his intention of bringing, +in a court of justice, the gravest charges against the baronet, in case +of any legal molestation from him; and he had finished with a personal +recommendation to that gentleman to rest satisfied with the enjoyment of +the allowance that was supposed to go to the maintenance of his nephew. +Epistolary communication by hand was rendered impracticable, on the part +of the baronet, by the removal of the Dovecot household to town.</p> + +<p>This was a bitter blow to the lord of Fairburn; he knew so well the +abject fear which he had inspired in my unhappy friend, that, +notwithstanding all that had come and gone yet, he did not doubt that a +few words in his own handwriting would bring the truant back, however +loath. We are living now in such quiet times, and under the protection +of such equal laws, that I am aware my younger readers will have a +difficulty in conceiving how one human being, however powerful, could be +held in such terror by others. I was aware, from the first, that the +present universal security would give my narrative an air of +improbability, and I fear that this must increase as it proceeds. I have +only to say, that at the period of which I write, there was no poor man +in Fairburn parish, however honest, however prudent, who might not have +been lodged in jail at the instance of his squire, and would have found +it difficult to clear himself; or who might not, on a hint from the same +quarter, have been pressed, if he did but give the opportunity, on board +a man-of-war. I am likewise certain that had Sir Massingberd ventured +upon such a step, he might have recovered possession of his nephew, or +at least withdrawn him from his protector, by the strong hand of the +law, upon the ground of Mr. Gerard's professing revolutionary +principles. In these days of Palmerston and Derby, of Tweedledum and +Tweedledee, it is impossible for those who are not old enough to have +witnessed it, to imagine the rancour of political parties half a century +ago, or the despotism and flagrant injustice that were sanctioned under +the convenient name of Order.</p> + +<p>For the haughty baronet to be thus cut off from all intercourse with his +victim, was to be foiled indeed. At first, he stung himself well-nigh to +frenzy, like a scorpion within its circle of flame; but after a time the +white heat of his wrath began apparently to abate. He seemed to have +made up his mind to sit down quietly under his defeat, and to content +himself with tyrannizing over those who were yet in his power. This +comparatively peaceful state of things was looked upon by Mr. Long and +myself at first with suspicion, but at last with real satisfaction. When +Sir Massingberd sent over five pine-apples and some splendid grapes to +the Rectory with his compliments (for the first time within twenty +years), we shook our heads, and my tutor addressed the messenger of his +bounty in these words; "Tell your master I am exceedingly obliged to him +for his kindness. 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.'"</p> + +<p>"Would you be so good as to write that down, sir?" said the man.</p> + +<p>"You may give him the message without the tail," replied the rector, a +little discomfited at his own indiscretion, but congratulating himself +very much that he had expressed his thoughts so classically.</p> + +<p>But when pine-apples and grapes became common presents from the Hall, we +began really to think that the stubborn old baronet had come to the +conclusion that it was as pleasant to be on good terms with his +neighbour as not, and that he was genuinely bent on reconciliation. A +soft answer is said to be efficacious to this end, but it is nothing +compared to hothouse dainties out of season; and notwithstanding all I +knew, and all I suspected, I began to regard Sir Massingberd Heath, not +indeed with less contempt and dislike, but with less positive loathing, +and certainly with less fear. I had not set foot upon his property since +Marmaduke's departure, and the baronet took occasion to stop me as I +rode by his gate one day, and remonstrate upon the incivility of such a +course of conduct.</p> + +<p>"It can do me no damage, young gentleman, that you should take your +pleasure in my park, more especially as you are not a sportsman, who +would covet my hares and pheasants; and I cannot but think that your +omission to do so is a proof of ill-feeling towards me, which I am not +conscious of having deserved at your hands."</p> + +<p>He spoke stiffly, and without condescension, as a man might speak to an +equal, between himself and whom a misunderstanding existed unexplained, +but capable of explanation, and, foolish boy as I was, I felt flattered +by his behaviour.</p> + +<p>If the least notion of making myself out to be a hero had existed in my +brain when I began to write these Recollections, it has been dissipated +long ago. I have been quite as much surprised during this recital as any +of my readers have been, at the contemplation of my own meannesses; if I +had known how many and how serious they were to be, perhaps I should +have hesitated to recall them; but I commenced with as strong a +determination, nothing to extenuate with respect to myself, as to set +nothing down in malice with respect to others; and thus I shall proceed +to the end.</p> + +<p>While, then, matters were on this less antagonistic footing, and when +Marmaduke had been away about a year, business happened to take Mr. Long +from Fairburn, and I was left a day and a night my own master. He had +not been gone an hour when Mrs. Myrtle came into the study, where I was +employed at my books, with a letter in her hand; she looked quite pale +and frightened, as she said, "Lor', Mr. Peter, if this note ain't from +Sir Massingberd hisself for <i>you</i>. I feels all of a tremble, so as you +might knock me down with a peacock's feather."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, forcing a laugh, "but I am not going to use any such +weapon, Mrs. Myrtle. What on earth is there to be afraid of in the +squire's handwriting? It can't bite." But I felt in a cold perspiration +nevertheless, and my fingers trembled as they undid the missive. It was +a polite invitation to dine with the baronet that evening.</p> + +<p>"You are not going, sir, I <i>do</i> hope!" exclaimed the housekeeper +eagerly, as soon as I had acquainted her with the contents of the note. +"Why, such a thing hasn't happened for this quarter of a century. He'll +poison you, as sure as my name's Martha Myrtle. I never saw you and +master eating his pine-apples without a shudder; the rector <i>was</i> +uncommon ill after one of them, one day."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Myrtle," said I quietly, "and I have suffered also from the +same cause myself; but I don't think the squire was to blame."</p> + +<p>"But you ain't a-going, sir; I am sure as master wouldn't like it. Oh, +pray, say you ain't a-going."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I won't go, Mrs. Myrtle. The fact is, I feel one of my +colds coming on; they generally begin with a lump in my throat; so I +shall write to excuse myself."</p> + +<p>I really had a lump in my throat; my heart had jumped up and stopped +there at the mere notion of a <i>tête-à-tête</i> with Sir Massingberd, +diversified—no, intensified—by the presence of Grimjaw. I wouldn't +have gone through it for a thousand pounds; so I wrote to decline the +honour upon the ground of indisposition. I was compelled to keep the +house, I said, for the entire day. Half an hour afterwards, another +letter arrived from the Hall. Since Sir Massingberd might not enjoy the +pleasure of my company at dinner, would I permit him to come over to the +Rectory that morning, and have a few words of conversation with me upon +a matter deeply interesting to both of us? There was no getting out of +this. If I had gone to bed, on plea of illness, I felt that even that +course would have been no protection to me. Sir Massingberd would have +forced a dying man to play with him at pitch-and-toss, if so inopportune +a game had happened to take his fancy. On the other hand, Mrs. Myrtle's +suggestion that I should mount my horse, and ride away after Mr. Long, +was really too pusillanimous a proceeding; I therefore wrote back to the +baronet a polite falsehood, to the effect that I should be very happy to +see him; and in a very few minutes afterwards, I was face to face with +Marmaduke's foe.</p> + +<p>He came in unushered—Mrs. Myrtle not being equal to such an +occasion—filling the doorway with his gigantic form, and well-nigh +touching the ceiling of the low-roofed room with his head.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to intrude upon an invalid," said he, "but what I had to say +was of a private nature, and I was not sure of finding you alone at any +other time."</p> + +<p>I bowed, and begged my visitor to be seated.</p> + +<p>"It is something," thought I, "that this man is civil at least." For +there is this great advantage in being habitually insolent and +overbearing, that when one does condescend to behave decently, people +appreciate one's good maimers very much.</p> + +<p>"I have called upon you," continued the baronet, "with respect to my +nephew and your friend, Marmaduke Heath. It is idle to deny that he and +I have not been to one another what our mutual relationship should have +led us to be. I am naturally a hard man; losses and poverty have +doubtless rendered me more morose. Marmaduke, on the other hand, is of +an over-sensitive and morbid nature. We did not get on together at all +well. There were faults on both sides; it was six of one, and—"</p> + +<p>I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then," resumed Sir Massingberd, with candour, "let us say +that it was I who was in the wrong. I have not the patience and +gentleness requisite for dealing with a character like him; my temper is +arbitrary; I have behaved with but little courtesy even to yourself. You +are polite enough to contradict me, but nevertheless it is true. For +<i>that</i>, however, reparation can be made. I wish that I could as easily +make atonement in the other quarter. This, however, I feel is utterly +impossible. Things have gone too far. I make no complaint of my nephew's +having been encouraged in his rebellious course by one whose duty it +was, on the contrary, to reconcile us. I wish to say nothing that could +only lead to fruitless discussion, and perhaps a disagreement between +you and me; that would be most impolitic on my part, since I come here +to solicit your good offices."</p> + +<p>"Mine, Sir Massingberd? mine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I desire your kindly assistance in bringing about a better +understanding between Marmaduke and myself."</p> + +<p>"Sir," said I, "what you ask is a sheer impossibility. Marmaduke Heath +may be wrong in his estimate of your character, but it will remain +unchanged to his dying day. I am as certain of this, as that yonder +yellowing tree will presently lose its leaves."</p> + +<p>"You speak frankly, Mr. Meredith," returned the baronet, calmly, "and I +do not respect you less upon that account. It is not, however, as a +mediator that I need your assistance; I ask a much less favour than +that; I simply wish you to inclose a letter from me to my nephew."</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, with some indignation, "you have done +me the favour of calling upon me in my tutor's absence, in the +expectation of finding me so weak as to be unable to refuse whatever you +chose to ask, or so treacherous as to be willing to deceive those who +are generously protecting my best friend from one whom he has every +cause to fear. I am extremely obliged to you for the compliment;" and +with that I laid my hand upon the bell.</p> + +<p>"One moment," observed the baronet, quietly, nay, with suavity, though +the letter U upon his forehead deepened visibly, and the veins of his +great hand, as it rested on the table, grew big with passion; "one +moment before you ring. I am sorry you should have taken such a view of +my conduct as you have described; you young men are somewhat hasty in +the imputation of motive. I am a straightforward, rough fellow, and may +have displeased you; but I am not aware that I have done anything to +justify you in accusing me of meanness and duplicity. Those persons who +have charge of my nephew are, in my judgment, deeply culpable; but I do +not wish you to act deceitfully towards them on that account. Matters +have come to that pass, however, that I cannot even communicate with my +nephew, even though I have that to say which would give him genuine +pleasure. This Mr. Harvey Gerard"—his deep voice shook with hatred as +he mentioned that name—"has taken upon himself to return my letters to +Marmaduke unopened. I know not how to convey to him even such a one as +this."</p> + +<p>Sir Massingberd threw across to me a folded sheet, directed to his +nephew, and motioned that I should open it. It ran as follows:—</p> + +<p>"NEPHEW MARMADUKE,—It seems that you are fully determined never again +to seek the shelter of my roof; I am given to understand that the time +for reconciliation has gone by, and that any attempt to effect it would +only cause you annoyance, and make the breach wider between us. If so, +so be it. I am an old man now, and I wish my last years to be passed in +peace. I wish to make no allusion to the character of the person with +whom you have chosen to reside, further than to express a hope that when +I am gone, and it will be your part to exercise the rights of a great +land-owner, that you will not employ your influence to subvert the laws +and the government. It is as mad in those who possess authority to +countenance revolution, as for a man seated on a lofty branch to lop it +off with his own hands. I do not say this as your uncle, but merely as +one of an ancient race with whom we are both connected, and in whose +welfare we should take an equal interest. Mr. Meredith is kind enough to +enclose this parting word of advice—the last communication that will +probably ever pass between us—from</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"MASSINGBERD HEATH.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"P.S.—Burn this when you have read it, lest your friend should get into +trouble upon my account."</p> + + +<p>I read and re-read this strange epistle with great care, before I made +any comment upon it. There was nothing, to my mind, objectionable in any +of the contents. I had been twice to Harley Street during the summer, +and found Marmaduke as morbidly apprehensive as ever of some course of +conduct to be adopted by his uncle with reference to regaining the +custody of his person; he was haunted still by the shadow of this +terrible man. The words I held before me were certainly calculated to +reassure him. No news could be more gratifying than this positive +resignation of the baronet's claim to be his guardian, this final +"good-bye" under Sir Massingberd's own hand. As for the political +advice, I thought that very healthy. I was then, as now, a staunch +conservative, and although I did not sympathize in the least with the +harsh acts of the government in respect to poor, misguided men, not +without their wrongs, yet I did think Mr. Gerard's views both visionary +and dangerous.</p> + +<p>"I trust," observed Sir Massingberd, gravely, "that the sentiments which +you are now perusing are in accordance with your own. I am speaking, I +believe, to a gentleman, and consequently to a natural friend of +order."</p> + +<p>I bowed in assent. "There certainly seems nothing in this epistle which +Marmaduke might not read," muttered I, musing.</p> + +<p>"<i>Seems?</i>" cried the baronet. "Why not say <i>is</i> at once?"</p> + +<p>A sudden idea, gleaned from some romance which I had been lately +reading, flashed across my brain. Why did the postscript say, "Burn this +when you have read it?" I let my hand, with the letter in it, drop below +my knee, so that the missive was held close to the fire.</p> + +<p>"There is no writing in lemon-juice, I do assure you," observed Sir +Massingberd, quietly; "you will only scorch the paper."</p> + +<p>I coloured at the exposure of my suspicions, and in my confusion it did +not strike me that the speaker must himself have at least entertained +such a project, or he never could have unmasked me so readily. I was a +little ashamed of myself, and rather sorry for my incredulity. Sir +Massingberd saw this, and pressed his point.</p> + +<p>"Since there is nothing concealed, and no harm in what is visible, I do +hope you will grant the favour I requested, and inclose that note to my +nephew."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," said I, after a little hesitation, "I will inclose it. I +give you warning, however, that I shall send a line by the same post to +let Mr. Gerard know that I have done so."</p> + +<p>"By all means," responded Sir Massingberd. "I am only anxious that my +nephew's own eyes should read what I have written. Have you a taper and +wax?" asked he, folding up the sheet. "I might as well stamp it with my +seal."</p> + +<p>I rose and brought what he required from a writing-table. Sir +Massingberd sealed the letter, and gave it into my hand.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Meredith," said he, rising, "you have done me a great service. I +think I have said, that the oftener you make use of my grounds the +better I shall be pleased. Did I add that the bowling-green is entirely +at your service? I am too stiff in the back to have a game with you +myself, but I will give directions to Gilmore to be your antagonist, +whenever you may feel inclined."</p> + +<p>The baronet took his leave in a stately, but not unfriendly manner. He +certainly <i>was</i> stiff in the back; but that was his nature. As he +smiled, his lip turned upwards, instead of the usual way; but so it +always did. Yet I did not feel quite comfortable, as I stood by myself +over the fire, balancing Sir Massingberd's "good-bye" to his nephew in +my hand, and questioning within myself whether it wouldn't be better to +inclose it to Mr. Harvey Gerard, after all. However, in the end I kept +my promise.</p> + + +<p>END OF VOL. I.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2, by James Payn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 1/2 *** + +***** This file should be named 37170-h.htm or 37170-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/1/7/37170/ + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/37170.txt b/old/37170.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2a057b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37170.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5067 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2, by James Payn + +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: Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2 + A Romance of Real Life + +Author: James Payn + +Release Date: August 23, 2011 [EBook #37170] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 1/2 *** + + + + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + +A Romance of Real Life. + +IN TWO VOLUMES. + +VOL. I. + +LONDON: + +SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, + +14, LUDGATE HILL. + +1864. + + + + + + The uncommon favour with which the story of "LOST SIR + MASSINGBERD" has been received while appearing in the + columns of a popular periodical, has induced its author to + solicit the suffrages of that more critical Public who "hate + to read novels bit by bit." + + +CONTENTS. + + + PREFATORY + + CHAPTER I. GIANT DESPAIR + CHAPTER II. MY FIRST INTERVIEW + CHAPTER III. THE DREAM BY THE BROOK + CHAPTER IV. THE DUMB WITNESS + CHAPTER V. THE STATE BEDROOM + CHAPTER VI. HEAD OVER HEELS + CHAPTER VII. AT THE DOVECOT + CHAPTER VIII. MEETING HIS MATCH + CHAPTER IX. MR. HARVEY GERARD + CHAPTER X. LOVE THE LIFEGIVER + CHAPTER XI. WOOING BY PROXY + CHAPTER XII. THE COUNCIL OF WAR + CHAPTER XIII. THE GIPSY CAMP + CHAPTER XIV. WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY + CHAPTER XV. THE REASON CONTINUED + CHAPTER XVI. I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR + + + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + + + + +PREFATORY. + + +In these days, when every man and woman becomes an author upon the least +provocation, it is not necessary to make an apology for appearing in +print. Perhaps there was always something affected in those prefatorial +justifications; although they did disclaim any literary merit, it is +probable that the writers would have been indignant enough had the +critics taken them at their word; and perhaps the publication was not +entirely owing to "the warmly-expressed wishes of numerous friends." +But, at all events, we have done with all such excuses now. Not to have +written anything for the press, is no small claim to being an Original. +Neither sex nor age seems to exempt from the universal passion of +authorship. My niece, Jessie (<i>aetat.</i> sixteen), writes heart-rending +narratives for the "Liliputian Magazine;" her brother, whom I have +always looked upon as a violent, healthy hobbledehoy whose highest +virtue was Endurance, and whose darkest experience was Skittles, +produces the most thrilling romances for the "Home Companion." Even my +housekeeper makes no secret of forwarding her most admired recipes to +the "Family Intelligencer;" while my stable-boy, it is well known, is a +prominent poetical contributor to the "Turf Times," having also the gift +of prophecy with reference to the winner of all the racing events of any +importance. And yet, I believe, my household is not more addicted to +publication than those of my neighbours. + +What becomes of authors by profession in such a state of things literary +as this, I shudder to think; I feel it almost a sin to add one more to +the long list of competitors with whom they have to struggle; but still, +if I do not now set down the story which I have in my mind, I am certain +that, sooner or later, my nephew will do so for me, and very likely +spoil it in the telling. He writes in a snappy, jerky, pyrotechnic way, +which they tell me is now popular, but which is not suited to my +old-fashioned taste; and although he dare not make, at present, what he +calls "copy" of the stories with which I am perhaps too much accustomed +to regale his ears, he keeps a note-book, and a new terror is added to +Death from that circumstance. When I am gone, he will publish my best +things, under some such title as "After-dinner Tales," I feel certain; +and they will appear at the railway book-stalls in a yellow cover +bordered with red, or with even a frontispiece displaying a counterfeit +and libellous presentment of his departed relative in the very act of +narration. The gem of that collection would undoubtedly be the story +which I am now about to anticipate the young gentleman by relating +myself. If I am somewhat old-world in my style, perhaps it may be +forgiven me, in consideration of the reality of the circumstances +narrated, and the very strong interest which I do not doubt they will +arouse. + +It is not necessary to state the exact locality where they occurred, nor +the number of years which have elapsed since their occurrence; it is +enough to premise that what I tell is true, and that some of the +principal personages in the--well, the melodrama, if you will--are yet +alive, and will peruse these words before they meet the public eye. If +nothing therein offends <i>them</i>, therefore, it need not, upon the score +of indiscreet revelation at least, offend my readers. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GIANT DESPAIR. + + +In a midland county, not as yet scarred by factories, there stands a +village called Fairburn, which, at the time I knew it first--many, many +years ago--had for its squire, its lord, its despot, one Sir Massingberd +Heath. Its rector, at that date, was the Rev. Matthew Long; and at the +Rectory, when my story commences, there was in pupilage to the said +rector a youth, one Peter Meredith, who has since grown up to be the +present writer. When we are small, all things seem vast to our young +minds; good men are saints, and evil ones are demons. I loved Mr. Long, +therefore, although he was my tutor; and oh, how I feared and hated Sir +Massingberd! It was not, however, my boyhood alone that caused me to +hold this man as a monster of iniquity; it was the opinion which the +whole county entertained of him, more or less. The people of Fairburn +trembled before him, as a ship's company before some cruel captain of +fifteen years back--I mean, of fifteen years before the period of which +I write. Press-gangs had not very long ceased to do their cruel mission; +there were old men in our village who had served their time in His +Majesty's ships, very much against their will; there were gaps in poor +families still, which might or might not be filled up; empty chairs that +had so stood for a score of years perhaps, waiting for still expected +occupiers; fathers of families, or the props of families, in sons and +brothers, had been spirited away from Fairburn (even a little while +ago), and had not come back again yet. They had been poachers, or +radicals, or sectaries (as Dissenters were then called), or something +else distasteful to Sir Massingberd's father; and they had been carried +off to sea at his command. Let not my young readers imagine that I am +exaggerating matters; I write of a state of things of which they have +not the remotest conception, but which I remember perfectly well. They +have reason to thank Heaven that they did not live in those times, if +they happen to belong to those unprosperous classes which were then +termed collectively, "the mob;" there were no such things as "skilled +workmen," or "respectable artisans," in those days. The "people" were +"the Great Unwashed." To build a Crystal Palace for such as they were +held to be, would have seemed to be the height of folly; they would have +taken no other pleasure in it than to smash every pane with +brickbats--for were they not "the dangerous classes"? Such opinions were +beginning to die out, indeed, but they were held still by many great +people, and Sir Massingberd Heath was one of them. Reared in a +clergyman's family, and a clergyman myself, I have been a Conservative +in politics all my life, and in that belief I shall die; but rank and +power are no excuse with me for evil deeds. In the chamber of my nephew +John, who "takes in everything," as the phrase goes, I once discovered a +democratic magazine, edited by a gentleman whose surname I forget, but +who had a great multitude of initials. All the poor people described in +this work were pious and moral, and all the rich people were infidel and +profligate; but for the noblemen--and there were a good many persons of +high rank in the various stories--were reserved all the choicest +invectives and most superlative abuse. Nothing, of course, can be more +unfair than this treatment of a class of persons who, considering their +temptations, are really more than respectable. As a general rule, the +portraits were extravagantly malicious, but they had this attraction for +me--they were all exceedingly like Sir Massingberd Heath. He was the +very type of that bloated aristocracy that is held up in scarecrow +fashion, by republican writers. There were not many living specimens to +be met with even at the date of my tale, and the old baronet, perhaps +himself perceiving that he was one of the last of them, determined that +he should not be the least in infamy. Like the Unjust Judge, he neither +feared God nor regarded man, and, worse than he, he would not perform a +good action on account of the importunity of any person. She must have +been a brave woman who importuned Sir Massingberd Heath, and could +scarcely have been brought up in Fairburn. + +Whether George IV. was king or not, at the period of which I write, it +matters not, for his connection with our squire had terminated years +before; but at one time they had been fast, very fast friends. When a +king and a baronet run a race of extravagance, the king generally wins, +and so it had been in this case; His Majesty, or rather His Royal +Highness the Regent, had <i>distanced</i> Sir Massingberd, and they were not +now upon even speaking terms. Friendships of this sort do not last when +one of the parties has spent all his money. What was the use of a poor +man at White's who could only look on while his old friends played whist +for one hundred pound points, and five hundred pounds upon the rubber? +What business--let alone pleasure--could one have in London, when +Howard and Gribbs would not lend one fifty pounds even at fifty per +cent.? Sir Massingberd had left that gay, wicked world for good, that is +to say, for ever, and was obliged to live at his beautiful country-seat +in spite of himself. He was irretrievably ruined, so far as his court +prospects were concerned, for he had no ready money. He owned all +Fairburn, and many hundreds of rich acres about it, beside the Park and +the river; he had the great tithes of the place, and manorial rights +(which he exercised, too) innumerable. Nobody quite knew--he did not +know himself--what privileges he had or had not, what pathways he could +close at pleasure, what heriots he could demand, or what precise +property he had in Fairburn gravel-pits; but in all cases he gave +himself the benefit of the doubt. It was a very foolish thing to leave +any disputed point to the sense of justice, or the good feeling of our +squire, and yet this was generally done. Where it was not done, where +some honest fellow had ventured to oppose his high prerogative, even +though he gained his end, he was always, as the village people said, +"paid out" for it. I don't mean to say Sir Massingberd murdered +him--although he would have done that, I am confident, without the +slightest scruple, if it could have been effected with safety to +himself--but he took his revenge of him, sooner or later, in a very +simple way. He caught his children trespassing--having caused them to be +enticed upon his land--and committed them to prison; or he broke down +his fences, and spoiled his corn in the night; for he had dependents +devoted to his wicked will, and upon whose false witness he could always +rely. + +And yet, with all this power, the baronet, as I have said, was a poor +man; he had borrowed all the money he could, and was even said to have +overreached the London Jews in these transactions; and it was all +gone--absolutely all. It was seldom that this great lord of acres had a +ten-pound note in his pocket, for his house and land were all entailed +upon his nephew Marmaduke, and he had only a life-interest in anything. +Poverty perhaps made him bitterer and more savage than he would +otherwise have been; but, for my part, I cannot imagine him to have been +agreeable under any circumstances. I have heard, however, that at +Carlton House he was once the first favourite--after Brummell--and that, +of course, made him sought after by many people. He had a wicked wit, +which was doubtless acceptable in some circles, and his tongue, it may +be, was not quite so coarse in those days of prosperity. He took a +delight in his old age in retailing his infamous experiences, before +women, if possible, and if not, before clergymen or boys. I remember to +have heard of Mr. Long once venturing to reprove his squire upon an +occasion of this very kind. The rector had been dining at the Hall--an +exceptional occurrence, and under exceptional circumstances--when, after +dinner, the host began one of his disgraceful reminiscences, whereupon +my tutor rose and said, "Sir Massingberd, you should be ashamed to talk +of such matters to me; but before this boy, it is infamous. I thank you +for your hospitality; but I shall go home." + +"Very well; go, and be hanged!" replied the baronet; "and Marmaduke and +I will make a jolly night of it." + +Marmaduke Heath was Mr. Long's pupil as well as myself, and he resided +with his uncle at the Hall. He would very much rather have retired with +his tutor on that occasion, and indeed have resided at the Rectory, for +he dreaded his relative beyond measure. All the pretended frankness with +which the old man sometimes treated the boy was unable to hide the hate +with which Sir Massingberd really regarded him; but for this +heir-presumptive to the entail, this milk-and-water lad of seventeen, +the baronet might raise money to any extent, nay, sell all Fairburn, if +he chose, and so might once more take his rightful station in the world, +rejoin the Four-in-hand Club, and demand his "revenge" from my Lord +Thanet at ecarte. He could still drink, for the cellars of Fairburn Hall +were well-nigh inexhaustible; but if that chit of a lad was but carried +off, he might have the best in the land to drink with him. It is true +that a ruined man in Sir Massingberd's position can still afford a good +table; game is plentiful with him, and fish, and he grows his own +mutton and venison, so that neither himself nor his friends need starve; +but servants must be maintained to wait upon these, and a great +country-house without a carriage is as a lobster without a claw. +Consequently, except in the shooting-season, there were no guests at +Fairburn Hall; the folks that did come were men of a certain stamp; +current indeed, in good society, but only in that of males; a real lady +had not set foot in the Park, far less the house, for the last twelve +years; the manner in which Sir Massingberd lived forbade such a thing. A +few bachelors of the County Hunt, and half-a-dozen roues from town, were +all the company that could be enticed to Fairburn in September and +October; all the rest of the year, the grass grew in the avenue +untouched by wheel or hoof, and even sprang up among the stone steps +that led to the front-door. Somehow or other, I never saw it thus +without thinking of the parable of the Sower and the Seed, with some +distant and uncharitable reference to our squire! I wondered whether it +was possible that in any far-back time any good seed of any sort had +found its way into the crannies of his stony heart, and if so, what had +become of it. I used to try and picture that violent wicked man as a +child in his cot, or saying his prayers at his mother's knee. I believe +she had died soon after her marriage, and that, short as her wedded life +had been, it was a very unhappy one. + +Fairburn Hall had never been a house for tender, honest women; the +Heaths, who are celebrated like another noble race of the same sort, for +their hard hearts and excellent digestions, had never been good +husbands. Fortunately, daughters were rare in the family. How Sir +Massingberd would have brought up a daughter, I shudder to think. One +son had been the sole offspring vouchsafed to the baronets of this line +for many generations, except the last; and in the present case, there +was no such direct heir. Some said Sir Massingberd had married secretly, +but was separated from his wife, and some said he had not; but it seemed +somehow certain that with him the immediate succession from father to +son would cease. His brother Gilbert had married young in Italy, and had +died in that country within the same year. His widow had brought his +posthumous child, when a few months old, to the Hall, at the invitation +of Sir Massingberd, and had remained there for some time. The villagers +still spoke of the dark foreign lady as being the most beautiful +creature they had ever beheld; the Park keepers used to come upon her +in solitary glades, singing sweetly; but ah! so sorrowfully, to her +child in a tongue that they did not understand. The baronet himself was +absent, not yet cast out of the court whirlpool, and the lonely vastness +of the place was not displeasing to the young widow, wishing, perhaps, +to be left undisturbed with her grief; but after Sir Massingberd came +down, she remained but a very few days. It was said that she fled with +her babe in a winter's night, and that her little footprints were traced +in the snow to the cross-roads where the mail went by, by which she had +arrived. She was not rich, and had come down in a manner quite different +from that of her brother-in-law, who, broken and ruined though he was, +had posted with four horses. That was how all gentlefolks of the county +travelled in those days; even the very barristers on circuit indulged, +and were obliged to do so, in a chaise and a pair. The mother of +Marmaduke Heath, however, who was heir-presumptive to the largest landed +property in Midshire, was very poor. Whether the late baronet had +omitted to make a proper provision for his younger son, or whether +Gilbert had made away with it after the usual manner of the Heaths, I do +not know; but his widow and child betook themselves into +Devonshire--selected, perhaps, from its climate approaching nearer than +any other part of England to that of her native land--and, there lived +in a very humble fashion. How Marmaduke ever got into his uncle's hands, +I never could clearly understand; his mother had died suddenly, +whereupon the family lawyer, Mr. Clint of Russell Square, who had the +entire management of the Heath property, had in the first instance +taken possession of the lad; but Sir Massingberd had claimed his right +to be the guardian of his nephew, and it could not be disallowed. + +Such were mainly the circumstances, I believe; but all sorts of stories +were in circulation concerning "Giant Despair," as the savage old +baronet was called, and his nephew; the general opinion agreeing only +upon one point--that no sane person would change places with Master +Marmaduke Heath at Doubting Castle, notwithstanding the greatness of his +expectations. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MY FIRST INTERVIEW. + + +My own history has little or nothing to do with the present narrative, +and therefore I will not allude to it, except where it is absolutely +necessary. Suffice it to say, that my parents were in India, and that +for many years Fairburn Rectory was my home. I had no vacations, in the +sense that the word is generally understood to mean; I had nowhere else +to go to, nor did I wish to go anywhere. No father could have been +kinder, or have done his duty better by me, than did Mr. Long. How poor +Marmaduke used to envy me my wardship to that good man! I well remember +the first day I came to Fairburn. It was early summer; its great woods +were in all their glory; and to me, fresh from shipboard and the vast +waste of sea, the place seemed a bower of bliss. First, the grey old +church tower upon the hill; and then the turrets of the Hall, +half-hidden in oak; and last, the low-roofed, blossom-entangled cottage +where I found so bright a welcome--that was the order in which Fairburn +was introduced to visitors from town. The Church, and the Hall, and the +Rectory all lay together; the churchyard, dark with yews, encroached +upon the Rectory garden; and that bright spot, so trimly kept, that one +was moved to pick up a fallen leaf, if such were on its lawn, sloped +down into the heart of the Park. A light iron railing, with wires to +prevent the hares and rabbits from entering in and nibbling the flowers, +alone divided the great man's land from Mr. Long's trim demesne. The +deer came up and pushed their velvet horns against it. In copse and +fern, twinkled the innumerable ear and tail. I had never seen such +animals before, and they delighted me hugely. After dinner, on the very +day that I arrived, I fed them through the rails, and they ate the bread +from my open hand. + +"They take you for Marmaduke," said Mr. Long, smiling; "for otherwise, +they would be shy of a stranger." + +"And who is Marmaduke, sir?" + +"He is your fellow pupil, and I make no doubt will be your friend. I +wish that he was resident with me, like yourself; but his uncle, who +lives at the Hall yonder, will not part with him. He reads with me +morning and afternoon, however." + +"Does he like reading, sir?" inquired I with hesitation, for I for my +part did not. My education, such as it was, had been fitful incomplete, +and in a word, Indian; and I had come back much older than most European +boys have to come home, a sad dunce. + +"Yes, Marmaduke is very fond of reading," pursued my tutor; "that is, +reading of a certain sort. He always does his work well with me, so I +must not be hard on him; but he is certainly too fond of novels. And +yonder he comes, see, with a book in his hand, even as he walks." My +tutor pointed to the Park; and there, coming slowly down a long, broad +"ride," with his eyes fixed upon a volume he held in his hand, was a +youth of seventeen years old or so, which was about my own age. As he +came nearer, I began to see why the deer had mistaken me for him; not, +indeed, because he was very handsome (which was not at all the case with +me), but inasmuch as his complexion was as olive as my own. + +"Why, he has been to India too!" whispered I to my tutor, rather +disappointed than otherwise, for I had had enough of Indian playmates, +and to spare. + +"No," returned he in the same low voice; "his mother was an Italian." + +Then he introduced us; and I began to hang my head, and play with the +buttons of my waistcoat, as is the graceful manner of hobbledehoys upon +such a ceremony; but Marmaduke, completely self-possessed, asked about +my journey, and particularly what I had seen at sea. He knew so much +about sharks and porpoises, that I thought he must have made some long +voyage himself; but he told me that such was not the case. + +"Though I should like to go to sea of all things," said he; "and I would +cruise about that cape--what's its name?--until I met with the "Flying +Dutchman:" that is the vessel which I wish to see." + +"I have never heard of her," said I, proud of that nautical use of the +feminine. "Is she one of the Company's ships?" + +At this my tutor began to rub his hands, and chuckle inwardly, as was +his wont when vastly amused; but perceiving that the colour came into my +cheeks, he laid his hand upon my shoulder kindly, and said that he was +glad to find <i>my</i> head, at least, was not stuck full of foolish stories, +as some people's heads were; while Marmaduke, without triumphing in the +least over my ignorance, explained to me all about that Phantom Ship, +which glides full sail upon the astonished voyager, and passes through +his vessel without shock or noise. He told the tale exactly as if he had +heard it straight from the lips of an eye-witness, and believed it +himself; he never laughed, and if he smiled, he seemed to be sorry that +he had done so directly afterwards. Some melancholy thought appeared to +occupy his mind at all times; and if a bright fancy crossed it, it was +but for an instant, like lightning through the cloud. I am not +describing an "interesting" youth, after the manner of romance-writers; +no "secret sorrow" obscured the young existence of Marmaduke Heath, but +simply, as I subsequently discovered, vulgar, abject terror. His whole +being was oppressed by reason of one man. The shadow of Sir Massingberd +cast itself over him alike when he went out from his hated presence and +when he was about to return to it. He was never free from its nightmare +influence--never. His passion for reading was not so much a love of +books, as a desire to escape in them from the circumstances of his +actual life. If he ever forgot him in earnest talk--and he was the most +earnest talker, as a boy, I ever knew--the mention of his uncle's name +was a Medusa's Head to turn him into stony silence on the instant. If +Marmaduke Heath could only have got away from Fairburn Hall when I first +knew him, his mind might have regained its natural vigour and +elasticity; but as it was, it grew more sombre and morbid every day. His +hungry intellect was nourished upon what associations happened to be at +hand, and they were very unhealthy food. The wickedness of Sir +Massingberd was, of course, sufficiently present to him, like some +hateful picture hung at a bed's foot, which the eyes of a sleepless man +cannot avoid; while every tongue about the Hall was ready to tell him of +the evil deeds of his forefathers. At first, I thought my young friend's +constant allusion to his family was the result of aristocratic pride, +although, indeed, there was nothing to be proud of in what he told me, +but very much the reverse; but I soon found that this was not the case. +The history of the Heaths was what interested him most of all histories, +and he favoured me with extracts from it solely upon that account. As +for the fact of their noble blood running in his own veins, he would, I +am confident, have far rather been the son of Mrs. Myrtle, the kind old +housekeeper at the Rectory. + +"We are a doomed race, Peter," he once said to me, not long after we had +made friendship with one another. "Generation after generation of us +have sinned and sinned. The Corsicans have their family feuds +transmitted to them, but they are hostile only to their fellow men; the +Heaths have ever fought against Heaven itself. Each successor to the +title seems to have said, like the descendants of Tubal Cain-- + + 'We will not hear, we will not know, + The God that was our father's foe.' + +There is the Church," said he, pointing to that glorious pile, which, at +Fairburn, was almost a cathedral in magnitude and beauty, "and there is +the Hall. They are antagonistic; they are devoted to opposite purposes. +I tell you, yes; our family residence is consecrated to the devil." + +I am afraid I could not help laughing at this singular notion. + +"Nay," cried he, looking round him furtively, "but you shall see that it +is so." We were in the Rectory garden, which communicated with the +churchyard by a wicket. He led the way into it; and in a distant corner, +upon the north side of the chancel, he showed me a sombre +burying-ground, separated from the rest of the God's acre, and +imprisoned in dark purgatorial rails. "Do you know why we are all put +there," asked he, "instead of with the other--Christian--folks?" + +"You are too proud to lie with the poor, perhaps," returned I, who had +still that idea in my mind with regard to Marmaduke himself. + +"No," said he; "it is not that--it is because the Heaths will not be +buried in consecrated ground." + +"But you have a family vault underneath the chancel, have you not?" + +"Yes; but it is not 'snug lying.' None of us have been put there since +old Sir Hugh, in Queen Anne's time. When they opened the vault for him, +they found his father's coffin with its plate to the ground. It had +turned over. The witty parson would have it that it was only natural +that it should have done so, since its tenant, during life, had fought +alternately for Parliament and King, and was addicted to changing +sides. Bat when Sir Hugh's successor demanded lodging in the place in +his turn, they found Sir Hugh's coffin had turned over likewise. The +circumstance so terrified the dead man's heir--who had not been on the +best terms with him during life, and perhaps thought he owed him some +amends--that he swore his father should not lie in such restless +company; and as the late baronet had been at feud with the then rector, +he determined to dispense with any assistance from the church at all, +and buried him in an adjoining field, which was subsequently made the +last resting-place of all our race, as you perceive. The burial service +is dispensed with, of course. It would be mere mockery to address such +words as Hope and Faith to the corpse of a Heath of Fairburn." + +"My dear Marmaduke," said I, "you make my very blood run cold. But +surely you exaggerate these things. Some of your people have been +Catholics, and been buried in their own chapel at the Hall, have they +not?" + +"Only one of them," replied the boy with bitterness. "My +great-grandfather, Sir Nicholas, abjured his infidelity, and became a +papist, in order to secure his bride. He turned the chapel into a +banqueting-hall, however, and used the sacramental plate in his unholy +revels; but after death, the priests got hold of him at last, and 'Nick +the Younger,' as he was called, now lies under the altar which he so +often profaned. The beginning of his funeral ceremonies was not +conducted so decently as the last rites. He had got outlawed, I believe, +or, at all events, was driven abroad in his latter days, and died there. +Nobody at Fairburn had heard of him for many months, when one October +night, as Oliver Bradford, who is now the head-keeper, but was then a +very young man, was watching in the home-preserves, he heard a terrible +noise in the high-road, and making his way out, came upon this +spectacle: two men in black, and upon black horses, rode by him at full +speed, and close behind them came a hearse-and-four, likewise at the +gallop. The plumes upon it waved backwards, he says, like corn, and all +the black trappings of the thing fluttered and flapped as it went by. +Another man on horseback, singing to himself a drunken song, closed this +horrid procession. It moved up towards the village, and Oliver listened +to it until the noise seemed to cease about opposite to the Park gates. +The solitary witness, frightened enough before, was now doubly +terrified, for he made sure that what he had seen was the news of Sir +Nicholas's decease, brought over in this ghastly and characteristic +fashion. He did not for a single moment imagine that it was a palpable +vision; and yet he had seen a veritable funeral pass by. The old baronet +had died in France, leaving directions, and the money to carry them out, +that his corpse should be taken at night, and at full gallop, through +every town that lay between Dover and Fairburn.--Alive or dead," added +Marmaduke grimly, "the Heaths are a charming family." + +"At all events, my dear fellow," said I, laying my hand upon his arm, +"you will have nothing to fear from comparison with your forefathers. +You may make a good reputation at a cheap price.[1] A very little +virtue will go a great way with the next tenant of Fairburn Hall, if +half the tales we hear be true." + +"And what tales are those?" inquired a deep, low voice at my very elbow. + +I believe I jumped a foot or two in the air myself, so great was my +alarm. But as far my companion, if those grass-grown tombs which we were +contemplating had given up their wicked skeletons before his eyes, he +could not have exhibited a greater excess of terror. + +Beside me stood a man of Herculean proportions, who by his dress might +have been taken for an under-gamekeeper, but for a very massive gold +chain which hung from the top button-hole of his waistcoat down to its +deep-flapped pocket. What is now, I believe, called an "Albert guard," +resembles it on a smaller scale; but at the time I speak of, such an +ornament was altogether unique. His face, too, evidently belonged to one +who was used to command. On the forehead was a curious indented curve +like the letter U, while his lip curled contemptuously upwards also, in +somewhat the same shape. The two together gave him a weird and indeed a +demoniacal look, which his white beard, although long and flowing, had +not enough of dignity to do away with. I had never heard Sir +Massingberd's personal appearance described; but even if I had not had +before me his shrinking nephew, I should have recognized at once the +features of Giant Despair. + +"And what tales are those which are told against the present tenant of +Fairburn Hall?" reiterated the baronet, scanning me from head to foot +with his cold glittering eyes. "And who is this young gentleman who +comes to listen to them from the lips of my loving ward?" + +"Sir," said I, "your nephew was saying nothing whatever against you, I +do assure you. I was merely referring to the gossip of the village, +which, indeed, does not make you out to be entirely a saint." I was +angry at having been frightened by this man, who, after all, could not +hurt <i>me</i>. I had been accustomed, too, to Indian life; which, without +making one bolder than other people, indisposes one to submit to +dictation, which is only the duty of the natives. + +Sir Massingberd reached forth one iron finger, and rocked me with it to +and fro, though I stood as firm as I could. "Take care, young gentleman, +take care," said he; "that spirit of yours will not do down at Fairburn. +Mr. Long does not seem to have taught you humility, I think. Marmaduke, +go home." He spoke these last words exactly as a man speaks to his dog +who has injudiciously followed him to church on Sunday, in the hope that +he was bent on partridge shooting. + +The boy instantly obeyed. He shrank away, passing as closely to the +churchyard railing as he could, as though he almost feared a blow from +his uncle. + +"There is humility, there is docility!" sneered the baronet, looking +after him. "And if I had <i>you</i> up at the Hall, my young bantam, for four +and twenty hours or so, I'd make you docile too." He strode away with a +laugh like the creaking of an iron hinge, for he saw that I did not dare +to answer him. He strode away over the humble graves, setting his foot +deep into their daisied mounds as though in scorn; and his laugh echoed +again and again from the sepulchral walls, for it was joy to Sir +Massingberd Heath to know that he was feared. + + +[1] I am told by an able friend, who is good enough to revise for me +this manuscript, that it is not likely that a mere boy, as I then was, +would have made such an observation as the above. I do not doubt that +this remark is altogether just; but I am afraid it will apply to so much +else in this narrative, that it is scarcely worth while to make an +alteration. I am not used to literary composition; I cannot weigh +whether this or that is characteristic of a speaker. I am merely a +garrulous person, who has, however, such a striking story to tell, that +I trust the matter will atone for the manner. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DREAM BY THE BROOK. + + +Although my story must needs be sombre wherever it has to do with that +person whose name it bears, yet I hope there will be found some sunny +spots in it. During the first few months after my arrival at Fairburn, +there was nothing to sadden life there that I knew of. I passed my days +under green leaves, and not only in a metaphorical sense; for every fine +afternoon, immediately after study was over, I betook myself to the +Park. The whole place was watched as zealously, even in summer, as the +gardens of the Hesperides, but Mr. Long had obtained permission for me +to roam at large therein. To me, vexed from childhood by Indian suns, +Fairburn Chase--as that part of the demesne most remote from the Hall +was called--was far more delightful than it could have been to any mere +English boy. Its stately avenues of oaks, tapering into infinite +distance, with their checker work of beam and shade, was the realization +of my dreams of forest beauty. Nor was its delicious coolness marred by +the broad strips of sunlight, at long but equal distances, like the +golden stairs of the Angels' Ladder; for those, I knew, marked the +interlacing of "the Rides", themselves as fair, and leading, not as the +avenue did, to the outer world, but into secret bowers known only to the +deer and me. + +When Marmaduke was not with me, which often enough happened, poor +fellow, and particularly after that unfortunate meeting with his uncle +in the churchyard--the whole Chase seemed abandoned to myself. I dare +say it was not really so, and that if I had not been a privileged person +I should soon have found out my mistake, but for days and days I never +saw any human being there. Now and then the figure of a gamekeeper, +dwarfed by distance, would make its appearance for a moment, to be lost +the next in some leafy glade. But the sense of solitude was thereby +rather increased than otherwise, just as the poet tells us in a case +where the ear and not the eye was concerned, "the busy woodpecker <i>made +stiller</i> by his sound the inviolable quietness." Lying couched in fern, +in that lordly pleasure-place, I have myself entertained some poetic +thoughts, although they never found expression. Even now, as I shut my +eyes, I make an inward picture of some such resting-place; nothing to be +seen but the long green feathery stems which the summer air just stirs +about my brow, and the broad branches of the oak that stretch themselves +motionless between me and the sun; nothing to be heard but the coo of +the ring-dove, and the swift stealthy bite of the dappled deer. Nor did +Fairburn Chase lack water to complete its beauty. In front of the Hall +itself moved a broad slow stream, which presently slid rather than fell +down ledges of mossy stone into a wilderness of trees and shrubs, +through which it wandered on like one who has lost his way, but singing +blithely nevertheless. Another stream, which was my favourite, burst +spring-like from the very heart of the Chase, having been artificially +conveyed beneath the avenue, and ran quite a little river, and at a +great rate, to form the island where the herons lived; after which, as +though it had done its work, it went its way tranquilly enough: If it +had nothing to boast of but the heronry it might have been a proud +little brook, for never did colony of those solemn birds take their sad +pleasure in a more lovely spot; but besides it had a certain bend in +it--essential to the beauty of a brook as straightness is to that of a +tree--which I have never seen rivalled elsewhere. Its right bank rose +there, though not abruptly, and left half its bed of brown sand and +loose tinkling shingle bare to the sunlight, save so much of it as the +shade of a cluster of lime trees could cover. Here the bee and the bird +brought their songs, and the dragon-flies the glory of their turquoise +armour and glittering wings throughout the summer noons. The cool +fragrant smell of the limes, and the drowsy music of the insects that +haunted them, were inexpressibly pleasant to me, who, I am afraid, had +not a little of the Asiatic indolence in my nature. Sometimes a group +of swans sailed by on the unruffled stream, themselves a slumbrous +pageant fit enough to herald sleep; but at all events, swans or no +swans, I often did sleep there. One July afternoon, in particular, when +the heat was almost as intense as at Calcutta, and no punkahs to cool +one, I went to this place with malice prepense to lie there and do +nothing, which, from my youth up, has always been synonymous with a +<i>siesta</i>. I cannot do absolutely nothing, and yet keep awake. I very +much admire the people whom I often meet in railway carriages, who +endure, without books or newspapers, hundreds of miles of weary travel, +and who do it with their eyes open. I wonder they do not break out into +a melody, or at least a whistle. They cannot possibly be thinking all +that time, and indeed they have no appearance of employing themselves in +that way, but "stare right on with calm eternal eyes," with no more +speculation in them than those of the sphinx herself. I envy, but I +cannot imitate those happy persons. There is no such state of coma with +me; I either wake or sleep. + +I lay, then, beneath the limes by the brook in Fairburn Chase, +half-buried in the soft brown sand; and even while I looked upon the +glancing stream, with the grand old willow opposite, that bent its hoary +honours half-way o'er, the scene dissolved and changed; the brook became +a river, and the willow a palm-tree, and the Chase a sandy tract, and +the fir-clump on the distant hill the snow-capped Himalaya. I saw, +too--and, alas! I was never more to see them, except, as then, in +dreams--my father and my mother; but they passed by me with pitiful, +loving looks, and went their way. Then the ayah, the black nurse who +was watching over me--for I was once more a child--stole down to the +river-brink, and drew a fluted dagger from her bosom, and dipped it in +the sacred flood, and I felt that I was to die. I knew her well; we two +had loved one another as nurse and child do love, where the nurse +perforce takes half the mother's part; as the child grows up, his +affection, at the best, congeals to gratitude; but not so with the +breast that suckled him--God forgive us men; and the pain of my dream +was sharpest because it was my own dear ayah who was about to slay me. I +had offended Vishnu, or else she would not have done it; her gods +demanded my life of her; but she was sorry; I felt her cold lips upon my +brow, and then a large round tear fell upon my cheek like icy hail, and +I awoke. There was a tumult of sounds in the air; the birds, and the +bees, and the bubbling wave, silent while I had slept, seemed to have +burst out together in chorus at my waking. I was bewildered, and knew +not where I was. My dream was more distinct at first than the realities +about me. If I had but closed my eyes again, I knew that it would be +continued at the spot where it had left off, that the fluted dagger +would have drunk my life-blood; and therefore I made an effort to rouse +myself. Wondrous are dreams, and wondrous the borderland 'twixt life and +sleep! If my existence had depended upon it, I could not, for some +seconds, have told for certain whether I was in England or in India. +Then reason began to reassume her sway, and the vague mysterious powers, +of whom we shall one day perhaps have a more certain knowledge, withdrew +reluctant from their usurped dominion over me. I remembered, however, +most distinctly every incident that they had brought about, and I +placed my hand mechanically upon my left cheek--I had been lying upon my +right--upon which the tear had seemed to fall. Great Heaven, <i>it was +still wet</i>! I was really startled. The cloudless sky forbade the idea of +a drop of rain having fallen; I had shed no tear myself while dreaming, +for my eyes were dry, and even if I had, it could scarcely have dropped +as it did, making a cool round spot in the centre of the cheek--it would +have slid down and left a little frigid line: there were no stones for +the stream to splash against and thus besprinkle me. + +It was very odd. Still, I did not imagine for a moment that my poor +black nurse had really come across the seas to drop the tributary tear +upon her sleeping boy; moreover, she could scarcely have got away so +suddenly without leaving some trace of her departure, some...--My heart +all of a sudden ceased to beat; a shiver ran through me, as runs from +stem to stern through a doomed ship that comes end on at speed upon a +sunken rock; my eyes had fallen--while I thus reasoned with myself--upon +a sight to terrify an older man than I, after such a dream; <i>the print +of a woman's bare feet in the sand</i>. Had there been any +footprints--those of a keeper or watcher, for instance--I should have +been startled to know that some one had passed by while I slumbered, for +most certainly the sand had been untrodden up to the moment I had lost +consciousness; but that a woman with naked feet had been really present +while I dreamed that horrible dream, was something more than startling. +In Scotland such a circumstance would have been less remarkable, but in +Fairburn I had not yet seen any person without shoes. There were a +considerable number of footprints, but only of one individual: she had +stood beside me for some time, for they were deeper close to the place +where I had lain, and there was also one impression there which looked +as though the mysterious visitor had knelt. They had come and returned +the same way, which was not the one that I had come myself, and they +began and ended at the stream-side a few yards beyond, and out of sight +of the bend which was my favourite haunt. The woman had doubtless +crossed and recrossed by means of some natural stepping-stones that +showed their heads above water; there was no path on the other side, but +only a tangled thicket, through which it would have been impossible to +track her, even had I been so disposed, which I was not. To say truth, I +was terribly discomposed. For a minute or two I clung to the notion that +the footprints were my own, made, perhaps, under the influence of +somnambulism. I took off my shoes, and measured the tracks with my own +feet, but I found, boy as I was, that mine effaced them. They were +certainly the marks of a woman; smaller than those of a grown male, yet +firmer set than those of a child. Never since the days of Robinson +Crusoe was ever man so panic-struck by footprints in the sand as I. +Although it was broad daylight, and the air was alive with sounds, I +fairly trembled. The many evil stories which, during my short stay at +Fairburn, I had already heard of the old Hall, a corner of which I could +discern from where I stood, crowded in upon my brain; the whole demesne +seemed under a malign influence--enchanted ground. I turned from the +spot, whose lonely beauty had once so won my soul, with fear and +loathing; and as I turned, there rang out--it may have been from the +thicket across the stream, but the echoes took it up so suddenly, that +it seemed to ring all around me--a laugh so terrible, so demoniacally +mocking, that I could scarcely believe it came from mortal throat. Again +and again it rose, and circled about, as though it would have headed my +fleeing steps, and driven me back upon some dreadful Thing, while I fled +through the fern towards home at my topmost speed, and the white-tailed +rabbits scampered to left and right, less frightened than I. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE DUMB WITNESS. + + +A sentiment of shame prevented my mentioning the affair of the +footprints to my tutor; and as for Marmaduke, although we were by this +time very intimate, I would not have furnished him with a new occasion +for detesting Fairburn Chase upon any account. Not only, however, was my +favourite haunt by the brook become an object of aversion to me, but I +confess I took much less delight in any part of the Heath demesne. I +kept my eyes about me, even in the great avenue, and upon the whole +preferred the rector's little garden, if at any time I had a mind for +sleeping out of doors. + +"Meredith," observed Mr. Long to me one morning--he called me "Peter" +generally, but when he had anything serious to say it was +"Meredith"--"it appears to me that you don't take nearly so much +exercise as you used to do. Your appetite is failing. I am really +concerned about you." + +"Thank you, sir, I am pretty well." + +"Nonsense, Peter, no boy should be 'pretty well;' he should be in the +rudest, vulgarest health, or else he is in a bad way. Your good father +advised me that if you seemed the least to need it, I should get you a +nag. It is Crittenden Fair next week. What say you to my buying you a +horse?" + +"Thank you, sir, that is just what I should like," cried I. "I am +certainly getting tired of walking about alone." And then I began to +blush a little, for of late rather than go into the Chase I had been +accompanying my tutor in his favourite diversion of fishing, which I +cared nothing about, or else in his parochial expeditions. + +"Don't be afraid to speak out, my boy," said Mr. Long, with a kind +smile, "you will not hurt my feelings. You and I are very good friends, +but you want somebody of your own age to be your companion. Isn't that +it? And very natural too. No young gentleman, except in story-books, +enjoys the society of his tutors. Even Sandford and Merton got a little +tired of good Mr. Barlow, I fancy, he was so desperately full of +information. You want a fellow who can shy stones and climb trees." + +"No, sir, indeed I don't," said I, a little indignantly; for I was +getting too old, I flattered myself, for any boyish escapades of that +sort, "But I do wish that Marmaduke was allowed to come out with me a +little more. Would not Sir Massingberd let him have a horse also?" + +Mr. Long shook his head, and was silent for a little; then, as if in +continuation of his thought, he added, "And yet, I don't know, we'll go +over to the Hall and see about it this very morning." + +"<i>I</i>, Sir?" inquired I in astonishment; for I had never set foot in +Doubting Castle, or seen it from any nearer spot than the Heronry. + +"Did I say 'we'?" said Mr. Long, reflectively. "I didn't mean to do so, +but I really see no reason why you shouldn't come. You would wait a +considerable time if you waited for an invitation from Sir Massingberd, +but--Tush, if poor Marmaduke lives there, and yet remains a good boy, +half an hour's visit will not be the ruin of the lad." The latter part +of this remark was uttered aloud, although intended to be strictly +private, which was not an uncommon occurrence with my worthy tutor, and +I have noticed the same peculiarity in other persons of studious habits. +He led the way into the road at once, pursuing which, under the park +wall, we presently came upon a little door, which my tutor opened with a +private key. This admitted us into the wall-garden, or, as it was +sometimes called, from the quantities of that fruit which it contained, +the peach-garden. An enormous area was here entirely given up to the +cultivation of fruits; in the centre were strawberry-beds, gooseberries, +melon-beds, the glasses of which dazzled you to behold; and raspberries +upon trellis-work, on so extensive a scale that it looked like a maze. +The northern end was occupied by an enormous green-house, which, in +those days was rather a rare adjunct, even to a rich man's garden. But +the most surprising sight was that of the walls covered with +spread-eagled fruit trees, or as schoolboys then called them, +"Lawk-a-daisies," laden with the most exquisite dainties--peaches, +nectarines, apricots, and bloomy plums. A number of men were busily +employed about this teeming scene. + +"Why do they say Sir Massingberd is poor?" inquired I. "Is not all this +his?" + +"Yes; it is all his." + +"Well, but what valuable fruit, and what enormous quantities of it! Why, +he would make a large income, even if he was to sell it." + +"He does sell it," replied my tutor, smiling. "Nineteen out of twenty of +all these peaches will find their way to Covent Garden. Why, how could +he eat them, you foolish boy? Even if he gave them away to all +Fairburn, he would introduce the cholera." + +"A baronet and a market gardener!" exclaimed I. "Well, that seems very +odd." + +Mr. Long did not choose to inform me at that time that almost all the +income Sir Massingberd had was drawn from this source, and from the +selling of game, with which his great preserves were overflowing. The +staff of gardeners and of keepers was retained mainly upon this account. +In the interest of Marmaduke, Mr. Clint, the family lawyer, did, I +believe, contribute a certain annual sum for keeping up the gardens and +the Chase; but this was by private arrangement, and at his own risk and +responsibility. Thus it was that while some parts of the Fairburn +demesne were as admirably maintained as possible, others were suffered +to fall into decay. Just as we emerged from the wall-garden, for +instance, there was a small artificial hollow planted with trees, and +within it, peering above ground, a thatched roof covered moss and +mildew, and with great gaps and holes in it. This was the ice-house--in +these Wenham Lake and Refrigerator days an almost obsolete building, but +in the time I write of considered a necessary appendage to every country +seat. Next we entered an arcade of immense length, which the noonday +rays would have striven in vain to penetrate, but for the spaces where +the trellis-work had given way through age and neglect, and the ivy +trailed down from rusted nails, and obstructed the way. Seats were +placed in niches at unequal intervals upon one side of this arcade; but +they looked very unattractive, damp, wormeaten, cracked, and here and +there with a slug upon them, making slimy paths. Yet from one of these +alcoves there started up, while we were still a long way off, a female +figure, and stood for a moment looking at us in great surprise. Above +her happened to be one of those broken portions of the leafy roof, and +through it the sunlight poured right down in a golden flood, as a glory +sometimes does in ancient pictures. A tall dark woman, who must have +been exquisitely beautiful in her youth, and even now retained +considerable attractions; her eyes were large and lustrous, and her +hair--never even in India had I seen hair more dark, or so luxuriant. It +was not rolled tight at the back in a great pillow, as was then the +fashion, or, indeed, confined in any way, but streamed down over her +shoulders, and far below that place where it was the pleasure of our +ancestresses to consider that their waists occurred. She cast upon us at +first a glance haughty and almost defiant, but upon recognizing my +companion, quenched her fiery looks. + +"Stop here, my lad," whispered Mr. Long, laying his hand firmly upon my +shoulder; "wait till she has gone away." + +The woman saw the gesture, although she could not have heard the words. +"I shall not bite the boy, Mr. Long," cried she with a shrill laugh; +"however, I will make myself scarce." She took a few rapid steps to an +opening on the right of the arcade, which led to the lawn and +flower-garden, and was lost to us in a moment. + +"I did not know there were any ladies at the Hall," said I. + +My tutor did not answer, but walked on muttering to himself as if +annoyed. I did not repeat the remark, for I was wondering within myself +whether it could be this woman who had watched my sleep and knelt by me +dagger in hand, according to my dream. She looked just the sort of +female to drive such an instrument home, if she entertained that +fancy--a Judith, equal to the slaying of any Holofernes, and far more of +a slight built, overgrown Indian lad like me. There was certainly +something uncanny about her, and I thought it very strange that +Marmaduke had never spoken to me of her existence. + +The arcade brought us out into a sunk garden, which was a rosary, on to +which opened the tall windows of a noble-looking room. The walls, I +could see, were lined with books, and on the numerous tables lay +portfolios and volumes that gave promise of great store of plates. This +was the library where Marmaduke had told me he passed his only happy +hours at Fairburn. His uncle rarely so much as entered it, although he +was not without some reputation for learning. In particular it was said +that he was well acquainted with divinity, and could quote chapter and +verse of the Bible against the parson. I have since had reason to +believe that his talents in this way were greatly exaggerated. What he +had ever read he doubtless recollected, if his memory served him as well +in literary matters as when he had a grudge to pay; but I cannot think +that he ever studied divinity. If he had any knowledge of the Bible at +all it doubtless astonished all who knew him, and they made the most of +it. + +A few steps further brought us to the north face of the mansion, in +which was the principal entrance. Notwithstanding the broad sweep in +front of the steps, and the avenue branching right and left, there did +not seem space enough as contrasted with the vast mass of trees. The +scene was like a clearing in a forest, where the openings are +artificial, and the wood comes by nature rather than the converse, and +even in that September day the air struck chill. The griffins that +guarded the great stone steps had lost, the one an ear, and the other a +wing, and the steps themselves were chipped and cracked. The grass which +grew there unchecked at other seasons, had however been scraped out, +because Sir Massingberd's guests were expected immediately for the +shooting. None of them, however, had as yet arrived. The great bell +which answered our summons clanged through the place as though there had +been neither furniture nor people within it. The vast door was opened +long before its echoes ceased, and indeed with marvellous quickness. +When the man saw who we were, he looked vexed at having put himself in a +flurry without necessity. He thought doubtless it was his master who +demanded admittance, and had come post haste from the pantry, it being +very dangerous to keep the baronet waiting. We were ushered into the +great hall, and left there while the man went to seek Sir Massingberd. +This huge apartment was evidently used as a sitting-room. There were +couches and comfortable chairs in profusion, and a fine aroma of tobacco +pervaded everything. The walls were ornamented with antlers and the +heads of foxes; a number of fishing rods stood in one corner; in another +lay some of those clubs that are used for exercising the muscles. On the +table was an open pocket-book, stuck full of gorgeous artificial flies. +Presently the man reappeared. Sir Massingberd would see us in his +private sitting-room. We walked over polished oak, on which I could with +difficulty keep my footing, down a long passage hung with grim portraits +of the Heath family--"all dead and judged," as Marmaduke subsequently +informed me--until we came to a short flight of steps on the left hand; +these we descended, and following the footsteps of our conductor, in +almost perfect darkness, came upon double doors, the inner of which, a +baize one, admitted us into the presence of the proprietor. The baronet +was in his shirt-sleeves, cleaning a double-barrelled gun. + +"This is my pupil, Peter Meredith," said Mr. Long. + +"<i>I</i> know the young gentleman," replied Sir Massingberd, curtly, and the +horse-shoe upon his brow contracted as he spoke. "What makes you bring +him here?" + +"Well, Sir Massingberd," observed my tutor, forcing a laugh, "that is +scarcely a hospitable observation. I bring this friend of your nephew's +because what I have to propose concerns them both. It is good for these +boys to be together, not to live solitary lives; and to keep them mewed +up at home, as they are now, is a positive cruelty. Marmaduke is getting +thinner and paler every day; and Meredith--" + +"Do <i>you really</i> think so, parson?" asked the baronet eagerly, omitting +for a moment to use the dirty-looking piece of oiled flannel which had +previously monopolized his attention. + +"I do, indeed, Sir Massingberd. I believe that if a doctor was to give +his opinion about that boy--" + +"The Heaths never send for doctors, or for clergymen," interrupted the +baronet, with a sneer. + +"And yet they have often needed advice, both spiritual and temporal," +quoth my tutor, stoutly. "I say you should get a horse for your nephew's +riding; it need be no trouble to you whatever. I am going over to +Crittenden Fair next week myself to purchase one for my pupil; now, let +me get one for your nephew also." + +At first Sir Massingberd's countenance expressed nothing but angry +impatience, but presently he began to rub the gun-barrel less and less +violently. "And who is to find the money?" inquired he. + +"I think that can be managed, Sir Massingberd. Mr. Clint will doubtless +listen to such an application on behalf of Marmaduke; he will risk +advancing a few pounds--" + +"For thirty-five guineas one can get a very good pony," observed the +baronet, reflectively. + +"Or even for less," returned Mr. Long, drily; and then, to my excessive +terror, he added in quite as loud a key, "He wants to keep the +difference; that's his plan." + +"And he means to do it, too," observed Sir Massingberd grimly. "No, you +needn't apologize, parson, for your thinking aloud; you don't suppose I +am going to do anything without being paid for it, do you? Then there's +the keep of the animal. Now, what will Mr. Clint allow me for that, do +you suppose? Oats and beans are very expensive, and you wouldn't have me +feed my dear nephew's pony upon hay!" + +Sir Massingberd was a formidable object at all times, but I really think +he inspired more fear when he was pleased--when some wicked notion +tickled him--than even when he was in wrath. + +"I think, Sir Massingberd, the question of expense can be managed to +your satisfaction," said my tutor, not a little overwhelmed by having +thus involuntarily expressed his suspicion of the baronet; "and, as I +have said, I will save you all trouble by selecting the horse myself." + +"Certainly not, sir," exclaimed Sir Massingberd savagely; "I suffer no +man to choose my horses for me." + +"Very good," replied Mr. Long, biting his lip. "I have only to +stipulate, then, that if your nephew gets the horse, he is to ride it. I +shall have to make myself answerable for that much to Mr. Clint." + +"Oh, he shall ride it," quoth the baronet, with a horrid imprecation; +"you may take your oath of that. And by the by, since you are here, +parson, I want to have some talk with you about that same fellow Clint, +who has been behaving devilish ill to me, I think. You may go away, +young gentleman, <i>you</i> may. You'll find your future riding companion--he +has about as much notion of riding as old Grimjaw yonder--sulking in his +own room, I dare say. Grimjaw, show the young gentleman up to +Marmaduke's room." + +At these words a dog of horrible aspect came out from under the very +sofa on which I sat, and trotted off towards the door. He was the oldest +and ugliest dog I ever beheld. He had only one eye, which was green; he +had no teeth, and was therefore not to be feared as a combatant; but his +aspect was loathsome and repulsive to the last degree. The people of +Fairburn imagined this animal to be Sir Massingberd's familiar demon, +and, until of late years, when the creature had become incapacitated by +age from accompanying him much, the two were scarcely ever seen apart. +Old as he was, however, the hideous Grimjaw had some instinct left, +which, after the word "Marmaduke" had been once more shrieked at him, +caused him painfully to precede me up the oak staircase, and along +another gallery to a chamber door, at which he sat and whined. This was +immediately opened by his young master, who, with a "Come in, Grim," +was only giving sufficient space for the entrance of the dog, when I +cried out, laughing: "What, have you no welcome for your friend? Like +uncle, like nephew! What a pair of curmudgeons inhabit Fairburn Hall!" + +The astonishment of Marmaduke at hearing my voice was excessive. +Notwithstanding his pleasure, his first thought, as usual, was: "Did Sir +Massingberd know?" + +"Yes," said I coolly; "of course he knows. He received me down-stairs +with his usual politeness. Mr. Long and he are conversing upon some +private matters, so I came up here to see you. It is arranged that each +of us is to have a horse, and that we are to go out riding together." + +"A horse! Oh, impossible!" exclaimed Marmaduke, clapping his hands. +"How did the good parson ever persuade my uncle? What <i>did</i> he give +him?" + +I could not help laughing at this naive inquiry, which my friend had +made in perfect seriousness. I told him all that had occurred, including +our tutor's <i>viva-voce</i> soliloquy, at which Marmaduke cried "Heavens!" +in terror. + +"It is marvellous, notwithstanding, that my uncle should have +consented," observed my companion, musing. "He told me, indeed, that I +should be a great nuisance in the house this month, while his friends +were down here shooting; but that he should have entered into an +arrangement which gives me pleasure as well as gets rid of me, that +seems so very strange." + +"He has doubtless some base motive," returned I smiling: "let us console +ourselves with that reflection. But what have we here? Water-colour +paintings! Why have you never told me you were an artist?" + +"I merely amuse myself with the paint-brush. I have had no lessons, of +course, so that my perspective is quite Chinese." + +"Nay, but I recognize almost all these scenes!" + +"Well, you know, I have been nowhere else but at Fairburn, so that it is +from thence I must take my subjects. The one you have there is taken +from the bend in the stream beyond the Heronry." + +"It is admirable," said I; and indeed it was so like the scene of my +dream, that it gave me a shudder. + +"Would you like to have it," replied Marmaduke carelessly. "You may take +any that the portfolio contains. I only wish they were more worth your +acceptance." + +"Thank you," said I nervously. "I will certainly take this one, then;" +and I rolled the sketch tightly up, and placed it in my pocket. "But +here is a pretty face! Why, Master Marmaduke, you have your secrets, I +see; you have never mentioned to me this young lady. What beautiful +hair! The eyes, too, how glorious, and yet how tender! It is surely not +the lady whom we just met in the ar--" + +"Silence, sir!" cried Marmaduke, in a voice of thunder. His face was +lurid with rage, and for the first time I remarked upon his forehead a +faint reflection of the horse-shoe that made so terrible the brow of his +uncle. "Do not speak of that wretched woman in the same breath with, +with--" He did not complete the sentence, but added in his usual soft +musical tones: "Pardon me, my friend; I am sorry to have been so hasty; +but that picture is the portrait of my mother." + +"It was stupid in me not to have known that at once," said I. "The +likeness is most remarkable." + +"But not the expression," returned he sadly. "I know that just now I +looked like one of my own race. She was always an angel, even when she +was upon earth." And the boy looked up with his hands clasped, as though +he beheld her, through his tears, in heaven. + +"Did you paint that from a picture, Marmaduke?" + +"No, from memory. Sleeping or waking, I often see her sweet face." + +I had evidently raised by my thoughtlessness a long train of melancholy +thoughts in my companion. The situation was embarrassing, and I did not +know how to escape from it. As often happens with well-intentioned but +blundering persons, I made the most inopportune remark that could be +framed. Forgetting what I had heard of the infamous treatment which +Mrs. Heath had received while under her brother-in-law's roof, I +observed: "Your mother was once at Fairburn, was she not? That should at +least make the Hall more endurable to you." + +Again Marmaduke's handsome face was disfigured with concentrated +passion. "Yes, she was here," returned he, speaking through his teeth. +"For what she suffered alone, the place would be cursed. Coward, +scoundrel! Why does God suffer such men to live?" It was terrible to see +how like this young lad grew to the man he was execrating. He went on +using such language as I could not have conceived him capable of +employing. + +"Marmaduke," said I, soothingly, "for Heaven's sake, be calm. Providence +will one day reward this man; it is not for you to Curse him. Come, now +that I pay you a visit for the first time, you should play the host, +and show me over the mansion. Why, that queer old dog seems to +understand what one says; he rises as though he were the chatelain, and +kept the keys of Doubting Castle. He brought me here as true as a blind +man's cur. I cannot say, however, that he is beautiful; he is hideous, +weird." + +"It would be strange, indeed, if he were like other dogs," returned +Marmaduke gravely. "He is the sole living repository of a most frightful +secret. If he could but speak, he could perhaps send a man to the +gallows." + +"What man?" exclaimed I. "Pray explain to me this mystery." + +"I do not know what man," returned my companion solemnly; "I only +conjecture. I will relate to you what is known of the matter, and you +shall judge for yourself." + +Marmaduke opened the door, to see that no one was in the passage +without, and then seating himself close beside me, commenced as +follows:--"My grandfather and the present baronet lived on bad terms +with one another. For the last ten years of his life, Sir Wentworth and +his eldest son never met--but once--if they met at all. He had been very +profligate and extravagant in his young days; but in his old age he grew +miserly. When my father saw him last, it was in a small house in Bedford +Place, in London, where he lived in a couple of ill-furnished rooms, and +without a servant. Grimjaw and he slept there alone, but a charwoman +came in every morning for a few hours. Sir Wentworth then gave it as his +reason for this kind of life, that he was retrenching, in order to leave +some suitable provision for his second son. 'Look here, Gilbert,' said +he upon one occasion to my father; 'I have begun to lay by for you +already; and he showed him a quantity of bank-notes, amounting to +several thousand pounds. He had never been an affectionate parent, or +exhibited any self-denial for the benefit of his sons; and my father did +not believe him. He thanked him, of course; but he came away without any +idea that he would be really better off at Sir Wentworth's death. This +was fortunate for him, for he never received a farthing; but I am not so +certain as he was that the baronet did not intend to do what he +promised. While the old man was living in this sordid fashion, his son +Massingberd was passing his time very gaily at court. He played high, +and there were few who could beat him with the cards--but there were +some. It is no use being a good player, you see, unless you are the +best; you only win from those whom you can beat, to lose it in your turn +to the man who can beat you. Thus it was with my uncle, who played, as +I say, high with everybody, but highest, as is often the case, with his +superiors in skill. However, he paid his debts of honour with money +raised at an enormous sacrifice. He lived well, but it was upon his +future prospects. At last, being harder pressed than usual, he wrote to +his father--the first letter he had penned to him for years--and +demanded pecuniary help. + +"Sir Wentworth wrote back a cynical, harsh reply, a copy of which I have +seen--for all these details came out in the course of the inquest. He +bade his son come to call upon him, and judge from his style of living +whether he was in a condition to comply with his request. He appointed a +day and an hour--about five o'clock. It was in December, and quite dark +of course by that time. At six o'clock on the appointed day, Sir +Massingberd--for he had got his title by that time, whether he knew it +or not--called at the police-station near Bedford Place, and gave +information that the house which his father occupied was shut up, and +that he could not obtain admittance, although he had arrived there by +appointment. The house was always shut up they told him, although not +untenanted; they could not explain why his summons had not been +answered. A couple of policemen accompanied him to break open the door. +While they were thus engaged, a dog howled at them from inside. My uncle +had made no mention of having heard this before. There was only one lock +to force, the door being neither bolted nor chained, and they soon got +in. The only two furnished rooms in the house opened upon the hall. In +the sleeping room they found my grandfather dressed, but lying on the +bed quite dead--suffocated, as the surgeons subsequently averred. In +the sitting-room, with which it communicated, they found this dog here, +crouching on the top of the mantel-piece, which was very lofty. How he +got there, nobody could tell; if he leaped thither, even from a chair, +it must have been in an agony of terror. He was whining pitifully when +they entered; but upon seeing my uncle, he ceased to whimper, and +absolutely seemed to shrink into himself with fear. Poor Grimjaw could +give no witness at the inquest, however; so the jury returned an open +verdict. It was probable that Sir Wentworth had had a fit of apoplexy, +which carried him off." + +"Well," said I, "and is not that probable enough?" + +"Yes; but it could not have carried off the bank-notes--which were all +gone---likewise. Could it Grimjaw?" + +Thus appealed to, the ancient dog set up a quavering howl, which might +easily have been mistaken for the cry of an accusing spirit. + +"Good Heavens! this is too horrible," cried I. "Be careful, Marmaduke, +that you do not mention this to others. It is a frightful slander." + +"Slander!" returned my companion calmly. "It is you who slander, if you +suspect anybody. I have only told you what everybody knew at the time +the mur...--well, then, when Sir Wentworth had his fit. The thing +strikes you as it does me, that is all." + +"But is it not inconceivable," urged I, "if the crime was committed by +the person we are thinking of, that he should retain this dumb witness +of his atrocity, that he should let it live, far less should keep it in +his private sitting-room--" + +"No!" interrupted Marmaduke firmly. "On the contrary, it strengthens my +suspicions. You do not know the man as I do. It gives him gratification +to subdue even a dog. This creature has no love for my uncle; but its +excessive terror of him, which endured for months, nay, years, has +gradually worn off. He obeys him now; whereas, as I have been told, it +was long before it could do anything but shiver at the sound of his +voice. After dinner, when I have been sitting with Sir Massingberd +alone, he will sometimes give the dog a biscuit, saying with an awful +smile: "Here, Grimjaw; you and I know something that nobody else knows; +don't we?" + +"Great Heavens!" cried I in horror; "and what does he do that for?" + +"Because," replied Marmaduke bitterly, "he loves to see me tremble." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE STATE BEDROOM. + + +Marmaduke had scarcely concluded his narration, when steps were heard in +the passage. I daresay I turned pale at the thought of seeing the man of +whom I had just heard such frightful things, for my companion observed, +as if to reassure me, "It is only Mr. Long." + +"Are you quite sure?" said I. + +Marmaduke smiled sadly. + +"Do you think that I do not know my uncle's step? I should recognize it +amongst a score of others. If he overtook me in a crowded street, I +should feel that he was coming and shudder as he passed beside +me...--Pray, come in, sir." + +"Well," cried my tutor, entering, radiant with, his good news, "no more +moping at home, my lads; you are to be henceforth cavaliers--you are to +scour the country. Boot and saddle! boot and saddle! Your uncle will not +trust me to get you a steed, Marmaduke; there are none good enough for +you, it seems, at Crittenden; he is going to send to London for an +animal worthy of you. But never mind, Peter; you shall have the best +mount that can be got in Midshire, and we will pit the country nag +against the town." + +My tutor's voice revived me like a cordial: after the morbid horrors I +had been listening to, his cheery talk was inexpressibly grateful, as +the dawn and ordinary sounds of waking life are welcome to one who has +suffered from a nightmare. + +"I was just about to show Meredith the Hall," said Marmaduke. + +"Well it is time that we should be at our work, like good boys," +observed Mr. Long, consulting his watch; "but still, for one morning, it +does not matter, if you would like to stay, Peter." + +"I would rather go home, sir," cried I, with involuntary eagerness. I +was sorry the next moment, even before I saw the pained expression of my +young companion. + +"He has had enough of Fairburn Hall already," said he, bitterly. Then +his face softened sadly, as though he would have said: "Am I not, +therefore, to be pitied, who pass every day and night under this +accursed roof?" + +"Come," exclaimed Mr. Long, gaily, "I do not believe, Master Meredith, +in this new-born devotion to your books. Let us go over the house +first. I will accompany you as cicerone, for I once knew every hole and +corner of it--a great deal better, I will venture to affirm, than the +heir himself here." With these words he led the way into the passage. + +"Every chamber on this floor is the facsimile of its neighbour," said +Marmaduke: "since you have seen mine, you have seen all--an immense bed, +a piece of carpet islanded amid a black sea of oak, a cupboard or two +large enough to live in, and shepherdesses, with swains in ruffles, +occupying the walls." There was, indeed, no appreciable difference in +any of the rooms, except with regard to their aspect. + +"When I first came to Fairburn, I slept here," continued Marmaduke, as +we entered an apartment looking to the north, "and had that long +illness, which you doubtless remember, sir. Heavens, what dreams I have +had in this room! I have seen people standing by my bedside at night as +clearly as I see you now. They called me delirious, but I believe I was +stark mad." + +"I remember it well," said Mr. Long, "although I did not recollect that +you occupied this room. How was it that you came to change your +quarters?" + +"Oh, the doctor recommended the removal very strongly. Sir Massingberd +said it was all nonsense about the look-out from my window, and that the +east was as bad as the north for a boy in a fever; but he was obliged to +give way. And I certainly benefited by the change. The Park is a much +more cheerful sight than that forest of firs, and one is glad to see the +sun, even when one cannot get out of doors. At all events, I had no +such evil dreams." + +"Yet this is what always used to be held the state-chamber," replied my +tutor. "Charles I. occupied that bed while he was yet king; and before +your ancestor, Sir Hugh, turned Puritan--a part he was very unfitted to +play--it is said he used to swear through his nose. Peter the Great, +too, is said to have passed a night here. Your dreams, therefore, should +have been historical and noteworthy. I forget which of these smiling +Phyllises is so complaisant as to make way when you would leave the room +without using the door." + +Two full-length female portraits were painted in panel, one on either +side of the huge chimney-piece; a circlet of roses carved in oak +surrounded each by way of frame. Mr. Long advanced towards the one on +the right, and touched the bottom rose; it did not move. He went to the +other, and did likewise; the rose revolved in his fingers, and +presently, with a creak and a groan, the whole picture slid sideways +over the wall, disclosing a narrow flight of wooden stairs. + +"That is charming," cried I. "That is the 'Mysteries of Udolpho' +realized. Where does it lead to, Marmaduke?" There was no answer. Mr. +Long and I looked round simultaneously. The lad was ghastly pale. He +stared into the dusty, gaping aperture, as though it had been a grave's +mouth. + +"I do not know," he gasped with difficulty. + +"Not know?" cried my tutor. "Do you mean to say that you have never been +told of Jacob's Ladder? The foot of it is in the third bookcase on the +left of the library door; the spring is somewhere in the index to +"Josephus." It is evident you never attempted to take down that +interesting work, which in this case is solid wood. The idea of your not +knowing that! And yet Sir Massingberd is so reticent that, with the +exception of Gilmore, the butler, I dare say nobody <i>does</i> know it now. +It is twenty years ago since I made Phyllis move aside, to the +astonishment of Mr. Clint, who came down here on business with poor Sir +Wentworth. I dare say nobody has moved her since." + +"Yes, yes," cried Marmaduke, passionately; "my uncle has moved her. +Those visions were not dreams. I see it all now. He wanted to frighten +me to death, or to make me mad. When I knew the door was fast locked, he +would come and stand by my bedside, and stare at me. Cruel, cruel +coward!" + +"Hush, hush, Marmaduke; this is monstrous--this is impossible!" cried +Mr. Long, endeavouring to pacify the boy, who was rocking himself to and +fro in an agony of distress and rage. "See how you terrify Peter! Be +calm, for Heaven's sake! Your uncle will hear you presently, and you +know how he hates to be disturbed." + +At the mention of his uncle, Marmaduke subdued his cries by a great +effort, but he still sobbed and panted, as if for breath. + +"Oh," moaned he, "consider how I came hither from my dead mother's arms +to this man's house--my only living relative, my father's brother--and +was taken ill here, a mere child; then this wretch, this demon, my host, +my...--Oh, Mr. Long, could you conceive it even of a Heath? He came up +to my lonely room by that secret way, and stood without speaking by my +pillow, while I lay speechless, powerless, imagining myself to be out +of my mind!" + +"I do remember now," said my tutor, gravely, "how you harped upon that +theme of your evil dreams, and how the doctor thought you were in +reality losing your reason. Let us be thankful, however, that you were +preserved from so sad a fate; you are no longer a child now; Sir +Massingberd can frighten you no more, even if he had the wish. It was a +wicked, hateful act, whatever was the motive. But let us forget it. In a +few years you will be of age; then you will leave the Hall; and in the +meantime your uncle will annoy you no more. It will be his interest to +make a friend of you. Even now, you see, he provides you with the means +of enjoyment. You will ride out with your friend whenever you please; +and I will take measures so that you shall be more with us at the +rectory, and less at this melancholy place, which is totally unfit for +you. Mr. Clint shall be spoken with, if necessary. Yes, yes," added Mr. +Long, reversing the rose, and thereby replacing the shepherdess, but +quite unaware that he was still speaking aloud, "there must be a limit +to the power of such a guardian; the Chancellor shall interfere, and Sir +Massingberd be taught--" + +"Nay, sir," cried Marmaduke in turn; "for Heaven's sake, let no +complaint be made against my uncle upon my account; perhaps, as you say, +I may now meet with better treatment. I will be patient. Say nothing of +this, I pray you, Meredith. Mr. Long, you know--" + +"Yes, I know all," interrupted my tutor, with excitement. "You have a +friend in me, Marmaduke, remember, who will stick by you. I have shut my +eyes and my ears long enough, and perhaps too long. If things get worse +with you, my lad, do not forget that you have a home at the rectory. +Once there, you will not return to this house again. I will give +evidence myself; I will--" + +"Thank you, thank you," replied Marmaduke, hurriedly. "All will now be +well, doubtless; but my uncle will wonder at your long delay--he will +suspect something. I think it will be better if you left." + +He led the way down the great staircase, throwing an involuntary glance +over his shoulder, as we crossed the mouth of the dark passage leading +to the baronet's room. "This is a wretched welcome, Meredith; some day, +perhaps, I may take your hand at this Hall door under different +circumstances. Good-by, good-by." + +And so we parted, between the two grim griffins. + +"Peter," said my tutor, gravely, as we went our way, "whatever you may +think of what has passed to-day, say nothing. I am not so ignorant of +the wrongs of that poor boy as I appear to be; but there is nothing for +it but patience." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HEAD OVER HEELS. + + +I obeyed my tutor and my friend in keeping all I knew regarding Sir +Massingberd to myself; but the knowledge weighed heavily upon my spirits +for several days. Soon, however, my mind recovered its youthful +elasticity. I began to think that Marmaduke's morbid disposition had +perhaps exaggerated matters; that the baronet was not so black as was +painted; that my friend would soon be his own master; and, in short, I +laid all that flattering unction to my soul which is so abundant in the +case of the misfortunes of others, and so difficult to be procured when +the calamity is our own. Moreover, in a few days I was in possession of +an excellent horse, and there is nothing more antagonistic to +melancholy--especially when it is vicarious--than a good gallop. Nay, +more, after a little, Marmaduke had a horse also. He came to call for +me, that we should go out for a ride together the first day, and I shall +not easily forget it. How handsome and happy he looked! As if the +high-conditioned animal he bestrode had imparted to him some of his own +fire and freedom, he wore scarcely any trace of his habitual depression. +"This is our 4th of July," said he gaily; "my day of independence, as +the rebels say!" + +It happened to be his birthday also, he was seventeen, so that all +things conspired to make it a gala-day. My tutor, who was a judge of +horseflesh, examined the new steed with great attention. "He is superb," +said he, "and you sit him, Marmaduke, considering your scanty +experience, like a young centaur. No one could imagine that your +equestrianism had been heretofore limited to a keeper's pony; and, +moreover, Oliver's ponies are not apt to be very high-couraged. But what +a tight curb has this Bucephalus! He will not give you much trouble to +hold him. So-ho, so-ho, my nag! Are you a hypocrite, then, that you need +be so alarmed at being inspected?" The sleek bay plunged and curveted, +so that my own sober brown began to dance in rivalry. "By the by," +continued Mr. Long, as though a sudden thought had struck him, "I have +occasion to visit Mr. Jervis of the farm at Staplehurst some day this +week; if it is the same to you, let us go there to-day; it will be an +object for your ride, while I shall have the pleasure of your company." + +In a few minutes, my tutor's old white mare was brought round to the +Rectory door by the gardener, who was groom and butler also, and we set +out together at a foot's pace. Mr. Long never took his eyes off the bay, +and therefore did not observe Sir Massingberd, who, with his huge arms +resting on a gate by the roadside, watched us pass with a grim smile. +"Well, parson," exclaimed he--and at the sound of his voice I perceived +my tutor start in his saddle--"what think you of the little Londoner?" + +"I cannot say at present, Sir Massingberd," returned my tutor with +deliberation. "He is a beauty to look at; and if he has no vice, is a +bargain at five-and-thirty pounds." + +"Vice! Why should he have vice, man? A child might ride him for that +matter. I got him with the best of characters. But you'll never teach +those lads to ride if you are always at their stirrup-leather, like +this. Let them ride alone, and race together. Don't treat them like a +brace of mollycoddles. Why, at their age, I could have backed any horse +in Christendom without a saddle. I wonder you don't give Miss Marmaduke +a leading-rein." + +The colour, which had faded from the lad's cheeks, returned to them +again at this sneer; but Mr. Long only remarked: "If you had had a +leading-rein yourself, Sir Massingberd, at seventeen, it would have been +a great deal better for you," and rode on without the least +consciousness, as I believe, of having made any such observation. + +When we had advanced about a mile, and had left the village quite behind +us, my tutor expressed a wish to change horses with Marmaduke. + +"I want to try his paces," said he; and certainly, if he had been a +horse-breaker by profession, he could not have taken more pains with the +animal. He trotted, he cantered, he galloped; he took him into a field, +and over some fences; he forced him by a wind-mill in full work; and, in +short, he left no means untried to test his temper. In the end, he +expressed himself highly satisfied. "Really," said he, "Sir Massingberd +has got you a first-rate steed, with plenty of courage, yet without +vice; he makes me quite dissatisfied with my poor old mare." + +The next day, and the next, we rode again without my tutor; and on the +fourth day it was agreed that we should take an expedition as far as +Crittenden, some ten miles away, where Mr. Long wished us to do some +commissions for him. By this time, Marmaduke was quite accustomed to his +recent acquisition; enjoyed the exercise greatly; and since Sir +Massingberd was much engaged with his guests, passed altogether more +agreeable days. On the afternoon in question, the Hall party were out +shooting, and had taken with them all the stable domestics except a raw +lad who scarcely knew how to saddle a horse. + +"I cannot think what is the matter this afternoon with 'Panther'" (we so +called his skittish animal), exclaimed Marmaduke, as he rode up to the +Rectory door. "I could scarcely get him to start from the yard, and he +came here mostly upon his hind-legs. Is there anything wrong with his +girths, think you? Ned did not know where to lay his hands on anything, +and my uncle has taken William with him to 'mark.'" + +"Nay," said I, "I see nothing the matter. We will soon take off his +superfluous energy over Crittenden Common." + +Long, however, before we reached that spot, we had had galloping enough +and to spare. Twice had Panther fairly taken the bit between his teeth +(as the romance-writers term it, and Heaven forbid that a mere sportsman +should correct them), and sped along the hard high-road at racing pace; +and twice had Marmaduke, by patience and hard pulling, recovered the +mastery, albeit with split gloves and blistered hands. It was not +enjoyment to ride in this fashion, of course, and had it not been for +the commissions which had been entrusted to us, it is probable that we +should have returned home. It puzzled us beyond measure to account for +the change of conduct in the bay. The difference was as decided as that +between a high-spirited child who requires, as we say, "careful +treatment," and a vicious dwarf: heretofore he had been frisky, now he +was positively fiendish. He shied and started, not only at every object +on the roadside, but before he arrived at them. At the end of the high +table-land which is called Crittenden Common, and descends into the +quiet little market-town of the same name, there really was something to +shy at. A gipsy encampment, with fire and caldron, and tethered donkey, +which had been concealed in a hollow, came suddenly into view as we +cantered by; an old crone, with a yellow handkerchief in lieu of a +bonnet, and shading her beady eyes with her hand, watched with malicious +enjoyment the struggle between man and horse which her own appearance +had gone far to excite. In a very few moments, Marmaduke's already +overtaxed muscles gave way, and the bay, maddened with resistance, and +released from all control, rushed at headlong speed down the steep +chalk-road that led by many a turn and zigzag into Crittenden. It was +frightful to watch from the summit of this tamed precipice--this cliff +compelled into a road--the descent of that doomed pair. No mule could be +surer footed than was Panther, but the laws of gravitation had +nevertheless to be obeyed. At the second turning, the bay, after one +vain effort to follow the winding of the road, pitched, head first, down +the grassy wall which everywhere separated the zigzags from one another; +over and over rolled horse and rider to the hard road below, and there +lay, their horrible and abnormal movements exchanged for a stony quiet. +I jumped off my horse, and ran down the two steep slopes, which at +another time I should have descended hand over hand. Yet on my way I had +time to think with what sorrow this news would be received at Fairburn +Rectory, with what joy at the Hall! Marmaduke's hand still held the +rein, which I disentangled from it with feverish haste, lest that +four-footed fiend, which snorted yet through its fiery nostrils, and +glared defiance from its glazing eyes, should arise and drag the dear +lad's corpse among the cruel stones. After what I had seen of his fall, +I had scarcely a hope that he was alive. There was blood at his mouth, +blood at his ears, blood everywhere upon the white and dazzling road. +"Marmaduke, Marmaduke," cried I, "speak, speak, if it be but a single +word! Great Heaven, he is dead!" + +"Dead! no, not he," answered a hoarse, cracked voice at my ear. "He'll +live to do a power of mischief yet to woman and man. The devil would +never suffer a Heath of Fairburn to die at his age." + +"Woman," cried I, for it was the old gipsy crone, who had somehow +transported herself to the spot with incredible speed, "for God's sake, +go for help! There is a house yonder among those trees." + +"And why should I stir a foot," replied she fiercely, "for the child of +a race that has ever treated me and mine as though we were dogs?" + +"Because," said I, at a venture, "you have children yourself." + +"You are right," exclaimed she, clapping her skinny hands together, and +seating herself calmly on the turf. "It is well that you have mentioned +my kith and kin. One lad is across the seas, and will never see the +green lanes and breezy commons of England more; another lies caged in +yonder jail--and both for taking the wild creatures of the earth and +air, to which such men as Massingberd Heath lay claim; while my little +sister--ah, my Sinnamenta, my fair pearl!--may the lightning strike him +in his wickedest hour! nay, let him perish, inch by inch, within reach +of the aid that shall never come, ere the God of the Poor takes him into +his hand!--Boy, you may talk to that flintstone, and it will rise up and +get you help for that lad there--bonny as he is, and the bonnier the +worse for them he sets his wilful eyes on--before you get this hand to +wag a finger for him." + +"Woman," said I, despairingly, "if you hate Massingberd Heath, and want +to do him the worst service that lies in your power, flee, flee to that +house, and bid them save this boy's life, which alone stands between his +beggared uncle and untold riches." + +"Is it so?" cried the old woman, rising up with an agility for which no +one would have given her credit, and looking at me with furious eyes. +"Is it indeed so, boy?" + +"Yes, woman, upon my soul!" + +Revenge accomplished what pity had failed to work. In an instant, she +was with me down by Marmaduke's side; from her pocket she produced a +spirit-flask in a leathern case, and applied it to his lips: after a +painful attempt to swallow, he succeeded; his eyelids began tremulously +to move, and the colour to return to his pallid lips. + +"Keep his head up," cried she, "and give him another drop of this, if +assistance does not arrive within five minutes." + +Before she had finished speaking, she had lifted the latch of the gate +that opened from the road into the grounds of the house in question, and +in another instant I was alone--alone with what I believed to be a dying +man, and surrounded with the blood that had flowed in a mingled stream +from him and the dead horse, for Panther had ceased to move--alone with +recollections and anticipations scarcely less horrible than the visible +scene; and yet, so strangely constituted is the human mind, that I could +not forbear to glance with some sort of curiosity at the flask the gipsy +had left with me, and to wonder exceedingly that its worn and tarnished +top of silver bore upon it a fac-simile of one of those identical +griffins which guarded each side of the broad stone steps that led to +Fairburn Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +AT THE DOVECOT. + + +After an interval, which doubtless appeared much longer than it really +was, there issued from the gate a groom and butler, bearing between them +a small sofa, and accompanied by a young and lovely girl. The scene that +presented itself was enough to shock persons even of strong nerves, and +I hastily exclaimed, "The young lady had better not see this." But she +came on nevertheless. + +"I am not afraid of blood," said she, "and perhaps I may be of use." +Then she directed her servants how to handle the wounded man; and when +he was gently lifted on to the couch, she applied a handkerchief dipped +in Eau-de-Cologne to his forehead, and walked by his side regulating the +pace of his bearers, like some Miss Nightingale of a generation and a +half ago. "Let him be placed in your master's room, James: and then take +my pony, Thomas, and ride as fast as you can for Dr. Sitwell; and as you +come back--but think of nothing but bringing the doctor first--call at +the nursery-garden for your master; he said he should go there about +those roses." And some other directions she gave, as the men moved on +with their ghastly burden, like one who knew the value of time. +Notwithstanding this presence of mind, her anxious eyes betrayed that +she was not wanting in sensibility, and with every groan which the +motion of the fitter extracted from the sufferer, her own lip quivered. +I dare say that I saw nothing of her exceeding beauty at that dreadful +time; but while I write of Lucy Gerard now, a vision of surpassing +loveliness perforce presents itself before me. A tall, lithe, graceful +form; a face, nay, rather a soft, sad smile overspreading and pervading +every feature--a smile that I never saw surpassed save on her own fair +countenance after Love had taken her sweet soul captive--a smile the +reflex of all good and kindly thoughts that dwelt within. There are some +so great and noble that they smile, where other good folks can only weep +and wail; the true sympathizer with human griefs wears no lugubrious +aspect; the angels smile when they weep over human wretchedness--they +know that it is only for a little while, for that the gates of heaven +are standing open very, very near; and some such knowledge, or happy +faith, seems to influence the best of mortals, or how should they go +smiling through this world? + +So Marmaduke was carried along the gravel-drive, and across a little +flower-studded lawn, to the room in Mr. Gerard's house which was called +the master's room, it being half a sleeping-chamber, and half a library, +which Lucy's father used both night and day. This was so evident from +the appearance of the place, that when I had, with James' help, put +Marmaduke to bed there, where he lay breathing heavily, but quite +unconscious, I went to the young lady of the house, and expressed my +apprehension that my poor friend, being in that apartment, would cause +additional inconvenience in the household. + +"I understand," said I, "that it is Mr. Gerard's room." + +"Ah, sir," said she, with a glance of pride more becoming, if that were +possible, than even her ordinary modest look, "you do not know my +father. When I say that it will give him the greatest pleasure to find +that his favourite room has been of service to your friend, I use a +conventional phrase which literally expresses what he will feel Please +to forget that there is anybody in this house but yourselves; it is only +right that sickness should be considered before health; though, alas! +every room to those who are ill is but an hospital. This little +drawing-room, which your glance tells me you think pretty, with its +conservatory and fountain, and the rest, my poor young sister was very, +very weary of before she died, on yonder sofa, after fourteen months of +the gay prison." + +Her voice trembled as she spoke, and I thought I detected in it that +shade of bitterness with which some affectionate persons speak of the +sufferings of those they love, as though they would almost arraign that +Providence for unnecessary harshness, which might inflict any misery +upon, themselves without evoking one impatient thought. + +"Then you are left all alone here, Miss Gerard. With such a sad +reminiscence, this spot must--" + +"Alone!" interrupted she, with astonishment. "What! when I have my +father? See, he is coming through the shrubbery now, and Dr. Sitwell +with him. Let us meet them. How glad I am that he has lost no time." + +It was easy to distinguish the doctor, with his cane, his ruffles, and +stiff professional appearance, a little impaired, however, by hot haste; +moreover, his companion indicated him with his finger as we rapidly +approached one another, exclaiming, "This is your man, young gentleman; +don't waste one word on me at present." + +So, rapidly detailing what had happened as we went, I took the man of +physic to Marmaduke's bedside. As we entered the room, and first caught +sight of his pale features distorted with pain, my companion stood for +an instant aghast. "Great Heaven!" murmured he, "I thought the horse had +trodden upon the poor lad's forehead; but now, I see it is an old scar." + +"No," returned I; "it is not a scar; it is only a mark which in moments +of pain or anger comes out more distinctly than at other times. All the +Heath family have it. This is Mr. Marmaduke Heath, the nephew of Sir +Massingberd." + +"Indeed--indeed, sir!" exclaimed the doctor with an accession of +sympathy. "Dear me, how sad! What a fine property to risk losing at his +time of life. But the eye, you see, gives us hope; the brain has +suffered but slightly. He has not been sick, you say--not been sick; he +has not been sick, sir." + +It was the worthy doctor's habit to reiterate his last sentence in an +arrogant manner, as though he had been contradicted on a matter of fact, +while in reality his mind was entirely occupied by quite other thoughts. +Thus, at the present speaking, he was engaged in manipulating +Marmaduke's head, and examining his ribs and limbs with the greatest +attention. I waited for his verdict in anxious silence, and presently it +was delivered. "It is my opinion, sir, that the young man will live to +be a baronet." + +Life and Death, the immortalities of Heaven and Hell, were matters that +had but small space in Doctor Sitwell's mind compared to this +all-important futurity; he was accustomed to <i>them</i> in connection with +the merest paupers and persons of no sort of consequence; but it was not +every day in the week that a gentleman of Marmaduke's condition was +pitched on his head within the Crittenden doctor's professional orbit. + +"Mr. Marmaduke Heath must be kept perfectly quiet; he must not be moved +from hence upon any consideration--it may be, for weeks. What science +can do, through my humble agency, shall be done for the young gentleman; +but rest and quiet are essential. Sir Massingberd should be sent for +instantly; the responsibility upon my shoulders would otherwise be too +great. He will doubtless yearn to be by the bedside of his beloved +nephew. You had better arrange with Mr. Gerard for this being done, as I +have my round to make, which to-day is all-important. The Hon. Mrs. +Flinthert--widow of the late admiral, you know--she requires constant +supervision; nature has to be supported; but for brandy, she must have +sunk before this. Then Mr. Broadacres, who lives Fairburn way--by the +by, that is a very curious case. However, my post is here, of course, +until my assistant arrives, who will remain in my absence. You may leave +your friend now without the least anxiety. When he awakes to +consciousness, you shall be sent for--you shall be sent for, sir." + +Upon this, I returned to the drawing-room to give a much more cheerful +report of the patient's case than I had ventured to anticipate. I found +our host issuing orders for his comfort and attendance, as though he had +quite made up his mind to make him his guest for a lengthened period. A +noble-looking gentleman he was, as like his daughter as an old man can +be to a young girl. Harvey Gerard's face was wrinkled neither by years +nor care, though marked here and there with those deep lines which +indicate the Thinker--one whom the gods have placed above the drudgery +of life, with a disposition to philosophize--a man among men rather than +of them, who stands apart from the high-road somewhere half-way up the +hill of Fortune, and watches the toilers above and below with a quiet +but not cynical smile. "The news you bring me of our patient, Mr. +Meredith," said he, "is most welcome; but I think we should still lose +no time in communicating with his friends." + +"That is also the opinion of Dr. Sitwell, sir; he, too, recommends that +my poor friend's nearest relative should be sent for; but in +circumstances of this kind, it would be wrong not to say at once that +that relative and the invalid here are on the worst of terms, and that +his coming would most certainly aggravate any bad symptoms, and retard +his cure." + +"I am sorry to hear," returned Mr. Gerard, gravely, "that the young +gentleman is not on good terms with his own flesh and blood; that is a +bad sign." + +"However that maybe, sir, generally," replied I, with warmth, "it is not +so in this instance. Mr. Long, the rector of Fairburn, and tutor to my +friend, will certify to his being a most well-conducted and excellent +youth. His uncle, however, Sir Massingberd Heath--" + +"I will not have that person under my roof," interrupted Mr. Gerard, +"under any circumstances whatsoever." This he said without the least +trace of irritation, but with a firmness and decision which left me +nothing to apprehend upon Marmaduke's account. Then turning to his +daughter, as if in explanation, he added, "The man I speak of, my love, +is a wicked ruffian--worse than any poor fellow who has ever dangled +yonder outside of Crittenden jail." + +Miss Gerard did not answer except by a look of gentle remonstrance, +which seemed to me to murmur, "But, dear papa, for all we know, this +gentleman may be a friend of his." + +I hastened, therefore, to observe with energy, that Mr. Gerard's view of +the baronet's character was a perfectly just one, as far as I knew, or, +if anything, rather lenient. I recommended that Mr. Long should be +apprised of what had happened, and that he should give Sir Massingberd +to understand that while his nephew was receiving every attention at the +Dovecot--for so I had learned the house was called--its doors were +immutably closed against himself. It was not a pleasant task to impose +upon the good rector, but it was a necessary one; for, independently of +Mr. Gerard's determination, I felt it was absolutely essential to +Marmaduke's life that his uncle should be kept away from his bedside. If +in health his presence terrified him, how much worse would it be for him +in his prostrate and perilous condition! It was arranged, too, that I +should remain to look after my sick friend, and the messenger was +instructed to bring back with him all that we required from the Rectory +and the Hall. Mr. Long arrived at the Dovecot late that same afternoon, +in a state of great anxiety. He had come away almost on the instant +after receiving the news of Marmaduke's mis-chance, and without seeing +Sir Massingberd, who had not yet returned from shooting; but he had left +a letter for him, explaining the circumstances as well as he could. "My +only fear," said he, after visiting his pupil, who still lay in a +lethargic slumber, "is that he will come here immediately, and insist on +seeing his nephew--a desire that would appear to be natural enough to +persons who are unacquainted with the circumstances." + +"Nay," said I; "but surely he cannot do this in the face of Mr. Gerard's +prohibition." + +"Ah, my boy, you do not know Sir Massingberd yet," observed my tutor, +gravely; "he will come where and when he will." + +"Nay," returned I; "but neither do you know Mr. Harvey Gerard. From what +I have seen of that gentleman, he understands how to say 'No,' and to +suit to the word the action. When the strong man armed keepeth his +house, his goods, including his sick guest, are in peace." + +"But where a stronger than he cometh," added the rector, shaking his +head, "what then?" + +"We shall see," said I, "what will happen. It is plain, at all events, +that our host is well aware of the sort of man with whom he has to deal. +Mr. Gerard is a most pleasant person, and his daughter is charming +beyond measure: they are far the most interesting people I have yet seen +about Fairburn. How is it I have never heard any mention of them?" + +"The Gerards have always lived a very retired life," returned my tutor. +"The old gentleman entertains, it is said, some strange opinions. In +fact, I have never met them myself but once, and that on some public +occasion; so you must introduce me, Peter." + +I had been watching for Mr. Long at the entrance-gate, and taken him +straight into Marmaduke's room upon his arrival, so that he had seen +neither our host nor hostess; and I thought it strange that my tutor did +not speak of them with more enthusiasm, after their great kindness to +Marmaduke; something evidently a little chilled his feelings towards +them. When he and Mr. Gerard met, I thought there was more cordiality +upon the part of the latter than of the former; the expression of Mr. +Long's gratitude was earnest, but not genial. His admiration of Miss +Lucy, although not to be concealed, was mitigated, as it seemed, by some +sort of compassion; he regarded her with a shade of sadness. Boy as I +was, it was evident to me that some antagonism existed between my +host--for whom I naturally entertained most kindly feelings--and my +respected tutor; and this troubled me more than I should have liked to +say. + +Miss Lucy presently left the drawing-room, and then I was continually +appealed to by one or the other, on various trifling matters, as though +they found a third party a relief to their conversation. At last Mr. +Long requested me to narrate particularly the circumstances of +Marmaduke's accident, and I did so, down to the period when I found him +bleeding on the road. + +"Well," observed my tutor, "I am totally at a loss to account for poor +Panther's behaviour. I confess, upon the first day I saw him, I did not +like the look of his eye: you remember, Peter, that I made Marmaduke +exchange horses with me, and endeavoured, by every means in my power, to +find out the peculiarities of the animal. I wish Sir Massingberd had +permitted me to choose a horse for his nephew myself, when I bought your +honest brown." + +"Sir Massingberd selected his nephew's horse himself, did he?" inquired +Mr. Gerard, carelessly. + +"Yes," replied my tutor; "he sent for him from town a few weeks ago. He +was a mettlesome frisky creature, it is true; but his curb was a very +powerful one, and seemed quite sufficient to subdue him." + +"Does Sir Massingberd himself ride when he is in the field?" observed +our host. "He must be a great weight for a shooting pony." + +"Well, if you had asked me yesterday, I should have said he almost never +rides; but it so happens that he did take the keeper's nag with him this +morning. His great stables are all empty now, for, as probably you are +aware, things are not kept up as they used to be at the Hall. Old Dobbin +is the only representative of the magnificent stud that was once +maintained there, now that Panther is dead. By the by, what has been +done with him?" + +"The carcass has been taken into the town," said Mr. Gerard. "He must +have been a fine creature." + +"His mouth, however, was of iron," said I. "Poor Marmaduke had no +control over him whatever, at last; he had almost pulled his arms off." + +"Notwithstanding the powerful bit?" observed Mr. Gerard. + +"Yes," replied my tutor; "the bit was not only powerful, I should have +almost called it cruel; but Sir Massingberd is a very good judge of all +things belonging to a horse, and seems to have known that, at all +events, no less was required. It was a town-made article, and came down +from London with the animal." + +"Ah, indeed," remarked Mr. Gerard. "But you have never told us, Mr. +Meredith, how you managed to give the alarm here, without leaving your +poor friend." + +I am ashamed to say I had never given the old gipsy crone a thought from +the moment that help arrived, although it was of her sending. + +"The very woman whose appearance frightened the horse, repaired, as far +as she could accomplish it, that mischief. She left in my hands, too, +this fine old case-bottle, of which I should be sorry to rob her; and +very curious is it that it has the Heath griffin, or some crest very +like that, upon its stopper." + +"It is the very crest," said the rector. "I am quite sure of that, +although it is long since it last saw plate-powder. It is but too likely +that the dark lady came wrongfully by it." + +"Let us not be hasty to impute crime," observed Mr. Gerard, gravely. +"This is a shooting-flask carried about the person; and gipsies are +rarely pickpockets. When the owner is at home, it lies in someplace of +safety; and gipsies are not burglars." + +"Ably reasoned," observed Mr. Long. "It may, however, have been a case +of 'findings, keepings,' as the school-boys say. I should think the +Cingari claimed for themselves all flotsam and jetsam." + +"It is too heavy, and has too much bulk, not to have been missed by him +who carried it as soon as it fell," continued Mr. Gerard, taking up the +flask. "It has but very little spirit left in it--see--and yet how--" + +Here the butler entered somewhat hurriedly, and was about to speak, when +a figure brushed by him, and set him aside. The daylight was beginning +to wane; but it was impossible to mistake that herculean form, and its +irresistible motion, even if I had not heard the harsh decisive voice +of Sir Massingberd saying, "By your leave, sirrah; but in this good +company I will announce <i>myself</i>!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +MEETING HIS MATCH. + + +Sir Massingberd's unlooked-for entrance into the drawing-room at the +Dovecot had a result that must seem almost farcical to those who read +it, but which to me, who dwelt among big trembling vassals, and had +learned, day by day, to fear and hate him more and more, had nothing in +it extraordinary. I, Peter Meredith, bolted straightway into the +conservatory, and there ensconced myself within the shadow of an +orange-tree, while the Rev. Matthew Long left the room with equal +celerity by the door. As for me, I confess that I was actuated by panic +on my own account; my tutor's apprehensions were aroused on behalf of +another. The instant after he disappeared, I heard the lock of the +library door shot into its staple, and knew that Marmaduke was in a +friend's keeping, and safe from any incursion of his uncle. I could see +that Mr. Gerard knew this too, for a gleam of pleasure passed over his +face, and then left it determined, defiant, and almost mocking, as when +he had first set eyes upon the intruder. There was a fire in the +otherwise darkening room, and from my place of concealment, I could +watch the lineaments of both its inmates--and two more resolved and +haughty countenances I had never beheld. + +"Is it the custom of your respectable family, Sir Massingberd Heath," +observed my host, "to force themselves into houses whose owners do not +desire the honour of their presence?" + +"It is their custom to hold their own, sir," answered the baronet +curtly; "and I am come after my nephew." + +It is impossible to convey the effect which this audacious speech had +upon me, its unseen hearer; unblushing, scornfully open as it was, an +awful threat seemed to lie within it, and above all, a consciousness of +the power to carry it into effect. Even Mr. Gerard, who could have had +no knowledge of the things that I knew, and had never heard the history +of Grimjaw, seemed to feel a tremor as he listened. + +"Your nephew, sir, is not in a condition to receive you," returned my +host. "The consequences of seeing you might, I do not hesitate to say, +be fatal to him." + +"The opinion of his medical man is different," observed Sir Massingberd +with a sneer. "Dr. Sitwell--a most estimable person, I should say, and +endowed with excellent sense--has been so very kind as to ride over +himself to Fairburn as soon as he could leave his patient, in order to +apprise me exactly how the matter stands. He recommends my seeing +Marmaduke in his first lucid interval--'There is no knowing,' said he, +'whether that may not be your poor dear nephew's last.'" + +"Your poor dear nephew," repeated Mr. Gerard, with great distinctness. +"Very dear, doubtless, but not what one would call poor, at least in the +matter of expectations." + +"Poor or rich, sir," retorted the other, "he has been placed in my hands +as being those most fitted to take care of him." + +Mr. Gerard shrugged his shoulders, and smiled sardonically. + +"You seem to conceive that confidence misplaced, sir," continued the +baronet. "The want of your good opinion afflicts me beyond measure. I +am aware that I fail to satisfy pious persons in some particulars, but +that Mr. Harvey Gerard's susceptibilities should be offended is indeed a +serious consideration; it is as though the devil himself should cry, +'For shame!'" + +"Sir Massingberd Heath, you are under my roof, although unbidden and +unwelcome," returned my host; "your tongue, therefore, is chartered, so +far as I am concerned. I could not, I confess, help my countenance +expressing some astonishment when you spoke of your fitness for the +education of youth." + +There was a pause here for which I could not account. Sir Massingberd's +eyes were riveted upon something on which the firelight danced and +shone. I should very much misrepresent the baronet's character, and +probably even exaggerate his capabilities, if I said he blushed, but +certainly his countenance changed. Then he broke out fiercely, "I live +as I choose, sir, and am answerable to no man, least of all to you. The +parsons had their say, and have got their reply long ago, but am I also +to be arraigned by--" + +"You cannot justify yourself by any quarrel with me," interrupted Mr. +Gerard. "I have, as you say, although not for the foolish reason you +would mention, no right to be either your judge or accuser. But, Sir +Massingberd, there is a God whom we have both good cause to fear." + +"So you make your own sermons, I perceive," exclaimed the other, +bitterly. "That is the reason, is it, why the good folks never see you +at church? Cant amuses me always; but religion out of your mouth is +humorous, indeed. Pray go on, sir, if my dear nephew can wait a little, +for I should be sorry to miss him altogether. You were affirming, I +think, the existence of a God." + +"I was about to urge," continued Mr. Gerard, with grave severity, "since +howsoever persons differ on religious matters, they generally +acknowledge a common Father, that if there is one crime more hateful to +Him than another, it is the deliberate debauchery of the mind of youth. +I had no intention of making any particular accusation, such as the +sight of this flask seems to have suggested to you. I know nothing--but +what I guess--of its history. It has only been in my hands a very few +minutes. The person by whose means it came into this house was, I +believe, an old gipsy woman, and you are, doubtless, well aware how it +got into her possession." + +Mr. Gerard paused. Sir Massingberd, who, though smiling scornfully, had +been beating the ground with his foot, here observed, with a forced +calmness, "She is a liar; she is a thief, and the mother of thieves." + +"Did she steal this flask?" inquired Mr. Gerard, regarding the other +attentively. "It has your crest upon it. She did not. Good. It was then, +I suppose, only a <i>gage d'amour</i> of yours." + +A lurid light came over Sir Massingberd's evil face; for a moment I +trembled for the man who dared to speak such words to him, but almost +instantly he recovered his usual cruel calm. + +"Your sagacity, Mr. Gerard," returned he, "is truly admirable. Is it the +result of experience or intuition? or has this old ginger-faced harridan +made you her favoured confidant? With your fondness for all such +vagabonds I am well acquainted." + +"The reprobation of a man like you, Sir Massingberd, should be dearer +than the praise of ordinary mortals; but this matter does not concern +myself in any way." + +The baronet muttered something between his set teeth. + +"Pshaw! man," continued Mr. Gerard, with unutterable scorn; "think not +to frighten <i>me</i>. I am stronger than you, because I am richer; you are +as poor as those very vagabonds whom you despise; your very existence +depends upon the alms of a stranger. That you are unscrupulous in your +revenges, I do not doubt; but you would have to deal in Harvey Gerard +with one who only uses honourable weapons with an honourable foe. If you +did me or mine a mischief, I swear to you that I would shoot you like a +dog." + +The frame of the speaker shook with contemptuous passion. Defiant as was +his language, it fell far short of the disdain expressed in his tone +and manner. It was not in Sir Massingberd's nature to be overawed, but +his truculent features no longer maintained their grimness--their cruel +humour. He could not put aside a man like Gerard with a brutal jest. I +do not say that he was conscious of his own inferiority, but he knew +that his opponent not only did not fear, but actually despised him. This +was wormwood. + +"I am ashamed," continued Mr. Gerard, after a pause, "to have lost my +temper with you, Sir Massingberd, upon my own account. I wish to have +nothing in common with you--not even a quarrel. We were speaking of this +gipsy woman, and you called her thief, and what not. Whatever may be her +faults, however, it does not become you to dwell on them; but for her +and her prompt assistance, your nephew would not at this moment be +alive. Out of this very flask she administered to him--" So frightful +an execration here broke from the baronet's lips that I anticipated it +to be the prelude to a personal assault upon my host. Mr. Gerard, +however, stood quietly stirring the fire, with his eyes fixed firmly but +calmly on those of Sir Massingberd, just as a mad doctor might regard a +dangerous patient. + +"That is a very singular exclamation of gratitude," observed Mr. Gerard, +sardonically, "to one who has just performed you--or at least +<i>yours</i>--so great a service. It really seems as though you almost +regretted that it <i>was</i> performed." + +A look of deadly hatred had now taken the place of all other expressions +on the baronet's face. It forgot even to wear its sneer. + +"I have been insulted enough, I think," said he, with a calmness more +terrible than wrath. "Even as it is, I shall scarcely be able to +requite you, though, be sure, I will do my best. But, with respect to my +errand, I am come here to see my nephew, and that I will do." + +"That you shall not do, Sir Massingberd, so surely as this house is +mine." + +"And who shall prevent me?" exclaimed the baronet, contemptuously +measuring his foe from head to foot. + +"Not I, sir, indeed," returned Mr. Gerard; "but I will see that my +servants put you out of doors by force," and as he spoke he laid his +hand upon the bell. + +"Before night, then, I shall send for Marmaduke, and he shall be carried +back to Fairburn, which, after all, is his proper home, and be there +nursed." + +"Nursed!" repeated my host, hoarsely. "Nursed by the grave-digger, you +mean." + +Sir Massingberd turned livid and sat down; then, as one who acts in his +sleep, he passed his handkerchief once or twice across his forehead. +"How dare you speak such things to me?" said he, looking round about +him. "To hear you talk, one would think that I had tried to murder the +boy." + +"I <i>know</i> you did," cried Mr. Gerard, solemnly, laying his finger upon +the baronet's arm. "If your nephew, Marmaduke, dies, his blood is on +your head." + +"On mine! how on mine? How, in the name of all the devils, could I have +hindered the lad's horse from running away with him?" + +"I will tell you how. You might have suffered Mr. Long to purchase a +horse for the boy, as he offered to do, and not have sent to London for +a confirmed run-away." + +"He rode it half a dozen times without any harm," replied Sir +Massingberd, sullenly. + +"Yes, with a curb that would have tamed a wild horse fresh from the +lasso. But when you took that curb for the keeper's pony, riding with +gun in hand for the first time in your life--and sent your nephew forth +upon that devil with a snafflebridle--nay, I have it yonder, sir--don't +lie; you calculated that if what you wished should happen all would be +laid to chance. A change of bridles is an accident like enough to +happen; lads are thrown from horseback every day. See, I track your +thoughts like slime. Base ruffian! rise; begone from beneath this roof, +false coward--" + +Sir Massingberd started up like one stung by an adder. + +"Yes, I say coward! Heavens! that this creature should still feel the +touch of shame! Be off, be off; molest not any one within this house, +at peril of your life--murderer--murderer!" + +Without a word, without a glance of reply, Sir Massingberd seized his +hat, and hurried from the room. I felt some alarm lest he should make +some violent effort to visit Marmaduke; but Mr. Gerard's countenance +gave me comfort. He stood quite still, listening with grim satisfaction +to the baronet's retreating footsteps. + +They were heard for an instant striding along the floor of the hall, and +then were exchanged for the sound of his horse's hoofs urged to speed +along the carriage-drive. Sir Massingberd Heath had met for once with +his match--and more. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MR. HARVEY GERARD. + + +So entirely engrossed had I been with the action and dialogue of the +speakers in the preceding scene, that it scarcely struck me while it was +going on that I had not paid for my place in the pit in the usual +fashion, but was a mere eavesdropper under an orange-tree. + +So soon as Sir Massingberd was really gone, however, I became conscious +of the impropriety of my situation, and not wishing to own what I had +done, I stole noiselessly out into the garden, and then re-entered the +conservatory, and thereby the drawing-room, as though I had been out of +sight and hearing all the time. It was not quite a chivalrous act; but I +do not think that the boys of my time, myself included, were quite so +honourable and frank as Mr. Tom Brown describes those of the present day +to be. There was something, moreover, about Mr. Harvey Gerard which told +me he would have loathed a listener, nor would have been very ready to +have accepted fear as any excuse for my conduct. He was a man of noble +bearing, nearly six feet in height, and extremely well formed. He was +dressed in a blue lapelled coat, light waistcoat and kerseys, and +Hessian boots. These last I had not seen before upon any person, and I +remember them well. I think they were the most graceful covering for the +leg that has yet been devised, although, I own, they may not have been +so convenient as the modern knickerbockers. He wore his own grey +hair--which was not very usual with persons of his rank of life--and +rather long. His features were large, but handsome; and there was a kind +of youthful blandness about them which gave his face a most agreeable +expression in ordinary. When excited by passion, however, as I had +lately seen him, his appearance greatly changed. His thin lips parted +contemptuously, and showed his threatening teeth, while his blue eyes, +gentle almost to dreaminess, became blood-streaked, and almost started +from their sockets. As I now beheld him calmly kindling a lamp on the +drawing-room table, no one could have been a greater contrast than +himself to the man who had just driven Sir Massingberd Heath from the +room with such a hail-storm of invective. + +"Well, young gentleman," exclaimed he, cheerfully, "the enemy is +repulsed, you see, although, I confess, your friend the baronet is +rather a formidable fellow. He's uncommonly like Front de Boeuf. I +daresay you have read the new romance of 'Ivanhoe,' have you not?" + +"Marmaduke has, sir, I believe," replied I; "but I am sorry to say I am +no great reader." + +"That is not well, Mr. Meredith; youth is the time for reading. A +knowledge of books, if they are sufficiently varied, is half-way towards +the knowledge of men. It is true that a student may turn out a fool, +because he may have been a book-worm; but the probability is greater of +that misfortune befalling one who has been 'no great reader.' I would +not say so much, if you were older than you are, and had not plenty of +time before you to redeem the past. There is nothing more contemptible +than ignorance; save, perhaps"--here he sighed--"than knowledge +misapplied. What a dangerous villain would that man be, for instance, +who has just been here, had his natural powers been cultivated by study. +As it is, he rushes headlong, like the bull." Here he turned upon me +gaily. "Did he ever toss you, my young friend?" + +"Well, sir," returned I, remembering that interview in the churchyard, +"he bellowed at me once a little." + +"Did he, my boy, did he?--the cowardly brute! Well, I've put a ring +through his nose for a considerable time to come, I flatter myself. I +<i>like</i> a bull-fight. I think I should have made a capital matador," +cried Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands and laughing. + +"How did you--how did you manage to <i>ring</i> him, sir?" inquired I, with +hesitation, for I was curious to see whether Mr. Gerard would make me a +confidant of what had passed. + +"Oh, I watched him carefully--never took my eyes off him for a moment. +When he was calm in his white malice, then I irritated him by waving my +red flag--this silver-headed brandy-flask put him in a horrible rage. +When he made his rushes, I stood aside, and let him go where he would. +When he had exhausted himself, I stepped in, and gave him the steel. I +wonder," soliloquized Mr. Gerard, aloud, as he slowly paced up and down +the room--"I wonder if it would be safe to give him the <i>coup de +grace</i>!" + +"But," said I, "were you not afraid--" + +"My dear young friend," said my host, with seriousness, but placing his +hand kindly upon my shoulder, "an honest man should never be afraid of a +fellow-creature. 'Fear God,' it is written; but even the king is only +to be honoured." + +It is impossible to express the grave and noble air with which Mr. +Gerard spoke those words: I felt such an affectionate awe of him from +that moment, as no other person has ever inspired within me. + +"But," continued I, "supposing he had made a personal assault upon you: +he is perfectly reckless, and a much more powerful man, I should think." + +"Very true, my young friend; and indeed at one time I thought he would +certainly have done it; that was why I placed the poker in the fire. It +would not have been a romantic action; but so sure as he laid finger +upon me, I would have played Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and 'burned a hole in +him one might put a kail-pat through.' It would have give me genuine +pleasure." + +"Burned a hole in Sir Massingberd!" cried I aghast. + +"Ay, that would I. As it was, I threatened him with my servants; and had +he ventured to force his way into yonder room, they should have flogged +him, though he were ten times Sir Massingberd. Better men than he are +often flogged for less offences. Did you hear of Admiral Flinthert's +funeral at Crittenden a month ago or so? You did; and I daresay you were +told that he was a good man and a brave sailor." + +"So it was said, indeed, sir," replied I. "Mr. Long attended the funeral +out of respect, and I believe a great number of gentlemen of the +county." + +"Yet, for all that, he was a bad man, and a coward," returned Mr. +Gerard, his voice rising, and his blue eyes flashing with indignation. +"One part of the naval creed--'to hate the French'--it is true, he did +believe, and acted in that faith; but he omitted the other, and the more +important, 'to hate the devil.' He loved and served the devil of his own +arrogant passions; he made the men miserable over whom he ruled; his +ship was called the Floating Hell. When the carriage of the +lord-lieutenant had driven away from the church, with all its load of +sympathy--for there was nothing else inside it--and the county gentry +were rolling homewards, congratulating themselves that they had paid due +reverence to a gallant officer and a friend of order and good +government, I will tell you what happened. The very evening those +honoured remains were laid in their resting-place, a sailor called at +the house of old Marks, the sexton, and begged to be shown the admiral's +coffin. 'I have sailed with him for years,' said he, 'and I have made +right away from Portsmouth on purpose to do this; and though I cannot +see his face, I should like at least to look upon that which contains +it.' + +"Now, old Marks did not fancy unlocking the church, and descending into +a damp vault; beside which, he had really no right to enter the last +home of the Flintherts without due occasion. So said he, 'I cannot admit +you to where the admiral lies, and certainly not at this hour; it is as +much as my place is worth.' + +"Then the sailor, who was as fine and hearty-looking a man, said Marks, +as need be, held up half a sovereign between his finger and thumb. 'I +have been just paid off,' said he, 'and will gladly give you this for +your trouble; while as for your scruples, why, don't you think the +admiral's family here, and all his great friends who came to do him +honour to-day, would be glad enough that a poor tar should pay a humble +tribute to his memory?' + +"'Well,' said Marks, regarding, I daresay, the half-sovereign, rather +wistfully, 'what you have just said seems certainly to alter the matter. +I will take you to the church, and you shall see the coffin, for the +vault is not yet sealed.' + +"So they started with a lantern, and Marks was for going first to show +the way, but the sailor went ahead, saying that he knew the road +blindfold, for that he had been brought up in that neighbourhood, and +knew it well. + +"'Well,' said old Marks, 'I thought I recognized something about you, +although you are much changed in the last twenty years. You are Will +Moody, who got into trouble with Sir Wentworth Heath about poaching; +only he couldn't quite prove it agin you.' + +"'No,' returned the sailor; 'but he went to work by a surer way than +even the law--he got me pressed when I went to visit my sister down at +Deal.' + +"That, my young friend," observed Mr. Gerard, interrupting himself, "is +a method by which not only we man our fleet, but rid the country of a +number of obnoxious persons."[1] + +"'Yes,' continued the sailor, 'I was pressed; if it had not been for +that I should not have sailed under Admiral Flinthert.' He spoke no more +till they had entered the church, and had moved away the stone, which +had been only dropped, and not yet fastened over the mouth of the vault. +Then they descended the steps, and old Marks turned his lantern on to +the spot where the first--that is, the latest--coffin of the long row +was lying. 'That is the admiral's,' said he; 'you may read his name upon +the silver plate.' + +"William Moody spelled it out aloud, so as to be quite sure. 'Well,' +said he, 'I will tell you a little story about that dead man, and then +we will come away.' + +"'Tell us the story when we get home,' replied the sexton. + +"'No, no, man; I will tell it here, else you would think ill of me, may +be, for what I am going to do. Now listen. For a long time after I was +pressed, I hated and detested what I had to do, and also those who gave +me my orders; but after a bit I got more used to the work, and some of +the officers I learned to like very well, especially our captain. I was +a strong active fellow, without home-ties to think upon and sadden me, +for mother had other sons to maintain her, and in that respect I was +luckier than most. There were pressed men on board of the same ship, +man, whose wives and helpless children were starving because their +bread-winner was taken from them, and who knew not whether he was dead +or alive. However, as I say, I soon got used to my new position, and +became so good a sailor that I was made what is called captain of the +main-top. When our ship was paid off, which was not, however, for a long +time, I liked the salt water so well, that after I had been home for a +little, I volunteered to serve again. + +"'My next captain was this man who lies here. He was as cruel a tyrant +as ever trod a quarter-deck, and a terror to good and bad alike. You +could never please him, do what you would. If an officer is worth his +salt at all, he knows and respects those men who do their duty well +under him. Captain Flinthert knew, but did not respect them; on the +contrary, he behaved towards them as though he resented some imaginary +claims on their part to his consideration. I held in his ship the same +position that I held in the last, for it did not contain a more active +sailor. Yet he found occasion--I should rather say he made it--to get me +punished. I swear to you that I had not committed even that slight fault +which he laid to my charge; if I had done so, it was one for which the +stopping of a day's grog would have been chastisement enough. This +ruffian'--here he smote the coffin with his clenched hand--'ordered me +three dozen lashes. Now, I had never been flogged yet, and when I went +to the captain with almost tears in my eyes, and told him so, and that I +had never even been reported for misconduct, he replied with a sneer +that I was too good by half, and that it was high time I should become +acquainted with the cat-o'-nine tails. "To prevent mistakes, you shall +have it at once," said he: "call up the boatswain's mate." Now, I +thought to myself, in the pride of my manliness and independence, that +such a disgrace should never happen to William Moody, but that I would +die first; so I walked straight from that part of the deck where I had +been speaking with Captain Flinthert, and leaped from the bulwarks into +the sea. I believed I tried at first to drown myself, but I was a strong +swimmer, and nature compelled me presently to strike out. The cry of "A +man overboard!" had caused the boat to be lowered at once, and though we +had been sailing very fast, I was picked up, not much exhausted, and +almost in spite of myself. As soon as I had got on board, and put on dry +things, the captain sent for me on deck, where I found the boatswain's +mate at the grating, and all hands piped for punishment. "William +Moody," said that ruffian in a mocking voice, "I had ordered you three +dozen lashes for a certain offence, but you have now committed a much +graver one in endangering, by your late act, the life of one of his +majesty's sailors; you will therefore now receive <i>six</i> dozen instead. +Boatswain, do your duty." + +"'I was, therefore, tied up and punished. I don't think I suffered much +at the time, although I was laid up in the sick ward for long +afterwards. I was entirely occupied with thoughts of revenge. When I was +able to get about again, Captain Flinthert had got another ship, and was +away out of my reach. I never met him, again, or he would not have lived +to the age that is inscribed on yonder plate; but as soon as I heard +that he was dead, I swore to come and spit upon the tyrant's coffin.' + +"Then the sailor suited the action to the word, and turned from the +dishonoured corpse with a lighter step than that with which he had +approached it; and old Marks followed him from the vault, as he +confessed to me himself, 'half frightened out of his wits.'" + +"I do not wonder," said I to Mr. Gerard, "it was a terrible revenge." + +"Ay, but how much worse was the provocation; from the very man, too, +placed in authority of him, whose duty was to foster, not to oppress +him. Verily, they that are in honour, and understand not, are as the +beasts that perish." + +"True," returned I, "but then the wretch was dead." + +"Just so, young sir," replied Mr. Gerard, impetuously, "was dead, and +never felt the insult. The sailor felt both the insult and the lashes. +How is it that, at your age, you have already learned to be the +apologist of the rich in high places?" + +"Nay, sir, I--?" + +"Yes, <i>you</i>," continued my host with vehemence; "your pity is for the +admiral, and does not descend to the captain of the maintop. Still," +added he, in a milder tone, "I should not judge you harshly, even if you +so judge others. You were brought up in India, were you not? where in +the eyes of the cowering natives, to be white is to be powerful, and +wise, and all in all--save to be good. Great heavens, what a retribution +is waiting for us there!" Again my host paced the room, but this time +rapidly, wildly, and uttering exclamations like a sibyl inspired by her +god. "If the nabobs we see here are specimens of those who rule the +East, Heaven help the ruled! What blindness, what infatuation! Do you +know, young man, the very men that cause revolutions am the last to +believe in them?" This was an observation so entirely beyond me, that I +could only murmur that such was doubtless the case, although I did not +remember having heard it remarked before. "It is so," continued Mr. +Gerard, positively, "and it always has been so. It was so in France. I +suppose you have always been taught to consider the French Republicans +the vilest and wickedest of men, and the Revolution to be the mother +that produced them at one monstrous birth. Yes, when the day of +reckoning comes, and the ruin is undeniable, Democracy, forsooth, is +blamed. The taunt is hurled-- + + '"Behold the harvest that we reap + From popular government and equality!" + Whereas, in truth, 'tis neither these, nor aught + Of wild belief ingrafted on their names + By false philosophy, have caused the woe, + But a terrific reservoir of guilt + And ignorance, filled up from age to age, + That can no longer hold its loathsome charge, + But bursts, and spreads in deluge through the land.' + +High truth embalmed in noble verse, yet no one heeds. The author of +those lines, my friend, is the greatest poet in Great Britain, and has +never possessed an income of a hundred pounds a year. They say that my +Lord Castlereagh has thirty thousand...--Stay, do you not hear wheels? +That must be Sitwell's gig. I have not the patience to see him now. His +sycophantic officiousness in fetching Sir Massingberd was too +contemptible. How can a man who has two legs given him to stand upright +upon, persist in grovelling through life upon all-fours? + + 'Heaven grant the man some noble nook; + For, rest his soul! he'd rather be + Genteelly damned beside a duke + Than saved in vulgar company.' + +Do you receive him, Mr. Meredith; and tell him from me that it is no +thanks to him that his patient is yet alive. Now that the siege is +raised, I will just step in and see how the lad is getting on." + +My host had left the room only a few seconds when Dr. Sitwell entered +it. + +"My dear young friend!" exclaimed he, in an excited manner, "what on +earth has happened to Sir Massingberd Heath? He very nearly rode me down +ten minutes ago on Crittenden Common; and when I inquired after his +nephew, he replied--Well, I cannot repeat the exact words, because they +are so excessively shocking. Why, he must be out of his mind with grief! +I trust he did nothing impetuous, nothing that is to be regretted, +here?" + +"No, sir," replied I; "he did not, thanks to our good host, who +withstood all his attempts to see his nephew. It was, however, most +indiscreet of you to send him hither. Mr. Harvey Gerard was exceedingly +annoyed by your doing so." + +"My dear young friend," observed Dr. Sitwell, sinking his voice to a +confidential whisper, "Mr. Harvey Gerard is annoyed at many things which +would give most sensible persons a great deal of pleasure. He would as +soon admit a rattle-snake within his doors as a man of title, unless, +indeed, it be his friend, Sir Charles Wolseley. By the by, it is to Sir +Charles that my dear patient, Mr. Broadacres, is indirectly indebted for +his wound. If Sir Charles had not convened that revolutionary meeting at +Bangton, Mr. Broadacres would not have had to read the Riot Act, and +eventually got shot by mistake by his own men. It is denied by the +government, I perceive, that ball was fired by the troops at the first +discharge; but between ourselves such was certainly the case; for I +extracted the bullet from poor Mr. B. myself, and he has had to lie upon +his face ever since. Good heavens, sir, what a position for a man whose +family came in with the Conqueror!" + +"Is this Sir Charles Wolseley, then, of whom one reads so much in the +papers, a friend of Mr. Gerard's?" said I. "I have heard Mr. Long remark +that he was a very dangerous man." + +"So he is, sir. He'll be hung some day, as sure as he lives. And the +gentleman in whose house we stand is tarred with the same brush. It's +terrible to think of. Why, do you know, Mr. Meredith, that Mr. Harvey +Gerard goes the length"--here the doctor looked about him to be sure +that we were alone, and placing his lips close to my ear, whispered +solemnly, "of wearing a white hat!" + +"Gracious goodness," returned I, "why shouldn't he? My father always +wears a white hat in India." + +"Yes; but <i>let me tell you this</i>, India is not England," observed the +doctor, sagaciously. "A white hat here is the badge of Radicalism, +Republicanism, Atheism--I don't say that Mr. Gerard is a downright +atheist, but he's a sectary, and that's nearly as bad. And hark ye, I +know this for certain: the only reason why Henry Hunt himself is not +hand and glove with our friend is this, that when Hunt was tried for his +life for sedition, he came into the dock, like a prudent man, with a +black hat, and that is the one act of caution and good sense for which +Mr. Gerard has never forgiven him." + + +[1] This sarcasm was founded on literal truth; I myself remember a time +when Englishmen submitted to a system of oppression almost precisely +similar to that which has of late driven the Poles to insurrection, and +enlisted for them the sympathies of Europe--namely, a forced +conscription, the subjects of which are <i>selected</i>. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LOVE THE LIFEGIVER. + + +It was about four o'clock in the morning, or nearly twelve hours after +his frightful fall, that Marmaduke Heath first woke to consciousness. +Mr. Long and myself were passing the night in his apartment, which was a +very roomy one, my tutor upon a sofa, and I in a comfortable arm-chair. +I had begged that for that once at least it should be so, for I knew the +dear lad would like to set his eyes upon me when he first opened them. +Dr. Sitwell and his assistant, both agreed that if he woke at all from +his heavy stertorous slumber, it would be in his sane mind; and it was +so. Mr. Long was asleep, but I had so much to think about in the +occurrences and disclosures of the preceding evening, that slumber had +refused to visit me. + +I was as unused as happy youth in general is to sleeplessness. I did not +know at that time what it is to lay head upon pillow only to think upon +the morrow with a brain that has done its day's work, and would fain be +at rest; or worse, only to let the past re-enact itself under the +wearied eyelids; to watch the long procession of vanished forms again +fill the emptied scenes, and yet to be conscious of their unreality. How +different in this respect alone is the experience of age and youth, and +again of poverty and competence! A young man in tolerable circumstances, +and who does not chance to be a sportsman, may never have seen the sun +rise, that commonest of splendid spectacles to all men of humble +station. For my own part, I had never done so in England until the +occasion of which I speak, and I remember it very particularly. The +weary time spent in listening to the various noises of the house, now to +those consequent upon the retiring to rest of its inmates, and then to +those more mysterious ones which do not begin till afterwards--the +crickets on the hearth, the mice in the wainscot, the complaining of +chairs and wardrobes, and the clocks, which discourse in quite another +fashion than they do in the day. The slow hours consumed in watching the +rushlight spots, first on the floor and then on the wall, and at last +exchanged for the cool grey dawn, stealing in through cranny and crack, +and showing my companions still in the land of dreams; later yet the +drowsy crowing of cocks, and presently, as the light grows and grows, +notwithstanding shutter and curtain, the indescribably welcome song of +the early robin, the busy chirping of the house-sparrow, followed by the +whole tuneful choir of birds; then the lowing of cattle in the distance, +and the distant barking of the watch-dog, so strangely different from +that sad and solitary howl with which the same animal breaks the awful +stillness of the night. About four, I say, as I looked for the +thousandth time towards Marmaduke's bed, I saw him sitting up supporting +himself on his elbow, and pushing his other hand across his brow, as if +trying to call to mind where he was. In an instant I was at his bedside. +"Marmaduke, I am here," said I; "Peter Meredith." + +"I am not at Fairburn Hall, am I?" asked he, in a hoarse whisper. + +"No, Marmaduke, you are amongst friends." + +"Then <i>he</i> is not here," gasped he--"nowhere near." + +"He is miles away, my friend, and he will never come under this roof." + +"Thank Heaven--thank Heaven!" cried the poor boy, sinking back upon the +pillow; "it was only a dreadful dream, then. I shall die happy." + +"You need not talk of dying, Marmaduke. On the contrary, let us hope you +are about to begin a life unshadowed, natural, without fear." + +"No, Peter, I must die. I feel that; but what is death to what I have +been dreaming? Do you remember that poem which came down in the box of +books, from Mr. Clint, last week, about a wretched man that was bound +upon a wild horse and sent adrift in the Ukraine?" And then he repeated +with some difficulty-- + + "'How fast we fled, away, away, + And I could neither sigh, nor pray, + And my cold sweat-drops fell like rain + Upon the courser's bristling mane, + But snorting still with rage and fear, + He flew upon his far career; + At times I almost thought indeed, + He must have slackened in his speed; + But no; my bound and slender frame + Was nothing to his angry might, + And merely like a spur became.' + +Well, Peter, that was I. But instead of the wolves which followed upon +<i>his</i> track, it was my uncle Massingberd who followed <i>me</i>. He had +chosen to kill me as the Count Palatine would have killed Mazeppa, but +he wanted also to see it done. + + 'All through the night I heard his feet, + Their stealing rustling step repeat.' + +Great Heaven, I hear them now!" + +"Nay, Marmaduke, it is only I, your old tutor," said Mr. Long, tenderly, +who had not been able to leave his sofa entirely without noise. "You +must not give way to these fancies; you had a fall from Panther, that +is all." + +"Ay," returned the poor boy, "it <i>was</i> Panther, only I thought he was a +wild horse, and not my pony at all. + + 'But though my cords were wet with gore, + Which oozing through my limbs ran o'er; + And in my tongue the thirst became + A something fiercer far than flame;' + +that was nothing; nothing to the knowledge that that man was close +behind. Now that I am awake, I feel bruised from head to heel, my bones +ache, my head seems as though it were about to burst, but that is +nothing to--" the poor lad could not finish the sentence, but exclaimed +with piteous vehemence--"do, Mr. Long, do promise me that I shall never +see him more." + +"You shall never see him more, if I can help it," returned my tutor, +with unusual energy. "Yes, I think I can promise that you never shall." +I well knew that so cautious a man as Mr. Long would not have said so +much without full warrant; it was evident to me at once that he had +heard from Mr. Gerard all that had passed between that gentleman and the +baronet in the drawing-room, and was now determined to act with vigour +in Marmaduke's behalf. Perhaps the coincidence of the lad's dream with +what had in fact occurred, may have helped my tutor's decision, but now +that he had once passed his word, I felt sure that he would stand by +Marmaduke to the last. + +The sick boy seemed to feel this too, for he uttered many expressions of +gratitude and contentment, while he kept fast hold of his new +protector's hand. + +"But mind, Marmaduke, you must now make haste and get well, and not give +way to despondency about yourself. I am going for the doctor, who is +sleeping in the house, and whom I promised to call as soon as you +awoke; and, Peter, don't you let him talk too much. For a boy like that +to talk of death," added Mr. Long, aloud, as he drew on his slippers, +"is to go half-way to meet it." + +Marmaduke smiled feebly at this remark of his unconscious tutor's, and +when he had left the room, observed, "There is no need of any doctors; +this is my death-bed, Meredith, I know." + +"Marmaduke," replied I, gravely, "I will not listen to such dreadful +things; it is wrong, it is wicked, it will do you harm." + +"No, Peter, there is nothing dreadful in the thing I mean, and it seems +to soothe me when I speak of it. Since I have been ill, I have had a +sign that tells me I must go. We shall not grow up together to be +friends through life, as we had planned. I shall watch you perhaps--I +hope I shall--and be happy in your happiness, but you will soon forget +<i>me</i>. There will be a thousand things for you to think of; there have +been such even now for you while <i>I</i>--it seems hard, does it not, Peter, +that I should have grown up under the shadow of that man, and never felt +the Sunshine? They say that boyhood is the blithest time of life, but I +have never been a boy. I think I could almost tell him, if he stood here +now, how he has poisoned my young life, and sent me to the grave without +one pleasant memory to moisten my dying eyes. Yes, my friend, dying. I +have seen a vision in the night far too sweet and fear not to have been +sent from heaven itself. If there indeed be angels, such was she. They +say the Heaths have always ghastly warnings when their hour is come, but +this was surely a gentle messenger. I close my eyes and see that smile +once more." + +"Has she hair of golden brown?" inquired I, gravely, "and hazel eyes, +large and pitiful, and does she smile sad and sweet as though one's pain +would soon be over?" + +"That is she, that is she," exclaimed Marmaduke, eagerly, while from his +heavy eyelids the light flashed forth as from a thunder-cloud; "oh, tell +me who and what she is!" + +"Her name is Lucy Gerard," replied I, quietly, "and we are, at this +moment, in her father's house." + +Marmaduke's mention of her smile had revealed to me the secret alike of +dream and vision. He must have been dimly conscious of the catastrophe +that had occurred to him throughout, although he had confused himself, +poor fellow, with Mazeppa, and the daughter of our host with a vision +from the skies. His eyes were now closed, and with features as pale as +the pillow on which he lay, he was repeating to himself her name as +though it were a prayer. + +"Marmaduke," said I, "we will talk no more, since it exhausts you thus; +I hear Mr. Long returning with the doctor, be of good heart, and keep +your thoughts from dwelling--" + +"Yes," interrupted he, as though he would prevent the very mention of +that grisly king of whom he had been but now conversing so familiarly, +"I will, I will. It would indeed be bitter to die <i>now</i>." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +WOOING BY PROXY. + + +The medical report of Marmaduke Heath was more than cheering; it was +confident. "One of the very best features of that young man's case is +this," said Dr. Sitwell, "he does not give way. Foolish youths of his +age will sometimes, as it were, fall in love with Death, until it is +absolutely close beside them, poor fellows, when they shrink from him +like the best of us." + +"You should rather say the worst of us, Dr. Sitwell," observed my tutor. + +"Well, sir, as far as my experience goes," returned the doctor, +cheerfully, "and I have 'assisted,' as Mr. Gerard here will have +it, at the demise of many persons of the very first respectability, few +of us are apt to welcome death; the majority, contrary to what is +vulgarly believed, pay him no sort of attention whatsoever." + +"And yet," remarked Mr. Harvey Gerard, slily, "he came over before the +Conqueror, and possesses a considerable amount of land all over the +country." + +"True, sir, true," replied the doctor, gravely; "and those are +attributes which should always command respect. With regard, however, to +our young patient, he seems determined, notwithstanding his sufferings, +to be cheerful, and bear up. I have told him how essential it is to do +so, and the young gentleman is most reasonable, I am sure. 'I do not +want to die, I wish to live,' were his very words--a most satisfactory +and sensible state of mind. Fairburn Hall--he did not say this, but I +knew what was passing through his brain quite well--Fairburn Hall, and +one of the oldest baronetcies in the kingdom, are something to live +<i>for</i>--that is a great point in cases of this kind." + +I am sure I felt thankful and glad to hear this account of my dear +friend; yet I could not help wishing that Dr. Sitwell had been as +correct in the cause of Marmaduke's clinging to life, as in the fact +itself. For I too was stricken with love for Lucy Gerard, and would have +laid down my life to kiss her finger tip. It is the fashion now to jeer +at that which is called First Love, as though affection were not worth +having until it has first exhausted itself upon a score of objects; nay, +perhaps, the thing itself is as extinct as the Dodo. In my day, however, +the Great Three-Hundred-a-Year Marriage-Question was not yet broached, +and gentlemen did not complainingly publish their rejections at the +hands of the fair sex in the "Times" newspaper. Nearly half a century +has passed over my head since the time of which I write, and has not +spared its snows, and yet, I swear to you, my old heart glows again, and +on my withered cheek there comes a blush as I call, to mind the time +when first I met that pure and fair young girl. + +The worship of a lad is never lasting, it is said, although I know not +upon what authority--society so seldom permitting the experiment to be +made, that the <i>dictum</i> can hardly be established; but while it does +last, at least, how clear and steady is the incense! how honest is the +devotion! how complete the sacrifice! Since I have been an old fogey, it +has been confided to me by more than one ancient flirt that they still +experience a rapture when they chance to catch the affection of a boy. +They are kinder to him than they are to older men; they let him down +easy; they respect the infatuation which they themselves have long lost +the power of entertaining. How delicious, then, must such a conquest be +to a maiden of seventeen! I claim for myself the possession of no +tenderer nor truer feelings than other lads, but I know that a queen +might have accepted the heart-homage which I paid to Lucy Gerard. And +never was fealty more disinterested. I have written down not a little to +my discredit; let me then say this much in my own favour. From the +moment that Marmaduke Heath spoke to me as he did, upon his bed of +sickness, of our host's daughter, I determined within myself not only to +stand aside, and let him win her if he could, but to help him by all +means within my power. If he lived for her alone, should I endeavour to +slay him? If a promise, however distant, of a bright and happy future +seemed at length to be held out for him whose life had been so saddened +and so bitter, should I strive to make it void? I could not <i>afford</i> to +lose her; no. I would have given all that I had in the world to hear her +whisper, "I love you;" I would have beggared myself, I say, for those +mere words; but could <i>he</i>, poor lad, afford the loss of her so well? + +Doubtless, in modern eyes, we both appear mere foolish victims of +calf-love; green hobbardy-hoys, dazzled with the first flutter of a +petticoat. As for me, let it be so received, and welcome, although, my +young male readers, this is to be said, You never saw Lucy Gerard. +Otherwise you would wonder little at my--well, at my poor folly. But +with respect to Marmaduke, it must be admitted that his was not an +ordinary case. Although a boy in years, he had long been sitting on the +shores of old romance, and had probably more of the divine faculty for +Love within him than all the ardent souls of five-and-thirty put +together, who are at this moment turning their eyes about them for a +suitable young person with whose income to unite their own. Since his +mother died, he had scarcely beheld a virtuous woman, with the exception +of dear Mrs. Myrtle, the housekeeper at the Rectory, whose appearance +was calculated to excite respect rather than the sentimental emotions; +and now he had suddenly been brought face to face with one whose equal +for form and feature, for gentleness and graciousness, for modesty and +courage, these eyes have never yet beheld. I have done. There shall be +no more ecstasies, reader; an old man thanks you that you have borne +with his doting garrulity even thus long. + +Since the days of Earl Athelwold, and probably long before them, the +wooing by proxy has been held to be a perilous undertaking; we cannot +take the fingers of a fair lady within our own, and say, "This is not my +hand at all," as though we were Bishop Berkeley; or still more, "This is +somebody else's hand," which it manifestly is not. If credit is to be +given to such protestations at all, there is no knowing where to stop; +and yet we must be doing something tender, or we are not performing our +duty as deputy. But how tenfold are the dangers of this enterprise, when +the delegate of another has at one time contemplated performing the +mission in question upon his own account. Of this peril--although fully +determined to speak a good word for Marmaduke--I was well aware; I even +considered within myself whether it would not be safer, upon the whole, +to return at once to Fairburn Rectory, lest I should do my friend an +involuntary wrong. Yes, I was walking in the garden at the Dovecot after +breakfast, considering this, when I came upon Lucy Gerard herself, and +flight became impossible to me, being mortal. I was pacing a winding +path that ran beside the lawn, but was hidden from it by a glittering +wall of laurel, and lo! there she stood, unconscious of my advent, +beside--what? a statue? a sun-dial? No, a rose-tree, striving upwards by +help of a little cross of white marble. Her face was westward, so that +the morning sun shone like a glory on the wealth of hair that rippled +down her shoulders: beside her indoor garments she wore only a little +braided apron, full of pockets that held scissors, pruning-knife, the +thing which is called "bass" I believe, and other horticultural +weapons, and on her head the tiniest straw-hat, with a brim obviously +intended to shelter more than one--a perfect garden-saint; and at her +prayers! for while I looked, she knelt upon the grass-border (to shake +some insect from a rose, I at first thought, or remove a faded leaf), +and so, with bowed head, remained for several minutes. When she arose, +and saw me hesitating whether to advance or retreat, she blushed a +little, but in her usual quiet tone begged me not to be disturbed. "You +could not know that this is forbidden ground here; it was my fault, who +ought to have told you; our own folks all know it, and so few guests +ever come to the Dovecot, that it never struck me, Mr. Meredith, to give +you a Trespass notice." + +"But since I am here, Miss Gerard, and the intrusion has been made--most +innocently, I assure you--may I not be suffered to satisfy what, +believe me, is not a mere vulgar curiosity?" + +"I do not think," returned the young lady, with some hesitation, "that +my father would object to your knowing our little secret; you are going +to remain with us some time, he hopes, and--yes, I am sure you will +respect what with us is held so secret. This cross and rose-tree are set +above my little sister's grave. See, that is what we used to call +her--LITTLE ELLA. She of whom I spoke to you in the drawing-room +yesterday." + +I daresay my stupid face exhibited more of astonishment than sympathy. +No wonder, thought I, that the doctor called Mr. Gerard a sectary, and +that Mr. Long was so cold and distant in his manner! + +"You seem surprised, Mr. Meredith, that my father should have acted +thus--should have placed the tomb of his dear child where he can always +come to weep and pray at it, and not amid the long dank grasses in +Crittenden churchyard. Is it so very rare a thing to bury those we love +elsewhere than in a churchyard?" + +"I only know one other instance," said I, "and that is in the Heath +family." + +"Indeed," replied Miss Gerard, gravely, moving away as though not +wishing to converse of ordinary things in that sacred neighbourhood, "I +trust we have but little in common with <i>them</i>." + +"Truly, I can scarcely imagine that you and they are of the same +species," replied I, with irrepressible admiration, "you who do not even +know what wickedness is!" + +"What! I? Oh, but I am sometimes very, very wicked, I assure you," +replied Miss Gerard. She looked so serious, nay, so sad, that I could +have taken up her little hand and kissed it, there and then, to comfort +her. But would such a course of conduct assist poor Marmaduke? thought +I, and fortunately in time. + +"There is one of the Heath family," said I, "at all events, whose good +qualities will go far to atone for the shortcomings of his adversaries, +if he only lives to exercise them." + +That "if he only lives" I considered to be very diplomatic; it was +enlisting a tender sympathy for his perilous condition to start with. + +"Dr. Sitwell says that there is little danger," replied Miss Gerard, +quietly. + +"I know better," observed I, confidentially; "his life or death hangs +upon a thread, a chance." + +"Good heavens! Mr. Meredith, what can you mean? The brain, we are +assured, is quite uninjured." + +"My dear Miss Gerard," returned I, "it is not his brain that is +affected; it is his heart. His recovery, I am positively certain, +depends upon you." + +"Upon me! Mr. Meredith?" replied she, while a blush sprung from neck to +forehead on the instant, as though a white rose should become a red +one--"upon <i>me</i>?" + +"Yes, dear young lady; that is, upon you and your good father. This lad +will find here, for the first time in his young life, peace and +tenderness--a new existence, if you only choose, will expand around him, +such as he has never even dreamt of. I do not ask you to be kind to him, +for you cannot be otherwise than kind; but consider his sad +condition--fatherless, motherless, and having for his only relative a +wretch whose atrocity is unspeakable, what reason has he to wish for +life? But you, you may teach him to feel that existence has something +else to offer than sorrow, and shame, and fear." + +"Alas, sir! I am nothing," returned Miss Gerard. "But if your friend +desire a teacher to whom fear and shame are unknown, and whom sorrow has +rendered wise, not sad, he will find one in my dear father. Oh, Mr. +Meredith, if you knew him as I know him, how tender he is as well as +strong, you would go straight to <i>him</i>! What I have of help within me, +if I have anything, is derived from him alone." + +"There are some maladies," said I, "against which not the most skilful +physician can avail without a gentle nurse to smooth the pillow. I am +sure I need say no more, except to assure you that what ever kind +offices you may bestow upon Marmaduke Heath, will not be wasted upon an +unworthy object. He is most honourable, generous, warm-hearted--" + +"And very fortunate," interrupted Miss Gerard, cordially, "in having a +friend to be thus enthusiastic for him in his absence!" + +Her eyes sparkled with pleasure; and she held out her hand frankly as +she spoke. I took it, and pressed it for an instant. A shock of joy +passed through my frame; my whole being trembled with ecstasy. Passion +took me by storm, and for one glorious moment held the very citadel of +my soul; but it was for the last time, believe me, Marmaduke, the last +time in all my life. Fifty years have come and gone, with their full +share of pleasure and pain, but have never brought a moment of bliss +like that, nor such icy despair as the thought of thee, my friend, +caused to succeed it! + +I write not in self-praise. I was not so mad as to suppose that Lucy +Gerard would have ever stooped to love Peter Meredith when once she had +known Marmaduke Heath. If he had so endeared himself to <i>me</i>, a selfish +boy, who knew not half his gifts, or, at least, knew not how to value +them--that I thus rudely broke my own brief love-dream for his sake, +would he not draw <i>her</i> towards him, laden with all her wealth of heart +and brain, as the moon draws the wave! It was so afterwards; but I knew +it then, as though it had already been. Yet, Marmaduke, yet I gave you +something, for it was all I had, when I laid at your feet, to form a +stepping-stone for you, my own heart. You trod upon it, my dear and +faithful friend--But, thank heaven! you never knew that you did so. I +wonder whether Lucy ever knew! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE COUNCIL OF WAR. + + +On the second morning after our arrival at the Dovecot, Mr. Long called +me into the dining-room, where I found Mr. Gerard and a third gentleman, +who had come down by the night-mail, as I understood, from London. +Although, I should think, not less than seventy years of age, he was +dressed in the height of the then prevailing mode. He wore a +snuff-coloured coat, the tails of which trailed from his chair upon the +ground, whenever he was so fortunate as not to be sitting upon them; the +brass buttons at his back were nearly as large as the handles of an +ordinary chest of drawers. A bunch of seals, each about the size of +that peculiar to the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, dangled from +his fob. His pantaloons, which seemed to have shrunk in the washing, set +off a pair of legs that were still not uncomely; but what was most +remarkable was an enormous muslin cravat, which, in combination with the +ruffles of his shirt, gave him the aspect of a pouter pigeon. +Unaccustomed as I then was to the toilet of persons of distinction, Mr. +Clint of Russell Square--for he it was--made a very strong impression +upon me. As the family lawyer of the Heaths, and one who had always +greatly interested himself in Marmaduke, he had been sent for by my +tutor to give his opinion as to what steps should be taken respecting +the future disposal of the poor lad. I guessed by his grave face that he +had been put in possession, not only of all that had happened through +the agency of Sir Massingberd, but of all that had been designed to +happen. + +"If you have any doubt still remaining, Mr. Clint, as to the propriety +of removing Marmaduke Heath from the custody of his uncle," observed my +tutor, after introducing me to this venerable beau, "I think this +gentleman can dissipate it. Now, Peter, tell us, in confidence, what +sort of footing do you consider your young friend and Sir Massingberd to +stand upon; are they good--" + +"Stop, stop, Mr. Long," interrupted the lawyer, taking an enormous pinch +of snuff from a silver-box, and holding up his laden fingers in a +prohibitory manner; "we must not have any leading questions if you +please. Mr. Meredith, it is most important that you state to us the +truth, without mitigation or exaggeration. You heard your tutor's first +inquiry, which was a most correct one. How does Mr. Marmaduke Heath +stand with respect to his uncle?" + +"Well, sir," said I quietly, "he stands, as it were, upon the brink of a +deep river, with his back towards a person who is bent upon pushing him +in." + +A total silence ensued upon this remark. Mr. Long and Mr. Gerard +interchanged very meaning glances. + +"Very good," returned the lawyer coolly, administering half the snuff to +his nose, and dropping the other half among his shirt-ruffles. "That is +a form of speech, I suppose, by which you would imply that Marmaduke is +afraid of his uncle?" + +"Very much," said I; "afraid of his life." + +"And you have had no previous conversation upon this subject with either +of these gentlemen, that is--you must forgive me if I press this +somewhat hardly--they have never asked your opinion on the matter +before?" + +"Certainly not, sir." + +"You are speaking, too, I conclude from your own observation of course, +from your own knowledge of Mr. Marmaduke Heath's sentiments and +position, and not from any hearsay rumour?" + +"I am perfectly convinced, Mr. Clint," returned I gravely, "that Sir +Massingberd Heath wishes to get rid of his nephew, and that Marmaduke +knows it." + +"Then Sir Massingberd shall be gratified," observed Mr. Gerard, with +energy; "he shall get rid of him from this day." + +"Stop, stop, my dear sir," interposed the lawyer. "Even supposing that +all this is true, both the facts that I have received from you and Mr. +Long, and the surmises entertained by this young gentleman, we are +still only at the threshold of the matter. From the manner in which Sir +Massingberd expressed himself when he wrote to me to demand the custody +of the boy, and from his whole conduct since, I am certain that he will +not give up his position as guardian without a severe struggle. We must +steadily look our difficulties in the face. Supposing that, having been +assured of Marmaduke's convalescence, he should send a post-chaise over +here next week, or the week after, with a note, insisting upon his +immediate return to Fairburn Park, what is to be done then?" + +"I should send the post-chaise back again," returned Mr. Gerard, calmly, +"with the verbal reply, that Mr. Marmaduke was not coming." + +"But suppose he wrote to Marmaduke himself?" + +"The reply would come from me all the same, Mr. Clint." + +"But if Sir Massingberd appeals to the law?" + +"He dare not!" exclaimed my host; "his audacity, great as it is, stops +short of that. If he did, as sure as the sun is shining, I would meet +him with the charge of attempted murder." + +Mr. Clint took out of his other coat-tail a second snuff-box, which he +never made use of except in cases of great emergency. "You are prepared +to go that length, are you?" + +"I am, sir," returned Mr. Gerard, firmly. + +"You have not a shadow of foundation for such an assertion," pursued Mr. +Clint, reflectively. "The slander will be pronounced malicious; you will +be cast in swingeing damages." + +"That is possible," remarked my host; "but there, nevertheless, will be +such revelations of Sir Massingberd's mode of life, as may well cause +the chancellor to reflect whether Fairburn Hall is a fitting educational +establishment for a minor." + +"John Lord Eldon is not an ascetic--" + +"I know it, sir;" broke forth Mr. Gerard; "I am well aware that he is a +heartless scoundrel, as dissipated, as dishonest, and--" + +"Sir," interrupted Mr. Clint, with irritation. "I will not listen to +such mad words. You may utter them, of course, in your own house, but +not to me. This is the talk of those who would subvert all authority." + +"They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities," murmured my tutor. + +"I do not speak evil of dignities, my dear sir, but only of the rogues +who fill them," exclaimed Mr. Gerard, laughing. "However, I beg your +pardon, gentlemen; the remark escaped me quite involuntarily. You are +aware, Mr. Clint, that my Lord Eldon is not absolutely an ascetic." + +"I was about to say, sir," observed the old lawyer stiffly, "that his +lordship is not so tenderly alive to the necessity of moral training as +some of his friends would wish, and he has a strong respect for natural +authority. He would lean, therefore, towards Sir Massingberd's view of +the question--with whom; indeed, he is personally not unacquainted--and +be induced to palliate his way of life." + +"Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless, are those in Eldon's charge," +murmured Mr. Gerard. "Still," continued he, in a louder tone, "the +charge of attempted murder, Mr. Clint, would have this effect, that even +if Marmaduke were reconsigned to his uncle's care--which Heaven +forbid--the eyes of the world would be upon Sir Massingberd, and he +would not venture to work him a mischief. In the meantime, it rests with +us to take good care that he has not the chance of doing so." + +"And now," resumed Mr. Clint, after a pause, "supposing that all is +arranged thus far to repel Sir Massingberd's claims, there is another +matter to be considered. It would take long to explain the details of +the case, but you must understand that the Heath property is very +peculiarly situated. Sir Massingberd, who is in the enjoyment of it for +life, cannot raise a shilling upon it; while Marmaduke does not possess +a shilling, although the prospective heir of such vast wealth. They +would be, in short, at present a couple of beggars; but by a special +arrangement with a certain person, whom I need not name, a small annual +sum has been allotted for the benefit of the boy, but, practically, +quite as much so for that of his uncle. A certain annuity, I say, is +paid to Sir Massingberd for the maintenance of his nephew, and another, +solely on the latter's behalf, for that of the estate. It is a most +beautifully intricate affair from first to last," pursued the lawyer +with unction; "here are two relatives, who mutually support one another, +and have yet every reason, looking at the matter in a rather worldly way +of course, to wish each other dead. Sir Massingberd could borrow plenty +of money, if the usurers were only confident that he could, as well as +would, make away with his nephew. There would be even less difficulty +under ordinary circumstances in procuring a loan for Marmaduke; but a +delicate boy, whose uncle and guardian is bent upon putting a violent +end to him--you see that renders the security so very slight. +Altogether, it is certainly one of the nicest cases. It is not only a +question of responsibility; there are always plenty of people ready to +take any amount of <i>that</i> at a sufficient premium; but who will +undertake the pecuniary charge of the lad if he is withdrawn from his +uncle's roof? Sir Massingberd, of course, will never give up one tittle +of the allowance entrusted to him to expend, except upon such compulsion +as we should scarcely venture to employ. There are three years wanting +to the boy's majority; and even when he has arrived at that, and should +be willing to promise ample repayment, he may die before his uncle +still, who has a constitution of adamant, when those who have maintained +him may whistle for the money they have expended. The expression may be +coarse," added Mr. Clint apologetically, "but I think it conveys my +meaning." + +"I thank you, Mr. Clint," observed my tutor, after a little pause, "for +putting this matter before us so bluntly and decidedly. For my part, I +am far from being a rich man; but, on the other hand, there are no +persons who have a better claim upon my resources than my dear young +friend and pupil, Marmaduke Heath. That he will repay me if he survives +his uncle, I am more than assured; and, if he die early, I shall not +regret that the remainder of his young life has been rendered happy +through my means, although it may have cost me a few comforts." + +I stooped down and said a few words in my tutor's ear. "No, Peter, no," +continued he; "you are a good lad, and your father is, doubtless, +generous enough to comply with your wishes; but we must not resort to +such a distant source in this emergency, indeed. Mr. Clint, do you think +that a hundred and forty to a hundred and sixty pounds a year might be +made sufficient to keep Marmaduke with respectability?" + +"Half your annual stipend, eh, Mr. Long, eh?" ejaculated the lawyer. +"Bless my soul, how this snuff gets in one's eyes! Such a sum should be +quite sufficient. I think that would be found more than enough. He +cannot live at your rectory, of course; that would be almost as bad as +at the Hall; but there are plenty of spare rooms in my house in town. He +has stayed there before, so that that can be done, we know. Marmaduke +and I are old friends--No, no, it will not hurt me. Such a course cannot +bring me into greater antagonism with Sir Massingberd than I am in +already. I am always at daggers-drawn with him. He is for ever cutting +down trees that don't belong to him, or selling heirlooms that are no +more his than mine, or embroiling himself with me, the appointed +guardian of the property, in some way or other. Yes, I'll take the lad, +Mr. Long, come what will of it." + +"You will do nothing of the kind," exclaimed my host, energetically; +"you honest lawyer, and very worthy man; and you, you good +priest--contradictions in terms, both of you--you shall not give away +half your annual stipend, or my name is not Harvey Gerard. I have done +each of you a very grievous wrong in thought, if not in word; and I +hereby beg your pardon. It is possible, I perceive, to be a Tory, and +yet preserve, if not a conscience, at least a heart." + +My tutor smiled; Mr. Clint bowed his acknowledgments. + +"With regard to Mr. Marmaduke Heath, however," pursued our host, "that +young gentleman must be my especial charge. From this day until the +period when he comes into his property, or lies in need of decent +interment, as the case may be, he is my guest; or, if my house is +distasteful to him, I will advance him whatever sums he may reasonably +require for his maintenance elsewhere. Please to consider that that is +settled, gentlemen." + +"Whatever we may think of the political opinions of Mr. Harvey Gerard," +observed Mr. Clint, with feeling, "his name has always been associated +with acts of matchless generosity." + +"Always, always," echoed Mr. Long; then added reflectively, "he has paid +the fines of half the rogues in the country, and bailed the other half +who have been committed to prison." + +A simultaneous burst of merriment from his three hearers greeted this +naive remark of my unconscious tutor. + +"I have done so upon one occasion, I confess," replied Mr. Gerard, +good-naturedly. "I became surety, in 1791, for the good behaviour of a +poor Birmingham rioter, as I thought, who turned out to be a Government +spy. However, I assure you, generosity has nothing to do with my present +intentions with respect to young Heath. My income is sufficiently large +to admit of my accommodating the poor lad with ease, even if the +repayment, sooner or later, were not almost certain, as it really is. +But, besides all this, I must confess that the undertaking affords me +exceeding satisfaction. Mr. Long, you are, I have heard, an enthusiastic +fisherman; that is no common pleasure which you feel when your rod is +bowed by some enormous trout, cunning and strong, who may break the +whole of your tackle, and get away, after all, but who also may be +landed helpless on the bank, a victim to your skill and patience. That +is exactly the sport which I promise myself with Sir Massingberd Heath. +If he were one whit less greedy, less formidable, less pitiless, I +should feel less hostility towards him; he has, fortunately, no +redeeming point. I have hated tyranny all my life, and I hate this man, +who seems to be the very embodiment of it. He makes his boast that no +one has ever stood between himself and his wicked will. Let us see what +he will make of Harvey Gerard." + +The speaker drew himself up proudly, but certainly not with unbecoming +pride. His form dilated as he spoke; his voice grew deep without losing +its distinctness; and into his mild eyes a sternness crept as when the +frost congeals the lake. But for a spice of haughtiness, which to some +might have appeared even arrogance, he could have stood for St. Michael +in his contest with the foul Fiend,--have personified the Spirit of Good +defying the Spirit of Evil. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE GIPSY CAMP. + + +After not a little opposition upon the part of Mr. Long, who would have +willingly borne his share in Marmaduke's expenses, it was settled that +Mr. Gerard should be the young man's host, if he could only contrive to +retain him in defiance of the power of Sir Massingberd; his home, +however, was not to be the Dovecot, which was judged to be too much +exposed, by its proximity to Fairburn, to the machinations of the enemy. +The Gerards were to remove to their town residence in Harley Street, as +soon as their guest was fit to accompany them. At first, his progress +was tedious, but he grew rapidly convalescent as soon as he was able to +exchange his bed for a sofa. Never was sick man more hospitably treated, +or so graciously tended. Mr. Gerard possessed that almost feminine +gentleness of manner which is generally found in persons of his peculiar +organization. His sympathy, at least as easily aroused as his +antagonism, was now deeply enlisted in favour of Marmaduke for his own +sake; he recognized his talents, and the beauty and tenderness of his +mind, and won him, by pleasant studious talk, from the melancholy that +overhung it; and the young man's heart, thrilling response to every +touch of kindness, turned towards him, and expanded like a flower in the +sun. As for Lucy, what rudest health would I not have exchanged for +Marmaduke's languor, as he lay and listened to her clear sweet voice, +now singing some cheerful ballad to enliven him, now reading aloud some +tale so musically that itself seemed song! He could read to himself but +little as yet, and if he did take up a book, his eyes refused to regard +it, but followed the lovely girl, wherever she moved, with worship. + +"This happiness is too great to last, Peter," he would often say; "it +will all fade one day, I know, and leave me desolate. What man living is +worthy to possess yon glorious creature? I feel as though I had no right +even to love her. Yet, great heaven! how I <i>do</i> love her. How +unconscious she is of her perfect sweetness! How she graces the meanest +thing which she may set herself to do! Her presence seems to breathe +very life into me; I then forget everything but her--even Sir +Massingberd. To return to him would be death indeed--death death!" Then +he would sink back, as if prostrated with the thought, and so remain +despairingly despondent until he heard Lucy's voice, or laugh, or +footstep. All this was bitter for me to bear. I was glad when Mr. Long +suggested to me that he thought it was no longer necessary for me to +remain with Marmaduke, and that I should return to Fairburn Rectory and +my studies. Still, my heart was heavy upon that morning which was to be +the last I was to spend under the same roof with Lucy Gerard. Within the +last few weeks--nay, it happened in a few hours--I had Loved and I had +Lost. If there be any to read this in whose eyes these words have +meaning, they will pity me. I do not match such grief, indeed, for a +single instant against the sorrow a man must feel for the loss of the +loved companion of his life, against the lone wretchedness of recent +widowhood; but it is a grievous blow. I wished Marmaduke and Mr. Gerard +"good-bye" without quite knowing that I did so. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Meredith," said Lucy, and though her voice was even lower +and sweeter than usual, it wounded me like a knife. + +"Why don't you call him Peter, Lucy?" exclaimed her father, laughing. "I +think it would be more civil, now that we are going to lose him." + +"Thank you, sir," said I, gratefully; and she did say "God bless you, +Peter," very, very kindly. + +Ever since that morning she called me so; but I was Peter to all of +them, you see, as well as to her. Then I called her Lucy, and though for +the first and last time, I shall never forget it. + + "I couldna say mair, but just 'Fare ye weel, Lucy + Yet that I will mind till the day that I dee." + +Then I mounted my horse, my luggage having already preceded me, and +slowly took my way towards Fairburn. My life-blood seemed to ebb with +every step. The clang of the gate that shut me out from the last foot of +ground belonging to the Dovecot, sent a shudder through me like a knell. +I was on the very spot where Marmaduke had met with the accident that +had been so nearly fatal. Supposing it had killed him! Supposing...--I +thanked God that I was able to thank Him from an honest heart that it +had not done so. + +Then I felt a little better. Having ascended the hill, I put my horse +into a sharp canter upon the common, and the cool air through which I +swiftly passed refreshed me. The hollow in which the encampment had been +was now deserted, and only the round bare spot amid the green, which is +the gipsy autograph, announced that it had ever been there. Some miles +further on, however, a little brown-legged boy, evidently of that +wandering fraternity, suddenly emerged from a fir plantation, and stood +before me in the road as if to beg. I was already feeling in my pocket +for a penny, when, showing his white teeth in gratitude, he shook his +head, and coming close to my stirrup, exclaimed, "You are the gentleman +from Mr. Gerard's, sir, are you not? Would you please to come and see +Granny Rachel?" + +In an instant, I remembered the pocket-flask, which I had entirely +forgotten since the day in which it came into my possession; for all I +knew, it was then lying yet in the drawing-room at the Dovecot. + +"Yes, my boy, that will I," returned I; "but I fear I have not brought +her what she wants." + +He looked up in the bright interrogative manner peculiar to his tribe, +so different to the stolid wonder of the agriculturist. + +"She wants <i>you</i>, sir, as I understood. This is the sixth day that she +has set me to watch for you by this roadside. Will you please to follow +me?" + +The boy started off at a pace which compelled me to move too fast for +further questioning; and skirting the plantation for a hundred yards, +stopped at the entrance of a roadway leading through the wood. The +coming winter had not yet turned the broad green track to sand, and it +ran so straight and far, that the pine trees seemed to stand on either +side--a solid wall--with nothing but the blue heaven for their limit. +This landscape of right lines would have delighted a painter of the +Pre-Raphaelite school, it looked so stiff and unnatural; but pursuing +the track for a little distance, and then plunging over a ditch and +bank into the plantation itself, we suddenly came upon a scene which +would have suited Morland. A low tent, with half-naked but merry +children crawling in and out; a she-ass and her foal; a handsome male +Epicurean, lying on his back, smoking a short, well-coloured pipe, the +hue of which precisely resembled that of his own skin; a young girl in +scarlet mantle, and with earrings of great splendour, gathering +fir-cones to feed the flames which licked around an iron pot suspended +on four sticks, piled musket-fashion; and an old crone, sitting by the +same, and picking the feathers from a bird, which, had the time of year +been beyond the end of September, I should have certainly taken for a +hen-pheasant. But to suppose this, would have been to suppose an +infraction of the game laws! The walnut-stained children stopped their +play as I approached, and stood in various attitudes of wonder, like +beauteous bronzes; the man turned over on his side, and opened his +slumbrous eyes a hairbreadth; the girl flashed one quick, comprehensive +glance upon me, and then resumed her occupation. The old woman nodded +familiarly without rising, and observed quietly, "So you are come at +last, Peter Meredith. I trust you have brought good news of Marmaduke +Heath." + +"He is better," said I, "much better; and he knows who brought him help, +and is very grateful. You have been expected daily at the Dovecot, where +something more substantial than mere thanks is waiting for you." + +"Rachel Liversedge desires neither silver nor gold," returned the old +woman; "she has had her reward already, if what you say be true. It was +not for love of the boy that I acted as I did; he has too much evil +blood in him to earn my liking. But I am glad as though he were my own +son that he will live." + +"Carew," cried she, triumphantly, "no wonder <i>bura</i> Sir Massingberd +looked <i>kalo</i> as ourselves." + +"Oh, the great man looks black, does he?" said I. + +The old woman dropped the bird, the girl her fir-cones, and both stared +wildly at me, as though my voice had come from the clouds; the man +sprung to his feet, and uttered a cry of wonder. + +"What! do you speak our tongue?" cried he. + +"Nay; you speak mine," returned I, calmly. "<i>Bura</i> is great; and <i>kala</i>, +which you call <i>kalo</i>, is black, of course; everybody knows that who +knows Hindustanee." + +Then the three burst out together in a language, one word out of four of +which seemed to be more or less familiar to me; as for understanding +what they said, of course it was simply impossible; but no matter, I had +established my reputation. From that moment, I felt myself to be the +honoured guest of the family. Would I smoke? Would I eat? Would I drink? +I was thirsty, and I said that I would gladly take some water--which, at +a venture, I called <i>paince</i>. + +"<i>Paunce</i>!" cried they, extravagantly delighted. "He talks like a true +Cingari; and only look! is he not dark-skinned!" + +The few words that my old ayah had taught me in India had thus procured +me a hearty welcome in a Midshire fir-plantation. + +"Sit down by me, Peter Meredith, my son," exclaimed the old woman; "and +do you fetch him water, Mina." + +I dismounted, and did as I was bid; while the young girl took a +pitcher, and presently brought it filled from a running Stream near by, +and offered it to me, like another Rebecca. But her grandmother--for +such she was--cried, "Stop! let me put something in it;" and produced +from her pocket the self-same flask which she herself had given me a few +weeks ago, and which I had thought was left behind at the Dovecot. + +"Why, I was blaming myself for not having brought you that thing back +to-day," said I; "I never heard of your coming to claim it." + +"Nor did I, young gentleman," returned the old woman, proudly. "Harvey +Gerard is too kind a man to visit when one is not in need. That was why +I left his house that day, directly I had told what had befallen +Marmaduke Heath: I did not wish him to think I waited for my reward. + +He returned me this with his own hands. He is not one of your proud +ones. When we had the fever here--Mina, darling, you remember who came +to see you, and saved your life?" + +"Ah, yes!" cried the girl, clasping her dark hands, which gleamed with +tawdry rings; "and his daughter, too, how I love her!" + +There was a little pause; I felt my ears tingle, my cheeks burn. I did +not dare look up from the ground. + +"Lucy Gerard is very fair," whispered the old woman; "she will make a +good and loving wife;" then she added roguishly, and in that gipsy tone +which smacks so of the race-course: "Shall I tell your fortune, my +pretty gentleman?" + +"No, I thank you," said I, hastily; "I have no great confidence in your +information as to the future. With respect to the past, on the other +hand, you can doubtless satisfy me, if you will. I have a great +curiosity to know how you became possessed of yonder flask with the +Heath griffin." + +"Peter Meredith," returned the old woman, very gravely, "you have asked +me to tell you a sad story, and one to relate which will cost me much. +It is not our custom, however, to refuse the first request of a new +friend. But before I begin, let me ask you a question in my turn. Has it +never struck you why Sir Massingberd Heath has not long ago taken to +himself a young wife, and begotten an heir for the bonny lands of +Fairburn, in despite of his nephew?" + +Until that moment, the idea had never crossed my brain; but no sooner +was it thus mooted than I wondered greatly at the shortsightedness of +those among whom Marmaduke's affairs had been so lately discussed, and +in particular at that of Mr. Clint, who, as a lawyer, should surely have +at once foreseen such a contingency. "Well," said I, "I confess that, +for my part, I have never thought of it; but there cannot be much danger +of Sir Massingberd's becoming a wooer now; why, what young woman would +be won by such as he?" + +"What young woman would <i>not</i> be won?" replied Rachel Liversedge, +grimly. "Think you that his white head and stony heart would weigh too +heavy in the balance against his title and the reversion of his lands? +Remember, all that is around us, and all that we could see from yonder +hill to the right hand and to the left--pasture and corn-field, farm and +park--would fall to the offspring of her who would venture, for a few +years, to be Lady Heath. Peter, there is one maiden in Midshire, known +to you and me, who would not consent to do this thing, though the offer +were thrice as splendid; but I doubt if there be more than one." + +"If that be so," said I, "why does not Sir Massingberd marry?" + +"The answer to that is the story I am about to tell you," returned +Rachel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WHY SIR MASSINGBERD DID NOT MARRY. + + +"I suppose you have heard, Peter Meredith, young as you are," began the +old woman, "a great deal of ill-speaking against us Wanderers. We not +only kill game, but even domestic poultry, if the opportunity is given +to us; we not only steal wood, but horse-flesh; and since we are so +partial to carrion, it is not to be wondered at that we sometimes +suffocate a sheep with a piece of his own wool, in order to get the +carcass cheap from the farmer. Yet whatever false charges are current +about us now, these are nothing, either in gravity or number, to what +they were when I was a young girl--that is, fifty years ago. Every +man's hand, every woman's tongue, was against us: magistrates committed +us without testimony; rogues made a trade of accusing us solely to get +blood-money. Our name was more than a by-word, it was a brand; to call a +man a gipsy, was to say vagabond and thief in one. Under these +circumstances, Massingberd Heath left his father's house yonder, and +came to live with us as congenial company. We were in this very wood the +day he did so. The sun shone as brightly as now, the streamlet ran just +as blithe, the air was filled, as now, with the sweet-smelling pine. The +people only are changed--ah me, how changed!--who made up that scene. +There was my father; he died! ten years younger than I am now; is not +that strange, boy? his brother Morris, dead; poor Stanley Carew, you +shall hear of him presently, a handsomer lad by far than his nephew +there; my beautiful Sinnamenta, compared to little Mina yonder, though +she is pretty enough, like a blush-rose to a mere peony, the flower of +womankind. If there are ladies and women born into the world, then she +was a lady. There are no such beauties now; no, friend, not even at the +Dovecot. Let me see; I have counted four; then I was there also, comely +enough, 'twas said, but not to be spoken of for looks with my younger +sister. + +"We were occupied pretty much as you see us now, for life in the +Greenwood possesses but little variety, when Massingberd Heath strode in +among us, with his gun upon his shoulder. We knew him well, but were not +inclined to dislike him. He was a dissipated, wild, young fellow, but, +as yet, his heart was thought, as the saying is, to be in the right +place; his popularity, however, was principally owing to his antagonism +to his father. Sir Wentworth had long passed through the spendthrift +stage, and was very close with respect to money-matters; a harsh and +griping landlord, and it is probable enough a niggard parent. His son's +extravagances were at that time insignificant compared to what they +afterwards became, yet the old man was for ever complaining. He +persecuted all who were poor and in his power, but the gipsies +especially. He feared for his deer, for his game, for his fences, and, +besides, I verily believe he detested us for our improvidence. I +remember he sent two of my young brothers to prison for tossing for +halfpence upon a Sunday--he who made not even a pretence of religion +himself, and had been used invariably to pass his day of rest in town +at Tattersall's, betting his thousands on some approaching race. It is +said that this wretched old man used to horse-whip young Massingberd +almost daily, until a certain occasion, when the latter found himself +stronger than he imagined, and reversed the process. After that, Sir +Wentworth confined himself to cursing his offspring whenever they +quarrelled. It was after some dreadful outbreak of passion on the part +of the old man that Massingberd Heath left house and home, and elected +to join our wandering fortunes. We were very unwilling that this should +be. It was by no means so unusual a proceeding then as now, for persons +of good birth, but broken fortunes, to become gipsies, but such had +usually their private reasons for remaining so for life. They were very +rarely criminals, but generally social outlaws, for whom there could be +no reconciliation at home, or younger sons of respectable families, +with quite a mountain of debt upon their shoulders. These were regularly +nationalized among us; and if they conducted themselves for sufficient +time in accordance with our regulations, they were permitted to +intermarry with us. + +"Now it was certain that Massingberd Heath sought only a temporary home; +as soon as his father died, or even offered terms to him, he would leave +us, and resume his proper station. Moreover, how was the maintenance of +discipline and obedience to the chief of our tribe, absolutely essential +as it is, to be kept up in the case of this new-comer? Even at that +time, he was a headstrong, wilful man, to whom all authority, however +lawful or natural, was hateful. Was it to be expected that he who defied +his own father, himself a man of iron will, would obey Morris +Liversedge? On the other hand, Uncle Morris rather liked the young +fellow. He had connived at many a raid on his father's own preserves--to +such a pitch had the quarrel grown between them--and kept our pot +boiling with bird and beast. Many and many a time had he led the +Fairburn keepers to one extremity of the preserves, while the slaughter +was going on in the other. Moreover, it would be of great importance, +could we make a friend of the man who would one day own all these +pleasant haunts of ours, and who could say a good word, and a strong +one, for the poor persecuted gipsies, when it was needed. Poor Morris +did not know that the rebel but too often turns out a tyrant, when he +gets his chance. He could not foresee Sir Massingberd Heath sending +folks to prison, or getting them kidnapped, and sent across the seas, +for snaring the hares that he held so cheaply when they did not happen +to belong to himself. If you want to find a gentleman who in his youth, +and landless, has been a poacher whenever the opportunity offered, look +you among the game-preservers on the bench of justices. This, however, +is among the least of the basenesses of him of whom I speak. It is not +for his bitter guardianship of bird and beast, or his hateful oppression +of his fellow-creatures, that my heart cries out for judgment against +this man, that I look with eager longing for that hour when God shall +take him into His own hand." + +The old woman paused a moment with closed eyes, and muttered something +that was inaudible to me, rocking herself at the same time to and fro. + +"Massingberd Heath became one of us, Peter Meredith as far as it is +possible for such a wretch to be so; he ate with us, and drank with us, +which they say is a sacred bond among even savages. It was not so with +him. He cast his evil eyes upon Sinnamenta, to love her after the +fashion of his accursed race. Perhaps you may think, Peter Meredith, +that such an occurrence should have been foreseen by her father or her +uncle Morris, and, for my part, I always thought that it was the +presence of my lovely sister which mainly caused this man to join our +company; but, at all events, neither they nor I dreaded any ill +consequences. A gipsy girl is not a light-of-love maiden, like those of +fairer skins. Heaven, who gives her beauty, gives her virtue also: this +is not denied, even by our enemies. When you call your sweetheart +'Gipsy,' it is in love, not in reproach. Massingberd Heath knew this +well, and therefore it was foe took such pains in the matter. It is true +that we do not marry in church, but when we wed among ourselves, the +marriage is not less sacred; It was a wedding of this sort, indissoluble +by one party, but not by the other, which this man wished to compass. He +did not gain his end." + +The old woman's eyes sparkled with triumph for a moment as she said +these words, but her voice sank low as she continued: + +"Peter Meredith, if you have a sister, think of her while I speak of +mine; she cannot be more pure than little Sinnamenta, nor less +designing. Her weakness was one common to all women, but especially to +those of our unhappy race; she was fond of finery--fine clothing, +jewels, shawls; they became her; she looked like any princess when +attired in them. Stanley Carew, who loved her in all honesty, could +give her no such costly gifts as Massingberd Heath showered upon her, +and, to help his end, even upon me. The gipsy's ragged coat looked mean +and poor beside that of our guest. This man, too, whom you know but as a +scowling tyrant, with a face scarred with passion and excesses, was then +a handsome youth. You smile, Peter, at the wonder of it; it is, however, +not less true than that the wrinkled hag to whom you are now listening +was then a bonny girl. Imagine <i>that</i>, Peter, and you can imagine +anything. Ah, Time, Time, surely at the end of you, there will be +something to recompense us for all that you have taken away!" + +Once more Rachel Liversedge paused as if in pain; then with eyes whose +sight seemed to receive but little of what was present, but were fixed +on the unreturning Past, continued as follows: + +"Yes, Massingberd Heath was handsome enough, unless when enraged; his +wrath always brought the horse-shoe out upon his forehead.[1] Ay, and he +was agreeable enough, too. He could smile as though he had a heart, and +vow as though he owned a God. By his devilish art he managed to +ingratiate himself with Sinnamenta; he caused her to treat poor Stanley +ill, and then, pretending to take his part, got credit for generosity. +There are many who call us gipsies a base people, yet this excess of +meanness was quite new to us; my little sister--that was what I always +called her, because I loved her so--she believed him. She would have +trusted to his word, and married him, according to our rites, and been +his wife and drudge for all her life; but since this could not be +without the consent both of her father and Morris, he had to ask it of +them. He might as well have asked it of Sir Wentworth; they had got to +know him well by close companionship, for men fathom men better than +women do--even gipsy women, who foretell men's fortunes for them--and +they answered, 'No.' They did not believe that he had the least +intention of being with us longer that it suited him, and they +peremptorily refused his request. After one burst of passionate threats, +the young man pretended to yield assent to their decision. Morris was +inclined to think this acquiescence genuine; but my father, more warmly +interested in the matter, and therefore perhaps less credulous, kept on +his guard. Finding out that Massingberd Heath had secretly made +overtures of reconciliation to his father, and missing him one night +from the camp, he caused Morris to strike tent at once; and before +morning we had put twenty miles between us and Fairburn. Nor was this +effected too soon, for, as we heard long afterwards, the constables were +searching this very wood for us at day-break. + +"Our company was bound on a long travel to Kirk-Yetholm, Roxburghshire, +one of the few places in Scotland, although but one mile from the +frontier of Northumberland, where the gipsies reside in any number. +There we should meet with friends, and be safe from all molestation. It +was late in the year to travel so far and into such a climate, but there +was no help for it; and moreover, some of the Carews had a house there, +to which Stanley said we should be welcome; and so it turned out. I +believe Sinnamenta would rather that we had camped out of doors, even in +that northern clime, so disinclined was she to be beholden to him or his +friends, after what had happened, although she did not dare to say so. +Poor Stanley imagined that, now we had removed from the neighbourhood of +his rival, he might renew his suit with success; but the proud girl +would not listen to him. She did not exactly pine after the man whose +wiles she had so narrowly escaped, but her life seemed henceforth +saddened. The domestic duties which had hitherto sat so lightly upon +her, became burdensome, and she set about them languidly. The whole of +the time we remained at Kirk-Yetholm, and it was many, many months, she +never mentioned Massingberd Heath, but never ceased to think of him. It +was fated that she was to be undeceived about that man too late." + + +[1] I am reminded by a friendly critic of the "suspicious coincidence" +of a horse-shoe on the forehead, in the case of "Redgauntlet." I never +think of Sir Massingberd without thinking of that worthy; and it has +been a matter of doubt with me, whether Sir Walter Scott might not +himself have seen the Squire of Fairburn and drawn him from the +life--both as to mind and feature--in his famous novel. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE REASON CONTINUED. + + +"About a year after our departure from Fairburn, Sinnamenta and I had +been to sell some baskets, the making of which was a great trade with us +at that time, at Wooler, in Northumberland; and on our return from the +fair that was being held there, we met a number of gentlemen driving +home from shooting in the Cheviots. They went by very rapidly, yet not +so fast but that I recognized one of their number; I had only to look at +my little sister's cheeks to see that she had recognized him also. The +very next day came Massingberd Heath to our camp, professing himself +injured by our abrupt withdrawal from his society, volunteering his +companionship as before, and reiterating his vows and promises to +Sinnamenta. She expressed herself in such a manner as to lead us almost +to fear she might be induced to elope with him; while he, upon his side, +seemed prepared to sacrifice everything to obtain her: his very +selfishness caused him, as it were, to forget himself; and I do believe, +if it had been insisted upon, he would have had the banns published in +Wooler Church, in the hearing of the fine friends with whom he was +staying, and been married by the parson. However, he again proposed to +go through the Cingari ceremony, and this time, <i>Morris and my father +agreed to it</i>. Having acknowledged himself to be an adopted gipsy, +Massingberd Heath was joined in wedlock to Sinnamenta Liversedge; the +ordinary ceremonies were dispensed with, by command of Morris, the +bride and bridegroom only pledging themselves to one another solemnly in +the presence of the assembled tribe. It was then, since he could not +purchase suitable presents in such an out-of-the-way district, that I +received from that man's hand this shooting-flask, as a remembrance of +that day; my uncle commanded me to accept it (although I vehemently +disapproved of what had been done), and I therefore keep it now, when +every other gift of that accursed man has long been committed to the +flames. For my part, I could not understand this novel pliancy on the +part of Morris and my father; while Sinnamenta, as I think, implicitly +believed in her lover's protestation, that for her sake he would all his +life be a wanderer like ourselves. That very day, however, he took her +away southward, on his road to London. + +"For beauty, as I have said, and for gentleness, there never breathed +the equal of my little sister, and yet in six short months this Heath +grew weary of her; like a spoiled child tired with a fragile toy, he +cared not what became of her, so long as it vexed his eyes no more. It +is not necessary to tell what brutal insult he put upon her; enough to +say that she fled from him in terror, as he had intended her to do, and +returned to us, heart-stricken, woe-begone, about to become a mother, +with nothing but wretchedness in the Future, and even her happy Past a +dream dispelled. It was dreadful to look upon my little sister, and +compare her to what she had been so short a time before. She felt the +cold after her luxurious life in town; but she was far more ill at ease +in mind than body. Above all, she sorrowed because her lover's desertion +had left her disgraced--that she had brought shame upon all who +belonged to her. Incited by the poor girl's misery, Morris and my father +put into effect an audacious design which they had privately had long in +hand. We were back again at Fairburn--all but Stanley Carew, who was +away about a new horse for our covered cart--not camping in the +plantation, as of old, for fear of Sir Wentworth, but upon the common +hard by. On a certain morning, neither my father nor uncle went forth as +usual, but sat at home smoking and watching at the opening of the tent. +Not long after breakfast, there appeared a wayfarer in the distance, +whose form showed gigantic in the summer haze. + +"That must be a big fellow, little sister," said I, drawing her +attention to it. She was sitting huddled up, as usual, in front of the +fire; but no sooner had she caught sight of the object in question, +than she ran with a cry to her father's knee, and besought him to save +her from Massingberd Heath. Ah, even then, at that last moment, if +father or uncle had but consulted me, or let me into their plans, I +should not have my little sister's shuddering face before me as now, the +large eyes wild, the full lips pale with terror. He had beaten her, poor +darling, even before the scene that was coming; but she had even more +reason than she knew for fear. This man came striding on to the entrance +of the tent, and stood there looking at its inmates with a withering +scowl. 'Why don't you speak,' said he, 'you vagabonds! For what is it +that you have dared to send for me?' + +"My father pointed towards Sinnamenta--'Is not that cause enough, +Massingberd Heath?' + +"'No,' retorted the ruffian coolly. 'What is she to me? The drab has +come to her thieving friends again, it seems--the more fool she; for +there was more than one who had a fancy for her in town, and would have +taken her off my hands.' + +"My father's fingers mechanically sought the knife which lay beside his +half-finished basket; but my uncle Morris stood up between him and the +speaker, and thus replied:-- + +"Massingberd Heath, I sent for you to tell you something which concerns +both us and you. Many months ago, you came to us, uninvited and +unwelcome, and elected to be a gipsy like ourselves. This makes you +smile very scornfully; yet if you did not mean the thing you said, you +lied. However, we believed you. You were admitted into what, however +wretched and debased it may seem to you, was our home, and all we had to +offer you was at your service. You fell in love with that poor girl +yonder, and she did not tremble at your voice, as now, but trusted to +your honour. It is true, your position in the world was high, and hers +was what you saw it to be. Still you wooed her, and not she you; that is +so, and you know it. Do not slander her, sir, lest presently you should +be sorry for it. Again and again, then, you demanded her hand in +marriage--such marriage, that is, as prevails among our people--not so +ceremonious, indeed, as with the rest of the world, but not less +binding. This we would not grant, because we disbelieved your +protestations on your honour and before your God; and disbelieved them, +as it has turned out, with reason. Then we fled from you and your false +solicitations to the north, hundreds of miles away; even thither you +followed us, or else accidentally fell in with us; I know not which. You +renewed your offers and your oaths. We found, all worthless as you are, +that the poor girl loved you still, and, yielding to your repeated +importunity, we suffered her to become your wife.' + +"'Wife!' repeated the renegade contemptuously. 'Do you suppose, then, +that I valued your gipsy mummeries at a pin's head? You might as well +attempt to tie these wrists of mine with the gossamer from yonder +furze.' + +"'We knew that, Massingberd Heath, although the girl did not know it; +she trusted you, although your every word was false.' + +"'She is fool enough for anything,' returned the other brutally. 'But I +know all this. Have you dared to bring me here merely to repeat so stale +a story?' + +"'A story with an ending that you have yet to learn,' pursued my uncle +sternly. You were wedded by no gipsy mummeries, as you call them; you +took Sinnamenta Liversedge, in the presence of many persons, solemnly to +wife.' + +"'Ay, and I might take her sister there, and marry her to-day after the +same fashion, and no law could say me "nay."' + +"'Yes, <i>here</i>, Massingberd Heath; but not at Kirk-Yetholm.' + +"'And why not?' inquired the ruffian, with a mocking laugh, that had, +however, something shrill and wavering in it. + +"'Because Kirk-Yetholm is over the Border, and, by the laws of Scotland, +my niece Sinnamenta is your wife, proud man, and nothing but death can +dissever the bond!' + +"An awful silence succeeded my uncle's words. Massingberd Heath turned +livid, and twice in vain essayed to speak; he was well nigh strangled by +passion. + +"'I thank heaven, Rachel,' murmured my little sister, 'that I am not +that shame to thee and to my race which I thought myself to be.' + +"'You shall have but little to thank heaven for, girl, if this be true,' +cried her husband hoarse with concentrated rage; 'somebody shall pay for +this.' + +"'It <i>is</i> true,' quoth my father, 'and you feel it to be so. Nothing +remains, then, but to make the best of it. We do not seek anything at +your hands, nor--' + +"'Only the right of camping undisturbed about Fairburn,' interposed my +uncle Morris, who was of a grasping disposition, and had planned the +whole matter, I fear, not without an eye to the advantage of his tribe. +'You wouldn't treat your wife's family as trespassers.' + +"'Certainly not,' returned Massingberd Heath, with bitterness; 'they +shall be most welcome. I should be extremely sorry if they were to +leave my neighbourhood just yet. In the meantime, however, I want my +wife--my Wife. Come along with me, my pretty one.' + +"He looked like a wild beast, within springing distance of his prey. + +"'Oh, father, uncle, defend me!' cried the miserable girl. 'What have +you done to bring this man's vengeance upon me?' + +"'Ay, you are right there!' answered her husband, in a voice that froze +my veins. 'That is still left for me--vengeance. Come along, I say; I +hunger until it shall begin.' + +"'Massingberd Heath,' cried I, throwing myself at his feet, 'for God's +sake have mercy upon her; it is not her fault. She knew no more than you +of all these things. Look how ill and pale she is--you above all men +should have pity on her wretched condition. Oh leave her with us, leave +my little sister here, and neither she nor we will ever trouble you, +ever come near you. It shall be just the same as though you had never +set eyes upon us; it shall indeed! Oh, you would not, <i>could</i> not surely +be cruel to such a one as she.' + +"I pointed to her as she stood clinging to her father's arm as much for +support as in appeal, so beautiful, so pitiful, so weak; a spectacle to +move a heart of stone. + +"'Could I not be cruel,' returned he, with a grating laugh, 'ay, to even +such a one as she? Ask <i>her</i>--ask <i>her</i>.' + +"There was no occasion to put the question; you saw the answer in her +shrinking form, her trembling limbs: his every word fell upon her like a +blow. + +"'She has not yet known, however, what I can be to my <i>Wife</i>,' continued +he. 'Come, my pretty one, come.' + +"'She shall not,' cried my father, vehemently; 'it shall never be in +his power to hurt her.' + +"'What! and I her husband?' exclaimed the other, mockingly. 'Both one +until death us do part! Not come?' + +"'He will kill her,' murmured my father; 'her blood will be on my head.' + +"'Are you coming, wife?' cried Massingberd Heath, in a terrible voice; +he stepped forward, and grasped her slender wrist with fingers of steel. +Morris and my father rushed forward, but the man had swung her behind +him, placing himself between her and them, and at the same instant he +had taken from his pocket a life-preserver--he carries it to this +day--armed with which he was a match for five such men. 'And now,' cried +he, 'what man shall stop me from doing what I will with my own?"' + +"'I!' exclaimed a sudden voice, and with the word some dark mass +launched itself so violently against the throat of Massingberd Heath +that the giant toppled and fell; upon his huge breast, knife in hand, +knelt Stanley Carew, his eyes gleaming with hate, his lithe body working +like a panther's. He was not hesitating, not he, he was only drinking in +a delicious draught of revenge, before he struck. + +"'Strike!' cried I, 'strike hard and quick, Carew!' But while the blade +was in air, Morris and my father plucked him backwards, and suffered his +intended victim to rise, although despoiled of his weapon. + +"'No, Carew; that will never do,' quoth Morris. 'We should have the +whole country upon us in an hour, and they would hang us altogether.' + +"'Carew is that man's name, is it?' exclaimed Massingberd Heath. 'I +will not forget it, be sure. You shall all pay for this, trust me; but +he, and <i>this one</i>, more than all. Come away, wife, come away.' + +"'Yes, she must go, Carew,' interposed my uncle, checking a furious +movement of the young man's. 'He knows all now, and has a right to what +he demands.' + +"'Ay, but if he lays one finger upon her,' cried the passionate gipsy, +'if he dares to harm her even by a word, and I hear of it, as sure as I +see the sun this day, I will know what is the colour of his life-blood. +You may take her away across the seas, but I will follow you; you may +surround yourself with precautions, but I will come at you; you may go +day and night in mail, but this knife shall find your heart out.' + +"Massingberd Heath nodded contempuously, without speaking; and striding +from the tent, signed to Sinnamenta to follow him, which she did, +moaning and weeping, and casting backward, ever and anon, pitiful +glances upon the home and friends she had exchanged for such an evil +lot. I never saw my little sister more." + +As if the remembrance of this sad scene had utterly overcome her, Rachel +Liversedge hid her face in her hands, and wept until the tears welled +through her tanned and shrivelled fingers. + +"I am indeed distressed," said I, "to have caused you so much pain. I +will not make you sad by telling me more." + +"Nay, my boy, since I have begun it, let me finish with it; I shall +think of it all the same, and it is better to speak than think. That +very night Stanley Carew was arrested upon the charge of stealing the +horse which he had bought in open market, and ridden home just in time +to play the part I have described. In the days I speak of, forty pound +was given as a reward to those who gave such evidence as produced a +capital conviction, and many a gipsy perished innocently in consequence +of that wicked ordinance. It is possible that this accusation was made +by one of those who made a practice of earning blood-money; but I am +positively certain the false witness was set on by Massingberd Heath, +even if that man did not originate the charge. It was pressed against +poor Carew very harshly; and although the farmer of whom he bought the +animal came honestly forward, and swore to its being the same which he +had sold the prisoner, his evidence was rejected on account of some +slight mistake in the description. You must have heard tell of that +awful execution long ago at Crittenden jail, when the wretched victim to +perjury and revenge uttered these terrible words: 'O God, if thou dost +not deliver me, I will not believe there is a God.' That unhappy man was +Stanley Carew. My father and uncle were pitilessly persecuted and +imprisoned, and died before their time. These wrists have worn fetters, +this back has suffered stripes; nor did the vengeance of our enemy cease +even with one generation. One of my boys is beyond seas, and another +within stone walls; yet I know that the hate of Sir Massingberd Heath is +not yet slaked." + +"But what became of your little sister, poor Sinnamenta?" + +"I know not what she suffered immediately after she was taken from us; +Heaven only knows: her husband carried her a great way off out of our +ken. But this I have heard, that when he told her of the death of +Stanley Carew she fell down like one dead, and presently being +delivered of a son, the infant died after a few hours; the mother +lived--a maniac. Yes, Massingberd Heath, you did not kill my little +sister, after all; yonder she lives, but recks not whether you are kind +or cruel; she drinks no more the bitter cup of love's betrayal." + +"She is surely not at Fairburn," asked I, "is she?" + +"What else should keep us here, boy, to be harried by keepers, to be +vexed by constables and justices? What else should keep me here in a +place that tortures me with memories of my youth and of loving faces +that have crumbled into dust? What else but the hope of one day seeing +my little sister yet, and the vengeance of Heaven upon him who has +worked her ruin!" The old woman rose up as she spoke, and looked +menacingly towards Fairburn Hall. "I could almost exclaim with poor +Carew," cried she, "that if Massingberd Heath escape some awful end, +there is no Avenger on high. I am old, but I shall see it, yes, I shall +see it before I die." + +If there had been more to tell, which fortunately there was not, I do +not think Rachel Liversedge could have spoken further; her emotion far +more than her exertions, had reduced her strength so far, that though +she uttered the last words energetically enough, I had had for some time +a difficulty in hearing what she said. + +"I thank you for listening to the tediousness of an ancient dame so +long," murmured she: "if you were not a good boy, and half a gipsy, you +would never have been so patient. I have told you all this to put you on +your guard: it is no secret, but still you may not have heard it. +Distrust, despise, detest Massingberd Heath; and warn his nephew, if +you be his friend, not to venture again within his uncle's reach." + +"I will, I will!" cried I; "and I thank you in his name," I held out my +hand, and she turned it over in her own. + +"An honest palm," quoth she, "without a stain. There is one unlucky +cross about it, Peter, that is all. You must not fret for that." + +I mounted my horse amid cordial "good-byes" from the gipsies, who had +been pursuing their usual avocations during the above recital, as though +nothing was more common than that the head of the family should have a +secret of two hours long to communicate to a strange young gentleman; +and throwing a shilling to the boy who had shown me the way, I took my +leave. + +It was not till I left the plantation far behind me, and had ridden at +speed for some distance on the open road, that I was able to shake off +the sombre feelings that oppressed me, and to meet Mrs. Myrtle's welcome +to the rectory with an answering smile. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +I DO SIR MASSINGBERD A LITTLE FAVOUR. + + +Upon my return to Fairburn, I became the object of immense curiosity and +attraction. I was stared at in the rector's pew at church, and, in my +solitary rides, whithersoever I went, as the repository of the great +secret of the disruption between Sir Massingberd and his nephew. It was +even whispered that I was the prime mover of the young man's rebellion, +and had planned the very manner of his escape upon Panther, including +the accident. At all events, I knew all that had happened, which nobody +else knew, except my tutor himself. Now Mr. Long was as close as wax. +Many an invitation had Mrs. Myrtle obtained of late to take a dish of +tea upon grounds which her hosts had since stigmatized as false +pretences. As the housekeeper and confidential servant of the rector, +she had been asked by Mrs. Arabel of the Grange Farm to take evening +refreshment with her in a friendly way; also by Mrs. Remnants, who kept +that extensive emporium in the village which supplied snuff to the aged +of both sexes (though not gratuitously), becoming cambrics to the young, +and lollipops to those who had not yet reached that period of life +wherein outward adornment is preferred to inward gratification; also by +the exciseman's wife; nay, there was not anybody's wife in Fairburn, +having the wherewithal to make a tea-table alluring, and being in a +sufficiently high position in life to venture upon the step, who did not +invite Mrs. Myrtle to visit her, and proceed to treat her like a +refractory pump; they poured a little down, in hopes to be more than +remunerated for the outlay. But, alas, although the dear good lady was +willing enough, being indeed a gossip born, she had nothing to tell +them. She was not equal to the task of Invention, and of facts, even to +trade upon in tea and toast, she had absolutely none. + +Conceive, then, how every face was turned interrogatively towards Master +Meredith--no, <i>Mr.</i> Meredith, now that the object of everybody was to +please him. How the dames dropped courtesies, and hoped my honour was +well; and my honour's friend too, Mr. Marmaduke, he was well too, they +trusted--Heaven bless him; and he was staying away from Fairburn a good +bit, was he not? and how did has uncle like that, who had always kept +him at home so strict?--and was it true that he was residing with Mr. +Harvey Gerard? well, dear me, and how odd that was; an atheist and a +democrat, people did say; but there, there were some again as spoke well +of him. + +Sedate Mr. Arabel, set on, without doubt, by his inquisitive lady, even +waylaid me in a narrow lane, and insisted upon my looking in at the +farm, and partaking of casual hospitality. "Ye'll just have three drars +and a spet," said he (meaning by that farm of expression a few whiffs of +a pipe), "and take a glass of ale;" and when I declined the first offer +upon the ground of not being a smoker, and the second on the plea that +it was only eleven o'clock, A.M., and consequently rather early for ale, +he confessed that his missus was a-waiting for me with a bottle of +cowslip wine, and a seed-cake of her own making. It was rather difficult +to escape from hospitable snares of this kind, but I revealed as little +as possible without giving absolute offence. On the other hand, I +received some information, the details of which had not been confided to +me by Mr. Long. + +"Well, sir," remarked Mrs. Arabel, after I had told her all I meant to +tell, which was not much, "and it's no wonder as Mr. Marmaduke <i>should</i> +have run away, I'm sure." + +"My good lady," observed I, "pray, be particular; I never said he ran +away; I said his horse ran away." + +"Yes, of course, sir," responded the mistress of the Grange, winking in +a manner that made me quite uncomfortable; "you are very right to say +that, Mr. Meredith, very right. But Sir Massingberd's opinion is, that +it was all planned from first to last, only he says you nearly overdid +it." + +"Ah, indeed," said I; "how was that?" + +"Well, it seems Sir Massingberd was quite deceived about that horse he +bought for his nephew; instead of being quiet, and fit for the lad, it +was a perfect demon; and it was sheer madness of you young gentlemen to +go racing in order to make it run away; then, to arrange with Mr. Gerard +all beforehand; well, I must say I shouldn't have thought that either of +you would have had the depth." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Arabel," said I, laughing; "I am sorry you entertained +so low an idea of our intelligence." + +"Well, sir," returned the farmer's wife, with an air of excessive +candour, "my husband, you see, he often has said to me, says he, 'That +young squire Marmaduke, I'm darned if he ain't little better than a +fool; he don't know what shot to use for rabbits, that he don't; I +never saw his equal for ignorance. And as for that lad from the +Ingies--that was you, you know, sir--well, of all the young fellows +turned of seventeen as I ever saw, he's the'--" + +Here Mrs. Arabel crimsoned, and stopped short, as if she had been very +nearly betrayed into saying something which was not entirely +complimentary. + +"Pray, go on, my dear madam," said I; "'of all the young fellows turned +of seventeen whom he had ever seen, I was the'--" + +"Well, sir, he'd just the same opinion of you as he had of Master +Marmaduke; but, for my part, I always said, that although you might +neither on you know so much as you ought to, and though you might seem, +as it were--" + +"Ay, you always stood our friend, and said we were not such fools as we +looked; did you?" + +"Just so," replied Mrs. Arabel, simply; "and so you see it has turned +out. If Mr. Marmaduke can only live elsewhere till something happens to +Sir Massingberd--although, indeed, he looks as if nothing ever could +hurt him--his life will doubtless be much pleasanter than at the Hall; +it is no place for a young gentleman like him, sure<i>ly</i>, although, +indeed, things are better there than they were. The dark-eyed +foreigneering-looking young person, although, indeed, she was old enough +to know better; well, <i>she's</i> gone." + +"So I have heard," said I drily. + +"Yes, she went away in a whirlwind, <i>she</i> did," continued Mrs. Arabel, +reflectively. + +"Dear me," replied I, "I never heard that." + +"Ah, indeed, I daresay not; why, you see, Mr. Long was a little mixed up +in it. Perhaps he thought it better not to tell you. Take another glass +of cowslip wine, sir; it has been more than ten years in bottle; and the +cake is as good a cake as you will put teeth into in all Midshire, +though I say it as shouldn't say it. Well; the thing happened in this +way, you see. The foreigneering female, she used to throw things at +folks; dishes, plates, whatever came first to hand, whenever she was in +her tantrums. Mr. Gilmore he had his head opened with a slop-basin, so +that you could lay your finger in it; and Oliver Bradford, I believe she +fired a gun at him, charged with swan-shot. However, at times, she was +quite otherwise, crying and submissive as a child. They said it was +Religion up at the Hall; but they knows nothing about that; how should +they? It was hysterics, I daresay, and serve her right too. Well, who +should come here, the very Sunday after Mr. Marmaduke had run away, and +when Sir Massingberd was like a wild man with rage, and couldn't speak +without blaspheming, but one of them Methodee preachers as sometimes +hold forth upon our common. Now the foreigneering female was a-walking +in the park shrubbery, with one of her hysterical fits upon her, I +suppose, and what does she hear through the palings but words as I +suppose the poor creature never listened to before; and presently out +she comes upon the common, and stands up among all the people, with her +great eyes swollen with weeping, and her painted cheeks--and I always +said they were painted--daubed and smeared with tears. Carter John, who +is very much given to that sort of worship, he was there; and he told me +she looked for all the world like the woman in the great picture over +the communion-table in Crittenden Church, who is wiping the feet of our +Lord with her hair. + +"Then the preacher, he bade her repent while there was yet time, and +fear nothing but only God. But Sir Massingberd, he came out, and dragged +her in from the very preacher's hand, and presently back again he comes +with a horse-whip, and swears there shall be no Methodees in his parish, +and if he caught the hypocritical ranter--as he called him--within +hearing again, he'd split his ears. Now, I don't go with him there," +pursued Mrs. Arabel, gravely. "It isn't for us, Mr. Meredith, to say as +nobody can't pick up good, unless it's in church; and least of all +should such things be said by Sir Massingberd, who lets that beautiful +family pew get damp and mouldy, with the fireplace always empty all the +winter long, and never puts his nose into it from year's end to year's +end. However, what does the foreigneering female do, but declare she +would starve herself to death, before she would eat the bread of +unrighteousness any longer; and not one morsel of food would she take, +though they locked her up, and tried to tempt her with her most +favourite dishes. So Sir Massingberd, being at his wits' end, came over +to the parson, and begged him to come and persuade the woman to be +reasonable, and take some refreshment; and Mr. Long--he at first +declined to interfere in such a matter at all, but presently thinking +the poor creature might be really penitent, although it came about +through a Methodee, and hoping to do her some good, although not in the +way Sir Massingberd intended, he accompanied him to the Hall; and what +do you think? Why, they found the poor woman was in such earnest, that +she had cut off the whole of her beautiful black hair, and there it lay +on the carpet, like so much rubbish. So the Squire he swore that he +didn't care now whether she starved or not, and turned her out of the +house, as I said at first, in a whirlwind. She was very faint and weak; +and Mr. Long, who would never exchange a syllable with her before, made +Mrs. Myrtle give her a good meal, and gave her some good words himself, +and sent her away to her friends--for it seems she had some friends, +poor wretch; and this has made Sir Massingberd wilder than ever against +the rector, whom he had already accused of aiding and abetting young Mr. +Marmaduke in his running away; so that altogether the Squire is ready to +make an end of everybody." + +This last statement, although a little highly coloured, as Mrs. Arabel's +descriptions usually were, was really not far from the truth. It did +almost seem as if the baronet was so transported with passion as to be +capable of any enormity. What the law permitted him to do in the way of +oppression, that, of course, he practised to the uttermost; his +morality, never very diffuse, had concentrated itself upon one +position--the defence of the game and trespass laws. His keepers were +exhorted to increased vigilance; the worst characters in the parish were +constituted his spies. Every night, it was now the custom of their lord +and master to go the rounds in his own preserves, and visit the +outposts, to see that the sentinels did their duty. He employed no +Warnings or Trespass Boards in Fairburn Park; his object was not to +deter, but to catch the contemners of the sacred rights of property in +the very act. The pursuit of his life had become man-hunting. I write +that word without any reference to Marmaduke Heath, for, indeed, at that +time I thought that Sir Massingberd had given up all hope of recovering +possession of his nephew. A considerable period had now elapsed since +the young man's convalescence; and yet the baronet had taken no steps to +compel his return. He had written, indeed, to Marmaduke a letter of +anything but a conciliatory character, and calculated to re-arouse the +lad's most morbid fears; but Mr. Harvey Gerard had intercepted the +dispatch, and returned it with an answer of his own composition. He had +stated briefly the results of the late conference at the Dovecot +respecting his young guest; he had reiterated his intention of bringing, +in a court of justice, the gravest charges against the baronet, in case +of any legal molestation from him; and he had finished with a personal +recommendation to that gentleman to rest satisfied with the enjoyment of +the allowance that was supposed to go to the maintenance of his nephew. +Epistolary communication by hand was rendered impracticable, on the part +of the baronet, by the removal of the Dovecot household to town. + +This was a bitter blow to the lord of Fairburn; he knew so well the +abject fear which he had inspired in my unhappy friend, that, +notwithstanding all that had come and gone yet, he did not doubt that a +few words in his own handwriting would bring the truant back, however +loath. We are living now in such quiet times, and under the protection +of such equal laws, that I am aware my younger readers will have a +difficulty in conceiving how one human being, however powerful, could be +held in such terror by others. I was aware, from the first, that the +present universal security would give my narrative an air of +improbability, and I fear that this must increase as it proceeds. I have +only to say, that at the period of which I write, there was no poor man +in Fairburn parish, however honest, however prudent, who might not have +been lodged in jail at the instance of his squire, and would have found +it difficult to clear himself; or who might not, on a hint from the same +quarter, have been pressed, if he did but give the opportunity, on board +a man-of-war. I am likewise certain that had Sir Massingberd ventured +upon such a step, he might have recovered possession of his nephew, or +at least withdrawn him from his protector, by the strong hand of the +law, upon the ground of Mr. Gerard's professing revolutionary +principles. In these days of Palmerston and Derby, of Tweedledum and +Tweedledee, it is impossible for those who are not old enough to have +witnessed it, to imagine the rancour of political parties half a century +ago, or the despotism and flagrant injustice that were sanctioned under +the convenient name of Order. + +For the haughty baronet to be thus cut off from all intercourse with his +victim, was to be foiled indeed. At first, he stung himself well-nigh to +frenzy, like a scorpion within its circle of flame; but after a time the +white heat of his wrath began apparently to abate. He seemed to have +made up his mind to sit down quietly under his defeat, and to content +himself with tyrannizing over those who were yet in his power. This +comparatively peaceful state of things was looked upon by Mr. Long and +myself at first with suspicion, but at last with real satisfaction. When +Sir Massingberd sent over five pine-apples and some splendid grapes to +the Rectory with his compliments (for the first time within twenty +years), we shook our heads, and my tutor addressed the messenger of his +bounty in these words; "Tell your master I am exceedingly obliged to him +for his kindness. 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.'" + +"Would you be so good as to write that down, sir?" said the man. + +"You may give him the message without the tail," replied the rector, a +little discomfited at his own indiscretion, but congratulating himself +very much that he had expressed his thoughts so classically. + +But when pine-apples and grapes became common presents from the Hall, we +began really to think that the stubborn old baronet had come to the +conclusion that it was as pleasant to be on good terms with his +neighbour as not, and that he was genuinely bent on reconciliation. A +soft answer is said to be efficacious to this end, but it is nothing +compared to hothouse dainties out of season; and notwithstanding all I +knew, and all I suspected, I began to regard Sir Massingberd Heath, not +indeed with less contempt and dislike, but with less positive loathing, +and certainly with less fear. I had not set foot upon his property since +Marmaduke's departure, and the baronet took occasion to stop me as I +rode by his gate one day, and remonstrate upon the incivility of such a +course of conduct. + +"It can do me no damage, young gentleman, that you should take your +pleasure in my park, more especially as you are not a sportsman, who +would covet my hares and pheasants; and I cannot but think that your +omission to do so is a proof of ill-feeling towards me, which I am not +conscious of having deserved at your hands." + +He spoke stiffly, and without condescension, as a man might speak to an +equal, between himself and whom a misunderstanding existed unexplained, +but capable of explanation, and, foolish boy as I was, I felt flattered +by his behaviour. + +If the least notion of making myself out to be a hero had existed in my +brain when I began to write these Recollections, it has been dissipated +long ago. I have been quite as much surprised during this recital as any +of my readers have been, at the contemplation of my own meannesses; if I +had known how many and how serious they were to be, perhaps I should +have hesitated to recall them; but I commenced with as strong a +determination, nothing to extenuate with respect to myself, as to set +nothing down in malice with respect to others; and thus I shall proceed +to the end. + +While, then, matters were on this less antagonistic footing, and when +Marmaduke had been away about a year, business happened to take Mr. Long +from Fairburn, and I was left a day and a night my own master. He had +not been gone an hour when Mrs. Myrtle came into the study, where I was +employed at my books, with a letter in her hand; she looked quite pale +and frightened, as she said, "Lor', Mr. Peter, if this note ain't from +Sir Massingberd hisself for <i>you</i>. I feels all of a tremble, so as you +might knock me down with a peacock's feather." + +"Well," said I, forcing a laugh, "but I am not going to use any such +weapon, Mrs. Myrtle. What on earth is there to be afraid of in the +squire's handwriting? It can't bite." But I felt in a cold perspiration +nevertheless, and my fingers trembled as they undid the missive. It was +a polite invitation to dine with the baronet that evening. + +"You are not going, sir, I <i>do</i> hope!" exclaimed the housekeeper +eagerly, as soon as I had acquainted her with the contents of the note. +"Why, such a thing hasn't happened for this quarter of a century. He'll +poison you, as sure as my name's Martha Myrtle. I never saw you and +master eating his pine-apples without a shudder; the rector <i>was</i> +uncommon ill after one of them, one day." + +"Yes, Mrs. Myrtle," said I quietly, "and I have suffered also from the +same cause myself; but I don't think the squire was to blame." + +"But you ain't a-going, sir; I am sure as master wouldn't like it. Oh, +pray, say you ain't a-going." + +"Well, then, I won't go, Mrs. Myrtle. The fact is, I feel one of my +colds coming on; they generally begin with a lump in my throat; so I +shall write to excuse myself." + +I really had a lump in my throat; my heart had jumped up and stopped +there at the mere notion of a <i>tete-a-tete</i> with Sir Massingberd, +diversified--no, intensified--by the presence of Grimjaw. I wouldn't +have gone through it for a thousand pounds; so I wrote to decline the +honour upon the ground of indisposition. I was compelled to keep the +house, I said, for the entire day. Half an hour afterwards, another +letter arrived from the Hall. Since Sir Massingberd might not enjoy the +pleasure of my company at dinner, would I permit him to come over to the +Rectory that morning, and have a few words of conversation with me upon +a matter deeply interesting to both of us? There was no getting out of +this. If I had gone to bed, on plea of illness, I felt that even that +course would have been no protection to me. Sir Massingberd would have +forced a dying man to play with him at pitch-and-toss, if so inopportune +a game had happened to take his fancy. On the other hand, Mrs. Myrtle's +suggestion that I should mount my horse, and ride away after Mr. Long, +was really too pusillanimous a proceeding; I therefore wrote back to the +baronet a polite falsehood, to the effect that I should be very happy to +see him; and in a very few minutes afterwards, I was face to face with +Marmaduke's foe. + +He came in unushered--Mrs. Myrtle not being equal to such an +occasion--filling the doorway with his gigantic form, and well-nigh +touching the ceiling of the low-roofed room with his head. + +"I am sorry to intrude upon an invalid," said he, "but what I had to say +was of a private nature, and I was not sure of finding you alone at any +other time." + +I bowed, and begged my visitor to be seated. + +"It is something," thought I, "that this man is civil at least." For +there is this great advantage in being habitually insolent and +overbearing, that when one does condescend to behave decently, people +appreciate one's good maimers very much. + +"I have called upon you," continued the baronet, "with respect to my +nephew and your friend, Marmaduke Heath. It is idle to deny that he and +I have not been to one another what our mutual relationship should have +led us to be. I am naturally a hard man; losses and poverty have +doubtless rendered me more morose. Marmaduke, on the other hand, is of +an over-sensitive and morbid nature. We did not get on together at all +well. There were faults on both sides; it was six of one, and--" + +I shook my head. + +"Very well, then," resumed Sir Massingberd, with candour, "let us say +that it was I who was in the wrong. I have not the patience and +gentleness requisite for dealing with a character like him; my temper is +arbitrary; I have behaved with but little courtesy even to yourself. You +are polite enough to contradict me, but nevertheless it is true. For +<i>that</i>, however, reparation can be made. I wish that I could as easily +make atonement in the other quarter. This, however, I feel is utterly +impossible. Things have gone too far. I make no complaint of my nephew's +having been encouraged in his rebellious course by one whose duty it +was, on the contrary, to reconcile us. I wish to say nothing that could +only lead to fruitless discussion, and perhaps a disagreement between +you and me; that would be most impolitic on my part, since I come here +to solicit your good offices." + +"Mine, Sir Massingberd? mine?" + +"Yes, I desire your kindly assistance in bringing about a better +understanding between Marmaduke and myself." + +"Sir," said I, "what you ask is a sheer impossibility. Marmaduke Heath +may be wrong in his estimate of your character, but it will remain +unchanged to his dying day. I am as certain of this, as that yonder +yellowing tree will presently lose its leaves." + +"You speak frankly, Mr. Meredith," returned the baronet, calmly, "and I +do not respect you less upon that account. It is not, however, as a +mediator that I need your assistance; I ask a much less favour than +that; I simply wish you to inclose a letter from me to my nephew." + +"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, with some indignation, "you have done +me the favour of calling upon me in my tutor's absence, in the +expectation of finding me so weak as to be unable to refuse whatever you +chose to ask, or so treacherous as to be willing to deceive those who +are generously protecting my best friend from one whom he has every +cause to fear. I am extremely obliged to you for the compliment;" and +with that I laid my hand upon the bell. + +"One moment," observed the baronet, quietly, nay, with suavity, though +the letter U upon his forehead deepened visibly, and the veins of his +great hand, as it rested on the table, grew big with passion; "one +moment before you ring. I am sorry you should have taken such a view of +my conduct as you have described; you young men are somewhat hasty in +the imputation of motive. I am a straightforward, rough fellow, and may +have displeased you; but I am not aware that I have done anything to +justify you in accusing me of meanness and duplicity. Those persons who +have charge of my nephew are, in my judgment, deeply culpable; but I do +not wish you to act deceitfully towards them on that account. Matters +have come to that pass, however, that I cannot even communicate with my +nephew, even though I have that to say which would give him genuine +pleasure. This Mr. Harvey Gerard"--his deep voice shook with hatred as +he mentioned that name--"has taken upon himself to return my letters to +Marmaduke unopened. I know not how to convey to him even such a one as +this." + +Sir Massingberd threw across to me a folded sheet, directed to his +nephew, and motioned that I should open it. It ran as follows:-- + +"NEPHEW MARMADUKE,--It seems that you are fully determined never again +to seek the shelter of my roof; I am given to understand that the time +for reconciliation has gone by, and that any attempt to effect it would +only cause you annoyance, and make the breach wider between us. If so, +so be it. I am an old man now, and I wish my last years to be passed in +peace. I wish to make no allusion to the character of the person with +whom you have chosen to reside, further than to express a hope that when +I am gone, and it will be your part to exercise the rights of a great +land-owner, that you will not employ your influence to subvert the laws +and the government. It is as mad in those who possess authority to +countenance revolution, as for a man seated on a lofty branch to lop it +off with his own hands. I do not say this as your uncle, but merely as +one of an ancient race with whom we are both connected, and in whose +welfare we should take an equal interest. Mr. Meredith is kind enough to +enclose this parting word of advice--the last communication that will +probably ever pass between us--from + + "MASSINGBERD HEATH. + +"P.S.--Burn this when you have read it, lest your friend should get into +trouble upon my account." + + +I read and re-read this strange epistle with great care, before I made +any comment upon it. There was nothing, to my mind, objectionable in any +of the contents. I had been twice to Harley Street during the summer, +and found Marmaduke as morbidly apprehensive as ever of some course of +conduct to be adopted by his uncle with reference to regaining the +custody of his person; he was haunted still by the shadow of this +terrible man. The words I held before me were certainly calculated to +reassure him. No news could be more gratifying than this positive +resignation of the baronet's claim to be his guardian, this final +"good-bye" under Sir Massingberd's own hand. As for the political +advice, I thought that very healthy. I was then, as now, a staunch +conservative, and although I did not sympathize in the least with the +harsh acts of the government in respect to poor, misguided men, not +without their wrongs, yet I did think Mr. Gerard's views both visionary +and dangerous. + +"I trust," observed Sir Massingberd, gravely, "that the sentiments which +you are now perusing are in accordance with your own. I am speaking, I +believe, to a gentleman, and consequently to a natural friend of +order." + +I bowed in assent. "There certainly seems nothing in this epistle which +Marmaduke might not read," muttered I, musing. + +"<i>Seems?</i>" cried the baronet. "Why not say <i>is</i> at once?" + +A sudden idea, gleaned from some romance which I had been lately +reading, flashed across my brain. Why did the postscript say, "Burn this +when you have read it?" I let my hand, with the letter in it, drop below +my knee, so that the missive was held close to the fire. + +"There is no writing in lemon-juice, I do assure you," observed Sir +Massingberd, quietly; "you will only scorch the paper." + +I coloured at the exposure of my suspicions, and in my confusion it did +not strike me that the speaker must himself have at least entertained +such a project, or he never could have unmasked me so readily. I was a +little ashamed of myself, and rather sorry for my incredulity. Sir +Massingberd saw this, and pressed his point. + +"Since there is nothing concealed, and no harm in what is visible, I do +hope you will grant the favour I requested, and inclose that note to my +nephew." + +"Well, sir," said I, after a little hesitation, "I will inclose it. I +give you warning, however, that I shall send a line by the same post to +let Mr. Gerard know that I have done so." + +"By all means," responded Sir Massingberd. "I am only anxious that my +nephew's own eyes should read what I have written. Have you a taper and +wax?" asked he, folding up the sheet. "I might as well stamp it with my +seal." + +I rose and brought what he required from a writing-table. Sir +Massingberd sealed the letter, and gave it into my hand. + +"Mr. Meredith," said he, rising, "you have done me a great service. I +think I have said, that the oftener you make use of my grounds the +better I shall be pleased. Did I add that the bowling-green is entirely +at your service? I am too stiff in the back to have a game with you +myself, but I will give directions to Gilmore to be your antagonist, +whenever you may feel inclined." + +The baronet took his leave in a stately, but not unfriendly manner. He +certainly <i>was</i> stiff in the back; but that was his nature. As he +smiled, his lip turned upwards, instead of the usual way; but so it +always did. Yet I did not feel quite comfortable, as I stood by myself +over the fire, balancing Sir Massingberd's "good-bye" to his nephew in +my hand, and questioning within myself whether it wouldn't be better to +inclose it to Mr. Harvey Gerard, after all. However, in the end I kept +my promise. + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 1/2, by James Payn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 1/2 *** + +***** This file should be named 37170.txt or 37170.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/1/7/37170/ + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/37170.zip b/old/37170.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1269d19 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37170.zip |